The window was pushed open and the wind blew by.
Chen Gui, who is nearly 70 years old, breathed deeply in the early morning spring breeze. Although there was some coolness, he could no longer feel the cold. After walking out of the small courtyard, there were tents in sight, and snoring could be heard coming from inside. It was very loud and there were many sounds.
Kuai Xiang walked out from behind the tent with a cup of residual tea in his hand. When he saw Chen Gui, he urged again: "Chen Shilang, are you ready for that? The biggest pit in the main hall has already been dug. It's five feet long. If we continue to delay it like this, it will delay the construction period a lot. Can you give us an accurate date? I don't dare leave this deep pit open all the time."
Chen Gui moved his mouth, and his snow-white beard was straightened by the hands of vicissitudes of life: "Who is not in a hurry? Every day more to build a new city will put more pressure on the court. Who dares to delay at will? But the emperor said that it must be installed Iron frame, if there is no iron frame, it will fail, what do you think we should do?”
Kuai Xiang frowned. He really couldn't figure out that Zhu Yunwen insisted on building an iron frame at the bottom of the hall. Looking at the drawings, this iron frame had to extend from the ground to the top of the hall, several feet beyond the top. This not only increased the construction volume and difficulty, but also It affects the beauty of the main hall. Isn't this disorderly?
"Amitabha."
As soon as the name of the Buddha came, Chen Gui and Kuai Xiang knew that Yao Guangxiao had arrived.
Yao Guangxiao is very conspicuous in his cassock. He rarely leaves his hands and plays with the beads every day.
"Shilang Yao."
Chen Gui and Kuai Xiang were present.
Yao Guangxiao said with a warm smile, "The iron frame has been shipped and can be installed today. Let's go take a look."
Chen Gui and Kuai Xiang were overjoyed and quickly asked Yao Guangxiao to come forward.
The difficulty and amount of work to build the new capital of Peiping far exceeded the imagination of later generations. Not to mention that the entire city of Peiping was almost evacuated. Almost all the people, businessmen, and wealthy gentry left the city of Peiping and moved to live outside the city. Many buildings in the city have been demolished because they did not comply with the planning. Of course, these building materials will not be discarded randomly, but will be put into new construction after inspection.
For example, many masonry materials, gold and silver utensils and other objects in the Yuan Dynasty Palace were either cleaned and directly became the cornerstone of the Ming Dynasty, or they were resmelted to create new utensils.
According to the drawings, most areas of the entire city need to be re-planned. What should be straightened should be straightened, what should be dug should be dug out, what should be filled should be filled in, and what should be built should be raised. The project is huge.
More than 400,000 people and craftsmen are housed and fed in the city. They work in three shifts continuously, day and night. Even in winter, there are always hundreds of thousands of people working on the construction site in the wind and snow.
It was not a stable dynasty, and it did not have strong financial support. If the Ming Dynasty wanted to build a magnificent Beijing city, there was no way to even think about it.
Yao Guangxiao walked into the construction area of the palace. Countless craftsmen had just changed shifts, and the bustling scene was even more shocking in the spring light. In front of you are the construction sites of the three main halls, namely Fengtian Hall, Huagai Hall and Jinshen Hall.
Yao Guangxiao and others all know that Fengtian Palace is the highest-standard and largest palace in the new capital. It is where the emperor ascends to power, gets married, appoints a queen, receives congratulations, holds court meetings, and gives banquets to ministers and foreign envoys. There must be no room for error in the process.
The design of Fengtian Hall requires eleven rooms in width, five rooms in depth, and a height of eight feet. If the platform base is included, its height will reach ten to five feet. In order to support such a huge building, a good foundation must be laid, and digging the foundation deeply becomes the first step of construction.
There is a huge earth pit in front of me. It was dug out by thousands of craftsmen, shovel by shovel, basket by basket, purely manually. It took four months to dig it out. There was not even a single night's delay. Even when the wind and snow come and the weather is freezing, there are many craftsmen at work.
According to the original arrangement, it was time to lay the foundation cushion, set up drainage channels, and then raise the platform for ground construction. However, Zhu Yunwen's decree interrupted everything because of the iron frame on the side.
