xymnovel Chapter 15 The road I desire is a smooth, paved path for horses, not a muddy ditch.
Chapter 15 The road I desire is a smooth, paved path for horses, not a muddy ditch.
March in Xianyang should have been a time of lush greenery and vibrant life. But for Li Si, the prime minister of Qin, and Zhao Gao, the newly appointed "chief engineer of the Qin Royal Academy of Engineering" (though self-proclaimed), this spring was a nightmare.
The continuous spring rain for half a month has brought the capital city, which had just become a little cleaner due to the "sanitation campaign," back to its original state.
On Zhuque Street, a luxurious carriage loaded with "Shu Yunrou" toilet paper was hopelessly stuck in a knee-deep mud pit. The four horses pulling the carriage snorted and slipped on their hooves. No matter how the driver whipped the wheels, the gold-inlaid wheels did not budge.
"Push! Push it for me!" Sitting in the cart was the Imperial Household Department official in charge of delivering goods to the palace, sweating profusely. "This is His Majesty's shipment! If it gets muddy, you'll all be beheaded!"
Several strongmen nearby were shouting slogans, their feet slipping on the muddy ground, and one of them slipped and fell because he exerted too much force.
"Splash!"
The vehicle tilted violently, and several boxes of priceless "special supply paper" rolled into the mud, instantly turning into a pile of expensive waste pulp.
The clerk's eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
……
This scene was witnessed by Ying Zheng, who was standing on the city wall of Xianyang Palace.
He wore a black cloak, letting the cold rain lash his face; his eyes were even more gloomy than the weather.
"Little G," Ying Zheng said coldly in his mind, "This is my capital? This is the imperial road I'm so proud of?"
"It's paralyzed when it rains, and it gets in your eyes when the wind blows. Forget about a steam engine that can travel a thousand miles a day; even a thoroughbred horse would become a lame donkey in this muddy swamp."
A light screen appeared before his eyes, displaying a real-time generated "Daqin Logistics Efficiency Analysis Chart".
Your Majesty is right.
[Data shows that when it rains, the Qin Dynasty's logistics efficiency drops by 80%. Grain supplies can't reach the border, and government orders can't reach the counties. Even if you have Qin paper, if the roads are blocked, that paper will only rot in the post stations.]
To get rich, build roads first. This is an eternal truth.
Ying Zheng scoffed, "Building roads? I've been building them all along. Meng Tian built the Straight Road in the north, and Li Si built the Imperial Highway in Guanzhong. Every year, hundreds of thousands of laborers were conscripted, and the earth and stones poured in could form mountains. And what was the result?"
He pointed to the broken-down carriage below: "The road is all dirt. When it's sunny, it's dusty; when it rains, it's muddy. Isn't there a road... that can't be penetrated by water or cut by a knife?"
【Have. 】
In my database, there's something called "cement."
[Scientific name: Silicate cement.]
[Commonly known as: cement.]
[Just mix it with sand and pebbles in the right proportions, add water and stir, and once it dries, it will be just as hard as this.]
A grayish stone appeared on the screen, and a heavy truck ran over it without moving an inch.
Ying Zheng's eyes lit up.
"A road made of stones? Enough to pave the whole world?"
[Theoretically, it's possible. The raw materials are very simple: limestone, clay, iron ore powder, and gypsum. These are all readily available in the Qin Dynasty.]
The challenges lie in the fact that the firing temperature needs to be 1450 degrees Celsius, and the proportions must be precise.
A cruel smile curled at the corner of Ying Zheng's mouth.
"Temperature? Proportion?"
"Isn't this exactly what Zhao Gao excels at? Since he can make a bronze cauldron explode, the fire in the furnace must be incredibly strong."
"Send the throne to Zhao Gao! Send the throne to Hu Hai!"
……
Shaofu, the royal testing ground.
Zhao Gao was looking at a pile of grayish-white powder with a troubled expression.
After being appointed "Captain of the Paper Mill Brigade," he had finally had a few days of peace. But last night, an imperial edict dragged him back to the blast furnace that had terrified him.
"Burn stones... grind them into powder... burn them again..." Zhao Gao looked at the "Guide to Traditional Cement Making" generated by Xiao G in his hand. He felt that he recognized every word, but when put together, it was like a book written in heaven.
"Prefect Zhao."
A clear, yet devilishly cheerful voice rang out.
Zhao Gao shuddered and turned around to see Prince Huhai standing with his hands behind his back, followed by two strong guards carrying a huge... iron hammer.
"Oh, my young master!" Zhao Gao hurriedly bowed. "What brings you here?"
"Father said I'm the 'product inspector'," Hu Hai said with a grin, stroking the large iron hammer. "Father said you're going to make a magical substance called 'cement' this time, which is harder than stone when laid on the ground. He asked me to help you 'check it out'."
