Red Mansion Soldiers

Chapter 256 Magnificent Project

Daqi's civil servants were so irritable that even the general Jia Hui felt that he was really a kind and honest person.

It's just that no matter how bad his temper is, he can't make up for the physical gap.

The weak civil servants were no match for Wan Chengxun, who had taken off his obstructive robes. They saw that Wan Chengxun's upper body was naked, and his bulging muscles seemed to burst out of his skin, and he was lifting the civil servants as if they were grabbing chickens. Throw it to the side

Fortunately, the Han generals surrounded them and caught the civil servants. Otherwise, with the weak physique of these old men, they would have been thrown to death if not beaten to death by Wan Chengxun.

Gradually, the civil servants who were the first to leave their duties were almost killed by Wan Chengxun and withdrew from the battle. The generals who had been surrounding them eager to try, but looking anxious but actually unable to work and watch the show, were also moved behind them. The civil servants crowded around Wan Chengxun.

So the generals also began to be beaten by Wan Chengxun.

Once again, Jia Hui became angry as he slapped away the unknown official who was thrown by Wan Chengxun.

"Enough! Enough! Niu Zhao and Liu Yun, hold him down!" Jia Hui shouted!

After receiving the order, Niu Zhao and Liu Yun stopped watching the show. They quickly stood up and pushed aside the officials who were blocking the way. They flew towards Wan Chengxun and kicked him.

With the intervention of the powerful young generals of the imperial court, Wan Chengxun, a guy who relied entirely on his thick skin and strong strength, was quickly defeated and was pinned to the ground by Niu Zhao and Liu Yun.

"Oh, that's disappointing." Seeing that the next one was finished, the emperor, who was not satisfied yet, muttered in disappointment.

"Huh? What did you say, Your Majesty?" Xia Shouzhong, who was also fascinated by the fight, seemed to have heard what the emperor said and quickly turned around and asked.

"What did you say?" The emperor looked at Xia Shouzhong with a puzzled look, as if he really didn't say anything just now.

When Xia Shouzhong, who had been with the emperor for decades, saw this, how could he not know that the emperor must have said something he shouldn't have said? But since the emperor was pretending to be stupid, what could he, a slave, do?

"Maybe I heard it wrong," Xia Shouzhong immediately ended the conversation.

"Your Majesty, Wailang Wan Chengxun, a member of the Ministry of Industry and Water Resources, and Zeng, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, have committed an act of disobedience in front of the Censor's Palace. I hope your Majesty will punish you!" Seeing that our two protagonists were captured this time, Jia Hui nodded and said to Zhu Danbi asked loudly.

"Yeah." Although his acting skills are not good, pretending to be serious is an instinct that does not need to be learned. The emperor thought about it and decided to protect Wan Chengxun.

"Remembering that Wan Qing was the first offender and was passively defensive, I will exempt him from half a year's salary and give him a small punishment but a big warning!" The emperor determined Wan Chengxun's responsibility.

Tsk tsk, Wan Qing, this Wan Chengxun is really in the heart of the emperor!

The civil and military officials curled their lips. Only a few courtiers whom the emperor recognized very much would use the title "Qing", and all of them were called "ministers and ministers" instead of "all ministers".

"As for Zeng Yushi," the emperor changed his words and looked at Zeng Yushi, who was also being escorted, and couldn't help but be startled.

The whole face is swollen!

I wanted to severely punish this censor who beat his confidant out of his wits, but I saw that Zeng Yushi had been beaten so badly by his confidant.

"The same penalty is half a year, or seven months' salary. Come on, please carry Zeng Yushi to treat his injury first!" The emperor finally relented, and punished Zeng Yushi more severely to show that he was right and wrong this time. .

"Your Majesty, your Majesty!" Those who could still move saluted the emperor at the same time.

. . . . . .

The conference has just begun, and already more than half of the members have been reduced. If it had been longer, the Taiwei might have died in the melee between civil and military officials.

So the emperor immediately decided to withdraw from the court, and instead took the people in the temple who could manage things to the emperor's daily office, the Dongshang Pavilion to the east of the Kaihuang Palace, to continue discussions.

"Does this river have to be repaired?" Xia Tong, the Minister of Household Affairs, asked with a worried look on his face.

Because the political situation has been very stable over the years, or rather very stable for officials at the Jiuqing level, six years later, in addition to joining the cabinet, the Minister of Household Affairs is still Xia Tong, but his half-white hair has turned completely white.

And for the Ministry of Finance, if they really want to build the river, they must spend at least 50 million taels of silver!

It is simply killing all the colleagues in their household department!

"Go back to Xia Shangshu, you must repair it!" Wan Chengxun, who had a black lip at the corner of his mouth, said firmly.

It has been nearly 300 years since the Liang people moved south to defend against the Mongol and Jurchen allied forces in northern Henan to capture the Yellow River's eastward flow. The Yellow River's southward flow seized the Huaihe River and entered the sea.

