The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 165: River of Strategy
"Central Minister Yong, after the army marches west, is there a way to provide long-term food and grass?"

Yinyou asked this deliberately because he wanted to see if Yongtai was really capable.
If he is a pure flatterer, he will be thrown into the trash after use, just like throwing away smelly socks.

Yong Tai did not rush to answer this question. Instead, he pondered for a long time before saying very carefully: "To be honest with you, uncle, I am afraid we still have to rely on the Yellow River and many rivers in Shaanxi and Gansu. However, several small rivers from Shaanxi to Gansu have a dry period of more than half a year every year. Moreover, some of the small rivers are not connected by river channels. I am afraid that we need to recruit civilians to dig a canal."

"But the problem is that Shaanxi and Gansu are already short of food and need to rely on the provinces in the Central Plains for aid. The conscripted laborers must eat." Seeing Yinyu looking at him with great interest, Yongtai was greatly encouraged and continued to explain, "Since the 30th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, conscripted laborers must be paid wages. This province certainly cannot afford so much wages, so the court must allocate money."

Before the pacification of the Three Feudatories, the corvée labor of our dynasty was a mess of random levies from various places.

The clerks in the government offices took advantage of the opportunity of conscripting corvée labor to ruin countless middle-class families, and the common people suffered terribly.

After the war, Kangxi wanted to ease the conflict between officials and the people, so he took the initiative to issue an edict that from now on, all conscripted laborers must be paid in silver.

The cattle and horses worked for the government, and the government also gave them money. This was definitely a good policy of the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty was able to rule the country for nearly three hundred years with a small number of people, which was indeed due to its extraordinary ability to ease the conflicts between officials and the people.

Yongtai meant that there would be no problem for the government to recruit civilians to dig the canal. However, the finances of Shaanxi Province were extremely tight and they simply could not afford to pay too much silver for the labor.

Yinyou nodded secretly. Even though Yongtai offered his widowed daughter-in-law to him, he did have some real skills!
Officials of the Qing Dynasty can be roughly divided into four types: those who are both honest and capable of getting things done; those who are very honest but cannot get things done; those who are not honest but very capable of getting things done; and those who are neither honest nor capable of getting things done.

According to Yinyou's knowledge, the so-called honest officials who cannot get practical work done are actually useless in the Qing Dynasty!
Capable corrupt officials can make some money for themselves and also do some practical work to benefit the people.

Under the imperial system, the cost of corruption and bribery for officials was shockingly low.

Among the tens of thousands of officials in the world, how many don’t make money?

Moreover, the proportion of officials who were caught as typical corrupt officials is almost negligible.

The anti-corruption silver that the fourth brother set up was actually a public acknowledgment of the reality that officials had low incomes and that almost all officials were corrupt.

"Don't worry about the wages. I will report it to the Khan." Yinyu took a sip of warm tea and said slowly, "But we must carefully identify the conscripted laborers."

Yongtai didn't quite understand, so he asked Yinyu cautiously, "Uncle, do you mean you only want Han Ding?"

"That's right." Yinyu said calmly, "Organize the Han Dings. If there is any change in Shaanxi, they will become a militia with considerable combat effectiveness in a blink of an eye."

Yongtai understood instantly that Yinyou was worried that the barbarians in the northwest would cause chaos and interfere with the logistics support of the army's westward advance.

"As your nephew, I have no reason to disobey my uncle's orders. But the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu, Nian Gengyao, always deliberately finds fault and makes things difficult for you, my nephew, time and time again. It's really a headache!" Yongtai took advantage of the good opportunity to flatter Nian Gengyao.

"It's okay! I will tell Nian Gengyao not to interfere in this matter!" As soon as Yinyou said this, Yongtai couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Nian Gengyao was a guy with a strong desire for power and liked to directly interfere in the administrative affairs of Shaanxi.

Shaanxi officials, from the provincial governor down, were caught between the governor and the governor-general, like a mouse caught in a bellows, being bullied from both ends and not knowing what to do.

Yinyu knew that the relationship between the governors of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces and Nian Gengyao was extremely tense.

However, Nian Gengyao had the support of the eighth and fourth brothers, and the local officials without strong backing could not do anything to him.

If Yongtai had not been forced into a corner by Nian Gengyao, why would he be willing to offer his widowed daughter-in-law to Yinyou for his enjoyment?
The world is bustling, everyone is here for profit!
A clean prefecture official could earn 100,000 silver coins after three years of service, let alone a provincial governor?

The interests involved are so huge that Yongtai is unwilling to give up!
After all, he was leading troops outside, so Yinwei only stayed in Mount Li for two days before returning to the military camp outside Xi'an with the beautiful girl.

Bringing a woman into the military camp was a huge taboo, so Yinyou placed the beautiful girl in a private house near the military camp.

The next day, Yinyu called Nian Gengyao to the military camp and said directly: "I want to connect all the small rivers in Gansu with canals. You must cooperate unconditionally."

Nian Gengyao frowned and said, "To be honest with you, Master Fifteen, I have also thought about this matter, but the project is too huge. Without a large investment of more than ten years, it is impossible to achieve results."

Yinyou nodded, and a major project immediately came to his mind: the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

If we only consider the economic aspects, building the Qinghai-Tibet Railway will definitely result in huge losses.

