The Queen Mother didn't surprise everyone for long, so she said directly: "May you have the situation of the mountains and rivers of the Tao Painting." ”

The king of Qin immediately instructed the prince: "Take the cloth and ink pen!" ”

The Queen Mother said: "The palace is ready, just call someone to take it." ”

The prince hurriedly went out and called the waiter to get a cloth and ink pen. When he was young, the prince came in, and at the same time brought a lamp of water.

Tao Cheng and Tao Wei discussed in a whisper, Tao Cheng dipped the pen in the wet, licked it on the ink, looked at the white cloth, and drew on the cloth. Since the white cloth is spread on the ground, and it is not small, people sitting around can see the drawing process of the two of them; The crown prince stood behind the two of them, silently and carefully. After a meal, the two discussed and finished the drawing: the rough situation was mainly painted by Tao Cheng, and some small details were added by Tao Wei. The two bowed down and said: "The ministers have tried their best to achieve it, and they dare not say everything, but they are concrete!" ”

The prince took the map he had just drawn and presented it to the queen mother's case.

The Queen Mother looked at it and said, "The two of them are talking about entering the army, suppressing thieves, and the feelings of other countries. The two opened their mouths to say a few words, and the Queen Mother was a little impatient, and said: "The two of you are in front of you, according to the figure." ”

The two competed and climbed in front of the queen mother's case, and began to be a little restrained; But the Queen Mother's just right questions gradually dispelled their inhibitions. As the discussion deepened, they began to dive deeper into their roles and became more and more fluid. The Queen Mother and the King of Qin always leaned over and listened carefully to what the two had to say; At first, he didn't dare to get too close, but he was fascinated by the back, and he couldn't help but lean over. The crown prince stood silently behind the two of them, and slowly Qi Rong, Jingyang Jun and Gao Lingjun also stood up and watched around the case.

Seeing that everyone was interested, the Queen Mother turned the question to the Marquis, asking the Marquis to express her opinions. The marquis was naturally scheming, and carefully asked the two of them a few questions, and a set of methods came out. As soon as Wei Ran spoke, everyone's thoughts opened, and Qi Rong, Jingyangjun, Gao Lingjun and even the crown prince also participated in the discussion. During the discussion, King Qin listened attentively, not only did he not express his opinion, but he rarely even said a word.

After some brainstorming, it's sunset. The Queen Mother stretched out at the right time and said, "It's to discuss men's affairs with you and others, and mistake my grandson!" You will wait and retreat, but you can also observe the tribute with my grandson. ”

Everyone hurriedly got up and said goodbye. The crown prince seems to have just passed the age of his establishment, and his personality is as soft as his father. Seeing that the Queen Mother was happy, she wanted to stay. The Queen Mother said: "I want to take a lunch break, and the prince will return." "Bombed the prince away. A group of people left Ganquan Palace, and the king of Qin said to the officials of Taoyi: "What do the princes say, are you waiting for your will?" ”

The two of them chattered in unison.

King Qin said: "After returning to Tao, but discuss the strategy with Tao Shou and report to Xianyang!" ”

Tao Cheng hurriedly said: "If it's a trivial matter, it's okay to send a postman to report it; If the secret is important, it is inconvenient to teleport thousands of miles. ”

King Qin pondered for a moment and said, "Let it be discussed later!" A few people were separated. When they were about to break up, King Qin casually asked Wei Ran: "What about Shu Dao?" ”

Wei Ran said: "It's already Hanshui." Or will become. ”

King Qin said: "Is there an obstacle between it and the prisoners? ”

Wei Ran said: "Wu Anjun personally supervises the prisoners, and the five counties transport grain, so there is no obstruction!" “

King Qin said: "Who is the one who leads the prisoners?" “

Wei Ran said: "Wu Anjun personally sent Sima Jin to lead him. “

King Qin said: "The matter of Shu Dao is fast, and the prisoner may use him!" “

Wei Ran said: "Huh! “

Zhang Lu's team and Keqingzao's team set off at the same time. They first followed the road that Sima mistakenly entered Shu nearly half a century ago, and entered from the sloping valley, and the broken road and the ruined plank road that greeted them deeply stimulated them, but they also felt the hope of success: it was not that there was no road here, but no one had walked for a long time, and the road was gone. As long as you walk, the recovery is still very fast.

Although the road is broken and dilapidated, it is still passable for such a small army. The group carefully stepped on this dilapidated road, moving forward day by day. They had already heard that this mountain road was difficult for not only cars, but also cattle and horses, so they carried all the provisions on their backs. They had only advanced less than 200 miles before they realized that the road was not a matter of repair, but of renovation. This greatly simplifies the task content and engineering volume. On the way, they drew up a plan, and after a day of actuarial calculations back to Xianyang, they came up with a project outline. They decided to take 10,000 prisoners as a unit to enter the construction site in turns to complete different construction tasks.

