The earth kiln on the north bank of Wolong Valley is about to produce bricks.
This is the first batch of bricks and tiles fired after the earth kiln was built.
In order to show his importance, Yun Chao personally went to the site to preside over the kiln opening ceremony, and also set off a firecracker for this purpose.
Long before the Dawu Dynasty, there was already gunpowder.
With gunpowder, can firecrackers be far behind?
Dawu Dynasty not only had firecrackers, but also fireworks. Unfortunately, Yunchao didn't buy any. He only bought some firecrackers when he went to the city last time.
As soon as the firecrackers went off, the villagers in Wolong Village were all excited.
Since the invention of firecrackers, they have probably never exploded in Wolong Village.
Although firecrackers have a long history, people in Wolong Village have hardly ever seen them. During the Chinese New Year, they only burn some bamboo and listen to the crackling.
Compared with firecrackers coated with gunpowder, the popping sound of burning bamboo poles is nothing more than a piece of cake.
The people in Wolong Village are all proud of themselves. When they look at people from other villages, their eyes have a feeling of looking at country people.
Yun Chao understands this very well. After all, in such a developed era, there are still metropolitan people who regard all outsiders as country people, let alone the ancient people who have no knowledge or education.
Amidst the lingering smoke from firecracker blasts, several potters opened the kiln door solemnly.
Perhaps it was because of the firecrackers that they opened the kiln more solemnly than ever before.
The fire in the brick kiln has been extinguished. Helpers are constantly carrying water to the top of the kiln and pouring water into the kiln, but the bricks in the kiln cannot be taken out immediately.
The remaining temperature in the kiln is still very high, and the water vapor is permeable, making it impossible for anyone to enter.
Several potters discussed it and prepared to force their way in. Today they had to get a few bricks for Yun Chao, so as to make their employer happy.
Yun Chao was startled when he saw several potters trying to drill into the brick kiln, and he severely punished them on the spot.
I personally came to participate in the kiln opening ceremony to show my respect, not to engage in formalism. How could these guys come up with the same things as future generations?
Well, this is not learned by the ancients and future generations, but inherited by future generations.
In order not to cause trouble to everyone, Yun Chao stopped looking at the newly fired bricks and ran to the other side to watch the beam-laying ceremony.
Since Yunchao expanded the number of helpers, work started on multiple construction sites at the same time.
Burning the kiln does not affect the construction of the house. Anyway, Yun Chao bought a lot of bricks and tiles, so as not to delay the progress of building the house until the bricks and tiles are fired in his own kiln.
This is the second batch of houses to be built.
The foundation and walls have been built, and today is the important beam-laying ceremony.
The craftsmen stood in the middle of the room, breaking a few grain cakes into pieces and muttering something to each other.
After chanting for a while, the craftsmen raised their hands and threw the broken cakes across the wall from four directions.
Seeing the broken cakes thrown out across the wall, several dogs specially found outside the house immediately started barking and fighting for food.
When the craftsmen saw the dogs starting to fight for the broken cakes, they shouted happily and started moving.
Directing the helpers, he hoisted a thick beam up and placed it where it should be.
Once the beams are installed, the next step is to set up purlins on them, then set up rafters on the purlins, then lay a reed or thatch woven roof on the rafters, and finally cover them with tiles, and a brick house is completed.
These processes were all seen in my previous life as a child, and there was nothing unusual about them.
Yun Chao was satisfied with the quality of the houses built by the craftsmen. The only thing that dissatisfied him was the speed.
In the eyes of the craftsmen and helpers, they were building the house quickly enough.
Never before has building a house been so fast.
However, in the eyes of Yun Chao, who is used to seeing tall buildings built from the ground in later generations, this speed is simply more uncomfortable than a turtle crawling, and it is simply appallingly slow.
No, we have to wait until after the new year to recruit people, and the construction speed will be accelerated!
After watching the beam-laying ceremony, Yun Chao went to see the land reclamation.
Without agriculture, there is no stability. In ancient times when productivity was backward, agriculture was the cornerstone of whether a power could be stable.
Since shopkeeper Wu sent enough cattle, land reclamation on the north bank of Wolong Valley has begun on a large scale.
With the cattle and iron farm tools, Yun Chao was quite satisfied with the speed of land reclamation.
The only thing that Yun Chao was not satisfied with was the farm tools used.
It’s not that the quality of farm tools is not up to par, it’s mainly that they are too backward and inefficient.
As a quasi-doctorate from the Agricultural University, agriculture was Yun Chao's major. Although most of what he learned was scientific and technological knowledge from later generations, he still knew the development history of ancient agricultural tools.
Through observation, Yun Chao discovered that local farmers still used straight-shaft plows.
Yun Chao learned that the curved shaft plow invented by the ancients later replaced the straight shaft plow. Until the 1970s and 1980s, this kind of plow was still used in some places to plow fields.
Compared with the previous straight shaft plow, the curved shaft plow has several major improvements:
The first is to change the straight and long shafts to curved and short shafts, and install a plow disc that can rotate freely on the shaft head. This not only makes the plow frame smaller and lighter, but also facilitates U-turns and turns, flexible operation, and saves manpower and time. Animal power.
Secondly, the plowing and plowing construction are added. If the plowing is advanced, the plow arrow can be directed downwards and the plowshare will penetrate deeper into the soil. If you lift the plow so that the plow arrow points upward, the plowshare will sink shallowly into the soil.
The organic combination of the plow shaft, plow arrows and plow construction of the curved shaft plow can adapt to the different requirements of deep or shallow plowing, and can standardize the depth of cultivated land to facilitate intensive farming.
Yun Chao didn't know whether it was because the locals didn't know there was a curved shaft plow, or because the Great Wu Dynasty didn't even have such a thing.
No matter what, Yun Chao is going to think about it carefully when he has time. If he can get the Quyuan Plow out, it will not only benefit the world, but at least it will be good for himself.
Next, Yunchao went to Wolonggou to check the construction progress of the dam.
In ancient times when there was no cement, ancient people could build dams.
Stonemasons and carpenters work together to plant thick logs vertically into the river bed, and then use large stones to build them up from bottom to top. As they build up, they put special ash into the gaps to build a dam to hold back the water.
Don't think that this kind of dam is a shoddy project. Compared with the cement dams of later generations, the quality of the dams built by the ancients is not bad. Dujiangyan, which has been used for thousands of years, is a living example.
On the contrary, compared with the materials used by the ancients, the reinforced concrete used by later generations is a shoddy project.
No matter how durable the cement used to build the dam is, how long will it last?
If they are not regularly maintained, the dams of later generations may not necessarily be stronger than those of the ancients.
The only strength may be its scale. After all, the ancients' technology was relatively backward and they could not stop the big rivers.
Big rivers cannot be stopped, but there is absolutely no problem in stopping a small Wolong Valley.
There is no need to hire any water conservancy experts at all. Now Yun Chao's group of masons and carpenters have done the work.
However, it seems that the speed cannot keep up.
Compared with the house, Yun Chao was even more dissatisfied with the construction speed of the dam.
The New Year is just around the corner, and after the New Year, spring will begin soon.
Once spring arrives, the snow on the mountains melts, and the amount of water in Wolong Valley increases.
If we don’t take advantage of the dry season in winter to build the dam as soon as possible, we will be in big trouble when the spring floods come!
