The red deer post leans on the red deer mountain, because it is not a pass, and does not stand on the road, but is located on the south side of the valley road, near the river.

When Liu Yunshui and Li Guo raided Guanshan Road, they collected the post station to the Mandate of Heaven Army, and the original post man and the post man did not resist, so they were able to stay.

After Li Zicheng came to Malushan, he strengthened the supply of various post stations on Guanshan Road, and stationed a soldier with a general banner here.

Just after the hour, the dew on the tip of the grass has not yet disappeared, Li Zicheng's figure appeared in Malu Mountain, he gathered all his personal soldiers, as well as the auxiliary soldiers stationed in Malu Station, nearly 100 people all came to the southern foot of Malu Mountain, leveling the land on the one hand, cutting down trees and thatching on the other, and began to build simple houses.

According to the long-term system, the thatched hut should be a stone wall, and there are many bluestones on the mountain, which is very convenient to obtain materials, but Li Zicheng wants to let the craftsmen move in as soon as possible, so he can only build a simple thatched hut first, the walls of the thatched hut are all tree frames, and then the dried rattan grass is turned into a straw curtain to block rain, dew and mosquitoes.

In just two days, seven or eight thatched huts were built in front of the mountain, all of which were used as residences, and at least more than 100 people could be settled.

The production process of cement is not complicated, about eight to ninety percent of limestone, plus one or two percent of clay, the raw meal is first "preheated", that is, dehydrated, the plasticity of the clay is reduced, and the lump becomes powdered.

Then it enters the "decomposition" and "calcination" stages, and when the temperature reaches 1,200 degrees, a series of complex chemical reactions occur to produce tricalcium aluminate.

When the temperature reaches 1,400 degrees, the material begins to sinter, melt, and then chemical reaction, tricalcium silicate is precipitated with tiny crystals, that is, "clinker", and then out of the kiln.

When a small amount of gypsum is added to the clinker, the cement is successful.

Li Zicheng has detailed information collected by later generations, theoretically there is not much difficulty, the cement kiln can also be made, but to control the temperature, it is particularly difficult, this era, there is no thermometer in the land of the Ming Dynasty, want to accurately control the temperature, there is really no good way, the craftsmen can only judge according to experience, give vague data, the quality of the cement burned, completely rely on the experience of the craftsman's personal feelings, and Li Zicheng repeatedly advocated large-scale, factory production, there is still a great distance.

There was no way, Li Zicheng could only design a thermometer for later generations based on his own experience, indicate the materials used, and draw relevant drawings, so that a special person could send it back to Xining and hand it over to John Tang, so that he could manufacture an industrial thermometer as soon as possible according to his own prompts.

Li Zicheng handed over the matter of firing cement to Liu Zhuang to be responsible, and all the auxiliary soldiers of Maluyi were temporarily dispatched by him to assist in carrying stones, clay, etc., and he took the time to go to Guguan.

The city wall of Guguan has been repaired, and the prisoners of war in Longyou, under the guidance of the auxiliary soldiers, were divided into four groups to repair the roads from Guguan to Dazhenyi and Dazhenyi to Anjungguan.

These post roads were opened thousands of years ago, and after many repairs in the Central Country, most of the roadbed is relatively wide, as long as the post roads are leveled.

According to the previous practice, as long as the big stones on the road are cleared, and then filled with loess, and then tamped, the repair is completed, but this requires a lot of manpower, especially the link of tamping the loess, which needs to be tamped step by step with a stone nest of half a foot and a half, even if there is enough labor, it will take at least ten days and a half months for each mile post road.

Such a post road not only takes a long time to repair, consumes a huge labor cost, has a short preservation time, but also is not resistant to rain, and the flatness of the ground is far from meeting Li Zicheng's expectations.

He had already burned cement in Malushan, so naturally he had to build it according to the new standard, and the width of the post road was almost the only goal.

The flatness of the ground is not a problem, if there is no boulder blocking the road, as long as the post road is repaired to be basically flat, some gravel can be piled up on the road surface, and the foundation is not to worry, this is an ancient road that has been used for more than a thousand years, the roadbed has already been tested, and there is no settlement problem on the road surface.

The section from Guguan to Dazhenyi is mainly widened, and on the premise of not affecting the flow of water, digging as much as possible to the side of the mountain, there is no machinery, and the number of prisoners of war can only be relied on.

However, these are post roads that have been used for more than 1,000 years, and after many repairs and widenings, there are not too many places that need to be widened, and the speed of post road maintenance is very fast.

However, the section from the Great Earthquake Post to Anjung Pass, because it has to cross the ridge, the road has a lot of repetitions, which not only increases the length, but also greatly increases the difficulty of passing.

Li Zicheng watched at the ridge for a long time, and found a large stone with tens of thousands of catties, cut it well, and the post road was forced to be rerouted.

