Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 181 Out of Selfishness
Wang Chao entered Ye Mansion, saw Ye Chen's first words, and told Ye Chen that Qiniang was happy, so he organized the wedding in advance, and felt guilty and sorry for not being able to wait for Ye Chen to come back.

Half a month ago, after Qiniang found out about Youxi, Wang Chao used his savings for many years to sell a small yard covering an area of ​​two acres in the west of Kaifeng City, and then found someone to choose a good day, and invited Cao Bin to be the master. , had a happy event and married Qiniang as his concubine.

Originally, according to Wang Chao's intention, he wanted to marry Qiniang as his wife, but after Cao Bin found out, he called Wang Chao to reprimand him for a long time.

Ye Chen didn't care about this, but out of selfishness, he also wanted his brother to find a wife who was well-matched.Moreover, according to Ye Chen's plan and expectation, Wang Chao must be allowed to participate in the two must-win battles of subjugating the Southern Han Dynasty and the Southern Tang Dynasty, and make great contributions, which will greatly enhance Wang Chao's official position , and even a knighthood.

In fact, Ye Chen knew that Cao Bin probably thought the same way, so he prevented Wang Chao from marrying Qiniang.

However, from this incident, it can be seen that Wang Chao really likes Qiniang, and Wang Chao's character is indeed undeniable, he values ​​love and righteousness.

September [-]th, the weather is getting cooler.These days even in Kaifeng, it rains every now and then, but today the sky is clear and the sun is bright, warming the pedestrians.It is a good time to hurry.On the official road from Baima County to the capital, there is an endless stream of pedestrians, carriages and horses.

Ye Chen rode in front, followed by Monk Shi with a full forty guards. He left the capital early in the morning and headed for Baima County with the [-] coins he received from the third envoy.Half a day later, I saw the boundary marker of Baima County.

Ye Chen declined the Baima county magistrate and other officials who had greeted him at the boundary marker early, and went directly to the river embankment.

Baima County is next to the Yellow River. Not long after, Ye Chen heard the sound of water from a distance. The Yellow River embankment, which is several feet high, is like a long dragon, running across from the west to the east.Standing under the embankment, looking up, the towering embankment is amazing.

During the autumn flood this year, the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River experienced heavy rain. At this time, standing on the embankment of the Yellow River several feet high, the water of the Yellow River is actually under your feet. Compared with most of the time, the embankment of the Yellow River is hundreds of feet away from the river water. It can be seen that the amount of water at this time is low. how big.

In the past few days, there have been continuous reports of continuous rain and frequent torrential rain in the northwest of Guanzhong, and Hedong, which completely shattered the last luck of the emperor and his important ministers.

Therefore, these days, Zhao Kuangyin and the important officials of the two governments are not in a good mood. Behind the scene is always going on, but there is a tacit understanding that there will not be too much struggle until the end of the flood.

Baima County is adjacent to the Yellow River, and this section of the embankment is even called the Golden Embankment, which is a hundred miles long.

On the day Ye Chen came, after discussing with Yu Yueze, who was in charge of building the embankment, he divided the 1000 embankment labor labor and the 10 Xiang army into [-] groups of [-] people, and appointed the group leader and deputy team leader.Then use rewards every day to encourage each group to compete. A total of [-] guan rewards are offered every day. Only the top ten rewards are taken, and these [-] people work hard. The progress in one day is almost equal to the usual two days. .Under normal circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for soldiers and soldiers to be so hardworking.

Yu Yueze sighed: "Uncle Xiangfu is generous to others, so that he can gain the trust of the peasants. Only when he has the trust, can he work so hard." He looked at the embankment, and there was a work shed just a section away. There were not only peasants in it Where they were resting, buckets of mung bean soup mixed with salt were lined up under the shed. From time to time, people could be seen coming to scoop up a ladle and pour it down.

In the past, when I was doing hard labor, when I provided mung bean soup to the peasants and gave rewards, it was all beaten with leather whips and sticks.

Ye Chen said: "The folks work hard under the scorching sun and sweat a lot. We prepare mung bean soup mixed with salt for them. It only consumes two stones of mung bean soup and one and a half stones of salt a day. But it has played a huge role in maintaining their physical strength and physical condition."

In fact, the construction of labor services is not just the task of Kaifeng, it is a major event for the entire Yellow River Basin.More than a month ago, not only the embankments in Kaifeng, but also the Yellow River from Luoyang to Daming, where the Yellow River twists and turns for thousands of miles, labor labor was called to repair embankments.It's just that compared with the Kaifeng area, the difference in strength is too far.At this time, Ye Chen was no longer worried about the river embankments in Baima County, or even Kaifeng, would burst, but began to worry about river embankments in other places.

Ye Chen stayed in Baima County for three days. After watching the system of subcontracting and rewarding groups he created was implemented well and achieved obvious results, he went to the other five counties to walk around one by one.

Except for the embankment that Li Junhao was in charge of because there were only 5000 people, the number of embankments in the other four counties was slightly smaller, because the first four people who used the embankment were people who were used to their own orders, and in order to speed up the progress , The method used is the same as Ye Chen's group rewards in Baima County. The river embankment is divided into pieces. In addition to wages, there are also generous rewards for those who progress quickly.

