I want to be emperor

Chapter 1194: Censor Supervision System

Fifty years after Chengshun, a wave of construction began to sweep across the Great Chu Empire. The railway network in the southwest region was the first to start construction, followed by the northwest railway network, and then the northern railway network also began construction.

In addition to building a number of trunk railway networks, the construction of these three major railway networks is more about building branch railways connecting densely populated areas, mineral resource producing areas, and agricultural and livestock producing areas to solve the problem of local material transportation.

After all, things can only be sold for money if they are shipped out, which can promote local economic development and drive people's income growth.

In the southwest, northwest and northern regions, transportation construction is mainly based on railways, but in the eastern and central regions, transportation construction is mainly based on roads.

This is mainly because the railway network in the eastern and central regions of East Asia has become very complete after decades of development. We dare not say that every county is connected by train, but eight out of ten counties are connected by train.

Well, the trains back then were actually very different from the railways or high-speed railways of later generations. The contemporary railway construction standards are far from as high as those of later generations. In fact, many railway lines are winding due to restrictions such as terrain and rivers.

Especially in some areas with complex terrain, the railways are full of twists and turns.

And a considerable part of it is actually single-track railway.

A large number of railway networks can only support trains running at speeds of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour, and are mainly used for freight transportation, unlike later railways that can easily reach speeds of dozens or even hundreds of kilometers per hour.

The construction of these low-standard railways is actually not that difficult, and the cost is not as expensive as imagined, especially the construction of railways on plain terrain, which is actually quite cheap.

In the 54th year of Chengshun, a branch railway was built in Mo Nan Province for the purpose of mining and transporting local mineral resources and exporting local livestock resources. The terrain was half plain and half hilly, with a length of about 200 kilometers. The pure railway construction cost was 1.5 million Chu yuan.

  One million and a half Chu Yuan is very expensive for an individual, but for the Great Chu Empire Corporation that operates 600,000 kilometers of railways, a mere one million and a half Chu Yuan is not worth mentioning!

In modern times, the construction frenzy of the China Railway Corporation has actually eased somewhat. During its peak period in the 1940s, the China Railway Corporation was building railways like crazy, constructing tens of thousands of kilometers of railways every year.

Today, as we enter the 55th year, the railway construction plan of the China Railway Corporation has actually eased a lot. It is expected that only more than 10,000 kilometers will be completed and put into use this year. These newly built railways are mainly to fill gaps in East Asia. The rest are mainly railway construction in some overseas regions and even trunk railways in vassal states.

For example, in recent years, in order to better transport various resources in the Indian region, the China Railway Corporation has planned the construction of several trunk railways in the Indian region based on the needs of the imperial high-level officials, and the same is true in Europe.

The construction of branch lines of the three major railway networks in the southwest, northwest and north is actually a railway construction plan that aims to identify and fill in the gaps.

When the inland areas began to vigorously develop railway construction, a wave of highway construction was set off in the eastern and central regions!

In order to guide the construction of roads in various places and formulate construction standards, the transportation department has formulated the latest road construction standards, divided roads into multiple grades, and formulated corresponding technical standards for each grade of roads.

Among them, the Class A first-class highway is a four-lane asphalt or cement road with sidewalks/carriageways on both sides. There are regulations on the thickness of the road pavement, the load-bearing capacity of bridges along the way, and the width of the road, and it is required to be able to accommodate large and heavy-loaded trucks.

Class A secondary roads are two-lane asphalt or concrete roads with sidewalks/carriageways on both sides.

A Class A third-level highway, a single-lane asphalt road or cement road, with sidewalks and carriageways reserved on both sides.

A Class IV highway, a single lane asphalt or concrete road, with no dedicated sidewalks or carriageways.

Basically, asphalt roads or concrete roads are classified as Class A roads.

Then there are Class B highways, which are also divided into one, two and three levels. This mainly refers to roads with gravel or cinder pavement, which are also two-lane or single-lane.

Class C roads are pure dirt roads.

One of the very special requirements for bridge traffic is that all permanent bridges on Class A, Class III, Class IV and Class B roads must meet the minimum standard for passing ten-ton vehicles.

Among them, the strategically important first- and second-class highways must have a bridge load-bearing capacity of more than 20 tons!

As for why there is a minimum standard for the bearing capacity of a bridge, this is to take into account the passage needs of the military's artillery, armored vehicles and even future tanks. For example, the 51-model mm long-barreled cannon in service in the military is the longest-range and heaviest artillery in the army. Its combat weight alone reaches ten tons. Although it is disassembled for transportation, it is still very heavy and places relatively high demands on the bridges along the way.

Therefore, a ten-ton bridge load-bearing capacity for low-grade roads is already the minimum requirement.

The standard of 20 tons for permanent bridges on Class A and Class II highways is based on the increasing weight of future armored vehicles and war vehicles.

  The armored vehicles currently in service and under development in the contemporary military are quite heavy.

