The New Year's Day of Gaojiazhai in the depths of the mountains of Liaoguo, after all, is different from the New Year's Day in the city of Tokyo in the Southern Dynasty, but after three days of rest, in the hearts of the mountain people, this year is over, the new year has begun, and they are about to continue their major activities of building the village.

The small village gate on the east side and the cliff in the northwest corner, the walled wall and the arrow tower in these two places are still easy to build, and the amount of work is not large, so the construction just started before the year, and it took less than 15 days to build. It's just that the south wall has really taken a lot of effort, although it has been built a little and a half years ago, but the remaining amount of work is still very large. It is only said that the stones used to build the walled wall are mined with a lot of manpower, and it takes manpower to carry them to the walled wall construction site one by one. Almost all the women in the village joined in, using crowbars and ropes to lift them up the construction site piece by piece.

After the New Year, Zhou Nan proposed to several stonemasons and Lao Zheng Tou that now the river is cut off in winter, and the river outside the walled wall does not even have ice, only the riverbed is exposed, so that the stonemasons can dig on the edge of the stream, extract the boulders, and then divide them into appropriate sizes, and carry them to the nearby wall, and directly build the wall with stones. In this way, it can not only widen and dig the deep moat, but also reduce the labor of transporting stones, and greatly shorten the construction time of the south wall. The stream, which was originally only two zhang wide, will become more than one person deep and four zhang wide, and the mountain stream that used to be able to walk freely will not be passable.

Such a suggestion was naturally unanimously approved by everyone. Zhou Nan first asked the stonemasons to dig several smooth ramps on the gentle slope from the river to the wall. The ramp is about a zhang wide, as for the use of this ramp, Zhou Nan told the stonemasons that after the stone is mined, the stone and the ramp are padded with logs of the same thickness, two people stand behind the stones, and use crowbars against the stones, so that the stones will not slide naturally along the slope, and the other people use ropes to put on the stones, pull the stones upward, and one person keeps filling the logs in front of the stones, so that several women can carry the stones without strong labor. The limited number of young and strong laborers was used to build the wall, which naturally greatly accelerated the process.

Lao Zheng Tou took the opportunity to propose the idea of building a suspension bridge over the moat. The construction of the suspension bridge mentioned by Lao Zheng Tou is to facilitate the entry and exit of people in the village in the future. According to Lao Zhengtou's explanation, the north and south banks of the river are staked, and the crossbars are erected, and the suspension bridge is horizontally built on the crossbars on the north and south banks on weekdays. The suspension bridge is on the north bank of the river, that is, on the side of the wall, fixed on a shaft made of thick wood, to ensure that the suspension bridge will not be dislocated or leave the crossbar, and it is convenient for the other end of the suspension bridge to move up and down, and then two thick cables are fixed at the other end of the suspension bridge, and the other end of the thick rope is connected with the winch on the wall. To lift the suspension bridge, the winch is wrenched by a person, and the winch rotates to drive the thick rope to lift the suspension bridge; To lower the drawbridge, twist it in the opposite direction and let go of the thick rope to lower the drawbridge. On weekdays, when people enter and exit during the day, the drawbridge is erected on the river, and at night, the soldiers on duty on the walled wall pull up the drawbridge, so that they can make better use of the moat they dug out, which is equivalent to another layer of protection outside the wall.

Zhou Nan listened to Lao Zhengtou's suspension bridge plan, and agreed with Liu Zongwang, Zhang Yi and others. Zhou Nan drew a sketch of the suspension bridge proposed by Lao Zheng Tou on the ground, thought about it, and asked Lao Zheng Tou: "If the enemy is in a hurry, and he is twisting the rope, and when he pulls up the suspension bridge, the rope is broken by the enemy, will the suspension bridge fall again?" Lao Zheng was suffocated, and also thought of the situation that Zhou Nan said, but there was no way to solve it for a while, and he was thinking hard, Zhou Nan said: "I have a way, that is, at the end of the north bank of the suspension bridge, fix the shaft of the suspension bridge to make a ......" Speaking of this, Zhou Nan asked people to call a carpenter, and the matter of the suspension bridge was simply said: "When the suspension bridge is lifted, if the enemy shoots the thick rope with an arrow, and the suspension bridge loses the pull of the thick cable, won't it fall back?" In this way, the drawbridge is useless. The carpenter nodded, signaling that he understood, and Zhou Nan continued: "If a mechanism is set up on the horizontal axis of the fixed suspension bridge to ensure that the thick rope is cut by the enemy, and the suspension bridge will not fall, wouldn't it strengthen the suspension bridge?" ”

