Zhang Zhao squatted on the ground, holding in his hand a special fine iron needle that had just been made by a blacksmith assigned by Li Shengtian, and rubbed it quickly on the magnet.
After rubbing it about twenty times, Zhang Zhao quickly pierced the iron needle onto a piece of hard paper with the words "North and South" written on it, and then placed the iron needle on the paper into a water bowl held by a miner.
.
After the iron needle in the water bowl dangled for a few times, it accurately pointed in one direction, and the people watching suddenly burst into fierce cheers
They have tried five times, and each time the iron needle points south in the same direction.
Amidst the cheers, the biggest obstacle that troubled Zhang Zhao and others in using the hole blasting method, that is, the problem of tunnel excavation direction, has been solved.
This is not a small problem, because if you want to blast a big city like Shule City, the length of the tunnel cannot be short, and people in the tunnel cannot judge the direction, and they may dig astray.
In later generations, GPS positioning or laser irradiation could be used to solve the problem, but in this era it is not so convenient. In the end, Zhang Zhao came up with the idea of using a compass to confirm the direction.
In fact, he doesn't care whether he points or not, he just needs to point in the direction without deflecting every time.
But it is such a simple thing that is not even a compass. It is not easy to come by.
Zhang Zhao rummaged through Li Shengtian's treasury until Li Shengtian couldn't help but come to see it in person, thinking that his nephew was going to pack up his treasury, and then Zhang Zhao found a few magnets in a corner.
"Is this the Sinan mentioned in Guiguzi? It turns out that it can be made so easily. How do you know how to make Sinan, uncle?"
His left cheek was swollen. Cao Yanming opened his eyes wide in surprise, and his whole body was burning with the light of exploration.
Cao Shishi has been a bit "arrogant" recently. Since the fire of God and Thunder, he has changed from a dispensable and unpopular noble son under Zhang Zhao to a mysterious Cao Alchemist.
He even looked down on Zhang Zhao a little, saying countless times that Zhang Erlang was too obsessed with power and force and neglected to study the avenue between heaven and earth (referring to the study of various gunpowders).
So this morning, Zhang Zhao found his little mistake, and not only showed him the use of power and force, but also used his unique skill of "making a compass" to impress Cao Yanming.<
/p>
No, Cao Yanming smoothly changed the title of Zhang Zhao from Zhang Erlangjun back to cousin.
Of course, Zhang Zhao also has a dark history about Cao Yanming. This guy said he looked down on Hu Ji before, but a few days ago he quietly sneaked into the room of a beautiful Ogus slave girl, just as she was leaving after having fun.
At that time, Zhang Zhao was caught red-handed.
"Servant! With this thing, we can dig directly to the city wall!"
The man named Zhang Zhaoshilang is a short man with gray eyes, slightly browner skin, purple beard and hair, and obvious Sogdian characteristics.
This guy who can speak somewhat fluent Chinese and insists that he is a descendant of the Tang Army in Anxi is called Shi Chongmin. He is the real leader of the coal plant miners that the Sodo team found for him under Zhang Zhao's strong threats.
However, Zhang Zhao felt that this guy should be more like a Sogdian Shiguo among the nine surnames of Zhaowu.
Now that three hundred miners have arrived, Zhang Zhao selected 150 miners from the poorer miners as agreed, and then selected 150 skilled miners.
Although these three hundred people are far behind the miners of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in history, they can still basically meet the needs of cave blasting.
These days, Zhang Zhao, while maintaining a relatively high standard of food for the miners, usually begins to give these miners a severe 'military training'.
Among these three hundred people, 150 are too servile, and more than half of the other 150 only recognize Shi Chongmin. It is not easy to completely tame them.
"Now that the last problem has been solved, let's go back and prepare for the review by the Great Sage and Emperor!"
Zhang Zhao shouted with joy on his face, and then pressed Shi Chongmin's shoulders.
"Team Shi, your team's drawing and writing studies must be completed as soon as possible!
When will it be upgraded to a gold-sharing capital? Who can become a captain of the capital? Everything depends on strength. Even if it is someone, it is not easy to break the rules."
When Shi Chongmin heard Zhang Zhao's words, he couldn't help but grinned in pain, "Shilang Zhang, everything is good, he has good food, good housing, and good clothes, but this is the only bad thing.
To dig a hole, you need to dig a hole. You also need to learn to read, and after you learn to read, you need to be able to draw pictures. After drawing, the more difficult thing is to calculate, calculate the excavation speed, calculate the intervals between timber erection, and calculate how many days it will take to dig.
To the destination.
Zhang Zhao smiled sinisterly in his heart. This was intentional. Such illiterate people in their twenties and thirties have not been able to read for half their lives. Recognition is definitely a very painful thing for them, let alone drawing and painting.
Calculated.
But he wanted to use this method to form a competition mechanism among the three hundred new miners. If Shi Chongmin failed to pass, he would be very happy to replace Shi Chongmin.
The word "gold sharing team" also comes from Zhang Zhao's bad taste.
And he only made these three hundred people into pairs instead of directly making them the capital, just to prevent Shi Chongmin from turning these miners into his minions after he naturally became the captain.
If you don't pay attention, Zhang Zhao may become the nominal leader in the end, and his relationship with Shi Chongmin will be like the relationship between the Central Plains Jiedushi and his subordinates.
This was something Zhang Zhao absolutely could not tolerate, so he deliberately reduced the establishment and gave 300 people to a team. He also used literacy and examination methods to further weaken Shi Chongmin's leadership over the more than 100 miners.
Of course, this will also help him see if he can find some talents among these miners.
In the Taihua Palace in Khotan City, Li Shengtian was frowning while reviewing various memorials.
Ever since Zhang Zhao saw the hope of breaking Shule City, under the command of Li Shengtian, Khotan, a country at the peak of its oasis city-state status in the Western Region, slowly began to mobilize.
It has been seventy years since the restoration of Khotan. The greatest desire of generations of kings of the Li family is to break Shule City and own two of the four towns in Anxi of the original Tang Dynasty.
Especially Shule, this place is too deadly for Khotan.
If Khotan can capture Shule City, then this city will become Khotan's northward bridgehead and a strong fortress against the Ogus, Geluolu and other tribes in the north.
On the contrary, if there were no Shule in Khotan, then the Kara Khanate in the north would be able to condescendingly penetrate into Khotan.
You can also turn Ya'erkan (Yarkand), one of the richest areas in Khotan, into a conflict front line, so that Khotan cannot use this fertile land.
Li Shengtian suddenly remembered a metaphor Zhang Zhao gave him. If Khotan was a giant tortoise, Shule would be the shell of the giant tortoise.
But now there is no Shule in Khotan, so it will be a matter of time before a giant turtle, which has no shell and can only expose its soft flesh to the threat of natural enemies, cannot support itself.
Wait! Li Shengtian suddenly stopped writing and thought for a moment. If the Kingdom of Jin is a giant tortoise, then who is he, the great sage and emperor? A gimmick?
"Emperor! Huangmen Minister, Fengtian Lieutenant Zhang Zhao asked Your Majesty to send an internal official to Yaotougang for inspection. He plans to start digging a tunnel three miles away tomorrow, and invite the Emperor to Yaotougang three days later!"
The voice of the on-duty officer came from outside the door. Hearing that Zhang Zhao had already started to prepare, he instantly forgot what had just happened and touched his chin.
Not bad! It seems like this guy is going to show him a more realistic blasting of Shule City!
***The author has something to say***
Thanks to 2127 book friends for the reward
This chapter has been completed!