Chapter 1084: National Road Network and Rail Carriage
Although he was still a little unwilling in his heart, Zhao Hongrun wanted to understand - since there is no chance to deal with Yuanling Marquis Uncle Feng and other big nobles for the time being, it is better not to think about this troublesome matter and calm down to do something meaningful.
With this in mind, Zhao Hongrun sent Zongwei Mu Qing to invite several courtiers to the palace on the seventh day of December. After all, he himself was still under confinement and could not go out.
The invited courtiers include Meng Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Xie Xian, the left minister, Deng Zhan, the right minister, Zhou Pei, the chief minister of the Yu Construction Bureau, Xu Jiong, the construction secretary, and many other officials of the Ministry of Industry. In addition, Zhao Hongrun also
invite
Invited Li Jin, the Bureau Chief of the Smelting Bureau, Wang Fu, Director of the General Administration of Smelting, Chen Dan, Cheng Lin, Xun Xin, Lu Yu, Gu He, Zheng Zhao and other capable officials of the Smelting Bureau, as well as the Smelting Bureau
Xu Ruo, the most powerful craftsman of the Mohist family in the game.
It is no exaggeration to say that if a group of thieves suddenly appeared and killed these people on the invitation list, Wei's domestic construction would immediately come to a halt, because these people are responsible for the construction of large and small engineering projects in Wei.
They are the talents who truly strengthened Wei's national power.
It is precisely for this reason that even Li Jin, the arrogant and arrogant Prime Minister of the Bingzhu Bureau, felt a little restrained when he came to the banquet hall and saw the guests present.
It's no wonder, after all, half of the officials in the palace are senior officials from the Ministry of Industry, while the other half are officials from the Metallurgical Bureau, and the Ministry of Industry and the Metallurgical Bureau have such a good relationship that they wear the same pants together.
Only he, Li Jin, and Song Mojuzi Xu Ruo were relatively weak.
But the problem is that Xu Ruo, a prominent figure in Song Dynasty, is now the "advisory officer" of the Smelting Bureau - appointed by His Highness King Su.
If Li Jin had not decided to move closer to the Smelting Bureau and His Highness Prince Su, otherwise he would really not be able to sit down here.
It's not because of the position. The problem is that some officials here actually hold the power of life and death in other military affairs.
Take the Smelting Bureau, for example. If the Smelting Bureau cuts off the supply of armor-casting molds and iron blank materials to the Military Casting Bureau, what will the Military Foundry Bureau use to make military armor? Will it have to go back to the days when hammers were used to cast armor?
Another example is Xu Jiong, the director of the Construction Department of the Ministry of Industry. This time, his military casting bureau moved out of Daliang and settled outside the city. They had to rely on Mr. Xu to send people to build workshops and furnaces for them. If Mr. Xu was not in a good mood,
Well, if the Bingzhu Bureau is stuck for a year and a half, the Bazhu Bureau will not even be able to start construction.
However, what made Li Jin secretly relieved was that these officials seemed to understand his position at the moment, so they greeted him more enthusiastically than before.
Xu Jiong, the director of the Construction Department of the Ministry of Industry, even joked with Li Jin: "Director Li, regarding your workshop and furnace outside the city, that was the instruction of His Highness King Su. Don't blame Li Director."
Xu."
"Master Xu is serious." Li Jinyi said with a smile.
In fact, he had already guessed that the Construction Department of the Ministry of Industry had troubled him about the workshop and the furnace of the Military Casting Bureau outside the city. This must have been the instruction of a certain Prince Su, and His Highness Prince Qing had not taken the initiative to ask for it.
His Highness Prince Su is too weak, so don’t even think about His Highness Prince Qing’s arms orders from the Weapon Casting Bureau for the time being.
"I don't know why His Highness Prince Su invited us here today. Could it be related to the banquet hosted by His Highness Prince Qing a while ago?" Deng Zhan, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, joked with a smile.
