At the end of June, Dapan Fort.

After a month of uninterrupted training, the more than 80 dun troops of Dapanbao have made rapid progress, and they are already second to none in the various fire road piers and tun forts under the jurisdiction of Wangjiazhuang.

However, the weapons used by the dun army in the fort were complicated and dilapidated, so Liu Yan recruited people everywhere, and asked a few craftsmen from Wang Wei Town to expand the military workshop of Dapan Fort, and Chen Xun also took people to a trip to the Qianhu in Xiahe Village, and bought a large number of iron and coal to make standard spears and Yanling knives. Liu Yan then began to gradually replace the old blades in the hands of the Zhongdun army.

At this time, a number of buildings in Dapan Fort have been built, and only some scattered corners still need to be carved. Now all that's left is to build the fort wall.

For this reason, Liu Yan personally led people to carry ox carts back and forth between Dapanbao and the Qianqian Household Office in Xiahe Village, and bought several batches of wood and various materials. Zhang Yi took people to mine stone over there for a period of time before, but because it was too laborious and laborious, and it took up a lot of manpower, Liu Yan asked everyone to come back directly.

As for the stones needed to build the fort wall, Liu Yan is ready to buy all of them directly, anyway, he has some silver in his hand now, and it is enough to buy these building materials.

However, although there is no shortage of wood and stone nowadays, a large amount of loess rammed mud is required to build the fort wall.

In the process of ramming, digging soil, mud, debilitating, and drying also require a large number of manpower.

Liu Yan only mobilized all the military households of Dapanbao to help, more than 200 people, both men and women, were on the battlefield, and the families of those artisan households also came out to work, as long as they came back from the military work, everyone had to participate in the construction of the fort wall, for which Liu Yan also stipulated that the end time of the military work was advanced.

"My lord, with bluestone as the base of the wall, it needs to be polished and rammed to build the fort wall, and it also needs to be glued with slurry."

In the evening of that day, in front of Liu Yan, a large number of men and women carrying dustpans and baskets ran back and forth along the fort wall, some craftsmen were directing the men of Dapan Fort to polish the stones, and some craftsmen were directing the men to ram the fort wall. The scene was in full swing.

At this time, in addition to Chen Xun and others, Liu Yan was the old craftsman who made the big waterwheel, although he was a carpenter, he was also proficient in civil engineering and masonry.

"Slurry bonding?"

After listening to the words of the old craftsman, Liu Yan was a little strange, he didn't know that ramming the fort wall still needed to be glued with slurry, and what was this slurry?

After the old craftsman's explanation, Liu Yan understood.

Originally, the city wall was built in ancient times, and it was made of loess pulp, river sand, lime, and glutinous rice pulp mixed into a certain proportion to make triple soil, so that the rammed fortress wall was durable and difficult to break. There are even some places where dog urine is added when building walls, and the local people believe that this can ward off evil spirits, of course, for Liu Yan, dog urine is enough.

Loess and river sand are okay, but thinking of using a large amount of glutinous rice, Liu Yan couldn't help but feel heartache. Chen Xun and the others next to him also showed a look of pity, glutinous rice, they were reluctant to eat it on weekdays, but they didn't expect it to be built into this castle wall.

However, according to the old craftsman, so rammed the fort wall can be strong and durable, can last for hundreds of years, and this is also the most common wall building technique in ancient times, in some big cities or courts, they ram the fort wall, if the outside to wrap bricks, in addition to adding a large amount of glutinous rice juice, even add a large amount of brown sugar, egg whites, red beans and other things to make binders, which costs countless money.

After listening to the words of the old craftsman, what else could Liu Yan say? Only one sentence: "We must ensure quality and quantity." "Then he went around again.

In the planning and calculation of Liu Yan and the craftsmen, the fort wall of Dapan Fort is slightly smaller than that of Wangjiazhuang, with a circumference of one mile and dozens of steps, the fort wall is about ten meters high, and the city foundation is five meters thick, without bricks. Set up a south gate in the south direction, build a city tower on the gate, set up an urn city outside, and then have a moat.

Outside the fort, Liu Yan also planned to build another school ground for soldiers to practice, as well as a martial arts hall for officers to command and rest.

In the fort, the streets and alleys were planned to be paved with rocks, and there were drainage ditches on both sides, which were also paved with stones. Because the topography of Dapanbao is high in the north and low in the south, if it rains, it is easy to drain water, and there is no danger of rain and waterlogging. At the same time, a stone pit was built outside the south gate, and in the future, the stagnant water was directly discharged from the fort to the outside of the stone pit through the waterway, and the water would be used for the use of people and livestock in the fort, and even for future field irrigation.

This idea was conceived by Liu Yan, and after deliberation by the craftsmen, they thought it was feasible, and at the same time admired Liu Yan's whimsy.

After the street was built, because the fort had planned a piece of land in advance, in the future, the military households or foreign residents in the fort, if they did not want to live in the barracks, could buy land from Liu Yan and build their own houses on the divided plots, and finally the people of the fort jointly built temples, theaters and other public buildings.

With the design of Liu Yan and the craftsmen, the military households of Dapan Fort only need to work hard, and Liu Yan and others estimate that it will take about two or three months to build the fort wall.

High-intensity labor requires a lot of rice grains, although Liu Yan can't let everyone eat white noodles, but millet grains, black flour cakes Liu Yan can be full. High-intensity labor also needs to be meaty, otherwise the physical strength will not be able to support it, and it is easy to urinate blood.

