Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 254 The First Time the People of the Northern Song Dynasty Pouring Concrete! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

The wind turbine was installed in a location with relatively high elevation.

A team of workers began digging a pit with shovels. Zhao Ji led dozens of strong laborers to Li Qingzhao's house and transported the micro-generator and purchased weights to the military equipment storage using several oxcarts.

To prevent any accidents, Li Qingzhao also rode along on a pink electric scooter, bringing several peace charms with her.
"The writing on the amulet will fade, and when it loses all color, it means it has lost its magic power and you will need to ask the gods for protection again."

Emperor Huizong (Zhao Ji) took them and distributed them to several workshops with a higher risk factor.

Gunpowder workshops were the first to be affected, followed by smelting and forging workshops, while the remaining departments, such as armor workshops, were relatively safer.

After distributing the peace tokens, Zhao Ji and the Director of the Military Equipment Bureau began to circle around the electronic scale.

The two compared the scales of the Ordnance Bureau and found that the error between the scales was quite large, especially when measured with standard weights, almost every scale was different.

The same applies to rulers. When the iron and cloth rulers of the Song Dynasty were compared with the standard ruler, the errors became immediately apparent.

These errors are enough to ruin the manufacturing process of standard parts.

The Imperial Ordnance Bureau ordered the Ordnance Assistant to calibrate all rulers and scales, standardizing them to gram-kilogram units, and changing the rulers to centimeter-decimeter-meter standards.

With this standard, the size of armor plates, the size of weapons, and the specifications of arrowheads can be standardized for production.

In addition to weight and length, volume should also be standardized to reduce losses and increase production capacity.

Before the pit was even dug, Zhao Ji, having nothing better to do, used a 100-meter ruler to measure the area of ​​the Military Equipment Bureau and discovered that it was smaller than the area stipulated by the imperial court.

Upon learning that the residence of a court official was nearby, Zhao Ji addressed the Director of the Arsenal:

"Tomorrow I will submit a memorial to the emperor impeaching him... If the number of courtyards in the Armory can be reduced, then the amount of fertile land outside the city is even less. If there is an opportunity in the future, I will definitely remeasure the farmland to avoid being confused and unable to find the accurate figures."

After saying that, he turned to Li Qingzhao and asked:

"May I ask, Fairy Osmanthus, do you have similar troubles with your farmland, Immortal Master?"

Li Qingzhao said:
“They have satellite positioning over there, and the number of fields is very accurate. Not to mention faking it, even if you burn some straw in the field, it can be detected from the sky. In less than an hour, government officials will drive over to check.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ji and the Director of the Military Equipment Bureau exchanged bewildered glances, completely unable to imagine what kind of magical object a satellite could be, one that was even more powerful than the legendary clairvoyant.

If the Song Dynasty possessed this item, wouldn't it have been able to keep track of the movements of the Western Xia and Liao armies?

Before long, the pit was dug. Zhao Ji jumped in, measured the width and depth with a tape measure, and then put the base of the wind turbine in to test it. After confirming that there were no problems, he began to prepare the concrete.

Sand and gravel were readily available, and two tons of cement could be used freely. Unfortunately, there was no mixer, so the operation had to be carried out according to the video of Li Qingzhao manually mixing concrete that she had saved.

The total height of the micro wind turbine is only about six meters, so the requirements for the concrete are not high; a standard 235 ratio is sufficient.

After calculating the usage, Junqi Cheng felt that one ton of cement would be enough to make enough concrete for pouring the base. He didn't know what to do with the remaining ton of cement.

The Military Equipment Bureau asked:

"If there is any cement left over, can it be used to pave the ground of the Ordnance Factory?"

Zhao Ji said:

"Let my royal brother make the arrangements. We'll send a bag to Ruzhou first, so the kilns there can try firing cement... We can't always rely on the immortal's gifts; we have to figure out how to fire it ourselves. If we can make it, we'll repair the road first, so we won't have to worry about getting muddy feet when it rains."

Li Qingzhao thought this guy was really not cut out to be an emperor; faced with such excellent building materials, all he could think of was building roads.

"It should be sent to the front lines. This substance solidifies quickly and can build a city within a few days, which will greatly benefit the morale of our troops."

Zhao Ji then belatedly realized what was happening:
"Yes, yes, build the city first. I heard that the Western Xia army is building fortifications to confront us on the northwest front. If we have cement, it will surely terrify the Western Xia people and reduce their morale."

The military equipment inspector-general must say:

"In the past, Cao Mengde built a wall by taking advantage of the north wind, and it was completed in one night. Ma Mengqi was terrified. If our Great Song Dynasty could master this method, the world could be at peace!"

The concrete was mixed in no time.

Emperor Huizong placed the base into the dug pit, and then had the workers fill wooden buckets with concrete and pour it into the pit of the generator pile foundation. To prevent twisting, a level was used for correction.

After the pouring was completed, there was still a little concrete left. Zhao Ji looked around and had it spread on the floor of the forging workshop so that the workers swinging the sledgehammer wouldn't slip.

The micro-wind generator will take a few days to install, but the solar panels can be installed now.

Zhou Yi arranged for Li Qingzhao to have a 3,000-watt photovoltaic power generation panel, plus a 40-kilowatt energy storage power source, enough to power some conventional electrical appliances and even a small welding machine. Li Qingzhao said:
"Once Ruzhou can calcine cement, I will ask the Immortal Master to buy a few more wind turbines. At that time, we can use electrically driven forging and stamping equipment."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Huizong (Zhao Ji) decided to put the matter of calcining cement on the agenda.

