Jizhou.
Yecheng is close to the Zhangshui River. Since Ximen Bao controlled the Zhangshui River, the area around Yecheng has become a fertile land.
The surrounding land is extremely productive and can support many more people than in the Qingzhou area.
Historically, when the vassal towns were separated in the late Tang Dynasty, the three towns around Hebei have always existed. One of the important reasons is Hebei's geographical location.
It was not until the decline of land fertility in the Northern Song Dynasty that Hebei's dominant position gradually declined.
As a capital city that was about to be put into use, Yecheng was already full of corvees and hired workers both inside and outside the city.
These people will repair Yecheng, which has been damaged many times, before next summer.
Because the original residence of Sima Ying, the king of Chengdu, was in Yecheng. Although it was severely damaged, it can be used again after being slightly expanded.
As the saying goes, before the soldiers and horses move, food and grass go first.
In the same way, although the corvees and hired workers gathered in Yecheng did not cost much, they still needed to eat.
The food and drink expenses for tens of thousands of people have become the biggest expense this year.
Fortunately, this year's rains were abundant and there were no other disasters. It can be regarded as a rare good year in the past ten years.
Yecheng, suburbs.
In a huge brick and stone firing yard, thousands of bare-chested workers were hard at work carrying cartloads of blue bricks.
As the carts of green bricks are shipped out, piles of brick embryos are sent into the kiln for firing.
Liu Yu, who was wearing light soft armor, was looking at the green brick factory under the guidance of a group of construction officials.
"Your Majesty, please see, these are the recently fired green bricks. After using charcoal, they are all solid and durable. They are used to wrap the city walls and are guaranteed to be indestructible!"
A middle-aged official said to Liu Yu respectfully.
In front of Liu Yu was a huge green brick fortress nearly one foot tall.
If the green bricks are stacked to such a height, the lower part must bear considerable gravity.
Liu Yu leaned over and took a look, and found that the blue bricks at the bottom were still intact and did not appear to be broken.
This shows that these fired wall-clad green bricks are very solid.
Liu Yu nodded with satisfaction, "Yes, yes, it is so solid that it can protect the city wall."
He took out two more blue bricks and looked through them one by one.
There are several characters on each green brick, which state the time of embryo making and the name of the craftsman.
"Your Majesty, after using this naming method, the firing of these green bricks has made it almost impossible to see any damage. Ninety-nine percent of them are high-quality green bricks!"
The official continued.
Since the Cao Wei Dynasty, many craftsmen have been required to become specialized craftsmen. They are not allowed to engage in it from generation to generation, just like those craftsmen in the military industry of the Ming Dynasty in later generations.
In the most chaotic era of the late Han Dynasty, this method could ensure that these craftsmen had a living job. However, after the stability of the Jin Dynasty, this system caused a large number of workers to flee, even to work as land guests for wealthy families. , and they all refused to be slaves to the imperial court.
Therefore, when Liu Yu began to need a large number of craftsmen to build Ye City, he could only recruit craftsmen from powerful families.
In order to prevent the craftsmen from these powerful families from slacking off in their work, Liu Yu directly ordered each construction site to trace every brick and piece of rammed earth to the specific craftsman, all in order to ensure the stability of the city.
"Tell these craftsmen that after the construction of Yecheng is completed, I will be inspected by specialized people. Those who have used it will be punished, and those who have made merit will be rewarded!"
Liu Yu patted the dust on his hands and said to the construction officials around him.
Several officials who were specifically responsible for this matter immediately took out pen and paper and wrote down the emperor's words intact.
Although the so-called rewards and punishments are severe, they are not Liu Yu's fundamental purpose.
His fundamental purpose is actually to release all the craftsmen here from the hands of powerful families.
Different from the imperial examination officials in the later Song and Ming Dynasties, the powerful families in the Wei and Jin Dynasties can be said to be more powerful existences.
These powerful families often have clans as the main body, and they also have smaller clans and fellow villagers as vassals, and then they gather in a fort with complete military defense.
In these militarized manors, powerful families not only have private soldiers to defend themselves from foreign enemies, but also a large number of landlady servants who work in farming. There are also many craftsmen, whether they are iron smelting, weaving, pottery making, carpentry, etc. Charcoal burning and other tasks can be done in your own manor.
