The creaking sound of wheels made Shouan unable to take a lunch break like usual. Some of the accompanying followers were complaining quietly, while others were smiling suppressing. Shouan leaned on the quilt, pulled the curtain out of a gap, and looked out.

The plants and trees outside are all spring and green.

Shouan, who was already seventeen years old, smiled slightly with his lips, but now when she smiled, her eyes were a little deeper.

Two years passed in a blink of an eye. It was the spring of the eight years of Tianbao. After staying in Liaodong for nearly two years, Shou'an finally returned to the Central Plains.

"The tracks from Pengcheng (Xuzhou) to Chenliu (Bianzhou) have been repaired, and I don't know when the Dongmu (Dengzhou) to Chenliu can be repaired. If they can be repaired, there is no need to suffer such a crime. We can take the train. The train is stable and fast, and there is no need to be such a bump."

"It's also a blessing that Ye Langjun was able to come up with this method. As long as he unified the ruler in the hand of the craftsman and made it into a vernier caliper, he could make a trough. After changing the wheels, the train could walk on the trough...

Hearing this, the insect girl showed a smile on her face. Since half a year ago, the so-called "train" has frequently entered her ears.

Ye Chang was the ambassador of the river engineering, but he did nothing to dredge the river. He devoted most of his energy to the road construction. After the failed cement rut test he originally envisioned, a craftsman made "L"-shaped wooden tracks based on the experience of using carriages to pull ore on the Panma Carriage Mine in Xuzhou, which was a great success. This also greatly accelerated the progress of the project. The construction of the rut track, which originally thought it would take many years to complete, was completed in just one and a half years.

These wooden ruts were naturally transported from Liaodong, which also added another industry to Liaodong. Fortunately, hydraulic machine tools and livestock machine tools are becoming more and more mature in Liaodong, so they do not occupy much labor.

Ye Chang stubbornly organized four to six ordinary carriages into one, so he called it a train. He pulled two to three horses and ran on the road, carrying five thousand kilograms of cargo, and could even run five hundred miles a day and night. Later, the carriage was woven to eight or even ten knots, and the horse was replaced with four horses, with a load of over ten kilograms, and the speed was only a little slow.

Of course, there were horse replacements in this process. A post station was set up every fifty miles or so. According to Ye Chang's report, the post station was governed by the Andong Bank of the Andong Chamber of Commerce. The court was only responsible for supplying horses, so it did not increase the burden on the court on the surface.

At this time, because there is no accurate timer, the train is in a wrong time when it is arranged. For example, every morning, only the train from east to west are allowed to drive, and in the afternoon, only the train from west to east are allowed to drive, so as to avoid congestion in the middle of the journey.

Even so, in the past six months, the cargo carrying capacity from Pengcheng to Chenliu still reached an astonishing number, especially in winter, the Yellow River and the North Canal were frozen, and the grain on Huainan Road could not be transported to the Central Plains through the river. A large amount of grain was transported to Chenliu every day, and the consumption was only slightly more than that of the river, which had a great effect on stabilizing the winter grain price.

Grain is the largest pile of items. The freight charged for transporting grain in the past six months alone is more than 30,000 guan. With the cost of transporting other goods, it is estimated that the profit of this track, which is more than 600 miles long, should be more than 100,000 guan.

The expenditure is also extremely amazing. It is not counted as the money for investing in road construction. The stations along the way also have road maintenance, and the cost is more than 150,000 chunks, so Anton Bank needs to pay for money to operate. However, anyone with discerning eyes is very clear that this maintenance fee is relatively fixed every year, while the income will increase year by year. Ye Chang optimistically mentioned in his instructions to shareholders of the Anton Chamber of Commerce that this track will be able to balance the income and expenditure next year, and it will definitely turn into profits in the following year.

"I don't know how he built this path in just one and a half years..." Someone muttered and was afraid.

Shou'an was also very curious about this. Although Ye Chang explained in the letter, for example, there was a ready-made roadbed, and the land acquisition was expropriated by the court, mobilizing more than 200,000 people to perform labor service in various prefectures and counties along the way. If each person had not received a subsidy of ten cents a day, including food, drink and housing, and mainly used the rotation service during the slack farming period, it would be like Emperor Yang of Sui to build the Grand Canal, which caused public grievances.

But Shouan felt that it should be more than that.

