Capital, Ministry of Industry.
A map is spread out on the table. In the map, with the capital, Suzhou, and Hangzhou as points, a narrow triangle is strung out through a red line that is not very straight.
Zheng Ci scratched his head and asked Huang Fu, the minister, "What does this mean?"
Huang Fu pointed to the document on the side and said carefully: "The emperor wants to build a road from the capital to Suzhou and Hangzhou."
Zheng Ci could understand the documents, but he couldn't understand the significance of the emperor's arrangement. He asked puzzledly: "Nowadays, the road from the capital to Suzhou and Hangzhou is not difficult, why do we have to waste people and money to build such a long road? "
Huang Fu also couldn't understand. Logically speaking, the road should be repaired only when it is broken. This road is good, so why should it be repaired?
Besides, it is not necessary to go by land from the capital to Suzhou and Hangzhou. You can also go by water. There is really no need to spend a lot of effort building roads.
"This is the emperor's wish."
Huang Fu didn't know how to answer Zheng Ci, so he had to move out of the emperor's house.
Zheng Ci shook his head seriously and said: "It is more than 400 miles from the capital to Suzhou, 500 to 600 miles from Hangzhou, and more than 300 miles from Suzhou to Hangzhou. It is necessary to build more than 1,300 miles of roads. This is not a This is a small matter, and the people's power alone is probably not worth less than 50,000 yuan. How can the court afford such a cost? Let's go to the cabinet!"
Huang Fu sighed and reluctantly followed Zheng Ci out of the Ministry of Industry. Not far away, he saw Huang Zicheng and Zhuo Jing who were rushing to enter the palace. After asking, he found out that the Ministry of Household Affairs also received what the emperor called " Infrastructure Planning”.
"Huang Shangshu also thinks it's inappropriate?"
Zheng Ci asked.
Huang Zicheng nodded slightly and replied seriously: "This matter is very inappropriate. The cabinet will agree to it, and our Ministry of Revenue will never agree to it. This road construction is useless and costly, and it cannot be tolerated."
It was the first time Zheng Ci saw Huang Zicheng being so tough, so he couldn't help but ask: "How much silver does the emperor want the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate?"
Huang Zicheng shook his index finger and said, "Do you think Hubu can agree to this?"
Zheng Ci raised his brows and said: "It's only one hundred thousand taels, it's nothing to the Ministry of Husbandry, right? Everyone knows that the Ministry of Husbandry is now a treasury..."
"It's one million taels! This is for this year!"
Huang Zicheng replied angrily.
Zheng Ci was a little confused and asked with eyes wide open: "Is it impossible? The Ministry of Industry has calculated the distance. Although there are twists and turns, in general, it should not exceed 1,500 miles. How could it cost so much?"
One million taels, 1,500 miles of road, and more than 600 taels of silver for one mile of road. This is not road construction, but money for paving. It is impossible for Ming Dynasty to spend money on such useless places.
Huang Zicheng lamented and said: "Although there is some silver in the internal treasury, how can we support such expenditure? You should know that the Longjiang Shipyard wanted to build a ship the day before yesterday. The purchase cost was so high that it made people feel distressed. The emperor took Jinghai as his Therefore, the Ministry of Revenue was asked to pay 1.3 million taels to the shipyard. In order to ensure that the important frontier towns had no worries in winter, the Ministry of Revenue allocated another 500,000 taels to purchase coal from various places and transport it to the north."
"Ningbo, Shaoxing, Taizhou and other places need to renovate fortifications and strengthen coastal defenses. Fujian also requires additional silver coins to reorganize the army and strengthen guard posts... How can the Ministry of Revenue support all these things? The emperor wants to build roads. , the household department has no money!”
Zheng Ci looked at the angry Huang Zicheng and couldn't help but laugh.
It's fine now, there's nothing to do with the Ministry of Industry.
When the emperor builds roads, he will definitely not be able to bypass the Ministry of Revenue. If the Ministry of Revenue does not provide money, the roads will not be built. When the emperor gets angry, he will have nothing to do with the Ministry of Works.
When they arrived at the cabinet, before Huang Zicheng and Zheng Ci could speak, Xie Jin and Zhang Yan came over. Xie Jin waved his hand and said, "You must be here for road construction, right?"
Huang Zicheng and Zheng Ci nodded in agreement.
Zhang Yan straightened his clothes and said, "The emperor expected that you two would come to the cabinet after seeing the documents, so he asked us to wait here, and then we went to Zhengyang Gate together."
Huang Zicheng was a little confused and asked: "The emperor is outside Zhengyang Gate?"
Xie Jin came over and said with a bit of a smile: "Yes, you two ministers, please go change into a set of casual clothes."
Outside Zhengyang Gate.
Zhu Yunwen is directing people to mix concrete. Not far away is Zhengyang Street Avenue, which leads directly to the south.
Although the width of Zhengyang Street Avenue is not as exaggerated as the "fifty steps wide" in the Qin Dynasty, it is still more than 30 steps, comparable to the scale of eight-lane highways in later generations.
In the Zhengyang Street Avenue, there are fifteen steps of road that have been paved with concrete roads, but straw mats are spread on them, and fences are set up around them to prevent people from entering.
There was no pure mechanical mixer, so Zhu Yunwen designed a simple shaking mixer. The inside of the mixer is very simple, just two special cast iron rods, similar to the "rice" shape, and a long iron rod passes through the inside of the iron warehouse. The end is outside, and by shaking the handle of the iron rod, the "rice"-shaped iron rod in the middle is rotated to complete the mixing.
