The city of Jiangning, which has become a large construction site, is expected to be planned to be more than 20 miles in a circumference. Many dense wooden poles have been inserted into it, and they are connected by ropes to form straight boundaries.

Among these boundaries, there are only large areas of gray-brown deep soil that are turned out to be exposed to the air as the people digging the foundation and loading the carriages and horses are loaded; and then the old foundation sites below are revealed.

The various rivers and alleys leading to the planned urban area are also surrounded and cut off section by section. The wooden keel cart and winch hoist on the side transport the silt and soil excavated from the river to the shore.

Then, the pre-installed wicker baskets and wooden cages filled with pebbles were placed in deep hard soil on both sides of the widened and deep river channel to serve as the base for building the new embankment.

Because the Jiangnan area generally lacks the source of large stone collection for common use, the cost of mining and then shipment from a few hilly and mountainous areas seems to be exhausting.

So it was time for this kind of prefabricated parts that had shined and made countless achievements in the water conservancy project in the Pearl River Basin in Lingwai, which were convenient for local materials to come in handy.

At the foot of Mufu Mountain and Zijin Mountain, a little far from Jiangning Old Town, there were conspicuous smoke columns rising. That was the place of brick kilns. The Taiping Army had already become more experienced in making bricks and building materials.

Therefore, the soil for burning bricks is fine yellow clay taken nearby, mixed with coal gangue powder, and then used charcoal transported from Pingxiang County, Yuanzhou, Jiangxi Province (open-pit coal mine) to be fired day and night.

After all, if the earth kiln is built and can be reused in future generations, the soil will be taken in endlessly nearby. The only thing that costs more is fuel and labor;

Therefore, when the production quantity is large, the cost of each brick will be distributed suddenly and become very cheap and meager; in addition, the adhesive used to build city walls is the traditional three-dimensional soil.

Although Lingwai has already had a considerable scale of original slag cement production, as the saying goes, the reason why good steel is used on the blade is not enough for various key projects, so it is even more impossible to use it to cultivate the city wall.

However, the traditional three-dimensional soil is also sufficient; the main components are lime, clay and fine sand, and then rice slurry, rice husks, gypsum putty, such as Yongding Tulou.

Anyway, the walls of most cities in this era were made up of slamming three-piece soil; they only differed in specific ingredients based on regional and environmental needs.

As long as the materials are used with enough care and no ambiguity, some ancient city walls and buildings that have been passed down from modern times can even survive the bombardment of aircraft and cannons.

The hilly areas in the south of the Yangtze River are filled with limestone, red clay and yellow loam, while sand is even simpler and can be dug at will when the river is silted. The focus is also on manual expenses for sieving and modulation.

Therefore, the same cubic cost of three-combined soil is even a few minutes or a dozen minutes. However, for the Taiping Grand Governor's Office, the more important thing is that these large-scale projects gathered and recruited a large number of people.

Although Jiangdong is in ruins and needs to be invested everywhere, squeezing out some resources to build a new city is still more than enough for the four or ten roads under the rule of the Taiping Army.

What's more, although later history textbooks have always held a critical and derogatory attitude towards these ancient large-scale engineering/miracle construction projects that have no direct relationship with people's livelihood.

But only after being truly in it can you experience some kind of traditional inertia and natural call from the bottom to the top; because this is an inevitable trend in classical society.

For an agricultural society where transportation and information are relatively underdeveloped, there is no more intuitive expression of the authority and national strength of a dynasty and rulers than a large-scale construction.

Just like the Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors left by Qin Shihuang, every person who saw the ruins in later generations would not help but think of the great achievements of completing the great unification of the world, including Qin and books, books, texts, chariots and tracks.

Even the prosperous heroes and models of wise rulers who were registered in history such as Emperor Gaozu of Han, Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Taizong of Tang, and Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty were indispensable for various actions of building major projects during their own posts.

Just like the old mausoleum sites left by emperors of all dynasties, they can be intuitively reflected through their shape and scale to reflect the evolution of the rise and fall of national strength in the corresponding era.

This is not an accident, but an inevitable result after the development and evolution of the regime's strength reached a stage. Therefore, Zhou Huaian could not go against the trend and ignore the public's calls. Especially after the huge Jiangdong Third Road was captured, it was even more uncontrollable.

However, compared to creating conditions for individuals to build palaces or mountain mausoleums, Zhou Huaian could only choose to build a new city from scratch to reflect the strong production capacity, mobilization and execution of the Taiping Military regime.

In this way, as a waterway transport hub up and down the river, anyone who comes and passes here will involuntarily remember that the Taiping Grand Governor's Office has established a miracle and great power from a huge city in a short time.

On the other hand, gathering a large amount of idle labor in eastern Zhejiang to build a city has another more valuable meaning. It is to include both populations in disguise, absorbing the free population that fled and hidden between the countryside.

After a long period of organized collective labor, a group of people who are accustomed to obedience and collective cooperation will naturally be cultivated, which is undoubtedly a potential basis for the military. This is the third benefit.

