Chapter 30: Plank House

  Plank house

  The next day, the wooden shop at Qingdao Port also got a big business. Yao Fan ordered a large number of wooden boards from them and wanted to build many wooden houses on his own land. The owner of the wooden shop, Wang Shouye, was both crying and laughing about it.

  According to Yao Fang, the board house does not need a mortise and tenon structure, nor does it need particularly thick wooden boards. As long as a wooden frame is set up, half-inch thick boards are nailed on, and then filled with yellow mud mixed with rice straw to fill the gaps.

  "Yao Dongjia, this house, if only a few iron nails are used to nail it up, it won't be sturdy at all! If you want it to be sturdy, the amount of iron nails needed would be enormous. According to what you said, for a house that's one zhang long and two zhang wide, about 20 square meters, if we build it, I estimate that we'll need over 3,000 iron nails of various types. If we don't pay attention to details, we'll still need at least 2,000 nails."

  Mr. Yao, at present, one catty of iron nails costs two taels and five mace of silver, but there are less than 100 pieces in a catty. For this small wooden house you're building, more than 30 catties of iron nails will be used! That's seven or eight taels of silver! You also said to use rough wood to build it casually for the workers to live in, isn't that a waste of money?

  "I, Lao Tzu, only use the worst kind of fir wood to calculate the cost. For a house like this, buying the wood would cost seven taels of silver, and cutting it into planks would require two taels in labor costs. But the price of iron nails is nearly ten times that - what extravagance!"

  Yao Feng stood in the wooden shop, holding a newly made red lacquer horse bucket with great enthusiasm. He carefully examined the iron hoop on the bucket and smiled without turning his head: "Boss Wang, don't worry about the nails, I'll take care of everything. You just provide the wood and laborers to teach my workers how to build the plank house. Don't worry about anything else, I'll settle the accounts with you later for the wood and labor costs."

  After speaking, Yao Fan bought a new toilet and handed it over to He Shicheng, who carried it away with his back turned.

  The owner of the wooden shop, Wang Shouye, looked at Yao Fang's back and shook his head, sighing: "This Yao Dongjia is really a strange person. A huge business deal seems to be less important than a toilet in his eyes. He is indeed wealthy and arrogant, but I don't know what he wants to do with so many wooden houses..."

  In the next few days, it was because of seeing those ten beggars suddenly becoming rich overnight that people's eyes were envious. Every day, locals came to Yao Fang's mansion to apply for jobs.

  In less than a week, Yao Fang had recruited nearly one hundred people and dispersed them among his shops on Taiping Street and the newly purchased Yang family mansion.

  Yao Feng instructed the young and mature Wang Gui to take charge of this matter: "... Tell them to gather on time, I will come to select once a day at noon, only choose young and strong ones to hire, then you lead people to arrange for them to take baths, wear new clothes and shoes, eat rice porridge and steamed buns, and after a few days of recuperation, go out to build houses in the countryside."

  The young master was a little devil, and in a low voice, he said: "Master Dong is really kind-hearted, treating these beggars and vagrants so well. Master Dong, you don't know that those white steamed buns are not something ordinary people can eat casually! Even the farming households, during busy seasons, only the masters of the house could have two cornmeal buns to eat, on normal days they just drank coarse grain porridge."

  Yao Fandao said: "Since these people have come to me, I cannot let them suffer. What I eat, they will also eat. Wang Gui, am I being fair to you?"

  Wang Gui hastily raised his voice and said in a sharp tone, "The master treats us as one of his own, Wang Gui can see that! Our household's servants, regardless of size or rank, all eat together in the courtyard. The master also eats with us, whatever the master eats, we eat."

  "If I were a person who distinguishes between superior and inferior, how could I call you to eat with me as equals?"

  Wang Gui looked at Yao Fan Dao with a pained expression: "Master Dong, you have a Bodhisattva's heart, and all of us underlings are hoping for your well-being, always wishing for your longevity. But whenever I see you being deceived, my heart doesn't feel right."

  Let's talk about those thin guys, they are thinner than monkeys, even if you scrape their whole body, there won't be two kilograms of meat. What kind of work can they do? But they eat more than pigs every day. Take Li Haoniu for example, he alone can eat eight big mantou (steamed buns) in one meal, a total of three liang (a unit of weight) of noodles!!! He can also drink three big bowls of porridge! Half a bowl of salted vegetables! I'm underestimating it, no meat dishes for every meal, he still eats ten big mantou per meal.

  You're still providing for them three meals a day, my goodness! Even during the busy farming season in rural areas, they can't eat like this every day! That's white flour! One person eats 30 big buns a day, and in one month, you'll spend one or two silver coins!

  Master! Why don't you calculate this account?

  Now if you give each of these foodies one or two silver coins as their monthly allowance, inside and out, it adds up to two silver coins per person per month! There are five of us, including Zhou Si, and our total monthly allowance is only two taels of silver.

  Yao Feng smiled and said, "I understand what you mean. You can consider me, and I'm also very pleased. However, the food is not good enough for now. In the future, I'll have to ask you all to eat meat with me from time to time."

  Wang Gui looked at Yao Fan as if he had seen a ghost, thinking that the master was possessed by evil spirits. I didn't say that the food was bad! What I said was that there was too much food provided! Wasn't what I said human language? Didn't the master understand?

  Yao Fang asked Xie Shicheng, who was helping in the kitchen, "Shicheng, have the workers at the new house finished their work?"

