Start with Baihuguan

Chapter 533
It can be said that a group of people is divided into several parts, some are leveling the road ahead, some are stacking stones, and some are responsible for pouring cement on the road and leveling it. Everything looks so orderly. The complicated project seems to have become extremely easy in the hands of these people.

At least in the eyes of Zhu Houzhao, Wang Yangming, Zhang Lun and others, they only feel that these people can really repair such a mile in one day with such an orderly advancement.

It can be said that if Li Huan hadn't brought them what they saw with their own eyes, or what Li Huan had told them, they would not have believed it to be honest.

You must know that even if it is a road like the official road, the speed of the imperial court's conquest of labor and the repair of the official road cannot be so fast.

The most important thing is that the official road repaired by the imperial court in the past tamped the ground, but after such a road is repaired, it is good that it can last for more than half a year, but after a few heavy rains, the official road may be broken. It can get muddy and even impassable.

Now looking at the repaired and smooth road in front of them, even the wet and shiny road that has just been smoothed, and looking at the extremely solid road not far behind them, everyone can't help but feel Unlimited emotions.

If the pavement in front of me is really as Li Huan said, once it solidifies in a few days, the wet pavement will be as hard as a stone, and the meaning behind it can be imagined.

Taking a deep breath, Zhu Houzhao suppressed the excitement in his heart and looked at Li Huan and said in a trembling voice: "Li Qing, is all this true? After these things dry up, can they really become like those roads just now?"

Li Huan said with a smile: "If your Majesty doesn't believe it, you can find out after watching it in a few days."

In fact, Zhu Houzhao has no doubts about what Li Huan said. For such a big matter, and Li Huan mobilized so many people to come here, it is enough to prove that this matter is absolutely impossible to be false, and Li Huan will not be here. This kind of thing deceives a lot of people.

It's just that the surprise was so amazing that even an emperor like Zhu Houzhao couldn't react for a while.

On the other hand, he stared at the big men who were stirring the cement not far away, to be precise, at the cement that those big men were mixing.

Yang Yiqing said to Li Huan: "Mr. Qin, if Yang is not mistaken, if he wants to repair such a rock-solid road, he absolutely cannot do without the cement you just mentioned."

Li Huan couldn't help but looked at Yang Yiqing appreciatively, nodded slightly and said, "What Yang Bingbu said is true, if you want to repair this cement road, you must consume a lot of cement."

Yang Yiqing immediately said: "I don't know how much the cement output is. If the imperial court wants to repair roads on a large scale, will there be enough cement to provide?"

Everyone was outstanding for a while, and obviously they all realized this, so when Yang Yiqing spoke, they all looked at Li Huan solemnly.

Li Huan said with a light smile, "Everyone may wish to follow me."

Speaking of which, Li Huan led a group of people to a shed that had been built, and saw a large tank neatly stacked in it.

In this era, it is obviously impossible to manufacture airtight bags for containing cement, but this is not a problem for those craftsmen who directly choose large tanks with mouthfuls of water as containers for containing cement.

The cost of large vats is not high, and countless can be fired. The most important thing is that these large vats can be reused as long as they are careful not to break, and they are sealed with beeswax. Put these large tanks filled with cement powder directly in the heavy rain without worrying about the cement in them being damp and condensed.

Everyone had seen that the cement was taken out of a large vat before, and now seeing the densely packed large vat with no less than a thousand mouths in front of them, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Just looking at the scale, at least one point can be proved That is, things like cement can be mass-produced on a large scale. Even if the cost is higher, compared with the rock-like roads it can build, the court is not unacceptable.

Wang Yangming stroked his beard, his face was filled with a strange expression, his gaze was withdrawn from the big vat, he took a deep breath, strode forward and bowed to the emperor, saying: "Your Majesty, I beg your Majesty Allow the Ministry of Industry to start planning the world's roads, and start repairing the world's main roads in the shortest possible time."

Needless to say, Wang Yangming, everyone knows that with such a magical tool as cement, the roads in the world must be repaired again.

