Discuss with you

Chapter 172 Like father, like daughter

After Bai Qihong left, Yan Daoxin stood up and walked around Zhu Yu, looking her up and down: "You are really an interesting person! You are very brave and you are quite good at examining corpses and treating injuries.

Today, you even know how to break rocks and split mountains?"

"Haven't you heard the saying?" Zhu Yu shrugged, "Like father, like daughter.

The black iron, a specialty of Shuo State, is refined from the black iron stone. The black iron stone is also extremely hard, and its hardness is even far greater than that of the Black Stone Mountain.

If I didn't have the ability to 'turn large stones into small, and small stones into nothing,' I wouldn't have those priceless black iron weapons."

After hearing her words, Yan Daoxin did not feel that his doubts were resolved, but was even more surprised: "I heard that the Shuo people have always only raised their daughters and married them off, and never asked about anything else.

Families with a wealthy financial situation might hire a female teacher to teach their daughters how to read and write in order to ensure that their daughters can marry well in the future, but they would ignore everything else.

Unexpectedly, your father is an exception and even taught you all these!"

"He didn't teach me, so don't I have eyes and ears?" Zhu Yu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

How could Zhu Cheng attach so much importance to cultivating a concubine's daughter?

Even her favored elder sister was only better-dressed and better-fed than her other concubine sisters. She had more maids serving her in the yard and more valuable things in her room.

In addition to learning to read and write with all the sisters, Princess Shuo also found an embroiderer to teach her needlework.

As for the things that Zhu Cheng was particularly good at, he only planned to teach them to his son and never thought about passing them on to his daughters.

However, when he talked about these things with Zhu Yu's brothers at home, he never avoided mentioning the women in the family.

The other sisters had no interest in these things and were too lazy to listen, but Zhu Yu was curious and listened to them attentively every time. Over time, although she had no chance to actually practice them, she had memorized the methods by heart.

I didn't expect that it would come in handy this time.

Zhu Yu couldn't help but think of the words he often heard from his elders in his previous life - "There is nothing learned in vain in this world."

After a while, Bai Qihong came back, all wet, and said that he had already given orders and had already collected some materials. They could set off first and start work as soon as possible there.

The tung oil and rosin collected later will be sent directly to Black Stone Mountain in batches.

So the group set off towards Blackrock Mountain.

Bai Qihong really did not play tricks. After agreeing to Lu Qing's plan, he carried it out seriously. He only left a small number of people to continue to slowly advance the digging of the canal to the east. The rest of the people were taken away and the team was ready to open the mountain.

The rain poured down all the way, and they took half an hour to reach the destination, stepping deep and shallow. When they reached the foot of the mountain, Bai Qihong chose a place he thought would be the best place to clear the canal. He then instructed the craftsmen to build a shack at the foot of the mountain according to Zhu Yu's instructions to store firewood, tung oil, and other supplies. Then they looked around for a place where they could rest and spend the night.

Zhu Yu called a few craftsmen and asked them to brush tung oil and pine resin thickly on the stone wall at the foot of the mountain, and then pile firewood high underneath. When everything was ready, he asked people to light the firewood underneath.

Because of the continuous rain, the firewood was wet and difficult to ignite. Fortunately, tung oil was poured on it, and a raging fire was ignited in a short time.

The flames jumped upward along the firewood piled at the bottom of the stone wall, and soon ignited the tung oil and pine resin on it. In an instant, the stone wall that was brushed with oil was quickly burned into a wall of fire.

Because Zhu Yu specifically instructed the craftsmen to apply the paint thickly and in several layers, the fire was so fierce that it did not go out for a long time. It kept burning for a long time, until the color of the stone became much whiter than before.

Zhu Yu watched from the side and felt that the fire was almost ready, so he asked them to fetch water and pour it directly on the whitened stone wall.

Buckets of cold water were poured over it. On the surface, the stone wall looked the same as before, but they did hear a few faint sounds of something cracking. They were very small and only a few people who were close by could hear them.

Zhu Yu raised his hand to signal them to stop pouring water, and told them to continue applying tung oil and rosin, continue adding firewood, and continue burning.

The craftsmen hurriedly repeated the steps as instructed, and after a short while, the raging fire began to lick the stone wall again.

In this way, after it burned, water was poured on it, and after pouring cold water, it continued to burn.

After repeating this several times, the sound of something cracking became more and more obvious. I don't know how many times I poured cold water on the burning hot stone wall. With a cracking sound that was clearly heard by everyone present, a lightning-like crack appeared on the stone wall.

The craftsmen were in an uproar. They had been somewhat skeptical about the pretty boy who gave the orders, but since Lord Bai had given the order, they had no choice but to obey.

Now, looking at the stone wall that could only leave a shallow white mark when hit by an axe, and now has a crack as wide as a finger, he immediately feels convinced.

"Thank you all for nailing those iron wedges firmly into the cracks. Then continue to burn them as you did just now until the iron wedges turn red, and then pour water on them!" Zhu Yu walked up to them, reached out and touched the cracks, and felt much more at ease. When he gave orders to the craftsmen, his voice sounded more confident.

The craftsmen responded quickly and began to work busily. With a series of clanging sounds, iron wedges were nailed firmly into the cracks. Then tung oil and rosin were once again thickly brushed on the stone wall, and the raging flames burned again.

This cycle repeated itself many times, and after many repetitions, the original crack became larger and larger, and more new small cracks began to appear around it.

By the time it got dark, there were already several cracks on the stone wall. Although they were not enough to destroy the integrity of the stone wall, such progress was enough to make people excited.

At first, Bai Qihong was a little confused when he saw Zhu Yu directing the craftsmen to work inside and outside, over and over again. Later, he finally saw the clue and his eyes were filled with uncontrollable joy.

He has always hoped to build a large canal to benefit the people during his lifetime. This wish, which he originally thought was doomed to be impossible to achieve, now suddenly seems to be within reach, which makes him feel excited.

However, this method was effective but time-consuming and labor-intensive. Bai Qihong quickly arranged the craftsmen he brought with him into several groups, who took turns burning the stone walls and resting to ensure that they could continue to advance day and night.

　Thanks to Vegetarian Pig and book friend 20180411210707485 for the monthly tickets!
　　(End of this chapter)