"Emperor, the cement has been manufactured, and the ministers have made it very strong and solidified soon after mixing it with sand and gravel according to your will!"

Qiu Ju, the dusty-faced eunuch, said to Zhu Houzhao with a smile with a group of people from the Royal Industrial Company.

Zhu Hou looked at the new cement produced by the Royal Industrial Company, and smiled with satisfaction, after the glass was manufactured, he asked the Royal Industrial Company to find a way to develop cement, and now four years have passed, but it has also been successfully manufactured, although there is still a gap with various new cements in later generations, but it is undoubtedly the most advanced infrastructure adhesive in the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Empire's external expansion is inseparable from a developed infrastructure technology, and good infrastructure is naturally inseparable from cement and its derivatives, concrete, which have stronger hardness and wear resistance and shorter solidification time.

"Very well, set the cannon on fire, let's try it and see if we can destroy this concrete wall!"

Zhu Houzhao said and retreated to the designated position with a group of officials, watching the soldiers light the artillery, and suddenly, with a bang, the solid cannonball hit the concrete wall that had just solidified, but the concrete wall did not move at all, did not collapse, only splashed some stone chips!

"Your Majesty! This cement is really a miraculous thing, and the cannonball can't hurt it in the slightest! ”

Ye Heng, who has been promoted to the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, came to the Royal Industrial Experimental Base with Zhu Houzhao, and now he is amazed to see this cement concrete.

"It is not without the same solidity, such as Sanhe soil, if glutinous rice and brown sugar are added, and then tamped it, it can also be as strong as iron, but the advantage of this cement concrete is that the manufacturing cost is low, mainly lime, and there is no need to use food, nor do you need to manually tamp it for a long time, the solidification time is very short, it can be completely solidified in five or six hours, and it can be faster to build roads and walls in the future."

Zhu Houzhao said and said to Qiu Ju:

"Now the production of cement can only be water-powered machinery, the production speed can not be improved for a while, you now send a few more people who understand cement production to find a place where the water is abundant for the production of cement, and the Royal Industrial Company will participate in the shares, they can also borrow from the Royal Bank by themselves, build their own cement workshop, and they will not be afraid that they will not be able to sell it at that time, and I will let the Ministry of Industry buy it uniformly!"

At the same time, I will also decree that private merchants will be encouraged to make cement, and the technology can be sold to them by the Royal Industries Company, so that the problem of insufficient production can be solved, and the Royal Industries can realize the profits through the sale of technology.

However, the cement workshop of the Royal Industries Company itself had to expand its scale and recruit displaced people into Beijing for production! These cements will play a great role in the development of the Ming Dynasty in the future. ”

"Command!" Qiu Ju said.

Zhu Houzhao originally wanted Qiu Ju to personally set up another industrial academy to train more students to participate in industrial research, but now Qiu Ju was busy managing the Royal Industrial Company and the production of cement workshops, so he could only put this idea in his heart first.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao instructed Ye Heng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry:

"Ye Heng, now that you have seen the beauty of this cement, I will give your Ministry of Industry a month to recruit a group of skilled masons, let them master the production and use of cement concrete within this month, and then start a month later, give me a cement concrete road from Jingshi to Datong!"

"Your Majesty! From Jingshi to Datong, there are mostly mountain roads, and I am afraid that it will take a lot of manpower to build this road, and countless money and food will be wasted! ”

Ye Heng said busily.

"These are not for you to consider, you are only responsible for recruiting people to repair the hand, I will let the household department allocate the money and food, but the manpower is arranged by you, I will allocate the engineering soldiers to you first, and you will also be allowed to recruit displaced people from all over the world, but these people do not know how to make and use cement concrete, you have to find a way to train them yourself;

That's why I've asked you to recruit a group of skilled masons first, and you can ask the imperial court to reward some craftsmen who are skilled in building bridges and roads, and other meritorious backgrounds!

But I hope that in the future, I can see a concrete road from Jingshi to Datong in the shortest possible time, so that it will be convenient for the imperial court to recover and control the Hetao! And even control Mo Nan! The grain and grass transported from the south can also go straight to Datong to the border town! You should be able to understand the benefits! ”

"The minister understands!" Ye Heng replied.

"In this case, within three days, give me a lesson and tell me how you, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, plan to start building the first cement road in the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly and left the Royal Industrial Experimental Base.

Three days later, Ye Heng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, finally gave Zhu Houzhao a note after thinking hard, determined the basic plan for the construction of the cement road from Jingshi to Datong, and even specified the width and main direction of the cement road to be built, as well as the amount of money and grain that may be used, the number of craftsmen and migrant workers, the preliminary training program and the estimated construction time.

However, when Zhu Houzhao asked the cabinet to vote, he asked Ye Heng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, to add a clause on the estimated labor remuneration of craftsmen and migrant workers, in this era, many officials and landlords have not yet had the habit of paying remuneration to the people, because the people have the obligation to serve the government for free, and basically the work for relief is just a meal.

