Everything had to be done according to one's ability. No matter if it was a person, a family, or even a country, they could not consume too much of their own energy. Otherwise, it would cause very serious losses and lead to very bad consequences.
If a person overworked himself, it would seriously damage his body and make his body less healthy. If a family bore an unbearable burden, it would cause the family to collapse. If a country consumed too much of its energy, it would disintegrate and perish.
A country's energy included financial resources, manpower, material resources, and so on. A financial collapse was the most terrifying. If the country ran out of money, the officials of the imperial court would not be able to receive their salaries, and the army would not receive their pay. If there was a famine, there would be no money for disaster relief.
If the officials did not receive their salaries, they would use their power to exploit the people, making the lives of the people more difficult. If the army did not receive their pay, there would be mutinies, or even robbers, or bandits in the mountains. If there was a famine in the areas where there was no help from the imperial court, there would be a large number of deaths. There would even be large-scale peasant uprisings, which would cause the entire society to fall into chaos, causing the dynasty to collapse step by step.
The manpower of the people referred to the people's manpower, material resources, and financial resources. Consuming too much of the manpower of the people referred to the endless conscription of the people to do manual labor, making the people extremely tired. Using excessive taxes to rob the people of their property and goods, making it difficult for the people to survive and disapprove of the imperial court, or even raise an uprising and launch a large-scale resistance movement.
Material resources referred to all the resources that could be used. There was a saying that before the troops and horses were mobilized, the provisions had to be prepared first. An army that went to war would consume a huge amount of resources. As the war entered a stalemate, the consumption of resources would be even greater. If the country's resources could not be supplied, it would be easy to cause the collapse of the army, which would then lead to the destruction of the empire.
In short, manpower, material resources, and financial resources were the foundation of an empire. They needed to be cherished very much. They absolutely could not be consumed too much. Otherwise, once the income could not make ends meet, the empire would collapse.
There were too many such lessons in history. The Umayyad Dynasty was still in a state of expansion at the end of the dynasty, and so were the various dynasties of the Hua Xia. The Great Qin Empire built the Great Wall, built the Epang Palace, vigorously developed Lingnan, and so on, which caused a great loss of national strength. The Great Sui Empire was the same. Digging the Grand Canal, conquering Korea three times, and other crimes were known from ancient times to modern times. Due to the accumulation of generations of the Great Ming Empire, by the end of the dynasty, there were hundreds of thousands of lazy imperial descendants. These people did not need to do anything, but the imperial court had to spend money to support them so that they did not have to worry about food and clothing. As a result, a great burden was added to the imperial court's finances, which gradually made the imperial court unable to make ends meet.
The lessons of history must be learned. Now, the national strength of the Tang Empire was getting stronger and stronger, but they absolutely could not consume too much of the national strength. Fortunately, the increase in the Tang Empire's expenditure was far from catching up with the increase in income. Not only did the money in the national treasury not decrease because of the substantial increase in expenditure, but it also increased a lot. The original warehouse could not fit all the money, so they had to build a new warehouse inside the imperial city. The size of the warehouse on the left and right of the imperial city had expanded several times. If the income continued to increase, they would have to find another place to build another warehouse in the capital. Otherwise, there would be no place to store so much tax revenue.
In the past, the tax revenue of the Tang Empire mainly came from the tax revenue from agriculture. However, since Ang Lee started industrialization and promoted the development of commerce, the financial revenue of the Tang Empire, as well as the tax revenue from commerce and industry, had gradually increased and had become the absolute majority. The tax revenue from agriculture had become more and more insignificant. It was so much so that there was no pressure to abolish the tax on agriculture across the country.
Ang Lee led a huge expeditionary fleet to open up new lands, which consumed a lot of the financial resources of the imperial court. However, Ang Lee also seized a lot of wealth along the way. Moreover, by fighting against hostile and pirate forces, the Silk Road on the Sea gradually became smoother. At least for now, the number of merchants from the Tang Empire to Malacca had increased several times, and commerce had become more frequent. The tax revenue from the port cities in the southern part of the Tang Empire had also increased greatly, and these revenues would soon cover the expenses of Ang Lee's fleet. In short, it was absolutely not a loss.