Moreover, during this period, there were no fixed branches in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. After the Qianliang people spent a lot of money to manage the river, but there was basically no improvement, the Liang people gave up building the river and only repaired the dams like a paper painter.

As a result, for the next two hundred years, most of the time, the overflowing and branching currents were allowed to flow. Since the end of the Liang Dynasty, it has become so serious that it will overflow once every one or two years!

In the first thirty or forty years, it was an overflowing river, flowing from the Daqing River in the south to the Si and Huai River branches in the north and flowing into the sea. Since then, the north branch has stopped flowing, and the river has moved southward, with the Huaihe River being roughly taken from northern Henan, southwestern Shandong, and northern Jiangsu. About forty years later, it became a laissez-faire state.

In the chaos of the late Liang Dynasty, in the second year of Hou Zhu's reign, the Qi army attacked Henan. Chao Yong, the clan general who was left behind in Luoyang at that time, broke the Cunjindian embankment in northern Henan and flooded the Qi army. The Yellow River changed its direction and flowed southward to Qixian County, where it entered the Huaihe River. , and it continued to flow like this for more than sixty years, and the river gradually moved northward.

In the early sixty or seventy years of Emperor Taizu's reign, the river course roughly followed the route from eastern Henan to northern Jiangsu, seizing Si and entering the Huaihe River. After that, the course of the Yellow River became increasingly chaotic.

(The direction of the lower reaches of the Yellow River during the same period in the article is too chaotic.)

The most coincidental thing is that the flooding area of ​​​​the Yellow River is exactly where Daqi's two basic areas-Shandong and Jianghuai are located!

"I had no money before, so I had no choice but to continue the Qianliang policy and only repair the Yellow River dams. The villagers also understood the difficulties of the country, so they gritted their teeth and got through it!" It was rare for the emperor to face his own administrative team in front of him. became serious.

“But now the treasury is abundant, the political situation is stable, and the whole world knows that the dynasty’s treasury has hundreds of millions of taels of silver. If we don’t take advantage of the money now, we can build the Yellow River while it’s still possible.

Is it possible to wait until the Yellow River is completely eroded to repair it? Will the treasury be built when the treasury is so poor that the rats will starve to death? Or should we wait until even the fellow villagers like me rise up to revolt? ! "

Snapped!

The emperor suddenly slapped the armrest and stood up from the dragon chair, his whole body exuding the majesty that uniquely belonged to the Qi Emperor!

"This river must be repaired! Even if we lose the grasslands, the plateaus, the deserts and even Liaodong, as long as Daqi still retains the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Han Dynasty, we must grit our teeth and repair the river for me. !" The emperor seemed to be furious, looking around with ferocious eyes at the group of ministers, ministers and generals standing at the top of the court, and shouted categorically!

"I will obey the Holy Order!"

The three princes bowed their heads, the nine ministers bowed their heads, and the generals beat their chests and shouted!

. . . . . .

If the big bosses at the top, who represent the interests of all parties, have reached a unified opinion, then it will be useless for those at the bottom to oppose it. This is a national policy!

Wan Chengxun was also appointed as the imperial envoy, minister of the processing department, and governor of the Yellow River.

If his qualifications were not too low and he was blocked by the vast majority of officials in the court, the emperor would have given him the title of Minister of Processing!

Wan Chengxun doesn't care about this. For hundreds of years of persistence of his family to be realized, this is what Wan Chengxun wants most.

As the imperial edict from Emperor Qi was conveyed to various ministries and in all directions, the war machine of Da Qi, a classical militarism, was activated for the first time because of a huge century-old project!

More than eight "Tiansheng Five Years Northern Expedition" level personnel and materials were mobilized

Massive amounts of rice grains were transported from Huguang to the thousands of miles of waterways in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and were specially guarded by Shangzhi's troops and Xiuyi. A large number of corvees were conscripted, guard posts along the way were mobilized, and more than a million people rushed towards this river that had become a stepmother!

Even just hearing the name of such a huge project and hearing the personnel, materials, money and food provided can make people excited. I wish I could jump into the old path of the Yellow River today, and tomorrow I can clean up the river and lead the river back to the north!

Moreover, although this project is called corvee, the tens of millions of taels of silver spent in the early stage are not short of their total wages of only a few million taels.

Of course, some are happy and some are sad. While other departments are working enthusiastically to leave their names in history, everyone in the household department seems to have lost their parents at the same time, and morale is low.

All departments across the country are making money, but their household department is hemorrhaging crazily as if a major artery has been cut!

In this regard, the Ministry of Finance has nothing to do, but the incense of Jia Caishen, the back hall of the Ministry of Finance, is getting stronger and stronger.

"It's just. Will this delay the farming season?"

