Chapter Seventy-One: Monarchs and Ministers Drink and Talk About the Kaifeng Bridge Plan

Emperor Chongzhen saw that Zhang Zhimu said that it was so simple to subdue Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and said in his heart: "You guy, it's easy to say when the thing is done." They turned the Ming Dynasty upside down, and without them, it would be your turn to be like this in today's kiln. Before you could become a climate, I would have killed you. However, Emperor Chongzhen still sighed and said, "Alas! This kind of thing, that is, you Zhang Dongjia only have such a handicraft. ”

After listening to Emperor Chongzhen's words, Zhang Zhimu also pretended to be very useful and said: "I think that no matter who we are, as long as we can use their strengths!" Now Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are very satisfied with what they have done. It won't be long before Li Zicheng has settled the affairs of the Southeast Peninsula and the Malay Peninsula, and he will return to Yaogang. He is also a man with a lot of brains. Our Senate should also have more people with brains and opinions, so that we can make fewer mistakes when making major decisions. ”

Emperor Chongzhen suddenly asked a question: "Zhang Dongjia, what I think is strange is that you got the descendants of the eight businessmen in Zhangjiakou to Yaogang at that time, and you also got Zheng Zhilong's family to Yaogang some time ago. Aren't you afraid that these people will be troubled in the future? ”

"Huh! I'm afraid I won't get it! Zhang Zhimu smiled and said, "The reason why I brought them here is because I have confidence in myself." Because what I do is something that most people in the world welcome. Besides, these people can't have any effect on me. On the contrary, I believe that when they see what I am doing, they should think that they are doing the right thing. Will join us as well. ”

Emperor Chongzhen took a serious look at Zhang Zhimu at this time, and said in his heart: "This is the real Zhang Zhimu." Usually looks very easy-going, but he has his own square in his heart. The outside is round and the inside is square, this is Zhang Zhimu who is not easy for others to see. However, Emperor Chongzhen also really saw at this time that he was the nominal emperor, and Zhang Zhimu in front of him was the real emperor.

Because it is winter, the days are short, and it is already dark after the train arrives in Xi'an, and it is inconvenient for so many female dependents to get off the train and go to the hotel, so after arriving at the station, the train directly unloads a few carriages, and let Queen Zhou lead the female dependents to spend the night in the car, and they will go to the hotel at dawn. Emperor Chongzhen and Zhang Zhimu unloaded their trains, and with a long "woo" sound, it started.

At dinner, Lu Bingyi and Zhang Zhimu came over to eat with Emperor Chongzhen. Emperor Chongzhen invited Liu Jiantai, a scholar, and Fan Jingwen, a scholar of the Ministry of Industry and a scholar of Dongge University, to dinner.

Zhang Zhimu still knows about this Fan Jingwen, and the history of the Ming Dynasty has not been read in vain. When the city of Beijing was broken, Fan Jingwen saw Emperor Chongzhen hang himself and left a suicide note: "As a minister, you can't destroy the thief and shame, and you will have a lot of hatred when you die." Then he went to the ancient well next to the Twin Pagodas Temple to commit suicide. He was one of the few ministers of the Ming Dynasty who died in the Ming Dynasty. Unlike this scholar Liu Jiantai, Li Zicheng was the first to open the city gate and surrender when he went to Beijing. However, Zhang Zhimu didn't understand why Emperor Chongzhen liked Liu Jiantai so much, and took him with him wherever he went. Maybe the loyal ministers pay too much attention to themselves and don't know how to figure out the holy will, so it is rare for the emperor to pay attention to it.

After getting along for a period of time, Zhang Zhimu and the ministers are also familiar with each other, and after giving the salute, everyone is not very restrained. People's adaptability is really very strong, and in Beijing, they can't imagine that they can eat with the emperor so casually. It is even more unimaginable to be able to talk and laugh with the emperor like this, and no one dares to do this. Because in this case, when the court is deliberating, other ministers will also find faults.

The reason why Emperor Chongzhen invited Fan Jingwen, a scholar of the Ministry of Industry and a scholar of Dongge University, to dinner was because he had not yet been interested in the Tongguan Bridge, which had just been cut and opened to traffic. While eating, I kept talking about the Tongguan Bridge.

Emperor Chongzhen asked Fan Jingwen: "If we are not short of silver, can your Ministry of Industry build such a bridge?" ”

Fan Jingwen joked with Emperor Chongzhen and said: "If we don't lack silver, we will ask the people of Yaogang to help us build a bridge!" Apart from them, there is no such skilled craftsman in the world who can build such a bridge. ”

"Haha!" Everyone laughed. Emperor Chongzhen was also amused by Fan Jingwen's words.

