Chapter Thirteen: Recruited as Garrison Troops

  "Big brother, if there's anything that needs to be done, just let us brothers do it. Don't look at how weak we are, but we still have some strength to get things done." After dinner, the uncles thought that since big brother was back, they hadn't even welcomed him properly and instead had a big meal at his house, so they felt a bit embarrassed and started competing with each other to help out with chores around the house to make up for it.

  "Alright, alright, I'm telling you, let's just have a meal together, what's with all the fuss? If it's going to be like this, then don't come to big brother's place again in the future." Old Dad said with a dark face.

  "Big brother, you look down on us brothers, right?" The uncles started arguing with Father, who didn't want the uncles to work hard, while the uncles thought that Father looked down on them.

  "Alright, alright, grandpa, uncles, don't argue anymore. Let me think of a way." "Get out, you little brat, what do you know?" "Big brother, listen to your nephew's suggestion. Can't you see that everyone is targeting Yang Heng?"

  "I think, if the uncles are free, they can come here every morning to report for duty. There's still a lot of work to be done at our house, such as piling up the weeds and trees we've cut down, and collecting the roots from the fields that need to be cleared. Of course, we can't let the uncles work for nothing, so we'll give them some money. You won't refuse, will you? At least we can provide two meals a day, so it won't delay our work. The uncles can also help us with more work. But, I hope the uncles won't despise our household's food as not being good enough."

  "Well, okay, if you're really willing to come, then come." Old Dad heard this condition was not bad, looking at these brothers who were thin like little chicks, and thought it was right to supplement them.

  "It's just that Big Nephew understands things, unlike Big Brother you who can clearly make use of us but pretend to be useless. Don't treat us like brothers?" The uncles were also satisfied, looking at this large piece of forest that was going to be opened up, and now not even a house had been built yet. How could there not be work to do? They naturally wouldn't think that there would be meat to eat every day here."

  Everyone happily accepted Yang Heng's suggestion. "What are we waiting for, let's get started." Lao Die didn't take action, but the uncles were anxious first.

  "Don't rush, Heng'er. Now what should we do? Shouldn't we build a house?" Old Dad stopped the uncles' impatience, and even if he hadn't, the uncles would have been very curious that Big Brother was seeking the opinion of this big nephew, a child who understands nothing.

  Ke Yang Heng indeed had a lot of opinions, which were discussed last night. This house needs to be built with what kind of bricks and cement is not to be thought about, but the kang (fire bed) is indispensable, especially when he found out that the filling material of the quilt was made of some grass. When he saw the forest in front of him, once it was opened up, how much firewood could be cut down?

  Especially Yang Heng found that the days at home were better than those of these uncles, they are still wearing single clothes now, and they are all very old and broken. Although the family is not wearing good clothes, it is also a double-layered hemp cloth. Yang Heng had asked his mother before, after some time when the weather got cold, you can put a thin layer of wood cotton in between these two layers of hemp, so that you can spend the winter. At this time, there was no appearance of cotton plants, so there were no quilts or anything like that. Even rich people could only cover themselves with animal fur blankets in winter, or add another layer of satin on the outside to make do. Poor people having a hemp cloth wrapped grass quilt was already not bad, while some families just slept naked in the grass heap. The Yang Heng family's quilt was made of soft grass filling material.

  Building a kang, you need stone slabs and bricks. Under current conditions, without stone slabs and bricks, we have to be self-reliant and make earth bricks instead. Yang Heng was thinking about how to make the mold for these earth bricks. Luckily, his younger uncle's craftsmanship came in handy, making it easy to produce a few simple wooden frames. "Younger uncle, come help me make something like this."

  Yang Heng first arranged for his younger brother to make two molds for making earth bricks. The size of the mold was about five thick, twenty wide and thirty long, and the inside had to be quite smooth, so that after the earth brick was made, the mold could be easily lifted up, and the earth brick would not deform.

  "This is simple, it can be done in just half a time." The young uncle readily agreed.

  "Grandfather, you go fetch water. Three uncles, follow me." Yang Heng led them to a vacant lot outside the yard and had the uncles dig up soil from this place and haul it into the yard. This soil, how should I put it, was quite sticky and could be used to make earth blocks. However, in order to prevent cracks after they were made, some sandy soil needed to be mixed in as well.

  "Heng Er, what task do you have arranged for your mother?" The old lady was anxious on the side, why didn't she have her own things to do? "Mother, don't worry, I'll work with you to chop wood stakes." The old lady and Yang Heng were responsible for chopping some wooden stakes, which required the use of logs as thick as a bowl mouth, or even thicker. Yang Heng's plan was to cut each log into 1.5 meters long, one end flat and the other end pointed, and after cutting a certain number, use fire to scorch the surface, then hammer them into the ground as earth stakes, and then place horizontal wooden planks on top, and cover them with neatly arranged square wooden boards, thus completing an all-wooden floor.

  Yang Heng's plan was to first build a three-room main house, with two and a half rooms using large wooden boards as the floor, and the other half room being a kang (heated bed platform), which was about twenty centimeters higher than the floor. The stove pit of the kang was built in a separate small underground room, with one entrance inside the house and another outside, also for the sake of neatness inside the room. In this era, anything that wasn't carefully considered could be against regulations, so building a large house was not feasible, and they had to resort to this compromise.

  The Kang is not used for cooking, but rather to burn hay and other fuels for warmth. The kang uses a circular ventilation system, with the final smoke and dust passing through flues between the walls before exiting via a chimney on the roof. The wall also serves as a firewall, keeping both rooms warm.

  Currently, Yang Heng's plan is to first settle down in a place and temporarily use other things as needed. The most important thing is to open up the land first. Now, Yang Heng thinks that his uncle's matter is more and more uncomfortable, but he can't think of where it is uncomfortable.

  "Big Brother, you're starting to clear the land so quickly, not bad, not bad." Just as Old Father finished carrying water and was accompanying Yang Heng in selecting some suitable lumber in the woods, Old Father's cheap uncle came again.

  "Uncle, what brings you here?" "Ah, big brother, good news! I'm here to tell you that you've been selected as a government soldier. You need to report to the county in two days."