Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 192 Road Construction Begins

Of the 3 victims, Nanpi intercepted some of them first, and another [-] were sent to Cangzhou City.It took half a day to register [-] victims in groups of ten households, and they were taken back by the head of the village.The other [-] yuan was simply investigated and sent to Haixing and Huanghua as rations.

The next day, road construction began quietly.

Starting from the south gate of Cangzhou City, there are two directions, one to Nanpi and the other to Haixing.The existing roads were filled with pits and removed, and then the roadbed was solidified and paved with bricks and stones.On ordinary roads, the heaviest car will not weigh more than a thousand catties, so ordinary red bricks can be very strong.

It turns out that there is no road, so bridges are built when encountering water, and detours are made when encountering mountains.It is necessary to contact as many villages and towns as possible, but also to save the distance as much as possible.

When a major project starts, the leader will inspect it as usual.Xu Qing lived outside the city overnight. Before dawn the next day, he put on his casual clothes and took a few followers to watch the past.

But in the distance the sun was glowing red, illuminating the earth and the fields.Every time you walk a short distance, you can see dozens of shirtless men busy on the road.At this time, the Mid-Autumn Festival was over, the weather was not too warm, and everyone was working on the road in the steep cold wind.

Seeing this scene, Xu Qing was a little moved.How difficult it is to rejuvenate the country, Yin worries inspire the saints, my China has been difficult since ancient times, but it has also forged the unyielding personality of the Chinese people.

Seeing this hot scene, Xu Qing felt emotional from the bottom of his heart, nodded to his followers and said, "This is very good, I'm going to see what the migrant workers eat for breakfast in a while?"

In the past, it was good to have one meal a day to help the victims of disasters. As long as you don't starve to death, you will starve to death.And Xu Qing's work-for-work guarantees three meals, which can be called the conscience of the industry.

In Xu Qing's view, road construction is more laborious than plowing the fields. It doesn't matter if you don't eat well, as the roads you build will rot after a few steps, so it's a waste of effort.Xu Qing wants to build a road that is "ten years new, ten years old, and ten years of repairing and repairing", at least 30 years of wind and sun, and a good road that people walk horses and carts.

Walking to the side of a collection, he saw the farmers in the collection before going out with hoes.At this time, the food is almost ripe, so we must hurry to dry the fields and make the last effort to increase income.Xu Qing's entourage went to find the Lichang, and secretly told the Lichang that the official from the sky is here, and then shook the official document.The village chief didn't doubt that he was there, and came out respectfully.Seeing Xu Qing immediately bowed:
"Meet Shangguan, should Shangguan come in for a drink?"

Xu Qing shook his head and said, "I'm not busy, first show me what the migrant workers eat."

Li Chang smiled and said, "Today, we will eat black-faced steamed cakes and black-faced scones. Each person will have one steamed cake and two scones."

Black noodles are much worse than white noodles. They are roughly processed food, and they are also the most common food for ordinary people. That is to say, the victims of disasters eat the same food as ordinary people.But this kind of food is already many times better than that of officials in other disaster areas.

The head of the village continued: "This is eaten during the day. We add a bowl of soup for lunch. We don't cook dinner at night. We distribute it together with wages and food to migrant workers to take home."

Xu Qing asked again: "How long do the migrant workers do?"

The head of the village said: "Get up at five o'clock to work, eat when the sun comes out, give them a break after eating, and rest for an hour at noon. Rest early at night, and work when the sun is red."

Xu Qing nodded and said, "Very well, tell me about the migrant workers. What are these migrant workers doing?"

"Yes," Li Chang's eyes lit up and his face was full of radiance when he talked about the road construction: "They are preparing the ground. Before building the road, the turf on the ground must be removed first, and the potholes need to be filled neatly. We can beat stones and compact them. Some people burn bricks, pull the bricks and put them on the wet mud. The sun has been shining for three days, and the road will be hard!"

"Shangguan, please follow the villain to have a look."

Xu Qing followed the chief to the side of the road and took a closer look.

At this time, the migrant workers were working hard, sweating profusely.As soon as the sun came out, it shone on the shiny copper-colored skin of the servants, exuding a masculine beauty.

More than a dozen migrant workers put ropes on the four sides of a large round stone plate.After putting on the rope, the eight big men each hold one end of the rope.

The head of the village stepped forward and said: "It's about time to do it, Shangguan, please be careful." Xu Qing knew that it would be very dangerous to lift up the hundreds of catties of boulders if he was not careful, so he took a few steps back.

However, seeing the head of the Xingmao coughed a few times, the eight big men holding the ladles each bent down, held the ladle poles in their hands, and were ready to lift up the ladles.

"I'll give you two shouts!" The big men shouted:

"Hey hey!"

After a hey sound, the stone slammed heavily on the rammed earth.

"In the first month, the first month is right." The crowd followed: "Hey Yang Hey."

Natou sang again: "Xiao Luocheng with a white horse and a silver spear."

Everyone: "Hey, hey!"

"Attack Dengzhou at the age of 12, stop Dengzhou and save Qin Qiong!"

"Hi Yang Hi!"

With a shout from the crowd, a three- to four-hundred-jin box was lifted high above their heads, and then smashed towards the rammed earth on the ground.Every time the stone fell to the ground, Xu Qing, who was three feet away, felt the ground tremble.

When I called me, I was heroic, and I would tell a few jokes from time to time, which made all the big men laugh.

