The county magistrate's daughter only wants to farm

After getting Gu Chenshuo's reminder, Gu Yin felt at ease and went to his father again to discuss the road construction.

The houses and buildings in the county town mainly rely on the county residents themselves to rebuild and renovate them. The most Gu Yin can do is buy a few more pieces of land to build shops and inns.

However, the houses in the county town could not be moved, and the roads inside the county town had been built, but the county government could arrange roads leading from the county town to other counties.

"Dad, how do you think we should build the road outside the county?" Gu Yin asked her father.

Gu Huaiyi was overwhelmed by the questions. Things kept coming one after another, and things were always pushing forward.

However, now is a good time to start arranging road construction. The county government has no shortage of money, and the people's rice is about to be harvested, so they have free time.

"What do you think?" Gu Huaiyi wanted to hear his daughter's thoughts. After all, this girl had a lot of ideas.

"Well... Ning County leads to the capital city in the north, is connected to Badu County in the west, borders Nanshui County in the south, and is adjacent to Dongling County in the east." Gu Yin pondered the geographical location of Ning County. Ning County belongs to Xing'an County, and its four city gates lead to the four directions of east, west, south and north.

After sorting out the geographical location of Ning County, Gu Yin continued, "It may not be possible to build four roads at the same time. The manpower is not enough for the time being. So can we build the north-south roads first?"

"Okay." Gu Huaiyi nodded in agreement with a smile. What Gu Yin proposed was similar to what he thought.

"But how are the roads built here? What materials are needed?" Gu Yin asked curiously.

In later generations, when talking about building bridges and roads, the first thing people think of is undoubtedly cement, which is cheap, easy to use and easy to buy.

But this was the Daji Dynasty, a dynasty where even porcelain was scarce. To produce cement in large quantities was even more difficult than making porcelain.

The raw materials for firing cement, limestone and clay, are relatively easy to obtain, but the temperature for firing porcelain is about 1200°, while the temperature for calcining cement is around 1400°. With the current technological level of the Daji Dynasty, this cannot be easily achieved.

Even if it can be realized in the end, the cost will definitely be very high, so Gu Yin came to his own conclusion that the cement approach will not work under the current circumstances.

"Stones, sand, and cultivated soil." Gu Huaiyi knew all of these by heart.

"Cooked soil? What is it?" Gu Yin wondered.

"It is soil that has been roasted over fire. The high temperature can kill insect eggs and plant seeds in the soil. When you use cooked soil to pave the road, you don't have to worry about grass growing on the road."

"Oh..." Gu Yin thought for a moment, and after a moment, she asked a question, "Then can the seeds that are blown onto the road from other places still grow?"

Gu Huaiyi nodded: "Yes, there is no way to avoid this."

Many roads will inevitably be overgrown with grass a few years after they are built, especially those that are rarely traveled by.

"What if there is a kind of soil that prevents seeds from growing easily? Wouldn't that solve this problem?" Gu Yin thought of the saline-alkali land.

Gu Huaiyi became interested after hearing this: "Where can I find such soil?"

Uh... Gu Yin was stumped by the question. Generally speaking, saline-alkali land is distributed in arid areas in the northwest and northeast, or in coastal areas, but Ning County is neither an arid area nor a coastal area.

But... there is another situation.

"You can ask the people, is there a piece of land near Ning County that doesn't grow crops? When there is no water, there is a layer of white substance on the upper soil. The soil from this place is most likely this." Instead of letting them sit in the house and guess, it would be better to ask directly from the people. If there is such a place, someone will definitely know about it.

"Okay, I'll send someone to ask around." Gu Huaiyi nodded in agreement.

The two discussed some other arrangements, and then the matter of building the road was decided.

*

"Old Li, where are you going?" At the entrance of Lingshui Village, a sturdy man in his twenties greeted another person. The man called Old Li looked to be about the same age as him.

"Where else can we go? Of course, we should go to the county town. Niu Er, what about you? Where are you going?" Old Li laughed.

"Oh, what a coincidence, I'm going to the county town too." Niu Er grinned.

"You are all here to sign up for work, right?" another villager interrupted.

Their village chief informed them a few days ago that the county government was recruiting a large number of workers to prepare for road construction.

"Huh? You too."

"That's right. Look, they're all over there." The villager pointed to the ox cart a few steps away.

"Oh wow, so many people!"

I saw a group of people standing next to the ox cart, chatting loudly. They were all men who were planning to go to the county town to work.

"Let's go, those who want to ride the ox cart can get on!" The owner of the ox cart, Li Laosan, shouted loudly, "Only three people can be carried at most. Those who are too heavy will not be carried."

An ox cart can only carry about 500 kilograms of weight. If it carries more, the ox will be injured, and Li Laosan is reluctant to do that.

"Old Li, why don't we walk together?" Niu Er suggested.

"We have to walk. Look, there are enough people on it." Old Li said with a laugh as he looked at Li Laosan's ox cart, on which three people were instantly sitting.

"Haha...it's true. It looks like everyone has finished harvesting the rice." Niu Er sighed.

A group of villagers who were all planning to go to the county town were walking on the village road. Someone heard Niu Er's words and naturally took over the conversation: "Who said it wasn't true!"

"That's right. With the thresher, harvesting rice is several days faster."

"Hey, did your family buy a thresher?"

"Hey! How can we have that much money? My brothers and I pooled our money together to buy one. How about your family? Did you buy one?"

"We are all farmers, how can we afford to buy it individually? My family and neighbors pooled money together to buy it, and we took turns to help with the harvest."

"Hahaha, all the same, all the same."

"When I have enough money, I must buy one!"

"So do I. The faster the harvest, the more time I have to work and earn a little money."

On a country road, a group of farmers shared their joy after the harvest. This was the first harvest season that made them feel relaxed.

"I heard from the village chief that the county government has built a new mill."

"I've heard that, too. It's a watermill."

"What is this for?"

"I know that. They say that the mill can grind rice and flour by itself!"

"Wow, there is such a thing! A ghost pushing the mill?" Niu Er said in horror.

"Bah, you Niu Er, what nonsense are you talking about. That was made by the county government."

"That's right, who are you trying to scare? Didn't the waterwheel pump water automatically? Are you going to say it was pushed by a ghost?"

"Hehe...that's impossible." Niu Er scratched his head in embarrassment after hearing what the villagers said.

The others didn't bother with this anymore, and they all chatted and laughed as they arrived at the county town gate, which felt like the process was a lot faster than usual.

The same situation is also happening on other village roads in Ning County.

"Old Li, look, that's from Gutian Village. They got here faster than us." Niu Er pointed at the area with the three big words "Gutian Village" painted on the wall and complained.

"Are you stupid? Their village is much closer to the county town than ours!" Old Li simply didn't want to pay attention to him.

"Next time I will definitely be earlier than them!" Niu Er snorted unconvinced.