Why did the officials in charge of road construction hire the nearby people? Naturally, it was because only the nearby people were familiar enough with the situation in the jungle. It was safer to let them cut down the trees. These people lived in this place for a long time and were not easy to be infected by the miasma, nor were they easy to be attacked by other insects, ants, rats, and snakes. If the road construction workers from the north were sent in, another batch of people might die. Then, their sins would be even greater.
With the orders of the imperial court, the number of Central Sichuan locals in the road construction army had increased. The total number had surpassed the skilled craftsmen from the north and became the main force of road construction. Of course, most of these people were temporarily recruited. Their technical level was naturally not as good as the craftsmen from the north. During the spring ploughing and autumn harvest, they needed to temporarily leave the main force to work on their own land. Otherwise, there would be no food for the next year.
"Assistant Minister Li, this forest is not simple! These are all precious mahogany, and all of them are more than three hundred years old. What about the trees that are more than a thousand years old? Such a large area can be sold for a lot of money in the market of the capital. "
Chen Long said.
There were many kinds of wood in the market of the capital, all of which were cut down and transported from the primitive forest. The price was unusually high, especially the precious trees that were hundreds of years old. They were even more expensive. Sometimes, one might not even be able to buy them with money. This kind of mahogany was also a good thing that many nobles competed for.
Ang Lee had already expected that there would be so many precious woods in this forest. After all, this was a large primitive forest. Since the primitive forest was not often disturbed, it was normal for there to be a large number of precious trees in it. There was nothing strange about trees that were hundreds or thousands of years old. The existence of so many precious trees was completely within the range of reasonable.
So many precious woods were picked out by casually burning a primitive forest. It could be seen how many precious woods there were in the entire Tang dynasty, and how many other resources were there? It must be an astronomical number.
After asking about the woods, Ang Lee asked about the road construction and the burning of the forest. However, these were all small roles and did not know much. He could not get any valuable information from them. So, he could only go there tomorrow to see it in person.
After about 15 minutes of delay, Ang Lee's fleet continued to set off downstream. The soldiers in charge of escorting the ships and the hired workers continued to go upstream. They would rest at the shore after dark. After all, going upstream required a lot of physical strength. They had to rest in time so that they would have the strength to continue rowing the next day. If they did not rest in time, they would probably have no strength to row the next day.
The closer they got to the burning area, the stronger the smell of smoke in the air. The smell of smoke was naturally unpleasant, which made Ang Lee quite uncomfortable. Even his eyes were very uncomfortable. From time to time, he had to close his eyes to rest for a while to recover the fatigue of his eyes.
After dark, the smoke in the distant sky was almost invisible, but the light in the distance became bright. This kind of brightness was very conspicuous. At first glance, it was obvious that it was caused by a large-scale burning. It could be seen that the burning was quite fierce. The very bright light could be seen from dozens of miles away.
At night, the light could be seen, but the heat generated by the burning could not be felt at all. The drifting smoke could not be seen, but the smell of smoke was getting stronger and stronger. This was because although the fire could be seen, the fire was far away from the fleet. Although the smoke could not be seen, the smoke was around.
After admiring the fireworks for a while, Ang Lee returned to the cabin to rest. The smoke outside was too annoying, and the smell of smoke in the cabin was much better. After some treatment, the smell of smoke immediately dissipated.
This treatment method was not difficult. It was very simple. Close the cabin windows, and then use a spray bottle to spray clean water in the room. When the clean water mist met the smoke, it would control the smoke, and finally prevent the smoke from floating in the air, thus eliminating the smoke. Ang Lee had experimented many times, and the effect was very good. The spray bottle was naturally a new object invented by Ang Lee. It had been sought after by many people in the capital. It was the favorite of people who raised flowers. Compared to watering plants with a kettle, the effect of using a spray bottle was better. The spray bottle could use less water to wash the leaves of the flowers, making the potted flowers more delicate and beautiful.