In the cabinet of Ziwei City, Xia Tong, a civil servant who was on duty today, and Jia Hui, a military attache, were sitting opposite each other, playing chess and drinking tea.

Although this is the headquarters of the cabinet, in fact, the Fifth Military Governor's Mansion will send a chief governor to sit with them here every day and provide timely military advice to the emperor.

Lu Guan, the commander-in-chief of the rear army who had previously suffered from a broken body, was here to take the place of Jia Hui and Yun Yu. It's not for anything else, just for something. Anyway, he doesn't need to move, or even use his brain. He can just use the old soldiers at home to pull him over in a carriage, and then carry him into the cabinet in a small sedan. It’s pleasant to watch the people in the cabinet being so busy

It wasn't until the middle of last year that Lu Guan suffered from a secret illness and his body completely collapsed. This time he couldn't even leave home. Jia Hui and Yun Yu came to the cabinet in person to take turns working.

"There will definitely be an impact, but it won't be as big as you expected." Jia Hui looked at the chessboard with a calm face and made his moves.

Bah, black's chess is surrounded by white's chess, and it seems to be in danger.

"How do you say this?" Xia Tong also noticed Jia Hui's movements, but he was so preoccupied that he didn't pay much attention, so he started to intercept Jia Hui's previous moves.

"The people who are being recruited for corvee this time," Jia Hui took a sip of tea, "most of the targets this time are people between the ages of eighteen and forty. They work quickly and quickly. Maybe they can complete the first phase of the project before the busy farming season." Finished.

Moreover, they are all selected from families with extra labor force. Although there is less work for one person, the women are not unable to work in the fields. In the small-scale peasant economy, it is impossible for a man to serve several acres of land by himself. To support several people in the family is related to the family's livelihood, and the wife and daughter also have to work in the fields.

So these days, men are used as beasts and women are used as men. It is not a joke, it is a real fact.

"Moreover, several batches of cattle purchased from the grasslands and cultivated in Jiubian for plowing skills have been put on the market, and the price of cattle in the north has plummeted. It is true that every household has one. It is difficult for others, but every village basically has one. We all pooled our funds to buy three or four cows to share.”

Seeing Xia Tong's move, Jia Hui quickly followed the plan.

"Yes, yes, how could I have forgotten all this!" Xia Tong breathed a sigh of relief. In recent years, his mind has become less and less clear. He even forgot about farming cattle!

Since Daqi actually controlled the grassland as Tian Khan, a large amount of materials poured into the grassland to purchase cattle and sheep.

Due to the relationship between supply and demand, herdsmen gradually reduced the number of horses they raised, and instead raised a large number of cattle and sheep.

To be fair, who the hell wants to go south and rob with their heads hanging from their belts if they can earn money and exchange supplies calmly and peacefully? How many people rob for the first time to grab an iron pot and kitchen knife?

Daqi and Mengwu had been fighting for nearly a hundred years, and they knew each other's ins and outs, and they didn't hesitate to use the knife. It was really capable of killing people!

No matter what nationality, the vast majority are Japanese people!

In this way, the business between the grassland and the Han Dynasty started, and the grassland gradually became stable.

At least in the next few decades, Jia Hui will remain stable like this until his death.

The herdsmen will sell the half-grown calves to the General Military Mansion in Jiubian, and then the General Military Mansion will distribute them to various military camps for cultivation of cattle. They went south with their cattle and sold them to various places in the north.

It’s not that they won’t be sold to the south, but that the cattle from the north will rot in their hooves if sold to the south, and the local buffaloes from the south will not be able to plow paddy fields at all. So this can be regarded as an invisible benefit that Daqi gave to the people in the north.

"Now that we have these cattle, even if the family loses a strong laborer, there are also public cattle for use in the village, and the Holy Spirit has issued an order, ordering the local government offices to send government servants and local garrison troops to each village from time to time to inspect and preach. The imperial policy also puts pressure on families in villages and towns, so that they have scruples and will not oppress too much because of cattle farming."

The imperial court was really powerless against these local clan forces.

There is no way, these are one of the main roots of the feudal dynasty. Even Da Qi was founded by Taizu, his own clansmen, and his family, just like the Jia family.

It's okay to deal with a single clan, but if you want to disturb the clan as a whole.

Daqi exploded instantly!

Unless you bring an army of orphans to conquer the world again, you won't be able to save them!

Xia Tong also gradually figured out these things, and placed another piece on the chessboard. He breathed a sigh of relief, stroked his beard and said: "Since this is the case, then I will let it go for the time being."

pat!

A black stone was dropped on the chessboard by Jia Hui, and the big dragon composed of white stones was instantly blocked and killed!

"Hey, Mr. Xia Ge, accept the concession!" Jia Hui looked at Xia Tong, who was gradually getting carried away and wanted to regret the move, and grinned proudly.

(End of this chapter)