The Maojin knife from the late Jin Dynasty

Chapter 254 Yongji Canal Project Establishment

Follow the procedures in a down-to-earth manner and go through the motions conscientiously.

The purpose of burying the dead is to provide comfort to the living, thus attracting more people to participate in the ceremony.

As the funeral ceremony ended, the next step soon came, which was to see off those soldiers who were preparing to retire.

In their hands, these soldiers either held the deed of the land, or held enough money to last half a lifetime.

Especially when retired soldiers go to appoint and remove official positions such as pavilion chief, city gate order, anti-theft... etc., they are even more popular and recited loudly.

These may not seem big, just small official positions of less than [-] shi, but to the people at the bottom, they are already great officials.

As far as modern people are concerned, they are probably cadres at the department level or deputy department level. Generally speaking, in the streets, the top few are at the department level.

For the vast majority of people at the bottom, this has already achieved a class leap.

These retired soldiers have similar rights, especially the positions they obtained after retiring from the bloody war. Basically, they are inclined to hold positions with real power of force.

In fact, Liu Tai did not do it all to make it easier for him to control the grassroots and establish a grassroots military system.

Because of Shile's defeat, it was inevitable that the villages below would need a certain number of armed forces to strengthen their armaments.

Needless to say, at least if you are threatened by a rout, someone needs to know where to look for reinforcements!

Just like this, although the family watched Liu Tai send retired soldiers to the grassroots, they were more or less dissatisfied.

But he didn't say much. After all, although the area north of the Yellow River has generally stabilized, chaos is inevitable in some areas.

When these shouting sounds fell into the ears of the local people, how could they not be ready to take action!
And as these retired soldiers collected their rewards, it was time to move on to the next agenda.

The soldiers who survived began to be rewarded. Because they were all still in the army, they were mostly rewarded in kind.

There were fields, wealth, weapons, armor, and even horses. Each soldier received these rewards in the envious eyes of everyone, but felt extremely proud.

What followed in the end was the blind date between the concubines of the aristocratic families and the military officers and soldiers.

First, let this group of people communicate with each other for a quarter of an hour. Then the man selects the woman and puts the red silk in his hand on the woman's neck. If the woman agrees, she will give her embroidered handkerchief to the man. When the people who get married this time come down, let the woman choose again and give the embroidered handkerchief to the man. If the man agrees, he will tie it with red silk.

Then all the unmarried men and women left. Those who were sure to find a partner, Liu Tai began to preside over the collective wedding.

The relatively confused soldiers were dazzled by the concubines from the aristocratic families. They obviously did not expect that they could marry the daughters of the aristocratic families.

In the past, Liu Tai would also date women, but to be more precise, he would be targeting maids from his intercourse, but now he is actually targeting girls from aristocratic families.

Even if she is a concubine, to these embryo-killers, she is still a daughter from a noble family that was unattainable in the past!
So anyone who met his eyes quickly put on the red silk in his hand. If the woman didn't want it, he quickly replaced it with another one.

After all, the daughter of this aristocratic family is still very precious to these embryo-killers. They all know very well that under normal circumstances, they cannot find such a wife. If they can trap one, they should quickly trap one.

However, in fact, they have underestimated their value, which is also a problem of vision coming from the bottom.

They thought that the concubines of the aristocratic families in front of them were somewhat unattainable, but in fact, if they were really unattainable, the aristocratic families would not throw these concubines away.

Because the family knows very well that this is just a way of joining forces between the new nobles and the old nobles.

In an aristocratic family, the status of a concubine may be valuable, but not valuable.

For aristocratic families, legitimate daughters are prepared for the aristocratic family, and concubine daughters originally exist to win over valuable targets.

Under such circumstances, when they judged that Liu Tai might seize the world, they naturally hoped that their daughter could win a prize among these camp chiefs and centurions.

Therefore, the family's advice to their daughters is that the younger the better, because the younger they are and the longer they live, the more likely they are to reach a high position.

After all, this is the chief of the village and the centurion. What he needs is for his son-in-law to become a commander or above, so that he can truly bring enough benefits to the family.

For these little girls, these instructions are to select those who are younger as much as possible.

