"Prime Minister, is it worth building such a huge reservoir?" He Chou couldn't help but ask after looking at the design and planning drawings.

He Chou already knew that the laborers recruited by Zou Yu were all paid labor, so he asked this question. After all, if there were not more than 100,000 people, it would definitely not be possible to repair it.

"It's definitely worth it! By building this reservoir, it will be much easier for the people in Yizhou to irrigate in the future; and they will no longer be afraid of severe drought! Even if it happens only once in a hundred years, we can ensure that the people have water to drink and a certain amount of food.

harvest.

Do you think it’s worth doing something that will benefit the present generation and benefit the future?” Zou Yu asked seriously.

"The Prime Minister is wise! I am willing to be a craftsman and build a reservoir for the people!" He Chou nodded in admiration and saluted without hesitation.

"Haha! Excuse me! It's a blessing to have He Shaofu help me! What a blessing to the people!" Zou Yu said with a happy smile, helping He Chou up.

"Prime Minister, thank you!" He Chou said with a modest smile.

Zou Yu was very happy to have He Chou join him. As for the five hundred soldiers Dou Jiande arranged to escort, they had seen the life of the people in Yizhou, so there was no reason to go back.

However, Zou Yu asked someone to tell them to go back and recruit others to come with them. At the same time, those who had family members also brought their families over.

Seducing people from other places has never stopped. Li Yuan in Guanzhong has a tighter blockade, but it still can't stop people. Zou Yu sent out a small number of soldiers, pretending to be fishermen, to cross the Yellow River, and secretly helped move a lot of people.

As for Wang Shichong, due to neglect of management, the people close to Zou Yu's territory are almost being relocated. Especially with the help of Tongji Canal, the relocation is fast and convenient.

The most important thing is that Zou Yu only needs people here. The government subsidizes houses, land, clothes, food, and even firewood, oil, salt, sauce, etc. They are all fully equipped.

This is the benefit of centralized construction of villages? Convenient management, unlike other places? People live in one in the east? One in the west. Even if they don’t show up for ten days and a half, no one knows.

By the time Dou Jiande, Wang Shichong and others discovered something was wrong? The border was dozens of miles away? It was already deserted!

This incident had a great impact, because the people left in a hurry and only brought a few clothes and food at home. The rest of the worthless things were left where they were. It looked a bit strange. It was like the people suddenly abandoned their homes and disappeared.

The strange incident was widely spread.

Which one is the worst, Liang Shidu, inexplicably? He was beaten up and lost four county towns? He lost thousands of soldiers, the key is that he extorted money? He had long made the people dissatisfied, now the border line was lost? The people naturally fled one after another.

? Thirty percent of the people in Shuozhou took the opportunity to run to Zou Yu's territory. After all, they would starve to death if they continued to stay, let alone survive the winter.

After the summer harvest, many people returned home to pick up their families and relatives. The news slowly spread, and by the time winter came, more than 100,000 people had fled to Bingzhou and other places on their own initiative, not to mention those who had been seduced by propaganda and helped to relocate.

In one year, more than 200,000 people were relocated and divided among several families. Each family was equivalent to the loss of two or three county towns.

For this reason, several companies had to strengthen population control. Relatively speaking, the oppression of the people was not so ruthless.

However, Zou Yu still has a caravan, and the caravans of various aristocratic families have one person's mission, which is to bring back people. Whether they are stealing, robbing, or buying, they must bring back some people every time they go out.

Wang Shichong and others also thought about counterattack, and also plundered Zou Yu's population. However, in front of a large number of Gouzi troops, the casualties were light. Most of them were put back and allowed to drag their families away. This happened several times.

After that, Wang Shichong simply ignored it and continued to tighten the border seal.

Li Chun returned to his room and fell asleep. When he woke up, it was already the next morning. After drinking a bowl of ginseng soup, he appeared in front of Zou Yu full of energy.

"Prime Minister!" Li Chun shouted gratefully and bowed deeply.

"Li Langzhong came just in time! The auspicious time is coming soon." Zou Yu said with a smile and helped Li Chun up.

Looking at the 50,000 people waiting below, Li Chun felt excited and once again raised his hands and said: "Please give the order, Prime Minister!"

"The auspicious time has come! Sacrifice to heaven! Start work!" Zou Yu nodded, took two steps forward, and shouted in a serious voice.

"Prime Minister's order! The auspicious time has come! Sacrifice to heaven! Start work!" Immediately afterwards, someone passed Zou Yu's words from afar.

"Sacrifice to heaven! Start work!" A gray-haired old man shouted seriously.

Following his shout, an old cow, a sheep, and a pig were brought up! Then three men with knives came forward. When the knife went in, the cows and sheep fell down! Blood sprayed on the ground!

"Oh! Oh! Oh! Let's start the work!" The people suddenly shouted excitedly.

Sacrificing cattle, sheep, and pigs to heaven is one of the most important rituals. The three animals are called the three animals, and usually only the head is needed! However, this project is huge, and Li Chun strongly requested the use of ancient rituals, so he prepared three animals.

The blood of the three animals was spread in a circle along the altar built on the construction site, and then the construction of the dam began amidst the cheers of the people.

A huge pit with a depth of three meters, steel bars as thick as a thumb, and steel pipes as thick as a wrist were driven into the ground! Then the manually mixed concrete was poured down!

"This is too...too luxurious!" He Chou said excitedly.

"That's right! This amount of steel is enough to equip a hundred thousand troops! But it's worth it to build a thousand-year project!" Zou Yu also felt some pain in his body, his cheeks twitched in pain, and he said through gritted teeth.

Although this kind of concrete is inferior to later generations, it adds more cement to improve its strength. It can be said that the foundation consumes the most cement and steel in the entire project!

When a tall building rises from the ground, the most important thing is the foundation. This cannot be missed!

It took tens of thousands of people three days to cast the foundation. Because there were no vibrators, it took 30,000 people to stir and vibrate alone, and more than 10,000 people to transport it. You can imagine how much consumption was consumed

.

After the foundation was laid, we waited for another three days. After the initial solidification, we began to build the upper part. The people shouted slogans, lifted the bluestones, and then placed them neatly in rows.

"This kind of bluestone is so well-proportioned that water cannot escape even without cement! But with cement, there is no need to polish the bluestone, which is much faster," Li Chun said.

What Li Chun meant was that in the previous construction projects, all the bluestones were polished and arranged in a staggered manner, which could indeed prevent water leakage; but in this way, the time would be too slow.

Using cement as the adhesive, even if the bluestone is uneven, can be used the same, which will undoubtedly speed up the progress of the project.

Pieces of bluestone were placed on the logs from the mining site and then dragged to the placement site. Like ants moving, the entire dam was stacked like building blocks.

The most difficult part is to mine bluestone. Fortunately, there is still concrete that can be used. The bluestone is piled on the outside and concrete is used in the middle. However, this kind of concrete does not use steel bars, otherwise Zou Yu will go bankrupt.

Hemp pole! It's the kind of thread made from hemp. Each one is about the thickness of a finger and is inserted into the middle of the concrete to be used as a connection. Zou Yu believes in Li Chun's opinion.

According to Li Chun, this is fast enough. After all, the pure stone and the sand and gravel from the river are used. It is much faster than pure stone, not to mention that the bluestone does not have to be used.

The same goes for ordinary stone.

Li Chun was so cruel that he even wanted to build three 100-meter-long water diversion dams on the water side. With dikes to divert water, the pressure on the main dike would be much smaller.

, which is equivalent to being divided into three parts.
Chapter completed!