Chapter 81 Advantages of Cement Road

Li Feng held up a board with a thick layer of cement on one end and said, "Who among you can help me cut off the cement on this board?"

"I'll do it." Cheng Yaojin jumped out immediately.

Li Feng handed the wooden board to Cheng Yaojin, then stepped aside and said, "Everyone, step back to avoid harming Chi Yu."

As Li Feng took a few steps back, everyone took a few steps back, keeping a distance of about five meters from Cheng Yaojin.

As if he was isolated, Cheng Yaojin placed the board on the ground, and Xu Hu brought him a big knife.

"Ah~~"

"Clang~~"

Cheng Yaojin held up the big knife with both hands, roared angrily, and struck the concrete on the wooden board hard, but was knocked back.

"careful."

Li Feng shouted and wanted to rush forward to help Cheng Yaojin, but found that Li Jing and other generals were a step faster and grabbed Cheng Yaojin to prevent him from falling on his butt.

After Cheng Yaojin stood firm, he cursed angrily: "I've almost ruined my reputation."

Li Feng walked to the board and saw a knife mark on the cement, but nothing else.

"Look, everyone, there is nothing wrong with the cement except for a knife mark. This is a characteristic of cement roads: they are hard. They can bear tens of thousands of kilograms of weight without breaking."

After Li Feng finished speaking, he walked to the cement roadside and said: "The second point of the cement road is the flat road. Everyone likes it. When a bucket of water is poured over, there is almost no accumulation of water except for being wet. Walking like this

You should also be very happy on the way.

The third point is that it is clean and easy to clean. You have also seen that when a bucket of water is poured over, there is no accumulation of water or mud stains. Even if it is a little dirty, it will be clean after a rain.

Unlike this loess road, there is stagnant water, and your feet must be full of mud when walking on the road. Once, the shoes are almost useless.

Another point is that galloping a horse on a loess road will definitely cause dust to fly, and he will eat dirt behind him. This will not happen on cement roads.

The most important thing is that even if the cement road is damaged, it can be repaired easily. Now I will show you how to do it."

"Xu Hu."

Xu Hu, who had been waiting for the order, finally heard Li Feng's call and said, "It's finally my turn to appear."

Xu Hu, holding a hammer and chisel, appeared in front of everyone and said, "Master Li Feng, I'm ready."

"Okay, dig out the road." Li Feng said.

"yes."

Fang Xuanling immediately asked: "What is this for?"

"I dug out the road, and then I had people repair it on site, so you can see how easy it is to repair the road," Li Feng explained.

"Ding ding ding..." Xu Hu ignored everyone and started digging the road with a hammer and chisel.

Li Feng then ordered the two male slaves to start working with the cement.

No one was interested in digging roads, but they were very interested in cement. They didn't say anything and watched everything quietly.

Especially Li Quan and Wang Daowen, they watched it more carefully and even wanted to play in person.

This put a lot of pressure on the two male slaves.

They saw two male slaves picking out some of the black-gray powder they had just touched, placing it on another pile, and then digging a hole in the cement.

I saw two of them, one added water, the other added sand, and then started stirring.

Slowly, everyone saw that the originally powdery cement turned into muddy cement.

Du Ruhui murmured to himself: "I finally know why this is called cement."

Everyone nodded slowly, and they also understood that it needs to be added with water to turn into mud, so it is called cement.

Then I saw two male slaves putting cement in an iron basin and then going to Xu Hu's place.

At this time, Xu Hu had completely destroyed the five-meter-long road, with holes and gravel everywhere.

Li Er said: "Why did this cement road become like this?"

Li Feng smiled and replied: "Old Li, I just poured a layer of cement on the loess road, which is why it is so fragile. If there are some gravel underneath, it will be extremely strong. It will take at least a day by hand.

"

Li Er looked at Li Feng in surprise, he was so strong, you wouldn't lie to me.

Li Feng pointed to his eyes, and then pointed in the direction of the two male slaves.

Li Er looked over and saw two male slaves very carefully cleaning the gravel on the cement road, and then began to pour cement into the hole.

Then I saw them taking out a rolling stone and flattening the road. Finally, they lit a fire on the roadside.

Fang Xuanling asked: "What is this for? Why do you want to light a fire?"

Li Feng said: "In order to make the cement dry quickly. Only after the cement dries can we walk normally. Otherwise, this cement road will be more pitted than a rainy loess road.

Under normal circumstances, in order to prevent leaves, bird droppings, sand dust, etc. from sticking to the newly poured cement road, a white cloth will be covered on the cement road."

"That's it." Everyone nodded secretly. They had just seen that before the cement dried, it was indeed no better than a rainy loess road, worse than ordinary mud.

