Working Prophet

Although the territory of the Arias family is large, the previous population was not large.

Nowadays, many people have flooded into the green field, but because of the mandatory weekends, the time they can serve in corvee has been reduced by nearly one-third.

Therefore, Miss Rabbit didn't have too many people on hand.

Of course, as long as you are willing to spend money, you can still hire workers, but with the popularity of new farm tools and farming methods, Greenfield's labor costs are also increasing.

After all, the income from farming is much higher than before, and there are fewer farmers willing to sell their labor to the lord.

Moreover, the weekend school is also recruiting workers, and the remuneration is very generous, and it is difficult for Miss Rabbit to compete.

In addition to the lack of manpower, another big reason is that the western region is not very peaceful at present. Some powerful and financial big families have begun to plan ahead, recruiting soldiers and training militia.

The Arias family is no exception. Miss Rabbit is stingy, and she has a strong sense of crisis. She has been paying close attention to military affairs since she succeeded in slaying the dragon, but the recruitment and training of soldiers will also take up a lot of labor.

Seeing the thriving scene outside the Teacup Castle, without the protection of the city wall, the female lord always felt a little uneasy.

Consultant Fausto suggested building a wooden fence around the perimeter first. This kind of wooden fence is very low in cost, does not require too many manpower, and can provide a certain degree of defense at the same time.

In fact, in the western region, not all towns and castles are built with stones, or only a few can be built with stones. In contrast, wooden castles and city gates are more common.

After all, there are a lot of lords who only earn a few hundred or even tens of golden lions throughout the year, but with a large family and clan, there are many expenses in various aspects.

Without a windfall, they could neither afford the high cost of building a stone castle nor pay for subsequent maintenance.

So don't look at the small area of ​​Teacup Castle, but it is a famous strong city in the western region, which has helped the Arias family resist the attacks of powerful enemies several times.

Strictly speaking, the castle was not built by the Arias family, and most of the construction costs were sponsored by Earl Philip, the lord of the Western Territory at that time.

On the surface, it is to reward the ancestors of the Arias family for their bravery in combat and their outstanding performance in conquering the western region, but in fact, it is mainly for the monitoring and defense of the Emanuel family, which has surrendered early.

But in any case, the Arias family did get a big deal.

Miss Rabbit might accept Fausto's proposal if she didn't have a stone fortress, but now she doesn't like the wooden fence a little bit.

As the saying goes, when in doubt, go to Merlin.

The female lord did not worry about this issue for too long, and directly asked Li Yu for advice when he came next time.

Li Yu thought for a moment and said, "Let's use rammed earth walls."

"What is a rammed earth wall?" the female lord asked humbly.

"It's just a wall made of earth."

"How can soil be used as a wall?" Miss Rabbit shook her head and said, "In this way, if foreign enemies come to attack, they don't have to attack the city gate at all, they can just dig a tunnel and dig into the city. If it rains louder, the city wall will collapse on its own."

"Ramed earth walls are not that fragile." Li Yu said.

Although this set of city-building methods existed in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, it is still used in modern times. For example, the earthen buildings in Fujian and the coastal areas of southern Fujian are all improved rammed-earth buildings with good quality and strong defense. Outstanding, not under the stone castle.

When the age of firearms enters later, it will still be able to play a role and will not be eliminated like the stone castle.

As for the problem of waterproofing, the rammed earth wall itself is waterproof to a certain extent. After the soil is squeezed, its density will become very high. After chemical and physical reactions, it will become mellow soil. Dayu even used this method to build the water. Cross the embankment.

Of course, in general, rammed earth walls are relatively afraid of water. From time to time, there are records in history books of rammed earth walls collapsing due to heavy rains or flash floods. The grass seeds mixed in the wall may germinate when exposed to water and damage the wall, which also requires regular maintenance.

However, the climate in the west is relatively dry and there is not much rainfall, so the rammed earth walls are quite safe.

But Li Yu could also understand the worry of the female lord, so he added, "If you are really worried about the rain, you can cover the outside with a layer of bricks later."

There are still debates in the archaeological circles about when the rammed earth wrapped bricks originated, but the large-scale popularization should have been in the Ming Dynasty. The threat of artillery and large trebuchets.

There are many brick kilns in Shuangxujiao now, and the brick-making skills are getting better and better. Producing bricks is not a problem.

The rammed earth wall also requires a lot of manpower, but the advantage is that there is no need to mine stone materials, and then it takes a lot of manpower to transport them. The materials can be obtained locally and the construction can be started immediately. In addition, if there are insufficient manpower in the early stage, the base can be lowered first. It is about four or five meters long. .

Then slowly increase the height and finally cover it with bricks. The initial engineering and investment will not be wasted at all, and it will also save money.

Miss Rabbit was persuaded by Li Yu, although it was a bit embarrassing to use soil to build city walls. If word spread, she would probably be laughed at by other nobles.

But saving money is one thing. The most important thing is that Li Yu promised that after the city wall is built, it will be stronger than the traditional stone wall and difficult to be broken.

So the female lord no longer hesitated, and finally decided to adopt the plan recommended by Li Yu.

Li Yu later collected some information about rammed earth walls from the Internet, including the proportion of materials, wall structure and ramming methods, and asked Clara to help translate it into the common language of the mainland, and then gave it to the shipwright Fitzwilliam for research. .

In fact, if a time traveler with civil construction experience can handle this matter, the efficiency will undoubtedly be higher, and the final construction quality can be improved by more than one level.

It is a pity that Li Yu does not have talents in this field at hand.

Compared with the progress on Bratis Continent, the recruitment of reincarnated volunteers is not going smoothly. Li Yu needs to persuade them one by one at the risk of being regarded as a liar. He has only recruited so far. Two followers.

One of them is studying computer science.

The other one has been the owner of a food area for so long and has always been keen on ghosts and animals. He doesn’t know how much of his previous professional knowledge is left.

Li Yu also bought a few more textbooks on related majors for Lu Weijia these days, intending to help him review the knowledge he had learned.

But unexpectedly, Lu Weijia took the first step and hurt Li Yu.

"What, you said you wanted a camera and a laptop, what are they for?"

"Make a video." Lu Weijia said matter-of-factly.

"…………"

"Do you know that Station B is gone? Besides, why should I meet your request?" Li Yu asked.

"Because helping me means helping you." Lu Weijia said confidently.

Wishing everyone a happy new year, there is only one update today, and the follow-up will try to return to normal.