Unknown Knight

That afternoon, a professional excavation team of 30 people, fully equipped and well-supplied, set out from the east gate of Fort Standstill.

After an hour's journey, they arrived at the large bay with a spring in the sea by land. After finding the two coconut trees that Aix had used as a reference, the group walked up the slope for about five miles before Aix finalized the excavation location and the excavation team began to dig downwards.

The terrain here is almost flat, and in the distance is the endless Gobi Desert with no grass growing on it. No one would have thought that there is a spring of life beneath this barren land.

The excavation team started out digging smoothly, but when they dug more than one meter, they realized that it would not take so many people to dig down a well pit with a diameter of more than three meters, so most of them stood by and watched.

Seeing this, Aix had to start a new project and dig a second vertical shaft 70 meters away in parallel, so that the personnel could be deployed, including those who took turns to rest.

The excavation team was composed of skilled diggers specially selected from the Standing Fort, and their excavation efficiency was very high. In just over an hour, they dug more than ten meters on both sides. After another hour, they dug into moist soil in the second vertical shaft at a depth of more than twenty meters.

Aix went down into the well, grabbed a handful of sand and held it in his hand. Feeling that it was not very wet, he asked the excavation team to continue digging downwards. They dug about ten meters further. At a depth of about thirty meters, they found wet sand on both sides.

Axe felt that it was almost done and the water vein should be within this layer of sand and soil, so he divided the people into four groups. Two groups dug opposite each other in the middle of the two vertical shafts. Axe planned to dig through both sides, while the other two groups dug in the opposite direction.

The two groups digging in opposite directions were not a big deal. The distance between the two groups facing each other was sixty or seventy meters. In order not to deviate from the direction, Aix borrowed the method of digging karez from the ancients, that is, the wooden stick positioning method, that is, in the middle of the two adjacent vertical shafts, above the vertical shaft mouth, two well ropes were hung on the windlass used to take soil, and a horizontal wooden stick with a sharpened end was tied to the well rope. The direction in which the two stick tips pointed to each other was the shortest straight line between the two vertical shafts.

However, the two vertical shafts were seventy meters apart. It was fine at the beginning, but after digging for a distance, it was difficult to see the wooden stick clearly in the tunnel which was only more than one person wide. In addition, it was already dark in the well. So Aix borrowed the second orientation method used by the ancients when digging karez, that is, the oil lamp light shadow method. Specifically, an oil lamp was placed not far behind the person digging the tunnel. Under the illumination of the oil lamp, the person in charge of digging in front turned his back to the oil lamp. As long as he dug facing his own shadow, he would basically not deviate from the direction.

Even with the guidance of these two crude but effective methods, due to lack of experience, more than three hours later, the two groups digging in opposite directions still dug about three meters off the intersection. Fortunately, the two tunnels were not far from each other, and they relied on sound to locate the two sides. They found that the passage dug from the second vertical shaft was more than half a meter deeper than the first one.

However, this little regret was not a big problem and was diluted by the joy they had gained at the moment. In this relatively opposite passage, they dug out two water seepage points one after another. At one of the larger water seepage points, the water in the tunnel had already reached above their feet. A water seepage point was also dug out in the passage at the other end of the first vertical shaft.

If you have never drunk water that cost five copper coins a can, and have never experienced the discomfort and despair of thirst in the desert, you will not be able to understand the joy in the hearts of the excavation team members at this moment. They cheered, howled with excitement, smeared muddy water on themselves, and drank it, as if what they had dug up was not a water source, but a priceless gold vein.

Due to his noble status, Aix could not join the team members' revelry, but he could not contain his joy and walked twice in the tunnel with dignity. Just as he was feeling pleased with himself for finally solving a major hidden worry, the slowly flowing water under his feet gave him inspiration.

Previously, in order to find the exact location of the water vein as quickly as possible, he had been considering the construction location of the underground tunnel using the method of digging a karez. Now, seeing the water flowing in the tunnel, he had a bold idea, which was to divert the water here to Fort Standstill, just like the karez.

At first glance, this project seems to be very huge and seems to be an impossible task. However, after nearly one night of construction, it is a relatively easy task to complete based on the construction volume alone.

The distance from Fort Standstill to here is no more than six miles, or three kilometers. Calculated as a five-person team, two people take turns digging a tunnel about one meter wide and one and a half meters high in the front, and the other three are responsible for transporting earth. Assuming the working hours are ten hours a day, including the time for digging the vertical shaft, it is no problem for a team to dig twenty to thirty meters a day.

If there are twenty such teams, and they eliminate various difficult factors, such as different geological structures, landslides, etc., and each team's excavation speed is calculated based on the minimum standard of 20 meters, they can excavate at least 400 meters a day. In less than ten days, they can dig a tunnel to Fort Standstill, bring water to Fort Standstill, and completely solve the water problem in the fort.

Through simple calculations, this place is about 45 meters above sea level, and the Gobi Desert standing on the cliff outside the fort is only about 40 meters above sea level at most, so they only need to dig each vertical shaft to a maximum depth of 30 meters.

What remains to be done is to draw out the construction routes along the line, as well as the locations where vertical shafts need to be dug every fifty to seventy meters. The method of segmented construction will be adopted, and each vertical shaft can be constructed in two directions at the same time, so ten vertical shafts can be dug at the same time. At least ten windlasses are needed to lift the earth. There are only two windlasses in the territory now, and both are here, so some more need to be made. In addition, a large number of winnowing baskets and baskets for transporting earth, as well as at least three hundred meters of well ropes, also need to be made by Banbo and his men.

After a rough estimate in his mind, Aix felt more confident. It was already dawn, and everyone had been busy all night without realizing it. Aix gathered everyone, left three people to guard the tunnel, and took the rest back to Fort Standstill.

As soon as he returned to the castle, Aix immediately summoned leaders such as James and Veron to a meeting. When he told everyone about his idea, it caused a sensation. Some people agreed, but more people opposed it.

Several people headed by Niza raised doubts, believing that the territory was currently facing a tight situation and this idea was too bold and exceeded the existing capabilities of the territory. After all, digging a tunnel to divert water from a place five or six miles away was a huge project they had never experienced before, so they dared not even think about it.

Aix had to repeat his preliminary calculations to everyone. When everyone heard that it would take less than 200 people and only about ten days to bring an endless supply of water into the castle, they were all excited and expressed amazement.

James and Velen immediately used data to verify Ax's idea. After all, everyone had carried out the construction of excavating the Standing Fort before, and once the previous and subsequent projects were quantified and calculated, the feasibility was actually almost the same as what Ax said. All the leaders admired Ax's "genius" idea, and after a round of flattery and praise for Ax that made his face hot, they unanimously passed this important resolution.