Chapter 374 Buying Green Bricks

After calculating the total number of bricks and tiles needed, Qiao Ran followed Butler Zheng out of the valley to see the brick kilns and tile kilns.

Before leaving, the old village chief repeatedly told him that if he wanted to buy bricks, just buy cheap fire bricks, not expensive green bricks.

Qiao Ran agreed. She didn't know the difference between green bricks and fire bricks. She had to see them before she knew.

But when she saw the houses in the city, they were all built with blue bricks! She thought it looked pretty good.

What do fire bricks look like?

If the fire bricks don't look good, she still wants to buy the expensive blue bricks. Once you live in this house, you don't know how many years you will live in it, and it must be built better.

As for money, what she needs most now is money!

Just imagine how eye-catching it would be if they built a new village in Qingshui Village with rows of uniform blue brick and blue-tiled houses.

Wouldn't it be incongruous if there were both a blue brick house and a fire brick house?

Well, actually she is somewhat obsessive-compulsive, and she still likes neat and beautiful things.

As for the wages of these craftsmen, they have also been negotiated. The big workers will earn 120 pence a day, and the small workers will earn 100 pence a day.

There are ten big workers and eighteen small workers. In this way, one day's wages are 3 taels of silver.

However, Qiao Ran felt that there were only more than 20 people, which was still too few, so she asked Cao Dashan to recruit a few more teams of craftsmen he knew.

After all, we are building a brand new village with dozens of houses and only about 20 people. I don’t know that it will take until the Year of the Monkey and the Horse.

Cao Dashan said that there are several teams of craftsmen in the city, but they are all in competition, and some craftsman teams have not very good reputations.

He could find a team of craftsmen with good reputations, but the craftsmen's wages were too high. He suggested that Qiao Ran hire some helpers. There were many people willing to work for fifty or sixty cents a day.

Qiao Ran thanked Cao Dashan and decided to try out the surrounding villages tomorrow and recruit dozens of men to come as helpers.

After the foundation lines of each set of yards were drawn and both parties confirmed that they were correct, the craftsmen brought by Cao Dashan began to dig the foundations.

Qiao Ran and Butler Zheng wanted to go check out the brick kilns and tile kilns and place an order as soon as possible so that the bricks and tiles could be ready before the foundation was dug so as not to delay the construction schedule.

Maybe I am already running out of time because I never thought about building a house so quickly before, so I didn't go looking for a brick kiln earlier.

But it doesn't matter. Generally, tens of thousands of bricks and tiles are fired in a kiln. While they are being fired, they are taken to Devil's Valley for use. As long as they can be supplied in time without affecting the construction, there will be no problem.

Shopkeeper Zheng took Qiao Ran to visit two brick kiln workshops.

These two brick kilns are both in Huangshan County. Huangshan County has a lot of clay and is most suitable for firing bricks.

When they arrived at the place, Qiao Ran saw wall after wall of fired bricks placed outside the brick kiln. The bricks were stacked very neatly, allowing for ventilation and preventing them from falling down.

What surprised Qiao Ran was that these bricks were not only of one color, but actually divided into two types, one was blue brick and the other was red brick.

Liu Guanshi from the second brick kiln workshop said: "Our brick kilns here generally bake two types of bricks, one is green bricks and the other is fire bricks. Green bricks are more expensive and fire bricks are cheaper, so generally Rich families use blue bricks to build their houses, while ordinary people buy fire bricks. No matter how poor they are, they will use straw mixed with yellow mud to make bricks and dry them into mud bricks to build their houses. Then you don’t have to spend money to buy it.”

Only then did Qiao Ran know that there were not only blue bricks and mud bricks in ancient times, but also bricks called red bricks in modern times.

"Why are green bricks more expensive than fire bricks?"

Qiao Ran asked curiously.

Manager Liu glanced at her and said: "Because the fire bricks are fired directly in the kiln and then wait for cooling. But if the green bricks are to be fired into a green color, they have to be poured with water to cool down after firing, which is more time-consuming and expensive." It takes time and effort. Moreover, green bricks are more beautiful and durable than fire bricks, so the price is naturally higher."

Qiao Ran took a green brick and a fire brick in her hands and placed them one against the other.

The green bricks do look better and seem to be a bit denser.

Fire bricks looked rougher, and she didn't like the red color very much. If they were used to build walls, without plaster, green bricks would look better.

"Then what are the prices of these two types of bricks?"

Qiao Ran asked directly.

Manager Liu looked at Butler Zheng who had remained silent. He obviously didn't understand why a person like this butler would let a little maid come forward.

However, he still answered patiently: "The green brick costs ten yuan and five cents, and the fire brick costs ten yuan and four cents."

Qiao Ran quickly did the math in her mind.

If you use 187 million green bricks, you will need 935 taels of silver, and if you use fire bricks, you will need 748 taels. The difference between the two is 187 taels.

Although many people in the village said they should use cheap fire bricks, Qiao Ran felt that the difference was 187 taels, and each family would not actually save much money by using red bricks.

She is willing to help everyone pay for these more than one hundred taels of silver, so that the rows of houses built entirely with blue bricks will look good!

So Qiao Ran decisively decided to have all blue bricks.

"I want to use all blue bricks. I don't know how long it will take you to bake 187 million green bricks. Do you have the ability to take over this order? If not, I will go to other brick kilns to have a look."

When Manager Liu heard that they all wanted blue bricks and the quantity was so large, he immediately laughed from ear to ear.

"Girl, if you all buy bricks from us, we won't take any other orders in the next six months. We will bake bricks specifically for you, and we will ensure that the quality of the bricks in each kiln is the same as what you see. We will never Cutting corners! You can go to the city and ask around. Our Liuji Brick Kiln is the most famous. Many wealthy families in the city use the green bricks we bake!"

The manager was afraid that this big business deal would blow up, so he quickly made a guarantee.

"In addition, we can also give you some discounts on the price. For 187 million bricks, it will cost...well, I will calculate how much it costs later."

"935 taels of silver!"

Qiao Ran directly reported the result he calculated.

Manager Liu was stunned and didn't ask her how she calculated it so quickly. He just thought that she had inquired about the price first and calculated it with an abacus at home.

He said: "If you, girl, buy everything from us, we can subtract the change from you to show our sincerity!"

"35 taels off?"

Butler Zheng asked aloud.

Manager Liu choked and said with a wry smile:

"This old man is joking! What I want to say is to reduce 5 taels of silver. This 35 taels is not a small amount, and it really can't be reduced by so much! We who bake bricks in brick kilns earn only a piece of hard-earned money. For these more than taels of silver, our more than workers have to work for half a year, which is more than taels a month. A person can only earn a few hundred coins or more than one tael of silver a month after working so hard!"

Qiao Ran raised her head and looked at the workers not far away who were carrying water and soil, laying bricks, and carrying the laid and dried bricks to the brick kiln for firing. All of them were wearing thin and dusty clothes. Wearing coarse cloth clothes, some are even shirtless in this early spring season when the chill is still lingering.

Thinking about the scorching heat in the brick kiln, these workers are indeed working very hard. They can only earn a few hundred cash or more than one tael of silver by working non-stop for a month. It is really not easy.