The sound of creaking wheels made it impossible for Shou'an to take a lunch break as usual, and some of the entourages were complaining quietly, and some were laughing suppressed. Shou An leaned on the quilt, pulled out a slit in the curtain, and looked out twice.

Outside, the grass and trees are spring, full of greenery.

Shou An, who is already seventeen years old, pursed her lips and smiled slightly, but now when she laughs, her eyes are a little deep.

Two years have passed in a blink of an eye. It was the spring of Tianbao's eighth year, and after staying in Liaodong for nearly two years, Shou'an finally returned to the Central Plains.

"The rut tracks from Pengcheng (Xuzhou) to Chenliu (Bianzhou) have been repaired, and I don't know when Dongmu (Dengzhou) to Chenliu can be repaired. If it can be repaired, we don't have to suffer such a sin, and we can take the train, which is stable and fast, and there is no need to be so bumpy. ”

"It's also thanks to Ye Langjun that he can come up with this method, as long as the ruler in the hands of the craftsman is unified and made into vernier calipers, the rut groove can be made, and then the wheel can be changed, and the train can walk on the rutted track......

Hearing this, a smile appeared on the insect girl's face, since half a year ago, the name of the so-called "train" has frequently entered her ears.

Ye Chang was an ambassador of river engineering, but he did not do anything in dredging the river, and he put most of his energy on building roads. After the failure of his initial cement rut test, a craftsman made an "L"-shaped wooden rail based on the experience of using a horse-drawn cart to pull ore from the Xuzhou Pan Carriage Mine, which was a great success. This also greatly accelerated the progress of the project, and the construction of the rut track, which was originally thought to take many years to complete, was completed in only one and a half years.

These wooden rut rails were naturally transported from Liaodong, which can be regarded as adding another industry to Liaodong. Fortunately, hydraulic machine tools and animal power machine tools are becoming more and more mature in Liaodong, so they do not occupy much labor.

Ye Chang stubbornly arranged four to six ordinary carriage carriages into a row, so it was called a train, pulled by two or three horses, running on this road, carrying 5,000 catties of goods, and even running 500 miles in one day and one night. Later, the carriages were arranged to eight or even ten, and the horses were replaced by four, with a load of more than 10,000 catties, and the speed was only slightly slower.

Naturally, there is a change of horses in this process, and there is a post station for changing horses every fifty miles or so, according to Ye Chang's play, the post station is under the jurisdiction of the Anton Bank of Commerce of the Anton Chamber of Commerce, and the imperial court is only responsible for supplying horses, so it does not increase the burden of the imperial court too much on the surface.

At this time, because there was no accurate timer, the train had to be arranged at a staggered time. For example, only east-west traffic is allowed in the morning and west-to-east traffic in the afternoon to avoid traffic jams.

Rao is so, in this half year, from Pengcheng to Chenliu cargo capacity, still reached an astonishing number, especially in the winter the Yellow River and the North Canal frozen, Huainan Province grain can not be transported to the Central Plains through the river, every day there is a large amount of grain transported to Chenliu, the cost is only slightly more than the river transport, for the stability of this winter grain price, has a great effect.

Grain is the largest pile of goods, only this half a year to transport grain freight charged, enough to more than 30,000 yuan, and the rest of the goods transportation costs, it is estimated that the annual track of more than 600 miles long, the income should be more than 100,000 yuan.

The expenditure is also extremely staggering, not counting the money invested in road construction, the post stations along the way and road maintenance, the cost is more than 150,000 yuan, so Anton Bank also needs to subsidize the operation. However, discerning people are very clear that this kind of maintenance cost is relatively fixed every year, and the income will increase year by year, Ye Chang in the instructions to the shareholders of the Anton Chamber of Commerce, very optimistic mentions, next year this track will be able to break even, the year after will definitely turn into a profit

"I don't know how he built this ......road in just a year and a half," someone muttered.

Shou'an was also very curious about this, although Ye Chang explained in the letter, for example, there were ready-made roadbeds, land acquisition by the imperial court, and the mobilization of more than 200,000 people in various states and counties along the way to serve in the conscription.

But Shou An thinks that there should be more than that.

The carriage stopped suddenly, and a guard rushed back from the front, to the side of Shou'an's car, and said on the side of the carriage: "Princess, the road is being built in front, and Ye Langjun is there."

