On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, a series of phenomena indicated that Shaanxi was about to be well weathered, and Zhu Youjian was happy and cleaned up Wan'er and Hu Xinxue, and Xinyuan got up late in the morning.

However, it doesn't matter, in Yansui, Zhu Youzhen has no elders to visit, and no relatives and friends to visit or receive.

It wasn't until the end of the hour that Zhu Youzhen, Wan'er, and Hu Xinxue got up slowly.

"Your Highness, it's still dumplings in the morning, will you get tired of eating them?" Wan'er's clothes were not put on yet, so she cared about Zhu Youjian's breakfast.

"Not yet, let's eat dumplings today!" Zhu Youjian got dressed and prepared to go outside to practice, while Wan'er and Hu Xinxue went to have a busy breakfast.

"Your Highness, the prefect is here to worship." Zhu Youzhen had just opened the bedroom door when his soldiers came to report to him.

"Tall, sir? So early? Zhu Youzhen thought to himself, doesn't he have to keep the New Year?

"Yes, Master Gao also has a young man named Li Hongji."

"Then why didn't you wake me up sooner? Tall has been here for a while, right? ”

"Lord Gao won't let His Highness wake up. Lord Gao said, today is Xinyuan, and there is nothing to do, so let His Highness sleep until he wakes up naturally! ”

"Oh, where is Lord Gao now?"

"In the living room."

"I see, you go down!" Zhu You didn't care about practicing, and came directly to the living room.

The door of the living room was hidden, and Gao Yingxiang was drinking tea with a young man.

"Tall, it's morning!" Zhu pushed the door in.

"Minister Gao Yingxiang see His Highness!" Gao Yingxiang knelt on the ground and gave a big salute.

"Grass people Li Hongji see His Royal Highness." Li Hongji followed behind Gao Yingxiang and also knelt down.

"Haha, this is home, no big gift." Zhu Youzhen glanced at Li Hongji's body, "Sit down!" ”

How dare Gao Yingxiang sit down in front of King Xin? He was cowardly, neither standing nor sitting.

"Lord Gao should know that I don't like these false courtesies, sit down!" After Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, he sat down on the main seat first.

Gao Yingxiang couldn't do it, so he had to sit on half of his ass in the guest seat, Li Hongji didn't know what to do, Gao Yingxiang pulled him, and then sat down under Gao Yingxiang.

"Lord Gao, the people of Yansui, how is Xinyuan doing?"

Gao Yingxiang bowed to Zhu Youzhen and saluted: "Thanks to His Highness's food from Xi'an, the people of Yansui can finally barely get over a new yuan, if it weren't for His Highness, the ministers don't know how to face the people of this township." But the people of Yansui are still bitter......"

"Don't worry about Lord Gao, after surviving this spring, Shaanxi will usher in smooth weather and rain, and the livelihood of the people will never be so difficult again." Today is Xinyuan, Zhu Youzhen doesn't want to make a fuss about these issues, "Lord Gao came to me so early, but what's the matter?" ”

"Your Highness, the minister brought his nephew Hongji to pay a visit to His Highness for an early year."

"This is Li Hongji, the nephew of Lord Gao?" Zhu Youzhen looked at it carefully, with a square face and a wide nose, a high forehead, and a faint sharpness in his eyes.

"Grass man Li Hongji has seen His Highness." Li Hongji got up from his seat and bowed to the ground again.

"Oh, get up!" Zhu Youzhen felt that Li Hongji did not look like a stunned person. "How long have you been a post man?"

"Back to Your Highness, the grass people have been postmen for three years."

"Three years? That's not short. Zhu Youzhen seemed to be talking to himself, "Then tell me, what is the convenience of the post station?" ”

"Back to His Royal Highness, the post station can facilitate the border customs documents and military reports to reach the heavens in time, and the instructions of the imperial court can also arrive at the border in time."

"Oh." Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, but didn't find anything new, "Then according to you, is there anything imperfect about the post station?" ”

"This ......" Li Hongji glanced at Gao Yingxiang, but Gao Yingxiang took the tea and drank it violently.

"Don't be nervous, it's at home today." Zhu Youzhen also picked up the teacup and drank water.

"Your Highness......" Li Hongji hesitated for a while, and couldn't help it: "Although the post station is good, it can't help the civil and military officials rubbing oil." ”

"Tell me, how to rub the oil method?"

"The post station itself was designed by the imperial court to convey information, but civil and military officials often had to stay at the post station for private travel. According to the estimation of the grass people, the expenses allocated by the imperial court to the post stations were as little as 30% per month and as much as 60% per month, which were spent on the private expenses of these officials. ”

"......" Zhu Youzhen nodded, the official rubbing the government's oil is also the unspoken rule of the Ming Dynasty, "If you are asked to serve as a post envoy, can you ban these things?" ”

"I can't." Li Hongji shook his head slowly, "If the grass people want to ban this kind of oil rubbing, these officials will unite and blast the grass people away, and replace them with a post envoy who can let them continue to rub oil." ”

"Haha," Zhu Youzhen laughed, what kind of dumbfounded Hongji is here, he is still quite expert in human affairs! "Who else is in your family?"

