Prime Minister Bizen

When everyone heard from Xiu's mouth that Xiu's family was not planning to blatantly ask someone from another family, the stone hanging in their hearts was gradually let go.

Hideka looked at the four people below and smiled, and first said to Hanabang Masanari, "Shima Mori, I will leave the matter of Odawara Castle to you this time.

Odawara Castle is adjacent to the sea, you can build a pier directly on the seashore, and remove the bricks of the stone screen from Odawara Castle.The wood was transported to Iwafu Castle via Edo Bay and Arakawa, and was directly used in the construction of Iwafu Castle.

As for the stone wall blocks removed from Odawara Castle, you can transport them to Edo by sea, and I will use them for other purposes at that time. "

"I have already discussed with His Highness Tokugawa, when the time comes, I will send food and conscript the people of half a country nearby to help demolish the city.

At the same time, he also allowed me to build a pier south of Odawara Castle to send these materials to Edo and Iwasuke Castle. "

As we all know, Odawara Castle was built on Hachiman Mountain at the exit of Hakone-Dao, which is less than 800 meters away from the Hakone-Dao Pass. At the same time, it faces the sea in the south and is less than 200 meters away from the sea.

The excellent geographical location makes him only the plain on the east side is the most convenient position to attack when facing an attack, and this just limits the expansion of the offensive team's personnel advantage.

Of course, the reason why Odawara Castle is called the city that cannot be attacked is not only because of its geographical location, but also because of its defense structure.

Relying on the mountain, he built multiple circles of city walls, and used stone walls and stone screens to build city walls during the Warring States Period, when productivity was extremely underdeveloped, and excavated water boroughs on the periphery.

Even on the top of Hachiman Mountain Castle, there is a 3-story oar tower that cannot be called a standard "tenshukaku".

This should be regarded as the earliest model of the castle tower in Japan, but the role of the oar tower at that time was not the same as that of the main tower of later generations. This oar tower was more used as a lookout and warehouse.

Therefore, later generations identified the rudiment of the real Japanese castle, which has always been identified based on the standard of Azuchi Castle.

Aside from these, in the troubled times of the Warring States Period when earthen walls and fences were still the main city defense structures, it was already a very difficult task for the fifth generation daimyo of the Hojo clan to think of using stone walls and bricks to build city walls.

Hideka saw it during the siege of Odawara Castle. Whether it was the stone wall or the stone screen, they both caused great trouble to Toyotomi who was attacking the city.

Whether it is bows and arrows or iron cannon projectiles, they have little effect in the face of such a solid stone wall.

Even after the city was broken, its structure was not damaged, which was not available in the wooden screen walls in the past.

Hojo's advanced fortification concept is still in line with the trend of the times even decades later.

After all, how many castles are built entirely of stone walls and stone screens, with water boroughs and castle towers?
In fact, Odawara Castle has been built for five generations. Even when it was besieged by Uesugi Kenshin in 5, only Honmaru partially completed the construction of stone walls and stone screens, and the rest were still the original castle defenses of wooden screens and earthen walls.

It is also the last 20 years that are the most glorious moment in the construction of Odawara Castle, but it is a pity that all these cannot preserve the vain glory of Hojo Clan.

Even in contemporary times, it is not an easy project to build such a large city, and building materials must account for the largest share of the cost. …

In later generations, there are still cement and steel bars that can quickly achieve the effect of building tall buildings, but in this era, every stone wall built on the foundation of the earthen wall must be mined and polished, which is a thankless task. thing.

In addition to the need to polish the stones, it is even more difficult to burn the bricks of the stone wall. The materials used to build Osaka and Okayama Castle directly used up the output of the Yamato Brick Factory for several years.

The stone wall foundation of the current Odawara Castle roughly follows the stone wall of the Edo period, and the stone wall of the Edo period basically follows the foundation of the Hojo period.

The reason why this matter is divided into two paragraphs is because later generations of archeology found that the stone wall of Odawara Castle in the Edo period was surrounded by a circle of stone walls around the periphery of Hojo.

