Just a layout diagram of a siheyuan piqued Hu Cong's interest entirely.
He stared at the blueprint in his hand, increasingly lamenting his own inferiority.
He really didn't know how this woman came up with such ideas. If he hadn't had the good fortune to see this blueprint, he might not have known in his whole life that houses could be built like this, with such convenient and practical facilities inside.
After pondering for a long time, Hu Cong awkwardly opened his mouth to ask Mo Jiuye, "Young Master Mo, do you know if you have found a good craftsman to build this courtyard?"
This was something Mo Jiuye should have taken the initiative to mention, but Hu Cong beat him to it.
However, knowing Hu Cong as he did, it was not at all strange for him to do something like this.
"I came to find Brother Hu because I want you to be the general contractor for the construction of this courtyard. What does Brother Hu think?"
When Hu Cong heard this, he couldn't hide the delight on his face at all.
He didn't even hesitate for a moment, just kept nodding his head.
"Good, good, good! As long as Young Master Mo trusts me, I am willing to be the general contractor for the construction of this building."
The general contractor was the master craftsman of this era, responsible for the overall structure and supervision of the construction.
In Da Shun, there weren't many people with such abilities.
Hu Cong was one of them. When he was in the capital city, those officials and nobles felt honored to be able to hire him as the general contractor for their family constructions.
It was just a pity that Hu Cong was stubborn and inflexible. For any house he built for others, it had to be a structure that he was satisfied with himself, otherwise he would not agree to it.
As a result, he had offended many people of power in the capital city.
Now it was very obvious that even if Mo Jiuye didn't say it outright, he would take the initiative to participate in the Mo family's housing construction.
It could be said that this was the first time in Hu Cong's life that he had taken such initiative.
Seeing that Hu Cong agreed, Mo Jiuye was also very happy. After all, he understood Hu Cong's reputation in the construction industry of the capital city.
He quickly handed over all the design drawings to Hu Cong.
"Brother Hu, take a look at these details drawn by my wife."
Hu Cong nodded and took over the drawings. The first one was a detailed drawing of a flush toilet.
When He Zhiran was explaining it to him earlier, he had already started thinking in his mind what a flush toilet should look like.
Now, seeing such a vivid design drawing, Hu Cong suddenly felt enlightened.
How could he not have thought of that? A flush toilet could be built like this - it was simply perfect.
The materials used for the floor heating were all made of iron pipes, and the connections between the iron pipes, as well as the thing called a faucet, were ingeniously designed.
In short, these design drawings could be said to open a new door again for Hu Cong's attainments in the construction industry.
The more he looked at these drawings, the more enthusiastic he became, to the point where he had ignored the two people next to him completely.
Seeing this, Mo Jiuye laughed and said, "Brother Hu, just keep the drawings here and you can study them slowly."
Hearing his voice, Hu Cong realized that he had been rude.
"I'm sorry, Young Master Mo. When I see something fresh, I can't take my eyes off of it. I hope you and Young Mistress Mo won't take offense."
"No problem at all. Brother Hu, since you've agreed to be the general contractor for our Mo family's building, there are still many details that we need to make clear in advance."
He Zhiran was not at all worried that such architectural methods would leak out at all.
In her heart, these were all things created by the wisdom of future people for the purpose of making people's lives better.
Although she had brought such good things to Da Shun ahead of time, she never selfishly thought that they were her things.
Her purpose was simple - as long as her family lived comfortably.
As for when these architectural structures would leak out, she wouldn't care at all. Whoever had the ability to build them out could go build them.
What she wanted to discuss with Hu Cong was the remuneration for hiring him as general contractor.
"Brother Hu, as long as you build ten courtyards with the same design as the drawings for me, it would be even better if you can contact the porcelain kilns and blacksmiths to produce ceramic toilets and iron pipes. Of course, I won't let Brother Hu work hard for nothing, I will definitely pay you more."
Money and the like was never lacking for He Zhiran. As long as Hu Cong did a good job, giving him ten thousand taels would not be a problem at all.
Hu Cong's willingness to undertake the Mo family's housing construction had nothing to do with remuneration.
He simply wanted to take on the challenge of building such an odd courtyard design for the first time.
"The remuneration doesn’t matter at all. I’m quite familiar with the blacksmiths in the city, and can help contact them to produce those iron pipes and hardware. As for ceramics, I’ve heard there’s a porcelain kiln on the east side of Yun City, so I can also go over there to inquire."
"The only requirement I have is that all the laborers for the construction must listen to my arrangements alone. Of course, if the young master and mistress Mo are dissatisfied with anything, feel free to let me know.”
Mo Jiuye already had some understanding of Hu Cong’s requirements when building houses for others, even if Hu Cong didn’t mention it outright.
Back when Hu Cong was in the capital city, he had a construction team under him. Whenever he went to build houses for officials and nobles, he would bring those people along.
It was said that those people only listened to Hu Cong's arrangements.
If He Zhiran had to summarize his way of working, she could describe it using the modern term "contractor".
The employer would contract the project to him at a fixed price, and after Hu Cong finished building the house, the employer only needed to come inspect it.
This was very beneficial for both parties. For example, the employer didn't have to watch over things all day, only needing to come take occasional looks. This saved a lot of time.
As for Hu Cong, there was no need to elaborate - not only could he earn more profits, the most important thing was that the workers all listened to his arrangements. Those who did well could stay, those who didn’t could be dismissed with one sentence from him.
With this level of control, those workers would also be more diligent, saving him a lot of trouble as well.
This was simply a win-win situation.
He Zhiran and Mo Jiuye had no objections to this whatsoever.
Many construction materials had already been stockpiled at home during the winter. What remained for Hu Cong to worry about were those novel gadgets in He Zhiran’s drawings.
At present, the two parties only needed to negotiate the price.
"Brother Hu, it's not the same as the capital city here in the northwest. The people you once trained can't come here to work, so we can only ask the nearby villagers to help with the construction."
Hu Cong nodded. "That's true."
His requirements weren’t high. He only hoped that these people would fully listen to his commands.
Mo Jiuye went on, "When the time comes, I will explain things clearly to the hired laborers beforehand and have them all listen to your directions. As for the issue of wages, Brother Hu can first take a look at the drawings for the things needed and the complexity of the project, then let me know after considering it carefully."
With this said, what else did Hu Cong not understand?
Mo Jiuye understood his usual way of building houses for others back in the capital city, and likewise chose to hire him in the same fashion here in the northwest.
The two parties only needed to negotiate the price now.
