Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties
Chapter 320 Zhengguo Canal
Chapter 320 Zhengguo Canal
The team set out from Xiazhou, passed through Longmen Ferry and entered Bingzhou, and then took the Hengzhou route to the five states of Hedong.
There are all kinds of people in this team, and the leader of the team is a businessman with a western accent.
Su Ben ([Western Region Merchant Who Senses Danger], purple) is the leader of this team. Thanks to his [Senses Danger] affix, the team avoided robbery several times.
Su Shanwu ([The Messenger with Long Sleeves and Good Dancing], orange) is the deputy leader in charge of the team's negotiations. Whenever they encounter a bottleneck that cannot be avoided along the way, they use Su Shanwu to get through it.
In addition to these two followers, the team is filled with various blue and green followers that Su Ze recently summoned.
There are followers of all kinds, including [cooks], [craftsmen], [witches], [Taoists], and [monks].
The only thing they have in common is that they all have the surname Su, and Su Ze's requirement for this team is to place them in towns along the way.
"My master is the imperial son-in-law, Su Zesu Pingxi. This is a token from the Pingxi General's Mansion."
Su Shanwu successfully established a friendship with the gatekeeper of Jinyang, but when faced with the copper coins Su Shanwu handed over, the gatekeeper shook his head and said:
"As long as you pay the city tax you can go into the city."
Su Shanwu asked doubtfully:
"Sir, the city tax will not be reduced. I'm sorry for delaying you for so long. Here's your wine money."
The gatekeeper looked around and made sure that no one was staring at him before he covered the two strings of money with his sleeve.
After receiving the money, the gatekeeper's attitude became much more friendly. He advised:
"Don't cause trouble once you enter Jinyang City. The bad guys in the city have been captured by Governor Yuan. I heard they were sent to Xiurong's military camp. I don't know if they can come back alive."
Su Shanwu asked in a low voice:
"Is this Yuan governor new to the position?"
The gatekeeper nodded first, then shook his head and said:
"This Governor Yuan was supposed to take office at the beginning of the year, but for some reason he delayed coming to Jinyang. After he came to Jinyang a few days ago, he quickly took control of Jinyang. Even the old officials left by the previous Governor Gao were caught by Governor Yuan and executed!"
Su Ze had originally stayed in Jinyang to follow him. Su Shanwu had already known about Yuan Tianmu's appointment to Jinyang. He pretended to be surprised and said:
"In this world today, there are still officials like Yuan Shishi."
The gatekeeper nodded helplessly and said:
"It's hard for those of us who work on this."
Su Shanwu stuffed another hundred bucks into the bag and continued to ask:
"The big families in Jinyang have no problem with Governor Yuan?"
The gatekeeper looked around again and then whispered:
"I have an opinion. It is said that the Yuan governor is a sworn brother of Xiurong's General Erzhu. He brought a cavalry of the Erzhu family into the city."
"The nephew of the former governor Gao, the governor of the prefecture, was caught by the Yuan governor and forced to resign."
Su Shanwu pretended to be surprised. He had also learned the news from an insider in the city.
Gao Chuo, the former governor of Bingzhou, was rewarded for his contribution in suppressing the rebellion of the Mahayana sect in Jizhou a few years ago. However, before he could receive the reward, he fell seriously ill while in office.
Gao Chuo finally promoted his nephew to be the governor of Bingzhou, and then died of illness.
Rewarding ministers' sons and nephews with official titles was almost impossible in the dynasties after the Tang and Song dynasties, but it was a normal practice in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which had a relatively makeshift team.
For example, Gao Hui, who assisted Su Ze in his mission to the grassland, had a nephew named Gao Ren, who was the Beijia of Hezhou. Gao Ren was appointed as the Beijia of Hezhou by the court after his father died of illness while serving as the governor of Hezhou.
In addition, this former governor of Bingzhou, like the Gao family of Hezhou, is a branch of the Gao family of Bohai.
