eurekapd Chapter 240 Construction of cement road network
Chapter 240 Construction of cement road network
Chapter 240 Construction of cement road network
Xiao Qi was overjoyed when he got the news that engine oil could be extracted from rubber seeds.
He hurriedly wrote to Lin Zhengqintu, asking them to collect and transport a large number of rubber seeds back, and to formulate a method of refining and filtering to remove impurities.
He ordered people to build a rubber seed oil refinery in the Guangzhou Port Industrial Zone, and began to fully produce and refine rubber seed oil.
Because of Xiao Qi's attention, the rubber seed oil refinery was built and started trial production in less than a month.
Soon according to the procedure set by Xiao Qi, the produced rubber seed oil was sent to Kaifeng Mansion.
Xiao Qi looked at the rubber seed oil where some fine impurities could still be seen. Although he was not satisfied with these engine oils, he also understood that filtering it like this with the current technology is already the limit.
Moreover, it doesn't make much sense to purify the current engine oil to remove impurities. The machines produced by today's technology don't need too good engine oil. It has exceeded my expectations to be able to use the oil so quickly.
Xiao Qi told the rubber seed oil production plant in Guangzhou to make them fully produce these engine oils.
Although the output of the rubber seed oil that was just started was not very large, it gave Xiao Qi great confidence.
He asked the Foundry Bureau to fully develop the steam engine, hoping to make the steam engine come out as soon as possible, so as to realize his original dream as soon as possible, and let Da Song enter the industrial age a thousand years earlier.
Originally, there were drawings provided by Xiao Qi for the development of steam engines. The difficulty was to develop good steel materials for building steam engines.
After so long of experimentation, various better steels were made and used in steam engines, just a month after rubber seed oil was produced.
The biggest problem that has always plagued the manufacture of steam engines, the steel for making boilers has also been refined, and several boilers have been built.
After getting the news, Xiao Qi rushed to see how those boilers were doing. After looking at them, Xiao Qi felt that such steel could barely be used for boiler production.
Of course, Xiao Qi did not forget to do experiments, and the pressure gauge of the boiler in the design drawings had already been made.
Xiao Qi ordered people to install pressure gauges on several boilers that had been manufactured, and tested the limits of these boilers in an open and unoccupied place, and recorded the pressure values.
After blowing up two boilers, Xiao Qi obtained the maximum pressure tolerance limit of the boilers, and took the pressure value of 60.00% of this limit as the dangerous pressure value.
Once the pressure reaches this pressure value, the person who is responsible for staring at the pressure gauge must vent the boiler so that the pressure value in the boiler drops to a safe range.
After Xiao Qi set the operating specifications for the boiler, the steam engine began to be mass-produced.
Although the steam engines currently produced are still very large and bulky and cannot be used as locomotives, Xiao Qi knows that they can already be manufactured.
If you want a steam engine with a smaller volume, it becomes very simple. In the future, not only steam engines that can be used to power trains, but also steam engines that can be used to power ships will appear soon.
All the craftsmen who worked hard to build the steam engine were rewarded, and they were given the task of developing a smaller steam engine and making the steam engine drive other machines better.
Only then did Xiao Qi feel relieved to leave the casting bureau and return to Kaifeng Mansion.
As for the steam engine powering other machines, Xiao Qi also understands that it will not be completed in a short while, which requires a lot of experiments and improvements.
It's useless to be anxious about this thing. The set of steel looms that fell apart after less than half an hour of operation after being connected to the steam engine is a good example.
The steam engine needs to be improved to be more soft and even, and the steel loom also needs to be improved to be stronger and more earthquake-resistant, so that it can no longer be shaken apart.
Xiao Qi breathed a sigh of relief after these tasks had been handed over to the craftsmen of the Foundry Bureau.
His dream of the industrial revolution has already set sail, and it is a matter of time before it is completed, and there is no possibility of failure.
This made Xiao Qi feel very good. After returning to Kaifeng Mansion, he led his wife and children around his fiefdom.
He took the whole family to the horse farm of Longyou Duhu Mansion, and inspected this super-large horse farm that has become the export base of war horses in the Song Dynasty and breeds tens of thousands of horses for the Changsheng Camp of the Song Dynasty every year.
Finally, he led Zhang Xiuyongjia and Xiao Qin to the beach to catch seafood for them.