But Zhu Houzhao wants to change this way, the labor of migrant workers must be respected, the premise of respect is to give them their due remuneration, and in order to enhance their enthusiasm must have a more flexible remuneration incentive mechanism, only in this way will more people be willing to work for the official family, and love Daming, because only when Daming treats them as people, they will regard Daming as their own sky.

Only in this way did these displaced people not become tenant serfs in the landlord's estate again.

At present, it is a spring famine, and there are many homeless people in the Gyeonggi area who come to Beijing to beg, and the powerful and gentry or those who have a good heart give a few meals of porridge, indifferently are naturally driven out of the house, or kept as slaves, but the storage of slaves is only a few children with a sign of appearance, and most of the homeless people can only rely on begging to survive.

But it is precisely because of this that Ye Heng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, easily recruited a large number of displaced people when he was preparing to build Jingtong Road.

Moreover, not only the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Ye Heng recruited a large number of displaced people, but also the Ordnance Bureau and the Royal Industrial Corporation, two institutions that need a large number of migrant workers, also recruited a large number of displaced people, successfully solving the labor shortage caused by the expansion of ordnance production and industrial production.

Even Xu Jing of the Royal Bank, in order to meet the increasingly heavy banking business, also bought a group of intelligent children, and with Zhu Houzhao's approval, the Royal Bank funded the establishment of a money law study class, specially invited people to teach only arithmetic, literacy and money law knowledge.

……

"Paid!"

Boom!

A gong sounded, and Li Changning Daniu, who was temporarily named the first production team of Jingtong Road, shouted to the migrant workers and craftsmen who were still brushing cement and mixing concrete on the gravel and dusty road.

Behind him was an ox cart with grain that had just been allocated by the household.

These migrant workers and craftsmen all came over with their own small notebooks, although they were unkempt, but they all had excited smiles on their faces, and one of them even smiled: "I should have thirty-one jobs this time, I have worked two extra shifts, and I can get more Lu rice." ”

"I have less work this time, because I am sick, I have worked for three days less, and it is estimated that there are only twenty-seven work points, this illness is really not worth it, and I lose money and less work!" One of the migrant workers' companions sighed.

At this time, more and more craftsmen and migrant workers had gathered, and Li Changning Da Niu and the ox cart behind him also stopped, Ning Danian took out an account book first, and shouted:

"Calculate the work first, according to the requirements of the old men above, do more and send more, do less and send less, and if there is a punishment record, you must deduct it, line up, come one by one, the first, Wang Changsheng!" Is it coming! ”

Although most of these craftsmen and migrant workers do not know how to read and write after training, they can also learn to use charcoal to draw lines in their notebooks to indicate how many days they have worked, one day is counted as one work, half a day is counted as half a work, and overtime will also be counted as half a work.

This is the method that Zhu Houzhao asked Ye Heng, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, to use, in order to prevent the officials below from bullying the craftsmen and migrant workers at will, and also appointed a supervisor Yu Shi to specifically accept reports from these craftsmen and migrant workers about who swallowed up the fruits of their labor.

It is precisely because of this that the officials of the Ministry of Industry do not dare to be greedy for the project money at will, and let the craftsmen and migrant workers work in vain, thereby reducing the production enthusiasm of the craftsmen and migrant workers, and also making the progress of the entire construction have been maintained at a relatively fast speed.

But because of this, many craftsmen and migrant workers were tired to death, but because they worked overtime voluntarily, there was not much public resentment, at most, some literati lamented a few times when they saw it, and criticized the court.

A bag of new grain was released, all of which were grain transported from the south of the Yangtze River, full of grains, very attractive, and these migrant workers and craftsmen were as excited as if they had seen silver, and began to line up one by one to calculate the work and receive it.

And the reason why it is Fa Lu rice instead of silver is naturally because the imperial court protects the silver root.

With the exception of the apprentices of the craftsmen of the Ordnance Bureau and the Royal Industrial Company, the lowest craftsmen and migrant workers who did not have a written contractual relationship were distributed rice.

After all, there is not much silver now, and most of these low-level craftsmen and migrant workers eat or grow their own thin fields after receiving the rice, and they will not consume it, and there is no point in handing out silver.

……

The little prince's envoy, Urusborot, happened to see this scene at this time, and he asked Gao Zehua in confusion: "Mr. Gao, how rich is this Han man who actually gives food to these untouchables?" ”

"Lord Jinong doesn't know that this pass has always been rich, and these emperors and gentry have delicacies from the mountains and seas every day, and these untouchables can naturally afford to eat some food, but they would rather give this food to these untouchables, creating the illusion that there is no hunger in the prosperous world, and they are not willing to use it to train the army;

Therefore, they are rich on the surface, but they are very weak, if there is no wall, the thousands of cavalry under the command of Lord Jinong can kill them! ”

Gao Ze said.

Seeing this, Urusborot couldn't help but snort: "No wonder the Great Khan intends to destroy the Ming Dynasty, if it is me, it will also be destroyed, such a world of flowers is a group of fat sheep, if you don't slaughter a few times, it will be a pity!" If we turn them all into our slaves, this food will also go to us! It's better than giving to these untouchables! ”