Late Tang

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Daibei has not yet been won, but the construction of a longitudinal cement road seems to have been put on the agenda.The land of Daibei is the connection point between Hebei, Hedong and the grassland outside the Great Wall. Whether it is going from Hebei to Jin and out of the Great Wall, or from Hedong to Jin and Yan to the Great Wall, or from the Great Wall to the south of Yanjin, this is the only way to go.If the Qin army built roads connecting the three places, it would be very important to strengthen the control here.Even according to the strategic plan of the Qin army, after taking Hebei in the future, the Qin Fan will inevitably send troops across Taihang and directly take the land of Shanxi.Even after winning Shanxi, we will use Shanxi as a springboard to attack directly.Therefore, this transportation line is becoming more and more important.

In the current era, transportation mainly relies on inland waterway shipping and sea transportation, and inland waterway shipping can carry two to three hundred stones, or even ten thousand stones can be found everywhere.In the Tang Dynasty, one stone weighed 120 kilograms, in the Tang Dynasty one tael was about 42 grams, and in one catty 16 taels was about 680 grams. The weight unit of a stone was almost 80 kilograms.Therefore, an ordinary river transport ship wears two hundred stones, but also has 16 tons.As for Wanshi's ship, it has a carrying capacity of up to 800 tons. In later generations, [-] tons of carrying capacity is nothing, but at this time, it is already a giant. Such ships can only sail in the Yangtze River, Canal, Huaihe River, Yellow River, etc. The lower reaches of the river, and most rivers can be navigated by boats of two or three hundred stones.

Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, has always relied on the money and grain from the southeast to supply taxes, and these grains and taxes need to be transported to Guanzhong via canals.

The lifeline of the Tang Dynasty was the canal. Goods from the southeast had to be transported to Guanzhong through the canal, that is, Bashu and other places in the southwest, and most of them even passed through the Yangtze River. It was turned back and sent to the Yellow River through the canal north, and then transported all the way west to Beijing.

Once the canal was alerted, it directly strangled Guan Zhong by the throat.

This is also the reason why Dezong and his son embraced each other with joy when they heard that the canal was reopened. It is also the reason why Tian Lingzi hurriedly fled Chang'an with Li Xuan. The town also asked them for money and food.

The political center of the Tang Dynasty was in Guanzhong, in the Central Plains, but their lifeline was the canal.

Li Jing's Qin Fan has been able to develop so rapidly in recent years, in fact, there is a big reason why Li Jing does not rely on this main artery.Li Jing initially used Dengzhou as his base and operated Liaodong as his base camp, and then captured Hebei, relying on maritime transportation in the Bohai Sea.

The huge Bohai Sea, coupled with a powerful navy, as well as a developed shipbuilding and shipping industry, made Li Jing use countless ships to carry out transportation and transportation through the Bohai Sea.

After conquering Liaodong, Li Jing also began to build a coastal road, centered on the Liao River in the longitudinal direction, from Yingkou by the sea to the Xiliao River in the north.And rampant, from Shanhaiguan near the sea, has been repaired to Pyongyang on the south bank of the Yalu River.

This road cost the Qin army a lot of financial resources and manpower, but after it was completed, it played a huge role in controlling Liaodong.However, this road is made of loess sand and gravel, and it is very inconvenient when it rains, and it is muddy. Even on weekdays, the road is often overwhelmed and must be maintained frequently.More often, the long-distance transportation of the Qin army still had to rely on sea transportation.

But now the Qin Army's center of gravity has gradually shifted to Hebei. Not only that, but with the continuous expansion of the Qin Army, the Qin Army's power has continued to expand to the Central Plains.

In the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Rehe, and Shandong, the Qin army continued to expand westward, and it became increasingly unsatisfactory to rely solely on sea transportation.Another more troublesome problem for shipping is that every year in winter, the beeping port of the northern port is basically frozen, and the freezing period lasts for two to three months.Although the Qin army has several ice-free ports, it is far from enough to meet the transportation volume during this period.Especially this defect, in times of war, is sometimes fatal.

Now Li Jing is preparing to draw up a new plan, a vertical line plan.

