Chapter 139 Inner City or Outer City (Please vote and subscribe)
"Silly, it hurts to pluck the wool directly from the alpaca. Of course they don't want to do that. I'll make you a pair of scissors when I come back. Cut off all their wool and use it to weave cloth for you, okay?" Luo Chong patted Xiaodie's arm and said.
"What are scissors?" Xiaodie asked puzzled.
"Well, it's a tool that fixes two knives together. It can be opened and closed. Just open the knives first, put the things you want to cut between the two knives, and then close the knives, and the things in the middle will be cut." Luo Chong stretched out two fingers to make a scissors shape and signaled to Xiaodie.
"Then make scissors for me quickly, otherwise I will have nothing to do. Those hemp grass grows so slowly." Xiaodie urged.
"You look at those hemp grass every day, of course you think it grows slowly, you can find something else to do."
"Didn't you ask me to look after those hemp grass? Otherwise, I will follow you around every day, okay?" Xiaodie asked.
"When did I walk around every day? I'm very busy. Now I have to build houses for all the tribesmen. I have to watch them every day and teach them how to work. Okay, I'll make scissors for you, okay, my dear wife, please let go."
Luo Chong was just explaining that he was not walking around, and Xiaodie lay on his back and bit his ear. Luo Chong was in pain and begged for mercy.
In this way, Luo Chong spent a whole day to mark the lines and points of the buildings in the urban area. After dinner in the evening, he had to carve the wax model of the scissors under the supervision of Xiaodie and make a clay mold using the lost wax method.
The shape of the scissors is two triangular sharp knives with one side flat and the other side protruding. There is a round hole in the middle for fixing, and a thin copper strip at the tail.
After the casting is completed, it is initially polished, and then a copper nail is inserted into the fixing hole in the middle, and the copper nail is flattened with a hammer, and the two parts of the scissors are riveted together, and then the two thin copper strips at the back are tempered and heated, and then pinched into two semicircular handles with tools, and finally the blade of the scissors is finely polished.
It took three days to make this pair of scissors for Xiaodie. After three days, Xiaodie happily took the scissors to cut the alpaca wool. Luo Chong was still behind her, advising her.
"Xiaodie, put the alpaca wool into the basket after cutting it. You must wash it before you can use it to twist the thread. Also, be careful not to hurt your hands with the scissors, and don't kill the alpaca. Their wool can grow again."
"I know, you are so nice, Mu." Xiaodie ran back and smacked Luo Chong on the face, then ran away with the scissors.
Luo Chong went to the two newly built brick kilns by himself. The two cylindrical semi-underground brick kilns have been completed, and the river digging work is about to begin.
This time, the river channel that Luo Chong plans to dig is the backwater river 400 meters away from the south side of the diversion river. The length of the entire river channel is slightly longer than the diversion river, about 750 meters long. The planned width and depth of the river channel are both 4 meters, the same as the diversion river.
As for why they dug a backwater river first instead of a moat, the reason is very simple, because Luo Chong wanted to build houses first, but if he dug a moat and built a city wall first, it would be difficult to transport the materials for building houses.
Moreover, the Han tribe still lacked manpower. If they built the city wall first, they might not be able to build so many houses this year.
The Han tribe was in great need of houses now. First, because the tribesmen were still living in thatched huts, which were afraid of fire and could not block rain, and were very simple. With such living conditions, people would easily get sick. Adults were in better health, but the women and children who were coming might not be able to bear it.
Second, the Han tribe needed a large livestock farm to expand the scale of rabbit breeding. The farm should be clean, sanitary, ventilated and dry, and large enough.
Third, the Han tribe needed a large piece of flat and open land, preferably a small square, and blue bricks should be laid on the ground to dry the rice that was about to be harvested.
Rice storage needs to be dried, otherwise if fresh rice is stored directly, it will mold and rot in a short time, and even sprout in the warehouse.
But the Han tribe has no place suitable for drying rice. They can't just pour it on the ground to dry. At least they need to lay mats. However, the Han tribe does not have the ability to make so many mats in a short time, and they can't find suitable materials. So, instead of spending time making straw mats, it is faster to lay bricks directly.
Fourth, it is to expand the scale of rice fields as soon as possible to prepare for the second season of rice to be planted.
The growth cycle of rice, from sowing to harvesting, takes about 100 to 110 days, which is just over three months.
According to the lunar calendar of the rat witch, the spring and autumn seasons here are three months, the hot summer and the cold winter are four months, and there are 14 months of thirty days in a year.
In other words, there are ten months suitable for rice growth. It is no problem to plant two crops of rice every year. Even after the tribesmen become proficient in planting and master the seasonal laws of the whole year, it is possible to achieve three crops of rice a year. Of course, it is impossible now.
After the first season of rice is harvested, the Han tribe will have enough seeds to expand the scale of planting so that they can harvest a lot of rice before autumn.
Considering the above, Luo Chong decided to develop the inner city first, and then free up his hands to build the city wall.
The soil excavated from the backwater river can be used to burn bricks and tiles to build houses, and ditches can be dug from both sides of the backwater river to irrigate rice fields, so as not to affect the second season of rice this year.
The day after the two brick kilns were built, the excavation of the backwater river began. The experienced Han tribe elders skillfully used sweet tree roots to lure Rourou and Huishan over, put on a two-meter-wide giant plow, and began to loosen the land in the designated river according to the marks drawn by Luo Chong.
Then a small ditch was dug from the riverside to lead the river water into the loosened river channel, so that the loose soil and water would become muddy land, and then a group of cattle and Rourou Huishan were led to trample the mud in the river channel into mature mud, and then the mature mud could be pressed into brick embryos, and after the brick embryos were dried, they could be fired in the kiln.
This batch of bricks used for building houses has three specifications. One is a small brick with a thickness of 5 cm, a width of 12 cm, and a length of 24 cm, which is specially used for building walls.
There is also a kind of large square brick that is 5 cm thick, 30 cm wide and 60 cm long. This kind of brick is specially used for paving the ground. It is mainly used for paving the small square in the city center and several main roads.
The other kind is the square floor tile that is 3 cm thick and 40 cm long. It is mainly used for paving indoor floors.
Luo Chong thought carefully about whether to lay bricks indoors. He felt that it was still necessary. The main consideration was to lay bricks in the house in the future.
The purpose of laying bricks is to harden the ground. Otherwise, if you get a four-legged table, the ground is not flat. Can you still write on the table?
In addition, if Luo Chong wants to promote looms in the Han tribe in the future, the ground in the tribesmen’s house is not flat, and the children can make mud in the house after peeing. Can the looms be placed there ?
Therefore, laying bricks indoors and hardening the ground are necessary.
In addition to these three types of bricks, there are two types of tiles. Luo Chong designed a flat S-shaped wave tile himself. It is 20 cm wide and 35 cm long. It is very large and simple. When laying, just put the S-shaped side down on the upturned side of the previous tile and press it up one by one.
The last one is a semi-circular long strip of tile used on the ridge. It is mainly used to deal with the joints of the two tiles on the ridge. Only a few of these long strips are used in a house. The number of tiles produced is very small. At present, it is mainly made of fired bricks.
(End of this chapter)
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