Start Being a Vassal King Today - Chapter 144

[Chapter 144 The Birth of Cement]

“Your Highness.”

Wang Ying stood up, not knowing where to put his muddy hands.

He had been concentrating on making clay cannons, and Zhao Xu’s words distracted him.

“This is already the third one. The previous ones failed.” Wang Ying pointed to a puddle of mud next to him, with a slightly embarrassed smile.

The clay cannons made according to the drawings are large in size, and the mud is soft, so the clay cannons are easy to crack or break.

Originally, he thought it would be very simple, but after getting started, he knew the pros and cons.

“It’s okay, it’s a good thing to learn from failures.” Zhao Xu said.

The difficulty of making clay molds lies in blending the mud, and the blended mud should not be too soft or too hard.

Soft ones are easy to break, hard ones are hard to shape.

This can only be controlled by themselves. After several failures, it is enough to master the heat.

Looking up and looking around, he said, “Where is the slag for ironmaking?”

He asked Wang Ying to keep it when he was making iron.

The purpose is to take it out for future use.

“Your Highness, follow me.” Wang Ying stood up and led Zhao Xu to a warehouse inside.

Inside are piles of slag left over from ironmaking.

At this time, craftsmen continued to bring the slag over.

“Your Highness, what are these things for?” Wang Ying was puzzled for a long time.

Now that King Yan finally mentioned the matter of these slags, he couldn’t help asking.

“Making cement.” Zhao Xu said.

“What is this?” Both Wang Ying and Zou Rong showed curiosity.

“You will know later.” Hearing is worse than seeing, he decided to make the cement himself.

Portland cement, also known as Portland cement, appeared in the mid-nineteenth century.

In the previous period, people mostly used calcined limestone to make gypsum to bond buildings.

Later, when a builder bought limestone, he found that clay was mixed in it, but the fired lime was more cohesive than before.

After that, he tried to add powders such as volcanic ash and ceramic tiles, and found that the effect was even better.

Finally, he thought of slag after ironmaking, instead of volcanic ash, and finally decided on the composition of cement.

What Zhao Xu wants to do now is this kind of cement.

He asked Wang Ying to take out some slag and grind it into powder, mix it with clay and put it in a kiln for calcination.

The two wanted to see the surprise that King Yan would give them.

Zhao Xu asked him to do whatever he wanted.

After more than an hour, the craftsman took out the powder from the kiln.

It is a gray powder, the contemporary cement.

“Find a few green bricks, get some sand and water.” Zhao Xu said.

When the materials arrived, Zhao Xu personally mixed the cement with sand and water.

After making a paste, he spread the cement on the ground in front of the two bricks.

“Okay, let’s see it tomorrow, Wang Ying, you have to look after it.” Zhao Xu smiled.

Wang Ying and Zou Rong were still at a loss when they heard the words.

the next day.

Zou Rong came to Bingzhang Division again, and he found that there were many people around the place where the blue bricks were placed.

After a while, King Yan also came over, and the craftsman immediately made way for him.

“Zou Gongcao, pick up the brick above and try.” Zhao Xu said.

Zou Rong nodded, he endured curiosity all night.

Walking over to carefully hold the upper blue brick, he then lifted it up and found that the lower brick was also lifted up.

“Huh.” Zou Rong showed a surprised expression, but thinking of the mud here, he felt that the mud could also stick together.

“Pull it again.” Zhao Xu said.

Zou Rong nodded, grabbed a brick with one hand and pulled it out, but he didn’t pull it out.

Then he yanked with all his strength and pulled the two bricks apart.

Now he showed a look of surprise, “It’s really amazing. If you build a house with this thing, it will be very strong.”

“It’s only one day, after a week, you won’t even be able to pull it out.” “And this cement has another advantage, even if it is soaked in water, it will not be corroded.”

Zou Rong couldn’t close his mouth in surprise, he was shocked by what King Yan said.

Wang Ying and Wang Chong also came over to watch the fun, and they threw themselves at King Yan again, only to feel that King Yan had endless thoughts in his head.

“If you mix it with cement, sand, and stone, it’s a stronger thing. You can go back and try it out slowly.” Zhao Xu said to Zou Rong, “Now it’s no problem to build a house in the workshop.”

” No problem, absolutely no problem.” Zou Rong swallowed.

He wanted to use cement immediately to see how far this thing could be applied.

The effect of cement is well known.

Zhao Xu said to Wang Ying: “Take out a group of craftsmen to calcinate cement. The slag is enough.”

During this period of iron and steel making, the Bing Zhansi has accumulated tens of thousands of tons of slag, and the cement produced by these slag is enough to use It’s been a long time.

“Yes, Your Highness.” Wang Ying said.

Nodding their heads, Zhao Xu and Zou Rong went out to the Military Division.

On the way, Zhao Xu remembered the incident of Beidi’s autumn hunting last time.

Currently, he has no ability to attack Beidi.

Because the longer the supply line is pulled, the more unfavorable it is for oneself. ‘

He’s going to be on the defensive for a long time to come.

So I have been thinking about countermeasures for a while.

After much deliberation, he felt that it was necessary to build a fortress area against Beidi along the Yanshan line with Wu’an County as the center.

Although Yanshan Mountain is large, there are only four or five trails leading to Yanjun in the mountains.

If concrete bastions were built on the paths of these trails, supplemented by artillery, wouldn’t it be possible to block the passage from Beidi to the south?

This kind of bastion is different from ordinary cities.

Structurally, a dock is changed from a convex polygon to a concave polygon.

Such an improvement made it possible for the attacking party to expose more than one bastion face, or even three faces, regardless of any point of attack on the castle.

The defending side can use crossfire to deal multiple blows to the enemy.

Before artillery, such crossfire was long-range weapons such as bows and arrows.

If it is equipped with artillery, the enemy will definitely suffer a disastrous defeat when attacking such a bastion.

In the past, the imperial court couldn’t do it, because the ordinary Wubao guarding such a trail was not effective.

If there are fewer soldiers, they will collapse without fighting.

If there are too many soldiers, the troops will be greatly dispersed, and a fortress large enough to accommodate so many soldiers must be built.

Ultimately, of course, it’s a question of cost.

The imperial court would rather let Beidi people rob people every year than spend money and food on it.

Anyway, it won’t affect Da Song’s safety.

However, it was different for him.

Yan County and Shanggu County are his fiefdoms, who can bear to come and go from time to time.

Furthermore, without a peaceful environment, how can we carry out internal construction.

Therefore, he had to build this bastion fortress.

Thinking of this, he said to Zou Rong: “You can leave the matter of Chengdefang to the officials below. There is something very important, and I want to leave it to you.”

(end of this chapter)