The "next dish" mentioned by Poti appeared a few days later, the temple of the Stove was still in the festival period, and Calabis, who had nothing to do, continued to conduct the highly shameful "ancient Greek military training" at Tylañan, not only for heavy infantry races, but also for fist fights, nude wrestling, swimming and other events. Until Kelly appeared at the door of the academy with a tired face, "Congratulations, Calabis, the engineer of Feltus that Claudia introduced"

"It's called Portus." Calabis corrected as he wiped his sweat and fine sand, removed the leather bandage from his fist.

"Well, Portus, he failed to tunnel."

"How did it fail?" Calabis asked curiously as he raised the clay urn to pour water.

"When digging the tunnel, two teams of craftsmen dug across the mountain, and as a result, Zuihou was a full 100 Roman feet short and did not match. Then continue digging sideways, ready to align. zuihou is on the right side and has also dug up. Kelly's words made Calabis spray out directly with a mouthful of water, but after coughing repeatedly, he also figured it out, at this time, the level of engineering mathematics was still limited, and digging a tunnel in the mountain was not a common thing, so he gradually got used to it.

"Did the Lord tell me to try it?"

Kelly said with a serious face: "It's not for you to try, the master has already lost 20,000 drachmas because of this failure, he asked you to solve this problem, take that Milu with you." ”

In the blazing May sun, Milou was sweating in the trenches of Prima, using a measuring instrument called "Groma", and Calabis was holding a parasol to shade him, also sweaty. Lucuras and Claudia sat behind them with gloomy faces, and it seemed that the two men had quarreled a lot. After being busy for a long time, Milou asked Pop to take a pedometer, a kind of thing wrapped in strips of cloth, and turned it to the foot of the mountain on that side, and the two of them found a meeting point on one side of the mountain in a triangular way, and finally came up with the straight length of the tunnel.

When Calabis saw Milou calculate, he was very relieved, thinking that since these legionnaires had calculated the angle and length, what they did below must be much better than that engineer in Portos.

Milou walked up to Lukulas, gave a military salute, and said bluntly: "Your Excellency, after measuring the length, I personally believe that the soil of this mountain cannot be excavated, and even if it is dug out, it will collapse because it cannot be supported. Hearing this, Calabis's face was longer than Lucuras's.

"But you can build an aqueduct to bring in seawater from the other side of the mountain." Pop added.

Lucuras said strangely: "Aqueduct? I've seen it, and you mean to use an aqueduct to carry water from the sea up and over the hillside into the courtyard of my villa? How is this possible! "People still knew a little bit about basic mechanics at that time.

Pope smiled knowingly at this time and began to point to the mountain and talk: "Your Excellency, this is not your fault. My solution is to build a cistern with a breakwater on the beach, with pumps higher than your yard, and then lay rows of lead pipes with a diameter of one roman foot along the hillside and insert them into the cistern. The lead pipe goes straight to the aqueduct in the courtyard, where the seawater is sucked up and then passed through the inside of the lead pipe over the mountain, injected into the aqueduct, and then flows into your fish pond. ”

"What is this?" Lucuras asked, squinting his eyes.

"Your Excellency, I saw the jishu in a castle somewhere in Pergamum in Asia Minor, and it is said that we in Rome had it two hundred years ago, but now it is lost." Pope affirmed.

"Isn't this the siphon principle?" Calabis said silently in his heart, but he didn't say it, but looked at everyone present with an expression of amazement, and then everyone was infected by his expression, and they all looked at each other with an expression of amazement.

"Soldier, maybe you're talking about a workable plan. Let's talk about your budget. Lucuras finally burst out with these words.

"Your Excellency, the biggest investment is lead pipes, which is a big trouble, I estimate that I have to use a lot of weight of lead to produce and manufacture, which requires a lot of space and a lot of craftsmen." Pope said, and Lucuras then asked directly, "Is 100,000 drachmas enough?" ”

"Actually, fifty-five thousand" Before Milou could speak, Calabis shouted first: "Actually, eighty-five thousand drachmas my friends can do very well." ”

"Kelly, worry about this, I'll have to go and be with Marcos for a while—dear wife, I'm out of company." Luculas stood up politely, apparently satisfied with the plan, and then left his wife behind, and turned back to Calabis as he left, saying, "Calabis, you know, Milou and Pope's identities, I use them to withstand a lot of pressure, so make things better." ”

"Oh yes!" Originally, Calabis looked at Lucuras's back and wanted to clench his fists to express his excitement, but he soon saw Claudia staring at him with a strange look, and he immediately retracted.

"Calabis, where are you from?" Claudia asked curiously, holding her cheek against the back of her hand.

"To the east, far away, there are deserts and wild beasts." Calabis rambled.

Claudia was not interested in getting to the bottom of it, so she put a tulle shawl on her body and extorted to Calabis: "You ask for eighty-five thousand drachmas? Do you know how much that Filtus architect charged? ”

"It seems to be called Portus, Portus, the honorable master." Calabis corrected carefully.

"Well, he asks for 125,000 drachmas, and this guy is worthy of being a free man sheltered by Crassus, and he is insatiable, but he will only give me 5,000 drachmas." Claudia said in a tone of annoyance, and the two maids who combed their hair willingly handed over the open dressing box, and held it in front of her eyes, and the merry lady took out the small bronze mirror in front of the dressing box, and put on makeup, because it was said that there was a grand gathering of nobles in Baie tonight, and she was not willing to carry the slightest dimness, "Five thousand, thanks to that fellow to do it"

"Although our price is only eighty-five thousand, eight thousand are yours, mistress." Calabis arched his hand and whispered.

Claudia snorted and laughed, looking very happy and satisfied, "You are good, Calabis, in fact, I valued your plan very much from the beginning, and I will not ask much about this matter." Then he closed the dressing case and departed, surrounded by maids and servants.

"Hurry up and get out of here." Calabis squinted his eyes and spoke very kindly in Chinese, as if he were saying a warm farewell to his mistress.

"What lead do you want? I have a fellow villager who has two ore warehouses in Rome, and they are thin lead skins made of large squares of lead from Claon in Athens, which are of absolutely excellent quality. At some point, Kelly appeared at Calabis's side, and said in his ear that everyone wanted a piece of the deal.