Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 139 Expansion
"Hey ho hey ah!"

Bang, bang, bang,

The orderly chanting of the workers echoed as the rammed earth hammers were raised and then slammed down.

Dozens of people work in a team, pulling on ropes and using the momentum to throw the heavy logs high into the air, then pulling the ropes tightly to bring them down heavily.

With each slam, the loose ground would sink down and become firmer.

Under Zhang Xian's leadership, Luqi established numerous new departments and industries.

The workers ramming the earth here are from the construction workshop.

The workshop owner was also an acquaintance, Xu Mao, who had successively built embankments in Taoyuan and was in charge of the steel frying furnace at the water forging factory in Lüchi.

He is now also in charge of undertaking various construction projects in Lüchi County.

They are currently laying the foundation for the area where the city wall of Lüqi is being expanded outwards.

From the more than 20,000 people when Zhang Xian arrived in Lüchi, to the more than 10,000 hidden households and servants released after the confiscation of the He and Xu families' property, Lüchi County now widely accepts refugees, including residents from surrounding counties.

The number of registered residents in the county has reached nearly 40,000 to 50,000.

With the increase in population, the former Lüqi County seems small.

Therefore, Zhang Xian intended to expand the city and build new city walls.

The more than a thousand captives from the grasslands and prisoners from the jails captured from Baihe Valley now had a place to go. After Zhang Xian returned to Luchi, he arranged for them to be engaged in various heavy physical labors.

Their current job is to dig the foundation. It's not very wide, only two meters wide, but about four meters deep. After the foundation is dug, other workers from the construction workshop will come over to compact it.

Of course, this refers to the thickness of the exterior wall.

During the discussions between Han Ji and Zhang Xian, it was decided that the city wall of Lüqi County would be 10 meters thick at the base, 8 meters thick at the top, and 12 meters high. The method for thickening the city wall was to use a sandwiching method.

It consists of two sections of wall, one inside and one outside, with a section of rammed earth wall sandwiched in between.

To ensure stability, the wall surface is sloped, making it narrower at the top and wider at the bottom.

The material used to build the inner and outer city walls was naturally cement. Zhang Xian experimented with cement mixed with pebbles and river sand to make simple concrete, and found that this simple concrete had sufficient strength.

The design specifies that the concrete thickness of the inner and outer walls is two meters each, with a rammed earth wall of six to four meters in between.

Moreover, because there was no corresponding pouring equipment, all the inner and outer walls were constructed in stages, building upwards in two-meter increments, which made it much easier to compact the mud walls in the middle.

The soil excavated from the foundation can be piled up directly on the inside, and once the first two-meter-high city wall is completed, it can be directly compacted.

For a building of this height, a structural framework is essential. Using steel bars would be too extravagant, and Zhang Xian is currently unable to build one. Therefore, during the pouring process, long bamboo frames and bamboo strips can also serve as stirrups to replace steel bars and enhance the strength of the simple concrete wall.

The urban area that Zhang Xian wants to expand this time is not small.

The total length of the newly built city wall was set at fifteen li, including the barbican and the rampart.

This length is almost as long as the city wall of Jinyang, the seat of the prefecture. Adding the original four or five li of city wall in Lüchi, the total length of the city wall in Lüchi County will reach twenty li.

This is a truly large city!

A population of 50,000 would certainly not require such a large area, and moreover, the population density of the county seat usually only accounts for about 10% of the total population of the county.

The main reason he built such a large structure was because he was concerned about the population of Changshan.

It's already the end of June in 183 years.

In about ten months, the clarion call for a massive uprising that will affect most of the thirteen provinces of the Han Dynasty will be sounded.

Changshan County, which is adjacent to Julu County, will inevitably be the first place to be hit by the most intense battles.

Zhang Xian did not want to participate in this feast of bureaucrats and powerful figures, but he wanted to protect and shelter the common people who were struggling to survive in this struggle.

Perhaps, it could also shelter the remnants of Zhang Jiao's defeated forces.

That's why he built such a long section of the city wall. Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion started, he arranged for people to set up sentry posts all the way to the Taihang Mountains.

Then, they passed through the well-pathway and mobilized the population of Changshan County and even Ji Province.

Jizhou and Bingzhou are separated only by the Taihang Mountains, but their populations are vastly different.

Jizhou, where the Hebei Plain is located, has a population of several million, while Bingzhou, separated by the Taihang Mountains, has a population of only a few hundred thousand, mainly concentrated in the southern part of Bingzhou.

The further north you go, the fewer people there are; of course, this refers to the Han population.

This is where the Central Plains differs from other regions.

For any country to develop, population will always be the top priority.

Without anyone, all those ambitions are just dreams.

Therefore, Zhang Xianneng anticipates that next year will be a period of rapid development.

During this ten-month window, he must both secure the internal situation and expand his reach outwards.

If we were to divide the current Bingzhou into three factions, it would roughly be a tripartite balance of power.

He sent Zhang Xian, the General of the Xiongnu.

Ding Yuan, Governor of Bingzhou.

Wang Ze, the prefect of Taiyuan.

The governor of Taiyuan had the greatest influence, largely due to the results of the Wang family's years of hard work.

