Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 646 The Two Capitals and Water Transport

"Of course it's money and food!" Wu Zhimeng replied without hesitation: "With money and food, there are people, and with talent, things can be done!"

"Yes!" Yijilianbode nodded: "Yes, what do you think about money and food?"

"The villain thinks that as long as the method is right, water transportation is the place in the world that is least likely to be short of money and food!" Wu Zhimeng said: "After all, this ship is full of food and cloth!"

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Chang'an, Wang Wenzuo's residence.

"My lord, here comes the letter from Igilianbald!" Sancho said, presenting a letter.

"Well, I've been going to Shaanzhou for half a month, so I should have some news!" Wang Wenzuo took the letter, opened it, and said with a smile: "It happens to be the end of autumn, the Yellow River is dry, and it is the slack season. , we can requisition labor and try to start construction this winter, and we will see results next year!”

"Your Majesty is still so impatient!" Sancho said while pouring water for Wang Wenzuo with a smile: "This water transport is like a war!"

"Sangqiu, this water transport is a war!" Wang Wenzuo said: "Why is the Tang Dynasty losing a battle in Dafeichuan, and the situation against Tubo is so ugly? It is said that the Tubo household registration is less than one million, why can it suppress Longyou? Fight against the Tang Dynasty? Isn't it because Longyou doesn't have enough food to feed the army? Why doesn't Longyou have enough food? Guanzhong is short of food every year, how can Longyou have food? The Tang Dynasty wants to use troops in the northwest. The first thing The thing is to rectify the water transport and let the people in Guanzhong eat the grain from Hebei and Jianghuai, so that the food from Guanzhong can be sent to Longyou to support the army! If the water transport is good, Anxi, Beiting, and Longyou will be able to win the battle! If the water transport is not good, , It's useless even if we win the battle in Longyou, Anbeiting." At this point, Wang Wenzuo looked at Sanqiu who had a blank look on his face, and said with a dumb smile: "Forget it, it's useless to tell you this, you can't don't know!"

"Who says I don't understand!" Sancho said anxiously: "Isn't it just transporting grain? What's so difficult about it? What's difficult is growing the grain. After harvesting the grain, the grain has grown. What's the point of transporting it to your own granary? It’s rare. Like my territories in Baekje and Wa, I collected the food without much effort!”

"Okay, okay!" Wang Wenzuo laughed. He shook his head, picked up the letter and looked at it carefully. After a while, he smiled and said: "Ijilianbode has grown up, not bad! Remember to grab the grain bag first, That's right, as long as you have the grain in your hands, things in Chang'an City will be simple!"

"Caught the grain bag? What do you say?" asked Sancho.

"Based on the average amount of grain transported into Guanzhong in the past three years, for every [-] shi of grain shipped in, [-] shi of grain can be used as freight!" Wang Wenzuo flicked the letter paper: "[-]% of the freight, you say Yiji Has Lian Bode made any progress?"

"Thirty percent of the freight? Can the court agree?" Sancho was surprised.

"Why not?" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "Guanzhong is short of food every day, and the emperor has to go to Luoyang every two days to get food. But there are tens of millions of stones of food in Luoyang's warehouses, and every year it gets moldy and rotten, and is eaten by rats and insects. There are hundreds of thousands of dan of grain, and new grain is constantly being transported from Jianghuai, Hebei, and Jiangnan. Let you choose whether to let the grain rot in the warehouse and be eaten by rats and insects, or get [-]% as reward. [-]% of the luck will be eaten by Chang'an. I bet that if Igilian Bode can really do it, the princes in the political hall will not only not blame him, but will praise him greatly!"

"That's true!" Sancho took a breath: "Ten million stones of grain, it's really unimaginable that there is such a big warehouse in the world!"

Wang Wenzuo smiled and said nothing.He could understand Sancho's surprise, but this number should already be a conservative estimate.In the Sui Dynasty, Xingluo Cangcang City, the largest granary in the world, was located in Luokou, with a radius of more than 400 miles. It stored grain transported from the south of the Yangtze River and mainly supplied the eastern capital.There are a total of [-] large cellars in Cangcheng. Each cellar can store [-] dan of grain. This means that Xingluo Cang alone can store [-] dan of grain. Even if it is only half filled, there are still more than [-] dan. Later, after Li Mi conquered Xingluo Cang, he gathered hundreds of thousands of troops and allowed the people to move grain at will to win the hearts of the people. Until the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the grain stored in it was not exhausted, which is evident from the amount of grain stored in it.

