Chapter 300: The Slow Development of the General's Mansion
Pork is already very common in Yangzhou. Except for some die-hards, many wealthy families have accepted pork. Naturally, these "main dishes" are indispensable at the New Year's Day banquet.
At the New Year's Eve banquet of the fifth year of Jian'an, in addition to pork, there was another main dish - cement.
It’s not about asking everyone to eat cement, but it’s about showing the effect of “cement”!
This magical "soil" that dries quickly after being stirred with water quickly attracted the attention of the general's civil and military officials.
The military generals thought that they could quickly build a "small Uburg" when setting up camp in the future, while the civil servants thought of renovating houses and adding city walls...
Brick buildings in the Eastern Han Dynasty still used yellow mud as an adhesive, and their sturdiness and durability were not high.
City walls, including the Great Wall of Qin, are mainly made of rammed earth, with very few sections containing stone walls.
Normally, lime mortar using lime mixed with sand as an adhesive did not appear until the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, lime mortar and glutinous rice juice began to be mixed as an adhesive to build the Ming Great Wall.
The presence of cement means that city walls can also be changed to masonry structures, and for military purposes, cement can be directly transported to cast bunkers!
"Lord, how much does this 'cement' cost?" Lu Kang was the first to ask.
Lao Lu was also worried that if he didn’t ask for the price first, then the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Privy Council would all open their mouths, and the Ministry of Revenue would not be able to bear it even if they drained their blood!
"Manufacturing is very simple. After three years of secrecy, we can almost open up to private operations. Counterfeiting is not cheap now, but... there are many raw materials. If the mining scale increases, the cost will be low." Bai Tu said.
Lu Kang was relieved when he heard this, and then looked at Lu Su with a smile.
Although the white picture didn't mention the specific cost, it... made it very clear that it needed to be "mined."
Well, that means...the Ministry of Civil Affairs is required to mine it on its own!
If it will be enough by then, everyone can go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs!
Especially since the Ministry of Civil Affairs itself is a big consumer of consumables, and now it wants you to mine it yourself, let’s see who else you can go to to collect the debt!
"This year is the fifth year of Jian'an. We will strive to ensure that cement can be used on the front lines in the second half of the year. In the seventh year of Jian'an, we can start using cement to build the main city walls. In the ninth year of Jian'an, we can use cement to build roads in the city and the main roads from the port to nearby cities. In the tenth year of Jian'an, we can use cement to build the main city walls."
We can start building official roads with cement in two years." Bai Tu said his vision for the future.
When I heard that in a few years, all official roads would be repaired with this artifact, many people understood the cost of this thing - it must not be high, but no one cared about it before, so the intensity of raw material mining was not great!
Of course, now everyone has adapted to Bai Tu's statement.
The so-called construction of official roads with cement in the twelfth year of Jian'an is just a "beginning". Not to mention that all the construction will be completed. It will take several years for the main official roads to be completed, and it does not mean that the previous roads in the city will be completed.
, the main road from the port to nearby cities was completed in the 12th year of Jian'an.
It just means that by the twelfth year of Jian'an, the cement production was enough for everyone...
"My lord, didn't you say before that roads support people's wealth and roads increase people's strength? Since cement can be obtained so easily, why not mobilize the labor force in various counties and at the same time mine the raw materials for cement and add it to the Ministry of Personnel's inspection projects.
We are not afraid of heavy burdens!" A chief clerk of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said to Bai Tu, patting his chest.
The other surrounding ministries, especially the prefects, county magistrates and other chief officials looked at him with increasingly unkind eyes.
Are you still human?
You are not afraid of heavy burdens...
You who come here for acceptance inspection have a heavy burden because of the reincarnation of grains!
Of course, there are many people who are anxious to build roads. After seeing the effect of cement, especially the raw materials and products of the workshops that need to be transported long distances, and the families who contract the mines, they are eager to pave the roads quickly.
"It's good that everyone has this intention, but now each county and township has its own responsibilities. Hard work can benefit the people, but manpower cannot be easily overstretched." Bai Tu instead acted as a brake.
There is no way, the price of everything being on track is that a large amount of squeezed out manpower has been clearly arranged.
It is no longer possible to easily gather a large amount of manpower and focus on a certain project through disaster relief as before.
At the same time, this is also the real advantage of General Mansion!
Cao Cao thought it was enough to imitate Bai Tu’s weapons and financial resources?
Even if Bai Tu shared with him the blast furnace iron-making and steel-filling methods, the Prime Minister's Office has no foundation in other aspects. How many nails can it make by just squeezing the people's power?
The Ministry of Industry and various regulatory agencies, including saltworks and the like, have recently captured many spies from the north and even Jingchu.
While Bai Tu was urging everyone to pay attention to security, he was actually not in a hurry...
In the final analysis, the benefits of salt and iron are just a disguised way of collecting taxes from the people. In the Central Plains under Cao Cao's governance, the people's power has been overdrawn. If you give him a means of collecting taxes, the changes will be very limited.
As for asking Cao Cao to squeeze out manpower to repair waterways at this time? Why not just ask him to surrender...
For the General's Mansion, the constraints to development are coal, or population and manpower.
If the Zhenqi machine can be further improved and put into civilian use, it will further squeeze out the industrialized population and make up for the lack of coal. Otherwise, relying solely on charcoal... Bai Tu has cut down the Xing'an Mountains, which may not be enough for industrialization.
There are also high-yielding crops that can also crowd out the population.
In addition, the only way to alleviate population and manpower shortages that can be expected is to liberate the productivity of other regions.
For example, if Jingzhou is conquered, the total population can be doubled. As long as the Yangzhou model is started in Jingzhou, in two or three years, there will be a large amount of manpower that can be overflowed from agriculture and can be invested in industrialization.
As long as the progress bar of industrialization can be pushed up, Bai Tu doesn't know how to lose. No matter whether it is agricultural civilization, nomadic civilization, fishing and hunting civilization, no matter how many horses there are, no matter how fierce the blood is, it is impossible to be tough.
industrial civilization.
"It's the twelfth year of Jian'an again..." Lu Lingqi wrinkled her nose at the side.
Because it was a New Year's Eve banquet, not a New Year's Eve party, Lu Lingqi sat next to Bai Tu and no one said anything.
The reason why Lu Lingqi lamented like this was because many of the plans of the General Mansion seemed to be based on twelve and thirteen years as important nodes.
For example, the first wave of graduation from rural to county schools, students who have been truly trained since childhood; the promotion of pig and poultry breeding, the promotion of the use of chemical fertilizers, and the per capita consumption of fruits, vegetables and meat will be included in the assessment content of local officials; the plan covers the entire Yangzhou, large-scale
The second phase of the water conservancy project was completed; steel production was basically stable, military service rotation was fully realized, and the Double Twelve Plan to build 12 large ports in the 12th year of Jian'an...
"Yes, what a coincidence!" Bai Tu also sighed.
The twelfth year of Jian'an in history was also an important year. In this year, Cao Cao completely regained Hebei and defeated the Wuhuan who tried to go south. Gongsun Kang presented Yuan Shang's head to Cao Cao as a sign of surrender, and so did the old white-faced man in Jingzhou.
In this year, he fell ill and was unable to govern. The Cai family colluded with the Nanjun family to monopolize power, and the eldest son Liu Qi was not allowed to visit.
It was also the year before the war that truly determined the pattern of the Three Kingdoms kicked off...