Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 574

"Forget it, my brother said that if you don't fix it, you won't fix it."

Outside the Longjiang Shipyard outside Nanjing, when Zhu Youxiao was standing on the concrete floor looking at the Yangtze River, he also replied to Zhang Yandeng, Minister of the Ministry of Industry.

When Zhang Yandeng heard that this difficult errand was cancelled, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

While he was rejoicing, Zhu Youxiao also pointed to the Yangtze River Bridge in the distance, pointing to it and asking:

"When I went south, I wanted to ask how the Yingtianfu Yangtze River Bridge and the Huaianfu Huanghuai Bridge were built?"

Zhu Youxiao asked a question that he was very curious about. After all, in his opinion, the Yangtze River has only pontoon bridges since ancient times, and there is no high bridge that can take root in the river bed.

Therefore, he was amazed by Nanjing and the Huaihe and Yellow River bridges from the very beginning.

In this regard, Zhang Yandeng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, also explained:
"It is really difficult to build bridges on rivers and rivers. If we put it in the past, the ministers and others had the means to reach the sky, and they would not be able to build the Yangtze River Bridge and the Huanghuai Bridge."

"However, since the advent of concrete, steel bars, and steam engines, it has not been difficult to build bridges."

"After discussions between the Ministries of Industry of the North and the South, they believed that the Yangtze River Bridge was not easy to build. If you want to build it, you have to start from the source."

"Therefore, the construction of the Yangtze River Bridge originated after the recovery of Uzang in the 13th year of Tianqi." Zhang Yandeng explained:
"In the 13th year of the Apocalypse, Uzbek, Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Yunnan, and Nanzhili and other six provinces in Beijing jointly built reservoirs and dams, and at the same time widened the waterway of the Yangtze River."

"In addition to the severe drought in Sichuan and Jiangxi provinces in the same year, we relied on Li Bing's ancient method of governing the Minjiang River to excavate the tributary waterways on both sides of the Yangtze River, constantly digging deeper and wider to divert the flow."

"Because the imperial court's Jinglong Railway, Jingguang Railway, and Beijing-Hangzhou Railway all need to cross the Yangtze River, it is also appropriate for the provinces to contribute."

Zhang Yandeng explained, Zhu Youxiao also listened, and was very interested.

In general, the thinking of the Ministry of Industry of the two capitals is "Anyway, it is a severe drought, and water needs to be stored, so let's take advantage of this major repair of dams and carry out some large-scale projects at the same time as a meritorious service."

Normally, the water level of the Yangtze River must be lower than the two banks, otherwise the embankment will overflow.

However, when officials along the Gaoguan River face this kind of problem, they usually ask people to dig artificial river channels first, and lower the river channels far below the water level of the Yangtze River.

This kind of project would be a waste of people and money in the Taiping period, but not in the Tianqi period.

Because there were hungry people everywhere during the Tianqi period, this kind of big project was called "relief with work".

Using the money of the imperial court to do the affairs of the imperial court and satisfy their own merits, officials from all over the country made a lot of achievements in digging artificial rivers, and then they were promoted.

Since Tianqi had just wiped out Jianlu and Dongyu in the 13th year, the court as a whole did not have a big battle, and a lot of gunpowder was useless, so it was basically used to dig rivers.

As for the soil excavated from each road, it was used to build city walls, tamp roads, or pour it directly into the Yangtze River.

As a result, soil was dumped in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and many sand states rushed out of the middle and lower reaches.

The Chongming Island Sandhouse in Songjiang Prefecture was more than doubled in size. Originally, Jingjiang County in Yangzhou Prefecture and Taixing County in Yangzhou Prefecture were separated by a two-mile river. As a result, the river was washed only one and a half miles wide.

This is just the estuary of the Yangtze River. It can be said that from the three towns of Wuhan in Huguang to Zhenjiang in South Zhili, a lot of sediment has been washed down along the way.

Baguazhou on the opposite side of Nanjing was originally just a sand state covering an area of ​​less than 1 mu, but it has been washed up several times over the past few years.

Other floating islands on the Yangtze River such as Qianzhou, Jiangxinzhou, and New Jeju have also been continuously washed up.

Although it is not as big as the later generations, if the upstream continues to do this for more than ten years, I am afraid that these sand states will become the size of the later sand states hundreds of years in advance.