Fan Jingwen said: "Zhang Dongjia, I have to be strange. How did you come up with the idea of pouring a cofferdam on the surface of the river and letting the cofferdam slowly sink to the bottom? ”

"If we don't do this, we have built a cofferdam, is there a way to transport it again?" Zhang Zhimu asked rhetorically.

"Hmm!" Fan Jingwen nodded and said, "That's too big, no ship can transport it." It is not stable in river rapids. But your cofferdam is clever in itself! And the bridges you built in Xiurong and Taiyuan are really smart! It's incredible! ”

Emperor Chongzhen said: "If a bridge like Tongguan Bridge, if you don't see it with your own eyes, you can't imagine that it can be built so big!" ”

"Hey! I heard that you are going to build a bridge in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou next? Liu Jiantai interjected and asked.

"yes!" Zhang Zhimu said, "King Zhou proposed several times to open a feudal bridge. But we have arranged the plan to Lanzhou and Baotou first! Now that the Tongguan Bridge is open to traffic, we are ready to divide some of the technicians who participated in the construction of the Tongguan Bridge, and then form a team to immediately build the Kaifeng Bridge, and then erect the Zhengzhou Bridge. The others drove to the Yangtze River in the south, preparing to study the construction of a bridge on the Yangtze River. ”

"Oops!"

"Unbelievable!"

"Great!"

Emperor Chongzhen, Liu Jiantai, and Fan Jingwen praised at the same time.

"Is Kaifeng also a two-story bridge of railways and highways?" Emperor Chongzhen asked.

"No, we want to build a road bridge for people and vehicles as soon as possible." Zhang Zhimu said, "We will consider the railway bridge there later." The opening of the highway bridge over there will immediately have a stimulating effect on the economy on both sides of the strait. ”

"Is it the same bridge as the meandering side of the river?" Fan Jingwen asked.

"Hehe, you have to ask Mr. Lu about this!" Zhang Zhimu glanced at Lu Bingyi and said.

"It can't be exactly the same!" Lu Bingyi said, "The same place is a highway bridge. However, the geological structure on both sides of the river is different in the two places, and the scheme we adopt cannot be the same. We have not yet determined a good way to build it, and we are still demonstrating. However, it can be said that the length of the Kaifeng Bridge is about 4,500 meters, and the Zhengzhou Bridge is about 5,500 meters, both of which are more than ten miles long. ”

"Oops! It's longer than Tongguan Bridge! Fan Jingwen exclaimed.

"The difficulty should also be high!" Lu Bingyi said.

"No, it won't!" Emperor Chongzhen said, "The bridge over there is long because the river is wide, but the water is also shallow and the water flow is slow. Construction should be easier. ”

"I haven't reported this to Mr. Zhang," Mr. Lu said, "and the results of the drilling, which Li Yunhe and the others sent out, are not optimistic." Drilling to a depth of 300 meters at the low river and not getting to the bedrock is troublesome. Bridge piles are not easy to stabilize if they cannot be driven into the bedrock. ”

"Oh!" Zhang Zhimu said, "It's a very troublesome thing. ”

"Many of our bridges are not reinforced with water, so we can build bridges on the bottom of the river by putting wooden stakes on them! It's just a few more stakes! Fan Jingwen said based on his experience.

"Those are light-duty bridges," Mr. Lu said, "and the piles are a little sinking, and the wooden bridges are resilient, so it's not a big problem." But the heavy load bridge, in the future, you have to run cars, artillery trucks, armored cars, tractors. Those vehicles have a large impact through vibration, and such piles can easily sink. So that's a real conundrum. Even if you go down to the bedrock and pour the piers with reinforced concrete, it is not economically suitable. ”

"Behold! We really have to use the method of Master Fan, drive more piles, and drive deep piles. Zhang Zhimu said, "We can use a pipe with a diameter of two meters and a wall thickness of 30, weld a tungsten alloy steel cutting edge at one end of the pipe, and put the cutting edge down to the bottom of the river. However, as the depth increases, the friction increases, and the pipe does not sink with its own weight. Then we can install two or two pairs of motors with partial wheels symmetrically on the mouth of the pipe, and we let the partial wheels move relatively synchronously, so the horizontal component of the partial wheel is always opposite but equal, and the resultant force is always zero, but the upper and lower forces are always oscillating, and the force of this oscillation will make the steel pipe cut the sediment at the bottom of the river and move downward. After we hit the steel pipe dozens of meters deep, the friction increased further, and it was very difficult to hit it again. Cement is poured into the steel pipe, so that the friction of the steel pipe plus the solidified cement and the resistance of the river bottom will be very large. If we make more such rigid piles and weld a cushion cap on the steel pile, will we be able to build bridge piers? ”

"Oops! Good idea! Lu Bingyi clapped his hands and said, "We are really a little worried, and we haven't come up with a good solution!" Zhang always wakes up the dreamer with a word! ”

Emperor Chongzhen looked at Zhang Zhimu in a daze, and asked, "Zhang Dongjia, how did you come up with this good idea?" ”

"Hey! If I don't come up with this idea, maybe any of you can come up with other good ideas? Zhang Zhimu said.

