The area around Tianguang Port had been ceded to the Tang dynasty by the Pyu. There were not many resources in this area, mostly barren hills and forests. The pottery mine was one of the best resources in this area. Of course, the best resource in this area was the port. Compared with this important port, the natural resources in this area were nothing.
In the future, this port would develop into a very large scale port. Just this port alone would be able to generate a very large economic value, which would far exceed the economic value that natural resources could provide.
The reserves of the clay mine were very high, enough for thousands of years of mining. Therefore, there was no need to worry about the raw materials for making pottery. This pottery workshop could continue mining, and could continue to provide sufficient pottery for the fish processing workshop.
All the craftsmen in the pottery workshop were ordinary people and captured pirates. The generals and soldiers of the Tang dynasty were not involved, but there were soldiers of the Tang dynasty in the team cutting trees nearby. Now that Tianguang Port was undergoing large-scale construction, the demand for all kinds of materials was high, and wood was one of them. Moreover, the workers cutting the wood were scattered. They let ordinary woodcutters and captured pirates do the work. Naturally, they could not rest assured, so they let the soldiers of the Tang dynasty supervise the work.
Of course, the construction of the port also required stones and bricks. Stones needed to be mined by manpower, while bricks needed to be fired. Bricks needed to be fired, just like pottery. However, the raw materials needed to fire pottery and bricks were different. Although they both needed soil, they were not the same kind of soil.
Comparatively speaking, pottery was relatively rare, while clay that could be fired into bricks was very common. It was easier to fire bricks, and there were almost no requirements for craftsmanship.
It should be known that before firing pottery, one needed to patiently make a fine pottery blank. However, making bricks did not require such high technical requirements. One only needed to make a rough shape, and one could learn it within a day. Then, one could make a qualified blank, which was much easier than making pottery clay blanks.
In other words, brick-making workshops had very low technical requirements for craftsmen. Anyone who entered the brick-making factory could immediately learn how to make bricks. The materials for making bricks were also everywhere. As long as the soil had a slight viscosity, it could be used to make bricks. The higher the quality of the clay, the better the bricks would be.
Around Tianguang Port, there was a clay mine with a very high reserve, which could be used to produce pottery jars. As for the resources for making bricks, there were even more. The soil within a hundred miles had a certain viscosity, which could be used to make bricks.
Therefore, the location of the brickyard only needed to be close to Tianguang Port. In addition, they could choose several more brick-making workshops and build more brick-making workshops. In this way, the effect would be higher. The main reason was that it would be easier to transport bricks. After all, Tianguang Port was built in a wide area. If a brick-making workshop was built in many directions of the port, the brick-making workshop could be built nearby.
At this time, five brick-making workshops had been built around the port. Each workshop had a hundred craftsmen. They could fire a large number of bricks every day, which provided sufficient materials for the construction of the port.
Because the number of captured pirates was limited, only two of the five brick-making workshops were mainly made up of captured pirates. The other three were made up of ordinary poor people. Although the output of these five brick-making workshops was relatively high, it was still difficult to meet the huge demand for the construction of the port. There was still a shortage of bricks. Not to mention other things, only the construction of the outer city wall of the port required a large number of bricks. This was the basic demand of the wall with soil in the middle and bricks on both sides. If the entire wall was built with bricks, the demand would be enormous.
The larger the scale of the port city, the longer the wall needed to be built. Ang Lee's design goal was to build a super-large city. Therefore, when building the wall, it was built in advance. The wall was built very close to the outside. In this way, the demand for bricks was naturally very large. This huge demand required a large number of brick-making workshops to support it.
The various buildings inside the port also required a large number of bricks. Even the roads in the core area had to be paved with bricks. After all, the soil here was sticky. If the roads were not paved with bricks, once it rained, the roads could not be walked. The muddy roads would seriously reduce the quality of the port.
"It seems that five brick-making workshops are still not enough!"
Ang Lee stood on the top of a hill and said.
Chen Long said, "Assistant Minister Li, if we continue to increase the number of brick-making workshops, there will be a shortage of craftsmen for the construction of the port. There are only so many people around here. If we use more people, there will be fewer people in other places."
Ang Lee naturally understood this. The construction scale of Tianguang Port was a little too large, so the demand for craftsmen was very large. A large number of craftsmen were needed for the construction of every place. However, the population within a hundred miles was not large, so the number of available craftsmen was obviously not high. In order to alleviate the shortage of manpower, the captured pirates were used. The generals and soldiers of the Tang dynasty also worked in batches to further alleviate the shortage of manpower. Of course, that was not all. In order to attract more craftsmen, recruitment notices had been posted within a radius of three hundred miles. People from further away could come and work. The wages were not low, so they would definitely not suffer a loss.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "You're right! We don't have enough craftsmen now, so we can't increase the number of craftsmen for the brick-making workshops. Otherwise, there would be a shortage of people in other places. "
The shortage of manpower was a very real problem, and it was not easy to solve it. However, there was no need to rush the construction of the port. They could take it slowly, and it was impossible to build the port in one day.
"Let's go to the city wall and have a look.
Ang Lee continued.
The port originally had no city wall. After all, it was only a small port, so there was no need to build a city wall. However, Ang Lee wanted to build this port into a large one, so naturally, he needed to build a city wall.
The area within a hundred miles of the port was the territory of the Tang dynasty. The city wall enclosed an area of thirty miles, which was almost one-tenth of the entire territory. It was a very large area. Such a large area required a large number of buildings, so it was conceivable that the demand for bricks was very high. The length of the city wall alone was seventy or eighty miles. Even if the middle of the city wall was piled with mud, the amount of bricks used was very astonishing.
