Chen Daogang also had lunch, wiped his mouth and walked out of the house, holding an iron fork for turning grass in his hand, quickly paddling back and forth on the mud, demonstrating, and said to Zhenhua: "Uncle He, I'll leave this job to you, stroke it horizontally and vertically a few times, and then mix it with an iron shovel." ”

Zhenhua took the fork and said, "Don't step on it?"

"No, the mud used to build the wall, just mess with it. Chen Daogang said.

Zhenhua nodded, took over stirring the mud, and Chen Daogang and Qi Lei began to build the wall.

Qi Lei is a fake master, not even two knives, but he is thick-skinned, and smiled at Chen Daogang: "Brother-in-law, my skills are a little worse, you set up the four corners first, and I will build a wall in the middle." ”

Chen Daogang was loyal, nodded and smiled and began to work.

Qi Lei is stealing teachers on the side, learning by doing.

The flat ground is a solid wall, the two ends are on the line, and there are lines to correct the deviation, and the work of building the wall is not difficult, as long as the brick joints are staggered.

Chen Daogang paid attention to Qi Lei while working, and found that Qi Lei's masonry was crooked, so he would correct it.

Qi Lei studied very carefully, and asked if he didn't understand, and he was not polite at all.

In the afternoon, the carpenter from Da Yaozhuang came, set the size of the doors and windows, and asked the bricklayer to leave the doors and windows.

By the evening of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the four walls of the small kitchen had been built to a height of one meter. Further up, there is a hollow bucket wall, and there is a window sill that needs to be left blank, and the difficulty of building the wall increases.

Qi Lei did not admit it, and continued to pretend to be a master and continue to build walls.

Zhenhua was very worried about Qi Lei's craftsmanship and asked his brother-in-law in private.

Chen Daogang smiled: "It's okay, this small house has no height, when Qi Lei builds the wall, I look at it, and there will be no big problems." ”

Zhao Chenghai was also helpless against Qi Lei, and said to his wife Cuihong behind his back: "Qi Lei, this kid, where is he here to help, it is obvious that he is here to learn a craft!"

Cui Hong was very tolerant, and said: "During the Chinese New Year, people will work for you for free, and you still dislike it? If you don't have a good relationship with Zhenhua, I'm afraid you won't be able to invite Qi Lei to spend money." ”

Zhao Chenghai sighed: "I don't dislike it, I'm just worried that he will build the wall crookedly." ”

Cui Hong pouted: "Daogang is a master bricklayer, he said it's okay, what are you worried about?"

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Cuihong went to the street to buy vegetables, and by the way, she asked Zhang Kexiang's tailor shop to see if it was open.

The Aishang clothing store was closed, and Zhang Kexiang was not there.

I asked the barber shop next door, and they said that Zhang Kexiang had been here since the sixth day of the first month, stayed all morning and went back.

Cui Hong was apprehensive, bought vegetables and went home, sullen along the way.

On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the small kitchen was tiled.

The back door of the front house was removed and used as a kitchen door. Two windows were removed and moved to the kitchen.

Because the front house is about to be flipped, the specifications are expanded, the original doors and windows are not used, and it is just right to use it in the kitchen, making the best use of things, saving money and convenience.

Next is to set up a pot in the kitchen.

This is a technical job, and it is not something that can be done by any bricklayer.

The pot not only pays attention to the shape of the pot table and chimney, but also looks good at making it good.

Some masters support pots, pots and chimneys are very delicate, burning quickly and grass-saving, and the chimneys do not pour smoke.

Song Rengui in the second group is just a good pot player, and he was invited as a matter of course.

Song Jiacai was too lazy to light the fire at home alone, so he followed his uncle to cook small meals and mix two packs of cigarettes.

In addition to being able to support pots, Song Rengui can also gossip, tell stories, shout trumpets, and know all kinds of hometown slips and afterwords.

He and the old master are both people who "know astronomy and geography and know trivial things", but they are vulgar and elegant, and they are at two extremes.

Qi Lei carried a small notebook in his pocket and a ballpoint pen, but whenever he heard Song Rengui say something about his hometown, he quickly wrote it down in the notebook, with a thief smile on his face.

Zhenhua didn't understand it very much, and asked, "Qi Lei, you bring a small notebook all day long, what do you remember?"

Qi Lei took out a small notebook and grinned:

"I'm recording the local dialect of our hometown, and then I'm going to test the old master. You see, I have already tested dozens of local dialects of Lao Master's hometown...... Although he hasn't stumped the old master yet, the old master already knows that he is afraid, and when he sees me in the past few days, he has been walking around the road!"

Zhenhua took the book and looked at it, crying and laughing.

There are a lot of local dialects in my hometown, all of which are recorded in the book by Qi Lei, with phonetic pronunciation and paraphrasing added later, as well as where they come from.

What "Taoism", "stupidity", "red leaves", and many strange afterwords and sayings have all been recorded by Qi Lei.

