Li Jieshen walked in the mud with one foot and one foot shallow.

Although he is an official, he can't be seen from the outside.

He wore a short shirt under his coat, his trousers rolled up to his knees, and he changed into straw sandals, let alone socks, and his feet were covered with mud.

Exposed to the wind and sun all year round, the fine skin and tender flesh have been replaced by the swarthy of vicissitudes, the lines carved by the wind and frost sword on his face, and his brows are always tightly wrinkled, looking ten years older than his actual age.

When he walks in the muddy field, it makes people feel very natural, and he is naturally a peasant who should walk in the mud. It's a little farther behind, followed by a few companions, and no one will associate him with those companions.

But the land here is still so rotten, as if it has become a rice field after the water has been released, and many low-lying places have been filled with muddy water, and you can't see the depth. No matter how accustomed to the mud is, the peasants will inevitably stumble.

Li Jie walked, accidentally stepped on a small pit, the mud flooded the calf, if it wasn't for the quick eyes of the person next to him, a handful of help him, Li Jie's whole person would have fallen into the mud, and the companions behind could only stare dryly, and they couldn't catch up.

His feet were stuck in the mud, as if there was a mouth under him that he was biting down, Li Zhi himself exerted himself, and the person next to him also pulled, and the companion behind him came up to help, and it took a lot of effort to pull out his feet from the mud.

Li reprimanded his companion and stomped his feet on the ground, trying to stomp off the heavy mud on his feet.

The person next to him helped him and looked up at the sky, "When will it be clear in this hellish sky?" ”

The man who walked with Li Jie, just looking at his appearance, was much smaller than Li Jie, and the robes on his body were the standard of military ministers. But when he spoke, there was a closeness and casualness that ordinary warriors did not have when they spoke to civilian officials.

"God knows." Li Jie's foot stomped a few times, and most of the mud fell off, and then stopped, "Last year, the plum rain in Jiangnan fell for a month and a half, and it was the same, it was not big, and the water did not rise, but it did not stop." ”

Before Qingming arrived, it rained in Tokyo for seven or eight days in a row.

The rain was not heavy, the smaller ones were not wet, they were as light as cow's hair, and at the maximum, the water level in the city had risen by two feet, and it was far from the top of the embankment.

This kind of rain is a good sign for the farmers, and after a few days of rain, the fields are completely watered.

But on the railway construction site outside the city, the roads for transporting materials are soaked.

Throw a few lamb bones and lamb leg meat into the pressure cooker, boil the thick soup for half a day with low heat, even the bones are boiled crispy, the thick layer of oil in the bone marrow floats on the soup, hot, sprinkle a pinch of pepper, a few stalks of coriander, and then break the hot pancakes that are baked dry and hard and throw them into the soup, while drinking the soup and eating meat, while eating the soft and rotten pancakes that are full of water.

The mutton cake is delicious, but the road is the same as the pancake soaked in the mutton soup, and it is difficult to move, people are not easy to walk, and the car cannot pass.

"That's pretty good." Li Jie looked very open, stomped it twice, and then continued to move forward, "In the first two years in Hebei, it didn't rain, even if it thawed in spring, there was a pit on the ground, and there were two ditches when the car walked through, not to mention one foot, even the carriage could sink in." ”

The young military attache hurriedly followed, but the two eyes paid more attention to their feet as they spoke and walked: "Didn't you say yesterday that someone was trapped in which side?" ”

Li Jie is still calm, "It's the official road to Baima County, and it happened in Xiaoyang Village." For three miles in a row, the roadbed was loosened, and people were trapped in it and had no roof, and there was no gas to rescue them. ”

"It's really a bit of luck." The young military attache sighed, "You can lose your life if you take the big road." ”

"After the Beijing-Baozhou Railway is repaired, there will be fewer people on the official road to Baima, and Kaifeng Mansion has also reduced the money for road repair for two consecutive years.

The young military attache nodded, "There are many official roads in Kansai that have been run over by carriages and horses, and the imperial court has no money to repair them, so it will become a river when it rains." ”

Li Jie listened, but he was puzzled, "Didn't you fight with the Tangut people at the beginning?" I don't repair the official road, and I'm not afraid that the grain and grass won't be able to make up for it. ”

"There is little rain in Kansai, and the road can be used when the rain stops, except for a few avenues, it is not the case that other official roads are not repaired?" As the young military attache spoke, his ears suddenly moved, his head raised, and he looked in the direction to the right, "It's finally turned on." ”

In the direction he looked, there was a rumbling sound. It wasn't thunder, it was the roar of the machine.

