Volume 1: Kyoto Winds and Clouds Chapter 61: Building a Military Camp Liu Zhang's Thoughts on Cement

  Liu Zhang was very excited, whoever strolled on the road, met the next national leader and became friends with him, would be excited. Of course, the premise is that he knows who the next national leader is. So Liu Zhang decided to go out for a walk whenever he had nothing to do. Last time, he just happened to meet Zhou Yu by chance, maybe one day he could meet Guo Jia and Zhuge Liang on the street, although Zhuge Liang was only one year old! However, Liu Zhang's decision made the young masters of Luoyang unlucky again.

  After a rest, Liu Zhang had the military camp moved to the outskirts of Luoyang and Liu Hong let him build a military camp on the edge of Mangshan. After receiving the imperial edict, Liu Zhang immediately led his men to Mangshan to survey the terrain, and finally in a valley, he selected a base. The valley was very secluded, enough for 20,000 people to open up for training. However, how to establish a military camp in the valley was a troublesome matter!

  In ancient times, military camps were all wooden stockades with tents. However, Liu Zhang did not want his own military camp to be so simple. In the mountain valleys, there are various dangers, such as snakes, insects, rats, and wolves, tigers, and leopards, which are not uncommon. If it was just a tent, it would likely cause trouble for the soldiers, but if stone materials were used, the project would be too big!

  Liu Zhang sat in the study, holding a brush to scribble something on the rice paper. Xiao Qiao stood in front of the desk grinding ink for him, while Da Qiao used her delicate small hands to massage Liu Zhang's temples.

  "Alas!" Liu Zhang sighed, Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao looked at Liu Zhang's worried face, not knowing why they felt a little heartache.

  "Master!" Da Qiao said weakly: "Master, what's troubling you? You can tell us sisters about it. Maybe we can't help you solve it, but we can listen to you talk about it. It'll make you feel better to say it out loud, won't it?"

  "It's nothing, really. I just wanted to build a military camp in the mountains, but I'm worried that a wooden barracks would be too loose and might attract snakes, insects, and ants." Liu Zhang patted Da Qiao's small hand, making her face turn bright red. However, his problem was not something that Da Qiao could solve.

  "Alas!" Liu Zhang sighed again and said: "It would be great if I had cement!"

  "What's cement? What is cement?" Hearing Liu Zhang muttering to himself, Xiao Qiao couldn't help but ask curiously.

  "Cement is a building material made by mixing limestone and clay in a certain proportion and burning them... Ah!" Liu Zhang suddenly jumped up, startling Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao.

  "Master, what's wrong?" Little Qiao asked tremulously: "Did I say something wrong?!"

  "Not!" Liu Zhang excitedly picked up Xiao Qiao and spun her around, then kissed her face and said: "You're really my lucky star, you reminded me of what to do now!"

  Liu Zhang finished speaking and rushed out of the study, leaving behind a bright red-faced Xiao Qiao and a bewildered Da Qiao still standing there. They really couldn't believe that the normally courteous young master would actually kiss Xiao Qiao. By the time they reacted, Liu Zhang had already run away without a trace.

  "Sister!" Seeing Da Qiao staring at herself and smiling, Xiao Qiao felt a bit shy and lowered her head. If Liu Zhang were still here, he would definitely say that the two of them are fox spirits! However, Da Qiao was quite pleased, this meant that Liu Zhang had accepted them, at least he had accepted Xiao Qiao!

  Liu Zhang didn't have the leisure to care what Xiao Qiao was thinking, he needed a kiln to burn cement and bricks. But he didn't know where to find one, so Liu Zhang came to Cai Yong's house, after all his master was also considered a local snake in Luoyang.

  It is said that Liu Zhang came to visit, Cai Yong knew that he was not going to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing. As for his master, Liu Zhang did not hide anything and directly stated his intention. Although Cai Yong didn't understand what cement was, he understood what bricks were. China had brick-making techniques as early as the Spring and Autumn Periods. However, at that time, most of the bricks were used for decoration purposes. It wasn't until the Qin Dynasty that bricks were actually used as building materials.

  Cai Yong thought for a moment and then called Cai Fu, the housekeeper, because such trivial matters were usually handled by the housekeeper. Upon hearing Liu Zhang's request, Cai Fu smiled and said: "Sir, we have two kilns at home that are usually of no use, why not lend them to Crown Prince Hou for his use?"

  "Our family also has a brick kiln?" Cai Yong looked at the housekeeper Cai Fu with some surprise, but Cai Fu looked back at him with a helpless expression. As the master of the house, he didn't even know what assets his own family had, which was quite rare for someone like Cai Yong.

  Cai Fu couldn't bear to let Cai Yong lose face in front of the students, so he smiled and said: "Sir, our family doesn't have a brick kiln. That kiln is for making some utensils for you, such as pen washers and ceramic cups. However, later on, you used imperial gifts instead, so those two kilns were no longer needed."

  Cai Yong nodded and said: "Then let Zhan'er use it!"

  "Thank you so much, teacher!" Liu Zhang exclaimed with great joy: "I don't know if there are still any craftsmen in that brick kiln?"

  "Of course!" Cai Fu smiled and said, "Although the master doesn't use it anymore, that's still a business. I handed over the kiln to the craftsmen, letting them be self-sufficient, which also saves waste of resources. I heard that those two kilns don't make much money, but they can barely maintain a living!"