Without any good opportunities, it would be difficult for outsiders to see clearly the true strength of a powerful manor.
It was precisely because of the construction of Ye City this time that many powerful families in Jizhou responded, which made Liu Yu more aware of the true power of these powerful families.
In order to dismantle the "small kingdoms" of these powerful families little by little, Liu Yu's first thought was to try to eliminate the self-sufficiency of these "small kingdoms".
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Liu Yu had planned to use rewards to relieve most of the craftsmen from their vassal relationship and restore them to their household registrations as good citizens.
"How many green bricks can be produced here in a month?" Liu Yu suddenly asked again.
Several officials in charge here each reported an estimated amount. Even the most optimistic estimate was far less than Liu Yu's expectations.
"No, this is still too little. At this rate, it may not be completed before next summer." Liu Yu shook his head, somewhat dissatisfied.
Several officials were frightened and immediately expressed that they must find a way to force the craftsmen to work overtime.
“Craftsmen are all human beings, so it’s inappropriate to push them like this!”
Just building a Yecheng, Liu Yu didn't want to gain a reputation as a cruel person.
According to the behavior of these officials, if Liu Yu only wanted speed and didn't care about anything else, these craftsmen would face a miserable situation.
I'm afraid that even if I die from exhaustion and illness, I won't be able to rest.
"Since the firing techniques of these two brick yards have been perfected, we can simply recruit more manpower and open a few more brick yards." Liu Yu said immediately.
Several officials agreed one after another, but Hua Xiu, who followed next to him, was a little confused.
"Your Majesty, these green bricks cost a lot of money. The cost of just one workshop is already worth several times the cost of rammed earth. If we build several more, the cost will probably be even greater."
As the person in charge of building Ye City, Hua Xiu also had a very tight budget.
"In fact, not every part of Yecheng's city defense needs to be covered with bricks. Just use some in critical places. It would be too extravagant to use them all."
Liu Yu laughed a little when he heard that Hua Xiu actually used the word "extravagant".
Hua Xiu definitely did not fully understand his intentions.
Before this, almost no city walls in the Central Plains were covered with bricks.
The reason for this is, on the one hand, that rammed earth city walls are enough to cope with almost all existing siege weapons. After all, a bunch of wooden instruments pose little threat to rammed earth.
On the other hand, the cost of firing green bricks is too high.
Most of the firing kilns of this era used charcoal instead of coal.
The cost of charcoal is much greater than that of coal, and due to factors such as tree harvesting and transportation, not every county has the conditions to burn charcoal regardless of cost.
However, because of Liu Yu's relationship, these two factors have undergone tremendous changes at this time.
The first is the huge change in siege equipment. Regardless of expensive gunpowder weapons, even ordinary counterweight trebuchets have been around for a long time.
After appearing in several sieges, the wooden trebuchet was no big secret at all to many.
There has never been a shortage of skilled craftsmen in the land of China, and there are many talented people who can see the whole picture at a glance.
Liu Yu had heard a few months ago that the Huns and Han Kingdom used imitation trebuchets in the battle against Jin King Sima Bao in Guanzhong.
Although the specific battle process is unclear, it is an indisputable fact that the Huns have begun to imitate trebuchets.
To protect against this, you must start using brick-clad walls.
"I'm not here for Yecheng." Liu Yu said.
"What does your Majesty mean?" Hua Xiu was a little confused.
"Now Hulu has also used stone cannons. Although the power is unknown, the stone cannons are just a routine. As long as they prepare more and gain experience, there will be no secrets."
"Your Majesty, do you want to use blue bricks to defend against stone cannons?" Hua Xiu has been responsible for the construction of the new city in Yecheng in recent months, and has been lagging behind in many central military and political affairs.
"Of course it's to guard against stone cannons, but it's not just for Yecheng." Liu Yu said.
"Where else? Does His Majesty plan to use clad bricks in other cities?" Hua Xiu was immediately surprised.
You know, the reason why Yecheng can use a large amount of green bricks is because Yecheng has convenient transportation from Zhangshui River, and can transport pebbles from other places by water.
