He changed Tiwat

After all, dams are built of rammed earth and are not as sturdy as one might imagine. When a flood peak arrives, the enormous water pressure impacts the dam, and water seeps into the dam through tiny, invisible cracks, slowly widening them and forming fissures.

Once such a crack widens, it will damage the entire structure of the dam, and then—the dam will collapse.

The saying "a thousand-mile dike is destroyed by an ant hole" describes this phenomenon.

The floodwaters carried a large amount of silt, making the water surface murky. It was impossible to see what was happening beneath the surface with the naked eye, let alone where such "ant nests" appeared on the other side of the dam.

Han Fulai has spent the last two days and nights helping to plug these "ant holes".

He was now wearing a safety helmet and gray overalls, squatting on top of the flood control dike, his eyes fixed on a rock not far from him.

That rock was originally a reef in the Bishui River, more than a meter above the water, but now only a pitiful few centimeters of it are still visible above the water.

Once this rock is completely submerged, it means another flood peak is coming.

The trade route from Shimen to Wangshu Inn has been blocked for the past few days, and Wangshu Inn is now closed—after all, their dining area on the ground floor of the inn is almost submerged in water.

As for the small island of Dihuazhou where he first met Jiang Xue, it is now completely submerged.

One can only say that the designers of Wangshu Inn were farsighted in building it so high up, as living in a tree meant at least they wouldn't have to worry about being flooded.

In the past two days, they have weathered two waves of flooding.

According to the two scientists' calculations, the third flood peak will have a higher volume of water than the previous two, and may even exceed historical water levels.

Can we withstand this third wave?

Han Fulai didn't know.

According to "Galcha's Law", what's coming will probably come eventually.

He must do his best.

People kept walking past Han Fulai.

Hundreds of officers and soldiers from the Qianyan Army are patrolling the entire Guiliyuan flood control dike non-stop, striving not to miss any minor anomalies, while others are below making sandbags and soybean bags.

He could hear the rough work chants from time to time as the officers and soldiers of Qianyan were racing against time to build up the dike with sandbags.

The sand and soil from Guili Plain finally came in handy.

Sandbags filled with sand can effectively resist the impact of floods. Although a single sandbag thrown into the water will be washed away in the blink of an eye, sandbags stacked in a trapezoidal shape can form a solid wall.

When floodwaters rush towards sandbags, although water seeps into the gaps in the sand, the sand and water temporarily combine under the influence of factors such as the surface tension of the water, making the entire sandbag very heavy and able to withstand the enormous pressure of the flood.

At the same time, the sand inside the sandbags becomes sticky and soft enough. Dry sand is loose, but sand that has absorbed water can be used to build "castles" and can also be shaped into the desired form, nested together without gaps, to prevent floods from breaching the sandbag defenses.

Of course, sandbags serve more than just that purpose.

Under the guidance of two engineers from Fontaine, a sandbag wall was also built behind the dam.

This is based on the "soil mechanics principles" studied by the Fontainebleau Academy of Sciences. The sandbags are designed to provide "shear resistance" to the dam.

Due to the tight construction schedule and the poor soil quality of the original site, the foundation of the dam was not deep, and the flood will indiscriminately impact both the dam body and the foundation.

Such an impact force will cause the foundation soil layer under the dam to shift laterally, also known as "shear failure," causing the dam to tilt to one side and eventually collapse.

The sandbags were used to increase the weight of the soil layer, using heavy objects to press down on the side that wanted to slide out, thus preventing it from sliding. They also widened the dam. It's like a balance scale; if one side is tilted, you add weight to the other side to make it balanced. And where to place these weights, and how much to use, was calculated by the mathematical genius, Galcha.

In short, these are all within the professional scope of civil engineers, and Han Fulai, a liberal arts student, couldn't chat with the two senior civil engineers from Fontainebleau like Keqing could. He only knew that the Fontainebleau experts were precise in their calculations and knew more than him, so he could just follow their advice.

