end song

Chapter 880 Two pieces of wood
In December, it snowed heavily, more than sixty miles northwest of Jingyang County, at Xihukou in Zhongshan.

"The river bed is too high, and the embankment cannot be rammed up..."

"Mr. Xi is here, let Mr. Xi take a look..."

In the wind and snow, a carriage drove to the bank of the Jing River. Xi Jihu jumped off the shaft in a hurry before the carriage stopped.

There are dense crowds of people standing by the river.

Wu Pu came out from the crowd and met his brother-in-law.

"You're finally here."

In such a cold day, when he spoke, white gas kept coming out of his mouth, and the originally imperceptible sigh became more obvious.Wu Pu sighed twice in one sentence, obviously very worried.

"What's going on here, big brother?" Xi Jihu asked.

A canal of more than [-] miles has to be rebuilt. The only few in Guanzhong who know water conservancy, it was originally agreed that each person would be responsible for a section, but they always encountered various unexpected problems.

For two days, Xi Jihu only cared about running back and forth between the three hundred miles.

Standing in the wind and snow, Wu Pu raised his hand and pointed to the north. Without saying anything about what happened, he directly gave the solution he had thought up, saying: "We must move the mouth of the diversion channel that we originally planned to go north. Move two miles."

"Why?"

"The river bed is too high and the soil is too soft. If we open a canal here, the embankment will easily collapse in the future."

"Let's talk about it by the river..."

The ground was very slippery, and there were too many people walking on the snow, which had turned the river into mud.

Xi Jihu leaned down, reached into the mud and dug up a handful of soil to have a look, his face became serious.

"Did you find it? This place is different from Jiangnan, the snow is so thick every year."

"But the original Zhengguo Canal was opened here, 'dug the Jingshui from the mouth of Dihu in the west of Zhongshan as a canal', why can't we do it?"

"What we want to build is a complete water diversion hub, including canal gates, stone weirs, and Hongmen. This place is no longer enough to be the mouth of the canal."

Xi Jihu only felt his scalp go numb.

Now that the entire Guanzhong water conservancy has started construction, the most upstream Yinjingkou has to be changed, and it will definitely be troublesome if it affects the whole body.

Xi Jihu had to go through the process of Wu Pu's entanglement and thinking before. The two discussed and argued, and finally decided to move the mouth of the Yinjing Canal to the north as Wu Pu just said.

"Go over and have a look, if you can only move, then do it as soon as possible."

Although the solution was proposed by Wu Pu, he still said, "There are also difficulties."

"I know." Xi Jihu exhaled another breath of white air, and said, "I have surveyed this area before. If we move two li further north, we must get through the Dalongshan and Xiaolongshan."

"The stones of Da and Xiaolong Mountains are hard, so it's not easy to chisel."

"I don't know how much manpower and material resources will be spent."

Xi Jihu frowned and thought, and inadvertently saw that Wu Pu's body was covered with snow, and because of the heat from running, the snow seeped into his clothes.

"Brother, go to dry the clothes, so as not to catch the wind and cold. I will go to the upstream to have a look first, and we will talk after we have seen it."

"Let's go together and talk while walking. There is not much time left before spring plowing..."

The bigger the wind and snow.

Many peasants stood by the Jing River, all holding shovels, looking up at the figures of the two gentlemen.

"Why did you stop?"

"Don't say it can't be repaired. I hope that I will have a good year with this salary."

"Do you have a vision? Keep an eye on this little salary? You can wait for the new canal to irrigate the fields next year when you start plowing."

"Why don't you let me dig it, I'm so anxious..."

If it is said that farming and eating food is the most important thing in people's life, diverting water for irrigation is the major event that saves the most effort in farming, so they cannot help but look forward to it earnestly.

It’s not that officials can become good officials as soon as they arrive in Guanzhong, but that when scholar-bureaucrats really walk on the field stalks and see the eyes of the people, as long as they are not too hard-hearted, their sense of responsibility can push them to serve the people wholeheartedly. work……

~~
The next day, Xi Jihu rushed back to Chang'an to discuss the matter of moving the mouth of Yinjing Qu to the north.

