After traveling through time, I rely on force to survive

Chapter 270 Good Luck Today

Li Qingqing gestured for Tie Zhu to continue.

Tie Zhu was initially a little uneasy, afraid that he would say the wrong thing.

Seeing that Li Qingqing tacitly agreed with him, he boldly continued,

"Lord, I dare to speak frankly, but building a flue is not a delicate task that any craftsman can do. No one can predict what will happen underground. If a section collapses in the future and we can't find the cause, we'll have to tear it down and rebuild it, which will cost double the money!"

Think about it, the vegetables we plant in the summer are very prone to insects and rot. If we really had to put a long underground tunnel like that, baking the soil every day, it might not be suitable for crop growth.”

Although Li Tiezhu is young, he is quite thoughtful.

“You’re right, I didn’t think it through.” Li Qingqing seemed thoughtful, her brows gradually furrowing.

High cost, high maintenance, and idle for more than half a year after completion, wasting resources.

Moreover, continuous heating of the planting soil causes water vapor to be trapped in the soil, creating a high-temperature and high-humidity growing environment.

In such an environment, the seedlings would probably rot before they even grow up.

Ah, what a waste of all these constantly generating heat...

Suddenly, Li Qingqing's eyes lit up.

"However, now that you've reminded me, I think we can do it this way,"

Li Qingqing immediately got up, walked to a corner next to the thatched hut, broke off a long branch, and began to draw on the open ground outside the hut.

"Tiezhu, look, if a warm room is built next to the brick kiln on the southeast side, and the two share a wall, the residual heat in the kiln will inevitably raise the temperature of the warm room."

Li Tiezhu followed Li Qingqing out of the thatched hut and watched her draw simple blueprints in the open space.

Li Qingqing drew a frame on the shared wall and said,

“We installed a sliding stone gate at the location of this shared wall, which is normally kept open, but closes to block the heat if the heated room gets too hot. In this way, the temperature of the heated room can be controlled by people. In addition, we have people weave several sturdy, thick thatched roofs, which can be uncovered to allow for ventilation as needed, depending on the weather.”

Li Qingqing threw away the long firewood branch and looked at Li Tiezhu with a smile.

“Building such a greenhouse will have negligible costs in the long run, yet it will allow us to cultivate seedlings and grow various vegetables during the cold winter months, and even sprout bean sprouts within three to five days. What do you think?”

While explaining things to Tie Zhu in detail, Li Qingqing was also secretly making plans in her mind.

If the greenhouse is built, bean sprouts must be sprouted first.

The vegetables harvested thereafter were partly used to supply the city, and partly used to exchange for pickled vegetables or other storable supplies, which were then sent to General Zhao.

Li Tiezhu was completely captivated by Li Qingqing's novel idea and didn't pay any attention to what crops Li Qingqing wanted to grow in the greenhouse.

He listened and thought, becoming more and more excited as he listened.

Upon hearing Li Qingqing's question, he quickly responded.

"Lord, your idea is brilliant! I think I know what to do! I can build the greenhouse. How big should it be? Are there any specific requirements for the length, width, and thickness of the stone slabs? And how should the greenhouse be arranged inside? Just give me your instructions, and I promise to build it as quickly as possible according to your wishes, without the slightest mistake, and I will definitely satisfy you!"

Seeing Li Tiezhu's eager questioning, Li Qingqing knew he understood her thoughts, and nodded.

"Alright, I'll leave the construction of the greenhouse to you! I only need one. You can choose a suitable location in this brick kiln area. Once I've drafted the plan, I'll send someone to find you."

One greenhouse is enough; after all, not all brick kilns are suitable for having a greenhouse built next to them.

As the official kiln of the border city, in addition to firing city bricks, it will continue to fire blue bricks and tiles in the future, making it a long-term profitable industry.

Li Qingqing had a sudden thought and smiled as she looked at the excited Li Tiezhu.

"From this day forward, you are the kiln manager appointed by my city lord's mansion. You will be in charge of the official kiln and the greenhouse. Just do your job with confidence. You no longer need to report to various levels; just come to me directly. If you do well, I, the city lord, will definitely secure you a formal official position in the future!"

Although she decided to build the greenhouse on a whim, she already knew Li Tiezhu's character very well back in Lihua Village.

Now that we've taken over the border city, we can no longer simply find someone to do the work as before; we need to cultivate our own trusted subordinates.

After leaving the brick kiln, Li Qingqing rushed to the border town without stopping.

I was lucky today; I unexpectedly finalized the housewarming arrangements.

If greenhouse cultivation were further promoted, it would be even more perfect.

"I'm going for a walk ahead. You tell the village head and Uncle Liu to wait for me at the village office."

As soon as Li Qingqing got off the carriage, she tossed a sentence to Bai Ye and headed straight for the fields cultivated by the villagers.

Although it was winter, the border town was not so desolate.

The reclaimed paddy fields in the distance are covered with a thick layer of emerald green milkvetch seedlings, looking like a green carpet at first glance.

She noticed some villagers composting fertilizer on the ridges next to the paddy fields in the distance, so she didn't disturb them. Instead, she found a secluded ridge and walked towards the vegetable garden.

At that time, because there were many migrants, the houses were built in a variety of ways in order to settle them as soon as possible, but every household reserved vegetable gardens in front of and behind their houses.

As Li Qingqing looked around, she saw that most of the vegetables growing in the fields were dark green sunflowers and scallions and garlic, while other seasonal crops had already been harvested.

Not far ahead, a man who looked a few years older than Li Tiezhu was squatting beside the vegetable patch, busy with something.

Beside him were several straw mats woven from a mixture of sorghum stalks and thatch.

As she got closer, Li Qingqing casually glanced around and discovered that a row of tender seedlings was growing on the vegetable patch.

It looked like a newly sprouted celery seedling, shivering slightly in the cold wind, making it stand out from the crowd.

The man was sticking thin wooden stakes, about the length of a chopstick, into the edge of the vegetable patch.

He was focused and oblivious to everything around him.

After the wooden stakes were planted, the man carefully covered them with a straw mat, the thatch leaves hanging down around the edges of the mat just enough to block the wind.

"What are you doing?"

Li Qingqing's heart skipped a beat. This man was actually using straw mats to protect the seedlings?

The man, hearing someone speak, looked up abruptly and saw that it was the city lord. He hurriedly stood up and awkwardly bowed.

"This humble one, Liu Gen, greets Your Majesty the City Lord!"

Li Qingqing looked at the straw mat and asked again, "Are you keeping the seedlings warm?"

When Liu Gen saw Li Qingqing asking about this, he hurriedly and honestly answered.

"Lord, you asked about this? My family just moved here and we didn't have much to eat. Luckily, you distributed vegetable seeds to everyone, so I thought I'd try planting some celery. At first, I didn't have much experience, so I just covered the vegetable patch with straw mats. I didn't expect the seeds to actually sprout."

Liu Gen, fearing that Li Qingqing wouldn't believe him, hurriedly squatted down and lifted a corner of the straw mat, revealing tender green celery seedlings inside.

“Look, the celery is growing quite well now. I was worried about damaging it, so I cut down some stakes today to support it and protect it from the wind and frost. I reckon that before long, the celery will definitely grow stronger.”