December 19th, the ninth year of Chongzhen.
Trucks carrying stone and wood were pulled into the newly built Youqianhusuo City in the east of Shiquan City.
Autumn is coming to the east, and tiny snow particles are flying in the sky.
Such snow particles cannot cause snow to appear on the ground, but they can make the road muddy.
After more than a month of construction, Qianhusuo City has begun to take shape.
When most of the acropolis and Qianhusuo castles in the Ming Dynasty were built, the terrain was carefully surveyed and a city building plan was formulated according to local conditions in order to maximize the city's defense.
However, no matter how the city defense changes, the layout and facilities in the Acropolis and Senhusho Castle are basically the same.
Buildings such as official offices, barracks, granaries, arsenals, stables, and fodder yards all need to be built in fixed locations.
The craftsmen responsible for building the city at the beginning had already marked out the foundations of residential buildings, separated the travel roads and the main roads in the city.
There is a four-way horse racing road surrounding the inner side of the city wall. The cross streets in the city run straight through the east, west, south and north, dividing the city into four areas in a field shape. There are also many lanes connected to the horse racing road, which are used for daily life. , which is beneficial to transporting troops during wartime.
The streets and alleys in the city are designed in a "field"-shaped grid. The streets intersect and the lanes communicate with each other. They are neatly arranged and spread out to the four streets, connected in the center.
The four streets are connected to the racetrack around the city with the help of these streets and alleys, criss-crossing and extending in all directions.
The street inside the building is spacious, shaped like a chessboard, and has a symmetrical layout.
In addition, there is space left for the construction of various market squares and archways in the middle of the main streets of each street.
After determining the location of the street, the craftsmen immediately marked out the location of the temples instead of the official offices.
In the northwest corner of the city, "Jade Emperor Temple", "Sanqing Temple" and "Zhenwu Temple" are planned to be built.
The "Chenghuang Temple" and "Qizhu Temple" will be built at the end of South Street near the city wall.
In the middle of East Street, the "Mawang Temple" will be built here in the future.
The official offices of Qianhusuo are located to the west of North-South Street and north of East-West Street, near the intersection of the two streets.
Chen Wang did not stop the craftsmen from immediately delineating the construction sites for various temples.
Although Chen Wang does not believe in God, he knows very well how important these things are to people in this era.
Moreover, this kind of planning layout is a conventional layout, and Chen Wang naturally cannot change it without authorization.
However, the craftsmen who were building the Acropolis also knew that the top priority now was to build residences, because the weather was already getting colder and winter had already entered.
Chen Wang wore a swastika on his head, a riveted armor, and a neckkerchief. He held the Yanling sword at his waist with his left hand and a riding crop in his right hand. He walked striding along the East Street to check the progress of the construction.
Behind him, Tang Shiping led more than ten fully armed soldiers, following closely behind Chen Wang.
When the soldiers on duty and the craftsmen at work saw Chen Wang's arrival, they all saluted.
Wang Yuankang, who was presiding over the construction of the city, had already received the news that Chen Wang was coming, and quickly put down his work and came over.
"How is the situation with the fortification?"
Chen Wang's eyes slowly swept over the buildings in the city and asked Wang Yuankang.
"In about ten more days, all the barracks will be capped and can be occupied temporarily."
Wang Yuankang was holding the document in his arms and saw that Chen Wang's eyes were resting on the barracks for a long time. He stepped forward a little and reported to Chen Wang.
Chen Wang glanced at the barracks not far away that were under construction in full swing.
The garrison barracks are indeed almost completed. The tiles have been laid on the outermost buildings, and the main beams have been erected for many of the dozens of sergeant barracks in the back.
Although many places are still quite crude, once the roofs are sealed in a few days, they can be sheltered from the wind and rain, and people can temporarily live in them. There is no need to live in military tents and shacks.
Living in the barracks will at least make this winter much easier.
"The progress of the official offices, granaries, arsenals, stables, and hayyards in the city is similar to that of the barracks, and they can be completed almost at the same time."
Wang Yuankang glanced down at the document in his hand and continued.
"According to your Majesty's instructions, the two cities on the right and back where the Thousand Households are located have been expanded by a hundred steps outward based on the original plan."
In the Ming Dynasty, one step was five feet. When measuring one foot on the ground, it was converted into thirty-two centimeters in later generations. One step was one meter six.
