"By the way, Xiao Zhou, will you pay us on time when the work is finished? This is the last batch of work before the New Year for everyone. These hundreds of people have families who are counting on this money to get through the New Year!"
Xu Hou asked the question that everyone wanted to know on behalf of everyone.
Zhou Quan nodded, "Don't worry, we have the money. The imperial court has allocated relief funds for us. When the project is completed, I will give you every penny. Our only condition is that the project be completed according to our plan. I have calculated that it can be done."
The six men exchanged glances. They weren't afraid of a dreadful employer, but rather of one who was an expert who wouldn't let them slack off at all. It seemed they would have to work harder over the next month.
Laying the foundation and building the walls is quick, but the carpentry work is slow. Laying the main beams, rafters, purlins, and building the roof frame is quite laborious, and these all require a carpenter with carpentry skills.
They had enough manpower for the final roofing and tile laying.
The houses in Zhoujia Village are all small-ridged houses with gentle slopes on both sides. As a result, the houses are deeper than flat-roofed rammed earth houses. So basically, each house has a large kang (heated brick bed), a fire wall, and a chimney.
The foremen discussed that they still needed to find some carpenters, as the carpenters they brought were simply not enough. After all, in order to earn more money during the New Year, they had even contracted to make the simple furniture for the house.
Each household has a large wardrobe, a wall cabinet, a kang table, and four small stools. This is the basic furniture. If they need any other furniture in the other rooms, they have to prepare it themselves after moving in.
In other words, they also need to do the interior decoration and carpentry work. Since this is the last batch of work before the New Year, they might as well do as much as they can.
With the matter settled, everyone went back to arrange their meals.
The wages paid by Zhoujia Village were slightly higher than those paid by ordinary mining projects, but it was stated that meals would not be provided. Otherwise, even if the women of Zhoujia Village worked themselves to death, they would not be able to cook for so many people, let alone for more than a month, and they also had elderly people and children to take care of.
They arranged all these things in one day.
On the sixth day of the ninth lunar month, the construction of the remaining houses in the new village of Zhoujiacun officially began.
The older villagers stood atop the North Mountain, gazing at the bustling scene of people below the mountain, filled with emotion.
Children under ten were also warned not to go down, for fear of getting hurt or bumping into things. While they were cutting grass, they would stand on the top of the mountain and stare down in a daze, trying to broaden their horizons.
Seeing so many people for the first time, they knew that these people were helping them build new houses, and that the whole village was eating together and working hard to build a new village for everyone. The concept that people of the same clan should help and love each other gradually began to sprout in the hearts of the little ones.
The children squatting here looking down are mostly boys under ten and girls under fourteen.
They were envious when they saw the older boys below working hard.
Girls over the age of fourteen were all summoned by Li Mai to cook, along with their mothers.
Zhao and Zhou Tao were among the forty-eight people conscripted to cook. One was assigned to the noon group, and the other to the evening group.
All the boys over ten years old went to the construction site to help with the work, carrying bricks and hauling sand and stones with the trucks. Ten-year-old Zhou Lei was among them.
Zhou Quan said that they should go and improve their physical strength and work together with the villagers.
Zhou Quan discovered that the other boys in the village who were ten years old or older were far inferior to his son Zhou Lei, especially in terms of strength.
He believes that boys should develop their character and interpersonal skills from a young age.
When Zhou Quan had the accident, Zhou Lei was eight years old. At that time, the sensible little guy wanted to follow his father and second brother to carry his eldest brother, help him work in the fields, help carry his eldest brother to the outhouse, or go for a stroll in the yard.
At first, he couldn't lift it properly. After dropping his older brother twice, the little guy figured it out and became stronger. He never dropped his older brother again.
Now at ten years old, his strength is comparable to that of sixteen or seventeen-year-old boys in the village.
When the clan chief's wives and Zhao Shi Zhou Tao Li Mai didn't have to cook, they would return to their new house to clean up the interior, light a stove, and slowly heat the stove and dry the house.
We plan to move here at the end of September.
The window frames have been installed, but Zhou Quan said he will put up paper on them when he returns on the day of the move, so that the house can dry out faster.
Seeing her newly built house, Li Mai felt it was worthwhile to spend the money to build it first, so that her whole family could move in before she left at the beginning of October, and she could leave with peace of mind.
The rooms that were originally planned for this large courtyard have now all been built.
The main house has three large rooms, with two small side rooms on either side. This is what Zhou's family will use as storerooms.
Two west wing rooms and two east wing rooms.
The main gate is on the south side. There was no need to make a new gate for his house. Zhou Lin went and dismantled the old gate of his own yard and installed it. It took a few days to install the new gate.
Entering through the main gate and heading west, there was a row of sheds: one livestock shed, one cart shed, and the cart shed where the grass cut for the cattle could be stored.
This way, at least the oxen and carts won't have to endure the sun and rain anymore.
To the east of the main gate are the charcoal shed and the firewood shed, which are lower in height and connected to the two east wing rooms. It can be said that the courtyard is built in a neat and orderly manner.
Next to the outhouse in the southwest corner, there was a side gate. After going out, there was another shack area built on a piece of land they bought on the west side. Zhou would feed the chickens and rabbits there.
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