The middle-aged man told the story of his people's suffering, he originally cultivated the wasteland by himself, but when he finally cultivated the wasteland into a mature field, a rich gentry in the county took a fancy to the location of his field, and at first he wanted to buy it at a low price, but he was unwilling to sell it, so the rich gentry directly said that it was reclaimed by him, and directly and arbitrarily seized it.

The middle-aged man is not popular, and he has also sued the officials, but because the rich gentry is very powerful in the local area, and the officials are also biased towards the rich gentry, he has never been able to get the land back.

After Zhu Yuanzhang heard his words, he suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart:

"And how are the other people in your county doing? Are you as poor as you? ”

"Of course, they are poor, even if the fields of grass people are not seized, they get low-grade fields, and they only barely make ends meet by working hard, and the good fields are occupied by those big families, and the county only repairs canals for them, and the people have difficulty irrigating, and the harvest is very low."

This middle-aged man poured bitter water, Zhu Yuanzhang's face was gloomy when he heard it, how could he not know now, he was deceived by this Yi Zhenzhi County before!

What made him even more annoyed was that he also praised this guy and gave Wen Qi treasure money!

"Mao Xiang, go and kill this Yi Zhenzhi County to us, immediately! Peel last! And that rich gentleman! ”

Zhu Yuanzhang's fingers trembled lightly and pointed in the direction of Yizhen County, squeezing out this sentence from between his teeth!

"Yes!"

Mao Xiang received the order and led a team of cavalry to gallop to Yizhen County.

When the middle-aged man saw that the emperor was angry, he immediately knelt on the ground in fright and didn't dare to make a sound, Zhu Yuanzhang took a few long breaths, and it took a long time to recover.

After being silent for a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang said to the middle-aged man: "We will give you back your land, and we will also punish those corrupt officials and inferior gentry, you can go back." ”

When the middle-aged man heard this, he hesitated and did not immediately agree.

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly had some doubts: "What, don't you want to go back?" ”

"The grass people don't dare, the grass people will go back!" The middle-aged man hurriedly kowtowed.

"Why don't you want to go back? Let's be honest! ”

"Yes, the grass people heard that there was a Li Qingtian in Yangzhou, who not only punished the corrupt officials, but also bought the raw land at a high price of three times, and the Ding servant also had a salary and silver to get, so the villain thought and wanted to ......"

This middle-aged man didn't dare to disobey, but from the bottom of his heart, he still wanted to go to Yangzhou.

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly after hearing this, he didn't want these people to run around, it would be easy to make trouble!

"We know, Yizhen County will be like this in the future, you go back!" Zhu Yuanzhang said softly.

The middle-aged man kowtowed and agreed, and then returned to Yizhen County with his family along the same road.

drove this people back, Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time, it seems that these things have to be promoted by Li Wei's kid.

After dealing with the affairs of Yizhenzhi County, the army set off again, and finally entered Jiangdu County, where Yangzhou Mansion was located, when the sun was setting in the west.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat in the dragon chariot and shook gently as he went, frowning and thinking about what he had seen and heard along the way, at this time, the dragon chariot suddenly interrupted his thoughts, and then stopped shaking.

"Why did it stop all of a sudden?" Zhu Yuanzhang lifted the curtain and asked.

Immediately, he was surprised to find that the dragon chariot did not stop advancing, but only stopped shaking!

"Your Majesty, let's enter the territory of Jiangdu, and we will reach Yangzhou Mansion in a dozen miles."

Mao Xiang patted his horse and came to Long Yuan and reported to Zhu Yuanzhang.

After Li Wei finished repairing the city, he extended the cement road outward for more than ten miles, originally he wanted to build it directly to the other side of Yingtianfu, but he was afraid of delaying the farming, so he had to pause first and let the people harvest the crops before continuing to work.

Now the people's enthusiasm for the service is very high, if he hadn't forcibly stopped work, these people would not want to leave.

Agriculture is fundamental, even if we want to engage in industry, we can't delay agriculture, before we build agricultural machinery to save manpower, we still can't draw labor for farming on a large scale, and we can only use the time when agriculture is closed to build roads and bridges.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the road surface under the dragon chariot, and saw that this gray pavement was smooth as if it had been carefully polished, and the dragon chariot drove on it without any sense of bumps, and he felt that even if he drank and drank tea on the dragon chariot now, it would not spill out!

"This is the concrete road that the kid built?" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed.

"I guess so."

Mao Xiang was a little uncertain, he had only seen this kind of cement road from intelligence, but he had not really seen it.

Zhu Yuanzhang groaned, stopped softly, and walked off the dragon chariot.

Standing on the cement floor, I squatted down and touched the probe, only to feel that the ground was as hard as a stone, which seemed smooth, but it was a little rough to the touch.

"Bring a knife!" Zhu Yuanzhang said softly.

Mao Xiang hurriedly took out the matching knife and handed it to him.

Zhu Yuanzhang took the steel knife and slashed it on the cement pavement with a wave of the knife.

Boom!