He had a large number of personal followers and a strong political influence.

Next was Zhang Xian.

The official rank of 2,000 shi (a unit of grain measure) nominally allowed him to oversee the military affairs of Bingzhou and control all interactions with foreign tribes.

One county served as a major rear area, possessing formidable military strength.

Finally, there's Ding Yuan.

Although he had also been cultivating the northern frontier for a long time, his influence was not as great as Wang Ze's, and his official rank was not as high as Zhang Xian's.

Although he was a prefect, at this time he was just a prefect, with an official rank of no more than 600 shi (a unit of grain), which was not even comparable to the official rank of Han Ji, the chief clerk under Zhang Xian.

The only redeeming quality of his was his great power, which allowed him to oversee the official duties of all counties and prefectures in Bingzhou.

Zhang Xianming's territory was the smallest of the three forces, but he had already begun to expand northward. He avoided Ding Yuan's main sphere of influence, Yunzhong County, and turned to the area outside the Great Wall in Yanmen County, where he occupied Qiangyin.

The area covered by the Beibei Grassland is home to naturalized grassland people, with Qiangyin County as its center.

Using the Duliaoying road to stabilize the road will allow for the exchange of resources between the two counties.

Meanwhile, in Taiyuan, Zhang Xian was also eyeing the situation covetously.

Once Wang Ze is dead, he will catch the Wang family off guard and seize the entire Taiyuan Prefecture on charges of treason.

A regional commander, holding the imperial insignia and establishing his own government, has the right to execute officials of the rank of two thousand shi (a unit of grain measurement) without prior approval.
Ten months is not a long time. Once the Han Dynasty falls into chaos, it will be time to conquer the entire Bingzhou!
-
In the east of Lüchi City, on the newly demarcated baseline of the city wall, the air was filled with the pungent smell of earth and the steaming scent of sweat.

"Hey ho hey ah!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Dozens of bare-chested men stood in two rows, gripping ropes as thick as their arms.

At the center of the rope was a sturdy log, as thick as a bowl and about ten feet long, tightly bound at both ends with iron hoops—this was the "rammer." The work chants, which had been building up from a low crescendo, suddenly rose in pitch at the foreman's shout. Dozens of arms exerted their strength simultaneously, waists and legs moving as one, using the momentum of the swaying rope to toss the heavy log high into the air!
The sunlight was blinding, and beads of sweat dripped down. As the log reached its highest point, gravity suddenly pulled it down, and everyone's strength instantly shifted to downward pressure. The ropes tightened like bowstrings, and short, powerful "Heave-ho!" cries rang out as they pulled together with all their might!
"Boom!"

With a deep, thunderous thud, the rammed log slammed down with tremendous force onto the loose loess layer.

In the two-meter-wide trench dug by the prisoners, the soft soil visibly sank and compacted, forming a clear pit. Soil particles rolled off the edge, and a small cloud of dust rose up, only to be quickly dispersed by the summer wind.

"Alright! Next call! Listen to my call!" Foreman Xu Mao stood on the edge of the ditch, his bronze skin glistening, his voice booming like a bell.

He had a piece of absorbent kudzu cloth wrapped around his head, and a rolled-up measuring tape and a sharpened wooden wedge were attached to his waist.

His eyes were sharp as he watched the landing point of each ramming blow, ensuring that the force was evenly distributed and that nothing was missed.

"Hey ho hey ah!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The sounds of tamping rose and fell, continuous and penetrating, becoming the most noticeable background noise on the construction site in the eastern suburbs.

Xu Mao paced back and forth, occasionally jumping down into the ditch to stomp on the freshly compacted ground to feel its firmness, or forcefully driving the sharpened wooden wedges in to see how deep they could penetrate.

If it wasn't firm enough, he would immediately yell, "Here! Here! Three more tampings! Push harder! Haven't you eaten? Think about your work points at the end of the month!"

The teams he pointed out dared not slack off and immediately concentrated their firepower, repeatedly striking the area until Xu Mao's wooden wedges could only leave a shallow white mark.

The bottom of the ditch wasn't entirely loess; towards the western end, layers of gravel were gradually unearthed, even interspersed with some stubborn pebbles. The ramming team responsible for this section was clearly struggling much more, and their progress slowed down.

A young man with bulging arm muscles felt a jolt in his hand every time he slammed down, and he couldn't help but shake his hand and spit out, "Damn it, this damn rocky ground is really tough!"

"We have to break it, no matter how hard it is!" Xu Mao walked over at some point, squatted by the ditch, picked up a fist-sized pebble and weighed it in his hand: "Dig it out! Use a crowbar for the big ones, pick up the small ones and throw them aside! If there are these things in the foundation, the wall base will be unstable in the future. Will the wall collapse or sink? Do you want to be invited to chat by Chief Secretary Han? Get to work!"

His voice was stern, but it carried an undeniable air of experience.

Several workers immediately responded, put down the ropes, picked up the shovels and crowbars next to them, and began to clear the obstacles at the bottom of the ditch.

