Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 317 Cement
During the entire battle, Li Qiang only threw out one "Soul Talisman".

"There's really no feeling of fighting!" he muttered to himself somewhat boredly.

This Shenying waiter is too weak, so weak that it is a waste for him to bring out such a large lineup.

But he was not arrogant. When dealing with any immortal, he would go all out and would not hold back at all.

Who knows what special methods the immortal has? If you are not careful, you will only have one life.

He came before the attendant Shenying, and at this moment the attendant's body turned into ashes.

Li Qiang was even more certain that the strength of the Shenying attendant had not recovered, because the body of a true immortal would not be destroyed by a "Soul Talisman".

Seeing the fake 'Psychic Jade' in the ashes, he picked it up, lightly touched it with his hand, and took back the magic power left in the fake 'Psychic Jade'.

With a sound of "crack", as the magic power was withdrawn, the jade also cracked.

"Could it be that after losing the 'Magic Jade', the protagonist of this world of Red Mansions has lost his spirituality and even his own luck?" Li Qiang murmured.

The beginning of Jia Baoyu's bad luck was when he secretly replaced Jia Baoyu's "Magic Jade".

Li Qiang glanced at Jia Gong. At present, the "magic jade" was worn by Jia Gong.

He felt that the 'magic jade' was a bit weird. Regardless of whether it would bring spirituality or luck to its owner, he would not wear the 'magic jade' on himself.

With a wave of his hand, he collected the six divine corpses, leaving Jia Gong as the summoned creature and collecting the rest as well.

He then returned to the palace silently, and when he entered the Crown Princess's bedroom, the clothes on his body automatically changed into sleeping clothes.

He returned to Lin Daiyu's side, and as soon as he fell asleep, Lin Daiyu turned over and lay in his arms.

He tightened his arms, smiled and closed his eyes.

If it weren't for accompanying Lin Daiyu, he actually wouldn't need to sleep. Daily practice could replace sleep.

But he didn't want Lin Daiyu to think that he was too out of the human realm, so he tried his best to remain an ordinary person in front of Lin Daiyu.

At the Xue family, Xue Baochai suddenly sat up from the bed. She was sweating profusely, and her eyes looked particularly frightened in the candlelight.

"Baoyu!" She had just had a dream in which Baoyu turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared in front of her.

She was breathing heavily, and inexplicably she had a feeling that she and Jia Baoyu were completely separated.

Her tears flowed down her cheeks. Although she had a lot of thoughts in her mind and was not sure whether she had a deep love for Jia Baoyu, she and Jia Baoyu grew up together after all, and the feelings between them were real.

"Miss, what's wrong?" The maid discovered Xue Baochai's situation and hurried over to ask.

"It's nothing, I just had a nightmare. You should go to sleep too!" Xue Baochai said softly.

She lay down again and could no longer fall asleep. The scene of Jia Baoyu turning into smoke kept appearing before her eyes.

Li Qiang got up before it got light outside.

He washed up with the help of his maids, and without disturbing Lin Daiyu who was still sleeping, he went to see the child first.

The three wet nurses in the palace were extremely experienced in taking care of children, and the children’s daily routines were almost the same as those of adults.

Li Qiang attended the morning court and returned to the main hall of the East Palace.

He asked Jin Dong to issue an imperial edict, which was about the treatment of craftsmen.

The cabinet redefined the status of craftsmen. Craftsmen had the same status as civilians, and their descendants could take part in imperial examinations. At the same time, craftsmen could also take part in corresponding assessments and be given corresponding qualifications.

The best craftsmen could serve as officials in the court, with the highest rank reaching the fifth rank.

Li Qiang was still somewhat dissatisfied with the treatment he received as a craftsman, as it really did not meet his requirements.

But this was formulated after the cabinet had tried every possible means and made compromises among many parties. Both civil and military officials in the court had their objections to improving the status of craftsmen.

Li Qiang did not force the cabinet to formulate the treatment of craftsmen according to his wishes. He thought it would be more appropriate to propose changes after the craftsmen had demonstrated sufficient value.

The issuance of this imperial edict was extremely low-key, with only the Ministry of Works and craftsmen paying attention to it.

"Son, this is great news. The status of craftsmen has been improved. You can take part in the imperial examinations without having to ask anyone to move your household registration out!" Craftsman Ke Ping ran back home from the workshop and said excitedly as soon as he entered the door.