In short, these operations are the methods of operation that officials from all over the Ming Dynasty have been familiar with for a long time.

The Ming Dynasty paid great attention to the management of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River since the Hongwu period, so there are many dry embankments in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

For example, the Wuhan City embankment and Huangguang embankment in Huguang, and the Tongma embankment and Wuwei embankment in Nanzhili were mostly formed in the Ming Dynasty.

The most famous of these is the Jingjiang levee in the 21st year of Jiajing. The entire dam defense line is [-] miles long and is known as the Wancheng levee.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry wanted to build the Yangtze River Bridge, and the local people wanted to "irrigate the river and prevent the flooding of the river." The two parties hit it off and started construction.

As a result, in just three years, more than [-] large-scale water conservancy projects such as ponds, ponds, polders, polders, and artificial rivers have been built in the Yangtze River Basin, involving more than [-] million people.

The functions of various river courses, dams, ponds, ponds, and polders are to reduce the rapid flow of the Yangtze River.

However, just doing this is not enough to build the Yangtze River Bridge, because many feudal dynasties after the Sui and Tang Dynasties were able to do the above-mentioned things.

The reason why no dynasty built the Yangtze River Bridge is that the bridge construction technology is not good.

The arch bridge technology in ancient times is very powerful, but it can only cope with rivers that are not wide or deep, and the water depth in Nanjing can reach four feet even in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, even though Daming controlled the flow of water through the upper reaches, and with the help of the drought, the water depth in Nanjing was reduced to three feet, four or five feet, but if the bridge construction technology does not improve, the Yangtze River Bridge will still not be able to be completed.

However, the problem of building bridges is not difficult for Zhu Youjian. After all, he went to help the poor in his previous life, and the place where he helped the poor is the west.

The mountains in the west are also dangerous, so building bridges and roads was a normal project in the background at that time.

When building roads and bridges near the village, he purposely licked his face and went to the town and county in order to get a few places for the poor households in the village to take part-time jobs outside the staff.

He has also read some conferences and materials on bridge repairs, and they are nothing more than two types, simply supported beam bridges and cantilever beam bridges.

A cantilever beam bridge, in simple terms, is to build bridge piers on both sides of the river, and then construct concrete symmetrically from the piers to both sides, and finally close them.

The second is simply supported beam construction. This method is to make beams made of concrete in the precast yard, and then directly put them on with a crane or a bridge erecting machine.

In ancient times, wood could be used instead of beams, but pillars to support beams could not be erected in the middle of the river.

Both of these methods require the use of hanging towers and concrete during the construction process, so it was impossible for Daming to do so.

However, that was only in the past, and the reality is that Daming now has steam engines and concrete.

Just with the horsepower of a tractor, there is no way to lift a prefabricated beam weighing nearly [-] tons.

As long as people are alive, there will be ways, and the way Zhu Youjian came up with is very primitive and brutal.

The prefabricated beams are manufactured on the deck of the ship, and then the prefabricated beams are transported to the center of the Yangtze River by boats. At this time, a ship with a larger tonnage is used to tie the prefabricated beams with iron chains.

Then the ship that originally transported the prefabricated beams was scuttled, and after the ship tilted, because the iron cables were at one end of the prefabricated beams, the prefabricated beams would fall into the water first.

Since the prefabricated beam is a "back"-shaped hollow beam, and this beam has a "groove" that can fit into the second section of the beam, it only needs to be temporarily fixed with iron bolts when it falls into the river bottom, and then it can be built like building blocks. Build them up layer by layer.

As long as the back-shaped pillars are built and emerge out of the river, the steam engine can be used to pump water, and then continue to dig down to lay the foundation.

However, due to the large amount of rapid flow, it is very likely that the back-shaped column will be washed out.

Therefore, the Yangtze River has to be continuously widened to reduce the water level and rapid flow, which has destroyed many fertile fields.

Fortunately, in the 15th year of the Apocalypse, Jiangxi, Nanzhili, Zhejiang and other provinces suffered severe drought, many rivers stopped flowing, and the water level of the Yangtze River dropped to three feet.

Although the water level was only lowered by one foot, the construction progressed smoothly. All the piers were dug down by two feet, and then steel bars were erected and concrete poured.

