The public official conveyed the opinion of the Shangjun governor to Zhang Lu, agreeing to move the population from Shangjun to Hedong, "Only on a voluntary basis, not by force." Zhang Lu repeatedly said yes.
Recruiting manpower in the vast Shangjun and delivering the list of meritorious deeds was not a task that could be completed in a day or two. Therefore, everyone’s focus is still on road construction.
The traffic from Anyi to Pishi and Fenyin has never been isolated. The long-term traffic has carved the outline of the road in the wilderness, but it has not been reinforced or maintained. Zhang Lu and his team's task was only to re-ram the existing route with rammed earth to make it flat and solid, and to slightly raise or fill in the ditches and ridges.
Zhang Lu appeared at the construction site every day, looking at the roads extending in the wilderness and the many roads beside them that had been trampled by countless people. He was filled with pride: If these roads can be completely reinforced, the Qin army will quickly pass through such roads. Deployed to various places, edicts at all levels will be quickly transmitted to various counties, how the power of Qin will be strengthened!
Doctor Gong and Zhang Lu inspect various construction sites every day, and Zhang Lu's instructions are passed on to the migrant workers in each battalion through him. Pi Wan and Fen Yin Ling were mainly responsible for logistical support, and also sent a small force of 500 people to maintain public order. In this way, the migrant workers in Shangjun only had to work with peace of mind and did not need to worry about harassment by bandits and wild beasts.
Zhang Lu got along very well with Dr. Gong. Zhang Lu felt that Dr. Gong was a very outstanding talent with strong comprehension and execution ability: he quickly became familiar with all the techniques of building roads and was able to implement them conscientiously. , sometimes his requirements are even stricter than Zhang Lu. Zhang Lu joked with him: "When the doctor returns to the county, he can start practicing Taoism!"
The official said: "The way to the upper county is Ningshui! Today there is a drought and the water flow is cut off; the next day there will be heavy rain and the river will overflow. If we can use more water and less water, we will gain a lot!"
Zhang Lu said: "The reason why Yu dredged hundreds of rivers and opened them up for water conservancy is beyond my ability."
Doctor Gong said: "There are two ends of water and fire. If it is kept in good condition, it will be beneficial, and if it is excessive, it will be harmed. The principle is the same. How can we gain the benefits of water and avoid the harm of water!"
Zhang Lu said: "The doctor will plan it!"
The official said: "Although I have no doubts about it, I want to learn it!"
After the two departments joined together, the speed of road construction was greatly accelerated. It only took seven or eight days to reach Anyi.
Zhang Lu and his party arrived in Anyi in advance to check the construction status of Anyi before the road was repaired. The order of Anyi reported that many craftsmen have returned in the past month, and there are now more than a hundred households of craftsmen in Anyi City. Zhang Lu asked these craftsmen why they could resume work as soon as possible. The craftsmen all said that the former workshop must be restored first. Zhang Lu looked at the dilapidated kilns and asked the craftsmen, which ones can be repaired as soon as possible? The craftsmen have different opinions. Pi Wan said: "I should ask the master craftsman from the Pi family to do it."
Zhang Lu said: "When can we arrive?"
Pi Wan said: "The road is open now, and we will arrive in ten days." He issued an order and asked the postman to convey it to the Prime Minister of Pi's County, and organized a group of craftsmen who knew how to repair kilns to come, and the labor was paid in salt.
The road from Anyi to Yanchi in Jie County is only fifty miles. There are a large number of salt merchants passing here. The road is not difficult to repair. It only took six or seven days to complete. When the road led to the salt pond, Pi's craftsmen also arrived. The order was given to the salt merchants to bring out a thousand kilograms of salt, and one tael would be given to each of the migrant workers building the road first, and the rest would be sent to Anyi as advance wages for the craftsmen.
The decree tells everyone that now Qin Keqing will connect Yanchi and Maojin, and everyone's southbound road will be smooth from now on. He asks the wealthy businessmen to donate money and grain to finance their work.
The wealthy businessmen used money to pave the way and soon purchased more than 10,000 shi of grain from surrounding counties. Zhang Ludu was astonished: He had never imagined that Anyi, which he had always thought was poor, also had such huge power! Since the salt merchants offered salt as the price, many people in the county would rather exchange the relatively palatable corn and keep the unpalatable millet for themselves.
Jiexian County was already far away from the Yellow River ferry, and the official could not transport half of the grain, so he made an agreement with Zhang Lu and Pi Wan to transport 2,500 shi from Pishi and Fenyin each, which they would provide to the road construction workers. of. Of these 10,000 dan, the official still provides half of the amount to the migrant workers every day. Because migrant workers have salt, their cases of dehydration, fainting, and muscle cramps have been reduced a lot.
The road from Jie County to Maojin is a mountain road, completely different from the dirt roads that were previously built on the plains. Zhongtiao Mountain is not a mountain of earth. It is full of hard bluestones. This road is on top of these bluestones.
Speaking of this road, it is also famous. It was this road that the Jin State followed to destroy Guo State. The Wucheng at the other end of the road was actually the old capital of the Yu State. The unlucky man who believed the lies of the Jin State stayed behind. of. This road existed before the Yu State, and it is said that it was built by the King of Shang. Fortunately, otherwise, with Zhang Lu's strength, it would take a lot of work and a lot of food to dig out such a road. One section was simply dug out of stone; a pass was even built on the mountain. Now, the road is in shape and people often walk on it. All we need to do is repair the broken parts.
