Yang Hongzhang's respect for Song Yingxing is from the heart and deep in the bone marrow, just as the freshmen of the Medical University in the harmonious era respect Professor Zhong Nanshan, just as the freshmen of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences worship Academician Yuan Longping. When he learned that Song Yingxing was about to arrive at the Tianjin Acropolis, Yang Hongzhang put down what he was doing and led a thousand personal guards out of the city to greet him, which was full of pomp.

Although there are still Yang Hongzhang's parents, second brother, Xia Yan and his parents, eldest brother, and many businessmen who are good friends with the Yang family and the Xia family. But Yang Hongzhang simply said hello to them and then accompanied Song Yingxing throughout the whole process, which made the fifty-year-old Song Yingxing's perception of Yang Hongzhang change greatly.

After listening to Yang Hongzhang's plan for Tianjin City, Song Yingxing also gave a thumbs up, and he also appreciated the young general's insight very much. In Yang Hongzhang's planning, the military role of Tianjin City is equivalent to the two towns of Juyongguan + Xuanda, which is the last barrier in the east of Beijing, Naimian and even the back, so the city wall of the whole city adds up to 30 miles, and each city gate is set up with an urn city, and there are a number of batteries on the city wall of the urn city, which is prepared for the placement of large artillery in the future, and the outside of the urn city is a moat and a large number of pillboxes built along the moat.

From the attacker's point of view, it is necessary to break through the four defenses to reach the city gate. In addition to wrapping the original Tianjin Acropolis and refugee camps inside and outside, the city also planned to set up special commercial sites, arsenals, iron-smelting factories, etc. Although Song Yingxing does not specialize in urban construction, he is quite surprised that Yang Hongzhang, who is not more than twenty years old, can have such knowledge.

And Yang Hongzhang did not hide it, and directly said that the main purpose of inviting Song Yingxing out of the mountain was to study firearms and open a university to promote the knowledge of things, and to teach Song Yingxing's research results and Western knowledge of arithmetic, physics, chemistry and other aspects in the university.

Hearing Yang Hongzhang say this, Song Yingxing's cheeks were also red with excitement, and he looked at Yang Hongzhang with straight eyes like a young man in his twenties. There is a strange feeling that Maxima meets Bole and even dead wood in spring.

After drawing a series of pies for Song Yingxing, Yang Hongzhang quickly brought Song Yingxing back to reality, that is, how to build Tianjin City well and how to develop Tianjin from an acropolis to a Shangfu comparable to Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Song Yingxing is also skeptical about Yang Hongzhang's goal, Tianjin is adjacent to Beijing, the junction of the North-South Canal, and the sea, so the transportation is very developed. However, hearing that this young general soldier is not only brave and good at fighting, but also very good at business taxes, and has won the emperor's trust, and then looking at the long caravan behind him, Song Yingxing felt for the first time that the goal that may seem a bit nonsense to ordinary people can really be achieved in the hands of this young general soldier.

Of course, Yang Hongzhang can't do what he wants to do step by step like the officials of this era, otherwise, even if the construction of the Tianjin city wall is completed, it will take at least three or five years or even longer, when Yang Hongzhang told Song Yingxing about his method of building the city wall, the great scientist after Xu Guangqi also had a strong interest, especially for the use of cement and bamboo tendons.

In the drawings designed by Yang Hongzhang, the city wall, including the urn city, is composed of three parts, the outer side is a three-foot-thick cement wall, which is strengthened by bamboo tendons in the middle from the three feet underground, wrapped in wooden boards to make a mold, poured the proportioned cement into it, and continues to move up to the mold after molding.

The same is true on the inside, except that the concrete wall is only two gauges thick, and in the middle is rammed earth more than a foot wide. Compared with the previous city wall, the effect of the cement wall on the inner and outer sides is obviously stronger than that of simple brick-cladding, and in addition to consuming a lot of raw materials, it seems that the difficulty of construction has also decreased a lot.

What amazed Song Yingxing the most was that in this way, when the enemy attacked on the outer side of the city, he would face a vertical outer wall instead of the trapezoidal wall with a slope that was conducive to erecting ladders. The top of the wall was poured entirely of cement to form a working platform for hiding soldiers and placing artillery and other fortifications, and its horizontal area was actually wider than the city wall. In the same way, because the cement is formed in one piece, it also avoids the repair of the wall and the bricks on the upper surface.

The reduction of the width of the rammed earth of the city wall can speed up the construction progress, and the prefabricated slabs linked by bamboo bars are used to support the inner and outer sides at intervals and at a certain height, which also ensures the integrity and solidity of the city wall. Song Yingxing agreed after confirming the material of cement and Yang Hongzhang's experiments in Gaoyang and Hejian.

However, when he saw Yang Hongzhang's budget, Song Yingxing was startled, in Yang Hongzhang's budget, he planned to levy all the refugees who fled to Tianjin Prefecture, and only pay them after completing the cash-for-work work, Tianjin Acropolis plus the six counties and one state under its jurisdiction received a total of about 40,000 refugees, and most of these strong laborers will be used to build the city. This amount of Minzhuang is enough, but where did Yang Hongzhang go to get three million taels of silver to buy raw materials and pay for Minzhuang's wages after the completion of the cash-for-work payment?

