The 62-mile-long river embankment, plus the lattice embankments every one mile, required an extremely terrifying amount of stone every day.

Fortunately, Xishan is mainly limestone, which is easy to mine. A large amount of stone can be obtained by traditional fire and water blasting methods.

In order to ensure the supply of stone, the county sent another 10,000 able-bodied men to Xishan to help quarry stone together with the seven or eight thousand refugees hired by the Jiangnan Company.

Seventeen to eighteen thousand men worked from dawn to dusk in a day and were able to mine nearly two hundred thousand stones of stone, enough to supply the Kunshan dike repair work.

How to transport so many stones to the levee became a bottleneck restricting the progress of the project.

The dozens of large ships supported by the county, Wu Ji, Liu Yuanwai and others were far from enough.

Fortunately, Kunshan is a water town, and almost half of the families have boats, so we can rely on numbers to make up the numbers.

As soon as the county issued a notice to recruit civilian ships to transport stones, the people signed up enthusiastically, and more than 6,000 ships applied in one day.

Xiong Dianshi, who was in charge of organizing the transportation, conducted another screening and eliminated ships with a capacity of less than one material, and finally only requisitioned half of the ships.

"Liao" is the unit used in this dynasty to measure the volume of ships, which is approximately equal to the displacement of 666 kilograms.

Small boats below the first grade are basically sampans, which can't carry many stones and are just a waste of manpower. It's better to concentrate the manpower and operate a larger boat for economy.

The men all did the heavy work, so tasks like rowing the boats and transporting stones had to be left to the women, children and the elderly.

Although the outbound trip was empty and the return trip was downstream, which did not require much effort, the round trip of nearly 300 miles by water took almost two days, which was also an arduous journey.

Xiong Dianshi divided the 3,000 large and small ships into two shifts, one on odd days and one on even days. This reduced the pressure of loading and unloading on Xishan and the dike, eased congestion on the river, and increased efficiency.

The boat of Li Hua's family was Liang's dowry, and its size was just right.

She didn't want others to operate her boat, so she took Miwa with her.

~~

As the sun rises, thousands of golden rays of light shine on the Lou River.

The Lou River starts from Lou Gate in Suzhou City, flows straight eastward through Kunshan, and flows into the sea at Taicang.

Since the Song Dynasty, this canal connecting Suzhou's two richest cities has been bustling with boats and ships racing.

Yushan Town, which is adjacent to the canal, also prospered because of the river and became the most prosperous and wealthy place in Kunshan. Even the county seat was moved from the banks of the Wusong River.

Going from the county seat to Suzhou or even to Taihu Lake via Loujiang River saves half the time than taking Wusong River.

Not only did it save fifty miles in travel, but also because the water level of the Lou River was slow and the water level of the Wusong River was fast, sailing upstream on the Lou River was much faster.

Therefore, the fleet transporting stones from Kunshan naturally had to go through Loujiang River, enter Taihu Lake and go to Xishan. On the return trip, they would go down the Wusong River and reach the levee.

This circular route was repeated over and over again, transporting stones from Xishan back to Kunshan in a steady stream.

Mi Wa and his mother rowed the boat alternately, and managed to keep up with the team. They arrived in Suzhou at noon, and then they gritted their teeth and continued to row along the Xitang River into Taihu Lake.

The boy was so tired that he lay at the stern and didn't want to move.

"Let's take a break and eat something." Liang took the oars and then went downstream all the way to Xishan, without having to row the boat anymore.

Miwa's throat was burning. He turned over and lay on the deck, leaning forward to scoop up a handful of lake water to drink.

But he was stopped by his mother.

"You forgot again. You are not allowed to drink raw water!" Liang handed the bamboo tube to her son, which was filled with boiled water that she had boiled in the morning.

"Oh." Miwa responded, muttering in his heart how could there be bugs in such clean lake water.