While walking around, the head of the village saw that Xu Qing was fascinated by it, so he explained to Xu Qing: "When the rammed earth is compacted, new soil will be built, and water will be poured layer by layer to ram it. Every foot of empty soil will be compacted to seven inches. , we beat it to six inches, and finally threw it down vertically with an awl, so as not to leak."

Xu Qing thought about it a little bit, he remembered that Li Jie from the Song Dynasty wrote in "Zao Zao Fa Shi" that every five inches of empty soil should be compacted to three inches to be solid.But here one foot of empty soil is beaten to six inches, not seven inches, which is true.Then he praised the Lichang a few words and rewarded him with a lot of money.

There is still the sound of earth-borrowing and looting along the river beach.

The sun came up, and the sunlight became dazzling. At this time, dozens of peasant women came to the embankment with baskets containing black-faced steamed cakes and black-faced scones.But I saw that the baskets were heavy, and the steamed buns and scones were piled up like a hill.A few half-grown children in the back carried soup and buckets of soup.

Xu Qing made an idea, walked to the two children who were carrying the soup, picked up the soup ladle and stirred it into the bucket, only to see the oil flowers and shallots rolling on the surface of the soup.Tasted it himself, the soup was a little watery, he said to Li Chang:

"People who do hard work like to eat salty food. This soup is bland."

Hearing what Xu Qing said, the two children showed fear. They trembled when they saw the chief, and they felt even more uneasy when they saw the person who made the chief tremble.

The head of the village said: "The villain understands, and must improve." Xu Qing nodded, and then said warmly to the two children: "Take it down!"

After watching for a day, the travel speed of each point is about one and a half miles, which is why it takes time to burn bricks and quarry.As long as the victims stay here for [-] days with peace of mind, then Xu Qing can build [-] miles of "standardized" roads!
In fact, there are not so many roads, and there are not so many towns along the way as road construction points.There are also some victims who were sent to various places in Cangzhou to reclaim land, build canals and dams.

What Xu Qing was most worried about before was whether the victims would not accept 'relief with work' and 'pay rent with work', and something would happen.In such an extraordinary period, disaster relief is the most important thing. One bad thing is to fight chickens and eggs.The sky is angry and people complain, even the emperor can't keep Xu Qing.

Until now, seeing that most of the people accepted the arrangement calmly, the big stone in his heart fell to the ground.No matter how brilliant his plan is and how strict the rules are, the players must first accept his gameplay.

Fortunately, the common people in this era are still very simple, and they are even more cautious as disaster victims. As long as they are not too excessive, they will accept the government's arrangements.

Haixing and Huanghua also took in the victims one after another, and used this batch of cheap labor to carry out infrastructure construction as planned.However, these tens of thousands of victims are both good and bad.Some people are strong, some people are old and weak, some people are hardworking, and there are very few people who just make a living.

Before, Zhao Lu detained some people in Nanpi, all of them were from the whole family, they were strong and strong.Later, after Qin Shi's choice, he continued step by step, and when he reached Haixing, there were barely a few thousand people left.The rest are old, weak, sick and disabled, orphans and widows, who can't do anything but eat rice.There are a total of three thousand of these people.

Yan Ku, the magistrate of Haixing County, was also dishonest, and sent the three thousand who were unable to do anything back to Cangzhou.

Xu Qing's head hurt again.

These 3000 people are mainly orphans, elderly and sick who lost their loved ones in the typhoon disaster.These people do not have the ability to work, and no one is willing to accept them, so they must be treated separately, otherwise there is only a dead end.

At this time, it was Zhan Zeng who wrote a letter to Xu Qing, which gave Xu Qing a solution.

It turns out that during the Sui Dynasty, there were four official charity organizations for birth, old age, sickness, and death.They are Salesian Bureau, Nursing Home, Anjifang and Louze Garden.It's just that in the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, these secondary institutions have been destroyed.

These four charitable organizations are run by the government, and people who are well-known and caring are appointed as the responsible persons.The Salesian Bureau is responsible for the adoption of orphans, and the Nursing Home is responsible for the elderly who are old and childless and unable to support themselves.Anjifang is responsible for curing diseases and saving lives, as well as ultimate care. Those who cannot be cured will be buried in Louzeyuan.

At this time, Xu Qing thought of the Cangzhou Chamber of Commerce.Let the chamber of commerce pay part of the money, and the government part of the money, add the words "Cangzhou Chamber of Commerce" to the names of the four charitable organizations, and let the merchants serve as the person in charge.

It is rare for the merchants to take off the "traitor" brand and put on the "righteousness" character clothes, so they are considered enthusiastic.

The [-] people are not completely worthless, but those orphans are useful, and their own homes are gone. If they can be allowed to live in Cangzhou, it will increase the population by hundreds of households for nothing.From this aspect, orphans are more valuable than other disaster victims.

Followed by the elderly and the sick, of course, there are hundreds of "laizi" among them.The old man was taken away by people from the nursing home, went to see the home, guarded the fish pond, and gave them a job and a bowl of rice.

The patients are temporarily placed in Anjifang, and they are not required to do the work. As long as they do not infect the disease, Xu Qing will be grateful to them.In the end, Lai Zi was left.This group of people refused to work, and wanted to eat and drink for nothing.On weekdays in their hometown, they are sneaky, idle people.For these people, Xu Qing is also a rascal, so he can only reduce their rations again and again.

(End of this chapter)