There are continuous military camps, the sound of the training of legion warriors is shocking, and the dirt school grounds are well trampled. The patrol teams coming and going stepped on the accessible dirt road. But the stubborn weeds in early spring have already begun to sprout on the dirt roads.
The daughters of the Silver Crow tribe were arranged to rest in the Tree Snake City. They had never seen tens of thousands of warriors, nor had they seen a forest of spears and long bows. They were all shocked and frightened for a moment.
After the Huastec envoy left, another envoy from the expedition fleet came, bringing a message from the fleet and two bamboo baskets containing clay pots.
"Your Majesty, these are two new minerals discovered by Vice Captain Puap in the Crow City area! The local Huastec people call them 'black mud', 'black stone' or 'black oil'. Kingdom Fleet The damaged ships were filled with these black stones and oil. They are waterproof and leak-proof, and the repaired ships are even better than before!"
After Puap was exiled to Haikou, it was through the discovery of the Shenshan Iron Mine with Hei Lang that he got a chance to recover. Then, he participated in the kingdom's expedition and brought back various ores and struvite with the old militiamen, which was rewarded.
In Puap's heart, "His Majesty likes strange stones the most, especially those he has never seen before." He knows His Highness's preferences and will explore strange stones and minerals wherever he goes. This time, after the discovery in Crow City, he specially sent his Prepecha warriors to bring back these two jars of novel minerals.
"Huh? This smell..."
The guard took the two clay pots and inspected them carefully before handing them to His Highness. One of the clay pots contained dark oil, while the other contained oily stones. When the clay pot was opened, the familiar pungent smell came to him, and Shulot immediately instinctively recalled it.
"Is this?...Oil and asphalt? Yes, Puap has his heart!"
Shulot raised his eyebrows and sighed in admiration. He was a little surprised, but not unexpected.
Later, Mexico was the seventh largest oil producer in the world. There is so much oil on the Gulf Coast and on the U.S.-Mexico border that it can pop right out of the ground. Unfortunately, although there is so much oil, it will take a lifetime to fractionate and refine crude oil.
"Oil...oil!...The black gold that will be cherished by all countries in later generations is really of little significance to the current alliance. The burning efficiency of crude oil is too low, and the smoke is too poisonous to be used as fuel...At most, it is to try It is used to make fire oil in war. But in the face of gunpowder, this has no advantage at all."
Shulot pondered for a moment and whispered an order. The guard took away the can of flammable crude oil. Then, his eyes looked at the other can of asphalt again.
"Natural asphalt. Half and half oilstone."
Xiulote stretched out his finger and carefully applied some natural asphalt oil. He felt the viscosity of this natural adhesive and nodded with satisfaction. Then he picked up another small asphalt stone and placed it in the palm of his hand. His eyes flashed as he looked at this hard, brittle, water-insoluble, and poisonous stone. A strong thought gradually arose from the bottom of his heart, almost ready to come out.
"...Are there many such black oils and black stones in Crow City?"
"Your Majesty, there are several lower valleys around Crow City that produce such oil and stone. And Huastek craftsmen said that there are hundreds of miles of land to the north and south of Crow City, along the coast. There are also many such valleys scattered on the river. Shipwrights from all tribes use these to repair their ships."
The messenger lowered his head and reported back, Xiuluo nodded and pondered. The underground along this coast must be extremely rich in oil. Asphalt has always been a "sibling" associated with oil.
"Natural asphalt is a natural road-building material! Asphalt oil can replace cement as a road adhesive, and asphalt stone can be crushed to replace the fine sand and gravel layer. More importantly, in rainforests with lush plants, Only this kind of asphalt pavement can inhibit the growth of vegetation and maintain it for a long time!"
Looking at the clay pot in front of him, the light in Shulot's eyes became brighter and brighter.
"Building roads"! This is a big plan that has been in his mind for a long time. What he hopes to build is not a simple dirt road, but an imperial artery similar to the Roman stone road and Qinchi Road that can connect the north and south of the world and connect various city-states!
However, Central America is located in the tropics, with two common terrains: plateaus and lowlands. In the rich plateau areas of the Alliance, the annual precipitation is more than 1000mm, while in the coastal lowlands vassal of the Alliance, the annual precipitation is more than 2000mm! Moreover, rainfall of this intensity is mostly concentrated in the summer rainy season. It's hot and rainy, and it only takes a few days for a large number of shrubs and weeds on the plateau to sprout up. The lowland rainforest is even more terrifying. The tree roots extend rapidly and damage the dirt road at an unimaginably fast rate!
Therefore, to build roads in tropical Central America, suitable road construction materials must be available, and the cost is extremely high.
"Refer to the construction process of Roman roads, and then simplify it appropriately according to the current technical level. Well, it requires at least three layers, two layers of roadbed and one layer of road surface!"
Shulot lowered his head and looked at the ground under his feet, recalling the road construction plan he had conceived for a long time, and his heart was filled with excitement.
"First, we need to excavate the soil surface until we reach the hard soil layer. This depth, with the current tools and manpower, can only reach about one meter. Then, the bottom layer of the roadbed is 20-30 centimeters thick gravel. Used to smooth roads and prevent water accumulation.”
"The second layer of the roadbed is a filling body of more than 60 centimeters, large and small stones, gravel and clay. It is necessary to first lay out large stones the size of pumpkins, then fill in medium stones the size of a human head, and small stones the size of cobblestones, and finally fill them with fine Gravel and clay. In this step, oily asphalt will also be added as a binder to replace cement. Or dried and crushed stone asphalt will be added as a substitute for filling small stones. As for the last layer of pavement..."
Shulot paused, thinking deeply, unable to make up his mind for a moment.
The Romans had enough manpower and production tools to directly cut huge stone slabs to lay seamless roads. The Qin Dynasty also had enough technology and manpower to stir-fry the soil, mix it with salt and alkali, and then compact it with countless hands to build Chidao that would last for generations to come. The alliance's current technology and productivity are indeed incomparable to the two.
"If the production of asphalt is sufficient, the highways in the Mesoamerican Empire should still be mainly made of asphalt and gravel! And for future convenience, it must be built at least four meters long enough for two carriages to run parallel, and drainage ditches must be excavated on both sides. canal."
Thinking of this, Shulot looked towards the distant east. In the mighty Caribbean Sea, there is a large island full of black wealth, which provided a huge amount of asphalt for road construction to the celestial dynasty of later generations. Then, he looked to the southwest. In the mountains of Colima, there were volcanoes that were still actively erupting, as well as volcanic ash left behind by tens of thousands of years of eruptions. That was what Roman cement was made from.
"Colima...the kingdom's capital...the lake's capital...Crow City..."
Shulot muttered to himself, an imperial artery two thousand miles from east to west was taking shape in his mind. It will take tens of thousands of manpower, many ships of materials, many years of time, and supreme power to connect the world!
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