A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 47: Red Sleeves Add Fragrance to the Night

He led the two of them around the courtyard,
Both of them liked this place very much. Although Yu Su was born in a family of Silla officials and worked as a maid in General Guo's mansion, after experiencing a period of imprisonment, she liked this small courtyard in the countryside more. At least it seemed to be more stable.

Ji Sujun, who had just come out of the Yunting Palace, had experienced many ups and downs in the past 19 years and now wanted a simpler and more stable life.

As soon as Li Yi came back, the courtyard was filled with laughter and joy.

Xiuzhi was busy making mugwort water for Li Yi, saying that he needed a good bath after returning from a long journey. Lanxiang was busy cooking. They had already had a simple meal, but now they were cooking bean curd sticks, stir-fried bean sprouts, fried eggs, boiled beans in soup, and stir-fried water spinach.
The little girl can now flip the wok a little bit, and the wrought iron wok looks very good in her hands.

Home cooked meals.

Ji Sujun felt like crying while eating. In this small courtyard, she truly felt the care and warmth from Li Yi.

She had endured the past five years with great difficulty since she entered the imperial palace. She had thought of suicide many times and shed countless tears in the dark night.

Finally she got through it, stopped crying, and became strong.

She once told Xi that after a person has endured all these hardships, he will no longer ask for candy from anyone else.

But today I just can't control myself.
She thought that no suffering could make her cry, but unexpectedly, when a ray of warm sunshine shone into her frozen heart, it had such great power.

"Eat more. You look so pale. You're really lacking in nutrition. Your hair is dry and split."

This sentence made Luzhu very jealous. She felt that she had been with Alang first and had been favored by Alang, so her status should be higher than what she got later.

The little girl Lanxiang looked at Luzhu, then at Sujun, and secretly sighed for Sister Sanniang.

That night, everyone heard the noise and knew what happened, but no one mentioned it. Now it seems that Brother Wuyi really didn't like Sister Sanniang.

Xu Xiuzhi buried her head in her food, but in her heart she was actually a little envious of the two new arrivals. They were also slaves, but they were younger and prettier, so it was natural for Alang to be nice to them.

This dinner,

Everyone was eating at a stone table under a tree in the yard, regardless of master or servant, and the atmosphere was very good.

After dinner, Xiuzhi went to wash the dishes.

Luzhu took the initiative to ask about housing arrangements and also tactfully expressed that she wanted to live in Li Yi's bedroom, on the grounds that it would be more convenient to take care of him when he got up at night.

Li Yi thought about it,

"The west wing is now occupied by a workshop, and the middle room of the east wing is a classroom. Lanxiang and her brother now live in the upper room of the east wing, and Xiuzhi and her mother live in the lower room of the east wing."

The main house has three rooms, the middle one is the living room, the right one is the bedroom, and the left one is the study.

The newly built wing and back house have not yet been roofed.

"You two can live in the study first. When the west courtyard is finished, the school and workshop will move there, and there will be an empty room."

Shitou Gousheng and his two brothers, Menshuan, carried some water pepper, mugwort, rice husks, etc., and they were all smoking in front of and behind the house, as well as in the stables and cowshed.
The air was filled with a spicy smell of smoke.
Smelling the cigarette, Li Yi felt a little addicted to smoking.

I don't have a physical addiction to smoking, but I do have a mental addiction.

Lu Zhu took the initiative to ask Xiuzhi for a palm-leaf fan, and attentively fanned Li Yi to drive away mosquitoes. This was such a service attitude, which is why every noble family in the Tang Dynasty had to buy a Silla maid.

"From now on, in our family, Xiuzhi will be the housekeeper and cook, Luzhu will be in charge of the keys and money, and Sujun will be the accountant. Menshuai and Menzhu are still young, so they help sweep the yard, herd the cattle and feed the horses, and come to the school at noon.

We now have a horse, two mules, a donkey, a cow, and two ducks that we need to take good care of."

