At this time, the rain was still very heavy, and the groom was holding an umbrella for Xu Xiang, but he was mostly drenched by the rain.

Xiao Xueying and Tian Tian walked down with umbrellas and carefully looked at this barren land.

Due to the low-lying terrain, the Yellow River beach has not been completely cleaned up for the time being, and there are potholes and sludge everywhere.

On a slightly higher ground, more than 4,000 temporary wooden huts have been built, which are also the places where the displaced people usually eat and sleep. When the rain came, I couldn't work, so I had to go back to the house to take shelter from the rain.

In front of them, more than 100 people were wearing robes and holding hoes, digging a way to drain the rain into the Yellow River.

"Xu Changsha, are those people homeless? What are they doing here? Xiao Xueying noticed the people digging the ditch and asked.

The rain had a certain impact on the line of sight, and Xu Xiang vaguely saw that the person who was the leader was Fu Shaoyou, so he shouted loudly: "Fu Shaoyou?"

The man turned around and saw Xu Xiang, hurriedly put down the hoe, trotted over, and said, "Young master, why are you here?"

"It's raining hard today, I'm worried about you, so come and have a look!"

"Hey, we're fine, the skin is rough and the flesh is thick, and a little rain is nothing!" Fu Shaoyou grinned and wiped the rain off his face.

"Where's Lao Yang?" Xu Xiang asked again.

"Oh! Steward Yang, a few homeless brothers fell and injured their arms. Steward Yang is a person who practices martial arts, and he knows some bone grafting skills, so he is helping those injured brothers to graft bones! Fu Shaoyou replied, and then said: "Look at me, patronizing and talking to the young master, this rain is still so heavy, the young master go to the house to take shelter from the rain!" ”

"It's good! Miss Ying'er, let's go to the house first! ”

"Young Master, please come with me. It's all muddy here, and we'll go over the Tiger Pass, and the soil over there is a little better, so there won't be so much mud. Fu Shaoyou pointed to a road on the other side and led them away.

Due to the excessive mud, the carriage could no longer walk and had to be reached on foot.

After crossing the muddy road, they came to the left side of the Yellow River beach, a hill covered with shallow grass, much higher than the others, and the Yellow River did not flood the place when it was flooded.

Walking on this hill, he noticed that the soil here was slightly different from the soil in other places.

In addition to not absorbing as much water as other soils, it is reddish-brown in color and mixed with gravel.

The earth forms a circular hill that follows the backbone of the hill to reach the back of the Yellow River beach area.

Xu Xiang suddenly squatted down, grabbed a handful of reddish-brown soil with his hand, crushed it and looked at it carefully.

"Young Master, what's wrong?" Seeing that Xu Xiang suddenly stopped, Fu Shaoyou asked.

"It's red clay, isn't it?" Xu Xiang asked.

"Well, I heard people I know that it is red clay, which is generally made of red tiles, and we may be able to use it to build a house in the future."

"It's not just red tiles! This thing can be made into bricks! Xu Xiang said excitedly that in addition to using steel and cement to lay the foundation, bricks are also very important in building a house.

Since I had never seen red clay before, I planned to build a house with mud bricks from this era to build ordinary houses, although they are also very strong, but this is not comparable to the red bricks made of red clay!

"Don't move this red clay for now! I'm of great use! Xu Xiang got up, took the towel cloth handed by the groom, wiped his hands and said.

"Okay, young master!"

After walking for about a stick of incense, they went around to the housing area on the beach of the Yellow River. And at this time, the sky suddenly became beautiful, and the rain began to lighten.

"Young master, this house is where I live with Steward Yang, and we usually discuss things with those leaders of the hundred people here!" Fu Shaoyou led them to a slightly larger wooden house on the left and said.

When I walked into the room, there was a layer of gravel in the room, except for four large wooden beams, and two beds were placed on the left and right sides, except for these things, the room was empty.

"Young master, you sit down for a while, and I'll call Steward Yang over." Fu Shaoyou took the quilt off the bed and said.

After a while, Fu Shaoyou and Yang Dianfeng came over, and there were several leaders of the hundred-person group who came with them.

"Young Master, why are you here!" Yang Dianfeng asked with a happy face.

Although they have been here for more than a month, Xu Xiang has not been here yet, and there are not many opportunities for them to meet except for Yang Dianfeng taking people back to the city to transport grain.