That's right. At the beginning, King Qing Hongxin had a banquet with guests for the purpose of wooing the big nobles in the country and demonstrating against King Yong. Maybe this time King Su Zhao Hongrun invited the Ministry of Industry, the Smelting Bureau, and the Ordnance Casting Bureau to demonstrate.
, let some people who have no dealings with His Highness King Su see the power of their King Su Party.
However, after hearing this, Meng Kai, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, laughed and cursed. In fact, he knew the purpose of today's banquet.
While the officials were chatting and laughing happily, Zhao Hongrun, wearing a light brocade suit, walked out of the inner room, cupped his hands and greeted the officials in the palace: "Everyone, please forgive me for not being so considerate in your hospitality."
"Your Highness is serious."
"Your Highness, what are you talking about?"
All the officials stood up and returned the greeting.
After inviting all the officials to take their seats, Zhao Hongrun ordered the servants in the house to drink and eat, and then he held the wine cup and said with a smile: "Yes, the king is inviting you to the banquet today just to make that Zhao Wu angry... Those people he invited are all
What is it? And I can guarantee that all the people I am hosting today are all behind-the-scenes heroes of our great Wei Dynasty!"
After hearing this, the officials present couldn't help but laugh. Only Deng Zhan, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, was a little embarrassed - he didn't expect that His Highness Prince Su would hear his joke.
After some joking, Zhao Hongrun finally revealed the purpose of the banquet for the officials present: "Originally, after I returned to Daliang from Hedong, I was going to gather you all to discuss a major matter. However, I believe you have also heard that recently
During these days, I was approached by a troublesome matter. Fortunately, this troublesome matter was finally solved. Therefore, I invite you to come to the palace to discuss with you a matter that is related to our Wei Dynasty's century-old plan."
When Zhao Hongrun was speaking, all the officials present listened attentively. It was not until Zhao Hongrun finished speaking that Meng Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, deliberately asked: "Your Highness, King Su, what is the matter?"
Zhao Hongrun glanced around at the officials present and said sternly: "I have decided to lay a national road network in our country from next year. All roads will be paved with cement."
"National road network?"
There was a burst of exclamations in the hall.
In fact, most of the officials present had some speculation in their minds: His Royal Highness King Su must be convening some big project this time.
It's just that they didn't expect that His Highness Prince Su's ambition was so great. He wanted to lay a road network across the country. Even the officials of the Ministry of Industry were frightened, and Li Jin, the chief minister of the Military Casting Bureau, was even more so at this moment.
His eyes were widened in shock.
At this time, Zhao Hongrun clapped his hands and ordered: "Bring it up."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zongwei Lu Mu, Gao Kuo and others came to the hall carrying a large roll of something like a sheepskin blanket. They saw that they were spreading the roll of something like a sheepskin blanket in the center of the hall. At this time, in the hall
The officials were surprised to find that it was actually a map of the whole country of their Wei state.
"This thing was drawn by the Smelting Bureau, what do you think?" Zhao Hongrun stood up with a wine cup and asked with a smile.
After hearing this, all the officials present praised it, saying that the product produced by the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau must be of high quality.
At this time, Zhao Hongrun had thrown off his boots and stepped on the map to the location marked Daliang. At the same time, he said: "Daliang is the capital of our Kingdom of Wei. Therefore, I have decided to use Daliang as the national road."
The center of the network...Next year, we will start laying four main official roads. One of them is from Daliang to the eastern part of Hedong.
”, the second, “Daliang to Sanchuan Luocheng”, the third, “Daliang to the eastern part of Hedong”, the fourth, “Daliang to Shangshui”... These four roads are temporarily designated as official roads and used as military roads in emergencies.
, In addition... I also plan to build a small gadget next to these four official roads, Wang Fu, distribute the drawings to all your lords."
"Yes." Wang Fu, director of the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, stood up, took out a stack of drawings from his arms, and distributed them to all the officials present. Even Li Jin, the chief minister of the Ordnance and Casting Bureau, also received a copy.
