Apocalyptic Tundra Age

The big kiln was dug on a large piece of brick-red ground, not far from the village camp, only separated by a road.

This place turned out to be a mountain. The people of Murakami, who had developed in the city, spent a lot of money to buy a homestead, and originally wanted to make an ancestral burial hill.Later, they wanted to build a small villa in this place and come back to live during the Chinese New Year, so the family used an excavator to level half of the mountain, leaving half to be used as a natural landscape and fence.

Xu Zhonglei also heard people say that the family still wanted to build a holiday hotel in the front, and raise chickens, fish, and grow fruits and vegetables in the back. Unexpectedly, the earthquake came before the plan was completed. Who knows if the family is still alive, so the village There was no psychological pressure, and a large cave was dug inside.

The big kiln dug in along the remaining half of the mountain, and dug out a large cavity. Standing on the flattened red soil, there is a chimney made of mud on the top of the mountain, pointing directly at the sky, and a little bit is floating out. blue smoke.

On the open space, two vertical rows of sheds have been built, occupying a large area of ​​this wasteland.There are two sheds, one for firewood and the other for fired pottery and tiles, which are sorted and stored away from the ground, which looks quite similar.

Now the pottery shed is full of bricks poured with white mud and straw, standing upright one by one, waiting for the breeze to dry these bricks slowly.

Wet bricks cannot be fired directly, and can only be put into the kiln after they are dry.Otherwise, during the firing process, the bricks will be unevenly heated and will be directly broken.

Cheng Yuming was standing by the small pool, struggling to step on the mud mixed with soil and grass. Xu Zhonglei looked at him dressed in mud and chatted enthusiastically with Uncle Guosheng in one Mandarin and one dialect.

"Uncle Guosheng, come down and rest first! I want to step on it!" Xu Zhonglei put down the firewood and shouted.

"Don't! Go to your Uncle Tie's side. They are digging holes. We can do it here for the time being! They must have more people over there." Uncle Guosheng shouted energetically, pointing in the direction with his hand.

"alright."

***

Xu Zhonglei had told the village head early in the morning that he wanted to build another big kiln, so Uncle Tie and the village head picked a place next to the original big kiln.

The two dug with hoes in full swing, and a large pile of mud had been dug out, and it was piled aside, along with poles and bamboo utensils for holding soil.

Without making a sound, Xu Zhonglei shoveled the soil into the courtyard and poured it into the small pool with a pole.

After the soil is sieved, bricks can also be fired. The quality of the fired bricks is not very good, but they are barely usable, but now that efficiency is important, he is not picky about the quality of the bricks. Pragmatism, as long as they can be used.

"Stone, don't do that. It's just right. I'm going to see how the charcoal is burning over there. It should be almost there." Uncle Tie gave the hoe in Xu Zhonglei's hand, and turned to another kiln by himself, "You Come and help shovel some dirt."

In a closed oxygen-free space, the finished product of slowly burning firewood is charcoal, which is not a very technical thing.

But if you want to burn a lot of bricks at one time, you can't use firewood to provide fuel, you must rely on charcoal to provide stable and continuous high temperature, so there is one more preparation for burning bricks, that is, burning charcoal.

"Village chief, how many bricks can be produced from one kiln of charcoal? It should be almost enough to prepare a shed of wood?" Xu Zhonglei asked the old village chief next to him.

"According to my experience, the wood for another shed should be enough, but it is still less now."

"Oh." Xu Zhonglei sighed all over his body, he was a little desperate.

In order to get enough firewood for this shed, Xu Zhonglei has already traveled to several hills in the village.

The tree he was staring at was clean and unobstructed below the canopy, and there was not a single branch that grew out of order.

If there is another shed, Xu Zhonglei feels that the branches of the big tree in Baiyang Village next door will not be able to keep it... His shoulders will have to rot again...

After digging for a while, the village head's movements slowed down. He pretended not to squint, expressionless, and tentatively said:

"Shitou, let me tell you something, that is, Xu Dali, Xu Chongbai, including Yu Yu, all found me here... Do you want someone else?"

This question caught my ears, Xu Zhonglei was almost a Buddha, and he didn't lose his temper at all.

There is a lot of construction going on here, and it hasn't been covered up yet. In addition, Xu Zhonglei suspects that someone here has announced all the treatment he has given, so many people in the village want to earn something from him.

During the few days when he moved a large shed of firewood, he "ran into" people in the village over and over again.

A shy and reserved person would say: "Brother Shitou, do you still need someone there? I've been idle recently and I've been idle too. Just give me a little food."

The slightly shameless person said: "Shitou, are you tired from carrying firewood back and forth? Come on, come on, I'll come, I'll come! You can pay according to the village chief's price."

Xu Zhonglei refused all of them without exception. After all, if there are too many people, he can't handle them.

It doesn't matter how many catties or hundreds of catties he takes out of food, if there is more, he will drink the northwest wind by himself!I didn't expect people to be so restless. Now that they have followed the path of the old village chief, do you still want to work harder?

