The group of people followed Li Huan and quickly left the capital, then headed in one direction.
It took almost a while for the group of people to walk on the official road. Because they were on patrol in private, there was no martial law on the official road, and there was no loess road.
Although the autumn day in September is not as hot as summer, it is windy. There happened to be a strong wind blowing at this time, so wherever it passed, there was smoke and dust billowing all the way.
That is to say, after leaving the imperial city, the emperor, Wang Yangming and others got on the carriage. Otherwise, the smoke and dust would be billowing, and everyone would be covered in dust and sand.
However, this is the way it is in this era. The people of Dongchang, who are secretly guarding the surroundings, and the Jinyi Guards all look like they are dusty.
This is still an official road. Over the years, the road has actually become extremely well-trodden. However, a loess road is a loess road. No matter how solid it is, it cannot withstand a heavy rain. After the weather clears up, the road conditions will be different.
One can imagine.
Sitting in a carriage, even if the driver who controls the carriage is a good driver, he is trying his best to control the speed of the horse, trying to stabilize the body and prevent the carriage from jolting.
However, as a result of the poor road conditions, the carriage was still very bumpy. That is to say, everyone was already used to this situation, so they didn't feel much while sitting in the carriage.
Suddenly, the carriage jolted slightly, and Zhu Houzhao and Wang Yangming, who were sitting in the carriage, could clearly feel that the carriage beneath them seemed to suddenly become extremely stable.
At the same time, there was a sound of surprise from outside the carriage.
The sound of surprise naturally came from the Dongchang and Jinyiwei people who were escorting the surrounding carriages. These people seemed to have seen something surprising, and each of them couldn't control their emotions and exclaimed.
.
Although the voices of these people were very low, they could not stop Zhu Houzhao and Wang Yangming who were sitting in the carriage. They were both strong men who practiced martial arts. Naturally, the movements outside could not hide from their keen senses.
The monarch and his ministers couldn't help but look at each other. Something must have happened outside. Otherwise, those people would never have such a big reaction.
Subconsciously, the monarch and his ministers looked towards Li Huan who was sitting aside. Li Huan had said that he would give them a surprise. They had been thinking about what kind of surprise Li Huan was going to give them. Now they heard the words from outside.
The first thing they thought about was that the news was most likely related to Li Huan.
Li Huan noticed the gazes of the two of them, and a smile appeared on his lips.
At the same time, Zhu Houzhao said: "Li Qing, isn't everyone's reaction the surprise you want to give us?"
Li Huan smiled slightly when he heard this and said loudly: "Stop the car!"
Soon, Wang Yangming and Zhu Houzhao could feel that the carriage that was driving smoothly stopped slowly, and Li Huan said to them: "Your Majesty, Mr. Wang Ge, why don't you just follow me and watch!"
The emperor got off the carriage first, followed by Li Huan and Wang Yangming.
And when Zhu Houzhao stepped out of the carriage and put his feet on the ground, the first thing he felt was the thick and smooth road under his feet. Almost instinctively, Zhu Houzhao subconsciously looked towards his feet.
When he saw the result, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but open his eyes wide, with a look of astonishment and surprise on his face.
He could see that the ground he was stepping on was an extremely flat piece of ground. The film was extremely flat and looked faintly gray. It was not at all the loess ground he had imagined.
Subconsciously, he stepped on it slightly, and as a result, the ground under his feet was as complete as a blue-gray boulder, and there was not even a trace of dust on it.
"this……"
Looking into the distance along the blue-grey road beneath my feet, I saw a flat road that was more than a foot wide appearing in front of my eyes, stretching into the distance, with no end in sight at a glance.
Zhu Houzhao was stunned when he saw this scene, and the look on his face was very wonderful.
Not only was Zhu Houzhao the first to notice the strangeness of the road under his feet, but also Wang Yangming, Yang Tinghe and others who got out of the carriage together with Li Huan, as well as the British Duke Zhang Lun and Cheng Guo Duke Zhu who got off the carriage behind.
