Originally, the second phase of the expansion of the "Flying Dragon Army" had been going on in a step-by-step manner, but as more and more recruits were recruited into the "Flying Dragon Village," an obvious and important problem arose -- the "Flying Dragon Village" could no longer accommodate so many people.

After all, when Wei Caisi and other village owners established the "Five Tiger Village", they only had a few hundred minions in their hands, and they didn't need much space to settle them. Therefore, when choosing the place to build the wall, Wei Caisi and others considered more whether it was conducive to defense, rather than whether there would be enough people to live in a few years. In fact, if you look at the scale of the general cottage, this "Flying Dragon Village" can definitely be called large. As long as it is properly arranged, it is not a big problem to live five or six thousand people. It's just that now, on the one hand, there is a not small quilt workshop in the village, which occupies a piece of space. On the other hand, the military department's current military expansion is in accordance with the upper limit approved by the committee, and the "Flying Dragon Army" will reach more than 10,000 people after the expansion is completed. As a result, although the military department has reduced the living area of the soldiers as much as possible and increased the living density, it can still only arrange more than 6,000 people in the "Feilong Village." And with the speed at which the "Wyvern Army" is now training recruits, this number may be exceeded by the end of the year. When the time comes, there will be a tricky situation where the recruits have nowhere to train and nowhere to live.

In this regard, on the one hand, the brothers of the Military Department reviewed to the committee that their original consideration of the problem was not comprehensive enough, and they neglected the capacity of the "Flying Dragon Village" to accommodate it. On the other hand, it has been actively trying to make the best use of existing space and to make the most of it, and has also made recommendations to the Committee for the construction of new camps elsewhere.

The Committee also attaches great importance to this issue. After discussions with the Military Department and other relevant departments, it was finally decided to build a new camp area covering a large area at the foot of the Xiayun Ridge and east of the "Liangyuan" for the "Flying Dragon Army" to train recruits and to be stationed in the future.

The reason why this place was chosen is because it is relatively close to the "Flying Dragon Village", and if the "Flying Dragon Army" has any actions and transfers, it can quickly cooperate. The second is because Xiayunling and its surrounding areas have been operated by the crossing team for many years, and they are completely in the hands of the crossing people, whether it is the shili of the government or other places, they cannot touch this area. The establishment of new camps here is the highest level of secrecy. Moreover, the establishment of a camp here can also provide a layer of perimeter protection for the "Liangyuan", making this fortress called "Zuihou Safety Base of the Team" by the traversers more secure - although due to the production activities of various factories of the Ministry of Science and Technology, which makes it more polluted, except for the members of the Ministry of Science and Technology who have to live here for work, other traversers basically do not live here, but the status of the "Zuihou Fortress" of the crossing team has not changed. What's more, almost all of the current industrial production capacity of the crossing team is concentrated here, and it is also appropriate to add a barrier to it.

Of course, building a new camp in this location is not without its drawbacks. Because this is already the foot of Xiayun Mountain, it belongs to the junction of the mountains and the plains, and there is no terrain that is easy to defend and difficult to attack like "Feilong Village" or "Liangyuan", and it is slightly worse in terms of "geographical advantage". However, for the "Flying Dragon Army", which has been fully equipped with modern firearms, it is not very important whether there is dangerous terrain or not. In the face of an enemy with only broadswords and spears, the "Flying Dragon Army" will not suffer even if it is a flat field battle.

With the decision to build a new camp, the relevant departments of the crossing team began to take action. Yang Xin, who was responsible for the design of the "Cool Garden", was directly ordered to design the construction plan of the new camp; Several brothers of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, mainly Xie Tian -- Fan Wucheng, who presided over the last bidding process, did not participate in the bidding negotiations for this project because he was far away in Youzhou and it was inconvenient to go back and forth -- and You Yuan, who had participated in the bidding negotiations for the "Liangyuan" project last time, began to contact some large construction teams in the surrounding areas and prepared to select a few large construction teams with sufficient strength to be responsible for the construction of the new camp -- including those large construction teams that had undertaken the construction of the "Liangyuan" at the beginning; The brothers of the Materials Section of the Ministry of Science and Technology urged their craftsmen to step up the production of cement, steel bars and other materials to meet the possible needs of the construction of the new camp -- whether the craftsmen of this era can accept these two things to build walls and houses depends on the ability of the brothers of the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and the Materials Section of the Ministry of Science and Technology to communicate with each other. ,

Among these works, the most important part of the construction of the new camp is naturally the design plan that Yang Xin is responsible for. After all, without a low figure, no amount of haode construction workers can make a building that satisfies the developer. However, after Yang Xin received the task, the progress of the design was not fast. This is not because he is slack, nor is it because he is not good enough - it didn't take too long to design the "Cool Garden" in the first place - the reason why this situation occurs is mainly because Yang Xin has been in a bad mood recently, or it can be said that he is restless and cannot focus on the design of the new camp. The main reason for Yang Xin's uneasiness was that hundreds of miles away, in the Northern Han Dynasty, which had only been turned upside down by the "Flying Dragon Army" not long ago.