After Luo Er's family moved back to their old cave house, Lanxiang and her two siblings were considered outsiders in the courtyard.

Lanxiang volunteered, "Brother, I can do the laundry, cook, and feed the ducks."

"Well, just help Xiuzhi in the kitchen. When you have time, learn needlework from her. You should also come to class at noon. Don't worry about your family's fields. When I ask the villagers to help me look after the fields, I will also take care of yours."

Luo San saved Li Yi's life, and when he first arrived, people didn't treat him as an outsider. Now he naturally has to take good care of them.

"Ah Lang, the carpenter said that the doors and windows of the house will be finished in a few days. We need to tell them about any other furniture we need to make."

"Well, I've noted that there are a lot of furniture to be made in this courtyard, including tables, chairs, beds, stools, desks, boxes and cabinets. They have a lot of work to do.

Just for the classrooms, we need sixty sets of desks and chairs."

With so much furniture, we need to buy a lot of wood.

Speaking of wood, Xiuzhi also told her about firewood. Previously, the firewood for home and workshop was purchased from villagers, such as straw, branches, and miscellaneous wood. But now the number of stoves in the workshop is increasing rapidly.
A lot of fuel is needed, especially for the stove that makes bean curd sheets. Straw and twigs are difficult to burn and the fire is difficult to control. It is best to use firewood, which is much more expensive.

"Uncle Luo said we have to go to the market to buy it. The sporadic donations from the villagers are not enough. Besides, the firewood we have is not enough for the tofu skin room, especially now that we have a new baking room, which also needs firewood."

Li Yi said nonchalantly, "Just buy it if you need it. Second Uncle is the manager of the workshop, so he'll make the decision on this matter."

"Uncle Luo said that buying more firewood at the market would be cheaper, but it would cost a lot of money, so I need to ask you first."

"Is it expensive?" Li Yi didn't really care about this before.

"If you buy a lot, one load of firewood weighing one hundred jin will cost two hundred coins," Xiuzhi said.

Li Yi was stunned when he heard the word "two hundred coins". Two coins per pound of firewood?
Xiuzhi, who had more life experience, explained, "In the past, during peacetime, a load of firewood could be exchanged for a bushel of rice. But now, with the unrest, a load of firewood, even though it sells for 200 coins, can only be exchanged for half a bushel of rice."

Ji also said: "It is said that one does not sell goods a thousand miles away, and does not sell firewood a hundred miles away. Although firewood may seem insignificant, it is not suitable for long-distance transportation and must be traded locally. We are in the capital, in the suburbs of Chang'an, so it is naturally more expensive." The seven necessities of life are firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, and the first one is firewood.

Every ordinary family has to make fire and cook by burning firewood. Urban residents have to buy firewood, and firewood, like rice, is a fixed and considerable expense.

Although the country folk can burn rice straw, wheat straw, mulberry branches and hemp stalks in the fields, for someone like Li Yi who wants to open a workshop and has so many stoves to burn, a few weeds and shrubs are not enough.

The first choice is of course firewood, preferably pine wood. Although pine wood is not as resistant to burning as firewood and produces a lot of smoke, it is easy to burn and burns quickly, and is much cheaper.

But two hundred coins per load was still beyond Li Yi's expectations.

There are more than 20 stoves in this house, which are burning all day long. How much firewood is needed every day? The family is planning to add ten more pots in the tofu skin room.

When he calculated the cost before, he didn't take firewood into account.
I didn't expect the cost to be so high, a hundred kilograms of pine firewood cost two hundred coins, but on the other hand, one load of firewood can only be exchanged for ten steamed buns, so it can't be said to be expensive.

Fortunately, his bean curd sheets and fermented tofu have little competition, so the profit margin is huge. Otherwise, he would go bankrupt even if he burned all the firewood.

Two cents per catty, and buying 10,000 catties would cost 20,000 coins, which is worth more than 50 pieces of silk, enough for him to buy six more pots.