Although it is only two miles, the cost, manpower, and construction period involved are completely different due to the need to excavate the large and small Longshan Mountains, and there are too many things to re-plan.

For the water conservancy work in Guanzhong, Li Xia temporarily mobilized staff from various yamen to form a working group.

Everyone stood in front of the sand table and listened to Xi Jihu's instructions.

Sitting in the corner was Jiang Di from Mokan Academy, estimating the cost with his abacus.

Qin Jiushao stood aside, stretched out his hand lightly to cover the abacus, pinched his fingers with the other hand to calculate, took the pen and began to write.

After Xi Jihu finished speaking, Li Xia asked, "In this way, how much more food will be added?"

Jiang Di glanced at Qin Jiushao, saw him raise his hand slightly, and motioned for her to answer Li Xia.

If it were someone else, it would probably be very unhappy to see this subordinate pretending and showing off his abilities in front of him.

But Jiang Di knew that Qin Jiushao had such a temperament, so he was not angry. Looking at the result of the plan on the paper, he replied: "If it is an ordinary terrain, the estimated cost of two miles of land is [-] and [-] guan, and [-] workers will be hired. The construction period January. However, if the Dalongshan and Xiaolongshan are excavated, Xi Xianggong has to come up with more detailed regulations..."

Li Xia was still listening to this, while Guan De quietly approached him, and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, the Military Intelligence Department has something important to report, saying that the spies from Junzhou came back and brought a Bei who had come to defect to the King. people……"

When it came to the Military Intelligence Department, Li Xia, who was discussing water conservancy matters, thought that he had sent Lin Zi to Hexi, and that there might be a way to invite back the famous water conservancy master Guo Shoujing.

But Xingqing Mansion is far away and heavily guarded, this matter is far from being able to quench the near thirst.

Li Xia glanced at the hall, and seeing that he couldn't get away at this moment, he said, "Since there are people from the north defecting, let Dong Wenyong go to receive them first..."

~~
The moment Dong Wenyong saw Guo Hongjing, he was a little disappointed.

He also couldn't tell who he wanted to see, maybe his eldest brother Dong Wenbing.But he knew very well that the Dong family's roots were in Gaocheng, and before Li Xia arrived in Gaocheng, it was impossible for the Dong family to join him.

Generally speaking, the hometown is loyal to whomever it is under...unless it is captured.

Dong Wenyong sighed and stepped forward, feeling that no matter how he greeted him, it seemed absurd.

"Jingchen is here too, long time no see."

"I've seen Mr. Dong, Mr. Dong was there too."

Guo Hongjing was leading the horse and following behind Yu Dechen, staring blankly at Longshouqu in the distance, when he heard someone calling him, he quickly turned around to answer.

The two words "also" are both surprising and embarrassing when meeting old acquaintances in other places.

Dong Wenyong was silent for a moment, his eyes swept over, and he saw Yu Dechen and Guo Hongjing standing there, not intending to speak warmly at all.

Like two logs.

"Is this Jingchen here to join King Qin?"

"I'm ashamed to say that I was taken by the court by mistake, and then captured by the Military Intelligence Department and brought to Chang'an."

Guo Hongjing briefly described the encounter, feeling a little sad about being wronged and leaving home to go abroad.

He spoke simply, and Dong Wenyong understood the general process, but he didn't know the details, so he looked at Yu Dechen and asked with his eyes.

Yu Dechen didn't know what to say, so he could only say: "That's right."

In fact, since Li Xia asked Dong Wen to receive him, he didn't intend to hide the affairs of Junzhou from him. He was even in charge of the affairs of Junzhou, and the Military Intelligence Department was just an assistant.

Yu Dechen didn't tell the story until the commander of the Military Intelligence Department came out to ask questions.

At that time, he saw that the captains of the Eagle Guards were dressed in dignified clothes, so he stared at them and waited for them to leave the city. He followed them all the way out of the city and caught up with them in the woods.