Since the "Flying Dragon Army" evacuated the Northern Han Dynasty to the present, Yang Xin has not received any news of his righteous brother Yang Ye, and he has been worried that his righteous brother will be punished by the Northern Han court because of the fiasco in the Battle of Dabaoshu. However, after the "Flying Dragon Army" withdrew from Dabao and fought out of the Han State through a bottle-shaped barricade and disappeared into thin air, the Northern Han court tightened the vigilance in the border area and forbade all personnel to pass, and on the other hand sent an envoy to report to the famous "sleeping king" Bixia of the Liao State on this matter, hoping that the emperor of the upper kingdom could help the Northern Han Dynasty find out the enemy army that had caused heavy losses to him. Of course, when the Northern Han envoy reported to the emperor of Liao, he did not say that the Liao army went south to "fight the grass valley", but insisted that this army that could use firearms must come from the Zhou state. He also said that if this army is allowed to roam around in the territory of Liao, it will also be quite detrimental to the stability of Liaoguo itself.

Although Liao Muzong is known as the "Sleeping King", he basically doesn't do anything serious except for drinking and hunting. However, he was still very concerned about an army that might come from the Zhou State and had good strength into his territory. After all, if he ignores the government and politics, such things that may be related to local stability, especially those related to the local stability of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, the most important place where the wealth of the Liao State is generated, will not be allowed. Therefore, after receiving the report of the Northern Han Dynasty, Liao Muzong also ordered officials and garrisons at all levels in Nanjing Province, ordering them to strictly guard against the border between Liao and Han on the one hand, and to step up a comprehensive search in the entire Nanjing Province on the other hand, and to find out this mysterious and abnormal army.

Both the Liao and Han countries were strictly guarding the border areas, not to mention sending people to and fro to deliver letters, I am afraid that it is impossible for even a bird to fly over. Therefore, although Yang Xin was anxious, there was no other way to think of it now except to wait patiently and wait for the two countries to relax their vigilance and allow personnel to come and go to Beihan to investigate.

It's just that I want to be calm and patient, but it's hard to do it. Therefore, after receiving the committee's instructions in early July, it took Yang Xin a total of nearly 20 days to hand over the renderings of the plan for the new camp -- the specific housing style will be handed over to the construction team that received the project to be responsible for designing the barracks in the style common in this era, and Yang Xin does not have to worry about it.

According to Yang Xin's design, the new camp covers a vast area, about 1.5 times the size of the "Feilong Village", and can accommodate more than 10,000 soldiers. As a military barracks, the new camp naturally adopts a fortress-like design, and at the four camp gates in the east, west, north and south, it also adopts a fortress-type fortification similar to the "Liangyuan" to increase the protective capacity of the barracks.

In addition, following the habit of the Xi Crossing team, it is important to choose a loud and appropriate name for the new camp before construction begins. However, different from the way the name of the "Liangyuan" was originally designed, because the main purpose of this new camp was to train and station the armed liliang team, when discussing what name to choose, the committee, the military department and the designer Yang Xin did not adopt the previously commonly used naming method of "XX Garden", but gave it a more appropriate name - "Xianglong Fort" according to its function, use and relationship with "Feilong Village", which means that the "Flying Dragon Army" "soars into the sky" and "soars thousands of miles" from here”。

The name of the new camp has been chosen, and the construction of the new camp naturally cannot be delayed. After careful comparison, research, and detailed investigation of all the construction teams invited to participate in the project bidding, the crossing team finally chose the construction teams that undertook the construction of the "Liangyuan" - this time these construction teams still adopted the way of group competition, and naturally occupied a certain advantage in strength. In addition, the crossing team has cooperated with them, knows their roots better, knows that these people work hard, the quality of the project is guaranteed, and the most important thing is that they are strict-mouthed, and after working for the team, they will not go out and talk nonsense - this can be seen from the fact that the surrounding people have always regarded the "cool garden" as a summer retreat for the rich, rather than a fortress for refuge. ,

This time the construction of the new camp, the crossing team said that it was similar to the last time, it is still a summer retreat, but the area is larger than the last time, so that it can accommodate more people. Of course, these are just hidden from the public. As long as anyone who has seen Yang Xin's planning map, they will never regard this fortress-like building with such a huge area, such complete protection, and so many houses as a rich family's summer house.

