Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 210 Grain into Henan

Du Ruhui watched in silence as Li Chunfeng commanded the delivery of supplies in a calm and orderly manner.

The carriage departed from King Yan's Mansion, and huge boxes were placed on special loading carriages. These goods were quite large, and a carriage could only hold one box, but four horses had to pull the reins together at the same time.

And these carriages moved neatly, and almost at the same time, they all left the city.

Not even a long distance away from Tianjin City, I saw a galley road, and I got out of the carriage with Li Chunfeng, the outer box on the carriage was unfastened, a winch stirred the lifting device, and the huge wooden box was lifted to the galley. Road carriage.

The horses and vehicles that can run on the gallop are specially made, not ordinary horses and vehicles.

After the things were installed, the horses on the galloping track galloped towards the mouth of Jinkou.

Looking at the [-] shi of grain, it was split into boxes and quickly went all the way from King Yan's Mansion to Jinkou Wharf.

Li Chunfeng looked at Du Ruhui and said, "Du Xiang, let's change carriages as well.

Don't worry, you can leave Tianjin today. If you use both water and manpower day and night, you can reach Dezhou in at most three days! "

Du Ruhui nodded when he heard Li Chunfeng's words, and then asked Li Chunfeng again,

"When the canal is completely dredged and the water transportation plan is implemented, the material dispatch from Youzhou to Luoyang will not even take seven days!"

"It's not so fast!" Li Chunfeng shook his head and said, "If you use it regardless of the cost, it's only a matter of urgency.

For this galloping raid, it was quite a waste of horses. If Wang Xuance's "Grass Seed Project" had not been implemented smoothly, there would be horses slaughtered this year. It would be rare for this gallop to be used in this way.

Not to mention the horses, just the construction of the galloping road, who else would build such a galloping road except King Yan.

It's just to increase the speed of material transportation from Tianjin City to Tianjin Jinkou and Tianjin Ferry!
So this matter is only for emergency use in Youzhou. This trip seems easy, but in fact the cost is not low.

Datang wants to build such a road in other places, but the price is too high to be honest. "

Du Ruhui nodded when he heard this, and looked towards the track unconsciously.

As the top prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, Du Ruhui was responsible for the advancement of the entire "Water Transport Plan", and personally felt the improvement in the overall efficiency of the entire Datang due to the changes in water transport.

Needless to say, under normal circumstances, would I have thought of going to Youzhou to carry food, and then go to rescue the disaster in Henan!

No, by the time the food from Youzhou arrived, Henan would have starved to death, causing countless deaths and injuries.

But now, knowing that there was a disaster in Henan, he immediately wanted to go to Youzhou to dispatch grain and grass.

In addition to knowing that Li Tai must have manpower and food in his hands, what is more important is that the canal from Youzhou to Dezhou has been advanced step by step according to the "Water Transport Plan".

Although the progress is not fast, the construction of the mouth of the mouth and the dredging of the river have all been completed, and I know the speed of the ship.

Now, the King of Yan started Chidao again.

To be honest, Du Ruhui felt very nostalgic for the material operation efficiency brought about by the experience of Chidao.

Even when Du Ruhui boarded the boat, he couldn't help but look back at these passages.

At this moment, Du Ruhui felt that it would be good to occasionally set up a section of road at a key position.

"However, with King Yan's character, if he wants to promote a certain project, he should make a plan!
But Chidao needs not only the initial investment, but also the maintenance of horses, roadbeds, and tracks in the later stage is a problem.

No matter how Yan Wang created something out of nothing, it is impossible to promote it on a large scale! "

Du Ruhui thought about it, and felt that King Yan was not so easy to use.

At this moment, I should still put all my thoughts and thoughts on disaster relief.

In any case, the materials have been obtained, and the conditions with Li Tai have been negotiated, and the rescue of Henan should no longer be a difficult task.

Li Tai, on the other hand, was already looking through the letters of intent for the construction of wonders that he wrote when he was doing nothing in Youzhou.

What about "Yellow River Bridge", "Yangtze River Bridge", and "Qinling Sky Bridge", the most unsightly spectacle should be "Vientiane Shrine". As for "Chang'an Luoyang Chidao Plan", Li Tai is currently taking it into his hands. flip through.

After all, for Li Tai, he is really not good at political fighting.