The reason why a family like the Bohai Gao family was rated as a surname B family was because it was compared with the surname A family. In fact, throughout the Northern Wei Dynasty, several branches of the Bohai Gao family occupied the positions of provincial governors and county magistrates, and there were countless Gao family members who served as county officials.
It was precisely because these aristocratic families monopolized the officialdom that Empress Dowager Hu granted Gao Yi, who had no political experience, the position of Governor of Bohai, because the officialdom of the entire Bohai County was basically occupied by the descendants of the Gao family.
Su Shanwu asked:
"Was there no resistance?"
The gatekeeper whispered:
"There were a few families in the city that rebelled, but they were all defeated by the troops led by Captain Erzhu."
He said with lingering fear:
"They were truly elite troops. The families outside the city were also well-known families in Jinyang. Their fortresses were simply unable to stop them, and several family heads died on the spot."
Hearing this, Su Shanwu also shrank his neck.
But the gatekeeper said:
"But you guys are in luck. After Governor Yuan took office, the atmosphere in Jinyang has improved a lot, and the bandits nearby have been wiped out."
Sure enough, Jinyang City was much more prosperous than other cities seen along the way, so Su Shanwu entered the city.
After entering the city, everyone settled down in a special market quarter according to the instructions of the city gate keeper. Then Su Shanwu found the spy that Su Ze had planted in Jinyang a few years ago.
Su Laoshi ("the dull city builder") was a chess piece that Su Ze placed in Jinyang City when he returned to Luoyang after the northern expedition.
When Bian Ji was fighting in Luoyang (see Chapter 159), it was Su Laoshi who set fire to the gate of Jinyang city.
Originally, craftsmen like Su Laoshi could only live outside the city. After Yuan Tianmu came to Jinyang, he moved the craftsmen camp from outside the city into the city. However, Su Laoshi was just a blue follower and was introverted by nature. Su Shanwu chatted with him for a long time but failed to get any new information.
However, thanks to Su Laoshi's continuous construction of Jinyang's city wall, Su Ze has already mastered Jinyang's city defense map. Su Shanwu just told him to just save his life and left some money for him.
Su Shanwu found a way to keep some people in Jinyang and helped them get identities to infiltrate the city.
It was also thanks to the fact that Su Ze had placed enough followers in Jinyang during the chaos in the past few years. After Yuan Tianmu took control of Jinyang, he implemented a strict baojia system in the city. Su Shanwu allowed these followers to join the followers originally stationed in the city in the name of seeking refuge with relatives, and finally more than ten people were left in Jinyang City.
It’s a pity that Su Ze’s position at that time was only a captain of the imperial guards, so he couldn’t leave any spies in the government office in Jinyang, so he could only use this method of casting a wide net to collect intelligence.
The caravan only stayed for two days before Su Ben led the caravan on its journey north to Pingcheng.
-
Hu Chen looked at the elite troops near Pucheng and felt a sense of despair.
After Yu Jin drove away King Yuan Hao of Beihai, he led his troops directly to the edge of Pucheng County. However, Yu Jin did not rush to attack the city. Instead, he surrounded Hu Chen in Pucheng and inspected the riverside near Pucheng every day.
Hu Chen was both angry and secretly relieved.
What made him angry was that Yu Jin didn't take him seriously enough and surrounded Pucheng without attacking it.
Fortunately, he saw that Yu Jin's army was so elite. If they really attacked Pucheng with all their strength, he didn't know how long they could hold out.
But why does Yu Jin stand by that broken river every day?
Block the water upstream and flood the city? The water in this river is not deep, and there is drought in Guanzhong this year. It will probably take until next year to store water for attacking the city. Yu Jin is also a famous general who has intimidated the rebels. How could he make such a simple mistake?
Hu Chen was puzzled. Su Miao ([The costly and laborious Western Region water conservancy master]) and Yu Jin stood side by side on the edge of this "broken river". Su Miao looked at the river that was about to dry up and kept muttering:
"A sin!"
Yu Jin also sighed and asked:
"Master, do you have any idea to repair the Zhengguo Canal?"
