Chapter 64: An Incident in Luzhou
When Song Yuzhu was flipping through the booklet of new items sent by the Ministry of Industry this morning, she suddenly found the record about cement.
It says: There is a brown stone in Luzhou. If you calcine and crush it, add water and stir it, it will solidify into a block in half a day and will not break even if you hit it.
Isn't this cement?
He immediately sent someone to get the bag of strange stones and had them try it out. The burned stones were crushed into powder, which was then mixed with lime and fine sand to form a paste. The paste was poured into the prepared mold and dried for half a day. Sure enough, it solidified into cement blocks!
Song Yuzhu was extremely surprised and immediately sent someone to summon the person who delivered the stone to the palace for questioning!
The palace servants looked at the ecstatic emperor with some confusion. It's just a piece of stone? What's there to be happy about?
But since the emperor was happy, everyone was happy too. When Zhao Xiao entered the palace, he saw Song Yuzhu holding a stone and smiling from ear to ear.
"Ah Xiao, come here quickly, I'll show you something good!"
Zhao Xiao took the cement board from him and asked, "Is this stone?"
Song Yuzhu said mysteriously: "This is not an ordinary stone." He asked someone to bring a vase filled with the leftover cement paste.
When the vase was smashed, there was a hard lump of cement inside, which was exactly the same shape as the vase!
Zhao Xiao was surprised and asked: "What is this?"
Song Yuzhu asked someone to bring the remaining stones over, "I'm going to call this cement."
“What can it do?”
"Building houses and paving roads have so many uses!" Modern buildings are almost all made of reinforced concrete.
Today's buildings in the prosperous dynasty are still made of brick and wood, and ordinary people live in mud houses. Such houses are not durable and can easily collapse in heavy rain. If cement can be popularized, it will benefit the people of the world!
*
The young man who delivered the cement was named He Changyong. His father was a sixth-rank military equipment supervisor, also affiliated with the Ministry of Works, so he was very familiar with the people in the Miscellaneous Construction Bureau.
When he delivered the new and interesting items he had collected that day, he also put the bag of stones on the pile and then forgot about it.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, someone from the palace suddenly sent to look for him. He was shocked and thought he had violated some taboo.
He followed the eunuch into the palace in fear and trepidation. He lay on the ground with sweaty palms. After waiting for a cup of tea, he finally heard footsteps behind him.
A palace attendant nearby said, "Your Majesty, this is the strange stone presented by this person."
He Changyong was stunned for a long time before he figured out what the strange stone was. He didn't expect that the bag of stones would catch the emperor's eye. He was so excited that his heart was pounding.
Song Yuzhu asked: "What's your name?"
"I am He Changyong, the commoner, the son of He Gongshi from the Weaponry Department."
"Where did you get the stone?"
He Changyong told the emperor in detail how he obtained the strange stone from the two farmers.
"The strange stone was discovered by the father and son. I just helped to present it to them."
"Then do you know where the father and son who sent the stone are now?"
He Changyong shook his head and said, "Although I don't know, the father and son should not have left the city. I heard that day that they had no money on them, so they should be staying in the city to work and earn money."
After listening to this, Song Yuzhu admired this man very much. Fortunately, he brought the stone up at that time, otherwise he would have missed such a good thing.
After asking a few more questions, he found that although He Changyong was young, he was eloquent and had an active mind. He was a talented person who could be used, so he asked someone to write down his name and prepare to transfer him to the Ministry of Industry to take up a position.
Then he sent people to look for the father and son who came from Luzhou.
*
The father and son who delivered the stone had no money to return to the city, so they found a job as laborers in the city.
Working from morning till night, each person could earn thirty cents a day. The father and son had to work for several months to earn enough money to go home.
During the break, the son complained to his father: "We should have accepted the money from that young master. The two of them are already walking back now."
The old man said, "A few stones cost me ten taels of silver. I don't feel comfortable holding this money."
"But we came such a long way to deliver this, how can it not be worth ten taels of silver?"
The old man waved his hand and said, "It's too late to talk about this. Work hard and save enough money before going home!"
Unexpectedly, when they were working the next day, someone from the government suddenly came to them and asked if they were from Luzhou.
The old man and his son nodded quickly: "Yes, yes."
"What are you doing in Beijing?"
The old man said tremblingly: "We are here to present the rare stone to the emperor."
The official smiled and said, "That's right. The stone you sent has won the emperor's favor. You will live a good life from now on!"
The old man's heart was beating like thunder, and he asked in disbelief: "Sir, is what you said true?"
"How could that be false? Come with me to the palace to receive the title!"
The father and son were overjoyed. They didn't expect that the rich young man would really help them present the stone!
The emperor not only rewarded them with a thousand taels of silver, but also sent people to escort them back home.
By the way, he asked the local government to open a cement factory, hired people to mine rocks from the mountains, and burned cement to sell all over the country. Once this new type of building material came out, it quickly became popular among the people.
Cement stone was discovered in other places one after another, and soon became popular all over the country, and cement brick houses also sprang up.
In the past, houses were built with yellow mud, and the better ones would be mixed with lime. This kind of house would easily collapse when it rained heavily. After replacing it with cement, it is not only beautiful, but also very strong!
Song Yuzhu decided to build all official roads into two-meter-wide cement roads.
This is a costly and long-term project, but once it is completed it will benefit future generations.
The official road was built to Tongzhou in the north, to the outside of Suzhou in the south, to Dongzhou in the east, and to Xizhou in the west across half of the territory, running through the entire Great Qi Dynasty from east to west, from north to south.
