Hu Xiancheng felt the true joy of being an official, and indulged in the sense of accomplishment that was needed.

With the villagers taking the lead, Hu Xiancheng's work was carried out better, and one after another, villagers "borrowed" from the county government, from simply guarding the thin fields and planting wheat to farming and breeding.

The work on Hu Xiancheng's side has begun, but the progress of the new city wall is not satisfactory.

It's November, and the new walls are only half built.

Many of the walls of the Great Wei Dynasty are rammed earth walls, and the word "rammed" as the name suggests is to vigorously hit the soil layer and make the soil layer rammed into a wall.

Such a wall is not strong enough, and the thieves at the fortification point are okay on weekdays, but if you really encounter a fierce barbarian army, a few cannons will collapse.

More solid than plain earth ramming is the wall strengthened by wooden piles reinforced in each layer of rammed earth.

If you want to build the city wall higher and stronger, you have to ram earth as the inner core, and paste the masonry outside!

The new city wall in Qin'an County is the third type.

First, a huge stone bar half a person high was erected as the foundation of the wall, and then the brick retaining soil of the city was built on top of the stone.

The masonry is ready, the adhesive can't keep up, the adhesive between the masonry is glutinous rice and egg white, plus gelatin, donkey skin, etc.

In order to stabilize the city wall, the flatness of the masonry surface is also extremely high.

Quarrying stones, carriages and horses are transported to the outside of the city, polished and smoothed by stonemasons, all the processes are completed by manpower, there are no cutting machines, no other modern tools, the progress is indeed not fast.

Everyone felt that it would not be possible to repair the new walls within this year.

As soon as the weather is cold, there will be small-scale commotion on the border between the two countries, and war will break out.

The merchants are still in full swing to repair the shop out of their own pockets, which is related to their own money-making business, and the progress is not slow.

They don't think that the barbarian army can hit Qin'an, and the new city wall can't be repaired this year, so it will continue to be repaired next year.

Anyway, the weather is cold, the people are stiff, the speed of work is even slower, and it is better to let them go home to rest for a while, and continue to work next year when the farm is slack.

"No, you can't stop!"

Cheng Qing has always been easy to speak, but he is very tough at this time.

"My lord, there is not enough glutinous rice in the city......"

There are few rice growers in Qin'an and nearby prefectures and counties, the stock of glutinous rice is low, there is no binder, and the progress of the construction period cannot keep up!

When Cheng Qing was worried, Meng Huaijin sent something to Cheng Qing like timely rain.

According to Cheng Qing's recipe, Meng Huai ordered the Ministry of Industry to secretly test and fire the cement!

After many tests, the Ministry of Industry came up with the most suitable raw material formula for the current calcination technology, Cheng Qing can't burn this thing by herself, it's not that she's lazy, it's that cement needs to use iron ore, and iron ore is owned by the state like salt ore, and anyone mining it privately is a big crime.

The nature of iron ore is worse than selling smuggled salt, selling smuggled salt is profitable, mining iron ore is basically equivalent to "rebellion", iron ore can forge weapons, anything related to soldiers, in the eyes of the imperial court is not a trivial matter.

Of course, there are iron mines in the northwest, and it is a long way to transport the fired cement from the capital to the northwest, and Meng Huaijin has ordered the construction of a cement workshop in the northwest.

Meng Huaijin sent Cheng Qing a part of the fired cement, and he had already transferred iron ore, as well as craftsmen from the capital, it would not take long to build a cement workshop.

"No need for glutinous rice!"

Cheng Qing ordered someone to water and wet the gray-white powder, mix it with fine sand, and smear it between the cracks of the masonry, and personally inspected the quality of the batch of cement fired by the Ministry of Industry, and the effect made her very happy!

Not only does there be no need for glutinous rice, with cement, Cheng Qing can mix with water with sand and gravel, and directly pour the city wall into concrete, where do you need to ram earth layer by layer to cast the inner core of the city wall?

The most indispensable thing in the northwest is sand and gravel, and there are inexhaustible raw materials everywhere.

It was a director of the Ministry of Engineering who escorted the finished cement products and was ordered to build a cement workshop in the northwest.

This principal brought a letter from Master Cheng Liu.

The firing of cement, Cheng Liu followed up the whole process, he did not hesitate to praise in the letter, saying that "cement" is a god in the future!

This thing is so useful.

In addition to being used in the construction of city walls, it can also be used in many projects in charge of the Ministry of Engineering, especially the construction of dams and river embankments to prevent floods from bursting embankments!

The six central departments and the Ministry of Industry have always been not very valued, so the six departments of Shangshu and Cheng Liu have not entered the cabinet for a long time.

After the "cement" was fired, Master Cheng Liu no longer had to worry about this problem.

Compared with the importance of "cement", it is not important whether to enter the cabinet or not, Cheng Qing dedicated, Cheng Liu supervised the construction, "cement" can be said to be born in the hands of the Cheng family, this alone, Cheng Liu will be recorded in the history books...... Master Cheng Liu's political pursuit can almost be regarded as complete, that is, he immediately called him Zhishi, and he has no regrets.

The Ministry of Industry has tested cement, and with the technology of mass production, Meng Huaijin never thought of hiding it, except for the northwest to build a workshop, this is the case in many places across the country.

The cement produced can be used not only in Qin'an County, but also elsewhere.

Cheng Qing had this timely rain sent by Meng Huaijin, and repaired the new city wall of Qin'an before the lunar month.

……

Lanzhou, Yewangfu.

In the drill field, according to Xiao Yunting's order, Cicada Yi asked people to build a concrete pier with cement mixed with sand and stone, and after the cement was dry, Xiao Yunting asked Cicada Yi to give it a try, and Cicada Yi poured his strength into the sword and slashed towards the concrete pier.

The blade collided with the concrete pier, shaking open the hand of the cicada, and her tiger mouth was shattered!

"Lord Wang, this thing can be compared to hard stone!"

It is troublesome to mine hard stone, but this thing is a pile of powder, mixed with sand and water, mixed evenly, and built into any shape as you like, and when it solidifies and dries, it becomes an existence comparable to hard stone.

With this thing, it's no wonder that Lord Xiao Cheng's city wall was built very quickly.

If there had been it before, the rebuilding of the city wall of Lanzhou City would not have required so much effort, or if the city wall of Lanzhou had been built by this method a long time ago, 'Mr. Zhang' would not have blown up the city wall so easily.

Cicada Yi was a little excited: "Lord Wang, this thing is very useful!" ”

Ignoring her injured tiger's mouth, Cicada Yi circled along the concrete pier, and couldn't help but touch her own hand to cut out the mark with a sword, leaving a little mark is nothing, there are not many people with her skills, she has to go all out to cut a little mark, ordinary soldiers are afraid that it is not easy to leave even a little mark.

Cicada Yi was stupid for a long time, and found that Xiao Yunting didn't move, so she secretly went to look, Xiao Yunting's face was not very good.

The prince is not very happy?

But why, this is a good thing for the country, the people, the northwest, and the Ye Palace!

- Although it was developed by the Ministry of Industry, the new emperor did not say that he would not allow Ye Wangfu to use it, otherwise he would not have built a cement workshop in the northwest.