Chapter 262: Strengthening the Ramparts

"Inspector, any further and we'll reach the last section of ramparts on this tour." A black-clad junior clerk ran up to the carriage to report.

Inspector Linglu nodded, closed the bamboo slips on his lap, and asked, "Whose commandery commandant's encampment is this?"

"It is Commandant Li You, commanding the Southern Commandery troops and conscripted laborers. He has dispatched Army Supervisor Zhang Han to oversee the construction."

"Li You and Zhang Han, is it?"

Linglu mused silently for a moment, thinking to himself: "Li You is the son of the Commandant of Justice, Li Si. At a young age he has already become Left Chief of the Masses, overseeing the military affairs of an entire commandery, and the King has placed great expectations on him. And Zhang Han is an official of the Privy Treasury, also long reputed for his competence."

"I wonder whether the ramparts and watchtowers these two have built will be any different."

Leaning to the side on the carriage box, Linglu could clearly see, on the horizon where the grasses and trees had withered yellow, a rampart over a zhang high and stretching for over a hundred li. It was like a vast yellow curtain, artificially dividing the Huaibei plain — Qin to the west, Chu to the east. And every hundred paces, a watchtower over two zhang tall stood upon the rampart, bearing drums and banners; a five-man squad of fully armed soldiers manned crossbow mechanisms, standing vigilant guard atop it.

This was the fifth day since Linglu had set out. He was an Inspector, attached to the Censorate, assigned to the commanderies to supervise officials and report directly to the King of Qin, working together with the Commandery Commandant to check the immensely powerful Commandery Governor.

The Inspector also had the duties of supervising the administrative bureaus of the commandery and discovering local talent to recommend to the central court. And in wartime, Linglu, as "Inspector of Chen Commandery," had to switch roles and serve as Wang Jian's envoy, supervising the progress of fortifications and canal transport along the front lines.

The entire rampart was divided into thirty sections, each section basically ranging from five to ten li in length. In Qin, one li was three hundred paces, which meant three watchtowers had to be built for every li.

All along the way, Linglu had been less than satisfied with the quality of the entire project. Perhaps it was due to the soil conditions, but in his eyes, these hastily constructed ramparts and watchtowers were truly shoddy. The watchtowers in particular needed greater hardness than the ramparts. Yet when Linglu had men casually chip at them with the dagger-axes and spears they carried, large chunks of rammed earth would fall from the watchtowers. Some Army Supervisors had built watchtowers from adobe bricks, mixing in straw and branches to increase binding strength, and only those barely passed muster.

"But if the Chu army attacks and uses flying stones to destroy these watchtowers, it still won't be any trouble at all!"

"Flying stones" referred to stone-throwing catapults, invented by Fan Li during the struggle between Wu and Yue. They had always been common siege, defense, and rampart-battle implements. Their effect against thick city walls was mediocre, but they were the bane of watchtowers and observation towers.

Linglu could imagine the scene: when the Chu army launched a major assault, they would only need to hurl a ten-jin flying stone over, strike a few times, and the fragile watchtower would come crashing down with a roar…

For this reason, he was extremely strict about watchtower quality, had punished several Army Supervisors in succession, and ordered them to take the conscripted laborers and reinforce the watchtowers again.

The whole journey, this Inspector who was quite knowledgeable about civil engineering had worn a gloomy expression. Only when he reached the southernmost section, which the Southern Commandery troops were responsible for, did a look of surprise appear on his face.

The rampart that the Southern Commandery laborers were working on was no different from what he had seen before, but as for those dozen or so watchtowers — Linglu noticed something unusual about them the moment he spotted them from afar…

Gazing from several hundred paces away, those reddish-yellow watchtowers looked tall and solid. After drawing closer, Linglu discovered that their bases were built up with large cobblestones or block stones.

"This is to prevent rainwater from soaking in and destabilizing the watchtower foundations." Zhang Han, the Army Supervisor in charge of this section, hurried over to greet him and explained from the side.

"Dry-laid with cobblestones — can't they be pried loose?"

A junior clerk beside Linglu asked this, only to be glared at by Linglu: "Have you not noticed that these large cobblestones are deliberately placed with their large ends inward and small ends outward?"

