allonlinenovel Chapter 116, Kiln, 1 Tiles
Chapter 116, Kiln, 1 Tiles
Listening to Wang Qiong envision a better future for the people of Ningyang County, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but smile: "Then I'll take your kind words, Brother Wang. I hope that the people of Ningyang County will have a good life next year."
When the two arrived at the stone tablet of the Prince Canal, Wang Qiong couldn't help but reach out and touch it: "It's only been three or four months, but it feels like three or four years have passed. Yet, Brother Yang's worried look about the drought back then seems like just yesterday."
Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but sigh: "Back then, every night when I closed my eyes, I hoped that God would send rain soon, and every morning when I opened my eyes, I hoped that the irrigation canal would be completed as soon as possible. It really felt like an eternity."
At this point, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but smile and said, "We owe a lot to Brother Wang. If Brother Wang had come a few days later, I'm afraid the Dawen River and Guang River would have dried up, and Daming Lake would not have been able to complete its water storage."
Wang Qiong made several modest remarks, but suddenly exclaimed "Eh!" and pointed in the direction of Daming Lake, asking, "Brother Yang, who are those people?"
Yang Shaofeng looked in the direction Wang Qiong was pointing and saw more than twenty young men heading west along the main road south of Daming Lake.
“It should be for firing the kiln,” Yang Shaofeng said with a smile. “Didn’t I tell Brother Wang before that we are going to build a brick kiln in Ningyang County? The bricks fired will be used to build some houses to temporarily resettle the people who have moved to Ningyang County.”
Wang Qiong stared blankly at Yang Shaofeng, then at the twenty-odd young men, and couldn't help but ask, "The matter of starting the kiln... shouldn't have been decided when I came to Ningyang County?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded and said, "It was decided an hour or two ago."
Seeing the matter-of-fact expression on Yang Shaofeng's face, Wang Qiong immediately broke down and pointed at the young men, saying, "The kiln repair was decided an hour or two ago, so they should go and repair it now?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded again and asked, "Yes, is there something wrong with it?"
There's a huge problem!
That's a damn kiln repair, you bastard!
It's hard work!
If you, Magistrate Yang, say you want to build a kiln to fire bricks, the people of Ningyang County can gather a team of more than twenty people in one or two hours, and then go to build the kiln while chatting and laughing.
Wang Qiong forced herself to calm down and asked, "Brother Yang, have you paid them their wages?"
Yang Shaofeng glanced at Wang Qiong with the kind of look one might give someone with intellectual disabilities, and said, "Repairing the kiln was my decision as the county magistrate, not a labor service conscripted by the imperial court. How could I not be paid?"
Hearing Yang Shaofeng's words, Wang Qiong finally breathed a sigh of relief.
If they give money, then it's normal.
If they can still talk and laugh while building the brick kiln even if you, Magistrate Yang, don't give them money, then how high must your status be in the hearts of the people of Ningyang County?
Just as Wang Qiong was secretly complaining, Yang Shaofeng continued, "And it's not just about giving money, I also have to provide meals—but these bastards are all eating so much that their teeth are turning yellow, and they've even started to complain about steamed buns!"
In fact, Yang Shaofeng knew in his heart that the young and strong people in Ningyang County had long begun to dislike steamed buns.
There was no other way. The young and strong people in Ningyang County ate steamed buns from the start of spring plowing in February and March until the end of autumn harvest and sowing. The fillings for the steamed buns were always the same few kinds of wild vegetables, and many people had long been tired of them. No matter how hard the widows in the steamed bun shops tried to adjust the flavor of the fillings, it was no use.
Despite their complaints, they still had to eat, since the widows at the steamed bun shop couldn't come up with many other options, only occasionally steaming some buns for them and pairing them with vegetables like cabbage and radishes.
Unless one of the roosters reserved for Magistrate Yang at the chicken farm suddenly becomes distraught, these able-bodied men will not be able to get a taste of chicken meat or chicken soup.
For this reason, the young widows at the steamed bun shop learned a new dish from Magistrate Yang—stir-frying daylily and fresh mushrooms together until fragrant, then shredding the chicken breast that Magistrate Yang disliked into thin strips and adding it to the dish, stir-frying it together, then adding water to simmer, seasoning with soy sauce, vinegar and salt, and finally drizzling a drop of sesame oil on top before serving. A simple version of shredded chicken steamed in a bowl is then ready to serve hot.
The umami flavor of chicken, the umami flavor of fresh mushrooms, the unique aroma of daylily, and the scent of sesame oil—just smelling it brings a sense of comfort to the whole body.
To put it simply, the only flaw in this dish is that there's not enough chicken. After all, a whole chicken only has a small amount of chicken breast meat, and you probably can't even find a few strands of meat in a bowl of shredded chicken and daylily.
Of course, the most popular dish among the young and strong was the proper pork stew with cabbage. For example, when Daming Lake and Taizi Canal were completed in the west of the city, when Guangming Lake and Mingguang Canal were completed in the east of the city, and before the autumn harvest officially began, the county magistrate would have a pig slaughtered. Almost everyone could get a slice or two of meat in their bowl, plus a big bowl of cabbage soaked in oil. The aroma was so delicious that it could be savored for a whole year.
As for Magistrate Yang... Magistrate Yang didn't care to compete with the able-bodied men for pork. Basically, every time he slaughtered a pig, he only wanted the pig's head and two ribs with little meat, and only three or four ounces of fat meat from each pig. He didn't want anything else.
Everyone in Ningyang County knows that when slaughtering a pig, you can fool people in other ways, but you must shave the hair off the pig's head clean, and no one can take the two pieces of pork ribs with cartilage attached. You can't even think about the fatty meat.
Because Magistrate Yang liked to eat pig ears and pig snouts, liked to gnaw on the cartilage on the ribs, and liked to roast the fatty meat.
Just as Yang Shaofeng was reminiscing about the taste of roasted oil-fried edges, Wang Qiong, who had just broken down time and time again, suddenly said, "Brother Yang, as the saying goes, 'a thousand bricks and ten thousand tiles,' this kiln should only be able to fire a thousand or so bricks?"
"Based on the way you described building houses, a house would require about 30,000 bricks. If you factor in wastage, wouldn't a house require about 31,000 brick blanks?"
Looking around, Wang Qiong was a little worried for Yang Shaofeng: "With so few able-bodied men in Ningyang County, how many brick blanks can they produce in a day?"
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback and asked, "Brother Wang also knows how to make bricks?"
Wang Qiong shook his head slightly, "This humble official does not know how to make bricks, but I once heard someone in the capital say that two able-bodied men can only make three or four hundred brick blanks a day. According to the saying that a kiln can fire a thousand bricks, it would probably take six able-bodied men to supply the required number of brick blanks for one kiln."
Yang Shaofeng was immediately dumbfounded.
No, is making those brick blanks really that difficult?
After thinking for a long time without coming up with a solution, Yang Shaofeng simply said to Wang Qiong, "Brother Wang, if you have nothing else to do, why don't you accompany me to the brick kiln? I happen to have a few questions I want to ask Wang Laowai, who runs the kiln."
Wang Qiong herself wanted to see how the brick kilns in Ningyang County were established, so she readily agreed upon hearing this.
After the two arrived at the kiln site, Yang Shaofeng immediately called over Wang Laowai and asked, "I'm asking you, how are these brick blanks made? How many brick blanks can one person make in a day? How many bricks can be fired in one kiln? How many kilns can be fired in a day?"
As Magistrate Yang finished speaking, Wang Laowai was completely dumbfounded. It took him a while to finally bow and reply, "Your Excellency, to make brick blanks, the first thing to do is to select the soil."