Chapter 676 Five Elements Bricks
Lu Fei dared to conclude that there must be a darkroom inside Boguzhai.
But when it comes to actually looking for it, it's a waste of effort.
Lu Fei first checked on the most likely first floor.
Lu Fei searched the ground, walls, and any place where there might be a darkroom space, but unfortunately found nothing.
Lu Fei then went to the second floor to investigate, but still found nothing.
Later, Lu Fei became anxious and climbed up to the rafter to check, but there was still nothing.
Hiss——
This is impossible!
Lu Fei searched for more than an hour but found nothing. Even the little puppy felt a little discouraged.
"Brother, can you do it?"
"You even demolished the house, but you didn't even see the darkroom!"
"Shut up!"
"If I say there is, there must be." Lu Fei shouted.
"Brother, don't get angry."
"Forget it if you can't find it. When I look at the place, it doesn't look like there is a darkroom." Gao Yuan said.
"Brother Gao, don't worry, I will definitely find it."
As Lu Fei said, he came to the first floor again and checked carefully from inside to outside until he came to the door, but still couldn't find it.
Lu Fei was also discouraged now.
Damn it!
Is it really true?
But how to explain Qian Yongchang's abnormal expression back then?
It's obvious that the old guy has a guilty conscience, but why can't he be found?
Where could it be hidden?
At this time, Lu Fei's mind was in a mess, and he had no idea after thinking for a while.
This time Lu Fei didn't do anything anymore.
Lu Fei shook his head helplessly, it seemed that he was too sensitive.
Qian Yongchang's expression back then was just that of fear!
Just when Lu Fei was about to give up, the green bricks on the ground at the door accidentally caught Lu Fei's attention.
Um?
Squatting down and taking a closer look, Lu Fei immediately made a major discovery.
now.
The floor of Boguzhai is not a cement floor, nor is it paved with tiles, but the most common green brick floor in ancient buildings.
The green bricks paved on the floor of Boguzhai are not ordinary.
These were the most famous five-element bricks from the Lujia Kiln in Bazhou, Jingnan.
This kind of green brick is made of Bazhou's unique clay.
After being fired from the kiln, the bricks are green-black in color, have strong air permeability, good water absorption properties, are freeze-resistant and wear-resistant, will not fade, and will not rot for thousands of years.
This kind of green brick is fired in a pure natural oxygen-free stuffy kiln. It uses fire as the spirit, water as the steel, and the five elements are in harmony, so it is called the Five Elements Brick.
The Five Elements bricks made by the Lu family were so popular in China that even the royal family used their Five Elements bricks, so the expensive batch was beyond the reach of ordinary people.
Take Bogu Zhai as an example. At that time, it was impossible to lay out more than a hundred tiles on the first floor without fifty taels of silver.
What is the concept of fifty taels of snowflake silver?
The courtyard house in the second ring road was less than one hundred taels back then!
This shows how expensive the Lu family’s five elements bricks are.
However, there is more than one Lu family in Bazhou.
The Lu family made a fortune by firing green bricks, and other families immediately began to imitate them.
Firing this thing is not difficult, the key factors are the unique local clay and water quality.
Therefore, there is almost no difference in color and quality between the green bricks made by other people and the five elements bricks made by Lu's family.
The difference is that the brand of Lujia Five Elements Bricks has an inherent advantage.
The same color and the same material, the Lu family's five-element bricks cost five taels of silver for one hundred yuan, but other people's bricks couldn't even be sold for five taels of silver.
Ever since, those people started operating under the banner of Lu Family Five Element Bricks.
However, Lu’s original creation was not given in vain. He immediately researched a series of anti-counterfeiting signs and constantly updated them to keep pace with the times.
.
The problem Lu Fei saw was that the shape of the blue bricks was inconsistent.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, green bricks were divided into two types: large and small.
The small green brick is eighteen centimeters long, six centimeters wide and four centimeters thick.
The large green brick is twenty-four centimeters long, eleven centimeters wide and five centimeters thick.
This is a unified standard size across the country. No matter how large it is, it is not called bricks but slate.
The size of the large green bricks of Lujia's Five Elements Bricks is slightly different.
Their large green brick is 24.5 centimeters long, 10.5 centimeters wide, and barely five centimeters thick.
Such a small difference is innocuous to the building, but it has an excellent anti-counterfeiting effect.
Lu Fei didn't pay attention at first, but after taking a closer look, he immediately noticed the clues.
The entire ground on the first floor is all made of the Lu family's large five-element bricks, except for the area of about two square meters at the door, which is made of other people's standard-sized blue bricks.
Logically speaking, with Qian Yongchang's financial resources, there would be no problem in laying the Five Elements bricks.
Even if it is too expensive, it should be paved with blue bricks from another company. How is it possible to pave two types of blue bricks at the same time?
What's more, everywhere else is full of genuine Five Elements bricks, except for the two square meters at the door, which is obviously wrong.
Lu Fei thought, Maoer Ni must be here.
The Lu family in Bazhou bought a hilltop dedicated to collecting clay, but it was exhausted in the early years of the Republic of China. Even including the inventory, it could not last until the second year of the Republic of China.
Therefore, Lu Fei guessed that Qian Yongchang must have opened Boguzhai first and then carried out the renovation.
During the renovation, some of the Five Elements bricks were damaged, so they were replaced with ordinary blue bricks because Five Elements bricks were unavailable.
That must be it.
As for the reason why Qian Yongchang renovated the ground, it was most likely to build a darkroom.
Thinking of this, Lu Fei instantly became excited.
He found a crowbar and carefully took out the blue bricks. If they were destroyed at this time, even ordinary blue bricks in Bazhou would not be available.
The first piece
The blue bricks were taken out intact, and with the gaps, the rest was much simpler.
In less than twenty minutes, all two square meters of ordinary green bricks were taken out and placed aside in order.
It makes sense to see clearly that underneath the green bricks is rammed earth mixed with fine sand and white ash.
It stands to reason that the bottom should be a mixture of fine sand, white gray loess and triple soil. Once this triple soil is compacted, it will be as hard as iron.
If you want to peel off the rammed earth, you can't do it in a short while.
The two mixtures of white ash and sand are so different that they can be peeled off easily.
It is estimated that this was done intentionally by Qian Yongchang for his own convenience.
Thirty centimeters of soil was cleared out, and underneath was a straw mat soaked in tung oil.
Straw mats soaked in tung oil are waterproof, moth-proof, and anti-corrosion.
Facts have proved that even after hundreds of years, the straw mat is still intact.
The moment they saw the straw mat, not only Lu Fei, but also the three little dogs became excited.
"Brother, you are so awesome. You can find this?"
"hehe!"
"Everything depends on being careful. No matter how good the cover-up is, it cannot be perfect. As long as you are careful, you will definitely find flaws." Lu Fei said.
"Brother, what do you think is hidden here?"
"baby!"
"What baby?"
"I don't have X-ray eyes, how the hell do I know?"
Take away the straw mat and there will be a thick layer of sleepers underneath.
Made of pine wood, soaked in cooked tung oil, then dried in the sun, and then soaked again.
Repeat this five or six times until the wood that is 20 centimeters thick and 40 centimeters wide is completely soaked.
This kind of sleeper can last for thousands of years and is extremely load-bearing. It is widely used even on modern railway bridges.
Qian Yongchang used sleepers as protection, which made Lu Fei look forward to what was underneath.
