Chapter 330 20. Invite the People to Lead the Family

A simple question: which is more expensive, the land or the house?

If we put this question into modern times, the land is definitely more expensive. A hundred square meters of land can be stacked up thirty or forty stories. You can't imagine how high the price is.

But what about in ancient times? The land of the samurai under the castle was given by the daimyo lord. It was free and divided according to the level. There was a sense of universal fairness in it.

Compared with the free land, the samurai house built at a high price is naturally more expensive. If you use some good wood, you can spend hundreds of kan in a minute, and you can't make a big house.

Uncle Tsunayoshi's house, including the garden and the mansion, is about 1,000 square meters. The house is not too big. In today's terms, it is just a single-story area of ​​more than 200 to 300 square meters. Instead, the garden, stables, and warehouses occupy a lot of space.

Especially the garden, the pond is about 100 square meters, very impressive, and there are many ornamental dwarf pines and seedlings. Samurai houses don't like the kind of flashy dry landscape, which only "cultured" and "artistic" "elegant" people can enjoy.

If you tear down Uncle Tsunari's house, the flowers and plants are really not worth much, but the house cost at least several hundred kan, and you really can't bear to part with it. Not only that, it can be considered a national treasure in modern times. After all, Uncle Tsunari's roof rafters are all made of Sado red pine, which is now a national protected tree species.

Then there is only one simple way, that is to drag the house!

What is a drag house? As the name suggests, it means dragging the house.

This business is not common in modern times. It is mainly seen in the relocation and protection of ancient buildings. Few ordinary people's houses will use this method. After all, it's not worth it!

How much does a brick cost? Hiring a relocation team is enough to build three small Western-style buildings in the countryside.

But it was different in ancient times. If Uncle Tsunari's house was demolished, it would be a waste. Although it is made of wood, it can be lived in for two or three hundred years without any problems if it is well maintained.

…

“Send someone to Hamamatsu to ask for help from Saemon.” Kobayata wanted to find the yakiya-gumi, who were rare in any era.

According to Kobayata’s knowledge, there were definite yakiya-gumi in Edo during the time of the third shogun Iemitsu. At the same time, there were also scattered records saying that they existed during the Muromachi shogunate period, so it was not too rare.

The soil for its birth was naturally metropolises with a population of more than 100,000 or even more than one million, such as Kyoto, Sakai, and Edo.

People living in big cities can all appreciate that every inch of land in big cities is valuable, and the urban planning in ancient times cannot be said to be perfect. Or even if the planning is very good, it is not very standardized when it comes to single buildings.

In addition, Japanese houses are not built on flat ground, but are built on pillars and wooden frames, which makes it more convenient to move houses.

So when it is inevitable to move houses to make room, the yakiya-gumi appeared.

At this time, Edo was still small, and it should not be easy to find the yakiya-gumi, but Sakai could find them without any problem. Besides, the wages of craftsmen are very low nowadays, and it doesn't cost much to hire Yamauchi. It is really the best helper for moving.

The people who went to Hamamatsu to ask for help from Saemon also invited Uncle Tsunara back, after all, they had to move his house.

"Mooring house?" Uncle Tsunara was also stunned. This was the first time he had encountered such a house in his life.

"Yes, after all, the open space on both sides is not big enough, otherwise I wouldn't use this method." Kobayata was very sincere.

"Is it helpful? This house was given by His Majesty Hamamatsu." Uncle Tsunara shook his head and looked at the people who were measuring the moving houses in front of him.

The people who moved the moving houses were hired by Kobayata from Sakaimachi at a price of 30 kanwen for the total project. People heard that there was a fool in Shinano who was willing to pay 30 taels of gold for a moving house, and they wanted to send all the family members.

The level of the moving house people is roughly the same as that of carpenters nowadays. The top ones are the masters who can take jobs independently and take charge of all the work from design to construction. There are also a series of levels below, such as handymen, monks, etc.

And each master worker has his own set of methods. Some of them use steps, some use arms, some use wooden sticks, and some use folding rulers.

Because Xiao Pingtai paid enough money, half of the master workers of Sakaimachi Hikiya are here, plus their subordinates, there are no less than 50 people, and it is a big expense to feed them every day.

But they are really good. No matter whether they use their feet, hands, sticks, or rulers, the data obtained by everyone is no more than three centimeters different, which is amazing.

After measuring the size of the house, they moved horizontally for dozens of meters and began to set the bottom pillars of the house according to the measured data.

And the uncle Tsunayoshi's house was in chaos, and everything was emptied, including furniture and pots and pans. Even the tatami and floor were all removed to reveal the specific layout of the bottom floor of the house.

The workers will use wooden boards to enter the house and draw every support point in detail, while the handymen will go up to the roof to remove the tiles and take them all off to reduce the weight of the house.

Then the workers will be divided into two groups, one group will go to the new foundation to completely copy an identical foundation. The other group will start the actual preparations for the house.

The brick walls or wooden fences on the ground floor of the house will be destroyed, and sleepers will be filled in while destroying them, all the main beams and components will be supported, and finally the pillars will be removed.

In this way, the whole house is actually completely suspended in the air, completing the first step of the operation.

Then, by adding wedges to the sleepers on all sides at the same time, the house is gradually raised, and finally raised to a height high enough to fit a huge log under the house.

This is not over yet, the wooden supports under the floor of the house must be sawed off. Ensure that there are no obstacles under the floor of the house that hinder the rolling of the logs, so that it is easy to drag.

At this time, someone asked, you sawed off the bottom of the main wooden pillar of the house, even if the house is erected in the future, the pillar is also in two sections, isn't that floating the house on the floor?

Don't worry, there will be a way to solve this later.

At this time, the dragging of the house is officially started, including the handyman monk and hundreds of temporary laborers, who tied the ropes tied to the beams of the house on their shoulders, and the people in front pulled. Another part of the people in the back used wooden sticks to pry the logs to push the house.

Even if it is only manpower, a distance of dozens of meters only takes two or three days.

In this way, the entire house was moved to the newly built pillar foundation, and it was still raised with sleepers. The pillars that did not fit perfectly with the beams were slightly adjusted. Only after they fit perfectly could they be placed.

How to place the house with all the wooden pillars under the floor flattened?