Xu Gensheng's family used the old house foundation, but the foundation stones had been changed.

Because Pi had told Xu Gensheng that she would only have children after the family split up, Xu Gensheng requested that two more "side rooms" be built in the house this time.

In the past, Xu Gensheng, being the youngest, might not have been listened to.

But things are different now. He's one of Village Chief Jiang's henchmen and has made contributions to the family.

Not to mention his family, even his great-grandfather Xu Changming only had one request: he was willing to divide the family property, but only after the funerals of the elderly in the family were over.

This is perfectly reasonable; we took this into account when we were building the house.

Pi was immediately delighted.

Building a rammed earth house is simple. Take clean yellow soil, mix it with lime and sand, pour it into the trough of a ramming board, and use a wooden tamping pestle to compact the mixture. A section of wall will then be formed.

The earthen wall is raised layer by layer by ramming slabs. At the corners of each layer, bamboo strips or branches are placed as reinforcements to prevent cracking.

Such thick walls, which are warm in winter and cool in summer, are also a common building style in Bavaria.

The whole village helped each other build houses, and there were plenty of manpower. The pounding of earth continued all night long, and the work never stopped as people took turns.

From the soil extraction point to the wall, long lines of people carrying soil formed, working day and night to carry it up the wall.

The height of the earthen wall rose rapidly, like bamboo shoots sprouting overnight, and soon it was time to erect wooden pillars and install the main beam.

After hanging a red cloth on the wooden beam, the ink master recited an auspicious four-line poem, and melon seeds and a dozen copper coins that had been prepared were scattered from the high wall, attracting the whole village, young and old, to gather and pick up the melon seeds and grab the copper coins, with laughter and joy filling the air.

The progress of the house repairs was encouraging, but the carpenter and master carpenter soon began to complain.

His wooden window and door frames need to be prepared in advance.

Especially for wooden window frames, they need to be buried directly in the soil when the wall is being rammed, and then drilled out after the wall dries, so that the window frame can be integrated with the wall.

Normally, when repairing a house, the homeowner would be building the walls while the carpenter was making the doors and windows, and the progress would be perfectly coordinated.

But the speed at which this house is being built is something even the most experienced carpenters have never seen before.

This isn't building a house; it's tearing the house down from the ground.

Even though he had prepared several sets of window and door frames in advance, it was still not enough.

While the carpentry work is still in progress, it's time to erect the beams and pillars.

The master ink master had no choice but to find a few more apprentices to help.

When the carpentry work begins, the earthwork is done, leaving a few people to help lay the purlins and latticework, and the wall-building team immediately moves on to the next job.

The next player is Tian Gui.

Xu Gensheng's family had an old house foundation, and it was convenient to get soil from nearby to rebuild.

The Tian Gui family is in a bit of trouble.

His house has a narrow foundation, with a foot embankment in front of the house that is about one person high, and another foot embankment behind it that is also about one person high.

Separated by a small bamboo grove, we share a drying ground with Xu Genqing's family.

Tian Gui approached Xu Genqing: "Genqing, I want to separate the Zhulin and Shaiba families, and have each family choose the same person. Are you willing?"

Flat land was hard to find. The drying ground and bamboo grove were previously shared by two families. Qin was even beaten up because they dried vegetables together.

Now the house is divided equally between the two families. Whether they want to use it separately or repair the house, they can also expand it.

Before Xu Genqing could even respond, Qin Shi hurriedly agreed: "Okay, okay, my family wants to dry our food in the threshing ground."

"Once the house is repaired and Lianhua has given birth, there will be a threshing floor for him to run around in, so your little Sizi won't come over and bully him."

Tian Gui: "...Sister-in-law Qin, my little Xiao Si is only two months old, he won't bully anyone."

Qin raised her head: "My Lianhua is only two months pregnant..."

"Ah! Your Lianhua has a child?" Tian Gui was somewhat surprised, but also quite happy.

He had heard Qin scolding Lianhua and had even thought about when to persuade Xu Genqing to take Lianhua to see a doctor.

Now that I'm pregnant, I won't be scolded by my mother-in-law anymore.

