Outside the east gate of Xiyang City, the construction site is in full swing, craftsmen are building houses, many courtyards are neatly arranged like tofu blocks, and their perimeter is surrounded by a ring of city walls under construction.

On the tower of the East Gate City, Xu Shao, the governor of the state, is looking at this construction site from a bird's eye view, a wooden model is placed on the table next to it, the model is like a miniature city, and the city walls, city towers, arrow towers, neighborhoods and chessboard-like roads in the city are very detailed.

"How's the drain going?" Xu Shao turned around and asked, and a clerk next to him replied that the main ditch with two horizontal and two vertical channels had been completed, and the side branch drainage ditch had been completed seventy percent, and the entire drainage ditch would be completed at the beginning of next month.

"Drainage ditches are going to be used for many years, and you can't cut corners." Xu Shao nodded and said, "The drainage ditches between the eastern city and the main city must be connected smoothly, and in a few months, the rainy season will come, and it will be time to test the effect of your supervisors." ”

"Don't worry, the main ditch is made of stone on both sides, so it is strong and durable, even if it is soaked in water for many years, there is no worry of collapse."

Xu Shao looked at the wooden model on the case, and told the officials that the progress of the city wall should be hurried, first fence off the wooden fence for the city wall temporarily, and the neighborhood can be built slowly, but the progress of the street can not be delayed, if it cannot be completed on time, Yuwen envoy Jun Ke will have to find someone to 'talk in detail'.

"Don't drive, there is no shortage of people to build the city, it is this wall brick" The official said and stopped at the back, and a middle-aged man in regular clothes next to him quickly picked up the conversation when he saw this, he almost patted his chest to ensure that the brick kiln could supply enough wall bricks.

"Shopkeeper Lu, there are not enough bricks in the official kiln every day, don't have problems with your brick kiln." Xu Shao looked at the middle-aged man and said slowly, "If the wall tiles fail to pass the sampling inspection, you will have to explain to Yuwen Envoy Jun yourself." ”

"Lu knows that Lu will definitely ensure that the wall tiles are durable."

Xu Shao knew that the quality of the new brick kiln was good, and the results of the first few random inspections showed that the quality of the wall bricks fired by the brick kiln was similar to that of the official kiln, but he still explained that it was okay to burn bricks in a hurry, but also to pay attention to safety, not to cause work-related accidents and deaths, and it was not good to look at the official government at that time.

"Yes, yes, don't say it, Lu keep it in mind."

"You have a lightning rod on the chimney of your brick kiln, right?" Xu Shao asked, he looked into the distance to the north of the city, and saw a tall chimney towering, and the mouth of the chimney was billowing with smoke, and another chimney with the same smoke constituted a strange scene.

"Don't drive, please rest assured, Lu's new brick kiln was built under the guidance of the master of the official kiln, and the facilities are exactly the same as the official kiln, and this lightning rod will naturally not be less." Lu Zhen replied with confidence that his brick kiln was the only new brick kiln in addition to the official kiln, and it was vigorously supported by the government.

Xu Shao asked some related questions, and Lu Zhenjun answered them one by one, and after getting the guarantee of on-time delivery, Xu Shao asked him to step down.

Looking at the wooden city model in front of him, Xu Shao was a little distracted, because when Yu Wenwen first proposed to expand the eastern city, he strongly opposed it, because the state government did not have so much financial resources.

The embankment on the north bank of the Santai River, as well as the construction of related water conservancy facilities, almost consumed the funds of the Bazhou Prefecture, although the prisoners of Chen Jun who were coolies did not need to be paid, but the daily rations of thousands of people were also a large amount, and Yu Wenwen did not deduct the rations of these people, so the expenditure was not small.

After the large-scale granting of land, the rent of the state government will definitely increase significantly next year, so it is imperative to expand the granary and storehouse, which also requires the recruitment of craftsmen and the consumption of money and grain; To expand and maintain the Yanji camp in the south of the Yangtze River, it also needs money, grain and building materials.

Several projects are carried out at the same time, which itself needs to mobilize manpower and material resources, and the state government has to send officials to supervise the work on the spot, and when it comes to spring plowing and sowing, it is necessary to popularize the method of transplanting rice, and everyone is already busy.

As a result, in this case, it is necessary to expand the city and make an east and west city, if according to the general situation, it is okay to spend five or six years slowly repairing the people in the agricultural slack, after all, manpower and material resources are indispensable.

But Yuwenwen is good, not only to expand but also to be completed within the year, not enough bricks to build a new brick kiln to burn bricks, or let a business to build a new brick kiln, Xu Shao always felt that this approach was a little inappropriate.

If there are not enough people, the people will be organized to go into battle, and it is not the kind of forced labor that is levied without compensation, it is directly the kind of state government that pays wages, Xu Shao is worried that this will overdraft financial resources, so he strongly opposes it, but his Shangguan really played his usual style: The state government has no money? If the official has money, he will cushion it first!

Yuwen Wen can make money and spend money, Xu Shao partners in the glass mirror business, knowing that this 'cash flow' is calculated in tens of thousands, he knows that it is not easy for Yuwen Wen to raise the Tiger Forest Army by himself, so he can't understand why he has to pay out of his own pocket to toss so much.

The expansion of Dongcheng is conducive to the resettlement of the people who have increased dramatically, but there is no direct benefit to Yu Wenwen personally, and Xu Shao even suspected that this person was stimulated by something, and he tried to find something for the adjutant and the officials to do.

At the end of last year, he went back to Yuezhou to visit his parents, and both elders said that he had lost a lot of weight and his face had tanned a lot, but it was easy to have a comfortable New Year at home.

