Section 2205 The price of road construction(1/2)
Several other empires can also do things like building roads, but they will never invest as much as Li Cong. In their view, this is simply a move with bad brains. Although they all
They are aware of the convenience brought by a road, but they are definitely not willing to bear the huge investment. This is mainly because in this era, road construction relies on stones. Roads paved with bluestones can be said to be very costly.
, just like the widest street in the capital city of the Eastern Empire, which can accommodate eight horses and carriages walking side by side, it is all made of bluestone. A question arises, how many bluestones are needed to build this road?
It took thirty years to build. Millions of slaves lost their lives in these thirty years. The length of this road is only less than 400 kilometers, but this road is already the best road in the Eastern Empire.
The length of the bluestone slab is only 50cm and the width is 25cm. The road is 20 meters wide. One kilometer requires 160,000 bluestone slabs. This entire road uses tens of millions of bluestone slabs, even if two people carry one.
, it took a lot of manpower just to transport it, and some of them were paved with substandard and then replaced. At that time, the price of bluestone slabs was not very valuable, only less than 40 cents a piece, but it was shipped to
In the capital, the price is 5 taels of silver. This one kilometer of road costs 800,000 taels of silver. Who can bear this? Back then, hundreds of millions of silver were spent on various expenditures to complete this road.
Even if this is the case, millions of dollars must be invested in maintenance every year. This is still an ordinary year. If something major happens, it will need to be inspected. If the inspection does not cost tens of millions of dollars, it will definitely not be possible.
of.
Although there may be some cases where officials swallowed up the money, it also reflects how huge this project is, and some people's livelihood issues are also very important. If the people used are not slaves, but ordinary people
In terms of labor force, it is estimated that the Eastern Empire at that time would not have done such a thing. After hundreds of thousands of years of development, these four empires only have such bluestone roads in relatively large cities.
, this is already very good. That is to say, only the interior of the imperial city contains some relatively precious stones. As for what the people's roads look like, they will not care about that. Of course, they all know the war.
A good road will be so good at that time, but there is nothing that can be done about it. Finances are already very tight now. If they continue to use this, I really don’t know how they should live. Now there is no
If the method is messed up, it will already be a lot of foreign debt. I will never spend another penny on this road. And looking at Li Cong, tens of thousands of kilometers of road is just a preliminary plan for Li Cong.
, this was also pruned to defend the border, and the other was to have a major artery appear in his own territory. Li Cong also studied the economic zones of the four empires, and they were basically located along the rivers of each empire.
, this is because they do not have a land transportation point, and inland waterway shipping occupies a large share. If there was no such thing, they probably would not do that, which is why they do this.
The reason is. What Li Cong wants to do is to create an economic route within his own territory without any reason. It is very necessary to develop the economy.
Li Cong happened to take advantage of the opportunity of road construction to mobilize a large number of laborers. After all, this place used to belong to the people of the Southern Empire. They wanted to accept the people of the Cao Family Trading Company all at once.
It was a simple thing, but Li Cong quickly brought them a lot of work. Either road pruning, some reservoirs, and some huge warehouses. People from the Cao Family Trading Company would always give them a lot of work.
If you bring some work, you can pay with food if you want. You can also pay with silver if you want. Anyway, it just allows you to work with peace of mind. Eminem is an obvious example of these people.
He can be said to be a typical example of a person who is full and the whole family is not hungry. His parents don’t know where they are, and he doesn’t know where he comes from. He has been begging for food on the street since he was a child.
Yes, I never thought that I could eat well every day now. I have lived for decades. This is the first time such a thing has happened. He was picked up by the Cao Family Trading Company when he was begging for food.
Those who were captured here by the army, and those of my friends who had physical problems were sent to another place called a welfare home. It was said that someone would help them, but as strong as I was, it didn't matter.
They brought the talented people here. They said that if you work for one day, you can earn three catties of wheat. If you can learn well, you will be able to earn five catties of wheat per day in one month. After half a year, you will earn three catties of wheat.
You can choose whether you want food or money. In fact, I also wanted money at the beginning, but I still want to slim down and fill my stomach. It is not bad to get this food every day.
He had seen the corvées given by the government before, and they always told you well when they asked you to go over, "This is the garden of this duke or that prince," etc. As long as you do it well, the Lord will definitely do it.
I won’t lose your money. What’s the result? I’m exhausted every day, but I can only get one flour pancake every day to satisfy my hunger. Such a life is really uncomfortable.
At the beginning, many people did not believe this, including himself. Although the people from the Cao Family Trading Company were not dukes or princes, they could defeat the old men of the Southern Empire.
Well, this ability is not something that ordinary people can have. Looking at their promises, it seems that they are much better than those people. Dozens of them are still waiting and watching. When they brought dozens of carts of grain,
Eminem stopped hesitating. This might be an opportunity for him. In fact, he didn’t want to be a beggar every day. He just had no choice. He didn’t have the ability. If he wanted to do other things, no one would let him.
