It is said that before the Ming Dynasty, the city wall was built with rammed earth. What should I do if the earth wall encounters rainy days?

Most of the city walls in ancient my country were built with rammed earth. This situation lasted until the Ming Dynasty. With the improvement of the efficiency of producing bricks and stones, the use of bricks and stones to build city walls became possible. universal! Wouldn't an accident like this happen to an earthen city wall if it encounters special weather? The bricks used in ancient city walls are not the same as today's red bricks, but are collectively referred to as bluestone bricks and rammed earth. Rammed earth is used inside the city wall. The so-called rammed earth means that the earth is compacted and its hardness is not weaker than that of masonry. Earlier city walls and palaces were all rammed earth. The rammed earth is then wrapped with bricks and stones. This structure is strong enough to withstand the bombardment of artillery stones.

People used lime for disinfection, drying and construction. By the Northern and Southern Dynasties, glutinous rice mortar had become a relatively mature technology. The composition, production methods and properties of glutinous rice mortar are recorded in detail in "Tiangong Kaiwu" of the Ming Dynasty. The glutinous rice mortar used has strong adhesion, which greatly enhances the stability of the city wall! This should be the reason why the ancient city walls have been preserved!

In addition to the rammed earth cushion, wooden piles are often used to reinforce the bars. This is the same as today's reinforced concrete. The reason why many earthen city walls have stood for thousands of years without falling down is that wooden piles were reinforced in the walls, which increased the bearing capacity of the walls and reduced the harm caused by settlement. Of course, folklore says that in the past, for the sake of project quality, firewood was often used to fry the soil before building cities. The city built in this way is as hard as iron, vegetation cannot survive on it, and rainwater cannot penetrate, preventing external damaging factors of the earth city. But this is just folklore.

To sum up, before the Ming Dynasty, the reason why the earthen city walls were tenacious and not afraid of rain was because of one: the rigorous and pragmatic work attitude of the ancients. If you are not pragmatic, your life will be guaranteed. Who dares to play with it? The second is to pay attention to the construction process, digging the foundation trench, laying the cushion layer, and adding wooden piles. Definitely high quality. When it rains, work will be stopped and construction will begin again. Not afraid of slipping and being washed away by rain.

Working people have enough time and wisdom to create miracles!