The situation on the levee can now be described as "wartime".

No, it might be even more nerve-wracking than war.

Han Fulai sighed silently, telling himself not to think too much and to seize the time to rest and recover his strength—his record of continuous overtime work was probably going to be broken along with the water level of the Biyue River.

Although his two bosses, Gan Yu and Ke Qing, are both workaholics who work overtime like water, and he himself has been a worker for two lifetimes, with even more experience in working overtime, and even has the physique of a demigod or immortal chosen to work overtime... he still gets tired when he needs to.

Floods don't follow any rules, nor do they clock in and out on time. Flood control work requires constant vigilance. This kind of situation is a huge drain on a person's mental and physical strength. Even Ke Qing couldn't hold on any longer and had already been persuaded by Han Fulai to go to the camp to sleep.

However, while others could take turns sleeping, he couldn't.

He must stay on the front line of flood control and disaster relief, ready to handle any emergencies at any time.

He is Keqing's trusted secretary on Yuheng Star, the deputy commander-in-chief of the flood relief efforts, the president of the "Liyue Labor Association," and he proposed the water conservancy project and recruited the engineering team... He bears a great responsibility, so it is understandable that he is rooted in the front line.

But the reason is not just that; the more important reason is that he has the power of the salt god.

With him around, they can "build a dam by hand" in critical moments.

This story involves the dangerous situation encountered at the Guiliyuan dike.

The section of the dike under Han Fulai's buttocks had already broken under the strain yesterday and almost collapsed.

Despite Ke Qing's courageous leadership in leading the Thousand Rock Army soldiers stationed there to bravely carry sandbags to plug the cracks, the cracks in the dam continued to widen.

Clearly, a significant amount of floodwater has seeped into this section of the dam, and the overall structure is on the verge of collapse.

In the critical moment, Han Fulai rushed forward and tried to use the power of the Salt God to pour marble or something similar into the crack. He was thinking of plugging the crack first, and if that didn't work, he could at least activate the Jade Shield to protect everyone from being crushed by the collapsing dam... but his hand touched the sandbags used to plug the crack.

Then the sandbag became something Han Fulai was very familiar with, but as an office worker he had never made himself.

— Concrete.

He suddenly remembered that the main components of concrete are silicate cement and sand.

The concrete created by the power of the Salt God plugged the crack in the dam at the last minute, and even strengthened that section of the dam into a concrete dam.

This concrete hardens upon contact with water, becoming airtight, making it an essential tool for home use, travel, flood control, and disaster relief.

Furthermore, he has roughly grasped the concrete formula through his powers. As long as he goes to the Liyue Academy of Arts and Sciences to study it with the academicians, he believes that mass production of concrete artificially will definitely not be a problem.

—The continent of Teyvat now possesses a brand-new building material.

After carefully inspecting the concrete dam, Patrick said that he had heard that scholars at the Sumeru Monastery were also developing similar building materials. However, they were using a mixture of clay and slime gel to make the material, and it was still in the experimental stage with no effective finished product yet.

Han Fulai produced a finished product without using any elemental or biological materials, which is an absolutely groundbreaking invention that can shock the world.

He believed that Han Fulai could apply for a patent for this invention, and that the Fontaine Academy and the Sumeru Academy would surely value it highly and grant him the status of honorary academician or senior scholar.

Han Fulai's response was that this patent could only belong to Liyue.

—Are you kidding me? How valuable is concrete? As a modern time traveler, Han Fulai knew all too well the uses of this stuff in various fields, especially in the military.

How could such a powerful weapon be given away to someone else just for a little bit of fame and a few Mora?

Watching the crack in the dam miraculously being filled, Ke Qing's eyes widened in disbelief.

"What...what did you just do?"

With a pained expression, Han Fulai uttered a single word: "beating the ashes."

The formal term should be "pouring concrete".

"This is... ash?" Ke Qing tapped on the piece of concrete.

