Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 647 Advance to the Base
The weather is getting hotter every day, and the meandering river is getting louder and murkier.

At noon, with a loud noise, the raging flood rushed down from the upper reaches, straight into the narrow ditch dug in advance.

Because it is in the rainy season in summer, the flood accumulated for many days is very fierce.The turbid water flow continued to wash away, gradually extending the ditch, creating a relatively wide channel.

The floodwaters rushed far downstream.At this time, with the widening of the river, the rushing flood gradually calmed down, the water flow slowed down, the sediment was silted up, and the water color gradually became clearer.

Song Le looked at this power of nature with lingering fear.

He has read "Shui Jing Zhu" and knows that many river courses in ancient times were different from those now, and many of them were diverted.And this often happens during the flooding period, and a new river channel is washed out on the ground.

But that was formed naturally, and they were deliberately guided.

Dig a relatively straight trench at both ends of the big bend. The trench can be relatively deep, but it does not need to be too wide.Square ponds are excavated at both ends of the trench at intervals. When the flood comes, it will rush down and scour a new river channel.

Cutting bends and straightening, when the Guangji Canal was built in the Sui Dynasty, a large number of natural river courses were rebuilt to facilitate shipping.Huaizhou did this, of course, for this purpose.

"Shuai Song's merits will benefit thousands of years. I admire him." Wang Ban, the governor of Huaizhou, walked up to him and complimented him.

"Find some work for the people, and we can't let them idle." Song Le shook his head and said: "In another month, it will be the autumn harvest, and there is not much time left."

A few days ago, another group of immigrants moved to Heyang Town, that is, the tribes of Tuoba Renfu and Li Renyu from the south bank of the Yellow River.

After these two guys went to Yanzhou, they seemed to be assimilated by those warlords, like wild horses that had run wild, they would enter Ziqing Town to plunder for a while, and go wild in Hebei for a while.Qi Bizhang sent someone to contact them, but they were flatly rejected, so what else is there to say?First, the old and weak women and children left behind in Henan were annexed.

Shao Shude has already sent messengers to summon more than [-] people in Huainan, intending to send them to Heyang and register them as households.Tuoba Renfu and Li Renyu want to kill their wives and children, so someone will take care of them for you.

After counting the new arrivals, Mengzhou currently has about [-] households with a population of [-], and Huaizhou has more than [-] households with a population of [-]. The population of Heyang has undergone a round of surge.

In order to feed these people, almost all the grain and grass seized in the Heqing War last year were taken in, and then a batch was urgently allocated from the Hezhong Mansion.The Yellow River water transportation in the north of Guanbei did not stop all day long. At the risk of being harassed by the Bian Army Navy, the grain and supplies were transported to Heqing County by ship, and then distributed to the counties.

Last autumn, only a small number of people had planted winter wheat, and most people were still building houses and trying to restore the abandoned land.In the spring of this year, people who did not catch up last year joined in, and the sown area of ​​spring wheat increased greatly.The growth is still so-so, and there should be a decent harvest next month.

After all, in the early years of the Later Han Dynasty, Kou Xun was in the town of Hanoi, "governed more than a million arrows, raised two thousand horses, and collected 400 million hu in rent for the military", which greatly helped Liu Xiu's career.

The wealth of Hanoi County is not bragging.

"Summer harvest, autumn planting, autumn harvest, one thing after another." Song Le sighed: "After this busy period, it will be winter, and the people have to go to the river to dredge waterways and ditches."

Wang Ban didn't know much about these things.

In fact, he is a pure warrior, because of the "battlefield uprising" at the critical moment, he got the post of governor of Huaizhou.He also knew very well that the assassin might not be too long, but King Xia was kind enough to arrange a good place for him.He has no ambitions, and if he can have a place to retire, even if it is an idle position, a relatively generous salary is enough.

Su Junqing, who is currently serving as the judge of the Heyang shogunate, is different. He really has the ambition to continue to climb up.In this matter, there is no question of who is right and who is wrong. After all, Su Junqing is a literati, and Wang Ban is a warrior, so it is still different.

But before he moved his position, Wang Ban also knew that he had to do a good job with the matter at hand.It doesn't matter if you don't understand, just find someone who understands to do it, and the shogunate is happy for you to let go.

"Song Shuai, the water is turbid and there is too much silt. It may not be easy to straighten out the waterway." Wang Ban said: "In the future, every three to five years, we will conscript soldiers to dredge the river."

