There has just been a heavy rain, which makes the already bumpy road in the Meridian Valley more slippery, although the framework of the first half of this section has been built, but because of the current situation, Liu Yi is only in the first half of the construction, as for the second half, can only wait for the end of the war to say, the people were put back half, this road repair is not free of charge, the price of 100 yuan a day is not low, so there is no need to worry about not being able to gather people at that time.

Seeing that the mountain road was difficult to walk, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, after the heavy rain, Liu Yi asked the craftsmen to take two days off, and there was no money, but one meal a day was still provided.

In Liu Yi's temporary tent, a huge sand table occupies at least half of the space of the tent, which is from Yangping Pass to the Meridian Valley The mountains and rivers in this area, all of them are presented on this sand table, Liu Yi carefully compared the map, during this time, in addition to supervising, the most he did was to explore the terrain under the leadership of the guide, and after a few months, the terrain and mountains and rivers from Yangping Pass to the Meridian Valley were like a pattern in Liu Yi's heart, and then this sand table was made.

Not to say that it is exactly the same, but the approximate proportions and topography will not be wrong, this thing, for Liu Yi, the biggest role is to improve his own design, of course, it is also applicable to the military, with this sand table, as long as the information sent by the scout is timely, the enemy's movements, for Liu Yi there is no secret at all.

"To erect an arch bridge here, the bracket must be done first, with a length of three feet and five feet and six inches, a height of one foot and three feet, and a width of one foot and two feet." Liu Yi pointed to the location of a mountain stream, and said to the craftsmen beside him, although the people stopped working, Liu Yi would carefully make subtle modifications to the design of the road every day.

"Sir, we have also seen it here before, the three-foot-five-foot-six-inch bracket is not easy to transport, this weight is too heavy, and the road in this area has not been repaired, it is not easy to transport it, and the crane can't go up." A craftsman frowned.

The bracket is made of iron, this year, but there is no welding technology, these brackets must be cast in the workshop now, and then sent up, Liu Yi is to study the cement, but it is only cement, not concrete, it is impossible to complete the construction only by cement, after the bracket is placed, it is necessary to lay a layer of wooden planks, and then build with cement and masonry, these problems abound in the Meridian Valley.

"I've thought about this too!" Liu Yi nodded and looked at a group of craftsmen: "Can you try to make these brackets into a mortise and tenon structure when casting, so that the brackets can be disassembled into one by one, transported to the place, and then assembled?" ”

His casting skills have been level six, this kind of difficult thing used to be difficult to cast, but now with the problem of furnace temperature solved, some simple smelting operations can be carried out, although the bracket that comes out of this way is not directly a whole firm, but in general, most of the attributes of this kind of bridge will have properties such as solidity and stability, which should be able to make up for the lack of this aspect.

"Maybe you can give it a try!" Several blacksmiths heard this, but their eyes lit up, they followed Liu Yi when they were in Mocheng, and they themselves have a certain blacksmith foundation, and they have followed Liu Yi to the south and north over the years, not just a simple iron, many times, but also need to overcome some difficulties.

"Take advantage of the rest now, try to make a pair first, if it is feasible, you will use this for bridge construction in the future, but the bracket under the bridge can't be like this." Liu Yi nodded and smiled.

"Don't worry, sir, I'll know what to do." Several blacksmiths agreed.

With this idea, many problems can be done in this way, and some people even suggested that we try to make a large scaffold thirty zhang long, so that this large scaffold alone can make the new army at least thirty miles less mountain road in the future.

Liu Yi didn't agree directly, but he could give it a try, if it was really successful, this Meridian Valley Road would save half of the distance just in terms of distance.

Starting from Hanzhong to walk the Meridian Valley to leaving the Qinling Mountains, the distance is actually more than 300 miles from the map, but in fact, the distance on the way up the mountain and down the mountain, the real distance is twice or even three times the distance of the map, if you can build a bridge as long as 30 zhang, and it can be stable, there are too many roads that can be saved.

But the design of the bridge is not simply to build a bridge and finish, there are many things to consider, especially the bridge of 30 zhang long, which is suspended, how to solve the load-bearing problem apportionment, how to fix and so on, in terms of the current technical level, to solve these problems, I am afraid that there are many things to do under the bridge body to stabilize the bridge body.

"Sir!" Huang Zhong walked in quickly and saluted Liu Yi.

"Old General, what's the matter?" Liu Yi saw that Huang Zhong's face was solemn, knowing that it was related to the military, he waved his hand, and the craftsmen in the tent retreated with interest.

"Traces of Cao Jun have been discovered." Huang Zhong said in a deep voice.

"Oh? How many centaurs are there? When Liu Yi heard this, he hurriedly asked, "Who is leading the troops?" ”

"It's not a large team, it's just that the Cao Army scouts have been discovered, and the sentry is afraid of revealing his whereabouts, so he doesn't dare to get too close." Huang Zhong shook his head, the Shu army is good at mountain warfare, and most of the scouts sent are elite, so they rely on their strong adaptability to the terrain and can hide their tracks without being discovered by enemy scouts, if this is in the plains, it is not so easy.