"Back to His Royal Highness, Caomin's parents have both died, and there is only his wife Han in the family." Li Hongji found that Zhu Youzhen did not have the shelf of the prince, and the tension and fear in his heart gradually subsided.

"Are you literate?"

"The grass people went to private schools for several years when they were young, and they can get to know some of them. In the past few years, I have registered various documents at the post station, and I have not fallen behind in my studies. ”

"Okay, how much silver is your monthly salary at the post station?" Zhu Youzhen has already decided to dig people, and he really doesn't feel at ease by putting Li Hongji in a crater like Shaanxi.

"Back to Your Highness, the grass people will be worth two and a half taels of silver a month." Li Hongji learned from Gao Yingxiang's mouth that Zhu Youzhen appreciated him very much, although he didn't know what the reason was, but Zhu Youzhen asked these questions, and he had a faint expectation.

"Then I'll give you a tael of silver a month to serve me in the palace of Xinxin - now I can't give you any position, only be my staff, are you willing?"

Li Hongji was overjoyed and fell to the ground again: "The grass people are willing to serve His Highness." ”

"Okay, after the new yuan, you go to Ningxia to complete the handover procedures, and then come to report. Now there is nothing important, you go to Xi'an and supervise the construction of the cement road from Xi'an to Tongzhou. You're still young, they may not listen to you, just tell me what you see. "Zhu Youzhen intends to train Li Hongji to become an administrative official, and experience is the most important thing.

"The grass people obey His Highness's orders."

"Hongji, what quality do you think is the most important thing to be a person or do things?"

"Back to Your Highness, loyalty."

"Loyalty is important - loyal to the master, loyal to the Ming Dynasty, loyal to the people, but the most important thing in life and doing things is integrity. Not afraid of the powerful, not about money. Do you understand? ”

"Grass people remember His Highness's teachings!" Li Hongji clenched his hands into fists and made a promise to Zhu Youzhen.

"Haha, Lord Gao, it's almost noon this day, so let's have a light meal here at noon?"

"Your Highness, there are still some guests in the courtier's house, and today is Xinyuan, so I won't bother Your Highness."

"Well, then I won't keep Master Gao - don't hide it from Lord Gao, I haven't had breakfast yet! Ha ha. ”

Originally, it was the habit of farmers to work in the fields after the Lantern Festival. But Zhu Youzhen wanted to rush the deadline - who knows when he will return to Beijing; The peasants were eager to be paid, and as a result, on the tenth day of the first month, the cement avenue was restored.

On the sixth day of February, it was Zhu Youzhen's birthday, and he originally planned to take Wan'er and Hu Xinxue for a ride in the wilderness, but they felt that it was cold outside, and they were still comfortable at home.

"Your Highness." Just when Zhu Youzhen and Wan'er were not clear, Li Hongji came from Xi'an, "The cement road from Xi'an to Tongzhou should have been completed." ”

"Huh? What do you mean by should? ”

"Your Highness, it's like this, when the grass people left, there were still two days before the cement road would be completed, but the grass people had been running on the road for three days. Lord Sun asks His Highness, which section should be repaired first? ”

"Oh." Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, "That's it, Hongji, you are in charge of the section from Yan'an to Yansui, and I will go to Xi'an in person." "Zhu Youzhen wants to repair this section from Xi'an to Fengxiang first.

From Xi'an to Fengxiang, that is, Baoji, there is Weishui in between. Zhu Youzhen once thought about moving Fengxiang to the south of Weishui, so that the cement avenue would not have to cross the river, but he finally gave up this idea. The cement avenue will also cross the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in the future, and there are also a large number of rivers in the Jiangnan area, and the bridge problem must be solved.

The road construction army began to build roadbeds on the south bank of the Wei River, and Zhu Youzhen took special craftsmen and a group of road repair workers to the south bank of Weishui opposite Fengxiang.

Fengxiang is located at the junction of the upper and middle reaches of the Wei River, and the width of the embankment on both banks reaches 500 meters, but it is now the dry season, and the width of the river is only 15 meters.

According to the experience of later generations, when the bridge was built, the distance between the two piers was about 20 meters, and now the river surface is only 15 meters, so there is no need to go to the bottom of the water to build piers.

Workers worked overtime to dig up the mud at the bottom of the river, while large quantities of wrist-thick rebar were transported to the construction site.

By the end of March, 28 oval piers six meters long and two meters wide had been completed, but there was still a long way to go to pave the Weihe Bridge with concrete pavement.

