Autumn harvest and autumn ploughing occupy a lot of human resources, more than ninety percent of the people are busy in the fields, and the people and horses who are still continuing to build the railway are less than 100,000, although this is still a very large group, but compared with the long length of the railway line, it still seems that the manpower is insufficient. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In order to transport all kinds of materials and support the road builders in front, the imperial court collected a large number of carriages and related personnel in the area of Guanzhong and Luoyang, and even the baggage of the army near the capital was also used in large quantities.

The number of these carriages exceeded 5,000, most of which came from the caravans of Chang'an and Luoyang, after all, after the operation of the railway, a large number of goods were transported by rail, and the carriage transportation industry between Chang'an and Luoyang suffered a major setback, since there was not much business to do, only to switch to other lines of business or join the railway system, and after the imperial court decided to collect carriages to transport materials, these people found an opportunity to make quick money, and joined the team of transporting railway materials, thus soon becoming a supply lifeline for the road construction army.

Of course, the supply team from the capital is the main force, almost all the rails are sent from here, but in terms of grain and grass, the counties along the way provide a greater demand, as early as before the construction of the railway, that is, before the autumn harvest last year, the imperial court has ordered that the grain collected by the counties along the way is stored on the spot, and does not have to be transported to Chang'an City, thus facilitating the supply of the road construction and greatly relieving the transportation pressure.

In addition, many counties along the route have a large number of forest resources, and these counties with resources are also responsible for providing sleepers for the railway system, and some counties with mountains provide gravel nearby, so as to further reduce the pressure on transportation.

Now, most of the people in the counties along the way have gone back to harvest and cultivate in the autumn, and new grain will soon be produced, and this time, the counties along the way will, in accordance with the requirements of the imperial court, cancel the collection of this year's field tax, and let the people bring their own grain to participate in the construction of the railway, so as to further improve the efficiency of the construction of the railway and reduce the pressure on logistics.

Of course, in addition to the backward carriage transportation, the cargo steam car and steam ship that were successfully developed a few months ago were also put into the operation of transporting materials, and a few months later, the number of steam cars put into transportation was as high as 300, and although there were only 10 steam ships, the number of towed transport ships was as high as 200, and the transportation volume was still very large.

Among them, the load of the steam freight vehicle is five times that of the horse-drawn carriage, and the efficiency is at least twice that of the horse-drawn carriage, so that a freight steam car can hold at least ten horse-drawn carriages.

The transport volume of the transport ship is much larger than that of the steam car and the horse-drawn carriage, however, the speed is slower, and only part of the road leading to the west can be used, and most of the area is not accessible by water, so the efficiency is also limited, but it can greatly relieve the transportation pressure of the eastern section, so that many horse-drawn carriages can directly wait for the materials of the cargo ship to be transferred directly in the west of the capital nearly thousands of miles away, and then continue to transfer to a farther place.

Of course, in the process of laying, most of the manpower is concentrated in the section of the road near the capital, so that the railway from the capital has been paved for hundreds of miles in a few months, and in this way, a large number of freight trains can be deployed to transport the materials of the capital to hundreds of miles away.

In this way, horse-drawn carriages and steam wagons can be used to wait for supplies directly hundreds of miles away from the capital, and they can be transferred.

With the continuous popularization of machinery in the field of agriculture, Li An believes that it will not be long before more people will be liberated from agriculture and join the field of industry and handicrafts, so that Datang will become more rich and powerful, and after the popularization of various machinery, the process of building railways will continue to accelerate, and in a limited time, more railways will be built, which will greatly promote the commercial prosperity of the Tang Empire.

In these days of the autumn harvest, Ang Lee's attention to the artillery unit continued to weaken, because the artillery had begun to get on the right track and did not need much attention, so that more energy could be invested in the research and development of machinery.

And Li An also lived up to expectations, in a very short period of time, developed a lot of practical machinery, the first to be put into production is the steam crane, is specially prepared for laying rails artifact, with this equipment, when laying rails, you can greatly improve the laying efficiency.