The dam, which was originally made of sand and soil, now has a section about two or three meters wide that has turned grayish-brown, forming a stark contrast with the adjacent sections of yellowish-brown embankment.

But where in the world can you find such hard "ash"? It's more like stone.

Although Ke Qing didn't understand what "plastering" meant, she could clearly see the immense value of this material; it was definitely not ordinary mud or ash.

“It’s also called ‘artificial stone,’ or ‘concrete,’” Han Fulai said, gesturing to Ke Qing how the character was written.

Concrete is indeed man-made stone. Back then, civil engineers thought the three characters for concrete had too many strokes, so they simplified it to "artificial stone" and further created a new character, which is the character "砼". Now this character is the internationally recognized synonym for concrete, and it looks very sophisticated.

“Concrete…a very good name…” Ke Qing’s eyes sparkled as she asked further, “Then could you renovate all the dikes here and make them with this material?”

"Lady Keqing, please spare me... I really can't use this carelessly..."

Han Fulai said with a pained expression that the blow had almost completely drained him, and he could barely stand up now.

He's not in that state of infinite energy like he was at the bottom of the Abyss of Layered Rocks anymore. Although he's half a Salt God, he's only half. Besides, he's currently under a debuff that keeps draining his mana in order to protect Xiao.

In other words, he couldn't possibly just casually build a concrete dam for Keqing.

However, even if concrete is only used as structural reinforcement for the dam, it is a good use of resources, and the effect is excellent. It is not an exaggeration to say that he can "hand-build the dam".

Keqing placed her hands on his shoulders and said solemnly, "Please, for the sake of 'Liyue's Radiance,' please continue to 'beat the dust'!"

Han Fulai couldn't help but smile bitterly. This was really going to drain him dry, and it was a reason he couldn't refuse.

And then... Han Fulai stayed on the dike, becoming a brick in the dike, moving wherever he was needed—wherever there was danger, he would go to pour mortar...

People are just unpredictable; they can't foresee things. Han Fulai never imagined that he, a secretary sitting in Yuehaiting's office, would end up on a construction site carrying bricks, and even learn how to apply mortar without any instruction.

This is probably the inevitable fate of following Master Ke, who is an older sister in civil engineering.

Chapter 368 Piping [4k]

The water level of the Bishui River is still rising.

The portion of the reef that Han Fulai was staring at, which served as the waterline, that was above water was getting smaller and smaller.

At this rate, we'll probably see the third flood peak tonight.

Han Fulai was lost in thought when he suddenly felt something hit his face.

He raised his hand to wipe his face and found that it was just a few drops of mud.

Those few drops of mud came from a pair of rough, big feet. Han Fulai could even vaguely see blood blisters in the yellow mud covering his feet.

Then a voice rang out above his head.

"Reporting...reporting to Commander Han!"

Actually, Han Fulai was the deputy commander-in-chief.

With Ke Qing absent, he was the highest-ranking officer on the scene, and the soldiers automatically promoted him by half a rank, calling him Commander-in-Chief.

Han Fulai looked up and saw an old acquaintance in front of him, Jing Cheng, the squad leader of the Qianyan Army who had helped him and Ke Qing organize a "fireworks party" during the Lantern Festival.

Jing Cheng was one of the soldiers Ke Qing transferred from the General Affairs Department to repair the dike. Han Fulai remembered that he was now part of Ke Qing's personal guard, and he was one of the soldiers who helped Ke Qing carry sandbags to plug the cracks yesterday.

Logically, since Keqing had returned to camp to rest, he should be patrolling the camp now.

"What is it?" Han Fulai asked, frowning.

Jing Cheng had clearly rushed over to find him, but when he heard the question, he found himself unable to speak. After hesitating for a few seconds, he said, "...Lord Keqing is ill. She has a high fever...Would you like to go and see her?"

"Ah? Keqing is sick? How could that be?" Han Fulai suddenly stood up.

