In just a few days, significant progress has been made in the three projects.

Among them, the fastest is Project No. 3, which is the moat around Qinwangzhuang. Since the project was not technically necessary, it was completed with great effort and was soon nearing completion. Now Qinwangzhuang has been surrounded by a trench one zhang wide and eight feet deep, as long as the water is brought over, the moat is complete.

Of course, in order to facilitate transportation, four suspension bridges have been set up in the four directions of east, west, north and south. During the day, the suspension bridge is lowered, and personnel can pass through at will; At night, the suspension bridge was pulled, and if an outsider wanted to sneak into Qinwangzhuang, he would have to cross the moat with great difficulty.

But Zhu Youzhen is not in a hurry to get water now, and he still needs to lay bluestone in the river trough. Because he learned in junior high school geography class, Shaanxi is located inland, a semi-humid and semi-arid area, and the average annual precipitation is about 400 millimeters. Blind excavation of canals without taking the necessary measures will only speed up the evaporation and leakage of river water, exacerbating the level of water shortage.

Evaporation is no better solution, and even in the 21st century, scientists have not been able to solve this problem effectively. But leakage is different, in the previous life, an impermeable membrane has been invented, which is laid in a large area of the riverbed to completely block the seepage of river water into the ground.

Of course, there is not even plastic in this time and space, let alone impermeable membranes. Therefore, Zhu Youzhen could only adopt the soil method, that is, to lay stones in the river trough, and paste mud between the cracks of the stones, which can also effectively reduce leakage.

However, Qinwangzhuang is located in the plain, and there is no bluestone nearby, so it can only be transported from other places, which is really a huge project.

Moreover, the stones are not only difficult to transport, but also difficult to mine and process. In this era, there was neither the technology to collapse mountains with explosives, nor advanced equipment such as stone sawers, and all the stones used for construction were excavated from the mountains by man, and then processed into the required shapes with iron chisels, which was unimaginable.

But Zhu Youzhen has already made up his mind that no matter how difficult it is, he has to do it, because this is a project that can be done once and for all. If you don't pave the bluestone, it won't take long for the water in the canal to seep out, so it's better not to repair it.

Fortunately, he had learned that there was a Sagashan Mountain in the north of Jingyang County, and bluestone was produced in the mountain, and the Jing River also flowed near the Sagashan Mountain.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen already had a plan, planning to first excavate the water canal from the Jing River to Qinwangzhuang after Sun Chuanting officially became the county commander, and at the same time use the water transportation of the Jing River to transport the stones from the upper Saga Mountains to the starting point of the canal. Then use the stones to lay the river section by section, pave a section, pass the water section, and then continue to use water transportation to transport the stones to Qinwangzhuang. In this way, a lot of manpower can be saved.

Since the outline of the moat had been excavated, Zhu Youzhen sent the foreman Hao Daming and others to the Sagayama Mountains to select a site and excavate the stone mine. This is also the first time that Qin Wangzhuang has done a project outside the village, and Zhu Youzhen named it "No. 4 Project".

In order to avoid disputes due to unfamiliar people, Zhu Youzhen also specially informed Sun Chuanting, who is now in Jingyang County, and asked him to operate in advance and handle the necessary procedures for Hao Daming and others.

For this expatriate construction team, Zhu Youzhen also gave full guarantees in terms of logistics. Sagashan is more than 30 miles away from Qinwangzhuang, and it is impossible for people who work there to go back and forth every day, so Zhu Youzhen asked them to build a simple shed there first, and they can rest directly at night. Later, when production expands, houses can be built there and permanent settlements can be established.

He also sent a small team of women to cook and boil water and wash clothes for the workers. Of course, these women also try to choose from among the wives of the workers, so as not to interfere with the life of the couple.

Of course, both workers and women are on a business trip because they are away from the village where they live. In this era, the common people are guarding the thin fields in their own homes to live. Passed down from generation to generation, it has developed a deep-rooted tradition. This kind of thinking that it is difficult to leave the homeland is very powerful, and even if they leave the village and do not leave the county, there are many people who are reluctant.

When Zhu Youzhen saw this situation, he increased his subsidies for business trips. He stipulated that all men who went to mine in Sagayama would be paid double their remuneration. That is to say, you can earn two days' rations by working for one day, not only do you not have to worry about eating, but you can also save surplus food. And those women who do logistics work are also given a day's work and a day's and a half's rations.

Despite this, the first batch of workers, including the foreman Hao Daming, was only 32 people, plus eight women, a total of 40 people. The rest of the villagers, mostly old and young, couldn't leave their homes at all, so they had to reluctantly give up this opportunity.

However, compared with Project 3, the progress of Project 1 and Project 2 is worse. Both of these projects were road repairs, but in this era, there were basically only two types of road surfaces: either dirt roads or stone roads.

After calculation, Zhu Youjian found that if the stone road was laid, the number of stones required was very huge. Now the stone mine has not yet opened, and the stone does not know when it will be transported; But time is of the essence, and these two projects must be completed and put into use as soon as possible. So he decisively gave up the idea of paving a stone road.

