When it comes to building roads, it is imperative.

As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads, which is a well-known Chinese saying, and it is also applicable in this world.

It's just that in all countries that prioritize militarily, something has changed.

For example, in Cangguo, the roads built in the past two years are all major official roads, and the primary purpose is not to make the people rich, but to make the caravan pass better, sell those things from the Ministry of Commerce, and then when the army is marching and fighting, the roads will not be muddy and impassable.

But that doesn't stop there.

Today's Cangguo has a vast territory, and the border is too far away from the imperial capital, and what is the situation on the front line, it often takes ten days and half a month to reach the palace, which is too slow.

As a result, it has increased a lot of costs for major caravans.

Historically, the location of the capital is closely related to the threat of a country, some to strengthen control over major regions, such as "Luoyi" in the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Nanjing" in the Ming Dynasty, and some to resist invasion, such as "Beijing" in the Ming Dynasty.

These are the conditions that occurred when the roads were not developed.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a very important part of the Westernization Movement was the construction of road transportation and the transmission of information, such as the construction of railways and the construction of cable telegraphs, all of which arose after the Manchus swallowed blood and tears after suffering losses at the lightning speed of foreigners.

Later, Sun Yat-sen was even more determined to build a 100,000-mile railway.

Although it is not pragmatic and exaggerated, it just shows the importance of fast transportation and information transmission to a country.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, what was a common tactic used to fight guerrillas? Isn't it just the destruction of the enemy's railroad and telegraph networks, such as the Battle of the Hundred Regiments, which is a model of this?

Therefore, Yang Mu talked about transforming the road transportation network of Cangguo a long time ago.

Helplessly, on the one hand, there is no technology and materials, and on the other hand, there is no extra money, so I can't afford to spend it.

Now that the treasury is full of silver, and there is trade with other countries, and there is no fear that the outflow of silver will cause inflation, so the mind is lively.

Anyway, the silver is in the treasury, and if you put it, you will also put it, is it possible that you are still waiting for mold?

Therefore, the Ministry of Science and Technology has been busy during this time.

They're going to develop something called cement.

The recipe given to them by Yang Mu is an epoch-making refining method in the history of cement, using limestone and clay as raw materials, combined according to a certain proportion, calcined in a vertical kiln similar to burnt lime, and then ground to make cement.

As for limestone and clay, the acquisition of this raw material is simpler, Yang Mu saw many families in the village when he was a child, as long as there is a method, it is not very difficult to fire.

Of course, road construction and cement burning is a big project, and it is impossible to hand it all over to the Ministry of Industry.

With the support of Yang Mu, a small number of nobles set up cement factories, hired a large number of people as laborers, and established one small factory after another on the side of the planned official road.

At the same time, a construction team has also been established to organize large-scale training.

……

The fourth year of Taiding, October.

After the farming, Cangguo began a big project in full swing - building roads.

This is an officially implemented project, with a total of three main lines, one to the west, one to the northwest, and one to the direction of Shengguo.

Among them, there are a number of branch lines on these three main lines, which lead to each county.

In order to facilitate management, and in order not to be used by the enemy, checkpoints were established along the route to ensure that these roads were always firmly controlled by the Cangguo court.

Of course, these levels also serve a role, and that is to charge fees.

Such a costly project must be considered to recover the cost for future road maintenance and expansion.

The specific objects of the charges have nothing to do with ordinary people, mainly those caravans and nobles' carriages and the like, and the price is quite reasonable, anyway, it is less than the money spent on the slow journey before.

Next to these roads, a vacant section has been designed, which is also being filled and repaired by laborers.

Here, it is used to make a track, something similar to a train track, and when the time comes, you can directly let the left and right carriages pull next to it to achieve the same effect as a locomotive.

In this half year, the scale of the steel plant has also expanded more than three times, and there is a steady stream of steel every day, which is transported out of the factory, and there are also places where the Ministry of Industry and Ordnance Supervision cooperates.

Such assembly line production, both in terms of quality and quantity, will leave countries far behind.

"Your Majesty, the recruits have completed their enlistment training, and the weapon casting is almost complete, so let's go next, shouldn't we build the remaining weapons for Ruan Guo?" Chen You asked.

"Hmm...... Ruan Guo's side...... A small amount, a little bit, it can't seem that my Cangguo can forge a weapon of this scale all at once. Yang Mu frowned and clapped.

Chen You realized something, and presented some recent affairs to Yang Mu.

In the past, such a trivial matter of sesame mung beans would definitely not be given to His Majesty the Emperor, but now it is different, in the past two years, I can feel that His Majesty the Emperor has paid more and more attention to the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Industry is the highest in terms of annual financial allocation, followed by the Ministry of War, and then the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

In the entire Cangguo court, which department is in the emperor's heart, which department is the most favored, and which department is the most useful to Cangguo, it is clear at a glance.

Therefore, starting from this year, he will make a booklet about important events and show it to His Majesty the Emperor every month, and then adjust the direction of future development.

In addition, another thing is that from this year, the military department has also begun to produce some things on its own.

Because it is the initial stage, it can only produce some simple things, such as arrowheads, riding boots and stirrups, etc., which can be regarded as officially separating this work from the work department, and in the future, the creation of ordinary blades and equipment will be in charge of the military department, so that the art industry has a specialization.

In addition to this, the military department also made some strange things.

One is called instant noodles.

One is called compressed biscuits.

God knows how His Majesty came up with these things, they are simply a necessity for marching and fighting, and the heavy military rations have been reduced a lot at once.

Although, this kind of thing is not suitable for meals.

But on the battlefield, or when the war is stalemate, the problem of military rations can be solved.

It is conceivable that if a war lasts for three days and three nights, and the enemy and us are fighting fiercely, where will there be time to solve the problem of eating?