Chapter 218 The Mechanical Palace is Glowing
Although it took a lot of effort for Gashkul to move and place the bed, when he cleaned up all the dust and debris in the house, he felt a sense of satisfaction in his heart. .
Gashkul has carpenter skills in his hometown. After helping the Holy Casting Department repair and build furniture, he was the first to be assigned an Insura house among the 100 households where he lived.
This house is located on the edge of the town, with the windows facing north.
Standing by the window, Gashkul can still see the Mechanical Palace on the other side of the Para River.
Gashkul lives on the third floor of this Insurra apartment, and the ground floor is the warehouse, canteen and bathroom.
This room is about 45 square meters. In the corner of the room is a stone chimney, with square stone bricks inside, firmly bonded with mortar.
A zigzag yellow mud flue half as high as a calf is connected to the lower end of the chimney. Smoke fills the flue, emitting billowing heat.
The simple big bed of the Gashkul family is placed above the flue, with dry thatch underneath. Linen sheets are spread on the thatch, and on the sheets are a woolen blanket and a bed stuffed with reeds. Cotton quilt.
The Gashkul family of five will spend the whole winter together on this big bed.
Opposite the big bed are two simple boxes, which contain Gashkul's belongings and clothes. Finally, there is a commode surrounded by a curtain, as well as cabinets and shelves near the window.
According to what Gashkul heard from Mr. Witte, this is just a temporary measure. In the future, they will either move to the courtyard or install stoves in every household.
The Innsula building they were in had a total of four floors. The ceilings on the upper floors were lower, but the area was larger and there were fewer rooms.
So there are only 8 rooms on the third floor. Originally, there should be 4 rooms on the top floor, but they have not been built yet and are temporarily uninhabitable, so there are 18 rooms in the entire Insula.
The ten households where Gashkul is located have 65 people, some old and some young. However, most of the rooms on the second floor are only 30 to 35 square meters, so basically only a family of three lives there.
Some large families had to split them up. In the end, 15 of the 18 rooms were occupied, and 3 rooms were used as prayer rooms, security rooms, and utility rooms respectively.
The prayer room is a religious place, responsible for housing household registers and valuables, and for residents to carry out religious activities and pray
The security room is basically the office of the head of ten households, responsible for punishing illegal residents. Penalties, guarding gates and placing militia weapons.
Gashkul counted the days and suddenly realized that today was the day he guarded the gate. Fortunately, he only watched the first half of the night and could sleep well in the second half of the night.
"I will report to the security room first." Gashkul took out a short cloak from the box and put it on, and said to his wife, "You can go and eat by yourself during dinner."
The dinner time in each Insurla building is from evening class to sunset, that is, from 5 to 6 o'clock. A special watchman will come and sound the gong to remind you.
Horn strictly controls daily necessities such as food and salt, and each person is allocated a limited amount of food and salt every day.
Every day’s dinner is basically rice and potato root porridge, wheat bread, roasted mushrooms, wild vegetable fish soup and small berries. After all the families in the ten households have arrived, the heads of the ten households will count and everyone will be there. Let’s have dinner.
One insurari pretends to be a ten-household household with fifty or sixty people, and the heads of the ten households can basically recognize and manage them.
Because he needed to watch the gate, Gashkul had to register at the security office first, get a piece of bread to fill his stomach, and then exchange it with the uncle on duty during evening classes.
After leaving the room, Gashkul came to the railing of the corridor, and Insula's own small courtyard appeared in front of him.
In the center of the courtyard is a well. On both sides of the well are wooden fence flowerbeds planted with potato roots. Several children were playing in the courtyard with sticks made of thin branches.
These corridors and stairs are all made of wood. Gashkul's steps creaked when he stepped on them. In the chicken coop under the stairs, several hens clucked.
When he arrived on the second floor, he immediately smelled the smell of rice crackers mixed with stench, filling the courtyard.
The south side of the first floor or the ground floor is the gate. On both sides of the gate are the garbage bin storage rooms, the west is the bathroom, the east is the canteen, and the north is the warehouse.
"Gashkul, the security room is over here." A middle-aged man with a messy beard and black teeth called to Gashkul.
"Melixo is the head of ten households." Gashkul immediately stepped forward to say hello.
Melixo nodded indifferently and pulled Gashkul into the security room.
The entire security room is about 30 square meters, with only a few large boxes, a shelf containing bottles, cans and paper rolls, and a solid wood table.
On the innermost wall of the security room, there is also a short sword, several sharpened and blackened wooden spears and two pairs of shackles hanging on the innermost wall.
Taking down a wooden spear from the wall, Merixo held the wooden spear in his hand but did not hand it to Gashkul: "Do you know the rules?"
"Yes." Gashkul Instant answer.
After sunset, the gate will be closed and you can only enter from the side door. If you enter from the side, you must explain the reason to the gatekeeper and take your fingerprint.