In fact, the principle of the spray bottle was very simple, but why could no one in ancient times be able to invent it? It was not that the ancient people were too stupid, but that they could not think of such a clever thing. Or it could be said that they did not have the motivation in this area. Using a kettle was enough. It seemed that there was no need to invent this kind of spray bottle that could spray fog.
With the spray bottle, the smell of smoke in the cabin was successfully removed. This made Ang Lee feel quite comfortable. The uncomfortable feeling in his nose and lungs was gone, and he could finally sleep comfortably.
The rest of the soldiers weren't as lucky, they could only rest while smelling the smoke. This was also a form of training for them. Who told the wind to be so weak at this time? It actually blew the smoke towards the fleet. If the wind blew in another direction, then they wouldn't be able to smell the smoke. This was their bad luck, they were actually targeted by the smoke.
The construction period given by the imperial court was relatively tight. Even if the period was extended by three months because of the miasma, the construction period was still very tight. Therefore, the officials in charge of the construction of the road did not dare to have the slightest neglect. Even at night, there were officials on duty to personally supervise the people and supervise the burning of the forest. At the same time, many craftsmen were preparing the half-finished products of the road construction to meet the need to catch up with the progress at any time.
In short, the area where the forest was burned was busy day and night. Everyone was nervously busy. No one dared to delay the construction of the railway that the imperial court attached great importance to.
Burning the forest was very risky. If it was not done properly, it could lead to the spread of a terrifying mountain fire. In order to speed up the construction of the road, it could not be burned slowly. It had to be set on fire in many places at the same time. At the same time, they also had to prevent the fire from burning places that should not be burned. This pressure could be imagined.
In order to ensure safety, the officials in charge of the construction of the road mobilized the garrisons in Maozhou and the surrounding areas. They also organized a large number of manpower to form a reliable quarantine zone around the fire. Everyone was on guard to prevent the fire from burning places that should not be burned. This was their responsibility and they had to do it well.
Fire was very ruthless. Once it was not controlled well, the consequences could be very serious. This was not something that ordinary officials could bear. Therefore, they had to be very careful. The water for setting the fire in the quarantine zone was all very well prepared. The burning area was also divided very reasonably. The area not far from the river was directly bounded by the river. Generally, when the fire burned a river of a certain width, it would be blocked. The river could very well prevent the fire from continuing to spread.
In areas where the trees were particularly dense, they chose to cut down the trees in advance. All the valuable trees were swept away. These trees were cut down and transported to the river and soaked in the water directly. This way, the trunks of these trees would not be the source of the fire. All the trees that were more than a few hundred years old were basically all cut down. This way, the safety would be increased by a lot.
These officials did a good job. The fire had been burning for several days, but the places that should not be burned were not burned. The fire also did not continue to spread. This was very good.
Early in the morning, before dawn, Ang Lee's fleet arrived at the place where the fire was burning and docked.
As this place had just been burned, the air was full of the smell of ashes and smoke. It was very unpleasant. In order to combat this unpleasant smell, Ang Lee made a self-made mask and soaked it in water. Although it was not very comfortable to wear and there was a suffocating feeling, it was better than smelling smoke and burning.
The forests that should be burned here had all been burned, and there were still many forests in the distance that needed to be burned. At this moment, tens of thousands of people were busy monitoring the nearby areas and continuing to widen the isolation zone to prevent the fire from spreading to the distant farmlands.
Since Ang Lee was a high-ranking official, the officials in charge of road repair and forest burning naturally had to come and greet him. Most of them came. Some were busy on the front lines and did not know of Ang Lee's arrival, so they did not come. Ang Lee would not blame them.
"There are many people here! At a glance, there are tens of thousands of people. There must be more elsewhere. There must be more than 100,000 people. "
When the ship stopped, Chen Long looked at the densely packed tents and people in the distance and said.
Ang Lee also saw that there were indeed a lot of people. There were tens of thousands of people in this area, including soldiers, officials, and craftsmen. He could even see many women and children. All kinds of materials were also piled up like mountains.
