An hour later, the eight monarchs and ministers had already disguised themselves as merchants on the road, and rode slowly on the official road from Beijing to Baoding Mansion. Huang Degong didn't want anything, and happily opened the way in front; Zhu Youzhen, Zhu Yujian, and Zhu Youlang were in the center, and four guards drove the carriage full of cloth; Behind is Shi Chunhu's broken back.

Out of the capital is the endless wilderness, which is very different from the deep palace with high walls and streets and alleys. At this time, it is the small full solar term, and the winter wheat ears in the farmland have begun to turn golden yellow, and the wheat grains are gradually full, and there are seven or eight days before they can be harvested. The breeze came, the wheat waves swayed gently with the wind, and the aroma of the soil and crops was refreshing. Zhu Youzhen was particularly excited, pointing with a horsewhip from time to time, as if there was something new to watch.

Zhu Yujian and Zhu Youlang were a little worried: it was unusual for the emperor to leave the palace in micro-clothes, and now he had left the capital like this and wanted to rush to Suning. Although Suning is not far from Jingshi, at this rate, it will take seven or eight days to go back and forth. There is a way that a country cannot be without a monarch for a day, how does the emperor deal with the government these days? Especially the Liaodong Jiannu is ready to move, and the northwest thieves have not been settled, once there is something on the front line, it is a major event of 100,000 urgent, why is the emperor so big-hearted, put the pick, and play as he wants?

Zhu Yujian is still a bit of a city government, but Zhu Youlang is young and open-mouthed, so he reminded in a low voice: "Holy Lord..."

"You forgot again!" Zhu Youzhen was in a very good mood at this time, and said with a smile, "If you want to call me Shaodong, you are my brother, he is my brother, they are all buddies!" ”

"Yes, yes, young owner!" Zhu Youlang hurriedly changed his words, "But we have been away from the capital for so many days..."

"Are you afraid that something will happen to Jingshi?" Zhu Youzhen said with a smile, "Don't worry, no matter where we stay, there will be a fast horse to send the news of Jingshi at night, and I will pick up the urgent treatment." And I've already made arrangements, so I can't make any big mess. ”

Zhu Youlang saw that Zhu Youjian was confident, so it was not good to ask again. Zhu Yujian couldn't help but interject at this time: "Young owner, this car of goods is worth a lot of money, just a few of us, I'm afraid..."

Of course, Zhu Youjian knew that Zhu Yujian was actually worried about his safety, so he just smiled slightly and did not answer. In fact, he had already made careful arrangements, knowing that there were only eight monarchs and ministers, but in fact, there were fifty Teng Xiang right guard guards around, as well as a reconnaissance company sent by Xie Sheng, a total of 150 people, all disguised as pedestrians or traders, escorting them in secret, and the idle bandits could not get close to Zhu Youzhen's body at all. Even if there is a large number of thieves, the secret sentry fifty miles ahead can be detected in advance, and there are no thieves in the Beizhili area at all, so safety is not a problem. Although there is a slight suspicion of mobilizing the army, it is still much more than openly patrolling to save trouble, and the training subjects of the reconnaissance company originally included these contents, so it was regarded as actual combat training.

Zhu Youzhen did not say what he was doing in Suning, and it was inconvenient for everyone to ask more. But Zhu Youzhen didn't seem to be in a hurry, but stopped and stopped, and sometimes chatted with the farmers on the side of the road, and his interest was very high. Especially when passing through a field of crops that grew tall and green and were planted very densely, Zhu Youzhen was even happier and asked everyone if they knew what kind of crop it was.

Zhu Yujian and Zhu Youlang are typical "four bodies are not diligent, and the five grains are not divided", and they both shook their heads blankly. Huang Degong opened his mouth and said, "Isn't this sorghum?" ”

"If you look closely, sorghum has such wide leaves?" Zhu Youzhen smiled, "Chunhu, you tell them!" ”

"This is corn, which looks like a sorghum plant, but it doesn't bear the same fruit." Shi Chunhu, who was born in Qin, had seen corn in Qinwangzhuang, and of course he knew it.

However, he was still surprised: "But this crop is native to overseas, and there is only a small-scale trial cultivation in China, so I didn't expect so many to be planted here!" Look at the growth, the harvest can't be wrong! ”

"Gu Yanwu, this Shuntian Mansion Yin, has done a good job!" Zhu Youzhen said happily, "I asked him to try to promote the cultivation of corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and other crops in the New World in Shuntianfu, I thought that there might be a lot of resistance, farmers have not planted these crops, they may not be willing to plant, it seems that he has a very good way." It's good to wait until the autumn harvest, as long as you harvest, you don't need to say a word of nonsense, the yield is there, the yield of sweet potatoes per mu is at least ten times that of wheat, corn and potatoes are also high-yield crops, fools don't plant! When these crops are popularized in North China, will Jingshi still have to worry about food? ”

When everyone was in high spirits when they heard this, Zhu Youzhen pointed to a construction site not far from the official road and said: "Do you know what those workers are doing? ”

This time, Zhu Youlang replied first: "Go back to the young owner's house, they are building roads!" However, isn't there already an official road here, so why build a road? ”

"Yes, it's just to build a new official road." Zhu Youzhen said solemnly, "There is a saying that you remember: if you want to get rich, build roads first!" When the roads are repaired, people and goods can come and go more easily and quickly. After Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, he opened a five-foot road again, and it was 'the same track', and he did this job. Now it has been more than 1,000 years since the Qin Dynasty, but the road conditions in the country are not much better than those in the Qin Dynasty, how can this work? Especially the official road under our feet, which is the largest longitudinal passage in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, look at what it has been tattered into! If it had been a flat and wide avenue, last winter's counterinsurgency battle would not have been so hard. If it is broken like this, it will not be repaired, but the traffic cannot be broken, so it is simply rebuilt. ”

"Speaking of flatness and breadth," Huang Degong hurriedly interjected, "Why is the new official road from Tongzhou to Jingshi so flat?" It's as flat as a mirror, and it's hard, not afraid of rain! It would be great if the new official road here could be paved like that! ”

"It's hard." Zhu Youzhen said with regret, "The output of coal tar asphalt is too low, so I can only go to Shanhaiguan first." In the future, we have to think of a way to replace coal tar and asphalt with what materials..."

"The villain said that the young owner doesn't understand much, and it seems that he will have to learn more in the future." Zhu Yujian also relaxed at this time, and interjected, "But the villain sees that there are many servants who build roads, and this project must be very huge, and now the financial resources of the imperial court are limited..."

"You're right." Zhu Youzhen nodded solemnly and said, "Building bridges and roads, farmland and water conservancy, this is called capital construction, which is very important but costly. The most difficult thing is not the project itself, but the inability to work together, and even the opposition. ”

"Who would dare to object?" Huang Degong was listening vigorously, and when he heard that someone objected, he immediately said angrily, "Saint... Shao Dong, there are still people who oppose this kind of good thing, is there a mess in their heads? According to me, whoever opposes it will be cleaned up fiercely! ”