"This is……"
Li Jin frowned and looked at the drawings, feeling a little puzzled.
Because in his opinion, the drawing was just a carriage.
Doesn’t His Highness Prince Su recognize the carriage?
Li Jin quickly put this ridiculous conjecture behind him. After all, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the officials from the Ministry of Works, all of whom were looking at the drawings carefully with serious faces.
"Did I overlook something?"
Li Jin calmed down and looked at the drawing carefully again. Only then did he notice that the carriage drawn on the drawing seemed to have something paved under the wheels.
At this time, Zhao Hongrun also said: "This thing is a 'track carriage'. I plan to build it next to these four new pipelines. It will be based on cement and iron as the track. After the laying is completed, this carriage can travel hundreds of miles a day."
…”
Listening to Zhao Hongrun's introduction, the officials of the Ministry of Industry were secretly dumbfounded - it is not unusual to travel hundreds of miles a day on horseback, but any veteran cavalry soldier can do it, but it is a bit scary to travel hundreds of miles a day in a carriage.
This means that horse-drawn carriages can transport goods faster than water transport.
More importantly, water transportation depends on rivers. Where there are no rivers, water transportation is impossible. In this case, manpower must be used to dig canals.
Road transportation is different. The speed of road transportation depends on whether the road is smooth and smooth.
Compared with building roads and digging rivers, it is definitely more convenient to build roads. What's more, now the Ministry of Industry and the Bureau of Metallurgy and Manufacturing have mastered strategic materials such as cement.
"Has this thing been tested by the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau?" Xie Xian, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, asked.
He still felt that the words of His Highness Prince Su in front of him were too exaggerated. A carriage traveling hundreds of miles a day?
If this thing really had such speed, what else would it need to do with water transport?
But after carefully looking at the drawings, he felt that this thing did have great potential. This was due to the judgment of an official from the Ministry of Industry.
After a while, officials from the Ministry of Industry all approved the drawing. Some people even thought that with the rail carriage, the Ministry of Industry could put down the project of digging rivers and building canals. After all, if the carrying capacity of the rail carriage is really as high as His Highness Prince Su
As introduced, the waterway can be eliminated directly.
However, Zhao Hongrun still disagrees with this argument. After all, rail carriages can be destroyed artificially. Therefore, it is necessary to set up stations next to the tracks and station troops there. How can the canals on which water transportation depends on be artificially destroyed?
Therefore, both the road network and the waterway network are necessary. Only by taking both into consideration can Wei's roads be diversified and the fault tolerance rate improved.
During the ensuing banquet, the officials present ignored the food and drink and began to discuss the two projects proposed by Zhao Hongrun: "Laying a national road network" and "Building on the carrying track".
After intense discussions, all officials agreed that these two projects were of great potential.
The only problem is that the cost is too huge, and the Ministry of Household Affairs may not approve it - after all, the amount of work to build four official roads that also accommodate rail carriages at the same time is really scary.
You know, the Ministry of Industry was responsible for building a military road from Daliang to Shanyang, Hedong Province, but it has not been completely completed yet - although there was no such sharp tool as cement at the time.
What's more important is that behind the Ministry of Household Affairs is Xiang Wang Hongjing, and Xiang Wang Hongjing is the prince who is on the side of Qing Wang Hongxin. Now that Su Wang Zhao Hongrun is deliberately making things difficult for Qing Wang Hongxin with his troops, Xiang Wang Hongjing will easily let go.
What?
However, Zhao Hongrun is not worried about this.
Because he had no intention of asking the Ministry of Household Affairs to contribute funds - only if he raised funds on his own did he have the right to speak. Apart from the court, he could let anyone he wanted use it, and anyone he didn't want to use it could not use it.
"We'll see!"
The figures of Marquis Yuanling and others appeared in his mind, and Zhao Hongrun sneered secretly.