The Tang Dynasty was not far from the Sui Dynasty. Although it experienced brutal wars along the way, half a century had passed since the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty. There had been no large-scale wars in the interior. Agricultural production had long since returned to normal. The granary reserves around Luoyang It must have exceeded the level of tens of millions of stones. With ancient grain storage technology, the natural loss of grain every year would be counted in hundreds of thousands of stones. If Ijilianbode could transport 100 million stones of grain to Guanzhong every year, how much would it cost? One hundred thousand shi of grain is used as freight, which makes sense anywhere.

Of course, it is not easy to get the freight for this grain. Generally speaking, the Grand Canal built by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty can be divided into four sections: Yongji Canal, Tongji Canal, Hangou and Jiangnan River. It starts from Yuhang in the south and ends at Zhuojun in the north. It connects the five major water systems of the Haihe River, the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the Huaihe River, and the Qiantang River. The center of this huge water transportation system composed of artificial waterways and natural rivers and lakes is not Chang'an, but Luoyang.Therefore, people at that time said: "The capital of the gods is hoarding millet, and the years are full. The Huaihai water transport is flowing day and night. The earth is in the Liuhe. People are happy to meet from all directions. Chang'an's treasury and warehouse, and the vacancies in common affairs are all borrowed from Luojing." The transfer price is straight.”

Therefore, both the Sui and Tang dynasties adopted the two-capital system. Chang'an was the political and military center, while Luoyang was the economic and transportation center. The two capitals were connected by the Weihan Ancient Road and the Yellow and Weihe River systems.Without Luoyang's "money hoarding and storing millet, which accumulated over the years, and the Huaihai water transport, which spread day and night", there would be no Anxi, Andong, Beiting, and Hanhai in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and there would be no Baier Qin Pass in Guanzhong and the elite troops of Guanlong. There is no rolling wealth coming through the canal from Hebei, Lianghuai, and Jiangnan.These two great cities were the two sides of the prosperous Tang Empire, and both were indispensable.

The only fly in the ointment is that the water and land transportation connecting Chang'an and Luoyang can only be said to be unsatisfactory. Geographically, Chang'an and Luoyang are located on the east side of the Guanzhong Plain and the west slope of the East Qinling fold system. The Weihan Valley Road is the land connection between the two sides. On the road, the famous Hangu Pass and Tongguan Pass are located on this valley road, which shows how difficult and dangerous it is;
The water passage is even more difficult. Although Luoyang and Chang'an can be connected through the Weihe-Yellow-Luohe natural waterways, and the successive dynasties with their capitals in these two places also built a considerable number of artificial waterways to supplement them, these are not solved. There is no question about the navigability of the Yellow River from Sanmenxia to Mengjin. This section of the river is located between Zhongtiao Mountain and Xiaoshan. It is the last canyon section of the Yellow River. It is not only narrower than the section above Sanmenxia, ​​but also the Yellow River Basin. It is a rare heavy rain gathering area. The rainstorm intensity is strong and the water flows quickly. In addition, the water from the Weihe River, Fenhe River, Luohe River, Qinhe River and other tributaries in the upper reaches gather here. To make matters worse, this section of the river has a drop of 231 meters. The rapidity of the water flow can be seen. With ancient shipping technology, it is understandable how difficult it is to safely carry a fully loaded canoe boat backwards on this section of the river.

This was the dilemma faced by ancient Chinese rulers before the Five Dynasties: The advantage of having Luoyang as the capital was that it was located in the middle of the world and the cost of collecting tribute from all directions was low, but the Luoyang Basin was narrow in area and strategic depth, and the army it could support was limited. There is no danger to defend. Once there is a slight military setback, there will be a situation where enemies from all directions will attack and attack the center. Although Guanzhong, the capital of Guanzhong, is a place with four fortresses and the land is fertile, it has enough power to support a powerful army. , even if the situation is unfavorable, it can be closed and self-defensive, but the transportation of tribute from the four directions is inconvenient, and often there is a lack of wealth and insufficient national supplies soon after the founding of the country.After the Five Dynasties, this problem no longer existed, because the economic center had completely shifted to the southeast. The empires since the Five Dynasties had their capitals in the eastern part of the country: such as Kaifeng, Nanjing, and Beijing. There was no longer a big geographical obstacle to the country's economic center of gravity. .In Wang Wenzuo's view, there are only two ways to solve this problem: either move the capital, go directly to Luoyang, and turn Chang'an into the second capital to completely solve this problem. Anyway, the palaces and cities are ready-made, and Emperor Sui Yang has already done all the dirty work. After the work was done, there was no need to waste people's power. In fact, Wu Zhou also did the same thing later, except that he moved back to Chang'an after Li Tang's restoration. However, Wang Wenzuo's existing political resources were not enough, and more importantly, before Tubo was conquered, Moving the capital feels like an escape. Even if Wang Wenzuo wants to move the capital, he must first cripple Tubo. Longyou is not behind the front line.Then the second way is to improve water transportation and reduce logistics costs. The first step is to open up the Sanmenxia node.