Just when their family was happily eating seafood.
Xiao Qi's long-awaited system sound rang in his mind again.
"Ding! This specific check-in mission: to build the Victory Battalion into the fastest marching army in the world has been completed."
"Ding! The reward after completing this specific task: the method of making cement has been distributed."
"This task is a specific task. After completion, there are only rewards, and there is no sign-in and upgrade experience."
"Ding! This specific mission has been completed, and the next specific mission needs to be triggered by the host."
Xiao Qi had dinner with his two daughters-in-law and son in a calm manner, and then found an excuse to hide and check how the cement was made.
In less than two days, Xiao Qi worked out a method of producing cement suitable for the technology of this era, and ordered craftsmen to find places with rich limestone reserves to build cement factories.
Of course, limestone is not all you need to make cement. That thing is only the main raw material, and other raw materials are also ordered to start transporting to the selected cement factory.
Now that the steam engine has been built, Xiao Qi asked these craftsmen to develop a crusher for the cement factory, which will be connected to the power of the steam engine and used as power for the cement factory to crush the limestone.
What Xiao Qi is most concerned about now is cement production.
Because prisoners of war brought in continuously from overseas have already filled the major quarries and sand quarries, and a large amount of slate and river sand are mined every day.
The tens of thousands of captives who were transported later were also sent to the main roads between several large towns in the Song Dynasty, and the roads were tamped and widened over and over again.
The preparations for laying cement roads have already been done, and it is time to wait for the cement to be produced.
There is a production method for cement, and the production is quite simple. Once the cement factory was built, the first batch of cement was produced before the steam engine and crusher were installed.
After Xiao Qi got the first batch of cement produced, he immediately sent someone to pull a cart of sand and cement and built a high platform on the beach.
Lei Hao waited for the cement to dry completely after two days, and then ordered people to break it down. As a result, it took a lot of effort to break a corner of this high platform.
This result made Xiao Qi very happy, and ordered to reward the craftsmen of the cement factory.
When building the high platform, Xiao Qi looked at the soldiers and the cement, dust was flying everywhere, and he thought of the dust pollution in the cement factory.
Hurry up and order people to rush to make a large number of masks for the cement factory according to their own designs.
Although Xiao Qi also knows that these masks can't completely block the dust, but as much as it can block the dust, it's better than doing nothing.
Not only did the production workers in the cement factory have to wear masks to work, Xiao Qi also doubled the wages of those production workers.
And clearly told them that the high wages given to them are because the powder is harmful to their bodies, and the extra money is to compensate them.
It became a good thing to work in the cement factory now, and all the people near the cement factory ran to work there, this result made Xiao Qi very speechless.
It's no wonder that today's common people know what silicosis is!
He intended not to recruit so many people, but he was in a hurry to build roads. In the end, Xiao Qi made a rule that only one person in a family could work in the cement factory.
Xiao Qi secretly decided to build a cement factory in the future and just use those captives to do work, and then give them better food and drink.
Give them freedom after working for a cement factory for ten years, then give these guys a settling allowance, and send them back down.
With the cement factory steam engine crusher put into production, the output of cement increased rapidly.
A steady stream of cement was sent to the roads that were already ready to be built.
Xiao Qi used the method of building roads in his previous life, which is to build half of the road first, and continue to pass the other half.
After the repaired half of the road is dry, repair the other half and open the repaired half of the road to traffic.
In this way, the road was built without delaying the smooth flow of the road, and the cement solidified very quickly, and water had to be sprinkled on the newly repaired cement road from time to time.
Tens of thousands of captives worked together to build the road from several places. Coupled with the fact that the cement is easy to dry, the road repair work proceeded very quickly.
Soon, a spacious road called the National Highway by Xiao Qi was repaired for hundreds of miles in just a few months.
Although this national road was designed by Xiao Qi to be two or three thousand miles long, the speed of construction is too fast. It is almost as if starting from here today, it will be several miles away tomorrow.
Moreover, the hundreds of miles of road that has been repaired and used has been praised by the people and merchants, and all kinds of praises have been given to Xiao Qi and the cement road.
Many officials from nearby states and counties, after hearing about it, all ran to check the situation, and when they returned, they all reported to the emperor, demanding that they also need to repair such roads.
