chsdbacks #478 - Stone Man with One Eye
#478 - Stone Man with One Eye
"You've dug up a one-eyed angel statue in the dredged river channel?"
Wearing a silk nightgown and eating breakfast, Horn almost sprayed milk out of his nose.
He frantically searched for a handkerchief, trying to wipe the milk from the corner of his mouth.
Sitting across the table, Sylviane tilted her head, wondering why Horn was reacting so strongly.
Unlike the clear skies of the past few days, looking out from the arched wooden window frames revealed mountains shrouded in shadow and a sky filled with leaden clouds.
A pattering drizzle fell on the eaves, making a peculiar ticking sound.
Since capturing the witcher, Horn had been idle for a while, especially with this sudden rain, which reduced his travel range to the town itself.
September was just around the corner, and the annual heavy rains arrived as scheduled in Thousand River Valley, but fortunately, the autumn rain of 1445 was not as heavy as that of 1444.
So, based on the current rainfall and the timing of the rainy season, even without the Innocent (Joan) Dam, there probably wouldn't be a flood.
However, the Innocent Dam couldn't be left unattended; it would also affect the Gravel Plains upstream.
Now, to repair the Innocent Dam, the shepherds of the Gravel Plains had to endure the cold rain and hunger to clean up the mess for the lords.
Horn's current Daze Township faced similar problems, but the shepherds of the Gravel Plains needed to block, while Horn needed to dredge the silted river channel.
"What do the laborers digging the river think?" Horn finally suppressed his cough, asking as he wiped his mouth.
"The laborers regard it as a miracle and auspicious sign blessed by the Holy Father; they've requested to make this one-eyed angel the patron saint of the new river," Armand gestured for a maid to remove the plate. "They want to build a temporary chapel on the construction site to enshrine this angel statue."
Thousand River Valley people's classic auspicious omen worship, Horn rubbed his temples.
Whenever they dig up something strangely shaped in the ground, the people of Thousand River Valley try to enshrine it.
Of course, the church usually refuses, citing the prohibition of idol worship.
This way of enshrining miracles was actually an old expansion method of the early Messianic Church.
Specifically, they would bury an auspicious miracle in whatever land they fancied, and then announce that the proceeds from that land would be used to build a church and enshrine the deity.
At that time, there were heretics and native Norn people from the Eastern Continent everywhere, mainly to create a false claim.
"Have they spread any proverbs or ballads?"
"How did you know?" Armand looked at Horn's mysterious face with astonishment, and loudly recited the ballad among the laborers: "Angel with one eye, protects the faithful, Thousand River safe."
Horn was momentarily speechless, and only waved his hand after a while: "Let them be, as long as it doesn't affect the construction progress."
Actually, it wasn't the first or second time that strange things had been dug up in the river channel, but this time the stone angel was more conspicuous.
Horn suddenly thought of the underground passages mentioned by those witchers; according to them, there were many such strange angel statues in those passages.
Perhaps the statue in this river channel came from that underground passage.
"What is the current water level of South Marsh Lake?"
Putting down the handkerchief and taking off his nightgown, Horn put on a black linen shirt while asking Armand, who was standing beside him.
Armand stood aside, smiling as he replied: "It hasn't reached the water level line yet, but many beastmen kingdoms have already issued warnings."
"Based on the current situation, how long will it take to open the floodgates?" Sylviane asked closely.
"About next week, within ten days," Armand expanded the five days that Chapp reported to him.
Horn and Sylviane's concern about the water level was due to the New River dredging project, which was a key project to lower the water level of South Marsh Lake and open up a new road to the outside.
It was on this dredging project that Horn encountered a huge problem.
According to the original plan, the first phase of the dredging project alone would require dredging a 20-kilometer-long silted river channel, up to hundreds of meters wide and no less than eighty meters at its narrowest.
Currently, there are more than two thousand people working on this dredging project, but they still can't complete the dredging before the rainy season arrives.
And once the rainy season arrives, if a dam is built to block the water, the water level of South Marsh Lake will rise, even affecting the beastmen villages on both sides.
Not doing so would bring a pile of silt, requiring a lot of extra useless work.
If things were truly impossible, Horn wouldn't force it; at most, he would wait for the rainy season to pass before starting construction again.
But at this time, Sylviane came up with a new idea: since it couldn't be completed, then first dig a 30-meter-wide river channel to drain water, at least making some progress.
This idea immediately brought inspiration to Horn.
Even though he was busy suppressing the bandits in the Cave Forest at the time, he still wrote a letter to Sylviane, introducing the principle of water diversion and sand flushing.
After discussions with the stonemasons, as well as Witt and his grandfather Fante, and the hydraulic engineers later captured from the noble castles of Langsdorf County, they came up with a brand-new plan.
Specifically, first build a 200-meter-long and 5-meter-wide brick and mortar dam bridge at the lake's river mouth, and then use double-layered earth-filled wooden boards as sluice gates.
Then clean up the silted river channel before and after the sluice gates at the river mouth, and only clear the central 20-meter-wide area in the rear river channel.
Simple cage stone wooden frames are used on both sides to build temporary simple dams.
When the water level rises during the rainy season, the sluice gates are opened to release water.
Under normal circumstances, lake water contains a large amount of silt, so that although the river channel has water, not much can be discharged.
When lake water passes through the river channel, it brings new silt and sediment.
But after the previous design, the pressure-induced turbulent water flow will flow through the narrower central area.
Due to the simple dams on both sides, the water flow cannot spread outside, and the rear is a lake with a rising water level.
In this way, the water flow will surge, and the cross-sectional area available for water flow will narrow, and the water flow speed will naturally increase, which brings strong impact.
It can not only take away heavy silt, but also incidentally wash away a lot of the original sediment.
Equivalent to using natural hydraulic power to replace human labor for dredging work.
If Horn wanted to, it wouldn't even delay the continued construction behind the dam.
According to the hydraulic engineers who graduated from Clayden University in Sandstone Fields, if the river channel dredging can be completed, the overall water level of the Daze Township lakes and swamps is expected to drop by five to twelve meters, or even more.
At that time, it is expected that 900 square kilometers of arable fertile land will be added, especially in the North Marsh area.
After listening to Armand's approximate time, Horn, who had changed into simple breeches, buttoned up his collar and walked out from behind the screen wall: "After the floodgates are opened next week, I will return to Jeanneburg; Madeleine is urging me, saying that the tax plan has finally been worked out."
"Oh, it's time to go," Sylviane didn't say much, just letting her tail droop limply on the chair.
Horn stepped forward and stroked her head: "I'll write letters from time to time; when you can come out of the Mechanical Palace in the future, I'll take you to see the sea."
"The sea..." Sylviane shook her head, shaking off Horn's hand, "I'm taking that seriously."
Before Horn could reply, the door of the study was knocked on urgently: "Your Majesty, it's me, Raphael, is this a convenient time for you?"
"Come in," Horn smiled apologetically at Sylviane, "What's the matter?"
"The entrance to the tunnel has finally been pried open," Raphael's hair was plastered to his scalp by the rain, "There are some things you may have to see for yourself."