Wild North America 1846

Chapter 215 The Daming Palace Under Construction

While making rapid progress, it should also be noted that the United States, the main rival of the Tang Kingdom, has not stopped, and the gap between the two sides has not narrowed significantly, but has widened.

1853 statistics;
The economies of the north and south of the United States are showing a trend of rapid development. The total economic output has reached 24.4 billion Tang yuan, which has doubled compared to three years ago, and the average annual growth rate has reached 34.5%.

The industrialization process in the north of the United States has been further accelerated, and it is better than before on the basis of recovery, and the rapid economic development is more thirsty for labor, which invisibly intensifies the conflict between the North and the South.

Over the years
The scale of immigrants from Europe has not shrunk but is expanding day by day, especially the recent Kashmir war has become increasingly fierce, which has exacerbated the turmoil in the European region.

The poor Italian craftsmen, the middle and lower class civilians in Germany, the refugees from the war in the Balkans, and the Irish who were unwilling to endure the oppression of the British landlords all embarked on a journey to North America to seek a new life.

Under the dual effects of immigrant influx and natural population growth, the population of the United States rose along a steep upward curve from 1851 million in 2577.5, and the momentum continued unabated.

Up to 1853 years

The population of the United States has successively exceeded the three marks of 2600 million, 2700 million and 2800 million, reaching 2871.19 million, which is not far from the 2900 million population mark.

Calculate like this

The economic scale of the United States is two and a half times that of the Datang Kingdom, and the population is more than four times that of the Datang Kingdom, and it still has a great advantage.

The Kansas Civil War took place in the less developed west of the United States, and did not affect the affluent and eastern and central regions, nor did it affect the southern cotton plantations, an important industry for American exports, and had less real impact.

After years of western development and immigration, the total population of Kansas is still hovering around 42 to 43, accounting for only about 1.5% of the total US population. The total economic output is less than 0.62%, making it one of the less developed regions.

The emotional toll of the Kansas Civil War was largely psychological, driving the North and South apart and increasing their hatred for each other, but its overall economic impact was minimal.

Taking into account many factors
Richard did not agree with the measures proposed by the military and the Ministry of the Interior to expand the civil war in Kansas, and it is even more forbidden to send armed forces to directly participate, so as not to cause unnecessary consequences and burn himself.

The Civil War in the United States is a certainty, and it is not beautiful to participate too much, and it will make a show if it does not encounter meat.

Just let it be, the grudge of the Yankees is an inextricable knot, if you don't fight hard, neither side will be angry.

After finishing the work at hand, Li Cha went to inspect the Daming Palace construction site under construction with great interest.

The climate in Chang'an (San Francisco) is very pleasant. The spring, summer and autumn seasons here are not obvious, and the sun is shining. The temperature for most of the year is between 10 degrees and 20 degrees. Only a few times in September, it will break through to 9 degrees. high temperature.

Li Cha and all the queens and concubines like the climate here very much, and spend most of the year here. Therefore, the construction of Daming Palace has been raised to a high status. After many years of construction day and night, it has shown a general Grand silhouette.

The magnificent "Daming Palace" originated from the palaces of the Tang Dynasty. Its hall structure and architectural distribution adopt the principle of symmetry. Magnificent, naturally more magnificent and charming.

The Daming Palace is located on the Oakland Heights on the side of Chang'an City. This is a super-large hilly area with ups and downs. The vast Daming Palace is located here, and more than 3 white convicts and more than 6000 Chinese artisans were invested. It has been two and a half years since large-scale construction began.

In order to pay tribute to the glorious Tang Dynasty thousands of years ago, the Auckland Heights was renamed Longshouyuan. Daming Palace covers an area of ​​880 hectares, which is two and a half times larger than the 350 hectares of Daming Palace thousands of years ago, and 10 times that of the Forbidden City.

In order to build this unprecedentedly splendid palace, countless precious logs from Seattle in the north and Canada were shipped into the San Francisco Bay Area by sea, and then transported to the construction site through special widened rails.

Marble from Spain and Italy, glazed tiles from mainland China, artificial rocks from Taihu Lake, exquisite lacquerware and porcelain, wood carvings and stone carvings were continuously transported to fill the material yard of the palace construction site, with tens of thousands of tons at every turn.

How spectacular is the construction scene of tens of thousands of people?

On the construction site of the palace, according to His Majesty's instructions, the white convicts were provided with enough food every day, and there was a chowder soup mainly made of pigs and cattle at noon, so that everyone could eat enough and work hard.

Therefore, the treatment of these white convicts is not bad.

Those who behaved well could hopefully become legal free citizens after the construction of the palace was completed, obtain the coveted resident status, and become a part of the Great Tang Kingdom from then on.

Such an illusory future inspired the white convicts to work hard and show their talents as much as possible.