  "Let Cai Guan's family be at ease, since I've employed them, I naturally won't mistreat them!" Liu Zhang smiled and said: "Master knows that under my command, as long as you have the ability, I can make the best use of everyone!"

  "Beware of bursting your own bubble!" Cai Yong struck back at Liu Zhang: "When the time comes, I won't give you any face!"

  "Master, don't worry! The apprentice wouldn't dare to lose face in front of you, would he?" Liu Zhang said with a smile: "It's just that I'm troubling you!"

  "What's bothering me?" Cai Yong waved his hand and said: "It should be troubling Steward Cai, these things are all his responsibility!"

  Tsai Fu said with a bow: "Sir, don't worry, tomorrow I will take Crown Prince Hou over myself!"

  The next day, Liu Zhang arrived at Cai Yong's house early in the morning. Cai Guan had been waiting for a long time! Cai Fu took Liu Zhang to the kiln site outside the city and just gave some instructions to the craftsmen before leaving.

  The craftsmen looked at Liu Zhang somewhat at a loss, an old man with white hair stood out and asked: "I don't know what the young master wants to burn? Some simple objects, we can handle it, if it's something with fine workmanship, please forgive us, our skills are not enough!"

  "Old man, can you make bricks?" Liu Zhang asked with a smile.

  "A brick?" The old man laughed and said: "Young master wants to burn other things, we may not be able to do it, but this simple thing like a brick is still very easy for us."

  "Do you have clay and lime?" Liu Zhang asked again.

  "We have clay, but what is lime?" The old man said with some puzzlement: "I've lived for decades and never heard of anything called lime."

  Liu Zhang carefully explained it to the old man, and the old man suddenly laughed: "Young master is talking about white jade!"

  "What's whitewash?" The old man had never heard of slaked lime, and Liu Zhang hadn't heard of whitewash. However, the old man was simpler than Liu Zhang, he directly let someone bring out a bag of whitewash, Liu Zhang took a closer look, this whitewash is just slaked lime.

  With the availability of lime and clay, coupled with the old man's ability to burn bricks, the materials for building the barracks could be prepared quickly. However, to be on the safe side, Liu Zhang decided to slow down first, because the barracks he wanted to build had to last at least ten years. But Liu Zhang was not an engineering expert and did not understand the standards of cement. If the barracks were built with substandard materials, his troops would not die in battle but would be crushed by the shoddy houses, which would be a great loss!

  The Chinese have always been diligent and intelligent. Liu Zhang only put forward a concept, and in just a few days, the kiln's craftsmen had researched the cement formula thoroughly. They assured Liu Zhang that as long as it wasn't man-made or natural disasters, houses built with cement would never collapse. Of course, this was also Liu Zhang being overly cautious. Even the most basic cement is more solid than the mud-brick houses of ancient times.

  Building a military camp for 20,000 people requires a large sum of money. Liu Zhang had no choice but to ask Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping for the money. As for manpower, he had 20,000 men, which was absolutely sufficient! When Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping heard that Liu Zhang wanted money, they immediately sent someone to deliver the money from selling cattle and sheep to him.

  After a whole month, Liu Zhang finally completed the preliminary preparations! In this month, Zhang Ren and others also subdued the 20,000 Linjun troops. These 20,000 people in the West Garden were standing at attention every day, learning to march, and being ridiculed by other troops. Even among these 20,000 people, there were many who had a resistant mentality. However, these people knew that the training of the Crown Prince must have its own reason. Gradually, under the ridicule of outsiders, the 20,000 Linjun troops began to transform! By the time Liu Zhang ordered Zhang Ren to take these people away from the West Garden, they were already able to stand still like a mountain!

  In the valley of Mangshan Mountain, on a temporarily built high platform, Liu Zhang looked at the soldiers lined up neatly and motionlessly below the platform with great satisfaction. However, this time he did not call these soldiers to train, but wanted them to do construction work, which required mobilization, otherwise these proud Youlin Army would inevitably riot!

  Liu Zhang stood on the high platform, and the soldiers below were also looking at him. Suddenly, Liu Zhang pointed to one of the soldiers in the first row: "You! Step out! Tell me loudly! What are you?"

  "Welcome back, General! We are soldiers!" The soldiers in the Western Garden had been drilled by Zhang Ren and others before, so they were already familiar with these basic responses.

  Liu Zhang asked again: "Answer me! What is the primary condition for a soldier?"

  "Obey orders!" The voice of the little soldier echoed through the valley, and Zhang Fei, who was in charge of training him, was very satisfied with his momentum.

  "Good!" Liu Zhang shouted loudly: "From today on, this valley is our base! Of course, we can't just sit under the open sky, so we need to build our own military camp. But I think those tents and wooden stockades don't match our noble status, what do you say, how should we do?"

  Liu Zhang's words left the soldiers bewildered, as other troops lived in wooden stockades or tents, and they did not know what Liu Zhang was up to. Zhang Ren and others who had already fallen out with Liu Zhang immediately shouted: "Build it ourselves!"

  In an instant, all the soldiers understood that Liu Zhang wanted to establish a military camp here, not the kind of wooden stockade or tent. In ancient times, houses were only made of wood, stone, and earth, and the soldiers did not know what Liu Zhang had in mind, so they began to feel uneasy.