At this moment, Li Huan smiled and said: "Everyone, now Li has ordered people to build ten mines for firing cement. These ten mines are near the capital, and the cement produced can support the construction of two For cement roads, considering the cost of construction, such as the northern provinces and southern provinces, they should look for nearby mines and build cement factories on the spot, so as to reduce the cost of cement and avoid the cost of transshipment of cement from north to south."

Everyone's eyes lit up when they heard Li Huanzhi's words, and the cabinet ministers who were in charge of the cabinet all smiled. Yang Yiqing stroked his beard and laughed loudly: "If every province opens several cement factories, then there will be no more than a few. Within a few years, my Ming Dynasty will be filled with such solid roads everywhere."

The convenient and unobstructed roads may seem inconspicuous, but anyone who is not a fool will know their importance. Whether it is transferring soldiers, horses, food, or attacking ordinary people to travel on weekdays, etc., without the existence of roads, everything will be difficult.

Zhu Houzhao's eyes fell on Li Huan and said, "Li Qing, in your opinion, how should we carry out road repairs?"

Li Huan obviously thought about it a long time ago, so after hearing Zhu Houzhao's question, he just pondered for a while and said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, I ask Your Majesty to set up a new road construction bureau in the Ministry of Industry to plan the road of our great tomorrow." In the matter of repairs, there may be some accidents during the road construction process. I ask Your Majesty to allow the construction of Jingjin Road. The court will send capable officials to supervise the construction of the road from Jingshi to Tianjinwei. Official roads, in order to accumulate experience in road construction."

After listening to Li Huan's words, several people showed approval on their faces, but Wang Yangming said with a little surprise: "Is the road with a width of four feet too wide? Now the official road from the capital to Tianjin Wei is no more than It is only one foot and five wide, and it is more than doubled at once. Not to mention the doubling of the amount of work, just to build this four-foot-wide road, the cost of silver taels has quadrupled, that is to say, , It costs about 400 taels of silver for a mile."

Yang Tinghe on the side stroked his beard and said, "It's about 100 miles from the capital to Tianjinwei, which means that the imperial court will allocate at least 5 taels of silver to build this road."

After such a calculation, everyone couldn't help but feel nervous. This is only the road from the capital to Tianjin Wei. Such a road that doesn't count as Taiyuan will cost 5 taels of silver.

Of course, this amount of silver is not much compared to the wealth accumulated in the imperial treasury today, but there are too many roads that need to be built in the Ming Dynasty. At least a few main roads running through Daming should be built. Aside from these main roads, should roads also be built between provinces, state capitals, and even counties? If calculated in this way, it may be a cement road of [-] miles I can't stop it.

Li Huan smiled lightly and said, "It's only four feet wide. In my Daming's large trucks, one-way can only accommodate two carriages in parallel. This two-way four-lane is barely enough. Even in the future If necessary, the road will be widened."

Zhu Fu stroked his beard at the side and heard the words and couldn't help muttering softly: "How is this possible? I have never had such a wide road in Ming Dynasty. Four feet is already unprecedented. If it is widened in the future, it will be incredible."

Li Huan didn't care about Zhu Fu's exclamation, but his eyes fell on Zhu Houzhao.

As the emperor, Zhu Houzhao noticed Li Huan's gaze. Out of his habitual trust in Li Huan, Zhu Houzhao just nodded slightly after pondering for a while and said, "Okay, if that's the case, then as Li Qing said, write The cabinet allocated money, and the Ministry of Industry dispatched a group of officials to start the construction of the Jingjin Road. I hope that in three months, I will be able to take a horse-drawn carriage from the capital to Tianjinwei in a smooth manner."

Now that the emperor has made up his mind, and what Li Huan said is not that there are no roads, if the roads are wider, the traffic of vehicles will naturally be more convenient, it is nothing more than the cost of road construction is higher.