Yao Guangxiao, Chen Gui, Kuai Xiang and others looked at the iron frame in front of them, somewhat puzzled. This was not just a slender triangular iron frame two feet high, but it was not long enough. Besides, it took more than a month to build something like this. ?
The blacksmith Chen Bin stepped forward and saluted Yao Guangxiao and others.
Yao Guangxiao couldn't help pointing and asked: "Is this the only thing?"
Chen Bin said with a smile: "More than that, the steel piled there is the most important thing."
Yao Guangxiao and others followed Chen Bin's gesture and saw the steel piled up like a hill on the side, and a craftsman was taking off the felt cloth. The steel materials are long and short, thick and thin, wide and narrow, and there are also a bunch of baskets. When you look closer, you can see that the baskets are full of iron bars as thin as little fingers, but the bottom of the iron bars seems to have been pressed. It's a thick round hat.
"What is this?"
Chen Gui was a little confused, so he picked it up and looked at it.
Chen Bin explained: "The drawings given by the emperor are for something called screws, which are made by carving concave grooves on these small iron bars and then fastening them with screw caps. But no matter how hard the craftsmen try, it is difficult to make them." Although some screws and screw heads have been prepared, most of them do not match and the speed is too slow, so we have to choose to use this type of screws instead. Then pass this screw through the steel, fasten the steel, tie the steel wire on the top, and then vigorously Hammering it will flatten the exposed end and seal the steel tightly.”
"Oh, then prepare to splice and install it. We don't dare to leave this pit empty forever."
Yao Guangxiao said.
Chen Bin nodded and arranged for the craftsmen to enter the foundation pit and lay the steel. He watched the steel pieces being laid at the bottom of the foundation pit. Then a craftsman put the screws aside. Three waves of craftsmen entered the pit to check. After confirmation, they left their approval signatures. The report was reported to Yao Guangxiao and Chen Gui, who took the drawings and inspected them again. After confirming that they were correct, they signed and approved the operation.
This kind of supervision and inspection process has been tested during the dredging process of Huitong River, and has also been applied to the construction of the new city.
The craftsman used a big iron block as a cushion and used a big hammer to smash the top of the screw. After dozens of hammers, the steel at the top of the screw had been smashed into a nut and was flush with the steel.
Yao Guangxiao stood outside the foundation pit and looked at the many craftsmen working underneath. As time passed, the steel at the bottom was gradually connected together. Chen Bin instructed the craftsmen to add more steel, and the steel began to be connected and tied together, gradually forming a square base two feet high.
The construction of steel is not a day's work. There is a lack of professional tools for tying steel bars, so we can only rely on manpower to tighten them. After reaching a certain height, craftsmen need to set up underground trenches, pave the earth, and then connect the steel...
Yao Guangxiao came day by day, Chen Gui watched day by day, and Kuai Xiang checked from time to time until the earthwork was laid layer by layer, compacted, inspected, and when the steel was still two feet away from the ground, the steel tripod began to be installed.
Looking at the thick piece of steel extending upward, Chen Gui muttered: "The emperor calls this a needle?"
The corner of Yao Guangxiao's mouth also twitched. Although it was unclear where Zhu Yunwen learned about this "lightning rod", this thing was very different from ordinary needles. It was not a needle at all, but a huge thing that consumed a lot of steel.
"Is this thing really as magical as the Emperor said? It has the power to reach the sky and transform disasters caused by thunder and lightning?"
Kuai Xiang was also a little confused.
Yao Guangxiao laughed and said: "The Emperor said it can be done, so it must be possible. I heard that the Nanjing Imperial Palace is also under construction and is preparing to bury some lightning rods. If it doesn't work, the Emperor will not arrange it like this."
Chen Gui said expectantly: "In the future, I would like to see if thunder can really be resolved. If such a problem can really be solved, it will be a blessing to the world. We must know how many buildings, how many books, and how many treasures there are in the past dynasties. , was destroyed by thunder and fire."
Yao Guangxiao, Kuai Xiang and others nodded repeatedly.
