After several months of bitter cold since the beginning of winter last year, the weather has become warmer and warmer in March, and although it is just the beginning of spring, the ice edges hanging on the eaves have slowly melted, and only traces of snow can be seen on the roofs and under the roots of the trees in the corners. Although the ice on the canal has not completely melted, there are already boatmen who have broken through the loose ice floe with the hull of the boat, and with the recovery of the canal, the Qinghe City has slowly returned to its usual liveliness.

Different from years ago, this Qinghe City seems to have more things, such as the yellow carriage with a striking color, and the difference between those carriages is not only the color, but also the wheels - it has four wheels, this is a four-wheeled rental carriage that just emerged after the year, compared to the old two-wheeled carriage, it has a larger carrying capacity, and through the steering device of the front wheel, it can be more convenient to turn in the city, and because of this, it will replace the old carriage in Qinghe City in a short time, Of course, this is also related to the government's supervision.

As for the twelve-year-old Vanceton who sat in the carriage, he was always curious to look out through the crystal glass window of the carriage, and although the glass window distorted the outside of the carriage a little, he still seemed very curious, and his brother Vance was the same.

Not to mention their brothers, even Huang Baijia, who is in his twenties, occasionally shakes the body vigorously, and although the body sways with the bumps of the road, he doesn't feel bumpy at all when sitting in the car.

"Father, this four-wheeled carriage is really novel, so galloping, but almost not bumpy."

Huang Baijia didn't know that unlike the Chinese-style two-wheeled carriage, the slow-moving two-wheeled carriage could withstand the bumps on the potholed road. If you change to a few horse-drawn carriages, the degree of bumps is unimaginable, and people can't sit still in the galloping carriages, and they may only be able to stand on the carriage to relieve the degree of bumps. Therefore, when designing the four-wheeled carriage, Zhu Mingzhong first considered shock absorption, limited by the price and quality of steel, he did not choose the leaf spring invented in the 18th century, but people can set the cowhide pulling mode to absorb the shock, which is an invention in the Roman era. However, the Dark Ages in Europe were lost for hundreds of years, and it was not until the 16th century that the shock-absorbing technology of suspending the carriages with belts was restored.

If Huang Baijia pays attention to it, he can notice that the carriage of the four-wheeled carriage is in a suspended state, which can significantly reduce the strength of horizontal shaking, and the cowhide also has a certain elasticity, and the vertical direction also has a certain shock absorption effect. This gives the carriage a certain level of comfort.

"This is a Western-style four-wheeled carriage, the wheels of which are placed on the beams, the front wheels can be turned, and the carriage is suspended on the beams, so that it can naturally avoid the pain of bumps."

Compared with his son, Huang Zongxi, who has been in contact with Western studies, naturally knows what this four-wheeled carriage is, and also knows where this four-wheeled carriage comes from. Although it felt strange to see a four-wheeled carriage here, he didn't find it new when he thought about it.

But it was only a cup of tea, and the carriage stopped, and at the same time the voice of the coachman was heard.

"Sir, this Qinghe Academy has arrived!"

After Huang Zongxi and his entourage got out of the car, they were greeted not by the gate of the academy as they imagined, but by a dense plum forest. Between the woodhills, a small lake can be vaguely seen, and a thin layer of ice can be seen in the center of the lake because the ice has not completely melted. Between Merlin and the lake, there are several paved paths that lead in, not knowing where they lead. As far as the eye can see, behind Merlin, you can see the roofs of the heavy buildings.

"This is Qinghe Academy!"

Huang Zongxi thought to himself.

"It's like a paradise."

A group of four people walked slowly like this, enjoying the scenery along the way. At this time, the four people in the group were all surprised by the size of the academy, they did not know that after Zhu Zhiyu served as the head of the academy last year, the government directly allocated 6,000 acres of official land for the expansion of the academy, and unlike the past when the academy allocated land for rent and collected valley rent, these lands were all planned by Zhu Mingzhong personally, drawing on the garden planning of later generations, and a large number of trees were moved, making it a garden, and the garden itself was a part of the academy, which only made the once small academy become a garden like a paradise.

For those who have never witnessed the landscape of modern gardens, they are attracted by the scenery, and when they are amazed, they say that the academy is like a paradise.

And this is not the most amazing place, the most amazing thing is that this academy was originally located on the outskirts of Qinghe, and its land price was the lowest, and after some renovation, its land price soared, and then people found out that the land around this academy had long been acquired by the government or frozen transactions.