"It's raining heavily today, so I'll come and take a look. I heard Fu Shao lobby that a few people sprained, it's fine, right? Xu Xiang asked.

"It's okay, it's just some skin trauma, a few are dislocated, and their subordinates have already helped them to graft their bones, and they can already jump around!" Yang Dianfeng replied.

"Come on! Come and sit down! How's the process going? ”

Yang Dianfeng walked to the side of the bed, and then took out a huge parchment scroll from under the bed, on which was a sketch of the place.

"Young master, look! This is the area we planned. Yang Dianfeng pointed to the area marked with cinnabar, then pointed to the northernmost direction, and said: "Except for this area, the trees and silt in other places have been cleared, and according to our original plan, we are going to build a bridge here." However, a problem was discovered. ”

Xu Xiang nodded frequently, and when he heard him say a question, he asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"Originally, the original plan was that although this part of the Yellow River was narrower than the rest of the river, it would be much easier to build the bridge. But after this period of time, Lao Fu and I found a problem. That is, the water in this place is relatively fast, and if you build a bridge here, it will be much more difficult. So, we haven't moved this place for the time being, and I'm going to go back to the city in a few days to discuss this with you, so you'll come first. ”

Xu Xiang thought for a while, and then asked, "Have you ever been in the water, and is the water here deep?" ”

Yang Dianfeng turned his gaze to a team leader and said, "Zhao Erhu, haven't you ever been in the water?" Tell the young master about it. ”

The team leader hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Young master, I went into the water a few days ago to take a look, the water flow in this place is too fast, and it is very difficult to repair the bridge, the water is not as deep as other places, but the deepest place is about more than a hundred feet. ”

"More than a hundred feet." Xu Xiang whispered, more than 100 feet is equivalent to 34 meters.

In this era, there were very few bridges across the river, and some were iron cables, and then wooden planks or iron plates were laid on top of the iron cables, which shook the bridge body, and the requirements for the sturdiness of the iron cables were very high, so they chose this relatively narrow place to reduce the pressure on the iron cables.

But now it's different, Xu Xiang already plans to use cement and red bricks, plus some big stones, you can build a stone bridge, such a stone bridge is much more stable than the chain bridge.

The reason why this bridge was built was actually on the north bank of the Yellow River, and once a town was built on the south bank, a town could be built on the north bank.

"Well, the bridge is still built here. But don't move here just yet. Winter is coming soon, let's get the south beach of the Yellow River first, and then the north bank in two years! Xu Xiang said.

"Okay!"

"What about the reservoir? How is the location of the reservoir located? Xu Xiang asked again.

"Young master, we plan to dig the reservoir at the southernmost end, the terrain at the southern end is relatively low, and it is easier to bring in the water of the Yellow River. Moreover, if you want to live here in the future, you will not be able to live without water and other necessities. To the west of the reservoir, you can reach Ningdu, and to the south is sixty miles to Zhongning City, which is very convenient. ”

"Good! That's it! Let's get a reservoir first! ”

After chatting for nearly an hour, the layout and planning of the town were in order, and after these homeless people got food, they were full of fighting spirit to build their own homes for them, all of which did not require him to worry too much, and he was relieved.

Yang Dianfeng, Fu Shaoyou and others sent him back to the carriage, and he also wanted to go back to the city.

During this process, Xiao Xueying did not speak, listening with relish, until she returned to the carriage, she began to ask questions.

"Xu Changsha, are you planning to build a town?"

"What? Can't you? Xu Xiang asked with a smile.

Building a town requires countless manpower, material and financial resources. If you are an ordinary businessman, it is difficult to have such courage to get these.

He is not short of manpower, after all, there are more than 100,000 people, but what he lacks now is money and materials.

None of this is a big deal, though. Although the business of gnawing chickens is not as good as before, it is still possible to deal with some daily expenses.

It's just that once you start planning roads and building houses, the money and materials consumed can't keep up.

So, he had to raise a lot of money before building a house.

He thought of the lovely "food connoisseur" Cui Mi again.

Seriously, he doesn't hate Cui Mi so much now, the main thing is that he pays for it happily!

As long as Xu Xiang opened his mouth, he sent the gold over as soon as possible, and in just this month alone, not only did he get the profit of the gnawed chicken, but he had already given Xu Xiang nearly 20,000 taels of gold.

"It seems that I have to meet Cui Mi again today." Xu Xiang said silently in his heart.