The sound of gold and stone clashing sounded, and if the steel knife slashed against the hard rock, it left only a shallow white mark.

Zhu Yuanzhang was immediately overjoyed and praised: "Okay, this road is well repaired!" ”

This concrete road is so solid and smooth, if the army marches on this road, the chariots and horses carrying the grain and grass will surely save a lot of effort, and the march of the army will naturally be much faster.

Of course, this is not without its drawbacks, if the iron hooves are flying, this kind of hard road is not suitable, but the march of the army usually does not let the horses fly, except when the scouts and cavalry are engaged.

The main advantage of cement roads is that they are convenient for vehicles to transport goods.

"Let's go, speed up, and get to Yangzhou as soon as possible."

Zhu Yuanzhang put away the steel knife and instructed Mao Xiang that he couldn't wait to see what the new city built by Li Wei looked like.

After the patrol team got on the cement road, the speed increased a lot, and finally arrived at Yangzhou Mansion before the sun set.

Zhu Yuanzhang went out on patrol publicly, and Li Wei naturally got the news, so he brought people to greet him outside the city early.

Long Yuan stopped, and Li Wei took Tian Qing, Ji Gui and Wu Yong, these personal guards, to salute and worship:

"See Your Majesty!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stepped down from the dragon chariot and raised his hand gently: "Excuse me." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Li Wei and the others got up.

"That's the new city you built over there?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked up at the new city wall on the east side of the old city of Yangzhou, which was obviously a lot higher.

"Yes, Your Majesty, but the houses in the city have not yet been built, and they seem to be relatively empty."

"It's okay, come with us to have a look." Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.

"Yes."

Li Wei accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang to the new city.

Before entering the city, Zhu Yuanzhang was attracted by the large billboards on both sides of the city gate.

After the land became popular, Li Wei did not remove the billboards along the streets and along the canal, but carried them forward, listing advertisements for chambers of commerce and banks.

The sale of real estate is not the end, and the property after that is a long-term business, and in the future, the advertising space in the whole city, whether it is for the chamber of commerce for its own use, or sold to other businessmen, can make another profit.

Zhu Yuanzhang withdrew his gaze from these two billboards, and stepped into this new city full of later styles with Li Wei.

The cement pavement in the city is straight and horizontal, and there are dark ditches on both sides of the road, Zhu Yuanzhang saw an iron rainwater grate, and asked curiously: "What is this?" ”

"Oh, this one is for drainage, and there are drainage ditches underneath, and when it rains, the water on the road surface can be drained through these culverts to the canals and canals outside."

Li Wei explained softly.

After listening to his explanation, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately understood, and at the same time noticed that the cement pavement was actually slightly higher in the middle than on both sides.

In fact, other cities also have culverts for drainage, but they are different from Li Wei, and his culverts are reinforced with cement, which is much stronger than ordinary drainage ditches.

"Well, this is good, when you go back, you will transform our Jingshi into this kind of thing."

Zhu Yuanzhang said softly.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Li Wei nodded in response.

In fact, he not only dug a drainage ditch for this new city, but also left a dark ditch for cables, and when electricity develops in the future, he can directly take cables from it.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Wei walked side by side, followed by Mao Xiang and Tian Qing and other officials.

On both sides of the road, at intervals, there are poles, on which are hung advertisements for either chambers of commerce, banks, and occasionally some unremoved advertisements for land sales.

At this evening, the sky is getting dark, but there are still many people and businessmen in the new city, busy building their own houses, although it is hard, but their faces appear from time to time with smiles.

Although the new construction is not fully completed, it has begun to flourish.

"How much does it cost you to build this concrete road?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked as he walked.

"Oh, this, it's about a few hundred miles to repair, and the cement is mainly fired from clay lime and iron ore powder, and the cost is not too high."

Li Wei said.

Hearing that the price was not too expensive, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly didn't care about it, and said directly: "Then let us build all the roads in the capital like this!" There are also official roads, which will also be repaired with this kind of cement in the future. ”

"Okay." Li Wei nodded slightly, this was in his plan.

After everyone walked for a while, they came to the city gate, Li Wei accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang to climb the city wall, and looked back at the entire city on the city gate tower.

The gray roads crisscrossing the city seem to draw the whole city into a chessboard, and Li Wei keeps introducing him to his plans, where is the commercial area, where is the residential area, as well as schools, medical centers, and so on.

Zhu Yuanzhang heard the brilliance in his eyes, and couldn't help but regret in his heart, if only this kid had come earlier, he would have been able to hand over the construction of the capital to this kid in charge.

Zhu Yuanzhang listened while picking what could be used, and opened his mouth to say "we want it too", and added good things to the capital as much as possible.

Li Wei didn't care either, and roughly introduced the situation of Xincheng to him.

It wasn't until the sky was getting dark that Zhu Yuanzhang reluctantly got off the city wall and went back to his residence in the old city with Li Wei.

Now that the new city has just been built, there are no houses to live in, and Li Wei still lives in the old city. (End of chapter)