The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 397 Send Troops
Upon hearing this, Fu Songqing was so excited that he could hardly contain himself. He was originally a proponent of war and was determined to launch a northern expedition to the Central Plains to recover lost territories. He even hoped that the Song Dynasty could fight its way back to Hebei and recover Yan and Yun.

Now that the army is really going on a northern expedition, he really wants to participate.

Unable to hold back, she said, "Young Master Yue, haven't you offered me another position? I... I don't want to be the prefect of Sizhou anymore. I want to apply for a transfer to the front lines! I'm not an ordinary civil official anymore; I can also use a musket."

Ma Sheng laughed: "Young Master Yue guessed you would say that. He asked me to tell you that sending you to the grassroots level in the army is not to actually send you to the front line as a soldier, but just to let you understand the army's combat effectiveness and combat methods. You have knowledge, it would be a waste of your talents to become a common soldier. You should use your strengths to help the country's development."

Fu Songqing: "Huh?"

Ma Sheng: "Make the logistical preparations. Once we've eliminated Kong Yanzhou and taken Suzhou, you should immediately come and take over Suzhou's internal affairs."

Fu Songqing's spirits lifted: "Good!"

Ma Sheng called out to Zhang Wei, "Let's go, let's send out our troops."

The two joined forces, totaling three thousand men, and marched towards Suzhou...

At the same time, Guan Sheng, who was stationed in Weizhou, suddenly launched an attack on Qingzhou of the Northern Qi Kingdom.

Zhang Yong and Zhang Dashu, who were stationed in Yizhou, launched an attack on Yanzhou of the Northern Qi Kingdom.

The Northern Song Dynasty, like a long-dormant lion, suddenly awoke and extended its claws towards the puppet Qi state...
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Shouchun.

Shouchun City is in a terrible state!
Since the Song-Jin wars began, Shouchun, a strategically important location, has seen numerous large-scale battles.

Years of war and chaos had caused the city walls to be damaged beyond repair, with the city flags changing hands frequently. During the last attack by the Northern Song army, Zhang Yong used the artillery tactics personally taught by Napoleon, which made the walls of Shouchun even worse.

When Chen Gui arrived in Shouchun, he saw a large number of laborers dismantling the damaged city wall.

Chen Gui was startled: "Huh? They're demolishing the city wall?"

Yue Wenxuan, who was possessing Jing Ke's body, laughed and said, "That's right! The city walls of Shouchun have been completely destroyed after several battles. The work required for repair is more than the work required for reconstruction. Why not just tear them down and rebuild them?"

Chen Gui was utterly astonished: "This... how big of a project is this?"

Yue Wenxuan: "The project is a bit big, but it's not a big problem. Shouchun has been plagued by war for years, and the people are suffering terribly. We can provide them with a job opportunity to 'build the city wall'. This is a large-scale project that can solve the problem of food for tens of thousands of people at once."

Chen Gui was furious: "You know the people are suffering, yet you still make them perform corvée labor to build city walls? Isn't that killing them?"

Yue Wenxuan: "I never said it was corvée labor! We hired people to work in a 'hired' manner."

Chen Gui calmed down, feeling a little embarrassed: "Sorry, I just immediately thought of corvée labor."

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "It's not Lord Chen's fault. It's just that previous dynasties liked to do this, but our Northern Song Dynasty is completely different. The Northern Song Dynasty has completely abolished corvée labor. If the court wants the people to do anything, it will pay them wages. So, making them build city walls is actually giving them a job so that they won't starve to death."

Chen Gui was astonished: "Completely abolish it? This...can the finances support this?"

Yue Wenxuan: "Of course we can hold on. Our Northern Song Dynasty has more advanced productivity."

I was skeptical and didn't quite understand.

But he's refraining from complaining for now, preferring to observe more to avoid accidentally venting his anger on the wrong person.

I stared intently at the people dismantling the city wall, and sure enough, I didn't see anger, helplessness, or resignation in them; instead, I saw a cheerful disposition. They were genuinely happy doing this work.

After understanding this, Chen Gui's goodwill towards the Northern Song court increased significantly.

He continued walking and soon discovered a large group of migrant workers "washing sand." They were washing the river sand with water to remove the mud and leave only the sand.

This is confusing.

Chen Gui was completely bewildered: "Why are you washing sand? Have you become that idle?"

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "This is sand used for mixing concrete. The mud in it must be washed off, otherwise it will affect the quality of the concrete."

Convention: "Concrete?"

Yue Wenxuan led him forward for a while, and soon they came to a section of the rebuilt city wall. He pointed to it and said, "This is the city wall built with concrete."

Chen Gui examined it carefully and immediately noticed the difference. This newly built section of the city wall was grayish-white, square, and had sharp edges. He touched it and found it to be incredibly hard, seemingly even harder than stone.

I've seen many city walls built of stone before, but on those walls you can clearly see the gaps between the stones, filled with yellow mud.

But this section of the city wall in front of us is completely seamless, without even a single crack.

Chen Gui was a scientist who invented the long bamboo pole firearm, making him a top-notch technician in his time. He was full of curiosity about strange and unusual things, and when he saw this section of the city wall, he couldn't move his feet: "How was this made?"

Yue Wenxuan then led him to the place where concrete was being mixed: "Lord Chen, take a look for yourself."

Chen Gui squinted with the eyes of a curious child and examined it carefully.

The workers mixed a gray stone powder with clean river sand, stirring and stirring until they produced a grayish-white mud. Then they left it there, seemingly to let it sit for a while.

Meanwhile, on the other side, a group of workers were loading the settled, viscous concrete into large buckets and carrying them up to the city wall...

There was a section of the city wall that had been built into a "shell," which was later called a "frame wall," but Chen Gui was seeing it for the first time and of course did not know its name.

In his view, the city wall was built with the "shell" first, but the inside was empty.

This surprised him, because in the past, people built city walls with mud or adobe bricks. If they wanted to make them more exquisite, they would wrap them with a stone shell. But the construction order was definitely to build the inner "core" first, and then wrap the "shell".

It's absurd that the city wall of the Northern Song Dynasty was built with only the "shell" inside, leaving the "core" hollow.

At this point, the migrant workers began filling the "shell" with the core.

Buckets and baskets of gravel, broken bricks, and slag were being poured into the "shell" by the migrant workers, while concrete was being added at the same time.

The concrete was mixed with these gravel, broken bricks, and slag, filling the "core" of the city wall completely.

Soon, a small section of the city wall was finished! The workers smoothed out the top of the shell, and it was done!

Chen Gui exclaimed in surprise, "Just like that? Isn't concrete supposed to be soft? How did it eventually turn into a hard, grayish-white city wall? Could it be like ceramics, needing to be fired? After firing, it solidifies and becomes a hard city wall?"

(End of this chapter)