However, once the imperial court repaired the roads in various places, it had to be widely taxed and labored, and once such a heavy project was started, it would be protracted for a long time, lest it shake the country's foundation.

Chen Sheng stroked the edict for a long time and felt a lot of emotion. In his original era, it was just a matter of building a few highways, and local governments could raise funds to build them. However, in today's world, it is something that we may not dare to do even if we want to exert our national strength, and in the final analysis, this is still a huge gap in the comprehensive national strength of the times, and there is no comparison between the two.

Chen Sheng was also unclear about the purpose of the imperial court's issuance of the edict. According to the emperor's temperament, if he has a bamboo in his chest, once there is a decision, he will promulgate the world and do a great job, how can it be like now, but all counties in the world will look for the so-called good talents and submit the best construction plan, which does not look like the emperor's style!

However, after learning that the person who supported the construction of Chidao was Li Si, Chen Sheng knew it in his heart. Li Si was taken off by the emperor before, and he had not yet warmed his hat as a prime minister. Catering to the emperor's mind with such fanfare is nothing more than wanting to get the emperor's approval as soon as possible and re-ascend to the throne again.

Chen Sheng smiled coldly. Summoned Xu Wugui to discuss countermeasures. In Chen Sheng's eyes, the Li family's father and son are bastards. If he reacts indifferently to the imperial court's edict, Li Si will inevitably take the opportunity to help Li Shen and retaliate against him. Li Shen is in Fujian, in his own territory, and he can't make any big waves. But Li Sike is different, he has been in the government and the opposition for decades, and has become an evergreen tree in the imperial court, with many henchmen, if he is ruthless to deal with Chen Sheng, not to mention that Chen Sheng is just a mere county guard, even if the imperial court is three princes and nine kings, it is difficult to have good fruits to eat.

Xu Wugui is a master-level figure, after reading the content of the edict, an unfathomable brilliance flashed in his eyes, and then he inhaled the cold air and said, "My lord, this is a big project!" "Xu Wugui was recently supervising the construction of the Minjiang River drought-fighting and flood control dam project, and his skin was tanned and chapped, and the whole person was as thin as a human dry.

Chen Sheng smiled bitterly, which of the work done by the First Emperor of the Heart Dao was not a major event that had never been done before or after him?

Xu Wugui read the edict, looked at the attached map, and sighed: "The twelve roads to be built by the imperial court are simply a stroke of genius from a geographical point of view. The straight road from Xianyang to the northern frontier, and the gallop road to the Central Plains in the south, all have the convenience of the operation of the imperial army and the transportation of various places. The more Xu Wugui looked at it, the more excited he became, and said: "My lord, if this project is handed over to me to supervise, only 300,000 people, I can complete two gallops in a year, and the galloping roads I have built, the galloping speed of cars and horses can almost be doubled, and you can travel 800 miles a day, if you are equipped with good horses, it is not a lie to say that 1,500 miles a day!" Xu Wugui's voice was a little excited.

"What?" Chen Sheng looked at Xu Wugui in surprise, and his eyes were full of disbelief. 1,000 miles a day, that is to say, it is nearly 800 kilometers, you are talking about a train, just this carriage can run so fast, who believes it?

Seeing Chen Sheng's strange eyes, Xu Wugui smiled and said, "Adults don't believe me? ”

"I don't believe it." Chen Sheng's answer was simple. This is not the industrial age, and Chen Sheng does not believe that horse-drawn carriages can catch up on trains.

"My lord, come with me!" Xu Wugui put a volume of the edict on his desk, stood up, straightened out his clothes, and said, "Go to the bank of the Minjiang River, I have done something interesting there in the past few days." ”

……

There has been a drought in central Fujian for several months, and the Minjiang River, which has been flowing for a long time in previous years, has almost bottomed out. But what is even more puzzling is that the county keeper also set up a river defense to prevent flooding. However, to the reassurance of the victims, the government recruited a large number of laborers to serve in the repair of the river defense, and the wages were calculated according to their work. It seems that the harvest from labor is more than the harvest from farming, and the impact of drought is invisibly reduced.

The settlement areas along the banks of the Minjiang River for dozens of miles have become the focus of river defense. In this famine year, labor has become the most worthless thing, and many people are willing to pay a whole day's labor just for a full meal, so in just half a month, they rushed from all over Fujian to hear the news, or responded to the local water conservancy project labor force of more than 200,000. Of course, in addition to the strong men, there are also old and weak women and children. Chen Sheng ordered that anyone who came to the construction site to find a way to survive would not be allowed to be refused by the local government. Even if it is the old, weak, women and children, they have to be well placed and given food to the **. These women and children are also able to do some cleaning tasks, such as washing clothes, collecting firewood, cleaning up household garbage, and so on. In this way, the resistance of the people in central Fujian to the imperial court was greatly reduced, and many local people were full of praise when they mentioned Chen Sheng, the county guard. No one starves to death in a famine year, which is the first thing to happen in various parts of Fujian.

Chen Sheng and Xu Wugui were dressed in civilian clothes and came to the largest river defense construction site on the banks of the Minjiang River. Under the supervision of the supervisor, the site was methodically cleared of the silted river channel and strengthened the embankment. Many people will greet Xu Wugui warmly when they see it. As the presiding officer of the river defense project, Xu Wugui is very familiar with the workers here.

Coming to the place where the materials were transported, Xu Wugui pointed to an object in front of him and said to Chen Sheng: "My lord, please look, this is the 'rail road' I made, please take a look, what is the difference between this and the ordinary road." ”

The road to transport materials is not long, only about a mile. But this road is made of rammed earth. Then there are sleepers on it, which looks a little awkward, because if you walk on this road, you will definitely not think it is an easy road to walk. But Chen Sheng looked at it and "hissed" and inhaled the cold air. Because the rails looked a lot like something he knew so well: railroad tracks! But this is very different from the railroad tracks, because there are no horse-drawn carriages on the tracks.

Although this path was strange, Chen Sheng did not find anything peculiar. At this moment, two horses suddenly appeared in the distance, pulling stones, running from the tracks.

"My lord, pay attention to the posture of this horse!" Xu Wugui specially reminded.

"Oh?" Chen Sheng squinted his eyes and looked towards the carriage, only to see that the two horses pulling the carriage were in unison, and the steps were in line with the sleepers spread on the ground! Every step of the horse, you can find the support point from the sleeper! This way the horses can pull the cart in the least effort possible! Because of this, the horses can't stop at all when they run!

"This is ......," Chen Sheng was shocked. According to his eye, the speed of the two inferior horses pulling heavy stones seemed to be faster than when they were running empty!