As the population in Dapan Dun continued to increase, more than 100 people gathered in the pier at this time, and it was no longer possible to live in it. Even many underground nests outside the pier were built, so that the military households were busy farming. At that time, in order to seize the time to catch up with the farming season, most military households even slept directly in the fields, rather than rushing back to the pier to live in crowded and crude huts.
At this time, Dapan Dun was relatively empty, so Liu Yan was ready to start building the fort and renamed Dapan Dun as Dapan Fort.
At the end of April, Liu Yan ordered Chen Xun to take people to the Qianhu Station in front of Wangjiazhuang and Xiahe Village to recruit some masonry and civil engineering craftsmen as soon as possible to prepare to build the fort.
Three days later in the evening, Chen Xun and others came back, bringing back seven or eight ragged craftsmen. Chen Xun has already negotiated with these craftsmen. In terms of wages, in addition to daily food and lodging, they need to pay one cent of silver every day. Liu Yan agreed to them.
When these craftsmen saw Liu Yan's agreement, they were all happy. The food for this period was finally accounted for.
Liu Yan talked with these craftsmen and learned that they were craftsmen for generations, had participated in the construction of many castles, and were all very experienced craftsmen. The construction and planning of Dapanbao was actually something they were familiar with.
So Liu Yan called Zhang Yi and asked Zhang Yi to be responsible for connecting with these craftsmen. After these craftsmen walked around Dapanbao for a few days, they quickly came up with the design plan of the fort, including the division of streets in the fort, the location of wells, the location of temples and various houses, as well as the future fort wall. There are defense facilities such as crenels and nozzles on the fort gate and the fort wall.
Liu Yan took a look and saw that the plane drawing was a bit simple, not in the style of architectural drawings of later generations, but it was clear enough and the specific dimensions were marked everywhere, which can be considered rigorous.
On the site selection of the fort, the opinions of these craftsmen were consistent with those of Liu Yan, and they all decided to build the fort along the south direction of the fort. Firstly, this would provide more support for defense. Secondly, the fort was originally built on a raised hill. On the hill, the terrain ranges from high to low, which is conducive to the drainage of the castle to prevent future rain and waterlogging.
Once the drawings are drawn, the location is not a problem. The key is the cost of building the castle.
Liu Yan once read a historical document from the late Ming Dynasty, which contained records of the construction of castles and cities in various places during the Ming Dynasty.
The data includes Lu Xiangsheng’s calculation data: In the Ming Dynasty, it cost 200 taels of silver to build a fire road pier, 600 taels of silver to build a tower, and more than 700 taels of silver to build a small castle with a circumference of more than one mile. , more than six hundred stones of grain. The calculations of those craftsmen are roughly the same.
The planned circumference of Liu Yan's future large fortress is only more than one mile. Although Liu Yan now has the support of the soap workshop and can spend 700 to 800 taels of silver, he cannot put all the funds into the construction. Coming up from the fort, there are many areas where money and food will be used in Liu Yan's next plan, such as expanding the Dunjun army's strength, training men and horses, forging weapons, etc. These are all items that consume extremely money and food.
Therefore, even if Liu Yan has some money at this time, he can only build some of the main facilities of the castle first, simplifying the details and then slowly thinking about improving them in the future. The money and food saved will have to be invested elsewhere.
Liu Yan actually wanted to build the large fortress into a bastion style, so that the defense would be stronger. Unfortunately, the cost would be staggering. Liu Yan did not have the financial resources for the time being, so he could only look at it in the future. Fortunately, the land for building the fort was free of charge, which saved a lot.
At this time, the main body of the general military forts of the Ming Dynasty was the barracks, granaries, forage yards, arsenals, and horse farms in the city. These facilities are already in the mound, but they have to be rebuilt when the fort is built. After all, these original facilities The location is wrong, and it's too old and small.
The facilities for building a fort also include external fort walls, city gates, urns, turrets, moats, etc. This is basically the case for forts in various places. However, judging from the funds Liu Yanneng allocated to building the fort, only the barracks and the fort wall can be built first, and the rest will be discussed later. After Liu Yan made his decision, the craftsmen quickly got busy.
First of all, these craftsmen skillfully carved out dozens of homesteads in the dozens of acres of land south of Dapanbao, and divided the travel roads and three main streets.
The number of these homesteads is definitely not enough for the existing military households, but it is not difficult to solve. After Liu Yan observed it, he found that the area of each homestead is not small, enough to accommodate two or three families. When building the fort, it would be better to build more and denser houses, which can fully accommodate all the existing military households.
Later, at the end of the central axis due west, the craftsmen immediately marked out the location of a temple. The local soldiers and civilians of Qianhu Station in front of Xiahe Village generally called the temple at this location "Zhengwang Temple". Then another area is designated at the intersection of the streets. In the future, the "Mawang Temple" will be built here. A high stage will also be built here. Opposite the stage, the "Laoye Temple" will also be built. In addition, at the southern end of the city, there will be Build a "Empress Temple".
In addition, several pieces of land should be set aside to the east of the fort to build temples and temples to honor military merits in the future, such as the Qishou Temple, the Xianzhong Temple, the Baozhong Temple, etc. These were also the places where the garrison was built at this time. Fort customs. In addition, space will be set aside for the construction of various market squares and archways in the middle of the main streets of each street.
