We have fought to the Arctic Circle, and you want me to inherit the throne?

If you want to be rich, build roads first. This sentence contains deep wisdom and is definitely not just a popular joke on the Internet.

One of the achievements of the First Emperor, the Qin Straight Road, is a major military transportation route with a total length of more than 700 kilometers.

Although the construction of this road consumed a lot of the ancient working people's hard work, physical strength, and even their lives.

However, this road, as a military transportation and logistics supply line, provided strong support for the Qin Dynasty's military operations, benefiting future generations for thousands of years and continued to be used until the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Moreover, it does not grow weeds. It uses a building material called "cooked soil", which is soil that is steamed and fried until it is charred, and then salt, alkali and lime are added.

In this way, no grass can grow on the road, and this situation has even continued to this day, with some sections of the Qin Straight Road still not growing grass.

Li Che was not planning to build the Fengguo version of the Qin Straight Road. Although that thing was good, the production process was too complicated.

And after all, it's still a dirt road, not solid enough.

The road in Li Che's mind should be able to accommodate people, horses, carriages, and even...cars!

Cars sound high-tech, but in fact, when the wave of industrialization came, they were not complicated to make.

Building roads is a matter of great benefit to future generations. Since we have decided to do it, we should just do it to the best of our ability.

Asphalt roads are difficult to build, stone roads are not easy to maintain, and there is no need to consider blue brick roads or dirt roads. Li Che has few options left.

After much thought, only cement roads can meet all of Li Che's requirements!

"I know something that you engineers should try to make." Li Che looked at Wang Chongjian. "It's called cement, and it requires three ingredients: clay, quicklime, and plaster of Paris."

"Grind the three materials into powder, mix them together, and add a certain proportion of water when using. Once solidified, it will be as hard as iron and stone, and will not be damaged by horses or people walking on it."

Seeing that Wang Chongjian and other officials from the Gongzheng Institute were listening attentively without any surprise, Li Che was a little surprised: "No...Isn't it shocking that I'm talking about this thing?"

The officials of the Ministry of Works raised their heads in confusion, looked at Li Che, and shook their heads again.

"I'm not shocked. Isn't this just a hydration reaction? Quicklime is calcium oxide, and the chemical composition of gypsum is kaolinite. It also contains elements such as iron and potassium."

"Although the specific formula is unclear, since Your Highness has such a detailed recipe, it will definitely work."

Seeing Li Che's increasingly dull eyes, Wang Chongjian immediately shrank his neck:

"Your Highness, what's wrong? Isn't this all from the Chemistry book? We study it every day and have pretty much mastered it."

Li Che then remembered that the team he brought from the imperial capital was no longer the ancient people in the stereotype.

They have also received compulsory education and have acquired basic junior high school education, and are already strong people at the junior high school level.

These people have never studied scientific theories, but they have become top scholars in various disciplines of the time and top academic masters who eat the emperor's food.

Now that we have learned "Physics", "Geography" and "Chemistry", by applying what we have learned to other situations, we may become great scholars at the level of high school students!

Horror!

Li Che waved his hand, feeling a little bored. "Now that we know everything, let's go find these raw materials. We need to experiment with the cement many times to find the most suitable ratio."

Wang Chongjian frowned and said, "Clay is fine. It can be found in bricks, ceramics, and clay vessels."

"Quicklime has existed since the Spring and Autumn Period. Taoist priests often use it in alchemy. It's just calcined limestone."

"But for this plaster of Paris, we need to find a gypsum mine."

Li Che recalled his memories of his previous life. They were found in Liaoning Province, mainly distributed in Shenyang, Dalian, Dandong and other places.

But I really can’t remember the exact location, so I still have to send Wang Liu and the others there.

Li Che said: "That's fine. Plaster of Paris is only used to accelerate solidification. You can experiment with clay and limestone first."

The simplest cement is made from clay and quicklime, also known as traditional cement.

This stuff is definitely not as good as modern industrial cement, but Fengguo doesn't have any heavy trucks, so the cement road just needs to be smooth and solid, at least much better than dirt roads and brick roads.

Moreover, cement is not only used to build roads, but also can be used to build city walls when added with some glutinous rice.

Anyway, the methods of making cement are basically the same, so we can improve it when conditions permit in the future.

Wang Chongjian bowed and said, "I understand. I will arrange it right away."

Li Che's words were the national policy in Fengguo.

Officials immediately took action, searching for the two materials in the warehouse, and then began group experiments in full swing.

Li Che took a sneak peek, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and then he retreated silently.

I have nothing more to offer. These ancient scholars are really perverted.

The variables, control groups, experimental groups, etc. are clearly operated. Even if a research team at the [University] level in the previous life comes, they can only achieve this level.

A genius is a genius. It takes others more than ten years of hard work to master the knowledge they have acquired in just half a year.

But Li Che was not too disappointed. He was the leader in this life, and at least his scientific research team had begun to grow in size.

When he returned to the palace, Wang Liu had already received the order and rushed back from the mine.

The mining exploration life in the past few months has made him lose a lot of weight and his skin has become dark and rough.

But he looked more energetic, his little eyes blinking as if they were shining.

"Greetings, Your Highness." Wang Liu bowed without saying a word when he saw him.

