Chapter 146 The Birth of Cement

"Your Highness."

Wang Ying stood up, not knowing where to put his hands covered with mud.

He had been concentrating on making clay cannons, and it was Zhao Xu's words that distracted him.

"This is already the third one. The previous one failed." Wang Ying pointed to a puddle of mud next to him, his smile a little embarrassed.

The clay cannon made according to the drawings is large in size, and the mud is soft, so the made clay cannon can easily crack or break.

Originally, he thought it would be simple, but once he got started, he knew the pros and cons.

"It's okay, it's a good thing to learn from failure." Zhao Xu said.

The difficulty of making clay molds is mixing the clay. The clay that comes out should not be too soft or too hard.

The soft ones are easy to break, while the hard ones are difficult to shape.

This can only be controlled by themselves. After a few failures, they just have to master the situation.

Looking up and looking around, he said, "Where are the slags for iron-making being placed?"

This was something he asked Wang Ying to keep when he was making iron.

The purpose is to use it in the future.

"Your Highness, follow me." Wang Ying stood up and led Zhao Xu to a warehouse inside.

It was filled with slag left over from iron smelting.

At this time, craftsmen continued to send slag over.

"Your Highness, what are these things for?" Wang Ying was confused for a long time.

Now that King Yan finally mentioned these slags, he couldn't help but ask.

"Making cement." Zhao Xu said.

"What is this?" Wang Ying and Zou Rong both looked curious.

"You will know later." Hearing was worse than seeing, so he decided to make the cement himself.

Portland cement, also called Portland cement, appeared in the mid-19th century.

In previous periods, people mostly burned limestone and then made it into gypsum to bond buildings.

Later, when a builder purchased limestone, he discovered that it was mixed with clay, but the fired lime had better bonding properties than before.

Later, he tried adding volcanic ash, ceramic tiles and other powders, and found that the effect was even better.

Finally, he thought of the slag after iron smelting, replacing volcanic ash and other substances, and finally determined the composition of cement.

What Zhao Xu wants to do now is this kind of cement.

He asked Wang Ying to take out some slag and grind it into powder, mix it with clay and then calcine it in the kiln.

The two of them wanted to see the surprise that King Yan was going to give them.

Do whatever Zhao Xu asks you to do.

More than an hour later, the craftsman took out the powder from the kiln.

This is the gray powder that is contemporary cement.

"Find some blue bricks, get some sand and water." Zhao Xu said.

After the materials were gathered, Zhao Xu personally mixed the cement with sand and water.

After mixing it into a paste, he spread the cement in front of two bricks and placed them on the ground.

"Okay, let's come and see it tomorrow, Wang Ying, you have to keep an eye on it." Zhao Xu said with a smile.

Wang Ying and Zou Rong were still confused after hearing this.

the next day.

Zou Rong came to the Bingzhan Division again, and he found that there were many people surrounding the place where the green bricks were placed.

After a while, King Yan also came over, and the craftsman immediately made way.

"Zou Gongcao, pick up the bricks above and try it." Zhao Xu said.

Zou Rong nodded, and he endured his curiosity all night.

He walked over and carefully held the top blue brick. He then lifted it up and found that the bottom bricks had also been lifted up.

"Huh." Zou Rong showed a surprised expression, but thinking that there was mud here, he felt that the mud could also stick to it.

"Pull again." Zhao Xu said.

Zou Rong nodded, took a brick in one hand and pulled it out, but he didn't even pull it out.

Then he held back all his strength and pulled hard, and then pulled the two bricks apart.

This time he looked surprised, "It's really magical. If you build a house with this thing, it will be very strong."

"It's only one day. After a week, you can't pull it out." Zhao Xu said in a nonchalant manner, "And this cement has another advantage. Even if it is soaked in water, it will not be eroded."

Zou Rong was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth. King Yan's statement shocked him so much.

Wang Ying and Wang Chong also came to watch the fun. They fell in love with King Yan again and felt that King Yan had endless thoughts in his head.

"If you mix cement, sand, and stone again, it will be a stronger thing. You can go back and try it slowly." Zhao Xu said to Zou Rong, "Now there is no problem in building the workshop house."

"No problem, absolutely no problem." Zou Rong swallowed.

He wanted to use cement immediately to see how far this thing could be applied.

The effects of cement are immediately known to everyone.

Zhao Xu said to Wang Ying: "Send out a group of craftsmen to calcine cement. These slags are enough."

During this period of iron and steel making, Bingzhangsi accumulated thousands of tons of slag, which was enough to make cement for a long time.

"Yes, Your Highness." Wang Ying said.

Nodding, Zhao Xu and Zou Rong left the Bingzhan Division.

On the way, Zhao Xu remembered the last autumn hunting in Beidi.

Currently, he does not have the ability to attack Beidi.

Because the longer the supply line is, the more disadvantageous it is to you. ‘

He will be on the defensive for a long time to come.

So I have been thinking about countermeasures during this period.

After much deliberation, he felt that it was necessary to build a fortress area along the Yanshan line with Wu'an County as the center to resist Beidi.

Although Yanshan is big, there are only four or five trails leading to Yanjun in the mountains.

If concrete bastions were built on the paths of these small roads, supplemented by artillery, wouldn't it be possible to block the passage of the northern Di to the south?

This kind of bastion is different from ordinary cities.

The structure is to change a dock from a convex polygon to a concave polygon.

Such an improvement makes it possible for the attacker to be exposed to more than one bastion face, or even three faces, no matter where the castle is attacked.

The defending party can use crossfire to launch multiple attacks on the enemy.

Before artillery, such crossfire was long-range weapons such as bows and arrows.

If artillery is used, the enemy will suffer a disastrous defeat when attacking such a bastion.

The court could not do it before, because ordinary docks were not effective in guarding such small roads.

If there are too few soldiers, they will collapse without fighting.

If there are too many soldiers, the troops will be greatly dispersed, and a large enough fortress must be built to accommodate so many soldiers.

Of course, in the final analysis, this is a cost issue.

The court would rather let the northern Di people rob the people every year than spend money and food on this.

Anyway, it won't affect the safety of Dasong.

However, this is different for him.

Yan County and Shanggu County are his fiefdoms. Who can bear it if they come here from time to time?

Moreover, without a peaceful environment, how can we build the interior?

Therefore, he had to build this bastion fortress.

Thinking of this, he said to Zou Rong: "You can leave the matter of Chengdefang to the officials below. There is a very important matter that I want to give to you."