In addition, the bulldozer was also quickly developed and put into production, the difficulty of developing this machine is the smallest, but the requirements for power are relatively high, for which three steam engines were installed to increase the power, so as to push more earthwork.

Of course, in addition to various machinery, Ang Lee also invented a lot of practical non-mechanical products, such as combined steel beams, when encountering a river that is not wide, build several piers in the middle of the river, and the steel beams can directly connect these piers, thus forming a complete bridge.

And because the weight of the train is relatively large, therefore, the requirements for the bridge pier and the steel beam are also relatively high, and the steel beam is finally connected into an arch to decompose the pressure on the bridge deck, ensure that the steel beam does not break, and ensure the safety of train traffic.

These scientific research results were quickly applied to the construction of railways, and effectively increased the speed of railway construction, so that the two railway arteries could be unblocked as soon as possible.

When building the piers, it takes a lot of time and manpower, which attracted Ang Lee's attention, and immediately decided to develop a new material that can quickly build the piers, and at the same time have a greater effect.

This material is the cement of later generations, and its composition and structure are extremely simple, only need to mix lime and clay together, and after simple treatment, the simplest cement can be obtained, and it can be used normally after adding water.

Of course, theory is theory, and practice is the only criterion for testing the truth, and after having his subordinates bring in a large amount of lime and clay, Ang Lee officially began to do experiments.

However, lime is very hand-burning, so Ang Lee will not do it himself, these dirty jobs are tiring, just let the people under his hands do it.

After some trial and error, Ang Lee finally mastered the best way to make cement, and the cost is extremely low, which is suitable for large-scale mass production.

There are a large number of lime ore and clay ore in the Guanzhong area, and the abundance of raw materials far exceeds that of iron ore, so as long as there is enough manpower, Datang will definitely not lack cement in the future.

After the successful development of cement, Ang Lee immediately experimented with concrete, that is, cement, sand and crushed stone blocks were mixed in proportion to form a stronger solid solid.

Of course, the stronger should be reinforced concrete, but although the Tang Empire used black powder to double the mining of iron ore, due to the large demand for railways and various machinery, the iron material is still insufficient, so the reinforced concrete can not be used too much, and it is too simple to make steel bars and add them to concrete.

Whether it is the two raw materials of cement, or sand and gravel, Datang has sufficient raw materials, which cannot be used for hundreds of millions of years, so cement and concrete are the most suitable for large-scale promotion.

Li An has already thought that in the future, the piers of the Datang Bridge should be made of concrete, even reinforced concrete, so as to greatly improve the efficiency of construction, as well as the firmness of manufacturing, and the bridge body can also use the same materials, so that the bridge can be built on the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in the future, so as to greatly affect the trade on both sides of the river, improve the lives of the people, and promote the circulation of materials.

Of course, the usefulness of cement and concrete is not limited to this, but also for building hard roads, building strong houses, repairing city walls, etc., cement can be used as a basic material, so the value of this promotion is needless to say.

The premise of promoting all this is that it is necessary to obtain the support of the emperor and ministers as soon as possible, so that they can understand the huge role that cement can play, so as to fully support Datang's cement industry.

Li An personally instructed his subordinates to make cement blocks and concrete blocks, and asked them to carry these two things directly into the palace, so that the emperor and his ministers could see the cement blocks and the properties of concrete blocks with their own eyes.

"Everyone, Li Shilang came in with two things, which looked very heavy, and one of them had to be carried by more than a dozen people."

The little eunuch hurriedly reported the situation.

"Oh, Li Shilang has made something good again, what is it."

"It looks like a strip of stone, but it's certainly not a stone, and the little slave can't figure it out."

Li Longji suddenly became interested, stepped out of the Zichen Palace, and greeted him in person.

"Wechen see Your Majesty."

"Li Shilang, what is this?"

