On the first day of February, Zhao Hongrun, who had arranged everything, took his daughters and left Daliang, the royal capital.
There were quite a few women going to Shangshui with him this time, such as Miss Su’s master and servant, sisters Mi Jiang and Mi Rui, as well as Oona and the little girl Yang Tongue Xing. Only Princess Yulong had already been with the Six Kings. Uncle Zhao Yuanli made an appointment and had other plans, so he did not go with Zhao Hongrun.
As a guard force, Zhao Hongrun only brought along a hundred Su Wang guards in addition to Shen Yu and other clan guards. After all, he needed someone to take care of his palace in Daliang and the Su family Chu Jin's shop.
From Daliang to Shangshui, it is naturally the fastest way to go by water. Therefore, Zhao Hongrun and others' first stop was Xiangfu Port on the south side of Daliang.
The predecessor of Xiangfu Port was an ordinary county town named Xiangfu, and a small port that was once used for loading and unloading goods. However, now, Xiangfu County and Xiangfu Port have merged into one, and they have transformed into the largest port around the royal capital. The prosperous county town or port outshines cities and counties such as Yuanyang and Huangchi.
The Xiangfu Port expansion plan is also a ten-year project of the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau. The ultimate goal is to build Xiangfu Port into one of several important ports connecting Yingshui water transportation.
After all, Yingshui County, or to be precise Yingchuan North County, is the largest county in the Wei State. At least 40% of the Wei people live in this land, and it is the county with the most concentrated population in the Wei State. Note: The reason why it is called "Yingshui North County" is because there is also a Yingshui County under the rule of Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng. To distinguish it, the latter is called Yingchuan South County.
Because of this, Zhao Hongrun naturally gave priority to developing this land.
In Zhao Hongrun's plan, the Metallurgical Bureau would spend ten or even twenty years, working with the Ministry of Industry, to select several cities near the river in Yingshui North County to build river ports to promote the prosperity of Yingshui water transportation.
The cities initially planned include: Yangcheng, Zheng, Xiangling, Changshe, Yanling, Yangzhai, Fenxingsai, Changping, and the current southern terminus of Yingshui water transport, Shangshui County.
It started in Xiangfu County and ended in Shangshui County, developing several cities near rivers in Yingshui County. This was Zhao Hongrun's plan for Yingshui County in terms of water transportation.
Of course, the plan also includes asking the Ministry of Works to dig deeper and widen the river in the Yingshui area. It is no exaggeration to say that the officials and craftsmen of the Ministry of Works responsible for this matter have been in trouble for the past twenty years.
At about 3:30 in the morning, Zhao Hongrun and his party arrived in Xiangfu County by carriage.
At this time, Cheng Lin, the official of the Metallurgical Bureau who was responsible for the expansion plan of Xiangfu Port, had led several civil servants to wait about ten miles outside the north gate of the county seat.
It can be seen that although Lang Guan Cheng Lin was a little nervous and awed when she saw Zhao Hongrun, she was definitely much better than Chen Dan, the Lang Guan of the Smelting Bureau in charge of Bolangsha. At least Cheng Lin was not like Chen Dan. In front of Zhao Hongrun, he stammered due to nervousness and sometimes even made mistakes in his speech, which made Zhao Hongrun very helpless.
But Zhao Hongrun can understand it. After all, technical officials like those in the Metallurgical Bureau and the Ministry of Industry are not as eloquent as officials in the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Household Affairs. A hard-working man of action.
Sometimes such officials took off their official uniforms and went into battle in person, working in the mud like the craftsmen. They were so covered in mud that you couldn't tell that they were actually court officials.
Of course, in the past, it was precisely for this reason that officials from the Ministry of Industry were always looked down upon by the other five ministries, jokingly calling them plasterers in official guise.
It wasn't until Zhao Hongrun took charge of the Smelting Bureau and confirmed that such officials who personally participated in the battle were role models for Wei officials that the officials of the other five ministries did not dare to gossip anymore.
"His Royal Highness King Su."
When meeting Zhao Hongrun, Cheng Lin bowed her hands to the former and respectfully asked him if he wanted to visit Xiangfuxi County.
The so-called Xiangfu West County refers to the original Xiangfu County. Compared with the past, except for some households living in nearby mountain villages who moved here, there are many more county residents, such as inns and taverns.
There are more private facilities.
Apart from this, there is actually nothing interesting to see. After all, Cheng Lin has not yet spared any effort to transform this area. His main focus is still on Xiangfu East County, that is, Xiangfu River Port.
"Go directly to Dong County." Zhao Hongrun ordered after thinking about it.
Cheng Lingong handed over and rode with several civil servants without entering Xiangfu County. Along the dirt road in the countryside outside the county, she led Zhao Hongrun and his party straight to Xiangfu Port.
During this period, Zhao Hongrun, who was riding a horse, looked around.
Naturally, he was not looking at the scenery, but the local road conditions.
Because it was not an official road, this country road had ups and downs, making the carriage that the girls were riding bumpy along the way.
There is no way, the main roads in Wei State are generally yellow mud roads, because no cementing material was added when building the roads. Once the yellow mud roads encounter heavy rains, they will become soft and potholes will appear one after another.
Therefore, in such a place, the carriage must slow down, otherwise, the carriage's wheels, that is, the wooden wheels, will break due to bumps.
This is not uncommon.
If you want to be rich, build roads first...
Zhao Hongrun sighed secretly.
