Chapter 456 Fengyi Township, Silk Reeling, Movable

Type The construction of the Horse Binding Pass is underway. Now the first wall has been erected. Since this is a city built on flat ground and there is no moat under the city, the wall is built high. Of course, this wall of the city wall is mainly for defense, so it must be higher and wide enough, because crossbows or artillery will be installed in the future.

The first phase of the project is the two rammed earth walls of the city wall, which are 15 meters high, eight meters wide at the bottom and six meters wide at the top. From the cross section, it is a trapezoidal mound. This is a high-strength wall built to defend against giant apes. It is nothing to be taller.

In the future, the city wall here will also build a second phase of the project, which is brick wrapping, but this will have to wait until people migrate here before it can be completed. It is not easy for this small number of people to build the wall now.

Ying Rui had been watching the slaves do this. When the apes besieged the city, he had already been in the Han tribe and had seen those monsters with his own eyes. Now that the leader asked him to build fortifications here, he naturally cared more than anyone else. After all, he had seen the horror of the monsters. There was no moat here, and the walls alone were used for defense, so it was better to build a higher one, and naturally it had to be stronger. The

one-eared team in the valley was also very successful. They not only found a stream in the mountains, but also found a not very large waterfall along the stream. Under the waterfall was a clear deep pool. The water from the cliff kept rushing down, making a thunderous crashing sound, rumbling in the valley.

This waterfall was rare, and it was the first one found by the Han tribe so far, but it was useless, it was nothing more than providing drinking water.

The one-eared team immediately replanned the canal, directly diverting the original stream, and then expanding the water supply. The entire ditch was led into the hinterland of the valley in a winding way, and finally all gathered in a pond, providing clean drinking water for the city and county, and a large amount of clean water could also be used for irrigation.

Another thing is to build a sluice gate at the junction of the pool and the ditch of the waterfall to control the water supply of the reservoir in the downstream valley, so that there is no need to worry about the flooding of the valley downstream.

With this reservoir at the foot of the mountain, it is also possible to expand the villages and towns here in the future. If you want to open a village between Fuma Pass and Hanyang City in the future, you only need to dig a ditch from this reservoir and continue to extend it to the south, which greatly solves the problem of irrigation water.

The land reclamation project that Shitou is responsible for is also in progress. They first cut down shrubs along the location of the planned city site, directly cleared a circle of firebreaks, and then found a windless day to burn the city site to white ground.

After clearing the city site, the group began to cut down trees in the valleys on both sides, removed the branches and piled them in the mountains, and then piled up the logs nearby, leaving them for use when the city is officially built next year.

By the end of September, six new wooden boats had been built in Hanyang City, which kept traveling between Hanyang County and Ruyang County, continuously delivering nutrients to the new city. Thanks to the addition of the Yu tribe, there were already 1,200 people here, plus the people who came here from Hanyang City to help every day, the number reached 1,500, and it could barely be considered a city.

More members of the Yu tribe took the wooden boats to Hanyang City. While helping to transport supplies, they also got to know more about the tribe they had just joined, which made them more determined to join the Han tribe, because they all saw the good life in Hanyang City, and they were also building a new home under the command of the leader. What they saw would one day be born from their own hands.

In addition, they also changed from the original Yu tribe to the current Yu clan of the Han tribe. The great leader gave them a surname, and from then on they were no different from other Han tribe members, and the benefits of joining the Han tribe were almost immediate. The supplies that were previously said to be exchanged for labor had already been transported to the new city.

Shiploads of porcelain, pottery, buckets, iron pots, iron tools, farm implements, and cloth continuously arrived at the shore of Ruyang County, making every new member overjoyed. Regardless of whether they were from the newly moved Gaoshan tribe or the original Yu tribe, almost everyone cheered. Holding these exquisite utensils and wearing warm woolen clothes, they also began to feel proud of being the people of the Han tribe, because these were good things that other tribes could not get. Dashu,

who was stationed in Liuyang County, received Luo Chong's instructions and began to act according to the rules. He ordered a large number of wild people who came to seek refuge to reclaim wasteland, assigned tasks to families, and then ordered special personnel to measure the land and then verify it one by one.