However, from a strategic point of view, the existence of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is a strong guarantee for the snowy plateau to return to China forever.

Similarly, if several seasonal rivers in the northwest were opened up through several artificial canals, the strategic confrontation between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungars would immediately undergo dramatic changes in favor of the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing Dynasty had plenty of soldiers, but the severe food shortage in the northwest held the Qing Dynasty back!

In fact, there was a great deal of luck involved in the historical pacification of the Dzungar Khanate!
If a few artificial canals were dug, they would not need to be too wide or too deep, and would only need to allow seasonal passage of small boats of a dozen tons, which would solve the strategic disadvantage of food shortage in the northwest.

As we all know, the cost of shipping materials by ship is more than ten times lower than that of land transportation.

Just think about it, a small boat carrying more than ten tons of food can travel dozens of miles a day with just two boatmen rowing.

Strategic engineering is imperative!
"Liang Gong, if it's such a big project, why would I come to you to discuss it without Khan Ama's approval?"

Yinyu had indeed discussed this with Kangxi many times. Kangxi's only concern was that it was the busy farming season, when seasonal rivers were full of water, and he was afraid that it would delay farming. However, Kangxi's concerns did not faze Yinyu at all.

Landless farmers are almost everywhere in the Central Plains.

As long as we are willing to pay them wages, organize them and send them to the Northwest, in the blink of an eye, a new group in Shaanxi and Gansu will be established.

The most important reason why Yinyou was able to impress Kangxi was that if landless peasants had no food to eat, they could easily become refugees.

The emperors of the Qing Dynasty were terrified when they heard about the refugees and did not dare to be careless at all!
People could receive wages for performing corvée labor, but they were worried that the clerks would force good citizens to become refugees.

Although Nian Gengyao was very arrogant, it depends on the person!

Since Yinyou spoke in a serious manner, Nian Gengyao really didn't have the courage to disobey, so he nodded and agreed to cooperate.

After discussing the serious matters, Nian Gengyao saw that Yinyou was in a good mood, so he took the initiative to extend an invitation.

"Fifteenth Master, the Yang Family Troupe in Xi'an is the most famous Qinqiang troupe in the whole of Shaanxi... Why don't you give it a listen to relax?" Nian Gengyao looked at Yinyu eagerly, hoping that Yinyu would give him a chance to curry favor.

How could Yinyou not understand?

The so-called listening to Qinqiang was actually an attempt to send a very famous female opera singer to Yinyou's bed.

The status of actors these days in the lower nine classes is much lower than that of the girls who entertain customers in brothels.

The reason behind this is actually not complicated.

If a theatre troupe wants to gain a foothold in a certain place, without the support of local powerful figures, the stage may be smashed every day!

Therefore, in order to make money, the opera troupe will inevitably arrange so-called well-known female roles to serve as actors, so as to make the local powerful actors feel comfortable.

In this sense, there is no essential difference between the famous female actors in the opera troupe and the famous prostitutes in the brothel.

Yinyou was indeed a lustful guy, but he preferred to ride on respectable and decent women!

Therefore, Nian Gengyao's flattery must have hit the horse's hoof.

"Mr. Liang, you still don't quite understand my temper!" Yinyu deliberately didn't say anything definite, leaving a crack in the door for Nian Gengyao.

After being enlightened, Nian Gengyao felt secretly annoyed. He was so stupid that he actually forgot Yinyou's special preferences!

However, Nian Gengyao was not prepared in advance. Where could he find an official’s wife who was willing to devote herself to him?

To be honest, the beautiful girl, who is the governor's daughter-in-law, is very much to Yinyou's liking!

At Yinyou's level, the psychological pleasure had long surpassed the purely physiological needs.

This was also the main reason why Yinyou and Cao Jia fought so fiercely when they were together.

Apart from Kangxi, the only person who dared to ride on Prince Ping’s wife was Yinyou!

As the saying goes, scarcity makes things valuable!

After the army gathered in Xi'an, Yinwei led them on a mighty march towards Gansu.

After arriving in Lanzhou, Yinwei deliberately led his troops and marched along the east bank of the Tiantong River.

According to the report from the governor of Gansu, there is a small river called Yemachuan near the source of Tiantong River. The narrowest distance between this river and the Sune River, which leads directly to Yumen, is less than 50 miles.

If the Yemachuang River and the Sune River were connected, the grain and fodder shipped from Lanzhou could be transported by water directly to Dunhuang, the westernmost part of Gansu.

To put it bluntly, as long as this canal is dug, it will shorten the land transportation losses by 3,000 miles, which is of great strategic significance.

Yinyou deliberately marched along the river bank in order to conduct an on-site investigation to determine the possibility of digging a canal.

It would take ten years to mobilize 30,000 laborers, who would only work for five months each year. In terms of cost, the court could fully afford it.

Because, if the monthly wage for 9 laborers is three taels of silver, that would only be taels of silver.

Calculated based on five months, the total annual expenditure would be at most 70 taels of silver.

To put it bluntly, the cost of rebuilding the Baohedian Hall would cost at least four million taels of silver.

When the army arrived in Dunhuang, Yinwei received bad news: the city of Barkol was out of ammunition and food, and the same incident as Huang Chao had occurred again.

PS: There are more than 3800 monthly tickets. There will be three updates in the early morning, and this is the first one.

(End of this chapter)