When people didn't know why, two new streets were built near this academy, and although the houses in this street were expensive, they were easily sold, and even the two new neighborhoods that were to be opened after this year were sold before the construction began. For many people who buy a house here, they are not just interested in the smell of books, but also attracted by the scenery, after all, it is a pleasure to walk in this paradise every day.

What's more, there are parks of all sizes planned between the new streets. It wasn't until the news came out that the government had donated land to build a garden for the academy by selling the house only through the new market street, and even after deducting the expenses for land donation and garden renovation, the income of the government was still as high as tens of thousands of taels.

Even looking at the newly opened street centered on the academy, some discerning people vaguely realized that this was a slight reason for the Yamen to open a new city here, nearly ten zhang wide on both sides of the street, full of two- or three-story houses, the sidewalk in front of the floor, the main street for horse-drawn carriages to gallop, everything here is completely different from the old street, and even the gutter drainage is through the laying of half-human height egg-shaped pottery pipes underground to divert rainwater and sewage.

In short, this new city centered on the academy is completely beyond people's imagination, and these people do not know that this new city was designed and planned by Zhu Mingzhong himself, although the city's architecture still retains Chinese characteristics, but it fully draws on the urban planning of the 21st century, such as the three-storey buildings on the roadside, although the houses are still Chinese. However, the raw material has changed, and the cement supplied by the Xuzhou cement plant has been widely used here, replacing clay as a brick and tile bond.

Of course, for all this, Huang Zongxi and his entourage, who had just arrived in the Qing River, did not know, and even because they came along the Yellow River embankment, they did not know that the academy would be the center of the new city, but this did not prevent them from looking at this academy like a paradise with curious eyes. He even deliberately bent down to check the gravel road, most of which were the size of chicken eggs, and were neatly paved on the road, as if the stones had been crushed.

"It's also strange to say, why is the road paved with such gravel? If it's paving, why not use slate? ”

Confused, seeing a young man wearing a ben robe on the side of the road, who seemed to be bending down there to check something, Huang Zongxi, who had some doubts in his heart, walked towards the young man and asked.

"This little brother, why is this forest path all paved with gravel instead of stone slabs?"

"Slate is too expensive."

Zhu Mingzhong, who stood up, said with a smile. This is the reason why he did not choose stone paving.

"Slate too expensive?"

Zhu Mingzhong's answer made Huang Zongxi puzzled:

"How can it be too expensive, not to mention anything else, just the cost of hammering gravel is probably not inferior to the slate!"

"If you use manpower, stone is certainly not cheaper than slate, but if you use water power, or even animal power, it will definitely be cheaper."

Looking at the two teenagers following the middle-aged man, Zhu Mingzhong explained patiently.

"Making a stone slab requires a stonemason to select the stone and then make it into a paving stone slab, but this crushed stone can be directly quarried and then crushed with a hydraulic stone crusher, so that the price of the stone is naturally extremely cheap."

Hydraulic stone crusher, is Zhu Mingzhong in order to achieve the goal of urban road hardening deliberately designed, after all, whether compared to the soil cement or slate, the gravel road is cheaper, the structure of the hydraulic stone crusher is also simple, and the water mill used in the rice is somewhat similar, with the help of hydraulic pressure to press the hammer handle, hammer the gravel, this is to learn from the fifties and sixties of the soil stone crusher, this kind of stone crusher does not need to use steel, although the work efficiency is low, but the victory is simple in structure. A hydraulic crusher stone can crush dozens of square meters of stone every day, and only a few stone crushers need to be set up, which can basically meet the needs of urban paving. Even in the future, it is possible to gradually pave the pavement of official roads with gravel, so as to achieve the hard surface of official roads, of course, this is only an idea.

"But this is paved with gravel, and this stone is not easy to bounce off?"

Vance asked curiously, looking at the evenly sized stones, he was even more worried about what would happen if they were paved on the road and picked up to lay the yard in their homes. After all, for ordinary people, wouldn't it be better for this stone to be spread in the courtyard.

Compared with his brother, the young Vance said bluntly:

"What if someone shovels the stone back home to pave the road?"

Zhu Mingzhong, who walked forward with them, did not answer this question immediately, in his opinion, this was not a problem at all. As he walked on, he said, pointing ahead.

"Look?"