What I am good at is harvesting wealth and then putting it to use. What I need to do is to continuously create large-scale projects, and then use these large-scale projects to continuously attract all parties to form my own interest groups.

Therefore, my overall strategy is the strategy of rejuvenating the country through spectacle.

"Chidao has been put into use, and the operating efficiency is still very good, but the cost of this thing is a bit high!" Li Tai frowned.

After all, for things like Chidao, Li Tai's construction of this small section of Tianjin City is itself a taste of experimentation.

Many problems that I hadn't noticed before began to be exposed as this section of the road was put into use.

Let's not say anything about the high investment in the early stage, it really made Li Tai feel distressed for several days.

The real problem is the later maintenance problem, which is the real big head.

First of all, horses consume quickly, the main point is the wear and tear of horseshoes.

However, Li Tai glanced at it. Horseshoe, one of the three treasures of cavalry, is a skill that all traversers know, and it has solved the problem of horses a lot.

But even so, as the strength of a livestock, it is determined that the goods it can carry every day, as well as its own physical strength, are limited.

Especially for horses running on the galloping track, they need to feed them enough feed. Sometimes in addition to feed, they even need to add supplementary nutrients such as eggs to their food.

This determines that there must be enough animal husbandry behind it, and even a horse farm to support such a section of road.

At that time, even if Wang Xuance's "Grass Seed Project" is successfully implemented, Huaxia can plant pastures and herd cattle and sheep north of Yinshan Mountain, but Li Tai himself is not too sure about how much area it can support.

Not to mention, if you want to build the track from Chang'an to Luoyang, the material you need is mainly iron.

Of course, wood is not bad, but the biggest problem is that soil erosion in Chang'an area is actually very serious.

As long as there is any plan to build a palace, it basically focuses on cutting down the Qinling Mountains. The water and soil erosion in the entire Qinling Mountains is scary.
More importantly, if iron is used to build the track, not only the ironmaking technology can be improved, but also the cost and maintenance can be within the controllable range of oneself, but in this way, one has to build an ironworks in Guanzhong.

However, Datang's control over iron is still relatively strict. I have the right to forge salt and iron in Youzhou, but it is not necessarily the case in Guanzhong.

After all, it is the most benevolent place under the emperor's feet, and it is incomparable with the bitter cold place of the empire like Youzhou.

But only by mastering the iron factory can I reduce the cost to within my controllable range.

Li Tai thought of making a mistake here. After all, he turned over the plan first, and there is a long way to go if he wants to do things.

However, fortunately, I conducted such a short experiment in Tianjin, which allowed me to have a correct judgment on the difficulty of building and maintaining the road between Luoyang and Chang'an. Finding difficulties now is better than encountering difficulties in the future it is good.

Now Li Tai has understood that if he wants to build a gallop between Chang'an and Luoyang, he must have a horse farm with a capacity of more than [-] horses, an iron factory under his complete control, and a relatively good team. Corvette team.

As for the imperial court, it cannot be said to support this matter, but at least it cannot directly oppose it.

In fact, I was really afraid that my plan would be opposed by the court.

The very important reason is that Li Tai was afraid that the Guanlong Group within the imperial court would refuse the imperial court to implement this plan in order to maintain his political status.

At this point, even Li Tai has no good solution, he can only say to take one step at a time.

"King Yan, the article to admonish Prime Minister Du has been written!" Bai He came to Li Tai and handed out an article.

"Let's put it here. I'll make a copy if I read it if there is no problem. You can hand over the article I copied later!" Li Tai said.

"No!" Bai He nodded, and obediently left the room.

Li Tai watched Bai He leave, took a look at the paper that Bai He had written, and immediately copied it when he felt that there was no problem.

If it wasn't for Bai He who really couldn't imitate his own fonts, which prince would have to do it himself when writing articles!

Du Ruhui traveled all the way along the Grand Canal overnight on a boat, but when he arrived in Cangzhou, he let some laborers stay and replaced many laborers. After all, if he wanted to make the boat sail all the way fast, he had to change people all the way without changing the boat. .

Such behavior was quickly reported to Xue Dading, Xue Dading got dressed and came out, Wang Youfang was already waiting.

Wang Youfang came to Xue Dading and said, "Du Xiang dispatched a large number of laborers from Jinkou today, and escorted at least [-] shi of grain straight into Dezhou. It is said that the flood in Henan needs food relief. It seems that King Yan has given the grain to Du Xiang!"

