Chapter 250 Road Name Chang'an
But she still had a few things to do before returning to Chang'an.
One is the cotton planting that will take place in April.
After Qin Yu was transferred to Chang'an because of the initial peace in Guanzhong, the people she had cultivated in Bingzhou for several years were able to replace her. However, cotton was a key confidential matter in Bingzhou, so someone had to be in charge.
This kind of work requires meticulous thinking and cannot be left to Zhang Niujiao.
It is also obvious that just because Jia Xu is unemployed here under the guise of farming, we cannot really regard him as the person in charge here.
After all, his real job is not farming.
In addition, he will have to supervise the assessment of Qiao Lan and Qiao Ting together with Li Ru, so he does not have enough extra energy to focus on this.
Qiao Yan stared at the available manpower at hand, thinking that cotton was after all something that needed careful care, and finally decided to transfer Jia Shu here.
Jia Shu is the Bingzhou role model who turned over a new leaf because of Guo Linzong's kindness in evaluating him. In his early years, he was responsible for the production of agricultural fertilizers in Bingzhou.
Since agricultural fertilizers have entered a process-based production process, he does not need to expend too much energy on supervision nowadays, which can be allocated here.
The agricultural fertilizer he had been exposed to in the past few years was also a kind of farming work. He had a lot of exchanges and cooperation with Qin Yu, so they were professionally compatible.
In addition, Qin Yu had already prepared this year's cotton seeds before going to Chang'an, delineated the scope of cotton planting, and sorted out last year's planting emergencies, so it was not difficult for him to get started.
The second is the use of the remaining cotton.
It has been nearly half a year since the harvest in October last year, and most of the cotton cloth has been used where it should be.
Also, because Princess Yang'an started the first round of cotton cloth craze in Yecheng and gave cotton clothes to Yuan Shu, Tao Qian and Sun Ce to launch the second round of publicity, Mi Zhu also sold the first batch of cotton cloth at a considerable price.
It is already spring now, and the most urgent stage of demand for cotton has passed. It is not a problem for Qiao Yan to take out all the remaining cotton from the warehouse.
The quantity of this batch of cotton is not large, but fortunately the place where she needs to use it is not large, so it can just cover this demand.
Most of them were made into masks according to her requirements.
Just as Jia Xu said, the characteristic of traditional cement is that the finer the sieved particles are, the harder the solidified cement will be.
What she needs now is exactly this strongest state.
In order to achieve this effect, she needs to raise the requirements for screening.
But since it is sieving, dust splashing is inevitable.
For the safety of the craftsmen who are doing this, in the absence of professional dust masks, it is always better to use cotton masks for protection than to have no preparation at all.
The last bit of cotton cloth and cotton was used by her to make three adorable panda dolls according to the pattern on the tablecloth embroidered by Qiao Ting.
One was hung on Zhu Tan, one was given to Jia Xu, and the other was sent to Leping Academy as a reward for the top spot in last month's exam.
When Jia Xu got the panda doll, he was really at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
He actually didn't care about the fact that Qiao Yan stole his things.
Anyway, he had no shortage of tablecloths, so the other patterned tablecloths that the prince verbally agreed to were to be considered a reward to him. If she could really go one step further, it would be considered a gift from the emperor.
But what she sent back was a cotton model of a gnawing beast, which really surprised Jia Xu.
He opened the letter that came with the doll and saw that it said:
After much thought, she still felt that she could not let Mr. Wenhe be idle for too long. Since he was as aggressive as an iron-gnawing beast, how could she force him to hide in the woods like a crane or a mountain deer?
After the autumn harvest, she will definitely find a way to dispatch Jia Xu back to Chang'an.
This gift served as a promise that she would achieve this goal.
Jia Xu: “……?”
No! No matter how he thought about it, he felt that he didn't need such a promise at all!
Fortunately, Qiao Yan changed the tone in this letter and mentioned the issue of treatment.