  He Shicheng hastily replied: "Master, the main house has been repaired almost completely. The tile workers have replaced all the rotten tiles on the roof with new ones, and the missing bricks on the ground have also been filled in. The walls have been whitewashed, the painter has repainted the pillars, doors and windows, and the window paper has also been replaced with new ones."

  Master Wang Xin selected twelve waist-high water tanks from the porcelain store, I personally inspected them and they are all top-quality two-inch thick large tanks with no fine lines on the surface. Four taels of silver for each one, I think the price is reasonable too, so I asked San Jie to pay for it, and now those water tanks have been placed in the courtyard, we won't have to worry about running out of water anymore.

  "Master, at present, it can be said that the house is already habitable, only other courtyards have not been fully repaired yet."

  He Shicheng reported to the east house one by one, because Yao Fan did not allow him to shout "old master" or other honorific titles, so He Shicheng could only shout "Yao Fan Dongjia". If it were up to He Shicheng's idea, he and his fellow workers did not receive wages from the early sail merchant, but were actually Yao Fan's house slaves, and should have shouted "old master" Yao Fan.

  "Then let's move tomorrow," Yao Fang said suddenly.

  Yao Fan didn't know how many days he could stay in the new house, so he moved in early to enjoy the luxurious feeling of the Qing dynasty mansion.

  "Yes." He Shicheng replied succinctly.

  He had long hoped to move into the new house, and with the Yao family buying a new carriage and returning the old one to He Wanlian, someone had to stand guard every night in the stable alley by the courtyard gate, fearing theft. If they moved into the large mansion with stables, these problems would be easily solved.

  Moreover, the idle servants invited by Yao Fan are increasing in number. The outer courtyard of the quadrangle compound on Taiping Street is already full of servants. Three rooms, each with two simple wooden plank beds, five people squeezed onto one bed, and those who cannot be accommodated are sent to Yao Fan's new mansion.

  As they chatted, they heard that Zhang Baiquan, the shopkeeper of Hengli, had come to see Yao Fang. It turned out that he was there to inform Yao Fang that the gold he had ordered had arrived.

  Yao Fan quickly nodded and followed Zhang Baichuan to Hengli with ten fellow apprentices, including He Shicheng, Zhou Di, Li Haoniu, and others, to exchange the 100,000 taels of silver for gold.

  Because the advance booking had been made earlier and the fire expense had also been paid in advance, Hengli arranged for the steamer and the escort agency early on, and soon transported gold from Tianjin to Shanghai. It is unknown whether it was due to Yao Feng's butterfly effect or not, but the exchange rate of 16:59 no longer existed, and Hengli's new price was 16.75.

  In the back hall of Hengli, Zhang Baichuan held an abacus and calculated for half a day, saying to Yao Feng: "Mr. Yao, after deducting this time's 20% fire expense, the 100,000 silver notes actually exchanged for 378 catties and 11 taels of gold, plus the 36 catties that Hengli owed you last time, totaling 414 catties and 11 taels of gold, with only five mace of silver left as change..."

  Yao Fang waved his hand: "No more, five cents is nothing, don't make a fool of me."

  "In our line of work, it's a rule that we can't wipe out the head. Unless the customer themselves don't want it, that's a different story."

  Yao Fan hastily said: "I still have something to do, so I won't chat much. How can we transport over 400 catties of gold without drawing attention? I must hurry and move it away."

  Zhang Baichuan hastily nodded: "This is for the best, now Hengli has so much gold stored up that I don't even dare to sleep soundly. The eight escorts and a group of apprentices hired by the main store don't dare to leave the back hall for a moment. I'll go get some gold from the warehouse for you right now."

  As the ten small wooden boxes filled with gold were carried out, Yao Fan hastily ordered his men to load them onto the horse cart outside. The weight of over 200 kilograms pressed down on Yao Fan's new horse cart, causing the axles to creak loudly.

  Ten porters escorted Yao Fan and the carriage, heading straight to Beiling Mountain outside the city. When they arrived at the foot of Beiling Mountain, the crowd unloaded these wooden boxes that were particularly heavy with unknown contents.

  Yao Fan whispered to He Shi Cheng: "He Shi Cheng, take them back, I'll wait for someone here. It's the same old rule as last time at Tian Hou Gong. I'll be back in ten days, you watch the house during this time."

  He Shicheng was treated with great respect and repeatedly agreed, then led the remaining gang members in pulling the carts away.

  Yao Fan cut his finger to start the blood sacrifice, and after a wave of white light that distorted space-time, all the wooden boxes filled with gold and Yao Fan disappeared together.

  …………

  Many of the porters began to whisper among themselves on their way back to town. One of them, who had recently been hired, said: "Hey brother, why did our master bring so many heavy trunks all the way out here? What is he going to do by himself in that desolate place?"

  Another beggar who had been hired earlier said, "Tsk, you're so blind, that small box is so heavy, it's at least 40 pounds, what else could it be but gold? The boss must have transported the gold here and is planning to secretly choose a location to dig a hole and bury it."

  He Shicheng heard the discussion behind him, pulled over the carriage, turned around with a whip in hand, pointed at the two apprentices who had just spoken up and scolded: "All of you shut up! The master has his own reasons for doing things, what does it have to do with any of you?"

  Li Haoniu has been eating well at Yao Fang's place these days, and is also quite protective. He shouted loudly: "Everyone heard what Shi Cheng said! After returning to the city, whoever dares to mention this matter again, we'll go in with a white knife and come out with a red one, just wait and see!"

  Those two guys saw Li Haoniu's ferocity and didn't dare say another word.