It was because of this that he felt that this was an opportunity. He could do things like doing coolies. In the past few days, he had been doing one thing, which was to give some powdery things to
Take it off the car and mix it with sand and water, and the rest will be nothing to do with you. Those people will use the car to pull it and send it to the road over there. Such things were not available in the past.
I have never seen this thing before. It looks like mud. I also asked my squad leader. He said that this thing is used to build roads. To build a mud road? This is Eminem
Everyday question marks.
It can be said that there are many people who have the same doubts as him. It's just that the people who have repaired it said that they can go there and have a look tomorrow. These people from the Cao Family Trading Company are also serious. Why can't they go today?
They have to wait until tomorrow, but they all know that it is said that the newly built road is called a highway, and the top is very hard, let alone a carriage or something. Even if it is hit hard with a hammer or something like that,
There will be no problem if you smash it down. There will definitely not be any problems. They are all excited because of this. Forget it, they can see what is going on there tomorrow. Eminem entered with his own questions.
It was a dream. Although it was a work shed arranged on the construction site, it was the first time that he had his own quilt. As mentioned above, as long as he works for a month, these quilts and other quilts will be his own.
It’s really nice to work here. Not only will you have a lot of food, but you’ll also have a lot of things for yourself. There’s a lot more mentioned above. If you do it for a year, you’ll be skilled in the future.
If you become a master, your salary can be doubled. But you have to go to work elsewhere, otherwise the money will not be yours. The people who work with you are all local people, and they all want it.
Those who are worried about some things at home, besides, those places that are far away that have never been heard of, naturally cannot just go there casually, no one knows what it is like outside, but these are all those people
That's my idea, it has nothing to do with me, I'm just a person. Anyway, no matter what you do, I have nothing to miss here, I must continue to work with the people of Cao's Trading Company.
The next morning, Eminem was woken up by several people in his room. At this time, it was just dawn. Several of them had already started to go over there to see what was going on there. Eminem
Naturally, I also want to know what this legendary hard road is all about. After all, I have been thinking about this problem for several days. How could the mud become so hard? Some houses in the village
They are all made of mud. Although it is much better than mud, if you really go up with your own strength, this wall will not be able to withstand it. When Eminem and the others arrived, they were already
Dozens of people have already looked there, and their first impression is that this road is really smooth. Although it has not yet reached the acceptance standards on earth, it is already the best road in the history of this planet. Of course
Well, the good stones in the palace are naturally much better than this one, but the bluestone-paved road in the capital is nothing compared to the one in front of you. It's nothing good. Basically, it's just that.
That's what happened. Just when they quietly tried to go up with their feet, the horseless carriage over there was already ready. The carriage of the Cao Family Trading Company was different from other carriages. Everyone else's carriages were all two-horse carriages.
There are three wheels, but all the carriages of the Cao family business are four-wheeled, which is why they can pull more things. They need four horses to pull. The groom on this carriage waved his whip vigorously,
The four horses in front started running with great effort. The people around them quickly got out of the way and looked at the groom in surprise. Did this guy have a mental problem? How could he do such a thing?
They could all see that the goods on the carriage must weigh at least thousands of dollars, and even be heavier. If you go slowly, it should be no problem, but now if you are going so fast on the road, there will be so much trouble.
If there is a small hole, the entire carriage may be destroyed. Everyone knows this kind of thing, but what they were thinking about did not happen. The carriage passed by like a gust of wind, and there were more than a dozen carriages.
, if this was the kind of road they used to have, the dust they raised would probably make them go back several meters, but now what they were thinking about didn't happen at all. The carriage ran a few hundred meters before it started to slow down, because the road was full of traffic.
It's not that long. If it's really long, it's estimated that the horses can run to the city over there. This speed is the first time they have seen it. In the past, even those who rode horses galloped.
It is impossible to reach such a speed. The quality of the road is also very important to the horses. Good roads can allow the horses to run farther. Eminem and the others quickly climbed up and touched the road in front of them.
This road, my God, there is nothing wrong with it. It was so heavy just now and it didn’t leave any trace at all. What the hell is this road? How could it be so powerful? They were all surprised.
Well, if such a road is built, they all know that it would take a day and a night for a horse-drawn carriage to reach the nearby county. The speed of the horse-drawn carriage just now is estimated to be able to get there in a few hours. It is estimated that there will be
It may save a lot of time. The guy in the lead just said that there will be roads like this everywhere in the future. Wouldn't life be much more convenient in the future?
