Chapter 38 The Difficulty of Chiseling Ice
Xiao Yan nodded, "I can swim too. Do you need to bring anything?"
"No need." Lu Qiniang said, "We have prepared it."
Before dawn, Lu Qiniang held a lantern in one hand and supported Xiao Yan with the other.
The wind was strong, but the flame in the lantern was not blown out as it had been before.
Lu Qiniang was worried that the lanterns would be blown out by the wind, but when she saw this, she was surprised and said, "It's already after the New Year, and the lanterns have grown bigger?"
Xiao Yan chuckled, "When we were in the army, we used tallow torches or windproof lanterns. I had some free time, so I modified the lanterns at home."
Lu Qiniang: "Wow, I've made it big! I actually used something from the army. And it's actually quite useful."
She picked up the lantern and looked at it carefully, but couldn't figure out what it was. She couldn't help but praise: "Sure enough, he must be a smart person. He is good at everything he does."
Xiao Yan smiled.
As they were talking, the two of them came to the riverside, where many people had already gathered, huddled together.
"Wait here, I'll go over and listen. I'm sure the foreman is talking about how to do the work."
Lu Qiniang stuffed the lantern into Xiao Yan's hand and walked forward quickly.
I saw her squeezing in the crowd. Although she was fat, she managed to squeeze to the front with agility.
Seeing this, Xiao Yan couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth, and his eyes were filled with doting that he himself didn't even notice.
After a while, Lu Qiniang went to queue up to get the tools, and then came back happily.
"Xiao Yan, Xiao Yan—" she said excitedly, "It turns out it's not 300 coins a day, it's 30 coins a block of ice. They said if you work hard, you can make 10 a day! Others can make 10, but I'm sure it'll be more than 10!"
She is super capable!
Xiao Yan nodded: "Yes, you are the most capable."
Lu Qinniang was so excited that she was about to go down immediately. "Don't move here. I'll go first. I'll call you when I break the ice and see the fish."
"No, I'll go down with you first. Let's figure out how to use these tools together."
"I can't, and I can't look at others?"
"Let's go." Xiao Yan took the ice axe from her hand, "Let's go together."
Seeing his firm attitude, Lu Qiniang had no choice but to let her do as she pleased.
Because it was a moat, the embankment was very high and carriages could not go down.
As the two of them walked down, Lu Qiniang observed the terrain and said, "We'll have to bring the ice back up, which won't be easy."
It turns out that there are size requirements for ice cubes.
First of all, the ice layer must be more than half a foot thick. According to old ice workers, this is basically exceeded, and in fact it is even thicker.
The length and width are both three feet, and the weight of a piece of ice is about four hundred kilograms.
This amount was not a difficult task for Lu Qiniang, but the problem was that the ice was very slippery and difficult to hold.
"I've thought about it. I'll go back and tie the ice up with a hemp rope and carry it up on a shoulder pole."
"Eight hundred pounds, no way." Xiao Yan said, "You're still taking medicine. You can't use your physical strength to the extreme like before. That way you won't last long."
"Then let's take a look."
Others would have had several people carry it up, but that was too slow, and Lu Qiniang was anxious to make money.
"Um."
Lu Qiniang found a piece of open space and, following the example of others, first used an iron pick to pierce the ice vertically, then judged the thickness by the scale marks to ensure that the thickness was acceptable.
Next, she used charcoal ash to mark squares on the ice, and then used an ice pick to chisel hard along the grid lines.
Ice fragments flew everywhere, and the ice cubes broke in the middle.
Lu Qiniang was dumbfounded.
This ice is not obedient!
It's split in the middle, how can it be used?
Xiao Yan said, "Start by making shallow marks, then gradually deepen them."
He was looking at the old ice worker next to him.
They were probably a family, with the father and three brothers working in an organized and calm manner.
"Oh, okay." Lu Qiniang drew the grid again, this time carefully chiseling out the grooves first, then inserting wooden wedges into the grooves, hammering the wedges, and using the brittleness of the ice to make it break along the cutting lines.
Then use an ice pick to insert it diagonally and pry it horizontally so that the ice can float completely.
"I really have to learn from others." Lu Qiniang spent half an hour looking at the first piece of ice that floated up, and said excitedly, "Xiao Yan, I can do it too!"
But looking at the side, the father was directing and the three brothers were dividing the work. One was breaking the ice, one was widening the seam, and one was dividing the ice into blocks. In a blink of an eye, five blocks of ice had been made. Lu Qin's mother was envious.
"Okay, send the ice up first, otherwise it will freeze again in a while." The old man next door gave the order.
The four people were divided into two groups. They first tied the ice with hemp rope, and then tied it to a wooden stick. Each person held one end, carried the ice, and staggered to the side.
The ice was so heavy and slippery that I had to stop and rest every ten steps.
Lu Qiniang suddenly realized, "It takes half an hour to chisel the ice, but it takes more than half an hour to get the ice up there. This is where the money is hard to make."
The ice was slippery and difficult to walk on, but what was even more difficult was carrying it from the river to the high embankment.
It doesn't matter, she is strong and she should be the one to earn the money!
Lu Qiniang still planned to use a shoulder pole to carry the two pieces of ice directly up.
Let her scare those men's eyes!
Lu Qiniang is ready to go.
Xiao Yan said, "Abandoned Mother, wait a minute."
"What are you waiting for? You can't wait to make money!" Lu Qiniang rubbed her hands, "Go play somewhere else, watch me!"
Look at her great strength working miracles!
"No, we quit." Xiao Yan said.
"You're not doing this anymore?" Lu Qiniang looked at him with a look that said, "Are you crazy?" "If you're not doing this anymore, give me money!"
"Well, I'll give you the money." Xiao Yan said, "Wait for me, I'll go find the foreman."
"You go find the foreman and tell him I quit? Xiao Yan, don't go crazy, I can do it!"
Don't stop her, she wants to make money.
"This work is too physically demanding, and you're still taking medicine." Xiao Yan looked at her, "Abandoned Mother, if I can earn five taels of silver today, will you promise me that you will rest at home until the Lantern Festival? How about that?"
He underestimated the workload of hauling ice.
The ice cube required was really too big.
This job is too hard.
"Today? Five taels of silver?" Lu Qiniang stared at him in amazement, stretching out her fingers and starting to pick at it. "Twenty-four coins for a piece of ice, two pieces for fifty, easy to calculate. Four pieces for a hundred, forty pieces for one tael of silver... Five taels of silver, that's two hundred? And a few more! Just for today?"
Although she can't read, she can count!
You can't fool a fool like this.
Xiao Yan smiled and said, "Wait for me."
"No, I want to follow you!"
She wanted to see what Xiao Yan was going to do.
She didn't dare to think that Xiao Yan could earn money in his sickly state, but at least she couldn't lose her job.
Xiao Yan, please don't quarrel with the foreman, please.
"Okay." Xiao Yan nodded.
Lu Qiniang was still worried about the piece of ice she had already chiseled out, so she begged the people next to her to help look after it for her, and then followed Xiao Yan up to find the foreman.
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