After casually discussing the situation in Dashi, Ang Lee took his civil and military officials to the nearby city wall to inspect. Because there were 6,000 soldiers working, all the projects were progressing smoothly, especially the construction of the city wall, which was not very technical.
Because the city wall was only two layers of very thin brick walls, and the middle was filled with soil, it was not difficult to build. Moreover, the soil was dug out nearby.
The place where the soil was dug was five steps away from the city wall. Therefore, after the city wall was built, the place where the soil was dug out formed a natural moat. As long as water was drawn in, a moat could quickly be formed.
Building the city wall and the moat could be said to be killing two birds with one stone. The premise of all this was sufficient manpower.
After thousands of soldiers were invested in the construction, the work of digging and compaction was done by people. The work of building the wall was done by skilled craftsmen, and the work of digging, filling, and compaction, which required the most work, was all done by the soldiers.
In order to speed up the progress of the construction and complete the city wall as soon as possible, some machinery was used at the construction site, such as the excavators belonging to the Tang dynasty. These excavators dug out more soil with a shovel than dozens of soldiers. In addition, it was very laborious to transport the soil dug out by manpower. The clever craftsmen immediately came up with a good idea. They made a simple conveyor belt, and the excavated soil was directly placed on the conveyor belt. Manpower stepped on the conveyor belt and sent the soil between the two thin walls. Then, manpower or machinery pushed the soil to the required place and compacted it with feet. Finally, machinery was used to compress the soil.
A large amount of manpower, a small amount of machinery, and the ingenuity of the craftsmen combined to shorten the construction period of the city wall by a lot. It was almost a day. In just one month, most of the city wall was built. It was estimated that it could be completed within ten days without any pressure.
Among them, a section of the city wall was completely built. It was the wall at the north gate of the city. This section of the city wall was not built the earliest, but it was the first section to be completed.
This section of the city wall was built the fastest, not because of the geographical location, nor because the craftsmen here worked harder. It was because Ang Lee attached the most importance to this section of the city wall and mobilized more craftsmen. Therefore, the construction was naturally completed the fastest.
The outside of the city wall was bare, but inside the city wall, there was a ladder that allowed people to climb up the city wall at regular intervals. There was one on the left and right of the city gate, and they were the largest and widest ladders. The other ladders were more simple and small, as long as they could allow the soldiers to climb up the city wall.
Around the edge of the inner city wall, there were many houses. These were prepared for the soldiers guarding the city wall. Usually, the soldiers could rest in these houses. In case of an emergency, the resting soldiers could quickly reinforce the city wall. Some of the houses stored defensive materials, such as swords and arrows, rolling logs, stones, and other materials. There were also large defensive weapons. If they were placed on the city wall, they would be easily damaged by the sun and rain. If they were placed in the houses below the city wall, it would undoubtedly increase their lifespan.
Ang Lee led the civil and military officials under his command and quickly arrived at the northern city wall. They climbed up the large ladder at the gate.
Like the construction of the city wall, the ladder was also made of mud. As long as the outer wall and surface were bricks, the bottom of the bricks was all mud. However, because it was compacted tightly, there was no need to worry about the ladder being damaged.
Mud was most afraid of rainwater because rainwater could wash the mud away. Therefore, in order to prevent the mud under the city wall and the stairs from being washed away by rainwater, all the bricks were smeared with cement. Moreover, it was smeared very evenly and meticulously without any gaps. In this way, the rainwater would not enter the bottom of the bricks and destroy the foundation under the bricks.
The bricks were laid neatly, and it was very comfortable to step on them. Ang Lee felt it and was very satisfied. He walked to the top of the city wall step by step.
