Chapter 13 Chapter 13 Abacus Kang

At the end of the 13th year of Yongwen, it had been two months since the winter wheat was planted.

Li County has a cold weather, and crops have been planted in this way since ancient times. When winter wheat is harvested, millet and sorghum are planted again. This cycle repeats itself, and the rice-wheat rotation can repair the soil without leaving farmland idle.

After paying taxes in the autumn harvest, the Shi Jin family had a lot of surplus grain. They bought farm tools and had more than a hundred coins left in the house.

This is a huge sum of money.

Therefore, when planting winter wheat, people were extremely enthusiastic and felt that they had hope for the future.

But I didn’t expect that two methods of producing high-efficiency fertilizers would suddenly come out.

Shi Jin's family was skeptical at first, but when they heard the yamen runner say that this method was invented by the county lord, the whole family immediately believed it without reason and carried it out immediately.

Looking at the lower field in his own field that was originally difficult to plow and overgrown with weeds, he saw that it was now planted with wheat, and the growth was better than the wheat in the fields in previous years.

Shi Jin wondered why the county lady was so capable. Not only could she improve farm tools, but she could also come up with new things to fertilize the fields. Green manure with some beans and soil would have different root fertility. Compost with feces and urine and covered with straw would take a month to decompose.

I will follow the county lady for the rest of my life. As long as she is around, I will never go hungry.

As for being cold.

Shi Jin wrapped himself in the linen clothes filled with reed fluff and walked quickly towards home.

This is how I get through every winter.

The weather is getting colder and colder. People's warm clothes are thin. There are fewer than half of the people on the streets. The cold wind is blowing and people are shivering.

The temperature dropped sharply, and Lin Si also changed into winter clothes.

Cotton had not yet been grown on a large scale at that time, so Lin Si's winter clothes were not filled with cotton, but silk floss, that is, silk wool.

Silk floss is expensive, but it is light and warm, and only royal relatives can enjoy it.

Of course, Lin Si’s winter equipment includes not only silk floss, but also fur coats.

Ordinary people did not have such a wide variety of ways to keep warm, and could only rely on filling the interlayer of their linen clothes with reed and willow catkins to keep warm.

Lin Si wanted cotton very much. Cotton can not only be used to fill clothes to make cotton-padded clothes, but can also be spun into cotton yarn to make cotton cloth. It has many uses.

But cotton originated in India, and Lin Si didn't know whether it had been introduced to the Central Plains. Even if it had, it might only be planted sporadically as an ornamental plant.

It was very difficult to find it, and her current range of activities was limited, so she had to give up.

But Lin Si found another good thing in the system mall, "How to Make a Kang in Dachen".

Before Lin Si traveled through the book, she was from the south. Every winter, she relied on shivering to resist magical attacks. She knew that a kang was a common heating facility in the north, but she had never seen what a kang looked like.

Fortunately, this thin booklet is a version with both pictures and text. After reading the booklet, Lin Si prepared to try it out at the County Lord's Mansion.

If successful, she would put a low table on the kang so that she could write and work on the kang, which was comfortable just by thinking about it. Then she would give it to the children in the manor and promote it to the people so that everyone could spend the New Year warmly.

At this moment, the servant Zhao An was lowering his head, waiting for Lin Si's instructions. Although Zhao An didn't talk much, he was meticulous in his work.

Lin Si took a sip of hot tea and said, "Zhao An, I have something I want you and the servants to do. It's called 'Pan Kang'."

Zhao An opened his mouth, feeling that it was neither right to ask nor right not to ask. However, he racked his brains but could not figure out what these two words meant.

Finally, Zhao An resigned himself to his fate and asked, "May I ask, County Master, what is a kang? I'm stupid and have never heard of it."

Chun Yi stood aside and nodded quietly. "I have never heard of it either."

"Come with me."

Lin Si finished reading the book "How to Make a Kang in Dachen" and basically understood the principle of making a kang. The hot air generated by combustion is allowed to flow through the flue inside the kang through the connecting structure of the heat circulation system, forming a transfer of thermal energy.

Lin Si brought Zhao An to an empty room in the county lord's mansion.

The room was so big that after Lin Si placed the wooden cabinet and desk, there was still a large space at the back.

At that time, Lin Si was still thinking about how to use this room in the future.

Now there is space left for making a kang.

Lin Si tried his best to explain the principle of the kang to Zhao An in simple and easy-to-understand words. Chun Yi felt more and more sleepy as she listened. Zhao An was also sleepy, but this was something the county lady had asked him to do, so even if it sounded like a mystery, he had to understand it.

