The Great Industrial Ming Dynasty Started from Beiping

Chapter 443 Lao Zhu’s good friends

The flowing water of the Yangtze River flows eastward.

Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order to allocate millions of supplies to Yingtianfu Railway Engineering Group. No one dared to violate Zhu Yuanzhang's order.

Looking at the Yangtze River, Zhu Yuanzhang was full of doubts.

"We are afraid that the bridge will not be built in the end, and all the manpower and material resources will be wasted." Zhu Yuanzhang is very famous recently.

The Engineering Department knew that there had been a young old man recently, who must be a distinguished member of some noble family in the capital. He pretended to be an ordinary country squire and often visited the construction site.

There are many such people, some are hostile and some are curious. Every day people from the capital come to watch the construction of the railway.

After all, everyone knows about the famous Blitzkrieg. Anyone who is not a fool knows how powerful the railway is.

But the South is different.

There are many waterways in the south.

Then the difficulty of building the railway will be greatly increased.

Zhu Yuanzhang has made a lot of "friends" recently.

I also have a higher understanding of railways.

It only took 15 years for Lao Zhu to come out of the temple and beg with a bowl until he became emperor and established the unified Ming Dynasty.

Among other things, Lao Zhu's communication skills are absolutely top notch.

Many people have a good impression of this old man, and everyone feels comfortable chatting with this old man.

Exploration technicians transferred from the railway headquarters were exploring and planning in various places. A man in his thirties was entangled by Zhu Yuanzhang.

"The slogan of our railway engineering department is not to be afraid of difficulties, to overcome obstacles, and the Yangtze River is just a mere river, which cannot stop the footsteps of our railway people."

The man said loudly.

"Hahaha."

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but patted the man on the shoulder, "Xiao Liu, Xiao Liu, are you a newborn calf not afraid of tigers?"

"No, we are confident."

Zhu Yuanzhang liked the confidence of men.

But Zhu Yuanzhang still couldn't help preaching: "I see, isn't your original plan very good."

The original plan was a ferry.

The trains at both ends of the Yangtze River rely on ferries to cross the Yangtze River.

At the ferry terminals on both sides of the strait, a crane is used to hoist the carriages into the large cargo ship, and this plan is adopted.

Zhu Yuanzhang has seen this plan, and he thinks it is very good.

However, the Railway Engineering Headquarters overturned this plan, removed the senior technicians from the headquarters, and sent them to the south in batches to brainstorm solutions to build a bridge on the Yangtze River.

"If you want to build, build the best."

said the man.

"In fact, our ancestors had a lot of bridge technology, which helped us a lot in building railway bridges in the north."

"Really?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked curiously.

"During the Song Dynasty, the ancestors built the Guangji Bridge in Chaozhou, Guangdong. Have you ever heard of it?" Hanzi asked.

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head.

"The flow of the Hanjiang River changes much more than here. The difference between low water and flood is more than a hundred times."

"The ancients described it as: the current is as fast as a horse galloping and turbulent, and those who touch it will go away. When the water falls and the sand surges, a reed can cross, and the water rises and the sand is easy. Although there is an aid boat, it cannot be crossed three or four times a day. If thousands of miles."

The man sighed.

Zhu Yuanzhang said with admiration: "I didn't expect you to recite poems."

"We have students who study at night and regularly participate in training at training clubs. Apart from anything else, we must keep this engineering knowledge in mind when we eat this bowl of rice."

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but ponder.

It seems that the Beiping model is not as simple as building a few factories. No wonder Lian Zining failed to imitate Beiping to set up factories in Yingtianfu.

Listening to the words of the man, it is a night school and a training club. After this, even ordinary craftsmen, their technical level is developing by leaps and bounds.

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but think again. People-oriented is often mentioned in the newspapers in Peking. It seems that this people-oriented is not just about work and remuneration.

How many workers like the man in front of me are there in Beiping?

Just like the truth of war.

Many of the workers in Peiping are like this type of man, and they are not the most elite army in the world. One thing can lead to all things, and Zhu Yuanzhang felt that he had learned something more.

"This bridge across the river and the sea in the Song Dynasty is [-] feet long. The east and west sections have stone piers and stone beams, but the middle section is a pontoon structure."

"Floating bridge?" Zhu Yuanzhang didn't quite understand why a floating bridge was being built again, mainly because he had never seen it before.

"The wisdom of our ancestors."

The man was full of pride.

"The Song Dynasty is exactly what the young prince said, the most splendid era of the culture and technology of our ancestors. The brilliance of its own civilization is also the Song Dynasty's worship of the ancients."

"The Song Dynasty even granted titles to famous scientists among the ancestors, which shows the level of civilization of the Song Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang was a little confused.

Well said, why did it involve Da Song again?

Although he said that he wanted to restore the Song system, he also hated Song's failure.

But people in Peiping are different. People in Peiping don't know why, but when they mention the ancestors, they always look proud.

But this is also good, Zhu Yuanzhang had a smile on his face.

The man then explained why he was so amazed.

"That's the Han River, which is connected to the sea, and there is an endless stream of large ships. If a bridge across the river is built, wouldn't it block the ships."

"So the middle section of the bridge across the river in the Song Dynasty was built as a pontoon bridge that can be opened and closed."

"The pontoon is composed of eighteen large wooden boats. When the large ship arrives, the wooden boats in the middle section can be unmoored and moved to make way for navigation."

If Zhu Gaochi were here, he would say that it was actually proposed by the modern West. The so-called opening and closing bridges, opening and closing bridges at the right time for traffic, and opening and closing for boats, are the views on bridge construction that do not hinder both water and land transportation.

