You're coming back late, Wang An. ”

In the military room of the Qianqing Palace, a few days after the third lady returned, Wang An, a eunuch who was sent by Wanli to patrol the city of Yuekou and secretly inspect the customs defense, quietly entered the Forbidden City.

"I guess you should have come back last month, but you went to Beiyang, are you crazy?"

The cross-legged emperor looked unhappy, his heart was full of envy, and he said a few words with a serious face, then patted his thigh and asked with his eyebrows: "What fun did you see when you went out this time, report it to me!" ”

"Back to the emperor's grandfather, the slaves and maids don't dare, they go to Beiyang to see if their wooden rail carriage is really that magical." Wang An was not afraid, walked to the emperor's side and offered a hand-painted simple map of the Biansaiyu and said: "This is the location and distance of the big and small markets recorded by the slaves and maids. ”

"These sixty-three are divided into large and small cities, for Mongolia and other forty-seven ministries to trade with us, and the big cities are noble, and the markets are opened once a year, and the period of one month is one month, and they are for the leaders of the tribes to barter; The small market is only open for two or three days, and the opening month is different in various places, but there will be a beginning every month in a mouthful of land, and the small market owner is cheap, for the herdsmen of all departments to communicate with me. ”

"There are so many mouths, they are only used once a year, and the slaves and maids think that if the wooden rail carriage in Beiyang is exaggerated, there is no need to spend money to build roads and lay tracks, so they go to see it."

Wanli slowly bowed his head and praised: "You did a good job, so what about the result, what is the result?" ”

Wang An nodded vigorously as he spoke, and said, "The four side-by-side tracks in Beiyang are each twelve miles long, with two horse-drawn carriages, and the load is secondary, mainly ...... Stable, safe and worry-free! ”

"Four tracks in parallel, two to the east, two to the west, the twelve miles of the road is divided into three sections, each section of four miles, the carriage of goods all the way through without stopping, at the end of a section of the horse is also tired, change horses and continue to go."

The slave and maid also asked the reason, not to mention that they used to walk slowly in a heavy car, and the carriage alone had more than 200 catties, and then loaded with goods, and the wheels of the dirt road were sunk into the soil, and they couldn't walk away at all. Nowadays, the hardwood is erected on the cork sleeper, and the iron wheels are embedded in the hardwood rails, and the rain and snow can go fast, but the cost is high. ”

Wang Anlian said to Wanli with a gesture: "But we are not short of wood, Jincheng County in the Great East Ocean can transport back hundreds of ships of wood every year, those wood can't be made into big wood, but these appliances are very good, not to mention the tribute converted from the income of the Oriental Military Government, there is no need to consider the cost." ”

Wanli bowed his head slowly, he had a slight impression of the wooden rail carriage in Beiyang, and asked casually: "Then why are they laying it longer?" ”

"But it can't grow, even if it is used to spread a few miles of land in the mouth market, Ye Gong of Beiyang is very worried, afraid that when no one is around, the people and soldiers will unload the sleepers and hardwoods and sell them." Wang An spread his hands as he spoke: "Officers and soldiers can't always do nothing, just stare at that road along the way, right?" ”

Wanli fell into deep distress, and he looked back at the drawings on the table, which showed clear routes from the various cities to the surrounding tribes. Among them, the most conspicuous is the 'Qingcheng' Naturalization City, which is connected by roads extending in all directions, and has become a material distribution center for the Ming army to explore the unknown terrain.

For him and even the entire Ming Empire, it was the best time for the Ming army to get out of the fortress, and there was no such shop after this village.

Once the next generation of heirs is stable, he wants to make this kind of move again, even if war is only his last resort, but both Ming and Mongolia will push all this to the brink of war.

Unless he doesn't do anything.

But don't do anything...... That won't suffocate me to death!

If it is said that building such a road in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty will be stolen from the wooden rails, then it will be lost to repair it, Wanli boredly raised his hands and shook his big sleeves down, as if holding something, and finally pouted and said: "I thought I had a great good thing, but I didn't expect it to be stolen, alas...... Let's build a dirt road. ”

The advantages of the wooden track are obvious, stable and conducive to large-scale transportation, if you want to pull less goods, if you want to pull more goods, you will be a little slower overall, and the carriage is not easy to break on the road.

The most important thing is that the speed is controllable, the departure point will send the goods, and how long it will take to arrive at the next location to change horses can be accurately calculated.

Wanli likes this very much.

"Your Majesty, maybe you won't be able to build dirt roads in the future." Wang An looked at Wanli's disappointed expression, and said thoughtfully: "Beiyang has also built asphalt roads and cement roads, the former walks extremely smoothly, the latter is very hard but not afraid of the sun, and the cost is low; The slave maid heard that the best way to do this was to use cement as a bottom and asphalt as a cushion, but the cost was prohibitive. ”

"Asphalt roads, cement roads?"

Wanli raised his hand and scratched the small pimple growing on his chin, frowning and thinking: He is familiar with cement, and there are several fortifications in the Forbidden City that are built with that thing; He is also familiar with asphalt, and this is what is wrapped around the wire.

But they don't sound like they're used to build roads.

"The cost is high, how high?"

Emperor Wanli rolled his eyes and said: "I became Emperor Yongle in the twelfth year of the Yuan Kou to the north, and went from Ya'an to Lhasa to build a post road of more than 3,000 miles. ”

"Da Ming has never been richer than today, what cost." The emperor raised his chin high, looked at Wang An with disdainful eyes, cleared his throat with a teacup, and said, "Let's let me listen, how expensive is it to build a road?" ”

Wang An cautiously waited for the emperor to drink and swallow the tea, seemingly afraid that the emperor would spray the tea on him, so he said slowly: "The asphalt mixed gravel pavement, Beiyang has built a two-zhang wide two-way road three miles long, and it costs two thousand four hundred and seventy taels of silver. ”

"Asphalt, the market price is 100 catties of 225 silver, Beiyang is cheap to buy, but it is roughly this price if you count the foot money." Wang An said very seriously: "Your Majesty, Daming is indeed richer than ever, but Daming has never built such an expensive road at any time. ”

Wanli pouted and quickly calculated his net worth and road cost in his little brain, and only gasped for a while: "Obediently, I bought the goods in the lamp market the year before last, and spent the money that could repair eight hundred miles of road?" ”

As soon as Wang An heard this, he knew that it was bad, and the emperor's grandfather really planned to build such a road.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have calculated it in his heart!

Sure enough, Wanli's next sentence was to ask: "The asphalt road, is it worth this price?" ”

"It's hard to say." Wang An didn't say what Wanli wanted to hear, he said: "On both sides of the road, dirt roads should be built to make horse roads, horses are easy to hurt their hooves after running on hard roads for a long time, but it is convenient for infantry and donkey and mule carts, walking slowly, the road is flat, and the two roads in Beiyang are not built to allow troops to pass through quickly - they just want to make a kind of normal road, slightly higher in the middle and slightly lower on both sides, the edge is blocked by cement slabs, and the sewer made of cement pipes buried below leads to the river." ”

"What's the use of this stuff?"

Wanli was puzzled: "The horse can't run, just let the car go, and it can't get up fast, what's the use of repairing it no matter how flat and beautiful it is." ”

"Horses can't run on it for a long time, but Your Majesty, the bicycle and the Fire Star Monarch can run!"

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The price of asphalt comes from the price of the 37th year of Wanli in the "Notice to the Ministry of Industry and Warehouse", and the actual price may be slightly different. /14_14088/