In this regard, Yang Hongzhang smiled mysteriously, and then said: "As long as Mr. Song, you strongly support me, I will definitely find a way to raise money, and I will not let the imperial court and Tianjin Mansion break my bones." ”

"I want to hear about it!"

"Business! Vigorously develop business! The reason why I have invited so many businessmen from Zhejiang is that I want them to take the lead, and the General Military Office and the Tianjin Prefect's Yamen will purchase a large amount of building materials, food, and military supplies from the merchants, and I believe that as long as the announcement is posted, businessmen from all over the country will gather here. Then, I would hold regular auctions, and I would be interested in the merchant ships that had robbed the red-haired merchant ships at sea, as well as a lot of Persian carpets, olive oil, all kinds of jewelry, and all kinds of spices. There are more businessmen gathered in Tianjin, and naturally some people will find the convenience of Tianjin's water and land transportation, and then have the idea of developing in Tianjin, and then the prefect yamen will lead the land development......"

"Land development?"

"Oh, sir, have you ever heard of Yang Song in Hanzhong during the Three Kingdoms period? Although Tianjin is currently poor and white, it also has a natural advantage, that is, all the land belongs to the imperial court, and the income naturally goes to the prefect and yamen. Hongzhang planned to build a large number of low-rent and affordable housing in the city under the leadership of the prefect's yamen, hiring construction workers or outsourcing directly to businessmen. Low-rent housing is aimed at those who have fled to Tianjin to live in camps temporarily, as long as they have lived in Tianjin for half a year and completed the task of providing relief on behalf of the people, they can submit an application to the yamen to rent one or more houses built by the yamen, the rent is very cheap, as long as the capital is guaranteed. I think most of the people who work in Tianjin also hope that they and their families can live better, and it will be difficult for those shacks alone to meet the needs of those who gradually have money in their pockets. For those who now live in the Tianjin Acropolis, they are encouraged to move to the new city, and affordable housing is open to them on a household basis. After all, living with the army for many years, although there is a sense of security, it is easy to be noisy, and this is a little profitable. Since then, not only have the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, but the original stomach city will be able to accommodate more after it is vacated, and I will also be able to complete the task of training 20,000 elite soldiers assigned by the emperor.

After completing the basic plan of the residents in the north of the city, the yamen began to organize the construction of commercial houses or shops to sell to those who wanted to build mansions, taverns, tea shops or other business places, or directly sell the land to them, but the profits of these two were relatively higher. The more prosperous the area, the more you have to save it for the last sale, hehe......"

Song Yingxing didn't know much about Yang Hongzhang's many new words, but obviously he understood Yang Hongzhang's so-called land finance policy, and Yue Tingyue was surprised by how many things this young general soldier still had in his head, which seemed incompatible with the literati and military generals of this era, but he had to admit that in this way, he was afraid that the construction fund of three million would really be raised by him. Although Song Yingxing is over fifty years old, he is not the kind of pedantic reader, and he will not always think that the government will not compete with the people for profit.

If Yang Hongzhang's plan can be fully realized, and the entire city of Tianjin is built to prevent it from being sold, this is really an astronomical amount, and then Yang Hongzhang should start to implement what he calls a new commercial tax. In this way, Tianjin City can really be built well without relying on the imperial court.

Seeing that Song Yingxing began to nod, Yang Hongzhang continued to smile: "The unique condition of Tianjin City will undertake the transfer of the non-capital functions of Xu Duo Beijing City in the future, such as granaries, such as munitions, such as iron smelting factories and or firearms bureaus, etc., and when the yamen is more relaxed, the wharf will be renovated, and Hongzhang will ask the emperor to establish universities and research institutions again, I believe that the residents of Tianjin will soon surpass Suzhou and Hangzhou and become a super city second only to Beijing City and Kaifeng." ”

Don't talk about Song Yingxing, even Yang Hongzhang himself finally began to admire himself, after all, he came from the era of harmony, and such a vision is naturally not possessed by everyone in this era. In fact, as long as Yunhe remains unimpeded, Yang Hongzhang will build a small sailor to ensure the smooth sea route from Tianjin to Jiangnan, and it is impossible for Tianjin's business to prosper.

Looking at the Ming Dynasty, the court can tolerate Yang Hongzhang's misdeeds, I am afraid that in addition to the very trusting him, Zhu Youzhen only has a few people with advanced ideas such as Huang Zongxi and Gu Yanwu, and the great scientist Song Yingxing has not received the poison of Confucianism, which is also the main reason why Yang Hongzhang strongly recommended him as his assistant. Song Yingxing really did not disappoint Yang Hongzhang, and soon entered the role after receiving a warm welcome from the generals of the General Military Office, and began to select officials in six counties and one state, and began to discover architectural talents.