"Afterwards, I visited the private salt shop and found that the Eagle Guards had secretly sent Cui Wen, a hundred households, to arrest five people from the iron smelting workshop. Two of them had already been killed, and three of them could not stand the punishment and surrendered to the enemy..."

When he came to Junzhou, he was just to investigate the missing informant of Iron Smelter, and he completed the errand after he found out, and he will arrange it later with his own military intelligence department.

As for bringing back Guo Hongjing, it was just by the way.

"Looks like a good official, just met and brought back..."

Guo Hongjing followed Yu Dechen all the way to Chang'an, but it was the first time he knew this, and murmured: "I thought you framed me on purpose."

Dong Wenyong beckoned and asked Guo Hongjing to talk side by side with him, saying: "We don't need to frame you. Once Li Fen rebelled, the Han people in the Central Plains will be very suspicious. Why do we need to frame you?"

Guo Hongjing asked again: "But... when you smuggled, you deliberately walked along the Lirenqu, didn't you want to frame me?"

Dong Wenyong was quite surprised, and asked, "From Shanzhou, how many other roads can I choose if I don't follow the Liren Canal?"

Guo Hongjing was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say.

After a while, he shook his head and smiled wryly.

"But when others want to doubt you, it's useless to say anything."

Dong Wenyong said: "Looking at Henan, there are too many people who are more suspicious than you, but why are you the first to be arrested?"

"If I marry Zhang, will I be Li Xia's brother-in-law?"

"Heh, if King Qin's Yue Weng has not been implicated, what is brother-in-law?" Dong Wenyong said, "Hey, brother-in-law is nothing, what is afraid is that brother-in-law has no strength."

Guo Hongjing remained silent.

"The weak eat the strong, is this a Chinese system?"

"Dong Gong... Are you really surrendering to Li Xia? Are you not afraid of implicating the Dong family?"

"Just now I said, the Zhang family in Baozhou has not been implicated yet." Dong Wenyong was silent for a while, ignoring the people from the Military Intelligence Department around him, and said: "Actually, I didn't want to surrender at all."

"You don't want to surrender, but you go north to connect with the Marquis for Li Xia?"

"Because I wanted to take the opportunity to escape, but..."

Dong Wenyong thought about it, but he didn't know what to say.

In fact, he didn't make it clear that he wanted to surrender Li Xia. After Ah Shu's death, he just reluctantly offered advice for Li Xia.

Even later, his second brother Dong Wenwei died in Shangzhou when he was attacking Li Xia.

Li Xia didn't force him to make a statement, but asked him, "If I take over the world in the future, and Dong Wenbing is willing to die for Kublai Khan, who will protect the Dong family in Gaocheng?"

"Impossible!" Dong Wenyong responded at that time.

He had no confidence in his heart, and gradually he also thought that if Li Xia was the right man, then it would be right to survive and assist the real man in order to protect the family, the country and the world.

Li Xia's strong self-confidence has been infecting him, and sometimes he is even unwilling to analyze the situation, wanting to blindly trust Li Xia and forget it.

Just like when Beishang was a lobbyist not long ago, Dong Wenyong couldn't understand why Li Xia trusted him so much and dared to let him go to Hebei at this time?

He wanted to take the opportunity to escape from the woods several times.

But it's hard to gain trust again after escaping back. Instead, only Li Xia trusts and reuses him.

A person can be grand and magnanimous, often because he has strong strength or a strong heart. From this point of view, Dong Wenyong can feel Li Xia's strength.

It's hard to explain this feeling, Dong Wenyong just patted Guo Hongjing on the shoulder, and said: "You will gradually know why I made such a choice."

Guo Hongjing was a little at a loss.

This time he was captured, and he didn't know what his future would be, but he must have integrity.

Eat Junzhi, must not betray like Dong Wenyong.

Guo Hongjing couldn't help but look back at the Longshou Canal in the distance. He saw the figures of laborers busy all the time. He couldn't help thinking that canals are being built everywhere in Guanzhong. I don't know if the Cao Canal and the Zaohe River have been built together?
(End of this chapter)