"Do you know why the iron-making furnace suddenly collapsed?" After the injured people were all dealt with and settled, Chen Xu returned to the ward where Gong Lost to inquire about the situation.

"Master Hou, it has been several days since the iron-making furnace was repaired, because the coal and iron ore have not yet arrived, I didn't care, but because of the sudden snowstorm, I was a little worried and went to check, and found that the furnace wall showed signs of cracking, I looked for someone to prepare bricks and stones and soil to prepare for reinforcement, but I didn't want to collapse suddenly!" The public loses and wins, and he has palpitations in his heart.

"Don't know why?" Chen Xu asked with a serious face.

"I feel that the thickness of the three-layer soil used in the furnace foundation is not enough, the furnace is basically designed to be five feet thick, but it is only three feet, and the furnace wall should have used three layers ......of bricks, but only two layers of bricks were used," Gong Shengsheng said his conjecture.

"Okay, you can recuperate with peace of mind, don't think about it, I'll find out about it." Chen Xu comforted the public for losing a few words, and then came to the collapsed iron-making furnace again, at this time, Yingbu and the forbidden army had captured hundreds of slaves, helpers, and craftsmen, and they were standing densely in the snow one by one.

The Great Qin Dynasty is one of the most special and terrifying dynasties in Chinese history.

It is special because he created the first situation of China's great unification, which has influenced China for more than 2,000 years, and no Chinese emperor in later generations dared to say that he would split the country.

Horror, because of his decree, this is a dynasty with the strictest laws, the regulations on peasant merchants and craftsmen are extremely strict, people without identity and status are not allowed to serial casually, of course, except that you are a scholar, and although the status of the craftsmen of Daqin is not low, but the management is very harsh, especially for the quality requirements are simply harsh to the point of outrageous, remote mountainous areas may be better, and in big cities, especially in places like Xianyang, as long as the craftsmen have a slight negligence, they may be abolished and reduced to slavesLegend has it that the construction of the Great Wall requires that swords cannot be inserted into it, and once the construction of the standard is not up to standard, the craftsman slaves will be punished heavily, and the overseers will also be punished very severely, with light nose slashing and heavy beheading.

Therefore, the collapse of the iron-making furnace in front of the sight of more than 10 casualties is a very serious engineering quality accident, although the sky is snowing, but this is not the excuse for the collapse of the iron-making furnace, unless a meteorite fell from the sky and just smashed on the iron-making railway, otherwise there is no excuse to avoid responsibility.

Therefore, all the artisans, slaves, and managers involved in the construction of this iron-making furnace were extremely afraid.

Chen Xu didn't ask anyone first, but took Yu Wuya and Zhao Qing into the collapsed iron-making furnace, carefully watched the collapse, and then asked people to find the construction drawings, and after careful comparison, they found that it was not the same as what Gong Cheng said, the thickness of the furnace foundation on the drawings was also three feet thick, and the furnace wall was only two layers of bricks, which was no different from the furnace built in front of him, that is to say, if there was no problem with the drawings, there would be no problem with the construction.

But Chen Xu felt that he would not talk nonsense about winning or losing, because this iron-making furnace was designed by him with reference to the iron-making furnace in Qinghe Town, and he would not not know the parameters of the iron-making furnace.

The biggest possibility is that someone has stolen the drawings!

After reading it, Chen Xu came out with a black face, looked at a group of people standing in the snow and said, "Who is the overseer?" ”

"Back to the Hou Ye, the overseer is Shang Qi!" A lieutenant in charge of site safety said.

"What about people?" Chen Xu asked coldly.

"The merchant supervisor hasn't been here since the iron-making furnace was repaired!" The lieutenant replied.

"Master Hou, Shang Qi is the son of Hou Shang Tu in the left middle of the craftsman Shaofu, he used to be a waiter, and he was just transferred to the Academy of Sciences not long ago!" Zhao Qing stood next to him and whispered.

"Who were the craftsmen who were responsible for building the iron-making furnaces? Come out! ”

Chen Xu shouted, three middle-aged people and an old man with gray hair came out of the crowd, all four of them were frightened and knelt in the snow and kept kowtowing and shouting for mercy.

"I just heard Gong Chuan say that the furnace should be five feet thick, but it was only repaired three feet, and the furnace wall should have been made of three layers of masonry, but only two layers of bricks were used, and he said, who made you build it like this?"

"Hou Ye spares his life, when the construction was built, the commercial supervisor showed us the drawings, and we also built in strict accordance with the drawings, the furnace foundation is three feet, the furnace wall is two layers, and it is the same, the commercial supervisor is also strictly monitoring our construction process every day, we dare not cut corners, and we dare not have any mistakes!" The four craftsmen who presided over the construction of the iron-making furnace kowtowed like pounding garlic.

"Engong, it seems that someone has done something with this drawing, either Shang Qi or someone else, and it has nothing to do with the craftsman!" Yu Wuya stood beside him holding the iron sword and whispered.

