"Aren't you bored? I just want to go out and take you to have a look. Maybe your mood will be much better." Liu Bei said with a smile, then handed the riding whip to the groom beside him, and followed him into the carriage, "Go to the West Tun, don’t stop in the middle.”
"This is considered AWOL." The carriage shook slightly, and then began to move smoothly, faster and faster. Chen Xi sat on the soft chair, looked at Liu Bei and rolled his eyes.
"It is also the duty of the three public servants to understand the sentiments of the people. Compared with being aloof in the political Yuan, on-the-spot inspections have a lot more meaning. After all, I am not you. I can tell the autumn from a leaf." Liu Bei smiled and said, not because of Chen Xi's words. And give rise to a bad feeling.
"I just think General Xu is embarrassed that Mr. Xuande ran away like this." Chen Xi shook his head and said, "It would be nice to take General Xu's senses into consideration."
"That's not necessary. Zhong Kang has already gone back for vacation. I used to take Zhong Kang with me when traveling. Unfortunately, Zhong Kang is exposed too easily." Liu Bei said resentfully. Xu Chu's body shape was destined to be recognizable to the common people. If you know Liu Bei, but can grow up to be a guard as cruel as Xu Chu, you must be a noble person.
"It seems that Mr. Xuande goes out to play a lot!" Chen Xi crossed his hands with an angry expression on his face. He had been working hard during this period, but Liu Bei actually went out to play.
"The higher the position, the further away from the common people. Maybe this is not a problem for those who come from wealthy families, but I was once one of these living beings. I also promised to give them a good meal, and I also vowed that this It's not easy, if I just leave like that, I won't be who I am anymore." Liu Bei's face was extremely calm, but that kind of demeanor made Chen Xi sigh.
Maybe Liu Bei is indeed changing, but some of his original intentions have not changed. Even now, he is still practicing his beliefs.
"Well, yes, Mr. Xuande has always been like this." Chen Xi nodded and did not deny it. What Chen Xi admires most about Liu Bei is that whether he fails or succeeds, whether he is down or out, Liu Bei has always been proud. They all know what they are doing.
"Let's go and take you to see." Liu Bei said with a smile. What convinced Liu Bei most about Chen Xi was not his own talent and ability, but Chen Xi's unchanging ambition and his actions to fulfill that ambition. Liu Bei I have always thought that this is the compatibility between myself and Chen Xi. They are both such people. Their goals are in the distance. I don’t know whether they can reach them, but they keep moving forward.
The carriage quickly passed through the construction site outside Chang'an City. Because the weather was still quite cold, even if the construction had started, it was mainly building civil frame structures. The roads were mainly leveling the land and laying roadbed. After all, the current concrete technology is really not to standard.
Although the technology of cement firing has spread, new attempts have been made in various places, higher-level cement firing formulas have also come out, and there are also concretes used at lower temperatures, but they have not reached the current level. A standard that can be used at any level.
However, according to Chen Xi's estimation, with the original formula and demand, sooner or later someone will come up with concrete or additives that can adapt to low temperatures. However, the Han Dynasty official will not invest too much in this aspect. It will be enough. .
"It's still very hot here in Chang'an." Chen Xi said with a smile as he looked out the car window at the scene of rapid retreat.
"More than just being in full swing. In other times, starting construction in the winter would definitely be a waste of people and money and not considerate of the people's power. But not only did you not waste people and money, people also signed up enthusiastically. I have to say that it completely refreshed my understanding of people's power." Liu Bei also looked at the people working outside the window with a sigh of relief.
"They are eager to start construction in winter. They even proposed to adjust the corvee to before May this year. Now they are taking the initiative to work without paying." Chen Xi rolled his eyes and said, "To a certain extent , now they are just doing corvee service.”
"..." Liu Bei fell into silence. In his impression, anyone who dared to make people do corvee work in the winter would be beaten to death. There seemed to be few such capable guys in history.
"Are they really doing corvee service?" Liu Bei suddenly asked.
"Yeah, I wasn't exempted from part of the corvee time last year, but I found that our situation doesn't actually exempt it completely." Chen Xi said casually while looking out the window.
In fact, Chen Xi's current social structure can exempt him from corvee work and switch to official employment. He can even set up a business department and prepare some people to do these chores professionally. After all, the time of corvee work itself is not long. If it is replaced by professionals, they will be responsible for the whole year. If so, it’s actually not too expensive.
But Chen Xi later discovered that corvee was very useful during mobilization. This thing was equivalent to compulsory. As long as it was not crazy, everyone would get used to it, so Chen Xi had no idea of completely eliminating corvee - I can No need for you, I won’t even use you this year, but when I am occasionally short of manpower, it would be nice to deploy hundreds of thousands of people to work!