Li Jing's plan for the vertical line is to establish a comprehensive system of sea, water, and land transportation to comprehensively enhance the transportation capabilities of the Qin army.This vertical line is not only to solve the problem of transporting materials, but more importantly, it is to allow the Qin army to deploy to any front-line battlefield in the territory more quickly.

His idea is that in the future, the Qin Dynasty will still pay attention to shipping. From Pyongyang to Dalian to Tianjin to Dengzhou to Qingdao to the mouth of the Huaihe River, to Chuzhou, and along the coast, more ports will be expanded and more sea-going ships will be built.At the same time, the Qin army will also take the Yalu River, Liaohe River, Bailang River, Luanhe River, Sanggan River, Zhangshui River, Juma River, Hutuo River, Yongji Canal, Yellow River, Jishui, Huaihe River, Bianhe River, Surabaya River, etc. Sixteen large rivers in the territory of Yishui, Yishui and Shushui are connected to form a huge inland river water transportation network.

In addition, the most important thing is the land longitudinal line. Li Jing plans to build a concrete road on the basis of the road around the sea from Pyongyang to Shanhaiguan.This new avenue will start from Shangjingfu in the Balhae State, pass through Zhongjingfu, Tokyo Prefecture, Tokyo Prefecture and other coastal areas along the way, connect to Pyongyang, the inner city, Dalian, Lushun, and Beisha on the Liaodong Peninsula, and then West coast to Yingkou, Liaoyang, Panjin, Jinzhou, Qinwangdao, Shanhaiguan, Tangshan, Yanjing, Tianjin, Cangzhou, Mozhou, Tianjin, Dizhou, Dezhou, Qizhou, Qingzhou, Dengzhou, Yanzhou, Yizhou, Hai Zhouzhou, Sizhou, Chuzhou and other places.

This road will be based on the foundation of each section of the original road, and thick cement will be paved to increase the bearing capacity of the road. At the same time, drainage ditches will be excavated on both sides to reduce the damage of rainwater to the road surface and roadbed.This will be a two-way four-lane concrete road, which will be used to solve the problem of ice in the northern sea in winter, and inland rivers in winter, which cause poor transportation.

On this ultra-long land trunk line with a length of five thousand miles, some horizontal cement roads will also be built to connect the nearby cities that this trunk road passes through.

In this way, even in the winter freezing period, there is such a wide two-way four-lane concrete main road, and the land transportation of the Qin army can be transported by four-wheeled carriages, or even six-wheeled or eight-wheeled heavy-duty carriages.

In the plan of this land longitudinal trunk line, there is also a horizontal trunk line.Li Jing planned to build an avenue across the Northeast region from Zhongjingfu in Bohai State to the east, all the way to the west.Of course, this is only a long-term plan. The current plan is to build westward from the domestic city by the Yalu River, pass through Phoenix City, Liaoyang City, Yingzhou, Chengde, Xijing Yazhang, and then pass through Junduguan and Guizhou to Datong In the future, Yunzhou will pass through the Zhenwu army westward, leave the east of the river, and enter the Longyou River along the Yellow River.Fengzhou, Lingzhou, Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, Shazhou and other Hexi places.

These two trunk lines will both be centered on Yanjing, with the vertical line connecting the north and the south, and the horizontal line connecting the east and west.

Once these two roads are repaired, the longitudinal line will solve the problem of grain and grass transportation, as well as the transportation of goods.The horizontal line is more important to help improve the Qin army's control over the Yanshan and Yinshan lines in the north.With the road, the Qin army can continue to push the control area from the line of Yanshan and Yinshan to the north, until it reaches the grassland, so that Qin Fan's Yanjing strategic defense circle will be expanded to the north, and the strategic defense layer will be expanded by another layer. Safe and secure.

Of course, if these two roads are completed, it will also provide a more convenient channel for the Qin army to march southward and expand westward in the future.At that time, the Qin army went south along the road to Huainan.If the cavalry goes west along the road, it can reach Daibei at more than double its current speed.And the logistics transportation can also keep up with the army by the way, and the logistics will never let the army's offensive rhythm be delayed.

In this way, with the strategic core circle around the Bohai Sea, plus the north-south waterway transportation line, plus the north-south east-west land trunk line, once there is police, the Qin army can even rely on its strong mobility and transportation network to play a certain role. Degree of advantage in inside line operations.

