King Shen of Yan was a British master and a qualified politician. The establishment of the Golden Platform quickly spread throughout the world, and talented people from all over the world went to the Kingdom of Yan to show off their talents, hoping to gain the attention of the King of Yan.
King Yan did not kill all the old nobles who were willing to surrender. He also gave a way for these old nobles to participate in the assessment. As long as they passed the assessment, they could succeed to the official position.
Compared with those common people, the old nobles have a lot of knowledge. As long as they are not stupid, they can basically pass it. Now it is impossible to be the same as before.
Regardless of their origins, the Yan State recruited talented people with gold, jade, and official titles. The arrival of a large number of talents allowed the Yan State's reforms to advance rapidly.
Qi State, Linzi.
After King Wei of Qi passed away, his son came to the throne. During the period of King Wei of Qi, Qi State experienced great power after undergoing political reforms. As the King of Qi who served as the Prime Minister at that time, he passed away not long after he became king.
After his death, the group of famous officials who created Qi's prosperity with him also began to wither. The current King of Qi is a king who loves great achievements but is not firm-willed. Coupled with its greed for enjoyment, Qi's strength also began to gradually decline.
However, King Qi didn't know that just when Qi was in decline, Yan was rising rapidly.
After Wang Xu ascended the throne, he was not in a hurry to control the court and show his authority. Instead, he first asked and learned from Sun Bin and other veterans, and spent a year learning how to govern and govern the country.
Because Huai State has a vast territory, transportation is relatively fast in places close to the Yangtze River or its tributaries, but in places not close to it the roads become rugged and difficult to navigate.
The inconvenience of roads had an impact on the transportation of materials, the collection of taxes, and the Wang family's rule over the Huai Kingdom.
So after Wang Xu discussed with the important ministers who came to the throne, he began to collect labor and build a road leading to Jinling throughout the Huai Kingdom.
Wang Xu ordered the craftsman to discuss and come up with a convenient and feasible plan to connect all parts of the country.
The Mohist disciples with the craftsman as supervisor began to discuss with the Gongshu disciples and other craftsman disciples. He also borrowed a map of the mountains and rivers of Huai State and even sent a large number of craftsmen to visit it in person.
After spending two years, the craftsman finally came up with a practical plan.
In order to speed up the road traffic, these master craftsmen supervising the craftsmen laid two wooden tracks on the ground, and laid sleepers under the tracks. At the same time, the road foundation also needed to be repaired and leveled first. After repairs, horse-drawn carriages can pass quickly.
Wang Xu ordered people to build a track outside Jinling City and then let the carriages run on it. Sure enough, with the addition of tracks, horse-drawn carriages not only carried more goods, but also went faster and saved horsepower.
Seeing the great success of this kind of rail carriage, Wang Xu immediately issued an order to collect labor from all over the country and start building the track.
Because Huai State is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the entire Huai River Basin, it has abundant water resources. Therefore, many places can rely on water transportation and do not need to build Chidao, which greatly reduces the difficulty of the project.
Wang Xu conscripted 300,000 people in labor and then allocated money to start building Chi Road across the country. The Chi Road was 50 meters wide and had two wooden tracks running parallel to it. All wooden rails are made of hardwood and are preservative treated.
On the Chi Road, a post station was built every fifty miles. In addition to allowing pedestrians, officials, etc. to rest, the post station was also responsible for protecting the Chi Road from damage. Once the Chi Road was damaged, it was necessary to seize the time to repair it.
At the same time, the emergence of Chidao also required Huaiguo's carriages to be customized according to the standards of the track. Therefore, Wang Xu issued an edict that all carriages in Huai State must be on the same track.
The construction of Chidao is not a simple matter. The construction of a Chidao requires a lot of time, money, manpower and material resources. After Huaiguo started to build the first Chidao, the money spent was staggering in just one month. However, compared with the construction of Chidao, it was Compared with the benefits it would bring later, Wang Xu decided to pass it.
The construction of Chidao requires the foundation to be consolidated. In order to prevent the foundation from collapsing due to rain, floods and other reasons, a large number of stones are used in the foundation of Chidao.
At the same time, all foundations need to be piled with three feet of soil, which needs to be compacted. The soil used needs to be steamed in a steamer first, and all insect eggs and plant seeds in the soil must be steamed. Then mix it with glutinous rice juice and lime and tamp it down.
This requires a lot of glutinous rice, but it must be done. In this era without concrete, glutinous rice juice and lime are the best binders.
After repeated tamping, the ground of the Chidao became extremely hard. At the same time, there were complete drainage ditches on both sides of the Chidao. Prevent excessive rainwater from soaking the road.
After repeated tamping, the inside of the Chidao will become very hard. As long as it is not soaked in water for a long time, the Chidao will not become muddy.
Two or four tracks were laid on the fifty-step wide gallop, and the rest of the road was allowed to pass by the army.
The laying of tracks greatly increased the speed of horse-drawn carriages, and the transportation of grain and grass was also greatly accelerated. The horses in Huai State were much worse than those in the northern countries in terms of quantity and quality, so Wang Xu purchased a large number of horses of all kinds. He even spent a lot of money to buy a thousand-mile horse.
The news of King Zhao Wuling's reform of riding and shooting in Hufu has been passed back by the secret guard. Zhao Guo's strength in riding and archery in Hufu has been greatly improved because of it. At the same time, the appearance of cavalry made Huai Guo notice the advantages of this new unit.
Compared with cumbersome chariots, cavalry are more flexible and are very useful whether for reconnaissance or outflanking enemy troops.
While other countries were still hesitating, Huai State learned from Zhao State immediately, restructured its army, added cavalry, and began to implement Hufu riding and shooting.
Huai State spent a lot of money to buy fine war horses from Qin, Zhao and Yan. Some of these horses will be given to the army, and some will be used to build horse farms to breed fine war horses.
Although the Huai Kingdom has a vast territory, it does not have a horse-producing land, and the horse trade can easily be cut off by other countries. Therefore, Wang Xu ordered people to try to open horse farms in Nanyang, Huai'an, and Jinling, hoping to breed a large number of horses to provide war horses for the army.
Although the lands in Huai'an, Jinling, and Nanyang are mostly flat, they are not the best places to raise horses. Therefore, the quality of the horses bred here is not as good as those of the Qin, Zhao, and Yan Kingdoms. However, as long as they continue to improve breeding horses , there is still a chance of breeding excellent war horses.
Although the appearance of the cavalry is flexible, it does not have the impact of the chariot's forward momentum. Therefore, chariots are still retained in the army, but their role is getting smaller and smaller, and they are now regarded as auxiliary arms.
(End of chapter)
