267: Chapter 267 The Awe-Inspiring Bridge Construction Process

"Meng Yi!"

Feng Quji thought of this young man.

Although Meng Yi came from a military family, he was a scholar. Over the years, he had been gaining experience by the side of these old veterans. Many state affairs were handled by him before being submitted.

Naturally, Feng Quji handed over the work of the National Congress to Meng Yi to handle.

Meanwhile, he whipped his horse to catch up with the carriages of the First Emperor and Li Si, heading together to watch Zhao Fusu build a stone bridge by the Yellow River.

Meng Yi sighed, wishing he could go watch as well!

Reporters from the Great Qin Empire Weekly also arrived at the banks of the Yellow River to conduct interviews and report on the matter in the newspaper.

The construction of a five-mile-long bridge across the Yellow River immediately caused a massive stir throughout Guanzhong once the news was released.

Nowadays, the newspaper was not only sold in Xianyang but throughout Guanzhong, and it even circulated to the Six Lands, where it was very popular.

"Is this for real? Building a bridge across the five-mile-wide surface of the Yellow River—is that even possible?"

"According to the newspaper, a section has already been built on the Yellow River!"

"The water in the middle of the Yellow River must be at least ten meters deep. How could they possibly continue building?"

...

The Yellow River Bridge became the talk of the town for people in the Qin Region and even the Six Lands.

Some nobles specifically traveled to the Yellow River Bridge to see if it was true.

After they confirmed it, even more nobles were attracted to the site.

For a time, there was an endless stream of people coming to the Yellow River Bridge construction site to check it out.

Not only Great Qin, but even the Xiongnu herdsmen in the Southern Desert had heard that His Majesty the Head of State of Great Qin was building a bridge over the Yellow River. The herdsmen rode their horses to see the spectacle.

This included tribal leaders like Jin Tu, Qing Ying, and Huyan Zhuo. It wasn't that the Xiongnu people hadn't thought about building bridges over the Yellow River, but at most, they could only build pontoon bridges.

Asking them to build a stone bridge was something they simply could not do, even if it killed them.

Therefore, they didn't quite believe the rumors about Great Qin building a stone bridge over the Yellow River.

When they saw the massive stone bridge deck established at the edge of the Yellow River, they rubbed their eyes hard, utterly shocked.

It really wasn't a rumor; the people of Great Qin were truly building a stone bridge across a five-mile-wide river!

Even though seeing was believing, tribal leaders like Jin Tu, Qing Ying, and Huyan Zhuo were still in disbelief. They were incredibly shocked; the Great Qin people were too crazy to actually build a stone bridge across the five-mile-wide Yellow River!

When the bridge piers needed to be built in the deep-water zone, cofferdams could no longer be used; the Caisson Method had to be employed.

Huge rectangular frames had already been prepared and filled with a large amount of sand and stone to increase the weight.

The huge frame was secured by two lengths of steel cable, and the hook of the Steam Crane's boom caught the middle of the cables, lifting the massive frame up.

Then, the Steam Crane carried the frame, drove onto the completed bridge deck, and placed it there.

To accurately place this frame into the water thirty-five meters ahead, a Steam Tower Crane had to be used.

The Steam Tower Crane required a solid concrete foundation.

Therefore, the Steam Tower Crane was mounted on the bridge pier.

The tower body was assembled like building blocks. The Steam Crane was used to continuously stack standard sections on top, making the tower taller. Iron bolts were used to tightly bind the tower body to the abutments and the bridge deck to prevent the tower from collapsing while working, which would cause a major accident.

However, the lifting height of the Steam Crane itself was limited; once it exceeded a certain height, it could no longer be used.

But there was no need to panic; the Steam Tower Crane could actually "grow" taller on its own.

At the top of the tower body was a green cage called a climbing frame, which was firmly fixed to the tower to ensure it wouldn't fall.

When the height needed to be increased, its own hook would first lift a standard section from the ground to keep it ready.

The climbing frame had its own hydraulic system. Once the switch was activated, the entire climbing frame would slowly rise and then lock onto the tower body again.

The extra space created could then be filled with a standard section. With the help of small wheels, the section could more easily enter the climbing frame and then be secured with bolts.

Ultimately, the Steam Tower Crane grew by one section.

The Steam Tower Crane used this method to continuously grow taller.

After reaching the appropriate height, the hook on the Steam Tower Crane's boom slid down. Once workers secured the frame with steel cables on all four sides, the hook rose upward.

After the hook reached a certain height, it stopped rising. Driven by the power wheel, the hook moved forward along the boom.

Upon reaching the thirty-five-meter mark, the hook began to descend and sank into the water.

Skilled swimmers jumped from small boats into the water, feeling for the frame and confirming its submerged position.

The Steam Tower Crane followed the same procedure to bring over a second frame. Under the guidance of the swimmers, the second frame was submerged and stacked on top of the first.

The third frame was handled the same way.

Once the stacked frames rose above the water's surface, water pumps were used to drain the water from inside, and with the assistance of the tower crane, the gaps in the frames were sealed.

Once there was no water left inside the frames, they dug down into the Yellow River's bed, removing all the pebbles and sand until they reached the underground bedrock.

If the bridge piers did not rest on bedrock, there was a risk of them being washed away by the water.

Of course, digging inside the frames was very risky, but there were still many brave souls willing to do it to earn more money.

Before construction, Zhao Fusu had already used a drilling rig to conduct borehole studies on the geological conditions of the riverbed.

He specifically chose a section where the rock was only ten meters below the surface to build the bridge.

Thus, the workers only needed to dig down ten meters.

Otherwise, if there were no rock at the bottom and it was all soil, they would have had to dig down seventy or eighty meters to ensure the bridge's safety!

"What an eye-opener!"

"Truly an eye-opener!"

...

The bridge-building masters of Great Qin, along with a large number of people who had rushed to see the spectacle, shouted that it was an eye-opener, making their long journey worthwhile.

The First Emperor, Li Si, and Feng Quji were all deeply shocked to see the cranes, the tower cranes, and the construction methods.

Without these industrial machines, even with cement, the difficulty of building a stone bridge over the Yellow River would have been extraordinary.

Time flew by during the bridge construction. Zhao Fusu looked at the batch of milk he had placed there three months ago. He took out a carton, and after opening it, he first smelled it—it still had that boiled, slightly burnt scent and had not spoiled.

"Good, good, good!"

Zhao Fusu knew that this Tetra Pak packaging was enough to keep the milk from spoiling for a year.

Zhao Fusu began to have the Mengniu Company produce milk in large quantities.

He was going to transport it back to Xianyang for sale.

The Great Qin King of Fighters Championship, scheduled for June, was about to begin.