The next day, Li Yanwen set off with three volunteers from the hospital, that is, a female student from Zhufu who was interning in the hospital. They had cowpox yesterday, and it is estimated that they may have a low-grade fever for 3 to 5 days, but the impact is not great, and they can basically get better near Yulin. The soldiers in charge of escorting are 50 water and land battalions, and for other troops, Zhu Houzhao's brothers are not at ease. In order to prevent accidents, after Zhu Houzhao's brothers talked to Hongzhi, Hongzhi immediately gave an edict to facilitate Li Yanwen's actions. After listening to Li Yanwen's deeds, Hongji sighed and said, "If it succeeds, I owe him a bow." ”

The population of ancient times could not go up, and it could not reach the scale of 1.3 billion in later generations, one was that the productivity was not high, there was not so much food and materials to feed these people, and another reason was disease. Unlike later generations, a small cold in this era can kill people, not to mention that people are helpless, whether they can survive smallpox, which can only rely on luck.

Once this disease appears, the population will die village by village, which makes people's scalp tingle. If Li Yanwen succeeds, it will be enough to go down in history.

Li Yanwen left, and they couldn't come back for 3 months after going to Yulin, so they could only wait in the capital for the news of the Jinyi guards sent around Yulin.

Recently, the World Chamber of Commerce has begun to appear frequently in front of the world, and soap and soap have entered the market and immediately opened up sales, and sales have been rising. First of all, this kind of soap is also used by the queen, princess, and crown princess, so you can't go wrong. In these days, the royal family is the one who stands at the forefront of fashion. The women of the imperial court will also have contact with the women of the royal family from time to time, and the queen is also very generous, giving them a few pieces of soap each, and how to use it.

After returning home, these women run out, the effect is very good, no petals, and there is also a fragrance on the body after washing, which is more practical than petals and better than incense. The scent of soap is not one either, and you can choose different scents depending on your personal preference. With this secret weapon, these women who seemed to be old and yellow exuded vitality again, and the master of the family stopped looking for those little vixens, and the husband and wife seemed to have returned to the years when they were just married.

Some of those concubines can't sit still, the status of the concubines is low, if you want to live well, you have to be favored, you have to use your youthful vitality and beautiful appearance to hook the master into your house. These wives already hold the power of the backyard, and if the lord favors him alone, the miserable future can be expected. Therefore, as soon as the soap went on the market, the concubines also gritted their teeth and bought it. Qinglou can be said to be a well-informed place, and these dignitaries who came out to spend time and drink leaked the secret weapon of soap when they were no longer profligate. Therefore, the women of Qinglou also donated money to buy their favorite soaps.

Zhu Houwei is a black-hearted businessman, after his decision, the soap is basically the same size as the later generations, of course, the shape is different, this is not difficult, only the mold is needed. A piece of soap costs 5 taels of silver, which is not something that ordinary people can enjoy. However, for the upper class of the Ming Dynasty, money is not a problem. Only when the price is expensive can you show that you are superior.

Yerba Kuena Pavilion specializes in soaps, and when it opened in mid-April, all the soaps were sold every day. Basically, 2,000 yuan is sold a day, and sometimes it is necessary to continue to replenish the warehouse according to the requirements of customers. By the end of May, Fangcao Pavilion had sales of 500,000 taels, of which the net profit was about 400,000 taels. This is only the Fangcao Pavilion in the capital, and the branch business in Nanjing is even more prosperous, where there are many rich people, and they are not afraid of squandering to attract the attention of others. In addition, Qinhuai River is the largest high-end club in Daming, which is also a large customer base. By the end of May, 150,000 soaps had been sold. The soaps were made in the capital and then sent to Nanjing by trough boat, but in the future, they would consider using sea boats to set off from the sky, go to the mouth of the Yangtze River and then go up the river to Nanjing. Nowadays, the sea ships are not large, and even the Daifuku ships can enter the Yangtze River. This can not only transport cargo, but also serve as a sailing training.