This kind of plan was the conventional layout of military and civilian forts in various parts of the Ming Dynasty at that time. It was naturally impossible for Liu Yan to modify it without authorization, and he could not change it. To be honest, Liu Yan knew nothing about architecture in his later generations.
Liu Yan also expressed his understanding that these craftsmen immediately designated places for the construction of various temples. After all, these temples were the spiritual food of the military households at this time. There is little entertainment in this world. What other entertainment can ordinary people and military families have besides visiting temples and watching plays? Of course, those dignitaries and royal gentry are not counted. Those big shots have their own colorful entertainment activities, but they have nothing to do with Liu Yan and the military households.
The general layout of Dapanbao was like this, and the craftsmen below started working on it. Liu Yan gave an order, and all the residents of Dapanbao, except for children and the young and strong women who needed to work in the garrison, all the remaining garrison men and women went into battle together. Everyone must work hard to build themselves up. 's home.
For a time, the military households of Dapanbao, both men and women, were carrying hoes, dustpans, and baskets, and they just went to the surrounding area of Dapanbao to dig and pick up soil. Even the children are sensible and help.
However, the construction of fort walls and barracks can be built with loess, and soil can be taken from the spot. This does not require any material money, just some food and labor, but some money is unavoidable.
For example, the foundations of the houses and fort walls in Tunbao require stones, and these stones must be hard and not easily weathered, and bluestone is the best. In particular, the foundation for building a fort wall needs to be five feet deep and one foot four feet wide. A circle of fort wall foundations requires a large amount of stone.
There is also drilling of wells, which is the first priority in building a fort. It is impossible for hundreds of households to live with just one well. A small fort requires at least three wells. There are abundant underground water resources in various places in Suozhou in front of Xiahe Village, so drilling wells Generally, water can be produced when it is more than ten or twenty feet tall, and most of the water is clear and sweet. Liu Yan heard that in some places in Shanxi and Shaanxi, wells need to be drilled to a depth of thirty to forty feet, or even five to sixty feet before water can be seen. In comparison, he is lucky to be able to live here.
However, even if the well is only dug to a depth of more than ten or twenty feet, it still needs to be built with bricks and stones to avoid collapse, so the amount of stone for a deep well is also quite large. The well drilled in the pier is an example. If the stones used were used in building a house, at least two houses could be built.
The land around Dapanbao is empty and there is nowhere to quarry stone. The only way to quarry is in the mountains surrounding Qianhu Station in front of Xiahe Village.
The stone quarry there is far away from Dapanbao Road, and the mining and transportation costs must be very high. In addition to stone, the construction of roof beams in various barracks and warehouses also requires wood, which is also a huge cost.
After Liu Yan thought for a while, he transferred more than twenty men, some of whom were transferred back from military camps. In order to make up for the labor in the military camp, Liu Yan had to let some old men or half-grown children go to work in the military camp.
Then Liu Yan asked Wang Bo to lead the two dozen men to quarry stones on the mountain in front of Qianhusuo in Xiahe Village. In order to facilitate the transportation of stones, he also sent people to Wangjiazhuang to hire several mules, horses and oxen. car.
Before leaving, Liu Yan asked Wang Bo to quarry as much stone as possible to supply the foundation of the barracks and the stone needed for digging wells. As for the paving of the streets and the foundation of the fortress wall outside, we will talk about it later. After all, the human and financial resources are now limited. It is limited and cannot be achieved overnight.
At the same time, Liu Yan went to Wangjiazhuang again and asked the team leader Wang Wenzhen to support him with some wood. Wang Wenzhen said that it would be difficult to support him, but he happened to have a batch of free wood on hand and could get it cheap. Some were sold to Liu Yan.
Liu Yan smiled. Wang Wenzhen was good at everything, but he just liked money, so he had no choice but to agree.
A few days later, Yue Ming, the chief flag officer of Wangjiazhuang, led dozens of military households in the village and asked them to carry the wood on their shoulders. Everyone walked all the way from Wangjiazhuang with great effort, even reluctant to leave the mule cart. Use, just use human power to resist wood.
At the fort-building site, Liu Yan looked at the Wangjiazhuang military households who were about to fall down from exhaustion. Liu Yan was speechless for a while. Everything in this world is valuable, but manpower is not!
Yue Ming is a rough man, in his early thirties, with a full beard. However, Liu Yan heard that this man is proficient in arithmetic and is considered the number one figure in Wangjiazhuang.
At this time, Yue Ming looked at the busy scene inside and outside Dapan Fort, patted Liu Yan on the shoulder, and said with emotion: "General Liu, brother, I am really convinced by you. You actually built the fort independently. Such courage and courage, It’s rare even in our entire Lingshan Guard!”
Liu Yan could only smile bitterly. It is easy to say that building a fortress independently, but the hard work involved is really not enough for outsiders to hear. If it weren't for the fact that he could develop his strength safely in Dapanbao to avoid constraints, Liu Yan wouldn't bother to expend such effort.
After Yue Ming accepted Liu Yan's money for the wood, he didn't ask for anything else. He didn't even ask for the five cents of hard-earned money that Liu Yan handed over. He just asked Liu Yan to give his military households a full meal.
Liu Yan was also filled with emotion when he heard this. Everyone is poor now, but who is the rich person?
So Liu Yan patted Yue Ming on the shoulder and asked Yue Ming to go to dinner with the military households. Immediately, the military households became energetic like tigers descending the mountain. Seeing this, Liu Yan didn't know whether he should laugh or not. It's time to cry.