The climb up the mountain is full of rocks, and deep ruts have been made in the middle of the road, which is the result of the wheelbarrow. The mules and horses carrying salt will fall down if they pass by the uneven road. The merchant transporting salt carefully led the animals and supported the cart as he walked with difficulty on the road.
There was no way to repair the part on the mountain, so Zhang Lu only tamped down the part below the mountain, and then led the people across the mountain on the stone road to Wucheng on the other side of the mountain. Wu Ling was indifferent to building roads, but the order conveyed by Zhang Lu was clear: build a highway from the foot of the mountain to Maojin, and build another road to connect Wucheng and Weicheng. Wu Ling didn't need to worry about road construction, he only needed to be responsible for the supply of grain and fodder. There was still a lot of grain left over from the salt merchants, but it had not been transported and was temporarily stored in Jie County.
Wucheng is at the end of this ancient road, just down the mountain. Merchants gathered outside the city and it was very prosperous. From the south gate to Maojin, it is about fifty miles, and it is also full of ditches and bumps. But the migrant workers who were already very skilled in road construction only took five or six days to complete the construction.
The next step is to build the road from Wucheng to Wei County. This road is more than a hundred miles long, winding along the foot of Zhongtiao Mountain and along the bank of the Yellow River. Due to the complex terrain, it took nearly a month to repair. After this road was built, the defenses of Weicheng and Wucheng became one, forming a strong protection for Hangu Pass.
More than a month of road construction put great pressure on Wucheng's grain supplies. Wu Ling asked more than once whether Wei County could be allowed to bear part of the supply. But Zhang Lu told him that after arriving in Wei County, there were still many roads to be built: the road from Wei to Dayudu was relatively close; the road from Wei to Fenglingdu was no less than this road; in addition, there were still many roads to be built from Wei to Dayudu; The Fengling Crossing was built to the mouth of the Sushui River, and then built along the Sushui River from there! Wei County is a small town, and its grain reserves are not as large as Wu County. After all, Wu County was once the capital of a vassal state!
After finally reaching Wei County, Wei County was really embarrassed to provide a large amount of grain. After many twists and turns, Wei Ling only agreed to build a road from Wei County to Fenglingdu. Zhang Lu repeatedly insisted that the road from Fenglingdu to the mouth of Sushui River must be built, saying that the road was not long and only It can be fixed in a few days. Wei Ling finally agreed, but announced that the county's food supply could only be supplied for one month. If more time passed, the food supply would be insufficient.
Zhang Lu kept urging the migrant workers to start building roads. At this time, the official came to report that the people collected from Shangjun and the families of those who had made meritorious services had been dispatched and would soon reach Longmen Ferry. I hope to eat at Pi's from there.
Zhang Lu said: "No! No merit will be lost. This is the system of Qin. Those who move are willing to go to Yishi and Anyi as soon as possible; and the family members who have been restored should stay in Puye." Let Pi Wan go back to Pishi first and make arrangements. Immigration; by the way, Puling was notified to prepare a camp to accommodate the families of meritorious personnel.
Ten days later, Pi's family came to report that more than 4,700 families had moved to Anyi. There were many old, weak, women and children, and it was difficult for them to defeat the army. His family also crossed the river from Longmen and were all sent to Puban.
Zhang Lu asked the official to send 500 people to Puban to greet his family. Then he notified Xie County to transport the surplus grain stored in the county to Puban to support visitors from the upper county.
Every time a section of road is built, Zhang Lu counts one merit. So far, he has counted three merits. Almost all personnel have performed meritorious service, and one person can come forward, and some can even claim two people. Neither Zhang Lu nor Dr. Gong knew that the officers sent out this time were based on their meritorious service.
The families who immigrated to Pishi were dying of hunger. Pi Wan did not dare to let them go directly to Anyi, otherwise most of them would die on the road. He first arranged labor in Pishi and used this as an excuse to give these nearly 5,000 households a bowl of porridge. Zhang Lu asked Pi Wan to handle the relevant matters at Pi's house without coming to Fenglingdu.
The worst offenders are the families of the thousands of people who have made meritorious services. They were not resettled by Pishi and had to report to Puban; and the counties and cities along the way were unable to provide food and accommodation, so they had to rely on their own poor dry food and dig wild vegetables along the way to supplement the more than 200 kilometers from Pishi to Puban. Miles away. Fortunately, they were all considered strong laborers, unlike those immigrants who were mostly old and weak. Although it was difficult, they finally arrived in Puban five days later. The greeters who had been waiting there for many days couldn't help but burst into tears when they received the family members.
In fact, this group of people who greeted us had no food. Since they are not at the construction site, they do not get a share of the food delivered to the construction site every day. After the grain was shipped from Jie County, there was not much left due to the consumption during the transportation. They did not dare to eat it and waited for their family members to arrive before setting off a fire together.
The camp prepared by Pu Ban is just outside the city. The weather is hot now, so it’s okay to camp in the wild, but the mosquito bites are a bit uncomfortable. During the conversation, everyone learned that those sent out this time only included family members of those on the first two lists. The third list of meritorious personnel arrived late and had not yet been arranged. The person who greeted them introduced the content of the work to the newcomers and said that it was not difficult, but that the ramming required a lot of effort and carefulness. If you were not careful, you might miss a ramming point.