Now you can search for photos of the stone walls of Odawara Castle. The method of stacking the stone walls is cloth accumulation, which is consistent with the stone walls of the Hojo period.

This kind of stacking method is relatively regular, and the force-bearing area is average, but it is precisely for this reason that if there is a problem with one stone, it may cause the entire surface to collapse.

The biggest difference between Hojo and the Edo period is that the stone walls of Edo were built by knocking and jointing, that is, the stones were slightly prepared so that they could basically be embedded in the gaps.

However, in the Hojo period, wild face cutting was used, and the stone materials were basically not trimmed, and they were casually built on the earthen wall. The method was not required to fit the gaps, because if there were gaps, it would be good to use small stones to insert them.

However, the stones of Odawara Castle have been preliminarily selected, and their sizes are basically the same. From this, it can be seen that the Hojo family still has some pursuits.

The specific difference can be seen in the Class B and UP class of Wang Lu's Class Nine.

The Hide family still has some needs for Iwafu Castle, and with an attitude towards Odawara Castle materials as much as they can use, they naturally hope to transport them to Iwafu Castle all at once.

But to be honest, the stones of Odawara Castle, which are basically the same size, are of little use to the Xiu family, because the castle of the Xiu family is built along the river, and the surface of this kind of stone is smooth. If it is built in the water, it is not easy Slip due to force displacement.

The Xiu family had already thought that the repair method of Iwafu Castle must be built in the way of cutting and joining of the layout method.

Whether these stones are big or small, it is not impossible to use them as the foundation stones of the stone wall after trimming, but in Xiujia's opinion, the size of these rocks after trimming is too petty.

And it would be too wasteful to throw away these stones, Xiujia planned to use them as roadbeds during road construction.

In Xiujia's plan, he intends to build 8 roads with four vertical lines and three horizontal lines in the eight countries in Kanto. For block access, refer to the way of fortification.

And these lanes must be able to drive 3 carriages side by side, and there must be passages for pedestrians on both sides of the road.

The so-called four verticals are the first vertical from Ueno Maebashi, passing Yoshizaki Castle, crossing Saitama River Goejo Castle, Musashi Hachioji to Sagami.

Starting from Ueno Jinshan Castle, passing Saitama Ninja Castle to Iwafu Castle, and finally connecting to the second vertical of Musashi Edo.

Depart from Uenokan Lincheng, enter Shimoso via Furukawa, and connect to the third column of Sekijuku, Moriya, Matsuzaki, and Zuokura. …

Departing from Shimono Tochigi Castle, pass through Hitachi Shimotate Castle, Taga Valley Shimozuma Castle, Hitachi Tsuchiura Castle, Hanoi Castle, and Awasaki Castle, then transfer to Shimoso Iwasaki Castle to connect to the fourth column of Shimoso Asahi Castle.

The so-called Sanheng means departing from Sagami, passing through Musashi Edo, Shimoso Kokufu Taijo, turning to Kamiso to connect Chiba and Ichihara.

Connect the first vertical line and start from Saitama River Crossing Castle to Iwasuke, and enter Shimoso in two routes, one of which connects to Sekijuku, the second directly connects to Moriya Castle and enters Hitachi, and connects Tsuchiura and the second horizontal line of Fuchu Castle.

And from Ueno Matsuida Castle to Maebashi, Yoshizaki Castle, Kanayama, Tatebayashi Castle into Shimono to connect Tochigi and Nikko's third cross.

However, due to time constraints and lack of funds, Hideka plans to build the two most important roads first, namely the second vertical link to Iwatsu Edo and the first horizontal link to Sagami Kamiso along the Edo Bay. .

And in terms of standards, it is not planned to carry out such a high standard, as long as one or two horse-drawn carriages can be driven in one direction, and only rammed earth is needed on the stone-based land, the total project budget is about 1 guan.

This is mainly labor costs. The stones used for the roadbed Xiujia intends to use the stones removed when the city was abandoned, and there is basically no additional material expenditure for the rammed earth job.