Xu Mao jumped down into the ditch and personally directed the operation: "Insert the crowbar here, yes, push! One, two, three! Lift!" He took the lead and his strength was in no way inferior to that of the young men.

Not far away, another group of people were loading the cleared sand and gravel onto trucks.

These materials were not useless; they were all transported to a specific area along the river and piled up.

There, specialized workers are sorting and cleaning, picking out large, regularly shaped pebbles to be used as aggregate for future concrete walls, while fine sand is piled up to wait to be mixed with cement.

This was a rule set by Zhang Xian: to make the best use of everything and never waste anything.

"Master! Master!" A laborer with mud splattered on his face ran over, panting.

"Water is seeping into the bottom of Xitougou! Water and mud start gushing out when we dig to a depth of four feet, and the brothers can't even put their feet down to tamp it down!"

Xu Mao's brows immediately furrowed into a knot.

Water seepage? This is no small matter.

The foundation is soaked in water, so no amount of compaction will make it solid, and there will be endless hidden dangers in the future. He followed the laborer and walked quickly to the western section.

Sure enough, the bottom of the ditch was muddy, and murky water was gushing out from the cracks in the side wall. Several workers were standing in the muddy water with worried faces, their boots half-sunken.

"Stop! Everyone stop!" Xu Mao shouted, halting the team that was still tamping the ground. He then squatted down on the edge of the ditch to carefully examine the seepage points.

He grabbed a handful of mud from the seepage point, rubbed it in his hand, and then looked at the surrounding terrain.

"It's not an underground water vein; it's just that the rain from the previous two days caused water to seep down from the low-lying areas above."

Xu Mao, with his extensive experience, quickly made a judgment.

"Go, bring two teams over here. Dig a temporary drainage ditch along this line outside the ditch to divert the water to the low-lying area! Use buckets to scoop out all the water from the ditch! Hurry up! While the sun is high, shovel out all the wet mud and let it dry! Then tamp it down!"

The order was passed on quickly.

Soon, the sound of digging echoed outside the ditch, and a shallow diversion ditch quickly took shape. Inside the ditch, workers began to pass mud and water in buckets.

The scorching sun baked the damp mud, emitting an unpleasant smell, but no one complained.

As everyone knows, if the foundation is not solid, the city wall cannot stand steadily, which is a matter of great importance concerning the safety of the entire city.

Xu Mao wiped his sweat, looked at the busy workers, and gazed at the gradually extending baseline in the distance.

This is just the beginning. The foundation, which is two meters wide and four meters deep, needs to be dug for fifteen miles and then compacted layer by layer.

Then, two layers of concrete walls, each two meters thick, were poured, and several meters of loess walls were filled and compacted in between.

Every step of the process must be done meticulously.

He recalled what Han Ji had said to him while standing in front of the planning map: "Xu Mao, this city wall is the backbone of Lüchi, the support of tens of thousands of people. It must be able to withstand natural disasters, and even more so, man-made disasters. The heavy burden is entrusted to you."

The pressure was immense, but a burning flame blazed in Xu Mao's eyes.

From the embankment of Taoyuan Village to the water forging plant in Lüchi, and now to the unprecedentedly grand urban framework before us, Xu Mao, a foreman who came from humble beginnings, has actually been able to participate in such a great undertaking!
This trust and responsibility filled him with inexhaustible energy.

He took a deep breath and yelled at the team clearing the water: "Keep it up! Dry this puddle before dark! We'll give everyone an extra spoonful of meat broth for dinner tonight!"

"Oh!" The workers' response was weary, but even more energetic.

Jinyang.

Dressed in shorts and casual clothes, he leaned against the window frame reading a book.

Zhao Yun's expression was very serious.

After he came of age, this book of Spring and Autumn Annals was given to him by Brother Xian as a coming-of-age gift.

Let him read it whenever he has free time.

He always listened to what Brother Xian said, so after arriving in Jinyang, he read it carefully from time to time.

During this time, he actually learned some lessons from this book.

History cycles, and rise and fall are not without reason.

"Duke Wen of Jin spent 19 years in exile before finally restoring his state and becoming a hegemon. However, due to the infighting among the noble families in later generations, Jin was divided into three states. Alas."

"Zi Chan of Zheng reformed the tax system and cast penal codes. Although opposed by the nobles, this led to the revival of the state of Zheng and the rise of Xian Ge."

Comparing the current state of the court and the public, Zhao Yun couldn't help but shake his head.

"How similar they are!"

"Young master!"

The courtyard gate opened, and several burly men walked in, bowing respectfully to Zhao Yun.

Having been demoted from captain, he was too ashamed to continue being addressed as general, so now that he was hiding in Jinyang, he simply referred to himself as 'Young Master'.

"how?"

Zhao Yun put down the book, carefully tucked it into his robes, and looked up to ask.

"The Gu brothers have sent word that the prefectural government has been allocating resources for the sacrificial rites these past few days."

"Good! It seems that the Earth God Wang Ze will be performing the sacrificial ceremony this year. Let's pack our things and go to Xihe to make a commotion!"

A fierce glint flashed in his eyes. Two hundred and eleven lives in the cavalry camp must be paid in blood!
"promise!"

(End of this chapter)