This is the reason why we have to take the land route instead of taking a more secure and convenient boat.

"Did you alarm him?"

"His Royal Highness has ordered it in advance, and he will not dare to alarm."

"Good, good ......"

Shou An was very happy, she pushed the car door, picked up the corner of her skirt, and jumped out of the car.

In front of him was a large group of people, not to mention nearly 100 flags of various colors, and countless people were busy coming and going. Rao is Shou'an has been accustomed to seeing the start of construction of large projects in Liaodong, and he can't help but be shocked when he sees this scene at this time.

That's thousands of people moving together, stretching away, boundless. What they're doing is piling gravel and the like on the road to form a roadbed. Today's trains are much heavier than ordinary horse-drawn carriages, so the original roadbed is difficult to bear, and a series of work such as laying and rolling must be carried out. In the absence of machinery, manpower was the only option to complete this huge project.

Fortunately, manpower is cheap, and for these conquered and conscripted people, it is already a very merciful thing to have a few pennies a day for food and drink. The people who came out of the poor even saw this as a rare opportunity, and even when their term of service was over, they begged to let them stay.

The fields at home can be ploughed temporarily ⊥ women and old people, as long as they can collect some rations, but the project here is full of cash, and it is settled every month, and it is never in arrears

Therefore, not counting the conscription issued by various places, only the standing road construction workers, Ye Chang has about 30,000 in his hands, distributed on the three construction sites.

"Where is Ye Lang?" Shou An asked the soldiers beside him.

The soldier only heard that Ye Chang was here, but he didn't know who Ye Chang was in this large group of people. He pulled a man holding a small flag on the side of the road and asked, and the man pointed to the northwest: "Do you see that Yezi flag, Ye Langjun must be there?"

Sure enough, there was a big flag embroidered with leaf characters fluttering in the air.

"Ye Langjun uses this flag as a logo, as long as he sees this flag, he will be on the construction site." The man raised his thumb and said, "Let's Ye Langjun, that's needless to say."

The affection and admiration in his words can be felt very clearly by Shou An.

The flag was about a mile away, and Shou An pinched the corners of his skirt and walked towards that side, without too many people with him. Their small group was inconspicuous in the crowd, so when she got to the flag, there were not many people who were alarmed.

Its construction site is in full swing, a shirtless man mixed with mud takes the lead, and the rest of the dozens of people together, dragging a huge stone mill to grind the foundation.

The stone mill weighed only a few thousand catties, and even if dozens of people added cattle and horses and other livestock, it was relatively difficult to drag.

They are all people who do this, so they didn't see Ye Chang. Shou An stood on tiptoe for a while, but couldn't see Ye Chang's figure, and just when the shirtless man with the lead came to her, she asked, "Where is Ye Langjun?" ”

When she asked, the man who bowed his head and exerted himself raised his head, revealing a look of astonishment, and Shou An himself was shocked.

This swarthy man with a rope on his body turned out to be Ye Chang himself

It's just that Ye Chang at this time no longer has the grace and grace of the Chunming Gate at the head of Chang'an City, if he is not too familiar, Shou An almost does not dare to recognize him.

"Why are you here?" Ye Chang laughed happily after being taken aback: "Why don't you send someone to inform me?" ”

Shou Anxin suddenly felt sour, and tears couldn't help but flow: "You...... How did you become like this, and why did you suffer from this? ”

Ye Chang untied the rope on his body and threw it to a person next to him, who took it and continued to drag the stone grinder. Ye Chang turned his face at this time, and did not talk about why he became like this, but said with a smile: "This is not a place to talk, my body is too dirty, you go to wait outside the camp over there, I will come to see you after washing." ”

"No, I'll follow you," Shou An said, biting his lower lip.

Tears fell from her eyes, and she didn't understand why Ye Chang had to suffer this sin when he had a good life. Even if it is ordered to build roads, it should not be like this.

Ye Chang waved his hand to wipe her tears, but his hand was raised and retracted, and he smiled and said, "Don't cry, don't cry, it's just that it's darker and thinner, go back and rest for a few days, and the storage will become white and fat again...... It's like a pig. ”

Shou An couldn't help but be amused by his last sentence, but he immediately stopped it, just glared at him viciously, and then stepped on his foot.