It is said that, considering his great contribution in pacifying Dong Zhuo and Li Jue, and the fact that he had escaped from the brink of life and death at that time, others were allowed to have a day off every five days, that is, one day off in six days. But after he arrived in Chang'an, he was allowed to have two days off every four days on the grounds of reducing his contact with important affairs.
Jia Xu didn't know whether he was used to being exploited by Qiao Yan. He actually felt that he should be satisfied with this treatment and even felt a sense of superiority compared to others.
In this contradictory state of mind, he squeezed the panda doll in his hand, looked at his table without a tablecloth, and finally decided -
Assign more learning tasks to Qiao Lan.
After all, if he still had to bear the reputation of losing to Li Ru before going to Chang'an, it would be too depressing!
On the other side, the third panda doll was delivered to Pang Tong.
In the monthly exam held by Leping Academy at the end of March, although there were grade differences, Pang Tong was indeed the one with the highest total score among the six grades.
The books he had access to before coming to Leping were things that most people would never be able to access.
Others think he is dull and silent, but they don’t know that he reads much more than many adults.
Combined with his thoughtful mind, the results were astonishing.
During the two or three months in the academy, he read a lot of documents in the library and gained a lot of additional knowledge.
For this reason, he became more and more certain that coming here was indeed the right choice.
The fourteen-year-old boy took a very calm attitude in answering the exam, a new assessment method for him. However, when he received the panda doll, he inevitably fell into confusion.
He turned to Zhuge Liang and asked, "What do you think your Excellency meant by giving me this?"
He thought of the first time he met Qiao Yan, and guessed, "Could it be that he was telling me not to stick to black and white positions?"
Pang Tong thought that the way of evaluating characters proposed by him and Zhuge Liang at that time actually had its limitations. It was possible that Qiao Yan was not convenient to say it to his face at that time to avoid causing any blow to him, but first gave him the evaluation of Fengchu and now gave him a reminder.
Zhuge Liang was silent for a moment before replying, "I think you shouldn't think too much about this. This may just be something that the Lord likes. Previously, Yang Zhubu was demoted to Baidaochuan as a punishment for thinking too much."
Perhaps it was because smart people can get along better, or perhaps it was because he and Pang Tong became friends through fighting, but after Pang Tong enrolled in Leping Academy and Zhuge Liang returned with him, the two became friends.
Although Zhuge Liang was very indignant that his cousin Pang Shanmin, who had sent Pang Tong here to make sure he was safe, actually stayed in Leping after meeting Zhuge Liang's second sister, but the cousin's affairs should not implicate the younger cousin, so it was better to remind Pang Tong.
He intuitively felt that Qiao Yan might have just given the reward gift casually.
She might not even know who gets first place in the monthly exam before sending it out.
But if Qiao Yan were to say it himself, this might not be considered casual.
The students at Leping Academy are generally young, so this is considered a preliminary test.
Indeed, when the cotton production was not enough to provide everyone with cotton clothes, she had no intention of making cotton dolls, except selling cotton clothes at high prices to make money for the nobles. But what about a few years later?
When she rode her horse up the Qinzhi Road above Ziwuling Mountain, her eyes subconsciously looked towards Shangjun in the east.
Because the area of the first batch of cotton fields was only more than 200 acres, and this year's expanded cultivation had only spread to more than 1,000 acres, it was still an inconspicuous area within the entire Shangjun field. Therefore, when she looked from this high place, she could not see any trace of the cotton fields.
But one day, she will make the cotton fields something that no longer needs to be hidden, and become a unique landscape in Shangjun and even in a larger area.
One day, everyone will be able to afford cotton clothes, and even cotton toys will become a common thing in life.
She pulled the reins and headed south.
The carriage that followed her back to Chang'an was loaded with limestone, clay, gypsum mined from Bingzhou, and slag produced by iron smelting.
These items will be sent to Chang'an for further processing.
When she returned to Chang'an, she quickly selected the location of the cement road.
For today's Chang'an City, most people still come from the south.
