sweeping the world

Chapter 897 First impression of Chang'an

"This is Chang'an, the imperial capital of the Han Empire?"

After a long journey of one and a half months, Julian can be regarded as looking at Chang'an City in the distance.

As the capital, Xianyang was the first capital without a city wall to protect it. Shang Yang did not plan to build a city wall during the construction of the city. He thought that Qin should be an offensive country. Furthermore, there are no strong enemies in the west and letters in the east. Guguan and Gaoguan serve as barriers.

Today's Chang'an is the second capital city without city walls. Liu Yan also believes that the Han Dynasty should be an offensive country, but he has not forgotten his reliance on Tongguan, Gaoguan, and Lantianguan.

With the Qin Empire being driven into the city without any danger to defend Qin III, Liu Yan met with strong opposition if he did not build a city wall in the capital.

Those who opposed did not dare to directly say that the children and grandchildren were unfilial and incapable of managing the business, which led to challenges. They listed some very positive points of view to emphasize that the capital must have a city wall, or a city wall that is so magnificent that there is no limit, but they were stunned by reality. , The power of gunpowder tells that no matter how majestic the city wall is, it will be useless.

The real situation is that since gunpowder was researched, facing the majestic city wall, it is also a matter of measuring how much gunpowder can blow it up. The city wall built with huge manpower and material resources will collapse after a "bang". What is the use of building it?
Weapons will continue to change with each passing day. There are already front-mounted bronze cannons, and perhaps in a few years or decades there will be rear-mounted artillery, and even more powerful weapons. Building a city wall as a barrier will be extremely unreliable. Spectrum thing.

Choose a dangerous place and build some satellite fortresses. A similar approach is a reliable choice.

I have seen a fort group built in a fort, but I have never seen a city wall built according to the specifications of a fort group.

What Julian saw was a city without the protection of city walls, but the area covered was exaggerated. For the well-planned buildings that could be seen from a distance, and the road planning that could be distinguished from a distance, There is a kind of enlightenment in my mind.

"The Han people seem to have some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder?" Flavis stared intently at the distant city: "They pay attention to the orderliness of everything, and regard all clutter as a sign of disorder?"

Everyone remembered what they saw and heard in the Han Dynasty. Needless to say, soldiers, civilians also have deep military habits. For example, in cities or villages, it is often seen that people walking in groups follow the formation. There is no such thing as habit formation.

Their impression of the Han people's pursuit of order is built up bit by bit. Maybe not everyone understands what order means, but they can know how many trained soldiers they can gather just by seeing the Han people.

The towering buildings in Chang'an can be seen from a very far away place, how high must it be to distinguish the towering buildings!

They are not very high. The highest one is only thirteen stories. Three-story residences are the mainstream. Only the residences of some dignitaries rarely have buildings with more than two stories.

Common people like to build their houses to three stories high, but they can only own so much land. If they don't build higher, it will inevitably appear that there are not enough rooms.

The residences of dignitaries and dignitaries occupy a large area, so there is no need to build the houses into multiple floors, and they can even build a garden pond or something.

But it doesn't mean that there are no tall buildings in the mansions of dignitaries. Liu Yan is used to climbing high and looking far, and they will regard climbing high and looking far as a very high-end thing, even if they have a fear of heights, they must always force themselves Go up to a high place and look far away, what if it is interpreted as not following the good example of the emperor.

The mission team started from Jiankang, and they took the national road that was still under construction.

When passing the Yangtze River Bridge, one or another of the international friends was shocked by the great generosity of the Han people. They had never seen a bridge over a thousand meters in length.Although there is an island in the middle of the Yangtze River Bridge as a support, the thousand-meter bridge is still an epic project for them. Anyone who sees it will be stunned and shocked.

The Yangtze River Bridge they saw was built on the corpses of slaves. More than 3 slaves were lost just to build this bridge. industry.

The bridge pier is built by filling soil to increase the height of the river bed, and then erecting giant trees as support points. There is a bridge pier every 15 meters.

It does not mean simply filling the river bed with soil, but building iron cages to fill in the mud and rock, transporting it by boat and unloading it, and completing it bit by bit.

Although Liu Yan had some opinions on the project of the Yangtze River Bridge, it was more conceived by the craftsmen with their own wisdom.

Do not underestimate the wisdom of the ancients. Many things that the ancients could do, even with such high technology in modern times, modern people still cannot do what the ancients could do.

