Father can be an enemy to the country

"Haha, those words of Zhu Zhen are really hurtful." Zhu Zhen laughed and said, "I am sincere to you. I have told the princess that I still have two confidantees in Guizhou."

"Really?" Liu Shuzhu suddenly smiled: "My sister and I originally planned to go to Beijing to pay tribute at the end of the year, and stop by the palace to punish the unfaithful people."

"You said you, don't take me with you." Shexiang blushed and said, "I never said these words."

But he didn’t deny the ‘confidante’…

~~

Accompanied by two confidantes, Zhu Zhen inspected the overall construction status of the Guizhou section of the post road.

Shuidong Shuixi's performance impressed him with admiration. In less than a year, all the post roads east of Guizhou City have been built, and they are going all out to build the road from the west of Guizhou to Pudingbao.

This section of the project was quite difficult, because the eastbound road in the Yuan Dynasty was actually just a slightly flattened naturally formed mountain road, and the width in many places was not as wide as the "Five Feet Road". In order to meet the court's requirement that the narrowest part of the post road should not be less than one foot, the rocks on both sides of the road must be cleared away.

There was no gunpowder in the east and west of the water, so we could only use hammers and chisels to knock out the stones blocking the road bit by bit.

Fortunately, the mountain of Wumeng Mountain is made of limestone, so it is not too troublesome to dig. If the mountain was replaced by granite, this work would be abandoned.

But even if it is limestone, when the obstacle becomes an entire mountain, if you just rely on tools to cut it, it will be no different from Yu Gong moving the mountain.

At this time, they no longer tried hard, but took advantage of the principle of thermal expansion and contraction. They first piled firewood on the side of the mountain or cliff and burned the rocks with fierce fire. When the stone is heated to its hottest point, pour plenty of cold water over it.

After repeating this several times, several long cracks appeared on the surface of the huge rock. It doesn't take much effort to dig and break it down and remove this obstacle.

"Good!" Zhu Zhen watched Shuixi Amang Mukui with his own eyes and directed his men to use this method to break open a two-story mountain rock. He couldn't help but praise: "I didn't expect that you guys are quite good at it!"

"That's right. Our ancestors lived in Luoyi Mountain for generations and made a living by cutting mountain passes. During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a rebellion in Nanzhong. Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of the Shu Han Dynasty, personally led his troops to quell the rebellion. It was we Luoluo people who overcame obstacles, opened roads and built bridges for them. With the famous 'Seven Captures of Meng Huo'." Old Bimo, who was wearing the official uniform of the fifth rank of the Ming Dynasty, said proudly: "We are professional in building roads."

"Okay, great." Zhu Zhen happily said to the leaders in the east and west of the river: "Now the court has a lot of roads to build, and your ancestral craftsmanship cannot be wasted!"

As he spoke, he suggested: "When the road to Pudingbao is completed, you might as well set up a road construction group and build roads in Yunnan!"

"Road construction group?" The leaders didn't understand what it was, and even Shexiang and Liu Shuzhu didn't agree rashly.

"It's an organization that specializes in building roads for the imperial court." The more Zhu Zhen thought about it, the more he thought he had a clue. He rubbed his hands excitedly and said, "I want to build a road network connecting all prefectures and counties in Yunnan within a few years, and three roads connecting Yunnan. The main channel with all provinces. Although I have mobilized all the chieftains along the way, without professionals to lead them, it will definitely not be possible!"

"Of course," the leaders nodded one after another: "There is a lot of skill in building roads. Those who don't know how to do it can only build it blindly, and they can't build it despite all their efforts."

"Even if it was barely completed at that time, when the water is plowed in the spring of the next year, it will turn into a muddy road, which will be useless." Huobu Mukui said with a proud face: "We Luoluo people are the only ones who can build roads quickly and well. Many Not to mention, it won’t need to be renovated for ten years after it’s completed!”

"Then we need to set up a road construction group. If we don't use such good skills, wouldn't we be begging for a golden rice bowl?" Zhu Zhen said in a louder voice.

"There is no food growing on the road, so we bring our own dry food to build the road. This is okay for a short time. Will we starve to death over time?" Amang Mukui said in a dull voice.

All the Mu Kui also agreed.

"If you work for me, food will grow on the road. Not only food, but also copper coins!" Zhu Zhen said with a smile: "You are the first to help the court regain Yunnan, and you have skills that the court is in urgent need of. , how could this king treat you badly?"

"It's too hard to build roads..."

"There is still land at home, and the men can't live without it..." The leaders all complained about their difficulties.

"Let's do this. After you finish building the road to Puding Fort, for every extra mile you build, I will pay you one hundred shi of food. How about it?" Zhu Zhen said slowly.

"Okay!" The leaders immediately smiled.

They all know the cost of building roads. Mountain roads are definitely time-consuming and labor-intensive, and flat roads are naturally easier to repair. On average, it takes about two thousand workers to build one mile of road.

Because the tribesmen are all their slaves, they only need to take care of the food. Even if one person had three liters of rice per day, two thousand workers would only need sixty shi of grain.

The prince gave them one hundred dan, and the extra 40 dan was pure profit. Guizhou is mountainous and the land is not fertile. The planting technology in Shuidong and Shuixi is already comparable to that of the Han people. One acre of land cannot produce even one stone of grain.

But people don't have much to eat, so after excluding the rations of the tribesmen, the leaders can only collect 30,000 to 40,000 shi of food in a year.

They can build up to two thousand miles of roads a year from east to west, which is a net profit of 80,000 shi of food.

Moreover, the old, weak, women and children can continue to farm at home and earn an income of more or less 10,000 taels. After a simple calculation, it would take one year for the prince to build a road, and one year for the clansmen to cultivate the land. He had to get it!

"And I don't care whether you build it yourself or hire someone to build it, as long as you maintain the quality and quantity of the road, it will be fine." Zhu Zhen continued to be persuasive: "I might as well let you know, all the chieftains in Yunnan have been given the task of building roads. Task. If they want to continue not paying taxes, they have to repair the official channels in their territory, but they are not as good at this as you, so they are all worried. "

Zhu Zhen glanced around at the excited leaders and said with a smile: "If you are willing to cooperate with them, you will provide the technology and they will provide the labor, and we will work together to build the road, and I will still pay you full wages!"

"Wow..." The leaders drooled when they heard this, thinking that the prince is really rich. Doesn't this make it clear that he gave them money?

If I don't agree to this, I will regret it when I think about it when I am eighty years old.

But they were not the ones who made the final decision. All the leaders were looking forward to the two Ju Mu and wanted them to agree quickly.

Shexiang was unwilling to take advantage of Zhu Zhen. She shook her head and said, "For the road we built ourselves, the prince gave us one hundred stones per mile, which is great. If we only guided in name and didn't need to make any effort, we would still pay this price." Too high."

"Yeah, let's cut it in half." Liu Shouzhu also agreed.

"Haha, no need. We need your help to gnaw hard bones, and we should give more." Zhu Zhen shook his head and said: "Besides, the faster the roads in Yunnan are built, the better. The more you earn, it shows that the road The faster you repair it, it's too late for me to be happy, so why would you care about this little money?"