Zhu Youzhen looked at the map and thought for a long time before he said thoughtfully: "The location of Zunhua City is too close to the border, and it is too far away from the coal mine to be used as a site for an iron-smelting plant.

However, the official of the Ministry of Industry is right, although the government-run iron works here have been abolished, there are not many people who make a living from iron, and the fastest place to resume production is to resume production.

Before the construction of a new iron smelting plant is completed, a small factory can be set up here, providing a variety of tools for digging canals, as well as all kinds of iron materials needed to dig iron ore.

Although Jizhou Town and Kaiping Zhongtunwei are close to the river, there is no connecting waterway between them, so it is inconvenient to travel between them.

Therefore, first of all, the Luan River on the edge of Jizhou Town should be connected with the river near Tunwei in Kaiping with a canal, and in order to ensure the canal's shipping and water storage, it is necessary to renovate and sort out the rivers in this area and build a reservoir.

What I want to build is not an iron-smelting plant, but a new city around the iron-smelting industry. Since it is a city, it needs to consider the issue of access to food and domestic fuel, so the city should be as close to Tianjin as possible. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked for a long time, and finally stretched out his finger and pointed to the bend of the river southwest of Kaiping Zhongtunwei and said: "Let the Ministry of Industry and the survey team go to this area to investigate, whether it is possible to build a new iron-smelting city here, if you can, put the base of the iron-smelting plant here, and this new city will be called Tangshan." ”

Wang Chengen immediately recorded it, and then asked cautiously: "Then who will be sent by the palace to preside over the construction of this city?" ”

Zhu Youzhen pondered for a while, and then said: "We need to build a canal and a city, and the manpower mobilized is not a small amount, and we need to cooperate with the local gentry and government.

Let the people in the palace come forward to preside, and it will backfire if you say it badly. The personnel sent by the palace are only responsible for reviewing the use of funds, and as for the principals..."

Zhu Youzhen thought of the names of several people, but he quickly vetoed them himself. In the end, he finally spoke: "Fan Jingwen, the chief examiner of this examination, is meticulous and thoughtful. The reform of this examination was relatively hasty, but the scholars who took the examination did not have many complaints, which shows that he arranged the examination well.

Let him preside over the plan of digging the canal, renovating the Luanhe River system, and building the Tangshan New Town. Arrange a time for these two days for him to come and see me. As for the candidates in the palace, you can discuss with Wang Dehua and recommend individuals to come out. ”

Although the palace could not be allowed to fully obtain the dominant power over the Tangshan Iron Works, Wang Chengen also knew that the people around him were indeed not capable of presiding over such a big project, and it was just asking for hardship to force him over.

When Wang Chengen was recording the emperor's order, Zhu Youzhen suddenly remembered something, turned back to him again and said, "Hasn't the eunuch Tao of Jingdezhen already returned to Beijing?" Tomorrow, I will summon him in the Wuying Palace, listen to his report, and let Song Yingxing and Song Yingsheng brothers also participate in the hearing..."

Hundreds of prisoners stand in a cofferdam on a section of the Wenyu River, east of the capital and north of Tongzhou, wielding tools to dig through the river's silt.

The black and tough silt was as sticky as a piece of wet dough, and it took Qi Zuguang's strength to shovel out each piece.

It's not the worst part of the effort, it's the worst thing when the sun shines, and the stench of the sludge can smoke people to death.

More than 10 pieces of silt can fill a bamboo basket, and when waiting for someone to carry the silt, Qi Zuguang can straighten up and catch his breath. On the shore, about 10 meters away from him, seven or eight patrol officers dressed in black were vigilantly watching their work.

These prisoners of the penal department, as well as the vagrants who had been arrested and sent to re-education through labor, were scattered in various parts of the river, doing the work of clearing the mud and building the embankment, and doing heavy work for those who committed serious crimes, and light work for those who committed minor crimes.

Nearly 10 hours of heavy physical labor a day made these prisoners lose even the strength to escape.

Although the food provided in the canteen of the river control was only coarse grains, aged rice, and some vegetable leaf soup with heavy salt, it was much better than the rotten and moldy food in the prison and the soup made from the flesh of unknown creatures.

Therefore, most of the prisoners and vagrants gritted their teeth and endured. After nearly a month of labor, only a few people have looked for an opportunity to escape, but few have managed to escape.

Most of them were arrested within three days, whipped in front of the crowd, shackled and transported away in a car, supposedly taken to a more hostile mine to collect coal or iron ore.

The prisoners, who were eager to escape, suddenly dismissed their thoughts and mined in the mines where the light of day did not see the light of day, and it is said that most of the prisoners may not see the next spring.

Although Qi Zuguang was not frightened, he had to give up for the time being, and he wanted to prepare more carefully because he had not had a perfect escape plan before.

As soon as he took a few breaths with a shovel, an empty bamboo basket full of mud marks was thrown in front of him, Qi Zuguang silently wiped the mud stains splashed on his face with the back of his hand, and resumed the mechanical action of shoveling mud.