Xue Dading understood why Wang Youfang was in a hurry, mainly because he was afraid that King Yan's borrowing of grain this time would affect the Cangzhou plan.

"Nothing!" Xue Dading said calmly, "Although there was a lot of rain this year, we in Cangzhou built a lot of water conservancy facilities when dredging the Grand Canal, so that the farmland was not destroyed by the flood.

The food we have is enough to support the promotion of wheat.

Last year, the King of Yan didn't have enough food. Didn't the King of Yan go to the Youzhou family to buy food? This year, Youzhou has not suffered any disasters. I believe that the King of Yan will always get the food, so we don't need to mess around.

In addition, you send more people to the mouth of the canal. Too many corvees have been transferred to the mouth of the canal. I am afraid that it will affect the operation of tomorrow. "

"No!" Seeing Xue Dading's composure, Wang Youfang couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief, and immediately went down to deal with it.

At this time, Xue Dading watched Wang Youfang leave, and murmured:

"The three cities are promoting wheat cultivation together, and the manpower in our hands is somewhat insufficient.

Forget it, write a letter to the clan to see if there are any talents who know how to farm! "

Xue Dading thought of this, wrote a letter overnight and sent it to the Xue clan in Hedong.

Although Xue Dading was born as an official slave, there is no one from a normal family who has the qualifications to be an official slave.
His father, Xue Cui, served as the governor of Jiezhou in the Sui Dynasty. Several sons of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty fought for power and profit. Han Wang Yang Liang was falsely accused of treason. Sell ​​as "official slaves".

If Xue Dading hadn't struggled, then it would be great if the Xue clan could not be implicated.

But now that I have re-struggled to be the governor of Cangzhou, it is not difficult to ask the Xue family in Hedong for a few talents who know how to farm, especially wheat.

After all, not to mention the Tang Dynasty, even in the Song Dynasty, Enyin's way of conferring officials was a normal thing.

So Xue Dading found that he didn't have enough men, so he wrote to the clan to see if there were any talents to provide.

After all, he is a member of his own tribe, so he can feel at ease when using it. Cronyism is the most common thing in employing people.

Xue Dading wrote the letter and sent it back to Hedong. Seeing that the sky was already bright, he didn't mean to lie back to sleep, but at this time, he took out the plan that he had discussed with Li Tai and Li Chunfeng at the beginning. .

It's just that there is a more reliable map next to it. The promotion of wheat in Nanpi, Cangzhou and Wudi is the first step of the whole plan, but it must be done well.

Of course, compared to Xue Dading's calmness, Du Ruhui rushed to Dezhou as quickly as possible.

However, after experiencing the speedy wind and lightning in Tianjin and the unimpeded flow of the Grand Canal, when the grain and grass were really transported to Dezhou for transfer to the Yellow River, the speed was too slow.

Even if Ma Zhou seemed to know that Du Ruhui sent big boxes one by one, he prepared the shovel early in order to pry open the big boxes one by one, take out the sacks inside, and let people carry the bags one by one into the carriage superior.

There is no way, the water transportation plan in Dezhou has not been fully implemented, and there are gaps in everything from equipment to manpower.

Under such circumstances, it is the most correct choice to disassemble the box and carry the grain one by one.

But if this is the case, just unloading is a day of consumption, and when the grain is transported by land to the Yellow River Ferry for loading, another three or four days have passed.

When Du Ruhui thought about it, the time it took him to get grain from Youzhou and go back and forth was actually less than the time it took to unload and load goods in Dezhou. For a while, Du Ruhui became more serious about popularizing the "Water Transport Plan" a bit.

More importantly, Du Ruhui also understood why Li Tai specified from the very beginning that all the goods must be put into the specified large wooden boxes, and there should be no problem with the size.

This is not only a matter of tax collection by the imperial court, but also in the circulation of goods, having such an external container can save a lot of trouble in moving cargo ships on the entire shipping line.

What's more important is that this model has greatly increased the cost of someone opening a Heijin port to move goods.

After all, the most important thing for merchants is timeliness. If there is no ability to handle containers, it will be difficult to open the black port.

Of course, even with the ability to handle containers, the roads, carriages, and personnel all need to be prepared, and the cost will naturally go up.

"Anyway, with the arrival of King Yan's grain, Henan is saved!"

Du Ruhui crossed the Yellow River with food and began to lead people to help the disaster.

(End of this chapter)