The further north you go, the cooler the weather will become, and the wider the road beneath your feet.

This is the idea that every person who goes to Youzhou often comes up from the depths of their hearts when they first set foot on Youzhou, a land full of various legends.

Xun Yu walked all the way to the north, and when he passed through Gaoyi, he went in and took a turn, and felt that although it was not as wide as Yecheng, the order was more orderly, and the passers-by walking on the street looked more calm and confident than Yecheng. He knew that Yecheng had been under Liu He's control for less than two years, and Gaoyi, as the governing city of Jizhou, had been operating under Liu He's influence for ten years, so the two most representative cities in Jizhou had a significantly different feeling.

Yecheng is like a young and beautiful woman, although she is beautiful, she lacks connotation. Gao Yi seems to be a graceful and dignified woman, although she seems to be restrained and low-key, but there is a grace and luxury inside.

When Xun Yu visited Gaoyi City, he also went to the most famous Tong Ji Niu Yang Shop to eat a copper stove hot pot, which is a franchise store of Macheng Tong Ji, and the owner is named Zhao Quan. At the beginning, Xun Yu only felt that the owner of the store was particularly enthusiastic, and in order to welcome them to taste authentic Tong Ji beef and mutton, he actually cleared the entire restaurant, and finally arranged more than 200 people. During the meal, Chen Yi whispered to sù Xun Yu that the owner of this shop also has a background, and his younger brother's name is Zhao Yun.

Who is Zhao Yun? I'm afraid that the entire north of the Yellow River goes up to the old man in the flower armor and down to the drooping children, and no one will not know.

"Zhao Zilong, the victorious general, killed the Hu people. Youyan General Zhang Junyi killed Xianbei and did not dare to cry. The loyal general Tai Shici killed Yuan Shao and fled west...... "This is a nursery rhyme that circulates in the north, and when the children are playing the game of killing thieves in the official army, it is this smooth mouth that screams in their mouths.

After Zhao Quan's family settled in Gaoyi, they were unwilling to live on his younger brother's military salary, so Liu He suggested that Zhao Yun should pay for it. helped my brother and sister-in-law set up a store in the city, and then contacted Ma Cheng Tong Ji's family to open this beef and mutton restaurant, but now the business is booming.

There are more than 600 miles of road leading from Gaoyi to Jicheng, but Xun Yu walked exceptionally easily, this official road was built exceptionally wide and smooth, and I heard that there are road guards every year to carry out regular repairs and maintenance. On both sides of the avenue, which leads straight to Tan, rows of poplar trees grow luxuriantly and neatly. There was an endless stream of horse-drawn carts and ox-carts on the road, and dung pockets were hung on the eyes of the cows and horses. This keeps the road surface clean and tidy. Every ten miles, there are several tea shops and restaurants on both sides of the road for pedestrians to rest. Every 30 miles, there will be inns and restaurants on the side of the road where you can spend the night.

Xun Yu got out of the car and asked a few shops, and the answers he got were all the same. These tea shops, restaurants, restaurants, and inns were built by the Highway Administration Office and then contracted out, and the operators only needed to pay a deposit at the beginning of the year, and then pay a pre-agreed rent at the end of each month to operate these shops on the roadside.

Xun Yu felt that the government was the east and collected rent from these operators. It is an act of competing with the people for profit. Chen Yi explained to him with a smile that the Highways Office collected the rent, which was used to pay the monthly salaries of the road guards, purchase livestock and equipment for road maintenance, and buy stones to repair the road. Therefore it can be regarded as taking from the people and using it for the people.

Xun Yu listened to the fresh words that came out of Chen Yi's mouth from time to time, and he was already gradually adapting. What "highway office", "worker", "salary", as long as it is related to what you see in front of you. It is known that the Highways Department is an agency specializing in the management of roads, and workers refer to the labor that specializes in work, and payroll refers to the payment of wages to workers.

The convoy finally entered the territory of Zhuo County. It is known as the big granary of Youzhou, and there are more than ten rivers in Guyin County, including Lushui, Xushui, Hailwater, Mashui, Jushui, Taoshui, Yuanshui, Shengshui, Laishui, etc., so even in the face of a hundred years of drought, it still maintains the momentum of a bumper harvest.

What surprised Xun Yu was that in order to keep the road smooth, there are strong and tall bridges on these more than a dozen large and small rivers, and a big river like Yishui has a river surface of at least dozens of zhang wide, and it can be nearly 100 zhang wide when the water is large. At least Xun Yu had never seen such a wide permanent bridge before, and if he hadn't crossed north from the Yellow River first and seen the width of the Yellow River, Xun Yu would have doubted whether Liu He would build a bridge between Jizhou and Yanzhou in the future.

Xun Yu asked Chen Yi how Youzhou had managed to assume bridges on such an open river, and Chen Yi told him that these bridges were originally awarded to Youzhou's largest construction team by way of bidding, and the cost of building the bridges was in the form of fund-raising, which was paid from the official treasury of each county and county, and the counties with good income paid more, and the remote and poor paid less.

