The lack of housing was a major problem for the army, but Li Mengxi's talent "imagined" the snow house method and solved the problem immediately.

Li Mengxi was ready to immediately mobilize the entire army to build igloos, but after counting the supplies, he discovered that there was a shortage of branches. There were hundreds of thousands of people in the army. If he wanted to build hundreds of thousands of igloos, he would have to find tens of thousands of trees, and he would have to count them.

It would take all the branches of ten thousand trees to be torn off.

The igloo is cheap enough, snow is everywhere, all it needs is a bundle of branches, but even the branches are badly lacking.

(I’m so poor, forget it!) Li Mengxi thought depressedly.

The situation was pressing, and Li Mengxi had to think of a solution again. He thought that the Eskimos in the Arctic did not use branches when building their igloos. There were no trees in the Arctic, and the Eskimos' igloos were just houses made of ice.

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Li Mengxi thought that instead of using a branch roof, it might be possible to use huge ice blocks. The problem lies in this huge ice block.

I don’t know if there is ice in the river now. If it does, whether the ice is thick enough, and if the ice is thick enough, what is the cost and efficiency of transporting the ice back from the river?

Ice costs nothing, but the transportation efficiency is terrible.

Tree branches won't work, there aren't enough branches, and ice won't work either. Ice is difficult to process and transport, so we have to think of other ways.

Finally, when Li Mengxi saw the frozen soil wall, he remembered that frozen soil... maybe it would be okay to simply build a house with frozen soil.

Just use mud and water to build a frozen earth house.

The city walls can be built with frozen soil, so why can't the houses be built?

It is purely made of clay, so strength is not a problem. When the craftsmen built the fire kang two days ago, they used yellow mud to make an arch. After the arch was dried, it was okay for people to sleep on it.

It can withstand human strength, and it can also withstand wind and snow.

Then thinking about the molds used by the craftsmen when building the Kang, Li Mengxi wondered if he should find someone to make some molds. Each mold was exactly the size of a small snow house. The molds were placed on the ground, and the mud from the lake outside was poured with water. It would take less than half a day.

, the mud froze hard, and a frozen soil hut was built in half a day, without even using branches.

Later, when military orders were issued for civilians to collect snow to build igloos, they were also taught how to make frozen igloos. In addition, there was a third type, frozen igloos.

The so-called frozen snow house is the same as the method of freezing soil. Frozen soil is a layer of soil and a layer of water. The same is true for frozen snow. Lay a layer of snow and then sprinkle a layer of water. After the water freezes into ice, sprinkle another layer.

Layer of snow, repeat.

The reason why I don’t use snow directly is because when I was building the igloo yesterday, I discovered that if you just shovel the snow and pile it together, and try to dig out an igloo out of the snow pile, the snow will be too scattered and it will keep collapsing, making it difficult to build an igloo.

put up.

The frozen snow will be very strong and provide a foundation for construction.

By midday, Li Mengxi had the carpenters make the mold.

According to Li Mengxi's requirements, the mold must be an arched mold, preferably the size of a tomb, and when the house is built, the mold must be able to be removed from the inside.

The molds that were finally made were some curved wooden boards. The wooden boards were originally straight, at least when Li Mengxi looked at them in the morning. But when the molds were finished, they became semicircular.

The process of bending a wooden board is to bake the wooden board over a fire and slowly bake the wooden board completely. Finally, tie the two ends of the rope together to secure it. In one morning, the mold is ready.

Li Mengxi took the carpenter team to the outside of the city, found an open space at random, and put the mold together first. After the carpenters put the mold together, Li Mengxi found that the mold looked like a half-cut ball and was stuck on the ground.

The size and structure of the mold are all very suitable.

After that, they began to build a house made of frozen soil. The carpenters found mud and poured mud on the mold first. After applying a thick layer of mud, they then covered it with large wooden boards in the shape of tiles one by one to prevent the mud from slipping from the mold.

Come down.