But the disadvantages of dirt roads are also obvious: the road surface is of low strength, and it cannot withstand long-term crushing, especially if it rains, it will become muddy. If there is a sudden rainstorm, the road will be washed away.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but lament: If only he had studied civil engineering or materials in his previous life! That might make it possible to make concrete or asphalt and pave roads that meet modern standards.

But now it is useless to complain, so Zhu Youzhen has to ask the workers to try their best to raise the road surface, and then use wooden stakes to tie stones to tamp the road surface. Of course, this kind of working method is not as trouble-free as the road rollers and rammers in the previous life, and the speed of progress is naturally not fast.

In fact, he also had an idea, which was to use bricks to pave the pavement. The strength of the bricks is more than the upper than the bottom, at least much stronger than the dirt road. Moreover, only soil is used to make bricks, unlike stone, which must be transported from the mountains, and it saves a lot of effort.

And the uses of bricks don't stop there. Building a house and building a city wall, what kind of bricks can be separated from? Zhu Youzhen had already decided to open a brick factory, and even the site was selected, and it was set on a large piece of saline-alkali land on the west side of Qinwangzhuang. This saline-alkali land has no grass, and it is just right to take soil and burn bricks.

As for whether the bricks burned in the salt-rich soil are durable and whether they will pollute the environment, Zhu Youzhen can't care so much. Now there are only three years left until the seventh year of the Apocalypse, and there are so many things he needs to do in these three years! As long as the benefits outweigh the disadvantages in the short term and help his strength grow rapidly, Zhu Youzhen will implement it with an iron fist. If it really causes pollution, then it has to be polluted first and then treated.

On this day, Zhu Youzhen was wandering around the construction site of the No. 1 project, and saw Li Zicheng from a distance driving more than a dozen carts to transport back a batch of grain from Xi'an.

Before Zhu Youzhen could speak, Li Zicheng first said with a bitter face: "Lord Wang, the grain in the inventory of the Shaanxi Merchant Gang has almost been shipped, and this is the last batch." The price of rice in Jiangnan is also rising, and the road is not very peaceful, so it is very difficult to transport grain. I am afraid that it will take two months for the next batch of grain from the Shaanxi Merchant Gang to be transported to Xi'an. Recently, the food consumption in the porridge factory has been very fast, what can I do in the future? ”

Zhu Youzhen frowned and said, "Then you can only buy grain from the market." ”

"The prince doesn't know that the price of grain in Xi'an has risen to four taels and one stone!" Li Zicheng said depressedly, "In fact, it's not that there is no grain in the market, it's just that those big merchants are hoarding grain, and no one is willing to sell in large quantities." ”

"I'm going to him!" Zhu Youzhen scolded hatefully, "The people are dying of hunger, and these eight calves are still hoarding!" If I were the prefect of Xi'an, or the governor of Shaanxi, I would have to arrest all these things and punish them for speculation! ”

"It's... Lord Wang, what is 'speculation'? Li Zicheng asked puzzled.

"Ahem..." Zhu Youzhen coughed twice in embarrassment, and he really couldn't answer Li Zicheng's question.

As a matter of fact, the crime of speculation only appeared in the seventies and eighties of New China, and it refers to the behavior of relying on such means as buying and selling short, hoarding, and arbitrage and reselling to raise the prices of commodities and make huge profits. With the gradual development of the market economy and the abolition of the "dual-track price system", "speculation" has lost the soil for survival and has gradually become a historical term.

However, in this time and space, the problem of speculation still exists, and the object of speculation is the food that the people rely on for survival, and the consequences are extremely serious!

However, although Zhu Youzhen is a prince, he does not have enough power. And even if he has power, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, this hoarding is not enough to commit a crime, and the government cannot deal with these unscrupulous profiteers.

Zhu Youzhen had to hold his breath secretly, and thought of a way to defeat those merchant gangs through business wars! Only in this way can we dominate the market, set reasonable prices, and create a good situation of stability and unity!

However, at present, several important projects have not yet been completed, and Zhu Youzhen still can't take care of rectifying these profiteers. He had to say to Li Zicheng: "It's okay, buy it if it's expensive, don't be afraid to spend money!" ”

"It's just..."Li Zicheng snorted for a long time, and finally mustered up the courage to say: "It's just that the Jingyang Business Gang has only made out items but not made them these days, and in the long run, they can't support it!" ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen know that Li Zicheng felt sorry for his capital, so he patted him on the shoulder with a smile, and Wen Yan said with relief: "Don't worry, lose first and then earn!" A few days ago, the porridge factory and several projects were too busy, which took up a lot of energy from the Jingyang businessmen. Now that these places are on the right track, it's time for our business to start their own business! ”

Li Zicheng was overjoyed when he heard this: "Lord Wang, what kind of business do you say we should start with first?" Tea, silk, porcelain, these are relatively profitable businesses, and the grass people are also ripe..."

"Of course these businesses have to be done, but not now." Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said, "Because these goods are not only available to us, but others have done a lot, we don't have core competitiveness!" Even if you can earn it, you can't earn much, and it's still a long time. I don't think I might as well do this! ”

As he spoke, he pointed to a piece of jade pendant around his waist, and his signature smile appeared on his face.