Chapter 361 Manpower and Material Resources

The original traffic construction plan did not include building bridges. After all, in this era, people's inherent concepts are that the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are absolute natural chasms. Probably no one has thought of building bridges across these two rivers across the natural chasms.

But Ying Yi brought it up.

It is indeed extremely difficult to build a cross-river bridge, but with gold and yuan alloy materials and engineering components and equipment, it may not be impossible to build it.

So the Ministry of Industry was ordered to consider this first and see if they could come up with a charter.

After hearing this, Song Yingxing bowed and said, "Your Majesty, it is absolutely impossible to build a bridge across the natural chasm of the river. However, there are still some difficulties that need to be solved urgently."

"Oh?" Ying Yi nodded lightly: "Song Qing, come and listen."

Song Yingxing said: "Wei Chen has discussed this with several master bridge builders. To build a bridge across the natural chasm, we must use gold and yuan alloy to make bridge columns, bridge frames, and bridges, then lay alloy plates, and then lay mud on them. Earth, sand and gravel are condensed into flat stone paths using engineering tools, and in this way, an extremely strong bridge can be built.”

Ying Yi smiled and said, "So what's the difficulty?"

Song Yingxing said: "Your Majesty is wise, but the difficulty lies in the laying of the bridge pillars and other frames. Your Majesty, the bridge across the sky chasm is a huge project. It is made of gold and yuan alloy and is strong. The bridge pillars are tens of feet long and half How can such a huge bridge pillar be inserted into the bottom of the river? It is impossible to do it with human power. Therefore, I ask Your Majesty to set up this project in Yuan Qi Hall to study related components. When such components are built, it will solve the problem that cannot be solved by human power. If the problem is solved, the bridge can be built."

Ying Yi said: "Yes, what Song Qing said is absolutely true."

Song Yingxing added: "Your Majesty, there is no urgency in this matter. When the main road is built and the bridge needs to be paved, at least around this winter, Yuanqi Palace will have enough time to study the relevant elements."

Ying Yi smiled and said: "Of course." Then he said: "The road construction only needs to be carried out according to the plan. The bridge construction manpower cannot be reached and must be solved when necessary. The Ministry of Industry does not need to worry about this. It only needs to come up with A specific bridge-building plan will suffice.”

"Follow the emperor's order!"

Song Yingxing responded, and then said: "Your Majesty's candle shines thousands of miles away. In addition, the Ministry of Industry plans to fully recycle gold, silver, and copper from the private sector on a large scale, and increase the mining of this type of mineral deposits. The empire should be built on such raw materials The demand is getting bigger and bigger, so we have to plan ahead.”

Ying Yi said: "Later, Song Qing presented it to Yi Ge in the form of a memorial."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The great Xia court meeting lasted for half a month. During that time, the empire must have accumulated many problems that needed to be solved. Therefore, after Song Yingxing retired, Huang Zongxi, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, went out to report.

"Your Majesty, the education system has now been fully rolled out in Hebei, Central Plains, Jiangnan, Guanzhong and Sichuan and Shu state capitals. However, the people are conservative and have doubts. Now villages and towns with free schools have been established, and not many students are enrolled. The Ministry of Rites invites Your Majesty to issue an edict to legislate..."

For the common people, knowledge is indeed expensive. It's not that people don't want their children to go to school, but it's a matter of choice - when it comes to choosing between farming, making money and going to school, more people choose the former.

In this era, when a child grows up to seven or eight years old, he has to take on some farm work. From the age of eleven or twelve, he is used as a strong laborer. Nowadays, the average person of the common people has twenty acres of land, and there is an acute shortage of labor at home. Therefore, many common people prefer to let their children work in farming instead of going to school.

After all, the benefits of farming are visible to the naked eye.

This is a huge obstacle to the spread of the education system. Therefore, after internal discussions, the Ministry of Rites, which was in charge of education, submitted a letter to Ying Yi to legislate and impose strict restrictions on this.

The people's hearts are like iron, and the official laws are like furnaces. Under the current circumstances, only legislation is the most direct way to solve this problem, which can liberate children from farming and enter the ocean of knowledge.

Ying Yi was convinced and said, "Yes."

Then he said to Sun Wen of the Imperial Court: "After the dissolution of the dynasty, the Imperial Court will draw up a charter in advance."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Sun Wen came out to pay homage.

Then Ying Yi told the ministers: "Education here is the foundation of the empire. However, between the visible benefits and the invisible future, the people choose the former. The biggest problem is still the shortage of labor. The mainland of the Imperial China , the average person has twenty acres of land. If before the establishment of the empire, before the emergence of improved seeds, rough farming was carried out, one man could barely manage twenty acres. But now it is not possible. On the one hand, intensive farming is done, and on the other hand, the yield is too high. It requires a lot of labor. It’s no wonder people leave their children at home to work in the fields.”

"To solve this problem, labor is the first priority." Ying Yi said: "To increase the labor force at the people's disposal, the first priority is slaves."

Ying Yi said: "Allowing the people to buy slaves for farming can reduce the demand for labor. All Yi and Di women captured from the frontiers will be sold."

"In addition, we can start from business." Ying Yi thought: "People can't take care of the fields at home, so they can lease the land beyond their reach to businessmen. There can be large farms in Liaodong, and it may not be impossible in the mainland. But here, there must be perfection. The law restrains the merchants from harming the people and the people from harassing the merchants.”

"Whether it is the sale of slaves or the leasing of land, laws need to be improved. On this matter, the Pastoral Council and the Royal Court need to come up with regulations as soon as possible."

Nothing about an empire can be viewed in isolation. Often an agricultural issue will involve issues in all aspects, such as education, business, etc.

Zheng Yunzhi and Sun Wen both came out to pay homage and said, "I obey the emperor's order."

A large court meeting lasted from morning to night, with a short break at noon. The Pastoral Council, the Imperial Court, and even the Military Aircraft Office all had a large number of issues that needed to be resolved at the court meeting.

But many problems have already been solved before the meeting. It's easy to handle.

With the individual qualities of the civil and military personnel of the current Manchu Dynasty, and with Ying Yi's powerful spiritual power, no matter the overall situation or details, he will never make a mistake.

If there is a problem, solve it and never leave it to the next court meeting.

After the disbandment of the dynasty, imperial edicts were issued one after another from the Humanitarian Supervisor. Ying Yi retained the ministers of Yi Ge and the Logistics Department, Chief Officer of the Armament Department and Chief Officer of the Ministry of National Security in the dynasty.

"The empire is in its early stages, and construction in all aspects requires the mobilization of a large amount of manpower and material resources."

Ying Yi opened his mouth and said: "Today's court meeting, whether it is an issue with the Ministry of Industry or an issue with the Ministry of Rites, and more issues involved, are all related to this."

"In terms of physical resources, the preparation of Jinyuan alloy requires a large amount of raw materials. And the mining of raw materials still involves manpower issues."

"The empire stretches thousands of miles from north to south, east to west, and even for agricultural production, the manpower is insufficient. Therefore, it must be solved."

In the imperial study room, Ying Yi looked at a group of important ministers and said, "You can speak freely about this issue. If you have any ideas, just raise them."

Although the Daxia Empire has a population of over 100 million, it is currently insufficient. There is nothing we can do about it. In some aspects, Ying Yi also knew that he might be impatient. Many big projects were launched at the same time. To be honest, if it were not for Yuan Qi's plan, they would be dozens of times more brutal than Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty.