usatvline Chapter 55 Construction begins
Chapter 55 Construction begins
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After finalizing the initial plan, Liu Ye and Liang Xiaoming needed to decide on the specific details. Neither of them were civil engineering majors, nor did they know anything about architectural planning. However, given the current conditions, they could only build three to four-story buildings; they couldn't build anything taller. Besides leaving space for drainage ditches and other infrastructure, there weren't many municipal facilities, and they didn't need to consider environmental protection or industrial compatibility, so it was quite simple.
Liang Xiaoming only made one new suggestion: to ensure there are enough public toilets.
Liu Ye had no objection to this: "Building public toilets can help keep the streets clean, so this is a good idea."
"Its significance goes beyond that; it also has military applications and strategic importance."
Liu Ye stared in disbelief: "Are you sure you're serious about connecting toilets to military preparedness?"
Liang Xiaoming explained, "Do you remember what I told you? The hardest component to obtain in gunpowder is saltpeter. Under extreme conditions, you can only scrape saltpeter from the corner of an old toilet, but this method yields too little saltpeter and is impractical. Now we have the rock salt cave in Zhanjiaodong, which contains associated saltpeter deposits, enough to last for a while. However, as the army grows, this cave won't be able to sustain us for long. Therefore, enrichment is the long-term solution."
"So, you're going to collect excrement from the public?"
"Yes. Once a stable source of raw materials is available, saltpeter can be obtained using the artificial saltpeter enrichment method. Moist, loose, and sandy soil is suitable for growing saltpeter. For every thousand kilograms of such moist soil, add one hundred to one hundred and fifty kilograms of urine or diluted manure, mix well, and place it in a damp place to ferment. The ideal temperature is between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius. After more than twenty days, it becomes saltpeter soil, from which saltpeter can be extracted. Approximately one thousand kilograms of artificial saltpeter soil can yield eight or nine kilograms of saltpeter, and the labor required is minimal. The saltpeter obtained in this way is much more stable than scraping corners of walls, and the quantity is larger. It is also more reliable than unsustainable associated saltpeter mines."
Since public toilets have been elevated to a strategic position, Liu Ye is even less likely to object, and public toilets have been included in the plan as necessary buildings.
It is said that blank paper is easy to draw on. Outside Lingao County, there are only open wastelands with few people, so you can draw however you want without any problems.
Liu Ye planned two main roads, one running north-south and the other east-west. The area near Bofu Port was designated as an industrial and trade zone, aiming to take advantage of the port's convenient transportation and the Wenlan River's water power. The area represented by the old county town was defined as a commercial and residential area, undertaking the functions of residential and commercial development. The barracks were to be preserved, and the territory was to be expanded.
Of course, the drainage system of the entire new city was replanned and rebuilt in a unified manner. Liu Ye did not want the city to flood every time it rained heavily. He had experienced enough of the once-in-a-century combination of torrential rain and flooding in the capital of his later life. After traveling back to the Ming Dynasty, he did not want to encounter such bad luck again.
However, such a large project was clearly beyond Li Ergou's control. He could only be responsible for the specific civil engineering work and had to appoint someone to take the lead.
With the current personnel, Liu Ye is busy managing the overall work and cannot handle everything personally, plus he is about to go to Shandong, so he obviously cannot do it personally; Liang Xiaoming is responsible for school and technical issues and cannot get away; among the others, Yan Guang is good at strategy.
After eliminating various options, Liu Ye thought of Li Fu, a man with a quick mind, meticulous attention to detail, and a certain business acumen. He might have been trained into a business elite in later generations.
He approached Li Fu, intending to entrust him with the task of overseeing the construction of the new city. Li Fu, thinking it was a test, knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly.
"My abilities are limited, and I am not worthy of your trust, sir."
Liu Ye reassured him, "You don't need to belittle yourself. I've already drawn up the blueprints. Just follow them and do it according to the blueprints. Li Ergou will assist you and be in charge of the construction. If you need any manpower, just contact me. If you encounter any difficulties, report them directly to me."
Li Fu knelt on the ground and peered at the blueprints. He understood that it was simply a matter of creating two main roads, one running north-south and the other south-south, with the factory to be built on the east side and the residents to live on the west side.
After considering it for a moment, he asked, "May I ask, sir, how to build it is not difficult, but what if a homeowner blocks the way when building a road or house?"
