Chapter 141 Water Source in the City (Please vote and subscribe)
After digging the foundation for two consecutive days, Luo Chong suddenly discovered a serious problem: there was a lack of water on the construction site.
Building a house requires a lot of water. Bricks need to be soaked in water, and mud also needs water. But there is no water source in the city now. Water can only be drawn from the nearest water diversion river with a cart and a bucket. Although the distance is not far, it is also very troublesome because the amount of water required is too large.
In addition, for the future residents' domestic water use, it is impossible to run to the moat to draw water every day. First, the water in the moat is connected to the drainage system, and the river water may not be clean. Second, if the city is besieged by the enemy, the water source in the city will be cut off. This is a fatal problem, so Luo Chong plans to dig a well in the city.
Wells have existed since ancient times, and the specific time of their appearance cannot be verified. Moreover, well water is a very high-quality drinking water source, and it has many advantages compared to river water.
Let's start with the most obvious point. That is, river water will freeze in winter, but well water will not, because the water level of well water is deep underground and the temperature will not drop below zero. This alone is enough for Luo Chong to decide to dig a well.
In the past, the Han tribe could only use pottery pots to boil snow water to drink, or break the ice to get water in winter. Do they have to boil snow water to drink in the future? Of course not.
Moreover, compared with river water, well water is cleaner. The river water flows in the open air, and various debris often falls into it. There are also various fish living in it. Luo Chong even often bathes in the river.
But well water is different. Well water is groundwater that seeps up from underground after layers of filtration. No one will go down and waste it randomly, and well water is warm in winter and cool in summer. Since there are so many benefits, Luo Chong would be a fool if he didn't dig.
He selected two people from the construction team to dig a well with him, and the others continued to lay the foundation.
The location of the well was determined by Luo Chong at the entrance of the alley in the residential area. Of course, it was not directly facing the entrance of the alley, but on the side of the main road.
The square city with a side length of 400 meters is divided into 9 square urban areas by four "well" shaped main roads. One urban area is a square with a side length of 110 meters.
According to the size of a house of 10 meters long and wide, 11 households can be built in one row. There is a 5-meter wide alley between every two rows. A residential area can build 9 rows of houses, and four alleys, 90 meters of houses plus 20 meters wide alleys, exactly 110 meters, so there are a total of 99 households in such a residential area.
One family in a house, according to the calculation of one man and two women, plus seven or eight children, one household can live in ten to eleven people, and a residential area with 99 households can accommodate 1,000 people.
A well is dug at both ends of these four alleys, and there are 8 wells in a residential area. On average, one well is used for about 12 households, so that the living water of 1,000 people in the entire residential area can be supplied.
After choosing a good location for the well, Luo Chong used a rope as a compass to draw a circle with a diameter of 1.2 meters on the ground, and then began to dig down.
Luo Chong was digging alone at the bottom, while two people were helping him pour the soil with a basket and learning how to dig. There was no special technique. As long as the digging was round and straight, it would be fine. Don't dig off the track, or it would be interesting.
After digging to a depth of two meters, Luo Chong climbed up with a rope and started to change people. Another person went down to continue digging.
In order to keep the well vertical, Luo Chong tied a stone with a rope to make a plumb bob, and lowered the plumb bob from the center of the well mouth. The people below marked the center point with the plumb bob, and then continued to dig around this center point.
After another person was replaced, they dug to a depth of about four meters. At this time, the soil was already very wet.
They dug down another meter. When they reached a depth of five meters, there was already ankle-deep water at the bottom of the well. At this time, Luo Chong went down again to continue digging, soaking in the water and digging another meter deep. When they reached a depth of six meters, the water in the well was more than one meter deep, reaching Luo Chong's waist. In this way, the well was dug.
However, the newly dug well is still full of yellow mud. After that, a layer of bricks must be laid on the well wall to prevent the well wall from being frequently washed away by water and causing landslides. A circle of bricks must also be laid on the ground to prevent children from accidentally falling into the well.
It takes three people a whole morning to dig a well in this way. Although the water in it is still very turbid, it is no problem to use it to build a house with mud. After pumping water several times and settling for a few days, the well water will become clearer and clearer.
In ancient times, people dug wells and had the habit of putting turtles in the wells. First, because turtles are auspicious animals, people put turtles to pray that the spring of this well will never dry up; second, they use turtles to test the water. In ancient times, there were no water quality testing agencies. Whether the dug well water can be drunk depends on whether the turtle in the well can survive. If the turtle is poisoned to death, it is better to fill the well as soon as possible.
The two men had already learned how to dig wells, so Luo Chong didn't want to hang out with them. He let them continue digging wells, and Luo Chong went to find Dashu and arranged an important job for him, which was to go to Babaoshan to mine.
Building requires a gelling agent, that is, cement, but making cement is too troublesome. Luo Chong plans to use lime directly. After lime is calcined at low temperature, it will dissolve into powder when added with water. The lime powder is mixed with river sand into mud, and the gelling agent made is not much worse than cement. This kind of building material was widely used as early as ancient Egypt and ancient Rome.
There are lime mines in Babaoshan, and there are a lot of them, but they need to be mined.
The last time Luo Chong took people to mine, he brought back some, but not much. Last time, he mainly brought copper ore. This time, he asked Dashu to go specifically to collect lime.
"Big Tree, this time when you go mining, I will assign you 20 people, 4 horned deer, 6 oxen, a bullock cart and a boat.
When you go, you must row the boat over to the edge of the Dark Forest, hide the boat, and leave four people to guard it. These four people should not be idle, but should catch some live rabbits nearby and bring them back for breeding.
Then the rest of you will all ride on deer and bullock carts. Of the 6 oxen assigned to you, two will be used to pull the cart, and the remaining four will be used for you to build the road. Tomorrow, you will take two of the pottery rollers that the lame man just made.
You are more familiar with the Dark Forest. When you get there, you must find a road that is wide enough for the bullock cart to pass, and then use the pottery roller to compact the road. Try to shorten the two-day walk to Babaoshan to one-day oxcart journey, so that you can make a trip in one day when you are in a hurry, so as to avoid encountering cannibals at night.
This is lime. You only need to collect this kind this time. We need a lot of lime to build a house. When you have dug enough lime for a cart, send four people to transport it back by wooden boat, and the others will go back to continue mining by oxcart.
When the road is repaired, you can also send people to send the extra cattle and pottery mills.
The four-horned deer arranged for you are for you to keep in touch. If you encounter an emergency, send someone riding the deer back to report the news. Do you understand? "Luo Chong explained the precautions of this operation to Dashu.
"Yes, chief, I understand. First find a road to repair it, and the others will transport it and catch rabbits, and the rest of the people will keep digging limestone." Dashu repeated the key points again to confirm.
"Yes, that's it. You can take the people away tomorrow. Let's make preparations today." Luo Chong patted Dashu on the shoulder and said.
"I understand, chief."
(End of this chapter)
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