During evening prayers, that is, around 8:30 pm, the side door will also be closed. Those who do not make it back in time will either have to sleep on the street or go to the police station to surrender to the curfew.
Although I had to sweep the streets and help empty toilets the day after I turned myself in at the police station, it was still better than freezing to death on the street.
"You are going to work in the furniture workshop of the Holy Casting Department tomorrow morning, right? I heard that you are already the team leader?" "Ah, yes, I know the skills of furniture carpentry, and I was only appointed as the team leader this afternoon." Gashkul replied in surprise that he was only appointed as the team leader in the afternoon, and the head of the ten households knew about it in the evening?
The craftsmanship of a carpenter and furniture carpentry are two different things. Furniture carpentry makes doors, windows, furniture and other wood products that require fine joints, which is considered advanced woodworking.
Merixo nodded slightly, which was consistent with the news brought by Chief Mozang: "Well, you are working for our Pope, and you can't rest well. It’s easy to affect things the next day. Just stay on guard until evening prayers tonight.”
“Huh? It’s still a long time before midnight. What should I do?”
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"Wouldn't it be better to let the stupid big guy Brune do it? That big guy Bai Chang can't say anything good."
Brune is a fellow villager of Gashkul, even though the two were born together. The place is different, but when we were at Fort Joan of Arc, we were all from a refugee village.
Brune was born an orphan and beggar. He has a dull personality, speaks slowly and is not very lovable. He is often scolded by Merixo.
"It doesn't matter if I sleep a little later..."
"What are you saying? If you go to bed a little later, it will affect the furniture production of our Papal State. It will affect the furniture production of everyone. They can’t sleep well. They don’t have the strength to fight. If they don’t have the strength to fight, they will be annihilated by the knights.”
"Yes, is that so?"
Merixo thrust the wooden spear into Gashkul's hand, "That's it. You should rest early. If you see Lord Rektor, tell him Merixo from Black Dog Village said hello to him. "
After receiving the wooden spear and eating the wheat bread, Merixo sat on the chair by the door and began the task of guarding the door.
There are no entertainment facilities on Qiumu Island. If you want to pray, basically every Insula building has a prayer room. Who goes out at night if there is nothing to do?
Sitting boredly by the door, waiting until the stars rose in the evening, Gashkul rubbed his cracking bones and stood up. The sound of the night watchman chiming in happened to be heard outside the door.
After waiting for another quarter of an hour, Brune, a tall man wearing a woolen coat one size smaller, hurried over: "Brother Gashkul, I've been waiting for a long time."
"It's nothing, it's just the way it is. You're tired." Gashkul handed the wooden spear to Brune, but he didn't leave. "I heard that you went to be an apprentice to learn a craft?"
"The carpenter thinks my fingers are too thick. ." Brune said in a low voice, "Seven people just wiped me out. Hey, brother Gashkul, how can you..."
"How can I have this power?" Gash. Kuhl said with a wry smile.
But in fact, if he talks to a master he is familiar with, he can indeed bring Brune in, but this guy is rough and he may not be able to do it well.
Brune held the wooden spear and sat on the chair by the door: "Then I will work as a laborer first. Anyway, the weekly salary is half a dinar."
Gashkur stepped forward, For a moment he was speechless, for he was saddened to find Brune sitting down as tall as himself.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
"...I heard, I heard, there will be conscription in six days. You are big and strong, so why not Are you going to be a soldier?"
Brune waved his hands in fear: "I don't know how to fight. If anyone wants to hit me, I will turn around and run away."
"Then you stay here and you're being bullied for nothing, aren't you?" Gashkul said earnestly, "I know how much you eat. According to our distribution, you won't have enough to eat every day. Your old club is being debt-collected by the knight. Dead, look how thin you are from hunger."
Brune held the wooden spear and lowered his head without speaking.
Gashkul patted him on the shoulder helplessly: "You are going to be a soldier. Food and accommodation are included. After you officially join the army, you will be paid one dinar a day in non-war times, and four dinars a day in wartime." Isn’t Nall’s salary much better than it is now?”
After listening to Gashkul’s words, Brune still shook his head.
"...Oh, don't say I didn't remind you." Gashkul sighed, turned around and climbed up the stairs towards his home floor.
Knocking lightly on the door, the wife inside asked: "Who is it?"
"I, Gashkul, the famous flower-picking thief of Castle Joan of Arc." Gashkul whispered.
The sound of the door bolt being removed was heard from inside the door. His wife, Sally, opened the door and gave him a rolling look: "You are still robbing flowers...what are you doing? The children are here, take them out quickly."< br>
The two of them entered the house together. Unlike the cold outside, the room with the flue was still cold, but no longer biting.
There were no lights in the room, only starlight. The couple's three children just leaned against the window sill and looked towards the north.
"What are you looking at?"
"Papa, look, the palace under the Pope's crown is shining."
"Glowing?" Picking up the youngest child, Gash Kull came to the window and looked towards the Mechanical Palace, "It's true."
(End of this chapter)