The part protruding from the water only needs to be tightly closed with wooden boards, and then watering is enough.

In this way, the total length of the Yingtian Yangtze River Bridge is three and a half miles, of which the main bridge is two and a half miles long, with a total of eight joints and 24 holes, and the calculated span of each hole is [-] feet. Husband.

The bridge has two floors, of which the lower railway bridge is five feet wide and the upper road bridge is six feet wide.

The whole project was planned from February 11th of Tianqi, started in 13th year of Tianqi, and was completed in October of 16th year of Tianqi, which lasted 360 four days.

In short, according to Zhang Yandeng, many operations that sounded difficult were finally completed.

Zhu Youjian was not surprised by the completion of the bridge. After all, the late Qing Dynasty in history had the strength to build the Yangtze River Bridge, but it was just reluctant to part with the money.

In the Republic of China, there were wars everywhere, and the construction of the Yangtze River Bridge became even more vain.

But even after nearly 40 years of war, the country was later integrated and unified, and the Yangtze River Bridge was built a few years after the founding of the country.

It is true that Daming's industrial foundation and basic technology were not up to those in the late Qing Dynasty, but the Yangtze River Bridge was still completed as scheduled despite the willingness to spend money.

Just the price...

"How much money was spent on building this bridge, and how many people were killed or injured?"

After listening to Zhang Yandeng's narration about the difficult construction of the Yangtze River Bridge, Zhu Youxiao looked at the Yangtze River Bridge in the distance and asked Zhang Yandeng with his back turned.

Faced with his question, Zhang Yandeng also hesitated, and after pondering for a long time, he opened his mouth and said:

"The entire Beijing-Hangzhou railway cost more than 27 million taels of silver, and the Yingtian Yangtze River Bridge alone cost more than 430 million taels. During the period, more than 270 people were employed, [-] ships were sunk, and one person was sacrificed." Thousands of [-] people."

A series of cold numbers represent the real gold and silver of the imperial court and the wealth and lives of bridge workers.

"Where are all the bridges on the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Huaihe River..." Zhu Youxiao turned his back to the question again, and Zhang Yandeng also bowed his head in shame:
"Three Yangtze River Bridges, three Yellow River Bridges, two Huaihe River Bridges, and a total of eight bridges cost a total of 240 million taels, sunk more than 530 ships, and sacrificed... [-] people .”

"Even though it took so much manpower, material resources and the lives of the people, if it weren't for the lower water level caused by the severe drought, perhaps the court would have to continue to spend manpower and material resources, or even find a way to temporarily divert the rivers to repair them."

Zhang Yandeng's words made Zhu Youxiao restless for a long time, perhaps because he grew older, and his father died early, and his younger brother would leave him in the future.

In short, Zhu Youxiao is not as open-minded about human life as he was back then.

More than 3000 million taels, more than 4000 lives, just to build eight bridges, it is hard to say whether it is worth it.

At least in Zhu Youjian's opinion, it's not worth it...

"The Yangtze River Bridge in Yibin, Syria has also been completed, but it is a pity that more than 600 people died..."

When Zhu Youxiao learned about the bloody death toll of the Yangtze River Bridge, Zhu Youjian, who was far away in Beijing, was also sighing with the memorial of the completion of the last Yangtze River Bridge.

At this moment, he was sitting in the Chengyun Hall, enjoying the heating, but his heart was cold.

More than four million taels, 670 lives were lost. In the end, the north-south connection of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River was finally exchanged.

In Zhu Youjian's view, this is not worth it.

The reason why he thinks it is not worth it is because he knows that the scale of the Yangtze River Bridge built by Daming is far inferior to that of later generations, and the money and food used are much higher than that of later generations.

When Zhang Zhidong wanted to build the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in the late Qing Dynasty, the reported cost was 170 million taels, while the purchasing power of one tael of silver in the Ming Dynasty was equal to five or six taels in the late Qing Dynasty.

That is to say, what can be done well with 170 million taels in the late Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty spent at least 900 million taels, with more than five times the manpower and material resources.

From the perspective of the times, this is not worth it, because Zhu Youjian can choose cheaper methods, such as laying rails on steam ships, and transporting the trains to the other side of the river one by one.

However, when he thought that the construction of the Yangtze River Bridge in the late Qing Dynasty was delayed for more than half a century, he worried that if he did not build it, the later kings of Ming Dynasty would be delayed due to various things, and eventually the north and south would be delayed.

