Pingnan Pass, a checkpoint built for war, is fifteen miles long, twelve miles wide, five miles high, with high mountains on both sides, deep valleys in front and back, and the terrain is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

At this time, Jiang Ming was examining some boulders made of deep-sea gel.

A craftsman said: "The sand in the desert is too fine, and the adhesive power is not enough, because it cannot be used for any construction, and it is empty to build roads and cities, but using soft concrete to fill the gaps, and then using deep-sea gel as a binder, then these fine sand and gravel will immediately turn into hard boulders, and even the attack power of the peak of the Dan Dao can only leave a palm-deep trace on it, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the entire city wall." ”

Another craftsman continued: "Although it is extremely rigid and easy to break, this kind of masonry is hard and easy to destroy, but it is easy to stand up to the materials, as long as the deep sea gel is enough, the abandoned city wall can be immediately demolished and replaced with a new wall, and they will have to pay for damaging the city wall." ”

The cost of damaging the city wall does not refer to the attrition when they attack, but the risk they need to take when attacking, the people standing on the city wall will not watch them destroy the city wall and remain indifferent, they will definitely take the opportunity to fight back, and the other party must be prepared to bear the rain of arrows if they want to destroy it.

Ling Xiyue said: "It seems that we went to the eastern ocean to get the deep-sea gel, but it was not in vain. ”

She also saw the important role of this material, it is not for nothing that it is easier to use and stronger than this kind of masonry, but if you want to transport it to the front line, it will require a great price, and if you can not pay this price, it is better not to pay.

Jiang Ming had an idea: "Since this kind of masonry can be used to cast the city wall, can it be used to pave the road to the Liuli Cave?"

A craftsman said: "The road to Liulidong must require a large number of troops and countless logistics supply troops to pass, no matter how hard the stone can be broken, so the road to Liulidong needs to be easy to walk, since it is flat, but also to be able to unload, the force on the road surface to unload into the fine sand under the road, in order to make the road long." ”

Ling Xiyue was stunned for a moment: "Shouldn't the road be labor-saving? Why do you still need to unload the force? Doesn't this increase the difficulty of the march?"

An official of the staff office replied: "There is no way to do this, the most laborious thing about marching in the desert is that every step will sink into the sand, which is a waste of effort, and the road we build, although it will also be unloaded, is just a measure of last resort to make the road stronger, I don't know how many times easier than walking directly in the desert." ”

The lesser of two powers, this is already the limit of what they can do.

Jiang Ming rubbed the surface of the boulder and found this kind of soft concrete and deep sea

The surface of the gel-mixed sand and gravel boulder turned out to be very smooth, not at all like ordinary stone, but like carefully polished jade.

"Can you take some sand from the desert and show me?" Jiang Ming said.

"The grass people will do it!" said one of the craftsmen, who immediately ran to fetch sand.

Another craftsman who didn't have time to receive the order explained: "This kind of masonry is very smooth and wear-resistant, if you use the sand of the sea, then the surface must be extremely rough, and if you cast it with sand in the desert, as long as the mold is flat, then it is easy to create a smooth surface, which deepens the difficulty of forcibly climbing in southern Xinjiang." ”

The people in southern Xinjiang do not have siege ladders, if they want to attack the city, they have to climb the city obediently, and those monsters are the same, there is no shortcut if they want to attack the city, either destroy the city or climb the city.

The smooth surface and extremely hard masonry will undoubtedly become a nightmare for the people of southern Xinjiang.

At this time, the craftsman who went to fetch the sand also got a large box of sand and presented it to Jiang Ming, Jiang Ming grabbed a handful, and the fine sand immediately slipped away from between his fingers without the slightest stop.

"It's not at all like the sand on the beach. Ling Xiyue also made the same attempt, and found that the sand in the desert was so fine that it was almost close to water.

Jiang Ming said: "Since the masonry made of this kind of sand is relatively smooth, why not use this kind of masonry to pave a road specially used for transportation?

All the craftsmen were stunned.

After a long time, an elderly craftsman said: "My lord is wise, let's try it!"

After saying that, all the craftsmen went together to study the possibility of using new bricks and stones to build roads, leaving Ling Xiyue and Jiang Ming aside.

Two days later, a completely new mode of transport was invented.

Since the basic road has been built and is indeed suitable for the army to walk, the basic road cannot be changed, but it is still possible to divide two one-zhang wide roads from the twenty zhang wide road, both of which are paved with deep-sea masonry and have two straight grooves on them.

Jiang Ming and Ling Xiyue were curious, and went to see together how this new mode of transportation worked.

The craftsman in charge of the demonstration put a box more than five feet long with more than a dozen small wheels installed on the hollow, and gently pushed it forward, and the large box full of goods was pushed by the small wheels.

The craftsman explained to Ling Xiyue: "We usually pursue speed, so horse-drawn carriages need big wheels, but now what we need to pursue is only labor-saving, so only small wheels are enough, this car we call it a pulley, as long as someone watches, to ensure that it does not fall off the track, it."

You can be pushed to the destination by one person. ”

Ling Xiyue nodded and said, "Yes, those two grooves are also designed like this to ensure balance!"

The craftsman said: "The holy martial arts are like a torch, and the grass people are impressed. Such a design can be said to sacrifice flexibility and speed, and can only be exercised on a fixed track, only pursuing balance, stability and labor-saving, the only flaw is that these small wheels simply cannot withstand hundreds of miles of travel. ”

Jiang Ming said with a smile: "I see that there is also a place to replace the small wheels under this box, it should be taken into account the replacement of the small wheels! Although this is a great loss for these small wheels, but compared with the manpower and material resources saved, this loss is not worth mentioning at all, and this track is the same, and it is also ready to be replaced!"

The craftsman lowered his head and said, "Jiang Gongzi's eyes are like torches, and the people are impressed." ”

They have completely changed their way of thinking this time, in the past carriage transportation, they will still consider the problem of recycling, but this time the design, they only need to consider the rapid replacement, the track is broken, replace it! The wheels are broken, replace it! The car is broken, replace it!

Jiang Ming waved his hand and said: "Don't pat the sycophants, if you are really afraid of the sycophants, promote this design as much as possible, and find a way to solve the problems that may arise in practical use!"

The emergence of a new technology, in the process of application will be accompanied by a lot of problems, but now the time is short, they have not found it, as time goes by, there will be more and more problems, but there will be more and more solutions.

Human wisdom is endless, and no amount of difficulty can stump human wisdom.

In fact, within ten days of the use of this track, a new problem arose, that is, the track could not withstand a large amount of transportation, and cracks occurred one after another.

However, the craftsmen directly discarded the soft concrete, and directly combined the sand with the deep-sea gel, which reduced the hardness of the masonry, but improved the toughness of the masonry, and increased the service life of the track by several months.

However, this also has a fatal drawback: there is not enough deep-sea gel.

Jiang Ming was also a little speechless about this, the amount of deep-sea gel they salvaged last time was enough for them to build dozens of cities, but no matter how many things they had, they couldn't stand it as consumables! Although there were still a lot of stocks, but considering that there were still 5,700 miles of roads left, they still obediently salvaged some more deep-sea gels, after all, they couldn't affect the progress because of this little thing.

However, the benefits of this change are also obvious, and it directly advances the estimated construction period of the decisive battle by a month.

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