novelzi Chapter 17.2
Chapter 17.2
Lin Zhao gave them a cold glance. “If you don’t want your jobs anymore, I’ll have someone else dig it out for you!”
Warned like this, they finally lowered their eyes.
Lin Zhao turned to the big men who greeted her and said, “Lower the basket. I’m going to deliver food to my brother and the others.”
A few big men operated the mechanism, and with a rumbling sound, the steel plate holding the basket was pushed out of the mountainside, forming a platform. Qin Zheng saw this scene and thought it was exactly as she had predicted.
Because she brought four large steamers of food, which took up a lot of space, the big men released three cable cars in total.
The ropes were stretched by a large pulley similar to a well wheel used for drawing water.
Several big men steadied the pulley and slowly let the ropes out, causing the baskets to descend gradually.
After they had moved away from the cave entrance, Lin Zhao said, “Sister Zheng, don’t mind them.
This entrance has always been guarded by people from both the Eastern and Western villages.
The group from the Western village knows that there’s a problem with the bridge and is waiting for my brother to come and plead his case.”
Qin Zheng smiled gently. “It’s nothing.”
However, madness only lasts for a moment, and what happens afterward is hard to predict.
As the basket touched the ground, Qin Zheng climbed out and helped Lin Zhao and her servant carry the food boxes.
She found that this place was a man-made cave with an open top, where you could see the sky above, but there was another layer of rock outside blocking the view.
The stone steps beneath her feet were carved out of the original rock, and walking down the steps and emerging from a vine-covered cave was the shallow beach where the boat had docked that day.
There were many logs and rocks piled on the shallow beach now.
The original sandy ground had large pits dug every few meters, but due to the high tide last night, the collapsed pits looked messy and there was still a lot of water at the bottom.
Lin Yao and a dozen men from the Eastern village were wielding shovels, rolling up their trousers and baring their arms as they dug something.@@@@
Their faces were covered in mud.
Lin Zhao placed the food boxes in an open space and shouted loudly, “Take a break, take a break! Let’s eat first!”
As soon as they heard that it was time to eat, the men stopped working.
When they saw that the one delivering the food was a young girl, they quickly put on their clothes soaked with sweat before going to wash the mud off their hands by the river.
Seeing Qin Zheng also coming over, many people’s eyes shifted between her and Lin Yao.
Wang Biao grabbed a steamed bun and a bowl of porridge and squatted in a circle with a few familiar men, eating while glancing at Qin Zheng. “What do you guys think? What’s that little lady doing here?”
The other men were too busy eating and shook their heads unanimously.
Wang Biao nudged the man next to him with his elbow and muttered, “You guys are just a bunch of gluttons.”
Someone glanced at Qin Zheng again and then walked over to Lin Yao, pondering, “Do you think that young lady might have taken a fancy to our big brother?”
One of the men muttered, “Impossible. That young lady’s husband is quite handsome! And his martial arts skills are no worse than our big brother’s!”
Wang Biao gave him a knock on the head and scolded, “What nonsense! Our big brother is the handsome one! That little pretty boy looks sickly and short-lived. How can he compare to our big brother?”
The man rubbed his head where he had been hit. “Young ladies don’t like our big brother’s type...”
She explained, “Before driving in the piles, the pits need to be dug deeper, at least two feet into the hard soil below.
Additionally, they need to slope the sides. The length of the sloped bottom should be equal to the height of the pit to prevent collapse.”
Listening intently, Lin Zhao’s eyes lit up. “Will that be enough?”
Qin Zheng pointed to the vertical line. “We also need to dig a one-foot-wide drainage ditch.
This ditch won’t be needed after the bridge is built, but it’s crucial before filling the pit with soil.
With this drainage ditch, water won’t accumulate at the bottom of the pit, and if the soil on the pit walls is too moist, it’s less likely to collapse.”
Lin Zhao nodded, seeming to understand but also looked at Qin Zheng with a hint of admiration.
There was one more important issue that Qin Zheng didn’t mention: since the river could rise, they couldn’t build a fixed-height bridge.
If the tide rose and flooded the bridge, their efforts would be wasted.
The main difference between industrial trestle bridges and ordinary bridges lay in their adjustability.
Qin Zheng had seen trestle bridges built with steel frames on construction sites before.
However, since industrial technology wasn’t advanced in ancient times, and they couldn’t acquire so much steel in a short time, they had to use wood.
By using mortise and tenon joints to construct wooden frames, they could easily dismantle and adjust the height of the bridge piers and abutments as needed.
Qin Zheng tried to explain the principle of raising and lowering the trestle bridge to Lin Zhao, but it was clear that it was difficult to understand just by words alone. Qin Zheng had to ask, “Who is responsible for repairing the trestle bridge in the East Village?”
The technical guidance came from the West Village, but the laborers were from the East Village, so there should be a leader among them.
Lin Zhao replied, “It’s Big Brother Wang Biao.”
Qin Zheng then said, “Find an opportunity to relay what I’ve said to him. If he understands the meaning behind it, that’s good. If not, I’ll explain it to you later, and you can relay it to him, but don’t mention that it was my idea.”
Lin Zhao nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed. “I’m just too stupid.”
Qin Zheng patted her on the head. “You’re not stupid. You just haven’t been exposed to these things before.
Besides, everyone has their own strengths. With your martial arts skills, other girls might not learn them even after ten or twenty years of practice.”
Lin Zhao smiled, revealing a pair of small tiger teeth. “Sister Zheng, you’re so kind. My brother always says I’m stupid.”
Qin Zheng chuckled. “As long as you know he’s lying.”
Lin Zhao proudly puffed out her chest, feeling entirely comfortable. “Of course! He’s never spoken the truth in his life!”
These siblings must be related by blood.
Qin Zheng couldn’t help but laugh and cry. “Let’s finish digging up the snake-repelling grass and head back. Your brother and the others should have finished eating by now.”
Her legs were starting to feel numb from squatting for too long, so she stood up from the thicket and glanced at the river.
This area was elevated, and Qin Zheng could see a black-topped boat moored at the bend in the river, with a fisherman wearing a bamboo hat at the stern, apparently fishing.
Knowing that Two Yan Mountain was a bandit stronghold, Qin Zheng found it strange that there would be fishermen here.
She asked Lin Zhao, “Do people often come to fish around here?”
Lin Zhao stood up and followed Qin Zheng’s gaze to the boat. Her expression changed slightly. “My brother robbed the river bandits’ goods, so there’s probably some action from their side. I’ll go tell my brother.