Carrying AK into Ming Dynasty

Chapter 506 Sooner or later I will conquer you (two in one)

On November 26, at the southernmost point of Yanzhou Prefecture, Huanggukou.

The canals in the Shandong section were postponed due to the lack of food due to the locust plague, and the construction was finally completed in late November.

The wide mouth of the dam is paved with blue bricks based on strip stones, and the layers are glued with cement, and the outside is pasted with a thick layer of stones and cement concrete. The gray-blue walls are all solid and beautiful.

On this day, there were many people on both sides of the Huanggukou Canal. Hong Qiming, the head of the Shandong Qingli Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs, stood at the front of the group of people in a red official uniform. What are you waiting for.

"Come! Come!" A moment later, a sharp-eyed Min Zhuang shouted when he saw a troop of cavalry from the north rushing towards them, making waves of dust.

Liu Hongjian rode on the horse with a dusty face and squinted his eyes. It was a severe drought, and he ate a lot of dirt along the way.

Last night, I received an invitation from Hong Qiming of Yanzhou Prefecture. He didn't want to come. After all, it's just a dam opening. There's nothing to see in the distance.

But he couldn't stand the sincere invitation of a few low-ranking officials, and the tens of thousands of people who built the canal pleaded for orders, so he still came.

"Your officer Hong Qiming has seen the prince!" Liu Hongjian dismounted from his horse, patting the dust all over his body, and Hong Qiming, who was in his 40s, almost trotted to see him.

"Lord Hong, excuse me, what happened to the dam?" Liu Hongjian walked towards the dam entrance with a dozen of his personal guards, and a row of yamen servants voluntarily moved out of the way.

"Reporting to my lord, the canal starts from Huangyukou and ends at Tai'an Prefecture in Jinan Prefecture in the north, with a total length of [-] miles. There are [-] reservoirs along the way, which can benefit the eastern and southern counties of Shanxi.

Since the humble official was ordered, everything must be done personally and dare not be in vain. From south to north, this canal is measured and supervised by the humble official on foot. No brick or tile is dared to falsify. Now everything is ready, only waiting for the order of the prince, the dam Open the gate to benefit all people. "

Although Hong Qiming's words are suspected of asking for credit, he has to say that the dam was built beautifully. He is a native of Shandong, and it is his duty to make some contributions to the village in the year of the catastrophe.

Walking to the mouth of the dam, the rumbling sound of the Yellow River was like thunder, overshadowing everyone's voice.

"The dam is well built!" The bottom of the canal is flat and smooth, and there is no difference in the river channel squeezed out by machines in later generations. Liu Hongjian is not hesitant to praise it.

"What did the lord say? I didn't hear clearly!" The Yellow River was so loud that Hong Qiming couldn't hear it clearly for a while.

"I said the dam was built well. When I get back, I will report the truth to the Holy Majesty and ask for a reward from Master Hong!" Liu Hongjian saw that Hong Qiming listened carefully with his ears up, and felt that this engineering man was a little dull and cute.

"Oh, the officer has eaten." Hong Qiming replied honestly.

Pfft——Liu Hongjian just took a sip of water and sprayed it out.

"What are those people gathering around in front of you doing?" Liu Hongjian asked, pointing to the place where the folk gathered under the dam mouth.

"My lord, I can't say anything, you should go and see for yourself." Hong Qiming kept silent.

Liu Hongjian saw that Hong Qiming was still playing tricks, and instead of being funny, he became interested.

Thousands of people gathered around the bottom of the dam, two teams of guards stepped forward to open the way, the folks consciously moved out of the way, and Liu Hongjian clapped his hands with a smile to interact with the dirty folks.

Walking to the center of the crowd, he saw a huge red cloth covering a bluestone foundation. Liu Hongjian was about to ask what it was, but three or two of them eagerly tore the red cloth away.

Impressively, there is a bluestone statue about one foot high. This person is dressed in a python suit and a beam crown. He is looking at the dam mouth with piercing eyes. There are words on the foundation under his feet:
Liu Hongjian, the king of Anguo County in the Ming Dynasty, built Huanggukouba on the Wuzi day of the Jiazi month in the Yiyou year of Chongzhen.

The pen is written by 16 people living in Yanzhou Prefecture, Shandong Province.

"My lord builds canals to help the people to benefit Shandong, and the grass people wish the lord eternal prosperity and wealth forever!" I don't know who knelt down first and shouted.

"My lord builds canals to benefit the people of Shandong, and I wish my lord eternal prosperity and wealth forever!" Thousands of people around knelt down like waves, their voices so loud that they overwhelmed the rumbling yellow water.

In the year of the catastrophe, thanks to Liu Hongjian's strong support, he used the food stored by the landlords in the whole province to save millions of people. This is well known in Shandong.

It was not easy to build this canal, and it was thanks to the food provided by Liu Hongjian that hundreds of thousands of people were able to survive while digging the canal.

