Zhao Hao didn't know that his old enemy had rushed all the way from Songjiang to Suzhou just to deal with him.

He was pulling Jiang Xueying and Hua Bozhen to excitedly check the results of the wall built the day before.

I saw that the wall was completely glued together, and the gray gaps between the bricks looked uneven, with white frost appearing intermittently.

Zhao Hao took the dagger from Gao Wu and slashed it across the crack in the brick. Amid the harsh sound of metal friction, only a shallow scratch was left.

Then he walked to the wall that was previously glued together with cement, and slashed at the brick seam. With a swish, the dagger penetrated two full fingers, and also brought down a large piece of solidified cement.

Hua Bozhen couldn't help but widen his eyes. These were two completely different concepts.

He hurried forward and pressed hard with his fingers on the new mortar that had solidified in the cracks in the wall. It was surprisingly as solid as stone. No wonder the sharp dagger could not do anything to it.

Hua Bozhen pushed the wall hard again, but it didn't move at all.

Then he kicked hard with his feet and pushed hard with his shoulders, but the wall did not move.

Zhao Hao quickly grabbed Brother Hua who was trying to compete with him. He was over 40 years old, so why didn’t he take care of himself?

In order to satisfy Hua Bozheng's obsession, Zhao Hao asked Gao Wu to find a hammer, and swung it a few times before he smashed a big hole in the solid brick wall.

However, Gao Wu achieved the same effect with just one hammer when using cement mortar to bond the wall together... This is why the city wall has to be thick enough.

"The intensity needs to be improved." Even so, Zhao Hao was still a little dissatisfied.

"The time is still too short." Yu Ben said softly: "Sir, Jiangnan is too humid. I'm afraid we have to wait three days to achieve the same effect as in Beijing."

When Hua Bozheng heard this, he thought to himself that people had been studying this thing for a long time.

"It's not just a matter of time." Zhao Hao frowned and said, "We need to adjust the formula. Try adding some iron powder next time."

"Yes, sir." Yu Benmang responded in a deep voice.

"The glutinous rice mortar is just like this, and you still think it's not strong enough?" After Yu Ben left, Hua Bozhen couldn't help but exclaimed: "If it is stronger, then you won't be able to tear down the houses you build in the future."

"Hahaha, that's true." Zhao Hao laughed and said, "This kind of cement is indeed enough for building a house. But I need to strengthen it a little more if I want to use it to build a dam."

"This thing is called cement?" Hua Bozhen's eyes lit up and he said, "'Smoke opens the green fan with a cool breeze in the morning, cement is dressed in red with white dew in autumn'. What an elegant name."

Zhao Hao was sweating when he heard this. It turned out that the literati were really good at making up stories. This was the first time he heard of such an elegant name for cement.

"Brother, can cement really replace glutinous rice mortar?" Jiang Xueying, who had been very quiet, asked softly.

She knew that there are currently two types of mortar used to bond bricks and stones, the commonly used cement mortar and the high-performance glutinous rice mortar.

But the former has limited strength, and the latter is too expensive...

Two years ago, a new section of Suzhou city wall was built, which was originally built with glutinous rice mortar. However, after only two miles of construction, a full 100,000 kilograms of glutinous rice were consumed.

Even the wealthy Suzhou Prefecture could not afford it and had to change back to cement mortar.

Therefore, even the wealthy Mr. Zhao could not afford to use glutinous rice mortar to repair the dike.

Besides, there is not so much glutinous rice available.

"It can completely replace glutinous rice mortar, and as the formula is improved, its performance will surpass it." Zhao Hao said confidently: "And it can harden in water, which is something that glutinous rice mortar cannot compare to."

"Then doesn't it mean that we can build any length of dam we want?" Jiang Xueying's beautiful eyes also shone with excitement.

"Of course." Zhao Hao nodded proudly: "With this thing, I can build a levee for the entire Kunshan!"

~~

Zhao Hao's confidence comes from this Xishan Island.

This magical island is rich in high-purity limestone for cement, and also contains a considerable amount of gypsum - these two together with clay make up the three main ingredients for making cement.

But Zhao Hao did not use clay, but kaolin, which is abundant on the island. Because the purpose of calcining clay is to obtain kaolin. So this step can be skipped directly, which can greatly save time.

There are also enough open-pit coal mines on the island - using coal instead of wood as the main fuel for calcining cement can shorten the calcination time from seven days to two days.

Even another important ingredient of cement - iron powder or iron slag - is not lacking. However, Mr. Zhao has not yet found the location of pyrite...

It’s amazing that you can produce high-quality cement without leaving the island!

Mr. Zhao wanted to change the name of Xishan Island to "Cement Island". Fortunately, he was also a scholar and finally resisted the urge to do so.

He lowered his voice and said to the two of them, "Now you two know what our Jiangnan Company should do next, right?"

"Repair the dike! Repair the dike! Repair the dike!" Hua Bozhen excitedly repeated the important matter three times.

Jiang Xueying could hardly suppress her excitement and said, "If we can easily build an indestructible levee, the entire Jiangnan region will be changed!"

"That's right." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile and said, "This humble cement was born to change the shape of the world!"

"Good brother, you must let me do this job!" Hua Bozhen grabbed Zhao Hao's arm tightly, almost begging.

"As long as Big Brother can get away, the company would certainly be more than happy to help." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile.

"No problem, I'll make the arrangements." Hua Bozhen was overjoyed to get Zhao Hao's approval. He approached the brick wall with a big hole, stroked the rough cement in the cracks, and said happily, "Brother, my name in history depends on this cement!"

Zhao Hao couldn't help but look at him with admiration. He didn't expect that the eldest brother of the Hua family had such a sharp vision and could foresee the greatness of this invention at once.

"It's too far to leave a name in history, let's just make some money for now." Zhao Hao said to Jiang Xueying with a smile: "Sister, I'm sure you have figured out what to do."

"With the cement invented by my brother, I have thought of more than a dozen ways to make money." Jiang Xueying smiled and said, "But we don't have to worry about other things for now. However, I think we should start right away and purchase some land that will be completely changed by the cement dam in advance."

As she spoke, she whispered, "This is based on what my brother did at Xishan Company."

"Hahaha, I thought so too." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile, then he stopped smiling and said, "But I beg you two to forgive me for one thing. Jiangnan Company only rents the land in Kunshan, not buys it."

"This is as it should be. Your father is in charge of Kunshan, and it would not look good if he sold the land to our company." Hua Bozheng said with an understanding smile.

"Of course I'll follow your instructions." Jiang Xueying was no exception. "What about other counties?"

"No restrictions." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "I see there is a large area of ​​mudflats east of the Huangpu River. We might as well focus on that section first and then talk about other places."

"Okay, brother, if you don't mind, leave this matter to me." Jiang Xueying volunteered.

"That's great!" Zhao Hao was overjoyed. "I'm unfamiliar with the place and I'm worried about who will take care of this matter."

"I will definitely live up to the mission." Jiang Xueying bowed with an elegant manner.

ps. The fifth update is here. Thanks to the new leader 'Miao Fan'. Please give me a monthly ticket~~~