Many armored vehicles currently in service weigh seven or eight tons, and the tracked vehicles under development are even heavier, with several prototypes weighing more than ten tons.

It is with this in mind that the military requires that all permanent bridges on Class A and Class II highways must have a load-bearing capacity of more than 20 tons.

This is actually just the minimum standard.

  When actually building Class A and Class II highways, it is impossible to build bridges with such poor bearing capacity... Since such expensive asphalt roads have been built, a cement or steel bridge will not be a big problem!

In fact, military requirements are far less high than those for civilian cargo transportation... The military only requires the bridge to bear 20 tons, but modern civilian heavy trucks, including the vehicle and cargo, often weigh five or six tons... Then, do you think these civilian trucks will drive across the bridge one after another?

How is it possible... In reality, these trucks will pass by one after another. Once there is a traffic jam ahead, there will even be a long line of heavy trucks jammed on the bridge deck. The actual weight that this hole of the bridge deck bears may reach dozens of tons.

Therefore, when the highway design department designs a bridge, its load-bearing capacity is often higher than the mandatory regulations of the military... Otherwise, if there is a traffic jam and the bridge collapses, many people will die, from designers to local officials to construction units, a lot of people will die... literally a lot of people will die.

The supervision of the Great Chu Empire over these important core infrastructures invested and built by government officials was as strict as that of previous ancient dynasties, even harsh.

A system of accountability is implemented for core projects. A construction unit is responsible for building a bridge during its design life of 30 years... Unless there are force majeure factors, if it collapses under normal circumstances, the mode of arresting people and confiscating their homes will be initiated immediately.

Then the design unit, supervision unit, construction unit, etc. at that time all started to pursue accountability... and the accountability of the Great Chu Empire is not a fine or verbal condemnation, but a direct criminal lawsuit against you. Unless you can prove that you were not wrong and everything was legal and compliant, otherwise you will have to spend some time in jail.

Of course, as the saying goes, there are policies from above and countermeasures from below... So many projects in the Great Chu Empire have very short design lifespans. Designers, builders, supervisors and even local officials will try their best to reduce the design lifespan from the beginning... Even if they build a particularly sturdy bridge in theory, which can be used normally for a hundred years without any problems, they will still try every means to shorten the design lifespan by ten or eight years...

What we are trying to prevent is this ridiculous accountability system.

Some famous bridge designers simply design without signing their names or contacting the client... They sell the design directly to a third party, and then the third party finds someone to take the blame and sign as the designer... Therefore, in the Great Chu Empire, you see that many of the designers of 100-meter buildings and hundreds of meters of cross-river bridges are novice architects and bridge designers who have just obtained the corresponding professional certificates.

In the past, many local officials refused to build bridges... because they were afraid of being held accountable in the future. Later, the empire introduced a series of policies and even crackdowns to curb this trend. Later, after a series of compromises, officials who promoted the project only had political achievements but did not have to be held accountable... They just had to push it forward, and if it was successful, they would have political achievements.

However, the censor who is responsible for supervising the project needs to be held accountable, and it is mandatory supervision, so the censor has no choice.

Therefore, whenever there is a major project in the local area, the censor in charge of supervision often rushes out like a mad dog, arresting people at the slightest sign of a problem... Otherwise, if something really goes wrong in the future, he will be the one to go to jail. Even if he doesn't go to jail, at worst he will be convicted of dereliction of duty for poor supervision and be dismissed from his post.

In fact, the censors all hated the job of supervising core projects, but they could not get rid of it, nor could they push it to newcomers or subordinates, because it was a system of supervision by the local chief official... The person in charge of supervising a county's core projects was the chief censor of the county inspection office at that time.

The law is mandatory and cannot be evaded or avoided.

Because this is a practice formed after decades of interest exchanges and compromises in the imperial officialdom...Let alone the censor himself wanting to change it, even if Luo Zhixue personally stepped in to change it, it would be impossible.

Because officials from other systems are happy to put shackles on these mad dog-like censors, or at least make things more difficult for them.

Of course, the censor is not without means of countermeasures... Once a key project is launched locally, he is forced to become the person in charge of supervision and will immediately go into crazy mode, looking for evidence everywhere to investigate the case, and arresting people directly if he finds anything wrong.

Therefore, it often happens that before a bridge is completed, the officials responsible for promoting its construction have already been killed by the censors!

  This is the conflict and contradiction between officials from other systems and the censor system, which has remained the same for decades!

So, sometimes, no matter how perfect the legal system is, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be effective. People will always try to get around it, find loopholes, and leave you with a mess.

But no matter good or bad, the quality of Chu's key projects, especially bridges, is often very high. There is a mad dog-like censor who keeps an eye on you every day to protect himself, so it is a bit difficult for you to embezzle the funds.

