In the end, Lu Yuan had to follow Tang Ying's suggestion and ask the mason to build a shrine in the open space opposite the official office.

The ancestral hall is dedicated to his statue, so that these people of Qingquan Village do not have to kneel in front of their yamen in the future to express their gratitude.

Lu Yuan didn't expect that he was just thinking about strengthening himself from beginning to end, and he didn't want to save the country and save the people.

But these people of Qingquan Village have already started a personality cult against him, and they are still spontaneous, and the reason is nothing more than that they have made them full.

Lu Yuan had to admit that these people really knew how to be grateful, instead of making a false gesture like the Western colonizers who killed the Indians after killing them.

"Lu Lang, now after the spinning workshop begins to operate, the cost of the spring breeze cloth of the entire weaving mill has dropped significantly, which can save a large amount of the cost of purchasing cotton yarn, this saved money, I plan to use this money to repair the road, the road in Qingquan Village is particularly difficult to walk, and in the future, there will be tens of thousands of catties of iron ore and tens of thousands of stone grain transported in every month, as well as cotton yarn, which are transported out, and there is no good road."

After Tang Ying came to Qingquan Village, Lu Yuan basically began to hand over the entire civil affairs to her, so that he could focus on army construction.

Of course, Tang Ying would still tell Lu Yuan about his plans many times.

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment, and then said: "It is necessary to build roads, but I can't delay the expansion of my army, how much manpower and financial resources do you need to build roads." ”

"The cost of weaving saved is just enough, and if you have manpower, you have to ask all the men in the entire Qingquan Village, including the mighty battalion."

Tang Ying replied.

"So many people?" Lu Yuan was a little stunned.

"The main thing is that it takes at least five or six men to make a ramming at the same time, which Uncle Fei told me personally."

Tang Ying replied.

"How long will it take?"

Lu Yuan asked again.

"At least two months, if the road from Qingquanzhai to Weihe Wharf is repaired, and this road must not be tamped, otherwise once it rains or snows, the land is too muddy, and it will be difficult to transport a truckload of goods in, and then you can only need one person to carry one person."

Tang Ying said.

"It's too slow, and it still needs to be useful for so many people, it's impossible for my mighty battalion to stop training for two months, but this road still has to be repaired, and it happens to renovate all the residential houses in this Qingquan Village."

Lu Yuan said.

Tang Ying was a little puzzled: "If the mighty battalion participates in the training, then this road will have to wait a longer time to be repaired, Lu Lang, why did you mention the renovation of residential houses?" If you want them all to live in mud houses, it will be a big expense, and even if you don't give them free housing, it will take a long time to build them. ”

"There is a kind of building material called cement, which is composed of gravel and river sand to become concrete, if the concrete is added with steel bars, the road is still strong and does not need to be tamped, the key is that the progress is fast, and it does not require too much manpower."

Lu Yuan replied that he actually thought about making cement when he asked the military households of Qingquanzhai to build residential areas, but at that time he was eager to build his own army in Qingquanzhai, so he didn't have time to make cement.

After all, cement is an indispensable industrial product in basic industries.

As far as Lu Yuan knows, early cement, such as Portland cement, needed limestone and clay, followed by a little gypsum.

Gypsum is used as a retarder.

Limestone, clay, and gypsum were available in this era, and gypsum was used as a medicine, and was mostly used as a sculpture material in the West.

Lu Yuan personally went back to Linqing City and invited a lime maker to make lime, as well as a mason who specialized in making kilns.

Lu Yuan directly set up a cement plant in the Chunfeng Chemical Company, and he himself temporarily served as the director of the cement plant, and several lime and masons were temporarily appointed as quasi-technicians of the cement plant, with a monthly silver of one or two and a half yuan.

In this way, Lu Yuan was able to have the limesmith use the lime kiln built by the mason to fire a mixture of limestone and clay to make cement.

Limestone is not hard to find.

The same goes for clay and plaster.

All three are natural products, gypsum is calcium sulfate hydrate, which is widely found in nature.

Not to mention clay, the current building materials are generally triple soil, and clay is naturally easy to find.

But because no one in Qingquanzhai has a sense of doing business at present, they take the initiative to open a clay factory, and then provide clay for Lu Yuan's cement factory, so Lu Yuan still recruited five craftsmen who have worked in the manufacture of Sanhe soil from among the newcomers to form a working group to be responsible for collecting clay.

The collection of gypsum was handed over to Dr. An, and although gypsum is a natural product widely available in nature, most ordinary people do not know it.

Dr. An did not refuse, after all, Lu Yuan partnered with him to open a gypsum factory, he was responsible for recruiting people and collecting gypsum, and Lu Yuan was responsible for investing money, and then the profits were shared.

In this way, Dr. An can also have an extra income.

According to Lu Yuan's instructions, the quasi-technician Wei Ashsmith put the limestone and clay into the kiln to fire, and the fired blocks were directly transmitted to the hydraulic stone mill through the conveyor belt from the valley to the kiln.

The fast flow of water in the valley of Qingquanzhai provided sufficient hydraulic power for Luyuan's industrialization.

The same is true for cement today.

What's more, because Luyuan's Qingquanzhai now has a steel industry base, making important parts such as gears and springs, so that the entire hydraulic machinery can operate more efficiently around the clock.

In addition, the hydraulic machinery composed of steel parts is also more resistant to wear and corrosion than wooden parts, and if the traditional waterwheel is used to generate power, the wood is easy to rot if it is soaked in water for a long time.

Nowadays, when the fired blocks are transferred to the stone mill, the stone mill is constantly rotated under the drive of hydraulic machinery, and the fired blocks are milled, and then the fine powder is grinded.

And this fine powder is the theoretical cement product.

Of course.

Cement manufacturing is not so simple, the focus is on the ratio of limestone to clay, so whether it is real cement or not, you have to experiment.

Lu Yuan's craftsmen were unsuccessful at first, but after several attempts and asked the kiln workers who had fired the porcelain to ask for advice, they raised the temperature in the kiln before they could be considered to have fired the cement.

And the manufacture of cement is not enough, Lu Yuan also has to mix cement, river sand, and gravel according to a certain ratio of concrete with the best proportion.

It took a few days, and Lu Yuan didn't know how many times his craftsmen had failed.

And on this day, it was Lu Yuan's seventh experiment for his craftsmen.

Looking at the concrete in front of him that had been solidified with firewood, Lu Yuan asked the prospective technician Wei Ash to go up and kick it.

Ash Smith Wei stepped on his foot with some caution, he was worried that he would disappoint Lu Yuan again.

But the ashsmith stepped on it and found that the whole mound was very solid, so he simply kicked it boldly.

Ashsmith Wei took a few steps back, but the concrete pile stood still.

Lu Yuan smiled slightly when he saw this, he knew that this might mean that his cement concrete had finally been successfully manufactured.