The Three Spirit Stones

A new Dongyue Temple was built in Xiongzhou City. The Bodhisattva inside was said to be very efficacious. Since its completion, it has been extremely popular, with countless believers rushing to donate gold, silver and treasures.

The increasing amount of money gradually attracted the attention of lawless people, and news of theft of incense money would be reported from time to time in Dongyue Temple.

The news reached the ears of the governor Li Yunze, who sent people to investigate and found that the people who frequently stole the incense money from the temples were actually spies from the Liao Kingdom. This made him very angry.

Even the money from incense offerings in temples is stolen?

Is there still any imperial law here?

Are there any laws?

He negotiated with the Liao Kingdom many times, asking them to hand over the thieves and return the stolen property. However, the Liao Kingdom was helpless in this matter, as they didn't know who these thieves were.

So this matter can only be left unresolved!

Li Yunze was very angry about the Liao Kingdom's attitude, but what could he do if he couldn't catch the thief?

He thought, I can’t catch a thief, but I can prevent him!

Therefore, in order to protect the Dongyue Temple, he ordered the construction of a city wall fortress.

In the Wengcheng in the north of Xiongzhou, a group of masons are laying bricks with cement. They plan to connect the main city and the Wengcheng together.

Li Yunze and several others are checking the progress of the project.

This cement is indeed easy to use. What usually takes two months now only took ten days to complete. Soon, the craftsmen put on the last brick, and the main city and the inner city were perfectly connected.

……

"Mr. Xiao Yang,"

Li Yun said to the boy sent by Cheng Yu,

"Yes, Li Taishou,"

The boy responded with a slightly childish smile, "His name is Yang Zhi, and he is from Jiangle County."

"The pit under the city wall only has one pillar. Is it strong? You know, we have to walk on it normally."

"Don't worry, sir. Even if it's supported by just one pillar, it's very solid because the cement board on top is 45 centimeters thick and has so many steel bars inside. The thickness is twice as thick as our usual thickness."

"During the blast, one pillar is the best. Once the pillar breaks, the concrete slab will collapse in the middle, and everything on top will fall down without a single piece left."

Li Yun wanted to dig a deep pit under the city wall, which would be sealed with cement slabs. If the war broke out again one day and the city wall was unfortunately breached, he would use explosives to blow up the pillars below in an emergency, so that the enemy would not be able to break into the city gate.

He first went to discuss this with the two cement workers, but they only knew how to follow instructions. They were not sure about their ability to design such a seemingly simple but actually important building. So they asked the boy who came with them to find a solution.

Li Yunze talked to him about this matter with a try-it attitude.

As soon as he heard this, he took out a notebook and a strange pen, drew a few pictures on it, wrote some strange formulas and words, and finally gave the results to Li Yunze.

How thick should the cement board be? How much steel bars are needed for the cement board? How many pillars are needed? How thick should the pillars be? Where should the holes in the pillars be left for the explosives?

Detailed construction steps are also included.

Li Yunze was unsure whether this was right or not, so he gathered all the craftsmen together to study it.

Finally, it was concluded that this design is feasible.

Li Yunze immediately showed respect to him and changed his address to Mr. Xiao Yang.

During the conversation, I learned that he studied at Cheng's Industrial School for three and a half years. Because of his intelligence, he was trained by Teacher Cai. The courses he studied were all prepared specifically for him by Teacher Cai. This time, the Marquis sent him here to let him put his knowledge into practice.

After listening to this, Li Yunze felt deeply moved!

This teacher Cai should be the master behind Cheng Yu. He actually invited such a master to teach these children of ordinary people. It is really commendable. If these children had not met him, they would have lived a mediocre life.

There is really no discrimination in teaching, and the heart of the children is pure and innocent!

He thought that if he went to Bian Jing again, he would definitely visit Mr. Xia Cai. He had a preconceived notion that a man with such profound knowledge must be an old gentleman with a sage-like appearance and flowing white beard.

……

……

After the city wall is built, we will start digging the pit.

The pit was three or four zhang deep, and about six or seven zhang long and wide, and was located right in front of the city gate.

When the enemy attacks the city, they usually use huge logs to hit it. However, if this place collapses, it will be impossible to break through the city gate. However, the people in the city can shoot at the enemy below through the passage in the city wall above.

The tools provided by Cheng Yu came in handy during this digging.

In addition to those useful hoes, shovels and spades, the best ones are the dozen or so bucket trucks, which are simply magical tools for construction sites.

A semicircular iron carriage with two handles, iron wheels and a circle of rubber nailed outside. The excavated soil is filled into the carriage, and then hoisted up with a pulley, and can be easily pushed out and dumped. In the past, it had to be carried out with a bamboo basket, which was laborious and inefficient.

Since using this bucket cart, the craftsmen's enthusiasm for work has greatly increased, and they never complain of being tired even after working all day.

After the huge pit was dug, it was time to start building the buildings inside the pit. Yang Yan's construction procedure was to first build a square inside with fired bricks, with the pillar in the middle. The steel bars in the pillar went straight into the ground and were cast with cement. Under normal circumstances, the pillar was very strong.

Then we come to the cement board. The cement board is divided into four equal pieces, filled with steel bars, and has four ear holes at the four corners.

After the four boards are dry, a piece of wood is placed across the brick wall and the pillars. The four ears of the cement board are tied tightly with hemp ropes. People are then used to pull the cement board along the wood and onto the pillars.

The same procedure was followed for the remaining cement boards. After the four boards were laid, the four ear holes on the top were ground off, and the gaps were filled with cement and covered with soil. This way, no one would know that there was a deep pit underneath.

In order to conceal the purpose of digging the pit, Li Yun announced to the outside world that Song and Liao had already made peace and were brotherly countries, so there was no need for watchtowers and horse traps.

He first turned the horse pit into a vegetable garden, and then demolished the watchtower.

With this reason, people used the soil from the dug pits to fill the horse pits. The city wall was constructed in an enclosed area, so after the soil was pulled out, it would make a circle and be sent outside the city, so outsiders would not know that the soil was transported out of the city wall.

After filling the horse-traps, he had people reclaim the land and grow vegetables. He then ordered people to secretly build many slopes and low walls, and plant a large number of sharp thorns. These were used to block the Liao cavalry and were more effective than the horse-traps.

After removing the watchtower, he built a pagoda in the west and north of the city.

Buddhism was very prosperous in the Liao Dynasty, and he was able to cater to the needs of the Liao Dynasty by building pagodas.

I had originally planned to build only one, but later I saw that cement was inexpensive and easy to use, so I decided to build two.

In addition to their lookout function, these two pagodas can also emit smoke signals, which can be seen throughout Xiongzhou City.

These two pagodas are nine stories high and are decorated in rich and solemn styles on the outside. Standing on the top of the pagoda, one can see thirty miles away with the naked eye. The field of view is much better than that of previous watchtowers. When used with a telescope, the effect is simply invincible!

They looked at the distant view through the telescope at the top of the tower,

Wow! What a great view!

There was a person on the other side of the mountain, and he could see him clearly, even his facial features.

With this magical weapon, do you still worry about not being able to detect the enemy's evil intentions?

Li Yunze built these city defense systems in a subtle and silent way.

He acted in a low-key manner, his silence was better than words, he handled affairs strategically, and his implementation was very natural. Even though he achieved his goal step by step, he was not discovered by the Liao Kingdom.

Therefore, historical records show that Li Yunze spent more than 20 years in Hebei and achieved the most.