In short, these four chiefs have spared no effort in order to obtain a higher official status.There is no need for Ye Chen to worry.As for Li Junhao, although the number of people is small, Ye Chen specially handed over the county with the shortest embankment to him, so the overall progress will not be slower than the other four leaders.

And the river embankment department is responsible for it himself. The section of river embankment built by [-] laborers is actually the shortest section, and only the four leaders are responsible for half of the river embankment.

In fact, except for Li Junhao who personally led two hundred gangs to live and live on the embankment all day, and personally supervised the fifteen thousand laborers who built the embankment, the other four leaders only dispatched capable housekeepers and shopkeepers to In charge of building the embankment, they just checked the progress every now and then.

Zhao Dezhao has been busy transporting food these days, and everything is going well.

Because grain and rice are constantly being shipped to Kaifeng, the imperial court has spent too much to buy grain and grass at a high price during this period of time. The emperor Zhao Kuangyin gritted his teeth with hatred: the imperial court is short of grain, and millions of residents in Kaifeng are in danger, but those grains The merchants have more methods than the imperial court, and the efficiency is higher. The grain transportation is faster than the imperial court. They not only transport grain from the Jianghuai River, but also transport grain from the northwest and Hedong to Kaifeng. If there is a shortage of food, just try to make a fortune.

"Now is the time to bury the hole." Zhao Kuangyin said with a sneer to Luo Gongming and Chu Zhaofu who had just returned to Kaifeng.

On September 23, the third envoy announced to the outside world that the capital’s grain and rice are already sufficient, and the grain that is still being transported through the canal in a steady stream is used as the imperial court’s reserve, which will be enough to store grain for more than three years. However, the grain crisis has been resolved now. The supply of grain has been opened, and the official warehouse will sell you as much as you can buy.From now on, the price of grain sold in official warehouses will return to the original price, which is still [-] cash.

Before the capital was short of grain, a bucket of grain was [-] yuan. After the news of the grain shortage spread, the price of grain rose steadily. Now it has risen to nearly [-] yuan per bucket of grain. Now the price of grain sold in the official warehouse has returned to the original price, which is still [-] yuan. .

Those wealthy gentry who spent a lot of money, snapped up a large amount of grain, and stuffed their jars, urns, and even bamboo baskets and kang pits with grain were beating their chests in pain, happily buying large quantities of grain at high prices and transporting them to the capital to prepare for a windfall The profiteers are crying bitterly, and they have the heart to jump into the Yellow River.

Princess Yongqing was very happy these days. She and her younger brother Zhao Defang spent three days teaching the parrot to talk, and finally made progress today.The parrot actually learned to speak, even though it was just one sentence——'Speak quickly! '

This parrot will say 'Speak up! 'These four words are the ones that the little Lolita said the most in front of the parrot.But because of this, letting Princess Yongqing and Zhao Defang master the skill of teaching the parrot to speak is actually a stupid way, that is, repeating a sentence in front of the parrot, repeating too much, the parrot will learn it.

The two brothers and sisters are teaching the parrot to learn "Father Emperor!" with great interest! ' Two words, at this time two little servants rushed over with two big packages each: "Your Highness, this is a gift from His Royal Highness King Xiang Fu Ye Chen to your Highness."

Princess Yongqing and Zhao Defang looked at each other, and the former said in amazement: "The gift that elder brother gave us? Why did you ask someone else to deliver it instead?"

The waiter said: "I heard that His Royal Highness King Wei bought it and asked Uncle Xiang Fu to bring it to Kaifeng. It was sorted out today. Uncle Xiang Fu was to be returned to His Royal Highness Wei Wang. His Highness Wei Wang said that there is no need to go around such a big circle. , and directly ordered the servants to bring it to you."

All women do not dislike gifts, no matter if they are old or young, even the little Princess Lolita is not exempt. Princess Yongqing rushed over and asked curiously: "What is it?"

"It's a few catties of Huainan specialty bad white fish."

Princess Yongqing and Zhao Defang rolled their dark eyes, and they looked at each other and smiled. Princess Yongqing said seriously: "This Xiangfu Bo is really nice!"

Zhao Defang echoed: "Yes! Yes! He really knows a lot, even parrots can learn how to speak."

Princess Yongqing asked the little servant to hold the package, opened it, tore a piece of fish, held it with two fingers, ate it with relish, and waved: "Take it, and ask the people in my palace to put it away." .”

Zhao Defang also ordered so.

Time flies like water, and half a month has passed in a blink of an eye.

Ye Mansion, in Bai Zixuan's small courtyard, Ye Chen practiced swordsmanship hard, and Bai Zixuan was guiding him.

The rain in Guanzhong, Guanxi, and Hedong is still constant, and the water level of the Yellow River is rising like these days.The height of Baima County has already exceeded the height before the renovation.The embankments in other counties are similar.

In the past half a month, there was also a lot of rain in Kaifeng, so Ye Chen basically had nothing to do.During the period, I just went around a few river embankments, and took the time to go to Yilie Imperial Army Hospital to check the work of Bai Yikun and He Tianming. They cherish their hard-won official positions, not to mention they are very decent. There is oil and water again.I don't know how many people envy him.Even the medical officers who acted as imperial physicians in the palace were envious of the two of them to death.

(End of this chapter)