He knows that he is only one generation, but he wants to do what can only be accomplished by two, three, or even four or five generations.

Sometimes he also told himself to believe in the vision and wisdom of future generations.

But whenever he has to make a decision, he still decides to finish the matter when he can make the decision, so as not to leave problems for future generations.

"Once the Yangtze River Bridge in Yibin is completed, the railway from Meishan to Yibin should also be completed next year."

"Once this section is completed, the difficulty of the Jinglong Railway will only be the more than [-]-mile mountain road from Yibin to Wumeng."

"I think it will be possible to fix it 21 years ago." Zhu Youjian put down the memorandum, and looked up at Wen Tiren who came to report.

Wen Tiren didn't speak all the time, but after Zhu Youjian made an evaluation and got his attitude, Wen Tiren bowed and said, "His Royal Highness, I think..."

"It's not a good idea, but the Jinglong Railway is so good, it's basically enough." Zhu Youjian commented:
"The most important thing now is the Jingjia Railway. Now that Liangzhou has been built, it is estimated that Jiayuguan will be built in two years."

"Guochao wants to recover the Western Regions, so after Jiayuguan is built, it is necessary to continue to build a railway from Jiayuguan to Turpan, and then divide it into two by Turpan."

Zhu Youjian got up and picked up the pear blossom wooden stick he had used for many years, pointed to the "General Map of Kunyu of the Ming Dynasty" behind him, pointed from Jiayuguan to Turpan marked "Xizhou", and then went northward, saying at the same time:
"Finished to the north to Jinzhou (Urumqi), and then divided into two, one goes directly north to Lezhou (Altay), then north to Mozhou (North foot of Altai), and reaches the Yinshan Mountain at the south foot of Lingbei Mountains (southern foot of Ural Mountains) state."

"This railway is 13 kilometers long and took about [-] years to build."

After all, Zhu Youjian moved the pear blossom stick to Jinzhou, and then all the way west:
"The second, from Jinzhou west to Gongyue (Jinghe), then from Gongyue to Kunling (Yining), Kunling to Suiye, Suiye to Dawan (Samarkand), Dawan to Kangju, Kangju headed west all the way to the West Sea (east of the Caspian Sea)."

"The road is about 15 miles. Except for Gongyue City and Kunling City, which need to cross more than [-] miles of mountains, the rest are all built on the plains. It will take about [-] years."

"As for the last one..." Zhu Youjian relocated the pear stick to Xizhou (Turpan) on the map:
"From Xizhou all the way to the west, along the Tianshan South Road, Yanqi, Qiuci, Gumo, Shule, and then south to Khotan, a contract of [-] miles of railway."

"The three railways total more than [-] miles, and more than [-]% of them run in plain areas. The cost per mile is the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway excluding the Yangtze River Bridge."

After Zhu Youjian finished talking about his thoughts, he looked at Wen Tiren, and Wen Tiren bowed tactfully and said:
"If this is the case, then the construction cost is about 4000 taels of silver per mile, and the total is about... 700 million taels."

"However, if a railway is to be built in the Western Regions, wells must be dug along the railway, and iron ore and coal mines must be supplied. Otherwise, coal and iron can only be transported from Jiayuguan to the Western Regions at a high price, and manpower..."

Wen Tiren said hesitantly, but in fact he just wanted to remind Zhu Youjian that even if the railway was built, the estimated operating cost would be much higher than other railways.

"Don't worry about iron ore and coal, the Western Regions are rich in coal and iron."

"As for manpower... as long as the railway is repaired to Hami, the labor camp workers can be transferred from the southwest to the Western Regions."

Zhu Youjian has a lot of resources, especially human resources.

There are not a few natives who commit crimes in Luchuan, Jiaozhi, and Jiugang every year. The basic crimes start from the ten-year labor reform period.

Although the more than 500 million reform-through-labour workers in Daming are about to end their reform-through-labor period one after another, Zhu Youjian only said that the reform-through-labor period would end, but he did not say that they would be allowed to return to their hometowns.

Zhu Youjian has the final say on whether to move them to the Western Regions or Lingbei.

Even if they move to the Western Regions, Zhu Youjian is not afraid that they will occupy the Western Regions, but will use their conflicts with the local residents of the Western Regions to consume them.