Li Longji was stunned when he saw the smooth cement blocks and concrete blocks, he was sure that he had never seen such a thing, that is, these things were all made by Li Anxin.

"Your Majesty, this is a cement block and concrete block newly developed by Weichen, and I am here to dedicate it to Your Majesty."

Li Anzheng replied.

"Cement blocks, concrete blocks? How is it done? ”

Li Longji frowned and asked, after all, even the most skilled craftsmen did not have such a smooth surface of the stone bricks, and this surface did not look like it had been polished.

Li An also didn't care about the leakage, and directly told Li Longji and many eunuchs about the materials and processes of making cement, and explained the materials and functions of concrete.

After listening to Li An's explanation, Li Longji was stunned for a long time, he knew all these materials, and he knew that Datang had a large number of raw materials, but he didn't know that after mixing these things, they could produce such a great effect, which was beyond the scope of his cognition.

"I really didn't expect that these materials can be mixed together to make such a strong thing, which is even more powerful than firing city bricks with clay!"

Li Longji sighed with emotion, and snatched the dust from the little eunuch's hand, smashed it a few times, and showed a satisfied smile.

"Your Majesty, cement and concrete are extremely strong, especially concrete, which is much stronger than city bricks, and it is difficult for swords to hurt their roots, Your Majesty can let the guards test with swords."

Ang Lee opened his mouth to suggest.

Li Longji felt that it was necessary to test it, and immediately ordered a few guards at the gate of Zichen Hall to use the swords and spears in their hands to hit these two pillars at will, and there was a reward for breaking them.

However, with a crackling sound, the two pillars did not suffer much damage, only the surface was destroyed, among them, the cement block was more seriously damaged, and the concrete block was less damaged, in addition, a large number of sparks were splashed, the scene was quite lively, attracting a large number of onlookers officials, after all, such a big movement, everyone came out to see what was going on.

"Your Majesty, if you replace it with a sledgehammer, you will definitely be able to break it."

A guard whose hands were shaken and hurt said loudly.

"Haha! The sledgehammer is ready, give it a try! ”

Li An had already prepared a sledgehammer, but he didn't take it out, so he tried the power of the sword first, and then tried the sledgehammer, which was more enjoyable.

"Boom, boom......"

The power of the sledgehammer is really much stronger than the sword, after a few hammers, the cement pillar was smashed step by step, but the concrete is still only injured, and gradually a small amount of loss, after dozens of smashes, only a third of the material is lost.

"Alright, almost, stop."

Li Longji didn't want to watch it anymore, through this performance, he already had a very clear understanding of the performance of cement and concrete, of course, there was no need to let the guards keep smashing down.

"Your Majesty, in addition to being strong, cement can also have the effect of adhesion, after pasting the two city bricks with cement, as long as they are dry, the two city bricks will be firmly attached together, and they can't be separated."

Li An opened his mouth to introduce and asked his subordinates to demonstrate the use of cement on the spot.

In order not to stain the floor tiles of the palace, Ang Lee prepared several large wooden planks in advance and put them together as a place to make mud.

In this demonstration, Ang Lee used the method of mixing cement and sand, first mixing cement and sand according to a certain ratio, and then adding an appropriate amount of water, and constantly stirring until it was uniform.

After the cement was reconciled, cement was piled on one side of one brick, and the second brick was piled up and compacted.

Of course, since it was a test, it was natural that only two bricks could be glued, so Li An asked his subordinates to glue all the 20 bricks prepared together, and in accordance with the principle of stacking elements, criss-crossing and stacking more than 20 pieces of city walls together.

In this way, you only need to wait for these cements to dry naturally, and then you can hit them with a sledgehammer to see the adhesion effect of these cements.

It takes a long time for cement to dry, after all, the cement made by Ang Lee is ordinary and can't be ordinary cement, as for the fast-drying cement, Ang Lee hasn't made it yet, maybe it will be made in the future!

And Li Ang obviously won't let Li Longji stand outside and wait for the cement to dry naturally, which will take too long.