All for the Northwest!

At least on the surface, the railway was built to transport military rations and other military supplies for the future attack on Shaanxi, but the construction of this railway was not fast. Not only do you need to survey the exploration routes, but more importantly, you need a lot of pig iron for the casting of rails, which involves pig iron smelting, coal mining, and so on. It is precisely because of the construction of this railway that in the past two years, more iron mines and coal mines have been put into operation, and more and more iron factories have been built.

In order to facilitate the transportation of coal from some areas, railways have also been built in some places, so that the coal in the mountains can be transported out of the mountains and transported to the places where it is needed by water.

Now that the railway has been repaired for more than two years, although the roadbed has basically been completed, there are still roads and bridges along the way that have not been completed, and the rails have not yet been laid in most places.

Although this railway was built on the land of Henan, but the laborers on the railway are from all over the country, this is to avoid the labor mainly from one place, may cause accidents, there are many such accidents, the biggest accident is that the migrant workers gather to easily encourage rebellion, and the cause of this rebellion is often in the same village, the same county, the same township as a link, in order to avoid all this, the imperial court in the issue of employment, can be said to be cautious, and finally chose the way of dividing the division and drawing the piece, so that the labor will not all come from one place, Even if there is a gathering of laborers in a certain place, it is only a few hundred people, and then they are divided and conquered.

After such a careful arrangement, although there are tens of thousands of laborers gathered on the construction site all day long, but there has never been any chaos, which makes the officials who were initially worried about "the people gathering and disorderly", finally put a little bit of heart, in fact, this is also a kind of experience of building a large number of buildings after the Xingqian, whether it is the renovation of the old road of the Yellow River, or the renovation of the official road, the renovation of the canal and the construction of the railway, it is necessary to invest a lot of manpower, and learn from the experience of Meng Yuan to gather migrant workers in the Yellow River and induce the Red Turban Army to rise up. As for how much work is used and how to employ workers, Daming is naturally cautious.

When Lin Sanpeng and more than 100 people from the same county came to the construction site, it was already freezing here, but fortunately everyone was prepared, not only wearing thick cotton jackets, but also carrying thick quilts, and the migrant workers lived in a very simple place, but only a few shacks, but despite this, it could also give them a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

"There's finally a place to stay."

Looking at the wheat straw on the wooden bed in the shack, Li Minghan touched it with his hand, and then said to Lin Sanpeng.

"Let's take a look tomorrow and then go get some wheat straw, the grass is thicker, and it is warm to sleep."

This shack is similar to the Chase shop of the passing shop, the conditions are very simple, and there is no way, after all, every once in a while, the construction site has to be moved, so it can only be simple because of the ugliness, living in the simplest shack.

Lin Sanpeng has also heard of the weather in the north.

"It would be nice if there was straw, it was warmer than wheat straw, and the weather in the north is much colder than in the south of the Yangtze River."

On the first day they came to the construction site, they didn't need to work, so the group seemed quite relaxed, and even for the next two days, they didn't have any work, but while resting, they adapted to the days on the construction site - receiving the wheat straw to make the bed, and receiving the meal ticket to eat.

For Lin Sanpeng and the more than 100 fellow villagers from Tongcheng, despite the cold weather, they are full of hope for the future, not only because they have enough rice every day, even in the north, they can eat rice every day, which is really beyond their expectations.

It's just that they don't know that the cheap rice purchased from Nanyang is even cheaper than the millet in the north, and according to the plan of the imperial court, the purchase of Nanyang rice is also a disguised support for the Guozong Domain, after all, the Ming Dynasty is different from Europe, the Ming Dynasty almost does not need Nanyang spices, compared to spices, rice is more in line with the needs of the Ming Dynasty. In particular, after the Xingqian period, with the continuous increase of the urban population, the import of Nanyang rice is also a measure to stabilize grain prices.

"Sanpeng, have you heard about it?"

Li Minghan, who was lying on the bunk, bit the mouth of the cigarette pouch and said.

