Like Li Dongyang, Zhou Jing and Zhang Mao are the same, looking at the narrow official road behind them, and then looking at the spacious cement road under their feet, it is hard to believe all this in front of them.

"Is this still the road?"

Zhang Mao sighed, looking at the clean and tidy cement road, he even felt that he didn't dare to step on it, for fear of soiling the road.

"Haha, of course this is the way."

Dong Xiaoshan on the side looked at the appearance of the three people, and also smiled, he had seen such expressions more than once, almost every new person who came to Tianjin would be deeply shocked by this spacious and flat cement road, and some victims were even afraid to walk on it, because this cement road looked cleaner than their homes.

"All this is thanks to Liu Gongzi's blessing, it is he who invented cement, which is mixed with sand and gravel in a certain proportion, and mixed with water, which can not only be used to build bridges and pave roads, but also to build houses, build cities and so on."

"It's very simple, convenient and fast to build, and the key is that the road built is not afraid of water erosion, as long as it dries, even if it rains heavily, it will not have the slightest impact."

Dong Xiaoshan is a very qualified commentator, and he will tell the advantages of cement one by one.

In the past, he didn't believe that there would be such a magical thing in the world, which has always been a big project to build a house, build a road, etc., and it is definitely not an easy thing.

But with this cement, everything has become a lot simpler, the key is that the houses, roads, etc. built are very strong, not afraid of water invasion or fire, the speed is also very fast, saving time, effort and money.

"Three adults, please come and see."

Looking at the expressions of the three people, Dong Xiaoshan continued to take the three of them to the place where the cement slurry was mixed.

It is also very busy here, there are truckloads of horse-drawn carts transporting cement from the Tianjin Cement Factory, transporting truckloads of cement, there are also people who come from the Haihe River to pick up sand and gravel from afar, and there are people who mix the sand and gravel and cement together, pour water, and constantly stir and mix.

"This is cement, the cement and sand and gravel are mixed and stirred in a certain proportion to form cement slurry, if it is used to build a house, as a binder, the sand should be made of fine sand, used to build roads, with ordinary sand and gravel, there is no big requirement."

Dong Xiaoshan pointed to the cement, and then pointed to the cement slurry that had been mixed, and here the victims continued to pick up and pick up the front.

Li Dongyang, Zhou Jing, and Zhang Mao also didn't care whether it was dirty or not, whether there was dust or not, so they went straight to the cement stacking area, reached out and grabbed a handful of cement from the wooden barrel, and looked at it carefully.

The cement ash is not slippery, it feels like fine flour, and there is nothing too special about it, but if they hadn't seen everything in front of them, they wouldn't have believed that this thing could be used to build bridges and pave roads, and build such a wide road.

"It's an artifact! With this thing, I don't have to worry about building the city wall anymore. ”

Zhou Jing couldn't help but cry out.

He is the head of the household, and he is naturally well aware of the various expenses of the imperial court, and the annual expenditure of the Ming court to build the city wall is a huge expense.

At the time of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, because of the strong military and the ability to rely on strong force to deal with the nomads in the north, the dependence on building the city wall was not serious, but since the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty has been building the Great Wall on the basis of the original Great Wall, in order to defend against the attack of the northern nomads.

After the Tumubao Incident, the Ming Dynasty no longer had the ability to carry out large-scale expeditions against the Mongol tribes, so it was more urgent and important to strengthen the defense of the north and build the Great Wall defense system.

Starting with the orthodox emperor Zhu Qizhen, the Ming Dynasty carried out large-scale construction of the Great Wall, and this process lasted until the last years of Jiajing, and the whole process lasted for 130 years.

It starts from Liaoning Hushan on the bank of the Yalu River in the east, reaches Juyongguan in the west, the eastern foot of Qilian Mountain to Jiayuguan in Gansu, connects the Great Wall of Qin, winds for more than 6,000 kilometers, the momentum is incomparably magnificent, and the Great Wall seen by later generations is actually the Great Wall built by the Ming Dynasty.

The construction of the Great Wall is extremely unsuitable, in the eastern section of the Great Wall, it is mainly made of blue bricks and stones, which is very solid, and the cost is naturally expensive.

As for the western section and most of the other Great Wall, the city was actually built with earth, and the rammed earth wall was made of wooden planks, filled with clay or gray stone, and built with pestles and pestles, and the cost of each meter was about one or two silver.

From this, we can know how much manpower and material resources are spent on building the Great Wall, their old Zhu family from Zhu Yuanzhang, all the way to Emperor Jiajing, almost throughout the Ming Dynasty, the efforts of generations of emperors, lasted 200 years, this is the Great Wall to be built.

It is almost impossible to calculate how much money, manpower, powerlessness, etc., is spent.

In addition to the construction of the Great Wall, the towns in the capital and border towns also need to be built, which is also a huge expense.

In this regard, Zhou Jing is a household secretary who has a deep understanding that the Ming court was already poor, and the poor could not open the pot, but they still had to spend a lot of material and financial resources on building the city wall every year.

Now when he saw this cement and looked at the spacious road in front of him that was very fast and simple to build, he couldn't help but sigh like this.

With this cement, whether it is to build the Great Wall, or to build the city wall, it will become very simple, but it is just some sand and stones, plus some water, simply mix and stir, and the road built is as hard as a stone, and it is not afraid of wind and rain, and it is not afraid of water invasion and fire.

"It's indeed an artifact!"

Li Dongyang, like Zhou Jing, also grabbed a handful of cement in his hand, looked at the cement slurry stirred around him, then looked at the spacious cement road next to him, and looked back at the road that was being built rapidly and continuously, and sighed from the same heart.

"With this artifact, I don't have to worry about it anymore."

Zhang Mao also nodded and said: "We only need to build a city wall with cement in the border town area, and the Mongols will not want to enter our Central Plains for half a step." ”

"It's not just about building the city wall, if I use this kind of cement to build such a spacious official road all over the country, then it will be extremely convenient for me to transfer troops and generals, or to transport grain from the south to the north."

Li Dongyang's face finally showed a smile, once he came to Tianjin, he seemed to see a brand-new Ming, a strong Ming, the cement in his hand is no longer cement, but an artifact, a powerful artifact of the Ming Dynasty.