It’s not that he doesn’t want to improve the condition of domestic roads, it’s just that the cost of maintaining such yellow mud roads is too high. For example, on some roads with heavy traffic, people have to be sent to maintain them almost every one or two months to fill in the potholes.
How can you bear this?
You know, if you keep an eye on this, the Metallurgical Bureau and the Ministry of Works will have nothing else to do.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun selectively ignored road construction and instead developed water transportation. After all, although the development of water transportation was extremely expensive, the advantage was that it did not require maintenance across mountains and distances.
As for road transportation, Zhao Hongrun had no plans to develop it until the Metallurgical Bureau discovered limestone and tuff, the raw materials for mixing cement, or, in other words, until natural asphalt, a better paving material, was discovered.
At most, it is to maintain the official line. After all, the main purpose of the official line is to quickly mobilize troops from other places to support the front line where the war situation is tight. This kind of thing cannot be delayed.
About half an hour later, Zhao Hongrun and his party finally arrived at Xiangfu Port.
Before entering the county, Zhao Hongrun told Cheng Lin: "After entering the city, don't call me King Su. Call me...well, Mr. Su."
Cheng Lin glanced at the Zongwei and King Su's guards who were following Zhao Hongrun, and saw that none of them were wearing armor, just ordinary clothes. Now hearing what Zhao Hongrun said, she guessed that King Su didn't want others to know about him.
Whereabouts, he immediately agreed.
By the way, Zhao Hongrun actually has a pseudonym called Jiang Run, which he used when he went to Fangshui Pavilion to meet Miss Su. But for some reason, the surname Jiang he chose at random was similar to Zongwei and Su Wangwei.
We people always think of Mi Jiang, and then whisper behind our backs that His Highness and Master Mi Jiang must have had an affair.
Zhao Hongrun felt very unjust about this, after all, when he first used this pseudonym, Mi Jiang was still unknown.
In order to prevent Miss Su from being offended, Zhao Hongrun simply changed his name to Mr. Su. This idea came from the Su's Chujin shop opened by the little girl Yang Shi Xing.
Furthermore, although Su is a rare surname in Wei State, it is not uncommon.
When entering the city, Zhao Hongrun and his party were divided into several groups. After all, there were about 120 people in their party. In addition to Miss Su's master and servant and Yang Yan Xing, the others were Mi Jiang, Mi Rui, Oona, and ten others. The famous Zongwei and hundreds of King Su's guards all rode into the city like this, which was too conspicuous.
There are more than a hundred mounts, and they use high-quality military horses. It is expected that most of the nobles in Wei do not have such a pomp as Zhao Hongrun.
In order to deceive others, Zhao Hongrun entered the city with only Mi Jiang, Mi Rui, Oona, Miss Su's master and servant, and the carriage riding the little girl Shen Yu, plus Shen Yu and other ten clan guards.
As for the hundred Suwang guards led by the guard chief Cen Chang, they were divided into several groups and entered the city one after another.
These people are all veterans of the dredging army, and Zhao Hongrun is not worried that anything will go wrong with them.
Xiangfu East County is located on the east side of the original Xiangfu County. It is located on a wasteland in the past. I remember that a year ago, this was just a wilderness overgrown with weeds, but now, the city has gradually become prosperous.
Zhao Hongrun saw from a distance that there were unfinished buildings everywhere in front of him.
"According to the drawings drawn by Prince Su...well, Mr. Su, that will be the port city of Xiangfu Port in the future."
Along the way, Cheng Lin introduced Zhao Hongrun to the architectural complexes in Dong County one by one. Cheng Lin was most excited when the port city was mentioned.
Because everyone in the Metallurgical Bureau knows that the port city is the building that most directly embodies the prosperity of cities and counties driven by Yingshui water transport.
When the port city of Xiangfu Port is built, it will become a gathering place for merchants from all over the world, filled with goods from all over the world. At that time, this will undoubtedly become the most prosperous area of Xiangfu Port.
Bolangsha was also built according to this model.
During Cheng Lin's introduction, Zhao Hongrun nodded frequently, but in the end he did not forget to tell Cheng Lin: the city wall of Dong County cannot be ignored and must be built as soon as possible.
This issue cannot be ignored. After all, although Wei State has fewer bandits, it is not without it. If there is no city wall, the Xiangfu County that will develop in the future will definitely become the target of robbery by those bandits.
Later, they found a newly opened inn by local people in Dong County. Zhao Hongrun and his party had something to eat in the inn, and then boarded a transport ship belonging to the warehouse department under the jurisdiction of the household department.
When the fleet slowly set off, Zhao Hongrun stood at the stern of the ship he was riding on, looking at Xiangfu East County and Xiangfu West County from a distance.
Generally speaking, he was quite satisfied with Xiangfu County under the charge of Lang Guan Cheng Lin. It took less than a year to build Xiangfu Port to this scale.
Although the construction of the city wall has not yet been completed, and the population in the city is obviously insufficient, it is not difficult to see that after the completion of Xiangfu Port, it will become a rare twin city in the Wei Kingdom and a residential port city.
In terms of prospects, it is not inferior to Bolangsha River Port.
"Next stop...Shangshui."
Looking at Xiangfu County, which was gradually getting smaller before his eyes, Zhao Hongrun felt a sense of satisfaction in his heart.
After all, Xiangfu County, which has undergone tremendous changes, appeared precisely because of his appearance. (To be continued.)