The next day, Yang Ming felt refreshed and went to the imperial city to attend the court meeting.
He didn't drink too much last night, because when he went down with the wine jar, Yuan Wendu and the others started to pretend to be drunk one by one, and they all found excuses to leave.
Today's court meeting is hosted by Prince Yang Zhao, which is located in the Qianqiu Hall of the East Palace. This is also the first time that he has hosted a court meeting.
Yang Zhao was stable. After all, Yang Guang spent a lot of time on his eldest son. Since Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, Yang Zhao would attend court meetings every day.
In the past during the Yang Jian period, Prince Yang Yong only went to court on the fifteenth day of the lunar month.
The major events being discussed today are mainly focused on Luoyang. Building Luoyang sounds like a huge project and will definitely cost an astronomical figure, but in fact it is not.
Project costs can generally be summarized as manpower, material resources and transportation costs.
The Sui Dynasty had a military system, and manpower was called recruiting, not hiring. The workers were not paid, which would save a lot of expenses.
The construction of Luoyang and the mobilization of the people were called force service. The Sui Dynasty stipulated that Ding Nan's force service was only one month per year. In other words, during this month, the court did not even have to worry about food.
What everyone is currently discussing is where to recruit civilian husbands.
People in Henan definitely can't escape, because Luoyang is in Henan.
Wei Chong, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said: "The construction of Luoyang is a huge project. Your Majesty has set a one-year construction period. However, with the power of Henan, it may not be enough. We still need to recruit people from Shanxi and Hebei."
Yang Zhao nodded in agreement, frowned and said: "When the emperor built the capital, he recruited 600,000 civilians. This time to build Luoyang, it should be no less than this number."
Six hundred thousand is good. Yang Ming quickly agreed: "What the prince said is absolutely true. This amount of labor can be divided among Henan, Shanxi, and Hebei."
In the absence of his father, Yang Zhao especially needed his younger brother to help him. After all, this was his first time hosting a court meeting. Some of the things he said were inappropriate, so Yang Ming had to step in to help him.
When Gao Jian presided over the construction of Daxing, he really didn't use many people. The stone and wood were all locally sourced, and many of them were ripped from Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty. This shows that Yang Jian and Gao Jian were frugal.
Solvay put forward different opinions at this time:
"I'm afraid six hundred thousand is not enough. Luoyang cannot be self-sufficient in gold, stone and wood. The stone needs to be mined from Shanxi and the wood needs to be transported from the south. These two labors need to be added."
This is what people are saying. Although Yang Ming doesn't like to hear it, he is telling the truth.
Luoyang is a basin with few mountains. This place is very suitable for growing food. Although Mang Mountain is to the north, stone cannot be mined from there.
There are two reasons,
First, Mang Mountain is a Feng Shui resort and one of the 72 Taoist Blessed Lands. There are so many talented people buried in it. Mining it will ruin people’s Feng Shui and will definitely be blocked by many people. After all, they live in Mang Mountain.
, but their descendants are still alive, and no one would be happy to spoil the feng shui of their ancestral graves.
Second, the stones in Mangshan are not that good, and their texture and density are far inferior to those in Changping County, and Changping County has foundation stones, which are marbles.
Marble is generally distributed in my country's coastal provinces. It is relatively scarce in the inland and is only scattered in scattered areas.
Changping County is two hundred miles north of Luoyang and relies on the Taihang Mountains. It is considered the most suitable place for stone materials.
In the Sui Dynasty, mining marble was fatal. It was too hard. There was no explosives and it could only be chiseled bit by bit manually. However, it was very suitable for use on the ground, platforms, columns, monuments, towers, and statues.
Create.
According to Su Wei's judgment, it would cost 200,000 civilians just to quarry the stone from Changping County and transport it to Daxing.
The Changping County of the Sui Dynasty, which is now Jincheng, Shanxi, and the Gaoping area, Bai Qi's Battle of Changping was fought in Gaoping.
Although Gao Jiong did not agree with such consumption of people's power, he really could not think of a good solution.
Yang Zhao nodded and signaled Su Wei to continue.
Su Wei said: "The bricks and stones used in the city wall structure are best made of red clay. Changping County is all made of red clay. In addition, bluestone can be burned into chalk ash. Therefore, there is an urgent need to dig brick kilns and ash kilns in Changping County."
Red soil is the main material for burning bricks, chalk is lime, and limestone is everywhere in the Taihang Mountains, also known as bluestone, which is a type of limestone.
The joints between city wall bricks, including the bonding with the internal rammed earth, require boiling glutinous rice into soup and mixing it with sand, soil and lime mortar as an adhesive, which is equivalent to ancient cement.
At present, the number of brick and ash kilns in Changping County is definitely not enough to supply Luoyang, so excavation must be carried out in advance to prepare.
This item requires an increase of nearly 100,000 manpower.
Yang Ming's head was pounding after hearing this.
Prince Yang Zhao didn't care about this. He only thought about how to do the preliminary work, so he looked at Dou Yan, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and said:
"It is up to you to arrange all matters in Changping County. After His Majesty returns to Beijing, construction will begin in Luoyang. There must be no delay."
Dou Yan nodded quickly: "I will set off tomorrow to arrange arrangements in Changping County."
He was appointed as the Geotechnical Supervisor of Camp Tokyo by Yang Guang. He and Liu Su, another minister of the Ministry of Works, were responsible for the materials.
Liu Su is the uncle of Liu Shu, the former Minister of War. Do you know why Liu Shu cannot be charged with rebellion?