For example, the Yanjin Stone Bridge (also known as Jijin Bridge) spanning the two banks of the Great River (Yellow River), was built in the early Western Han Dynasty and perfected in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was used until the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms before being destroyed.

To say that the existence of the Yangtze River Bridge is enough to blind the eyes of international friends and shock their brains into bean curds, and the things they see along the way challenge their cognition even more.

In ancient times, there was no such saying as wanting the rich to build roads first, but similar views must exist.

The central conceived and revised the construction of a cross-shaped national highway across the east, west, south and north. The total length from Jiankang to Tongguan reached [-] miles, which is equivalent to "opening" a long road from northwest to southeast in the mainland. exaggerated channel.

Three thousand two hundred miles?It is about [-] Rome, almost from the western end of Spain to the eastern border (probably Luxembourg).

The Romans had a famous saying that "all roads lead to Rome", but in fact there is no direct road to Rome.The widest road in Rome can be four or five meters long, which is an exaggeration. The basic specification of the national road on the Han side is 18 meters wide.

For international friends, when they learned that the Han people are building two roads that run through the border, they were dumbfounded when they heard the news, and they had no other ideas.

From what they saw along the way, they can understand why there are villages, towns and large cities on both sides of the road, which depends on the convenience of transportation.

Only by walking from Jiankang, the starting point in the southeast, to Tongguan, the end point in the northwest, will you have the most intuitive impression of this huge project.

From a military point of view, there is such a road, if you transfer troops from the northwest or southeast, even if you don’t rush desperately, you can definitely arrive there in a month. The road will become an important part of the central control area. There is such a road As long as the center is not rotten to the end, any rebellion is seeking its own death.

From an economic point of view, a road is the channel for the circulation of goods. Mom no longer has to worry about her son getting lost. Dad will be happy that the road is safe and secure, and the delivery speed will be extremely fast!

"This is an epic project!" Xeas was talking about not only the construction of the two national roads by the Han people, but also Chang'an City: "I heard that the Han people only spent three years building this building, which is destined to last forever. The huge city?"

In fact, the general construction of the city only took one year and three months, and the construction of some epic wonders is more difficult and consumes more time.

The so-called epic wonders refer to the palace complex, and some places that will be used in various ceremonies. The most difficult thing is the gymnasium that can accommodate [-] spectators.

The closer you get, the less you can see the scenery of Chang'an City, but you will be more shocked by some buildings.

"What is that building that looks like a beetle with outspread wings?" Xeas didn't know how many times he was stunned after coming to Han: "It's...too...too big!"

What the hell is a winged beetle?It is that the top of the gymnasium cannot be closed with solid building materials, so it can only create a shielding pattern to the greatest extent. When necessary, it can only rely on giant cloth to form a shielding effect.

After all, the gymnasium can accommodate [-] spectators. Its main building must be very large. With the addition of the square and some secondary buildings, it occupies an even wider area.

It was getting closer, getting closer, and they were puzzled by the fences they saw.

"This is the... city wall of the capital of the Han Empire?" Julian was talking about those fence walls: "The maximum height is only two meters. Is there any military value?"

No one from the same foreign group could give Julian an answer. They never thought that those fences were either to guard against people or to prevent animals from running around.

The roads outside the city lead directly into the city, but people are not allowed to enter and exit casually. There are still gates at the entrance to the city.

There is no city entry tax in the Han Dynasty. You need to go to a special place to buy and sell goods. The tax is also generated in the market. The role of the gate is to target the team with a large number of people.

In addition, for the purpose of improving the lives of the people, if the villagers sell things, the quantity is small, so they do not need to pay taxes.

In fact, even if the government wants to collect taxes, it cannot keep an eye on everyone. It is better to directly provide convenience to the common people.

The team of international friends was very large, and Wang Meng, who was leading the way, naturally couldn't take them through the normal passage, or it would affect the normal entry of ordinary people. The route chosen was the special road for the army to enter the city.

"The width is at least fifteen paces!" Flavius ​​said that the pace is the Roman pace, a step is about 49 meter and 20 centimeters, that is, the width is more than [-] meters: "I suddenly recalled that the Han people are paranoid about the road, and they must It’s wide enough, and it’s divided into left and right lanes!”

This is something to be proud of. Except for the Han Chinese, other countries and races in the world do not distinguish between left and right. If there are too many people, they will definitely mix together. Collisions and pushing are inevitable, and blockages are also common. .

"That's not what I'm concerned about..." Xyas said in a puzzled way, "Didn't the Han Empire arrange a welcoming ceremony for us?"

(End of this chapter)