Jiaozhi and Luchuan are basically Buddhists, while the Western Regions are green.

Zhu Youjian knew exactly what it looked like when the two sides fought each other.

They fight against them, the Han people work, but if the atrocities develop on the Han people, it will be another ten-year labor reform period.

Zhu Youjian is not worried about them now, but he is worried that Zhu Ciran will be too soft-hearted, even pardoning the labor camp workers.

If that is the case, it will be very difficult to carry out the Sinicization work in the Western Regions.

Thinking about it, Zhu Youjian also said to Wen Tiren: "I will go to Jian Guo and Long Live, and tell them that the Western Region Railway is a century-old project, and there should be no hindrance."

"I understand..." Wen Tiren knew Zhu Youjian's attitude towards these places and the railway, and naturally became active in his heart.

It’s not bad if you don’t do it, if you do it, do it well, and don’t let mistakes be caught, this is Wen Tiren’s idea.

However, he also knew that Zhu Youjian would not stay in Daming for many years.

Zhu Youjian was waiting, and he would listen to Zhu Youjian's words and do it honestly. When Zhu Youjian left, the emperor or the prince felt that the Western Region Railway was too costly and stopped construction, then he would not refute it, just stop .

In short, if you don't provoke anyone in power, and don't let anyone feel dissatisfied with him, then his position as cabinet minister and minister of the Ministry of Industry will always be preserved.

Thinking of this, Wen Tiren felt relieved for a while, and Zhu Youjian waved his hand to signal that he could step back.

"The next official will retire..."

Wen Tiren bowed respectfully and retreated, and then Zhu Youjian also said to Wang Chengen, Cao Huachun, and Lu Wenzhao who were processing the memorial:

"The allocation of materials in all provinces should be carefully checked. The grain storage in Changping warehouses should not be lower than the amount I mentioned. In addition, people should check the Changping warehouses in various places."

"Your servant takes orders..." Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, the three of them responded one after another.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian also sat back on his seat, put the pear blossom stick on the table and asked at the same time:

"The tractors that will be shipped to Shanyu province this year are well prepared. In addition, if the local coal production cannot keep up, then some reformed laborers from Jiugang or Yingzhou will be sent to mine."

"The prisoners of the Han family, except for those who are stipulated to be executed, the rest are mainly sent to Lingbei."

Zhu Youjian picked up a cup of tea and took a sip, moistened his throat, and the three of them kept nodding to express their understanding.

"How many immigrants and soldiers have each vassal state recruited this year?"

Putting down the teacup, Zhu Youjian asked, and Wang Chengen, who was in charge of management, also responded:

"More than 16 people immigrated from the feudal domains of the Lesser Western Ocean, and more than [-] people immigrated from the feudal domains of Leviathan."

"The troops and horses of the feudal clans in the Little Western Ocean are full, and the feudal clans of Levia have recruited five battalions and four outposts, with a contract of more than [-] soldiers."

"In the past eight years, a total of 120 people have immigrated from the feudal clans, of which 32 are male immigrants from Yingzhou. As for the soldiers and horses, there are nearly 98 soldiers and horses from the 30th Battalion and Three Sentinels."

"It's not too much..." Zhu Youjian laughed lightly after hearing the words, he didn't expect the immigration speed of the various feudal clans to be so slow.

But it's normal to think about it carefully. After all, most of the gold and silver pawned by Indian servants were plundered by Ming Dynasty, so that the feudal vassals could only sell grain through the grain trade, exchange for gold and silver, and then relocate the people.

The reason why so many male immigrants from Yingzhou were relocated was mainly because the Ming Dynasty’s immigration price for male males from Yingzhou was very low.

However, the weather on the sea is changeable, and the successful migration of 32 Yingzhou men is the result of hundreds of thousands of Yingzhou men dying in the sea.

While knowing about the immigration, Zhu Youjian also thought about the Southwest.

It has been almost two years since Lu Xiangsheng asked Daming to send troops from Luchuan to contain part of the Mughals' troops. I don't know how Hong Chengchou has done after this year's preparation.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help saying softly:

"Hong Chengchou of Luchuan, how is the containment of the southern captives..."

　Update around four o'clock in the afternoon

　　
　
(End of this chapter)