Chapter 30: Establishing the New City

The people of this land have always carried a deep attachment to their native soil; through every generation they have abided by the principle of "cherishing one's home and loath to move far away." Born here, raised here, aged here—unless driven by the struggle to survive, they would never abandon home and livelihood to seek a living in a strange place.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang decided to properly settle these refugees. Staying outside the city walls was no long-term solution either—with summer approaching, the weather would bring wind and rain, and the crude shacks these people had thrown up could not withstand the onslaught of a heavy storm.

Zhu Cilang decided to build a city walled town to thoroughly settle these refugees, and so had people seek out bricklayers and masons from among the refugee population.

Fortunately, among the hundred thousand refugees there were people of every trade. With the porridge distribution point serving as a place where news could be spread in a concentrated manner, and with wages promised, several hundred bricklayers and masons immediately signed up.

At the start, Zhu Cilang, relying on his foreknowledge and thinking himself clever, described a new "product" before a crowd of masons—red brick.

The result was that several hundred masons stared blankly at the Crown Prince of the reigning dynasty, not knowing what His Highness wanted to do. Zhu Cilang, assuming the masons were stunned by his "brilliance," continued smugly describing the advantages of red brick and the method of firing it.

Finally, a young mason could not hold back and said: "Your Highness, that red brick you speak of—that should be blue brick. I hear the firing technique was already mature back in the time of the First Emperor of Qin. We all know how to fire it."

What! There was such a thing? Zhu Cilang was dumbfounded on the spot—this was, damn it, truly awkward.

Just as Zhu Cilang was beginning to feel embarrassed, another old mason rebuked the young one: "What nonsense are you spouting, boy? Do you think His Highness doesn't know? His Highness surely has a new idea!"

Seeing someone rescue him from the situation, Zhu Cilang's eyes suddenly lit up, and then he coughed once to cover his embarrassment, saying: "What I speak of is not this red brick, but a new object called 'hollow brick.'"

Zhu Cilang had someone fetch brush and ink from the Shuntian Prefecture clerks who were tallying the population, and then simply sketched the shape of the hollow brick of later ages.

A crowd of masons surrounded Zhu Cilang, craning their necks to look at the "blueprint" of this new object, and then all scratched their heads, indicating they did not understand why one would hollow out the inside of a brick.

Zhu Cilang told them that hollow bricks had many advantages: first, they saved material; second, they sped up the rate of brick production; third, they had high strength and excellent heat retention, soundproofing, and noise reduction properties.

Whether they understood or not, Zhu Cilang had them follow the method anyway—practice is the sole criterion for testing truth, after all. If he didn't let them try, what use was just talking?

As a transmigrator, one naturally had to contribute bricks and tiles to the construction of the motherland. With hollow bricks, cement naturally could not be missing either—this had always been an essential skill for transmigrators.

The materials for cement were not complicated either—just lime and clay would do—but the temperature needed to fire silicate cement was over a thousand degrees. The temperature might pose some trouble, so Zhu Cilang used the method of making "artificial pozzolanic cement."

This method was very simple, requiring no complex equipment or processes, and the calcination temperature was not high either—only six hundred to eight hundred degrees Celsius would suffice. During the War of Resistance in later ages, it was widely used in some infrastructure construction in the rear areas.

Zhu Cilang even thought of making reinforced concrete, but on reflection decided not to bother—finish the task at hand first, and have people research it slowly later.

Zhu Cilang wrote the production methods for hollow bricks and cement on paper and had this group of masons go try them out—especially the cement. Zhu Cilang, after all, did not know the exact proportions and could only rely on them to experiment on their own.

To mobilize the enthusiasm of this group of masons, Zhu Cilang set up prize money and told them: whoever successfully fires hollow bricks with the greatest hardness will be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver; whoever manages to produce cement with the greatest hardness will be rewarded with one thousand taels of silver!

Five hundred taels of silver was enough for an ordinary person in the Ming dynasty to live on for a lifetime; one thousand taels could buy a hundred mu of good farmland and become a small landlord.

Under heavy reward, there must be skilled hands. After several days of continuous experimentation, and after round after round of competition among the masons, two people finally stood out—the hollow bricks and cement they produced had the greatest hardness, so tough that even a large iron hammer could barely crack them.

"The wisdom of the people is inexhaustible!" Zhu Cilang sighed in admiration as he paid out the prize money in full, and conversed warmly with the two men, praising them loudly in front of the assembled masons.

The mason who produced the cement was named An Shangda, thirty-six years old this year, who had been in the masonry trade for twenty years. He had originally harbored doubts about Zhu Cilang's method, but when he tried making it, he discovered it really was extremely sturdy.

The main thing was that the setting time was extremely short—it saved far too much time and labor compared to traditional rammed yellow earth. Compared to the higher-grade slurry adhesive used for ramming fortress walls, it was both cheaper and more convenient.

This result opened An Shangda's eyes—so this was another way to make lime mortar! This craft was truly useful. At the same time, he was filled with admiration for Zhu Cilang—His Highness truly was the Purple Star Emperor descended to earth, to actually understand even this.

Zhu Cilang, facing An Shangda who had produced the cement, asked with a smile: "What do you plan to name this?"

His Highness actually let him name this thing—An Shangda was very excited and said: "This method was devised by Your Highness, so let this substance be called 'His Highness's Mud'!"

Zhu Cilang nodded, accepting the somewhat flattering name he had given.

Zhu Cilang was not quite satisfied with the name of the hollow brick, so he asked the mason who had produced it: "What name do you plan to give this brick?"

This mason thought for a moment, then said: "Your Highness is the heir apparent of the Great Ming—let this brick be called 'Ming Brick'!"

Zhu Cilang glanced at him in surprise, feeling that the name he had chosen was quite skillful, and at the same time nodded, also approving the name.

In the end, Zhu Cilang decided to organize this group of masons into construction troops, with each man receiving five taels of fine silver per month. An Shangda was appointed as their leader and enfeoffed as Centurion, while the one who produced the Ming Brick was enfeoffed as Associate Centurion.

Although they did not know what on earth "construction troops" were, this military pay was higher than that of any army in the Great Ming, and several times higher than their usual earnings as masons—so the masons were also very pleased.

"The Crown Prince not only saved our lives, but also let us rise to prominence overnight and live such good days. His Highness's great kindness, we shall never forget for all our lives!"

"I never imagined that I, An, would become an official too—and a Centurion at that. Truly, life is like a dream!"

Many masons were filled with gratitude in their hearts and resolved to repay His Highness well.

With red brick and cement in hand, Zhu Cilang decided to formally begin building the city. The name for the new city had also been thought of—it would be called 'New City.'

After making a series of construction plans, Zhu Cilang wrote a memorial and had it delivered to the Qianqing Palace. The memorial contained a full page of proposals for the city's construction, with the main purpose being to thoroughly settle the refugees.

The Chongzhen Emperor was very satisfied with the opinions in Zhu Cilang's memorial, repeatedly praising in words how clever his fine son was—but when he saw the money and materials needed for the construction, he frowned again.

In the end, the Chongzhen Emperor became all smiles once more, because he saw the final paragraph of the memorial, which read: All that is needed for the city's construction shall be handled by your son, without taking a single cent from the national treasury.