Lao Zhu's mood didn't seem to be very high, he put down the chopsticks after only eating a bowl of rice, Ma Dajia put down the dishes and chopsticks and asked, "What's wrong with the emperor?" Could it be that there is something unwell, and the concubine will announce that the imperial doctor will come over to treat the emperor. ”

"It's okay, I'm fine." Lao Zhu waved his hand and said: "There is a military situation from the front, Tang He, Fu Youde and their army are approaching Chongqing, and they will die next summer." ”

There are frequent good news from all over the country, Ma Dajia has already seen no surprise, "This is a good thing to expand the territory, how can the emperor not be happy?" ”

Lao Zhu smiled, "I'm naturally happy, but I have one less opponent, and I always feel empty in my heart,"

"There are fewer opponents, but the emperor has more land and subjects, it is easy to open up the territory and difficult to defend the territory, there will only be more things that need to be done, the emperor must not be complacent."

"What did the queen say, I didn't sleep on the third watch one day, I have never slacked off, the people in this world have no food to eat, and it is not easy to fill their stomachs......"

Before Lao Zhu finished speaking, he heard a muffled thunder outside the city, and interrupted him stiffly. Ma Dajia looked at the dazzling sunlight shining into the room, shook his head, and said, "It doesn't seem to be raining, it's the movement made by that bastard." ”

Lao Zhu smiled and nodded, "It must be!" ”

Ma Dajia persuaded: "Brother is still young, his personality is also impulsive and frizzy, and it is okay to be a little clever, but why should such a major event as building a city wall be handed over to him, it is better to find an old and serious person." ”

The construction of the Yingtian City Wall is related to the Ming Dynasty and the society, which is the top priority of the imperial court, and it is a huge project, and there will be mistakes if you are not careful, and Ma Dajia does not want Ma Du to take over such a stall. Especially now that Ma Du is taking his students to use gunpowder to open the cracked rocks on various mountains near Yingtian, making a lot of noise, which makes her feel so uneasy.

On the contrary, Lao Zhu looked disapproving, "This kid is extremely lazy, and he hides far away whenever something happens, as if he is afraid of getting caught with him." Now that he has taken over this errand, Xu has some calculations in his heart. And let him fiddle with it, I just want to see what tricks he can come up with, anyway, he wants to build a few zhang of wall for me before the autumn harvest, if it doesn't work, it doesn't hurt to change someone else. ”

Listening to the meaning of Lao Zhu's words, it is obvious that the treasure is all pressed on Ma Du's body, after all, this Yingtian City Wall is related to the national fortune, and it is indeed a little inappropriate to hand it over to a frizzy young man. But Ma Du usually has a lot of good ideas, and Lao Zhu just wants to force him to give it a try, and if it doesn't work, it's okay.

The boss never takes into account the feelings of the employees, just for the casual words of the boss, the employees may run away and break their waists, and it is even more unlucky to meet a stingy and snarky boss like Lao Zhu.

Knowing that Yingtian's city wall was built for future generations to visit, Ma Du could not persuade Lao Zhu not to build it, and there would not be a single person in the entire court to support him.

Lao Zhu built the Yingtian City Wall with extremely strict requirements, and I don't know how much manpower and material resources are consumed, not to mention the special green bricks engraved with the names of officials and craftsmen, just using glutinous rice as a binder is enough to make people feel distressed, even Ma Du, who grew up under the conditions of extremely rich materials, is no exception.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were still many people in the world who had no food to eat, and the second grandfather lived a rich life for several years, but he didn't forget to drink a few more bowls of rice soup before eating, just to save a few mouthfuls of dry rice.

Ma Du sees this kind of scene every day, he feels that he should be great again, he can spend less national strength, let Daming go faster and farther, and starve many people to death.

There is no more suitable way to build a city wall than reinforced concrete, but unfortunately cement, the most common building material in later generations, did not have it, as for the manufacturing method of cement, Ma Du only glanced at it in that book and only remembered the approximate, as for the right and wrong, there is no way to verify, he can only slowly grope for it.

Ma Du lived in Nanjing, and vaguely remembered that there was once a large cement factory in Nanjing, which was a raw material-oriented industry. Then there must be materials suitable for firing cement around Yingtian.

He took his students from hill to hill and wore out several pairs of shoes, just to find the most suitable stone. opening, firing, crushing, formulating, stirring...... Recording various parameters with the students, every day there are several cement piles of different materials and different proportions standing up on the side of Fangshan, Ma Du is quite accomplished in his heart, and he doesn't feel hard.

Day after day, from late spring to the end of summer, it is not far from the time stipulated by Lao Zhu, and there will be a result today. Chang Mao was shirtless, his body was drenched in sweat and shiny, and the golden afterglow shone on his knotted muscles, looking more and more fit, which made Ma Du very envious.

"Hey!" Chang Mao shouted, and the huge hammer in his hand smashed on a cement pile, and the cement pile was clattering and shattered all over the ground, Ma Du and the surrounding students trembled, and the expressions on their faces were twisted, as if this hammer had smashed everyone's hearts.

After the Tian Widow incident, the style of study in the academy suddenly became correct, and there were fewer students who stole chickens and dogs and skipped class.

It was rare for them to meet the tenants who were working in the glazed workshop, and they were still holding hands on the roadside and asking them to go first, but they were so frightened that the tenants did not know how to walk, and the gentlemen were very pleased, saying that there was finally something like a academy.

Especially those gentlemen, who did not go back to the city this summer vacation, have been running around in the mountains with Ma Du to pick stones, fire cement in the kiln, and their participation is indispensable in every process. These cement piles were built by their own hands, and they couldn't help but feel distressed when they saw the cement piles smashed into pieces by Chang Mao's hammer.

Ma Du looked at Qi Tai beside him and asked, "This is the stone of that mountain?" ”

Qi Tai flipped through the small notebook in his hand, "Mr. Hui, this is Fang Shan's." ”

"If it's broken, it's broken, if Fang Shan doesn't have it in the future, it's a pity." Ma Du waved at Chang Mao, "Keep smashing!" ”

"Uncle, if you look for me Changmao for this kind of thing, then you can be regarded as finding the right person, hey!" As he spoke, he picked up the hammer again, and another cement pile crumbled.

Bang bang bang...... One after another, the cement piles were turned into pieces under Changmao's hammer, and some even turned into powder, scattering in all directions under the blowing of the evening breeze.

I don't know how many were smashed, Chang Mao suddenly stopped, "Damn, this one didn't even break." Chang Mao looked back at Ma Du, "I'll do it again!" ”

Chang Mao said it, but he smashed it several times, and although the cement pile was damaged, the main body was still intact. Without waiting for Ma Du to ask, Qi Tai replied: "Sir, this is the stone of Qixia Mountain!" ”

Ma Du nodded and let Chang Mao finish smashing them one by one, and in the end, it was the cement made of stone in Qixia Mountain that performed the best, and he sighed and said: "I'm afraid the beautiful autumn leaves of Qixia Mountain will not be visible in the future!"