In order to make the city wall strong, the bricks used to build the city wall were large bricks. The top and both sides were bricks, and the parapets were naturally bricks as well.
The material used to bond the bricks was boiled lime paste. Using ordinary soil, the bonding effect would be relatively low. Using lime paste boiled, the bonding effect would be much stronger than ordinary soil. In ancient times, many bricks on city walls were bonded with lime. The effect was surprisingly good, and the degree of bonding strength could be said to be unparalleled.
Of course, in addition to the lack of bonding strength of the bricks, there was another threat of the city wall, which was the heat and rain. Especially the sun, which was the most harmful to the bricks. It would not be a problem for a short time, but for a long time, the bricks would be weathered and turned into powder, thus losing their original strength. Therefore, in order to reduce the weathering of the bricks, after the city wall was built, it was necessary to plant climbing plants outside the city wall and let the plants climb all over the city wall. In this way, they could block the strong sunlight and slow down the weathering of the bricks, so that the city wall could last longer.
At this time, the foot of the city wall that had been built had been planted with climbing plants. It was just that they had not climbed all over the city wall yet.
The choice of climbing plants was also very important. They could not choose the thick ones, but the thin ones. The thick ones were too hard. Once they climbed to the top of the city wall, the people below the city wall could directly climb up the city wall with the climbing plants. In that case, there was no point in building the city wall. However, the thin climbing plants did not have this problem. The thin climbing plants could not withstand the pull of people. As long as they pulled hard, the horses would be pulled down, and the people below the city wall would naturally not be able to climb up the city wall.
Because the purpose of building the city wall was not mainly to guard against large-scale military attacks, but to guard against small-scale thieves, the height of the city wall was not very high. It was only two or three feet high, which was enough. Ordinary thieves would definitely not be able to climb over it.
"The construction of the city wall is too slow. It has been so long, but it has only built so little.
Ang Lee walked on a section of the city wall that had been built and said.
The total length of the city wall was seventy or eighty miles, but the total length of the completed city wall was only two or three miles. The three city gates were still under construction. At the city gates, the city wall was slightly higher. In addition, there was a large square platform every three hundred steps, which was three times as wide as the rest of the top of the city wall. In other words, it was equivalent to three sections of the city wall stacked together. On this square platform, some simple houses could be built so that the soldiers could be stationed in them for a long time. When it rained, they could also have a shelter.
As long as archers were deployed on every platform, they could cover all the areas outside the city and improve the city's defense. During normal patrols, soldiers only needed to patrol between two square platforms. They didn't need to patrol too far away. At night, they could also live on the square platforms. One platform only needed four or five people. If there was no threat from bandits, one or two people could be stationed on each platform. However, as the city wall was 70 to 80 miles long, there were still many people stationed on each platform. Even if there were only two people on each platform, there would be 200 to 300 people on all the platforms. If there were more people stationed on each platform, the total number of people would increase. However, as Tianguang Port was going to develop into a super-large port in the future, the population of the port would probably exceed one million. Therefore, only a few hundred people were needed to be stationed on the city wall, which was actually not a lot and could be completely affordable.
The design of the city gate was very magnificent. However, its scale was only equivalent to that of a provincial city in the Tang dynasty. After all, the design of any other city could not exceed that of Chang 'an City. All the city walls that exceeded the scale of Chang' an City were against the law and would never be allowed. The city where the Emperor lived must be the tallest and most magnificent. No other city could exceed the city where the Emperor lived, so as to show that the Emperor was different from others.
The city gate had not been built yet, so it was not obvious what the gate looked like. However, a square platform had been built. Ang Lee happened to be standing on it and measuring the size of the platform with his steps.
The length and width of the square platform were the same, and it protruded into the city. Its length and width were both 20 steps, so it was not a small platform. At this time, a house had been built on the platform. There were three rooms, and it was not a problem to put 10 beds in them. It was easy to accommodate 10 people.
"Good, it's built well. With these platforms, soldiers can be stationed here in the future. It won't be a problem for them to be stationed here for several months. The soldiers stationed at night can also be divided into two nights. When the soldiers on duty at night are on duty, the soldiers on duty at night can rest here. When the soldiers on duty at night are on duty, the soldiers on duty at night can rest here."
Ang Lee looked at the square platform that had been built and said with satisfaction.
"Assistant Minister Li said that this platform is very practical. The city wall can be built in half a year at most. Unfortunately, we can't wait for half a year. We can't see the day when the city wall is built."
Chen Long said regretfully.
"When the railway is built, we can come here at any time. It will only take a few days to get here from Chang 'an City."
Ang Lee said.
With the current speed of the railway in the Tang dynasty, it would only take a few days to get from Chang 'an City to Tianguang Port. However, the railway had not been built yet. It would take at least a few months for a single trip. Even if they were to send information by horse, it would still take more than half a month.
Ang Lee kicked the parapet wall hard, trying to see if the quality of the parapet wall was good enough to withstand the basic impact.
"Well, it's not bad. The quality of the parapet wall is completely good. Good, good, haha!"
Ang Lee nodded with satisfaction. The parapet wall was pasted with lime paste, which worked well. Even if it had been pasted for a long time, it would not cause the bricks to stick together. That was the advantage of lime paste. In fact, there was another good material, which was rice soup. It was said that the effect was also good. However, rice soup was not easy to find. It would be a waste of food. It was cheaper to use lime paste. Although there was no lime mine within a hundred miles, there was another port that sold lime, which could be transported by ship. A ship of lime could last for a long time. There were enough cargo ships in the port to fulfill the task of transporting lime.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