The brick and stone showhouse in Odawara Castle Shiping intends to save and use it, and directly use it on the stone screen of Iwafu Castle after dismantling it. After all, firing bricks in this era is still a high-cost item with a low yield rate.

The Xiu family didn't intend to discard those defective waste soil, after all, they were bricks and stones that had been fired for the first time, which was one of the materials used by the Xiu family to make cement.

Yes, Xiujia is finally planning to start making cement. Japan is a volcanic country, and there is no shortage of volcanic ash, so the basic conditions for making cement are met.

Xiujia admits that with the current level of manual workshops, he is not capable of making modern cement, but what he can do is early mixing cement.

Although this kind of cement has low early strength and slow setting speed, it usually takes 2-3 months to reach the standard strength, and its frost resistance is not as good as modern cement. However, this kind of cement is easy to make and has good acid and alkali corrosion resistance. Underground engineering and near water engineering.

And Hideka’s Iwafu Castle was built along the Arakawa River, and it was a castle facing the river. If no additional treatment was done to the foundation, it would easily collapse under the long-term erosion of Asahikawa just like Okayama Castle in history.

In addition, the Xiu family planned to use the water holes extensively, each of which was no less than 25 meters wide and 5 meters deep, making the whole city seem to be submerged in water.

If Japan's existing stone wall stacking technology is used, subsidence and collapse will inevitably occur within 30 years, and the construction will be an additional expense at that time.

Xiujia didn't know what kind of result his butterfly wings would bring to the troubled times of the Warring States Period, and he didn't know whether Sekihara would happen as in history, and whether the winner would be decided in one day as in history.

If the Warring States period fell into protracted chaos again after Hideyoshi's death because of the butterfly's wings, the Hideo family might not have so much money to rebuild Iwafu Castle.

An extra expenditure is still a trivial matter. If the stone wall collapses, it will definitely be regarded as an ominous omen for the Toyotomi family in Kanto, and it will be a great blow to the morale of the king and the people. …

Moreover, the use of cement to help build stone walls will undoubtedly increase the construction speed and reduce construction costs.

Among other things, when preparing the stones for whole cutting, there is absolutely no need for the seams to be as tight as those required in history, which saves a lot of labor costs for stonemasons and time for cutting stones.

It is very simple to make this kind of cement at present, and its basic materials are:

1. Clay masonry or ceramic fragments, 2 water cylinder fragments or water-quenched slag, slag ash, these two materials account for 38~40% of the mixture
The above materials are crushed and mixed, washed and dried on a kang and ground into powder, and then 20-25% quicklime is added.

If you want to increase the water absorption of cement and increase the setting speed, you can add no more than 5% hemihydrate gypsum (C2SO40.5H2O).

It doesn't matter if there is no hemihydrate gypsum. The plaster of paris can only be heated in an iron pan at 130°C~180°C, and it can be fried until it is yellow-gray.

Grind the above materials into fine powder with a stone, sieve, and then mix according to the proportion.

Is it as simple as it sounds?A modern high school student can make with limited materials.

Since it is so convenient to make cement, why did Xiujia delay until now?
It's still the economics problem: because demand determines productivity.

When they were in the Western Kingdom, the Xiu family didn’t have such a high demand for city building. Even the water wall was only in the experimental stage. Few cities really used the water wall. Naturally, there was no need for cement to waterproof and infiltrate the rammed earth.

At the same time, Xiujia did not keep my cement secret in Xiguo, but it will be different when it comes to Kanto. This means that Xiujia's Yuxi family has begun to embark on the final rapid development lane. Xiujia must give it a go, so it must be something good. Gotta take it out and try it out.

The production of cement, Xiujia, is not only used for bonding stone walls near the water. Iwafu Castle is originally a flat mountain city. Xiujia wants to excavate a specific well-shaped shape before ramming the earth, and use pine wood as reinforcement to fill cement into a The foundation of the rammed earth layer reduces its loosening caused by earthquakes.

Including during the construction of the main building, Xiujia also planned to insert wooden piles to fix the foundation and use cement to fix it, especially the construction of the castle tower, which must be reinforced.

