Chapter 183 Conspiracy

Seeing Ye Tao's interest piqued, Guan Haishan instead became coy. He suddenly said, "Do you know what trick I used to pass the technician assessment?"

Ye Tao wasn't annoyed that his senior brother had changed the subject, and asked with a smile, "If I'm not mistaken, it should be something like an architectural model, right?"

Guan Haishan nodded, patted Ye Tao on the shoulder, and said, "You really can't hide anything from you. I took a piece of wood and made a framework of a palace building in the dougong (a system of brackets inserted between the top of a column and a crossbeam) style, and then piled stones on that model. In the end, the framework model only weighed three jin and seven liang, but the stones were piled until it collapsed at one thousand one hundred and fifty jin. Hehe, you should have seen the expressions of those people around at the time."

So his senior brother, who had seen so many big scenes, still had such a childlike heart. Ye Tao was stunned for a moment, then chuckled and said, "That ratio is indeed remarkable. But it can only be done with a model, right? A real building can't achieve this kind of load-bearing ratio no matter what. Of course, there's no way to test it."

Guan Haishan agreed deeply and said, "Yes, but it's still very interesting to play like this. According to the description of those two friends in Yu Hang, I made a rough structural model of that clock tower in Chunnan. It may not be completely accurate, but according to them, it should be close. You'll know when you see that framework. Sigh, the people of Chunnan really know how to waste money."

Guan Haishan waved his hand, and a follower immediately brought over the large wooden box he had brought, and placed it on the workbench where Ye Tao and Guan Haishan were chatting and drinking tea. Guan Haishan removed the lid of the box, and the structural model of the entire tower building was presented before Ye Tao's eyes.

Unlike the Seven Seas Pagoda and Danyang Clock Tower, which had already begun to use the latest building materials and construction methods, the clock tower that the people of Chunnan wanted to build themselves actually used extremely traditional oriental pagoda-style construction techniques. In the middle were two giant wooden pillars forming the central axis, and each floor's floor and the central axis were left with a little gap. The entire tower body was like a huge and thick sleeve, covering the outside of the central axis. This structure allowed the high tower to have a certain degree of swing during earthquakes or typhoons, to avoid damage to the building structure under special weather conditions. This structure can be said to be very advanced. Ye Tao knew that many pagoda-style buildings had adopted this structure and achieved excellent results. Some pagodas had even stood firm for hundreds of years, and even after half of the tower body collapsed, the other half remained standing. What surprised Ye Tao the most was that there was actually a small counterweight-like thing at the top of the huge central axis pillar. Could it be that someone already realized the use of this horizontal damping device to reduce the swing of the building?

After observing carefully for a while, Ye Tao asked, "Senior Brother, is this model based on blueprints, or did you redesign it based on your own experience?"

Guan Haishan smiled slyly and said, "Someone helped me get the blueprints."

Ye Tao frowned and asked, "Traditional pagoda-style buildings, especially this central axis method, are too restricted by natural materials. No matter what, it won't exceed a hundred and fifty chi (a traditional Chinese unit of length, approximately 1/3 of a meter), right? Is that a bit short for a clock tower?"

Guan Haishan nodded in agreement and said, "The Chunnan side first determined the wood for the central axis, and then designed it according to the length of the wood. The height of the tower is only a hundred and twenty chi. But, the people of Chunnan are really willing to throw money away. They flattened the entire top of Danxia Mountain, which originally had a very good view by the port, and paved it with stone into a whole stepped stone platform about fifteen chi high, and then built this tower in the center of the stone platform. Whether it's the landscape or the places where the clock tower can be seen, it's much better than the Seven Seas Pagoda. The only trouble is the installation of the bell. This kind of pagoda-style building doesn't seem to have any place to install a large enough bell. When telling the time, the sound can't travel too far."

Ye Tao nodded and said, "There must be gains and losses. I've seen the map of Yu Hang. The port and Danxia Mountain are not in the middle of the city. Unlike Yicheng's layout centered on the port, they may not have expected the sound of the bell to cover the entire city. It can only be said that everyone's design concepts and the design for the use of the clock tower are different. However, you said that the people of Chunnan are extravagant, and it's really true. Most of the cost of such a clock tower is in the materials. And daily maintenance is much more troublesome than the Seven Seas Pagoda and Danyang Clock Tower. Just the mothproofing of so many wooden materials is a huge expense every year. … When will this thing be finished? I kind of want to go see it."