As for other cities, they may not have the convenience of Yecheng.
If the green bricks are fired and then transported, it will be an astronomical cost.
After all, the ancient emperors built palaces and transported a few huge logs and stones, which was already a huge amount of "tyranny".
If this was transporting bricks and stones all the way across the country, or building bricks and stones for the city wall, I am afraid that the Han monarchs and ministers would be treated as a laughing stock.
"Bingzhou!" Liu Yu smiled softly.
"Bingzhou is close to the Hulu and there is no numerical advantage, so we can only take a temporary defensive position."
"In this case, if this green brick construction method can be used, even if the Hulu attack in large numbers, it will be difficult to break the city."
The begging troops in history basically came from Bingzhou. Starting last year, Liu Yu gradually moved the begging troops scattered in Hebei back to Bingzhou.
With Jinyang as the center, these beggar troops took advantage of the terrain and rivers to build a large number of Wubao manor, in order to slowly restore Bingzhou's strength.
"Although this method is good, Bingzhou and Jizhou are isolated from each other by water, so it may be impossible to transport coal."
Hua Xiu said with some embarrassment.
The charcoal, or coal, currently used in Yecheng is mined from some superficial coal mines in the surrounding areas.
Although coal had already been used in the Han Dynasty, the scope of use was still not very large.
Even a well-informed person like Hua Xiu still thinks that this kind of coal can only be found around Yecheng.
"Haha, impossible, impossible!" Liu Yu suddenly laughed.
Hua Xiu was even more confused. She really didn't understand why Liu Yu was laughing.
"Why is your Majesty laughing?"
"It's impossible to transport coal to Bingzhou. There is no shortage of coal in Bingzhou!" Liu Yu still found it funny.
Bingzhou was later known as Shanxi. From ancient times to modern times, Hua Xiu was probably the first person to think of transporting coal to Shanxi for sale.
Although most of the coal in Shanxi comes from deep wells, in this era, only a small amount of superficial coal needs to be mined, which is enough to use green bricks in the entire Hanjunwu Fort in Bingzhou.
These forts made of blue bricks can be firmly nailed to the ground.
Liu Yu believed that he occupied the most fertile states, and he only needed to use Wubao to slowly advance southward. It would not take him this year to build Wubao under the noses of the Huns.
After hearing Liu Yu's explanation, Hua Xiu was still dubious.
He had only heard that Bingzhou had fertile water and soil, but he had never heard that Bingzhou produced such black coal.
Liu Yu then inspected some other quarrying sites, and found that there was basically no slack in work, which meant he was relieved.
In the evening, Liu Yu did not enter Yecheng to spend the night, but stayed in the military camp outside Yecheng.
More than 20,000 military soldiers from Qingzhou and Yanzhou have moved to Yecheng. Although their duties have been reorganized, they are temporarily concentrated outside Yecheng for security.
After all, there are tens of thousands of civilians and craftsmen in Yecheng. These are all strong people. Once they are instigated by something, they will never be able to suppress it without some powerful soldiers.
After entering the big tent, Liu Yu saw a mountain of memorials and tables on the table.
As soon as Liu Yu opened the first memorial, he immediately showed a surprised expression.
"What!"
"Sima Rui actually sent Prince Sima Shao to guard Jingkou!?"
Liu Yu naturally knew where Jingkou was.
Historically, the Beifu soldiers had their base camp around Jingkou. These refugees fleeing from the north to the south could basically become qualified soldiers with a little training.
Although due to Liu Yu, the number of refugees from the north fleeing south was much smaller than in history, but in fact, as early as the Eight Kings Rebellion, a large number of northerners had already fled south to the Jianghuai River.
Today, there are at least 100,000 refugees in the Jingkou area of Yangzhou.
"Sima Rui didn't keep his crown prince under his nose, and actually sent him to Jingkou to suppress the garrison. This is clearly aimed at me!"
Liu Yu couldn't help but feel very dissatisfied.
Although he also thought that this might be Sima Rui trying to take the opportunity to strengthen his power, but if there is a strong Jin army in Jingkou, especially this Jin army is composed of refugees who always want to return north to the Central Plains. , Liu Yu had to worry.