Although these unruly people who came to seek refuge were extremely reluctant, they had no choice but to obey, otherwise they would be driven out of the city. There were also tribes that had just arrived here and had not yet formally requested to join. After learning about this situation, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue to seek refuge, because there was still a month before winter, and they had wasted a lot of time on the way to migrate, and had no time to collect winter reserves. If they turned around and left now, they would only starve to death in the mountains and forests.

It would be better to honestly cultivate a few acres of land here to ask for a place to settle down. The "old people" in Ruyang County also disliked these newcomers. After all, it was because of their appearance that their three meals a day became two porridge meals, and they were not as full as before. Naturally, these people were unhappy.

So even if Luo Chong could not complete the task of cultivating the land for the newcomers, these people who came to share food with them for nothing were not welcome.

If you don't make some contribution to the tribe, do you have the nerve to eat the food we grow?

The population of Liuyang County is increasing rapidly. No one knows where they came from. They only know that they came from the south. However, no one can tell the specific location. Even if they can tell, no one in the Han tribe knows them.

After the newcomers reclaimed the land, they could not live in luxurious brick houses for the time being. The big trees could only build another city and then build adobe huts urgently. Now they can only deal with it temporarily, because winter is coming soon. It is too late to build brick houses, so they can only use rammed earth houses instead. This adobe house is very simple, but most of the functions of brick houses are also available in adobe houses here. The most important point is that this adobe house is not afraid of fire and can be heated by heating.

The construction application of the new city was also sent to Luo Chong, asking him to give the new city a name. Luo Chong thought about it. The previous two cities were both township-level, one Linze Township and the other Shangtian Township, so this time it should be called Fengyi Township.

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In theory, these towns should actually be called workshops, because Luo Chong wants to set up a small Kyoto in Liuyang County as the current capital. After all, the plains here in Liuyang County are not small, with hundreds of thousands of acres of flat land, enough to feed many people. Once the population here develops in the future, it will definitely be a large county comparable to Kyoto.

And it is close to the river, whether it is by water or land, it is extremely convenient to transport materials.

However, according to the current development speed, Liuyang County can't even be self-sufficient now. It's nonsense to say that it's a Kyoto. Even the food for the winter has to be figured out by Luo Chong, the leader. Alas.

After approving Dashu's application for city construction, as well as naming and related matters, Luo Chong also began to busy himself with his own affairs.

The people of the Sang clan have collected a large number of wild chestnut silkworm cocoons, but they still know nothing about the processing methods. Whether these cocoons can be successfully turned into cloth depends on Luo Chong.

In a corner of the spinning workshop, a new spinning machine is quietly placed. It is modified from the first generation machine, but now it is completely unrecognizable. There is no trace of the original appearance.

The special rectangular iron basin is placed on the reeling machine. The stove below is burning charcoal. The temperature is higher after burning, and there is basically no smoke, so even ordinary people can afford it. As for the iron basin, can it be replaced with a ceramic basin if it is not affordable? It is not a big deal. After all, it is just a heating tool.

The iron basin is like a mandarin duck hot pot, divided into four parts by the partition inside. Most people can't understand it. Luo Chong originally wanted to explain it to them, but later he thought it was better to forget it. They might not understand it even if he explained it. Everything depends on success or failure. If it really works, then they will naturally understand it.

"Come here, put the selected cocoons into the hot water, and then stir them with chopsticks. Remember, only eight can be put in each trough. Let's get started." Luo Chong stood aside and began to direct the first silk reeling of the Han tribe.

The operator was the tribe leader Sangqiu and the translator she brought with her. The two took out a fine rattan basket, and then counted the cocoons from it and put them in the iron basin. There were eight in each trough, no more, no less.

A few days ago, Sangqiu and the others had asked Luo Chong why eight silk threads must be used as one strand, why not five or six. To be honest, Luo Chong himself didn't know. This was all told to him by the teacher who liked to raise silkworms when he was a child in school in his previous life. But what can he say now? He is also confused.

