Chapter 28: Ying Zheng's Railway Plan

Zhao Yi said: "This will facilitate the transportation of materials and prepare for future uprisings."

Hey~
Why are you so obsessed with rebellion?
In addition, it is not enough to build only one railway from Shaqiu County to Shahe Village.

If we want to build it, we will build the entire Qin Dynasty.

Use railways to connect the entire Daqin!
"Zhao, is it enough to build the railway only to Shaqiu County? Can't we build more?"

Zhao Yi waved his hand and said, "I would like to build more, too. But building railways is too conspicuous. If someone reports it to the government and it attracts the attention of the court, it will be difficult to deal with."

"This will be inconvenient for us to rebel in the future."

Ying Zheng felt a little speechless.

In fact, your rebellion has been known to the court.

Even I, the emperor, am right before you now.

He said after thinking for a moment.

"You don't have to worry, you can leave those things to me."

"I have a pretty good relationship with the governor of Julu County."

The prefect of Julu County was appointed by me.

"I can make sure he won't leak the news of the railway construction."

If the county magistrate dares to leak such confidential information as the construction of the railway, I will kill all his three clans!

"I think we should build the railway in Julu County as soon as possible."

"Then we can quickly deploy troops directly via the railway to take over the entire Julu County."

Zhao Yi thought for a while after hearing this.

"Okay, what you said makes sense. As long as you can guarantee that the Julu County Magistrate will not leak the secret, then we can build a railway in Julu County."

"By then, with the railway still there, we will be able to defend Julu County no matter how many enemies come."

In fact, building a railway in Julu County was just an excuse made by Ying Zheng.

Ying Zheng's purpose was to use this excuse to transform the construction of the railway in Julu County into the construction of a railway to Xianyang.

The reason why Ying Zheng dared to do this was that he was not afraid of being discovered by Zhao Yi.

Because he knew very well that Shahe Village now had a fatal weakness.

There are just too few people in Shahe Village!

This resulted in the people of Shahe Village having exhausted all their manpower just to be responsible for production.

There is simply no one to do anything else.

So no matter what, Zhao Yi needs to rely on the people he provides to get things done.

If Zhao Yi wants to build the railway, he cannot do without his own people.

At that time, Ying Zheng could let the soldiers be trained by Zhao Yi to learn the technology of building railways.

In this way, Daqin mastered the technology of building railways.

At that time, as long as Zhao Yi's Shahe Village can provide materials continuously.

Ying Zheng was able to build railways throughout the Qin state.

In addition, Ying Zheng also believed that Zhao Yi would sooner or later ask him for people to be trained and placed in the factory.

After all, there are too few people in Shahe Village. If the railway in Julu County is built, and other materials for rebellion are added.

The people of Shahe Village alone would not be able to produce enough.

By then, Daqin will learn and master Zhao Yi's new technologies.

In fact, what Ying Zheng thought was right.

After the new factory was built, Zhao Yi really didn't ask his scumbag father to train people to increase the manpower of the factory.

But Zhao Yi also knew to keep a backup plan.

The key technologies and steps will not be accessible to the scumbag’s people.

After all, Zhao Yi also understood the principle of "when the bird is dead, the bow is put away, and when the rabbit is dead, the dog is cooked." The ironclad ship was already being built quietly.

In addition, part of the factory's production capacity is used to produce gun bullet casings.

That was the confidence and guarantee that gave Zhao Yi the courage to rebel.

Ying Zheng put down the railway track drawing in his hand.

He asked slowly, "How many people do you need me to provide to build the railway from Shaqiu County to Shahe Village?"

Zhao Yi replied: "According to my calculations, the straight-line distance from Shaqiu County to Shahe Village is about 20 kilometers, or 40 miles. Fortunately, there are no mountains or rivers blocking the way, and most of the land is flat."

"So we need about a thousand people. Five hundred people will cut trees and make sleepers on the planned road. Two hundred and fifty people will build from Shaqiu County to Shahe County, and at the same time, another two hundred and fifty people will build the railway from Shahe Village to Shaqiu County."

“By starting work on both sides at the same time, we can cut the construction time in half.”

In this era, tree resources had not yet been developed, so sleepers could be made directly from trees cut down locally.

"Okay! I'll go back and gather the people. You prepare the plan and materials. I'll bring people to learn from you in a few days."

Ying Zheng has made the construction of railways the top priority of the Qin Dynasty, putting all other matters aside.

In addition, he has become very proficient in the cooperation process with Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi provided solutions and technologies.

Ying Zheng sent some people to learn from Zhao Yi.

Then those people would go back to teach others, and if they encountered something they didn't understand, they would come back to ask Zhao Yi.

Through this process, Ying Zheng has taught his people how to build cement houses with cement, as well as Shahe Village's efficient new agricultural composting technology.

Qin Shi Huang and Wang Jian originally thought that Shahe Village had such a high yield only because of potatoes.

It was not until Zhao Yi later gave a tutorial on composting and popularized the types of crop fertilizers and the knowledge of soybean rotation and soil conservation.

Only then did Ying Zheng realize that the planting techniques mastered by Zhao Yi were far superior to those of the Qin Dynasty.

The planting technology in the Qin Dynasty was far inferior to the intensive farming technology in later generations.

It is essentially the same slash-and-burn method, with the addition of using manure as fertilizer.

The concept of composting technology has not yet emerged.

Composting is a technology that uses microbial fermentation to decompose rice straw, weeds, and feces into stable organic fertilizer. The organic fertilizer produced in this way will not burn seedlings, and will not contain insect eggs or microorganisms that harm crops.

Composting technology did not appear until the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Composting technology is recorded in both "Qimin Yaoshu" and "Chenfu Nongshu".

Composting technology can produce a large amount of organic fertilizer, which can greatly increase crop yields in this era without chemical fertilizers.

Ying Zheng felt that this composting technology alone could increase the grain output of the Qin Dynasty by a quarter and ease the conflicts caused by internal taxation in the Qin Dynasty.

So Ying Zheng immediately ordered the composting technology to be promoted throughout the Qin Dynasty.

The promotion method is simple: order officials to go to the countryside to teach local farmers composting technology, link the degree of composting technology learned by farmers with the official's political achievements, and promise to reduce taxes for farmers who use composting technology.

Now all parts of Daqin have begun to make compost to facilitate the use of it in next year's spring farming.

The reason why Ying Zheng had the confidence to promise tax cuts was that he now had 200,000 kilograms of potatoes from Shahe Village.

Based on the information obtained from Zhao Yi.

It takes twenty to thirty kilograms of potatoes to grow one acre of potatoes.

Two hundred thousand kilograms of potatoes are enough to plant ten thousand acres of potatoes.

The potato yield per mu is about 3,500 kilograms.

This means that about 35 million kilograms of potatoes can be harvested every year!
Even if half of it were taken out, it could completely solve the food problem of the Qin army.

So Ying Zheng has begun to order Li Si and Feng Quji, the right prime minister in Xianyang, to start studying tax reduction policies.

Next year, tax cuts will be implemented for the lower-class people to reduce their burden.

Ying Zheng asked, "By the way! I have found the doctors you requested. When will you start teaching them?"

(End of this chapter)