Building roads at this time is not a simple job. Just digging is a big trouble. You must know that there are no large-scale machinery at this time. Digging up the soil and then carrying it away requires a lot of labor. What's more,
To build a road, it must be leveled, and stones must be tied to wooden sticks, and several people must carry them and hammer them down bit by bit to make them firm.
Twenty thousand people would not have two months to complete the thirty-mile road, let alone a few days.
Hui Niang, who was hiding behind the door and eavesdropping, heard the old man's words, and hot tears flowed down her face. Of course she believed her boss's words, and she clenched her little fists as if she wanted to cheer her boss up, but also seemed to want to cheer her up.
Take it out and hit the old man on the head.
Sanwazi was not nervous at all. Facing the expressions of several old people, he just laughed and said, "Uncle, listen to me."
The old man glanced at the old patriarch and saw that his face was expressionless, so he had to lower his head and continue listening.
"Originally, we were thinking like my uncle. This corvee can't be completed in less than two months. We were still worried about what to do if we ran out of dry food. I didn't expect..." Sanwazi laughed.
Shake his head.
"Wait a minute," the old patriarch looked at Sanwazi with a serious face, "just now you said that a craftsman will teach you how to do this corvee? What did he teach you?"
"This is what's different about the corvee this time," Sanwazi continued with a smile. "After we arrived, we were not arranged to do work by people from the county government as before. Instead, we were...
Yes, I remembered it, and I heard from the craftsmen that the road construction this time was not organized by the imperial court, but by Mr. Han from the Baochao Collection Department."
Baochao Jusi? The old patriarchs looked at each other, they had never heard of it. But since this kind of department can allow the county government to recruit civilians, it must be a bigger government than the county government.
They knew about the treasure banknotes, but they didn't know what the relationship between the treasure banknotes and road construction was.
Seeing that what Sanwazi said was true and not like he was just making up lies to deceive them, they were not in a hurry and continued to listen.
"After we arrived, we were divided into two groups by Mr. Han. Some went to the river to dig stones and sand, and some like me went to learn from the craftsmen to build roads. The old patriarch didn't want to know what the craftsman taught us.
? He taught us how to use cement."
cement?
Another thing they have never heard of.
"What is cement?" the old patriarch asked the thoughts of several people.
Hui Niang, who was hiding behind the door, also widened her bright eyes and raised her ears.
"A kind of magical thing." Then Sanwazi told the old patriarch and others about the magic of cement.
When Sanwazi started speaking, their mouths opened wide and never closed.
It melts when it comes into contact with water, and when mixed with water and sand and stones, it can be made into various shapes like tofu. After solidifying the next day, it will be as solid as a rock?
Is there really such a magical thing in this world?
The old patriarch and the others looked at Sanwazi with their mouths agape, and their remaining shreds of reason warned them not to believe it.
Sanwazi took a sip of water and moistened his dry throat, "Anyway, the road has been built and it's right there. If you don't believe it, you can go and have a look early tomorrow morning. And the craftsman also told me that this thing doesn't exist at all.
We are not afraid of rain erosion, so even on rainy days, there will not be any muddy water on this road. However, this road is extremely smooth, so it is good for everyone to go for a walk on a sunny day."
Aren’t you afraid of being washed away by rain?
If Sanwazi hadn't reminded them that 'the road is right there, they can go see it tomorrow', it would have been impossible to lie to them. They might have simply thought that Sanwazi was possessed by evil spirits. How could such a thing exist in this world?
But they had to believe what Sanwazi said. As long as they took a look at it tomorrow morning, it would be obvious. Sanwazi could not lie to them.
Several people left Sanwazi's house in despair, preparing to go see that magical road tomorrow.
After hearing several people leaving, Huiniang opened the door and came to Sanwazi's side.
"Head of the family." Huiniang buried her head in Sanwazi's arms.
"Huh?" Sanwazi put his arm around Huiniang's petite body.
"Tomorrow, tomorrow Hui Niang also wants to see that road." Hui Niang raised her head and looked at San Wazi pleadingly.
"Uh!" Sanwazi frowned into a black line, but soon disappeared without a trace, "Okay, let's go together tomorrow so that you can see how magical the road we built with our own hands is."
"No matter how amazing it is, it's not you, it's the cement you were talking about..." Huiniang hammered Sanwazi with her small hand.
Sanwazi then thought about it and realized that this was true. But had he forgotten something? Oh, by the way, it was cement. Since he was taught how to use cement by the craftsmen, did he learn a craft?
I felt excited. It is not easy to learn a craft these days, and it is something as magical as cement. But my craft seems to be effective only if it has cement. Without cement, it is nothing.
Things like cement must only be available to the imperial court, and it is impossible for you to get it yourself.
