Chapter 788

The night passed without incident, and in the blink of an eye, it was dawn, and the time had arrived at the sixth day after starting work.

Today, it was also time to cast the ring beam for Wang An's house.

It had to be said, building two houses together had this benefit: it didn't delay the work.

Because after the foundation of the house was built, it needed time for the cement to dry; it wasn't that you could cast the ring beam immediately after the foundation was built.

And correspondingly, after the ring beam was cast, you couldn't build the wall immediately; it also needed time for the cement to solidify.

Fortunately, this time didn't need to be too long; about one day was enough.

So the two houses took turns like this, which was very convenient; mainly, it didn't delay time or labor, and most importantly, it didn't waste too much grain.

Otherwise, if there was no work done but only food, vegetables, and cigarettes were provided, it would truly be a bit of a loss for Wang An's family.

For a ring beam, a thickness of about 30 centimeters was enough, but because it was pure cement, it had to be poured in one go.

That is to say, the process from the start of casting the ring beam to the end could not have the slightest pause.

Otherwise, the entire ring beam might not be poured together, thereby reducing the strength of the ring beam.

Yesterday, Wang Dazhu and the others had already tied the steel bars, and today, it was purely pouring.

After mixing the cement, the mason Sun Xiangyang gave an order, and everyone poured the mixed cement from all directions into the pre-built brick grooves.

Everyone worked together, making the whole scene truly blood-boiling and heart-stirring.

Very quickly, a group of people filled the entire brick groove with cement, and then everyone worked together, using crowbars and iron rods to insert them into the poured cement, one after another, at a very fast frequency.

And this step was called venting.

No matter what you are pouring with cement, this step must be done.

Otherwise, if there happened to be air in the cement, then any object poured with cement would not reach the corresponding strength and hardness.

It wasn't until the entire ring beam was finished that everyone breathed a deep sigh of relief.

It had to be said, working with many people was truly fast; the ring beam that was expected to take until the afternoon to finish was unexpectedly completed before noon. In this way, the ring beam for the house where Wang Dazhu and the others lived could be cast in the afternoon.

At lunch, Wang Dazhu asked Wang An:

"Little An, when should we build the warehouse and the shed? And how do you want to build them?"

Wang An thought for a moment and said:

"I'm thinking we should build warehouses on both sides of our two houses, that is, east and west warehouses. Six rooms in a row on the east side, nine rooms in a row on the west side, and then put the deer shed and sheep pen on the south side. The pig pen smells too much, so put it in the far southwest corner, far away from where people live."

Pausing, Wang An continued:

"Oh right, we need to leave a big gate on the east side to connect with our old courtyard, so it'll be convenient to plant or raise something in the old courtyard later. Dad, what do you think of this arrangement?"

Wang Dazhu nodded and said:

"Yeah, just do as you say. With our big courtyard, it's reasonable no matter how you arrange it; it's too spacious."

Wang An smiled and said:

"It's indeed spacious. When the time comes, we'll also clean up the area in front of the new house. Then, with these two courtyards added together, wouldn't there be nearly 40 mu of land?" Wang Dazhu laughed:

"That's for sure. Our old courtyard already has nearly 7 mu of land, and the new homestead was approved for 15 mu. No one cares about the wasteland on the edges, so when we clean it up and level it, it will all be ours. By then, we can raise whatever we want."

Wang An imagined the beautiful life in the future and couldn't help but laugh. Thinking for a moment, Wang An said:

"Then Dad, you find me a suitable place, and I'll push out the foundation for the warehouse in the afternoon."

Wang Dazhu was stunned upon hearing this and subconsciously said:

"Why push out a foundation for building a warehouse? Just level it, dig a shallow little trench, and build the bricks directly, right?"

Wang An said with a firm attitude:

"The water level here is shallow, so let's do it properly once. If we don't do it well, won't the wall sink and tilt after a long time? Then we'll have to redo it, which is so much trouble."

When Wang Dazhu heard this, he pondered for a moment and nodded:

"Yeah, that's also true. Then let's push it 1 meter deep; it's useless to make the foundation for a warehouse too deep."

Wang An agreed with this point quite a bit, because a normal brick house has a foundation 1 meter deep, and as for a warehouse, a 1-meter-deep foundation was already completely enough, even half a meter would do.

Wang An took a bite of food, chewed twice, and said:

"Alright Dad, after eating, call the Sun family brothers, and we'll go mark the lines. Then in the afternoon, before you cast the beams, I'll push out the foundation directly."

Having made the decision, Wang Dazhu and Wang An, grandfather and grandson, focused on eating.

Actually, the reason Wang Dazhu was so anxious to build the warehouse was that he was forced into a corner.

Because the fields of every household had basically been planted in the last two days, the number of people coming to help at Wang An's house was increasing.

By this morning, the number of helpers had reached over 90, which meant basically all the men in the entire village had come, and some families even had father and son come together.

Clearly, this was for the sake of a full meal, not even wanting their faces anymore.

The reason for saying this was that anyone with a discerning eye could see that there were already enough people helping at Wang An's house, and there was no need to add more people at all.

But these people's eyes were like they were blind, pretending not to see. As soon as the work in the fields was finished, they couldn't wait to come over one by one.

To tell the truth, as the nominal head of the family, Wang Dazhu was truly helpless!

One had to know that in this way, the consumption speed of Wang An's family's grain would be even faster.

Wang Dazhu watched the grain being consumed rapidly, and naturally, his heart ached to death, so not letting the helpers be idle was the only thing Wang Dazhu could do at this time.

It had to be said, this was truly a case of "a mute eating coptis—having bitterness that cannot be spoken."

Fortunately, the warehouse, the shed, and the pig pen had to be built sooner or later, so it was good to start construction together while there were many people.

Just like that, after the two of them finished lunch, they called the Sun Xiangyang and Sun Xianghui brothers who wanted to go home, and they walked toward the new homestead together.

For a mason, the job of laying lines was simply a piece of cake, so in less than half an hour, the foundation lines for the east and west wing rooms were all pulled.

After laying the lines, the Sun Xiangyang brothers went home. They had to go home; mainly, they had to take the leftover food and meat home. There were still wives and children waiting at home!

After the Wang An family took a short break, the time arrived in the afternoon.

(End of chapter)