The carriage suddenly stopped, and a guard ran back from the front, arrived at the side of Shou'an's car, and said on the side of the carriage: "Princess, the road is being built in front, and Ye Langjun is there."

This is the reason why I did not take a more stable and convenient boat, but had to take the land route.

"Didn't you startle him?"

"Your Highness has given orders in advance, and I dare not disturb you."

"well……"

Shouan was very happy. She pushed open the car door, picked up the corner of her skirt, and jumped out of the car.

There was a large group of people ahead, with at least nearly a hundred flags of various colors inserted, and countless people were busy. Even though Shou'an had already seen the start of construction of a large project in Liaodong, he couldn't help but be shocked when he saw this scene.

That was when thousands of people were moving together, stretching and boundless. What they were doing was to pile gravel and other things on the road to form a roadbed. Today's train load is much larger than that of ordinary carriages, so the original roadbed was unbearable and a series of work such as paving and crushing had to be carried out. In the absence of machinery, manpower became the only choice to complete this huge project.

Fortunately, the manpower is cheap, and for these people who were conquered and labored, it is already a very kind thing to have a few cents a day for food and drink. Those people who came out of poverty even regarded this as a rare opportunity, and even if the service period ended, they begged to let them stay.

The fields at home can be plowed temporarily by the elderly, as long as they can collect some food, but the project here is full of cash, and it is settled every month and never owes it.

Therefore, Ye Chang has about 30,000 people in his hands, not counting the corvee labor levies collected from various places, but only the regular road construction workers are provided, which are distributed on three construction sites.

"Where is Ye Lang?" Shouan asked the soldiers beside him.

The soldier just found out that Ye Chang was here, but he didn't know who was Ye Chang among the large group of people. He pulled a person holding a small flag on the side of the road and asked, and the man pointed to the northwest: "Did you see the Ye flag? Ye Langjun must be there?"

Sure enough, a big banner embroidered with the word "leaf" fluttered in the air.

"Ye Langjun uses this flag as a sign. Whenever he sees this flag, he will be on the construction site." The man held his thumb and said, "We Ye Langjun, that's not to be said."

Shouan can clearly sense the intimacy and admiration in his words.

The flag was about one mile away, and Shouan was walking towards the corner of his skirt, without bringing too many people around him. Among the crowd, their small team was not eye-catching, so when she arrived next to the flag, not many people were alarmed.

The construction site under its construction site was in full swing. A man with a naked upper body and muddy body was leading the way. Dozens of others were dragging a huge stone mill together to crush the foundation.

The stone mill is afraid it weighs thousands of pounds, and even dozens of people add cattle, horses and other animals, it will be difficult to drag it.

All those who do this, they didn't see Ye Chang. Shouan looked on tiptoe for a long time, but he couldn't see Ye Chang's figure. It happened that the shirtless man who took the lead came to her, and she asked, "Where is Langjun Ye?"

When she asked, the man who lowered his head and tried hard raised his head, showing a look of shock, and Shouan herself was also shocked.

This man who put the rope on his body and was dark all over his body turned out to be Ye Chang himself

However, at this time, Ye Chang was no longer as romantic as he was at the Chunming Gate on the front of Chang'an City. If he weren't very familiar with him, Shou'an would hardly dare to recognize him.

"Why are you here?" Ye Chang laughed happily after being shocked: "Why don't you send someone to inform me?"

Shou'an suddenly felt sad and couldn't help but burst into tears: "You...how did you look like this? Why are you doing this?"

Ye Chang untied the rope on his body and threw it to someone next to him. After the man took it, he continued to drag the stone mill. Ye Chang then turned his face and did not talk about why he became like this. Instead, he smiled and said, "This is not a place to speak. I am too dirty. You go outside the camp there and wait, and I will wash and come to see you."

"No, I'll follow you," Shouan said biting his lower lip.

Tears fell from her eyes, she didn't understand why Ye Chang was having a good life, but she was going to suffer this crime. Even if he was ordered to build a road, he wouldn't be like this.

Ye Chang waved her hand to wipe her tears, but she raised her hand and shrank back. She laughed and said, "Don't cry, don't cry, just be darker and thinner. Go back to rest for a few days, and then she becomes white and fat again... like a pig."

Shouan couldn't help but laugh at his last sentence, but then stopped it, just glared at him viciously, and then stepped on him.

