Infrastructure masters in the red building

Xia Xingshen, who witnessed many changes in Wuyuan County's county government, gradually recovered, and finally couldn't bear it anymore.If Jia Fang doesn't take the initiative to come to see him, he will take the initiative to see Jia Fang.

Unexpectedly, just as Xia Shengshen went to look for Zheng Boyi, Jia Fang's chief of staff said, "Master Xia, Mr. Jia has already arranged for you to drive to Taoyuan Village, and I can only speak to you."

Xia Xingshen: Arranged? ...Do you dare to say that Jia Fang has been waiting for him to go to Taoyuan Village?

Before Yuan Hua made Taoyuan Village hype up, Xia Shengshen somewhat disapproved.He only said that Yuan Hua had been an official in the south for a long time, and he didn't have much knowledge.And Xia Shengshen has been in the capital all his life, and he is used to the prosperity.How can this small place in Taoyuan Village compare with the capital?

The next day, when he arrived in front of the Jiedu Envoy's office in a sedan chair, Xia Shengshen felt a little relieved when he saw it: sitting in a sedan chair is always more comfortable than riding in a car.He rode a donkey cart all the way to the south, walked thousands of miles, was in a bad state, and fell ill in the middle of it—now that he could go to Taoyuan Village in a sedan chair, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

There is a "shortcut" of more than ten miles from Wuyuan County to Taoyuanzhai. It should take about two hours to get there by sedan chair.

Unexpectedly, it took only five hundred steps to lift Xia Sheng's body in the small sedan chair, and the bearer put down the sedan chair and reminded: "Master Xia, we are here!"

When Xia Sheng got off the sedan chair, he felt his eyes go dark: he saw a tall horse, pulling a carriage, waiting in front of the sedan chair.Feelings still need to take a car? !

A middle-aged coachman was sitting on the seat of the carriage driver. When he saw the white-haired Xia Shengshen, he hurriedly greeted him: "Master Xia, please rest for a while. Don't rush to get on the carriage. The cargo is still being loaded later."

Loading?

Xia Sheng saw that it was just a carriage carried by a horse, behind the horse's shaft was the carriage he was about to ride in.Xia Xing thought to himself, where else can this be loaded?

Unexpectedly, people's voices really came from the back of the carriage.Xia Xingshen couldn't help being curious, so he took a look, and was immediately taken aback: behind the carriages for people, there were two trucks with open hoods, one of which was filled with thick lint, white and slightly gray cotton They were tightly bundled into bundles, and people were constantly moving them to the car.

The other car was carrying watermelons just harvested from the field. The green-skinned watermelons were evenly distributed with blue-black lines, which made people feel that the melons were ripe when they saw them. "Crack" cracked.

But the question is, how heavy is this full cart full of watermelons and this full cart full of tightly bundled cotton.In addition, Xia Xingshen is such a big living person—this coachman is confident that he can pull it with a single horse?

Xia Xingshen looked again: I saw two wagons connected by iron hooks and rings, both hung behind Xia Xingshen's carriage.The wheels of all these vehicles are moored on two dark brown wooden rails impartially. The rails are paved with gravel. Under the wooden rails, between the gravel.

"Lord Xia, get in the car! The car is loaded, we can go."

Xia Shengshen was dubious, so he asked the driver just now: "Isn't this the road from Wuyuan to Taoyuan Village?" He had heard Yuan Hua brag about that road, saying that the road surface was as smooth as a mirror, and there was no danger of mud and dust. All pedestrians consciously keep to the right and so on.But here, he couldn't see any pedestrians at all, only two rows of tracks extending infinitely far away.

The coachman smiled and said: "This is indeed going to Taoyuan Village, but this road has just been repaired for two days, and these days I have been busy transporting goods, and I haven't thought that it can also carry people. This is not Mr. Zheng's special message. Come here, we just remembered, it happens to be able to carry Master Xia for a while."

Xia Sheng was full of doubts, but he didn't know how to ask, so he got into the car with the support of the bearers.

When I was young, the car moved.Xia Xingshen heard a light "crack" sound from the car.The old man suddenly sighed in his heart: I am afraid that this old bone will suffer a little.

Unexpectedly, although the car body was making noises, it was stable in this compartment, and there was no sign of any bumps.

As the carriage accelerated, the sound of "cracking" and "cracking" in the carriage became more and more frequent, but each time it only caused a small vibration. Sitting in the carriage, Xia Sheng felt that he was moving more smoothly than usual. .

Curious, he raised the curtain of the carriage and spoke loudly to the driver: "My countryman, why does this cart go so fast and so stable, and why can only one horse pull so much cargo?"

The coachman ignored him, Xia Xingshen asked again, and the coachman immediately replied loudly: "I'm sorry, I have to concentrate on driving—"

Xia Shengping's nose was ashamed, so he had to turn his head to look at the two sides of the carriage: the speed of the carriage was very fast, the horse seemed to be galloping at full speed, and the small trees planted on both sides of the road were receding quickly.Xia Xingshen somewhat felt the feeling of "speeding like lightning" that Yuan Hua said.He felt that the speed of the carriage was faster than usual. No wonder the coachman repeatedly emphasized that he should not be distracted. After all, the carriage was driving at a high speed, and if there was any unexpected situation, the coachman had to respond immediately.