The assistant and other nobles also looked at the ground under their feet with great curiosity.
No one was a fool, and the strangeness of the road under their feet naturally attracted their attention immediately. Even Zhang Lun, a British prince, bent down and gently touched the ground with his hands, as if he was checking something, and then
He punched the ground with his fist again, with a look of horror on his face, and exclaimed: "This... how is this possible? Even if it is a stone, it is impossible for such a big stone to be so integrated.
ah!"
Zhang Lun's reaction was naturally noticed by everyone. They each checked the condition of the road under their feet in their own way, but after a closer inspection, everyone was shocked.
They could all find that the road under their feet was extremely smooth, and its hardness was comparable to the bluestone pavement they had seen. The key point is that the bluestone pavement relied entirely on manpower to polish the bluestone piece by piece. The bluestone strips were of various lengths and widths.
There has never been much bluestone paving.
But this time, the pavement under their feet was completely integrated. At a glance, there were no gaps in the pavement that was at least several feet long and as wide as a sheet. If the pavement under their feet was paved with bluestone-like stone, then
This stone is so amazing.
The key was to see that the road stretched into the distance and was extremely regular. Anyway, they didn't believe that they could collect so many smooth stones in the mountains.
Li Huan did not speak. Instead, he led everyone on the smooth cement road. People did not rush to ask questions. Instead, they followed Li Huan all the way. They walked and watched for a long time.
It was time for a cup of tea, and the road ahead reached the end of the road, where a huge venue was located.
The site occupies an extremely large area, with rows of sheds erected as if they were protecting the things under the sheds from wind and rain.
Zhu Houzhao said in surprise: "If I remember correctly, this place should have been an imperial mansion before!"
Gao Feng, the eunuch who was serving the emperor, said sharply: "Your Majesty, this was indeed an imperial village before. However, after the Ming Dynasty Royal Trading Company was established, this imperial village was placed under the jurisdiction of the trading company."
Li Huan took Gao Feng's words and explained to the emperor with a smile on his face: "After this place was assigned to the trading company, it was converted into a large warehouse by the trading company, where many items were stored.
goods."
Zhu Houzhao nodded slightly, his eyes fell on Li Huan, and Li Huan looked at the extremely hard road paved with bluestone under his feet and said: "If my guess is correct, Li Qing, what do you want to give me?"
The surprise must be the road under my feet. To be honest, I was really surprised."
Li Huan chuckled and said: "Your Majesty is right. I invite you and your Majesty to come here just to show everyone how this simple road Li ordered to be paved within three days!"
Wang Yangming and others on the side were stunned for a moment when they heard this, and then they came to their senses. Yang Yiqing, the Minister of the Ministry of War who had been a local official for many years, was even more shocked and said: "What, Duke Guo of Qin, you said that this road is the one you ordered people to take within three days."
It’s built? And it’s a simple road?”
Yang Yiqing directly asked everyone's questions. Not only Yang Yiqing, everyone was shocked by Li Huan's words. They really didn't expect that Li Huan actually told them that what they saw was very extraordinary at first glance.
The road was actually built in just three days.
As if he had thought of something, Wang Yangming subconsciously said: "I wonder how many people the Duke of Qin used to build this road? How much did it cost?"
Now that the Ming Dynasty has abolished labor service, whenever the Ming Dynasty court wants to carry out any project, it directly uses money or grain to recruit young people to work, and directly pays the grain.
Therefore, Wang Yangming, as the chief minister of the cabinet, was extremely surprised when he heard that Li Huan had built such an extraordinary road in three days, but what he thought about was that this road was built in three days. In the end,
How much money and food was spent and how much labor was used.
Zhu Fu stroked his beard and said: "If you want me to see it, if you want to pave such a road in such a short period of time, I'm afraid it will take at least thousands of people..."
When everyone heard what Zhu Fu said, they also showed approval. Anyway, in their opinion, since there is so much time, it must be that there is strength in numbers.