According to the flood law in the Weihe River Basin, the rainy season generally comes in May, and there are even historical records of the arrival at the end of April, and now the rainy season is only a little more than a month away. Once the long rainy season begins, there is no way to build a bridge deck in the air at a height of several meters or even tens of meters.

Zhu Youzhen eats and lives at the construction site, since he came here, he has never left, every day is anxiously watching the bridge piers grow taller and taller, and then extend to the river bank little by little.

A large number of workers and craftsmen gathered in Fengxiang. Twenty-eight piers, plus the pavement at both ends, make the bridge deck a total of 29 sections.

Zhu Youzhen divided the workers into six groups, three groups during the day shift, and each group was responsible for a bridge section; There are also three groups on the night shift, each responsible for a bridge section, and for the lighting of the night shift, all the oil lamps in the vicinity are all collected.

Half a month later, the day team completed two sections each, and the evening team also completed one section and entered the next section.

There are still 20 bridge sections, and Zhu Youzhen is so anxious that he doesn't know how the three-story building will be built in the next three days.

The craftsmen's skills gradually matured, and the pace of construction gradually accelerated.

Another half a month passed, and it was already the end of April, and another fifteen sections of the bridge deck were completed, and the last five sections of the bridge deck remained.

Zhu You withdrew a night team and began the later polishing of the bridge deck, and the remaining five groups, each responsible for a bridge section, all became day shifts.

On the third day of May, the bridge was fully closed. Sun Chuanting, who was collecting spring harvest in Xi'an, also put down his work and witnessed the birth of the first cement bridge in Daming.

"Your Highness, how did such a long bridge be made?" Sun Chuanting had forgotten the excitement of tax collection, and looked at Zhu Youzhen, who was almost tired from himself, and the two looked at each other and smiled.

"Hey, it's almost finished. As long as it doesn't rain for three days, the Weihe Bridge will be fully completed. "Zhu Youzhen can't take care of his fatigue and hardship" Lord Sun, how is the spring harvest in Shaanxi? ”

"Your Highness, this is another great joy beyond the Weihe Bridge." Sun Chuanting did not hide his excitement, "Now that the tax collection has not ended, the money and grain that have been received have reached 550,000 taels, and with the late sweeping, it should reach 700,000 taels." ”

"Seven hundred thousand? So how much was Shaanxi's previous tax? Zhu Youzhen was unmoved, these 700,000 taels, in the future generations, will be 400 or 500 million yuan, which is the level of a township.

"Your Highness, Shaanxi had trouble last year, and taxes were not collected at all, the year before was 700,000 taels, and the year before was 800,000 taels. This year's spring harvest has reached the level of the previous whole year. ”

"Oh, I'm really happy." Zhu Youzhen asked casually: "Has the income of the people in Shaanxi increased?" ”

"Your Highness can rest assured that the people's taxes have not increased, and the increase is mainly in the industrial and commercial tax, which has reached half of the total tax." Sun Chuanting continued: "The people's agricultural taxes have not increased, but they have found time to participate in road construction, or to work in factories, and there is another income, and the family income of the vast majority of the people will increase." ”

"That's good, that's good." The stone in Zhu Youzhen's heart finally fell, as long as the people have food, who will risk killing their heads to rebel? Shaanxi's civil uprising was temporarily resolved.

"Your Highness, the taxes in Shaanxi, the avenues in Shaanxi, and the Weihe Bridge are all given by His Highness, and the people of Shaanxi will never forget His Highness."

"Lord Sun, as long as you continue on this road, Shaanxi will definitely become another Jiangnan, and the wind of the Han and Tang Dynasties will definitely reappear in the hands of Lord Sun."

On the sixth day of May, the Weihe Bridge was completed and the bridge was officially completed. Zhu Youzhen withdrew the workers and craftsmen and joined the construction of the road from Xi'an to Fengxiang.

At the beginning of June, the cement road from Xi'an to Yansui was fully completed, Zhu Youzhen withdrew all the prisoners of war workers, and some of the prisoners of war built the road from Xi'an to Tongguan in the east, and some of them turned to Fengxiang, and began to build the road from the north bank of the Weihe Bridge to Pingliang and Guyuan.

Once all these avenues are completed, a "U" shaped cement passage will appear in Shaanxi. Zhu Youzhen once hoped to seal the upper end of this "u" character to form a "mouth" shape, but this upper end is north of the Great Wall and is currently not within the scope of the Ming Dynasty's control. As long as Tatar Mongolia remains, this "mouth" glyph will never be able to close.

Just when Zhu Youzhen was immersed in his great cause of road construction, Liu Lin interrupted Zhu Youzhen's good dream: "Your Highness, the Beijing master has reported that the emperor is critically ill and wants His Highness to return to Beijing as soon as possible." ”