Although it cannot be used as a source of the recruits’ supplementary battalion, it is possible to directly select people from it to work hard, hard-working, and have good companions; to form more Jiansheng Army sequences for development, settlement or siege construction.

Even if the labor force selected and put back in the end can be guided and placed in the newly established villages as the subsequent taxable population for the on-registration management. This is the fourth benefit.

In addition, in this process, an implicit guarantee measure was formed; when the young and middle-aged laborers in the countryside were gathered together, the various social problems and people's hearts left over from the war were also alleviated in disguise.

Because even if there are some ambitious and hostile and anti-corruption players who have escaped the net, facing the remaining elderly, weak, women and children, they will not be able to start any more.

This is the true wisdom of the Song Dynasty, which I am known for being the Sankang. After encountering famine, I am busy expanding my army. It is also the fifth potential benefit and convenience of large-scale projects.

Of course, the reason why famous projects such as the Great Wall and the Grand Canal since ancient times were criticized as a waste of money was because the court and government at that time requisitioned and drove the people to think that they were corvee labor free of charge.

Therefore, local people along the way often not only need to bring their own food rations and tools to participate in labor, but also may delay the farming season with the long construction period, resulting in damage to the harvest throughout the year and even the family members will suffer from hunger;

In this case, how can people work wholeheartedly? Then, in order to complete performance and indicators, local officials spared no effort to force and punish, resulting in more injuries and loss of escape efficiency.

This approach, which only cares about the immediate purpose and does not care about the long-term consequences, is a serious damage to the productivity of the project along the way, not to mention the many disadvantages and problems that arise.

All labor projects scheduling by the Taiping Army since its initiation were paid for wages; young and middle-aged people who showed outstanding performance were even encouraged to bring their families over and participate in some low-intensity helpers of logistics nature.

Although I can't make much money, there is no problem with serving a meal of brown rice or mixed noodles. So while doing everything, it also solves the workers' worries and homesickness problems in disguise.

Therefore, in a sense, the Taiping Army directly and indirectly achieved multiple effect bonuses by just using the cost of building a new city, and also solved potential hidden dangers and problems. Why not do it?

Not to mention that after the completion of the new city and its supporting water and land facilities, the bonuses in economic circulation and improvements in military situations are also unnegligible results.

This is the huge difference between the time travelers from modern times and the so-called contemporary people, those who are capable, heroes, heroes and heroes, in their long-term vision, pattern, experience and lessons.

In their eyes, population is just a renewable resource and needs sufficient protection and maintenance to be continuously supplied. However, in the eyes of modern people who are deeply familiar with national organization construction, they can completely create many flowers.

In Dantu City, after bidding farewell to Liu Tang, the envoy of the Great Qi who had a bunch of terms and demanding his departure, Zhou Huaian convened another temporary military agreement; because new situations on the other side had occurred.

An unexpected response was quickly obtained to the Huainan side handed over by Jing Shisanniang, or the contact channel in Guangling City: or the other party couldn't wait to send the news.

"The demonic Taoist Lu Yongzhi, who Gao Pian favored, was assassinated by others but failed. Now he started a massacre in Guangling City, and encouraged each other to expose and surrender. As a result, there were countless people who destroyed the family and destroyed the family, and everyone was in danger and panic all day long."

"When the commander of the left capital of Huainan general Yu Gongchu, he joined the commander of the right Xiao Xiong Army at the foot of Langya Mountain in Qingliu County, Chuzhou, to attack and kill Yang Xingmin, the commander of the Shouzhou defense, and his troops were all defeated..."

"The Sun Ru's army of Caizhou Army in Henan Province has occupied most of Chuzhou, and the remnants of the Huainan Navy and the right commander Bi Shiduo, blocked the Gaoyou Lake side..."

Yu Hou Changmibao read out loud:

"In addition to Liu Hanhong, who is entrenched in Huaixi prefectures, aren't there four or five forces fighting against each other?..."

Cao Shixiong couldn't help but say in surprise.

"The key point should be the last Huainan camp army, just playing the ball like this?"

Zhu Cun said with a loud voice:

"Should our army take advantage of the situation and make a difference?"

Chai Ping, who had a calm expression, could not hide the desire to try in his eyes.

"Consolidation and shrinking are the established general principles,"

Zhou Huaian shook his head slightly.

"Only by thoroughly digesting the land population in Jiangdong can we have a foundation for follow-up actions. There is no need to stick to the gains and losses in front of us for a while."

"If the Grand Commander does not want our army to be the target of public criticism, why not let people first obtain a stronghold across the river and think of the temptation of the attitudes of all parties..."

Gao Jichang, who had just taken office as the 10th Army, suddenly made a suggestion.

"Anyway, there are naval troops now to protect the wings and cover up... no matter how bad it is, it can guarantee that they will escape unsuccessfully... It just so happens that there is such a team willing to serve the truth when they come back."

"You think they were those reorganized Zhejiang Southern Army soldiers?"
Chapter completed!