The second wave of shipbuilding was predictable, with more than 100 new cargo ship orders from Hanyang Shipyard after a batch of South China Sea Sands samples arrived in Wuhan.

This is a kind of giant cargo ship that is specially needed by Huaiyang merchants, and the keel of the cargo ship has to be spliced and extended, almost unable to resist the wind and waves of the open sea, and can only sail near the sea, and the speed is quite slow. But it has only one advantage, it can be loaded. The volume of a single shipment was quite terrifying, and Huaiyang merchants mainly used it to transport coal and iron ore.

The Xuzhou family, which had a close relationship with the Huaiyang merchants, operated a route near the Yalu River, which could transport grain from the southern part of the Korean Road to the coast of Liaodong, and hung the banner of the Ministry of War, which shows the depth of the water.

In addition to this kind of "super cargo ship", there is also a kind of clipper ship controlled by several people, and the speed is far higher than that of "eight years of construction". The whole boat is like a barracuda, going down the river, departing from Wuhan and arriving in Jiujiang, several top masters take turns to control the sails, and can do a hot soup in Jiujiang that day.

However, it is obvious that the people who need such boats can just do it to blind the waves in the Yangtze River.

The majority of the orders came from Suzhou and Hangzhou merchants, and the merchants of these two places, mainly operating overseas, were in the East China Sea. In recent years, the "pirates" in the East China Sea have become more and more rampant, and Suzhou and Hangzhou merchants have no choice but to do it, or "knowingly commit crimes", which is beyond Zhang De's control.

"Did you count the new Dingkou last year?"

"Looking back, there is no yet, the data is still rushing."

"What is the estimated mapping mileage to Xiangzhou?"

"Five hundred and sixty miles, but there are a lot of swamps on the ground in Xiangzhou, and I may have to build a dam to dredge."

"The budget should be made according to 700 miles, and there should be a surplus."

"Yes, I'll go and inform the civil construction yamen later."

In addition to shipbuilding, the amount of work in Wuhan this year is not small. With the official passage of the Puqi-Baling section of the "Hanyue Chi Road", there is a smooth road of more than 300 miles from Baling to Jiangxia.

The whole road not only makes Puqi County very profitable, but also allows the labor and products in Yuezhou to be quickly transferred to the Wuhan market through this road.

Although the waterways are convenient and the capacity is larger, for the middle and lower classes, they are "individuals", compared to the single "demand" of shipping.

Rao's shipbuilding industry is so prosperous, but there are too few ships per capita in the Yangtze River. In addition, because of the horse breeding farm in Wuhan, the price of the Yunnan horse and the Sichuan horse has dropped, and the number of mules bred by crossing has greatly increased, making the livestock leasing business in Chu quite prosperous, and most of the small property owners and even ordinary families can afford it.

Therefore, in terms of freedom, it is relatively economical and reasonable to go to Wuhan once a day to sell its own output.

Originally, most Yuezhou people had this demand but did not have such conditions, but because of the repair of the "Han Yue Chi Road", Zhang De created this condition for most of the Yuezhou people, which made the neighboring two states, which originally did not communicate much, now communicate with each other quite frequently.

Jingchuzhou County was originally not optimistic about this "Hanyue Relaxation Road", but as the so-called "seeing is believing, hearing is false", Jingchu bureaucrats saw Yuezhou profit with their own eyes, and only said "tax extraction", Rao is Yuezhou's low tax, but because of the circulation of materials, the object of "tax extraction" has been expanded, and the overall tax has been greatly increased.

Unlike many local bureaucrats who are accustomed to "killing chickens to get eggs" and "fishing when they dry up", seeing that this method of "fattening pigs and then killing them" is more reasonable and scientific, it is impossible for Xiangzhou and Jingzhou to say that they are not moved to build roads.

But the road construction is also famous, Xiangzhou and Jingzhou are interconnected, that is meaningless, only with Wuhan to exchange manpower and material resources, in order to benefit from it.

The original demand for shipping is no longer enough to meet the appetite of Xiangzhou people.

Therefore, at the request of the Jianghan Observation Embassy, many places cooperated to build such a road from Hanyang to Xiangzhou.

However, the road construction in Jiangbei is not as good as that in Jiangnan, and although Yunmengze is much smaller than hundreds of years ago, swamps and lakes can still be seen everywhere. At that time, Zhang De was the governor of Chuzhou, and it was just a matter of "encircling the polder to create fields", which was the first to propose such a technology a few years earlier.

It was only when the imperial court took the initiative to promote the "encirclement of polders and cultivated fields", and the prefectures and counties along the Yangtze River could be regarded as formally and consciously transforming the environment.

But even so, judging from the results of road mapping, this road is ironclad. During this period, a considerable number of bridges had to be built to drain and desilt some small marshlands, and the amount of work was many times larger.

Originally, Lao Zhang himself was a little reluctant, but he never thought that the people of Xiangzhou took the initiative more. Lao Zhang does not know how many resources have been extorted by the officialdom brother, but it shows that the willingness of Xiangzhou is quite strong.

Some of the Xiangzhou officialdom that have passed through it are so radical this time, not that they are really so "diligent", the road must be repaired, and after negotiating with Wuhan, that is, when will it be repaired. However, there must be a sequence of arrangements, and no matter how much the engineering team is expanded, the manpower is still limited.

It's not just that Xiangzhou wants the more than 500 miles of relaxation road, Huangzhou also wants to get a 100-mile relaxation road, you don't have to think about connecting Wuhan, you can connect Huangpi County, and the person who is doing this lobbyist is the former Huangpi County Commander, Lao Zhang's Xiaobai Senior Brother.

In addition to Huangzhou, Anju is also not satisfied with the existing shipping capacity, and wants to build a Chi Road from Yunmeng County to Hanyang. And the person who presided over this work was a little higher than Senior Brother Xiaobai's, and it was King Wu who personally inquired.

There are so many competitors, and he still has the largest amount of work, so how can Xiangzhou officialdom not be in a hurry? What's more, this road in Xiangzhou is not to lead to Xiangzhou itself, but to Jingzhou. This major project is the only way to negotiate with Wuhan by the efforts of Jingzhou and Xiangzhou.

In order to cooperate with this road, Jingxiang and Xiangzhou also set up a new city in the east of Changlin County, Jingzhou, named "Jingmen". This Jingmen City is an important trading market in Erzhou in the future.

But the premise of everything is to be able to increase exchanges with Wuhan, otherwise everything is utopian.

In view of this, under the temptation of various pressures and powers, no matter how wasted the Xiangzhou officialdom is, it has made great efforts to promote this matter.

Therefore, the first major project of the Jianghan Observation Embassy in the nineteenth year of Zhenguan was such a "Han Chu Chi Road", with an estimated mileage of 560 miles and a budget mileage of 700 miles.

Although this big project is not as good as the "Bohai Rim Expressway" that Secretary Xue is supervising, because the scale is also not small, it can be said that it has given the whole Zhenguan 19 years of the beginning of the year, and the mood of the government and the opposition is quite optimistic.