The road surface here in the eastern suburbs has changed dramatically, and about eighty percent of the road surface has been paved with cement.

A carriage and three sedan chairs swayed out of Chaoyang Gate, and saw the houses and buildings in the eastern suburbs, and the three ministers were like Grandma Liu who had entered the Grand View Garden, lifting the sedan curtains and looking at them.

They live in Xicheng, after all, the east is rich and the west is expensive, and the ministers and ministers of the Ming Dynasty are basically gathered in Xicheng, but they rarely come to this eastern suburb.

It's not like the western suburbs, there is a Yuquan Mountain in the western suburbs, you can go up to enjoy a view, what is there in the eastern suburbs.

It is nothing more than a large area of wilderness, farmland, and woods, and the Cao Canal Road.

But now that I have come here, I never thought that this eastern suburb would be such a scene, which can be described as earth-shattering.

When they really entered the eastern suburbs, walking and walking, the three pavilion elders felt that something was wrong, why was this sedan chair so stable?

Even walking on the stone road of Jingshi is not as smooth as it is now.

The stone road of Jingshi is in disrepair, and there are a lot of potholes on it, and sometimes the sedan chair bearer will inevitably step on this pothole, causing the sedan chair to be bumpy.

Not to mention the dirt roads of the official road.

For example, coming out of Chaoyang Gate, ten miles away, this sedan chair will be turned upside down from time to time.

And now I have entered this eastern suburb and walked a long way, but it seems that there has been no bump.

The three pavilion elders all stretched out their heads to look at the ground, and even saw the blue road surface.

It looks like a stone road, but there are no gaps in the butt of the stone slabs, like a whole that can be seen in countless small stones, but they are embedded in the road.

"Stop the car, stop the car."

Liu Jian couldn't sit still, beckoned to the sedan chair driver to stop the sedan chair, and after getting off the sedan chair, he came out of the car and stared at the road under his feet.

Several sedan chair drivers next to him got along with Liu Jian day and night, although they were respectful, but they were not afraid of this Zaifu, and said with a smile: "Master, this road is really steady, the villains have never seen such a road, sir, you are well-informed, you and the villains tell me what kind of road this is." ”

At this time, Li Dongyang also stopped the sedan chair and walked over, "Gong Liu, I'm afraid this is the lapis lazuli road." ”

"Yes, the old man also guessed."

As he spoke, Liu Jian squatted down and lifted his wide sleeves, and knocked on the ground a few times with his fingers, it was very dull, and he couldn't even hear any sound, unlike the bluestone slab, which felt very thick.

Xie Qian also got off the sedan chair and walked over, followed the two colleagues to study together, Liu Jian looked along the road all the way, and then said: "If this is a lapis lazuli road, then as Your Majesty said today, if this road can be spread in the world, it will be a great cause for the present and for the future." ”

Li Dongyang and Xie Qian both agreed with this, seeing is believing, hearing is false, just hearing the words lapis lazuli road, they don't have any concept in their minds, just thinking, what is this?

Only now did I finally see the lapis lazuli road, and I knew that what Emperor Hongzhi said was true, this road was indeed many times better than the so-called official road dirt road that the road was accessible.

"It's just that this road is so thick and flat, I'm afraid it costs a lot and is worth a lot."

"If there is no silver in the treasury, how can roads be built."

Hearing this, Li Dongyang snorted, "You probably don't know what that kid said to the old man." There is no silver in the treasury, and we should find a way to make the treasury have silver, which is to share the worries of the country. These are his exact words. ”

Xie Qian continued: "What he said is light, the year is chaotic and fierce, Your Majesty is benevolent, every year for the people in the disaster-stricken land to reduce taxes, the annual treasury revenue is reduced, what does he want to do, to the people to levy taxes and miscellaneous taxes?" ”

"Elder Xie Ge, don't talk nonsense, the younger generation will never have this intention."

At this time, Xia Yuan finally paced his steps and asked, "Three pavilion elders, what do you think of this lapis lazuli road?" ”

After a moment of silence, Liu Jian spoke: "The old man knows what you mean, and the old man also admits that this road is excellent, but this kind of road must cost a lot. ”

"There are some expenses for this road, but it is not as expensive as a few elders imagined."

After thinking about it, Xia Yuan gave an example: "Let's take the road surface in the eastern suburbs as an example, a five-zhang wide road, paving a mile of this lapis lazuli road, requires about three thousand stones of lapis lazuli, and costs about one hundred and ten taels of silver. ”

Liu Jian was a little incredulous: "Just a hundred taels? ”

"Yes, if you pave more at one time, the cost can be lower, and you can save three, two, five, two. Of course, this is only the cost of buying lapis lazuli. If you count the wages, it will be more, and if you find a hundred people to lay it, you will be paid one tael of silver a month.

If you are proficient, as long as you have enough lapis lazuli, it should not be a problem to pave ten miles of land a month, and the cost of one mile of land will be added by another ten taels. ”

One stone is one hundred and twenty catties, the Ming Dynasty's jin is six hundred grams, one stone is equal to seventy-two kilograms, fourteen stones are about one ton, and three thousand stones are two hundred and fifteen tons.

One tael of silver and twenty-eight stones of cement, this price can only be said to be not a loss, and if you make a profit, it is a small profit but quick turnover.

Now dozens of kilns have been added, and hundreds of kilns have been started day and night, and the daily output is about 35,600 stones.

There are about 1,200 people working in this kiln, so the cost is all in the wages.

The raw materials for burning this cement really don't cost a penny, just organize people to transport it, and then organize people to smash it.

"To build this road, you need not only lapis lazuli, but also sand and stones, a foot thick road, five zhang wide and one mile long, with 3,000 lapis lazuli and about 10,000 stones of sand and stones.

But sand and stones don't need silver, and when the time comes to pave the road, just mine them nearby and mix them with lapis lazuli. ”

The three pavilion elders didn't speak, but silently calculated in their hearts, a mile needs more than 100 taels of silver, so it will be counted according to 100 taels, so it is easier to calculate.

A hundred miles is 10,000 taels, and a thousand miles will cost 100,000 taels.

It doesn't seem to be expensive, and it's only a million taels when it is laid for tens of thousands of miles.

At first, they imagined that this lapis lazuli road would cost 100,000 taels to pave the west of the city, and that all the roads in the west of the city would add up to about three or five hundred li, and one mile should be at least a few hundred taels of silver, but now they found that it was several times less.

If Xia Yuan knew what these three old men thought, he would definitely take a sip. Let's not say that there is a problem with this algorithm, and secondly, the road in the world is not paved by tens of thousands of miles, hundreds of thousands of miles.

If you count the official roads in the whole world, and then count the main roads of the state capitals and counties, there are 1,500 counties in the Ming Dynasty, large and small, according to the main roads of each county, horizontal and vertical together 100 miles.

There are at least 500,000 miles, if not millions of miles, in the world.

In later generations, China only counted as highways, which were more than 10 million miles, and these 10 million miles only referred to asphalt roads, not including those auxiliary roads and roads in the market.

And in this era, the transportation is inconvenient, except for ten, and then not for twenty, thirty, forty, that is also an astronomical amount.

With the annual harvest of the national treasury, even if you don't do anything else, you have to save up for several years to build the road.

Looking at the frowning and contemplative expressions of several people, Xia Yuan felt that there was a door to this matter and waited silently.

After a long time, Liu Jian seemed to come back to his senses, and Xia Yuan immediately asked, "How is the elder thinking about it?" But did you agree to the road construction? ”

"No."

“？”

(End of chapter)