This was a trick she often played when she was a little girl. Ye Chang looked at her with a smile. Although she was slow to settle down, Ye Chang did not hide. Finally, her feet fell gently on Ye Chang's feet, rubbed them, and quickly took them back.

"No wonder every time I see you in the past two years, I'm doing such a thing... Even if you are a magistrate, you are your wealth, so why do you need to do this yourself?" After Ye Chang's tears, Shou'an raised his chin and said arrogantly: "Didn't your "The Wealth of the Kingdom" say that the rich people need to increase consumption to promote circulation? Why do you do this yourself?"

"I am not just a rich man, I don't lead by example. Which of these common craftsmen is willing to talk to me with their hearts?" Ye Chang laughed.

"I really don't know what you are planning." Shouan muttered.

Although she was smart, she couldn't imagine why Ye Chang wanted to have a heart-to-heart relationship with these people at the bottom.

The two of them said while walking that Shouan had actually seen Ye Chang several times in the past two years, because every time it was busy farming, Ye Chang would go back to Liaodong and stay there for half a year in total. It was just this time that Ye Chang spent the winter in the Central Plains, and Shouan did not return until early spring.

Ye Chang knew very well why she came back.

The two-year agreement came in a blink of an eye. Ye Chang lied to the immortal's words and told him not to marry before he was twenty-five years old. Now the time has come. His marriage with Li Tengkong is approaching, and Shouan came back just to see if he could stop this.

If it cannot be stopped, Shouan must have returned to Liaodong to avoid the days that made her sad.

While the two were talking, suddenly there was a little chaos ahead. Ye Chang looked up and saw dozens of people surrounding him and kneeling on the ground.

"Mr. Ye, make the decision for us"

"That's right, Ye Langjun, save us."

Ye Chang frowned, looked around, and someone stepped forward and asked, "Who are you, why are you blocking our way?"

"Ye Langjun, our crops are destroyed, and our fields and houses are destroyed. Now there is no way to live. Please help me."

These people are old and young, and the baby in their arms, kneeling there and crying bitterly, which makes people feel sad. Shouan exclaimed in surprise: "What's going on? Even if they are in trouble, they have to seek help from local governments. Why are they looking for you?"

"There have been more situations recently." Ye Chang smiled bitterly.

There have been many such things in the past six months, or he is lucky. After several generations of improvements, the yield of cotton seeds has increased rapidly, while the price of cotton has been high. The powerful and wealthy people who rushed to change to grow cotton in the past two years have made great gains, so they have expanded their production even more. Some self-cultivated farmers have followed the trend and started planting after hesitating for two years.

However, last year, cotton prices finally fell sharply, with oversupply, resulting in a drop of more than half of the cotton price, only one-third of the highest. Even so, many people's cotton cannot be sold. After all, now only Liaodong can truly carry out large-scale cotton textiles. With Liaodong's production capacity, it cannot digest so much cotton.

Such an impact led to the bankruptcy of many self-cultivated farmers. The capital and Henan Province lost all their money for this.

Ye Chang was prepared for this, and even the price fluctuations were deliberately provoked. Before the bankrupt people formed refugees, they were attracted by his engineering team and used to build tracks.

Among the kneeling people, one of them raised his head sadly. It was Yang Ze, a member of Yang Hui's family. He was originally told by Xie Yan to go to Liaodong, but when he went home to discuss with his family, he was stopped. His family asked him to change to grow cotton. He gritted his teeth and acted according to his words. The year before yesterday was fine, and he had a balance of income and expenditure, and he saved a little money, but last year he was involved in a tide and went completely bankrupt.

He had seen Ye Chang, so he vaguely recognized Ye Chang in the crowd, walked forward, and came towards Ye Chang: "Mr. Ye, you are kind and kind, please raise the purchase price of cotton upwards.

The people who were kneeling learned that the thin black man was Ye Chang, and they all knelt down and walked over.

"The price of cotton cloth has been falling in recent years. Now, the price of cotton cloth of the same size is not as good as silk." Ye Chang said helplessly: "No matter how great I have, I can't afford to pay for cotton.

Before he finished speaking, one of the people suddenly shouted fiercely: "Dog thief, if it weren't for you, how could there be any Kapok? Take your life."
Chapter completed!