He seemed unwilling to give up, and seemed to be criticizing Li Chengzhi every word, but to Yuan Yuan's ears, every word contained flattery.
Investigating the reason, Gao Zhao simply wanted Li Chengzhi to spare his life.
But he used to be a person who was inferior to one person and superior to tens of thousands of people, but now he behaves like this, which is really too shameless.
Yuan Yuan wanted to refute and reprimanded Gao Zhao for "making excuses", but the words came to his lips but he could not spit them out.
Just thinking about it carefully, Gao Zhao is not talking nonsense, nor is he avoiding the important and taking advantage of the trivial. Rather, he is a person who has roots and legs.
Looking at Li Chengzhi's expression, it is clear that he has acquiesced...
He was unwilling to give up and looked at Liu Fang again. He saw the old man's face was full of desolation, as if he had given up.
Yuan Yuan's heart tightened and he called out in a low voice: "Prince of the Temple?"
Liu Fang woke up from her dream and replied sadly: "It doesn't matter!"
As he said that, he raised his hand to Li Chengzhi again: "The so-called things happened for a reason. It is definitely not an unintentional move by the Duke of the State to invite us here. I think that although what Duke Pingyuan said is not true, the trace is not far away. In this case, why not let me wait.
Seeing a real chapter, how about retreating from the difficulties?"
Quitting when faced with difficulties?
Liu Fang's reaction was not unpleasant, and her eyes were poisonous enough to see through Li Chengzhi's purpose at a glance.
Li Chengzhi did not hide anything, and laughed loudly: "Being respectful is worse than obeying orders. Wherever the temple minister wants to see, just tell me!"
Liu Fang was shocked when he heard this: "It's nothing more than grain depots and artillery..."
After a pause, he gritted his teeth again, "It would be great if we could borrow the army again and take a look at the people's register!"
Li Chengzhi was stunned for a moment, then laughed loudly: "The grain depot and artillery are no problem, but don't think about the two books of military registration..."
If you dare to show such heavy objects to others, wouldn't it mean that Tai'a is holding them upside down and teaching others to handle them?
This old man really knows how to kill snakes and follow them with a stick. Do you really dare to think so?
Hearing that Li Chengzhi dared to show off such heavy weapons as artillery to others, Yuan Yuan's mood, which had been sinking into the abyss, suddenly improved a lot.
Even Liu Fang's originally gloomy face showed a look of relief.
Gao Zhao still looked like he was unwilling but resigned to his fate. Only Yang Shu's eyes were still rolling around.
But he no longer stared at the wounded soldiers and copper water, but instead looked at Li Chengzhi.
The two of them were close friends and knew each other to some extent. Li Chengzhi naturally knew what he was thinking: this old thief was more courageous and more whimsical than Liu Fang.
In the past, he was ninety-nine percent thinking about the formula of medicinal wine and the method of smelting copper. Now he can see the artillery, and ninety-nine times out of ten, he is planning the secret recipe for gunpowder.
What the hell do you want to eat?
Li Chengzhi snorted coldly and looked at him again. Yang Shu understood instantly: Let's just dream?
Disappointment is naturally inevitable, but Yang Shu is not discouraged.
Anyway, no matter how he plans, he is not planning for the imperial court. If he talks more grandly, why not seek the welfare of all people in the world?
Therefore, Yang Shu was very confident that one day, he would definitely get what he wanted.
Seeing that Li Chengzhi had already mounted his horse, he cleared his mind and quickly followed...
Since Li Chengzhi came to Xihai, the scene of Zhenyi has been changing with each passing day.
In a few days, there will be an additional farmhouse by the weak water. In a few days, there will be an additional manor in the north of Heli Mountain.
At this time, Li Chengzhi's destination was located in the north of the mountain. One of the large gardens was where Cang Cao stored grain.
The outer wall is still under construction, and is made of red earth using local materials. It is now more than ten feet long, and it is estimated that another half a foot will be enough.
Just looking at the outer wall, it is enough to cover a radius of two miles. Inside the village, there is a lot of traffic and a lively atmosphere.
A large cart drove out of the village gate like a stream of water, carrying grain, wheat and the like. Liu Fang and others guessed with their toes that the grain must be transported to Longxi, fertile fields and other places.
After watching for a while, he roughly counted and found that in just two seconds, there were hundreds of carriages driving out of the village. Liu Fang finally gave up and looked inside again along the convoy.
It can be seen that houses shaped like Hu tribe's felt tents are rising from the ground in an orderly manner. There are more than two hundred buildings. Each one is three to four feet in diameter and about one foot and a half in height. But for some reason, it is round.
, rather than Fangshe.
Moreover, the red color is dazzling, almost as if it has been dyed with cinnabar.
When I took a closer look, I realized that the exterior walls were all made of red square bricks, but I didn't know whether the interior was made of rammed earth or still masonry.
Yang Shu was so surprised that he picked up a half-abandoned red brick nearby and asked suspiciously: "What is this? It looks like a mud brick, but why is it red?"