Xiujia is to prevent the castle tower from collapsing due to the earthquake.

These operations were steps that would not have existed at the time when there was no cement, entirely because there was no suitable economical, convenient and efficient material, and the emergence of cement will solve all these problems.

The most important thing is that part of the cost is relatively reduced!

One thing to talk about is that the stone screen walls of this era were not built of pure stone blocks, but stone walls were built outside the rammed earth.

But with the advent of cement, Xiujia can completely replace the rammed earth with cement, making the stone screen stronger.

What?Why don't you just put cement on the road when building the road?
Don't ask, it means insufficient production capacity and no money!
The biggest advantage of mixing cement in this era is actually waterproof and convenience. Its economy is relative. It is really necessary to lay cement on the road. I am afraid that there will not be so much money for decades. .

As for promotion across Japan, I'm afraid it will take a hundred years to realize it with the efforts of the whole of Japan. …

For Xiujia, whether it is firing masonry, pottery, or porcelain, there will be a very high defective rate. In the past, these defective products were usually discarded at will, but now there are opportunities for waste utilization.

And there is no need to worry about the production of Hideya's raw materials at all, but don't forget that Hideya Bizen is a famous ceramic city in Japan!

Even if the production in Kanto is insufficient, Xiujia can still buy these waste materials from around. After all, the biggest function of these waste materials is to be mixed with rammed earth to increase the strength of the earth wall of the building (a kind of alternative concrete?) .

The Xiu family, who was ready to do it, handed over the cement production plan that had been prepared long ago, as well as the plan for building the city wall and using cement to Changchuan Zhenqin. In order to facilitate understanding, the Xiu family also drew drawings on it to explain.

"After the arrangement of the Kanto samurai's fiefdom is arranged, the transfer of the transferred population and supplies will begin immediately. You are responsible for the docking of the population here."

"You arrange all the artisans who make bricks and ceramics around Taicheng, the national capital, and build the corresponding workshops according to the requirements above, and make the materials as soon as possible. If there is anything you don't understand, please feel free to contact me."

"Osagafune's armament production workshops were all relocated to Bangata Castle in Saitama. I want to use the Chichibu Valley to build several dams and use the water potential to build a water forging workshop. It is just next to the Chichibu Iron Mountain, and the iron produced can be used to build armaments nearby. .”

"In addition to that, Furukawa and Iwasaki Castle also set up iron workshops, and used the water conservancy advantages of the Tone River to build water forging workshops to build armaments. As for raw materials, the nearby fields and common iron mountains can be mined."

"Other craftsmen, just watch the arrangements and report to me afterwards."

After giving the instructions to Osafune Sadaan, he looked at Todo Takatora and Osafune Sadaan and said, "Although I have handed over the construction of Iwatsu to Higo, I still have doubts about his ability. After all, he doesn't seem to have built the castle before. experience of.

Before he built the city, the two of you used the time of half a year to investigate around Yanfu City and show me the blueprint of the city.

During the construction of the city, you should also keep an eye on Meizuo. "

"I'm going to take Yin Yushou (Mingshi Jingqin) to go south and return to Osaka. Yin Yushou will be stationed in Yin Yuguo for a long time in the future, so the internal financial work of the family will also be entrusted to you for the time being.

When the time comes, Kuwa Kuta will come, and you will hand over the development of the castle town and the workshop to him, and the financial work to Tachihara Hisakuna. "

Several people agreed to Xia Xiu's arrangement, and asked Xiu's family: "Is Your Highness leaving soon?"

Xiujia nodded and said, "Yeah, I can't spend any more time here, I'll take Yin Yushou and head south tomorrow, and head to Osaka directly after paying homage to Tsuruoka Hachiman Shrine in early August.

The road along the Tokaido is not difficult at all. If you have any questions, please write to me, and I will reply within 10 days. "

Hearing that Xiujia's determination had been made, several people stopped talking, and promised Xiujia that they would take good care of Xiuji's family during Xiujia's absence.