The next morning, Zhao Xian went to see the village head.
The village head was sitting at the door smoking his pipe when he saw Zhao Xian coming over, so he stood up.
"You've come so early, is there something you need?" the village head asked.
“Uncle Village Head, I’d like to dig a well next to the workshop so we can have access to water,” Zhao Xian said, expressing his idea.
“Workshop production requires a lot of water. Digging a well with a large water output may cost more than ten taels of silver.”
For people in the countryside, spending more than ten taels of silver to dig a well is indeed too expensive.
A farmer might work hard all year but only earn two or three taels of silver. If a natural disaster or man-made calamity strikes, he might not even be able to fill his stomach, let alone earn money.
For Zhao Xian, however, using that money to dig a well was not a big deal.
"Okay, Uncle Village Head, please help me contact someone and arrange for them to help me dig a well."
"Don't rush. There's a lot to learn about drilling wells. Whether a well will yield water depends heavily on the location. Let me go and check it out first."
The two arrived at the workshop and carefully examined it. After a while, the village headman selected the location for digging the well. This location was to the left front of the workshop, about five or six zhang away from it.
“This should be the best location; drilling a well here would yield the largest amount of water,” the village head said with a smile.
Zhao Xian was a little puzzled. In his opinion, there was nothing special about this location, so why was the village head so certain that this was the best place to dig a well?
The village head lit the tobacco in his pipe, took a satisfying puff, and slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke before speaking.
Whether a well can produce water depends mainly on the abundance of groundwater below, which can be judged by the growth of weeds and trees on the ground.
Did you notice that the weeds are growing well in the spot I chose? If you look further away, the weeds are very short.
There are also several trees here with lush foliage, which are somewhat different from the surrounding trees.
Based on these two aspects, it can be roughly determined that the groundwater here should be relatively abundant.
It hasn't rained for a while, and the ground here is constantly damp, while other places are much drier. This further confirms that this is the best location to dig a well.
The village head's words made a lot of sense. Zhao Xian began to examine the matter carefully, and after making some comparisons, he found that it was indeed as the village head had said. It seems that the ancients were indeed very wise.
"Okay, Uncle Zheng will help invite the well-drilling master over there as soon as possible."
“No problem, we have a few experts in well drilling in our village. I’ll invite them over, and we’ll start today.” The village head said and then left.
The sun came out, and people started bringing millet seeds. The Qin sisters and Li Guang got busy.
Zhao Xian came over with a few small ceramic bottles and handed them to the three of them. The three of them took the bottles and examined them carefully, wondering what they were.
"I bought this in the county town yesterday. It's called sunscreen. I can put it on my face and hands so I won't be afraid of the sun and I won't get tanned."
Zhao Xian said with a smile that he bought it from the system.
The three were pleasantly surprised; they had never heard of such a skincare product before.
Last time, Zhao Xian bought scar removal medicine for Qin Shiyu and her sister. After using it for a while, the scars were basically no longer visible.
They had been harvesting barnyard grass all day yesterday, and their skin had gotten noticeably tanned. They were worried about this, but unexpectedly, Zhao Xian bought sunscreen, so they no longer had to worry about getting tanned.
"Thank you, Master."
"Thank you, Brother Zhao."
After they finished speaking, they began applying sunscreen to their faces and hands.
At this time, several craftsmen invited by the village head also arrived. After inspecting the site, they quickly determined the best location for drilling the well, which was the same as the village head's analysis.
Modern well-drilling technology is very advanced, and even wells hundreds of meters deep can be drilled quickly. However, in ancient times, drilling a well was extremely difficult.
In ancient times, digging a well required digging the ground very deep. If the well was to produce a large amount of water, it needed to be dug even deeper, requiring a large amount of labor.
During the well-drilling process, water seeps out continuously and needs to be drained in a timely manner. The deeper the well is dug, the more water accumulates, requiring more people to drain it.
When the well reaches a certain depth, the foundation is laid. After the foundation is laid, the well walls are built with blue bricks. For such a large well, the amount of blue bricks used is enormous.
Back then, drilling wells was not only a technical job, but also a physically demanding one. At the busiest times, more than twenty people would work at the same time, creating a spectacular scene.
Five days later, the well was finally completed, costing a total of more than ten taels of silver.
Although it cost a lot of money, Zhao Xian felt it was very worthwhile. The well water was of excellent quality and had a large output, so that even if the whole village came here to fetch water, there would be no problem.
To make it easier to fetch water, Zhao Xian asked a carpenter to build a frame over the well and install a waterwheel. When drawing water, he could easily lift the water by simply turning the waterwheel.
This was the first time the villagers had ever seen this method of fetching water, and they found it very novel.
"The well has a large water output, and our family doesn't need much water at all. If you need water, feel free to come and get some," Zhao Xian said with a smile to the people who came to watch the spectacle.
The well dug by the scholar is now accessible to everyone in the village. This is wonderful! Several men quickly went home to prepare to fetch water.
Suddenly, three horse-drawn carriages arrived from outside the village and stopped in front of Zhao Xian's house.
Many people got off the carriage, along with two yamen runners. The rest of the people were dressed as household soldiers, and they were all uniformly dressed.
"Excuse me, is this the home of Young Master Zhao Xian?" two yamen runners stepped forward and asked.
"I am Zhao Xian. May I ask what business you two have with me?" Zhao Xian stepped forward to answer. In fact, he already knew that the yamen runners were there to escort his family's soldiers.
"We are here on the orders of the county magistrate to deliver ten of our household guards. Please accept them, Young Master Zhao, so that we may return and report back."
After saying that, he waved his hand behind him, and ten guards immediately stepped forward, stood in a row, and bowed to Zhao Xian in perfect unison.
“Young Master Zhao, these ten men were selected by the county magistrate from among many retired soldiers. They are all of very high quality and are willing to serve you.”
As soon as the constable finished speaking, the ten guards spoke up almost simultaneously: "We swear to serve Young Master Zhao to the death."
Zhao Xian carefully examined the ten guards. They were indeed of good quality, all well-trained retired soldiers. It seemed that Magistrate Cao had put a lot of effort into selecting these men to serve as his guards.
"You've worked hard. From now on, we're family. There's no need for such formalities."
"Young Master Zhao, the person has been delivered, and we should return now. The magistrate has instructed us to leave a carriage for you, so please do not refuse."
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