Saving System: Calm Down, My Fleeing Host!

Chapter 315 - 307: Underground City Construction 17

When everyone safely reached the depths of Daqing Mountain, they saw smoke curling up from a distance, and a broad line of tents had been set up, creating an impressive sight.

What lay before them was an orderly and large-scale excavation site.

In the three-meter-wide trench, during this cold winter, the workers wore short-sleeved clothing, sweating profusely, as they wielded hoes, shovels, and various peculiar tools.

Dustpans, baskets, and hampers were filled with brown-yellow soil, tied with lifting ropes to a tall upright pole on the ground, which served as a simple hoist. By manually turning the handle on the gear disc, two people could cooperate to exert force, lifting the soil-laden baskets up as the ropes shorten, before these were carted away to a distant spot.

The excavated brown-yellow soil was not discarded but transported to a brick kiln workshop.

In ancient times, there was no concrete or steel structure for underground construction, so they had to make use of local resources and innovate.

Thus, bricks were indispensable building materials. The clay bricks were shaped, dried, and then placed in high-temperature kilns for firing to undergo a series of physical changes.

In her previous life, she had never encountered this field before, so she could only explore slowly based on scattered clues from the marketplace and vaguely remembered book knowledge, such as proportions, temperature, duration, and possibly auxiliary materials needed.

She could vaguely state that mineral structure changes, new mineral organizational layers form, decomposition and synthesis occur, and during crystallization diffusion, a series of fusion changes occur, ultimately producing products with a certain color, density, hardness, and high mechanical strength, requiring experiments for each step.

In ancient times, there were also gray brick-tiled houses, and firing blue stone and blue bricks involved several stages, like moisture removal, heating, submersion, and kiln opening.

Thus, for firing bluish tiles and bricks, professional craftsmen had the most authority, but some ancient techniques did not meet her standards, hence the need for practical integration with innovation.

The most challenging was not the brick firing but developing cement.

The cement primarily used sandstone, silicate mineral iron powder, limestone, and slag, requiring mixing these components in specific proportions during production, and then grinding them into fine powder.

Limestone is the primary raw material used in cement production, known for its large particles and higher hardness after extraction, thus making limestone crushing an important part of the cement material breaking process.

These raw materials were not easy to find, so they searched for substitutes in Daxing Mountain. For instance, there was plenty of coal gangue that could serve as an alternative, and there was also a natural advantage of underground volcanic rock here.

Volcanic ash material is a mineral raw material containing natural silicon oxide and aluminum oxide as main components. When ground into fine powder and mixed with water, it does not harden on its own, but when mixed with lime and water, it can harden both in the air and under water.

Hence, volcanic ash cement was also a viable option.

However, cement grinding was the final and most difficult step in cement manufacturing, determining the optimal grinding intensity to ensure the right particle size, speeding up the hydration rate and area, to meet the requirements of cement paste setting and hardening.

With current methods, achieving this was impossible, but as humans are resourceful, persistent research would eventually lead to success. Without innovation, future advanced technology would never exist.

Moreover, with her as an extra support seeking higher knowledge, given correct guidance, she believed that the craftsmen would achieve twice the results with half the effort.

The successful commencement of these workshops also owed a lot to Lin Yiqiu and his group. It turned out they were all quite skilled in various fields, whether it was kiln building, wall packing, house frame construction, or coal refining.

Speaking of coal burning and application, Grandpa Hu was also very experienced, prompting her to establish a third workshop for this.

There was also a heating room used for sprouting beans. Nowadays, soybeans and mung beans were bought from the marketplace.

This was to provide everyone with essential vitamins and fibers during the cold winter.

There were too many peculiar and good things, causing the team leaders to become numb, with nobody questioning their origins. Team members, keeping their mouths sealed, would respond to inquiries with "Do you know how a cat dies?"

Smart people quickly understood this principle of curiosity killing the cat.

Foolish ones would receive a second line, "Figure this out first before asking anything else."

Hence, after spreading privately, observant and wise people would remind each other: consider who provides food and supplies now. If you don’t want to freeze in the snow and ice, just work honestly.

For those curious ones unwilling to remain unanswered, moving here and there asking, it soon occurred that these people received only half the food portions compared to others each meal, and any troublemakers were left hungry. After struggling this way repeatedly, no one dared to speak recklessly, but that’s another story.

Returning to Han Yi’s shocked face, he was utterly surprised to see that Miss Cheng indeed began the underground engineering as promised.

Yet, a three-foot-thick ice does not form in a single day. Building an underground project is unlike an ordinary city; he understood well the inherent difficulties.

Currently, farm implements could manage the loess part, but once reaching rock layers, these tools would be ineffective.

Special tools used by ordinary well diggers couldn’t accomplish such a large workload either, making this a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and dauntingly immense project.

However, putting aside this challenge, the entire construction site featured a large workforce, proceeding in an orderly and continuous manner, appearing quite commendable.

Observing a bit more, he also found many unseen tools, transport equipment, and half-constructed kiln houses in the distance, indicating the serious dedication on the opponent’s part.

The shock before Han Yi made it hard for him to recover for a long time; many facilities and operations might surpass their previous underground city projects.

Even so, he disagreed, realizing his persuasion would be futile, so he could only turn his gaze to the elder.

Although Zhou Yanlan’s thoughts were initially turbulent, acceptance came in a moment as he swiftly embraced the reality.

He turned to the person next to him, "Is there anything we can help with?"

Cheng Xiaoxiao shook her head, "No need, everything’s fine, no need for Mr. Yan to worry."

Zhou Yanlan stared at the person before him for a while to confirm it wasn’t a deflection before slowly turning away.

"I see you’re lacking manpower here. How about I allocate some people over?"

"No, no, that would be too much trouble."

Knowing the people were from all over, coming urgently might encounter a cold snap, what then?

Let’s just forget it; distant help wouldn’t quench nearby thirst, she feared people might get stuck en route, and wouldn’t that be a great sin on her part?

"Indeed, Miss Cheng, please don’t decline. Previously, we also built underground cities; those experienced master craftsmen are still around and will certainly be a great help."

Han Yi joyfully chimed in, his master finally showed some cleverness for once.

Cheng Xiaoxiao was dumbfounded, experienced master craftsmen? How old could they be?