"The boss..."
The sound of murmuring sounded from his ears, and Sanwazi felt a small hand drawing randomly on his chest.
At this time, it is more important to create a little person to accompany Huiniang. Who cares about cement or not?
Sanwazi straightened his strong back, hugged Huiniang and entered the house.
Suddenly the spring breeze started drizzling everywhere, and the rain was sparse and the wind was violent all night.
Early the next morning, Sanwazi and Huiniang had an early meal, and then came to Cement Avenue with some dry food.
"Wow, there are so many people!" Huiniang couldn't help but marveled when she saw the people standing on both sides of the road.
These are also common people like them who come to see something strange.
The 20,000 people returned home, and naturally, like Sanwazi, they boasted about the road. Naturally, it aroused great curiosity among the people and attracted a large number of people to come and see what was going on.
These people gathered around both sides of the road and marveled, and some people walked back and forth on the road, feeling a different experience from the muddy road.
Banknote Bureau.
Han Du was lying on the desk, drawing continuously with a pen. He was drawing the structural diagram of the blast furnace.
If you want to make steel, it is natural to use a coal blast furnace.
Although the coal blast furnace has been eliminated as a product in the modern steelmaking system, as it supported the initial stage of industrial development, it is like a plug-in in this era. And this kind of blast furnace can be large or small, as small as
One household can build a furnace to make steel, but even the entire country cannot build many truly super-large blast furnaces.
Han Du will naturally not build a blast furnace that is too small, the kind that can be built by one family, and can make steel by burning wood. In fact, strictly speaking, that is not called steelmaking, that is called ironmaking. Because the blast furnace is
If it is too small, it will inevitably lead to insufficient temperature, which will not be able to reduce the carbon impurities contained in the iron.
After all, Han Du is also an official of the imperial court and has about 200 people under his command. What's more, he also has a high-quality anthracite coal mine, so he decided to build a larger blast furnace that can directly produce steel.
Just plant it.
After working hard for a long time, I finished the drawings. There were seven or eight drawings. I straightened up, relaxed my back, and gave instructions to the people on the side.
"Go and find Mr. Huang."
After a while, Mr. Huang opened the door and came in.
"Sir, are you looking for the younger one?"
Han Du nodded and ordered: "Find someone to get some clay and bake it into bricks." Han Du and Mr. Huang emphasized the size of the bricks.
Mr. Huang nodded in agreement and said casually: "This is easy. I wonder how many bricks you need to burn?"
Han Du thought for a moment, raised his head and said casually, "Let's burn ten thousand first. If it's not enough, we will add more later."
Mr. Huang was slightly startled when he heard the number of ten thousand, and said hesitantly, "Well, sir, this requires a lot of clay..."
There is no ready-made clay banknote paper here. If you don't have it, you need to spend money to buy it. This thing is not cheap. According to the size required by Han Du, the clay required for ten thousand bricks is not a small sum of money to buy.
Han Du waved his hand casually and said, "You can do it. I have great use for this thing. Just go to Xiong Shi to give you the money."
"Okay." Mr. Huang agreed and was about to go out, but was stopped by Han Du.
"Wait, where is that boy Heizi? Is he back?"
Han Du decided that among the craftsmen under him, in terms of kiln building skills, the young Heizi was the best. The cement kilns and lime kilns built later would occasionally leak smoke when they were fired, which was obviously the result of the kiln.
The sealing is not good enough.
However, there is no such phenomenon in the buildings built in front of Heizi.
One indicator to ensure high temperatures in a blast furnace is the sealing of the blast furnace. The better the sealing, the less heat will be lost inside, and the better the temperature can be obtained.
Therefore, Han Du felt that it would be better to let Heizi build the blast furnace.
"Sir, he hasn't come back yet." Mr. Huang answered truthfully.
Han Du frowned, wondering how long it had been. Could it be that Heizi hadn't taught the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry yet? But now that he was in a hurry to hire people, he couldn't control so much of the Ministry of Industry.
"If you send someone to urge you, just say that I have something important to do and you need Heizi to come back immediately. If the Ministry of Works still needs people, wait until I have used them up first."
"Okay." Mr. Huang turned around and went out, and began to make arrangements.
In the afternoon, Mr. Huang came back.
As soon as he entered the door, he started shouting, "Sir, this is not good!"
"What's wrong?" Han Du raised his head and glanced at the panicked Mr. Huang strangely.
"Sir, today someone went to the Ministry of Works to look for Heizi. The person who came back said that he had not seen Heizi, and the people from the Ministry of Works would not let him in at all."
Is there such a thing? Han Du was confused and continued to ask: "Did the person who went there say that he was the person who brought the treasure money to the ceremony?"