- After the canonization ceremony, Wang Jue was about to return to Beijing, and he left Dali with Lu Huiqing, Wang Shao and other friends of the same year who were Chen Ke. Most of the year's holidays have passed, and families are still looking forward to it. And the situation in Dali has stabilized, so it is reasonable to go back and have a look.

However, the old ones were all southerners, so they did not go north to Yazhou and return to Beijing, but went east, preparing to go to Dongchuan to take a boat down the river and go to Guangnan West Road to part ways.

When he arrived in Dongchuan, Chen Ke naturally wanted to do his best to entertain them for two days. Ben said that he would take them to Dianchi Lake, but after seeing Dongchuan City rising from the ground, everyone was stunned. didn't bother to see what Dianchi Lake was, so he pulled Chen Ke and asked him to take him to the new city.

In fact, Dongchuan Castle has only taken up the outline, but looking at this magnificent city wall built on the mountain and surrounded by water on three sides, you know that this will be a fortress that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. But this fortress was not made in heaven. In fact, originally this place was only by the water on one side, the mountains on the other, and the other two sides were flat rivers.

However, the 40,000 soldiers under Chen Ke's command and the 50,000 people recruited locally took soil and burned kilns all day and night to build the city, and dug out a 'moat' that was several times wider than the moat. Now the workers are still deepening the bottom of the lake, widening the surface of the lake, and waiting for the next year to connect the rivers and fill the lake with water, and it will immediately be a small Erhai Lake.

With such a large amount of money and so much effort, digging out this moat is naturally not only necessary for urban defense. In fact, this place is also the intersection of eastern Yunnan and central Yunnan, the south gate of the Dongchuan Mountains, and the only passage from the southwest to the two Guangzhous from the waterway. Once Dongchuan Castle is completed, it will be an artificial harbor in excellent condition.

The future Dongchuan City. It can not only rely on the terrain of facing the mountains on one side and relying on the water on three sides to defend against attacks from all sides, but also take advantage of the convenient water and land transportation to rapidly develop industry and commerce...... It's not just about industry, it's likely to become a new commercial center in Dali.

Standing on the top of the mountain, listen to Chen Ke's passionate guidance. The courage to turn the sea into a mulberry field deeply shocked everyone. And Song Duanping's shock was even greater than others. Because he's been here for more than a month. I knew that it was just a big construction site full of materials and digging foundations everywhere. Unexpectedly, in just over a month, the prototype of a male city rose.

"How the hell did you do that?" He asked the question that everyone wanted to know.

"The secret is in those kilns." Chen Ke smiled: "You still remember, I am in Bianjing City. Has it ever been a cement? ”

"Cement? Remember. Everyone nodded and smiled: "Is it in that haunted house, it seems to be gone later." ”

"Am I the kind of person who has a snake head?" Chen Ke smiled and said: "Originally, I wanted to drum out the cement and rebuild Bianjing City after the water receded." But who knows that it is easier said than done, and the results will not be produced for a long time, and it will not contribute to the people of Bianjing. After a pause, he said, "But the research did not stop, and I let it continue to tinker until this year." Later, when he went south, he brought the partner in charge of cement production to Dali. ”

Between words. Chen Ke took them to the board yard at the bottom of the mountain. I saw that the workers used wooden boards to nail out a hollow model on demand, and arranged bamboo tendons on the hollow part of the model, and occasionally there were steel bars.

There was another group of workers who put bags of gray flour. Pour into a large flat-bottomed bucket, add gravel and water, and mix vigorously with a shovel. After mixing, the worker hangs the flat-bottomed bucket on the iron hook, turns the wheel, and the pulley lifts the heavy iron bucket. It is sent to the top of the mold and poured into it by opening the flap.

Chen Ke led them to the finished product area, only to see the workers knock off the wooden boards, and square boards as hard and rough as stones appeared in front of everyone. ..., Wang Shao pulled out his saber and slashed a plate, only to hear the sound of the bell, and sparks splashed everywhere. Under the numb tiger's mouth during the event, Wang Shao showed the blade to everyone, only to see that the treasure knife of Dali's specialty had been rolled up. And on that plate, only a shallow knife mark remained.

"How is that possible?" Everyone was taken aback. They saw with their own eyes that it was just a mixture of water and ash, which was poured into a mold like tofu to create a material that was harder than stone.

"This cement has such a miraculous effect?" Wang Shao's mind turned too fast, and he immediately thought that if he could apply this thing to the Northwest Battlefield, wouldn't he be able to build an iron wall? But he immediately thought, "It must be very expensive, right?" ”

"On the contrary, it can't be cheaper." Chen Ke smiled: "Just follow me to the kiln and have a look." ”

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He led the people to the dusty, smoky kiln. This kind of place is generally not liked by scholars and doctors who like to be clean. But at this moment, in Wang Shao's eyes, it is even more charming than Dali's wind and snow.

The workers all knew Chen Ke, and they all put down their work and got up to greet him.

