Ang Lee felt that it was good for these transport workers to be divided into families. In this way, they could really take care of each other when working. The young and strong could do more, and the old could do less. Anyway, they were all a family, and there would be no conflicts. As long as the family worked together to do things well, it would be fine.
If they were not divided into families, some people in a group could do more, while some couldn't. This would cause the people who did more to complain. Generally, there would not be such conflicts within families.
Ang Lee appreciated the arrangement of the officials. He felt that the officials did a good job. It was a very good idea.
After the family of four answered Li An's question, they quickly went to transport again. Li An met another family. This family had five people, but they didn't have a single animal. It was a purely human transport team, and everyone in this team was obviously more tired than the previous team. There were more beads of sweat on their faces. It was obvious that even if there was one more person, they couldn't compare to the strength of an animal. In fact, it was far inferior.
Among the five people in this team, there were two strong young men in their twenties, an old man in his forties, and an old woman of the same age. Although the other one was dressed in men's clothes, Ang Lee could see that she was a young woman with average looks. Because of the dust on her face and her relatively thin body, it was not easy to tell that she was a woman if one did not look carefully. Careless people really could not tell that she was a woman.
"You've worked hard. Don't you have livestock?"
Ang Lee asked.
It could be seen that this family was poorer than the previous one. This family did not even have livestock. They relied on manpower to do all the work. The gap was obvious.
"Hey, we only have a half-grown piglet and a few chickens at home."
A young man said.
He was responsible for pulling the cart in the front, and the four people behind him were pushing the cart. He was under the greatest pressure and sweated the most.
"Come on, wipe your sweat! How many people are in your family? Is there anyone else in your family? "
Ang Lee asked.
The old man said, "No, we're all here. Our family of five is all here, hehehe."
"These big bluestones, how many times do you have to transport them a day?"
Ang Lee asked.
"Three trips. Every family has three trips. They come here in the morning and will be home before dark."
The old man said.
"Oh, it seems that they are all nearby villagers!"
Ang Lee nodded.
One of the officials hurriedly replied, "Assistant Minister Li, it's like this. We can only recruit men for labor that is too far away. The women still have to take care of the old and young at home, and we don't have enough manpower here. If we want to finish the road on time, we need to recruit more people. The surrounding commoners aren't far from here, so we can have their entire families work together. They can come in the morning and go back after dark. This won't delay much. For example, if this family doesn't have children, they can all come together. If they have children, we can just leave an old woman to look after the house. This way, we can increase the manpower and have a better chance of finishing the work on time."
Hearing this, Ang Lee nodded in agreement. The official's statement was confirmed by Ang Lee. This method was indeed very good. It was a very good method. Only the nearby people could realize it. They came to work in the morning and went home after dark. The people far away certainly couldn't. They would waste their time on the road.
The transportation work was not too hard. If a family took care of each other, they could complete a day's work and go home to rest at night. These people could eat three meals a day. They ate a little in the morning, a little in the evening, and some dry food and water at noon. In this way, a day passed. If it was in the future, such a waste of the body would lead to gastric problems sooner or later. However, the people here had very strong resistance. Even if they ate a little every day, it was not easy to have gastric problems. At least, there would be no problems when they were young. It was not certain when they were old. It was very likely that they would have problems.
There were only five people in this family, and there were no children. Therefore, all five of them came out to work. Among them, two young men took turns to pull the cart in front, and the other three pushed the cart in the back. When the old woman was tired, she would walk a few steps. After taking a rest, she continued to push the cart forward.
After a short delay, this family continued on the road. Then, another family came. This family was small, only three people, but there was a strong yellow ox, an old man, and two strong young men.
The old man pulled the ox in front, and the two young men pushed the cart in the back. Although this family was small, they were not weak. After all, the strength of several adult men was not as strong as that of a yellow ox. The strength of a yellow ox was very great. This family was much easier than the previous two families.
"What a strong yellow ox! This Yellow Ox is really good. It's great when it comes to plowing, and it's also good at pulling carriages! "
Ang Lee praised.
The official next to him said, "Assistant Minister Li is right. The yellow ox can plow the land and pull the cart. It is the treasure of the mountain people. Those who have a yellow ox are the more prosperous families and have prestige in the village. Generally, there are not more than ten families with a yellow ox in a hundred families in a village. Most of them don't have a yellow ox."
Ang Lee could understand this. After all, the yellow ox was relatively expensive livestock. It not only played a bigger role, but also could do more work and had more meat. Except for horses, other livestock could not compare with it, not to mention poultry.
In many ancient dynasties, it was illegal to kill horses and cows. The Tang dynasty was no exception. Horses were an important resource to build cavalry, and cows were livestock to plow the land. Without horses, there would be no powerful cavalry. Without cows, there would be no guarantee of the order of spring plowing. Naturally, these two important animals could not be killed easily. Otherwise, the strength of the whole empire would be affected.
"Well said. It seems that this family is rich in the village! Haha! "
Ang Lee said and went up to greet them.
The old man looked very honest, and the two young men were even more honest. They were honest farmers, and they looked quite strong.
Seeing so many high-ranking officials, the three of them hurriedly bowed and saluted in a very respectful manner.
"Old man, how many people are there in your family?"
The old man grinned and said, "There are nine people in my family. Two sons and daughters-in-law, three grandchildren, and an old woman."
There were indeed a lot of people in this family, as many as nine people. Because there was enough manpower, only the three strongest people came out to work. The other six women and children were resting at home.