“You know… Lady Keqing has been on the embankment for three days now… exposed to wind and rain, even if she knows martial arts, she would collapse after enduring this for so long…” Jing Cheng answered with his head down.

Han Fulai sighed silently. He had been working for two days and two nights, and Ke Qing had been working even harder.

That's how it was during the Lantern Festival. When he was working overtime, Keqing was also working overtime. Even when he was sleeping, Keqing was still working overtime. If it weren't for the fact that he got along well with Keqing later, he wouldn't have been able to control this workaholic at all.

Now that such a big thing has happened, Ke Qing is even more determined to "stay on the front line despite minor injuries," enduring hardship and exhaustion. It took him a lot of effort to persuade Ke Qing to go back and rest just two hours ago, and that was only because Ke Qing trusted him enough to believe that Han Fulai could take over command even if she went to rest, so she returned to the camp.

Thinking back, Keqing had been in this state for almost as long as the water conservancy project had started. Coordinating the team, directing operations, allocating resources, and even participating in the labor on the front lines... For more than twenty days, he hadn't seen Keqing get a good night's sleep. No matter how much of a God's Eye holder she was, no matter how good her physical condition was, she couldn't keep pushing herself like this.

Looking back now, Keqing was probably persuaded to go back and rest because she realized she was at her limit and didn't want to collapse on the dike and affect the morale of the army.

In truth, this was also his dereliction of duty as a secretary; he was so busy all day that he didn't pay enough attention to Ke Qing...

Han Fulai pursed his lips, about to say that he would go back with Jing Cheng, but the words wouldn't come out.

If Keqing falls ill, then the heavy responsibility of flood control will fall entirely on his shoulders.

"...Has Dr. Bai been invited to come and see you?" Han Fulai asked.

Flood fighting will inevitably result in injuries. The logistics camp had already invited Dr. Bai from "Bu Bu Lu" in Liyue Harbor to take charge, otherwise it would take half a day to travel from Guili Plains to Liyue Harbor by carriage, and the injuries could not be delayed.

Jing Cheng nodded and said, "I've already gone and prescribed a medicine for Lady Keqing. My men are preparing the medicine. Lady Keqing is currently unconscious. Doctor Bai said she just needs to rest for a few days..."

"That's good. Please take good care of Lady Keqing for me." Han Fulai nodded as well.

Although he really wanted to visit Ke Qing, he couldn't leave the dike. If Ke Qing found out that he had abandoned his work to visit her, she would probably be the first to get angry and yell at him.

Jing Cheng glanced at him and stammered, "This... I'm afraid Commander Han will have to go in person..."

Han Fulai raised an eyebrow: "Why?"

Jing Cheng lowered his voice: "...Miss Qiqi has other wounded patients to take care of, so she can't stay in Lady Keqing's tent to look after her all the time...Doctor Bai said that someone needs to bathe Lady Keqing regularly...This job...we, right...so only you can do it..."

Han Fulai choked up suddenly, unable to cough even after trying a few times. He thought to himself, "I've never done this kind of work before!"

His personal secretary was indeed responsible for taking care of his boss's daily life, but he was never responsible for going into the bathroom...

It's quite remarkable how unique Ke Qing is; she does everything herself. While other young ladies are served by rows of maids, Ke Qing doesn't even have a female secretary. Her only secretary is him, a grown man…

Jing Cheng didn't understand his expression and continued, "Besides, Lady Keqing called your name when she was talking in her sleep... and the brothers all know about you two..."

Han Fulai quickly interrupted him: "Don't talk nonsense. I'm just friends with Lady Keqing. You go ask Miss Qiqi for help with this matter. While she's taking care of Keqing, you help Doctor Bai take care of the other wounded. That's settled!"

Jing Cheng secretly pursed his lips, thinking to himself that Lord Han was quite thin-skinned. A month ago, there was a photo in the Liyue Daily where the two of you were holding hands and taking pictures together. Anyone who saw it would say that there was something going on between you... Of course, he dared not say this out loud.