However, it can be seen that with the experience of the last time, Master Luo, who is still one of the leaders of the craftsmen this time, has not said "nonsense" such as "this building is not like a courtyard, but a strong and perfect fortress" like last time. After he saw the drawings provided by the crossing team, he and Master He, who helped him out of the siege last time, kept praising Yang Xin, who was in charge of drawing the drawings, for his superb skills, and at the same time, he pointed to the drawings and said that after the completion of such a courtyard, you will be very comfortable to live in, and spend the summer like a spring and autumn day, but completely ignore the high walls and many watchtowers of the so-called "courtyard" that is almost worth half of the Liangxiang City. and the few fortress-like buildings that they can't name, just outside the gates.

Similar to the situation last time, in the negotiation process with Luo and He others, Yang Xin once again put forward strict building specifications and engineering quality requirements to the craftsmen on behalf of the crossing team, and some of the indicators even exceeded the standards of the original "Liangyuan" - "Xianglong Fort" was inferior to the "Liangyuan" in terms of geographical advantages, so it was natural to build it more solid and perfect.

For the standard proposed by Yang Xin, the craftsmen led by Luo and He discussed it and felt that although it was more demanding, it was still within everyone's ability, so they agreed, but proposed to build according to this standard, and the time and cost required would be relatively large. It is estimated that the whole project will take about a year to complete, and the cost of silver will be about 40,000 yuan.

For the crossing team, it doesn't matter if they spend more money, with the support of the glass and private salt industries, the team's finances are still very rich. However, I was a little dissatisfied with the other party's proposal to take one year. Because according to the Jihua of the Ministry of Military Affairs, the second phase of the expansion of the "Flying Dragon Army" must be completed within one year, so that it can play a role in the battle of Youzhou in the ninth year of the calendar, that is, in the first half of the sixth year of Zhou Xiande. This is still based on the historical records of the past life that everyone knows, and God knows what will change in this time and space. If the battle of Youzhou is delayed, it is better to say, in case it is advanced, and the expansion of the "Flying Dragon Army" is not completed due to the problem of the camp, it will not be a major delay.

Therefore, after Luo and He proposed that the construction period should be one year, Yang Xin was the first to raise an objection, he said: "Masters, it is of great use for us to build this garden. If the construction period is as long as one year, the impact on us will be very significant. I also hope that all the masters will think of a way to shorten the construction period to about half a year. ”

"Yes, yes, I hope you will contribute more. As long as you can shorten the construction period, it doesn't matter if you spend a little more money. Xie Tian added on the side.

After listening to the requests of Yang and Xie, Luo and He were all embarrassed. Naturally, they hope to win this huge project, but the other party's requirements are really too high, and it is impossible to do it with the ability of others. Moreover, in the face of these "local snakes" who can be regarded as good in Liangxiang County and in Youzhou City, these craftsmen do not dare to accept the contract first, as they do in other projects, and then find excuses to delay when the work is not completed -- if they do so, it is estimated that they will not only stop working in the construction industry again, but are afraid that they will lose even the household goods to eat on their necks.

Seeing that several craftsmen were embarrassed and did not respond to their requests, Yang Xin asked impatiently: "If you have anything to say, just say it, don't be so sloppy." ”

After hesitating for a moment, it was Master Luo who opened his mouth, he hugged his fists to Yang Xin and Xie Tianyi, and said thoughtfully: "Yang Ye is angry." It's not that the villain doesn't want to agree, but it's that the construction period proposed by Yang Ye just now is too short, and the villains can't do it at all, so they naturally don't dare to agree to Yang Ye. ”

"How could it not be done?" Yang Xin said dissatisfied, "Although the quality requirements of this garden are relatively high, they are mainly concentrated in key parts such as walls, watchtowers, and fortresses, and the requirements for the houses inside are not much higher than those of ordinary houses." You have hundreds of craftsmen under your command, and it is not impossible to complete it in half a year if you hire more short-term workers who work hard, but you can't do it at all. ”,

Speaking of this, Yang Xin paused and continued coldly: "Don't think that only you can do this project, you are not the only one who can build houses in the Youdu Mansion. If you don't want to take it, you can find someone else to do it. I don't believe it, and there are things that can't be done if you are willing to spend money. ”