Linglu was no layman who understood nothing. On the contrary, he had once worked for a time in the Privy Treasury and had even participated in the excavation of the Zhengguo Canal.

He understood perfectly well that once a heavy rammed-earth wall was pressed down on top of a wall base laid in this manner, prying those large cobblestones loose from the outside was exceedingly difficult.

Sure enough, after several laborers spent a long time trying to pry them with iron spades, those cobblestone foundations did not budge in the slightest…

With a watchtower base like this, even if the Chu army came right up close and tried to quickly pry it apart with sapping attacks, it would not be easy.

Linglu was reasonably satisfied. He looked up again and ran his hand along the outer wall of the watchtower. It was hard and dry. This was what surprised him most: the watchtower's exterior looked almost like stone, yet was even tougher. When men struck it with iron tools, it actually produced a metallic, stone-like ring! Only by applying great force could one break the wall's surface. Where had such good earth come from in this area?

"This is tabia."

Zhang Han cleared up his confusion and called over a dark-faced squad leader: "We initially tried ramming ordinary yellow earth as well, but because the soil quality was poor everywhere, the watchtowers we built were terribly fragile. Fortunately, Squad Leader Heifu taught us a building method from his home region…"

"Oh?"

This was something new. Linglu's interest was piqued, and he had Heifu and Zhang Han explain in detail.

"Take ordinary yellow earth, add calcined oyster-shell lime and river sand, mix them together — that is tabia."

Heifu made it sound simple, but the work over the past half month had not been easy at all. First, the laborers had to pound the yellow earth fine and let it ferment until it became matured earth. Then they had to dig fine river sand from the nearby watercourses and transport it over a distance of several li.

That was not even the hardest part. The most troublesome step was calcining the "oyster-shell lime." Oyster-shell lime, also called clam lime, was produced by calcining oyster shells, yielding a product similar to lime. In Qin, it was used for everything from building palaces and bridges to constructing houses and digging irrigation ditches; it was said to be even more prevalent along the coasts of Yan and Qi.

Although common knowledge told Heifu that calcining limestone would certainly yield a similar product, where on the front lines could one go looking for limestone everywhere? In any case, there were only a dozen or so watchtowers that needed building, so they stuck to the traditional method, calcining some oyster shells gathered from the Ru River and its tributaries. Because the quantity was limited, this oyster-shell lime only made up one-fifth of the tabia mixture.

After mixing the three components together, they still had to be continuously pounded and turned with wooden mallets, then piled up and left to sit for a period to allow them to combine and ferment. After a few days, it could be used as building material.

The construction process was still rammed-earth panel-building, except that water-sprinkling and wet-lime layering had to be alternated continuously during ramming to make the tabia consolidate. At the same time, some crushed stone was added for reinforcement. Only after thousands of people labored for half a month were these sturdy watchtowers before their eyes produced, possessing performance superior to ordinary watchtowers.

The more Linglu listened, the brighter his eyes became. In the end, with a wave of his hand, he had men operate the army's flying-stone catapult and hurl a stone at one of the tabia-built watchtowers!

The catapult's accuracy was very low. The first shot went high, barely grazing the edge of the watchtower as it flew past. The second shot also went wide. Only on the third shot did the stone block, weighing over ten jin, strike the middle section of the watchtower!

Watchtowers were different from city walls; flying stones were their bane. An ordinary watchtower would certainly have had a large chunk collapse. Yet this tabia-built watchtower did not move in the slightest. When the crowd rushed over to take a look, they all drew a sharp breath. As it turned out, the stone block had only knocked off a palm-sized piece of the wall surface, leaving behind a small groove…

The heart Heifu had been holding in suspense finally settled. Although the strength of this tabia watchtower was far inferior to the earthen buildings he had seen in later ages, due to the insufficient lime ratio, it had at least passed the test.

His hometown in his previous life was in the south, and there was still an old earthen building in the town, rammed from tabia. He had heard that besides yellow earth, lime, and river sand, they also added glutinous rice soup, egg whites, shell powder, tree resin, brown sugar, and other things. To put it a bit dramatically, an earthen building made that way was practically impervious to blades and spears!