Chen Xu nodded slightly, and said in a stern voice: "From today on, all the personnel involved in the construction of this iron-making furnace are not allowed to leave the construction site, and when I find out this matter clearly, I will deal with it, and I will take them to take care of them, and eat and drink as usual!" ”

"Huh~" After the captain saluted, with a wave of his hand, more than a dozen soldiers armed with halberds escorted all the people away.

"Everyone else has their own duties, and this matter must not be publicized, do you hear?"

"Yes, Master Hou!" A group of managers on the construction site also hurriedly bowed.

Chen Xu came to the medical room again with the drawings, and handed the drawings to Gong Sheng, who was lying on the kang: "Do you see if this is the drawing you originally designed?" ”

"No, it's absolutely not!" Gong Yisheng only glanced at it and immediately shook his head like a rattle, and at the same time involved the pain on his body, his face was trembling, "Master Hou, the iron-making furnace was designed by me personally according to the iron-making furnace in Qinghe Town, because the volume has been enlarged a lot, I have increased the thickness of the furnace base and furnace wall by three times for safety, I remember clearly how it could be wrong, although the iron-making furnace drawn on this drawing is very similar to what I drew, but I use two kinds of numbers to mark it, and there is only one ...... on it."

After getting the affirmative answer of winning or losing, Chen Xu confirmed that the drawings of the iron-making furnace in his hand were indeed dropped, so he arranged for all the people on the construction site who had come into contact with this drawing to find them, and then Chen Xu felt that he could not continue the investigation at this time, because there were more than 20 people, and this did not include some officials of the Academy of Sciences, if they were all added together, there were at least more than 30 people, these people had stewards, supervisors, craftsmen, and guards, most of whom were officials transferred from large and small Lang officials.

In fact, the current Great Qin, is gradually transitioning to the stage of a gate valve rule, because there is no such system as opening a branch to take scholars, so the officials of the Great Qin come from a variety of backgrounds, before the unification, the officials are generally self-recommended or recommended by others, the monarch feels that your theory is in line with the appetite will enable you, many of them are also the family inheritance of the princes and princes, belonging to the semi-hereditary state, and the ordinary learned Hanmen still have the possibility of entering the court as officials.

But after the unification of the Six Kingdoms, the advancement of the ordinary Han clan was basically strangled to death, the world was unified, the princely and princely group has formed a group of scholars with the family as the force, and even the identity of the doorman has been gradually abandoned, and the recommended ones are the children of the family, and the subordinate offices of Lang Zhongling are the gathering places of Lang officials, all of which are the descendants of the princes and princesses, and the status of the official candidate exists, where there is an official vacancy, and then there are many people who want to compete for this position, Therefore, some interest groups have gradually formed above the court, fighting openly and secretly with each other.

Although the newly established Great Qin Academy of Sciences does not have a specific management unit, Chen Xu's status is special, and he is also deeply valued by Qin Shi Huang, so the Academy of Sciences has also transferred dozens of Lang officials and turned them into official-level officials.

Therefore, if Chen Xu wants to investigate this matter thoroughly, he must interrogate these people one by one.

The craftsmen and guards are easy to say, but what about those officials in charge, although it is possible to find the real mastermind behind the strict interrogation, but in the end, Chen Xu will offend countless princes and princes.

Chen Xu pinched his chin and thought for a long time before dispelling the idea at the beginning, redrew a drawing of the iron-making furnace, and reconvened the craftsmen to build, and for safety, he deliberately asked Yingbu to lead a team of forbidden troops to garrison the construction site to supervise and be responsible for protecting Gong Sheng, the infirmary was strictly guarded, and no one could approach, and announced to the public that Gong Shengsheng had been seriously injured and unconscious.

"Engong, the biggest possibility in this matter is that prison Gongqi!"

After arranging the things on the ground, he returned to the Qinghe Hou Mansion and it was completely dark and Yu Wuya said during dinner.

Chen Xu frowned and nodded: "I also suspect that it is him, but there are no clues at the moment, and he can also insist that he is strictly supervised according to the drawings, if you directly ask him to investigate this matter, it will be a dead end!" ”

"That's not necessarily, I'll go and kidnap him in the middle of the night, and I'm not afraid of torture without saying anything!"

"No, what if it's not him, once the grass startles the snake, the person who handles it may be wiped out, I must dig out this pest hidden in the Academy of Sciences and cut it off completely, otherwise it will be destroyed once, twice or three times, and sooner or later something will happen if it is impossible to prevent it, and fortunately the iron smelting has not yet begun, if a furnace of coal and iron juice is dumped, I am afraid that I will not even be able to find the bones and slag!" Chen Xu said with some palpitations.

"So what do we do?" Yu Wuya nodded and said.

"Tomorrow, you go to Mengfu to invite Meng Yun to come, they must know a lot of people in Xianyang, let them inquire in secret must be much faster than us sitting at home and guessing, as long as it can be confirmed that Shang Qi did it, hehe, Lao Tzu will definitely pinch his eggs!" Chen Xu gritted his teeth and said.

"Hehe, I like this method!" Yu Wuya let out a pleasantly surprised laugh.