Li Jie looked into the distance: "In order to wait for this machine to be repaired, Xianhe Fort has been suspended for two days, right?" ”

The young military attache said: "The work below is not stopped, but it can't be up soon." There must be two more crushers, otherwise there will still be not enough stones. ”

"This fortress is getting harder and harder to repair."

"It's not like it's a fair word, you have to change it every time you fix it. Go in once, and now it's a bit of a good stuff piled up. I Na'an Xi Fort is still a rammed four-zhang outer wall, to the Pingzi Three Forts, it was changed to the inside and outside high and low double walls, the current Hezi Five Forts, have made the foundations of several forts with cement materials, but the outer wall is not so high. ”

Li Jie nodded, he knew this.

Kaifeng used to have the imperial city, the inner city, the outer city threefold, among which the imperial city, the outer city city defense is the most complete, and the so-called outer outline city, there is not even a decent city gate, only a circle of walls. Its defensive strength was completely maintained by the fifteen fortresses that were planned to divide the various strategic points and passages outside Kaifeng City.

To this day, these bastions have not been fully built. There are four fortresses in the first stage that are completely completed, with attached forts, warehouses, military camps, school grounds and other facilities, all of which are based on Anxi, including Anxi Fort;

In the second stage, only the main building was completed, and the garrison and artillery were stationed, and the remaining annexes, including several attached forts, had not yet started;

In the third stage, the five forts with the word "and" are being repaired, and the foundations of several heavy artillery forts in the forts are being repaired; The three in the fourth stage did not even have a foundation, so the land acquisition and land preparation work were completed.

According to the plan, the foundation of the main road and the fort in the five forts of this and the word that is being built now are made of cement mixed with yellow sand and stones. Just in order to break the large and small stones into stones, the imperial court specially allocated a steam engine to drive the newly built crusher.

This crusher holds a thick and heavy iron bucket to hold the rough stones, and then beats them with a heavy hammer to finally break the rough stones into small pieces that fit for use. When the crusher starts, a roaring sound can be heard from a mile away.

Yesterday, Li Jie heard that a small worker accidentally fell into the machine, and when he stopped the machine, he only found a ball of blood-stained meat sauce inside. It's just dead, and the crusher has to be stopped for two days to overhaul, and a few Taoist priests are invited to do the dojo - the monk committed Han Gang's taboo, and the appearance fee is also a little expensive, so he didn't invite it.

"I heard that crushers will be used on the railway in the future?" After taking a few steps, the young military attache asked.

Li admonished: "There are not many pebbles left to pave the road, and even if there are, they are far away." If the crusher can be taken to the next level, it will definitely be used. ”

One after another, the railways were laid, and the cobblestones that had been used as the roadbed were no longer sufficient. In order to get more subgrade material, it is necessary to crush the large pieces of rock taken out of the mountain, so it is necessary to build a larger crusher or invent a more effective crushing method.

He smiled again and said, "Fortunately, it's in Tokyo, and if there's something new, you can use it right away." ”

Li Jie's work has recently been carried out in Tokyo, and the so-called official project of lifting the Kaifeng Ring Railway is long enough, which also means that Li Jie's ability to personally lead a major project that can be seen by the military and civilians in Tokyo.

The young military attache said: "When you are doing things in Tokyo, you are staring at them everywhere, and you are not as comfortable as outside. ”

"Everything is under the care of the public, I just need to do this well, Lord Stone Castle, don't you say?"

When the young military attache heard this, he said categorically, "Naturally, whatever the minister says, I will do whatever Shi Zhongxin does!" ”

Li Jie also nodded: "We are all blue-eyed ministers to enter the court as officials, how can we not repay this kindness?" ”

In Li Jie's opinion, except for the children of the Han Gang family, I am afraid that no one is more hopeful than him that Han Gang can break out of this chaos - because Han Gang has personally promised to nominate him Li Jie to become an attendant officer as long as he has the opportunity.

He heard Han Gang say that the members of the court council could not all be composed of jinshi - although it was already the consensus of the world that jinshi was born and jumped to a high position - they must have a certain degree of representativeness. For several major ways to gain office, there must be a few representative figures, representing all the people who come from the same source.

Therefore, according to Han Gang's idea, the future ministers of the council and the members of the Jinshi background accounted for more than half of the total number. The remaining forty percent are those who are from shade supplements, various disciplines, and those who are recommended to win officials, each accounting for one-third.

Li Jie was recommended by Han Gang as an official, and he was constantly promoted because of building roads and bridges, and even reached the post of the Straight Secret Pavilion.

He will not have the luxury of being in charge of the class, nor will he fantasize about being able to occupy a position in the two systems, but he can be promoted to the ranks of important ministers and get the title of an attendant officer, for Li Jie, this is a future with a glimmer of hope. Because of this, Han Gang's commitment has a great attraction to him.