Of course, although Liu Tai said that they were free to choose, in fact, basically these concubines still found the right husband in their hearts, and no one gave up.

The reason is also very simple, because these concubines from aristocratic families understand the essence of this blind date, which is to let their families get on Liu Tai's boat.

So I definitely have to choose a husband this time. At most, I can choose, or try to find a husband who makes me feel comfortable.

And with the end of this entire military merit ceremony, it gave the local people in Yecheng a small life shock.

At this time, they clearly understood what it means to have a thousand bells of millet in an army, what it means to have a house of gold in an army, what it means to have an army with faces like jade, and what it means to have an army with horses as numerous as clusters.

At this moment, they asked themselves whether they were going to work at the bottom of the family for the rest of their lives and be slaves for the rest of their lives, or whether they were going to risk their lives and sign up to join the army to become soldiers, soldiers, and marry the daughter of the family in the future.

With the conclusion of the military merit ceremony, Liu Tai's recruitment office in Yecheng soon began to sign up in an endless stream.

Compared to the time when one could pass alone, now at the registration office in Yecheng, even being a soldier requires a test.

Not to mention, if your height is not up to the average height, do we still need the official to give you a specially customized armor?

The local people enthusiastically signed up to join the army, and local wealthy families actively integrated into Liu Tai's administrative system.

Apart from anything else, at least when Xi Jian was handling Yecheng's government affairs, he could clearly feel that compared with when he took over Yecheng's business, his administration was much smoother now.

As the military merit ceremony ended, Liu Tai immediately called everyone together and began to discuss the first plan north of the Yellow River, to build the Yongji Canal.

Therefore, Cao Yi, who was originally serving as the governor of Youzhou, was recruited back by Liu Tai.Cao Yi was originally responsible for the food and grass needed by Zhao An and others to attack Bingzhou. However, as Zhao An successfully captured Bingzhou and opened the passage between Taihang Mountain and Yecheng, he came to report the results of the battle to Liu Tai.

"This time, our restoration of vitality north of the Yellow River will focus on building water conservancy projects, supplemented by military strikes against deserters."

Liu Tai continued, "As for the new water conservancy project, we need to build a canal that enters the Yellow River, passes through Jijun, enters the Qinshui River, and reaches Yecheng through the Zhangshui River. It’s called Yongji Canal!”

"Is it such a big project?" Cao Yi was a little unbelievable. He had no idea that Liu Tai would give him such a big project. It was hard to imagine what Liu Tai's mentality was when he proposed this project.

Liu Tai continued: "Our essence area is basically the circle of Youjiqing.

In order to rationally utilize our original resources, we naturally need to completely open up all the canals on this section of the Yongji Canal.

The rivers that can be widened should be widened as much as possible, so that shipping can smoothly reach Jishui from Youzhou!
Once this step is completed, from now on, it will only take half a month for our fleet in the Bohai Bay to travel from Youzhou to Jishui... No, as long as the channel is completely established, it will only take a week. What will this bring? The value is enough to revitalize the entire Hebei. "

"Your Majesty, your idea is very good, but I'm afraid it will require a lot of manpower and supplies. Do we really have enough manpower?"

Listening to Liu Tai's words, Cao Yi was more or less suspicious.

"The number of soldiers under Shi Le and Liu Yao's command together is almost 20.

You can use the foreigners among them to death, but as for the ordinary captives, you can use them as ordinary captives.

Then, after the wheat harvest at least next summer, we will start using food to recruit people to work.

In about three to five years, all the road sections from Jijun to Jinkou will eventually be opened.

Especially at that time, ocean fish can also benefit the canal coast, which will be a great supplement to our food!
The most important thing is that where the canal goes, there is where our fleet goes. When the canal is built and food is stored, it will be time for us to have a decisive battle with Zu Ti! "

To be honest, in order to conquer Goguryeo, Yang Guang directly recruited millions of corvees from Hebei and forcibly built the Yongji Canal in one year. Now Liu Tai just wants to conversely want to use the resources around the Bohai Bay. Guide to Yecheng.

Of course, in order to build this Yongji Canal, at least half of the millions of corvees died. The scene was simply too horrible to watch.