This old man is so stunned that he suspects everything he sees?
Li Chengzhi glanced at him, with a hint of a smile on his face: "The minister has good eyesight, but isn't he just a mud brick?"
Really mud brick?
Yang Shu showed a look like don't fool me.
The method of burning mud to make bricks existed in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and it has been passed down for nearly a thousand years. But no matter which dynasty it is, or where it is produced, and no matter what color the crucible mud (clay) is used, as long as it is stored in the kiln
It is made by pouring and burning, and is determined to be green.
Is this really the first time I’ve seen red bricks?
And this is only second.
What puzzles Yang Shu most is that although this thing is easy to use, it is not easy to make. Not to mention it is the most time-consuming, and it is specially used by the palace and the royal family. It is a folk-fired brick, from selecting the soil to taking it out of the cellar.
, a furnace of bricks takes nearly a month.
In terms of cost, it is much more than the cost of a mason chiseling stone into bricks, and it is not as strong as stone bricks. But it is better in color and strong and unified shape.
Therefore, the Han people could not afford it at all, and they were mostly used by noble families and high-ranking families.
Li Chengzhi was lucky, but he used it directly to repair the granary?
There are piles of red bricks everywhere in the farewell field, and there are even more brick trucks coming in a steady stream, and there are no craftsmen. Why do the people feel pity for them, but they are just polite as usual? This shows how rich this thing is in the West Sea.
Suspicious, Yang Shu held the square brick in his hands, weighed it, and then smashed it hard against the brick wall.
There was just a "bang" sound, and although the red brick was broken into two pieces, the cracks were very neat, as if cut with a knife. Yang Shu picked up the broken bricks again, placed one piece on each side, and hit it hard.
After smashing it three or four times, only some dust was broken off, and the broken bricks were no longer broken.
"Is it really ruled by red soil?"
Yang Shu was surprised, "But why is the texture so strong, so much stronger than green bricks?"
Li Chengzhi chuckled: "Maybe it's because the crucible mud in our Western Sea is different from other places, that's why it's like this!"
This is of course Li Chengzhi trying to deal with Yang Shu.
In ancient times, only crucible mud was used to make bricks. After being rolled into molds, they were either dried naturally or smoked with firewood, and then put into the kiln, where they were watered and cooled while burning. After firing, they were naturally dried in the shade to make bricks.
.
But Li Chengzhi used the method of later generations. From the selection of materials, it was completely different from the ancient method of firing bricks.
If it is close to the mountains, it is best to use shale. If it is far away from the mountains, it is better to use local materials. Whether it is clay, ordinary soil, or wet mud at the bottom of the river.
Then add gangue powder, which is waste coal powder.
As for the raw materials, it is countless times easier than green bricks to carefully select clay and grind it carefully. And the shale and coal gangue are both materials used to make cement, and their hardness is inherently stronger than clay.
The second is the fuel used during sintering.
In ancient times, firewood was used, but Li Chengzhi used coal. It is clear at a glance which furnace temperature is higher and which is lower. When the two are combined, how can the green bricks be as hard as the red bricks fired at high temperatures?
As for the color, the green bricks are solidified by watering while burning, and the degree of oxidation is not high, while the red bricks naturally turn red as soon as they are burned to the end.
In addition, red bricks are directly burned and dried, while blue bricks are dried naturally in the shade, which more than doubles the production time.
So no matter what the comparison, Li Chengzhi has a reason to keep secret...
Yang Shu secretly cursed fart in his heart.
When I heard this, I thought it was the same as the soldier who had just fooled Yuan Yuan and said, "I only survived because of my luck."
Is Li Chengzhi treating me like a fool?
He was not confused in his heart and asked angrily: "Even such vulgar things must be hidden and tucked away?"
"vulgarian?"
Li Chengzhi sneered and pointed at the half-built brick wall, "You also know how strong this thing is, especially the green bricks. You should also know what will happen if you use this thing to build a city wall!"
Yang Shu's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.
Building city walls with bricks is a treatment only available to royal capitals, just like Luojing in the Yuan and Wei dynasties, and Jiankang in Nanliang.
The rest of the big cities, even Pingcheng, the old capital of the Yuan and Wei dynasties, were still made of rammed earth.
At this time, it seems that it is extremely easy to make this thing. If the imperial court learns it, it will be like a treasure and it will be used to consolidate the city.
At that time, if Li Chengzhi wants to conquer, wouldn't it be much more difficult?
No wonder he didn't reveal even a single word?
No matter how unwilling Yang Shu was, he had no choice but to keep silent.
But Liu Fang's mind suddenly changed after hearing this: "I wonder if I can take a look later?"
Li Chengzhi pondered for a moment: "It's not that Li is stingy, it's that we are building cities and villages all over the West Sea, and we need a lot of red bricks, so the kilns work day and night without stopping.
If the temple minister goes there, he must see what happens. The kiln will be extinguished by then, and the bricks in the kiln will naturally be useless. But it is only one furnace of bricks, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. The total number of bricks in the kiln is nearly ten.