Zhao Gao looked at the iron hammer and swallowed hard. "This... is still being tested, still being tested."
"Enough talk, let's begin." Hu Hai found a folding chair, sat down, and took out a handful of melon seeds. "I'll just watch from here. Father has given us a deadline: if we can't pave a model road within three days, this sledgehammer... hehe."
Zhao Gao dared not be negligent. This was a job that could cost him his head.
"Someone come here! Light the fire! Grind it into powder!"
The Imperial Household Department immediately sprang into action. Limestone was crushed, clay was dried, and according to the mysterious recipe, Zhao Gao carefully mixed them together using a small weighing scale before sending them into a specially made high-temperature kiln.
one day one Night.
Zhao Gao's eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night, and finally, the first batch of "cooked food" was ready.
It was a dark, hard lump.
"Grind! Grind it into powder quickly!" Zhao Gao hysterically commanded the craftsmen.
Half a day later, the black mass turned into a grayish-white powder. Following the instructions, Zhao Gao mixed in sand and pebbles, added water, and stirred it, turning it into a pool of gray mud.
"That's it?" Zhao Gao looked at the puddle of mud, his heart pounding. "This stuff can turn into stone?"
"Spread it out! Spread it out quickly!"
The craftsmen poured the mud into a mold and smoothed it out.
What followed was a long wait.
Hu Hai had already gnawed on three jin of melon seeds and was getting impatient: "Teacher Zhao, why isn't this mud dry yet? Did you forget to add any seasonings? Like, maybe some boy's urine or something?"
"Young master, be careful what you say! This is science!" Although Zhao Gao didn't understand what science was, he had learned the word and used it to deceive people.
Finally, on the morning of the third day.
The mud had solidified.
It turned into a grayish-white board with a rough surface.
Zhao Gao reached out his hand, trembling, and knocked.
"Knock knock."
It's hard! It's really hard!
"It's done! It's done!" Zhao Gao was overjoyed, tears welling up in his eyes. "Heaven bless Qin! Heaven bless our family!"
Hu Hai was also woken up by the noise. He rubbed his eyes, jumped up, and exclaimed, "It's done? Quick, get the hammer!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Young master, wait!" Zhao Gao tried to stop him, but Hu Hai had already snatched the large iron hammer from the guard and rushed forward excitedly.
"Let me see just how hard this thing really is!"
Hu Hai swung his arm and brought the hammer down.
"eighty!"
"Snap!"
A crisp sound.
The smile on Zhao Gao's face froze instantly.
The "divine stone" on which he had placed such high hopes was shattered into pieces like a shortbread under the hammer, turning into a pile of dust.
Hu Hai was stunned, holding the hammer, looking at Zhao Gao with an innocent expression.
"Teacher Zhao... is this what you meant by 'harder than a rock'?" Hu Hai picked up a fragment, and with a little force, crushed it into powder in his hand. "It's not even as hard as the frozen tofu in my backyard."
Zhao Gao knelt on the ground with a thud, clutching the scattered fragments, and broke down in tears: "Impossible! I followed the prescription! Three qian of limestone, two qian of clay... how could it be brittle?!"
Just then, the unassuming black carriage slowly drove into the testing ground.
Ying Zheng stepped down. He glanced at the broken pieces on the ground, then at the weeping Zhao Gao. His face showed no anger, but rather a calm that he had long anticipated.
"Little G".
【exist. 】
"Analyze the reasons."
[Scan complete.]
Reason 1: Insufficient temperature. The furnace temperature was only 1100 degrees Celsius, and the tricalcium silicate did not react completely.
[Reason Two: And the most important reason – too many impurities.]
The limestone used by Zhao Gao contained too much magnesium; the clay contained too much organic matter (tree roots, grass seeds). This wasn't a chemical reaction; it was a complete mess.
Conclusion: Industrialized production and workshop-style alchemy are two different things. Without standardization, there is no pass rate.
Ying Zheng nodded.
He walked up to Zhao Gao and kicked at the pile of broken pieces on the ground.
"Zhao Gao."
"This servant...this servant deserves to die!" Zhao Gao was already prepared to be thrown into the furnace.
"Get up. I have no intention of killing you," Ying Zheng said calmly. "You are a good servant and a good foreman. But you lack one thing."
Zhao Gao looked up blankly: "Lacking...lacking what? Lacking common sense?"
"Lack of rules."
Ying Zheng turned around and looked at Li Si, who was following behind him.
"Li Si".
"Your subject is here."
"Imperial decree: Effective immediately, establish the 'Great Qin Standards Bureau.' All workshops throughout the land, whether engaged in papermaking, cement production, or the forging of weapons and wheels, must establish unified standards."
"How pure should the limestone be? How many times should it be sieved? What temperature should the furnace be heated to, based on the color of the fire? This must be written into a manual and distributed."