Fan Jingwen thought about it and said, "There is a problem! How can you erect such a thick pipe, and besides, such a long pipe is very dangerous when the wind blows! ”

"There are some things about the vertical pipe, such as clamping and steady, but also being able to move up and down. This requires a clamp with rollers. Lu Bingyi said, "The pipe can be divided into several sections and pumped into the water, and then welded to the other after one section is completed." These jobs require a dedicated floating platform, and there is a lot of work to be done. However, this technology has been solved, and it may be easier for us to use this method in other places to construct the construction. ”

"Yes! Solve a problem, we make some progress. Zhang Zhimu said.

"If this method is feasible, the construction speed can also be faster!" Emperor Chongzhen saw the doorway.

"It should be like this," Zhang Zhimu replied, "However, it is not enough for a new technology to be feasib, and it is not feasible for us to do it, and it is unknown what kind of unexpected problems we will encounter." will affect the progress of the project. ”

"However, the charm of doing engineering is that we will always encounter problems, and even problems that we feel like we can't solve. After working hard to solve it, the joy is indescribable. Lu Bingyi said.

"Huh! Let Mr. Lu say, I want to build a bridge with you! Emperor Chongzhen said, "It seems that every bridge cannot be exactly the same, which is interesting." ”

"That's what the emperor said!" After Lu Bingyi finished speaking, he said to Zhang Zhimu, "Mr. Zhang, the kind of steel piles you said, we should build a few first, and then add heavy objects, and see how heavy each can withstand before sinking, with such data, we know what to do next!" ”

"Your Majesty! We're ashamed! Fan Jingwen couldn't help but bow his head and said, "Chen thinks that the people of Yaogang are creating miracles every day, but we are fighting for something in the capital!" Fight! I really don't know that the heavens and the earth are so wide? ”

"Huh! That's why I'm asking you to come out and take a closer look. Emperor Chongzhen was a little excited, "Why did I bring so many officials from the Ming Dynasty?" It is to let you open your eyes and see how the kiln silver we spent came from! ”

Liu Jiantai couldn't stop saying: "It's embarrassing to think about it!" Shame! ”

In order to break the embarrassment, Zhang Zhimu said: "The reservoir construction site in front, you should take a good look!" There are nearly 100,000 people working there, and the amount of work is very large! ”

"Is it comparable to the Hutuo River Reservoir?" Fan Jingwen asked. They were shocked once at the Hutuo River Reservoir.

"The total amount of work is not as large as over there, but the difficulty is much greater than that over there!" Lu Bingyi said, "Although the width of the dam here is much smaller than that of the Hutuo River dam, the difficulty here is very large, and the difficulty of the high-drop locks is also very large. ”

Liu Jiantai jokingly asked: "Is this reservoir also a money printing machine after it is built?" ”

"Haha!" Several people laughed.

"It's a money printing machine, but the power generation here is not as large as on the Hutuo River. In particular, after the water in the south of the Qinling Mountains has not been transferred, the power generation here is very small, and as for the amount of water transferred over there, it is still uncertain. In addition, it takes a lot of water to carry the ship on both sides through the locks. The reservoir on our side must first ensure the lifting of boats. Zhang Zhimu said.

Lu Bingyi corrected Zhang Zhimu's statement and said: "Mr. Zhang, I see! The amount of water we transfer is used for the locks, but we don't have to think too much about it. We calculated it again, and if we got it right, we could transfer a lot of water. We need to reallocate the water consumption in Lingnan and Lingbei. ”

Emperor Chongzhen became more and more excited the more he talked, and his Zhang Zhimu was already sleepy, but he had no way to accompany him. In the end, there was really no way, Zhang Zhimu said: "Your Majesty, go to bed early!" Gather enough energy to go to the construction site tomorrow, you can't do it without good physical strength! ”

"Good! For tomorrow, sleep! Emperor Chongzhen said happily.

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New progress in "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty": the Battle of Yashan, the defeat of the Yuan army, the counterattack of the Song army, and the landing in Fuzhou.