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Text Chapter 2205 The cost of building roads

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    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 know 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 of the Eastern Empire, it can accommodate eight horses and carriages walking side by side. It is all made of bluestone slabs. A question arises, how many bluestone slabs are needed?  It took thirty years to build this road. During these thirty years, millions of slaves lost their lives. The length of this road is only less than 400 kilometers, but this road is already considered the longest in the Eastern Empire.  The road is ready. The length of the bluestone slabs is only 50cm and the width is 25cm. The road is 20 meters wide. One kilometer requires 160,000 bluestone slabs. The entire road uses tens of millions of bluestone slabs, even for two people.  Lifting one piece would have taken 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 the price will be 5 taels of silver if transported to the capital. This one kilometer of road will cost 800,000 taels of silver. Who can bear this? Back then, hundreds of millions of silver were spent on various expenditures to build this road.  Once it is done, even if it is like this, millions of dollars must be invested in maintenance every year. This is still an ordinary year.  If something major happens, it needs to be overhauled. Without tens of millions of dollars, it will definitely not be possible.

    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 were 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 don't care about that. Of course, they all know how good a good road will be during a war.  of.  But there is nothing we can do about it.  Finances are already very tight now.  If they continue to use it, I really don¡¯t know how they should live their lives. There is no way to live in peace now.  They already have a lot of foreign debt, and they will never spend another penny on this road. And looking at Li Cong, the road of tens of thousands of kilometers is just a preliminary plan for Li Cong. This is also for  The other reason for pruning is to defend the border. The other is to have a major artery in his own territory. Li Cong also studied the economic zones of the four empires. They are basically located along the rivers of each empire. This is  Because they don¡¯t have a single land transportation point, and inland waterway shipping accounts for a large share. If there wasn¡¯t such a thing, they probably wouldn¡¯t do that, which is why they do it.  What Li Cong has to do is to create an economic route within his own territory without any reason. Economic development is very necessary.

    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. It was not so easy for them 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 trimming, some reservoirs, and some huge warehouses. People from the Cao Family Trading Company always gave them  If you bring some work, you can pay with food, or you can pay with money. 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 has eaten enough 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 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, you also wanted money at the beginning, but you still want to slim your waist to fill your belly. It is not bad to get this food every day.

      He has seen the corv¨¦es given by the government before. When he asked you to go over, he always told you well, this is the garden of this duke or that prince, etc. As long as you do it well, my lord.  There will definitely be no shortage of your money there. What will be the result?  I am exhausted every day, but I can only get one noodle pancake every day to satisfy my hunger. Such a life is really uncomfortable. At the beginning, many people did not believe this, including him.  I also think so. Although the people from the Cao Family Trading Company are not dukes or princes, they can defeat the old men of the Southern Empire. This ability is not something ordinary people can have. Look at their skills.  Xu Nuo seemed to be much stronger than those people. Dozens of them were still waiting and watching. When they brought dozens of carts of food, Eminem no longer hesitated. This might be an opportunity for him.  , In fact, I don¡¯t want to be a beggar every day, but I just have no choice. I have no ability, and no one will let me do other things if I want to.  It was because of this that he felt that this was an opportunity. He could do things like working as a coolie. In the past few days, he had been doing one thing, which was to carry some powdery things from the car.  Come down, and then mix it with sand and water, and the rest will be nothing to do with you. Those people will pull it in a car and send it to the road over there. I have never seen such a thing before.  Yes, this thing looks like mud.  I also asked my squad leader.  But he said that this thing was used to build roads, to build a mud road?  This is Eminem¡¯s daily question mark.

    It can be said that there are many people who have the same doubts as him, but the people who have repaired it said that they can go and have a look tomorrow, and these people from the Cao Family Trading Company really mean it.  Why can't I go today?  Have to wait until tomorrow.  But they all know that it is said that the newly built roads are called highways, and they are very hard.  Not to mention the carriage and other things, it will be no problem even if it is hit hard with a hammer or something like that. There will definitely be no problems. They are all excited because of this. Forget it, it will be tomorrow anyway.  You can see what is going on there. Eminem entered the dream with his own questions. 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  After working for a month, these quilts, money, and other things are all my own. It¡¯s really good to work here. Not only will I have a lot of food, but I will also have a lot of things for myself. As mentioned above,  A lot, saying that if you do it for a year, you will become a skilled master, and your salary can be doubled, but you have to go to work somewhere else, otherwise the money will not be yours.  , the people who work with me are all local people, and they all have to worry about some things at home. Besides, those places that are far away have never been heard of, so naturally they can't just go there casually.  , no one knows what it is like outside, but these are just the thoughts of those people. It has nothing to do with you. You are just a person. Anyway, no matter what you are like, there is nothing here for me.  If you want to be nostalgic at all, you must continue to work with the people of Cao Family 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 are also made of mud. Although it is much better than mud, if you really try to climb up with your own strength, the wall will not be able to withstand it. Amu and the others  When we arrived, there were already dozens of people looking there. The first impression was that this road is really smooth. Although it has not yet reached the acceptance standards on earth, it is already the best on this planet in history.  Of course, the good stones in the palace are 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.  , that¡¯s basically what it looked like. Just when they quietly tried it with their feet, the horseless carriage over there was already ready. The carriage of the Cao Family Trading Company was different from other carriages. Others  The carriages in the Cao family are all two-wheeled, but the carriages of the Cao Family Trading Company are all four-wheeled. That is because they can pull more things. They need four horses to pull. The groom on this carriage is pulling hard.  After waving the whip, the four horses in front started running with great difficulty. The people around them quickly got out of the way and looked at the groom in surprise. Is this guy having a mental problem?  How could such a thing be done?What?