At noon, Li Qingzhao rode her electric scooter away from the Military Equipment Bureau. She first went to the construction site of Yiyuan Palace, and then went to a restaurant where she enjoyed a delicious meal of steamed buns.

Zhao Ji then rode to a jewelry merchant's house, wrote calligraphy and paintings for the wealthy merchant, and received a large sum of money in return.

These rewards were quickly sent to the Ordnance Bureau and became funds for the research and development of new weapons and technologies.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xu complained to his younger brother about disregarding the dignity of the imperial family. He then ordered the dismissal of some eunuchs and the merging of all the inner court workshops into the outer court workshops. All managers were required to come to the capital to meet the emperor before they could take office.

The Inner Court Workshops were military equipment workshops specially set up by the Song Dynasty emperors to bypass the officials. They were staffed by eunuchs who were more trusted by the emperor, and there was a great deal of conflict with the Outer Court's Military Equipment Bureau, with each side even fighting against the other.

Now that we have the token bestowed by the gods, we don't need to go through all this trouble anymore. We can merge all the weapon workshops into one department, and then promote the official in charge of the weaponry bureau. Wouldn't that inspire everyone's enthusiasm for work?

Of course, this approach works in a world with gods, but without gods, a dual-track system is better, as the two sides can compete against each other, which is conducive to control.

A monopoly will only breed boundless corruption.

Meanwhile, in the world of Emperor Yuan of the Western Han Dynasty, a military camp outside the city was brightly decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers. All the unmarried soldiers under Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou had changed into new clothes to attend today's matchmaking event.

Chen Tang came over yesterday to set up the venue, and today he came again with his family to support the event.

A long table was set up in the small training ground under the shade of the trees. On the table were melon seeds, candies, snacks and a finely cut watermelon. To prevent anyone from getting drunk and causing trouble, the alcohol was replaced with chilled fruit juice.

Those homeless women, each dressed beautifully, Gan Yanshou, in his capacity as General Wei, said:
"After you get married, the court will give each of you twenty mu of permanent land... We thank Shi Xian, Kuang Heng, and Fan Yanshou for adding tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land to the court. These farmlands will be distributed in the future based on military merits. How much you get depends on your abilities."

After Shi Xian's death, Liu Shi lost his leader for a time. In addition, Chen Tang had a deity as his backer, so Liu Shi believed whatever Chen Tang said, and they got along very well.

The confiscated farmland and seized property were all sealed up and will be gradually distributed to the soldiers as rewards.

Of course, saying "slowly" is not accurate, because Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou will soon have their next move... While Liu Shi is obedient during this period, we need to put some plans on the agenda.

The two sets of divine crossbows have been delivered to the Shaofu (a government office), and the craftsmen there have said they will study them diligently... To prevent the information from being leaked to the alien races, Chen Tang also took the token and made each craftsman and the Shaofu himself swear an oath.

Within half an hour of the matchmaking event starting, twenty couples had already found common ground and started dating.

Chen Tang, with a lollipop dangling from his mouth, asked Gan Yanshou:
"If I leave with my troops, won't you, General Wei, be sidelined by Wang Feng?"

Gan Yanshou laughed and said:
"Don't worry, I've already started training the Northern Army. By weeding out some of the most heinous criminals, I can win the soldiers' trust... Aren't you taking the Imperial Guards away directly? Isn't that risky?"

"I am protected by divine lightning, I am fine!"

Chen Tang planned to lead all the Imperial Guards out of Xiaoguan Pass once the roads outside the city were repaired, to sweep away the foreign bandits entrenched there, and to survey the location for establishing a county town.

Once they leave Xiaoguan, he will give the Imperial Guards three days' worth of rations and then have them assemble in half a month.

If you want to survive, you have to find the bandits' hideouts; otherwise, you'll just starve to death.

This extreme method can quickly boost morale and combat effectiveness, but its drawback is that it can easily cause a large number of casualties.

Chen Tang felt that the Southern Xiongnu should have received news of Zhizhi Chanyu's death soon. They needed to build up their fighting strength before Huhanye arrived in Chang'an so that they could drive the Southern Xiongnu out of the Shuofang area and back to the desert.

The Hetao region has been the territory of the Han Dynasty since ancient times. How could we allow the Xiongnu to defile it?

After the matchmaking event ended, all the women found partners. Chen Tang said some encouraging words and planned to hold a group wedding in a few days to broaden the horizons of the country bumpkins in Chang'an and get them to contribute some money as a wedding gift.

Gan Yanshou hesitated:
"Isn't it going too far to demand compensation for this?"

Chen Tang waved his hand:
"Even if that didn't happen, they would still have to pay. During Emperor Xiaowu's reign, the nobility were often bled dry. Many people are glad that that era is finally over... but you could say they were glad too soon!"

Gan Yanshou finally realized that Chen Tang was the kind of person who couldn't stand not causing trouble.

From the Western Regions to Chang'an, he racked his brains for all sorts of wicked ideas every day... Luckily, he was one of their own, otherwise he would have suffered terribly!
While the two were planning a scam, Zhou Yi waited a long time for the deliveryman's call inside Hunyuan Palace, thinking that Uncle Ming had forgotten to ship the goods. Unexpectedly, Uncle Ming drove a van directly to Hunyuan Palace:

"Master Yi, these are all my stock. I brought them all. Use whatever you need, just give me the cost price..."

His sudden politeness alerted Zhou Yi to something amiss:
"What, is Song Jingang causing you trouble again?"

(End of this chapter)