The new Senhusho Castle built outside Ishiquan Castle was located on a fairly flat terrain, so the lengths from north to south and east to west were almost the same, and the city was built in a square shape.
The original length of each city wall was only two hundred steps, or 320 meters, and the perimeter of the city wall was just over two miles, covering a total area of about 100,000 square meters.
This size is naturally enough for an ordinary Qianhusuo City, but for Chen Wang, this area is naturally not enough.
Each expansion was a hundred steps, so each city wall was 300 steps long, and the total perimeter of the city wall reached Sanmingli.
Still regarded as a unit of later generations, the total perimeter of the city wall is almost two thousand meters, and the area will exceed 200,000 square meters.
As long as the perimeter of the city wall built by Qianhusuo does not exceed four miles, it is not considered illegal and can be built without the approval of the superiors.
The reason why he wanted to build such a large city was that Chen Wang naturally didn't let anything go.
The city of Youqianhusuo is located in the southeast of Shiquan, not far from the mouth of Chihe River. It is right at the choke point from Hanyin to Shiquan, cutting off the communication between the east and the west.
In addition to the need to stock up troops, the most important thing is naturally to protect the internal security of Hanzhong Mansion.
The several hundred-household offices under the jurisdiction of You Qianhu are basically located in important places, echoing each other and acting as support.
In some important places, Chen Wang also selected the addresses, and after switching the money and food, he directly built military forts on the selected sites.
As Chihekou, an important road from Hanyin to Shiquan, Chen Wang has also ordered it to be renovated and set up a hundred households on the old site of Chihekou.
If the precautions are not strict, once a bandit breaks into the house, the fields that have been cultivated so hard and the foundation accumulated will be destroyed in one day.
"The remaining 100-household stations in various places are being built according to regular urban specifications. However, because manpower is concentrated on repairing the 100-household stations, the progress of the 100-household stations in various places is somewhat behind. Many people may still need to live in shacks in winter."
Wang Yuankang raised his head and reported in a low voice.
Chen Wang frowned slightly, time was too tight, even if he rushed slowly, it was still too late.
"There is really no other way but to accept it..."
Chen Wang moved his gaze away from the barracks and looked around.
A complete acropolis has walls, gates, urns, turrets, moats, etc.
However, due to time constraints, none of the four city walls were built, and they were still in a state of foundation.
Many parts of the construction site inside the institute are quite dirty due to rain and snow, and most of the designated streets and lanes are muddy and difficult to walk on.
Stones and wood can be seen everywhere in the city, and all kinds of miscellaneous objects are piled up together, making it look quite scattered.
Although the weather is cold and the conditions are difficult, there is no trace of bitterness on the faces of the people working on the construction site.
The reason is simple. These newly built barracks will be where they need to live in the future.
They have been away from home for a long time, wandering all the way, living in the open and living in a precarious life, and now they finally have a place to stay.
Most of them signed the post to become military households because they were really hungry and couldn't resist the temptation of those thick porridge cooked in big pots.
Originally, I just thought that being a military household was poor, and that it was only slightly better than being a refugee. I was already ready to be a cow or a horse.
Who would have imagined that during this period, they would be able to have enough to eat every day, or three meals a day.
At first it was thick porridge, but now it's just dry rice, and some days it even tastes meaty.
When they were wandering around, they never thought that they could live such a life.
Later, when the city was being built, those people told them that a new city was to be built, and the houses built now were the houses they wanted to live in.
He had enough food to eat every day, he built a house for himself, and those who contributed more were rewarded. Everyone worked hard to help, and there were almost no lazy people.
The weather was fine before, and Chen Wang didn't feel anything strange.
But during this inspection, he noticed a problem.
Most of the people who were building houses were wearing very thin clothes, and there were even people whose clothes could not cover their bodies. They couldn't help but shiver when the north wind blew.
Wearing such thin clothes in such cold weather, I am afraid that many people will fall down before the winter is over.
The number of sergeants who fall down due to the cold every year in Jiubian is not less than those who fall on the battlefield.
Chen Wang tightened his grip on the Yan Ling Dao at his waist, stopped and cast his gaze towards the north.
Counting the time, it has been two months since Lu Xiangsheng took office as Governor of Xuanda.
By this time, Lu Xiangsheng's memorial complaining about the border troops should have been delivered to Chongzhen.