Another thing is that two roads that have attracted national attention have begun to be built. Because it is funded by the royal family, it is called the royal highway by the common people. Let's talk about the capital-Guangzhou first, in Zhu Houwei's imagination, this road does not need to pass through coastal cities, but all inland. This will help the development of inland cities and can also achieve the purpose of shortest distances. So this route starts from the capital, enters Hebei, passes through Shijiazhuang, of course, there was no Zhuangzi in the Ming Dynasty, and now it is just a wasteland. Then go directly south into Zhengzhou, Henan, and then south to Wuhan, Hubei, Changsha, Hunan, and then Guangzhou. Of course, the place names of later generations are always a little different from those of the Ming Dynasty now. In the end, the total length of the road is predicted to be about 2,100 kilometers, and the road surface is divided into two, each with 3 lanes, that is, 15 meters, and the width of the whole road is in the early 30s.

Then there is the road of Beijing-Xi'an-Chengdu. Starting from the capital, go straight to Taiyuan, pass in Linfen in the middle, and then go to Xi'an, go to Hanzhong, enter Sichuan, and arrive at Chengdu. The road is expected to be 2,000 kilometers long and 30 meters wide.

The length of these two roads is a big project, but the biggest difficulty is not here, but the terrain and landforms. There are many mountainous areas in the Huguang region and in the northern part of Guangdong. The difficulty of Shu Road can be seen from the articles of the poets of the Tang Dynasty, and the terrain of the lofty mountains and mountains brings great difficulty to the construction of the road.

When crossing the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, it was impossible to build a bridge with current technology, so only wharves could be built to transfer people and vehicles.

At present, nearly 100,000 people have been recruited from along the canal to start building roads, so many people cannot be managed without effective management. And the corresponding tents, clothing and other materials are also a large amount. Fortunately, Huangzhuang has been prepared. Some of these people dragged their families with them, and some of them stayed in their hometowns, and then under the organization of the engineering team sent by Huangzhuang, they gathered to the south of the capital, and then began to build roads in early May.

As soon as the number of people increases, the consumption of materials also begins to intensify, taking grain as an example, the consumption of 200,000 catties a day, that is, 1,000 stones. The materials of Huangzhuang and the cement of Tianjin have been transported. After the personnel came, they began to be grouped, 10 people were a small group, served by the former road construction team members of Huangzhuang, 100 people were a squad, the squad leader was served by the former leader of the road construction team, 1000 people were a company, and the company commander was served by the squad leader of the previous road construction team. Then there is the commander-in-chief, and this person is Lao Li's eldest son, Li Dazhu. Over the years, he has performed well in the road construction team and has been the head of the Huangzhuang road construction team.

A group of 10 people was assigned to a 30-meter engineering section, and under the leadership of the experienced team leader, the project soon began. By the end of May, quite a few teams had completed half of the 30 meters. The progress of each team is fast and slow, and it is estimated that by mid-June at the latest, 30 meters can be basically completed. A total of 70 connections are under construction on the Jingcheng Highway and 30 on the Beijing-Guangzhou Highway. Because most of the sections of the Jingcheng Highway are north of the Yellow River, and these sections of the road cannot be built again in the winter when the land freezes.

100,000 people, not to mention the monthly money of 300,000 taels a month, and will continue to recruit people in the future, fortunately, now with the income of Fangcao Pavilion, there is no financial problem. In order to protect these workers, the water and land battalion arranged a general flag every 3 kilometers or so, and nearly 50 people were responsible for guarding.

No matter how prosperous the feudal dynasty is, there are still bandits and bandits in some places. Although the Gyeonggi region has been largely cleared, in other provinces, there is no such good security.

Zhu Houwei checked the reports of the World Chamber of Commerce every day, and he was still very relaxed. But a letter from the Tianjin Water and Land Camp broke his peaceful life.

Liu Yushan, the commander of the Dengzhou battalion (commander, Zheng Sanpin), sent a letter reporting an incident. On May 28, Dengzhou was attacked by the Japanese invaders, more than 2,000 civilian military households were killed and wounded, the prefect of Dengzhou Prefecture and 3 county orders were captured, 5 people were killed and wounded in 100 households, 2 people in 1,000 households, and the losses were incalculable, and more than 500 Japanese invaders came to commit crimes.

(Ask for collections, ask for recommendations, I hope you will be able to see the officials.) ）