Xu Genqing was both angry and annoyed, glaring at his mother: "Mom, didn't I say that you can't say things like that before three months? You can't control your mouth."

Qin blinked: "Tian Gui wouldn't go around spreading rumors!"

Granny Jiang had said that anyone who dared to mention Lianhua's pregnancy outside would be punished. She hadn't told anyone else, and had been holding it in for a long time.

Tian Gui gave an awkward laugh, realizing he shouldn't have heard such things: "Yes, it's not good to talk about these things. Don't worry, Genqing, I'm not being nosy!"

They had originally come to discuss the house repairs, but Qin suddenly interrupted them, so they ended up starting the conversation again.

Xu Genqing agreed to divide the bamboo grove between the two families so that everyone could use it to expand their houses.

Tian Gui's family was repairing their house. There were many people and young children. One of their infants, only two months old, couldn't stand the cold, so they temporarily moved to Village Chief Jiang's warehouse for a few days.

The Tian family acquired a bamboo grove, dug up the bamboo roots to fill the foundation, and the new house was turned around, no longer facing Xu Genqing's house, so they could neither see nor hear each other.

This was Tian Tao's idea, because Qin Shi came to her house every day, and she was already fed up with it.

My mother is a gentle person. If this goes on for a long time and Qin comes every day, my family will probably never have a moment of peace again. It would be better to take advantage of the house renovation to clean up the surrounding area.

For ten years, they lived in a shack without a home of their own. Now that they finally have a home, Tian Gui listens to his wife and children and renovates it however they want to be comfortable.

Since he didn't want to be spied on every day, he simply changed his orientation and turned his back to Qin Shi.

When Qin saw that visiting other people's homes was no longer as convenient as before, she couldn't help but curse under her breath: "You can't even bear to look at something for a few seconds. It's not like I'm going to throw it into your porridge pot. You're a family of misers."

Because they needed to dig bamboo, the Tian family's project was a little larger, but it wouldn't cause much trouble.

Errui, Xiaoman, and the others had plenty of strength. They spent two days digging out all the bamboo roots and even cleared out the bamboo rhizomes underground.

Otherwise, bamboo shoots will sprout from the house in a few years.

The repair crew continues!

Tian Gui also built rammed earth houses.

Although he did a lot of work, there were many expenses since Tao'er's mother became pregnant, and the family had been buying fine grains to eat with, so they only saved a little over one tael of money, enough to buy tiles and timber.

The soil was dug with a clanging sound, the earth was tamped with a thud, and the earthen walls grew as tall as scallions sprouting from dry land.

While building the wall, another team was assigned to prepare the foundation stones for the next house in advance.

At this rate, the entire village could be demolished in a month. Even if the carpenters weren't skilled enough, they couldn't keep up with the speed at which the walls were being demolished.

In just five days, two earthen walls were erected in Xujia Village, and the third was about to be built. This progress stunned Zhao Shuli, who was arranging the construction of the post station.

While their own post station was still in the ground-level stage, far from being completed, Xujia Village had already changed.

He asked Xu Errui, who was there to collect sand and lime with his redemption token, "What kind of magic potion did Village Chief Jiang give you? You're all helping each other repair the houses, and not a single one of you is slacking off?"

After arranging things in the village, Jiang Zhi returned to the mountain, leaving Er Rui to manage the affairs.

Xu Errui didn't know what to say.

It's hard to say whether the villagers are lazy or not, but there's definitely no one who's extremely lazy, because the laziest of them all, Li Laoshi, is keeping an eye on things.

Moreover, work points are recorded, and anyone who slacks off will feel embarrassed.

As for why we should unite, he thought for a moment before saying, "Last time at the county office, Magistrate Zhang said: 'A single thread cannot make a line, and a single tree cannot make a forest,' meaning we should help each other."

The villagers also heeded Magistrate Zhang's words and helped each other in every way.

Xu Errui couldn't remember whether Magistrate Zhang had said those words or not, but he felt that he should praise the magistrate more in front of the people in the county government.

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Zhao the clerk became even more amiable: "Xu Family Village is indeed a place of simple and honest folk customs, worthy of being personally taught by Magistrate Zhang."