Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 870 Improvements
Song Zhengyuan, the prefect of Qingzhou, after discussing with several chief officials, including Tongzhi and Tongsan, agreed unanimously to send Li Jianye to the construction site of the Zihe Reservoir, considering the particularity of the matter and the adverse effects of delaying the construction period. As a temporary director, he is responsible for presiding over the construction of the reservoir and other overall work.

Li Jianye saw the opportunity to step forward this time, because he wanted to seek credit for this large-scale water conservancy project, so that he would have the opportunity to get rid of his status as an official, so that he could become an official of the imperial court and make his family a class of officials and gentry. For this reason, the Li family, which is quite powerful in Qingzhou Prefecture, also invested a lot of capital.

It is well known that the imperial court selection system has undergone tremendous changes.

If the ordinary officials in the yamen perform outstandingly in handling government affairs, as long as they live with the approval of the superior, they have a great hope of obtaining official status after reporting and reviewing layers upon layers. Lazy style, the greatest motivation to express your talents.

Over the past few years since the new regulations of the imperial court were implemented, among the two prefectures and eight counties under the jurisdiction of Qingzhou Prefecture, there have been three house officials who have obtained official status ranging from eighth rank to seventh rank by virtue of their outstanding performance in a certain government affairs. The example of Li Jianye further inspired officials like Li Jianye who had a lot of money but were not in the official class.

However, ability is one aspect and opportunity is also very important for the family to enter the official and gentry class.

Although Li Jianye is proficient in the design and construction of large and small water conservancy and civil engineering projects due to his ancestral skills, he has always suffered from lack of opportunities to display his talents.

Because Qingzhou Prefecture has not started any large-scale water conservancy projects in the past few years, the most common prefectures and counties are to build aqueducts, dig larger ponds and dams to store water, etc. These low-tech projects do not require experts Come to know, the local government workshop is clearly set up, and Li Jianye has no chance to make contributions, which also makes him depressed and unsuitable in his forties.

Fortunately, the sky pays off.

Just when Li Jianye was getting more and more disappointed, the Zihe Reservoir was approved by the court to start construction, and the project volume was huge. According to the preliminary budget, the entire project would take at least three to four years.

as predicted.

The project was forced to stop due to an accident just two months after it started, and this accident was exactly what Li Jianye wanted to see the most.

It deserved the smoke from the Li family's ancestral grave, and by various chances and coincidences, it was finally Li Jianye's turn to make his debut.

After being approved to fully preside over the project construction tasks, Li Jianye took several cousins ​​who were also good at water conservancy projects to the Zizhou government office dozens of miles away overnight, and got in touch with the state government officials the next day and got the After receiving relevant information and drawings, regardless of the fatigue of the journey, he immediately rushed to the construction site for investigation.

Since the project has been stopped for nearly ten days, the daily food, drink and chewing expenses of the more than ten thousand young and strong laborers stationed on the construction site is a huge expense, and because they did not receive the order to dismiss from Shangfeng, the Zizhou government also had to Food and materials were taken out of the warehouse to supply the more than ten thousand laborers. Although there was no need to pay for the days when they were not working, the consumption of food and materials also made Zizhou Yamen feel tremendous pressure.

The good news finally came just when the prefecture's warehouse seemed to be unable to last for a few days, and the prefectural government had already sent a letter to the Qingzhou government to ask how to deal with it, and asked for money and food by the way.

The arrival of Li Jianye made the chief officials of Zizhou breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, with more than [-] people gathered together, if there is no food supply and any accident occurs on the construction site, it will not be a trivial matter for so many people to have an accident.

Now the Yamen servants of the state government have been sent to inspect the construction site long ago, and the officials of the state government also take turns to guard the construction site for three days, just to prevent uncontrollable things from happening. If something unexpected happens, then their officials Hats are hard to keep.

The work has been suspended for nearly ten days, and the tens of thousands of young and middle-aged migrant workers who have nothing to do have shown signs of instability. Small incidents such as fights and brawls have occurred frequently. Many people are clamoring to return home. Wait a few more days, maybe something unexpected will happen.

Li Jianye and the others spent half a day surveying the site according to the blueprints, and immediately discussed with the governor of the prefectural government on duty, and then called the young and strong people together to announce in public that the project would resume immediately. Lead the team to start construction according to the original plan.

In order to boost morale and stabilize people's hearts, the Li family deliberately took out hundreds of silver coins to buy a hundred fat pigs and dozens of fat sheep, and arranged for the housekeeper to drive the animals to the construction site with a dozen servants On the night of resumption of work, they were slaughtered for the young and strong construction workers to eat.

It worked.

After eating a big meal, the spirits of the young and strong people quickly returned to their original good state, and they were all full of energy after going to work the next day. This situation also made the state office, which had been tense for days People are completely relaxed.

When Li Jianye inspected various construction sites after resuming work, he found that the carts used by the young and old were carrying too little earth, which led to spending most of the time from digging and loading the earth to transporting the earth to the dam foundation. Accumulated over a long period of time, the progress of the project is extremely slow, and the construction period will be much longer than expected.

After a few days of thinking, Li Jianye took out an improvement map of the current cart and handed it over to Wang Jiafang, the magistrate of Zizhou who came to inspect the construction site. The latter immediately made a decision and arranged for people to hold the new cart Drawings, go back to the state government to organize manpower, and start assembly and trial production immediately after finding the materials.

This new type of cart is actually very simple, that is, the current cart frame is widened, and the wheel is still one, but after the frame is widened, the stacking baskets for transporting earthwork are changed from one to the left and right, and in front of the cart Install a wooden baffle at the top.

Within two days, the two newly built trolleys were delivered to the construction site. Li Jianye specially ordered to find a strong man with a big shoulder and a round waist, and a thin and short ordinary young man. Surprisingly good.

The strong man uses a new type of cart, which can carry about a thousand catties of earthwork at a time, and the ordinary young man can also load as much as six to seven hundred catties, which is more than the previous old-fashioned push cart that can load up to three to five hundred catties in a single stack. The efficiency of the car has increased several times, and the sense of balance is better. Although it is loaded with a lot of earthwork, it is more stable than before.

Wang Jiafang was overjoyed upon seeing this.

He immediately ordered that the state government take out the money and organize manpower to vigorously produce new types of carts, and he was going to report this new production tool to the government after returning to the government. In the sight of the court boss.

In the era without mechanization, the birth of any new production tool will greatly promote productivity, which is a great achievement.

　Thank you *Southern Expedition North War* for your reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)