In the Three Kingdoms period, the opening scene features the killing of Huang Gai, shocking Zhou Yu!

First, burn cement to repair the Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

If Xu Chu knew that the furnace was burning stones,

Will this tiger-obsessed man kill himself?

No, I absolutely cannot tell him the truth.

"Ahem, General Xu, please calm down."

Ding Yi's eyes darted around, and he began to bluff.

"When it comes to steel, it's all about taking things one step at a time."

"This first fire is called the 'Sacrificial Fire'."

"Let's burn some limestone first to consecrate the stove, soothe our throats, and get rid of any bad luck."

"Moreover, the items produced from this firing are far more important than the knives!"

"That's for making 'armor' for the Bronze Sparrow Terrace!"

Xu Chu scratched his head, his small eyes filled with bewilderment and deep confusion:

"Making armor for the Bronze Sparrow Terrace? A house wearing armor?"

"I've only ever heard of people wearing armor and horses wearing armor, I've never heard of a platform being afraid of pain."

Ding Yi suppressed the laughter in his heart.

Don't laugh; you have to act sophisticated.

"Of course! General Xu, think about it."

"The Bronze Sparrow Terrace is the face of the Prime Minister, and the embodiment of the majesty of our Han Dynasty!"

"If it collapses from wind and rain, wouldn't that be a disgrace to the Prime Minister?"

"So we need to put a suit of armor on him."

"Once this batch of 'building armor' is finished and the furnace temperature is up, the next batch will be your sword!"

"When the time comes, I'll forge you a hundred-pound broadsword! So you can cleave the city gate in two with a single stroke!"

Xu Chu naturally didn't understand any of the principles of cement.

However, Ding Yi spoke with such confidence and professionalism.

Moreover, the phrase "to make the Prime Minister proud" was exactly what he wanted to hear.

Anyone who comes here would be confused. He looks really capable.

"Alright! You're a good guy! You understand what I'm thinking!"

"Then I'll stay here and guard the place for you!"

"I want to see what kind of armor this house is wearing! If it's really that tough, I'll put one on my house too!"

With the roar of the blower, the pulverized coal burned violently inside the furnace.

A wave of heat swept through the entire factory.

After a while.

The people of Ye City who were watching outside looked up in fear.

One after another, jet-black plumes of smoke (actually caused by incomplete combustion, but it doesn't matter, it represents production) shot into the sky.

The powerful families in the city were terrified.

"A demonic aura! This is a demonic aura!"

"That madman Ding Zhengli released demons in the northern suburbs!"

"Quickly report to the Prime Minister that this black smoke will ruin the feng shui of Ye City!"

Inside the factory, however, the scene was quite different.

The workers cheered and jumped for joy as they watched the billowing black smoke.

Because Chief Engineer Ding had used a tin megaphone to shout it out:

"Smoke means money! The bigger the smoke, the bigger the bonus!"

Xu Chu stood beside the furnace,

It was completely smoked and turned into a big, spotted cat.

A group of censors dispatched by powerful families rushed to the Prime Minister's residence, crying and wailing, their heads bleeding from kowtowing.

Demonic aura? Hmph, outdated!

"That's the aura of wealth! That's the aura of dominance! That's the auspicious aura of the Han Dynasty's revival!"

Cao Cao pointed at the black smoke,

"I can smell it! It's the smell of burning coal, and the smell of iron and steel (actually, it's cement)!"

"Pass down the order: anyone who dares to say that the cigarettes are bad is hindering the nation's military industrial plan! Execute them!"

With Cao Cao's absolute power as a backing,

This plume of black smoke, emitting a pungent sulfurous odor, actually became the "official auspicious omen" of Ye City.

Ordinary people are more direct.

What's with all this talk of being supernatural or not? Can you eat that?

It's okay to be afraid of something that doesn't exist.

They looked towards the northern suburbs, their eyes filled with longing.

Because beneath that black smoke lies a good life, a "fairy factory" where you can earn thirty coins a day and eat meat every meal.

……

The cement has been fired.

Ding Yi kept his word.

The first batch of finished products, still warm, was transported to the Tongquetai construction site overnight.

Six thousand six hundred selected workers from the "Zhao Family Army" worked in shifts, following the ironclad rule of "three shifts," ensuring that the machines never stopped (the mixers were manually operated).

"Brothers! After we pull off this job, we'll give out vouchers from Shenwei!"

"Hurry up! Insert the vibrating rod (simplified version) deeper! Shake out all the air bubbles!"

Amidst the shouts and chants.

The muddy water was continuously injected.

They were dumped, truckload after truckload, into that deep pit that had already been dug and was covered with a dense mesh of steel bars.

Those steel bars were the very materials Xu Chu had been longing to use to forge his greatsword.

They're all buried underneath now.

The officials from the Ministry of Works who were watching recognized it as top-quality refined steel, and they were so distressed that they stamped their feet in dismay.

"What a tragedy! What a tragedy!"

"Such good iron, why isn't it being used to forge weapons or armor, but instead buried in the ground?"

"That Ding Zhengli is such a spendthrift! He's dumping mud into a cesspool and wasting so much good iron on it—what good is that?"

Ding Yi naturally couldn't hear it.

Standing on a high place, holding a tin megaphone:

"Pour! Keep pouring!"

"This base must be filled tonight! Anyone who leaves even a hollow spot underneath will have a month's wages docked!"

……

On the morning of the third day

Then everyone will find that the mud pit is no longer hungry.

It became a platform several hundred feet in circumference.

It is a unified whole, indestructible.

Xu Chu arrived carrying a large sword.

He came to inspect the "armor".

"That's it?"

Xu Chu looked at the large stone slab with disdain.

"Ding Caizi, is this the armor you were talking about for the house? It doesn't look very sturdy."

Ding Yi simply gestured for him to proceed; he had more confidence in this thing than in his own son.

"Why don't you try slicing it open yourself?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Chu chuckled and rolled up his sleeves:

"Hey! You're the one who told me to chop this! Let me make this clear from the start, you don't have to pay for it if I break it, right?"

"No need! I'll cover the damage if you break it!"

"Alright! Take this!"

Xu Chu didn't hesitate either, taking half a step back.

Although it wasn't as desperate and all-out as on the battlefield, I still swung my arm wide and slashed down with the sword.

"Pfft—Clang!!"

Debris flew everywhere.

Xu Chu felt a tremendous force of recoil travel up the handle of his sword.

The broadsword in his hand almost slipped from his grasp.

The concrete platform beneath my feet.

It only left a mark, with no cracks around it, about half an inch deep.

"My goodness..."

Xu Chu, ignoring the numbness in his hands, squatted down.

He touched the shallow pit with his hand and then scratched at the ground next to it.

"This thing...it's a bit creepy!"

"If it were the old rammed earth platform, my knife would have already pierced into the ground."

"This thing actually pushed my knife back? And it didn't even crack?"

He looked up, staring at Ding Yi in shock.

"Chief Engineer Ding, is this really what happened from that pile of mud last night?"

Ding Yi stood with his hands behind his back, facing the morning breeze, secretly pleased with Xu Chu's naive and unworldly demeanor.

"General Xu, this is the cement foundation. It's the same material used for the road I laid when I first came to Ye City, except that it's reinforced with steel bars."

"Although it's not as hard as iron, it has the advantage of large quantity, low price, and fast production."

"Think about it, if we use this thing to build the city wall into a single unit, when the enemy's battering rams crash into it, they'll be crashing into an entire mountain."

"If Cao Cao's camps and city walls were all built with this stuff... then what would we have to fear from catapults!"