"I heard that this railway will be completed this year, and if we do a good job, maybe we will let the railway take a look, which is a way out for us."

Lin Sanpeng looked at Li Minghan suspiciously, and then said.

"Brother Li, is this true?"

Although he didn't know what this railway was, Lin Sanpeng had seen the service stations on both sides of the official road along the way, that is, the post stations in the past, and it was not bad to work there, with a salary of two taels of silver a month.

"But no, this is the road in Henan, can we still stay in Jiangnan?"

When others interjected, Li Minghan glanced at Lin Sanpeng, and then whispered.

"Just rely on your voice big brother, I will give you some truth. If the railway is repaired, it will definitely be maintained by a number of people, just like on the official road, what is the matter with the official road being so smooth, it is not still a person to maintain it. I inquired, as long as we are willing to endure hardships, as long as we don't do much worse than others, when the time comes, we will definitely be able to stay! ”

"Stay? What to stay and eat? Eating sorghum millet is not a ......"

In the laughter of others, Li Minghan just smiled and did not speak. And Lin Sanpeng, who had nothing to find and where to go, said in response.

"Okay! Brother Li, listen to you. It's a good thing to stay, but you can't stay, it's nothing, along the way, you don't know outside when you leave the house, you can't stay here, and there are other places that are not. ”

For Lin Sanpeng, who had never even entered Fucheng, he saw the outside world for the first time and knew that outside the village, in addition to farming, there were many other opportunities, not just to be a shop guy in the county.

In fact, for thousands of years, for most of the people trapped at home, the most fundamental reason why they have never gone out unless they have to, is that they are afraid, they don't know the outside world, and they have a sense of fear of the outside world. However, through the labor conscription in the past few years, the people here have learned about the outside world and made them realize that in addition to the village, the outside world is wider and there are more opportunities.

Of course, even the laborers who are the parties do not experience the change in their thinking, they often just accept this labor as ordinary forced labor, but it is longer than ordinary forced labor, but compared to the unpaid labor of the forced labor, and even bring their own rations, the forced labor here not only manages the meal, but also issues meal tickets, and manages enough food for three meals a day.

And Lin Sanpeng is undoubtedly lucky, because he was assigned to the engineering team, responsible for nailing track spikes, this job is lucky, because the longer you work on the construction site, the more likely you are to stay, and nailing road spikes is the last process in the engineering team, in other words, they can work until the end of the project.

There are six groups in the road nail team, divided into two teams from both ends of the railway, a group is placed in the two places, and every time a section is completed, the road nails are all thick iron nails, Lin Sanpeng is the same as others, every morning, when the sky is not yet dawn, he goes out until it is dark, and the sleepers are one after another, and they are to nail the road nails next to the sleepers, one by one, every day. Because of the constant swinging of the hammer, so that the arm is sore and sore all day long, compared to this, the real torture is eating. Because of the reason of going out early and returning late every day, the three meals a day are delivered by the hand-rolled car, and everyone holds a lunch box made of bamboo tube and sits on the sleeper to eat.

In the winter, even if the rice bucket is wrapped in cotton, and the cotton lid is pressed with stones, but when the rice is delivered to the construction site, the food has become warm. Later, Lin Sanpeng and the others would rather be hungry and bring dinner back to the shack. In the iron nest bought by a few people, the meals were gathered together, and the water was added, and the meal was hot. You can also drink two glasses together, so you can feel comfortable.

However, after nailing more than ten miles of road spikes, the progress of the project slowed down, because we had to wait for sleepers - heavy snow affected the transportation of sleepers, and the sleepers transported from the northeast used to be transported from the waterway, but now we can only rely on the railway, and the railway is not as fast as the water transport.

So the construction period was naturally delayed. However, this also allowed Lin Sanpeng and the others to take a rest, but even so, they couldn't wait in the shack, they could only wait on the construction site, and when the car arrived, the big guy had to move all the sleepers down.

Sitting on the construction site, while the others were huddled behind the snow wall to block the wind and push pai gow there, Lin Sanpeng sat there stunned, his eyes flickering in front of him, a few days ago, in the tent of the teaching department near the construction site, the body of the woman who was inadvertently seen through the crack of the tent, naked, really fascinating.

