The three officials looked at it for a long time, but they didn't understand the intent of the drawings.

"This is a river drawing, right?" One of the officers asked, looking at the other.

"Fan Shilang, this is a drawing of a river embankment, but the strange thing is that the shape of this embankment and the meaning of these star patterns are not clear."

"Winter official squire Wang Jin, you don't know what you painted?" Empress Wu asked.

The white-haired old man nodded and saluted, "Your Royal Highness, the old man has never seen such a strange embankment in most of his life. ”

Empress Wu nodded, "Tell the people to enter the hall." ”

The three officials looked at each other, and could only stand still and wait, pretending to be studying the map.

They probably knew in their hearts that this was a drawing scribbled by someone to fool the martial arts queen, and they wanted to get an official reward from here, and there was a good show to watch.

After a while, a grizzled man came to the main hall with the wooden box.

He put down the box and looked around the main hall, his eyes full of joy, and he was dazzled by the golden splendor of the hall.

"When I see Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother, don't hurry up and salute!"

"Grass people, Zheng Dao see Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother."

Empress Wu was not angry, so she asked directly: "You drew the drawings in this letter?" ”

"Yes, well, it's not."

Fan Shilang directly asked, "Yes, or not?" ”

"I also watched other people's drawings and changed them..."

Empress Wu's face instantly became serious, "I hate plagiarism the most, Zheng Dao, your name is very good, why are you going on a crooked path?" ”

Zheng Dao immediately panicked, "Your Royal Highness the Queen Mother, I didn't plagiarize... I... Ay! Then he opened the wooden box in a panic, "This is the sand table I made recently..."

Zheng Dao took out two ceramic basins from inside, which were carved with lifelike river embankments.

Three officials gathered around, with an appreciative look on their faces.

Fan Lubing blinked, "Oops, it's so exquisite!" ”

Wang Jin, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, nodded approvingly and asked, "This embankment is what you made?" ”

Zheng Dao smiled and nodded frequently, a little at a loss.

"Let a few adults laugh, this is indeed done by the grass people."

Empress Wu looked over from afar, "Tell me what these are for." ”

Zheng Dao wiped his hands with the placket of his clothes, walked to the basin and pointed to one of them and introduced: "This is a dam in the upper reaches of our Luo River, which was rebuilt after the flooding a few years ago, and this embankment next to it was built with my method." ”

Wang Jin bent down and touched the embankment on the sand table with his fingers, "Stones? And how is this shape of stone fixed? Doesn't the water disperse as soon as it is flushed? Isn't it more clogged up when the stones rush into the river over time? ”

Zheng Dao was blindsided by a series of questions, and his words froze in place for a while.

"Hey, I don't know what to say, just look at it."

Several people were dispersed by Zheng Dao, deliberately so that the martial queen on the stage could see clearly, and Zheng Dao moved the two sand tables closer.

At this time, the guards on both sides entered a state of combat readiness.

Empress Wu waved her hand before they took a few steps back.

Zheng Dao wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and took the water bag from his waist.

"This is like the flood, I'll wash our current river embankment first."

Zheng Dao aimed at the river in the sand table, squeezed out the water hard, and the water in the water bag sprayed out.

However, after a bag of water was washed, the sand table was still intact, with only a few small cracks.

Zheng Dao slowly raised his head and looked at Empress Wu, and suddenly panicked, he was in too much of a hurry to work and brought it up without checking it once.

"Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother, there is not enough water."

Empress Wu made a straight face, "Come on, get water, if you can't make a name, you will drink all the water you used today." ”

After a while, two guards brought up a large jar of water.

Zheng Dao filled the water bag and began to prick the water again.

The officials standing on the side looked at Zheng Dao like a dead man.

This is the same person who has played in the water in the palace hall throughout the ages, so maybe they can go down in history because of this incident.

"It's cracked! It's cracked! Your Royal Highness the Queen Mother, look! Zheng Dao suddenly shouted, and leaned in front of Empress Wu with a sand table.

Empress Wu fixed his eyes and saw that the river embankment was washed away, and both banks of the river embankment were flooded.

"And then?"

Zheng Dao organized the language and said slowly: "This repaired embankment will collapse after a few floods at most, and as far as I know, it will be repaired about once every three years. ”

"Wang Jin, is he right?" Empress Wu asked.

Wang Jin nodded, "That's true, Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother." He turned his face to look at Zheng Dao and asked, "You also did this?" ”

Zheng Dao scratched his head, "The little one has met the adults a few times, but every time he is disgraced, it's normal that you don't know him." ”

Wang Jin pointed to another sand table, "You can do this thing if it's small, but if it's the embankment of the Luo River, it won't work, not to mention the time-consuming, the stones are piled together, and they can't be fixed at all, and after the river invades, the waterlogging will be more serious." ”

"Hey! Your Excellency, you are right, I didn't think it would work at first, but I've recently discovered something new. ”

"Something new?"

Zheng Dao picked up the sand table and threw it directly into the water tank, repeating this for dozens of times, and then fished it out.

"Look, everybody, it's intact!" He lifted it up and slammed it to the ground, only to hear a thud, and the sand table was intact.

"A stone, no matter how much you fall, of course it won't rot." Fan Lubing complained.

Zheng Dao took out a cloth bag from his arms and showed it to everyone.

Everyone looked at the gray dirt in his sack in great confusion.

"It's called cement, and it can fuse sand and stones, big stones, and connect them into a whole, so that no matter how big the waves are, they won't be washed away.

And with these, we dig a big pit before the rainy season and mix cement to make an artificial reservoir, which can not only prevent waterlogging, but also be used for irrigation in the dry season! Zheng Dao impassionedly introduced.

Empress Wu and the three officials had cloudy faces on their faces.

"Is this really that amazing?" Empress Wu asked.

"Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother, this thing can make the stones mixed into a whole, even if it is used to build roads, it is extremely smooth, and don't want to grow on it!"

Although Empress Wu didn't understand, the experiment just now could indeed prove that he was not lying, but it could not be ruled out that he was exaggerating.

"Ridiculous! Zheng Dao, let me ask you where this cement comes from? Wang Jin asked.

Zheng Dao said the manufacturing method in one go.

"With so many processes, how much does it cost! Grinding the stone and then taking it to build the stone, why not just use the stone? ”

Fan Lubing also said: "Wang Shilang is right, putting the cart before the horse is child's play!" ”

The head of the household, who had been silent, suddenly said: "Your Royal Highness, if you build the embankment according to this process, the construction cost will increase several times!" ”

When it comes to spending money, Empress Wu is worried again, the annual money for the treatment of Luoshui is as high as hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, if the cement is built, it will directly become more than one million taels of silver, this is a big gamble.

In the final analysis, the treasury is still not rich in money, and the construction of the Ming Hall in the past two years has exceeded the budget.

Zheng Dao instantly became anxious when he heard this, "It's not like this, as long as the cement embankment is built, there will be no need to treat it in the next ten years, according to the amount of water in Luoshui in previous years, it is possible in twenty years!" ”

Zheng Dao was extremely flustered in his heart, and immediately regretted what he said, as his brother said, these officials only think about their own interests, and the word once and for all is cutting their flesh!

His mind raced.

After hearing this, Empress Wu was indifferent, "The matter of putting the cart before the horse is already a waste of money and money, Zheng Dao, thinking that you are ignorant, I will not punish you, retreat." ”

"Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother! I won't retreat! ”

The people around him looked at Zheng Dao in front of him in disbelief, thinking in their hearts, this Diao Min is tired of living, right!