Liu Yan also did the same as last year when he opened up the wasteland, stipulating that all those who participated in the construction of the fort wall were to eat meat for one day and vegetarian for five days, and they were given morning porridge in the early morning, and every ten people were given a ladle of wine for seven days, and there was also a little salary, although it was not much, but it was enough to make these military households happy.

With an official like Liu Yan, and building his own home, although the work is very heavy, everyone is very motivated. However, Liu Yan estimated that if this continued, after the fort wall was built, more than half of the more than 2,000 taels of silver he had accumulated would be spent. But fortunately, there is a soap workshop, so Liu Yan has a source of income.

Since the establishment of the fort in Dapanbao, the life of the military households in the fort is obvious to all, although they have to work every day, but everyone can eat enough, in this year, it is not easy.

Moreover, Liu Yan, the official of Dapanbao, is also known for his sympathy for his subordinates, and he is also very capable of treating people with kindness, and after word of mouth, Dapanbao is more attractive to everyone, so some people's military households have come to Liu Yan one after another.

Liu Yan's demand for population will never be satisfied, and he will accept all the people who defect, let Zhao Min register them one by one, and send them the military household posts of Dapanbao.

Of course, some of them are still deserters from other thousands of households, and accepting them will inevitably cause a series of disputes in the future, but when they enter their own mouths, how can Liu Yan push them out? It's still the same.

One day, Liu Yan was discussing affairs with Chen Xun, Wang Bo, and Zhang Yi in the General Flag Office, while Wang Yue was leading people to watch from the watchtower. Suddenly, Wang Yue saw something and hurriedly came over to report to Liu Yanyu.

It turned out that a group of displaced people gathered towards Dapanbao, and Liu Yan Wenxu hurriedly took everyone out to investigate.

Seeing this group of displaced people, Liu Yan couldn't help but be taken aback, only to see that this group of displaced people had about ten households and more than fifty people, which was the largest number of people who came to take refuge in Dapanbao at these times. They were all ragged, yellow-skinned, and they all spoke with the same accent, as if they were from the same village.

These people stood in front of the south gate, looking at everyone around them with fearful eyes, and at the same time their eyes were full of hope. The first old man stepped forward and knelt on the ground, begging Liu Yan's subordinates to take refuge in Liu Yan's Tuntian here.

Around them, some of the working Dapanbao military households pointed out and discussed with them from time to time, looking at these miserable homeless people, the military households of Dapanbao found their happiness, thinking that they were the same as them back then, but now they can be fed and clothed, which makes their voices speak louder.

When Liu Yan and his party came out, they saw a circle of people around those homeless people, Wang Yue walked up and shouted: "What are you doing, don't you have to work?" ”

The soldiers dispersed with a bang, and went back to their work, but everyone's ears were raised high, and they kept an eye on the movement here.

When the people saw a young military leader come out and shout at everyone, they seemed to be very powerful, and everyone subconsciously shrank their bodies.

Liu Yan smelled the sour smell of these people who had not bathed for many days, and then glanced at these hungry people, from men to women, from the old man to the child, all of them had expectant eyes, and he asked, "Where did you come from?" Where are the people? ”

One of the old men came out and kowtowed, and he said in a trembling voice: "The little one is from Yanzhou, and the family has suffered a disaster, and the land tax is heavy, so he has to come out to escape the famine. ”

After speaking, all the homeless people immediately kowtowed and pleaded.

Chen Xun had been paying attention to Liu Yan's expression, and when he saw him nodding slightly, he stepped forward and said loudly: "Your Excellency, I am willing to take you in, but you need to remember the rules of our Dapan Fort, when you come to the fort, you need to join all the military households, and those who don't want to be expelled immediately!" ”

"In the future, we will organize you to reclaim wasteland, and borrow oxen and plows and other things, and divide the fields in the future, and in the first year, the fort will exempt everyone from tax and grain. In the second year, one bucket of grain was levied per mu of tuntian to pay for the cattle and other silver that had been borrowed before. From the third year onwards, two buckets of grain will be levied per mu, are you willing? ”

These homeless people from Yanzhou have all heard the rules of Dapanbao, and in this world, it is important to be able to eat and clothe warmly, and where are the households better than the military households? Not to mention that there was also their own land and cattle distribution, and after that, everyone could live a stable life, and those military households in front of them are examples.

At that moment, everyone kowtowed and said, "It's all up to the adults!" ”

Liu Yan asked Chen Xun to arrange for these people to cook some porridge for these people to eat, and then let them go to the river to take a bath, so as not to bring any bacteria into the fort. In addition, he instructed Zhao Min to register these people one by one and send them military household posts, and they will be the military households of Dapanbao in the future.

Liu Yan arranged barracks and dormitories for these new military households, and after these people rested for a few days, he let them build the fort wall to work, with these new recruits, maybe the fort wall could be built faster, and after the fort wall was built, these new people would be organized to reclaim the wasteland.

In the end, Liu Yan took Zhao Min's document and looked at it, and couldn't help but be surprised, from the beginning of the year to the present, there have been more than 30 new military households and more than 100 people. Even the original military households, the current Dapanbao has hundreds of households, with a population of more than 400.

Now that the population size of Dapanbao is basically the same as that of Wangjiazhuang, Liu Yan can't help but be proud.