The buildings are mainly made of wood. The main point to note is that the candles used in daily life will not easily cause fires. Even if they do, they are usually not big at first. At most, they can burn a few rooms and save them. But thunder and fire are so ferocious. On heavy rain days, they can burn a building to the ground, making it impossible to save it. Which dynasty's palace has not suffered from thunder and fire? Countless famous mountains and ancient temples have been destroyed again and again in thunder and fire. reconstruction.
Capital, outside Wuying Palace.
Zhu Yunwen looked at the towering lightning rod with a smile on his face. With this thing, the Ming Dynasty palace should not encounter lightning disasters again, right? Think about it, after Zhu Di moved the capital, the three main palaces were immediately burned down by thunder and fire. Poorly, there was no room in the last dynasty. The unlucky minister could not help but say something about God's opposition to moving the capital. This is the color given to you.
In order to prevent the hall that the craftsmen had worked so hard to build from being destroyed by thunder and fire, and to prevent the officials from shouting about it, we simply built it so that they could see the scene of thunder and lightning flashing in Fengtian Hall while the hall was intact.
Shuangxi came over, carrying more than a dozen memorials: "Your Majesty, the three ministers Zhang Sigong, Chen Gui, and Yao Guangxiao have jointly reported."
Zhu Yunwen picked up the single-selected report, opened it and looked at it carefully.
This is a monthly report on the construction of the new capital. Every month, a report will be delivered to the capital, detailing the construction progress, costs, needs, difficulties, material reserves, status of craftsmen's labor, etc. Through these contents, Zhu Yunwen can clearly understand the new capital. The specific situation created.
The wisdom of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen is worthy of admiration and respect. In terms of architectural detail planning and manufacturing design, they have begun to use standardized structures, such as corridors, columns, brackets, and platform foundations. They are not directly brought to the construction site, but outside in advance. Just create the prefabricated parts and assemble them at the construction site.
The mortise and tenon fit together seamlessly.
In order to meet the demand for woodworking, small and large woodworking factories were set up outside Peiping City. The craftsmen of small wood factories are responsible for palace utensils, such as tables, chairs, windows, screens, etc., while the craftsmen of large wood factories are responsible for building structures, such as pillars, beams, etc.
In addition to woodworking craftsmen, there are also tile craftsmen, stone craftsmen, clay craftsmen, oil craftsmen, panel craftsmen, color paintings and paper craftsmen, collectively known as the "eight crafts" craftsmen.
It was under the division of labor and cooperation of these "eight works" craftsmen that the new capital began to be built step by step.
Each performs his or her own duties, but they can all perform their duties at the same time.
Flow work and collaboration with each other.
This is the wisdom of Ming Dynasty management and the wisdom of Ming Dynasty craftsmen.
"Thank you craftsmen for your hard work."
Zhu Yunwen sighed.
Shuangxi said at the side: "Your Majesty, the craftsmen are really hard-working. I heard from the chief of the Ministry of Industry that after cutting down the large trees from the mountains and transporting them to Tongzhou, they need to be manually sawed to remove the skin and beat into logs or squares. After the materials are finished, the columns, beams, purlins, and beams are all carved with mortise and tenon joints. By the time they are used, it may have been several months."
Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly. There was not much good wood in Beizhili. It could only be cut down from Jiangxi, Huguang, Sichuan, Shanxi and other places. Such a long journey consumes immeasurable manpower.
Not only wood, but also ordinary masonry is a very grand project. The two-foot-square bricks, square-foot bricks, seven-foot-square bricks, gold bricks, etc. in the palace cannot be used just after being fired. They need to be used. Cutting and grinding processing, the specifications are uniform and accurate, the edges and corners are complete and straight, and the surface is smooth and smooth.
Taking the gold bricks (non-gold) fired in the Fengtian Palace as a matter of fact, a craftsman can only cut and grind ten bricks a day, and the entire Fengtian Palace needs to be paved with four to five thousand gold bricks. The number of various types of bricks laid in the entire palace will be nearly Over one hundred thousand!
It is difficult for outsiders to understand the hard work of the craftsmen.
But everyone can appreciate the greatness of the craftsmen, and everyone who has stepped there can understand it, even six hundred years later.