This is a trick that she used to play when she was a little girl, Ye Chang looked at her with a smile, although she landed very slowly, Ye Chang did not hide, and her feet gently fell on Ye Chang's feet, rubbed it, and quickly took it back.

"No wonder I've gotten thinner every time I see you in the past two years, and I'm doing something like this...... Even if you don't say that you are a court official, it is your net worth, where do you need to do this yourself? Following behind Ye Chang and holding back his tears, Shou An raised his chin and said with a little arrogance: "Didn't you say in your "Wealth of Nations" that rich people need to increase consumption to promote circulation, why do you do such things yourself?"

"I'm not just a rich man, I don't take the lead, which of these people and craftsmen is willing to talk to me from the bottom of their hearts?" Ye Chang laughed.

"I don't know what you're up to." Shou An muttered.

Although she is smart, she can't imagine why Ye Chang wants to communicate with these low-level people.

The two said as they walked that in the past two years, Shou An had actually seen Ye Chang several times, because every time the farming season came, Ye Chang would go back to Liaodong, and he had stayed there for half a year. Only this time Ye Chang spent the winter in the Central Plains, while Shou'an didn't come back until early spring.

The reason why she came back, Ye Chang was very clear.

The two-year appointment is coming in a blink of an eye, when Ye Chang lied to the words of the immortals, he was not allowed to marry a wife before the age of twenty-five, and now the time has come. His wedding to Li Tengkong was approaching, and Shou An rushed back, just to see if he could stop it.

If she can't stop it, presumably Shou'an still has to go back to Liaodong to avoid the day when she is sad.

While the two were talking, suddenly there was some chaos in front of them, and when Ye Chang looked up, he saw dozens of people surrounding him and kneeling on the ground.

"Ye Langjun, make the decision for us"

"Exactly, Ye Langjun, save us"

Ye Chang's brows furrowed, and when he looked left and right, someone stepped forward and asked, "Who are you waiting for, why are you blocking our way?"

"Ye Langjun, I waited for the crops to be wiped out, the fields and houses were destroyed, and now there is no way out, please ask Ye Langjun for help"

These people, old and young, as well as babies in their arms, knelt there and wept bitterly, which made people feel sad. Shou An was shocked: "What's going on, they are in trouble, and they have to find help from the local government, why did they come to look for you?" ”

"It's been happening a lot lately." Ye Chang smiled bitterly.

In the past six months, there have been many such things, or he is lucky, the seeds of cotton have been improved for several generations, and now the output has increased relatively quickly, and the price of cotton cloth has been high. In the previous two years, the powerful and wealthy who rushed to switch to cotton made a lot of profits, so they expanded production even more. And some yeoman farmers, after hesitating for two years, followed suit and started planting.

However, last year, the price of cotton finally fell sharply, and the supply exceeded demand, resulting in the price of cotton falling by more than half, only one-third of the peak. After all, only Liaodong can really carry out large-scale cotton spinning maturely, and with the production capacity of Liaodong, it is impossible to digest so much cotton.

Such shocks have led to the bankruptcy of many homesteaders. Gyeonggi and Henan provinces, for this reason, the number of bankrupts, I don't know how many.

Ye Chang was prepared for this, and even the price fluctuations were deliberately provoked by him. The bankrupt people, before they became homeless, were attracted by most of his engineering team to the construction of rutted tracks.

Among the kneeling people, there was one person who raised his head sadly, it was Yang Ze, a family member of Yang Xun's family at the beginning. He was originally told by Xie Yan to go to Liaodong, but when he went home to discuss with his family, he was stopped, and his family asked him to plant cotton instead.

He had seen Ye Chang, so he vaguely recognized Ye Chang in the crowd, kneeled forward, and came over to Ye Chang: "Ye Langjun, you are merciful and compassionate, please raise the purchase price of cotton to Lu again."

The kneeling people learned that this black and thin man was Ye Chang, and they knelt down one after another.

"The price of cotton cloth has been falling in recent years, and now the price of cotton cloth of the same size is not as good as good silk." Ye Chang said helplessly: "No matter how great my skills are, I can't afford to raise the price of cotton."

Before he could finish speaking, one of the people in the crowd suddenly shouted fiercely: "Dog thief, if it weren't for you, how could there be a matter of kapok, take your life."

The cold light flickered