"Buy it, no matter how expensive it is. First buy 10,000 kilograms and have them delivered to your door. We have to burn it every day, so we can't save money." Li Yi said to Lu Zhu and the others, "Tomorrow I will ask my second uncle to go to Su Jun to write a note, then get my stamp, and then go to Lu Zhu to get money and silk to buy firewood.

When you buy the firewood, Luzhu, please remember to register it and put it into the warehouse. Sujun, please check it."

It's not that Li Yi doesn't trust Luo Er,

As the workshop grows bigger, it needs to have rules and use rules to manage it, which will also be more efficient.

night,

After taking a bath, Li Yi came to the study.
He finally used the oil lamp,

This was bought from Chang'an. It is an oil-saving lamp. The principle is actually quite simple. It is a porcelain lamp with a hollow interlayer that can be injected with water. It can lower the temperature of the lamp and reduce the volatilization of oil, thereby achieving the purpose of saving fuel and saving a lot of money.

The lamp oil used was cheap rapeseed oil.
The lights are dim,

Li Yi was not used to the dim light.

Get out a pen and paper.

Li Yi began to draw some furniture patterns. He was not very satisfied with many of the furniture from the Tang Dynasty.

Just talking about beds, the Tang people had quite a few types. The small ones were called beds and the big ones were called couches. Some came with screens and some didn't.

The bedding of ordinary people was even simpler, like a large square table with low legs, without any support or backrest.

Li Yi drew a canopy bed with fences on three sides and a four-poster roof. This made it convenient to hang mosquito nets and curtains, and the top could also be used to collect dust.

He didn't draw a very complicated bunk bed, but tried to keep it simple, with four legs, four pillars, and fences on three sides. The fences were only one and a half feet long.

The bedroom should also have a wardrobe, chest of drawers, bedside table, wooden box and dressing table.

The hall must have a long table, an altar, chairs, an eight-immortal table, benches, etc. This is also a place to receive guests, so there must also be a coffee table, a sitting couch, and it is also necessary to have a Luohan bed or a chaise longue.

The study room must have bookcases, desks, etc., and the dining room must have a dining table, cupboards, and cabinets.
"The furniture painted by Alang is so beautiful. I have never seen it before. Why are they all high-quality?" asked Luzhu, who was grinding ink on the side.

People before the Sui and Tang Dynasties basically sat on their knees, so even the seats they had were mostly cushions, mats, and beds for kneeling. It was only from the Sui and Tang Dynasties that people were gradually influenced by the Hu style and started to sit with their feet dangling.

Various kinds of furniture gradually became high-legged.

Li Yi was still accustomed to the furniture of later generations. Living in the countryside, he could not follow the example of the nobles in Chang'an, who had wooden floors in their homes, and then laid out felts or mats, and used cushions for kneeling or sitting cross-legged.

It's better to put some high-legged furniture on this muddy ground. There is no custom of taking off shoes in the countryside.
The student desks and chairs in the classroom are simple double long tables with benches, which are simple and elegant, and come with storage boxes.

A stack of furniture drawings, including both styles and approximate dimensions.

"Can the country carpenter do it?" asked Luzhu.

"It's just that the style has changed a little. You'll get it after thinking about it."

At Feng's blacksmith shop, Li Yi made the same request and ordered it to be customized.

"Ah Lang, it's getting late. We've traveled so long today. You should go to bed early."

This Silla maid was extremely charming when she acted coquettishly.

Li Yi coughed and said, "Well, you should go back to your room and go to bed early. Remember to lock the door."

"Ah Lang, don't you want a slave to serve you?"

"I have something to do tomorrow morning and need to get up early, so go ahead."

Even though meat tastes good, you can't eat it every day. You have to be moderate. Your body is your own and you can't do anything about it when you are young. After three nights in Chang'an, Li Yi had fought with her for more than ten rounds.
You need to rest and recuperate, and recharge your energy.

Luzhu was a little reluctant to leave. She looked back every few steps, pouting her lips and looking seductively at him. Li Yi almost couldn't control himself.

(End of this chapter)