After driving for about two sticks of incense, Xia Xingshen obviously felt that the speed of the car gradually slowed down.The coachman was clearly controlling the speed of the horses.

Xia Shengshen was old and his eyes were not dim. He immediately saw a carriage parked far away on the same track.

When two cars meet, is it possible that they will collide?

Unexpectedly, the coachman quickly reined in the reins, and the entire carriage, including the two buckets of goods behind, stopped.The coachman immediately jumped down and waved his hand to greet the carriage parked opposite.

The two exchanged something in their accent, or they didn't understand what Xia Shengshen said at all, so they thought that the two were talking in their accent.

Then, something happened that left Xia Sheng stunned.The coachman on his cart pushed a mechanism, and the wooden track on the ground seemed to move, connecting to another wooden track next to it.Immediately afterwards, the coachman led the horse forward, driving the carriage where Xia Shengshen was sitting, and actually led the carriage and the truck behind to another parallel track beside it.

The coachman on the opposite side nodded his head here, then passed by the original track, and went to Wuyuan without looking back.Xia Sheng glanced at the things in the truck, and saw that there were rolls of cloth, bottles and cans and the like.He didn't know that these were window screens and rice wine produced in Taoyuan Village, but just by looking at these things, he could tell that they were not light, and the coachmen just drove a horse and pulled them over with ease—what else could make them Could Xia Shengshen be more surprised than he is now?

The coachman on this side went to pull the wooden rails on the ground again, then jumped on the cart again, asked Xia Sheng to sit still, and then carefully led the horse forward slowly until all the carts behind were driving on Only then did he jump into the carriage again and urge the horses.As the frequency of "click" and "click" in his ears became faster and faster, the carriage that Xia Shengshen was in started to run fast again.

After another two sticks of incense, the car slowed down again and finally came to a complete stop.

When Xia Shengshen got off the carriage, he saw the coachman dismantling the shaft and unhooking the horses from the shaft.

At the same time, several people who looked like porters rushed forward to unload the cart of watermelons and the cart of cotton respectively.Jia Fang smiled from a distance: "Master Xia, how do you feel after this trip?"

Xia Shengshen felt a little limp in his feet, and staggered towards Jia Fang.Jia Fang was quite surprised, thinking that Xia Xing's body was "motion sick", so he hurried forward to help the old man.Xia Xingshen shook his hands and said, "I'm fine, I'm fine... It's just that I'm thinking about it, but I didn't expect that you would give me such a 'gift'."

After hearing Yuan Hua's description earlier, Xia Shengshen only felt that Taoyuan Village was nothing special, but that there were some special capable people who created some special industries, and Jia Fang used some special methods to manage it.But Taoyuan Village is no more than a village with a population of 5000.For Xia Shengshen who came from the capital city with a population of one million, this was nothing but small troubles.

But now that he experienced this "tramcar" for himself, he realized that what Jia Fang did here was completely unprecedented——

Cars are driving on the track, and a single horse can pull so much cargo; when two cars meet, they can even go wrong on the parallel track, which means that there can be two horse-drawn carriages running towards each other on this track at the same time. That is to double the capacity.

The watermelon and cotton have just been shipped here, and there are follow-up goods waiting to be loaded on the truck.While rearranging the connection between the wagon, the shaft and the horses, the coachman shouted loudly: "Everyone, don't be in a hurry, this car won't start until a moment later."

Xia Shengshen then asked Jia Fang: "How many times can you run on this track in a day?"

Jia Fang smiled and replied: "Twelve trips, if you count the two cars going towards each other, it will be 24 trips in total. The weight of each car is [-] catties, which is nearly [-] catties."

"Twenty thousand catties?" Xia Xingshen was obviously taken aback by the number, and asked after a while, "Are there twenty thousand catties of goods that can be transported every day between the two places?"

Jia Fang smiled: "If there are not so many goods, I can still transport people!"

Xia Shengshen: ...that's true.It took him two hours to travel by sedan chair from Wuyuan to Taoyuanzhai, and he arrived when the car drove a few sticks of incense.If the common people were allowed to ride, wouldn't everyone be able to travel back and forth between Wuyuan and Taoyuanzhai easily?

Jia Fang looked at the astonishment on Xia Shengshen's face for a long time, and thought to himself: [-] catties a day, this is far from the best level of rail transportation.

The "Taoyuan-Wuyuan" line is currently mainly limited by materials. All the rails are made of "iron wood" wood cores, which are already much harder than ordinary wood, but they still cannot withstand too much weight. The pressure, the carrying capacity is too large and the track is prone to bending and deformation, which may cause transportation accidents.