But these are not problems. Who made the imperial court richer than ever before? With so much money hoarded in the national treasury, to be honest, everyone was a little anxious.

There is no point in piling up money there. Only by letting the money circulate can we create value and become the most core and top figure in the Ming Empire. This simple truth is still clear.

Through the construction of roads, the circulation of money in the treasury is not a driving force that can promote the development of Ming Dynasty, isn't it?

A few people reluctantly inspected the big vat filled with cement, then set foot on the cement road and returned to the capital.

After getting off the concrete road, the carriage was once again on the bumpy road, and the carriage began to bump and shake violently.

At this time, in the carriage, Zhu Houzhao, Wang Yangming, and Li Huan were sitting in the carriage, their figures shaking slightly with the shaking of the carriage.

Although the cultivation base of the three of them is not affected at all, there is one thing that has to be admitted, that is, after walking the smooth concrete road, and then walking the loess official road, it feels like a heaven and a world. underground.

Zhu Houzhao said directly to Li Huan: "Li Qing, since you said that several cement firing factories have been set up near the capital, and the cement produced is enough to build two roads at the same time, one of which is the Beijing-Tianjin Road. Cement, let’s use it to build roads in the capital.”

The roads in other places can be postponed for a while, but the roads near the capital must be built immediately.

Wang Yangming also nodded again and again, the capital is at least one of the most benevolent places, the center of the Ming Dynasty is located, it is not good that the roads in other places have started to be built, and the roads near the capital and even in the capital are still muddy and dilapidated.

Li Huan smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, planning roads is a matter for the imperial court. I just need to provide sufficient cement. As for road construction, Your Majesty should ask Wang Shoufu."

It seems that he didn't expect Li Huan to directly push the matter to himself, but Wang Yangming also had to admit that Li Huan was right.

This kind of thing is really the responsibility of the cabinet.Immediately, Wang Yangming said to the Son of Heaven: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, as long as Qin Guogong can provide enough cement, then I will definitely order people to repair all the roads in the capital and the surrounding areas with cement in the shortest possible time."

At the end of September in the tenth year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty

A notice of job recruitment was posted by the local governments in the shortest possible time. The notice is very clear that it is to recruit young and strong laborers to build roads.

If it was the past, the common people would definitely lament when they saw such a notice posted by the court at this time, but after several years of reforms, whenever the court carries out any major projects, it will inevitably provide money and food to the laborers who work. Serve as wages.

From the very few applicants at the beginning to the gathering of applicants today, it is only a few short years. It can be said that people's views on the imperial court's recruitment of labor have undergone earth-shaking changes.

In the past, once serving in the military, it might be a disaster for the family, but now if you can be selected, you will not only have food and housing, but also money and food. The monthly income of a strong laborer is enough to support several families.

This time, the imperial court posted a notice to recruit a large number of young and strong to build the road. It can be said that there were a large number of responders as soon as the notice was posted.

Although the time limit given by the emperor for the construction of Beijing-Tianjin Road was three months, the idea of ​​the people in the cabinet was whether the Beijing-Tianjin Road could be built within one month.

The way to speed up is actually very simple. After all, this is human work. As long as the scale of labor is piled up, the speed will naturally be greatly improved.

After all, anyone who is not a fool can think of dividing a road into several sections and starting construction at the same time. Jingjin Road is only more than 100 miles long. If it is divided into four or five sections, each section is actually only twenty or thirty miles long. It's just distance.

Li Huan was able to use 100 people to build a six-mile road in just three days. Although the Jingjin Road was four feet wide, the amount of work was several times that of Li Huan's one-foot-wide road, so they recruited Thousands of people, relying on the offensive of the crowd, rushed out the Beijing-Tianjin Road in the shortest possible time.

Of course, there is another level of consideration for the cabinet. Everyone knows that the reason why the Beijing-Tianjin Road was built first is actually to use the Jingjin Road as an experiment. Thoroughly master the method of road construction in the process.

【Well, ask for a monthly pass】

(End of this chapter)