Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 943 The Great Western Development

The spring of the fourth year of the Great Qin Kaiyuan.

The emperor drew a few lines on the map, and the whole world began to get busy around these lines.

The first line is to re-drag the North-South Grand Canal. The imperial court set up four canal transfer envoys, who are responsible for the Hebei section, Henan section, Huainan section and Jiangnan section of the canal. The four transfer envoys have their own transfer envoys. The dredging of canals, the taxation of river passes, the maintenance of dams, and the safety of water transportation.

The second line drawn by the emperor was to rebuild the Qin Zhidao from Guanzhong to the north of Chang'an.At that time, Qin Shihuang ordered to build a road from Yunyang to Wuyuan County in Hetao, which was more than 700 kilometers long.

This road is still in use at this time, but many places are in disrepair.

The reason why the emperor drew the second line on this Qin Zhidao is that the key is that Daqin has now regained the land of Hetao.The Yellow River is full of evils, but only rich. Hetao is a granary. If you want to defend the northern border, this granary is extremely important to Daqin.

But although Hetao is rich, it also has a very fatal problem, that is, there is a huge desert Gobi between Guanzhong and Guanzhong. This desert is too big and it is difficult to walk through it.

And if you don’t cross Hengshan and the northern desert directly from the middle of the north to the north, you can only go west along the east bank of the Yellow River to the north, or go east along the west bank of the Yellow River to the north, but there is a problem with these two routes, one is to go around farther Second, the road is along the Yellow River, especially the east route, which will face countless river valleys running from east to west. With the ability at that time, it was difficult to continuously cross these rivers and build a straight road.

If these rivers are constantly bypassed, the road will be infinitely extended.

It is for these reasons that Emperor Qin finally ordered the construction of a straight road leading northward to Wuyuan.

To cross the Hengshan Mountains, you have to cross the vast desert, especially if you go directly to the north, you also have to face the problem of crossing many valleys and rivers. At that time, the people of Qin came up with a wonderful idea, that is, to turn this road It was built on the watershed of Meridian Ridge.

The road is built along the ridge, and ten horse-drawn carriages can be paralleled.

Ziwu Ridge is not low, but it is not extremely high either. This is a height where roads can be built and walked. At the same time, the climate in Guanzhong and the terrain make it relatively easy to build roads on the mountains.

The most important point is that such a road construction perfectly bypasses the valleys and valleys on both sides of the Meridian Ridge ridge, without filling the mountain frame river, and walks directly on the ridge.

It has reached the south side of Dingbian County in Shuofang, and then entered the Ordos Plateau in the north. Since then, it has been crossing the Yellow River at Zhaojun Tomb in the north, and arrived in Baotou area of ​​later generations.

This route has greatly shortened the distance from Guanzhong to Wuyuan, especially the road from Yunyang in Guannei to Shuofang Dingbian, which is covered with continuous mountains and countless valleys. It can be said that this route is simply a miracle.

The [-]-mile straight road with an average width of ten feet not only avoids valleys and rivers, but at the same time, because it is built on the ridge of the watershed, it is not far from the water source. extremely important.

It was not until recent years that later generations built a Yellow River Highway along the Shanxi-Shaanxi Yellow River Grand Canyon, which shows how great Qin Zhidao is.

It's just that after the Qin Dynasty, the grasp of Hetao was not firm, so this straight road did not achieve the purpose of Qin Shihuang's original design.

This road design is an offensive road, which connects Guanzhong and Hetao.

However, after the Qin Dynasty, in order to prevent the Hu people from the north from going directly south along this road, the imperial court adopted a conservative defense strategy for this straight road.They contacted Hetao, and more often used Yunzhong County in Daibei, relying on Taiyuan Yanmen Yunzhong to control Hetao.Or, in many cases, the barbarians who defend Hetao are restrained by the cloud.

