Chapter 107

107. Chapter 107: Hoarding Coal

Jiang Xiaoxiao had sharp eyes and soon saw many stones on the slope not far away. She hurriedly pulled Jiang Wei: "Mother, can those stones work?"

Jiang Wei walked over and looked carefully, then shook her head: "The surface of these limestone rocks has already weathered, so they can't be used."

"Is that so..." Jiang Xiaoxiao was slightly discouraged.

"But since there is limestone here, there must be a lot of limestone around." Jiang Wei said as she checked the surroundings, and she really found quite a lot.

She waved her hand and collected them all into the space.

Finding the stones, Jiang Xiaoxiao thought they were going to return home, but then she saw her mother take out a firewood knife and start cutting the trees around.

Jiang Wei explained: "These limestone rocks need to be calcined with fire for a week to get lime. There isn't enough firewood at home, so I have to cut some back."

Jiang Xiaoxiao also followed her to pick up some branches on the side.

When it was time to go back, her mother carried the bundle of branches she had picked, and the wood she had cut was collected into the space and brought back.

When they got home, Jiang Wei didn't rush to burn lime, but moved the wood from the space into the kiln to burn.

On one hand, this was to preheat the newly built kiln, and on the other hand, it was also to burn some wood charcoal to use when calcining lime.

This was ancient times, naturally not like modern times with rich fuel, such as natural gas, petroleum, and the like.

Jiang Xiaoxiao saw the wood burned in the kiln and remembered the snow disaster in winter, so she said: "Mother, let's prepare more firewood for winter in the future. I heard Grandpa Lizheng say that this winter will be very cold."

Jiang Wei kept throwing wood into the kiln and said without raising her head: "It's okay, you don't have to be afraid. I have electric heating ovens, electric blankets, and heaters in my space. When it gets cold in winter, I'll just take them out and use them."

Jiang Xiaoxiao: "..."

Afterward, she raised her little face and pretended to be ignorant: "Mother, what are the electric heating ovens and heaters you mentioned? Do they need electricity to work like the ice-making machine..."

Her dear mother, not to mention whether these things could be taken out for use, at least there had to be electricity to drive them...

Jiang Wei paused when she heard this, looked at the kiln in front of her, and muttered: "You're right, they can't be used without electricity..."

Reminded by Jiang Xiaoxiao, Jiang Wei, who realized that the heaters in her space couldn't be used, instantly had a sense of crisis. This was ancient times, and the heating method still had to rely on fire. To start a fire, one needed firewood and coal, but there was no coal resource in her space.

She hurriedly stuffed wood into the kiln, then got up, patted the ash off her hands, and said to Jiang Xiaoxiao: "Pack up, let's go to town to buy some now."

Jiang Xiaoxiao was stunned: "Eh? Now?!"

Is it that urgent?

"It just so happens that the ice cubes in the cellar are almost made. Let's go to Yuelai Restaurant on the way to notify Jiang Yu that he can come to pick up the goods."

Jiang Wei went to the well to fetch water to wash. As she spoke, Old Man Zhao drove the horse carriage back.

Chunmiao jumped off the carriage and rushed into the courtyard impatiently. She was holding a money bag in her arms, which looked heavy.

It wasn't until she returned to the Jiang family that the heart she had been holding all the way fell back to its place.

God knows how afraid she was carrying nearly ten taels of silver all the way, fearing that she would lose it, so she had been hiding in the carriage and didn't dare to show her face.

"Auntie Jiang, all the goods have been delivered, this is the money." Chunmiao handed the money bag to Jiang Wei as soon as she got off the carriage.

Jiang Wei weighed it lightly with her hand. The number was correct. Delivering goods to Chunmiao was indeed feasible.

She paid Chunmiao's wages readily.

Holding the fifteen wen she had just received, Chunmiao didn't push it away in fear as she had in the past. Over the past few days, her mentality had undergone a great change. She was no longer as timid as before, but had become gradually brave and independent.

Having left Zhao Wulai, she knew well that only by relying on her own efforts could she support this broken family again, and only by working hard to earn money could she be like Auntie Jiang and let the villagers not dare to bully them.

This change was good. Jiang Xiaoxiao on the side watched silently. The Chunmiao sisters had made changes through the things that happened in the past few days, which was a good thing.

With motivation, life had a direction.

Jiang Xiaoxiao watched Chunmiao leave happily, but was carried onto the horse carriage by her mother, "Sit tight, let's go to town to buy coal now."

Jiang Xiaoxiao shook her head helplessly. Her mother was truly a person of action. She decided to do something and did it immediately without any delay.

Arriving in town, Jiang Wei drove the horse carriage straight to the East Kiln on West Street.

East Kiln was the largest folk kiln in Yong'an Town. Besides specializing in firing bricks, tiles, and blue porcelain, it also sold coal.

Entering the kiln shop in the front courtyard, Jiang Xiaoxiao saw an old man who was cleaning up mining slag and said crisply: "Grandpa, we want to buy coal."

Coal was called "stone charcoal" in this era because it was mined from underground, like stones.

"Buy coal?" The old man got up and walked over, full of confusion: "What are you buying coal for in this hot weather?"

Jiang Wei said concisely: "We are building a house at home and need to burn some bricks and tiles."

"Oh, oh." The old man nodded suddenly, then pushed out a large steelyard scale from the corner with his pitch-black old hands, "How much coal do you want to weigh?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at the steelyard scale and then at the price written on the paper next to it: Coal is sixty wen per scale.

This scale could hold about ten jin, which worked out to six wen per jin.

This price was even cheaper than she had imagined.

Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but be surprised.

A bundle of firewood sold on the street cost at least seven or eight wen, and it sold even more expensively in winter, with some people buying it for more than ten wen. She didn't expect the price of coal in ancient times to be lower than a bundle of firewood.

Come to think of it, coal was basically used for nothing else in ancient times besides burning fire for heating.

Besides those who specialized in firing kilns to sell bricks, tiles, and porcelain, ordinary families basically didn't use coal.

After all, people in ancient times mostly used wood for heating, especially people in the countryside. They could pick up quite a lot of firewood by walking around the mountain, so they didn't need to spend money to buy coal.

And for wealthy families, they wouldn't use coal even more. Once coal was burned, it would produce a large amount of smoke, which was not only suffocating but also caused people to be poisoned and dizzy.

Therefore, the richer the family, the more they looked down on coal. In winter, they used wood charcoal specially burned for heating, such as silver silk charcoal, which looked like white frost on the surface, burned without smoke, and was not easy to extinguish. Placing it in the room in winter could make people feel warm as spring all day long.

However, the price of these wood charcoals specially used for heating was not cheap, far from what coal could compare to.

Jiang Wei asked for two hundred jin of coal in one breath.

She wanted to buy far more than this, but unfortunately, the carriage could only hold so much.