Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 27
When Huang Laifu entered Liu Zongqi's house, his eyes were full of poor words.

There are a few rotten tables and chairs in the house, a few torn quilts on the kang, a family of four, a woman and two children, all of them are dressed in rags and their faces are disheveled.Seeing Huang Laifu and others coming in, they all shrank aside and dared not speak.When Huang Laifu passed by the broken rice cabinet, he took a look. It was empty, not even a mouse.

Liu Zongqi respectfully invited Huang Laifu and Gu Yunniang to sit down, and said with some shame, "Please sit down, young master. The shabby room makes you laugh at me." Then he called his wife, Mrs. Qian, to pour tea for Huang Laifu.The woman came over cowering.

Huang Laifu turned his head and said to Yang Xiaolu: "Little donkey, go back to Qianhu House and get some wine and meat. I want to talk to Liu Zongqi." .”

Yang Xiaolu responded loudly, and rode off after leaving the house.

Liu Zongqi was stunned for a moment, stood up, and said tremblingly: "This, this... the kindness of the young master, the young one, the young one, I really don't know..."

Huang Laifu waved his hand: "Small things are not worth mentioning." He took out the drawings of the large waterwheel and the well waterwheel from his pocket, and said, "Liu Zongqi, look at the drawings of these waterwheels, can you make them according to the same? "

Liu Zongqi took the drawing respectfully, glanced at it, and said in a low voice: "It's a good thing." After looking at it for a while, his expression was focused, and he murmured: "This should be a waterwheel used by the river...not a Human power, not animal power, is it driven by water power? And this, is it used in a well?"

Looking at his focused expression, Huang Laifu thought to himself that he is indeed a professional, who knows how to use anything at a glance.Although he is a military craftsman, it seems that there is no problem for him to build other things.

After a while, General Manager Liu said: "Master, there is no problem in making these waterwheels, but how long will it take?"

Huang Laifu said: "There is no rush, as long as the preparations are done before spring plowing. First make two waterwheels for the riverside and well irrigation, and see how they work."

Liu Zongqi nodded, and after a while, he said hesitantly: "There is a saying, I don't know if I dare to ask it?"

Huang Laifu said: "You tell me."

Liu Zongqi said: "Look at the ingenious structure of these waterwheels. Wuzhai Fort has never been seen before. I don't know where the young master got the blueprint of this waterwheel?"

Huang Laifu said lightly: "You don't have to ask where you got it from."

Liu Zongqi hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, it's the little one talking too much."

He laughed and said: "This waterwheel is really a good thing. With this waterwheel, the water from the well in the river must be brought up. Next year when spring comes, the scene of this field will be very different."

The two talked for a while, then Yang Xiaolu came back with some wine and meat in his hand, and said to Huang Laifu: "Young master, I brought the wine and meat, and there are two stones of rice on the horse outside the house, do you want to carry it in?" ?”

Huang Laifu said: "Put it outside first." He said to Liu Zongqi: "Liu Zongqi, I see that your home has run out of rice and food, and you are like this. Is it true that the homes of military craftsmen can't open the pot?"

Liu Zongqi sighed: "Back to the words of the young master, the monthly rations of our military craftsmen are meager, plus..." He looked at Huang Laifu, but he dared not say anything about the embezzlement of Wuzhaibao officers, "... In addition, there is no place to make a living, everyone has been out of food for a long time, and each household could drink some porridge a few days ago, but now they can't even drink porridge."

Having said that, he just sighed again and again.

Huang Laifu nodded, and said to him: "These days, I will hire you to manufacture the waterwheel, five buckets of rice per month, and also take care of your daily food. These two stones of rice are the rice grains paid in advance to you. You can share it with the military craftsmen."

Liu Zongqi was overwhelmed with surprise and stood up. The officers of Wuzhai Fort used to serve them all the time. Who gave them money and food?Especially at this time of food shortage, Huang Laifu's move can be said to be a timely help.He still had some doubts in his heart, he knew about Huang Laifu, he used to be extremely vicious in Wuzhai Fort, could it be that he had really changed his temperament as everyone said?

He said repeatedly: "Thank you, young master, thank you very much, young master." His wife Qian Shi, who was listening, understood and was also full of surprises, and came over to salute and thank her.

Then Liu Zongqi looked at Huang Laifu, with a hesitant expression, Huang Laifu understood what he meant and nodded, Liu Zongqi hurriedly offended, and went out to divide the meter.

Soon, Huang Laifu heard cheers and thanks outside the door.It made Gu Yunniang, Jiang Dazhong and others all run out to watch.After a while, Butler Yang came in and said to Huang Laifu: "Master, the military craftsmen are all around outside, and they keep saying thank you."

When Huang Laifu went out of the house, he saw a group of people in front of the house, men and women, old and young, all of them were dressed in rags, they were all military craftsmen and their families here.Seeing Huang Laifu come out, everyone knelt down, and some of them cried bitterly: "Thank you, young master, young master is really a good person."

"Young Master waits for thousands of generations, God will definitely bless kindhearted people..."

