Chapter 419 Glutinous Rice Mortar

After looking at the progress of the fish pond, Qiao Ran went to see where the house was being built.

As soon as Qiao Ran arrived at the construction site, she saw busy figures everywhere. Everyone was digging the foundation with hoes, shovels, shovels, etc.

The first batch of craftsmen brought by Cao Dashan totaled 28 people. Because of Qiao Ran's request, he found another team of 20 craftsmen, plus 30 villagers who were hired by Qiao Ran from nearby villages to build houses. There are 58 people.

Coupled with the guards and servants sent by the two governments, as well as the villagers of Qingshui Village, the number of people is quite impressive.

Some people are digging the foundation, while others are using bamboo baskets, dungeons, etc. to carry the excavated soil into the woods and dump it. Others are pushing homemade carts to transport the soil.

Everyone is working enthusiastically. The craftsmen and helpers work hard because the wages are high, the work can be done for a long time, and they can earn money to improve the life of the family.

The people sent by the Dingbei Palace were because they were helping their master repay a favor, and they would feel bad if they were not diligent and quick.

The people in the General's Mansion are because of the master's instructions. After these houses are built, the eldest lady, cousin, and young cousin will be able to live in a spacious and comfortable big house. The old lady, the madam, and the young lady can also come and live here occasionally. live, so they have to be more diligent.

Not to mention the people of Qingshui Village, what is being built is their future home!

They were about to be able to live in a big house with blue bricks and blue tiles, a big house that only rich men in the city could afford, so how could they not be excited?

Thinking that after the house is built, they will be able to live in such a large and luxurious house. Each one of them is like a chicken blood, full of energy, and even in the cold spring weather, they can break out into a sweat.

Seeing Qiao Ran coming, Cao Dashan put down his tools and walked over.

"Miss Qiao, are you here? I haven't seen you these days. Come and see how the foundations are being dug?"

Qiao Ran looked at the foundation of a house that had been dug in front of her. The lines were straight and neat, the digging was square, and not a trace of excess soil was left in the hole.

She couldn't help but nod in admiration: "It's a great dig! Uncle Cao, you are so careful in your work! I can rest assured that you are doing the work."

When Cao Dashan heard his employer's praise, he grinned happily: "Miss Qiao, don't worry, I will carefully inspect every ditch, every ridge, and the foundation of every house, and I will check everything that is not done well." They did it again. Our two craftsman teams have always had a good reputation in the capital, and we will never ruin our reputation."

Qiao Ran nodded with satisfaction: "Yes, I believe you! Uncle Cao, do you want to dig all the foundations first and then start laying bricks to build the house, or dig and build at the same time? Is there anything else that needs to be prepared?"

Cao Dashan suppressed his smile and said seriously: "In order to prevent the dug foundation from being washed away in rainy days, we always dig a part first and build the brick wall, so we don't have to worry about the foundation having to be rearranged."

He added: "A batch of green bricks and tiles have arrived, and the lime and sand are ready. I plan to start building the wall the day after tomorrow."

Qiao Ran looked towards the place where building materials were piled not far away, and saw several piles of green bricks, tiles, some white lime and some sand and gravel neatly stacked there.

She asked curiously: "Uncle Cao, when you built the wall, did you mix lime and gravel as an adhesive?"

Cao Dashan didn't know what she meant by "adhesive", but he could guess it, so he nodded and said:

"Yes, you can mix lime and gravel with water and you can use it to build walls. You have to buy this lime from some workshops. Most farmers don't use this. Instead, they directly use yellow mud to build mud brick walls. But yellow mud The walls are not that strong and not beautiful, so the rich people in the city use lime mortar to build blue brick or red brick walls."

Qiao Ran nodded to express her understanding.

She remembered seeing on the Internet that ancient people and even some modern remote and impoverished areas used yellow mud mixed with dry straw to make mud bricks, and then used yellow mud to lay the bricks.

It was not until the Song Dynasty that people began to use the lime mortar mentioned by Cao Dashan as an adhesive to build walls.

In the Ming Dynasty, someone invented the method of mixing glutinous rice juice with lime mortar. This adhesive was called glutinous rice mortar.

On the Great Wall of my country, one can trace the evolutionary process from yellow mud to lime mortar to glutinous rice mortar.

The adhesiveness of glutinous rice mortar is many times stronger than that of lime mortar, and it is also stronger and more durable.

Thinking of this, Qiao Ran suggested: "Uncle Cao, I have an idea. You can try it out first. If it works, you can use it to build our house."

"Oh? Miss Qiao, if you have any ideas, you can tell me. Your ideas must be good ones!"

Cao Dashan was very interested when he heard this.

He has heard a lot about this Miss Qiao these days. The people in Qingshui Village are very proud to praise their craftsmen every day about how smart and powerful their Miss Qiao is, and how many experiences they have led them through along the way. How many difficulties she has faced, how many dangerous situations she has passed through, how many fresh ideas she has in her mind...

It can be seen that the people in Qingshui Village are sincerely grateful and admired for Miss Qiao, and Miss Qiao is also the pride of their whole village, and they can't wait to let everyone know about it.

Cao Dashan thought that if he had not seen with his own eyes the exquisite drawings drawn by Miss Qiao and her unparalleled mental arithmetic skills, he would definitely not believe what the people of Qingshui Village said, and would think that they were all a bunch of lunatics. How could it be possible that the kind of smart person you say you are talking about actually exists?

After seeing Qiao Ran's drawings and mental arithmetic, he had no doubts about what the villagers said. Miss Qiao was really a very special existence. She was full of novel things that he had never seen before and could not even imagine. smart people.

Now that he heard her say that she had new ideas for building a house, he was naturally willing to listen.

Seeing that he was waiting for her to continue speaking so trustingly, Qiao Ran smiled and said:

"Uncle Cao, I think, when we paste window paper, don't we all use a paste made of flour? Since flour is so sticky, another food, glutinous rice, will be more sticky when boiled into a paste. Use glutinous rice If the juice is added to the lime mortar, wouldn’t it make it more sticky and stable?”

"Sticky rice?"

Cao Dashan's face twitched.

This is a good idea, you can give it a try.

But, glutinous rice! It is a rare item with low yield and high price, almost twice as expensive as ordinary japonica rice.