Chapter 476: Stone Man with One Eye
"You dug up a one-eyed angel statue from a dredged river?"

Horn, who was eating breakfast in his spider silk pajamas, almost spit milk out of his nose.

He fumbled for his handkerchief and tried to wipe the milk from the corner of his mouth.

Shilov, who was sitting across the table, tilted her head, wondering why Horn reacted so strongly.

Unlike the clear blue skies of the previous few days, looking out from the pointed wooden windows, one could see the mountains shrouded in shadows and the sky covered with leaden clouds.

The drizzle fell on the eaves, making a strange dripping sound.

Since capturing the witcher, Horn has been free for a while, especially with the sudden rain, which has reduced his itinerary to the town.

September is just around the corner, and the annual heavy rains have arrived in the Thousand River Valley as expected, but the only difference is that the autumn rain in 9 is not as heavy as that in 1445.

Therefore, judging from the current rainfall and the time of arrival of the rainy season, there will probably be no flood even without the Inosan (Joan) Dam.

But the Inossen Dam cannot be left alone, as it will also affect the gravel fields upstream.

Now, in order to build the Inossen Dam, the shepherds of the Gravel Plain have to work in the cold rain and on an empty stomach to clean their masters' butts.

Horn is facing a similar problem in Daze Township now, except that the shepherds in the gravel field need to block the river, while Horn needs to dredge the silted river.

"What do the workers digging the canal think?" Horn asked while wiping his mouth, finally suppressing his cough.

"The workers regard this as a miracle blessed by the Holy Father. They applied to make this one-eyed angel the patron saint of the New River." Armand called the maid over and took away the plates. "They want to build a temporary chapel on the construction site to enshrine this angel statue."

The people of Qianhe Valley have a classic auspicious worship, Horn rubbed his temples.

Whenever something strange is dug out from the ground, the people of Qianhe Valley try to worship it.

Of course, the church has mostly rejected this on the grounds that it prohibits idolatry.

This way of worshipping miracles was actually an old expansion method used by the early Messianic religion.

Specifically, they would bury a miracle of good fortune in a piece of land they liked, and then announce that the proceeds from the land would be used to build churches and worship gods.

At that time, the land was full of pagans and native Norns of the East Continent, and its main purpose was to forge claims.

"Have they any proverbs or songs?"

"How do you know?" Armand looked at Horn's mysterious face in surprise, and sang the workers' ballad aloud, "The angel has one eye, protecting the people of Qianhe."

Horn was speechless for a moment, and after a long while he waved his hand and said, "Let them go, as long as it does not affect the progress of the construction."

In fact, this is not the first or second time that messy things have been dug out from the river, but the stone angel is more conspicuous this time.

Horn suddenly remembered the underground passages that the demon hunters had mentioned. According to them, there were many of these strange angel statues in the passages.

Maybe the statues in the river originated from the underground passage.

“What is the current water level of Nanze Lake?”

Putting down the handkerchief and taking off his pajamas, Horn put on a black linen shirt while asking Armand beside him.

Armand stood aside and replied with a smile: "It has not reached the water level yet, but many beastman kingdoms have already issued warnings."

"Based on the current situation, how long will it take to open the floodgates and release the water?" Shilov asked immediately.

"Probably next week, within ten days." Armand doubled the five days that Chap had given him.

Horn and Shilov are concerned about the water level because of the Xinhe Dredging Project, which is a key project to lower the water level of Nanze Lake and open up new roads out of the city.

It was during this dredging project that Horn encountered a huge problem. According to the original plan, the first phase of the dredging project alone would clear a 20-kilometer-long, silted river channel that was hundreds of meters wide and no less than meters narrow.

There are currently more than 2,000 people working on this dredging project, but it is still impossible to complete dredging the river before the rainy season arrives.

Moreover, once the rainy season arrives, if a dam is built to block the water, the water level of Nanze Lake will rise, and even affect the beastman villages on both sides.

If we don't do this, it will create a lot of mud and we will have to do a lot of useless work.

If something is really impossible, Horn will not force it, and will at most wait until the rainy season is over before starting construction.

But at this time, Shilov came up with a new idea. Since it could not be completed, then he would first dig a 30-meter-wide river channel for drainage, at least to achieve some results.

This idea immediately inspired Horn.

Even though he was busy suppressing the bandits in the cave forest at that time, he still wrote a letter to Shilov, introducing the principle of the water-binding and sand-flushing method.

After discussions with the stonemasons, as well as the designs of Witt and his grandfather Fant, and later the water conservancy engineers recruited from the noble castles in Langsander County, they came up with a brand new plan.

Specifically, a 200-meter-long and 5-meter-wide brick and mortar dam bridge is first built at the mouth of the lake, and then double-layer earth-and-wood boards are used as gates.

Then the silted river channel before and after the estuary gate was cleaned up, and only the 20-meter-wide area in the middle of the river channel at the rear was dredged.

A one-time simple dam was built on both sides using simple stone cages and wooden frames.

When the water level rises during the rainy season, the gates are opened to release water.

Under normal circumstances, the lake water carries a large amount of silt, which means that even though there is water in the river, not much can be discharged.

When the lake water passes through the river channel, it will bring new silt and sediment.

But after the previous design, the turbulent water flow caused by pressure will flow through the narrower central area.

Due to the simple dams on both sides, the water cannot flow outside, and behind it is a lake with rising water level.

In this way, the water flow rate will increase dramatically, while the cross-section for water flow will become narrower, and the water flow speed will naturally become faster, which brings a strong impact force.

It can not only carry away heavy silt, but also wash away a lot of the original mud and sand.

It is equivalent to using natural water power instead of manpower to carry out dredging work.

If Horn wanted, construction could even continue behind the dam without any delay.

According to calculations by several hydraulic engineers who graduated from Clayton University in Xianshidian, if the river dredging can be completed, the overall water level of lakes and swamps in Daze Township is expected to drop by five to twelve meters, or even more.

By then, it is expected that there will be an additional 900 square kilometers of fertile arable land, especially in the Kitazawa area.

After hearing Armand's approximate time, Horn, who had changed into simple breeches and buttoned his collar, walked out from behind the screen wall and said, "I will go back to Jeanne d'Arc after the gate opens next week. Madeleine is urging me to go back, saying that the tax plan has finally been worked out."

"Oh, it's time to go." Shilov didn't say much, but just let her tail droop limply on the chair.

Horn walked forward and stroked her head with his hand: "I will write to you from time to time. When you can come out of the Mechanical Palace in the future, I will take you to see the sea."

"The sea..." Shilov shook her head and shook off Horn's hand, "I take it seriously."

Before Horn could answer, there was a hasty knock on the door of the study: "Your Majesty, it's me, Rafael. Is it convenient for you now?"

"Come in." Horn smiled apologetically at Shilov, "What's the matter?"

"The tunnel entrance has finally been opened." Rafael's hair was stuck to his scalp due to the rain. "You may have to go and see some things yourself."

(End of this chapter)