Lin Si explained the principle to Zhao An in detail and asked Zhao An a few questions before he made sure that Zhao An really understood it.

Once the principles were understood, the process of explaining the construction process became much smoother, and Zhao An could even occasionally offer a suggestion or two.

Lin Si was not in a hurry to urge Zhao An to start working right away. He had to purchase materials, measure the dimensions, and do all the preliminary preparations.

Zhao An was illiterate and could not afford pen and paper. He returned to his hut, found a piece of bark, and used charcoal ash to draw a pattern on it that only he could understand.

Zhao An received too much new information today. He wanted to fully understand it first before starting to work with the servants.

The county lord had finally given him a task, and he wanted to do it well and not mess it up.

After being forced by Lin Si to cram on the principles of the kang, Zhao An realized that if he understood the so-called principles first, he would be able to do things much faster, and even if he encountered any problems, he would be able to find the problem.

Many words are not difficult to understand. For example, thermal energy can be understood as the heat generated after combustion, and conduction can be understood as the transfer from one end to the other.

Zhao An deeply felt that principle was a good thing.

*

Ding Pu felt very lucky to be bought by the Princess of Anping at the pawnshop.

He had never seen a master who could provide his servants with three meals a day, and there were also two strong maids in the house who ate more than twice as much as he, a young man.

Ding Pu felt relieved. He had finally found a decent job! And it was more than ten times easier than his previous job at a wealthy businessman's house.

Ding Pu suddenly felt that his life as a slave was perfect. As a slave, what else could he ask for? He could just eat and wait for death until he died of old age. If he was lucky enough to marry a woman, that would be even better.

So Ding Pu started to be lazy and completed his work diligently. He worked when he was supposed to work and rested when he was supposed to rest, and never did even a little more than that.

Today, Zhao An suddenly gathered all the servants.

Ding Pu didn't think it had anything to do with him, but when he heard Zhao An say that the county lady had assigned work to the servants, it meant making the kang.

Ding Pu didn't know what pan kang meant, and he didn't plan to stand out. He just did whatever Zhao An said. He heard that Zhao An had followed the county lord from Anjing, so naturally he should be respected more.

But the more Ding Pu listened to Zhao An talking about the construction process of the kang, the more familiar he became. Finally, as he listened, he suddenly understood.

Isn't this a bit similar to the fire bed in his hometown? However, the fire bed in Ding Pu's house is made of pure earth, and is not as delicate and complicated as the kang that Zhao An mentioned. Moreover, the temperature is a big problem. In many cases, it is too hot and can burn people. Moreover, every winter, there are always old people who are greedy for the little temperature on the fire bed and suffocate themselves to death in the house.

When Ding Pu found himself unable to help but blurt out, "This is a bit like a fire bed," it was already too late.

Ding Pu regretted it so much that he wanted to slap himself twice.

I make you unable to control your mouth, I make you unable to control your mouth.

Zhao An was originally explaining the process of making a kang based on his own understanding, but when he heard Ding Pu mutter something, he immediately felt that Ding Pu should be able to help with this task.

Ding Pu followed behind Zhao An, feeling miserable. He finally understood what he was. He was like a dog that had no bowl to eat from. Ding Pu was the bowl now!

It was the first time that Ding Pu spoke to Lin Si at close range. He felt both grateful and nervous. Out of nervousness, he told Lin Si everything about how the fire bed in his hometown was built, and how he felt the fire bed was similar to a kang. Finally, he talked about the shortcomings of the fire bed in his hometown.

Ding Pu felt bitter. Why couldn't he think before speaking? Or maybe he didn't realize that he spoke too much because he spoke too quickly, but his reaction speed was just so fast that he realized he had said too much after he finished speaking.

It's very uncomfortable.

I don’t know how much more work I have to do now.

He wouldn't be like Zhao An, who would find a piece of tree bark and draw some scribbled characters on it in the middle of the night.

After Ding Pu finished speaking, he lowered his head and dared not look up.

He really didn't dare. He was afraid that as soon as he looked up, Lin Si would give him the job of making the kang. In this way, he would not only offend Zhao An, but also have to do a lot more work. It was simply not worth it.

Lin Si touched his chin with his hand. "In that case, Zhao An, first explain the principle of the kang to Ding Pu. Once he understands it, bring him to see me."

Ding Pu agreed reluctantly.

As I turned around, I was knocked unconscious by the heat energy from the stove, the stove body, and the connecting structure. It was like listening to a foreign language.

Ding Pu sighed to the sky, wondering why they treated a salted fish like this.

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