    They could all see that the cargo on the carriage must weigh at least thousands of dollars, and it must even be heavier. If you go slowly, it should be no problem, but now you are going so fast on the road.  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 would raise would probably set them 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 not that long. If it was really very long, the horses would probably have reached the city over there. This speed was the first time they had seen it.  In the past, even those who rode horses could not reach such a speed. The quality of the road is also very important to the horses. Good roads can make the horses run farther.  Yes, Eminem and the others quickly climbed up and touched the road in front of them, my God.  It turned out to be nothing at all.  What was so heavy just now didn't leave any trace at all. What the hell kind of road is this?  How could it be so powerful?  They were all surprised. If such a road was built, they all knew that it would take a day and a night for a carriage to reach the nearby county seat.  The speed of the carriage just now can probably be reached within a few hours.  It is estimated that it may save a lot of time.  The leading guy just said that there will be roads like this everywhere in the future. Wouldn't life be much more convenient in the future?

    "Haha. Okay, let me ask 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  If you don¡¯t want to see this thing, 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, it is estimated that this road will be repaired, and then people will talk about who pruned this road, and that will be your glorious moment." 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, beyond 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 the supervisor said that, 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 the place 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 a while, he gains trust here and can go over there to learn how to build roads.  At that time, if I were transferred to some new departments, I could be promoted. In the future, I would work with the people of Cao's Commercial Bank. I don't have any relatives anyway, and I don't know how to deal with those technologies.  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. Now that they have a chance to make up for it, they will never let it go.??This opportunity.

    Now Li Cong started construction in fifteen places on the 40,000km construction site at the same time, and established a large cement plant with an annual output of 300,000 tons in each place.  Anyway, as long as it is suitable, there can be things like cement plants. The total output can already reach one million tons. However, because the technical workers are not very skilled now, if they all become skilled, the output of these factories will be very high.  Cement is simply not enough. It is okay to still look at cement plants now, but it will not be used much in the future. Therefore, at the beginning of the first phase, Li Cong has already started to select the second batch of cement plants.  After working in various locations, there was no difficulty in choosing these places.  Just transportation is an issue.  The amount of cement required for road construction is definitely not a small amount. One truck can only transport more than two tons now. What can more than two tons of cement be used for?  It's enough to build a road of two meters, and that's why.  Choosing a suitable address is even more important.  Another thing is getting water.  This place is not the same as on Earth, where just a few well-drilling teams can solve the problem. There are not so many people from the geological exploration team here.  Even if they do, they have never investigated here before, and it is impossible to find the location of groundwater. Although local people have their own places to drink water, generally speaking, there are some water sources that are not very abundant.  In a place where they can use their own domestic water, it is okay, but if it is used for such a large-scale project, this water is not enough, so now the first thing Li Cong has to solve is the water problem.  However, this is also a difficult problem for the second issue, but the first issue 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 very 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. The only thing the Cao Family Trading Company wastes is sending them 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 the beginning, I thought that this kind of thing was a high-end product and could not be used on such a large scale. Now I can 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  After they get it, they won't mass-produce it, so the plan will come to nothing in the end. In fact, if the people of the Southern Empire continue to study, they will definitely have their own hope within a few decades.  , because this thing is not a high-tech product in the first place, but they don't have that kind of perseverance, and they are really not very good at researching it.

