Chapter 273 Road Construction

The group was welcomed into the main hall.

Before entering the house, everyone took the initiative to wipe off most of the dirt on the soles of their shoes on a bunch of dry grass under the eaves - this would make it easier to clean the house later.

"Wow! Your room is so warm!" Zhao Mingyue said enviously, surrounded by the warm air.

The other old men nodded implicitly.

Huo Bing brought several bowls of red bean soup on a tray. Guan Li placed the bowls in front of her and said with a smile, "Come on, have a bowl of red bean soup to warm you up."

Everyone who received the red bean soup took a spoonful and put it into their mouths. Their eyes lit up immediately when they tasted the soft, sweet taste!

"My God, how much sugar did you put in it to make it so sweet?" Zheng Hui asked in amazement.

Xu Hongmei held the bowl of red bean soup and looked at the three people in shock.

They have also cooked mung bean soup and red bean soup. Without sugar, it tastes bitter, and if too little sugar is added, there is no sweetness at all. But they are just some beans, who would be willing to put too much sugar?

"No, my mother said that you need to put sugar in brown sugar water, so why not use it to make red bean soup? Drinking a bowl of it in winter is delicious and warming." Guan Li said with a smile.

I have to say, my mother has stockpiled a lot of brown sugar!

Only then can you make a pot from time to time to drive away the cold and satisfy your cravings at the same time.

Shen Qing said modestly: "As long as you like it." There was not much tea at home, but barley tea could be made. However, barley tea can relieve greasiness, so wouldn't the more you drink, the hungrier you will be?

The brown sugar water was alright, but it wasn't enough to satisfy hunger. She was reluctant to take out the frozen pears, but the boiled red bean soup was perfect for her.

Everyone tasted it carefully and found that the red beans melted in the mouth and the soup was rich and sweet. The same red beans were cooked in the same way, but the taste and flavor were completely different because of the addition of sugar.

Sugar is such a great flavoring.

The Shen Qing family was also particular about food, and they were even more generous with it, actually serving it out to entertain them.

The group drank the soup in silence for a while. Granny Qin was the first to break the silence and said gratefully, "I came here today for two main reasons. One is for me and your second uncle to thank you for the leather material you sent me;

Look, I've already made a padded jacket and a snow hat and put it on!"

Shen Qing and the other two just took a closer look and found that it was indeed true!

However, some of the others also bought them from the workshop and wore them, and they didn’t pay much attention to them at first glance.

"As long as you like it."

Granny Qin nodded continuously: "I like it, I like it very much!"

Mr. Jiang said thank you for your hard work and said, "The second thing we came here for today is to build a road."

When we first came here, we first built a thatched house and reclaimed land to plant vegetables. Later, we made adobe bricks and laid the foundation, dug up medicinal herbs and went out to buy them... We were so busy that we were almost taking off and had no time to build roads.

Although young people are working in the workshops nowadays, these old guys are all at home with nothing to do, so they can slowly clean up the road surface.

Shen Qing: .....It's true that someone will give you a pillow whenever you feel sleepy!

She hurriedly asked, "How do we fix it? Do you know how to fix it?"

The roads in China are either made of cement or asphalt. This dynasty has never had such roads, so I don’t want to think about them.

She also thought of two options. One was the stone slabs in the house, but Jincheng was different from the south. It often snowed heavily here and the weather was very cold. The snow melted on the stone slabs and turned into ice, which made it very slippery!

If cleaning is not done in time, it is easy to slip, which is a safety issue, so it is definitely not allowed to lay stone slabs.

The other type is rough bricks, which have a rough surface and a slightly better anti-slip coefficient than stone slabs. However, rough bricks have a fatal flaw, which is that they are easy to loosen. Once loose, there is a pool of dirty muddy water underneath, and you don’t know when it will splash all over you with dirt!

It’s impossible to guard against!

She didn't want to walk on it and worry about getting hurt, which would ruin her good mood for the whole day.

Zhao Laoer said proudly, "That's right! I built a government road when I was young. Look, isn't it hardened and smooth, without even a weed? It's very useful!"

Boss Zhao quickly added, "Official roads require more things and are more expensive, so we won't build them like official roads. We'll replace whatever can be replaced. But don't worry, the road we build is no worse than the official road!"

Let’s not talk about anything else, just the mortar used for official roads. It not only contains river sand and loess, but also glutinous rice and sheep peach vine juice. It is strong, but it is definitely not enough for them.

I can't bear to give away so much glutinous rice, and I can't find any sheep peach vine juice.

When Zhao Lao Er heard his elder brother's words, he immediately put away his smug look, scratched his head embarrassedly and smiled: "Yes, it's not the same as the official way, but it works just as well!"

It is also more suitable for their village.

Shen Qing turned his gaze to Master Jiang.

Master Jiang said in a deep voice, "The road surface is the same as the official road. It uses cooked soil, which is soil heated by fire. This kills the larvae and grass seeds in the soil, especially the grass seeds. Otherwise, when they sprout next year, the road surface will no longer be smooth and compacted."

It is bound to lift up the soil, and when it is pulled out, the soil will also be brought out. When it rains or snows, your clothes, shoes and socks will be covered with mud spots.

The room suddenly became quiet, and everyone listened attentively.

Mr. Jiang continued, "The mortar is very hard and can isolate the soil. We don't have mortar, so we can't spread it flat on the ground for protection. My idea is to use gravel particles as small as possible.

Laying it flat on the road can not only isolate the mud from the ground, but also prevent slipping. Thirdly, it won't be as easy as large pieces of ground with water accumulating underneath and splashing all over you if you step on it."

Shen Qing nodded continuously.

This really touched her heart!

Every item is what she wants to solve. Not bad, not bad, but do they have gravel here?

As far as she knew, there were quite a few stones, including small ones, but there were definitely no gravel particles for paving the road, and even if there were, there wouldn't be enough!

Boss Feng asked first: "Where can we get the crushed stones?"

The road out of the mountain is not easy to walk on now, and transporting the stones back is far and heavy.

Zhao Laoer was proud again and said cheerfully: “Brother Feng, you came to the village late and have never participated in the repair of the official road.

We don't have any gravel here, but we have plenty of stones. We can just use the 'fire-heating and water-stimulating' method and get as many gravel particles as we want!"

Boss Feng looked bewildered.

The woman who came also looked confused.

Master Jiang explained, "Fire and water stimulation involves placing stones in a fire and then pouring cold water over them when they turn red. The heat and cold will cause the stones to explode. At this point, the stones are very fragile, so the remaining small pieces can be broken with a hammer."

Shen Qing immediately understood that this was the principle of thermal expansion and contraction.

It seems that Mr. Jiang and his men have not been idle these days. They must have thought about it again and again before deciding on this plan.

She agreed: "Okay, I agree!"

Mr. Jiang nodded and said, "I discussed with Boss Zhao and the others before we came here. We will each be responsible for a section of Dacun.

You have a small family, so we'll cover the road from the bridge to the workshop. However, you'll need to be responsible for the rest of the journey to the workshop. Is that okay?"