The second high-grade highway is the G2 highway from the capital to Mugu Hewei, the original supporting highway from the capital to Shanhaiguan will not be widened, but the highway from Shanhaiguan to Muguhewei will be in accordance with the G1 standard, five steps wide, set up roadways and sidewalks, and indicate the direction of walking.

The survey of G2 and the Shanmu Line can be carried out at the same time, and the railway is next to the road, which can reduce the time and money consumed to a certain extent, and the materials transported by the train can easily be flexibly transferred by the road, because G1 and G2 are the main roads, and the original loess official roads in other places are connected with it, forming a convenient transportation network.

It was through the bidding of G1 and G2 that Zhu Youxiao realized how wrong he thought the lack of human resources was. After the survey of the two routes was completed, it was already November. The bidding for the first two Beijing lines is still a new thing, and everyone is still more or less hesitant, and the participation is not very high. However, after the China Merchants Bureau published announcements on the exposed cloth and newspapers in various places, at least three commercial houses participated in the competition in each bidding section.

Each firm has its own human resources, and the difference is only in the advanced tools, and the advanced tools are related to the abundance of funds. Because the newly established Daming Civil Machinery and Tools Cooperative of the Ordnance Bureau manufactures a large number of construction-related equipment and tools, such as road graders and rollers with animal power, mechanical saws powered by animal power and steam, and various steel shovels and hoes, etc., as long as you have money, you can buy them in large quantities to make your tools more advanced and improve work efficiency.

Bidding is mainly measured from two aspects, one is time and the other is cost. As for the quality problem, the fee will only be paid after the approval of the Quality Supervision Bureau, and the contractor of each section of the road and the inspectors of the Quality Supervision Bureau must be registered, and if there is a quality accident, there will be prison sentences waiting for them.

In the process, the Ministry of Agriculture has taken the opportunity to intensify the action of farmers to have their own land. It is impossible to transport cement from Beijing to Liaodong or Nanjing, so the large amount of cement needed to build roads can only be reduced by using the principle of nearby production. The stones needed for cement production are not as rare as iron ore, and they can be made as long as there are mountains in various places, so the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture mobilized one by one, and the landowners along the route agreed to give part of the land in exchange for funds and cement manufacturing patents.

If you have enough money, can you buy cement manufacturing technology directly? An official from the Ministry of Agriculture said: "That's not going to work, because the patent office collects a three-fold discount on the patent fee for cement manufacturing, which is to reward the enlightened squire who gives out the surplus land." If the land is not used to support the Ministry of Agriculture's Cultivators' Own Fields Initiative, the patent fee will have to be purchased at the original price, which is more than three times the current price, and the Patent Office will not be responsible for daily guidance and maintenance. All shareholders can enjoy a three-fold discount and guide maintenance with a total of 1,000 acres of land, which is not easy to encounter. ”

Yang Lian was in a very good mood during this period of time, the construction of railways and highways has made the movement of cultivators have their fields unexpectedly supported, and now it is spreading to the southern areas that were difficult for the Ministry of Agriculture to intervene in, according to this trend, in a few years, Nanzhili will also be able to form an agricultural industrial structure dominated by yeoman farmers like the north, and at that time, the grain problem of the Ming Dynasty will no longer have hidden worries.

When he reported the good news to Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Youxiao poured a scoop of cold water on him at that time: "Yang Qing, you think too much, there are few people in the south, and the landlords can't do it so that everyone has a field if they take out excess land, and now the sericulture in Nanzhili, Zhejiang and other places occupies more and more land, but I am afraid that in the future, I will have to transport grain from Huguang to supply the local area." If you want the south to develop steadily, you must either vigorously develop commerce or vigorously immigrate. ”

Yang Lian was silent, tax evasion has always been frequent in the south, and the taxes collected by the imperial court for the development of commerce will not increase much. And the immigration of the south has always been a long-standing problem, and the two things that the emperor said do not seem to solve the fundamental problems of the south.

Zhu Youxiao said with a smile: "Don't worry, didn't you ask your Ministry of Agriculture to plant mulberry trees in the north last time?" As long as the mulberry tree grows in a suitable area, silkworms can be raised, and soon the sericulture is no longer unique to the south, and at that time, the southerners will also be willing to emigrate. ”

Yang Lian said: "In the past, sericulture was distributed all over the country, but Jiangnan seems to be the most suitable, and the quality of silk products in other places is obviously weaker than that of Jiangnan, how can it compete with Jiangnan?" ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "Science and technology is the primary productive force, the research institute is now studying sericulture, and its base is in Baoding Mansion, Beijing, last time they reported that the silk color has been no different from the south, and it is possible to improve the technology, so that its cost will fall, with the vast fields in the north, if you really start to raise silkworms, do you think it will be inferior to the south?" ”

Yang Lian's complexion changed, if it was really as the emperor said, the north also began to raise silkworms, then it would not be comparable to the two southern provinces. At that time, as soon as the southern silk advantage was gone, a large number of immigrants could be immigrated, and the land problem would be easily solved.

The third railway line in Zhu Youxiao's mind is the Beijing-Guangzhou line from Beijing to Guangzhou. The route was extremely long, 3,700 li, and there were a large number of mountains on the way, and a large number of bridges or flint roads had to be erected, which made the construction of this railway much more difficult.

After the completion of the exploration of the Liangjing Line and the Shanmu Line, the exploration work of the Beijing-Guangzhou Line officially began. Zhu Youxiao's requirements are: everything that can be blown up with explosives is blown up, considering the climbing ability of the train, he would rather make a detour to ensure that it is as smooth as possible.

In the construction of the original railway, the royal construction team had already tried to build a short flint, and the longest flint reached 70 steps (112 meters), and the use of explosives in the excavation of this flint road also made the construction team accumulate experience in the use of explosives.

Therefore, there are explosives users of the royal construction team in the exploration team to determine whether they can use explosives on the way. Zhong Yuzheng estimates that the exploration of the Beijing-Guangzhou line will take at least two years, and the construction process will take at least 10 years.

Zhu Youxiao felt that the distance from the capital to Hankou was only 2,000 miles, and there were not many peaks on this route, and most of them could be avoided, even if they went to Changsha, they only needed to consider the problem of building bridges. Therefore, this section can be built first, and after the construction is successful, the rice from Huguang can be directly transported to the capital, and even if there is a famine, it can be easily distributed to the places where it is needed.