Huang Laifu looked at the pair of grateful eyes below, and he was also moved in his heart. He raised his voice and said: "As long as everyone works for me sincerely, I, Huang Laifu, will never treat him badly. There are still many places where I will hire you in the future, I promise , follow me, Huang Laifu, and I will definitely let you eat and dress warmly."

There was another sound of thanks below, and Gu Yunniang who was beside Huang Laifu also gave him a strange look.

Huang Laifu saw that Yumei and Erniu sisters were also kneeling below, his face was full of gratitude.Erniu was ignorant, she just looked at Huang Laifu timidly with her dark eyes.Only Yumei, when she met Huang Laifu's gaze, was like a frightened deer, a little uneasy, a little shy, and lowered her head deeply.

After distributing the rice, each of these artisan households received some, and soon, there was smoke from the chimneys everywhere, and there were laughter and laughter everywhere, adding some vitality to the originally lifeless place.

Inside Liu Zongqi's house, Liu Zongqi's wife, Qian Shi, had already prepared the food and wine, and the aroma of the food and wine made her family salivate, even Liu Zongqi was no exception, he couldn't stop swallowing his Adam's apple, especially the two children. They circled around, looking impatient.

Liu Zongqi asked Mrs. Yang and the two children to take a plate of meat and some rice to the kitchen to eat. The two children cheered and went around their mother.

Jiang Dazhong, Yang Xiaolu and Yang Butler went outside the house, Gu Yunniang didn't know where to go.Huang Laifu and Liu Zongqi chatted over wine, and Liu Zongqi's eyes turned red after taking a sip of wine.

Seeing Huang Laifu looking at him, he said shyly: "Young one lost his temper, and I made the young one laugh. Don't be afraid of making jokes, I haven't eaten alcohol or meat for many years, so it's inevitable that I feel a little bit emotional at this time."

Huang Laifu smiled and said: "I understand that Wuzhai Fort has been in a bad situation these years. If it doesn't change, I'm afraid the situation will worsen, so I made this waterwheel and other things. Don't worry, I will hire you in many places in the future , you will have enough to eat in the future, there will be no problem at all.”

In Huang Laifu's plan, these craftsmen played a very important role. After the agriculture in Wuzhaibao started, business and commerce should also be developed simultaneously, and more craftsmen would be needed.

However, currently Huang Laifu does not intend to make any profound changes to the military craftsmen of Wuzhaibao.For more changes, let's talk about it after I take over the post, and then my farm should also produce results.

※※※

After negotiating with Liu Zongqi, for a few days after that, Huang Laifu was busy with the water truck.The first purpose of this waterwheel is to make a large waterwheel by the river.The second is to make a small water wheel for well irrigation.There is also the hand press to make the machine well.

He divided Zhuang Ding and military craftsmen into two groups. Military craftsmen made waterwheels and other things, while Zhuang Ding dug wells and ditches.

As expected, Huang Laifu fulfilled his promise, and let the military craftsmen and Zhuang Ding eat rice and noodles every day to make them all full, and he also gave meat every three days.When they ate the greasy meat, many people shed tears. Everyone was grateful for Huang Laifu's kindness and worked hard.

The other military households in the fort stared eagerly, looking for excuses to find out if labor was still needed here.But unfortunately, Huang Laifu doesn't need anyone for the time being.However, there are still many people who come to watch every day.

Everyone was very curious about Huang Laifu's actions. They didn't know what Huang Laifu was going to do. Everyone in the castle was talking about Huang Laifu these days.Huang Laifu was naturally not interested in paying attention to what everyone said, he was busy every day, and Gu Yunniang followed behind him every day.Huang Sihao and his wife Gu Qianhu from Qianhu House couldn't stop smiling. They were very happy to see the two of them being so close.

Compared with the waterwheel, the effect of excavating the irrigation well is earlier.Taking the more than 1000 mu of land in Huangjia Tianzhuang as an example, at least dozens of wells are needed.However, Huang Laifu asked the Zhuang Ding to dig deeper for some dry wells.

The Zhuang Ding didn't understand that the well water had dried up, so why did they dig down? Could it be that if they dug down, water would come out again?
But this was what Huang Laifu meant, so they had to keep going.Sure enough, soon, when these wells were dug to a depth of more than ten meters, some wells came out again.Even some seemingly hopeless wells, when they were dug to a depth of more than 20 meters, water came out one after another.Let these Zhuang Ding people admire Huang Laifu all over the place.

When the news spread, the whole fort was in an uproar, and many military households of Wuzhai Fort came to watch. Only then did everyone know that the well could still be dug like this.Everyone was moved, especially those officers whose fields were not near the river and had been suffering from no water for irrigation. They all planned to go back to their fields and ask people to dig wells so that the fields could be irrigated in the spring.

It's just that everyone thought of another question, how to divert water from such a deep well, can it be carried by bucket by bucket?When is this going to be mentioned?But looking at Huang Laifu's appearance, he has a deep meaning in digging these wells, and he will wait and see what happens for the time being.

(End of this chapter)