The bricks on the top of the city wall were laid in place. It gave people a pleasant feeling. The parapet was a short wall on the outside. There were shooting ports and lookouts. There was also a small wall on the inside. However, because the enemy was outside, the small wall on the inside was very low. It was only half the height of a person. It was not even half the height of the parapet. Standing on the city wall, it was easy to see everything in the city. But if you wanted to see the scenery outside the wall, you had to go through the lookouts and shooting ports because the parapet was taller than the height of a person. It would block people's sight.
Ang Lee walked to a lookout and looked out. He could just see the cement road outside and the craftsmen who were working on one side. The cement road was ready to be used. As a result, the foundation on the other side began to lay the cement road. The cement produced by the cement workshop twenty miles to the north was used. With the nearby materials, the speed and cost of construction would be very advantageous.
Above the city gate was naturally the city gate tower. Since ancient times, wherever there was a city gate, a city gate tower would generally be built. First, it was more beautiful and domineering when seen from a distance. Second, it could also be used for the guards to rest and let the guards have a place to cool down. The most important reason was that the city gate was the weakest part of the city's defense. When the enemy attacked a city, they usually started by breaking the city gate. Therefore, the defense of the city gate had always been the most important. Naturally, there were more defensive measures than the city wall. In addition to the deployment of troops on the parapet, troops should also be deployed on the city gate tower. The lethality of rolling wood and stones thrown down from the parapet was absolutely different from the lethality of the city gate tower. The higher the city gate tower, the higher the potential of the rolling wood and stones, which would greatly increase the lethality of the rolling wood and stones, and give the enemy a more fatal attack. If the archers were deployed, shooting from the city gate tower, the attack distance and the archers' vision would be very good.
The normal city gate tower was mostly two stories, but in some important cities or checkpoints, the city gate tower was relatively tall. It could be more than three stories, or even taller and bigger.
Ang Lee didn't pay much attention to the defensive role of the city gate tower. Moreover, the construction period was relatively tight. Therefore, the city gate tower of Anzhu City only had two stories, which was the most common city gate tower. There was no difficulty in building it.
Most of the ancient city gate towers were built with wood, but how could the strength of wood be compared to concrete? Moreover, wood couldn't be fireproof. Once a fire broke out, the wooden city gate tower would be completely finished. Therefore, Ang Lee required the city gate tower of Anzhu City to be built with concrete. In important load-bearing parts, precious steel bars should be used. The walls should at least be built with bricks instead of using wood materials that lacked firmness.
"Let's go upstairs and take a look."
Because of the obstruction of the parapet wall, Ang Lee had to crane his head to see the scenery outside the city. It didn't feel very good. Moreover, it would affect his image. Therefore, he decided to go up the city gate tower. There were only waist-high fences that wouldn't block his view.
The stairs were made of wood and were very comfortable to walk on. Even though Li An had asked for concrete materials to be used as much as possible, some parts were still more convenient to use wood. Moreover, the small internal staircase was safe, so there was nothing wrong with using wood. The window material was also made of wood, but the walls and the theme were changed to concrete.
The tiles on the top of the city gate tower were also ordinary tiles, which were produced by the nearby brick kiln factory. It was no different from the tiles of other city gate towers.
Walking up the city gate tower, Ang Lee stood beside the wooden fence. He stroked the waist-high wooden fence with one hand and looked outside the city.
Because there was no obstruction in his line of sight, Ang Lee could observe the scenery outside the city in a wider range. The cement road outside the city and the craftsmen who were working could be seen more clearly.
Farther away, one could see mountain peaks. Twenty miles to the north, there were several mountain peaks that were emitting bursts of smoke and dust. It was clear that those were the lime mines. The smoke and dust were caused by the artisans mining the lime mines.
In addition to the limestone mine, which was located on a small hill, there were many other small hills in the north. Were there more mineral mines in these densely packed hills? Were there coal and oil resources under the hills?
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