Chapter 900 Busyness of the Kingdom in the Lake, road construction and ashes burning
November in the far north is cold, gray and silent, just like a grizzly bear preparing to hibernate. However, the sun shines thousands of miles across thirty latitudes in an instant, and it comes to the time when the autumn harvest has been completed and it is the festival season.
Kingdom in the Lake.
The Mexica Plateau at this time of year is warm, bright and prosperous, and it is also the most suitable day for mobilizing large-scale manpower. Looking down from the heights, the kingdoms in the entire basin and lake area are like huge and prosperous ants.
Nest, there are people marching, running and busy everywhere!
"Yiyayouhe!...Bang!"
With a uniform shout, two to three hundred civilians exerted their strength and shouted in unison. A group of more than a dozen of them used ropes to pull up the big wooden stake in their hands. After a few breaths, the huge wooden stake fell hard again, beating on the ground.
The newly paved secondary county road, that is, the Sanhe dirt road, made a huge "bang bang" sound! And with the impact of large wooden piles, the somewhat superficial road surface was also hardened.
"Witness the Lord God! Be careful, tamp repeatedly, and tamp hard! I have tamped the roadbed firmly. It must be so strong that even your little finger cannot be inserted into it! At least two miles must be tamped today. Those who cannot complete it or do not meet the requirements will be whipped.
Five strokes, work all night long!"
Dust filled the air and people were noisy. The leader of the field, Tai Shishan, carried the village flag, shouted for instructions, and checked back and forth carefully. According to the instructions of the village priests, they gathered in groups of villages and flag teams, and each day
Each village is responsible for a section of road. If something goes wrong, they will be held accountable according to the village. At that time, he will be the first to be whipped, punished or even beheaded!
"Damn it! You stupid turkeys! How did you dig the drainage ditches on both sides? They have to be straight, straight! Why did you dig them at an angle, and even dug the stones of the roadbed? These are gray and white, you
Are you blind and can’t see?!”
The leader of the field, Tai Shishan, glared with one eye and looked fiercely at the men digging the ditch. The power of killing people made them tremble with fear, and they could no longer hold the wooden shovel in their hands. Tai Shishan originally
He was a Prepecha warrior who joined the army. He was injured during the Northern Expedition and was shot blind in one eye by a canine, so he withdrew from the Royal Regiment. Then, he became the leader of a village directly under the jurisdiction of Hekou County.
, that is, the actual village chief.
In the Kingdom of the Lake, as the old nobles in the countryside have been cleaned up, most of the villages are directly in the hands of the kingdom. Many injured veterans like him have become village chiefs or militiamen who manage a village.
Captain. Because their loyalty is the most reliable and they can control the countryside!
"Lord God, what kind of work are you doing! The priests said that these two ditches are for drainage in the rainy season, and they must be dug below the road surface! The ditches must be level with the road, and the bottom must be flat so that water can flow!
If you gather too much and soak the road for a long time, the roadbed will be destroyed! At that time, not only will you be whipped, but you will also have to rebuild it..."
The leader of the field, Tai Shishan, yelled and cursed a few times, and then explained in detail to the villagers. After all, they were all from the same village, and they could also be regarded as his "soldiers", so they had to show some mercy. But if it were changed
The kingdom warriors and temple guards who were on patrol could be fatal if whipped.
"Look at it all for me, let's see how I dig it! Remember, you have to work as hard as digging a ditch in the field! ... You stupid turkeys, you spent half a year building it last year, and after planting the field this year, you dug it again
I forgot all about it!…”
As he spoke, Tai Shishan, the leader of the field, swung his shovel and dug out a small, straight, deep and straight ditch. Although he was blind in one eye, he was much more energetic at work than the lean peasants.
.And the shovel in his hand was produced by the iron smelting in the Black Rock Mountain in the south of the kingdom. It was distributed to the village by the village priests, and only a few leaders had it.
To be honest, these iron tools are not as strong and durable as bronze tools, but they are definitely better than stone tools. He heard from the priest that the main advantage of these tools is that they are cheap and large in quantity, and there will be more and more of them in the future!
"Witness the Lord God! That's it, dig for me, dig hard for me! ... Whichever team does well, when they go to the inn for lunch at noon, each person will be rewarded with an extra cake! Cornmeal!"