With the example of the court, Li Jie's chances of becoming an important minister in the council are very small. But if Han Gang can continue to be in charge of the court and change the government according to his wishes, then Li Jie's chances of becoming an important minister will be 100 percent.

Listening to Li Jie's promise, Shi Zhongxin's expression added a little cordiality, and he smiled and said to Li Jie: "It is the Zhige that can let Xianggong rest assured that such a big project will be entrusted." ”

"Now I just hope to be able to do this errand smoothly, so that I can repay the justice."

Li Jie said, turning his head to the right.

Not far away, there is a terrace slightly above the ground, a long one, from north to south, standing on flat ground, with no end in sight on either side.

What Li Jie saw was fifteen or sixteen oxen pulling a huge stone mill of 5,000 catties, crushing back and forth the bottom of the scheduled railway embankment.

On the entire construction site, there are thousands of oxen pulling similar stone mills, dragging carts loaded with thousands of catties of materials, and there are equal or even greater numbers of horses, mules, and donkeys, all of which add up to tens of thousands of large animals and even more people.

It's not so easy to manage such a big stall. Li Jie sighed secretly.

Although the urban rail has been distinguished from the main line, and there is a distinction between light rail and heavy rail, which is mainly used to transport people and goods, and the transportation volume is smaller than that of the main line connecting the east, west, north and south, so the width and narrowness of the Tokyo Ring Railway are the same as those of the first trunk railway and branch railway, but the standard of laying, mainly the height and width of the roadbed, has decreased. But it's still not an easy task to fix it.

The Ring Railway, which is basically built according to the inner wall of the outer city wall, will be divided into 27 stations, with six stations, and will be the core station connecting to the other railway. Another railway line that branches off from the station will lead directly to the gates of the outer city.

The construction of the ring railway, on the one hand, could speed up the transportation in the city, and on the other hand, in wartime, it would be possible to use the guò railway to mobilize troops.

After several expansions, the outer castle of Tokyo was so large that it could not even cross east and west, or north and south, in a single day.

Although this problem is confined to the infantry army, although even in the infantry army, it will only be the lower forbidden army and the box army that move so slowly. But this has already provided another indispensable evidence for the imperial court's motion to build this railway.

As for how many courtiers bought large quantities of land along the scheduled railway lines before the news of the construction was announced, it is not for ordinary people to know, let alone appear in the reports of the two major newspapers, which are becoming more and more authoritative.

Shi Zhongxin didn't care about these details, he smiled and said: "Zhige has a fist heart, and Xianggong will be relieved to know it." ”

Li Jie arched his hand, "Lord of Duolao Stone Castle." ”

"CITIC, I'm going back to report to the public."

Shi Zhongxin, although he is not yet hot, he can be regarded as a promising star in the army.

It came from Han Gang's disciples, and for this alone, seven or eight bricks were placed under his feet. Now the leader guards Anxi Fort, although the name of the fort is similar to Anxi, it is located in the east of Kaifeng City.

There are three commanders under him, and the specific strength and number of artillery are not known to Li Jie, but one must be more than 1,000, and the other is more than 100 after counting the tiger squat artillery.

This ring railway is on the inner side of the fortress, speaking of which, this outer outline city is not so regular, but in order to strengthen the defense, and more suitable for the topography, using a dry and ready-made platform, as well as the river.

That's why Shi Zhongxin was able to come over and have a detailed discussion with Li Jie.

Shi Zhongxin and Li Jie talked to each other again, and then said goodbye and left.

Hurriedly entered the city, came to Han Gang's mansion and reported his name, and was led in and came to Han Gang's study. Just as he was about to enter the report by name, he saw his companion shaking his head at him, signaling that there was someone inside. He stood outside the door, and heard two people talking inside.

One is naturally Han Gang, and the other is Zong Ze, who Shi Zhongxin has also met several times.

"Ru Lin, look at my book, what else do you want to change?"

"All the things that Zhang Shu built on it, Zong Ze had never heard of it in the past, and when he first heard it, where could he have any opinions."

The conversation between the two fell on Shi Zhongxin's ears, and Han Gang's voice could be heard slightly proud, while Zong Ze was very reluctant.

"As far as Ru Lin is concerned, if I implement it in this way, can I promote the development of qi."

“…… Whether it can be beneficial to qi science, Zong Zeshi doesn't know, and the lower officials only know that as soon as the minister's discussion comes out, there will be chaos in the court. ”

In the chaos of the court, Shi Zhongxin was startled, but he was a little curious, with the current situation, how can it be chaotic?

Thinking like this, I heard Han Gang inside: "Chaos? After the chaos, there will be great governance. Rather than chaos in the world, it is better to have chaos in the court. ”