Yes, the "broken river" mentioned by Hu Chen is the famous Zhengguo Canal.
The Zhengguo Canal was built in the first year of Qin Shihuang's reign by the Korean hydraulic engineer Zheng Guo in Qin State, and it took ten years to complete.
Zheng State originally helped Qin State build the Zhengguo Canal in order to use it to consume Qin State's manpower and resources and weaken Qin State's army. However, this move backfired and made Qin State even stronger.
The Zhengguo Canal connected the Jing River from the west, and then connected to the Luo River near Pucheng, spanning 300 miles across Guanzhong and irrigating millions of acres of fertile farmland. It later became the capital for Qin Shihuang to unify the world.
But this canal has been used for seven hundred years.
During the Han Dynasty, the government would regularly dredge and repair the Zhengguo Canal.
However, since the turbulent times after the end of the Jin Dynasty, the water conservancy facilities in Guanzhong are said to have been maintained, and it is good enough that they have not been destroyed.
Su Miao rushed to Huazhou because he heard that the place where Zhengguo Canal flows into Luoshui was silted up.
After looking around, Su Miao said:
"The river mouth that flows into the Luo River is blocked. If the Jing River floods, the water from the Zhengguo Canal will not be able to flow into the Luo River, which will cause flooding."
The Zhengguo Canal stretches for 300 miles, with millions of acres of fertile land along the way. Yu Jin broke out in a cold sweat at the thought that any rain might cause floods.
"Master, as long as the channel between Zhengguo Canal and Luoshui is dug, the banks of Zhengguo Canal will be safe?"
Su Miao sneered, shook his head and said:
"How could it be so simple? The Zhengguo Canal has not been repaired for 200 years, and the government has no officials to coordinate it. I don't know how many places along the way are illegally blocking the water, and how many places are encroaching on the canal."
"Although the Jing River is clear, it is inevitably filled with silt along the way. This silt accumulates in the riverbed, raising the water level. When the water level rises, the water flow slows down, causing more serious siltation problems."
Yu Jin heard this and said worriedly:
"The Zhengguo Canal flows through Jing, Yong, and Huazhou. Even if we want to sort it out, we have to occupy the three states before we can start the work. We can only hope that there will be no heavy rains in Guanzhong this year."
Yu Jin also gradually understood the significance of a stable and unified dynasty.
During times of war, no government would maintain water conservancy facilities.
Firstly, the investment was too huge, and during the war there was simply no labor force to do these things.
Secondly, water conservancy facilities like the Zhengguo Canal often span multiple regions, and without a strong court to coordinate them, there is no way to maintain them.
Even if the water conservancy facilities belong to different regimes, they will destroy each other's facilities to interfere with each other's development.
Su Miao said:
"It's not that serious. The Zhengguo Canal is cleverly designed and the main trunk hasn't been badly damaged. As long as it's well maintained, it can still be used for thousands of years. It just needs to be cleaned up along the way."
Yu Jin looked at Pu Cheng not far away and nodded heavily.
(End of this chapter)
You'll Also Like
-
Red Mansion: Incense and God Road, starting from the City God of Shenjing
Chapter 334 16 hours ago -
People in Hong Kong, starting with taking sister-in-law fishing
Chapter 111 16 hours ago -
Everyone: Summoners are weak? One gold entry at level 1
Chapter 532 16 hours ago -
Three Kingdoms: Take care of Lady Gan on behalf of Liu Bei at the beginning
Chapter 135 16 hours ago -
Douluo: The Heavenly Sword Immortal takes Qian Renxue to have fun
Chapter 148 16 hours ago -
Honghuang: I am the first disciple of the Three Pure Ones, the gatekeeper of the Great Dao
Chapter 162 16 hours ago -
Mortal: I, Zhang Tie, God rewards hard work!
Chapter 69 16 hours ago -
The slander against me has come true, why are you kneeling and crying?
Chapter 105 16 hours ago -
Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain
Chapter 568 16 hours ago -
Drunken Swordsman: I choose the ruthless way, why are you crying?
Chapter 96 16 hours ago