"Is it true that there will be no unrest if we are doing corvee now?" Liu Bei looked out the window and asked with a frown. He really didn't know that the group of people outside were doing corvée. Before, he thought that these people were here to make money. After all, Chen Xi has always been doing the work for you, and the government pays you.
"What's the turmoil about?" Chen Xi rolled his eyes and leaned on the car window to look out. "If you drive them away and don't let them do corvee labor, they will still scold you."
"What's the point?" Liu Bei asked. He didn't care about this group of people recently. He just asked people to give these people a soybean cake as a New Year's gift after three days of work. Yes, it belongs to Chen Xi. Those in stock will no longer be taken care of. After all, this has been going on for more than a year, and the engineers have not even been replaced. Just continue last year's policy.
"What's the point?" Chen Xi glanced at Liu Bei, "Finish your corvee service as soon as possible, and then make money. It's winter now. There's not much work to do in a day, and it's impossible for the supervisor to cause trouble. Moreover, the days are short, and the construction site is in charge of food, and it's hot. Tea, finish the corvee early, and when the summer gets longer and piece-rate wages are paid, work hard and do the work of two days in one day."
Liu Bei was startled. It was the first time he knew that there was such an operation.
"Working hours are different in winter and summer. The minimum standard of daily labor in winter is at least half less than in summer." Chen Xi said very carefully, "Besides, tea in winter is much more expensive than dandelion in summer, so you know."
Liu Bei said that he was shocked. There is such an operation. This is simply a simple way to take advantage of the country. Who said that the people have no brains? Regarding the details of their own lives, these people all have brains, and All are excellent.
"I haven't thought about what you said at all." Liu Bei said that Chen Xi doesn't go out very much, so why does he know all about these lowly people's things? To be honest, even the encyclopedia of dreams of gods and men can't do anything. Tell them all.
"So I am relatively more powerful." Chen Xi said proudly, "Actually, the main reason for drinking hot tea in winter is that I can't use up the hot water in the big bathhouse. It can save some trouble if I provide it together. It happens to be north of Chang'an. There is anthracite, which is used as charcoal for the winter stove, and the smokey coal is used to burn the boiler. Speaking of which, the super large ceramic boiler cost us a lot of energy."
Chen Xi's previous impression of the boiler was made of iron. However, the Han Dynasty really couldn't use that one, and there were some problems with the sealing, so he burned a pottery one. Needless to say, the pottery craftsmanship of the people of the Central Plains has always been Is the strongest in the world.
However, making such a big thing was life-threatening. In the end, I had to give up sealing and finally got it done. But after one step was completed, this thing was erected next door to the bathhouse, and the person who burned the stove kept the fire on all year round. It was mainly used in winter. Hot water is provided.
"Coal mine." Liu Bei thought for a while. He had the impression that there was an open-pit mine in the north. In Xitun, where he often went, there were people who used carts to pick up briquettes and burn them back. However, this was an official coal mine. , Liu Bei said that he had no idea at all.
"Yes, other things may be lacking, but this thing is enough. There are quite a lot of coal mines in Yongzhou and Bingzhou, and there are also many open-pit ones. The cost is low." Chen Xi said with a smile.
In the past, wood was burned in winter, so it was inevitable to cut down trees everywhere. Although the Han Dynasty was full of trees at this time, Chen Xi still had to consider the problem of cutting down the bare trees.
So Chen Xi started a coal mine, and by the way he also sold briquettes and coal stoves. They were of high quality and low price, and all the firewood sellers were squeezed to death. However, before they were squeezed to death, Chen Xi integrated these people. Now those who used to work in various fields were Firewood sellers in every village, village, and village were all incorporated into coal sellers, and the mines were very generous, requiring you to get the goods first and pay later.
Anyway, a few hundred kilograms of coal only costs a few hundred pennies, and Chen Xi's business is almost all business without capital. Who said that open-pit coal mines belong to the country? He can just pick up the money on the spot.
"I heard that if the people go to pick up coal, the mines won't care about it, right?" Liu Bei asked curiously. This is widely spread in Xitun.
"Who cares, who ignored my order and asked the people to run into the mine to pick up coal." Chen Xi asked with a depressed look, "My order to the mine is that the coal briquettes picked up by ordinary people should be handed over in a cage. Two-thirds, take the rest, who gave me random changes to my orders?"
"..." Liu Bei blinked, isn't this a free gift? But then Liu Bei thought of a question, "Why carry a cage?"
"If I don't talk about carrying a cage, there are some bastards who pretend to be ordinary people, bring carts, and then leave half of it for you. I've caught such bastards several times." Chen Xi said angrily. The bastards who take advantage of the loophole are really too good. There are so many that Chen Xi can only carry a cage now, one person per day. If there are too many, are you really going to be able to eat this?