"This matter must be persevered." Song Le said firmly: "The abandonment of shipping in the southern section of Yongji Canal is not all due to the abundance of mud and sand, but more of a man-made disaster. In the last year of Tianbao, this section was still open to navigation, and it took three hundred More than 50 pieces of silk and more than [-] armor wares were stored in the Beizhou Daku. After the rebellion, the banks of the Yongji Canal were reduced to battlefields, and water transportation was interrupted. The bridgehead has suffered from wars and fires for a long time, the people are poor, and there is no one to dredge the river. These things have to be done by someone, and now I can do as much as I can."

The matter of the southern section of the Yongji Canal is indeed a pity.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the southern section of the Yongji Canal was in the territory of Heyang and Weibo. To be precise, it crossed Huaizhou and Weizhou, which happened to be the front line of the war.And because most of Hebei's rents and taxes are intercepted to support the army, the imperial court does not need to transfer a large amount of equipment, goods, grain and grass to Youzhou. There is no need for shipping. In addition, the Qin cement has a large content of sand and is easy to silt, so it is gradually abandoned. .

Of course, man-made damage cannot be ignored.

In the third year of Dezong's founding, the three towns in Hebei rebelled. Zhu Tao "Yongji Canal entered Wangmang's old river near Weizhou, and the official army's food road and return route were cut off. Tomorrow, the water depth will be more than three feet."At that time, the anti-rebel army transported grain and grass to Weizhou through the southern section of the Yongji Canal.

Later, Weibo, Chengde, Henghai and other towns also built water conservancy facilities, but most of them were minor repairs within the town. For the Yongji Canal across the feudal towns, the things involved were too complicated and powerless. .

The only joint water conservancy project in Zhuzhen was in the spring of the ninth year of Xianzong Yuanhe. Because of the flood of the Yellow River, Huazhou City was threatened many times. A canal was opened in the southwest to divert the flow and discharge the Yellow River, which is the so-called "Wei Hua Divide the River" project, "there is no flood in Hua people".

Song Le has not yet had the energy to dredge the southern section of Yongji Canal that communicates with Qingshui (Wei River).It was completely silted up, and the overflowing river had formed several huge swamps, which had not been cleared for many years.

What Song Le wants to do now is to rectify Qinshui shipping first, including but not limited to cutting and straightening the river, widening the dredging, planting elms and willows, rebuilding the wharf, etc.

The matching irrigation ditches for leading the river will also need to be re-maintained.The irrigation canals are actually there, but they are either overgrown with weeds or clogged, and the utilization rate is appallingly low.

Song Le really couldn't see it, so he sacrificed his old business when he was running Sui, Yin, and Sheng, and even transferred many old officials who were familiar with river management from these three states to help him remediate Qinshui.

From the middle of last year to now, more than [-] people have taken turns to go to battle after finishing their farming work, and they have achieved small results, which makes him very gratified.

But how can the long-term illness be gone in one day?This is a long-term project, he knows it well.

The debts owed by the martial arts warriors have to be repaid one by one now.

After eating lunch outside at noon, Song Le and his party rode horses and headed south along Qinshui, passing Huaizhou City without entering, and heading directly to Wude County.

Along the way, some shipping ships can be seen, which are fully loaded with grain, grass, and equipment, and are transported downstream.

Song Le knew that Fu Cunshen, the German envoy, was commanding the army to besiege Liangren's Guanghe Town, which cost a lot of money and had to be transported by river.

"Wang Shijun, you can't be careless about the ranch." Song Le suddenly remembered something and said.

"Don't worry, Shuai Song. The [-] horses were skinny when they were delivered, but now they are all fat and strong." Wang Banying said, "The horses were specially picked out and served carefully. Some agricultural students came to find them. Some donkeys came over to try to breed, and the subordinates sent people to follow, and if they needed anything, they were dispatched immediately, and there was never a shortage."

Song Le nodded in approval.

Harness horses are not only used for pulling carts, but also for shipping.

This will be a wet season. Although the river has not been dredged for many years, the water depth is sufficient and there is no problem going downstream.

But in the dry season, ships of average size often need to be towed by at least two pack horses, which is downstream.On the return journey, more than eight draft horses were required to tow the ship if it was fully loaded.

Of course, you can change people to pull fiber. Last year, Liang people transferred materials from the Yellow River to Hanoi, which was manual fiber pulling.However, under King Xia’s rule, it may have been difficult in the early days, but now there is really no shortage of livestock. If it can be solved by animal power, use draft animals as much as possible.

Two days later, the group arrived in Xiuwu County.

Some of the soldiers and horses of the Northern Sixth National Inspection Envoy and the Hengshan Erfan Department were stationed here, with a total of [-] cavalry, guarding [-] Liang army prisoners.

These people were surrounded and captured by the Xia army when they went out to pursue after crossing the river to reinforce Banzhu City.

They now have new jobs.

