ATPnovel Chapter 56 Road Roller?
Chapter 56 Road Roller?
Zhang Liang and Chen Ping formulated a general framework, and then summoned the generals to join the discussion.
Liu Ying discovered that, when it came to military strategy, besides Zhang Liang and Chen Ping, the highest level of expertise was actually Lü Ze, surpassing even Cao Can. Then came Cao Can. Following Cao Can was Lü Shizhi, whose understanding of military strategy was also quite good.
If we go any further, Fan Kuai, Lu Wan, Xiahou Ying, Liu Jia, Liu Jiao, Zhou Bo, and Guan Ying will all become mediocre.
Lu Wan, in particular, was the worst in skill, lacking both strength and talent, and had no notable abilities.
If he hadn't been Liu Bang's follower, he wouldn't have achieved such a high position based solely on his talent.
It took three days to finalize the plan, and it's ready to be implemented.
The rest can only be revised later.
Of course, the best scenario would be for Han Xin to return and correct any errors.
Implementing new tactics is no easy task. First, 10,000 elite soldiers were selected for training. Once they were well-trained, and any errors were corrected, the tactics were then rolled out to the entire army.
With Zhang Liang in charge and Chen Ping assisting, the matter progressed smoothly.
Liu Bang led his men on an inspection tour and was very satisfied to see that the new tactics were being implemented well. He then took Liu Ying to inspect the construction of the Great Wall.
With Tian's men escorting them, the father and son left Xingyang City and headed straight for the Great Wall.
Upon arriving at the foot of the mountain, Liu Ying was shocked.
"A road roller?" Liu Ying, riding on horseback, was so startled by what she saw that she almost fell off her horse.
This object is about 1.4 meters long and 1.2 meters in diameter, covered with studs, just like a modern road roller. Except, it's made of stone.
A hole is drilled in the middle, through which a crossbeam the size of a bowl passes. Ropes are tied to both ends, and the road is being compacted by two strong oxen.
Where this object passed, potholes appeared on the soft road surface, and the potholes were compacted.
This is exactly the same as road construction in modern society.
"Road roller? That's a fitting description." Liu Bang, riding beside him, was initially surprised, then realized what he meant and looked at the object: "Ying'er, this is called a stone roller, made specifically for road construction."
"A stone roller?" Liu Ying had never heard of this before.
The stone roller is an ancient version of a road roller. In appearance, it is exactly the same as a modern road roller, except for the materials and power source.
Stone rollers were made of stone and pulled by animal power; modern road rollers are made of steel and are driven by mechanical force.
That's all the difference.
Along this stretch of road, there are many stone rollers, pulled by oxen, constantly compacting the road surface under human direction.
Wherever the stone roller passed, the road surface quickly became solid.
At first glance, the road appears rather long and fairly wide, enough for four horse-drawn carriages to travel abreast. However, there are not many construction workers; they are scattered about, much like a modern mechanized engineering operation.
"Is that all the people?" Liu Ying found it unbelievable.
In his mind, more than 2,200 years ago, the country was quite backward. If it were to build roads, it would definitely require a large number of people. Liu Ying never dreamed that there would be so few people working on the project.
"That's already quite a lot. How many more do you want?" Liu Bang asked, puzzled.
Liu Ying spurred his horse forward and rode for five miles. There, construction was underway, and he was amazed by what he saw.
A straight-shafted plow, pulled by two oxen, with one woman leading the oxen in front and two other women supporting the plow from behind, quickly softened the hard ground, just like tilling the land.
The oxen pulling the plow were large and heavy, and women were too weak to pull the plow alone, so it took two women working together to complete the task.
When you've plowed about 30 meters away, turn around and continue plowing in the opposite direction.
Along this stretch of road, many oxen and women were working, and they were very efficient, quickly loosening the road surface.
The woman plowing the field is facing downwards.
In this section of Lisong, two women work together, one leading an ox and the other holding a shovel bucket.
This bucket is exactly the same as the bucket of a modern bulldozer, shaped like a crescent moon, with side guards to prevent the soil from tipping over. The bucket combined with an ox makes a "bulldozer".
The woman placed the bucket behind the loosened soil, gave a shout, and the oxen moved forward. The bulldozer started working, and the soft soil entered the bucket and accumulated continuously. Because there were baffles on both sides, it did not tip over.
Where the bulldozers passed, all the loosened soil was shoveled away.