Naturally, Liu Tai was not so cruel. With Cao Yi's original engineering team and the prisoners obtained from Shi Le and Liu Yao, he should be able to open up the entire Yongji Canal north of the Yellow River in three to five years. Did it.

And as long as this can be achieved successfully, the resources of the Bohai Bay can truly benefit the inland.

Whether it is salt or dried fish, they are no longer just circulated in a few villages along the coast.

But if it can be transported all the way to Jijun along the canal, the speed of the supplies of Liu Tai's forces will become very alarming.

The most important thing is that under such circumstances, what Zu Ti has to face is no longer just the army in front of him, but Liu Tai's entire system.

As long as the canal is within reach, the entire north of the Yellow River can be mobilized for the decisive battle between Liu Tai and Zu Ti.

Compared with Liu Tai mobilizing the resources of the entire Hebei Province to fight against Zu Ti, when the time came, Zu Ti Mo said that he wanted to mobilize the resources of the entire Yuzhou and Yanzhou to compete with Liu Tai.

Even with the support of Sima Rui and Director Wang, I am afraid that the efficiency may not be as good as Liu Tai's efficiency in allocating the total resources of the entire Hebei land.

Liu Tai has always insisted that he should not use isolated counties and states to fight opponents. As long as he decides on the opponent as his opponent, he must run his entire system to find a way to use his physical advantage. Use force to overwhelm others.

In the past, when dealing with Liu Yao and Shi Le, we had no chance, so we could only use our troops to act recklessly!
But this does not mean that he has completed the unification of Hebei. Next, he only needs to build the Yongji Canal.

After completing the unified control of the three rivers, Yongji Canal, Bohai Bay, and Yellow River, it is time for you to take advantage of the convenience of shipping and start to use your power to overwhelm others.

Although Cao Yi didn't know all of Liu Tai's plans, listening to Liu Tai's words at this moment about how much convenience it would bring if the Yongji Canal was opened, this meaning alone made it worthwhile for Cao Yi to go. Well done.

Not to mention, once this road is opened, fish from the Bohai Bay can be transported inland, and at least the fish harvest can be used to subsidize inland food.

However, Cao Yi's impression of the people going out to fish was still that they were driving sampans and fishing in the storm.

Unexpectedly, the fishing boats used by fishermen to go fishing in the sea have gradually been transformed into large fishing boats that require more than a dozen, dozens, or even hundreds of people to operate them together.

Basically, a village is a fishing organization. Every time they go fishing, the whole village is mobilized. With the help of the collective, they try to fish far away from the coastline and fish in the Bohai Sea fishing grounds.

However, because there are no shipping conditions, these fish can only be dried and made into dry food to pay taxes.

Even so, the proportion of fish caught in the military rations is increasing year by year. After all, in this era, there is really no end to the fishing grounds in the Bohai Sea.

"I obey the order!" After Cao Yi understood the importance of the task of opening up the Yongji Canal, he decisively accepted this task.

Everyone present also understood that the next focus of work is basically to build the Yongji Canal bypass.

Everyone is accustomed to Liu Tai's behavior. After all, it was originally intended to develop the waterway in the Bohai Bay to connect you to Youzhou.

Liu Tai also asked Cao Yi to dig the North Canal, connect Youzhou City to Jinkou, and even transport grain and grass from Qingzhou to Youzhou smoothly.

At this moment, it is just a matter of building a Yongji Canal to smoothly transport the developed resources of the Bohai Bay to Yecheng, thus preparing for the next expedition against Zuti!

Everyone present looked at each other. It was obvious that although he and others had just occupied Hebei, Liu Tai did not relax at all, but made preparations for the conquest of Zu Ti without hesitation.

Chu Hui couldn't help showing a bit of excitement, although Liu Tai was not like Liu Xiu, who seemed to have divine help wherever he went.

But Liu Tai took every step very steadily. For him and his subordinates, all he had to do was follow the path pointed out by Liu Tai step by step, and he would save worry and effort and become a ruthless work machine.

Even though Zu Ti was a hero of the Jin court who was able to turn the tide, he still couldn't resist the overwhelming momentum gradually accumulated by the king's foresight.

(End of this chapter)