Hearing the reward of a "cornmeal cake", the men who built the road swallowed their saliva and gained more strength in their hands. In the past two years, under the guidance of the village priest, they piled fertilizer, used farm tools, and built some
Not only have more canals and farmland been opened, but the harvest has also increased significantly by 20 to 30%. When we went out to build roads this time, we opened the village's barn, and each person can actually eat three meals a day, including pumpkin and mashed beans. However,
The tortillas, which were always only given to the samurai, were only available to teams that did well.
"Ahem! Lord God, such a big smoke is still choking!..."
A gust of wind blew by, bringing with it the black smoke of firewood and a faint, choking smell. Tai Shishan, the leader of the field, lowered his head, covered his mouth and nose, and coughed hard several times. His one eye was so choked that he shed tears.
, hurriedly made a circle to avoid the direction of downwind, and then came hundreds of steps away, where a group of busy civilians with their mouths and noses covered, their heads lowered, came.
"Ahem! Have your cooked ashes been burned?"
"It's coming, it's coming! Boss, look, the white limestone is swollen, and the big stones are cracked into small pieces... I think it will be burned until the evening, let it cool overnight, and it will be ready for use tomorrow!"
"What! Do you have to wait until tomorrow?"
"Yes! It's the order of the priest, and he's the kind of man with two words on his clothes!"
"Huh? It's the order of the divine priest... That's okay! They say one thing after another. Although I don't understand it, it should be taught by His Majesty, and it must make sense..."
Hearing this, Tai Shishan, the leader of the field, scratched his head and looked at the site in front of him where slaked lime was being fired. He saw large piles of limestone blocks or powder piled up by the farmers into the shape of a hill, with a small fire pit left in the center.
Opening the door. There were even more than one such huge ash pile, all smoking at the same time.
Looking carefully, there are firewood piled in these small openings at the moment, lighting a medium-sized fire, continuing to roast the surrounding limestone. From time to time, a farmer carefully uses a long wooden clamp to push the fire in the middle.
Add firewood to the pile.
"Huh? Is the white limestone swollen? Where can you tell it's swollen?... Well... the big stones are indeed cracked, and this pile of small gravels is just like clinker for road construction!..."
These burned slaked lime is the most important adhesive in the construction of Sanhe dirt roads. It can react with the clay in the soil to make the soil particles more tightly bonded, making the road stronger and more durable. Similarly,
Hydrated lime can also improve the waterproofing capacity of the road, reduce soil erosion, and prevent weeds from growing. Therefore, in the rainy Lake Kingdom, much more hydrated lime must be added to road construction than in dry places! This was also done last year
After completing the journey and experiencing a rainy season, the experiences and insights discovered by the divine priests were quickly spread everywhere.
"When ordinary limestone is burned, it turns into cooked ashes that can be used to build roads... Phew! It's really the power of the Lord God. Praise the Lord God!"
In Central America, which has frequent volcanic activity, there are large reserves of limestone and abundant output. This white-gray stone could not be more common.
The leader of the field, Tai Shishan, looked closely for a while and became so hot that he started sweating all over. He looked at the peasants around him, and they all looked like they were fished out of the water.
"Where is the water?"
"Boss, there! It's covered with a lid. It was fetched from the well of the inn in the morning and brought by wheelbarrow!"
"Gudu! Gudu!"
The leader of the field, Tai Shishan, left the ashes of the fire and strode to a row of large wooden barrels. He opened the lid, picked up a wooden ladle, scooped out the cool well water, and drank it in big gulps. This cool well water
Some salt was added to the water, which made it quite refreshing to drink. It was also one of the few regulations required by the kingdom.
"Praise the Lord God! You did a good job! This job of burning ashes is not easy. When we come to the inn for dinner later, everyone will add a pancake!"
"Ah! Can you eat pancakes?... Praise the Lord God! Praise the boss!..."
"Haha! And praise Your Majesty!"
"Yes! Praise Your Majesty!"
Tai Shishan, the leader of the field, drank the water and made another batch of pancakes. Then he strode towards the post station four or five miles away. The sun was almost in the sky, and it was getting a bit hot. After working hard for a long time,
Everyone was probably too tired to have much energy. He had to quickly check on the lunch meal and see how it was prepared. After all, there were hundreds of men in the village! This meal alone would have taken twenty people to cook.
Eat hundreds of kilograms of grain.
"We're almost there! This newly built inn is so enviably tight!..."