"Keep busy, when we don't exist anymore." Chen Ke waved his hand and asked with a smile, "Where did the money go in?" ”

"I'm busy over there." The steward immediately nodded and said, "I'll call my boss over." ”

"You got Qian Sheng's second son." Song Duanping said with a smile: "That's right, didn't the Qian family open a kiln to burn charcoal?" ”

"Well, Qian Sheng's eldest son, Qian Lai, runs an ancestral business in Shuzhong. This second brother Qian Jin, who didn't want to eat and wait for death, ran to Bianjing to find his father. Chen Ke said with a smile: "Qian Sheng stuffed him to me, and I happened to have this project in my hand, so I handed it over to him to do...... Don't say it, it's really that piece of material. ”

After a while, Qian Jin came running. He was only in his early twenties, but he had been in the kiln for a long time, and his face was full of dust and dust, and he couldn't see his original face. Seeing that it was Chen Ke and Song Duanping, he grinned, showed two rows of white teeth and said, "Uncle Chen, Uncle Song, you are here too." Although the age is the same as the two of them, Chen Ke and Qian Sheng are old buddies, and Xiao Qian can only succumb to one generation.

"You Uncle Song and they are curious, and they want to see how cement is made." Chen Ke smiled and ordered, "You introduce them to them." ”

"Isn't it necessary to keep it a secret?" Wang Shao saw that the surroundings were full of busy workers, not only Han Chinese, but also many ethnic minorities, and said vigilantly.

"It's not a secret, and it can't be kept." Qian Jin said with a smile: "Of course, we also have some secret recipes that are not passed on, but it doesn't hinder it." Then he led them to a kiln that was filling with fuel, and said, "This is a common lime kiln, but with a slight improvement." He pointed to the three piles of earth and stones of different colors on the ground and said: "The black one is charcoal, which is produced in the mountains eighty miles away and transported along the Nanpan River." The white is limestone, and it is everywhere in the nearby mountains. The reddish and yellow ones are clay, and they are all over the ground. ”

The so-called coal is coal, the main fuel for the residents of Bianjing, and everyone naturally knows it. The other two are also seen in daily life, and there is nothing unusual: "Is it possible to make cement from just these three objects?" ”

"Actually, it's the latter two, and the charcoal is the fuel used to burn the kiln." Qian Jin introduced: "Like burning lime, the limestone is crushed, mixed with clay, ground to make raw meal, and then fed into the kiln to calcine the mature material, and then the clinker is ground finely to get bags of lime." ”

Everyone knew that there must be some unique secret recipe in the middle, but they were already shocked by the cheapness and ease of obtaining cement.

"It's going to be game-changing." Even Zeng Bu, who has always been calm, said excitedly: "From now on, the construction of the Great Song Dynasty will bid farewell to civil engineering, and the cost of our city walls, river works and other projects will also be greatly reduced, and they can be completed quickly with higher quality!" This is definitely an invention for the benefit of the Great Song Dynasty! "Why don't you give the cement to the imperial court?" Lu Huiqing's eyes lit up and said: "It's definitely a miracle!" ”

"You just think about meritorious service." Wang Shao snorted and said, "Zhong Fang must have his reasons for doing this." ”

"It doesn't make sense, cement was invented, and it was for the Song Dynasty." Chen Ke smiled and said: "It is simple and easy to learn, raw materials are available everywhere, there is no need to cherish the broom, the whole country has learned it." ”

In fact, he accepted the lessons of history - there were so many inventions and creations in the Song Dynasty and even previous dynasties, which should have benefited China, but because of all kinds of secrecy measures, whenever the dynasty changed, they disappeared in the long river of history in batches.

How can an invention be kept as a secret if it can be widely used in order to exert its maximum effect?

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Wang Shao and the others were sent away, but Song Duanping and Zeng Bu stayed behind to help him complete the grand blueprint together.

Chen Ke was suffering from a lack of skills, and he was naturally overjoyed to get their help. After the two became familiar with the situation a little, he and Shen Kuo embarked on the road of revisiting the Nanbeipan River and the Hongshui River. As for the construction of Dongchuan City, Su Song is the technical director, Zeng Bu is the financial director, and with these two people at the helm and supervision, there is no need to worry at all.

The reason why it is so urgent is because if you want to gain a foothold in Dali and let Yunnan copper really play a role, you must repair the waterway of the 'Nanpan River-Hongshui River'! Otherwise, not only will it be difficult to transport Yunnan copper, but the supply of materials in Dongchuan City will also become a big problem...... It is conservatively estimated that the population of Dongchuan City will reach 200,000 in a short period of time, and relying only on the local supply of Dali will not only be overstretched, but also subject to others. In two months, the dry season for water conservancy projects is coming, and if you miss it, you will have to wait for a whole year. So every second counts! ——

Segmentation –

My little monk, our two mothers-in-law, who have been really tormented recently, want to die...... But the update still has to go on. (Your support on this site is my biggest motivation.) )