A few days later, a large group of craftsmen and their apprentices, led by an old man with a ruddy face and neat beard and hair, arrived at the village.

The baron invited the old man to meet, and he replied that he wanted to take a short rest. After a while, the old man who had freshened up was invited into the hall.

Roger noticed that the other person was upright and had a calm demeanor. He was worthy of being a master who had seen the King of England.

The master saluted the baron without being humble or proud. He introduced himself: "I am Tom, the master builder, and I am honored to serve Baron Rollo."

"I am also very happy to have a master working for me. To introduce, this is my attendant and the designer of this project, Sir Roger. He is the first heir to the Earl of Sicily."

The baron specifically emphasized Roger's identity. The master nodded to Roger.

After the baron and the master exchanged simple greetings, Roger came forward to explain the dam construction requirements: "We need to complete the dam before the heavy rains in winter to avoid flooding the basin. My plan is to build a dam at each of the two canyon mouths, and dig out the edges of the basin outside the dam.

A deep ditch."

"Please wait a moment," the master suggested with a serious face, "This is impossible. Your people roughly talked about the plan when they invited me. I have already surveyed the basin and canyon on the way here. According to my calculations, it will be completed.

It will take 5 years.”

"Five years! No, how is it possible?" Roger was stunned for a moment.

Roger recalled his calculation process and repeated the calculations several times in his mind. He said: "No matter how I calculate the time, I can always make it in time. Why does it take 5 years? We have gathered a lot of people."

"Those people won't be of much use," the master said with certainty. "It's not the number of people that makes them useful. The key lies in the craftsmen. Do you know how the dam was built?"

Roger was just about to answer what he understood about dam building, but the master didn't give him a chance to speak.

The master continued: "First of all, we must build the foundation. The buried stones need to be flat on both sides, and the stones on the ground need to be flat on three sides. This can ensure that there is a tight wall in the direction of the water. All mud must be mixed with active volcanic ash.

This is a secret recipe left by the Romans. It is best to use volcanic ash from Naples to ensure that the dam does not leak."

"Volcanic ash? We have plenty of it here, and it's increasing every day." The baron pointed in the direction of Mount Etna in confusion, "Why use the ash from Naples?"

"Because Naples is the best. If you go to Naples, you can see a breakwater outside its pier. It was left by the Romans. I believe it will not collapse in another thousand years."

"You do this in England too? I mean that great tower." Roger asked dissatisfiedly, his tone a little harsh.

But the master didn't mind, and he answered seriously: "Yes, in fact we didn't even use British stones, because the stones there are not as good as those in France. We used French stones to build the Tower of London by ship."

Both Baron and Roger took a breath, and Roger asked unwillingly: "Actually, we don't need such high requirements. We can build a simple dam first and then strengthen it every dry season. Do you think that's okay?"

"Although it is possible, I don't recommend that you do it. Reinforcement cannot achieve the effect of one step."

"Master," Roger said with some relief, "We will use a simple one. Do you think this can be completed before the rainy season?"

"This is impossible. I don't have enough manpower. Unless you recruit a large number of craftsmen, just like building the Tower of London, the King of England summoned almost all the craftsmen and craftsmen. Otherwise, it can't be so fast. It only took 20 years."

It’s done.”

"We have a lot of manpower."

"I said, that's useless. It's impossible for a novice to make the wall smooth, and as long as there is one crooked part, the entire wall will be useless. Therefore, a novice will only hinder the progress."

Roger and the Baron looked at each other, and it seemed that the plan was about to change.

The Baron compromised: "Can you reduce your time, I mean, work overtime, of course, I will pay the extra fee."

The master was unmoved and gave the baron an authoritative analysis: "When we took over short-term projects, we also worked all night long. But this is not feasible for long-term projects. When I talk about 5 years, after deducting holidays, we will work on a daily basis.

The workload is calculated based on 8 hours of work, which is to allow the craftsmen to get sufficient rest. If the craftsmen are tired, they will make mistakes while working, and making mistakes means starting over and extending the construction period, so working overtime is not worth the gain."

The master's words are like the wall he built, they fit perfectly and are both convincing and leave no room for negotiation.

The meeting ended with polite courtesy from both parties. Roger's whole body seemed to be soaked in ice water. Although it was still summer, his heart felt cold.

Roger wandered aimlessly in the village. Angelica seemed to say hello to him, but he didn't pay attention. What he was thinking about was how to face failure.

He thought, he didn't want to live his whole life in chaos, he wanted to leave something in this life, and he wanted to use his knowledge and ability to change this era, but why was it so difficult?

He thought again, it actually doesn't matter. People in the mountains go back and forth wherever they want, so what can they do? The taxes in the riverside villages are meant to be collected, so what if they are collected. If a new parish cannot be built, and the monastery has no losses, it doesn't matter.

La; the basin is originally a wasteland, so it doesn't matter if it continues to be wasteland; therefore, it doesn't matter if the plan is canceled.

As he thought about it, tears flowed down unwillingly.

In fact, I can live a good life without doing anything, so why bother?

He took advantage of the darkness of the night, where no one could see him, and wiped away his tears.

That's it, he said silently to himself, that's it.

He wiped his tears over and over again, but he couldn't wipe them away.

Unknowingly, Roger reached the edge of the village and saw the craftsmen's camp.

These craftsmen built the camp in a very short time, and the camp was well built, with no faults to be found.

Roger had no intention of eavesdropping, but the wind carried the words of several craftsmen there.

"Why are we here? Didn't we agree to go to Spain?"

"The Spanish thing fell through and they found other builders to build the Inonimas Cathedral."

"How could this happen? Didn't the people we sent to attack the front line clearly explain our strength?"

"As I said, the other party said they wanted to find someone who had built a church."

"Whoever is born to build a church, even if we have never built a church, we have built the Tower of London."

"But what I said over there is to find someone with experience."

"Damn it, damn it. It's been three years since the Tower of London was built, and I haven't succeeded in a single job. If you say you're not good at it, you deserve it, but we obviously have the strength."

"That's right, tell me what this is all about.

After the pious King William completed the construction of the Tower of London, he specially commissioned us to go to the Holy Land to repair the Holy City. As a result, we fortunately arrived in Jerusalem and saw a group of lords fighting among themselves, but no one had the final say.

After a long time, Baldwin became the King of Jerusalem and agreed to the master's restoration plan, and he was ready to start construction. However, the financial backer, King William, died, said to be due to a hunting accident.

Henry, who took over, refused to admit his fault, and Baldwin was stingy, so this good job was ruined.

Later I heard that there was a big job in Spain, but I had just arrived in Sicily, and it was like, ugh."

"If this continues, the family will be in trouble."

"Home? Humph, if we can't take over the dam-building work this time, we won't even be able to pay for the trip back."

"But I think this is a mystery. I heard from the villagers that the person in charge this time is a seven-year-old baby."

"What? Isn't he a baron? The man who came to us seemed quite honest, and he didn't even press the price. I was thinking that I had met a rich man. Could he be playing tricks on us?"

"Who knew, a kid wanted to build a dam on a whim and asked to complete it before winter."

"A kid has the final say on such a big matter? The baron doesn't care? What will the master say when he comes back?"

"Master didn't say anything. It's not like you don't know that his mouth is tighter than the wall we built."
Chapter completed!