If people from Yanzhou and Yuzhou want to come here, they still need to go through a long journey before entering Tongguan. Therefore, most people, even if they want to migrate, will only stop at the territory of Henan Yin.
Most of the people who came to surrender were from Yizhou and Jingzhou.
Then this "wonder" with symbolic significance of Chang'an should naturally be placed in a location slightly south of the city of Chang'an.
Considering that it is spring instead of summer, the cement road needs to be maintained for nearly two months, and during this period no one, vehicle or horse can trample on it...
After much thought, she set her eyes on the imperial road that Liu Yu walked on the day he ascended the throne.
This will undoubtedly take advantage of the inherent cognition of Chang'an residents without affecting the normal traffic on other roads to ensure that it will not be artificially destroyed before it is solidified.
This kind of transformation is different from the previous adjustments to the layout of Chang'an City, so it is still necessary to report to Liu Yu.
Afterwards, this road was included in the landmark publicity of Chang'an and needed to be opened to the public, and it also had to be reported to the emperor Liu Yu.
So on the second day after arriving in Chang'an, she submitted a memorial requesting an audience with the emperor to the palace.
She didn't know if it was her illusion, but when she entered the palace to meet the emperor, Liu Yu, who was sitting at the top of the table, looked at her with an appraising gaze, as if he was evaluating her.
Maybe she was still a little emotionally upset about the splitting of the Yanzhou Qiao clan, so she shifted her attention to another thing early to prevent herself from thinking about those bad things.
But after listening to Qiao Yan's explanation of the matter, his thoughts were brought back to his mind.
Liu Yu asked: "Can the cement road really have such a miraculous effect in promoting Chang'an?"
Qiao Yan's tone of voice was particularly firm when he replied, perhaps because Liu Yu had seen her make the impossible possible several times, and it seemed difficult for him not to be convinced.
She said, "Your Majesty, rest assured. This thing has been used in practice many times. Once the road is formed, you can give it a try and see if it works. Even if it doesn't work, just treat it as a decorative road."
"As for how to make it like the Hongwen Hall and become a symbol of Chang'an City, Your Majesty, please wait and see."
After hearing what Qiao Yan said, Liu Yu felt relieved and let her do it.
So, a few days later, the people in Chang'an City saw that the section of the imperial road paved with blue bricks, leading from the Gui Palace to the south city gate, had its original foundation knocked away bit by bit, forming a dirt road that was about half a foot lower than the road walked by pedestrians on both sides.
"Wenruo, what are you doing?" Chen Qun and Xun Yu stopped here out of curiosity and asked when they passed by here.
As both were descendants of aristocratic families in Yingchuan, Chen Qun and Xun Yu had been friends since they were young.
The scene of "The Immortal's Journey East" at that time was exactly the Chen family's grandfather and grandson going to pay a visit to the Xun family. Xun Yu was still young at that time and was held in his grandfather's arms. He and Chen Qun, who was pushed in the carriage, were probably the young "onlookers" in this scene of the gathering of celebrities.
Now they have also stepped onto the political stage one after another.
However, given the current situation, even people like them who are quite far-sighted and far-sighted find it difficult to make a definite judgment.
What is even more unpredictable to them is probably Qiao Yan.
The Grand Marshal first resolutely made a break with her family's stance, which made Xun Yu, who had been fooled by her operation, feel even more guilty for having doubted her before.
Now in the busiest season of spring ploughing, she handed over the farming affairs in Guanzhong to the Minister of Agriculture and his subordinates, and left the military drills to Zhao Yun. After returning from the affairs of dividing the clans and setting up households, she began to tinker with this imperial road.
Xun Yu saw from afar that Qiao Yan was wearing a special mask that only revealed a pair of eyes, and he was directing his men to mix the sifted local cement raw materials with water evenly, and then spread them into the concave surface that was more than half a foot thick along with gravel and sand.
This action is really not what the Grand Marshal of the current dynasty should do.