In terms of shipping, it only needs to build a few more terminals and expand a few existing ones.

In terms of water transportation, the North-South Grand Canal is the main one, and what needs to be done is to dredge the dozen or so big rivers from the northeast to Huainan, and to connect suitable rivers.

The real big project is still the two avenues from north to south, and the longitudinal trunk line is five thousand miles long.This main line is mainly to connect the existing roads and then upgrade them, so the most labor-intensive work of excavation and foundation compaction can be saved, but even if no new roads are required, the cement required is definitely not a small amount. Numbers, even those two gutters are no small project.And not only a lot of cement is needed, but also a lot of road workers.

In this regard, Li Jing thought about it for a long time, and planned to arrange more and more refugees to build roads, let the refugees go to work, and give food wages.Roads are built in sections, and when a section of road is completed, the displaced persons who built the road in this section will be directly resettled in the vicinity of the road and distributed to the land.In addition, strong young people were drawn out of them, busy with farming, and received training in their spare time, making them become road guard militiamen. These people took turns to maintain the local roads, and set up checkpoints at different levels to collect tolls , to cover road maintenance fees, training funds and subsidies for these militiamen.Since then, these refugees have attached themselves to the main road, farming, building roads, receiving training, and collecting tolls.In case of war, they will also be conscripted as soldiers to assist local operations.

Especially in the areas outside the pass, where the land is vast and sparsely populated, this kind of militia can sometimes make up for the lack of regular soldiers of the Qin army.For the areas outside the customs, even if they immigrate, it is impossible to change the situation in the areas outside the customs. It is necessary to add some road guard militias in addition to the soldiers garrison, the united barracks of the counties, and the township troops.

But the question that made Li Jing hesitant the most was, even if a concrete road was built, how much material could the animal-drawn cart carry?

By sea, shipping can reach a ship of ten thousand stones, and thousands of stones at most.Inland water transport is also dominated by a ship of two or three hundred shi.How much can land transport transport?

Li Jing looked at some statistics, a bull pulling a cart can carry eight stones, and a cow can carry five stones.A cart drawn by two oxen, at least ten stone.However, this refers to two-wheeled vehicles. If it is a concrete road, a four-wheeled carriage can be driven, and the four-wheeled carriage should carry more weight.

Historically, the application of four-wheeled carriages in the Napoleonic Wars reached its peak. In the war of Napoleon’s invasion of Japan alone, the French army mobilized 38700 heavy and light four-wheeled carriages. Each heavy carriage can carry 1.5 tons of supplies. It is said that Napoleon The number of horses used by the Chinese army to draw carriages reached 187621.

According to this figure, the weight of a heavy carriage is more than two and a half times that of an ordinary ox cart.And if it is a concrete road, then the four-wheeled carriage can be bigger, the road is easier to walk, and the truck will be bigger.If a heavy four-wheeled carriage weighs two tons, it is equivalent to 25 shi, and twelve heavy carriages can be equivalent to a 400-shi sailing ship in an inland river.It takes [-] heavy carriages to be equivalent to the load of a general Wanshi ship.

When looking at the numbers, the transportation volume of land transportation is far inferior to that of sea transportation, and it is also not as good as that of inland river shipping.

But in the end Li Jing still felt that the main land route was necessary.Because these two main lines are not intended to replace sea and land transportation, but are used as an aid to sea and water transportation.Sea transportation has the largest load capacity, but it is also extremely restricted. Not only the northern ports freeze in winter, but also cannot leave the port during summer storms.At the same time, sea freight can only be transported along the coast.Inland water transportation is also very restricted. They can only transport in inland rivers, and river channels often limit the number of ships that can be transported. It is also impossible to transport in winter when it freezes or when the water is dry.

The amount of land transportation is small, but it has an advantage that it is not restricted by weather or seasons, and as long as there is a road, it can be reached anywhere.

What's more important is that after the roads are repaired, they can not only transport supplies, but also play a huge role in the military, quickly transporting troops!

Li Jing nodded, and marked the last period with the pencil in his hand, finally completing the long "Sea-Land-River Transportation Longitudinal Line Plan". (To be continued.)