Zhu Su once saw Lao Zhu mobilize workers to build the Yingtian City Wall: first they collected solid stones to make the city base, and then burned thousands of city bricks to make the wall. The gaps between the city bricks are filled with glutinous rice mortar and quicklime mortar. The bonded city wall is very strong.
The Ming city wall of Yingtian Mansion has indeed stood safe and sound on the land of China for hundreds of years.
But in Zhu Su's view, the city wall built in this way is time-consuming, labor-intensive, labor-intensive, and expensive. For just a short section of city wall, it is often necessary to repeat these steps of stacking, tamping, and stacking dozens of times. Moreover, it is not easy to boil glutinous rice mortar. You must know that glutinous rice is food! At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the cost of glutinous rice as the raw material was already worth a lot of money.
Zhu Su was also extremely dissatisfied with the effect of the glutinous rice mortar cooked at such a cost: the bonding process took a long time, often requiring more than a month. And it’s best not to get exposed to rain during the process. It also needs to be compacted layer by layer, and brackets need to be put on the outside for support... The city wall is obviously used to protect soldiers and defend against foreign enemies, but it is made to be more delicate than the people themselves.
Precisely because construction was difficult, the locations where cities could be built in ancient times were also very limited.
Zhu Su was very dissatisfied. Did the ancients of China use this thing to build majestic cities that will go down in history? The hard work of craftsmen should not be wasted on delicate adhesive materials!
Make cement! Cement must be made! With cement, such a tall city wall can be erected in just a few months! Building a city in the Northern Desert is no longer impossible. With the support of the city wall, the radiation range of the Chinese nation can be expanded to thousands of miles!
Zhu Su was relatively good at research in later generations. For example, he dabbled a little in the strategy books that later generations of time travel enthusiasts called "must-have time travel guides", "Friends of Military and Civilian Talents", and "The Barefoot Doctor's Manual". . But theory is just theory after all. If you want to truly burn cement, you still need to keep trying.
It’s not just cement, but also glass, firecrackers, etc. The steam engine is too far-fetched and it’s a bit impossible. At least in your lifetime, you have to come up with a breech-loading flintlock pistol, right?
In the future, if I have the opportunity to fight against a certain Shanyu in front of the army, the Shanyu loudly challenges my fifth prince Zhu Su. Amidst the exclamations of condolences, I rush out of the danger without hesitation, facing the Shanyu who is galloping away. The coming Kuai Ma Scimitar calmly took out his pistol, bang!
Shanyu fell off his horse in fear, blew the smoke from his gun, and left behind a sentence: "Stupid barbarians, times have changed." Then he floated back to the battle, and in the eyes of Shanyu when he was dying, a silhouette that was invincible in the world was reflected... …
This scene makes me emotional just thinking about it!
"Su Di? What are you thinking about?" Mu Ying called.
"Nothing..." Zhu Su quickly wiped his saliva. Although it must be fun to kill the enemy chief by surprise with a pistol before the battle. But it was still too dangerous to go to the front line. A gentleman doesn't stand behind a dangerous wall, just think about it...
Zhuangzi's visit was basically like this. Mu Ying and Zhu Su rode their horses and wandered around. It is now the turn of summer and autumn, but there are no waves of wheat that are about to mature in the fields as Zhu Su imagined. The wheat appears green and yellow, very sparse, and different in height.
Compared with the rickety old farmer who was working hard in the fields with his trousers rolled up, the scarcity of the wheat made Zhu Su angry.
….
"Is this a disaster year?" Zhu Su asked Mu Ying.
"Huh? Why do you ask? Although this year is not a bumper harvest, it is probably a good year."
Mu Ying looked at the old farmers working in the fields with a completely different look of relief than Zhu Su. "In the Yuan Dynasty, where could we see such a happy farming scene among the people? At that time, people had no way to survive. Even if they were plowing the fields, they were plowing for the master's family. As soon as the wheat started to grow, the dog officials of Yuanting would come. Just cut a crop. Not even a bit of the food grown reaches the people’s mouths!”
"If it weren't for me, the Ming Dynasty, how could we have such a peaceful and contented life?"
Is this a scene called peaceful? Zhu Su felt a little shocked by Mu Ying's words. If such sparse wheat stubble can be regarded as a scene of living and working in peace and contentment, what kind of hell on earth should it be like when the people were in dire straits recorded in the history books of the Mongolian and Yuan Dynasties?
This kind of field ridge is already considered a disaster in Zhu Su's eyes. In the eyes of the court, officials, and even the people, it turned out to be a good person who needed to be grateful.
New year?
"It shouldn't be like this..." Zhu Su muttered.
"What?" Mu Ying asked.
"Nothing." Zhu Su forced out a smile and looked at the old farmer with a smile on his face, but his heart became heavier.
The people on this land are the most hard-working people.
They deserve more than this.
"Brother Muying, when can we move to this village?" Zhu Su asked. He can't wait to do what he wants to do in Zhuangzi. After all, there are too many rules in the palace. Even when a sand pit was dug in the harem for exercise, the eunuchs knelt and said that it would ruin the feng shui. If you want to do something, you can't do it in the palace, or you'll be bored to death.
"In another half month, this Zhuangzi will be completed." Mu Ying said. He walked side by side with Zhu Su, stretched out his ape arm and patted Zhu Su's shoulder: "It's just that by then, I'm afraid I won't be able to come here to keep you company."
"Huh?" Zhu Su was a little confused. "Didn't I tell you, brother Mu Ying, to temporarily lead King Wu's guards?" Before the village was built, Lao Zhu told him that he would ask Mu Ying to train guards for Zhu Su and ensure the safety of the palace. Mu Ying is a talented general, so giving him Zhu Su a bodyguard is overkill. With Mu Ying covering him, Zhu Su felt relieved.
Why have you changed your mind now?
"That was the original arrangement. But the Governor's Office sent out a mobilization a few days ago and asked me to lead troops to Yunnan." Mu Ying said with a smile. "It is my long-cherished wish in my life to fight for my country. My adoptive father has high hopes for me and I cannot bear to disobey him. But I broke my promise to you..." His expression was a little tangled.
"Why go back on your word! Taking Yunnan is a national matter! Brother Mu Ying, you are the famous general of the Ming Dynasty and my Wu Wangwei is unreasonable. Now that the Ming Dynasty needs you, why should you go back on your word!" Zhu Su quickly called out. Cut him off. But there was something strange in my heart: According to the original history, it would have been several years before the Ming Dynasty conquered Yunnan. Why are you mobilizing now and dispatching troops and generals to Yunnan?
It seems that Lao Zhu can't wait to clean up this big stall to recharge his batteries.
"Don't worry. Didn't you also say that conquering Yunnan was not difficult in history? It was the adoptive father who had his own considerations a few years earlier." Seeing Zhu Su's worry, Mu Ying comforted him with a smile. Zhu Su told him about the conquest of Yunnan, and told Mu Ying as many historical details as he could remember, in order to enable Mu Ying to make early plans and make the conquest of Yunnan smoother.
However, Zhu Su did not tell him about Mu's future return to Yunnan. Fortunately, Zhu Wenzheng's tragedy has made Zhu Su understand the consequences of having too high expectations. He didn't want Mu Ying to have any chance or sign of breaking up with the Zhu family. After all, what if Lao Zhu didn't want to make Mu the king of Yunnan?
fire pine cone