No clothes to wear, one meal a day...
Nowadays, more and more troops are being sent to various places, and it has become the norm to collect too much and excessive taxes.
It's not just the border troops who are suffering, but the civilian households are also suffering the same hardship...
Chen Wang raised his head and glanced at the sky, looking at the falling snow particles in front of his eyes, he couldn't help but frown.
The weather is getting colder and colder now. After a while, it will be difficult to go to work after the first month, and we will have to rest in the barracks.
In the past, the winter in Hanzhong Mansion was not too cold, and I could survive it for a while, but now that the weather is getting colder and colder, it is difficult to survive it.
Raising soldiers costs money like water, and everything else costs money.
Taking into account the price of cotton and labor costs, a winter coat that can keep you warm costs at least one tael of silver. The subsequent armaments are even more expensive, often requiring tens of taels of silver.
The two thousand-household depots are only regular troops. If they are fully staffed, they will have two thousand people. Sun Chuanting will definitely not allocate the equipment for these two thousand people. It is impossible for Chen Wang to find other sources of weapons and can only build them by himself.
When the imperial guard system was established in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that each military department in the world set up an ordnance bureau to produce weapons for its own use.
But now, the weapons bureaus of most inland guards have been abolished.
The Ordnance Bureau within Hanzhong Guard has been abandoned for many years. Most of the arms craftsmen's tasks in previous years were just to repair broken ordnance, and the rest of the time they were basically making kitchen knives and agricultural tools.
That is to say, in recent years, with the rise of civil unrest and turmoil in various places, inland guards such as Hanzhong Guard have resumed their function of making ordnance.
However, due to problems with raw materials, as well as problems with money, food, and corruption, the weapons produced by the Guards Arms Bureau can only reach a usable level at best.
The military craftsmen at the Baihu and Qianhu first-level guard stations actually only have the power to repair ordnance.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were no gun factories among the people. Whether it was guns or cannons, they could only be made by the War Bureau. Ordinary guards did not have the power to cast cannons and make guns at the beginning.
When he really had power, in the 14th year of Orthodoxy, due to the need to counter rebellion, he allowed various military stations to make their own bronze cannons and fire blunderbuss, but they had to obtain the approval of the imperial court before starting work.
However, most of these systems have been basically abolished by now. There are not many craftsmen in ordinary mainland guards who can cast cannons. It is not difficult to make guns and guns, but Chen Wang does not need them to make guns and guns now.
Some small local guards built a few guns and no one would manage them, but they still had extremely strict control over the artillery.
Chen Wang, an important organization like the Ordnance Bureau, would naturally not leave it in the hands of others.
When he was in Hanzhong Guard, Chen Wang directly demanded that the Weizhong Army Craftsmen be reorganized and the Ordnance Bureau be revitalized on the grounds that most of the ordnance produced by the Hanzhong Guard's craftsmen was too inferior to be used.
Most of the people in Hanzhongwei's Ordnance Bureau were basically brought to Shiquan by Chen Wang. It can be said that the entire Ordnance Bureau has actually been moved to Shiquan by Chen Wang.
The first building built in the city was not an official office or a barracks, but an arms bureau.
The Arms Bureau was set up by Chen Wang next to the arsenal, which was northwest of the Qianhu Office.
Chen Wang did not stay in the barracks area for long. After a brief inspection, he took Tang Shiping to the direction of the Ordnance Bureau.
The construction site in the city is still under construction. As the first to be built, the Ordnance Bureau has not only been completed, but the craftsmen in the bureau have even begun to make armaments and weapons.
Before entering the bureau, Chen Wang could already hear the sound of hammers hitting iron blocks, and at the same time, there was the sound of wind blowing and blowing fire.
The Ordnance Bureau was as busy as the outside. As soon as Chen Wang walked into the workshop behind the Ordnance Bureau, he felt a wave of heat coming towards him.
In the workshop, a group of craftsmen are constantly busy. Everyone in the huge workshop performs their duties in an orderly manner without any panic.
Chen Wang stood in front of the workshop gate and watched the forged armor pieces being delivered to the work table one after another.
A group of children about eight or nine years old stood on both sides of the work table. They were holding ropes through the armor plates to connect them together.
What they were doing was the iron shield arm that was widely equipped in the Ming army. At this time, dozens of iron shield arms were installed in the basket under the table.