Ke Ping's son Ke Jin was smart since childhood. Ke Ping had very high expectations for the child and sent him to school at a very young age.

No matter how poor the family was, it did not stop Ke Jin from studying.

It was fine when taking the Tongsheng exam, there was no overly strict review.

However, when taking the scholar examination, one's background needs to be examined.

When Ke Jin was young, he lost the qualification to take the scholar examination because he came from a family of craftsmen.

If he wanted to take the examination for the scholar, he had to leave his family as a craftsman, which was not easy. Even if Ke Ping used all his connections and asked many people for help, he could not do it.

This also made Ke Ping feel sorry for his son as he had lost the opportunity to take the imperial examination.

But who would have thought that the situation would change. Today, the yamen runners came to the workshop and announced the new treatment for craftsmen. Craftsmen were no longer untouchables, but members of the common people.

"Really?" Ke Jin looked at his father in disbelief.

He couldn't help but laugh when he saw his father's excited expression.

"Father, I want to study and will definitely live up to your expectations!" He tried hard to hold back his tears of excitement, picked up a book beside him and said loudly.

Similar situations like this one happened in various places in Daqian. The change in the identity of craftsmen changed their lives.

Some people love the craftsman's craft, but give up their dreams for fear of becoming a craftsman. Later, as the identity of craftsmen changes, more and more people will join the craftsmen.

This is exactly what Li Qiang hopes to see. In his opinion, the master craftsmen of Daqian are not only highly skilled workers, but also engineers of future generations.

As long as the potential of this class is tapped, Daqian's technology will be greatly developed.

Not to mention Li Qiang, a commander who knows the direction of future technology and can maximize the abilities of the craftsmen.

In the afternoon, Li Qiang left the palace in the prince's carriage, accompanied by Tian Daxueshi and Lin Ruhai, and they came to the outskirts of the city.

This place was originally a wasteland of rubble, but now it is surrounded by a wall.

At this moment, there were people kneeling on the ground at the gate of the wall, and the one in front was Manager Zhang, who was in charge here.

This place was built at the request of Li Qiang, and together with the several mountains behind it, they are all properties of Datong Money House.

Of course, today's Datong Money House is Li Qiang's private property.

In fact, in addition to the six major merchants, Datong Money House also has some hidden shares, and the holders of these hidden shares are some noble people in Daqian.

But after Prince Li Qiang took over Datong Money House, these people dared not approach Datong Money House to talk about the secret shares.

Because the six major merchants behind Datong Bank were involved in so many things, they were afraid that they would be implicated by Datong Bank and suffer the same fate as the six major merchants. Everyone knew that Prince Li Qiang had a bad temper, and no one in Daqian dared to compete with him for wealth.

Therefore, the Chase Bank is now 100% under the complete control of Li Qiang.

"Manager Zhang, how's the matter going?" Li Qianxu asked as he helped Manager Zhang up.

"Your Highness, you may come in and take a look!" Steward Zhang replied respectfully.

When Li Qiang walked through the gate, she saw a straight road leading to the workshop inside.

His eyes were fixed on the road in front of him. The road was more than ten meters wide, with no seams on its surface, forming a seamless whole.

"This is a road made of cement!" Li Qiang stepped hard on the ground and said with satisfaction.

"Your Highness, the first batch of cement we produced was used on this road and the workshop behind!" Steward Zhang introduced at the right time.

"Cement? Is this the magical thing that Your Highness mentioned that can turn mud into stone?" Grand Secretary Tian squatted down and asked while touching the ground of the road with his hand.

Even though he had heard Li Qiang mention it, he was still shocked when he actually saw the real thing.

"Can I have a test?" he asked.

"Okay!" Li Qiang agreed with a smile.

Scholar Tian took a knife from a guard beside him and chopped at the ground while the guard looked distressed.

After chopping with the knife several times, he saw that the ground was almost undamaged and couldn't help showing a look of surprise.

He turned around and wanted to find a hammer or something like that to experiment with, but when he looked back, he couldn't find it.

"Master Zhongtang, if you want to conduct experiments, there are various experimental tools in front of the workshop!" Manager Zhang reminded.

"Take me there quickly!" said Scholar Tian hurriedly.

He was a little impolite at this time, but Li Qiang did not mean to blame him.

He also knows how great an impact cement has on this era.

Lin Ruhai didn't say anything the whole time, he was also watching very seriously.

Scholar Tian walked quickly to the door of the workshop, where there were several cement blocks and various types of hammers placed beside them.

