It seems almost done!

Chen Xu stuck his body to the position of the hive on the trunk of the tree and slowly reached into the hole. Sure enough, he touched a large piece of soft hive, and there were not many bees flying out of it. It seemed that his seduction plan had achieved a complete success. So Chen Xu no longer hesitated and touched the root of the hive and pulled it hard for a few times. Suddenly, a large piece of hive was broken down.

The beehive he took out quickly into the beehive. Although a large number of bees flew up in the beehive, many of them even began to attack Chen Xu, Chen Xu didn't care at all. He kept reaching into the tree hole to break the beehive. After repeated several times, he made out seven or eight pieces, almost half of the beehives. Although there were still a few beehives in the tree hole, Chen Xu stopped quickly because at this time at least half of the beehives flew out, and the sky was densely packed like a tide, and the buzzing sound was overwhelming like a bee riot. Therefore, Chen Xu could not guarantee that all these bees would not fly away. He hurriedly covered the beehive and slipped down quickly. At this time, Niu Dashi had already frightened to escape from the woods.

"Brother Xu, how about it?" Seeing Chen Xu come out, Niu Dashi asked quickly.

"As long as the queen bee is also put into the beehive, it will probably be fine!" Chen Xu said with a slightly pale face.

"There are kings of bees?" Niu Dashi asked in surprise.

"Well, every nest of bees has a queen bee, the largest and darkest in size, and is a female, and is responsible for laying eggs. If there are two queen bees, the bees will be divided into two groups, just like people!" Chen Xu explained.

"It's so strange that bees actually have kings. Do they still have division of labor?"

"You are right, bees are divided into several types in addition to queen bees and drones. Some are called honey-picking bees, some are responsible for collecting honey bees, some are responsible for caring for young bees and eggs, some are called nesting bees, and even guardian bees who are responsible for fighting. They are similar to us humans. The division of labor is clear and each performs its own duties. Let's go, put the beehive on the tree first, and you will see a few times tomorrow and the next day. As long as you catch the queen bees, this nest of bees will be successfully caught!"

"Brother Xu'er Xu'er!" Niu Dashi chased from behind and grabbed Chen Xu's arm, and said with a smirk: "Well, can you not eat the stone mill, so as not to lose tooth, but the girl Xing'er is not happy!"

"How can a man behave? How can a man be without trust!" Chen Xu curled his lips disdainfully.

"Brother Xu!" Niu Dashi almost cried when his legs became weak.

"My benefactor, benefactor~ I'm back!" Just as the two of them were talking, Yu Wuya ran up the river beach and asked with anticipation: "My benefactor, have bees seduced a few bees!"

"Don't ask a few, let's go to the stone mill!" Niu Dashi said with a sad face.

"What? I've caught everything!" Yu Wuya covered his mouth in shock.

"Hehe!" Chen Xu smiled proudly and strode back.

"My lord!" Yu Wuya quickly stepped forward and grabbed Chen Xu's arm and begged for mercy, "I'm wrong. I can arrange for me to do anything. Don't eat stone mills, okay? That's just a casual word, and I can't take it seriously!"

"It doesn't matter. I can brush the stone grinding with honey and lard salt to make honey and barbecue flavor. You can eat it slowly!"

"My benefactor, stop joking, then you still can't eat it!" Yu Wuya said with a bitter face.

"Okay, you can't eat stone mills, but you have to help me lay out mud bricks in the next few days, so don't be lazy!"

"Okay, I'm sure I'm not allowed to regret it!" Yu Wuya and Niu Dashi breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

"Then let's go!" Chen Xu waved his hand and took Yu Wuya and Niu Dashi home to get the tools. While it was still early, he could do his preliminary work today and start building bricks tomorrow. Three houses and such a large earthen kang require hundreds of mud bricks, which is enough for three people to work for a few days!

At the same time, Chen Xu was a little amused and confused about this. These ancient people were too straightforward and seemed not good at joking. Since he had made a vow in the town several times to eat stone mills and tables, everyone around him had almost learned this kind of complaint. Once they were very distrustful and disagreeable, they would always use stone mills and stone mills to prove and support their distrust. So they became less straightforward. People who said that they had never eaten stone mills and stone mills had eaten them. Chen Xu was very regretful.

At the foot of the mountain not far from the river at the entrance of the village, Niu Dashi and Yu Wuya were wearing shorts and shorts, waving their hoes barefoot and digging out a round pit two feet wide and two feet deep. Chen Xu used a wooden rake to carefully rake the digging soil, cleaning all the useless things such as the stones, weeds and tree roots inside. In the end, the remaining soil was used to tilt mud bricks.

The three of them worked hard for more than an hour, got most of the soil in the pit, and then dug a small ditch to the riverside. They poured the river water into the ditches and flowed into the pits to soak the soil. They leveled a large area not far away. They worked until the sun sets and were sweating all over and carried the tools home like a chicken falling.