"Haha, that's it. I asked you what are you doing? You still have to work today. This thing was just rare when it first came out. If I really ask you to come over and take a look in the future, I guess you will
I don’t want to see this thing either. Just pack it up and get ready to start. As mentioned above, this is a miracle. You are the ones who created the miracle. History will also record your presence. You will be old in the future.
By then, I think this road will be ready, and by then people will be talking about who pruned this road, and that will be your moment of glory." A guy who looked like an overseer came over and said, with no trace of kindness in his appearance.
You are not the kind of vicious supervisor. There is no such thing as beating people on this road, but there are regulations. You will all do a certain amount of work in a day. If you cannot reach this number, you will be deducted.
Salary, of course. If you can do better, we can also give you some more money. This can all fluctuate. Of course, in order to allow these people to have enough rest time, we will pay you more than the working hours.
That time is limited to two hours. After two hours, no matter how much you do, you won't get any wages. When hearing what the supervisor said, all of them were excited. What they said was terrible.
That's right, the people around us don't even know what they are doing. Many people want to come over and see what is going on, but they are not so lucky. What we do is still very superior to others.
Damn, I have my own food, and I still like this job, so I just have to go to work quickly, and the rest will not be so lucky.
This is just a microcosm of all construction sites, because there is no machinery in this era, so even if the cement comes out, the roads have to be paved by hand. If we follow the standards on earth, some of them are made here.
Things are not very up to standard, but people here don’t have so many requirements. Besides, some of the carriages on the road are not as heavy as the trucks on earth, so naturally they will not be overweight.
The car damaged the road, so he did all these things very well. Eminem turned back three times to where he worked yesterday. The road on his side was still covered. It is said that
It's not very hard yet. He looked at the cement and other things he made again. He must work hard. After he gains trust here for a while, he can go over there and learn how to build roads.
At that time, if I was transferred to some new departments, I could be promoted. In the future, I would work with the people of the Cao Family Commercial Bank. I don’t have any relatives anyway. As for those technologies, I don’t know much about them.
According to the supervisor, learning to build roads is also a very good thing. There will still be many places where you will be required to build roads in the future. It can be regarded as a technical job for you, and it is not a hard work like now. I thought of it.
Here, this guy is even more motivated. He must let himself stay from here. There are many people who think the same as him. Most of them are at the bottom of the previous society, and they don't want to
That's just because they lost at the starting line in the early stages, and now that they have an opportunity to make up for it, they will never give up this opportunity.
Li Cong is now building on a construction site of 40,000km from fifteen places at the same time. Each place has established a large-scale cement plant with an annual output of 300,000 tons. Anyway, as long as it is suitable, there can be such things as cement plants.
, the total output can already reach one million tons, but because the technical workers are not very skilled now, if they all become skilled, the cement in these factories will not be enough at all. Now we are still looking at cement plants
It's possible, but it won't be used much in the future. So at the beginning of the first phase, Li Cong had already started the site selection work for the second batch of cement plants. There was no difficulty in choosing these places, but
Transportation is a problem. The amount of cement required for road construction is definitely not a small amount. One vehicle can only transport more than two tons now. What can more than two tons of cement be used for? It can build a two-meter-long road.
That's about it. Because of this, choosing a suitable address is more important. Another thing is to get water. This place is not the same as on the earth. Just get some well-drilling teams to take care of it.
The matter was solved. There are not so many people from the geological exploration team here. Even if they were there, they had never investigated here before. It was impossible to find the location of the groundwater. Although the local people had
They have places to drink water, but generally speaking, they are in places where water sources are not very abundant. If they use their own domestic water, it is okay. But if it is used in such a large-scale project, this water is not very good.
It is enough, so now the first thing Li Cong has to solve is the water problem, but this is also a difficult problem for the second period, and the first period is okay.
For Li Cong to make such a big plan, the senior management within the Cao Family Commercial Bank also felt that it was not feasible. Of course, everyone can understand the financial matter. Although the cost is very huge,
It can still be solved for the current Cao Family Trading Company, especially since these people are still a large number of slaves sent by the Western Empire. What the Cao Family Trading Company wastes is just sending them all to various places. The rest is
It's not a big deal. Wu Zuoxi feels that it is possible to build roads, but there is no need to build such a big one. People from the Cao Family Trading Company have used this kind of cement before, but it was only used to build some military facilities.
I only know how to use it. At first, I thought that such a thing was a high-end product. It could not be used on such a large scale. Only now can I feel it. In fact, there is nothing advanced about such a high-end product, that is, this
It looks like that, but some of the military defense products built by this thing are very good. There was once a cement fortress that was besieged by 2,000 people from the Southern Empire for nearly three days. Four soldiers inside were killed in three days.
He defeated the Southern Empire's ** team of about 150 people and blocked the Southern Empire's rapid reinforcements to the front line. This was considered a good thing. At that time, everyone in the Southern Empire wanted to get this thing, but
To be continued...