Heifu had heard some old folks in his previous life say that, reportedly, during the wars in the early years, someone had tried to breach one with cannon fire. One cannon shot only managed to blast a few small pits into the earthen building, nothing more. And during that special decade, some people once tried to demolish an earthen building. They brought blades, spears, clubs, and staves to bear, yet simply could not break it open. In the end, they used several dozen kilograms of explosives to blast it, and only then did a chunk break off…

From this, one could see that its defensive capability was so strong it was unprecedented for this era! Given the power and accuracy of catapult-flung stones, it would probably take over ten catapults bombarding it for half a day to destroy one.

However, advantages come with disadvantages. The biggest problem with tabia was that its cost was too high. Even without adding glutinous rice soup, egg whites, and the like, it was still two to three times the cost of an ordinary watchtower…

And so, when Linglu asked with keen interest how much manpower and time they had spent, Zhang Han and Heifu also cleverly apologized to Linglu: "We venture to report to the Inspector: these dozen or so watchtowers required more work hours and more manpower than ordinary watchtowers…"

Linglu, however, did not care in the slightest: "Watchtowers are for resisting the enemy. What use is a watchtower that collapses in a single strike?"

"Old General Wang ordered us to strengthen the ramparts and hold with them. What does 'strengthen the ramparts' mean?" He once again patted the tabia-rammed watchtower with fondness. "This is what I call strengthening the ramparts!"

The gloom that had clouded his face for days on end lifted. He praised Heifu and Zhang Han profusely and even said he would recommend them to Old General Wang for commendation. Zhang Han also glanced at Heifu, his look carrying considerable gratitude.

"A structure rammed from this tabia is practically impregnable! If it could be promoted and applied elsewhere…"

As an Inspector who had come from Xianyang, Linglu knew that the King of Qin's ambitions surely did not stop at destroying Chu and unifying the realm. Toward those places on the periphery of the Nine Provinces that appeared desolate and barbaric, the King, when consulting maps and registers, had also shown great interest.

"Wherever human footprints reach, none shall fail to be subjects!"

That sentence, when heard, was so chilling and yet stirring.

The role these tabia-rammed watchtowers and fortresses would play in this campaign to destroy Chu was, in truth, very limited, but the future prospects were extremely promising!

Linglu's thoughts ranged far ahead. Yet just at that moment, a burst of intense drumbeats shattered his contemplation!

"Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!"

The drumbeats were urgent, rising from every watchtower, deafening! The soldiers atop them were also frantically waving their banners!

The conscripted laborers grew somewhat panicked, but the Qin soldiers standing by in armor with dagger-axes at the ready, who had been waiting a long while, could not help but feel their spirits surge!

"Light the beacon fires!"

At Heifu's command, the soldiers immediately ignited the dried dung and firewood that had long been prepared atop the watchtowers. Thick smoke billowed, drifting slantwise on the north wind into the deep blue winter sky…

Very soon, along the two-hundred-li-long Qin army rampart, countless columns of black smoke rose in succession from south to north, conveying a single message to the hundreds of thousands of Qin troops along the line:

"The Chu people are coming!"

PS: I need to mull over the upcoming plot tonight, so the makeup chapter will come tomorrow. Oh right, since we got another Alliance Master, I'm currently back to owing 8 chapters ⊙﹏⊙b sweat

PS: Also recommending a new book by Shanxia Chushui, "Martial Arts with the Nation"

Newly arrived and already a condemned prisoner. He clearly only stole a chicken, so why was he beaten into a death row convict? Tang Zheng was utterly baffled. Were the ancient laws really this harsh?

Some wanted to kill him, some wanted to protect him.

In the strife of a great age, iron hooves run rampant. In prosperous times, the people live in peace and joy; in chaotic times, men are like dogs. Warlords across the land carve out territories and declare themselves kings. This truly is an era where merely surviving is exhausting.

Tang Zheng wanted to watch coldly from the sidelines, yet unknowingly fell into the snare. Those who wanted to kill him still sought his death, and those who wanted to protect him still wished to shield him. Amid this struggle between death and protection, he gradually uncovered a world-shaking secret.

Since ancient times, history has had no true or false. Who can overturn the universe with a flip of the hand?

The feudal states war endlessly. In years past, Confucius traveled through the various states; now watch me, Tang Zheng, practice martial arts with the nation!

(End of Chapter)