"Mr. Li, if the Thousand Houses Fortress is now in Shandong, it will be a big castle if it has a circumference of one mile. Now the Chifeng Fort is built, with a circumference of two mile and its writing is so large that it has opened the eyes of the little old man." An old man with gray hair, black and red face, and wrinkled face on his face, smiled and bowed to Li Xiao with a tone of admiration and hesitation.

This old man, named Chang Dali, was invited by Wu Liang from Laizhou Prefecture City. He brought the largest team of craftsmen, with more than 100 people, which was more than craftsmen than Wu Liang invited in Dengzhou, Zhaoyuan, Huangxian and other places. Wu Liang only invited dozens or dozens of people in these places. Therefore, after craftsmen from all over the country came, Li Xiao arranged Chang Dali, who was the largest and experienced, to serve as the general leader of these craftsmen, and he was responsible for all the construction work.

"Master Chang, I have said that manpower and expenses are not a problem. As long as you can build Chifeng Fort as soon as possible according to our requirements, so that our military and civilians can settle down smoothly. The salary and so on, I will be a lot of money at that time." Li Xiao smiled.

"Since the adults speak like this, the old man dares not do his best." Chang Dali touched his gray beard and continued: "According to the experience of the construction of the young man on that day, it is a huge project that requires the construction of Lord Li's Chifeng Castle. Generally, the following facilities must be built, such as barracks, granaries, forage yards, storage warehouses, horse farms, yamen offices, outer city walls, city gates, urn city, corner towers, water wells, city moats..."

After pronunciating a string of nouns in Chang Dali, Li Xiao felt dizzy.

"Master Chang, please first view the sketch for me. After we discuss it, the construction will be carried out." Li Xiao interrupted Chang Dali.

Chang Dali agreed repeatedly, and after half an hour, he drew the sketch and handed it over to Li Xiao to watch.

Li Xiao saw that Chang Dali's design drawing basically revealed some of the characteristics of ordinary Qianhu Forts in the Ming Dynasty.

First, Chang Dali planned two city gates in the north and south, and then divided them into three main streets in the east, middle and west, and many alleys. Among the more than 200 acres of land south of Chifeng Fort, they skillfully set out hundreds of base residential land to be the barracks and the residence of their families.

Then, at the end of the central axis to the west, Chang Dali marked a temple here, which is called "Zhengwang Temple". Then, at the intersection of East Street and Middle Street, another place will be marked. In the future, the "Mawang Temple" will be built here, and a tall stage will be built here. The "Laoye Temple" will be built opposite the stage, and a "Niangniang Temple" will be built at the southern end of the city.

In addition, in the east of the city, several pieces of land should be left to build temples and temples that will commend military merits in the future, such as the Qishou Temple, the Xianzhong Temple, the Baozhong Temple, etc. In addition, places will be left to build various market archways and archways at the intersection of each street and alley.

Chang Dali thought that his sketch would definitely be praised by Li Xiao, but unexpectedly, after seeing him, Li Xiao shook his head and expressed his opposition.

"Master Chang, although this sketch is in line with the common pattern of the Qianhu Fort in the Ming Dynasty, it is not something our army needs." Li Xiao smiled.

"Sir, do you mean?"

"Mr. Chang, my official's intention is to ensure that everything is practical and simple to accommodate our military personnel. For example, these temples, markets, etc. can not be planned for the time being. The various archways and ancestral temples will not be built except for the loyal martyrs temples that pay homage to our military heroes."

"Oh, that little old man will modify it according to the adult's opinion."

Finally, after detailed discussion with Li Xiao and Wu Liang and others, the final plan was as follows.

The entire Chifeng Fort was designed in a square shape, with each wall length of more than 380 steps (about 500 meters), and was still designed as two city gates in the north and south. Because Chifeng Fort was high in terrain and difficult to divert water, Li Xiao decided not to dig a moat.

In Chifeng Castle, according to Li Xiao's opinion, like later generations, firstly, the main road of the cross is planned, with the main road being about eight steps wide (about 10 meters), and the entire Chifeng Castle is divided into four districts, northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest. Then in each district, the cross-shaped secondary road is marked as the main street in the district, and the main street of this type of secondary road is about six steps wide (about 8 meters). Li Xiao required that all these streets be paved with bluestone slabs, and there should also be drainage ditches made of bluestone slabs on both sides of the street for easy cleaning and sorting.

