Chapter 122: Change the shell

Speaking of the decoration project of Danyang Bell Tower, the final compromise plan really made Ye Tao feel amused. Since Danyang Bell Tower uses cast iron frame structure and simple prefabricated hoisting technology more thoroughly than Qihai Tower in Yicheng, how to make the external sculpture decoration? After all, after the inside of Danyang Bell Tower is completed, there is no dispute. Anyway, after the plan is available, the sculpture project will be carried out on the ground according to the plan, and then hoist it in place. Although Dai Yuege, the largest contractor in the project, was angry that he was the most skilled.

The Rui's construction team was dragged on the construction site, wasting great time, but there was no choice. In the midst of the dispute, the Danyang Bell Tower was covered with a simple brick surface and a rough gray ugly appearance, and stood in Danyang for so long. Since the investment structure of the Danyang Bell Tower is far more complicated than that of the Qihai Tower in Yicheng, this dispute is even more difficult to calm down. It is said that in the end, the king of the country, Tan Xiaopei, really felt that it was a bit uncomfortable to put the ugly semi-finished product in front of him, so he summoned the parties to the dispute and asked them to come up with a unified plan as soon as possible.

Among the parties involved in dispute, Ye's Workshop and Dai Yue Pavilion are the most indifferent parties. They just think that the plan that is not much different from the Qihai Tower is enough from the perspective of construction difficulty and operation experience. Danyang and Yicheng are a beautiful thing to respond from a distance. However, this plan has not been valued by everyone from the beginning. If this plan is enabled, it will invisibly greatly increase the political status of Yicheng, and the importance of Qihai Tower, and the importance of Qihai Trading Company, will be raised more in the eyes of others. As a result, no matter the arrogant Danyang officials or Jiuzhou Trading Company, which contributed money and efforts in the construction of the Danyang Bell Tower, they are unwilling to accept it.

Because Danyang Bell Tower is so eye-catching, the civil forces formed by Danyang’s famous scholars, students, retired officials, and representatives of various clans are also constantly making suggestions.

The decoration plan presented by the Ministry of Works emphasized the solemn and dignified side of the Danyang Bell Tower. This plan was participated by a large number of officials from the Ministry of Rites, which was very meaningful to beautify such a bell tower into the symbolic meaning of the Dongping royal power. However, although this plan is nothing wrong in terms of principle. No one will object too fiercely, but with the examples of Qihai Tower in Yicheng before, everyone thinks that this plan is really not very good.

Among the famous scholars and students in Danyang, there are quite a few who have experienced paintings and other aspects. The plans they came up with are beautiful, but because there are too many openwork, round carving and other techniques used in the middle of the sculpture, the production of these engravings may not be a big problem in terms of operation. However, the loss of installation will be large and a large number of repairs and spare parts will be required. Ye's workshop, which already has experience in managing Qihai Tower, has proposed such a decoration plan. The characteristics of hiding dirt are too obvious, and it will be quite troublesome to clean the exterior walls in the future.

In general, the decoration plan proposed by Jiuzhou Trading Company is to combine beauty and operability best. But the merchants were so crazy that they could come up with an extremely colorful plan. They actually proposed to use a large amount of ore pigments, even gold and silver foil, combined with sculpture and other techniques to perform such decoration. Judging from the simulation diagrams made, this plan is indeed the most beautiful, but in this era, it is not a problem to apply gold and silver foil patches on the surface of stone, and can be used indoors and outdoors. It is a completely different problem. Erosion of wind, frost, rain and snow will cause these pigments to weather and peel off quickly, and the appearance will be ugly at that time.

At the imperial meeting that mediated the opinions of the three parties, Gao Zhen, as the most skilled official in Dongping, also attended. When the three parties were quarreling, Gao Zhen felt that it was unconventional to make this happen in front of the king, and said, "The decoration of this bell tower is not something that has been raised and changed into flower pots, but it is also a set of things, so what are you doing?"

Unexpectedly, this sentence inspired Tan Xiaopei. He felt that since these exterior wall decorative panels were made and hoisted on the ground one by one, they should be able to be removed. So he asked someone to summarize all the plans of the three parties. In addition, the meeting minutes of the negotiation meeting in front of the imperial court were handed over to Tan Weixin, and asked Tan Weixin to ask Ye Tao if there was such feasibility.

