Chapter 138: The Whole County Rises to Attack
Holding the cement formulas distributed by Zhao Hengyi, everyone finally believed that this Master Zhao was genuinely determined to construct a sturdy river embankment!
The firing process detailed in the formula was extremely crude, devoid of literary flair or mystical terminology, completely unworthy of the fame Zhao Hengyi had attained across the realm through just two peerless and exquisite ci poems!
Yet, every single step of producing the cement was written down with absolute clarity and precision in the formula, as if the author feared that anyone holding it might make a mistake during the firing process!
The group of wealthy squires exchanged glances, and as they looked at Zhao Hengyi again, their expressions involuntarily grew complex.
Regardless of whether those present held imperial degrees, they all hailed from affluent and prominent clans, with a few even belonging to branch lineages of illustrious families within Jiangling City, meaning they were naturally all literate.
The kind of person depicted in books—someone entirely dedicated to others with no regard for personal gain—actually existed!
While inwardly thinking that Zhao Hengyi's behavior was foolish to the point of pity, they nonetheless felt other emotions stirring within them, creating an ineffable and complex sensation that was difficult to put into word.
However, regardless of what anyone was thinking, they all carefully and reverently stowed away the cement formulas. If one were to let them get soaked by rain, it would truly be a monstrous waste!
In the present Great Yan Empire, the world recognized only two types of mortar used for binding bricks and stones.
The most common and widely used was lime-soil mortar, while the one with superior performance and exceptional results was glutinous rice mortar.
Lime-soil mortar offered very limited durability and could even be described as utterly mediocre; after just a few years, the bonded bricks and stones would crack and develop gaps.
Glutinous rice mortar, though sturdy, was absurdly expensive!
Years ago, the fabulously wealthy city of Suzhou was repairing its defensive walls. Some clever soul in Suzhou—where money was no object—thought of glutinous rice mortar.
At the time, the idea was embraced by everyone within Suzhou, who were convinced that walls built with glutinous rice mortar would provide unmatched peace of mind and undoubtedly repel the land-faring pirates and Japanese raiders that periodically struck the coast.
As a result, after everyone eagerly commenced work, that stretch of new city wall, originally planned to span dozens of li, had to be halted after a mere two li had been built.
Rumors at the time circulated that those two li of new city wall had consumed a staggering tens of thousands of catties of glutinous rice!
Even a prefectural seat as wealthy as Suzhou could not sustain such extravagance!
The remaining sections of the new city wall reverted entirely to lime-soil mortar. The prefect of Suzhou at the time tearfully told everyone that it was not that they did not want to use glutinous rice mortar, but rather that their humble capacities simply could not manage it!
Such an absurd affair spread far and wide, instantly becoming a laughingstock. Whenever anyone boasted about Suzhou's immense wealth, someone else would inevitably bring up the old tale of repairing the city wall.
If money truly was no object, they should have renovated all the city walls with glutinous rice mortar!
A minor backwater like Dangyang County, which was dirt-poor even within the borders of Jiangling Prefecture, probably lagged behind the opulent Suzhou by a distance of a hundred thousand li!
So-called glutinous rice mortar, let alone being used for river embankments, would not even cross the minds of these wealthy squires when rebuilding their ancestral mansions!
Yet the advent of cement offered everyone a new choice.
The two broken bricks Zhao Hengyi had just presented were bound together by this novel mortar, and everyone had personally experienced their sturdiness, which was easily superior to the so-called glutinous rice mortar!
At present, all that was required was to verify whether the formula provided by Zhao Hengyi was genuine. Even if Zhao Hengyi had held something back, and the cement produced by the squires using his formula retained only sixty percent of the strength they had just witnessed—nay, even forty percent—it would still be more than enough to replace the currently widespread lime-soil mortar!
Compared to glutinous rice mortar, lime-soil mortar was considered cheap, but that did not mean lime-soil mortar required no silver!
After their emotional fluctuations subsided, the wealthy squires gradually regained their composure. All claims required personal verification before one could be certain.
Furthermore, since Zhao Hengyi had volunteered to undertake the construction of the treacherous bend in the river embankment near Yushu Bay, it provided the perfect opportunity to test the effectiveness of this new mortar!
After all, seeing was not necessarily believing in this world, and the wealthy squires still preferred to let facts speak for themselves!
"For Master Zhao to donate such a divine creation is truly a blessing for the realm!"
County Magistrate Liu Rui, who placed absolute trust in Zhao Hengyi, was even more straightforward than the wealthy squires. "Gentlemen, with Master Zhao setting such an example, if anyone up and down Dangyang County dares to sabotage the river embankment project, do not blame old Liu for turning hostile and refusing to recognize acquaintances!"
The atmosphere had reached the right pitch, and the band of wealthy squires successively gave their assent. Some even took the initiative to slap palms with Magistrate Liu in a solemn pact, swearing to defend the embankment when floods struck and ensure the safety of Dangyang County!
In reality, the underlying logic remained the same. No matter how many misdeeds these wealthy squires committed on ordinary days or how many atrocious acts they carried out behind closed doors, they ultimately lived in Dangyang County.
Even if only out of self-interest, none of them wanted the river embankment to breach.
Their previous stalling and perfunctory attitude, to put it bluntly, stemmed from the fear that Magistrate Liu Rui would use the pretext of repairing the embankment to line his own pockets and amass wealth!
In the magical world of the Great Yan Empire, the saying that a magistrate could ruin a family and a prefectural governor could destroy a clan was not just idle chatter!
Those with formidable connections within the upper echelons would not find themselves trapped in this tiny Dangyang County.
These wealthy squires usually appeared full of bravado, so their confidence amounted to nothing more than deeply intertwined connections and the long-established, conventional custom of clan-based local governance.
Unlike the cultural havens of Jiangnan, where scholars were everywhere and every village boasted officials, Magistrate Liu had now firmly seized control of the county government in Dangyang. If he intentionally targeted a particular family, even if he could not drive them to utter ruin, he could undoubtedly deal a crippling blow to their vitality.
The strategy adopted by the wealthy squires had simply been to deny Liu Rui any opening, and in their eyes, the river embankment project was the most dangerous opening of all!
The homes, clansmen, and farmland of the wealthy squires were all located in Dangyang County, and these assets could not be moved. Once a flood struck, the squires could certainly retreat into the county seat and remain safe and sound, but their properties would inevitably suffer catastrophic damage, and their clansmen and tenant farmers would still need relief after the disaster—another staggering expense.
Everyone carried a scale in their hearts. When Liu Rui announced the policy of labor in lieu of taxes, and when Zhao Hengyi unselfishly handed over the cement formula, the scales in the hearts of the wealthy squires naturally tipped toward wholeheartedly constructing the river embankment!
In the hearts of these wealthy squires, there was no lack of enthusiasm for building river embankments, for this was a matter directly tied to their vital interests!
"Gentlemen, from this moment onward, let us cooperate with all our might to safeguard the county's embankments together. Anyone who acts hypocritically and ruins the grand plan of embankment construction shall be struck down by the entire county!"