Xu Zhonglei stopped his hoe, and said calmly: "Village chief, I don't have much food in my house, and it's only enough for us two grown men. If you think about it for a while, food can't be kept. No matter how much you like shopping, you can't buy it." You won’t be able to buy enough rice to feed a whole village.”

Xu Zhonglei changed the subject, his tone became indifferent, and continued: "If there is more food for others, there will be less for you. You'd better stop worrying about others and think about yourself. Besides, one person If you can come to help, the whole village can come to help! Anyway, I don’t have much rice for a brick kiln, and if you ask more people to help, who should I distribute the fifteen catties to?”

The old village head didn't care about how much food Xu Zhonglei could have left, but if Xu Zhonglei gave the village head less than a grain of rice, the village head would definitely point at Xu Zhonglei's nose and make fun of his descendants for eighty generations!

Without blinking, Xu Zhonglei stared at the old village chief to see what he had to say.

"Haha, haha, I got it. You are too stingy, you don't have a big air." The village chief turned his head away, pretending that he hadn't said anything just now.He also laughed a few times awkwardly, and finally, in order to save his respect, he commented a few words "no atmosphere", trying to show his experience.

Seeing that the village chief had already figured it out, Xu Zhonglei ignored him and started digging down with a hoe.

What big weather, sucking all your own blood to feed the villagers is called "big weather"?If Xu Zhonglei really becomes that kind of person, the village head will definitely say that Shitou is good here and there, but he will call him an idiot behind his back.

Although the collective will carry out short-term solidarity and cooperation, the individual is always self-interested.Otherwise, how could the primitive clan society of "great harmony in the world" enter the private ownership society?

People are selfish, Xu Zhonglei doesn't want to go to the village to spread money, unless he really wants to raise a bunch of white-eyed wolves, even Xu Zhiping, Xu Zhonglei dare not believe it.He doesn't want to test human nature, nor does he want to be kind and encourage people's greed.

***

The first time to open the kiln after so many choices finally came. After turning off the fire, Uncle Tie let the kiln cool naturally for a whole day. He said that in this way, there would be no sudden temperature changes that would cause the bricks to break.

All five of them got into the opening of the kiln reserved for firing. As soon as Uncle Tie lifted the big pottery plate that sealed the cave, ten eyes looked in together.

Through the light exposed by a little chimney, the fired bricks are stacked neatly in the big kiln, which looks good.

Uncle Tie picked up a small wooden stick and looked inside, and pulled out a red brick. He slammed his finger against the brick a few times, listened to the sound, and after careful observation, he concluded:

"The uneven coloring should be due to the bad soil, there are many potholes, and it still cuts your hands when you touch it, so it is not a good brick."

Hearing this comment, Xu Zhonglei asked with a sinking heart, "Will that work?" The concerns of pragmatists.

"Of course you can use it to build walls." Uncle Guosheng laughed at the side, "Your Uncle Tie has dealt with fire since the early morning. When he was young, he burned bricks in Pingling Town. He worked in any position. Later, the brick factory closed down. Now, go out and work hard, glass blowing, porcelain burning.

It is normal for him to be demanding and look down on this brick.Stone, let me tell you, Uncle Tie is a capable person, with a pair of eyes, he can see the temperature of the fire, and he can knead a mud tire well. In ancient times, he was dedicated to helping the emperor burn tiles!Burn a brick, that's a piece of cake! "

Uncle Tie smiled honestly, and he did not refute such a high reputation, but knocked on the brick again, and the brick made a crisp sound.

Xu Zhonglei is relieved, does it sound good?It sounds like a good brick.Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the emotional village, this is really a big boss.

The first kiln was successfully fired, and the other big kiln was almost dug. Now Xu Zhonglei and Cheng Yuming are just digging machines without emotion. traces of soil.

"Too many days?"

Xu Zhonglei was counting how much soil the two of them had dug, Cheng Yuming couldn't help asking.

"No more, no less, thank God!" Xu Zhonglei wiped his hands, put his palms together and sighed: "They finally stopped!"

Seeing that there was no way to go from the village head and Xu Zhonglei, the villagers came up with a trick to help them dig the soil on the mountain, dump it in the pool, and eagerly waited for their wages.

I have done my work and helped me when I was busy. You must look at it and give me some subsidies, right?

Xu Zhonglei can only deal with it coldly. If you give it to me, I want it. Not only do I want it, but I will quickly add water and mud to it.

Anyway, the soil you pulled over has been mixed into bricks, so you can’t pull a pile of mud back, right?As for stuff?Impossible, you still want the unspecified reward?Take your slime and go back!

After these few days, there were finally no villagers who wanted to help Xu Zhonglei in vain. They all rushed back to Xu Zhiping's greenhouse angrily, and went to do the farm work of distributing mushrooms and sweet potato leaves every day.

Xu Zhonglei breathed a sigh of relief, these great gods finally sent off!