Listening to Yang Xin say this, although this Master Luo is a little worried about losing such a good deal, as a craftsman, he is still very confident in his professional ability, and he has a lot of opinions about Yang Xin's distrust of his strength. Therefore, he did not make a promise to Yang Xin, but hugged his fists again and explained: "Yang Ye, listen to the villain's explanation." What Yang Ye said just now is right, the villain and a few of his peers are indeed in charge of hundreds of construction craftsmen, and they can indeed hire a large number of young people as short-term workers when the farm is slack, doing some heavy work of digging foundations and transporting materials. But the garden you want to build is not only a circle of courtyard walls, but also hundreds of houses to be built inside, and the complicated building called 'Fortress' that Yang Ye just mentioned will be built outside the gate. These are all built brick by brick by brick by skilled craftsmen, not as fast as you want. The one-year construction period mentioned by the villain is already calculated according to the time of the craftsmen working day and night, and there is really no way to shorten it.

If Yang Ye didn't believe what the villain said, he could go to other craftsmen to ask. If anyone promises to do so, and does build the garden within the prescribed time limit, the villain is willing to go back to the countryside and farm, and never again make a living by building houses and building bridges. ”

Seeing that this Master Luo said such heavy words of "quitting the construction industry", Yang Xin's original irritable mood calmed down a little, and he subconsciously continued: "Since it is relatively slow to build a house with bricks, then you can use reinforced concrete to build it." It's fast and sturdy, so why not? ”

"What is reinforced concrete?" Master Luo and several other craftsmen asked almost in unison.

When the other party asked, Yang Xin realized that he had leaked his mouth, how can people in this era know about reinforced concrete. But the words have already been spoken, and there is no rush to recycle it. So, Yang Xin had to explain to these craftsmen what reinforced concrete is, and how to build houses with these things - of course, the origin of cement was unsurprisingly pushed by him to the secret recipe brought by overseas merchants.

Although they have not yet seen what Yang Xin's so-called reinforced concrete looks like, years of construction experience have enabled these craftsmen to immediately capture the benefits of building houses with these two things. Whether it is strong or not can only be determined by seeing the real thing, but there is no doubt that it will be built quickly. If there are really these two things that this Yang Ye said, then it is still possible to complete the construction of this big garden within half a year.

So, that Master Luo said tentatively: "If this reinforced concrete is really as miraculous as Yang Ye said, then it is indeed not impossible to build a garden within half a year." It's just that, as Yang Ye just said, this reinforced concrete is a secret recipe imported from overseas, and ordinary craftsmen like villains are naturally unheard of and unseen, and they don't know anything about how to use them. Moreover, if the villain says something immodest, he is afraid that in Liangxiang City and even in the entire Nanjing Dao, there is no craftsman who knows about this thing.

Therefore, the villain has a reluctant invitation here, I hope that Yang Ye can let the villain and others see these two things, and teach the villain how to use them. The villains and others are also good to learn and use, and use them to build this garden for you, so as not to miss the construction period and affect your master to do great things. ”

Although for Yang Xin and Xie Tian, You Yuan and others who participated in the negotiations, the most important thing now is to complete the project on time, as for the reinforced concrete, especially the confidentiality of cement, it is not in their primary consideration. But the crossing team has the rules of crossing the team, and this kind of thing to show outsiders the team jishu and teach them how to use it is not something the three of them can do. Therefore, Yang Xin explained his own rules to several craftsmen. Several craftsmen naturally understood this very well, saying that it was common sense that the craftsmanship should not be passed on, and it was also appropriate for Yang Ye to ask the brother in charge for instructions, and everyone would go back and wait for the news.

Seeing that several craftsmen were very good at talking, Yang Xin did not delay any longer. He told the craftsmen that they did not have to leave, that they should only wait here, and that he would soon be back to continue the conversation, and then went out to ask the committee for instructions.

Since the negotiations with several craftsmen took place in the "Qing Garden", Yang Xin quickly reached a consensus with Wang Kunjun and Zhang Weixin, and obtained Li Junwu's consent through the radio, deciding to allow several artisan leaders to touch the reinforced concrete and teach them how to use it. However, the premise is that these skills are known only to a few artisan leaders, and not to other artisans.

Regarding the request made by Yang Xin on behalf of the crossing team, several craftsman leaders naturally agreed. Several of them said that Yang Xin has this requirement, but there is no such requirement, and they will not tell others about this kind of skill similar to "one trick fresh", after all, they still value the rule of "craftsmanship is not passed on".

As the two sides reached a consensus on various issues, the construction of "Xianglong Fort" began to be in full swing, and officially started on the first day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar of the seventh year of the calendar, and the first shovel of soil was dug down.

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