The road into Shu has to pass through the Qinling Mountains. Unlike the Loess Plateau, the Qinling Mountains are not loess mounds, and roads cannot be built by rammed earth. There was no other way but to climb in the long mountains. However, there are still some gaps in the high mountains of the Qinling Mountains-valleys. The existence of these valleys allows people to reach the other side of the mountain without having to climb high peaks. There are currently five such valleys in the Qinling Mountains, which are called Qishan Road, Chencang Road, Bao Slope Road, Fu Luo Road, and Meridian Valley Road from west to east. They all have one thing in common, rugged mountain trails and rapids, so it is necessary to build a bridge-like road - the boardwalk. This is the basic passage through the Qinling Mountains.

The report was sent to the Prime Minister's Mansion, and after review, it was reported to the King of Qin. The king of Qin didn't look closely at it at all, so he issued a military talisman; At the same time, Wang Ji was sent to Zhang Lu to assist in the coordination of various departments.

When the talisman arrived in the hands of Wu Anjun, Bai Qi personally experienced the multiplication effect of road penetration on military strength, and immediately mobilized in person, and the first batch of 10,000 people was quickly mobilized. Bai Qi once again appointed Sima Jin to raise the use of the public car by one level and command the 10,000 people. Five counties, including Chencang, Yixian, Wugong, Taixian, and Yuxian, supplied grain.

Construction began in the cold of December. Like the road to Tongyiqu, Zhang Lu first spent more than ten days leveling the road connecting several county seats, which not only provided welfare for the counties, but also provided convenience for future transportation.

The engineering equipment transported from Xianyang went up the Weishui River and was transported to the construction site. The paving of the road began with the oblique water entering Weikou. The 10,000 people were divided into groups of logging, refurbishment, construction, and rammed earth. There are not many places where rammed earth is needed on the slope valley road, and the plank road is mainly needed to be built. Logging and trimming timber became the most important work. The basic architecture of the plank road is still there, and what needs to be done at present is to reinforce and renovate them, although it is not easy, but it is still much better than starting from scratch. The work of repairing the plank road is a technical work, and thousands of residents who can repair the plank road are recruited from each county, and each is given a level; Experienced convicts are also immediately exonerated. They were assigned as Shiwu chiefs, leading ingenious prisoners to busy up and down the boardwalk. The convicts who knew how to carpenter were also appointed as captains of the woods, leading their convicts to cut and trim timber. As the plank road extended, the slightly gentler ravines became temporary camps for the prisoners, and the newly built plank roads became the lifeline of transportation.

The plank road moves forward in sections. It only took a month for the first section of the plank road to finally reach the source of the inclined water.

The physically and mentally exhausted prisoners returned along the plank road and were sent back to Xianyang by boat to rest; And the second batch of convicts, who had already been prepared, returned to the construction site. They followed the newly repaired plank road to transport the grain and straw along the Weishui River to the source of the inclined water by wagons; Set up camp here and start the construction of the second section of the boardwalk. The skilled workers only ate, drank and slept for five days in the main hall of Yixian County, just outside the valley, and then returned to the construction site with new prisoners.

Zheng Anping was responsible for delivering news at various construction sites, while Mr. Che You assisted Zhang Lu in the actuarial calculation of the project. Chen Si's work is both simple and arduous: he has to paint all the mountains and rivers he sees every day, and for this reason, he has to climb the mountains every day and look around. Mang Wei is an excellent logistics support personnel, and he is responsible for the clothing, food, housing, transportation, and even medicine of more than 100 people in the team. Gai Nie had a short sword hanging from his waist, and he didn't leave Zhang Lu an inch. Zhang Lu is the busiest, he is hunched up, coughing, wheezing, always appearing in the neck block. Sima Jin's burly figure has become dark and thin in a month. The difficulty of this lot is beyond his imagination, there are no roads, no people, not even a flat plot, and if you want to rest, you can find a dry stone is lucky. This made his tactics of advancing battalion by battalion useless when he was building the Tongyi Canal. At night, the prisoners could only rest on the spot, and the long bonfires lit until dawn. As soon as the temperature drops, the rain and snow fall, it is not known who will fall ill, die, or flee – of course, it is not easy to run back from the mountains.

In such difficulties, Sima Jin also found a happy thing: teaching Gai Nie swordsmanship. In addition to giving birth to a great military strategist and politician Sima Cuo, the Sima family is also a famous swordsman, especially their swordsmanship theory is valued by the world. Sima Jin found that this son's swordsmanship was different from the details of Gai Nie's sword, and after a little conversation, he found that he was quite talented in swordsmanship. Sima Jin himself loves swords, usually the sword does not leave his body, suddenly see the same interests, very happy, every day after the camp and Gai Nie mixed together, learn swordsmanship, exchange experience, dedicated counseling.

Gai Nie is a child, running around with Zhang Lu every day, just exercising; The heart is not heavy, and nothing is taken to heart. I practiced swords with Sima Jin at night, and I had to think carefully about the comparison, and then I could fall asleep when I turned my head upside down. In the past month, Zhang Lu needless to say, even Zheng Anping, everyone in the team has fallen ill, and only Gai Nie is alive.

It is about five miles away from the source of the oblique water to the east source of the Baoshui, although there is no water here, but it may also be a section of the old river channel, the strange rocks are craggy, and it is basically impossible to ram the earth to build a road. People still feel that walking is laborious, and it is basically impossible to walk by car. Zhang Lu also simply erected a plank road on the mountain beam, mainly to facilitate the car to drive.