As for Dou Yan, Li Yuan should be called uncle, but he is one year older than Li Yuan.
In the end, there were many discussions to quarry stones, burn lime, build brick kilns, and transport them together. Changping County would need to recruit 500,000 civilians.
Yang Ming thought it was too much, so he said: "Such a large-scale conscription may cause unrest. The Shanxi rebellion has just been put down, so it is really not appropriate to force conscription at the moment."
There are not many people in Changping County, and it cannot supply half a million laborers. Therefore, these people must come from all over Shanxi, and they cannot escape from Hedong.
After he finished speaking, he coughed lightly. Gao Qiao immediately understood and said:
"I believe that we should temporarily recruit 200,000 civilians in Shanxi. Otherwise, we will not be able to supply our rear, and problems will arise. The people of Shanxi have not yet stabilized due to the chaos of the Han Dynasty, so it is indeed not appropriate to recruit too many people."
Yang Zhao was moved and frowned in thought.
He actually agreed with the views of Yang Ming and Gao Jiong. Shanxi was no different from other places. Just after a war, 500,000 people were recruited from among the people. I was afraid that the people would be resistant.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! So he said: "However, the supply in Luoyang must not be slowed down. You still have to think of more ways."
Dou Yan, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, shook his head and said: "There are only half a million civilians. Changping County is separated from Luoyang by the Taihang Mountains. The mountain roads are narrow and rugged, with many ravines and sharp bends. It is difficult to get there. We must not only ensure the supply of Luoyang, but also make it difficult to reach Luoyang alone."
For transportation, even two hundred thousand is far from enough."
This is also true. What everyone said is actually from a practical point of view, and there is nothing wrong with it at all.
The only problem is that Yang Guang only set a construction period of one year, while Yang Jian set a construction period of four years.
Yang Ming could no longer find a suitable reason to overturn the opinions of these people. Gao Jiong was originally standing up for Yang Mingqiang, and he knew better than anyone else that according to this plan, Changping County would still have 500,000 people.
At the current court meeting, Yang Ming seemed to be the only one who had objections, so Prince Yang Zhao comforted him:
"Brother Ming doesn't know much about fortifications. I still need to ask you for advice on many things. Let's make a decision for the time being. Dou Yan will start making arrangements immediately. It will depend on the situation in the future."
Yang Ming sighed, looked at Dou Yan and said, "If you recruit 500,000 yuan, there will be losses. What range of casualties does Mr. Dou think is reasonable?"
Since Yang Ming couldn't win over the number of people, he could only find a way not to cause excessive casualties. Twenty thousand deaths among half a million people was the limit that Yang Ming could accept.
Death in engineering is unavoidable, even with advanced machinery and intelligent operations in later generations, let alone such a backward Sui Dynasty.
After thinking for a while, Dou Yan said: "The terrain in Changping County is complex and there are almost no decent roads. Damage is inevitable. I believe that the number of dead is between 50,000 and even more."
This is a very conservative statement. In fact, the number in Dou Yan's mind was more than 80,000.
When Yang Su built a Renshou Palace, tens of thousands of people died, also because of the deadline.
There are many causes of death in engineering projects, including death from exhaustion, starvation, falling, sunburn, freezing, death due to injuries that cannot be treated, and even a cold wind can kill people.
If you want to avoid this situation, you can only rely on the superior officials to make reasonable arrangements, orderly supply, and work appropriately, which can be greatly alleviated.
Yang Ming straightened his face and snorted coldly: "If the number of dead exceeds 20,000, I will not show mercy."
Dou Yan's color changed instantly.
Other officials also looked at each other, and even Yang Zhao was stunned.
Because this is the most important thing Yang Ming has said since he attended the court meeting, and everyone knows that Yang Ming always does what he says.
Dou Yan panicked, I have no grievances with you, why are you targeting me? Luoyang is not what I want to cultivate, don’t you agree?
For a moment, the atmosphere in the main hall was a bit strange, and many people came forward to act as peacemakers and persuade Yang Ming to calm down.
Yang Ming was really angry. Few of the well-dressed beasts in the court regarded the common people as human beings. In their eyes, the casualties were just a number.
But in Yang Ming's heart, they are all living lives, shouldering the heavy responsibility of the family.
"Twenty thousand at most!" Yang Ming said categorically with a gloomy face: "If you exceed this number, either you will die or I will die."
Now it's better, no one can persuade me anymore, people have reached the point of life and death, who dares to persuade me?
Even Yang Zhao didn't know what to say.
Dou Yan is now planning to give up his job. It's so difficult. We have to ensure supply and not kill too many people. There's no way I can do it.
Delaying the construction period is death, and too many deaths are still death, so he stood up directly and said angrily:
"I will write a memorial and report to Your Majesty that I cannot do this job. Please ask Your Majesty to find someone else to do it."
The official of the Ministry of Personnel is not a small one. This is the deputy minister level. Besides, the old Dou family is not a vegetarian. Dou Yan was forced to do this by Yang Ming, and Dou Yan was willing to fight for it.
"Okay, okay, stop arguing," Yang Zhao was no longer happy and said in a deep voice:
"I asked you to come here to discuss matters, not to quarrel. King Qin's concerns are not unreasonable. Why are you so angry? Who do you think you are if you dare to give up your choice?"
After being scolded by the prince, Dou Yan did not dare to speak and sat down angrily.
He is only forty years old today. If he were forty-five years old, he would not challenge Yang Ming.
He is young and very angry.
Yang Zhao waved his hand impatiently: "You will go back to the headquarters temporarily and we will discuss this matter in the afternoon."