It takes only one day to achieve success, but it is really too wasteful..."
Li Chengzhi paused for a moment, then smiled and said: "Besides, Li is busy with his affairs, so he is taking a break today. If the temple minister insists on seeing it, it is not impossible, but after seeing the brickyard, then the artillery will be flawless...
"
When he heard that it took ten people to make ten thousand bricks in the past ten days, Yang Shu couldn't help but take a breath of air.
If we can get this method, and if we can summon all the strong people in Guanzhong, or even like the West Sea, calling in the old and weak, women and children, it is estimated that in a few months, we can double the height of the cities in each state and county.
Double the thickness.
Maybe it won't be able to hold on in the end and will be conquered by Li Chengzhi, but it's still much better than being at a loss and helpless at this moment.
As for the artillery... Li Chengzhi could only let Liu Fang see its power. As for making the artillery, he couldn't even think about it.
It's ridiculous that Liu Fang's eagerness to save the country has become like a demon.
With such calculation in mind, Yang Shu finally did not persuade Liu Fang, nor did he remind Liu Fang.
Just because he knew that Liu Fang only had the word "artillery" in his heart at this time, and the rest were irrelevant, even nine cows could not be pulled back.
As expected, Liu Fang immediately gave up the idea and forced out a smile: "In that case, it's okay if you don't look at the brick kiln!"
“This is the best!”
Li Chengzhi followed his example and led Liu Fang and others into a row of built granaries.
Since he dared to bring them here, he was naturally well prepared. No matter if you looked at it from the top of the warehouse, or from the middle or bottom of the warehouse, there was no granary that was not full and almost overflowing.
Ten of them were even queuing up to put grain. Golden corn and red wheat grains flowed out like water from holes about the size of a fist, poured into sacks, and then carried to carts by the soldiers.
Although he had expected it, after seeing dozens of buildings as if he were on a horse racing tour, Liu Fang's heart became heavier and heavier, as if a huge stone weighing a thousand kilograms was weighing down on him.
A granary of this size should store at least 5,000 dan or more of grain, which is more than 600,000 catties. There are nearly 60 granaries that are full and stocking grain. Even if the rest are more than 100,
The granaries were all empty, and these sixty granaries contained as much as 300,000 stones of grain.
And these alone are definitely enough to feed the people of the Western Navy for nearly half a year.
Furthermore, how could hundreds of thousands of troops go on an expedition to the West Sea without even a grain of food? What’s more, it has been three months since the war began. How much food has been transported to the battle since these three months?
Not to mention the continuous battles and victories in the West Sea, how much food, grass and livestock were robbed from Tuyuhun and Rouran?
If it is as Gao Zhao said, there is no shortage of food in the West Sea at all...
It was like the weight of Mount Tai, but when Li Chengzhi took everyone to visit the horse grain warehouse like a treasure, Liu Fang's face became even more ugly.
Li Chengzhi was so good that he had already prepared for a rainy day. He had already ordered the people to stock up on pasture, and even used horse fodder as human food, saving tens of thousands of dan.
When she saw Yang Shushu chewing a piece of palm-sized straw cake with great relish without any words of elegance, Liu Fang felt as if she had a toothache and couldn't help but grin.
"Is it really made from straw chaff?"
Yang Shu smacked his mouth and asked, "Why is it so salty and tastes like bean... Well, it also tastes like meat?"
"This is meant to be boiled or soaked for consumption. How can it be so hard to chew? You have good teeth?"
Li Chengzhi couldn't laugh or cry, "This thing is similar to the bean, so it's not surprising that it has a bean flavor. The reason why it's salty is naturally to avoid spoilage, so enough salt is added to the cake to keep it longer. As for the meaty taste
, just because some of them are cooked with mutton soup, they are naturally very delicious, otherwise why would you eat them with gusto?"
Use mutton soup to cook horse food?
Yang Shu was shocked.
If Li Chengzhi had not said it first, saying that this was to prepare for danger in times of peace, to store grain to prevent hunger, and to use it to feed others, otherwise Yang Shufei would have slapped him in the face.
Seeing that he didn't believe it, Li Chengzhi actually picked up a piece, broke off another piece and threw it into his mouth: "It's not that I'm just talking nonsense, but it's true... You must also know that I defeated Tuyuhun and Rouran in the West Sea and captured livestock.
countless.
However, we, the people of Xihai, cannot turn the Han people into barbarians and all go to herding. It is also impossible for me, the Li family, to always live in Hexi, a pastoral land with more grass and less fields. Therefore, we can only prevent the slightest change and prevent the danger before it is burned..."
Yang Shu coldly interrupted: "So you killed all the livestock and then mixed it with fodder to make military rations?"
Li Chengzhi hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "Although we missed, we're not far off!"
In fact, I couldn't bear to throw away the broth, and I couldn't finish it all at once, so I had to use it again and boiled alfalfa...