    Gu Xin is the person in charge of this plan, but from the bottom of his heart, this plan is too huge. At the beginning, he thought this was a sign that Li Cong was going to neglect him. After all, he was allowed to take care of thousands of people.  Don¡¯t Wan¡¯s slaves look down on themselves?  It is simply of no use at all. You must know that I was in charge of the training camp before. After those fifth-level soldiers came out, they quickly joined the army of all levels of the Cao Family Trading Company. They were all middle- and senior-level officers.  , it is not comparable to what it is now, and because of this reason, he did not feel how important this matter was at the beginning. Li Cong personally said a few words to this guy, which meant the plans of the Cao Family Trading Company in the next few years.  Basically, it has something to do with this. We want all the land occupied by the Cao family business in the Southern Empire to become our own place. In addition to the previous subsistence allowance policies, this is the current road construction plan.  All of them knew clearly that the people of the Southern Empire would never give them a chance. As long as they were a little bit lax, the people of the Southern Empire would definitely snatch all these things back without hesitation.  , they are not fools, this is the same as a cancer. The people of the Southern Empire want to remove the cancer from their bodies.  If you can't remove it, your body may turn into waste because of this cancer. It will be impossible for you to regret it at that time. Although the Southern Empire is not very powerful now, their moods are all able to  Everyone understands it clearly, so Li Cong wants to quickly build such a highway. As long as something happens on the border?Problems can be resolved quickly with support from various places.

    The Southern Empire was surprised that the people from the Cao Family Trading Company did this. They were the same as the people from the other three empires.  After the people from the Cao Family Trading Company gathered so many slaves, they began to investigate this matter.  In fact, no one from the Cao Family Trading Company concealed this matter. In the past, they knew that the cement from the Cao Family Trading Company was very valuable. Before the news was clear, the senior officials of the four empires  They all felt very happy because this guy Li Cong had something to do.  As long as this guy has something to do.  Many things will be much better in the future.  At least there is no need to always guard against them. Every empire has its own roads, but the longest one is the 400 kilometers long road in the capital of the Eastern Empire.  Who knew that the people of the Cao Family Trading Company would travel 40,000 kilometers, which was a hundred times that of the Eastern Empire back then. It is undeniable that the people of the Cao Family Trading Company could spend more money than the people of the Eastern Empire, but what about other things?  How does he accomplish it?  Is such a path so easy to accomplish?  If this was possible, they would all re-evaluate the capabilities of the Cao Family Trading Company. However, when the news came fully, they realized that what the people in the Cao Family Trading Company did was different from what they thought.  There is no intention of using bluestone slabs. That kind of thing can no longer keep up with other people's pace. What they use is cement-like things. What they used to say was very expensive can now be produced on such a large scale.  Such a thing made them feel impossible, but this was another fact. There was nothing they could do about this fact before them, and they would not stop it.

    If the people from the Cao Family Trading Company were doing other things, they could still go out and interfere, but now they are building roads within their own area, and no one can stand up and say anything, especially the people from the Southern Empire.  , This is the most depressing thing for them. When we signed the treaty before, we said that we need to build the right of road. Now it is for that reason. Many times these things are not that simple. This road belongs to Cao Family Trading Company.  People say it is to facilitate the lives of ordinary people, but people in the Southern Empire can see that on a front of thousands of miles, the people of the Cao Family Trading Company cannot station heavy troops in all places, so they can only  Accumulate troops at some points, but if the people of the Southern Empire don't attack these places, what should they do if they go around them?  They had no other choice. The people from Cao's Trading Company must have seen this potential threat, so they thought of other ways. The first thing they thought of was the issue of road construction. As long as it was this so-called  After the road is repaired, the Cao Family Trading Company's troops can quickly go anywhere. In the past, Li Cong also thought that as long as there were airships, they could supply them. However, after a war with the Western Empire, Li Cong did not  Feeling that these things are so easy to do, he now understands that things are not as simple as he thought. Traffic in other places cannot be controlled for the time being, but there is still no problem within his own jurisdiction. He just wants to deal with it first.  This is just a test. If these 40,000km of roads can be built quickly, Li Cong will have 400,000, 4 million or even 40 million kilometers of roads to build in the future.

    In fact, since the people of the Southern Empire discovered the actions of the Cao Family Trading Company, they have already started to use a lot of small tricks on the people of the Cao Family Trading Company, but unfortunately, none of their actions had any effect. They wanted to  When you want to incite the common people to make trouble, some common people will be killed and sent back with just one sentence. When we followed you, we had nothing. Even the problem of food was not solved for us. How do your officials live their lives?  , ate our food, drank our food, and in the end they didn¡¯t treat us as human beings. But after the people from the Cao Family Trading Company came, they felt different. They not only gave us food and drink, but also found us a lot of food.  For work, have you done this?  They really didn't do it, don't say you haven't fought yet.  If you really want to change our current life, we will be the first to stand up and resist you. What about them going to the previous officials and landowners?  These people should all support our Southern Empire, because we gave you a lot of benefits in the past. Now that the Cao Family Trading Company has occupied this place, you all don¡¯t have a good life. You should support us.  , but unfortunately, they guessed wrong again. It's not that these people don't want to go back to rule the Southern Empire.  It¡¯s just that there¡¯s so much that needs to be done to get back to that time.  Do we have the guts to do it?  That's impossible. We don't have the guts. You should know it just by looking at the people in our family. Didn't we get up and make a fuss at the beginning?  But when we got into trouble at that time, there were no more of you.  To put it bluntly, they treat us as cannon fodder.  sorry.  We won't be so stupid this time, our brainsThe bag is the most important thing.