The diameter of silk is only one-tenth of human hair, which is too thin for weaving. However, Luo Chong can no longer be sure whether this is what the teacher said or the number passed down from ancient times to the present.

However, Luo Chong disagreed with this. For example, the silk clothes unearthed from Mawangdui in the past life, one of which could be folded and stuffed into a matchbox. How thin and light were such clothes?

How did the ancients weave such thin silk? If they said they used eight threads when spinning, Luo Chong would never believe it. Although it was not possible to weave cloth with one silk thread, it was still possible to make such a detailed estimate of two or three threads.

He did not continue to dwell on this issue. Under the current circumstances, it was not too late to weave the silk first. First prove that it was feasible, and then slowly improve it.

Sangqiu stirred the cocoons in the sink with chopsticks, and soon the silk began to fall off. This was because the "hammock" on the top of the cocoon used to fix it had been decomposed. After tearing off these "hammocks" one by one by hand, he continued to stir them in the sink. After a while, a few silk threads were indeed entangled on the chopsticks. This was a success.

Sangqiu and the translator were both very excited, and there were several onlookers around, including Luo Chong's mother-in-law and Xiaodie.

"This silk is so thin. If we use this to weave cloth, it will definitely be very thin. I just don't know what it will look like. Luo Chong, can I weave this?" Xiaodie asked on the side, her eyes full of expectation. She was very interested in any new things in textiles.

It's good to be interested. People with vision, strong curiosity about new things, independent thinking and independent ideas are the people who are suitable for this era. Otherwise, the Han tribe, which is all decadent, will not develop.

"Sure, you will weave the first piece of silk at that time." Luo Chong agreed very straightforwardly, and he was eager to find something for her to do.

Just when the two of them were talking, Sancho and the translator had already found four groups of thread ends, and then under Luo Chong's guidance, they threaded the four groups of four threads into the joints of the machine and finally wound them around the spindle.

Next, the pedal provided power. As the flywheel turned rapidly, the silk threads of the cocoons began to be gradually peeled off. The eight cocoons in each group gathered tightly together, and because the silk threads were pulled by the flywheel, they began to float on the water and shake constantly.

The process of the cocoon becoming smaller is almost impossible to discern with the naked eye, because the silk thread is so thin. From a cocoon that is not even as big as a chestnut, you can pull out about a kilometer of silk, which shows how thick it is.

Thanks to the development experience of the previous two generations of spinning machines, the reeling machine was successfully modified this time, and it worked normally the first time it was put on the machine, which made Luo Chong very happy. However, seeing that the silk accumulated on the spindle was so slow, Luo Chong was speechless. It was boring. There was no way. The textile industry is originally a boring and direct industry, repeating the same action every day.

Of course, it is mainly because there are too few patterns now. The textile technique is only plain weaving, and dyeing can only be done in a single color. There is no color matching, no printing and dyeing, so it looks very boring, because there are too few patterns to play.

After waiting for the first round of four bundles of silk to be spun into yarn, Luo Chong couldn't help but feel a little sleepy. Of course, this amount of stuff is definitely not enough to weave cloth, so he had to go back and forth, reeling silk non-stop until all the cocoons collected this time were reeled into silk threads, otherwise it would not be enough to toss once.

Luo Chong was a busy man, he didn't have time to keep watching here. There were so many cocoons, and there was only one machine. It was afraid that it would snow when he finished all of them, so he turned around and left. It would be better to continue carving his own coin stamp mold.

Back in the classroom, the first class in the afternoon was self-study, but now all the self-study classes were arranged by Luo Chong to carve characters. He also sat on the podium and drew the pattern of the coin in front of the magnifying glass, and then carved it. But what Luo Chong didn't expect was that not long after he sat down, Bai Qi, who was assigned by Luo Chong to be responsible for all the carving work, came to report to him.

"Chief, we have already carved all the commonly used characters in the first size of our clay movable type, all of which are 8mm in length. Should we burn a batch of them first?"

(End of this chapter)