When the bucket was almost full of mud, the woman behind pulled on the wooden stick on the bucket, causing it to move sideways to the roadside. With another pull, the mud in the bucket was piled up on the roadside.
Continue shoveling the soil in front until you reach the end of this section, then turn around and shovel back.
Extremely efficient, in just a short while the freshly plowed soil was pushed to the roadside.
Along the roadside, women were carrying soil with tools and throwing it onto the roadside. They quickly cleared one pile and moved on to the next. In this way, the section of road that had just been tilled was tidied up.
"Did Meng Tian use these tools to build the straight road?" Liu Ying suddenly realized.
"Otherwise what?" Liu Bang glanced at Liu Ying. "The straight road from Xianyang to Jiuyuan, a distance of 1,800 li, was completed by Meng Tian in just over a year. Could it have been done without these machines?"
The straight road built by Meng Tian started from Xianyang and went straight to Jiuyuan County, covering a distance of more than 700 kilometers. Converted to the Qin system, that's more than 1,800 li.
This was a huge project at the time, but it was completed in just over a year.
The reason was that the Qin Dynasty had a large number of engineering machines, which greatly saved manpower and improved efficiency.
Here's a small suggestion for future films and television dramas: learn about the technology of the Qin Dynasty, so as not to lower the ceiling of our ancestors' wisdom.
Liu Ying had watched TV dramas about the Qin Dynasty. In those dramas, the Qin Dynasty's technology was backward and primitive. Road construction was done using a human wave tactic, with two, three, or four people in a group carrying a tamping pestle and tamping the road one stroke at a time. As a result, the efficiency was frighteningly low.
Therefore, Qin Shi Huang exhausted the resources of the people to build the Straight Road.
Therefore, the Straight Road is irrefutable evidence of Qin Shi Huang's brutality.
The loose soil was cleared away, and then the road roller came up to compact it.
After the stones were compacted, a woman drove an oxcart to bring stones and erected them one after another on both sides of the roadbed.
This is the roadbed, which is the boundary of the road.
Once the roadbed stones are in place, fill in another layer of stones. The size doesn't matter, as long as the thickness meets the requirements.
After laying the stones, cover them with the soil that was just removed, creating a thick layer. Then use a road roller to compact it, filling the gaps between the stones.
"Ying'er, if it's not a temporary road, then we need to fill the gaps with fine sand," Liu Bang explained to Liu Ying.
This is a temporary road, to be abandoned after this battle, so no great effort will be put into its repair.
After the soil is laid down, a layer of straw is laid on top.
At that time, there was no steel reinforcement to strengthen the structure, but the wisdom of our ancestors was boundless. They used straw or wheat stalks as reinforcement to enhance the structural strength.
After the straw is laid out, the prepared mud slurry is brought in, poured on top of the straw, leveled, and then compacted with a road roller.
One layer is about seven inches thick, and after being pressed tightly, it becomes three or four layers thick.
Then, straw is laid on top, mud is poured on top, it is leveled, and then compacted with a road roller.
Thus, there are three layers.
Finally, use a nailless road roller to flatten the road surface, and you're done.
"If it weren't a temporary road, the mud would need to be made of fertile soil, at least five layers deep," Liu Bang explained to Liu Ying.
"Prepared soil? How do you prepare prepared soil?" Liu Ying looked around but couldn't find any equipment for preparing prepared soil.
"Of course we'll fry it," Liu Bang explained to Liu Ying. "We have our own equipment, it'll be quick. Raw soil contains grass seeds that will sprout and take root, damaging the road surface. Once fried, they won't. This is just a temporary road, we won't need it."
Liu Ying had already seen the real road along the way when they retreated from Xiayi.
It must be said that the roads built during the Qin Dynasty were truly excellent—sturdy, durable, and of superb quality.
A proper road should have drainage ditches on both sides, and trees should be planted at intervals to ensure good landscaping.
It's no different from a modern highway.
Note:
The stone roller used in the construction of the Qin Dynasty's straight road was discovered in 2005 in the Ziwuling Forest Area of Heshui County, Qingyang City, Gansu Province. It is 1.36 meters long, 1.2 meters in diameter, and weighs 3,000 jin (approximately 1,500 kg). The nipple-shaped protrusions are 11 centimeters long and evenly distributed.
Its appearance is exactly the same as that of a modern road roller.