Ying Zheng pointed to the kiln: "From now on, anyone who dares to 'prepare medicine' based on intuition, or anyone who dares to ruin my materials because of 'probably' or 'maybe,' shall jump in and become fuel themselves."
"This is my 'Industrial Law'."
Li Si felt a chill run down his spine. He keenly sensed that His Majesty was extending the strict logic of Legalism, from governing people, to governing things.
"Your subject...accepts the decree!"
"Zhao Gao." Ying Zheng looked at Zhao Gao again. "Go burn them again. This time, wash the stones clean for me and make the fire burn brightly. Hu Hai, you continue smashing them."
"I refuse to believe that my Great Qin Dynasty can't even burn a stone!"
……
For the next month, the Imperial Household Department became a living hell.
Zhao Gao went mad. He forced the craftsmen to scrub each limestone stone clean, and to use magnets to remove iron filings from the clay. To increase the furnace temperature, he modified the bellows, even going so far as to insanely enshrine the frequency of the blowers into the law.
"Those who blow the air should do so three times per breath; those who do not do so even once will be whipped twenty times."
Hu Hai was not idle either. He not only smashed cement, but also invented the "drop test" (throwing cement slabs off the roof) and the "water immersion test" (soaking them in water for three days to see if they would dissolve).
Under the torment of this "perverted master and apprentice," the first true "silicate cement" was finally born.
This time, Hu Hai swung the iron hammer in a wide arc and struck down.
"when--!"
Sparks flew everywhere.
Only a white spot remained on the cement slab, while Hu Hai was so shaken that his hands went numb and he almost dropped the hammer.
"Holy crap!" Hu Hai exclaimed, shaking his hand but laughing more heartily than anyone else. "Hard! Really hard! Teacher Zhao, you've got it this time!"
Zhao Gao hugged the cement slab like it was his own son, and burst into tears. He had never felt so accomplished in his life; this was far more satisfying than calling a deer a horse!
……
The cement was produced, but new problems arose one after another.
No money.
Inside the Qilin Hall, Li Si did some calculations, his hands trembling as he did so.
"Your Majesty, although this cement is of good quality, its production consumes a lot of coal, iron, and manpower. If we were to rebuild the 'Qin Straight Road' leading to Beidi County, which is 1,800 li long, it would require tens of millions of shi of cement and hundreds of millions of jin of crushed stone."
"With the current national treasury... even if we sold 'Shu Yunrou' to the Xiongnu, we still wouldn't have enough money!"
Li Si pushed the abacus aside in despair: "Unless Your Majesty can turn stones into gold."
Ying Zheng sat on the dragon throne, his brows furrowed.
He looked at the light screen.
"Little G, didn't you say that once the roads are open, the money will start flowing? Now the roads haven't even been built, and the money is gone first."
[Your Majesty, this is a classic "infrastructure trap." Large upfront investments with a long payback period.]
In the future, the solution to this problem will usually be: borrowing money.
"Borrow money?" Ying Zheng sneered. "I possess the wealth of the entire world. From whom shall I borrow? From the remnants of the six states? Or from the Xiongnu?"
Borrow from the future.
[Project Name: First Phase Special Treasury Bonds of the Qin Empire]
【logic:
Your Majesty, you have issued bonds with the nation's credit as collateral.
Ordinary people (mainly wealthy merchants and nobles) bought bonds and used the money to build roads for the imperial court.
The imperial court promised to repay the principal and interest in five years.
After the road was repaired, toll booths were set up to collect fees, and the money collected was used to pay off the debt.
Ying Zheng listened to this extremely advanced concept and fell into deep thought.
Borrowing money from the people to build roads for the imperial court, and then collecting tolls from the people to repay the money?
This sounds... like trying to get something for nothing!
"Li Si," Ying Zheng suddenly spoke.
"Your subject is here."
Do you think those wealthy merchants would be willing to lend money to the imperial court?
Li Si smiled wryly: "Your Majesty, merchants value profit above all else. They only trust cash, not a piece of paper from the court. Besides, the court used to conscript laborers for free; now that it's suddenly asking for a 'loan,' I'm afraid they'll never pay it back."
Ying Zheng stood up and walked to the map.
"Then we'll have no choice but to believe it."
"deliver an imperial order."
"First, issue 'Qin Straight Road Bonds,' each with a face value of one thousand coins and an annual interest rate of one cent (10%). Upon maturity of five years, the bonds can be redeemed."
"Secondly," a glint of light flashed in Ying Zheng's eyes, "anyone who purchases bonds totaling 10,000 coins will be granted an honorary title of one rank (though without real power, they will be exempt from kneeling). Anyone who purchases bonds totaling 100,000 coins will have their name engraved on the stone tablet marking the starting point of the Qin Straight Road, and will be revered by thousands."
"Third, and most importantly."