Qi Lei smiled wickedly, put away the small notebook, and said: "I understand all the local dialects in my hometown, and when the old master dies, I will be the old master of Dongwan Village!"

"Your uncle, you will be an old monkey by then! Old master, will you memorize the three-character scriptures and the surnames of hundreds of families?" Zhenhua shook his head again and again, he really couldn't understand what was the use of Qi Lei pondering these things all day long!

In a blink of an eye, a month and a half passed, and it was the sixteenth day of the first month.

The construction of the big house in front of it has officially begun, and all the carpenters and bricklayers have arrived.

The carpenter is still the one from Da Yaozhuang, and the bricklayer is Lan Yuliang from Xiaogezhuang, with several bricklayer masters in the village.

Wang Yaoyan is the largest contractor in the neighborhood, but he only undertakes big business in the city and doesn't look down on small projects in his hometown.

Carpenters and bricklayers are all point workers, that is, the wages are calculated on a daily basis, and the owner is also responsible for the family's three meals.

The bricklayer is his family and the villagers invited by this group. Dongwan Village has a strong sense of nostalgia, but whenever Zhao Chenghai opens his mouth to ask for help, the villagers will not refuse, and they will come early the next day to help.

After demolishing the old house, the first step is to dig the foundation.

It is very difficult to dig the foundation of a large house to a depth of three feet. Because this is an old homestead, the soil is compacted, like pig iron.

The big shovel, which is invincible when doing farm work, is a little powerless when digging the foundation. In some places, the black soil is shiny and shiny, and it is hard and dry, and even a sharp shovel cannot eat it.

Zhao Chenghai acted as a pioneer, took out the spirit of Yugong moving mountains, wore single clothes, half-squatted and half-kneeled in the tunnel, raised the pickaxe, and chiseled the soil little by little.

Three days later, on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, it was the day of the market in Hedong Town.

Before dawn, Cui Hong took Zhenhua to the market to buy vegetables, passing back and forth in front of the Aishang clothing store, but found that the tailor shop had been closed.

I inquired about the barber shop next door, and they said that Zhang Kexiang had come to open the door for the past two days, but he was late and went home early.

Cui Hong looked at the time, it was only seven o'clock at this time, and said to Zhenhua: "Zhenhua, I'll go home first, you wait for Kexiang here, you must wait until she comes." ”

Zhenhua shook his head: "The family is ramming today, and there are more than a dozen people to prepare lunch, and they are busy to death, how can I have time to wait here? Let's go, let's go home first." And you bought so many dishes, you can't bring them back alone. ”

Cui Hong also knew that the family was too busy, sighed, and went home with her son.

Zhenhua carried the vegetables home with a basket, and the family had already begun to ram.

Ten people need to cooperate with tamping, two people face to face in the foundation tunnel, on both sides of the stone rammer, hold the stone rammer, control the direction, center of gravity and landing point. The other eight people, standing on both sides of the foundation tunnel, condescendingly, lifted the rope to pull up the stone rammer, and smashed it on the foundation tunnel.

Because it is a work with multiple people, it needs a neat rhythm.

The person responsible for controlling the rhythm is the old pockmark Song Rengui. He shouted a loud trumpet, and the stone rammed up and down, the rhythm as precise as a pendulum, no worse than that.

Song Rengui's shouting of the tamping trumpet is very interesting, rhyming, and catchy. And he will also string some interesting stories into the number, which sounds particularly refreshing, so that the ten-person tamping team will become more and more energetic.

Song Rengui shouted, and the others answered, singing and communicating, and the sound shook the sky.

"Li Hongzhang—"

"Hey!"

"Sell copper piles—"

"Hey!"

"Five copper stakes—"

"Hey!"

"Sold for 100,000 taels!"

"Hey!"

Qi Lei is also a member of the tamping team, listening to Song Rengui's number, he can't help but be happy, and his mouth is grinning like an old cotton shoe.

At halftime, Qi Lei asked Song Rengui: "Old Song, what did you just say about Li Hongzhang selling copper piles?"

Song Rengui smoked a cigarette and said:

"You young boys don't understand, do you know how the Eight-Nation Coalition Army came in? Back then, our country had five copper stakes buried in the mouth of the sea in all directions. The foreigner's big steamer came by, bang, hit the copper stake and sank, let him have thousands of troops, and don't think of coming in. Who knew that Li Hongzhang, a traitor, secretly sent someone to dig up five copper stakes and sell them to foreigners. Later, foreigners came in!"

Zhenhua was dumbfounded when he heard it on the side, this time he really had a long insight, it turns out that history is like this!

Qi Lei laughed and trembled, and said: "Old Song, that's Li Hongzhang's five-mouth trade, not a five-mouth copper pile! How thick a copper pile does it take to bury it in the sea and block the foreigner's ship?"

Song Rengui glared: "You know a fart, the previous five copper piles were like Dinghaishen needle iron Ruyi golden hoop sticks, which can be big or small, long or short! Not to mention a big ship, even an aircraft carrier can also be blocked!"