While repairing the Qin Zhidao, the emperor also drew a line to open up a waterway from Lingwu to Yulin County, and build a water transportation line for the whole zigzag-shaped Hetao area, which is a relatively gentle section of the Yellow River.

Many parts of the Yellow River are not navigable, but the river surface of more than a thousand miles along the Hetao area is suitable for navigation and can be transported by boat.

Therefore, the Qin Zhidao was repaired, and the land passage from Guanzhong to Jiuyuan City via the [-]-li straight road was opened. At the same time, the emperor also opened up the Yellow River shipping from Lingwu to Yulin.

After the shipping was opened up, Guanzhong and Hetao were no longer tied by a thin thread.

At the same time, a Yellow River route can also closely connect Chang'an, Hexi, Longyou, Shuofang, and Dingxiang.

With [-] miles of straight roads and [-] miles of waterways, Guanlong River Shuo is completely connected and connected as one.

The third line drawn by the emperor is from Tongba County in Hanzhong, then to the middle of Guizhou, connecting Yunnan, Tongguangnan, and Jiannan.

This southwestern artery completely connects and connects the entire southwestern region, bringing them together.

The emperor drew a few lines, and the entire northwest and southwest regions became huge construction sites.

Shipyards can be seen everywhere, and there are timber factories everywhere, dragging along the river valleys, following the emperor's route, to connect these old roads along the way.

This is a big project, and almost all the counties in the southwest and northwest have been mobilized.

Every day, new boats entered the water, horses and chariots galloped along the roads, and teams of slaves were sent over. Countless people responded to the government's call during the slack season and accepted employment to build roads to make money.

All counties and counties implement comprehensive planning, and then do it in the form of splitting and contracting.

Open roads in the mountains, build bridges in the water, a pier fort every ten miles, a post station every twenty miles, there must be a military station at thirty miles, and a military fort at fifty miles.

This one, a team came along the Han-Qian Road that had just taken shape.

A young man in the team looked at the people who were building roads along the way, and he no longer had the curiosity and excitement he had at the beginning. His name was Li Sanlang, also known as Li Sanbao, and he was from Luling County, Jiangnan West Road. He entered a shop as an apprentice clerk.Apprentices in this era are not as simple as those in later generations. When you enter a shop, you have to learn from a master. In the first three years, you are not allowed to learn anything, just doing odd jobs and waiting on the master.

In the words of the master, this is tempering one's temper and observing one's character. It is not difficult to learn a craft, but it is difficult to raise a population.If the apprentice becomes impatient and can't bear it during these three years, he will be expelled and will not be able to teach skills at all.Even after the first three years, the master did not pass on the skills to you all at once.

In the second three years, only the basic skills are taught, and at the same time, the work of serving the master is unavoidable.Wait until the third three years to let you get started with some simple ones. After the fourth three years, you can barely be regarded as a teacher, but you have to continue to work for the master and the shop. In the first ten years, the guys basically had no salary, so those who have a stutter are considered good, and those who give out something during the holidays are considered generous.

If there were no turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, perhaps Li Sanbao's life would be like this. After three years and three years, he went from apprentice to clerk, then to manager and then to shopkeeper. A small sum of money, and then go back to the hometown to buy some fields to enjoy the old age.

It's just that the world is in turmoil. Last year, he went north with his master to do business in Yuzhang County. In the end, Lin Shihong and Shen Faxing fought. His master was killed and his goods were taken away. He escaped by jumping into the river.Later, he swam to the north bank of the Yangtze River and became a wanderer.

Fortunately, he was lucky. At this time, the north was unified and relatively more stable.

However, although the San Francisco in the south is enshrined in Zhengshuo of the Qin State, and the north does not march south, the San Francisco itself still keeps attacking each other.

Taxes are also high, and there are various apportionments, so many people from the south of the Yangtze River secretly cross the river to the north. For these people from the south, the Great Qin court has always been more welcoming.

(End of this chapter)