The autumn breeze is cool, and October in the Western calendar is September in the lunar calendar. It is still very hot during the day, but there is no longer much feeling of heat in the morning and evening!
Along both sides of the Qinghe River, two roads parallel to the river are being widened. Countless factory slaves in rags are digging roads, bulldozing earth, smashing stones and laying foundations to build the most basic construction, roads, for the future Jingshi Iron Works!
The requirements for infrastructure in the industrial production base are very high. Although it is not yet at the level of laying cement pavement, sooner or later the entire Jingshi Iron Works will be paved with cement to harden it!
In the future, the Capital Iron Works will be the incubation base of the Zaichun Industrial Revolution. It will become the industrial core of the empire. How many large components will be poured here, and tens of thousands of tons of ore and coal will be transported!
To handle such a large amount of cargo, a more solid road is needed!
According to the design drawings provided by the Hua Clan, such a road must be ten meters wide and have six layers of foundation!
Completely relying on manual labor to dig down, it is necessary to dig out a foundation layer more than two meters deep, then tamp it, spread large rocks, then spread small rocks, tamp it again, sand layer, rammed earth layer, cinder layer... Layers upon layers, a total of six layers are filled up!
Not only that, but bricks and stones must be used to build a drainage system underground. There are definitely no cement drainage pipes nowadays, but there is still no problem in using bricks and stones to build underground tunnels!
After all these are done, cement can be laid and hardened in the future. With such a solid and accessible road, factories can be densely distributed on both sides of the Qinghe River like a chessboard!
There are hundreds of officials from the Ministry of Industry and technicians provided by the Chinese. They are divided into dozens of groups, each with different tasks, and work hard on both sides of the Qinghe River, exploring data, drawing drawings, instructing workers, and inspecting quality!
Not only road construction, but also the Qinghe River needs to be dredged again. A dam will be built on the upper reaches of the Qinghe River and the water will be directed into other rivers. In the future, the riverbed will be dredged, the river channel will be deepened to facilitate boating, and embankments will be built to prevent the rainy season. Then build large and small docks for loading and unloading goods!
Before the railway network was built, water transport was still the most important means of transporting goods. Even in the future, when the Qing Dynasty built a large number of railway networks, the canal was still the most economical way of transport!
According to the calculations of the Ministry of Industry and Chinese technicians, the construction of roads and cleaning of rivers alone will have to be done until March next year!
How could Zai Chun not be in a hurry? He left so many treasures without looking at them and had to go to a deserted construction site to hold some kind of groundbreaking ceremony, just because he was really anxious!
The Capital Iron Works was the starting point for Zai Chun's industrial dream. In order to promote his plan, he really went crazy and became a loner!
If the 40,000 factory slaves were not enough, he also allowed the Ministry of Industry to recruit more refugees to work. Even if the scale was 100,000, the Capital Iron Factory would be put into operation within two years!
The war horses rolled across the ground like a dragon. Emperor Tongzhi, who was surrounded by the new imperial army, led a group of ministers and ran towards the foundation of the First Blast Furnace!
The scene of tens of thousands of people busy working along the way excited the little emperor. In his eyes, this dusty construction site was the battlefield where he broke with the old tradition!
But in the eyes of Weng Tonghe and other veterans, this scene was extremely painful!
Fertile fields were destroyed, trees were cut down, and the original verdant green was replaced by patches of earthy yellow. The earth looked as ugly as a bald man with scars on his head!
The water level of the river continues to drop, and we can already see the deep stinking mud. Countless swimming fish are struggling in the puddles, just like those factory slaves working hard on the construction site!
Yixuan, who was accompanying him, couldn't bear to open his eyes. He looked at the factory slaves who were kneeling on the ground and shivering. They were all descendants of the Eight Banners. Although they were the lowest level of banner slaves, they were still under the banner!
But today they were living in an extremely humble manner, with their feet in the mud, bloodstains on their shoulders and backs from the hemp rope, and each one of them was as emaciated as a skeleton!
What's even more distressing is that these people no longer have the same energy as before. They have been frightened out of their courage by the strong suppression during this period. Everyone is lying on the ground shivering!
In the ideological system of ancient Chinese literati, all such large-scale projects are the product of the emperor's great success. The elites of ancient China were very disgusted with such large-scale projects promoted by **!
Qin Shihuang built the Great Wall, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dredged the canal, and even Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty continued his decades-long expedition to Mobei... These are all representatives of great achievements in the eyes of ancient literati, and this kind of behavior can even be associated with the subjugation of the country!
Why do you have such thoughts? Or is it because the productivity in ancient times was too low, basically just human and animal power, and nothing else was used!
Moreover, animal power can only be used to a limited extent, because many delicate tasks can only be completed by humans!
Once people gather on a large scale, various problems will arise, including hunger, injury, oppression, death...all will happen. In such organizational management, violent means will inevitably appear!
For the sake of construction schedule and quality, or even for some corruption, conflicts between officials and the people are simply unavoidable!
Tens of thousands of people gathered in a narrow area to perform hard labor. In the eyes of ancient officials, this was the most dangerous signal of rebellion. Many peasant uprisings were forced out of this environment!
Now it is not enough for the little emperor to forcefully recruit 40,000 factory slaves, and he must continue to recruit corvees and civilian laborers. If there are really 100,000 civilian laborers working here, there will be a bomb hanging over the head of the capital, and no one can sleep peacefully. Got it!
But no one dared to persuade Zai Chun. The little emperor had revealed his determination to the government and the public through a series of cruel methods. Anyone who stood in the way of his industrial plan would die!
If gods stand in the way of killing gods, if Buddhas stand in the way of evil! Emperor Tongzhi was completely obsessed with the industrial reform plan!
"Your Majesty... the flagpole in front is the future location of the No. 1 blast furnace! I placed the carved stone tablet last night..."
"And we specially invited Taoist priests and lamas to do it. After your Majesty goes down, just fill it with soil!"
The officials from the Ministry of Industry showed their hospitality to the little emperor, and Zai Chun showed a satisfied smile and urged the horse to continue accelerating!
But he never expected that not far after the horse team had just crossed a wooden bridge, something suddenly happened. Among the factory slaves who were kneeling and kowtowing on both sides of the road, three figures suddenly appeared!
"Hunjun! Give back the lives of my family..." After saying this, three black shadows flew straight towards Emperor Tongzhi on horseback!
"Ah! No...there are assassins protecting the emperor..."
"Be careful of bombs... stack up Arhats, long live the protection!"
Human war has completely entered the era of terrorism. Of course, assassinations have also escalated. The most effective one is the bomb attack!
Since Nobel invented new explosives, chemical explosives have begun to replace black explosives in the past. The power of explosions has become more and more powerful. If you really want to commit an assassination, this thing is better than concealed weapons or pistols. !
Xiao Letian, Zai Chun and others have all experienced assassinations, and their guards have also performed various performances. When I saw these three black shadows today, I subconsciously thought they were bombs!