"Okay, this is the cement road. Before we wait for it to dry, let's talk about what changes the cement road will have on Datang." Li Feng said.

Fang Xuanling said: "This cement road is indeed a good thing. As long as the entire lobby is covered with cement roads, the court will save a lot of money on road construction every year."

Tang Jian said helplessly: "Lao Fang, it's easy for you to say, but this household department doesn't have that much money to spend on paving this cement road."

"Oh, what a pity." Fang Xuanling sighed.

Li Erdao: "You can't help it, but Li Feng can. He gathered so many of us together. Don't tell me, he just showed us the cement road."

Li Feng smiled and said: "Yes, but everyone only sees that this cement road is better than the loess road, which means it is better than the current official road.

But you have forgotten the important point. The road connects the north and south of the Yangtze River, allowing Chang'an to radiate to the whole world.

Why is the road to Shu so difficult to enter? Because the road is not good and impassable. If the imperial court builds a cement road from Chang'an to Sichuan and Sichuan, the imperial army can enter Shu at any time to quell the chaos."

"Sichuan and Sichuan are surrounded by mountains. It is quite difficult to build a cement road there," Du Ruhui said.

“Good things come often, and it may not be impossible, it’s just not possible now. This is also an analogy I give everyone.

With cement roads, the imperial army will be able to reach various states and prefectures faster, and will be better able to control each state and prefecture.

In addition, what I want to talk about is business. Let’s take the journey from Chang’an to Luoyang as an example. Have you ever calculated that it only takes half a day, or three hours, to ride a horse from Chang’an to Luoyang?

It's possible to walk there in a day, but it's very difficult. This is only done by people who are very fast on the course, but most people need a day and a half or even two days to reach the destination.

This is because there are good and bad roads in official roads. I won’t talk about this anymore, let’s just talk about losses.

Ordinary people walking from Chang'an to Luoyang need at least a meal box and a bottle of water a day. In addition to the wear and tear of shoe soles, wasted time, etc., it costs at least ten pence.

As for a merchant, a merchant who carries goods, his losses on the road are not just goods, but people. A merchant will go out with at least ten or twenty people, which is a consumption of one or two hundred coins.

As a businessman, if he adds up his goods, he will consume one or two guans, or even a dozen guans. It can be said that the bigger the business, the more losses will be incurred.

This is still one day's consumption, and it is still the minimum consumption. As long as they eat one more meal and stay one more day, their losses will be doubled.

But now there is a cement road. This road is not only good in environment and smooth, but also free from mud and sand no matter it rains or winds.

The most important thing is that this road can greatly shorten the time from Chang'an to Luoyang.

It only takes two hours to reach Luoyang by horseback, and only one day by walking. If I use a customized bicycle in the future, it will be even shorter, maybe half a day. I will talk about this bicycle later, but now I am talking about the road.

By taking the cement road, the loss can be reduced by half. Regardless of the quality of the environment, at least you can reach your destination on the same day without having to sleep in the wilderness.

Under such conditions, do you think the people would prefer to take the official road of loess road, or the new road of concrete?"

"Li Feng, it's useless no matter how much you say. We can clearly see the quality of the cement road, but the court has no money. How can the court build roads if it has no money?" Tang Jian said.

Li Er then asked: "How much does it cost to build a cement road from Chang'an to Luoyang?"

Li Feng thought for a while and said: "Based on the price of one meter, it costs about 400,000 yuan."

Li Er looked at Tang Jian and asked: "Old Tang, can't the Ministry of Revenue even come up with 400,000 yuan now?"

"You can take it out, but once this money is used, the Ministry of Household Affairs will be really poor." Tang Jian said with a sad face.

Li Feng said: "In fact, we don't need the court to pay a penny to build cement roads."

"Seriously?" Li Er asked suspiciously.

Tang Jian had a bad premonition and immediately asked: "Did you pay for the road construction and then ask the court to exempt you from taxes for ten years?"

Li Feng said: "Of course I am happy to be exempted from taxes for ten years, but this time my request is much simpler."

"What's the request?" Tang Jian looked at Li Feng more warily.

Li Feng said: "As long as the road is repaired, I want the right to use it for ten years, which means that the court will not interfere with my use of this cement road within ten years."

Li Er said in a deep voice: "Li Feng, just tell me, what are you going to do in the next ten years?"

Li Feng smiled and said: "Collect tolls. As long as you want to take the cement road, I will charge tolls. No matter who you are, even if you are a member of the imperial court, I will still charge tolls."

"Charge, you are simply crazy." Changsun Wuji roared.

Is it possible to not be crazy if you have to pay a toll to cross the road?

Li Quan and Wang Daowen's eyes lit up. They finally understood what Li Feng's cooperation meant. If they could really have ten years of charging time, they would indeed be able to make a lot of money.
Chapter completed!