Only in this way
Only then could they be regarded as apprentices or assistants by Chinese craftsmen, and then the treatment would be higher than that of ordinary convicts, and they would not be pulled out to be whipped for a little mistake, and the skin would be bruised.

After all

Convicts are still convicts, and most of the vicious guards in the Correctional Services Department come from former white convicts. They are more vicious, cruel, and ruthless than the Chinese officers, and they treat the convicts mercilessly.

Once caught by these white guards, a layer of skin will be shed if you don't die.

White convicts are smarter than native Indians, and have stronger hands-on and construction abilities. There is no shortage of skilled craftsmen, and there are many talented builders.

That's why they can become the main force in the construction of Daming Palace. After all, they don't need money and only care about food, which can save a lot of construction funds, which is definitely not a small amount of money.

And those native Indians who work dishonestly and have strong rebellious emotions are treated much worse. They can only do the most difficult and low-level jobs in the mines, day after day.

The harsh working environment, the lack of meaty and poor food, and the continuous high-intensity labor have also led to the high death rate of the indigenous Indian convicts.

Of course, these are all hiccups in development.

Standing on the height of the palace construction site, Li Cha overlooked the surrounding area in a happy mood. Tens of thousands of laborers and craftsmen were like tiny ants, working on hundreds of thousands of construction projects, each performing their duties.

backyard of the palace
There is a large lake covering an area of ​​16 hectares with rippling blue waves, and the pavilions and pavilions built around it have shown a magnificent posture of palaces and pavilions. The golden glazed tile buildings are reflected on the lake, and the scenery is too beautiful to behold.

The main hall in front is built on a 28-meter-high hill, which highlights the magnificence of the building. The main hall is made of precious wood as thick as three people's arms, and is made by the traditional craft of "two hemp and six soils".

The so-called "two hemp and six soils" is to brush 5 layers of tung oil on the dry wooden column, then use a fine hemp rope to cover the entire large wooden column, brush several layers of tung oil again, and then use three layers to soften the lime. , shell powder and other dense materials of clay repeatedly wrapped three layers.

Then add a layer of fine hemp rope, and repeat the same procedure. This is the so-called "two hemp and six soils", which is the traditional processing method of wooden pillars in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. Brushing can prevent termites and insects, prevent fire, prevent rain, and be immortal for hundreds of years.

It takes at least half a year to make such a wooden pillar.

The Daming Palace used large and small wooden pillars, with as many as tens of thousands of beams and pillars. Among them, there were more than 1800 large wooden pillars thick enough to be embraced by three people, which shows the huge amount of work.

The palace is uniformly paved with Italy's top snow-capped granite. This white-textured granite is elegant and extraordinary, showing angelic luxury and moistness. It is the building material used in top palaces and churches such as the Palace of Versailles in Paris and Notre Dame de Paris. .

only this one

The imported top-grade Italian snow-capped slabs are as high as more than 7700 tons, as well as luxurious Spanish golden marble, etc., all of which are top-level building materials from all over the world.

Today's Tang Dynasty royal family is rich and powerful, and has not fought for several years. The royal family has accumulated a huge wealth of hundreds of millions of yuan, and the annual construction cost of nearly 2300 million yuan is not a big deal at all.

This is not ordinary money, but real money.

Now Li Cha really wanted to make the concubines live better. The current Maple Leaf Palace has been expanded again and again, and even the Maple Leaf Forest has been completely eradicated to build houses, which is still not enough for use.

these two years
In Li Cha's harem, apart from the queen, there are as many as 23 women who are registered as the side concubine, Liangdi, Liangyuan, Chenghui, Zhaoxun, Fengyi, etc., and they have given birth to 9 children, four boys and five The number of maids and maids in the palace has also increased to nearly 400.

Thus

No matter how much the Maple Leaf Palace expanded, it was not enough. The Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Manor, who was close at hand, offered it with great insight, which relieved the urgent need.

Without a bigger palace, it really can't accommodate so many wives and children.

The Tang Kingdom is different from the European feudal kingdoms. The king can justifiably accept many women, instead of being monogamous like the European Kingdom, he can live in a small palace.

Now Li Cha doesn't have many children, even if he is a little more relaxed, a dozen princes are not a problem, so a large palace is really needed.

After Daming Palace was built

It is necessary to build some houses for the princes and princesses when they grow up. It stands to reason that the regulations should not be small, at least six yards should be started, and there will be some construction in the future.

Richard's annual income is 4000 to [-] million through the consortium controlled by the royal family, especially the fast-growing Texaco Petroleum Company, and now it is hard to make money.

For this reason, Datang Kingdom has newly established Chevron Petroleum Company and Royal Bright Petroleum Company, and entered the petrochemical field together with some private oil companies to launch beneficial market competition.

Li Cha hopes that some major oil companies with world-class competitiveness will emerge from these oil companies, and they will prosper for a long time.

(End of this chapter)