Natural disasters in books: I stockpiled goods to escape famine in ancient times

Zhang Wu came to Wei Cai's house with the house structure diagram that Song Shiwei had taken time to draw. At this time, Wei Cai's family had just finished dinner and were talking in the main room.

Faced with Zhang Wu's arrival, the other members of the Wei family looked at him with curiosity. Wei Cai told his family about Zhang Wu's situation and then waved his hand to drive them out.

Wei Cai's wife Zheng Ying added some boiled water for the two of them and then went back to her room. Old man Bai Ri had mentioned the matter of Zhang Wu's brother and sister, and Zheng Ying knew it all.

As soon as General Zhang Wu sat down, he talked to Wei Cai about building a house.

After hearing this, Wei Cai nodded and smiled: "I can understand that you and your sister have just settled down and want to build a house as soon as possible. After all, it is always uneasy to have no place to live in the village. But do you have a plan in mind for building a house?"

Zhang Wu stood up upon hearing this, and bowed to Wei Cai while he was looking at him in confusion. "My sister and I have no relatives in the north, and we were able to settle down thanks to the help of the village chief. We have discussed and want to entrust the village chief to build a house. We know that building a house is not an easy task, and we need to recruit workers everywhere. Two taels of this silver is for the village chief's hard work, and the rest of the silver will be used for building a house. If it is not enough, please tell me at any time."

Wei Cai looked at the fifty-liang silver note and two liang silver coins on the table with a shocked face. His hands on his knees trembled twice. After he came to his senses, he turned to look at Zhang Wu and said with difficulty: "Do you know how much it will cost to build a house now?"

Zhang Wu shook his head blankly: "I don't know, Village Chief, but is it not enough?"

Wei Cai looked at him with complicated eyes: "It's not that it's not enough, you gave too much. Building a house in the village doesn't need so much money. Besides, you and your sister have settled in our village now, so you are our villagers. Why should we give money to our own people?"

"As it should be, building a house is the top priority. We also need to find people and buy wood and bricks. Although I don't understand these things, I know it's not an easy task. Now the weather is like this, the village chief is willing to take care of us brothers and sisters. We still have to pay for our hard work. I'm afraid that the village chief will think that the money is too little."

The last sentence was said half-jokingly, and they both laughed.

Wei Cai waved his hands helplessly: "You look so honest, but you are such a smooth talker. Never mind. Since it is a kind gesture from you two siblings, I will not refuse. However, you don't need so much silver to build a house. Ten taels is enough. If you want a smaller house, three or four taels will be enough."

Zhang Wu explained, "My sister and I will live at the foot of the mountain in the future. The village chief said before that wild animals will come down the mountain to look for food in winter. If we still build mud walls, I'm afraid we won't be able to prevent them. I think we should use bricks for the courtyard wall, and also buy good tiles and wood. After all, this is our future home, and a better one will make us live more comfortably."

Although his words were reasonable, Wei Cai still felt that the boy was extravagant. In rural villages, bricks are needed to build houses. He probably didn't know the price of bricks and tiles nowadays. It was not a wise move to waste money like this. However, Wei Cai knew Zhang Wu's character, so he swallowed his words of persuasion.

After a moment's silence, Wei Cai finally spoke: "No one in our village has ever built a house with bricks, but I heard that bricks are not cheap. Oh, by the way, how big a house do you want to build? Have you thought about what kind of house it will be?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Wu immediately took out the house structure diagram drawn by Song Shiwei from his pocket and unfolded it on the table: "This is the house I want to build. As for how big it should be... let's just build one acre of land."

Wei Cai saw the layout on the paper, and when he heard Zhang Wu say that he wanted to build a house on an acre of land, he was dumbfounded: "You...how big do you want to build it? An acre of land? Do you know how big an acre of land is? There are only you and your sister in your family, why would you build such a big house! How many bricks would it take to build such a big house?"

Zhang Wu just smiled, thinking that his master also wanted green bricks and green tiles, but changed them to ordinary bricks because he was afraid that they would be too conspicuous in the village. Unexpectedly, this still shocked the village chief. If this were in the capital, no one would say anything about green tiles, let alone glazed tiles.

Wei Cai looked at Zhang Wu's calm face, then glanced at the fifty-liang silver note on the table. He wondered if he was too old and was surprised by things he saw too often. He always used his own family's situation to describe Xiao Wu, thinking that the brother and sister were refugees and therefore naturally lived in poverty. He completely ignored the lavish spending of Xiao Wu in the past two days.

Now that I think about it carefully, it is true that the brother and sister fled here to escape the disaster, but they were not entirely destitute. Think about the situation of those who fled here from the village many years ago. Everyone was ragged and in dire straits. Then look at the two brothers and sisters. Their clothes are neat and clean. Although they are not made of the best material, there is not a single patch on their bodies. The temperament of the two is even more rare. Most of them are from big families, so it is normal for them to have money on them.

After thinking this through, Wei Cai calmed down and smiled: "Since you have made up your mind, I will do as you say. We have a lot of strong laborers in our village, but if we want to finish the house earlier, we need more people. If you don't mind, I will go to the neighboring villages tomorrow and find more people to build the house. According to the house on the paper, it will take about half a month to finish."

When building the house, I felt that the weather was extremely hot, it was not raining and the sun was strong, and many people were idle at home. Even if I only worked for a short time every day, I could build the house in half a month.

"Since the matter has been entrusted to the village chief, he can decide what happens next. My sister and I are only responsible for paying the money. This piece of paper has detailed drawings. After the village chief finds the workers to build the house, he can just hand this piece of paper to them. I think he knows how to build it."

Wei Cai put the paper away solemnly: "Okay, I get it. Leave this matter to me and you can put your mind at ease. I will come to you after I find someone. Then we will circle the homestead and see which direction you are going to open the door. I see that you seem to have drawn two yards in front and back on the paper. Are you planning to open land in the backyard?"

Zhang Wu smiled and nodded: "I plan to plant some vegetables and ginger in the backyard. If I don't want to, I can also fence it off and raise chickens and ducks."

"Well, this arrangement is good. It's best to raise chickens and ducks in the backyard." At this point, Wei Cai smiled again: "Look at the house on your paper. If I had the money, I would have built it like that."

"The village chief's family is large. As long as the whole family works together, we will always make money. It's just that the current year is not good."

Wei Cai sighed, "Yes, the years are bad, and it's hard to find a job."

After Zhang Wu finished talking to the village chief about building a house, he said goodbye and went back. Song Shiwei had just come out of the space not long ago, so Zhang Wu happened to tell her about building a house.

"Master, the city gates should not be closed yet. Do you want to live in the city?"

Song Shiwei nodded: "Then let's go. Didn't the village chief say that it would take half a month to build a house? We will stay in the inn for the time being, and buy some household items when the house is built."

"Okay, I'll come to the village on weekdays to check on the progress. Master, wait a moment, I'll go pack my things."