This kind of physically exhausting work must be done by a man. Therefore, today Chen Xu used the method of provoking Yu Wuya and Niu Dashi to help, otherwise the two would not do such stupid and dirty work. Niu Dashi was a little better, and Yu Wuya would definitely not do it. He would find various opportunities to escape and let him run errands and kill people. He just couldn't direct him to do dirty and tiring farm work. The only thing he liked was to push mills.

Chen Jiang had already prepared the supper and placed it on the table. The supper was made of thick bread with wheat bran, millet porridge and a few cold pickles. Although it was simple, it was extremely sufficient. The steamed buns were browned and twenty were made, which was enough to eat three rice buckets.

After digging the soil for a long time, I was really tired and hungry. So after washing my face and hands, the three of them didn't hesitate to eat around the table. Soon, the wind blew away like a cloud. Each of them ate four or five steamed buns and two or three bowls of porridge before they calmed down. Chen Jiangshi and Xing'er ate one steamed bun.

"Himmer~" Yu Wuya burped and drank tea and looked at the molds of two large and small bricks placed on the ground, saying: "My dear, this brick made of soil may not be strong. Will the house be built collapse?"

"No, add some millet and hemp to the soaked mud tomorrow, and keep trampling and mixing more evenly. It can be used for decades after being dried!"

"Ah, do you have to step on the mud with your feet?" Yu Wuya suddenly became bitter.

"Why do you continue to eat stone mills? You can choose honey or spicy!" Chen Xu said with a smile on his face.

"Then forget it, I'll step on the mud!" Yu Wuya immediately shook his head like a rattle.

"Brother Xu, can you help me build a kang, otherwise you will be afraid of frosting my mother and Xiaochun in winter!" Niu Dashi couldn't help it after holding it in for a long time.

When the three of them were working in the afternoon, Chen Xu carefully explained the ideas and design principles of making a kang. Therefore, Niu Dashi already knew the effects of this kang. It has such a good thing to keep warm, so he naturally hopes that he can have one at home.

"Well, it's okay to do it, but your foundation and house are very low, so it's more troublesome to do it. Why don't you just rebuild a new house? This time we will make more acres of bricks, which will make it more convenient to design and make it!" Chen Xu nodded and said.

"Really, this is the best. I have long wanted to repair the house. Tomorrow I will invite my uncle and second cousin to help with the mud and bricks. After finishing, level the site and try to get the foundation ready before planting wheat!" Niu Dashi said quickly.

"Yes, you can make your own decisions. I can help you design and make materials such as stone slabs and cottage tiles for you!"

"Okay!" Niu Dashi almost laughed with excitement, and he quickly added tea to Chen Xu.

Nowadays, the acres can be made in the village, but the ceramic tiles and stone slabs have to be transported back from the town. The freight alone is a considerable expense. If you hire cattle and horses to ship, a cow can only run twice a day and get four buckets of grain. Their family has to make two kangs. According to Chen Xu's design, the kang is six feet wide and eight feet long, which is equivalent to one meter, four width and one meter, eight feet long in later generations. The designed stone slabs are one foot by two feet in size. Therefore, the stone slab alone requires thirty-two pieces. The weight of the bluestone slabs can be imagined. The total amount is hundreds of pounds. Several cows must be used to carry them back at one time. The freight must be several stones of grain. Moreover, the ceramic tiles of chimneys also require several cows to carry them back. Niu Dashi himself will definitely not be able to pay the freight, otherwise the family will go hungry for half a year next year.

The reason why Chen Xu used bluestone slabs instead of ceramic slabs when making kangs is because the first thing to do is to make ceramic slabs is that the ceramic slabs are thin and not strong, and will easily break, but if they are thick and cannot be burned, it will easily crack. Therefore, it is necessary to safely resist the impact and pressure caused by people sitting and lying on it. Bluestone that is easy to obtain and easy to process is the most suitable. It is both strong and cheap, and the cost is not more expensive than ceramic slabs.

Bluestone is everywhere in the country and belongs to sedimentary rocks. The main components are calcium carbonate and clay. The stone is soft and easy to collect and process. It is now widely used in the Qin Dynasty. The stone mill at Chen Xu's home was made of bluestone, and the houses in the county government of Chi County were also made of bluestone. I heard that many places in the Great Wall were also made of bluestone, but Chen Xu had never seen it.

While it was still dawn, Chen Xu picked up the measuring rope and followed Niu Dashi to find a place for him to repair the house. He went home until it was dark and almost disappeared. Finally, he chose the location on an open space less than 30 meters away from his house. After the repair, the two families were closer together.

However, there was a bamboo forest between the two families. Chen Xu dug a few times in the bamboo forest and found that there were many bamboo shoots that had not been unearthed. This made him a little excited. When there was no vegetables in winter, he could dig some winter bamboo shoots back to stew or cold dishes. Moreover, the winter bamboo shoots were also very nutritious. It would be great if you could get beef and chili, and you could make braised beef noodles.
Chapter completed!