Historically, there are only three ways to solve the Sanmenxia waterway: build towpaths and use human or animal power to pull the canals upstream in the rivers with the most rapid currents; build more docks and warehouses on the shore to allow the canals to flow. Ships are anchored or even transshipped when it is not conducive to navigation, and ships coming downstream are replaced by local watercraft; silted rivers are regularly cleaned and markers are set up to avoid running aground on rocks.Of course, the most permanent way is to directly blow up the reef islands in the river that hinder navigation. Wang Wenzuo also wants to do this, but the power of black powder is limited. I don’t know if it can be done without trying it, but at least it can clean up the small rocks. , and are increasing the speed of towpath construction.

Although he really wanted to do this thing that would leave a name in history, Wang Wenzuo's official position at this time meant that it would be overkill to do such a specific project.What I need to do more now is to defeat the enemy in the court, ensure the political line, secure resources for the projects being implemented, and protect them.Otherwise, if you lose politically and another political opponent comes to power, you will probably say "I will oppose the support of my predecessor." It will be completely overthrown and start over again, which will be very disappointing.

"Master, it's almost time" Sancho whispered.

"Oh, oh!" Wang Wenzuo just woke up from a dream: "Are you going to the palace?"

"Yes, you are going to meet the saint as usual at this time every day!" Sancho whispered, his eyes full of respect and pride - do you see it?Even the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty cannot live without my master for a day!

"Well, let's change clothes first!" Wang Wenzuo stood up: "Call Wang Pu and ask him to get ready too!"

"Yes!" Sancho responded, walked out of the courtyard and waved to Wang Pu who was on duty: "The master is about to enter the palace, prepare to protect him!"

"Follow the order!" Wang Pu responded, and hurriedly went out to give orders. After Wang Wenzuo's palace was successfully transformed, the emperor decreed that he be given chariots and chariots to encourage him. Wang Wenzuo declined many other rewards, but he accepted this one. After all, he was a senior official. Gao, the more power you have, the more people you hate. If you don't take more guards when you go out, you are afraid that someone will take your life one day. Wouldn't that be regretful?
Wang Wenzuo and his party left the mansion and entered the palace city all the way to the emperor's residence.The eunuch on duty saw it from a distance and hurried forward to greet him: "General, you have arrived. Your Majesty is waiting for you inside!"

Wang Wenzuo nodded and went straight up the steps. When he walked into the side hall, Li Hong was sitting next to the desk. On top of it were two thick stacks of memorials, which were stacked higher than him. Zhang Wenguan stood aside and was saying something. .

"Sanlang, you're here!" Li Hong put down his brush and said to Zhang Wenguan: "That's all for today! You can talk about the rest in two days!"

"Here! I retire!" Zhang Wenguan responded. He bowed to the emperor, took two steps back, then turned and walked out. When he saw Wang Wenzuo, he showed a mysterious smile.

"What does this guy mean?" Wang Wenzuo thought to himself, but he bowed to Li Hong and said, "Your Majesty, your Majesty, Wang Wenzuo!"

"There's no need to be polite, Sanlang. Let's sit down and talk!" Li Hong pointed to Jin Dun on his right: "How is it? Is there anything you want to report today?"

"Yes, it's about water transportation!" Wang Wenzuo took out Ijilenbod's letter and his reply from his sleeve, and presented it with both hands: "Your Majesty, please see, this is the report and the reply from the subordinate!"

"Well!" Li Hong stretched out his hand to take it, but didn't look at it. He just put it aside: "I can rest assured that Sanlang is running the mission. Water transportation has a lot to do with it, so there is no need to be in a hurry. I'd rather take it slow!"

"This minister understands it!" Wang Wenzuo nodded: "It will be autumn soon, the waterways are drying up, and many canal boats cannot go. It is a good time to clean up the river channels and build docks! It will not affect the normal water transportation!"

"That's good, that's good!" Li Hong nodded, but the smile on his face gradually disappeared. The expression on his face became solemn, but there was doubt in his black eyes: "Sanlang, I have been here two days ago. I heard from Shizhong Pei that you plan to ask the court to praise Dou Jiande and make the Xiawang Temple in Hebei a main worshiper. Is this really possible?"

"It is indeed true!" Wang Wenzuo did not deny it. He described his thoughts in very concise and direct language so that Li Hong could understand clearly: "That's probably it! The Tang Dynasty is the Tang Dynasty of the world, and This is not the Tang Dynasty of Guanzhong people, what happened in the past is in the past, everyone should forget the past and look forward!"

(End of this chapter)