When the captain saw Lin Sanpeng in a daze, he thought he was homesick. He asked.

"Sanpeng, do you miss your daughter-in-law?"

"That, that's something, I, I don't have a daughter-in-law."

Lin Sanpeng, who only thought that the little thing in his heart had been seen through, immediately said with a red face.

"What do you want your daughter-in-law to have! But it's in vain to think about it in this place, your home is from Jiangnan, and my family is from Hunan, so just take a few days off, unless you have scuds, don't think about going home. If it's close, if it's close, the sleeper can't arrive, and we have to nest for two days. Three days, three days back and forth. It's enough to go home......"

For these migrant workers working on railway construction sites in Henan, being able to return to their families, even if it is for a day, is a wish that you have always come to the big guys.

"Captain, you say ......"

Lin Sanpeng, who seemed to be a little homesick when the captain said this, looked at the railroad tracks nailed to the sleepers on the ground, and then asked.

"If this railway can be built to Hunan in the future, maybe it will be able to reach Hunan in a few days."

From the surprise when he saw the carriage running on the railroad tracks for the first time, to the current habituality, Lin Sanpeng couldn't help but say something when he saw the carriage that was more than a dozen cars long.

"No, the carriage not only pulls a lot of things, but also ...... fast."

The captain said, then shook his head again.

"No matter how fast it is, you won't be able to reach Hunan in a few days!"

For the Hunan people, he may have preferred that this carriage would be able to bring him to Hunan in a few days. That way, he will be able to go back to his family during the holidays.

Of course, it's just a beautiful idea. At least not yet, there is no possibility of traveling thousands of miles a day.

Everyone just laughed at the captain's thoughts. Then the big guy started talking about other topics.

"Okay, let's stop daydreaming here, Zhao said that the luck of our brothers is really good."

The captain looked at the few of them and said.

"Did you see that? We're on the way. This job was the last job when building the railway. I've heard that in the end, there are always people to keep on the railway, who do you say will be kept? Of course, it's for us. After all, by then, all those who built the road might have gone home, and if we can stay here, we will definitely be able to stay on the railroad by then. ”

"Can we really stay on the railroad?"

The captain's words immediately attracted everyone's attention. If it was in the past, maybe they didn't think it would be a big deal to stay on the railroad, but they saw the world after coming out this time. I also know that working on the railroad earns a lot. In any case, it is much stronger than farming. What's more, many of them are second sons, and I am afraid that even if they want to farm, they may not be able to plant, at most they will be tenants of the government.

"If only I could stay on the railroad. At that time, there will be a few taels of silver a month, not to mention the food and drink in this life, and maybe his son and grandson will be able to work on the railway in the future. ”

In the captain's words, the big guys are there to discuss the future, discussing the possibility of them staying on the railway in the future.

In the end, everyone even fantasized about the life they would live on the railroad.

"Look at what you said. I can't let my sons stay on the railroad when the time comes. As the saying goes, if you don't study, it's better to raise a pig. When the time comes, we will definitely let our sons go to school and let them go to school. What if there is a seedling of reading? When the time comes, you will be glorious. ”

His voice had only just ended, and there was a burst of laughter around him.

"What's the matter, you still want your kid to be admitted to the top prize?"

"Listen to him there, there is no Zhuang Yuan in these years,"

"Even if there is a champion, it may not be able to take his turn, it's not that I said you, let's see if any of the three generations of our people are scholars? According to me, we don't have this in our lives. ”

Some people believe in fate, but some people don't believe it, and everyone is there to laugh and laugh with these words, and it does not prevent him from saying it with confidence there.

"If you don't have a champion, don't worry, and wait until you are admitted to the academy in the future. was admitted to Qinghe Academy, which was similar to the champion. ”

Of course, his words were exchanged for a burst of laughter. But the laughter fell with the sound of horses' hooves.

The pillow wood was delivered, and they continued to work here......