The sub-street roads in each district are divided into alleys. Li Xiao only emphasized one thing, that is, the alleys should be as straight as possible, keep them unobstructed, and not be crooked. In addition, there are no specific regulations on length, size, spacing, etc.

This well-organized in-house planning not only has the design beauty of the ancient Tang Dynasty cities, but also conforms to the planning concept of modern cities. It is completely different from the existing urban style of the Ming Dynasty, where governments and houses are mixed with shops and temples.

Li Xiao had an intuition in his heart, that is, the urban atmosphere full of city and idle atmosphere in the Song and Ming dynasties would have adverse effects on the national character such as being disguised, weak, and just getting through. Although Li Xiao had no evidence to prove his point of view, this intuitive perception made him choose the urban architectural style that was more inclined to the Han and Tang dynasties.

After the zoning was demarcated, Li Xiao initially planned the uses of each district.

The Northeast District is an administrative district, and all kinds of government offices, official residences, schools, martyrs' temples, etc. will be built here in the future.

The northwest area is a storage area, where gold, silver, wealth, grain, forage, beans, etc. are all placed here.

The southwest area is a military camp area, such as military camps, schoolyards, stables, arsenals, canteens and other military facilities, which are all arranged in this area.

The southeast area is a family area, with all kinds of private houses, residences, and future bathhouses in this area.

These four areas are not of equal proportion. Li Xiao designed it as the entire cross central axis, moving 50 meters northward. In this way, the area of ​​the administrative area and the storage area should be small, while the area of ​​the family area and the military camp area is larger, so as to ensure the full use of the land.

Finally, in order to facilitate water use, Li Xiao decided to dig wells in the two areas close to each other, and a total of two were dug. To ensure durability, bluestone was used as the foundation and dig deep.

When the architectural sketch was finally finalized, Li Xiao's orderly planning was almost unanimously agreed by everyone.

Only Wu Liang raised one question, that is, why there is no planned location for building shops in the fort.

Li Xiao explained that Shandong is not peaceful now, and our army is still weak. If we immediately recruit merchants from unknown sources to open shops in the fort, if they are nearby bandits or even the Seizure of the Later Jin Dynasty sneak into the fort, even if they are just a fire, they will have a devastating blow to Li Xiao, the founding foundation.

So Li Xiao decided to temporarily arrange all the merchants outside the fort. After a few months, if someone guarantees it, after inspection, they are genuine businessmen, and then they can be granted a license to enter the family area to open a shop, which will make it more convenient for the family and residents to live. After all, there are still enough vacant land in the family area to build.

The plan is set, construction will be started immediately.

First and most importantly, the construction of the city wall.

Li Xiao and Chang Dali agreed to design this city wall to be 6 meters wide and 15 meters high. The inner rammed earth is the inner wall and the blue bricks are outlined. Now in the Ming Dynasty, the width of the fort wall is basically 3-6 meters and the height is between 9-15 meters. Li Xiao has taken the maximum value to ensure its strength and durability.

At the same time, Li Xiao stipulated that both the north and south city gates should be built to build a urn city, and above the city walls, defense measures such as pheasants, women's walls, sheep and horse walls, forts, and perforations were all built according to the system to ensure the defense capabilities of the fortress.

Originally, Li Xiao wanted to build the castle city into a castle-style like in the West, so that the entire castle will leave no blind spots and further enhance the guarding ability of the castle city. However, he was not an architectural expert and did not know much about the castle, and he could not convey his own ideas to the craftsmen, so he could only build according to the existing specifications of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Xiao ordered that a group of craftsmen, including Quandun's family who could work, would obey Chang Dali's instructions and start building the fort wall by digging the foundation and laying bluestone.

Chang Dali told Li Xiao that if the width of the city wall is 6 meters, the foundation bluestone should be at least 10 meters wide, and Li Xiao agreed to his request.

What made Li Xiao quite pleased was that all the staff of the pun joined the construction of the fort wall happily.

After all, in the fundamental sense, this Chifeng Castle was built for them. Therefore, everyone burst out with positive motivation and the scene was in full swing.
Chapter completed!