In the 300 years of the Ming Dynasty, no one has ever dared to despise these gentry and wealthy households who are feared by the people like Liu Hongjian. How can the common people not know the huge pressure Liu Hongjian bears for them.

A few days ago, I heard that Zhang Yuanwai in Ziyang dared to insult Master Wang. These folks almost emptied all the filth around them, and painted the walls of Zhang's house in the middle of the night. The man surnamed Zhang still dare not go out, for fear of being hurt by the surrounding people. black hands.

And this bluestone statue was a spontaneous request from the people of Yanzhou Prefecture. The huge stone was transported from Mount Tai overnight, and Qi Tiande, a master sculptor of Yanzhou Prefecture, was invited to preside over it.

The portrait of Liu Hongjian really worried the group of people, but fortunately, a few soldiers from the Beijing camp who were originally from Shandong, cooperated with Qi Tiande in painting all night, and finally painted a portrait that was half-spirited.

Qi Tiande heard that it was for the statue of the Prince of Anguo, but he didn't even mention the salary. He spent eight days with a knife day and night to complete the sculpture.

In ancient times, there was a statue of Li Bing in Dujiangyan, and today there is a statue of the king of Anguo County in Huangyukou Canal. It is conceivable that after several generations, when the people eat the food grown in the canal, legends about Liu Hongjian will be spread in Shandong.

Looking at his bluestone statue, Liu Hongjian was in a daze for a moment, and his heart lightened suddenly, feeling that all the pressure he had endured these days had completely disappeared.

"Everyone get up, get up." His eyes were sour, and he raised his hands falsely, signaling the migrant workers to get up, but his voice had no effect at all amidst the roar of the mountains and the tsunami.

"My lord told you to wait, get up quickly, don't make things difficult for my lord!" Hong Qiming shouted at Min Zhuang with a face full of relief.

After a while, at noon, Hong Qiming indicated to Liu Hongjian that the good time had come and he could order the gates to be opened.

Liu Hongjian stood by the canal, and several rows of sturdy peasants at the dam mouth had hemp ropes as thick as arms tied around their waists.

"Open the gate!" Liu Hongjian ordered hoarsely towards the mouth of the dam.

"One-two-one-two" Hundreds of civilians worked together, and the iron gate of ten thousand catties opened in response.

Wow—Rolling yellow water gushes out from under the iron gate.

"Oh-oh-oh-opened--" Tens of thousands of people gathered around both sides of the canal, cheering happily when they saw the yellow water flowing into the canal.

This canal has paid their blood and sweat for several months, and it will surely benefit their children and grandchildren. They are lucky enough to participate in the construction and survive the natural disaster. Everyone is happy from the bottom of their hearts.

Now that the twelfth lunar month is about to enter, winter wheat cannot be planted, which also means that the people will still have no food to harvest next spring.

Fortunately, sweet potatoes and potatoes are now available, and they have been successfully promoted in Shuntianfu, Shanxi and other places, and now people everywhere do not reject new crops.

As long as the good seeds are bred early in the coming year and planted earlier, the sweet potato growth cycle is short, which can at least save the people from suffering for more than a month.

Standing by the canal, Liu Hongjian watched the people cheering happily, and he had a lot of thoughts.

The Yellow River originates from Bayan Har and flows eastward into the sea. Its runoff is far less than that of the Yangtze River. However, in terms of floods for thousands of years, the Yellow River has topped the list.

The reason is mainly a yellow character. After thousands of years of reclamation and logging in the northwest region, the soil is loose and desertified.

The Yellow River flows through the northwest to bring a large amount of yellow sand, which is deposited on the river bed, causing the river bed to rise continuously, and there is a risk of embankment bursting during heavy rains.

In this year, there is no sand clearing machine of later generations. The only way to solve this problem in the past dynasties is to raise the embankment.

But there is still the same problem. The soil quality is not good, the dams are not solid, and after so many years, the river bed of the Yellow River has already been raised above the ground, and it has become a veritable above-ground river.

Later, once the embankment bursts, its harm will be even greater.

Yellow River, sooner or later, this king will conquer you, let you water the land obediently, and make you the real mother river in the north!
Liu Hongjian looked at Taotao's yellow water and made an oath in his heart.

With cement, reinforced concrete, and so many hard-working people, Daming did not need machinery, but relied entirely on his hands, and could still build a new river channel from west to east that shocked the world.

As long as the source of the yellow sand is blocked, he believes that everything is man-made.

Leaving Huanggukou, Hong Qiming, who has always been known as a giant, entertained Liu Hongjian and hundreds of accompanying guards in Shan County for an unprecedented banquet.

The banquet for hundreds of people was a big deal. Thirty or forty goats were killed in Shan County, allowing Liu Hongjian and others from the capital to taste the authentic Shan County mutton soup.

When parting at the end of the banquet, Liu Hongjian quietly left 500 taels of silver.

It was a year of catastrophe, Hong Qiming, a small head of the Ministry of Industry, even with the generosity of the people, how could he have the heart to let these poor people pay for it.

