"I have seen a lot of lime, and people used it a lot in the past, but no one has ever been able to build such a long road in three days with lime. You should talk about your cement."
"Yes," Han Du thought for a moment and continued: "Xiaguan's original idea of making cement came from lime." Han Du did not dare to say that he knew about the existence of cement, but found a reasonable
excuse.
"When Xiaguan saw that lime could be used to build stones in sand, he was thinking, since lime has a certain adhesiveness and can be used to build stones together, is it possible to make a kind of adhesive that has the properties of lime?
Ten times as much stuff comes out? And since it can be used to build stones, can it be used to bond sand to become a stone? After all, there is not much difference between sand and stone, and sand can also be regarded as small stones."
Tang He listened to Han Du's words and felt that the more he listened, the more sense it made. Moreover, the truth was so simple, and so on. However, it has been hundreds of years since people started using lime. Why did they never use lime before?
No one has thought about it like Han Du?
"Later, Xiaguan asked craftsmen to make various attempts. Fortunately, Xiaguan actually made this kind of thing. Because it looks like putty and solidifies when exposed to water, it was called "Xiaguan" by Xiaguan.
It’s cement.”
Tang He listened to Han Du's explanation and kept nodding. Suddenly he saw a gray-white stone on the side of the road that was completely different from usual. He walked over in three steps, picked it up, showed it to Han Du, and asked
: "This is sand solidified with cement?"
Han Du nodded blankly. This should be a piece of concrete that fell out during road construction. No one noticed it. Over time, it solidified into one piece.
Tang He squeezed it hard a few times, but it didn't move, and then he broke it with both hands.
A snap, a low sound.
Tang He broke off a piece with his hands, looked at the broken area carefully, threw the concrete block to the ground, clapped his hands clean and exclaimed, "It's as hard as a rock."
"Your Majesty, this cement is really a good thing." Tang He sighed as he looked at the road under his feet.
As a veteran on the battlefield, he understands the significance of roads for marching and fighting.
Lao Zhu smiled and nodded.
At this time, Han Du heard noisy noises in the distance and looked up. He saw a large group of people walking towards here. Each of these people were wearing crimson official uniforms. They stood up casually.
One person has a higher official position than Han Du.
Such movement naturally attracted the attention of everyone present, including Lao Zhu.
Moreover, Han Du also noticed that Lao Zhu, who was smiling just now, now had a gloomy look on his face.
People often say that a woman can fall out of love faster than she can read a book. But compared with the emperor, it is nothing to mention. And for an emperor like Lao Zhu who is so cunning, you don't even know that he has fallen out of love.
Han Du shrank his head, deeply afraid that Lao Zhu would notice him at this time, and also confused, wondering why these ministers from the DPRK and China came together?
"I am late to accompany you. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
All the ministers bowed down together.
Han Du and others also bowed down together again.
Facing the kneeling ministers, Lao Zhu lowered his eyes slightly and pondered for a moment and said: "Pingshen, please get up."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
The ministers then slowly got up from the ground.
As soon as everyone stood up, an old minister tried to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang, "If a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, the emperor will have a body of ten thousand gold..."
Unexpectedly, Lao Zhu didn't wait for him to finish speaking. He just gave this person a cold look and waved his hand.
Seeing this, the old eunuch immediately shouted, "Get off! Go back to the palace!"
Lao Zhu stepped directly into the car and drove, signaling Tang He and Li Wenzhong to follow.
Seeing this, the old minister could only hold back what he wanted to say, and his face turned red from holding back.
But Lao Zhu was not interested in listening to him at all. After Lao Zhu sat firmly, the driver began to turn around and drive towards the capital.
Several ministers looked at each other and reluctantly followed Lao Zhu's car and left.
The group of ministers who had just arrived in the dust did not even finish a sentence before they followed Lao Zhu away in the dust.
Han Ducai watched them go away and then said to himself in confusion, "What's going on?"
"Sir, I took a closer look just now and found that all the ministers of the six departments have arrived. Maybe something big has happened." Seeing Han Du's confusion, Xiong Shi explained.
Han Du glanced at Xiong Shi in surprise, "I can't tell, you actually know all the ministers of the six departments. Then why are you just an eighth-grade official?"
To be honest, Han Du didn't know any of the six ministers except Xue Gongbu, including his immediate boss Hubu Shangshu. Although Han Du saw old Xue in front of the crowd just now, Han Du
I didn't think much about it, I just thought that these were just ordinary ministers of the imperial court, and I never thought that six ministers had arrived at the same time just now.