Xiuwu County introduced Lingxia's brick and tile wheel kiln technology, and built a large-scale earthen kiln, which specializes in firing bricks and making tiles for local construction.

The fuel used in the wheel kiln is undoubtedly coal.

There are huge and abundant coal resources in Xiuwu County, and they are not buried deep. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the people of Huaiqing Mansion mined coal here by hand-drilling kilns and carrying them in baskets on their shoulders. After obtaining the right to "mining and making iron in the mountains north of the Yellow River around Huaiqing", mechanized coal mining, the high-quality anthracite produced was supplied to the British royal family.

The entire Shuofang military and political system knew that King Xia was obsessed with the use of coal.Heyang has been desolate for many years, and there are large bamboo forests and forests. Except for the excavation of rivers and ditches as a last resort, felling is prohibited in principle.All cooking in the army uses charcoal, and officials pay salaries, and charcoal is also changed to charcoal.

As for the common people, it may not be well managed, and they will certainly not be able to prevent them from chopping firewood secretly, but how much can the common people consume?
After Song Le stopped his horse, he looked at it from afar.He got off his horse suddenly, walked quickly to a carriage, saluted and said, "Why is Mrs. Chen Guo here?"

"It turned out to be Song Situ." Wei Cai came to the United States to return the salute, and said with a smile: "The Wei family set up a blacksmith shop in Xiuwu to make ordnance. Let's take a look today."

That's it!

Song Le didn't dare to underestimate this Qianghu woman who was born in the grassland. In fact, among his wives and concubines, she might be the richest.

Wherever King Xia went, Wei's blacksmith shop opened, and now it has even expanded to excavate coal.

"How many wars can the blacksmith shop produce this year?" Song Le asked.

"Fifty armor collars, three hundred Mo knives, and three hundred long swords." Wei Cailai was as beautiful as a few treasures, and obviously knew her family's production capacity in Xiuwu County very well.

Song Le understood.

The ordnance produced by the Wei family is used to making iron with charcoal. Although it is not excellent, it is not of low quality. It is of medium quality and the level is very stable.

Yeli's blacksmith shop has also developed in the past few years, but their family made a big mess. It seems that they misunderstood King Xia's words and used coal to make iron. As a result, they produced a batch of low-quality weapons, which were directly rejected—— —The forged knives are brittle and easy to break, and no one wants to use them.

"There is still a shortage of people in this area, otherwise we can produce more armor and swords." Wei Cailaimei looked at the smoky wheel kiln and the large expanse of barren meadows around him, and said, "Your Majesty intends to produce more armor and swords in Heyangguang." Storing good horses, producing more grain and beans, and building large-scale armaments, Song Situ has worked hard."

"It's all a matter of duty." Song Le said with a smile: "The king's ambition is in the world. Heyang is adjacent to Shangdang and Luozheng. It is very important to go south and north. This old man knows it well."

To put it simply, Heyang's geographical location is too good, and its endowment is too good.

First of all, it is very suitable for agriculture and animal husbandry. Secondly, there is a lot of coal and iron ore. If the Qinshui and Yongji canals are well organized, the transportation will be very convenient.For an offensive regime, it is indeed a very good forward base.

As far as the current situation is concerned, it is the top priority to use Heyang to supply food, horses, and ordnance, and cross the river south to attack Zhu Quanzhong.

Although Song Le is the Heyang Jiedu envoy, he doesn't care about military matters, only these logistical matters.

He still remembered that in the last paragraph of Shao Shude's letter to him, he quoted the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty": "Nowadays, Hanoi is solidified by the river, with a solid household registration, leading to Shangdang in the north and forcing Luoyang in the south."

Also: "Hanoi is full of wealth, and I will rise because of it. In the past, the great ancestor left Xiaohe to guard Guanzhong, and now I entrust Hanoi to guard the transfer and provide enough food for the army."

In the words and sentences, there is earnestness and earnestness. Song Le asked himself that he should devote all his energy to accomplish these things.

"Heyang is getting better." Wei Cailai smiled and said, "Your Majesty wants to send [-] people to the Huaihe River, and Liang Jiang will come here to mine and make bricks, cut wood to build ships, repair post roads, and dredge ditches. There should be no shortage of people."

"It's not enough, it's not enough. It would be great if Commander Gao could capture some more people from Henan, the more the better." Song Le shook his head and said, "Where is the king now?"

Wei Cailaimei's face darkened, she sighed, and didn't answer.

Song Le was thoughtful, and vaguely knew where Shao Shude was.

Thinking of this, he was a little annoyed, and shouted: "I have worked so hard for his Shao family, but he... no, I have to go to Wangwu Mountain and get the king out."

(End of this chapter)