Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 787 Improving Welfare

Hualei left the happy and successful prefect Yu and rushed to the next prefecture, Changhuai Prefecture.

This year is the first year of cotton planting in Changhuai Prefecture. After checking the local cotton planting situation, Hua Bud was very satisfied.

Although it was the first year of planting, with the help of teachers from the Agricultural College and the book "Learning from Others", the cotton in Changhuai Prefecture grew very well.

According to this growth trend, Zhou Ziren should be able to receive a large amount of high-quality cotton by the end of the year, and of course, the people should also be able to receive a sum of money.

So Hualei went outside the city where the granary was built to check the construction progress of the granary.

The granary outside Changhuai Prefecture has been under construction for more than half a year. The granary covers an area of ​​about 150 mu, spanning about 100 meters from east to west and about 120 meters from north to south.

It was not very big in the Great Sheng Dynasty, but it was the largest granary in Xichang Prefecture.

The construction of a granary has very high requirements. It usually needs to be waterproof, moisture-proof, anti-corrosion, insect-proof, and sealed. It can be said to be a collection of exquisite craftsmanship.

Therefore, even though there were many people doing corvée labor to help with the construction, only about 60% of the granary was completed.

The granary has two layers, inner and outer, which are waterproof and collapse-proof, and very sturdy. Because it is used to store grain on the ground, the granary has particularly strict requirements on drainage and fire prevention.

The granary is divided into eight drainage areas. After being connected by water pipes, the water is concentrated in a square with a low center and high surroundings, and then discharged out of the granary. The granary is built with large square stones.

Inside the granary, grain is stored in a divided manner with small rooms and multiple warehouses. The warehouses are separated by thick walls. Once a fire occurs, the thick walls can delay the fire and prevent it from spreading.

The water-guiding wall on the ground also acts as a firewall, avoiding the situation of "a fire in the city gate affects the fish in the pond", which can be said to be a meticulous work.

Therefore, when Hua Lei saw it, she was also sincerely amazed at the construction technology of the Great Sheng Dynasty. In Mobei, when Li Shilang was building the state capital government office, she also went to see it once.

I know that the requirements for the construction of the state government are quite high. However, I didn't expect that the granary built here in Xichang had even more sophisticated craftsmanship.

I heard that after the granary was built, in order to prevent moisture, the ground inside the granary had to be paved with dry soil, then baked, and then covered with crushed charcoal slag mixed with tung oil, and finally covered with a layer of wooden boards.

The walls of the granary are baked with open flames to ensure that the granary is dry and sterilized before the grain is stored. It is said that such grain can be stored for many years without spoiling.

If unexpected situations such as war, famine, drought, etc. occurred, the imperial court would open the granaries and release grain, which played a key role in stabilizing social order and ensuring the stability of the imperial court and the survival of the people.

After inspecting the granary under construction, Hualei was full of praise. It was said that in order to build the granary, many skilled craftsmen came to the Ministry of Works in the capital.

However, Hua Lei only knew the general idea of ​​the matter, and was not sure how many people had come. After carefully checking the construction site of the granary, Hua Lei returned to the government office.

There was another mountain of documents piled up on the desk. There was no other way. Although she was very tired, Hua Lei still cheered up and started to deal with the documents.

Now, Hua Lei has become adept at handling these documents. Even without Rong Jin's help, Hua Lei can handle them well.

After the saltpeter refinery in Changhuai Prefecture had been running for a while, Hualei transferred nearly a thousand Anbang soldiers to the refinery. Several more saltpeter leaching pools were built and several pools started working at the same time. Because the saline-alkali land is rich in saltpeter and there are enough people, the speed of saltpeter refining is still very fast.

If the weather is fine, dozens of kilograms of saltpeter will be produced every day. After the saltpeter is refined, it is sent to the ritual room of Changhuai Prefecture for registration.

Then it is shipped out of the warehouse and sent to the ice making workshop near the border market by a special person to start making ice and sell it to merchants in the border market.

These months are summer, the hottest season in Xichang, so the saltpeter ice sold very well.

There was often a shortage of supply, so more than a month ago, Hualei transferred nearly a hundred Anbang soldiers to the ice shop, making them the main force of the ice shop.

Free manpower, Hualei used it very smoothly. If nothing unexpected happened, these Anbang soldiers would not be able to eat for free in the future. Refining saltpeter and making ice cubes would be their main task.

The original 1,500 Anbang soldiers had now been successfully reduced by Hualei. The remaining several hundred were also arranged by Hualei to other places where their efforts were needed.

Although the saltpeter refinery and ice-making workshop are located in Changhuai Prefecture, they are considered to be the property of the prefectural government because of the special raw materials and finished products. It is also very appropriate to use the Anbang soldiers.

Now, the monthly income from ice brings back a thick stack of silver bills for the Xichang government office, and the commercial taxes paid are also considerable.

Hualei was very happy to see the detailed books of the two workshops sent by Changhuai Prefecture Lin Zhizhou. Moreover, she also found that saltpeter had already accumulated a lot of inventory.

Then, Hua Lei found Wu Yousheng, the attendant of the etiquette office of the government office, and ordered him to arrange some saltpeter for free to the teachers in the academies in each state.

Ordinary people may not know that saltpeter can be used to make ice, but as teachers from the Imperial Academy who came from the capital city, they all know this.

Hualei distributes saltpeter to them for free, which is also to improve their welfare. These elderly people are generally not tolerant to heat, so letting them cool down with ice cubes can also help them carry out their work.

You know, in the past life, there were usually two months of summer vacation, but in the Great Sheng Dynasty, there were no such long vacations, only a few days of spring break and autumn break.

So no matter how hot the weather is, these teachers still have to go on duty and teach every day. There is no air conditioning in the classroom like in the past, so ice is even more needed.

If it weren't for the inconvenience of transportation and the concern that the ice would melt during transportation, Hua Lei would definitely have someone make the ice and send it over.

Sure enough, the teachers in the academy were overjoyed when they received the saltpeter distributed by Hualei. This made them happier than distributing monthly silver to them.

The summer in Shangjing City is not as hot as here, so these teachers have been suffering from summer heat recently, and have been unable to eat or sleep well. As a result, they are somewhat powerless when teaching.

The saltpeter sent by Hualei solved their urgent problem in time, and these teachers were of course happy.