Soon, the mud lake was gone, and wooden boards were covered with armor blocks on the outside of the mud house.

Li Mengxi was surprised by the skills of the carpenters. He just asked the carpenters for a mold. What Li Mengxi originally wanted was to put the mud directly up the lake after getting the mold. After drying the first layer, he would then dry the second layer, bit by bit.

, the thicker it gets across the lake.

However, the carpenters took it upon themselves to make the wooden boards for shaping. With the wooden boards, there is no need to layer layers of mud. They can directly fill in very thick mud, and then use the wooden boards to fix the shape. It can be formed in one go, which is very efficient and fast.

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On the whole, the frozen earth house is not actually made from the lake, but is poured. If you look at it upside down, it looks like a double-layer mold with a gap in the middle. Then pour the mud along the gap and wait for the mud to solidify.

Li Mengxi learned something again. It turns out that houses built with mud can also be poured. He thought that only cement can be built.

Admiring the wisdom of the craftsmen, Li Mengxi gave the carpenters a pound of food each, which made the carpenters very happy.

Naturally, Li Mengxi's newly learned construction methods were recorded by him.

I waited quietly with the carpenters in the heavy snow. After waiting for about an hour and a half, the soil was probably frozen hard. The carpenters removed the molds and removed the wooden boards attached to the outside one by one, revealing the mud inside.

Look, the mud is cold and hard, and it's frozen solid.

After that, the craftsmen removed the inner layer of molds, and pulled the molds out one by one from the exit. After all the molds inside and outside were removed, a thick mud shell stood firmly on the ground.

If it is a square frozen earth house, it will definitely not stand up and will definitely collapse in the middle. The arch is very strong, and the strength of the soil itself can support its own weight.

Li Mengxi went into the mud house to take a look. When he went in, he saw cracks and holes on the roof.

Except for cracks and breaks, everything else is completely solid and dense.

Such a house made of frozen soil will definitely be able to keep out snow, but its thermal insulation ability may be a bit poor because the soil is too thin. However, no matter how thin the soil is, it is still much better than a tent.

When Li Mengxi climbed out of the house, the carpenters were gathering together to discuss something.

When Li Mengxi walked over, the head craftsman came over and said that the mud had just frozen to the wooden planks, and when he removed the wooden planks, the roof was damaged.

It turns out that this is the case, no wonder there is a hole in the roof.

The team leader then said that you can add some lime, and if you sprinkle some lime on the wooden board, it will not stick to it.

Li Mengxi was still thinking about the feasibility of lime, and other carpenters said that instead of lime, firewood ash would do. Firewood ash, that is, plant ash.

In this way, building a house made of frozen soil is more like molding, and a release agent must be used.

The frozen earth house has been completed. A set of molds can make an airtight mud house in one day. If the molds are enough, ten thousand houses can be built in one day.

If it was a warm season, building a house would never be so fast. Fortunately, the weather is extremely cold. Fortunately, the frozen soil can be as hard as iron and stone. The frozen soil can be used to build a city, and it is only a house.

There are two modifications to the technology of the frozen earth house. First, the soil should be covered as thickly as possible to keep it warm. Second, some plant ash can be sprinkled on the mold to facilitate demolding and prevent the soil and wooden boards from freezing together.

Later, Li Mengxi moved to the frozen snow. One morning, the villagers piled a layer of snow, poured a layer of water, and waited until the water froze into ice. Then they piled another layer of snow. They spent a whole morning building a tomb.

A big pile of frozen snow.

With the frozen snow, I sent someone to dig holes into the snowdrift with hoes and shovels. Sure enough, the strength of the frozen snow was far better than ordinary snow. When I dug out the igloo this time, the snow would not collapse at all, and there were very few broken snow.

Lose.

Folks have as many as three types of houses to choose from. They can either use branches to make a shed roof to build an igloo, or use molds to make a frozen earth house, or dig a hole in the frozen snow to use as a house. Materials are scarce in the freezing weather.
Chapter completed!