Lao Zheng Tou said: "How can I strengthen it?" Don't you pull a few more thick cords? ”

Zhou Nandao: "Just set up something similar to a door bolt at the end of the horizontal axis of the suspension bridge, so that the horizontal axis can only rotate in one direction, and it will be tripped if it rotates in the opposite direction, so that even if the rope pulling the suspension bridge is cut, it can also ensure that the suspension bridge cannot fall." ”

The carpenter immediately said: "If the master of the big village says so, the small one will understand, so he will do it." ”

Lao Zheng Tou also nodded and said: "Da Lang is indeed clever, and he seems to be more experienced than my old man." Zhou Nan said: "When one person thinks about something, it is always better to think about it than several people together." After the wall is completed, we will plan and drill several times, and strive to find out more omissions, and then make corresponding repairs and improvements, so that I can wait for this cottage to be solid. ”

Finally, two months later, the entire wall of the cottage was completed. These three walled walls, a total of about 170 zhang long, about three zhang high, there are arrow buttresses on the wall, arrow towers, the wall of the south main gate is to build a prominent horse face wall every other distance, greatly enhance the three-dimensional defense ability of the wall. Just digging the river outside the wall that was deepened and widened, you can see that it took endless labor.

This walled wall, moat, in this cottage can be said to be a huge project, even if you look at the entire Wuzhai Ridge, it is unique, not to mention the simple cottage of Wohu Mountain can be compared. After the completion of the wall, Zhou Nan proposed to Gao Yuan, Lao Zhengtou, Liu Zongwang and others that in the highest place of Gaojiazhai, that is, the northwest corner of the village, build a banner platform, and build a meeting hall on the north side of the flag. As a place for the whole village people to gather, discuss and command the defense of the whole village, the front of the meeting hall is flat and wide, enough to accommodate thousands of people. The flag on the high flagpole on the lookout stand can be seen throughout the cottage. At the suggestion of Liu Zongwang, Gao Bingchang, Zhang Yi and other old people, the small mountain temple in the original village was also relocated to the side of the council hall. The mountain temple is placed in the highest position of the whole village, and several old people expect the gods of mountains and rivers to bless the whole village. Zhou Nan did not object to this, after all, in this era, it is impossible for the people in the mountains to accept atheism, not to mention, this mountain temple can also have the function of uniting people's hearts and judging right and wrong.

Zhou Nan would never have thought at this time that a year later, the people of Gaojiazhai would be able to escape smoothly, and it was really thanks to this mountain temple.

It took another half a month to build the council hall, the Wangqi Tower, and the mountain temple. Until now, after the completion of these facilities and places, the walled wall, the moat, the moat, the meeting hall, the flag tower, and the mountain temple, the worry-free village of Gaojiazhai can be regarded as truly completed. With a few hundred people in the village alone, it is estimated that it will take more than a year to complete the project. was able to build it so quickly, and it was a loss that Zhou Nan asked people to hire craftsmen everywhere and hire people from other cottages to work. In the treasury of Gaojiazhai, there are still a lot of gold, silver and copper coins, so you don't have to worry about having no money to hire people. In three months, the wall was completed, and the remuneration was calculated, and only 2,000 copper coins were spent.

On the day of the completion of Gaojiazhai, Lao Zheng Tou took out the stone plaque of the three words of "worry-free village" that had already been carved, and under the attention of the old and young people of the whole village and the people who came to work in the village, the stone plaque was solemnly hung above the gate of the village. The crowd burst into cheers, and even took out the firecrackers they had prepared. The people of Gaojiazhai are happy that they are no longer afraid of being bullied by bandits and robbers, and the people in other villages are not only hot, but also thinking about how to go back and build their own villages. More anxious, I came to Liu Zongwang, Zhang Yi and others to ask if they could join Gaojiazhai.