But he was sensible and didn't make his mother angry. He just sat in the cabin, drinking boiled water and eating the lotus leaf rice made in the morning.

The day before the transport team set out, the people going out on the ship had to go to the dock to get a red-headed sign and two days' worth of food. Liang made the meal package so that it would be easier to bring the food.

The mother and daughter brought four steamed rice dumplings in total. Miwa ate two of them in one go, licked his lips with satisfaction, and looked away from the remaining two steamed rice dumplings.

"Mom, you eat and I'll row the boat."

Liang then handed the oar to her son and sat on the deck, rubbing her arms as she watched the long fleet of boats spread out on Lake Tai like a string of beads.

This gave her an unprecedented sense of participation, and she truly felt that she was contributing to the cause of the entire county.

"Miwa, maybe next year, we won't have to flee."

"Mom, the dike we are building now can only cover the north of Kunming." Mi Wa said with a smile.

"Master, you can repair the north dike in a month, so how can you ignore us in the south?" Liang said confidently, "I heard from Aunt Zhou the other day that her nephew's cousin's brother-in-law is working in the county. He secretly told her that the county has decided on three phases of the project, and the next phase is to solve our Kunnan problem."

"That's great!" Miwa danced with joy, "Then I can carry stones every day."

"Hold steady." The boat was not big and kept shaking, causing the water in Liang's hands to spill out.

"Hi, hi." Miwa quickly steadied the oars, scratched his head and laughed, "I'm so happy. I don't want to be a beggar. It's embarrassing."

"You." Liang stood up with a feigned anger, handed the remaining rice to her son and said, "Mom is full, you eat it."

"Hmm." Miwa was a child after all, so he started eating happily.

~~

As they were talking, they arrived at Xishan Island.

The mother and daughter saw three tall chimneys standing in the northeast corner of Xishan Island, all emitting thick smoke.

They were no longer surprised by this, so Liang quickly rowed the boat and bypassed the area far away to avoid any trouble from the patrol team on the lake.

"Hey, there are so many patrol boats today."

But people are like this, the more you guard against them, the more curious they become. Miwa stood on tiptoe and stretched her neck to look over.

"The island is now surrounded by a wall, and you can even see houses being built inside."

"What are you looking at?" Liang rowed faster. "Did you forget what the captain said? Don't get too close. Don't ask around."

"But I heard that cement comes from there..." Mi Wa stared at the chimney that was gradually moving away without blinking until the mountains blocked his view.

The fleet sailed twenty miles southwest along Xishan Island and arrived at the Shigongshan Quarry at the southern end of the island.

At this time, the sun had been blocked by the mountain, and under the vast shadow, the balls of fire were particularly dazzling.

There were countless naked-chested laborers, building piles of firewood and burning stones.

This is a method of mountain excavation that has been passed down from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the present day, and it utilizes the principle of thermal expansion and contraction of rocks.

If you quickly pour water on the rock after burning it, it will become brittle and crackable, and it will even become as easy to cut as tofu. This is especially true for limestone.

This method sounds simple, but it actually requires a lot of skills. Experienced stonecutters must first observe the texture and joints of the rocks, just like a butcher cutting an ox, and select the most vulnerable parts. Then they use stones to build a small stove, commonly known as a "fire dragon stove", and guide the flames directly to the focal point of the stone wall.

The fire enters the rock, which gradually cracks and finally makes a popping sound, followed by the falling of rock chips. Miners can judge the degree of fire based on this.

When the fire is ready, people are ordered to pour cold water on it. The hot rocks suddenly contract when they are cooled, and cracks quickly appear. Miners can then use chisels, hammers, shovels and other tools to hammer along the cracks in the rocks, easily breaking up the huge rocks. Then they use carts to pull them to the dock at the foot of the mountain and load them onto ships for transportation.

Mi Wa and his mother arrived a little late, as the fleet waiting to load cargo had sent out a captain, so they could only stay in Xishan for one night.

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