Xun Yu observed very carefully, and he found that the material used to build the bridge was not wood and stone, but a gray-white material mixed with river sand and small stones. Xun Yu asked Chen Yi what kind of material it was, and Chen Yi said that it was an emerging building material, called stucco, which had excellent adhesion and could be mixed with water, and when it dried, it was harder than rock. Xun Yu asked the origin of the plaster, and Chen Yi shook his head and said that he didn't know, he only heard that this kind of plaster was mined in the mountain, as for what kind of mountain, it was a military secret, and he couldn't know it in his identity.

The plaster in Chen Yi's mouth is the cement of later generations, but the quality is worse than that of the construction cement commonly used in later generations. Liu He vigorously promoted the development of iron-making and steel-making industries in Youzhou, and cement, as a by-product industry, has also been secretly carried out, and made a breakthrough five years ago, and is now mass-produced.

Although Liu He was not a technician working in a cement factory in his previous life, he was well versed in history and knew that the history of cement could be traced back to more than 5,000 years ago, when the ancient Romans used a mixture of lime and volcanic ash in construction, which was very similar to modern lime pozzolan cement. Concrete made from cemented crushed stone is not only strong after hardening, but also resistant to fresh or salt water.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, the British engineer Smitton, while studying the properties of certain limes hardening in water, found that in order to obtain hydraulic lime, it was necessary to use limestone containing clay to fire, and the ideal composition of masonry mortar for underwater construction was made of hydraulic lime and volcanic ash. This important discovery laid a theoretical foundation for the research and development of modern cement.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the Englishman Parker had fired a type of cement from marl, which had a brown appearance. Much like the mixture of lime and volcanic ash in ancient Roman times, named Roman cement. Because it is made of natural marl as raw material and fired directly without ingredients, it is also known as natural cement. This natural cement has good hydraulic and fast-setting properties, and is especially suitable for works in contact with water.

In the 19th century, the cement industry developed rapidly. In 1813, the French civil engineer Francis Pican discovered that cement made from a three-to-one mixture of lime and clay performed best. In 1824, the British construction worker Aspudin used limestone and clay as raw materials, combined with a certain proportion, and calcined the mature material in a vertical kiln similar to burnt lime. It is then finely ground to make cement. It was named Portland Cement because its hardened color was similar to the stone used for construction in Portland, England Island. It has excellent architectural performance and is of epoch-making significance in the history of cement.

Under the auspices and guidance of Liu He, Youzhou first made a breakthrough in small blast furnace steelmaking, so that the steel used for weapons and armor of the Youzhou army was no longer restricted, and the survival rate of soldiers on the battlefield was greatly improved. Subsequently, Liu He organized craftsmen to use vertical kilns to calcinate cement, and after repeated experiments, finally determined several cement formulas for different purposes.

Liu He knows very well that when steel and cement are combined. How much change it will bring to a country and a nation, these two strategic materials are of inestimable value, both in military and civilian terms.

After the mass production of cement, Liu He quickly instructed the craftsmen to figure out the tricks of reinforced concrete. This was followed by a large-scale bridge and road construction project that began in Youzhou, as well as the construction of permanent fortifications in the border fortress. Because the current cement production is still limited, and there are many places where cement needs to be used, Liu He can only receive the right to use cement to the general's mansion. Then make a unified allocation and downdial.

The construction of reinforced concrete bridges in Youzhou is not only a heavy livelihood project, but also an important military construction. Don't say anything else. As long as the permanent bridge is erected, it will save a lot of time in the future whether it is transporting troops or transporting grain and grass, and it will not have to be affected by weather changes.

If there is any harm in building strong reinforced concrete bridges, it is that once Youzhou is conquered by the nomads from the north, they will invade the south faster. However, since Liu He has made the reinforced concrete, there must be a way to deal with the nomads, and once it is taken out at that time, it will definitely make the world feel incredible.

Xun Yu realized that this kind of plaster used to bind the gravel and stone was very important, but he was not here to be a spy for Cao Cao this time, so he did not plan to continue to ask questions. In the minds of traditional scholars like him, only self-cultivation, family harmony, governing the country, and the world are important things, and as for these new technological innovations, they are just miraculous skills and tricks, far less important than the pursuit of Confucian orthodoxy.

The convoy continued to march towards Jicheng, and when passing the Shengshui Bridge, Xun Yu suddenly remembered an old thing, so he asked: "Hengzhi, I heard that the general was attacked by the Zhuoxian Hao clan here?" ”

"Mr. Wen Ruo has a good memory, this is the place where the general was attacked."

"After that incident, I heard that the general only killed the first few evildoers, and although their families were implicated, they were not punished, but were sent to the north to Tuntian?"

"That's true. The four wealthy families in Zhuo County were fined and confiscated ninety percent of their fields and property, and the young and strong people in the clan were sent to the tuntian area around Diping in Yuyang. ”

"Yanzhou and Yuzhou are also in Tuntian, and this time I hope to go to Diping to see for myself how Tuntian in Youzhou is different from Yanzhou."

"If Mr. is not worried that there may be a plague on the border, not only Di Ping's side can take a look, but also Baishan Duwei City and Jining Duwei City can also go and see."

"Hehe, what else is there to worry about when you arrive in Youzhou, there are two miracle doctors Hua Yuanhua and Zhang Zhongjing in charge, and any plague has to go around Youzhou!" (To be continued......)