boyutpedia Chapter 642 Tile
Chapter 642 Tile
The milk tea made from flower buds is relatively simple. First, boil the milk to sterilize it and set it aside. Put the tea leaves and beet sugar cubes into the pot and fry them slowly over low heat until they turn into a caramel color.
Then add water, bring to a boil over high heat, filter out the tea leaves, and add milk. Turn to low heat and cook slowly, stirring while cooking so that the tea and milk can be fully blended together.
After it is cooked, add some pre-cooked red beans, or red dates, nuts, etc., and the simple version of milk tea is ready. Sometimes, in order to change the taste, some other dried flower teas are added to make the taste unique.
It is also a very happy thing to drink homemade milk tea, lean on the kang, watch the two children babbling and playing, and exchange some parenting experiences with Pearl.
However, the milk tea made by Hualei was coldly received by Rong Jin and Jiang Yunqi. No matter how Hualei fed it, Rong Jin still insisted on his usual way of drinking tea after trying it once.
Therefore, the joy of milk tea is only known to pearls and flower buds. Drinking different kinds of milk tea every day makes life enjoyable and relaxing.
So, Hualei, who could not sit still, started to come up with ideas for her own brick kiln.
Since his brick kiln had been connected with the Ministry of Industry, the sales of clay blocks had skyrocketed. In addition, the common people would exchange with him from time to time, so the business was quite good.
Therefore, in the past two years, Pei Jingyang has recruited a new batch of retired soldiers every year to expand the brick kiln. Originally, the brick kiln only made mud bricks and a small amount of blue bricks for building walls.
After the increase in manpower, Pei Jingyang and Hualei discussed and prepared to start making tiles. Because Hualei had thought of many ways for the villagers in Mobei to make money, such as raising rabbits and weaving, the villagers now had some cash in their hands.
Therefore, many villagers have come to the brick kiln recently to ask if there are tiles for sale. The original houses need to be repaired and improved, especially the roofs, which need to be replaced with tiles.
Since there is a market, Pei Jingyang will definitely not give up, so the brick kiln workshop opened a new production line specializing in making tiles.
When the weather was warm, Pei Jingyang asked the brick kiln workers to dig up a lot of soil suitable for making tiles and pile it up beside the brick kiln. So even in winter, when the land was frozen, it would not affect the work of the brick kiln.
To make tiles, you must choose clay that is not mixed with sand. Generally speaking, within a radius of 100 miles, you can definitely find clay that is suitable for use. The mountain behind the brick kiln is clay of very good quality.
During the Great Sheng Dynasty, the tiles used in building houses were generally made from four pieces of mud put together to make tile blanks, which were then separated into individual pieces after drying.
The clay is mixed with water to form a suitable paste, which is then piled into a thick rectangular mud wall. Then the mud wall is cut into rectangular blocks of the required size using a string.
Using a string to cut the mud wall not only prevents the size of the mud wall from deviating easily, but also allows one to observe the quality of the mud blank by looking at the bubbles in the cross section, thus reducing the failure rate of tiles.
If the clay is suitable for making tiles, cut it into a certain thickness with a string and carefully stick the clay onto the wooden barrel with your hands.
The round wooden barrel is also made in advance, which can be opened and closed, and is a model for making tiles. The barrel is divided into four equal parts, which makes it easy to remove the tile clay.
After the clay is shaped on the wooden barrel, special wooden tools are used to pat the required patterns on the clay. The patting force should not be too light, otherwise the pattern will not be obvious and there will be gaps. It should not be too heavy, otherwise the clay will be deformed and the tile will be scrapped.
After the pattern is printed, stick some wood ash on the bottom and put it in the sun to dry. After the clay is slightly shaped, carefully take out the round wooden barrel.
Then continue to dry it. In order to prevent the clay from deforming, sometimes you need to turn it upside down and reshape it. Sometimes, when the sun is too strong, in order to prevent the clay from being exposed to the sun and cracking, you need to water it from time to time.
When the clay is completely formed, along the marks left by the clay on the wooden barrel, with a little force, the clay will naturally split into four pieces of equal size. Then it can be put into the kiln for firing.
During the Great Sheng Dynasty, the size of tiles used in residential houses had relatively fixed specifications. They were generally about eight or nine inches long and wide. They were used to build roof gutters. Such tiles had a strong bearing capacity and could withstand continuous rainfall without leaking.
After the tiles were fired, Pei Jingyang began to sell them. However, the bricks and tiles used to build the state capital were generally fired in a special official kiln.
Therefore, the tiles produced by their own brick kiln cannot be approved by the Ministry of Industry for the time being, and, relatively speaking, the quality is not as good as those of the official kilns.
Therefore, the price set by Pei Jingyang was much cheaper than that of the official kiln. In addition to the people who had exchanged with the brick kiln before, the tile business was also about the same.
Hua Lei doesn't need to worry too much about the follow-up matters of the brick kiln. She just has one more account book to look at, which is a piece of cake for her.
The external affairs of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works were temporarily suspended due to the weather. However, the Ministry of Works had completed more than two-thirds of the construction of the provincial capital.
The specific locations of all the shops and houses have been determined, so next, the families who want to buy houses and shops can start paying deposits according to the drawings.
The advance payment for buying a house in the previous life also appeared in the Great Sheng Dynasty. However, here, the court did not provide loans similar to the previous life.
Therefore, now a 30% deposit is required, and the remaining 70% of the house price can be paid by relatives in Shangjing City through the same process as the purchase of land.
Hualei had already occupied several shops in advance because of the replacement business with the Ministry of Industry. Originally, in order to see the location of the shop more intuitively.
Hua Lei wanted to go to Xinzhou Prefecture to see the environment in person. However, because the weather was not very good, it would take several days to go back and forth. Under Rong Jin's persuasion, Hua Lei gave up the idea.
According to Tian Changjin's description, he bought all three shops he had previously occupied. He put one in his own name and sold the items on his farm. The other two shops were placed in the mansion.
Zhenzhu, Liang Xiangyi and Gui Jijiu also made their moves and bought a shop each. After more than half a year of preparation, Gui Jijiu's printing shop has also begun to operate.
Printed materials such as the grid-shaped layout and the field-shaped layout have also been sold to several counties in the nearby Leyang Prefecture. The sales volume is currently low and no profit has been generated. However, this cannot be rushed and we can only wait and see.