This road stretches for thousands of miles and was called the "Pioneering Road" by later generations. The ruins are still preserved after thousands of years.
This official road has mixed reviews in history books. Some people think that Emperor Changzhi was a tyrant. Such a long cement road was built bit by bit by manpower, and it is unknown how much manpower and material resources it consumed.
Of course, there is more praise. Without this road, Daqi's economy would not have developed so rapidly, and the people would still be living in slash-and-burn agriculture.
But that would be something that would happen thousands of years later, and Song Yuzhu had no idea. Right now, he had a very difficult matter to deal with.
After the court session today, he hurriedly summoned Zhao Xiao to his study to discuss matters.
Zhao Xiao asked with concern: "I noticed that you looked a little strange when we went to court just now. Are you feeling unwell?"
Song Yuzhu shook his head and said, "No, something seems to have happened in Luzhou."
During the morning court session, the map in Song Yuzhu's head suddenly sounded an alarm. Song Yuzhu was startled, thinking that some hidden mission had been triggered again.
When I opened the map, I saw a huge exclamation mark in Luzhou, with a small red text on it, saying that the public opinion in the area had dropped to 40 percent and the viewing permission for the area had been closed.
This kind of thing had never happened before. After being shocked, Song Yuzhu felt a little uneasy.
"Ah Xiao, please take the trouble to go to Luzhou and help me see what happened there."
Zhao Xiao patted his shoulder and comforted him: "Don't worry, I will definitely find out what happened."
*
Autumn came especially early in the north this year, and the weather turned cold just after the Mid-Autumn Festival.
In Pingyao County, Luzhou, hundreds of men are building roads. These men are farmers doing corvée labor in nearby towns and villages.
"Dad, when will we stop doing this?" Qiao Shuanzi, who had just turned sixteen, asked his father while chewing on a bean cake.
Qiao Ling sighed: "I don't know. I don't know how the fields at home are doing. I don't know if your mother can harvest them all by herself."
There are seven people in the Qiao family. Apart from the elderly, children, and the father and son, the family is entirely managed by Mrs. Qiao.
They have been repairing the road for more than half a month, and no one knows when it will end. Qiao Ling is very worried.
Corvée labor has existed since the pre-Qin period and is divided into two types: forced labor and military service. Road construction is forced labor.
The government was building a road, and the people received a notice that all males over the age of 16 in their families had to be sent out for labor service. If they did not want to serve, they could buy their children, at a price of five taels of silver per person.
Where would poor people get so much money? They can only come here to build roads.
"Don't rest, get up and work!" An official came over with a whip, urging the civilians to get up and transport cement.
This person needs to transport the burned cement to the road paving area. If he delivers it late, it will delay today's progress.
Qiao Shuanzi carried the bamboo basket on his back. Seeing that his father's shoulders were covered with blood, he reached out to take it and carried it on his shoulders together.
"I'll do it myself."
"It's okay, Dad, take a rest."
Qiao Ling followed behind his son, looking at the boy who was half a head taller than him, his face full of satisfaction.
We hadn't walked a few dozen meters when an elderly man in front of us suddenly fell down. The bamboo basket on his body pinned him down and he couldn't get up for a long time.
Instead of asking anyone to help him up, the yamen runner whipped him a few times: "Stop pretending to be dead, get up quickly!"
The old man cried out in pain. Qiao Ling quickly stepped forward, stopped the bailiff and said, "Sir, please stop beating him. If he was pretending, he would have gotten up long ago."
"Let go? Who the hell do you think you are? How dare you control me?" As he said that, he swung the whip and hit Qiao Ling hard.
The whip was made of cowhide soaked in water, and it left blisters on his body, causing him to gasp in pain.
Qiao Shuanzi's eyes instantly turned red. He rushed over viciously and beat the yamen runner.
The people around hurriedly pulled the two apart. What good would it be if you offended the police? You might even lose your life!
The bailiff covered his face and shouted angrily, "You bunch of troublemakers, wait for me to go back and let the county magistrate punish you!" Then he ran away.
"Dad, are you okay?" Qiao Shuanzi helped his father up.
"I'm fine."
The old man who was rescued said with a guilty look on his face: "I'm sorry for getting you and your son into trouble."
Qiao Ling forced a smile and said, "We are from the same village. Can we just watch him beat you to death?"
Someone nearby echoed, "These stupid officials are unreasonable. They build roads every day but still get beaten. Is there any law left?"
"That's right! I don't want to do this job anymore! I work from morning till night and don't get paid a penny. I only get two meals of bean cakes a day. How can I feel full?"
"The grain at home is almost being eaten by sparrows. If we don't harvest it now, even if they don't kill us, we will starve to death this winter!"
"I quit, I quit!"
When everyone was about to give up, the sound of horse hooves suddenly came from afar, and a large group of people came running over.
The common people thought that the people were called by the yamen runners, and they were so frightened that they dared not move.
The sound of horse hooves was getting closer and closer. The man in the lead was riding a tall black horse. He wore a yellow jade crown and thin armor. He held the reins and stopped beside the group of people.
"Are you the people responsible for building the road?" Everyone looked at each other and no one dared to speak.
Qiao Ling limped to the front, knelt down and said, "Your Excellency, we are all civilians from Datian Town, and we were conscripted to do corvée labor to build the road."
Qiao Shuanzi quickly stood in front of his father and said, "I was the one who beat the bailiff. If you want to punish me, punish me!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