Qi Zuguang didn't know how many times he had repeated the action of swinging the shovel, and when he felt that his spirit was also beginning to become numb, a crisp sound of tapping iron came from the shore.

The prisoners around Qi Zuguang breathed a sigh of relief, they dropped the tools in their hands and hurriedly rushed to the shore. The prisoners in the same group as Qi Zuguang also greeted him and asked him to go ashore to eat together.

Qi Zuguang agreed, inserted the shovel in his hand into the mud, and then walked towards the shore with a deep foot and a shallow foot.

Just behind the embankment at the edge of the river site, the canteen is a half-open shack made of bamboo and wood, with a thick thatched roof.

Outside the shed was a long stone trough, and the prisoners who came up from the river washed their hands in the stone trough and went into the canteen to prepare for dinner.

Qi Zuguang had just washed his hands in the stone trough, and before he could straighten up, he heard a sudden noise from the cafeteria, and soon an unknown object flew towards him.

He subconsciously wanted to reach out and push away, but soon he turned the action of pushing away into a catch.

A petite woman was firmly held in Qi Zuguang's arms, this woman could only be regarded as ordinary, but her eyes were very vivid.

Seeing that the woman's face was pale and she couldn't make a sound, and a black footprint was printed on the clothes between her chest and abdomen, which was obviously kicked out by someone.

Without waiting for Qi Zuguang to put her down, a man of medium stature covered his ears and walked out of the shed with a curse in his mouth.

“… Shameless little whore, dare to break ground on your grandfather's head. You don't go to the outer city to inquire, is your grandfather easy to provoke..."

"You're a thousand-knife killer, where is my sister? If you don't say it today, I'll fight with you. The woman in Qi Zuguang's arms seemed to be relieved, struggled to stand on the ground, and continued to rush towards the enemy.

In the scolding of these two people, Qi Zuguang seemed to understand. The woman in this arms also has a younger sister, their father is a Cao Jun, and the two followed their father to Beijing more than a year ago to run a business to transport grain.

Unexpectedly, when they were in Tongzhou, the two sisters were abducted by the three of them. The older sister, who was more ordinary, was sold to an earthen kiln in the outer city of the capital by Gou San, while the younger and outstanding-looking sister was abducted and trafficked to somewhere.

His Majesty the Emperor cleared the prostitutes in the outer cities, freed them as commoners, and placed most of them in the newly opened cotton textile factories and other workshops.

And this woman named Guo Xiuying wants to find her sister, so she begs someone to be a cook for the prisoners, and rotates around various construction sites in Zhihe, trying to find the person who abducted and sold her sister.

And today, she just changed to this construction site, and finally recognized Gou San, and desperately stepped forward to question Gou San, and this dispute happened.

The plight of the Guo Xiuying sisters did not win the sympathy of the prisoners on the side. In their eyes, the abduction and trafficking of women as prostitutes is not a sin. On the contrary, they felt that the scuffle between the two allowed them to watch a good show.

looked at Guo Xiuying, who was knocked to the ground by Gou San, shrunk into a ball, and still held Gou San's legs. Qi Zuguang, who had never wanted to attract attention, finally couldn't help but make a move.

Compared with Qi Zuguang, Gou San, who was quite short, was obviously not an opponent, and he was beaten with blood from his mouth and nose between three or two blows.

However, as a local snake in the capital, Gou San is not alone in human trafficking. On this construction site, he also has 4 or 5 accomplices.

After seeing Gou San being beaten, under the shouts of his accomplices, more than a dozen prisoners who had been sentenced to re-education through labor immediately rushed out with benches and table legs as weapons, ready to teach Qi Zuguang a lesson.

When Qi Zuguang was thinking that something was wrong, the patrol police, who had received the news of the prisoners' brawl, had already arrived in full armor.

Looking at the patrolmen who were pressing over with knives and guns, the prisoners who were still shouting at the onlookers suddenly squatted down honestly.

The three teams of patrolmen, who had been disturbed from eating, were clearly enraged by the prisoners. Gou San and his accomplices, as well as Qi Zuguang, were whipped 10 times in public and put in a cage on the edge of the shed.

Liu Rong, the patrol captain who led the team, angrily shouted at the prisoner who was squatting on the ground with his head in his hands: "Since you don't want to eat, then don't eat." Get back to work, and before sunset to-day, everyone will finish 50 baskets of silt, and if they can't, they'll be spared dinner.

As for these people who are fighting, they are not allowed to give them food and water, and they are not allowed to be locked up until tomorrow morning, and they are sent to the West Mountain to smash stones. ”

Gou San and the others immediately begged loudly for mercy, and Qi Zuguang also felt very annoyed, the Xishan Lime Factory smashed stones, which was a more painful place than cleaning up the river.

The cries of Gou San and the others for mercy were quickly beaten with sticks by the patrol officers outside the cage and disappeared. Liu Rong, who retired from the Jinyi Guard and turned to patrol police, obviously had no mercy for these prisoners.

Watch as the patrol officers drive the reluctant prisoners back into the river. He was about to return to his lunch when a figure suddenly fell at his feet.