Although the territory of the Arias family is large, its previous population was not large.
Nowadays, many people have poured into Luye, but due to the compulsory weekend holiday, the time available for corvee service has been reduced by nearly one-third.
Therefore, Miss Rabbit does not have many extra manpower on hand.
Of course, as long as you are willing to spend money, you can still hire workers, but with the popularity of new farm tools and farming methods, Greenfield's labor costs are also increasing.
After all, the income from farming is much higher than before, and there are fewer farmers willing to sell their labor to the lords.
Moreover, the two-day school is also recruiting workers, and the remuneration offered is very generous, and it is difficult for Ms. Rabbit to compete.
In addition to the lack of manpower, another big reason is that the Western Territory is not very peaceful at the moment. Some big families with strength and financial resources have begun to prepare for rainy days, recruiting soldiers and training militiamen.
The Arias family is no exception. Miss Rabbit is stingy and has a strong sense of crisis. She has been paying close attention to military affairs since she succeeded in slaying the dragon, but recruiting and training soldiers will also take up a lot of labor.
Seeing the prosperous scene outside Teacup Castle without the protection of the city wall, the female lord always felt a little uneasy.
Consultant Fausto suggested building a wooden fence around the perimeter. This kind of wooden fence is very low cost, does not require too many manpower, and can provide a certain degree of defense.
In fact, in the West, not all towns and castles are built with stone, or only a few can be built with stone. In contrast, wooden castles and city gates are more common.
After all, there are a lot of lords who only have a few hundred or even dozens of gold lions in income throughout the year, but with a large clan, they have a lot of expenses in various aspects.
Without a windfall, they would neither be able to afford the high cost of building a stone castle nor the subsequent maintenance costs.
So even though Teacup Castle occupies a small area, it is a well-known fortified city in the Western Region. It has helped the Arias family resist attacks from powerful enemies several times.
Strictly speaking, this castle was not built by the Arias family. Most of the construction costs were sponsored by Count Philip, the then Lord of the West.
On the surface, it was to reward the ancestors of the Arias family for their bravery in battle and their outstanding performance in conquering the Western Territory, but in fact, it was mainly to monitor and guard against the Emmanuel family, which had surrendered long ago.
But in any case, the Arias family did get a big deal.
If Miss Rabbit didn't have a stone fortress, she might still accept Fausto's proposal, but now she doesn't like the wooden fence.
As the saying goes, when in doubt, go to Merlin.
The female lord did not worry about this issue for too long and directly asked Li Yu for advice when he came next time.
Li Yu thought for a while and said, "Let's use rammed earth walls."
"What is a rammed earth wall?" the female lord asked humbly.
"It's just a wall made of earth."
"How can earth be used as a wall?" Miss Rabbit shook her head and said, "In this way, if there is a foreign enemy coming to attack, there is no need to attack the city gate at all. They can just dig a tunnel into the city. Maybe no one will be needed to attack it. Rain
If the force is lowered, the city wall will collapse on its own."
"Ramed earth walls are not that fragile." Li Yu said.
Although this set of city building methods has been around since the Yin and Shang Dynasties, it is still used in some places until modern times. For example, the earth buildings along the coast of Fujian and southern Fujian are all improved rammed earth buildings with very good quality and strong defense.
Being outstanding is not inferior to the stone castle.
When the age of firearms enters later, it will still be able to play a role and will not be eliminated like the stone castle.
As for the issue of waterproofing, the rammed earth wall itself is waterproof to a certain extent. After the soil is squeezed, its density will become very high, and after chemical and physical reactions, it will become mellow soil. Dayu even used this method to build it when he was controlling floods.
Cross the embankment.
Of course, in general, rammed earth walls are relatively afraid of water. From time to time, there are records in history books of rammed earth walls collapsing due to heavy rains or flash floods. Grass seeds mixed in the walls may also germinate when exposed to water, causing damage.
Walls also require regular maintenance.
However, the climate in the west is relatively dry and there is not much rainfall, so the rammed earth walls are quite safe.
But Li Yu could also understand the concerns of the female lord, so he added, "If you are really worried about the rain, you can wrap a layer of bricks outside later."
There is still debate in the archaeological community when rammed earth bricks originated, but its large-scale popularization should have been in the Ming Dynasty. It not only reduced the damage of rammed earth walls to rainwater, but also made the walls stronger, so that they could cope with
Threat from artillery and large trebuchets.
There are many brick kilns in Shuangxuejiao now, and the brick-making skills are getting better and better. Producing bricks is not a problem.
The rammed earth wall also requires a lot of manpower, but the advantage is that there is no need to quarry the stone, and then use manpower to transport it. You can get the materials locally and start construction immediately. Moreover, if you are short of manpower in the early stage, you can build it lower first. Four or five meters is about the same.
Already.
Then slowly increase the height and finally cover it with bricks. The initial engineering and investment will not be wasted at all, and it will also save money.
Miss Rabbit was persuaded by Li Yu, although it was a bit embarrassing to use soil to build city walls. If word spread, she would probably be laughed at by other nobles.
But saving money is one thing. The most important thing is that Li Yu promised that after the city wall is built, it will be stronger than the traditional stone wall and difficult to be broken.
So the female lord no longer hesitated, and finally decided to adopt the plan recommended by Li Yu.
Li Yu later collected some information about rammed earth walls from the Internet, including material proportions, wall structure and ramming methods, and asked Clara to help translate it into the common language of the mainland, and then gave it to the shipwright Fitzwilliam for research.
.
In fact, if a traverser with civil construction experience can handle this matter, the efficiency will undoubtedly be higher, and the final construction quality can be improved by more than one level.
It is a pity that Li Yu does not have talents in this field at hand.
Compared with the progress on Bratis Continent, the recruitment of reincarnated volunteers is not going smoothly. Li Yu needs to persuade them one by one at the risk of being regarded as a liar. He has only recruited so far.
Two followers.
One of them is studying computer science.
The other one has been the owner of a food area for so long and has always been passionate about ghosts and animals. He doesn’t know how much of his previous professional knowledge is left.
Li Yu also bought a few more textbooks on related majors for Lu Weijia these days, intending to help him review the knowledge he had learned in the past.
But unexpectedly, Lu Weijia took the first step and hurt Li Yu.
"What, you said you wanted a camera and a laptop, what are they for?"
"Make a video." Lu Weijia said matter-of-factly.
"…………"
"Do you know that Station B is no longer there? Besides, why should I meet your request?" Li Yu asked back.
"Because helping me means helping you." Lu Weijia said confidently.
I wish you all a happy old age. There is only one update today. I will try my best to return to normal in the future.
This chapter has been completed!