Five days later, the long-awaited Jiangnan water tanker finally transported rice to Shandong. Since then, the stone in Liu Hongjian's heart finally fell to the ground.

After dispatching relief food to Yanzhou, Jinan and other places most affected by the disaster, the trip to Shandong, which lasted nearly a month, finally came to an end.

On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, Liu Hongjian, along with the soldiers from the Beijing camp and the personal guard camp, boarded the large water transport ship bound for the capital.

After hearing the news, people from all over Shandong came to see them off spontaneously. Both sides of the canal were almost full of ragged people. Standing on the bow of the boat, Liu Hongjian looked at the people who were drifting away. belief.

Since the land of Daming is not enough to feed and clothe the common people, then this king will take you to rob and seize it, and use cannons and warships to seek it for you.

Navy, warship, Southeast Asia, land, food...

Liu Hongjian waved his hands and recalled in his mind.

……

However, in the past month, not only Shandong has been in full swing, but the court has turned the sky upside down.

Liu Hongjian rushed to Shandong with the army, but the officials of the court did not know about it. Chongzhen bypassed the officials once and issued an order on his own, which once again made the courtiers feel like a thorn in their throats.

Only half a month later, the gentry in Shandong came to beat the Dengwen drum first, and made a statement, telling Liu Hongjian's banditry, which made their family run out of food and made Shandong smoky.

Among the ministers, some officials who were dissatisfied with Liu Hongjian's style of work also impeached Liu Hongjian for bullying the people by taking advantage of his power. It is unjust to forcibly recruit the talents of the people and ruin the dignity of the court.

Fortunately, the newly formed cabinet still turned to Chongzhen, and made memorials to help Liu Hongjian exonerate, and Chongzhen kept all the memorials to impeach Liu Hongjian.

He also ordered the Ministry of Household Affairs to issue the same amount of silver taels to these landlords according to the IOUs that Liu Hongjian had issued to these landlords, and even issued some more, so as to temporarily put an end to the disturbance.

Unexpectedly, a few days later, there was news that Liu Hongjian's army was in chaos in Yan Shenggong's mansion in Shandong.

Shocked by the courtiers and Chongzhen, they didn't believe it at first. After all, Yanshenggong Mansion has been a holy place for hundreds of officials in all dynasties, and it is the belief of scholars.

Even if Liu Hongjian, Prince of Anguo County, is bold, he should know what the Kong family means in Daming.

But only three or four days later, the rumors spread even worse. In addition, Kong Yanzhi, the No. 60 fourth Yansheng Gong, went to the capital in person, wept bitterly in the court, and told all the injustices encountered by the Confucian family.

He directly described Liu Hongjian as an unreasonable, vicious, and bullying gangster, and slandered Liu Hongjian for using weapons and wounding dozens of servants in the Confucian Mansion. Even he himself was lynched by Liu Hongjian.

Even the ancestral hall of Confucius was disturbed, and the ancestral hall was in a mess by officers and soldiers. Kong Yanzhi, with his voice and emotion, described Liu Hongjian's actions in Shandong one by one.

Although the courtiers did not know the exact news, they all believed that the descendants of Confucius would not lie because of this. In addition, the ancestral hall of Confucius was also disrupted, and they immediately exploded when they heard the news.

In just two days, Chongzhen received the memorial to impeach Liu Hongjian, which was full of three big boxes, and even four members of the cabinet joined the impeachment of Liu Hongjian.

Although Chongzhen didn't really believe Kong Yanzhi's cry, but when he thought of Liu Hongjian's temper, he felt uncertain.

But Liu Hongjian left Shandong and did not return. Chongzhen withstood all the pressure and decided to wait for him to come back before discussing.

Worried, Chongzhen continued to withhold all the memorials, and then simply refused to attend the morning court simply because the dragon was ill.

what else?He gave the order himself, and Liu Hongjian had already made his plan very clear when he set off for the expedition.

Now that something happened, how could I let that kid carry it all by himself, alas, what a worry-free kid!

It was not only the courtiers who were filled with righteous indignation, but even the students of the Imperial College in the capital, private schools, and academies collectively blasted their hair.

They were not qualified to go to the palace to meet Chongzhen, and they all ran to Anguo County's palace to besiege and question them. The three hundred guards stationed at the county's palace were not even enough.

It is okay to let these personal guards kill people, but what they are facing is a group of well-known officials, and there is nothing they can do with their hands tied.

After Liang Yang, the commander of Jinyiwei, learned about it, he directly sent another ruthless person from Beizhen Fusi with a thousand households to block all the entrances of the streets. Anyone who looked like a scholar was not allowed to enter the alley of the county prince's mansion, so that they could be controlled Live the situation.

Just when the imperial court was in chaos, the capital was full of smog, Chongzhen was sighing and sighing, and the people in the county palace were panicking, on the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, Liu Hongjian, the instigator of all the incidents, finally arrived in the capital.

……

(End of this chapter)