It seems that it is possible that, as Xiong Shi said, something big happened to the court, otherwise the six ministers would not have come together to find Lao Zhu.
Alas, I hope it won't be the Northern Yuan invaders. Han Du dislikes things like war and chaos the most. "I would rather be a peace dog than a rebel", he still likes to live in peace and prosperity.
After being teased by Han Du, Xiong Shi looked ashamed and said, "The adults are joking. I know them, but they don't know me."
"Haha, just kidding, don't worry about it." Han Du also comforted with a smile.
Huang Lao came over at this time and saw Han Du laughing happily, so he also smiled and asked, "Why are you so happy, sir?"
"Ah? It's nothing. Isn't it worthwhile to be happy that the road is repaired?" Han Du covered up and changed the topic.
Mr. Huang was caught off guard by Han Du and could only agree, "Huh? Of course this is something to be happy about."
"Well," Han Du nodded and told Mr. Huang, "Before, you said that coal transportation was inconvenient, but now I have built the road for you. You must take the matter of coal mining to your heart."
"This..." Mr. Huang was a little embarrassed, "Sir, although the road has been repaired, there is still three miles of land from the coal mining place to the road. This road is also extremely difficult to walk. Sir, can you see if we can
Have you built this section of road together?”
In Huang Lao's view, with the way your Lord is building roads, building another three miles of road is not a big deal at all.
After all, what he wants is not a three-foot-wide avenue like the adults built. He only needs to be able to build a five- or six-foot-wide path, as long as it can accommodate two people walking side by side.
As a result, the speed of mining coal ore will inevitably increase significantly.
Han Du had already made a plan in his mind. He patted Mr. Huang on the shoulder and said, "You don't have to worry about this. Although I will not build a cement road in the last three miles, I will build a cement road in the last three miles to make you more comfortable."
A satisfactory way out."
What road can be better than cement road?
Mr. Huang shook his head and couldn't figure it out. But since it was said by an adult, it must be true. After seeing what Han Du had done in the past few days, Mr. Huang had unparalleled confidence in Han Du.
When Han Du heard Huang Lao talk about the problem of coal mining, he thought of something, or something. When he was playing games in his previous life, he once entered the mines in the game. At that time, he
His eyes only saw the enemies hidden in the mines, and he never paid close attention to the fact that besides enemies, there were other things in the mines.
That's the minecart!
The mines in the game were all modeled after real mines, and mine carts were naturally placed everywhere. It was a shooting game, and he even used mine carts as bunkers to avoid bullets from many enemies.
.
Han Du now recalled that there were not only mine carts in the mine at that time, but also tracks laid on the ground.
Since Mr. Huang complained that coal mines are easy to mine but difficult to transport from the mountainside, can he make a track that extends directly from the mine to the cement road like in the game?
We are making some minecarts. When the time comes, the craftsmen will mine the coal ore, load it into the minecart, and then lower the minecart directly from the mountainside, and the minecart will slide along the track all the way here.
In this way, wouldn't it save the trouble of carrying the coal mine down the mountain?
Not only does it save time and effort, but it is also ten times more efficient than using a human back.
How much coal ore can one person carry down the mountain at one time? It's only one or two hundred kilograms.
However, a mine cart can carry more than one ton of coal ore at a time. A mine cart can carry as much as ten people, and the speed is still fast.
It would take an hour for a person to carry 200 kilograms on his back down the mountain, and then stop and go to get here.
But how long does it take for a minecart to get here from halfway up the mountain? Maybe not even a minute.
The only problem is that whether it is laying tracks or making mine carts, steel is needed, and Handu does not have steel at the moment.
Not only did Handu not have it, but the imperial court didn't even have much steel.
The words "steel is made into steel" are not just words.
With current technology, if you want to make iron into steel, there is only one way, and that is for a blacksmith to hit it with a big hammer.
Thinking of this, Han Du almost covered his face in shame.
As a person who traveled to the Ming Dynasty, I thought about making treasure banknotes all day long, and actually forgot about steelmaking.
Steel is known as the backbone of the industrial age. Without the support of a large amount of steel, no industry of any kind would have room for development.
Thinking of steelmaking, Han Du felt anxious.
But the current matter, no matter how urgent it is, must be dealt with first.
Several county magistrates worked tirelessly to recruit civilians to help Handu build roads. He couldn't just rush back to build a blast furnace and make steel without saying a word of thanks, right?
In that case, it would seem that Han Du is too utilitarian.