Xu Shao was responsible for supervising the construction of Dongcheng and the expansion of the granary and warehouse in Xicheng, and Hao Wubo, who had just returned from visiting relatives, was responsible for the water conservancy construction on the north bank of the Santai River.

But next year it will be even harder, because it is likely that the construction of the embankment will begin.

Thinking about the planned embankment, Xu Shao no longer had the strength to refute, Yu Wenwen was either tossing outsiders or his own people, it seemed that he had endless energy to vent, and he had some doubts that something would happen if he continued like this.

"I really can't figure it out about expanding domestic demand." ……

Lu Zhenxing rushed to walk on the road, next to the city wall of the east city under construction, although the first to build the south city wall, the east and north are just wooden fences, but watching a cart of bricks from a distance, he can't be in a bad mood.

What others see is bricks, but in Lu Zhen's opinion, it is money, as the owner of the brick kiln, he expects to burn bricks to make money, and Xiyang needs a lot of bricks and tiles for construction, so he will not be less money.

The newly built city wall is a high-standard rammed earth clad brick wall, the city wall is 45 layers (bricks) per zhang wide, each layer uses seven bricks, and the inside and outside are deep and deep in four layers, and 1,264 bricks are shared.

In the future, it is also planned to build a horse wall, the specification is 15 stories high, double-sided assembly, and 215 bricks are used for one zhang.

The newly built Xiyang East City, the north, east and south three city walls are two miles each, if one mile is one hundred and fifty zhang to calculate, the new city wall has to be nine hundred zhang long, considering all kinds of losses, the completion of these three city walls needs nearly 1.2 million wall bricks.

Of course, the official kiln has to bear half of the wall bricks required to build the wall, and the remaining shortage of nearly 450 zhang has to be filled by Lu Zhen's brick kiln, in other words, his brick kiln has to provide nearly 600,000 wall bricks on time, quality and quantity.

Even if it is calculated according to a penny and a wall brick, he can enter 600,000 yuan after completing this order, which is 600 yuan, and the cost can be at least 200 yuan, which still includes the cost of building a new brick kiln, and the next transaction is the majority.

After the construction of Xiyang Dongcheng, according to the planning of the state government, half of this area is mainly a 'market' for trading, and several streets composed of shops along the street are the mainstay, and there are also mansions, warehouses, wine stores, etc., all buildings have to be newly built, and bricks and tiles must be used for fire prevention.

Even with the civilian neighborhoods and the city defense buildings such as the Wanghuo Tower, as well as the expansion of Bahe City and Wuzhoushu in the east, the Yanji stronghold on the other side of the river, and the bricks and tiles needed are no longer counted, these are the opportunities for Lu Zhen to really make a fortune.

Of course, it is not only his brick kiln that has made a fortune, there are already many small brick kilns set up outside the city to take soil and burn bricks, but these small brick kilns are not new brick kilns, so the amount of bricks is not as good as Lu Zhen's new brick kiln, which can be built with the assistance of skilled workers in the official kiln, and it is also the bricklayer who they taught Lu Zhen the whole process.

The new brick kiln in the Bazhou territory, in addition to the official kiln, is Lu Zhen's one, he is often glad that he stood in the right place at the beginning of last year, did not follow Tian Yuansheng to die, and now he is making a fortune with Li Fang.

To be exact, it was to follow Yuwen to make Jun rich, I thought that there was nothing to make a brick kiln, but I didn't expect that the state government would build a large number of buildings to expand the city, not only need bricks, but also other building materials are in high demand.

In particular, the new 'cement' is indispensable for building city walls, building river embankments, and building houses, because the stakes are so high, cement is now a government business, and the 'cement' tossed out by private individuals imitating kilns will not be used in government-sponsored projects.

But even so, the lime needed to make 'cement' was purchased openly, and lime was now being collected in various places to extinguish snails, and the lime kiln owners were becoming more and more prosperous, and they began to compete with others for labor.

Therefore, the manpower is getting more and more tight, the quarry, the lumber yard and so on are recruiting people everywhere, and Lu Zhen is building a new brick kiln, but only now is he surprised that there is not enough manpower.

The first brick kiln has not stopped since it was built, burning bricks day and night, and the workers are constantly rotating without stopping, although there have been a lot of people, but it is still not enough.

The state government let go of the rumors and said that they could 'rent' those Chen army prisoners, but considering that they were all soldiers who had killed people, and if they really wanted to get a brick kiln to do things, they had to send people to keep an eye on it, so Lu Zhen had already mobilized his relatives and friends to hire people in neighboring states and counties.

However, after a while, spring ploughing will begin, and it is not easy to hire people during the busy farming season, and other quarries, lumber yards, and lime kilns are also grabbing people, and the people of Xiyang County basically have land and no time to do anything else, so Lu Zhen has already gone to Huangzhou and even Anzhou to recruit people.

In order to recruit people smoothly, wages also began to rise, not only that, but also had to include room and board, and the food should not be too bad, this is all rising costs, Lu Zhen feels that this is no different from grabbing money from his own money bag.

"You have to find a way" he looked at the construction site around him and muttered to himself, burning bricks is a technical job, but making bricks is very simple, even digging and moving bricks are pure manual work, and farmers who can only plow the land on weekdays will teach them for half a day, but even then they can't recruit enough people.

"It's more tiring to make food in the soil for tenant farming, and making bricks is something that even the mountain barbarians can learn, you just don't want to?" Lu Zhen was suddenly stunned when he came here, and a thought came to him. (To be continued.) )