Zhao Shen looked at the memorials from all over the place and wondered, before this road was built, my son-in-law said it would be convenient after it was built, seeing how jealous these state officials are, this road is not so good.
Zhao Shen couldn't go to see it in person, so he sent someone to check the situation on the new road.
As a result, when the sent people came back, they simply boasted about the road to the sky, using all kinds of good words.
Zhao Shen thinks such a good thing, I can't afford it in the capital, I have to build all the roads in the capital into concrete.
Hurry up and give Xiao Qi an order to let him go to Beijing and build all the roads in the capital into concrete roads.
Xiao Qi read his father-in-law's letter and sighed inwardly: My task is to build a cement road network, what trouble do you think you are making!
Building roads in the capital city is not my task.
He hurriedly wrote a memorandum to Zhao Shen. Of course, Xiao Qi could not refuse directly, but told Zhao Shen tactfully that the tens of thousands of road builders were all islanders who made trouble overseas.
These barbarians themselves would not dare to lead them into the capital to do things. If there were so many people in the capital and there was a sudden chaos in the capital, although the Changsheng Camp could kill them quickly.
But it would be a great crime to startle the emperor and the ministers.
But Xiao Qi finally told Zhao Shen that the imperial court could recruit some peasants and send some craftsmen to guide them in building roads in the capital.
Zhao Shen was taken aback when he saw Xiao Qi's memorandum, and he almost let tens of thousands of restless overseas rioters into Beijing at once, which is impossible.
So he had to summon the folks and ask Xiao Qi to send craftsmen to guide the construction of the road.
Xiao Qi immediately sent a few craftsmen to the capital, considering that his father-in-law would not be able to spend all his money, he directly asked these craftsmen to bring along the price of road construction, cement, river sand and stone slabs.
Let the imperial court reimburse the expenses directly, so that the officials of the various state capitals have an idea in mind, don't just take advantage of it, you come to talk to Lao Tzu with money, and ask the imperial court to allocate funds for you if you have no money.
Anyway, I don't care who you are if you don't have money, just get out.
The length and width of the road that Xiao Qi decided to build, and the amount of money needed, were calculated according to all the expenses that should be there.
Zhao Shen looked at the price list, although he thought it was expensive, but everyone said that the cement road was so good, let him go, anyway, the treasury has money now, let's talk about repairing it.
Zhao Shen transferred money from the treasury to Xiao Qi, and those officials who clamored to build roads were dumbfounded.
Do you need money for this thing?
Not only money, but so much money!
Soon, most of those officials died down, but a few well-governed state capitals didn't care about the little money. They directly asked the emperor for orders, and they paid for them, hoping to build roads for them.
Zhao Shen had no choice but to call Xiao Qi back to the capital to discuss, to see if the roads in those state capitals that were willing to pay were also repaired by the way.
Xiao Qi nodded immediately after hearing this and said that it was no problem. Since these state government warehouses have so much surplus, it means that these officials have managed the place well and it should be repaired by them.
When Zhao Shen heard this, he realized that this was also a way to tell whether he was an official or not!
Immediately find out the memorials of the officials who wrote to build the road before, and write down the names of the officials who are willing to pay for the road construction later, and prepare for promotion and reuse.
Those officials who had been yelling loudly before and didn't move as soon as they said the money, sent people to investigate how they were doing as officials, and whether they were corrupt and accepting bribes in Yurou Xiangli.
Needless to say, this investigation really found out a lot of problems. The government treasury was full, and those officials who had money to build roads managed the places where they worked in an orderly manner, and the people were rich.
Those who started to be greedy for cheap and clamored to build roads, but didn't say a word when they said they would pay for it, most of them were tossing around in the place where they worked, and the people complained.
The few who didn't do anything wrong, they just worked as monks and beat the clock for a day, they were just dawdling.
This made Zhao Shen, who has been committed to investigating and cracking down on corruption, very angry. He immediately arrested those who made mistakes, demoted those who were dawdling in their posts, and replaced some officials he was optimistic about.
Xiao Qi doesn't have the time to take care of these things, he just wants to quickly complete the task of building the world's first cement road network.
Song Dynasty is so big, if you don't hurry up and work quickly, you will have to spend several years just to build this transportation network.
This is what Xiao Qi is unwilling to do, he has to hurry up to complete this task, this is the main task he wants to complete quickly.
(End of this chapter)