"That won't work. You're not as tall as a horse, and you still want to ride a horse?" An Ning tapped Xiao Ponu's forehead and said angrily.
Bin's face showed excitement and joy. He didn't expect that he would have the chance to get the pony he dreamed of.
"I must choose a very handsome pony." Bin said loudly and waved his wooden sword twice excitedly. He found that the space in the car was limited and could easily hurt others, so he quickly stopped.
"When we get to the ranch, I'll let you choose." Zhao Kuo said with a smile.
"I will definitely choose a good horse as my child's partner in the battlefield." Bin said firmly.
"Does this road go all the way to the Loop?" Qing He said with some surprise through the car window, looking at the road spreading westward to the end of the earth.
"It went all the way to Helan County in Hetao. In the next few months, we spent most of our time on this road." Zhao Kuo said.
"So long...Is our Zhao country still following this path now?" Qing He couldn't believe it. She usually stayed in the palace. Even when she went out, she stayed in Handan City and rarely paid attention to the changes in Zhao country.
.
When she went out this time, she suddenly realized that she didn't recognize Zhao Guo.
"All counties have access to official roads, about half of the counties have also laid official roads, and the remaining counties are still under construction." Zhao Kuo said proudly.
As long as there is enough cement and enough workers, the roads can be paved very quickly. In the plain areas, with Handan as the center and radiating out in all directions, it doesn't take long for them to be almost paved.
However, about half of Zhao's land is mountainous, or a basin surrounded by mountains. Construction is very troublesome and can only be done bit by bit without rushing.
"I... it's hard to believe... It must be very expensive to build this kind of road." Qing He grabbed the corner of his clothes and asked cautiously.
"The cost is only labor. Most of the workers who built the road are captives of the Hu people. They only need to take care of the food. Moreover, we not only use it ourselves, but also sell it to Qi, Wei and other countries. The profits we make can already cover most of the cost.
, the rest depends on collecting tolls, not only will you not lose money, but you will still make money, and the longer the time, the more you will make." Zhao Kuo explained.
To be honest, thanks to the fact that labor is not valuable these days, if it were valuable, Zhao Guo would definitely lose money by relying on cement to build roads.
The material cost of this thing is low, but it cannot stand up to the fact that 80% of the cement fired by Zhao Guo is unqualified, and the remaining 20% of the qualified cement is also inferior cement, which is completely incomparable with the cement of later generations.
However, these low-quality cements are already artifacts nowadays. After all, the normal load capacity of a carriage these days is only one or two tons, so it is impossible to damage the road.
So when Zhao Kuo learned that it could be fired, he immediately ordered to expand production. Not to mention that 20% of the products were qualified, but even only 10% would be mass-produced.
To be honest, Zhao Kuo was already surprised that Zhao Kuo was able to bake cement in the old blast furnace. It is inevitable that the failure rate is high, as long as there are successful ones. After the proficiency is high, I don't believe it will always be like this.
If workers' wages were several times more expensive, Zhao Kuo would never dare to mass-produce. He would definitely hide it and continue to improve it. When the cost comes down, he will mass-produce.
However, after the iron-making blast furnace was successfully improved later, the cement firing technology was also greatly improved. Basically, the fired products were qualified, which increased the output of cement several times.
At this time, the cost of cement really came down.
At the same time, profits from cement sold to other countries also increased dramatically, which not only supported the wages of all workers, but also had a certain surplus, which was used to buy food to feed the captives who built roads and reduce the pressure on Zhao.
However, food is not easy to buy now. The four kingdoms of Han, Wei, Chu, and Qin have begun to strictly control the outflow of food. Yan State is a bitter and cold place, so it is not easy to feed itself with food. The only country that does not control the outflow of food is Qi State.
Of course, Qi State did not take the initiative to sell grain, but the Qi State court had very little control over the subordinates. As long as they spent money, they could always buy it. In the past two years, Zhao Mu spent a lot of time in Qi State buying grain for Zhao State.
However, Zhao Kuo knew in his heart that cement would not be able to make money for a few more years. After Han, Wei, Qi and other countries connected the major cities in the country, they would not continue to lay official roads.
Now the demand of Han and Wei has been greatly reduced, but the state of Chu has begun to purchase cement, which can maintain the profits of the state of Zhao.
"You can make money without spending money!" Everyone looked surprised.
Some of them guessed that the cost would not be very high, but they did not expect that they could still make money.
"Making money is just incidental. Even if we can't make money, some roads still need to be built. Only by building these roads can our Zhao country become a whole. But we may not be able to build so many."
"In addition to money, manpower is also a problem. Without these captives, the officialdom of Zhao State can only be spread to counties. If it is to be spread to counties, it will be impossible in ten or twenty years." Zhao Kuo said.
Although the population of Zhao State was much larger than the captives, the road construction speed was no different from that of a tortoise if only two months were used during the off-farm period to build roads every year, excluding the time spent traveling back and forth.
Look at Wei Qi and other countries, they have only built two or three main official roads so far, just because they can't spare so much manpower and material resources. However, Zhao State has 200,000 prisoners who are constantly building roads, crushing any country in terms of speed.
Therefore, Zhao Kuo was very good to these prisoners. He would see the doctor when they were sick and treat the injured. There was an endless supply of salted fish at the port, and he would also send people to send some to the prisoners to improve their food.
After all, they have also contributed to the State of Zhao.
This group of men is happiest every time there is fish to eat. Having lived on the grassland all their lives, they rarely have the opportunity to eat fish.
The people who manage them will also take the opportunity to tell them that as long as they work hard, they will be able to become glorious Zhao people in the future, live a good life, and have something to eat every day.
If you make outstanding contributions, you may even have the opportunity to receive a title, marry Bai Fumei, and reach the pinnacle of life.
Regardless of whether others believe it or not, they believe it anyway, because there is nothing they can do if they don’t believe it.
Escape? Then wait to become someone else's meritorious service.
Although you may see that you are surrounded by your own people, in fact, no one is your own.
Anyone can betray you.
Some people have successfully obtained rewards by betraying their brothers before, becoming Zhao people and owning their own land.
Under such circumstances, they did not dare to trust anyone, so they had no choice but to give up escaping and try their best to get involved, fighting for the very few opportunities to become Zhao people.
"Are there a lot of fish in the sea? There are so many that they can be captured." Zhao Ji said in surprise.
In Zhao State, fish is not a rare thing.
Although Mencius once said, "I want a fish, and I want a bear's paw. If I can't have both, I would give up the fish and take the bear's paw."
However, the preciousness of fish cannot be compared with bear paws.
Historically, Duke Linggong of Jin sent someone to assassinate Zhao Dun. The assassin came to Zhao Dun's house and found Zhao Dun eating "fish" and was greatly moved.
As an important minister of the Jin State, he actually ate "fish delicacies". It was too frugal, so he gave up the assassination of Zhao Dun and committed suicide.
Zhao Ji herself is a native of the State of Zhao, and she knows that even if fish are not rare, there are not enough fish to be given to prisoners, unless the State of Zhao obtains an unimaginable amount of fish from the sea.