"Get up, don't give me that, kid." Li Che scolded with a smile, "How are you doing lately? Have you had enough of staying in the mine? Want to go out for a walk?"

Wang Liu was overjoyed and said quickly, "I will obey your orders, Your Highness, and will set off at any time."

"Yeah." Li Che nodded. "How's your study going?"

"I've read most of it, but there are some words I don't recognize, so I pestered the political commissar of the garrison to explain them to me." Wang Liu replied.

Li Che smiled with satisfaction. He was a man who was willing to make progress and did not waste his hard work.

"I want you to find three things."

"Your Highness, please tell me."

"Gypsum mines, coal mines, copper mines!"

Wang Liu rolled his eyes and took Li Che's words seriously to heart.

"Of these three, the priority is to find gypsum mines, which will be used soon; coal mines are second, which will be used in winter; and copper mines are third."

Gypsum is not only a common industrial material, but also a medicinal material with many uses.

Needless to say, the biggest obstacle to development in Northeast China is the six-month-long winter. If there were no coal mines, most of the people would probably freeze to death.

As for the copper mine, Li Che planned to use it to mint coins and study artillery and bullets at the same time.

"I can't give you a specific location this time. I can only give you a rough range. You have to find it yourself."

Li Che walked to the map and circled several places with his hand.

"In these areas, the error won't be too big, but gypsum mining is mainly done underground, so deep holes may need to be dug for exploration."

Wang Liu's expression turned serious. "When will Your Highness need this gypsum mine?"

"About half a month." Li Che replied.

Cement needs heat to solidify and is not easy to use in winter, so we should take advantage of the summer and autumn to build more roads.

"I will definitely do my best!" Wang Liu bowed.

Wang Liu did not stop and set out with his team in the afternoon to look for gypsum mines.

The war was over, Gong Zheng was busy experimenting with cement, and other matters were handled by Huo Duanxiao and Zhuge Zhe. Li Che actually had a rare period of free time.

Taking advantage of the rare leisure time, Li Che learned spearmanship from Yue Yun during the day, and began to read historical books collected by the aristocratic families of the previous dynasty at night.

When his original body was a prince, he was exposed to Confucian classics and knew little about the history of this world, so Li Che had no relevant memories.

Now that I have time, I might as well read some history books to find out what era I am living in.

Xia, Shang, Zhou, Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, this period was no different from the previous life.

The turning point of history occurred in the Qin Dynasty. For some reason, Li Che did not find the name of Ying Zheng in history books.

Without Zulong, the time for Qin to conquer the six states was delayed by several decades.

The Qin Dynasty was still a short-lived dynasty, but because it was delayed by several decades, the Han Dynasty never appeared.

What replaced it was a period of chaotic history, with endless wars among the countries in the Central Plains and invasions by various barbarians from abroad.

To describe it as the collapse of rituals and music is an understatement. It is simply a dark and chaotic world, a purgatory on earth.

This chaotic period of history almost wiped out Chinese civilization!

Even now, it is difficult to find complete historical records of that period of history, and no one can accurately say how long this chaos lasted.

There is much controversy among scholars, and most believe it was around two hundred years.

Historians call this period of time - the years of lost history!

However, the general trend of the world is that after a long period of unity, there will be division, and after a long period of division, there will be unity.

The Chinese people have an innate sense of mission to unify the world, and ultimately achieved the unification of the world.

Afterwards, each dynasty took turns to come on stage.

By the time Emperor Qing established the Qing Kingdom, it was already the fifth unified dynasty.

Li Che roughly calculated the time. If the period of historical interruption lasted for two hundred years, then the current year and month would correspond exactly to the period between the Song and Yuan dynasties in the previous life.

Southern Song Dynasty, that’s not surprising.

Everyone knows that the Qing Dynasty rose in the northeast, but they forget that the Song Dynasty was not a unified country, but a separatist dynasty that confronted the Liao and Jin dynasties in the northeast for two hundred years.

Although the Song Dynasty was always ridiculed as a coward, it was actually quite powerful. After all, it was the world's most powerful country in terms of GDP at that time.

The fact that Liao and Jin were able to confront it for a long time, and that the Liao even once claimed to be the orthodox Chinese nation, shows that these two countries were not simply barbarian tribes, but equal countries.

To a certain extent, the Liao Dynasty carried out preliminary development of the Northeast, rather than simply engaging in nomadic life, fishing and hunting.

This also corresponds to the historical temperature cycle. The Song and Yuan dynasties were the fourth warm period experienced by mankind, and the Northeast was still a livable place during this period.

If I traveled back to the Little Ice Age of the Ming Dynasty, I would be in great trouble. Not to mention becoming the king outside the Great Wall, it would be a blessing from my ancestors that I didn't freeze to death.

After Li Che understood the situation, he immediately became excited.

According to the historical trajectory of the previous life, this warm period lasted from 1200 AD to 1300 AD, a total of one hundred years!

In other words, Feng State has at least several decades of development time to prepare for the next ice age.

This time, there will be no Qing army entering the pass, no Eight-Nation Alliance, and no war of aggression against China.

The chariot of history is still moving forward, and the driver who controls the direction is yourself!

Before that, Li Che will solve these problems.

If the problem cannot be solved, then solve the person...or nation that caused the problem.

Don't you think so? An island nation that likes to use sanitary napkins as its national flag?