As for why the Great Tang's railways had been able to be built so quickly, even in a time of technological backwardness, it was entirely due to the recruitment of so many commoners. If not for these commoners, the railways would have taken years to complete.
Ten people working together was naturally much faster than one person. The progress of 100,000 people building the roads was definitely much faster than that of 10,000 people. Although it was not as exaggerated as ten times the speed, the speed of increase was definitely very impressive. Therefore, in order to build the roads as soon as possible, the best and most effective way was to vigorously recruit as much labor as possible. As long as the conditions allowed, they would recruit as much as possible.
Anyway, Ang Lee felt that almost all the people in the nearby provinces and counties had been recruited. Even the people within a hundred miles had been recruited. As long as the roads were to be built in this area, the people in the vicinity would have to serve as laborers. This was the law of the Tang dynasty. Everyone had to abide by it, and no one was an exception.
For example, when they passed by Wenchuan, Ang Lee found that the people of Wenchuan were not recruited. This was not because Wenchuan was nearly a hundred miles away from here, but because Wenchuan was also an area that the railway would pass through. Moreover, the materials for road building in the early stage had begun to be transported there, and the demolition work was also being carried out in an orderly manner. As long as everything was ready, the road construction in Wenchuan would also begin. Therefore, the manpower there naturally could not be transferred to other places casually. Not only that, in the future, the manpower of the surrounding Bazhou County would be transferred to Wenchuan to increase the manpower for road building there.
It was precisely because of the limited technology of road construction that they had to build it in sections. They had to build it in more than a dozen places at the same time. This way, they could avoid slacking to the greatest extent and ensure that the construction of the railway could proceed faster. This was the idea proposed by Li An and also the common opinion of everyone. Only in this way could they complete the task of building the railway faster.
With such a large population gathered together, eating, drinking, and defecating every day was a big problem. The more people gathered together, the easier it was to have a plague. In particular, if the feces were not handled properly, the probability of a plague would be greatly increased. Of course, hygiene during meals was also important. If the bowls and chopsticks were not washed clean, it was easy for the virus to spread. These were all very important.
In addition to the malaria virus in the forest, there was another very important reason why so many craftsmen had been infected by the miasma. That was, their hygiene was not good enough. Did the craftsmen wash their hands carefully when eating? Did they really wash the bowls and chopsticks? If the craftsmen washed their hands carefully, the bowls and chopsticks were clean, and the food was fine, then there should not have been so many people infected by the miasma. This time, burning the forest could indeed reduce the miasma, but at the same time, attention should be paid to hygiene. Otherwise, even if the forest was burned, there would be a plague.
"There are a lot of people here! How many people are there in total? "
Ang Lee asked.
An official immediately replied, "Assistant Minister Li, there are about 21,000 people here. There will be a slight increase or decrease occasionally, so the specific number is not certain and will change to a certain extent."
He could not be blamed for this. In order to complete the road as soon as possible, there would be some conscripted laborers arriving within a radius of a hundred miles, and those who were working would die or become seriously ill due to the miasma. Therefore, there would be a certain increase and decrease from time to time. It was indeed difficult to determine the exact number, and there was no way to confirm it. However, the approximate number of twenty-one thousand people could not be wrong. That was enough.
"21,000 people, not a small number, really not a small number. How long is the road that these 20,000 people are responsible for? How many teams are there in this area?"
Ang Lee continued to ask.
An official replied, "Assistant Minister Li, this small section is about 20 miles, and there are two more areas in front of it that are also about 20 miles, so the total length of the three areas is about 60 miles. The number of people in each area is about the same, about 20,000."
Ang Lee nodded. 20,000 people were responsible for 20 miles, so an average of 1,000 people were responsible for one mile. According to the calculation of five hundred meters per mile, an average of two people were responsible for one meter of road, and one person was responsible for half a meter of road.
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