He picked up a hammer and smashed it hard on the concrete block.

After just two hits, he couldn't bear it anymore. His strength was still too weak to cause any damage to the cement blocks.

"Come here and smash it!" Grand Secretary Tian pointed at a guard and ordered.

The guard looked at Li Qiang, waiting for her consent.

The guards are people in the palace. Even if Grand Secretary Tian is in a high position and has great power, it is impossible for him to obey the orders of the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet in front of the Crown Prince.

"Follow Tanaka-do's instructions!" Li Qiang said, waving his hand.

The guard bowed and accepted the order, picked up a sledgehammer, and smashed it hard on the cement block.

After one, two, and many times, the cement block turned into pieces after being hit multiple times.

"Enough. This cement is similar to stone. I wonder if its use is complicated?" Grand Secretary Tian waved his hand to stop the guards and asked Manager Zhang.

"Cement is in powder form. You only need to add a certain proportion of sand to water to shape it into various shapes. It will become hard after a period of time!" explained Manager Zhang.

"It's really convenient, but how much does it cost?" asked Scholar Tian.

"The main raw material of cement is rock from the mountain, which needs to be burned by flames. The fuel currently used is coal, and the cost required is just this!" Manager Zhang had received Li Qiang's instructions long ago, so he knew everything.

"Good, good, good!" said Grand Secretary Tian excitedly, rubbing his hands repeatedly.

Based on this cost, the cost will not be that high.

You have to know that when Daqian built city walls, palaces and other buildings, the stones had to be processed in advance, and the stone extraction and processing alone was extremely time-consuming.

Not to mention that egg white and glutinous rice are used to glue the stones together, and the consumption of this part is even more terrible.

If this kind of cement is used throughout, Daqian will definitely be able to build a city at any time and extend the cement roads there.

"In fact, if you want to make the cement stronger, you can insert iron bars in it for support. Unfortunately, Daqian still doesn't have enough iron!" Li Qiang said.

"Although there is little iron, it can be used in key places. For other unimportant places, cement is strong enough!" said Scholar Tian with a smile.

He was already thinking about where to use the cement first. He looked at the previous cement road and immediately made up his mind to replace all the important roads in Daqian with cement roads first.

With cement roads, Daqian’s land transportation can be many times faster, making the connections between cities closer.

By the way, there are also the defenses of the border towns. The walls there are made of cement and iron bars. Even if foreigners use heavy siege equipment, they will not be able to break through the defenses of the border towns.

Ideas arose in his mind one after another, giving him constant inspiration.

"By the way, what is the production of cement?" He asked another important question.

"We are still in trial production. As long as there is a need, we can expand production at any time!" Li Qiang replied with a smile. He thought for a moment and then said, "This is an industry owned by Datong Bank. With the support of Datong Bank, no matter how much cement is needed, we can quickly increase production!"

How could Academician Tian not understand in his heart that the so-called Datong Money House was the wallet of Crown Prince Li Qiang.

But with the support of Crown Prince Li Qiang, there is no need to worry about the production of cement.

Everyone knows Li Qiang's wealth. Not to mention that he had taken over the businesses of six major merchants, just the 90 million taels of silver notes in Li Qiang's hands before was a huge fortune.

"The cabinet will study it and allocate a sum of money from the national treasury specifically for the purchase of this cement!" After exchanging glances with Lin Ruhai, Grand Secretary Tian decided.

He did not let Crown Prince Li Qiang give away cement. The amount of cement needed by Daqian would be an astronomical figure. Even if the world belonged to Li Qiang, it was impossible for Li Qiang to give it away for free.

The key point is that Li Qiang’s attitude can be seen from the fact that he had previously said that the cement was the property of Datong Money House.

Datong Bank is a business, not a charity.

"I really hope to see the appearance of cement roads as soon as possible!" Lin Ruhai said with emotion.

"The cement needed for the main roads in Beijing, even if it is just a sample display, does not need to be purchased with silver. It can be provided free of charge by Datong Bank!" Li Qiang said at this time.

Although Tian Daxueshi and Lin Ruhai saw the benefits of cement, in order to promote cement throughout Daqian, they still had to let everyone know the properties of cement.

As for the cement sent to the capital, he regarded it as advertising fee and he didn't care about the loss.

"Haha, thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince!" Academician Tian was overjoyed. Now he could use the money he saved to buy more cement and use it in other places.

(End of this chapter)