Chapter Nineteen New Home

  Yang Heng didn't stay with these younger siblings for long, soon Mother took them away, so Yang Heng started accompanying Father and the uncles to inspect this newly built house and think about future construction plans.

  "Grandfather, look, in this east room there is a kang, on the side is a firewall, and the stove for burning the kang is placed underground. The way to get down is from inside the house." Yang Heng casually lifted up a wooden board on the side, underneath was a staircase, this was so that in winter it would be very convenient to enter the stove room to burn the kang.

  "Grandfather, look at this doorway again. This is a door behind the house." After opening the door and going out, there was also a step. Following the step up was a small compartment surrounded by walls. With this compartment, wind, rain, and snow could be blocked outside and would not blow into the basement.

  The basement was only used to store hay and burn the kang, and the walls of the basement were all made of earth and mud. The only exception was the ceiling, which was made of wood. These wooden boards had been soaked in a special potion by Yang's uncle, who claimed that they would not catch fire even if the hay in the basement caught fire. This seemed unbelievable to Yang, as he did not think that such fireproof potions existed in this era. According to Yang's uncle, his ancestors had once produced a Taoist priest who had passed down several potion recipes, including ones for fire resistance, anti-corrosion, and pest control. These recipes used various herbs and minerals.

  In Yang Heng's past life, he had heard legends about Taoist priests, who could be considered the ancestors of chemistry. Whether it was the tricks they played or the elixirs they refined, there were chemical reactions involved. However, as history progressed, these Taoist priests gradually declined, leaving behind only some deceptive tricks. The formulas for the few medicinal waters that Yang Heng's uncle possessed should have been byproducts of the Taoist priests' elixir refinement. Moreover, his uncle's ancestor was quite clever and directly passed down the secret method for treating wood to his descendants. However, his descendants were truly incompetent and failed to develop it further. Perhaps after a few more generations, these formulas will also be lost.

  "After seeing the basement, I continued back to the east house. 'Ah, you see, this kang surface is only one palm width higher than the floor, just enough to distinguish where the kang is and where the floor is. In winter, I will also sleep on this kang. I had my little uncle make a kang screen for me. Look, it's this thing that separates the big kang into two halves. The eastern half is the smallest, and I'll sleep there. You and mother can be in the larger half. In summer, I plan to move to the western house. After our whole family's construction is complete, I will have a dedicated house on the second floor of our home, where there will also be a fire kang, so I won't need to live in this room anymore.'"

  Yang Heng's setup was that on the kang, in addition to the kang screen, there were also curtains, which meant that along the edge of the kang, a curtain was hung up, so when resting, both sides of the kang screen were a separate small space. However, soundproofing was impossible. Yang Heng's plan was that after he moved out, if his parents had another brother or sister, they could put the new sibling in his original place.

  On the north side of the east house, a wooden table is placed, which is used by my mother to place the ancestral tablets and worship the ancestors. After the entire courtyard is built, there will be a separate room for ancestor worship. However, it's different with my father, in the village, there is an ancestral hall, this is the difference between family and individual households. Any family, no matter how big or small, will have their own ancestral hall.

  The formal name of this east house should be, the main hall is on the east side, and the west-facing room is the west bedroom. Inside, a kang was placed, which was brought back from the city. Why put this kang here? Mainly because under the kang there is a cabinet, some valuable things need to be stored inside. Because time was too urgent, Yang Heng did not set up any suitable furniture for use, and could only temporarily use this kang first.

  In the middle room, that is, in the main hall, there was a dining table. When not in use, it was placed upright against one side, and when eating, it was laid flat for use.

  The pot for cooking was not placed inside the house, but in a shed outside, or to say, before some special houses were built, all the cooking was done in that temporary shed.

  "Grandfather, for the time being, our family has just built a main hall like this. We adopted the three-bay and four-frame structure, which is perfectly compliant with regulations. It's just that the spacing between frames is a bit large. I've also seen it in the city, ordinary people's homes can have courtyards of three entrances, as long as they don't exceed this three-bay and four-frame structure."

  In a lawful manner, Yang Heng will try his best to build the house in a way that makes people feel comfortable living in it, and the exterior doesn't need to look particularly good. The goal is to make sure outsiders don't feel uncomfortable looking at it; if they do, then you yourself won't feel comfortable living there either.

  "What is called a violation, can building houses also have rules?" Lao Die was puzzled. "Big brother, it's like this, since the new dynasty, people have been notified that there are some construction orders, which means that in the future, buildings must be built according to these orders. For us ordinary people, the highest standard is a house like yours, three rooms and four frames. If you exceed that, it's considered a violation. Lightly, they will demolish the excess houses, and severely, you will be sentenced. It's just that your current house may have some violations, but it's not obvious, so no one will pursue it." Xiao Shu explained, he was interested in carpentry, so naturally, he had to understand these so-called buildings.

  Now Yang Heng has built the exterior of the house in the most primitive style of original wood, making it look very rustic. This way, people who are not familiar with it will not enter the house to visit, and if they do, they will be frightened.

  "Little one, where should our blacksmithing house be placed? You know, this time I brought back over a hundred catties of iron blocks. Our family will need some farming tools in the fields next, if the house is built late, we might not make it in time for planting." Old dad started giving his opinion, but Yang Heng would have suggested building the blacksmithing house first even without old dad's suggestion. Next, Yang Heng also had many advanced tools that needed to be forged, having a family member with blacksmithing skills was just great, this way new techniques wouldn't leak out.

  "Grandfather, next I'm going to build the east wing with my uncles. I'll put the blacksmith's house inside the east wing, just like our house in the city. The west wing will be built as a residence for servants. With so much land, we'll definitely have servants in the future."

  However, the east wing is to be built first, and Yang Heng of the west wing is not in a hurry. The current west wing is still a temporary shed, which is used as a kitchen.

  After the east wing was built, it was the kitchen in the second courtyard. The kitchen was also placed on the central axis of the entire courtyard, right behind the main hall. In front of the kitchen, there were two houses on both sides, which were also three-bay structures, but slightly lower than the main hall. The one on the east side was used as an ancestral temple, while the one on the west side was where Yang Heng lived. The third courtyard was planned to be used as a livestock shed, but that would depend on the situation at the time. Finally, it was the turn of the west wing to be built. Yang Heng took his father and uncles through the entire courtyard, explaining his ideas along the way.

  "Also, Father, I plan to build a toilet here, with three rooms in total. And outside the yard, we will dig a septic tank. If you don't have any other suggestions, then that's what we'll do." Yang Heng sought his father's opinion, mainly worried that there might be some taboos in these constructions that he didn't know about, so his father could bring them up and make adjustments.