Liu Ye thought for a moment and said, "You're talking about the residents who affect our planning. That's easy to handle. We'll designate a piece of land in the western residential area to build a resettlement community and relocate them there." There is a wealth of practical experience in demolition, resettlement, and compensation in the old era, so we can just copy it.
"What if there are farmlands in the area that people are unwilling to relocate?"
"Establish a standard, unify compensation, and calculate based on the area of farmland."
"What if they refuse to accept compensation and insist on not moving?"
Liu Ye smiled. Li Fu was indeed thoughtful; he had never experienced demolition before but could already think of holdout residents—he was a promising talent. This problem would be a thorny issue in a later era with a sound legal system, but it was not a problem at all in this timeline.
He waved his hand and said domineeringly, "Give us some trouble money, and let the officials play the villains and forcibly demolish our property!"
Speaking of government offices, Li Fu cautiously asked, "To what extent have the county town and government offices been preserved?"
"The county government office will be preserved, but the county town will remain untouched for now. We'll move it once the project is nearly complete, and by then we'll even demolish the city walls."
With the direction set and the authorization granted, Li Fu happily accepted the task: "I will do my best to complete this task for you, sir." He rubbed his hands together eagerly and left to take on the mission.
In August of the seventh year of the Chongzhen reign (1644), the grand construction project of Lingao New City was launched.
The construction in the East District is relatively simple. Apart from Liu Ye's various factories, there are few people here. The main problem is the large amount of road construction work.
Li Fu and Li Ergou recruited many laborers from the county town and countryside to level roads, carry sand and soil, and provided food and drink, paying them 200 wen a day, settled daily. This price was quite high, attracting many young and strong men to work there.
Because there were too many workers and not enough cooks, Liu Ye suggested a solution: they would provide their own food, but the cooking would be outsourced, with each group of ten people receiving 500 coins a day for three meals.
Anyway, many ordinary people grow vegetables. Picking vegetables from their own gardens requires little investment and doesn't require using their own food rations. Just by putting in the effort to cook, they can earn 500 coins a day for ten people. With a little effort, they can get a string of cash every day.
Many middle-aged women, aunties, and young wives flocked to the site upon hearing the news, becoming temporary cooks for the communal kitchen. The construction site between Bofu and Lijia Village was bustling with activity, with young and strong men carrying loads on their shoulders and in their hands, and wisps of smoke rising from chimneys everywhere along the roadside.
Li Fu and Li Ergou were working enthusiastically, while Liu Ye took Tang Yu around Liu Family Village, trying to redesign and rebuild a manor.
Both of them hoped to build a garden with oriental characteristics. Most of Liu Ye's subordinates were from rural backgrounds, except for Yan Guang, who was a scholar and came from the wealthy Jiangnan region. So he was brought in as an advisor.
Yan Guang was a traditional scholar. Although he didn't understand architecture, he had seen many exquisite gardens throughout Jiangnan. As the saying goes, "Read three hundred Tang poems by heart, and even if you can't compose poetry, you can still recite it." He offered quite a few seemingly insightful suggestions on the layout of the courtyard, such as where to build an artificial hill and where to place a garden. According to him, the garden should have water, with pavilions and terraces built along the water, where one could cool off, admire the moon, and take a break; the backyard should have a garden planted with saplings and flowers, where one could live in a state of tranquility and peace.
On the sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month, an auspicious day for sacrifices, prayers, groundbreaking, and trade, the new village officially broke ground. With the demolition of the front yard wall, Liu Family Village, which had once instilled fear in the nearby residents, disappeared into rubble.
To meet Liu Ye's need for an artificial lake, the estate was expanded by more than ten acres. For Liu Ye's female relatives, he also purchased a house in the county town as a temporary residence.
Fortunately, this was in the sparsely populated Qiongzhou Prefecture. In places like Jiangnan, there simply wouldn't be such a large space for expansion. If the surrounding houses were forcibly demolished, it would likely cause widespread public resentment, and Liu Ye would inevitably be labeled as "rich but heartless, exploiting the local people."
To build this estate, Liu Ye commissioned artisans from the prefectural city at great expense, employing entirely traditional ancient building techniques, rather than using cement and bamboo-reinforced concrete like those used in military camps and factories. This is somewhat similar to a phenomenon in later times: ordinary people desperately flock to the city, exhausting their life savings to buy a house and live in a forest of reinforced concrete, while the wealthy move to the suburbs, building villas in the countryside to enjoy the pastoral scenery and the sounds of birds and flowers. They emphasize green and healthy environments and building materials, and all-wooden houses are not uncommon.