It was the first time Zhu Yuanzhang heard that there was such a bridge across the river, and he couldn't help but marveled.

"Guangji Bridge has a total of 21 large piers, standing under the river."

"There is also the Luoyang Bridge built by the Song Dynasty in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. It is a 48-foot-long bridge across the river. There are [-] piers standing directly under the river."

"The Song Dynasty was able to build such a long cross-river bridge. Isn't the Ming Dynasty inferior to the Song Dynasty?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked dissatisfiedly when he heard the length of the second bridge.

The man shook his head.

"The total length of the Luoyang Bridge is [-] feet. However, where the Luoyang River in Quanzhou enters the sea, the water flow is fast and the waves are rough. It is very difficult to build a bridge, let alone a stone bridge of such a length."

"The bridge, great as it is, isn't strong enough to support a railroad if there isn't a material breakthrough."

"Can't it be fixed?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was in a hurry.

The man laughed and started to feel proud again.

"It can be built. Now that we have reinforced concrete technology and have built railway bridges in the mountains, we can naturally build them in the rivers."

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but smile. Although this man was breathing heavily, he was still relatively reliable.

I don't know when I will see you.

Our Ming Dynasty cannot be worse than the Song Dynasty. Not only must we build cross-river bridges, but we must also make the cross-river bridges in the Song Dynasty longer and higher.

Zhu Yuanzhang was eager to win.

The support for Yingtianfu Railway Engineering Group has increased by three points.

……

Peiping.

Xu Ning led more than a dozen managers and technicians with boxes of reports, and everyone looked serious.

"The cross-river bridge in Yingtianfu cannot be repaired yet."

Zhu Gaochi was not angry, and asked the reason peacefully.

"Through the exploration of water flow, riverbed, flood season, etc., and the organization of local craftsmen who understand hydrology, even the most suitable area is more than [-] feet wide."

"Not to mention the height of the construction, the wind and waves that will be encountered, etc., if the bridge is forced to be built, there is a high probability of failure."

After listening, Zhu Gaochi understood what everyone said.

However, Zhu Gaochi couldn't help criticizing: "It was you who wanted to build the bridge across the river, but now you are the ones who oppose the construction of the bridge across the river."

"Please punish me, young prince."

Xu Ning took the initiative to take responsibility.

"I punish you for what you do. What I want is for you to be responsible with your heart. In this matter, do you have the original intention of making great achievements, which has caused the current dilemma."

"actually not."

Another manager stepped forward and said: "At present, the technical personnel of our engineering department are doing their best to study the Anping Bridge. This bridge is a river-crossing bridge built by the Song Dynasty in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. It is more than [-] feet long and is called by the locals. Five Mile Bridge."

"The Anping Bridge is wider than the Luoyang Bridge where the water area is wider, and the hydrological conditions are more complicated. There are many places where sediment is accumulated. It is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive to pile up stones, but also some of the stones where the sediment is deposited are thrown in and they are easy to sink. It is difficult at all. form a synergy."

"Because this bridge avoided the wind and waves in a tricky way, we cannot learn from the Yangtze River Bridge we are going to build, but this bridge has many things worthy of our study in terms of technology, such as the method of sinking the foundation with sleeping wood."

"If we can thoroughly study the sleeping wood sinking method, then building a stable stone pier on the Yangtze River will no longer be a problem, and the key problem of the sinking of the stone pier will be solved."

"There is also the Jiangdong Bridge. This bridge is eighty feet high. Except for Jinzhou's sea-going ships, inland river boats can pass unimpeded."

"When we have a thorough understanding of the technologies of these bridges, then in the construction of the Yangtze River Bridge we want to build, the core problems encountered so far will be solved."

Whether it is Guangji Bridge, Luoyang Bridge, Jiangdong Bridge or Anping Bridge, they are all cross-sea beam-style stone bridges built in the Song Dynasty, and they are world-famous cross-sea beam-style stone bridges.

Many later bridge technology theories are basically similar.

For example, the sleeping wood sinking method.

Many Yangtze River bridges in later generations also adopted this piling method.

"However, for the railway bridge in Tianfu, we suggest that the ferry method should still be adopted. The first Yangtze River Bridge should be built in Huguang."

Xu Ning added at this time: "According to the opinions of colleagues in the Exploration Department, the Yangtze River Bridge in Huguang only requires a length of five thousand feet, and the ship is an inland river ship. Both height and length are techniques that can be mastered."

"So you are asking me to go to Grandpa Shuhuang?" Zhu Gaochi understood.

Zhu Yuanzhang was very supportive of the Tianfu Railway Engineering Department, but now he suddenly said that he would not build a railway bridge in Yingtianfu, and the people below did not dare to come forward.

There are indeed many waterways in the south.

However, the economic development of the Jianghuai region is well-founded.

What foundation?
Ever since the Luoyang Bridge and Anping Bridge were built across rivers and seas in the Southern Song Dynasty, enthusiasm for the construction of "super projects" such as the Yulan Bridge, Shisun Bridge, Dongyang Bridge, and Sudai Bridge has been aroused.

And many bridges are better than blue.

According to statistics by some scholars, nearly a hundred bridges of various sizes were built in Guangquanzhou area in the Southern Song Dynasty, which is the peak of all dynasties.

It is precisely because of the countless large and small bridges in the South, and the bridge technology that was unmatched after the completion of the first industrial revolution in Britain.

It is the background of the economic development of the South.

The South was a wild land thousands of years ago. It was a superior and comfortable living environment created by our ancestors, not given by nature.

"It seems that Grandpa Huang is going to be disappointed." Zhu Gaochi pointed at the group of people in front of him and sighed helplessly.

(End of this chapter)