It wasn't just Xun Yu and Chen Qun who had such doubts; the people in Chang'an City were also very puzzled by this.
These people had witnessed with their own eyes the scene where Qiao Yan led his troops to leave Chang'an and returned triumphantly under the personal reception of Liu Yu.
Now she has changed from the high-spirited manner she had when she led the troops before, and instead comes out to make trouble on the road. Anyone who sees this would think that she is lowering her own status.
But Qiao Yan, who was in the center, was not moved by these gazes at all. Instead, he watched the craftsmen compact the 20-centimeter-thick cement road surface bit by bit, and set up drainage ditches between this cement road that originally belonged to the imperial road and the road on the side.
As the cement road was laid, guardrails were installed on both sides of the imperial road to further protect it.
These pastes that look like they would leave marks if touched would actually be laid on the road. For people in Chang'an, this was simply unheard of.
However, these road paving craftsmen were obviously very skilled in operating this new thing. In the movements of digging, smearing and leveling, they looked very smooth and it seemed that this was not the first time they had come into contact with this thing.
Chen Qun was so engrossed in watching that he didn't notice Qiao Yan walking up to him.
It was not until Qiao Yan called out "Long article" that Chen Qun came back to his senses.
She took off her mask and said, "I remember it was said in the new criminal law that temporary supplements can be made in practical application?"
Chen Qun replied: "Not bad."
"Then please write a long letter and discuss it with the others. If anyone takes this path within two months, he will be sentenced to prison."
Chen Qun keenly caught the limitation of "within two months" in her words, and asked: "Is this a decree that is only effective within a limited time?"
Qiao Yan did not answer the question directly, but simply replied: "Wait two months and we'll know the result."
Finding Chen Qun, who happened to be watching here, was just a final insurance measure for this cement road.
Of course, in order to prevent anyone from accidentally falling in, or coming to give it a try despite knowing it was against the law and thus letting her plan go to waste, Qiao Yan still specially left some people stationed here.
Fortunately, the roads on both sides of the Imperial Road are wide enough, so even when the road width is occupied by guardrails and guards, it still does not affect the movement of pedestrians.
As the people passed by this place, they saw gray mud filling the sunken area and extending into the distance, but they still didn't know what it meant.
The road surface was dug and smoothed with a shovel, as if one could easily leave marks on it, but it did not look like what a real road should look like.
What proved this was not like the characteristics of the road was precisely Qiao Yan's own actions.
At the point on the road closest to the Chang'an city gate, she had someone bring her an iron rod, and she thrust it directly into the road.
Seeing her move, someone in the crowd immediately asked, "How can something like this serve as a road?"
Since the iron rod could be stuck on it so easily, the ruts of the carriage could certainly leave marks on it easily, and it was even very likely that the iron rod would be stuck in it directly, resulting in being unable to escape.
In this way, if the emperor wants to go from Gui Palace to Lingtai outside the city next time, won’t he be unable to take this imperial road?
But what responded to them was not Qiao Yan's explanation. Instead, she held the iron rod in her hand and continued to write and draw on the cement road surface that had just been poured, not taking these doubts to heart at all.
This is admittedly not a normal way of writing.
But you have to know that when Qiao Yan led Lu Bu, Zhang Liao and others to attack the Xianbei in the north, he was even able to carve a stone to record his achievements, leaving behind words such as "Yu He Huang Wei, Shen Wu will not kill". Now it is just writing on the undried cement ground, which is not a difficult task at all.
At this moment, the people who came to watch because of her unusual behavior saw the two words she wrote here in a flourish of dragon and phoenix.
"Chang-an?"
Someone subconsciously read aloud as she wrote.
These are two words that even illiterate people can understand what they mean.
Because these two words are also written on the south gate of Chang'an City.
Qiao Yan handed the iron rod in his hand to the servant beside him. After taking a few steps back, he looked at his work with a satisfied smile.
Yes, at the beginning of this cement road, she left the two words "Chang'an"! ：,w,
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