"A formal inspection or an informal visit?" Guan Haishan didn't find it strange. He asked with a smile, "They've been working on it for a while, but I estimate it will take at least a year and a half or two years to complete, and that's if everything is well-guaranteed. Will you have time to go then?"

Ye Tao shrugged noncommittally and said, "We'll talk about it then. If I really want to go, there will be time. Senior Brother… I'm really sorry that you came all this way but can't let you show your face at the wedding…"

Guan Haishan tilted his head and looked at Ye Tao, and said indifferently, "It's also fun to build something in Xiling. We're brothers, don't say such polite words. My wife and children are traveling in Yunzhou during this time. Just help arrange them properly."

After a slight pause, Guan Haishan asked again, "Didn't you say you wanted to build a city in Yunzhou? When I come back from Xiling, can you determine the location?"

Ye Tao shook his head and said, "The positioning of this city is not clear, so I really don't know how to choose a site. His Majesty's idea is that the city should be a bit further south, a bit further east, which is the northeast side of Snow Wolf Lake now. This new city is not only the future central city of Yunzhou, but also the future northern central city of the entire Dongping. If I can make this city meet these two requirements, the national treasury and the inner treasury will allocate funds to support the construction of the city. Naturally, the requirements are very high. This city must be able to accommodate 500,000 residents, and also be able to accommodate more than 100,000 troops, with various facilities suitable for residents' lives, a complete water supply and drainage, transportation and disaster prevention system, and also a thorough and powerful defense force. Moreover, this city must be integrated with the landscape, have beautiful scenery, and even the various designs of the entire city must be able to stand the test of decades or hundreds of years… Because, the many technologies and methods that will be used in this city will become the standard and reference for the future new capital. Senior Brother, how long do you think a city that meets these requirements will take to design and construct?"

Guan Haishan frowned and asked hesitantly, "Are you planning to put all those sewers and other facilities in this city?"

Ye Tao nodded and said, "Yes, the reason why Danyang rebuilt the new urban area was because the original facilities were a bit too old. If we were to redo everything, the amount of work would be too great, so we abandoned those designs. Moreover, it's not very meaningful to build sewers and the like just in a new urban area. But now that we're going to rebuild a city, the easiest thing to do is to do these things from the beginning. After all, it's more convenient to do it directly now than to dig up the roads later to bury pipes."

Guan Haishan nodded. He found it hard to imagine what a city with such high requirements in all aspects would look like, and it was also hard to imagine how Ye Tao would make trade-offs and decisions in the city's functions and appearance, but he was very clear that this must be a major project that could become the focus of attention of the entire continent. It was impossible for Ye Tao to put all his energy into this city, and he himself would be the most suitable chief engineer for this city.

He smiled lightly, shook his head helplessly, and said, "But, that's what makes it interesting, isn't it. You should take care of the city site selection first. When I come back from Xiling, it should be about time for the design phase, right?"

Ye Tao grabbed Guan Haishan's hand and said, "Senior Brother, this trip to Xiling, although there are thorough guards, is after all enemy territory, so please be careful."

The reason for Guan Haishan to go to Xiling was naturally to preside over the construction project, from the design to the later decoration. And this project is also a part of Ye Tao's, Dongping's important layout: the Leiyin Demon Sect's main altar building complex. Compared with the various construction projects that Guan Haishan had handled in the past, this building complex could only be regarded as a piece of cake, but carrying out this project in Xiling, without the construction team composed entirely of skilled workers and experienced foremen, technicians, and craftsmen that he had used so smoothly, it was really necessary for Guan Haishan to solve all kinds of construction problems.

In any case, Guan Haishan had to complete the general construction of the entire temple complex before June of next year, without leaving any troublesome technical problems. Subsequently, Guan Haishan would become the chief engineer of the new city in Yunzhou, and work with Ye Tao to complete the design of the entire city, and take charge of the entire city's construction project. In this city's construction project, he would have almost unlimited power: the power of personnel, the power of finance. His goal was to work with Ye Tao to build this city into a classic that would be difficult for later generations to surpass. How much it would cost was not something he needed to consider at all. In fact, he had unlimited funding. These were exactly the opposite of the temple complex. The entire temple complex had a budget of only three hundred and seventy thousand taels of silver, which forced him to reverse the design of the entire temple complex from the budget. The conflict between function and budget was really one of the most interesting problems that every architect would encounter.