Village Chief Bai said, "Wu Jiang, Chen Dong, come with me!"
"Go if you want, why are you asking me to do this!" Despite saying that, Old Man Chen still stepped forward.
The man was satisfied with the village chief's reply.
Walking into the house across the street, I saw a bonfire lit in the front yard, with a large pot of water boiling.
As they passed through the front hall, they heard children playing. When they went inside, they found the courtyard full of people, including the elderly, children, and women.
The adults worked while basking in the sun; some were mending clothes, some were weaving bamboo products, some were weaving straw sandals, and some were doing woodworking, while the children played around nearby.
Seeing this, Village Chief Bai was very satisfied with the reply.
"Uncle Cao, Uncle Cao, you're back! Did you find any food today? We're hungry!" A little child ran over and grabbed the man's hand.
The man patted his head and said, "I'll distribute the food to you later. Go play first!"
The man turned to Village Chief Bai and said, "I'll take you to see our clan chief, but I'll discuss what needs to be exchanged."
The man led them into an inner room where a heated kang (a traditional heated platform bed) was burning; they could feel the heat as soon as they entered.
An old man sat on the heated kang in the middle. When he saw them come in, he smiled and said, "We have guests!"
The man said respectfully, "Uncle Cao, they've come to exchange something."
The old man nodded. "It's up to you to decide."
Then he turned to them and said, "Sit on the kang (heated brick bed), it's warm there."
The three of them didn't stand on ceremony and sat down directly on the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed). Sitting on the kang, they thought of home again.
This heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) is a craft that originated from their Anping Village.
The man sat down and asked, "What do you have in your hands?"
The question was about what they could exchange for, and Village Chief Xu knew: "Various bamboo products, straw sandals, straw mats, and tombstones."
We have hand warmers among our bamboo products; perhaps you'll need one.
Hearing that they had tombstones, the man felt a little strange, but still said, "We also have bamboo products, straw woven items, pottery jars, charcoal, water, donkey carts, handcarts, and some other wooden products."
He had just seen a donkey cart in their group, so they should need a handcart as well.
Old Man Chen's eyes lit up. "You have a donkey cart, do you have a donkey?"
“If we had donkeys, we wouldn’t be here,” the man said.
Village Chief Bai asked, "How would you like to exchange your earthenware jars?"
Man: "We don't charge money, we only accept grain, grass roots, tubers, and anything edible."
We also need some hand warmers.
Village Chief Bai lifted the hand warmer in his hand, "Our hand warmers are all like this, you can take a look."
The man took it, looked at it, and said, "Okay, what would you like to exchange it for?"
Village Chief Bai: "How would you change the pottery jar?"
The man said, "We also have people who make hand warmers, so one hand warmer can only be exchanged for three earthenware pots."
Then he pointed to a large, round jar in the corner and said, "It's like that."
The three of them took a look and saw that it was new, probably just fired. It was a little shorter than their jars, but wider, and the capacity seemed to be about the same.
Handmade, it certainly can't compare to their square pottery jars in terms of exquisite craftsmanship, but it's functional enough.
Village Chief Bai then asked, "What if we switch to charcoal?"
"One hand warmer can be exchanged for three pounds of charcoal," the man said.
Old Chen tried to sell, "You really don't accept tombstones?"
After thinking for a moment, the man said, "We could exchange for three."
"I'll trade you three earthenware jars for three tombstones."
That means this is the final price, and we won't raise it any further.
Old Man Chen said calmly, "Okay!" But inwardly he was overjoyed; he had finally sold one of his tombstones.
Village Chief Bai: "How do you switch between your donkey cart and handcart?"
The man was overjoyed, knowing he had a chance. "Five pounds of grain in exchange for one donkey cart."
Handcarts vary in size; small ones can carry two jin (1 kg) of grain, while large ones can carry three and a half jin (1.5 kg).
Shall I take you to see it?
Village Chief Bai nodded.
Upon arriving at the backyard, one sees it piled high with various wooden and bamboo products.
Old Man Chen was a little excited: "How do you want to replace your wooden buckets and basins?"
"One hand warmer in exchange for one wooden bucket or two wooden basins," the man said.
Old Man Chen: "How are you replacing your carpentry tools?"
The man was taken aback, wondering why the situation had changed so quickly, but he still said, "We don't have many carpentry tools, but we can exchange two chisels."
Old Man Chen said with certainty, "I need three sets of carpentry tools. Prepare them for me."
For his son's sake, he would smash three sets of grain in return, even if it meant throwing it at him.
After sizing up Old Man Chen for a while, the man said, "Are you willing to exchange wolf skin and wolf meat for this?"
Old Man Chen shrugged and said, "I don't even have enough wolfskin coats for myself, and the wolf meat has long since gone into my stomach."
The man wanted to say, if you're unwilling to trade any of these things, then why are you so self-righteous?
Old Man Chen glanced at the village chief and said, "His family has more wolf skins and wolf meat than mine."
Village Chief: "..." Yes, you may have few wolf skins and wolf meat, but you also have sheep skins and sheep meat! And you have a lot of grain, more than the entire troop!
The man said, "I won't change any of the carpentry tools except for the chisels."
Old Man Chen laughed angrily, "Are you sure?"
Man: "We don't even have enough for ourselves."
Old Man Chen laughed and said, "You'll be willing to trade!"
Although we found a few carpentry tools when we raided the thieves' den, we didn't have enough to make a complete set, so we kept them for shared use within the team because it was too much trouble to borrow them.
A carpenter's commonly used set of tools includes: saw, axe, plane, ink line, drill, chisel, hammer, shovel, and Lu Ban ruler.
A saw is used for cutting wood horizontally and splitting it vertically.
"Chopping" with an axe is a basic skill of traditional carpentry; "one lifetime with an axe, three years with a plane."
Mastering a plane is not easy; using an axe is even more difficult.
An axe is the best tool for chiseling mortises, much better than a hammer. When the axe is held horizontally, its base area is much larger than that of a hammer, making it less likely to hit your hand if you hit it off-center. It is also much heavier than a hammer.
A plane is a common tool in furniture making. It consists of two parts: the planer blade and the planer body. It is used to smooth or shape the surface of wood.
The ink line is a very common tool in the traditional Chinese woodworking industry. The ancients referred to it as "setting up rules and regulations and displaying plumb lines".
On the one hand, the ink line can be used to mark lines for sawing round logs or to straighten the edges of wooden boards. It can also be used for marking lines for selecting materials and splicing boards, and other purposes.
The drill consists of a handle, drill rod, pull rod, and rope. It has a round hole inside, and a bamboo strip is connected to the drill rod, allowing it to rotate freely. It is used for drilling holes.
A chisel is a primary tool in woodworking for joining wooden structures. It is used for making holes, hollowing out, grooving, and chiseling, and is usually used in conjunction with a hammer.
A hammer is the most commonly used woodworking tool for straightening or breaking objects.
Shovels are mainly used for scraping local flat surfaces. Depending on their purpose, shovels are divided into flat-edged shovels, round-edged shovels, and beveled-edged shovels, etc.
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