Now, Tan Weixin and Ye Tao were both stunned. The example they thought of was not what Gao Zhen said to change the flower pots for the flowers and plants he was working on at home, but products like mobile phones that they had long been familiar with. How mobile phones that could be replaced with shells were popular back then, they all had practical experiences.

And now, if the entire building needs to be replaced, is this possible?

Ye Tao has specific data on ready-made architectural design and construction. From the design point of view, he can come up with several solutions to allow the installed decorative panels to be disassembled. For example, installing the groove-type fitting structure for hanging decorative material blocks on the current wall, such as using chemical adhesives that can lose their effect under certain conditions. Or establishing a metal frame structure outside the current wall to hang decorative blocks, but these must have a basic condition, that is, the structure of the building is strong enough. After all, because the decoration plan was not implemented at that time, the design of the Danyang Bell Tower was based on the decoration plan that was roughly similar to the Qihai Tower.

However, after specific calculations, Ye Tao found that the strength of the Danyang Bell Tower could completely change the shell. After thinking about it, he still reported the installation frame and then the replacement groove as the first plan. After all, this plan is more reliable than installing it directly on the current interior wall. Although the construction quality of the interior wall is absolutely satisfactory, the wall made of bricks to cope with the horizontal pulling force is obviously not a strong point. Although the installation of the metal frame will reduce the original strength margin, causing the bell tower to have some problems when encountering catastrophic weather such as earthquakes or typhoons with relatively strong strength. At least, the decoration plates installed are likely to fall off, but in general, this plan is still the safest.

After many days of calculation and research, Ye Tao finally wrote the bell tower shell replacement plan and various problems he thought would cause, and handed it on it.

Now everyone was stunned. Tan Xiaopei had heard that the decorative boards installed could not be easily removed, so he no longer had too much hope. He was about to hold another imperial meeting to decide which plan to use. Unexpectedly, although Ye Tao explained why according to the original plan, he could not be disassembled after installation, he also gave a feasible plan. This plan made everyone completely stunned and completely crazy. The multi-material and multi-color plan led by Jiuzhou Trading Company was the most mature, and it became the first plan to be implemented immediately. The other two plans allowed both parties to propose the plan to continue to improve.

Ye Tao also mentioned another question very clearly. He can indeed change the shell of the building, but a large number of engineering preparations are expensive. In the future, each shell replacement will also be costly. This part of the cost is not in the original budget. In this construction, the increased cost requires funding, and in the future, each reinstallation cost cannot be borne by the Ye Workshop or the construction team of Dai Yuege.

Jiuzhou Trading Company generously paid the bill and proposed to establish a Bell Tower Management Bureau, with people from all parties joining to coordinate the future decoration plan of the Bell Tower and the raising of fees. Ye's Workshop once again began to make unprecedented attempts under the leadership of Ye Tao.

It has to be admitted that the addition of Persian craftsmen is a huge help to this decoration project. In Persia and further west, the technology of building with stone is more mature than in the East, which is accustomed to wooden structures, and there are more and more diverse means for the decoration technology of stone. Coupled with Ye Tao's technology in technology application and his experience in project management, the energy of Persian craftsmen quickly bloomed. Gold foil, silver foil, cobalt blue, lapis lazuli, cinnabar and other mineral pigments were efficiently used, and the progress of the decoration project was very rapid.

The final appearance of the bell tower in Danyang is very different from the Qihai Tower in Yicheng. The four corners of the tower and the four stone strips that are straight up from the top of the ground are carved with classic, simple, and timeless cloud patterns. On the four walls, when one side of the stone slab is attached to the cast iron frame, the entire tower combines the two characteristics of majesty and liveliness. Although it adopts a colorful decoration scheme, the color and pattern design have been carefully designed, and the bell tower does not make it look vulgar and vulgar, but shows an uplifting temperament.

Ye Tao completed another difficult task that others absolutely could not imagine, and everyone thought so. But for Ye Tao, he was just solving a problem that he didn't want to encounter at all.
Chapter completed!