"Prince Censor, if you go further, you will reach the last barrier of this trip." The official in black ran to the car and reported.
Supervisor Shi Linglu nodded, closed the bamboo slips on his knees, and asked: "Which captain's camp is this?"
"It's Lieutenant Li You, commanding the soldiers and civilians of Nanjun. He sent Army Commander Zhang Han to supervise the work."
"Li You, Zhang Han?"
Linglu pondered for a moment and said secretly: "Li Younai is the son of Tingwei Li Si. He became the chief of Zuo Shu at a young age and was in charge of the military affairs of a county. The king placed high hopes on him. Zhang Han is an official of the Shaofu and is also known to be capable.
It’s called.”
"I wonder if there is any difference in the turrets built by these two people?"
Turning his head on the chariot, Linglu could clearly see that on the horizon with withered vegetation was a barrier more than ten feet high and stretching for hundreds of miles. It was like a big yellow curtain, artificially dividing the Huaibei Plain.
, Qin is to the west, and Chu is to the east. Every hundred steps, there is a turret more than two feet high standing on the rampart, with drums and flags on it, and a group of fully armed soldiers holding crossbows, vigilantly standing on it.
Stand guard.
This was the fifth day after Linglu set out. He was originally a censor, subordinate to the censor's office, and was placed in the county. He was responsible for supervising officials and reporting directly to the King of Qin. Together with the county lieutenant, he restrained the extremely powerful county guard.
.
The censor also has the responsibility of supervising the administration of the various counties in the county, as well as recommending talents found in the local areas to the central government. During the war, Linglu, as the "Censor of Chen County", had to change his identity and serve as Wang Jian's envoy to supervise the projects on the front line.
, the progress of canal transportation.
The entire barrier is divided into thirty sections, each section is basically five to ten miles long. One mile in Qin State is 300 paces, so three turrets must be built for each mile.
Along the way, Linglu was not satisfied with the quality of the entire project. Perhaps it was because of the soil quality. In his eyes, these hastily repaired barriers and turrets were really poor. Especially the turrets, they needed to be stronger than the barriers.
The hardness of the turret can be very high. But if someone from Linglu just pecks it with a spear, a large piece of the rammed earth on the turret will fall off. Some military commanders use adobe to build turrets, mixed with straw and branches to increase the adhesion.
With such intensity, I barely passed the test.
"But if the Chu army comes to attack and destroy the turret with flying stones, it will not be difficult!"
The so-called flying stone is a catapult. It was made by Fan Li during the Wuyue struggle for hegemony. It has always been a commonly used tool for siege and defense and barrier battles. It is not effective against thick city walls, but it is the nemesis of turrets and watchtowers.
Linglu could imagine that when the Chu army came to attack in large numbers, they only needed to send flying rocks weighing ten kilograms and hit them several times before the fragile turret collapsed...
Therefore, he had very strict requirements on the quality of the turrets, punished several military commanders in succession, and asked them to lead civilians to re-reinforce the turrets.
Along the way, the censor, who knew a lot about civil engineering, had a gloomy face. It wasn't until he arrived at the southernmost section where Nanjun soldiers were responsible that he showed a surprised expression.
The ramparts in charge of the Nanjun citizens were no different from those seen before, but at the first glance of the more than ten turrets from a distance, Linglu discovered something unusual about them...
Looking from hundreds of steps away, the red-yellow turrets were tall and thick. After getting closer, Linglu discovered that the bottoms were made of large pebbles or stones.
"This is to prevent rainwater from soaking and making the foundation of the turret unstable." Zhang Han, the military commander in charge of this section, hurriedly came to greet him and explained at the side.
"It is made of dry pebbles and won't be pried open?"
A clerk next to Linglu asked, but Linglu glared at him: "Didn't you notice that these big pebbles were deliberately turned with the big end inward and the small end outward?"
Linglu was not a layman who didn't know anything. On the contrary, he also worked in Shaofu for a period of time and even participated in the excavation of Zheng Guo Canal.
He knew very well that after the thick rammed earth wall was pressed against the base of the masonry wall, it would be extremely difficult to pry off the large pebbles from the outside.
Sure enough, after a few people pried it away with iron shovels for a long time, the pebble foundations were not able to move at all...
Such a turret foundation would not be easy to destroy even if the Chu army came close and wanted to quickly use hole attacks to pry it down.
Linglu was quite satisfied. He raised his head again and touched the outer wall of the turret. It was hard and dry. This was what surprised him the most. The turret looked like stone, and it was more flexible, allowing people to knock it with iron tools.
It made a sound like metal and stone! It took a lot of force to break the wall. Where could such good soil come from around here?
"This is the three combined soils."
Zhang Han explained his doubts and invited a black-faced leader over: "We also used ordinary loess to ram it at first, but due to poor soil quality, the turrets we created were fragile. Fortunately, Mr. Hei
The leader taught me how to build houses in his hometown..."
"oh?"
This was something new, and Ling Lu became interested and asked Heifu and Zhang Han to explain it in detail.
"Mix common loess, fired mirage ash, and river sand together, and this is Sanhe soil."
Heifu said it was easy, but the project in the past half month was not easy. First, the workers had to pound the loess finely and ferment it to become mature soil, and then dig fine river sand from the nearby river.
