You are my golden finger

Chapter 108 Road Construction

The road construction equipment of the "Shilin Road Construction Team" was of course provided by "Murong Xu", the scapegoat.

Lin Xijin placed the most primitive iron formwork, rollers, vibrators and other equipment in the yard on the outskirts of the county, added a lot of high-strength cement, and asked Uncle Jianan to send someone to pull it back.

Lin Xijin recruited more than 20 core technical members from Shiziwo Village and the soldiers, and conducted precise training on every step, from the requirements of the roadbed, the installation of the formwork, the proportion of concrete, the pouring and leveling of concrete, the maintenance methods, etc., until these people were able to operate independently.

The tutorials started from the section from Lin Xijin's home to Zhangshutou. The actual road construction ceremony was held at Zhangshutou. Lin Xijin, Li Yuze, the village head, and the clan leader shoveled the first shovel of cement slurry at the same time and poured it into the formwork, and the villagers gave thunderous applause.

The villagers had seen Lin Xijin teaching core technical members how to build roads, and had seen with their own eyes how smooth and solid the cement roads were. They had personally experienced the charm of cement roads.

Now more than 20 households in Shiziwo have bought horse-drawn or ox-drawn carts. With the cement road in the future, it will take less than 25 minutes to travel to the town. How can they not be excited?

After the groundbreaking ceremony, all that was left was for Uncle Mu Xiong and Uncle Jian An to lead the men and soldiers in the village to start building the road. Lin Xijin asked them to split into two teams and start construction at Shiziwo and the county town at the same time to increase the speed.

Other towns and villages also came to inquire about the construction of cement roads. Lin Xijin asked them to raise as much funds as possible. If they could raise more than half of the funds, they could register with the engineering team and schedule road construction. The other half of the funds would be raised by her.

Originally, Lin Xijin was capable of taking on a lot of responsibilities, but she hated the idea of ​​getting something for nothing, and didn't want the villagers to develop the bad habit of waiting, relying on, and asking for things. The reason why the charity school charged for food was also for this reason. That's why they took this series of measures.

Qingping Town, where Muyuan Village is located, was the first to sign up, thanks to Li Yuxuan's generous commitment. Li Yuxuan assured Mayor Liang that he could arrange the time and he would make up for the insufficient funds raised by the gentry and villagers. With his guarantee, Mayor Liang took immediate action and Qingping Town was ranked first in the cement road construction timetable.

The road from Shiziwo to Qingyuan County was built simultaneously at both ends. It took only more than a month to complete the entire line. It then took more than ten days to complete the route to Qingping Town. Many people went to the cement road specifically to experience it. It was so comfortable for pedestrians and carriages to walk on the smooth road without any potholes.

Since the fundraising in other towns and villages did not achieve the expected results, Lin Xijin decided to let them take a break and have the engineering team go directly to Qingyuan and Kyoto.

Since the cement plant in Jingdu was still under construction and had not yet been put into production, in order to reduce transportation costs, the engineering team decided to build the Qingyuan to Fucheng section first.

Under the leadership of the prefect Lu Zihan, the officials and gentry in the prefecture also raised more than 200,000 taels of silver, which was a considerable amount.

Li Yuze also raised nearly 100,000 taels of silver in the county, and soon erected two memorial archways at the gates of the county and the prefectural city to praise the achievements of these people.

In order to reduce the burden on the engineering team, Lin Xijin added two more sets of equipment and asked Sun Lingyun to recruit another 300 soldiers to join in the pouring of the cement road. A group of small workers were hired to open the path and lay the roadbed, so that the road construction project could be completed faster.

November 18th was Lin Xijin's 15th birthday, and also her coming-of-age day. Rural people didn't have so many rules, and there were no parents to take care of things. In the morning, the nanny combed her hair, changed her clothes, said a few words of praise, and the seventh wife cooked a bowl of longevity noodles for her.

Lin Xijin didn't care about birthdays or coming of age. She just wanted to have a meal with her family and didn't want to have a big celebration at all.

But early in the morning, she still received gifts from Grandma Liu, Grandma He and several aunts. Although they were just a few eggs or a few feet of cloth, they also made Lin Xijin feel warm. The two shopkeepers in the town also sent a lot of gifts, most of which were prepared by Shangguan Rui and Murong Xu. Those were the best headwear or cloth, which were much more exquisite.

However, word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, until finally all the grandmothers and aunts in the village sent gifts to her family.

Fortunately, she had a lot of items in her space, so she was able to entertain everyone.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of November. The cement road from Qingyuan County to Fucheng had been completed. Lin Xijin asked the construction team to withdraw temporarily because the other four townships in Qingyuan County had enjoyed a bumper harvest this year and enjoyed tax exemption benefits, so the funds for road construction had been raised.

Lin Xijin ordered the engineering team to split into four groups and pave cement roads in the four townships before the New Year, so that the entire Qingyuan County would be paved with cement roads this year.

The weather this year was pretty good and not particularly cold, so the project was able to proceed smoothly. Various projects were completed one after another from December 16th to 18th.

The engineering team received a notice that they would have annual leave in the following days, and it would last until the eighth day of the first lunar month of next year. The men were so happy. Although they had regular days off for the past six months, it was nothing like having a long vacation, especially one with a lot of money in their pockets.

But what greeted them was another kind of busyness, because since the cement paved the road in front of Lin Xijin's house, the villagers who were no longer short of money were envious, and those who had manpower had already paved the road. Those who were short of manpower were waiting for their own men from the construction team to come back. As soon as they got home and rested for a while, they started working.