"Do you know the approximate range?" Liu Yi pointed to the sand table and motioned to Huang Zhong to mark the other party's location.

Generally, scouts have an approximate range of intelligence, and knowing the location of the scouts, the approximate area where the opponent's main force is located can be inferred.

"This area!" After Huang Zhong looked at the sand table for a while, he pointed to the approximate location with his finger: "It depends on the situation, it is really the meridian road!" ”

"It's already a hundred miles into the Qinling Mountains?" Liu Yi looked at the position and said with some surprise: "Send a few elite scouts to explore along this area, try not to be discovered, a team of three, if you are really discovered, do it cleanly, this road is dangerous, scouts are not familiar with the road, it is common to get lost or fall off the cliff, but remember to be careful, if you are unsure, try to avoid the other party's scouts, and be sure to find out the specific location of the other party and the number of soldiers and horses." ”

Liu Yi didn't let more scouts be sent, it was easy to expose the crowd, he was not sure whether Cao Jun would take the way of sneak attack, and he didn't know whether the other party would go to Meridian Valley, so he took the way of casting a wide net, now that he already knows that the other party is going to Meridian Valley, he naturally can't send so many people anymore, which only increases the risk of exposure, but the people who probe this time must be the elite of the elite.

Huang Zhong nodded, he also meant this.

"How's the battle going over there at Yangping Pass?" Liu Yi frowned and asked, since Cao Jun has appeared on the Meridian Valley, although he has not yet received the enemy, it is almost time for the Yangping Pass side to fight, Liu Yi has been busy building roads these days, but he doesn't know much about the information on the Yangping Pass side.

"Ma Chao had led the army to Yangping Pass the day before yesterday, and the two sides had already fought each other." Huang Zhong is in charge of these things, and the news of Yangping Pass has already come yesterday.

"Ma Chao~" Liu Yi smacked his lips, this plot is not the same as in history, or it is all messed up, but I don't know if there is a chance to recruit Ma Chao.

Although the character is not good, but if Ma Chao can be recruited over, in the future, the role of Ma Chao can not be ignored in Xiliang and Guanzhong, General Shenweitian's influence among the Qiang people is very high, with Ma Chao, as long as the troops are ready here, the Qiang people in Xiliang can at least fight for it, and they can directly take the lead.

"Send someone to inform Wen Chang, find an opportunity to hit the Naxi Liang Army first!" Liu Yi looked at the position of Yangping Pass and said with a smile, he left a lot of backhands in Yangping Pass, although he wanted to recruit Ma Chao, but if Ma Chao was too strong, with Ma Chao's temperament, it was easy to have problems, so no matter whether he could recruit Ma Chao or not, he had to weaken the strength of Ma Chao's subordinates first, and when he had the opportunity to surrender, Ma Chao entered Hanzhong, and he couldn't make many waves, it was best to send him to Shuzhong to help Liu Bei, Liu Yi didn't have the heart to deal with these bad things.

"Whoa!" Huang Zhong nodded in agreement, although he didn't know why Liu Yi had such an idea, but since Liu Yi said it, there was naturally Liu Yi's consideration, not to mention that Ma Chao was an enemy, Huang Zhong naturally didn't need to think so much about the enemy.

……

Meridian Valley, on the other side.

Seeing that the two Cao soldiers fell off the cliff because of carelessness, and the soldiers around him couldn't pull it too late, the deputy general Cao Rong came to Xiahou Yuan's side and said: "General, it has just rained, and the road is already difficult to walk, but now it is even more slippery, it is better to rest for a day before leaving!" ”

Xiahou Yuan rubbed the mud under his feet, shook his head and said, "We don't have much military rations to carry in the future, if we repair it at this moment, I am afraid it will be difficult to get out of this meridian valley and let the soldiers speed up the march." ”

"Snort~"

With a slip under his feet, Xiahou Yuan fell down, but fortunately, Cao Rong was quick and grabbed Xiahou Yuan.

"General be careful!" Cao Rong pulled Xiahoudun up, and said with some fear.

Xiahou Yuan nodded silently, looked at the abyss with palpitations, hurriedly turned his head, did not dare to look again, followed the soldiers, attached to the mountain wall, and carefully moved forward step by step, the mountain road of more than 100 zhang walked for more than an hour before passing.

"Let the soldiers wipe the mud off the soles of their feet before leaving!" Xiahou Yuan stopped, sat on the bluestone on the side of the road, took off his shoes and removed the mud from the soles of his shoes on the bluestone before putting them on, looked at the mountain road in front of him, and instructed Cao Rong.

"Whoa!" Cao Rong nodded, and asked the soldiers to clean the soles of their shoes first, while Xiahou Yuan took out the map and saw that they were only a hundred miles into this Meridian Valley now, and further on, they had to walk at least two hundred miles, which could only be walked for more than ten miles a day, and this speed was just now, so how could they have time to stop and rest?

Seeing that the soldiers were almost cleaned up, Xiahou Yuan took the map into his arms and continued to urge the soldiers to move forward.