Transported across distances of several miles.
This is nothing. The most troublesome thing is the firing of "mirage ash". Mirage ash is also called oyster ash. When oyster shells are calcined, a product similar to lime can be obtained. The Qin Kingdom built palaces and bridges in a large way, but in small
This material is used in building houses and repairing ditches. It is said that it is more prosperous at the Yanqi seaside.
Although common sense tells Heifu that similar products can be obtained by firing limestone, but where can we find limestone on the deep front? Anyway, there are only a dozen turrets that need to be built, so we still use the traditional method to build the limestone from Ru River and its tributaries.
Some oyster shells were fired, but due to the limited quantity, these mirage ash only accounted for one-fifth of the proportion of Sanhe soil.
After the three are mixed together, they must be continuously beaten and turned with a mallet, and then stacked and left for a period of time to allow them to fuse and ferment. After a few days, they can be used to make building materials.
The construction process still involves building with rammed earth, but it requires continuous sprinkling of water, wet ash, and alternate ramming to solidify the three-component soil. At the same time, some gravel was added for reinforcement. After thousands of people worked for half a month, the building was built.
This sturdy turret has better performance than ordinary turrets.
The more Linglu listened, the brighter his eyes became. Finally, he waved his hand and ordered someone to use the slingshot used in the army to throw flying stones at a turret built with three-tone earth!
The aim of the flying stone weapon was very low, but the first blow was too high and barely missed the side of the turret. The second blow was also deflected. It was not until the third blow that the stone weighing more than ten kilograms hit the target.
The middle part of the turret!
A turret is different from a city wall. Flying rocks are its nemesis. If it were an ordinary turret, a large piece of it would have collapsed. However, this turret made of three-component soil did not move at all. When everyone rushed to the side and took a look, they all gasped.
It turns out that the stone only smashed off a palm-sized wall, leaving a small groove...
Heifu finally felt relieved. Although the strength of this triple earth turret was far inferior to the earth buildings he saw in later generations because of the insufficient proportion of lime, it had at least withstood the test.
His hometown in his previous life was in the south, and there was an ancient earth building in the town, which was built of rammed Sanhe soil. It is said that in addition to loess, lime, and river sand, glutinous rice soup, egg whites, shell powder, gum, and brown sugar were also added.
To put it another way, the earth building built in this way is simply invulnerable!
In his previous life, Heifu heard some old people say that during the early wars, someone tried to break down the building with artillery shells, but one shot down only made a few small dents in the earthen building. In that special decade, someone tried to demolish the building.
An earthen building fell down, but swords, guns and sticks were used to prevent it from being broken open. Finally, dozens of kilograms of explosives were used to blow it up, and a piece of it collapsed...
It can be seen that its resistance function is so strong that it can be said to be unprecedented in this era! With the strength and accuracy of the catapult, it would probably take more than ten slings and half a day to destroy one.
However, there are advantages and disadvantages. The biggest problem with Sanhetu is that the cost is too high. Even without the addition of glutinous rice soup, egg whites, etc., it is still two or three times that of ordinary turrets...
So, when Ling Luxiao asked them with interest how much manpower and time they spent, Zhang Han and Heifu also cleverly apologized to Ling Lu and said: "I dare to say to the censor, these more than ten turrets, the hours of work used
, the manpower required is more than that of ordinary turrets..."
Linglu didn't care, however: "The turrets are used to defend against enemies. What's the use of building turrets that can collapse in one blow?"
"General Wang ordered us to build a strong wall to defend it. What is a strong wall?" He once again patted the turret made of Sanhe rammed earth fondly: "This is called a strong wall!"
His face changed from the gloom that had been present in the past few days, and he praised Hei Fu and Zhang Han endlessly, and even said that he would ask for credit from General Wang on their behalf! Zhang Han also glanced at Hei Fu, feeling quite grateful.
"This building made of rammed earth is simply indestructible! If it can be extended and used in other places..."
As a censor from Xianyang, Linglu knew that King Qin's plan was not only to destroy Chu, but also to conquer the whole world. The seemingly barren and barbaric places around Jiuzhou also showed great concern when the king looked at the map.
interest.
"Everywhere you go, there are people who are loyal to you!"
This sentence sounds so thrilling and exciting.
The role of the turrets and fortresses built by these three combined earths in the battle to destroy Chu was actually very limited, but the future prospects are very promising!
Linglu was thinking very far, but at this moment, a fierce drumbeat broke his thoughts!
"Dong dong dong dong dong!"
The beating of drums was rapid and deafening from all the turrets! The soldiers above were still holding flags and waving them desperately!
The civilians were a little panicked, but the Qin soldiers who had been waiting for a long time in armor and weapons couldn't help but feel refreshed!
"Light the beacon!"
Under Heifu's order, the soldiers immediately lit the dry dung and firewood that had been prepared on the turret. The thick smoke billowed, and with the north wind, it drifted diagonally to the blue sky of winter...
Soon, countless black smoke rose from the two-hundred-mile-long Qin Army barrier from south to north, telling hundreds of thousands of Qin troops along the line a message:
"The Chu people are coming!"
ps: I have to think about the follow-up plot tonight, so I will update it tomorrow. By the way, because there is another alliance leader, I still owe 8 chapters_%.