Even the emperor Zhu Houzhao had the same expression, but when everyone was thinking like this, Li Huan slowly shook his head and just said: "In order to build this cement road about a thousand feet long,
Approximately one hundred manpower was used, plus labor and raw materials, it cost about six hundred taels of silver!"
One thousand feet is roughly more than three thousand meters, which is about six miles. It took one hundred manpower three days to build this small distance with cement. To be honest, Li Huan was not very satisfied with this speed. After all, if you calculate it carefully, one person per day
That is to say, only ten meters of road have been built.
There is also the issue of cost. A six-mile road costs almost six hundred taels of silver, which means that one mile of road costs one hundred taels of silver.
One mile of cement road costs about one hundred taels of silver. This cost is not small at all. If it is ten thousand miles, it will be one million taels. With the land area of the Ming Dynasty, if it is really free to build roads, then
Not only tens of thousands of miles of roads, if we really have to repair all the official roads in various places, at least hundreds of thousands of miles of roads will need to be repaired. If you calculate it like this, the gold and silver needed will be tens of millions of taels.
That's a lot.
On the other hand, Zhu Houzhao, Wang Yangming and others on the side suddenly showed a look of astonishment after hearing Li Huan's words.
Wang Yangming, who was in charge of the cabinet, was even more surprised and said: "Mr. Qin, you said that to build this road that is almost six miles away, only about a hundred people were used in three days, and about six hundred taels of silver were spent?"
Li Huan nodded slightly, frowned and said: "If we do the math, it will cost hundreds of taels of silver to travel one mile. This cost is indeed a bit high!"
Just as Li Huan was cooing softly, Wang Yangming on the side took a deep breath and looked at Li Huan and said: "According to what Duke Qin said, this road was not built with stones dug out of the mountain?"
Li Huan nodded and said: "That's natural. If it were really made of stones dug from the mountains, the labor and cost would be huge. These are all repaired with cement researched by the supervisor."
While speaking, Li Huan waved to the supervisors who were waiting respectfully in front of him and said, "Bring a jar of cement over here."
Soon I saw several strong men walking over carrying a large vat with the mouth of the vat sealed.
Everyone's eyes naturally fell on the large vat that was carried over by everyone, and Li Huan stepped forward, stretched out his hand to open the sealed port, and what suddenly appeared in everyone's eyes was a vat of green wine.
Gray powder that looks like wheat bran.
Yang Yiqing took a step forward, subconsciously reached out and pinched a handful of cement powder, then brought it to his mouth under Li Huan's stunned gaze, stuck out his tongue and licked it, tasted it and finally shook his head and said: "This is not
It’s something like glutinous rice…”
After hearing this, Li Huan reacted and explained with a slight cough: "Everyone, this is made by smelting the ore in the mountain like steel. When it comes into contact with water, it will melt like water or mud. However, this thing has extremely strong
It has good adhesion, spread it on the ground and pour it, and it will solidify like a solid stone in just two or three days."
Although when they saw the cyan powder in the jar, everyone vaguely guessed that these things might be related to the road under their feet, everyone still looked surprised when they heard what Li Huan said.
Yang Yiqing even asked: "Is it really so magical?"
Li Huan laughed loudly and said, "If you don't believe it, you might as well come with me and take a look."
While speaking, Li Huan led everyone to the distance. When they arrived, they saw a group of people sweating profusely to level the ground. Another group of people separately pulled heavy stone rollers and rolled them across the ground, leveling the ground.
The ground was extremely solid and flat, and a group of people behind them pushed carts and spread a pile of wet stones that looked like mud on the flat ground, and then pushed the stones flat.
Then a group of people carried a load of something that looked like thick blue mud and poured it on the stones. After a while, the green mud evenly covered the stones, and then someone stepped forward to pour those things that looked like thick blue mud.
The mud-like thing was smoothed away little by little, and gradually an extremely smooth but wet green ground appeared in everyone's eyes. At first glance, it looked exactly like the roads they had just walked on.