  Just because the censor cannot escape the duty of supervision, which has only disadvantages and no advantages, does not mean that he cannot do anything about it... I can't solve the problem, but can I not solve the problem for you who raised the problem?

What a joke! Don’t underestimate the censors of the Great Chu Empire!

In the imperial examination system of the Great Chu Empire, the judicial examination was not difficult, but after passing the judicial examination, if one wanted to become a censor, one had to take a special censor examination. This censor examination was extremely difficult. There was no way around it, as there were too few vacancies and the competition was too fierce.

Any candidate for the judicial imperial examination who has some ability would want to take the test for the censor...for the sake of the censor's enormous power.

Once you successfully pass the examination to become a censor, and then spend several years studying and passing the assessment to obtain independent investigation rights, you will become a true censor, an censor who has independent investigation rights over all officials in office within your jurisdiction!

In the officialdom, an imperial censor with independent investigative powers is definitely a troublemaker...

  Do you want to know how to describe the censor of the Great Chu Empire?

Let me put it this way, you are a graduate of the Law Department of the Imperial College, passed the judicial imperial examination three years ago, and then took part in the brutal censor examination, successfully joined a provincial inspectorate as an assistant censor, and after three to five years of assisting in case handling and studying, you successfully passed the censor investigation qualification assessment, obtained the qualification to investigate cases independently, and became a true censor.

  At this time, you are probably between 27 and 28 years old or even 30 years old, and your rank is only around the sixth rank. But as long as you are willing, you can even initiate an independent investigation against the second rank governor of the province... Once the filing procedure is initiated, no one, including your immediate superior, can stop you... Well, at least no one can stop you in terms of procedure!

It’s just so awesome!

Of course, theoretically it is impossible to stop you, but if you really act recklessly, whether you can withstand all kinds of retaliation is your own problem... If you act recklessly, your superiors can't do anything to you, but they can do something to your subordinates!

It is very common that as soon as a case is filed, your subordinates apply for transfer...and it is also very common that the patrol department also refuses to cooperate.

  After all, this kind of thing is ridiculous. If you don't want to live, others will!

At least in all the years since the founding of the country, there has never been a low-level censor who investigated a governor on his own. Occasionally, when we see it in the news, it is always the bigwigs of the Inspectorate who support them from behind, and the young censors are just flags put up in the open.

Even the local provincial inspectorate would not easily touch an official of the governor's rank. Generally, to take down a high-ranking official of this rank, the Grand Inspectorate of the capital region would need to supervise the matter personally, and the local inspectorate would only cooperate. The censor leading the team was often a third-rank Censor-in-Chief.

Once the Zuo Qiandu Yushi of this level left the capital and went to the local areas, it was basically to go to the local governor or provincial governor...So this level of senior censor, unless it was a routine inspection of the place, otherwise his whereabouts were kept secret during the routine handling of cases. When he went to a certain place, it meant that the case had become a solid case, and he would just arrest people directly.

But, if, just in case... you are really lucky and get enough evidence, then you really can send this governor to jail.

At least in theory it is possible.

But theory is theory, reality is reality, at least such a thing has never happened in the Great Chu Empire.

However, even so, we can see how powerful the censors in the Great Chu Empire are!

When the imperial high-ranking officials cheated and forced the censors to take on the responsibility of supervision, they had to supervise these key core projects regardless of whether they were willing or not.

Under the intimidation of the censors, there were officials who dared to engage in blatant corruption and build shoddy projects... In fact, there were quite a few of them, especially in the early years.

But except for a very few lucky ones, most of them were directly caught by the censors and thrown into prison... This is different from ordinary corruption. When you engage in ordinary corruption, the censors may sometimes turn a blind eye and arrange some exchange of interests with you.

But if you dare to engage in corruption in the projects he supervises, that would be like planting a mine for him. Once it explodes, it will be a huge mine that will blow him to pieces... It would be polite of him not to destroy your clan.

Against this backdrop, the quality of Chu’s bridges was actually quite good, at least much better than the minimum requirements set by the military.

After various new highway standards were formulated, the empire officially launched the construction of various highways.

In January, construction of the Pearl River Delta Ring Highway officially began. It will be a four-lane, asphalt-paved, Class A highway.

In addition to the Pearl River Delta Ring Highway, a number of highway plans have been planned to lead to the eastern, western and northern regions of Guangdong. The province is prepared to invest a large amount of money to comprehensively upgrade and renovate many ordinary official roads, paving all official roads, with asphalt or cement for key roads and gravel and coal slag for secondary routes.

By the way, according to the highway construction standards of the Great Chu Empire, gravel roads and cinder roads are also considered paved roads.

Shortly thereafter, Jiangnan Province announced the expansion of its provincial road network and planned a number of intercity highways to connect the counties in Jiangnan Province, ensuring that every county had a four-lane asphalt road.

Only a wealthy province like Jiangnan can undertake highway construction of this level... they are simply too rich.

(End of this chapter)