"Haha! It's good to have a family with cows! Other people have to work together as a whole family, but your family only has three people. The pressure is the least! "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
The old man was shocked and hurriedly said, "This old man only has one cart and one cow. It's the same even if a few more people come to work. Our cart carries more large bluestones than other families. We're not slacking off!"
The official next to him also said, "Assistant Minister Li, these mountain people basically only have one flatbed cart in each family. They don't need more. So, no matter how good the conditions are or how many people there are, the task for each family is the same. They only have three carts a day."
Ang Lee nodded and said, "Don't be nervous. I'm just saying. Look at how scared you are. Go to work!"
The car stopped 30 steps away. The old man sat on the side and rested. His two sons unloaded the goods together. They threw the large bluestone out of the car one by one. Since they were going to be smashed anyway, they could naturally throw it away as they pleased. This was not a fragile item. If they could really be smashed, the smiths would be able to save a lot of trouble.
The total weight of the large bluestones in a cart was at least one ton. This weight was not small. A family transporting three times a day would be three tons. There were about six or seven hundred families in charge of the transportation. In other words, they transported about two thousand tons of large bluestones a day. This amount was not small. Although the efficiency was not as good as the machines in the future, it should be enough for the road construction.
The transportation team had at most six people and at least three people. Even if there were strong animals like cows and horses, there would be no less than three people pulling the cart. After all, in addition to pulling the cart, there was also the workload of loading and unloading. If there were fewer people, the pressure would be very great. Only when there were more people taking turns to work could the speed be increased and they could also take turns to rest for a while.
The road construction was temporarily stopped, but the transportation and preparation of raw materials did not stop for a moment. After so many days, at least tens of thousands of tons of raw materials had been stored. There were one or two tons of gravel and unprocessed large bluestones, and there were also a lot of sleepers and tree trunks. Of course, there were two kinds of sunken wood. One was the sleepers made of thick tree trunks, and the other was the concrete sleepers made of cement, gravel, and sand. Judging from the current cost of the Tang dynasty, it was naturally cheaper to use wood directly, but the quality of concrete was better and could be used for a longer time. Therefore, both kinds of sleepers could be used interchangeably. For example, one could use cement, and then several sleepers in a row with solid wood. This could save a certain amount of cost and at the same time, ensure the quality of the sleepers.
More than half of the families transporting the large bluestone were women. Not far away, there was a transport team. This transport team was made up entirely of men, and their vehicles were larger. They were not transporting large bluestones, but rather large pieces of wood. They were all mined from the nearby forest. Although they had cut down a lot of trees when they burned the forest, it was far from enough. The railway had a high demand for sleepers, and a large amount of thick wood was needed. The most reliable method was to select and transport materials from the nearby mountains.
These huge trees were not only thick, but also very long. However, for the convenience of transportation, they were all sawed into short trunks. As long as the length of the trunks was a little longer than the length of the sleepers, it would be fine.
These trunks were much heavier than the large bluestones. When the large bluestones were mined, in order to allow the transport team to move them, they were mined into small pieces. However, the big trees could not be made too small, otherwise, they could only be used as firewood. Thick trunks that were two or three meters long were bound to be very cumbersome. As a result, a vehicle could only transport a few pieces, and probably only one tree's wood could be transported at a time.
"Wait, is this a complete tree?"
Ang Lee stopped a transport vehicle and asked.
There were three people in this vehicle, all of whom were strong men. They were transporting five pieces of wood. Three of them were placed side by side under the vehicle, and two were stacked on top of the vehicle. There were some relatively small branches tied up at the top to prevent them from falling.
"Yes, this is a whole tree. Even the thick side branches were transported here."
The leader said.
"What can these thick side branches be used for? Are they used as firewood?"
Ang Lee asked curiously.
The official behind him hurriedly said, "Assistant Minister Li is right. These side branches are not thick enough. They are indeed used as firewood. There are tens of thousands of craftsmen building the road. A lot of firewood and hay are consumed for cooking every day. It is good to transport more."
The official was right. There were too many craftsmen. Except for some people who lived nearby who could return home after finishing their work, the rest of the craftsmen had to eat and live here. They had to burn firewood to eat, which was inseparable from a large amount of wood. With so many craftsmen, the demand for wood was definitely not a small amount. Using the opportunity of transporting the materials for the sleepers to transport some firewood was also a good method.
In addition, after the thick trunks were processed into sleepers, there would be a lot of waste wood, which could be used as firewood.
Of course, more trees would be burned by fire. If they were all cut down to make wood, it would still be a large number. However, the miasma was too serious. In order to prevent people from getting infected, they could only burn most of the forest wood. Wasting a little was not a big deal. Anyway, there were plenty of wood resources nearby. They could just burn it here and transport it from other places.
"These piles of firewood are too close. If a fire breaks out in one place, wouldn't all the firewood in this large area be destroyed?"
Ang Lee pointed to the piles of firewood not far away and said.
"Assistant Minister Li is right. This official will immediately send people to rectify it."
An official hurriedly said.
Ang Lee could understand why so much firewood was piled together. After all, there was too much firewood. The more scattered it was, the more space it needed and the more work it would have to do. It was naturally more convenient to pile it up in a closer area. Although there were a large number of people working, the work was also very heavy. As long as the management was not in place, it would naturally save as much trouble as possible. It was already good that it was not all piled up together. If he wanted to change this situation, he could only make a request and transfer some people to be responsible for piling it up.
It didn't matter if the stones were piled up, they wouldn't catch fire anyway. However, there was no need to pile up the wood and firewood. There had to be a certain interval between them. Moreover, there were fires everywhere in the forest, and the smell of sparks could be wafted through the air. A little carelessness could cause a fire. It was indeed too dangerous to pile up too much wood together.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
