Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 431 Construction Team

"Build a road? From our side?" The village chief and the head of the village were both confused. Although it was true that their side was very close to the capital, the construction should have started from Changping Town. Why would it bypass Changping and start from the entrance of their village?

The captain of the construction team was an official from the Ministry of Works. Before coming, he received orders from his superiors and knew that this time it was an order from the emperor himself, requiring them to start construction specifically from this village. Although they were also confused by the emperor's order, it did not prevent them from figuring out the meaning, which was that the emperor valued the Song family very much. Therefore, when they came this time, they did not put on official airs, but were very friendly.

"Well, His Majesty said that we should start from the entrance of your village. Look, we need an empty house to store our things, preferably closer to the entrance of the village."

The village chief thought for a while and finally dug out an empty house. But he looked at the head of the village and saw that the head of the village gritted his teeth and seemed to have made up his mind.

"Come with me to the Song family and see if we can borrow their workshop."

The Song family's workshop is idle for a period of time every year. The Song family is not short of money now, so they no longer pay so much attention to the business of this small workshop. Every year, they focus on the output of their own land. When the raw materials are used up, the workshop will be vacant and used as a warehouse.

The workshop was idle at this time. In the past two years, the Song family expanded the workshop again. Now the area is three times larger than the original one, with three super large warehouses specially used to store the output of Song Chunlin's space.

At this moment, Song Chunlin happened to be at the Song family. He stayed in the Marquis' Mansion for another day. After finishing the things at hand, Song Chunlin hurried back to the Song family. He was away for so long, and he was afraid that the Song family would become suspicious if he didn't go home.

Fortunately, Song Dazhuang and Song Qinshi didn't ask anything. Grandpa Song and Aunt Song were old and no longer paid much attention to their children and grandchildren. They just played with their great-grandchildren every day and lived a very comfortable and carefree life. When they saw Song Chunlin coming back, they just said, "You're back? There's food in the kitchen. If you're hungry, go find it yourself."

Song Chunlin responded with a smile, turned around and went into the kitchen. When he came out, he had buns in one hand and dumplings in the other, his mouth full of oil.

When the head of the village came with his men, Song Chunlin had just finished the last dumpling in his bowl. When the head of the village saw Song Chunlin, he mentioned the matter to Song Chunlin. In his opinion, the person with the loudest voice in the Song family was not Grandpa Song, nor Song Dazhuang, but Song Chunlin.

"Hey, Chunlin is here too, eating?"

"Um, what's up uncle?"

The village headman pointed at the officials behind him with a smile and said, "These are all officials from the Ministry of Works in Beijing. They said that the higher-ups plan to build a road starting from the entrance of our village. This means we have nowhere to put their tools. So, I'm shamelessly asking if you can borrow my workshop for a few days?"

When Song Chunlin heard that this was the matter, he realized it was easy to handle.

"No problem, uncle. I'll get the key for you right away. Please wait a moment. Everyone, sit down and have some tea."

Several officials from the Ministry of Works obviously did not expect that they would actually meet a big shot in front of the emperor here, and that this big shot actually spoke to them so kindly. They were really frightened.

Standing in the Song family's yard with some uneasiness, the head of the village saw that they did not sit down, and he did not dare to sit down either. Fortunately, Song Chunlin took the key quickly. The key to the family workshop had always been kept in the same place. He took the key and took people to the next door. Everyone felt relieved.

These people originally had no expectations for the workshop mentioned by the village head, thinking that it was just a shabby little workshop built by the villagers themselves. However, they did not expect that the Song family's workshop almost refreshed their three views.

The clean and flat yard is paved with bluestone slabs. There are several large stoves lined up on one side of the yard. Judging from how clean they are, they must be used frequently. In addition to the large stoves, there is also a strange pipe next to the two large water tanks. I don’t know what it is. In addition to these, there are several warehouses behind. Each warehouse is very large and the windows are all glass!

Hiss, a workshop is so generous, you can imagine how rich the Song family is.

Song Chunlin didn't know what these people were thinking, he just introduced each place in the workshop one by one. There were fewer things in the warehouse now, so Song Chunlin opened three idle warehouses for these people to store their things. He received many thanks from them, which made Song Chunlin confused.

After Song Dazhuang knew that Song Chunlin had decided to lend the workshop to the construction teams, he didn't say much. Instead, he was very concerned about how the road should be built and whether the newly developed cement was really better than that of later generations.

Song Chunlin didn’t know whether it would work or not, but it should work, right?

"It works? Just works?"

"That's better than a muddy road. This road is only used by horse-drawn carriages at best, and there are no cars. It should last for a long time."

That's true. A horse-drawn carriage is definitely not as fast as a car. This cement road is enough for now.

When other people in the village learned that the court was going to build a road, they all came to join in the fun on the first day of construction. When they discovered how these people were building the road, they raised their doubts.

"What is that dust they mix, and why is it this color?"

"It looks quite strange. Could it be their secret formula?"

Others laughed at him, saying, "You're really imaginative. What secret formula could a pile of dust have? It looks just like what I sweep at home with a broom."

"Hey, you, if it's really such a simple thing, can people use it to build roads?"

When everyone thought about it, it seemed to be true, so they shut their mouths and focused on watching these people work.

This time the road runs from the village entrance all the way to Changping Town, passing right by the Song family's door. After it is repaired, the road surface is exactly level with the workshop entrance. The workshop gate is now much larger than before after the expansion. Coupled with the new road surface, carriages can enter directly from the gate in the future, without the need for workers to go back and forth to move them in from the gate. Song Dazhuang is very satisfied with this and is already imagining a bright future.

The pouring of cement roads is no different from modern times. The base is made of small stones, which are also blasted with explosives and then broken up manually. The procedure has been simplified a lot compared to the past.

In one day, the construction team only repaired a small section of the road at the entrance of the village. Perhaps because they were not very skilled in the job, the road surface was not very smooth the first time it was poured. It took a long time to sort it out before the officials from the Ministry of Works expressed satisfaction.