Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 467 Lost in the east, gained in the mulberry tree

Fortunately, Hua Lei had anticipated this and was worried about it, so she reminded Lord Yu, Lord Mo, and Minister Li in advance. Based on the location of the pond, she also reached an agreement with Minister Li on the installation location of the waterwheel in advance.

Then, before installing a waterwheel, bamboo pipes were laid out so that the villagers could just stand by the pond and scoop water into the pool with bamboo pipes one scoop at a time using dung shovels.

The water in the pond can also flow through bamboo pipes to every corner of the basin and irrigate the rapeseed. Although the efficiency is certainly much lower than that of a water truck, it is still much faster and more labor-saving than asking villagers to carry buckets on their shoulders and backs to irrigate.

On the other hand, Hualei had people dig a pond halfway up the mountain where the waterwheel basin had not yet been installed, and then laid out the bamboo pipes in the pond halfway up the mountain.

Directly open the valve of the pond, and with the characteristic of water flowing to lower places, the water will rush down and irrigate the rapeseed in the basin. Although it takes more time, the effect is also good.

Seeing that the rapeseed in the basins without water trucks had been temporarily irrigated, Li Shilang breathed a sigh of relief, and Lord Mo also breathed a sigh of relief. In his heart, he had a little more appreciation for Hualei's foresight.

If the planted rapeseed cannot be irrigated due to the lack of a waterwheel, resulting in large-scale death of rapeseed, the Ministry of Works will not escape the wrath of Emperor Shengwu.

Similarly, Lord Mo will not have a good ending. Before there were no water trucks, all the farmland in the Ministry of Agriculture could be irrigated. Now it is the turn of the Ministry of Forestry. Without a water truck, they will not irrigate? Will they not eat?

Therefore, Minister Li and Lord Mo were both very satisfied with Hua Lei's proposal.

Especially Lord Mo. Whenever there is any problem on the barren mountain, he basically goes to Hua Lei to ask and discuss it directly. As for Yu Mushi, he often ignores him.

This incident certainly had no impact on Lord Mo, but it did have an impact on Hua Lei. Lord Yu, Hua Lei's immediate superior, had originally become a little friendlier and more pleasing to Hua Lei.

However, now that he saw that Lord Mo did not come to him but went directly to Hua Lei to talk about the matter, his dissatisfaction with Hua Lei began to rise again.

So, he started to find fault with Hualei again, saying this was not right, and that was not good enough. Hualei's life started to become miserable again without her realizing it, and she was sent to patrol the barren mountains more often.

But what could Hualei do? When Lord Mo came to her to talk, she dared not to answer. When Lord Yu asked her to patrol the deserted mountains, she dared not to disobey.

So, every day, under the contempt of Lord Yu, they would dejectedly hand in the list of people to go out, and go out to patrol the mountains with Gao Tiedan and Xiao Yuanzi, without slacking off at all.

However, there is a saying that goes, "If you lose something in one place, you may gain something in another." When Hualei was patrolling the barren mountains, he found another treasure.

On this day, Hualei discovered a large pine forest just after arriving at a barren mountain in the north. Pine wood is softer than other woods, and furniture made from it is prone to deformation and cracking, so it was not very popular among the people in the Great Sheng Dynasty.

Its most popular product is its pine nuts, which are ripe now. The pine cones on the pine trees are ripe and can be picked.

Because she was on duty, Hualei didn't dare to use her job for personal gain, so she secretly wrote down the address. After returning home, she asked Uncle Fu to take people to the barren mountain to pick pine cones and collect pine oil the next day.

Pine trunks secrete resin, which contains rosin and turpentine. It is also called rosin, pine paste, pine glue, pine sap, etc. It has a fragrant smell and a wide range of uses!

Pine oil can be used for cleansing, exfoliating, and nourishing the skin, improving dry and rough skin, and making the skin smoother and more delicate. It is an excellent beauty product.

It also has many medicinal values. It can promote blood circulation and dredge meridians, eliminate swelling and pain, dispel wind and kill insects, and prevent and treat diseases. It is especially good for treating muscle soreness, bruises, psoriasis and hemorrhoids.

In addition to these, pine oil also has the function of purifying the air. The volatile substances it contains can absorb harmful substances in the air, reduce odors, and keep the air fresh.

Of course, in the previous life of the flower bud, pine oil had a wider range of uses. It could be used to make crayons, paints, and many other uses.

The method of collecting pine oil is also very simple. On a healthy pine tree, use a small shovel to chisel a "Y"-shaped opening, remove the bark, and then connect a larger bamboo tube under the "Y" shape.

After a few hours, the pine oil will flow into the bamboo tubes. Collect these bamboo tubes and take them home to extract pine oil.

Split the bamboo tube, take out the pine oil inside, put it into a ceramic pot and heat it. Soon, the pine oil will melt. Use white gauze to filter out the impurities in the pine oil and that's it.

The aroma of pine oil is fresh, elegant, spicy, and has a warm woody feel that reminds people of moist woodlands and the solitary charm of the mountains.

After pine oil is extracted, you can directly use pine oil to make pine oil candles. Pour it into a bamboo tube while it is hot, put cotton thread on it, and wait for it to solidify to become a pine oil candle. Lighting the candle can be used for both lighting and aromatherapy, which is very good.

However, Hualei is smart and doesn't use pine oil to make candles. In her eyes, that is a waste of resources. And if you use pine oil to make candles, the smell is too strong, and some people don't like it very much.

So, she mixed pine oil and tung oil seed wax together, stirred them evenly, and made tung oil rosin candles.

The candles made in this way, the originally pure white tung oil candles, also turned into light brown, and the scent became lighter and longer-lasting, very pleasant to smell.

With this slight modification, the original one kind of tung oil candle immediately became several kinds. According to the different ratios of tung oil seed wax oil and pine oil, tung oil rosin candles of different colors and smells were produced.

Moreover, in addition to the simple and crude bamboo tube mold, Hualei also asked Uncle Zhao to make various heart-shaped, flower-shaped, and diamond-shaped molds using wood.

Not only did the raw materials used decrease by more than half, but the selling price also increased significantly. The candles were sold in Yinghua Pavilion and were loved by many scholars and young ladies from aristocratic families. The candle business suddenly became much better.

Moreover, Hualei added beeswax and mint to pine oil to make a pine resin mint lip balm. The result is surprisingly good!

Not only does it have a long-lasting moisturizing effect that can last for several hours, but it is also not greasy like ordinary lip balms. More importantly, it is waterproof!