The Rise of the European Emperor

Since the construction of the high-level reservoir, there has been a backlog of cement produced on Baltrum Island. Fast update without ads. However, Marin did not order the cement plant to cut production. Because, in any case, cement is a strategic material with great use.

After the high-level reservoir was built, Marin ordered to start adding a layer of reinforced concrete to the outside of the Aurich city wall to increase the resistance to strikes.

However, this matter is not in a hurry. The main reason is that other countries have not yet popularized land-based heavy artillery. Therefore, Aurich was not worried that the city wall was being bombarded by a swarm of heavy artillery.

In fact, it is not that other countries do not have heavy artillery casting technology. It is because the speed at which heavy artillery consumes gunpowder is too frightening, and the average country cannot afford it. Moreover, the amount of copper required to cast the heavy artillery is also terrifying. Therefore, very few countries in Europe play heavy artillery and have not developed that technology. Even France, the No. 1 artillery country in Europe on the bright side, only started to develop 12-pound bronze guns after seeing the power of heavy artillery bombarding the city gates. On the Marin side, cast iron heavy artillery has been widely used. But Marin has too many eyes. All the cast-iron cannons that are open to the public are painted with a layer of copper paint, which makes people mistakenly think that Marin has so many bronze cannons.

In addition, because of the need to urgently provide a batch of breastplates and helmets to the company of Gede, the steel factory did not have so many steel bars to supply the needs of reinforced concrete for the city walls. Therefore, for a short period of time, the project of adding a layer of reinforced concrete to the outer surface of the city was suspended.

But Marin was reluctant to leave thousands of construction workers idle. After all, it's a waste of labor. So Marin decided to find something else to do for them.

What exactly? After thinking for a while, Marin finally decided to lay a concrete road first...

Anyway, laying an ordinary cement road does not need to use steel bars. Moreover, it is not too cool to walk on the cement road. On a smooth road, the carriage can run on it, and it can run out of the speed of a tractor. Even, there is a feeling of not being able to stop at all.

The most important thing is that even if it rains, the cement road is very comfortable to walk, and it does not affect the speed at all.

The Roman Avenue, on the other hand, is paved with slate and stones. However, when driving on a rainy day, if there is a heavy carriage passing by, it is easy to press the slate up and cause the road surface to deform. Moreover, the Roman Avenue is far less smooth than the concrete road.

The carriage was bumpy on the cobblestone road of Roman Avenue. While walking on the cement road, there are basically no bumps. Therefore, the cement road is obviously better than the stone road of Roman Avenue.

Moreover, in terms of cost, cement roads are also lower than stone roads. After all, the stone road requires workers to mine the stone, and then the stonemason grinds it into a stone slab, which is labor-intensive.

Cement, on the other hand, is made of limestone and clay.

The cost is naturally not high.

What's more, what Marin wants to lay is not a national or provincial road, but an ordinary rural concrete road. That is 3.5 meters wide, 20 centimeters thick that kind of the most common rural concrete road.

Such cement roads were everywhere in Marin's hometown in his previous life. As long as you don't take the kind of heavy truck that weighs more than ten tons on rainy days, it will not be broken.

Because, when it rains, the subgrade of the cement road will become soft. At this time, if an overweight truck such as the Yellow River heavy truck weighing more than ten tons comes, it will easily crush the cement road.

However, in this era, the load of the four-wheeled carriage, the heaviest, was only 1.5 tons, and it was absolutely incapable of crushing the concrete roads in the countryside. Even a carriage weighing several tons can't crush the concrete road in the countryside.

Of course, Marin is not trying to promote concrete roads in Europe. His real purpose is to build a concrete road across the isthmus in the Isthmus of Panama.

After all, the Isthmus of Panama is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south, and receives a lot of rainfall. If the goods from Peru or Daming were to pass through the isthmus, once it rained, the dirt road could not be taken. Especially, it's going to rain over there, and it has to be a torrential rain. The carriage was completely unable to travel on the dirt road.

Therefore, it is very important to build a concrete road that is not afraid of rain. At that time, gold and silver from Peru, silk and porcelain from the Ming Dynasty can all be transported to Cologne on the Caribbean Sea through this cement road, and then shipped back to Europe. Porcelain, in particular, is the most unbearable. If you walk on bad roads, the porcelain is easy to be damaged. But if you walk on the cement road, the carriage is not bumpy, and the porcelain will not be easily damaged.

Now, Marin asked the workers to build a concrete road first, which was actually an attempt. Accumulate technology first, and when Gaulad has a firm foothold in Panama and cut down trees to cut a road, the cement road can be built immediately.

With this concrete road, the carriage will run on the concrete road effortlessly and on the ground. At that time, the 65-kilometer-wide isthmus, the carriage gallops, and it can run in one day. In this way, you don't have to stop in the tropical rainforest of Panama in the middle of the night and be bitten by poisonous insects and mosquitoes. You know, that's deadly.

The laying stage of laying a cement road is very simple, that is, bricks are now erected on both sides of the road as a barrier. Then, pour the mixed cement into it, smooth it out, and press it hard with a wooden board.

But laying the foundation is a bit troublesome. You must know that the quality of a road depends on the material, and the foundation is the most important. If the roadbed is not strong, the road surface is prone to problems.

The problem is that there are no road rollers, so Marin decided to have the workers ram the road with hammers. Then, use the cow to pull the stone drum and roll it up several times.

Because the Panama region is a tropical rain forest, ordinary soil roadbeds cannot be used. Otherwise, if the water is soaked, it will be soft.

Therefore, Marin decided to use a lot of stones and lime in the roadbed, mixed the soil, stones and lime together, tamped it with a hammer, and then rolled it several times with a bull-pulled stone drum.

Wait for the roadbed to be solid, then start to erect the bricks on the edge and pour cement on it. Then it was smoothed out manually and compacted with a wooden board.

In addition, drainage ditches need to be dug on both sides of the roadbed. Once it rains, it can ensure that there is no water on both sides of the subgrade, so that the subgrade will not be damaged by soaking.

Therefore, building a concrete road is not easy. In particular, there are many issues to consider when building a cement road in a rainy area.

Marin's plan is to first build a rural cement road about 3 kilometers long from the north gate to the horse farm in the north of Aurich City. It is 3.5 meters wide and 20 centimeters thick. ditch.

The road construction this time is mainly about exploring and trying. After all, Marin is not an expert in road construction. These experiences are also hearsay in a previous life and have not been verified by himself. This time, he intends to accumulate experience and select powerful craftsmen through this road construction. Then, the skilled craftsmen were sent to Panama to supervise and instruct the black slaves to build concrete roads.

As for the cement used for road construction, Marin decided to still use fly ash cement. Because fly ash cement has the advantages of small drying shrinkage, high tensile strength, good crack resistance, and corrosion resistance, it is definitely more suitable for building cement roads than ordinary cement. Moreover, because there is a large amount of fly ash in the cooking salt base, which is directly supplied to the cement plant, Marin also has no shortage of fly ash cement. Even building a 65-kilometer long cement road is enough.

Once the cement road of the Isthmus of Panama is completed, the Isthmus of Panama will become a place with convenient transportation, quickly connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and becoming the transportation hub of the Americas...

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