    In addition, detailed work has been done on the large number of Southern Empires in the occupied areas.  Li Cong also made relevant regulations. The people from all over the country are the best. The Baojia system established by Li Cong is also considered good. This makes some strangers who have no foundation for their own survival and want to go to other places.  It's okay if you go. You can ask someone here to give you a letter of introduction. Although such a thing is easy to give, it will be investigated when the time comes. Li Cong also told these people that he would give it to others.  Opening a letter of introduction is a good thing, but if something goes wrong with the person you open the door to, then your head will be gone. For a time, except for those who are deeply hidden, no one else can survive these details.  space, because they have only been here for less than a few years, and it is impossible to have so much information. Only those who are experienced and detailed can stay, and the others may be killed.  Yes, after they knew that they were exposed, they all fled the territory of the Cao Family Trading Company one after another. Li Cong had no objection to their escape, and he did not kill them all. Of course, there were many among them.  It can help us do things. For example, if some people who are not determined are discovered by us, we can give you a new identity and expose you to the Southern Empire, so that you will not be able to go back.  I can give you some money to live with me. Of course, you have to find out everything above and below you. That¡¯s the only way. This makes those who think they have hidden it well  The detailed work has also come out. Now it can be said that there are still people from the Southern Empire on the territory of the Cao Family Trading Company, but the number is definitely not that large, very few.

    The battle between the Eastern Empire and the Northern Empire has begun to escalate. The people of the Northern Empire showed no mercy at all. After the Eastern Empire's warships retreated, they raided some of the Eastern Empire's offices in the Northern Empire, and even moved away from the Northern Empire.  Hu was occupied. In fact, the government of the Northern Empire did not think of doing that. It was simply because some officers on the front line were red-eyed. Some merchant organizations in the Eastern Empire were very rich. Didn't I spend my whole life just to be able to provide  Do you want to have a good future by yourself? Since the army cannot give it to you, you have to fight for one. Just like the one in front of you, you have to move them all into your own home. Otherwise,  I'm really sorry for myself. At the beginning, the people in the Eastern Empire didn't think that the matter would be so big, so they didn't say anything and just put the matter aside. I hope that the Northern Empire will  They made a low profile and stopped looking for this matter. Who would have thought that besides robbing money, they would actually be interested in Lihu. The people of the Eastern Empire had long been interested in Lihu, and their naval power was much higher.  Much more powerful than the Northern Empire, the Northern Empire is really not giving them face by doing this. If this is the case, we can teach you a lesson. The people of the Northern Empire are showing off with many ships.  Wandering around Lihu, it seems that this place already belongs to them, but the news from the Eastern Empire also makes them feel that things are not good. More than 3,000 warships from the Eastern Empire have already set sail, and they can still cope with this.  But then the news turned out to be that those who went out first were the advance troops, and the more than 200,000 ships behind them were from the main fleet. This was so fucking bullying.

    The Northern Empire only has a total of 500,000 naval warships. So many people came from the Eastern Empire at once. Although they traveled a long distance and took several years to come, the people from the Eastern Empire actually dared to come to this place.  Come, they won't be afraid of this. They must have their own supply plan. It turns out that people from the Eastern Empire have begun to establish some supply points in the coastal areas. Although there is the Warcraft Mountains here, most of the people  I know that Warcraft rarely go to the seaside. They all like to stick out from the Warcraft Mountains, so there is no problem if you want to establish some supply points along the way. The three thousand warships in front can be said to be for the purpose of establishing supplies.  By doing so, the ships behind will be able to transport supplies to the front line little by little, which will also support the front line. This is something Li Cong never thought of. He really didn¡¯t expect the Eastern Empire.  People are actually people with such forward thinking, and they can master the essence of naval warfare so quickly. Some islands and so on are certainly very important, but seaside cities are also very important. Everyone is not a fool for such things.  Yes, the Eastern Empire can do it, but can¡¯t the Northern Empire do it?  Theoretically, there is no problem, but the financial capacity of the Northern Empire does not allow them to do that, and it is right at home. If they set up a supply point, wouldn't they be looking far away, so the people of the Northern Empire let it go  A chance to defeat their opponents outside the country. Now they can only wait for others to come and do things on their own land. Such things can only be done by those stupid people in the Northern Empire. In Li Cong's words  ???You would never do such a thing, you are simply a fool.

    This is why the development of the Northern Empire and the Eastern Empire are different. This gap cannot be completed in a short time, and it may still widen in the future, so my last enemy may be the people of the Eastern Empire.  , this is also certain.  (To be continued)
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