In addition, before the daily transportation starts, the drivers on both sides need to set up a vehicle loaded with wooden rails, sleepers and skilled workers, and run on their respective tracks to check the condition of the tracks. If any problems are found, the skilled workers will immediately Repair and replace.

This line has just been opened for a few days, and there was a situation where the entire line was out of service due to the need for emergency repairs.Jia Fang reckons that this kind of situation will not be too rare in the future, so he needs to make a discount on the estimated cargo volume, which is about [-] catties per day on average. With Wu Yuan, this line has already caused a sensation, attracting people to watch it. Even if many businessmen and manufacturers spend about the same as usual, they still have to pay for the freight to enjoy a convenient and fast transportation.

Jia Fang then called Xia Shengshen: "Master Xia, let's go! At least we have fresh and juicy watermelons to eat today. I'll let them pick a good one first and dip it in the Qingfang River."

The water of Qingfang River is a mountain stream, which is cool in hot summer, and it is perfect for dipping watermelon.Immediately someone agreed, and said: "Master Jia, we will pick a big one for you, it must be a red-fleshed sunspot, a sweet and sweet melon!"

Jia Fang nodded with a smile and said, "Return to my account."

The other side immediately said angrily: "This is out of the question, Mr. Jia, do you think we can't even afford this melon?"

Jia Fang hurriedly said "I dare not", and agreed with a smile, and took Xia Shengshen to walk around the village at will.

Xia Shengshen was originally the crown prince and grand tutor, and he had watched and raised several princes since he was a child, and he had also seen quite a few of the princes and brothers in the palace in Beijing.When he got along with Jia Fang in the early days, he only felt that this young man had something special, which was different from other Guijie's children, and it was hard to forget when he saw him——

Now walking in Taoyuan Village, Xia Shengshen suddenly understood that the characteristic of Jia Fang is that when he is with anyone, the other party can feel that Jia Fang is the same person as himself.

In front of high-ranking officials and eunuchs, Jia Fang is as proud as a high-ranking official; in front of traffickers, Jia Fang talks and thinks like a trafficker; in front of farmers, businessmen, and princes and grandchildren in Beijing, Jia Fang It can always make the other party feel that there is no difference in their identities, no matter what the other party's identities are, everyone can talk about the same thing.

Xia Shengshen had never seen such a person before.

As soon as Master Xia thought about this, he quickly reminded himself that he should not be fooled by this young man. Back then, Xiang Fengyi was also a person who knew all over the world. Didn't he still fall into that situation later?

So he coughed a few times and said to Jia Fang: "I am not here today just to see this Taoyuan village. County magistrate Yuan has already told me everything about this place."

He said in front of Jia Fang that he came to Taoyuan Village specially, but he was not interested in Taoyuan Village, which actually hurt people's self-esteem.But Xia Shengshen is such a person, he can directly call the princes by their names, so naturally he is not afraid to express his opinion to Jia Fang, a prince who has no real name.

Jia Fang didn't care, and said with a smile: "No matter why you came, I will do my best to be a landlord."

Xia Shengshen stopped talking around, and said directly: "Earlier, Yuan Hua, the magistrate of Wuyuan County, presided over the diploma examination and wanted to screen his county officials. This really surprised me."

"But the old man has now figured it out. Yuan Hua's actions were thunderous and rainy, and those who were screened out were those who were not in the top. If he really wanted to rectify the administration of officials in Wuyuan County and cultivate his own strength in the county government, It’s obviously not enough to just rely on the diploma exam.”

"That is to say, Yuan Hua's move was only used to bluff people." Xia Xingshen concluded confidently.

Jia Fang smiled and said nothing, Xia Sheng was dumb, and suddenly felt: It took me so long to figure it out, it's actually quite embarrassing.

"I understand what your lord means," Jia let go, "What your lord means is that the county affairs of Wuyuan County are actually in the hands of those subordinate officials and bureaucrats, and only using the 'diploma' method can only erase Some county officials and yamen servants are completely uneducated, but they can't do anything to those people."

Xia Xingshen nodded and said, "Indeed."

"Lord Xia, I would like to ask you to take a look at this form for me to see if there is anything wrong with what is written." Jia Fang pulled out a roll of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Xia Shengshen.

Xia Xing took a look: the writing is not bad!Then look down, the text is smooth, the point of view is clear, the only shortcoming is that it is all in plain language, without any embellishment.

"In terms of diction, I will ask Mr. Zheng to polish it again." Seeing Xia Shengshen's expression, Jia Fang knew that he was not very satisfied with his "spoken vernacular".

I saw that Xia Xingshen finally managed to put aside his dislike for Jia Fang's lack of rhetoric, focused on what he wrote, and suddenly said in surprise: "You...you actually want the court to allow you to leave a part of the county endowment, but Use these county taxes...as the salaries of the subordinate staff?"

Jia Fang hurriedly nodded and smiled at Xia Xingshen: "Yes, Mr. Taifu, I plan to pay the subordinates... wages."

He is planning to use the trick of "high salary to support honesty", but he doesn't know if the subordinate staff will honestly buy it.