He frowned, and found the leader of the prisoners of war in charge of this section of the roadbed, and said, "This section of the mountain road, because this boulder has increased the distance by several miles, can this boulder be removed?" ”

"The subordinates also wanted to move this boulder away at first, but the Governor of the Metropolitan asked me to see it," the leader said, pointing to the traces of the excavation under the crack in the stone, "but this stone is so great that not only cannot it be moved, but even if it does, there is nowhere to place it...... If you push it down the mountain, you will probably have to cut off the water supply! ”

"The water source can't be easily changed, unless you can provide it with a new passage," Li Zicheng walked around the boulder for half a circle, pondering carefully, and his heart suddenly moved, "Can you smash the boulder?" ”

"Mashed? Such a big boulder......"

Li Zicheng thought that in the future, if he wanted to water the cement avenue, he would also need some gravel, and the boulder would be mashed, which could just be used as a material for road construction, so he smiled and said: "If this boulder can be mashed, is this section of the post road not like the original circling back and forth?" ”

"Governor, this is a ridge, if you can smash this boulder and move it away, this section of the post road will become a straight road, and," the leader pointed to the bottom of the boulder, "if you can remove this boulder, the height of the ridge will be reduced by more than two feet, and the slope of the post road will be greatly reduced, but it will ...... I just don't know if this boulder is connected to the mountain rock below......"

"This doesn't matter," Li Zicheng measured, indeed as the leader said, as long as this boulder can be removed, not only will the post road be straighter, but the slope will also be much slower, and it will be much easier to transport food in the future, so he was overjoyed and said with a smile: "You first let the brothers go to the mountains to pick up some dead branches and leaves, and then prepare a few wooden barrels filled with water, I have a way to make this boulder become gravel for road construction!" ”

"Metropolitan Governor ......" He Xiaomi couldn't believe his ears, this stone was too big.

The commander couldn't believe it, they were tired enough to clean up the post road, and it didn't make sense to do these things again...... He shuddered: "The Metropolitan Governor can really remove this boulder of tens of thousands of catties......"

He Xiaomi thought that the Metropolitan Governor often had amazing actions, so he had no choice but to choose to believe it, and after listening to the leader's question, he was unhappy in his heart, and shouted: "Whatever the Metropolitan Governor asks you to do, you will do it, how can there be so much nonsense?" ”

Li Zicheng drank He Xiaomi, and said with a faint smile: "Don't worry, if you can't move the boulder, you won't waste much time, just let the brothers rest for a while, if you are lucky enough to move the boulder, this section of the post road will be much more convenient!" ”

"Yes, Metropolitan Governor, the villain will arrange it!" The leader descended the donkey down the slope, and busily took all the prisoners of war to the mountains on both sides to look for dead branches and leaves, and together with the auxiliaries who supervised them, they also helped to transport, and in less than a pillar of incense, firewood several feet high had been piled up in front of the boulder.

At this time, it was summer and autumn, and there was no rain for a long time, and there were many dead branches in the mountains.

The heat wave caused by the fire immediately forced the prisoners of war to retreat to 20 paces away, but in order to keep the fire burning, several prisoners of war kept adding firewood to the boulders.

Before the fire was completely extinguished, Li Zicheng had asked the prisoners of war to fill water with buckets, basins, scoops, etc., and all the utensils they could use, and all the utensils they could use were filled with water in the mountain streams and waited.

Li Zicheng used the principle of "heat # expansion and contraction", which was well known to women and children in later generations, first burning with a large fire to make the surface of the stone hot, and then pouring water on the hot stone to let it cool down suddenly.

If the temperature difference is large enough, the surface and inner layer of the stone will be seriously deformed, and once the deformation exceeds a certain amplitude, it will burst due to severe distortion.

Just like a glass for drinking water, if it is suddenly filled with boiling water in the cold season, it may explode, and the principle is exactly the same.

Although Li Zicheng does not know the exact value, in the open space, the heat is lost quickly, and it is difficult to meet the temperature requirements.

So he asked the prisoners to prepare a large amount of water to cool the surface of the stone quickly, which also had the effect of making the stone burst.

The only uncertain factor is whether the temperature difference is sufficient.

Li Zicheng asked the prisoners of war to constantly add firewood, which was to increase the temperature of the surface of the boulder and increase the distortion of the surface of the stone as much as possible.

When the fire was basically extinguished, everyone immediately splashed the water in the utensils in their hands on the top of the boulder, and countless eyes stared at the boulder.

Could it be that the Metropolitan Governor is just paying lip service?

Li Zicheng was also a little disappointed, so much water was splashed...... He suddenly remembered that compared to this boulder, this clear water was too little, and it was difficult to reduce the temperature on the surface of the stone to normal temperature.

He didn't care to think deeply, and hurriedly shouted to the prisoners of war: "What are you doing, hurry up and get water, and then pour it!" ”