Ying Zheng turned around and looked at Li Si.
"Tell those big merchants: if they don't buy..."
"I'm going to investigate their taxes."
"I've heard that they've been secretly reselling grain and hoarding copper coins for the past few years, making a fortune. My Court of Justice has been quite idle lately."
Li Si shuddered, then instantly understood.
With one hand, there are carrots (interest + titles + reputation); with the other, a big stick (tax investigation + imprisonment).
This isn't lending money; this is an imperial-level "charity appeal"!
"Your Majesty is wise! This plan is brilliant!" Li Si exclaimed excitedly, his beard trembling. "I will take care of it immediately! Let's start with that widow Qing from Bashu; she's the richest!"
……
The West Market of Xianyang City.
A huge notice was posted. Next to it was a table, where several officials from the Ministry of Revenue were shouting orders with beaming smiles.
"Don't miss out! His Majesty personally guarantees it! The first tranche of Qin Dynasty national bonds! High interest, low risk! Buying it is patriotic! Buying it makes you a nobleman!"
The onlookers pointed and whispered, with most expressing skepticism.
"The imperial court is borrowing money? Has the sun risen in the west?"
"Is this a scam? What if they don't pay it back later?"
Just then, a middle-aged man dressed in brocade robes and with a prosperous appearance squeezed in.
This was Liu Bang, who couldn't make it in Pei County and came to Xianyang to "find his opportunity".
Liu Bang held a stack of copper coins he had just earned from selling "Shu Yunrou," his eyes darting around.
"Xiao He, what do you think?" Liu Bang asked Xiao He behind him.
Xiao He looked at the notice and pondered for a long time.
"Liu Ji, this is an opportunity," Xiao He said in a low voice. "Since the First Emperor dared to issue this, it means he's changing. He's starting to value 'trust.' Although it's forced, once this 'trust' is established, the landscape of Qin will be different."
"Moreover, look at that privilege of 'exemption from kneeling'..." Xiao He pointed, "We are currently of lowly status as merchants, three ranks lower than officials. If we buy this, we can hold our heads high when we travel in Xianyang."
After hearing this, Liu Bang slammed the stack of money onto the table.
"Bought it!"
Liu Bang shouted loudly, instantly attracting everyone's attention.
"I, Liu Ji, though a commoner, am aware of the rise and fall of a nation! Building roads is a good thing; I will lend this money to His Majesty!"
The official was overjoyed: "Excellent! This brave man is truly virtuous! May I ask your honorable name?"
"Liu Ji!"
"Very well! Liu Zhuangshi, you have purchased 10,000 coins worth of bonds! You are hereby granted the title of Duke! No need to kneel!"
Liu Bang held the exquisite bond with the dragon pattern on it, looking up at the envious glances around him with his head held high.
Unbeknownst to him, his actions were being observed by Ying Zheng, who was sitting in the teahouse across the street.
"That person..." Ying Zheng narrowed his eyes, "Is it... Liu Bang from Pei County?"
Little G pop-up message: [This is indeed the person. He is now the biggest toilet paper reseller in Xianyang.]
Ying Zheng smiled.
"Interesting. This old rogue has a keen sense of smell."
"Since he is so supportive of my infrastructure projects, let's give him more responsibilities."
"Send word to the magistrate of Xianyang. Have this Liu Ji take charge of the 'logistics supply' for the Qin Straight Road construction site, which means selling boxed lunches and toilet paper."
"I want to see if he can run a stunt on this concrete road."
……
Three months later.
Northern suburbs of Xianyang.
A ten-mile-long stretch of gray-white road, like a giant dragon, lies quietly on the yellow earth.
The rainwater fell and flowed away along the drainage ditches on both sides of the road. Although the road surface was wet, it was as hard as iron, without a trace of mud.
A troop of heavily armored cavalry galloped past, their hooves making a crisp, pleasant sound without stirring up a speck of dust.
Ying Zheng stood by the roadside, his feet firmly planted on the solid cement, and a surge of unprecedented pride welled up in his heart.
This is the path I want.
This road is no longer made of mud, but rather paved with money, technology, and laws.
It will connect Xianyang and Jiuyuan, extending the empire's reach beyond the Great Wall.
"Little G".
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Next, I will extend this road all the way to the entrance of the Xiongnu Chanyu's tent."
"I want him to know whether the hooves of the Qin army slid along this stone road or trampled his skull."
[Note: Building a road to the Xiongnu territory might be difficult, as they lack a demolition office. However, with this road, General Meng Tian's grain transport speed will triple. The Xiongnu's good days are over.]
The wind is surging.
With the paving of this cement road, the massive war machine of the Qin Dynasty finally received its first tank of high-octane fuel.
Meanwhile, in the far north, Touman Chanyu was drinking mare's milk wine, completely unaware that a highway to hell was rapidly extending towards him.