Considering that if there is too much concrete in the warehouse, two or three people cannot shake it. If there is too little, it will not be able to keep up with the progress. Concrete is too pretentious. It is best to pour and mold it in one go. If it is done intermittently, it will affect the quality too much.
As a last resort, Zhu Yunwen improved the craftsmanship and designed the tripod, pulleys and counterweights.
A counterweight is added to one end of the iron rod, and the iron rod is driven by the force of the counterweight falling downwards. After the counterweight falls to the ground, the pulley is used to easily lift the counterweight. Only two people need to be arranged in the whole process, one of whom is responsible for lifting. Counterweight, one is responsible for adjusting the counterweight and rewinding the rope at the same time...
Although this method requires more ropes and requires digging a large pit under the counterweight to increase the number of drives, it solves the basic problem of operational efficiency. As long as the number of mixers is increased, stable supply can be ensured.
Zhu Yunwen entrusted the craftsmen with standards and checked the concrete mixing status from time to time. When he saw that it was almost done, he arranged for people to prepare for the construction. Sacks were laid out on the ground one by one. Wang Jiu opened the rear door of the mixer and shoveled the concrete out onto the sacks with a shovel. The two men carried the sacks and walked towards the construction road.
According to the construction standards of later generations, concrete roads need to be divided into three layers. The bottom layer is the cushion layer, which is mainly for water isolation and drainage, and also carries the force of the upper layer. The middle layer is the base layer, which is the main layer for carrying loads, and the upper layer is the surface layer. , mainly concrete.
Considering that the official road itself has cushion and base layers, Zhu Yunwen's concrete road construction is actually responsible for the surface layer construction. Only in places where there is no official road or the official road is damaged, the cushion and base layer need to be rearranged.
"It's not thick enough, so add more concrete."
Li Laosan looked at the wooden sticks standing on the roadside and shouted.
The wooden sticks are one foot high, and the thickness of the concrete construction is eight inches, which requires a large amount of concrete to be laid. After the concrete is laid to a height of eight inches, a craftsman will smooth it with wooden boards to make the entire road surface smooth.
Zhu Yunwen calculated the progress of the construction. Based on the current supply of five mixers, a fifteen-foot-wide road would be paved three feet a day. When the number of mixers increases in the future, and considering the cement supply in Jurong, up to five sections of construction can be completed. .
Fifteen feet per day, calculated as fifty meters, it would take 1,500 miles to complete, and it would take at least forty years to complete.
It is estimated that when I die, I will never have the chance to see the concrete road from Nanjing to Peiping.
If you want to shorten the construction period, the biggest problem is not people or money, but cement. Jurong is just a county town. Although the quality of cement there is high and the reserves are sufficient, after all, the manpower is limited and cannot support large-scale infrastructure projects.
According to the barrel theory, what determines the amount of water is not the strengths, but the weaknesses.
If the cement supply cannot be solved, then our ambitious infrastructure project will be out of the question.
Zhu Yunwen was calculating how much cement supply needed to be expanded to support his third-line construction, and he was also building the road to Peiping when he heard footsteps behind him.
Xie Jin, Zhang Yan, Huang Zicheng, Zheng Ci and others came over and were a little surprised when they looked at the busy construction site. There were not many craftsmen here. After careful counting, there were only more than eighty people.
"What kind of road was built here?"
Huang Zicheng walked to the edge of the construction site and looked carefully. The road was very smooth, but it was still covered with water, making it difficult for people to walk on it. What was the use of building such a road?
Zheng Ci wanted to step on it, but was stopped by a craftsman on the side: "You can't step on these roads yet, they will break. I didn't see any railings..."
The dignified minister of the Ministry of Industry was scolded in this way.
Zhu Yunwen walked over with a smile on his face and said: "Zheng Shangshu, don't blame them. If you want to get on this road, you have to wait at least two days. Going up at this time will damage the road."
Zheng Ci smiled awkwardly and said, "I have never seen such a weird road, and I just acted on a whim..."
Huang Zicheng looked around and said bluntly to Zhu Yunwen: "Your Majesty, I came here to say that this road cannot be repaired. The official road on one side is not damaged. Why do we waste people and money by building such a road? The wealth of the Ministry of Households is taken from The common people should also apply it to the common people instead of wasting it unnecessarily.”
Zhu Yunwen shook his head and said: "Huang Shangshu is still strong-willed and outspoken. How about I leave it to the Ministry of Household Affairs without making the final decision on whether to repair or not repair the concrete road?"
Huang Zicheng was a little stunned. He originally thought that the emperor was determined to build a concrete road. If he refuted it himself, he would offend Tian Yan and might lose his official position. But now, the emperor actually said that the right to build or not build it would be given to the Ministry of Household Affairs?
Xie Jin didn't say anything. He just saw someone covering the concrete road with a straw mat. He couldn't help but think of something and looked sideways. The section of road not far away must have been covered for some time.
"Does your Majesty really mean this?"
Huang Zicheng asked solemnly.
"You have no joke."
Zhu Yunwen looked at Huang Zicheng confidently, pointed to the straw mat not far away, and said: "Concrete roads cost a lot, I know it, but why do I advocate building this kind of road? Does Aiqing know it?"
Huang Zicheng and Zheng Ci shook their heads.
Huang Zicheng's starting point is: the Ministry of Revenue has no money to build roads for the emperor.
Zheng Ci’s starting point is: no one from the Ministry of Industry is building roads for the emperor to play with.
As for why the road was built, the two of them had never thought about it. They only subconsciously believed that the road was for people to use. What difference can it make?
