Chapter 204: Chapter 204

Pei Shu’er was taken aback; she had expected Commander Qian to retaliate.

But she hadn’t anticipated that he’d seize the opportunity to harshly target their Deserted Mountain.

Even when the opportunity was this tenuous.

As those people surrounded them, Tang Zan frowned and stepped in front of the people of Deserted Mountain, frowning.

"May I ask Commander Qian, how have the people of Deserted Mountain delayed the construction?"

Commander Qian sneered coldly.

"The people of Deserted Mountain pretend to understand when they don’t. Clearly incapable of firing bricks, yet they take on such an important task. You must know, without bricks, the city wall cannot be built."

Having said this, he then spoke with smug satisfaction.

"See, this is the outcome of your choice to use green bricks and stones. If you’d used the rammed earth method, everyone could have pitched in."

The people of Deserted Mountain were infuriated. Commander Qian was just deliberately finding fault.

Even though they didn’t know why the Young Madam wanted to use green bricks and stones.

But they believed that when the Young Madam decided to do something, she had her reasons.

Having said this, Commander Qian gestured to the soldiers with a wave of his hand.

"Take these people away."

Tang Zan blocked the soldiers, his eyes filled with icy frost.

"The people of Deserted Mountain never claimed ignorance. They said before that qualified bricks should be fired to build a qualified brick kiln; a pile of earth blocks wouldn’t work. It’s just that you wouldn’t listen."

Pei Shu’er frowned. With Tang Zan being so blunt, was he still planning to stay in the military camp?

She tugged at Tang Zan’s sleeve, signaling him to let her handle it.

As a result, Tang Zan simply patted her hand, and pulled her back behind him.

Pei Shu’er raised an eyebrow; this comrade seemed somewhat different.

But thinking of Liu Xu and Tang Qingning in the team, Pei Shu’er didn’t find it surprising.

Commander Qian’s expression turned unpleasant at Tang Zan’s words.

"I’m the chief supervisor of the city wall construction. As for you, a mere leader of a thousand households, this is none of your business."

Having said this, Commander Qian gave a look to the soldiers, and they once again surrounded the people of Deserted Mountain.

Pei Shu’er, however, was not flustered.

"Commander Qian, of course, you can lock me up, but have you considered how you will construct the city wall without me? Do you know the answer?"

Commander Qian sneered: "Don’t worry, I’ve worked in the Ministry of Industry. You needn’t bother yourself with that."

Pei Shu’er smiled: "Alright then, if you want to lock us up, go ahead."

As she said this, the people of Deserted Mountain, along with Tang Zan, were shocked, and Commander Qian was stunned, followed by a cold laugh.

Look, Pei Shu’er finally realized his prowess.

Pei Shu’er tugged on Tang Zan’s sleeve, rising on tiptoe, and Tang Zan leaned down understandingly.

Pei Shu’er whispered in Tang Zan’s ear, her breath warm against his neck, causing his heart to itch.

"You just need to have a word with the people in the prison later, tell them not to beat us."

As long as they didn’t resort to corporal punishment, being in jail was much easier than constructing the city wall.

In the barracks’ prison, there weren’t as many bothersome matters.

Otherwise, if they continued to stay on the city wall, it wouldn’t be long before the people of Deserted Mountain perished.

Commander Qian didn’t regard them as human.

The people of Deserted Mountain were detained; the prison food wasn’t great, but it was barely enough to fill their stomachs.

As for the people of the third house, their food standards weren’t lowered. Tang Zan would send some food to them every day.

After they were locked up, there was supposed to be a beating, but Tang Zan spoke with the Prison Chief, and the beating was avoided. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel-fire.net

They were just left in the cell to fend for themselves.

The other people of Deserted Mountain were anxious, the prison full of ominous vibes, fearing that sooner or later they’d face Commander Qian’s vengeance.

But Pei Shu’er was quite at ease, she even took out a book from her bundle.

Reading in the light streaming through the window.

She knew clearly that soon she would be let out.

By then, it would be time to use this knowledge.

Now, she had to quickly fill this gap in her knowledge.

This book’s cover was ancient, but inside it was a modern architectural textbook.

She simply bound the cover with an ancient one.

She hadn’t really been involved in city wall construction before; the wall at Deserted Mountain was finished, but not complicated, just a military pathway.

The foundation laying and other tasks were presided over by Tang Peiyi.

Pei Shu’er read while occasionally asking Tang Peiyi how to lay foundations and other questions.

And how to align the city wall.

Her questions were basic, but Tang Peiyi didn’t mind, answering them all.

Actually, the book covered these topics; she just needed to compare ancient and modern construction to choose the best and most suitable method.

She asked while taking notes with a pen.

Using a ballpoint pen, she prepared an explanation in case someone asked, saying it was from the East Ocean.

But no one asked; they instinctively sat some distance away, providing her with a very good reading environment.

Thus, she was spared from explaining.

She focused intently on her reading; at first, with no architectural knowledge, she progressed slowly.

While she could understand, without practice or videos, just dry text and images in the book, it was rather abstract.

She read while thinking back on construction sites seen in her previous life and the construction of Deserted Mountain’s city wall.

Gradually, she integrated it all.

As she read more, she gained a certain understanding of architecture, reading through books more quickly.

Before long, Pei Shu’er had finished five or six books and had thoroughly grasped their contents.

Now, what she lacked was practical experience.

Of course, no matter how many books she read, in others’ eyes, it seemed she was always reading the same book.

Otherwise, it would have been suspicious to have so many books in such a small bundle.

While Pei Shu’er studied for days, construction outside continued.

Commander Qian constantly had others firing bricks, since the kiln was already built, and he had seen how the people of Deserted Mountain fired them, so he wasn’t afraid of making mistakes.

He even had some people build several brick kilns from those finished bricks, using the same firing method as Deserted Mountain.

He secretly recorded all this, as he only didn’t know how to build the kilns or the specifics of firing green bricks.

Boss Xiong was disdainful of Commander Qian’s approach; this man detained people from Deserted Mountain for unqualified bricks while building new kilns according to their plans.

But when the new kilns repeatedly produced red bricks and not green, Commander Qian became anxious.

After firing kiln after kiln of red bricks, his mood became very irritable.

He clearly remembered all the steps Deserted Mountain took in firing bricks. How come he never succeeded?