Yanqi Town, Fei Zhai Study Room.
Zhou Jun untied the bamboo tube from Hai Dongqing's feet, took out the secret letter inside, opened it and read it, with a solemn expression on his face.
The letter came from Liangzhou City and was written by Kong You. It contained only a few words, but it said three important things.
1. Pei Luo, the Khan of Huihe, passed away due to illness. It was passed down to his son Tulishi. Chaos broke out in Mobei and wars broke out.
Second, the imperial court ordered the Northern Fan to gather fine soldiers and horses to attack the Tubo Stone Castle in the coming year.
3. Yang Zhao was promoted to wailang, a member of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and served as an envoy of the fifteenth year.
Zhou Jun folded the letter and burned it, sat on a chair and thought about it for a long time.
A servant announced outside the door that the judge had arrived.
Zhou Jun straightened his clothes and came out of the study. He saw Feng Changqing followed by several clerks, each carrying a small box, waiting in the courtyard.
Zhou Jun asked: "This is...?"
Feng Changqing patted the box next to him: "These are the city construction drawings of the Engineering and Construction Department, as well as the design of Chengchifang City. In addition, the first batch of the ash that Zhou Lang asked for has been transported to Tekeli City. Also,
I also brought back the things you asked me to look for by the salt lake."
Zhou Jun nodded, turned around and called Sun Aying, led out the horse, followed Feng Changqing, left Yanqi Town Mansion, and headed for the auxiliary city (Tekli City) five hundred meters away.
After entering the auxiliary city, Zhou Jun rode through the long street and arrived at the center of the city. He saw that the original courtyard was now blocked tightly by curtains, and the surrounding shops and buildings had also been cleared out.
Zhou Jun, Feng Changqing and his entourage dismounted their horses, opened the curtains, and came to the inner courtyard.
The servants were unloading the wooden barrels from the cart and pouring the ashes in the barrels into the pit.
Zhou Jun walked to each pit and inspected it, confirming that all the charcoal ash was in compliance with the requirements. Then he said to the guard Long Yaoli: "Only trustworthy people are left here. Others will arrive first."
Go outside the cloth."
Long Yaoli heard this and quickly asked his cronies to start clearing the place.
After waiting for the personnel to be settled, Zhou Jun asked Feng Changqing: "What are the things in the salt lake?"
Feng Changqing nodded and made a gesture, and soldiers from Anxi came to the carriage. There were fences on the carriage board, and many gray-brown stones were stored inside.
Long Yaoli looked carefully and found that the shapes of these stones were ordinary and there was nothing unusual about them.
In fact, the scientific name of these stones is "zeolite", and they all come from the salt field next to Bosten Lake.
Its main component is aluminosilicate, which can only be formed in places with large amounts of salts such as sea water and salt lakes.
Grind it into powder, then mix it with coal ash, and then stir it with salt water to produce a chemical reaction, which can strengthen the strength of the cement and effectively resist weathering and water erosion, thereby extending the life of the cement.
Of course, Zhou Jun himself did not understand this.
It was only when Hua Yue was at Bachuan Villa that he conducted countless experiments on building materials, and finally came up with this improved version of the "fire clay" formula.
Zhou Jun directed his subordinates to mix ash and zeolite according to a specific ratio, and then poured in water from the salt lake.
A large number of bubbles began to appear in the mud, and the faint sound of cracking stones could be heard. In this way, in one pit after another, the ancient cement was mixed.
After finishing all this, Zhou Jun said to Feng Changqing and Long Yaoli: "It needs to sit for four hours. Every quarter of an hour, send people to stir it with wooden sticks. When it turns into mud, it can be piled into a wall.
."
Long Yaoli couldn't believe it: "A city wall made of ash is really useful? Will it not fall down?"
Feng Changqing did not doubt Zhou Jun's decision. He just squatted by the pit, looked at the bubbling cement, and said softly: "This method is not suitable to be made public. I should ask Gao Duhu for orders to mobilize troops."
Watch over this place."
Zhou Jun knew that the formula of cement would be known sooner or later as long as someone looked it up carefully.
The key is that the ratio of ingredients and reaction time require constant experimentation to obtain the best solution.
Zhou Jun came to Feng Changqing and asked, "Do you have a plan to build the city?"
Feng Changqing called the clerk, took out the drawings, and said to Zhou Jun: "The Yanqi City that will be built in the future will have an outer wall of ten miles (12 kilometers), seven miles from north to south, and eight miles from east to west. There will be four city gates, mainly north and south.
gate, and the east and west side gates. Two long streets, one vertical and one horizontal, run through the entire city."
"The outer city wraps up the two inner cities, which are the guard city and the auxiliary city where we are. An arched stone bridge is built between the inner cities to allow people and equipment to travel. The other areas of the city are designed according to Chang'an Neifang.
Cut and divide it into twenty-four squares."
Zhou Jun: "How to arrange the water supply?"
Feng Changqing: "There is a large lake in the south of the city (Yanqi Xiangsi Lake), and the moat guarding the city is drawn from there. Once Yanqi City is built, the canals can be renovated and artificial rivers can be dug. Moreover, Yanqi Town is rich in groundwater, and every village will have
Dig water wells for civilian use."
Zhou Jun hummed, leaned down, and looked carefully at the drawings Feng Changqing brought.
The private houses in Neifang were designed into small courtyards common in the Tang Dynasty on the drawings brought by Feng Changqing.
Although this design is beautiful and generous, it wastes valuable urban space and is not conducive to accommodating a large number of people.
Zhou Jun picked up a brush, dipped it in ink, and drew on the paper the rows of small buildings with cornices in Bachuan Commercial Street. He asked Feng Changqing, "Can the residential buildings in Yanqi City be built like this?"
Feng Changqing frowned when he saw it and said: "This type of house is rare. It is connected to each other and has no courtyard walls. Will it be a bit crowded if you live in it? After all, the population of Yanqi Town is only 30,000. Even if they are all occupied,
There are more than enough houses in the new city.”
Zhou Jun put down his brush and said to Feng Changqing: "Now that there are few people, it is natural that the house is enough to live in. When there are more people in the future, it will be a lot more troublesome to renovate. If the construction department does not have a complete set of drawings for this small building,
If so, I will ask Chang'an to send it over."
When Feng Changqing heard this, he didn't object anymore and nodded in agreement.
Working at the cement construction site until evening, Zhou Jun finally arranged many matters before returning to his house.
After the sun went down, Zhou Jun didn't bother to have dinner, so he buried himself in the study and began to write a letter to Chang'an Bachuan.
Only halfway through writing the letter, Zhou Jun suddenly heard the sound of falling to the ground in the courtyard.
Confused, Zhou Jun walked out of the study and found that the courtyard was silent, with no one in sight.
Zhou Jun shouted several times subconsciously, but no one responded.
The Tang soldiers responsible for guarding are now missing.
Zhou Jun looked wary, knowing something was wrong. He took a few steps back, turned around and wanted to retreat into the room.
At this moment, a burst of wind came from mid-air, and a silver needle pierced Zhou Jun's neck.
Pulling out the silver needle with force, Zhou Jun didn't even take two steps when he felt like the world was spinning, and then he fell to the ground.
Next chapter
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