Chapter 904 993 Letter

"What's the name of this village? It's really desolate."

More than ten riders appeared outside Taijiazhuang under the control of Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province. They stopped and looked at the small village surrounded by earth fence from a distance.

"Da Sikong, this place is called Taijiazhuang, and we also call him Taizhuang, because most people in Zhuangzi have the surname Tai."

A scribe from Yanzhou Prefecture came up to report and report.

"Taijiazhuang, this is supposed to be a village where Taiwanese people settled again?"

Da Sikong is naturally Zhu Heng, Minister of Industry.

In accordance with Wei Guangde's entrustment, he specifically inspected and calculated along the new canal route planned by Weng Dali to determine the feasibility of digging the Jia Canal.

"Probably so."

The scribe didn't know how to answer Zhu Heng's words.

Taijiazhuang has existed here for many years. If we really count, the earliest record of Taijiazhuang appears to be in the Tang Dynasty, when the Tai clan started to establish a village here.

It's just that in later generations, not many people knew about Taijiazhuang, because he had a more resounding name - "Taierzhuang".

"It's getting late. Let's stay in the village tonight."

Zhu Heng said.

"Okay, I will go to the head of the village to make arrangements."

The scribe immediately clasped his fists and said.

After the scribe left, Zhu Heng looked back at a middle-aged man in his thirties behind him.

He was not wearing official uniform, but what looked like what a servant would wear.

This kind of attire seemed very special among a group of people wearing official uniforms. Although there were several similarly dressed people behind him, the clothes they wore were obviously different from them.

Zhu Heng waved to the man to come over.

When the others came up, Zhu Heng said to him: "Duan Shao, does your master want you to buy as much land as you can in this section?

The one in front is Taijiazhuang. In the future, this area will probably become extremely prosperous due to the arrival of the canal. "

"Mr. Zhu, my master said so. As soon as the decision is made, I will buy him some land here."

Duan Shao bowed and saluted Zhu Heng.

"Okay, according to the previous rules, the land purchased will be counted as one share for me."

Zhu Heng smiled and shook his head and said, "By the way, was your master also such a naughty person when he was a child?"

"It seems so. Anyway, at that time, the master was the child king of our Bengshan Castle. He was his brother before, and then he came to him. Haha, I went to study with Master Sun with him at that time, but it was a pity that I couldn't get in."

Duan Shao smiled.

"You and your master are still classmates, haha."

Zhu Heng smiled casually, then waved his hand and said to the people behind him: "Let's go to Taijiazhuang and rest here tonight."

The Grand Canal has always been regarded as a golden waterway in ancient times. Relying on the Grand Canal, it not only supports tens of thousands of people on both sides of the canal, but is also a way to make money.

Why were so many people opposed to Wei Guangde's proposal to change water transportation to sea? That's because this golden waterway is filled with too many interests. Interest groups formed by these interests are not willing to give up what they have in hand easily.

The opening of a new canal to replace the Xuzhou section of the canal means a change in the golden waterway. The trade that brought prosperity to Xuzhou will gradually be transferred to Taizhuang, Hanzhuang and other places. It also means that whoever occupies the land in these places can A steady stream of money was drawn from the canal.

The combination of power and information will undoubtedly double the speed at which money is accumulated.

After persuading Zhang Juzheng and sending people to investigate the feasibility of the Jia Canal again, Wei Guangde realized that this was a good opportunity to make a fortune.

Taking advantage of the time difference, we can acquire the worthless land in Taizhuang, Hanzhuang and other places. Even after the canal's path is determined and new towns are born, the value of those lands will increase countless times.

How could Wei Guangde let go of the wealth at his fingertips.

When Zhu Heng set off from the capital, Wei Guangde arranged for his servant Duan Shao to accompany him and acquire land along the route. In the future, whether it is building houses or warehousing, these lands will be projects that can make a lot of money.

If Zhu Heng didn't expect it at first, he more or less understood it after Duan Shao came into contact with some landlords.

Of course it's not possible to make a wedding dress for nothing, and his old Zhu family also wants a piece of the pie.

In this regard, Wei Guangde has already explained that he will allow people on his side to participate in the company.

Only when interests are tied together can everyone work more together and work together.

After all, they still have to face the old and wealthy landlords in the Xuzhou section of the canal. The dispute between the old and new canal has not been resolved in the court, but it has just begun.

They had just entered Taijiazhuang and were welcomed into a relatively clean and tidy courtyard by the clerk.

"This is the home of Taixiao, the elder in Taijiazhuang. We have made an agreement with him to rent it temporarily for a few days. He will move to a relative's house these days.

I was just in too much of a hurry and the yard hasn't been cleaned yet. Please forgive me. "

The scribe bowed and cupped his fists.

"It doesn't matter, it's already good."

Zhu Heng waved his hand indifferently, it was just a loan, and it depends on the conditions here.

When he entered Taijiazhuang, he had already noticed that this courtyard located in the center of Zhuangzi was the best courtyard in the entire Zhuangzi. What more could he ask for.

After asking the servants to go in and tidy up the main house, Zhu Heng asked someone to move a chair and sit in the yard to rest.

The bumpy ride on the horse was still a bit too much.

But he hadn't rested long before there was the sound of horse hooves outside, heading straight for the yard.

Not long after, one of his men came over with a postman.

"Sir, there is an official document coming from the capital government office."

The servant said in front of Zhu Heng.

"Yes."

Zhu Heng agreed, and the postman had already untied the letter box behind him, opened it, and took out the official documents inside.

Then he took out the documents from his cross-body pocket. This was the document that needed to be signed by the recipient when handing over the official document, and the postman could only go back to hand it in with this.

Zhu Heng first looked at the sealed official document, and saw that the seal was intact, then he took a gold seal from his waist and asked his men to sign the postman's official document.

After putting away the gold seal, he opened the sealed official document and quickly read the contents.

However, as he saw the changes in the content, his face became more and more ugly.

According to the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, next year is likely to be another year of disasters. According to the situation in recent years, the court first thought of the Yellow River.

In recent years, the Yellow River flood has not been cured, and the continuous outbreak of floods has seriously affected agricultural production in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.

In particular, the yellow sand left after the water is extremely troublesome to clean up, and it will take a long time to resume agricultural production.

This was naturally a top priority in the Ming Dynasty, which was based on agriculture.

Yellow River, Yellow River.

After reading the official document, Zhu Heng couldn't help muttering.

Since the Hongzhi period, when Liu Daxia built the Taihang Dike, the Yellow River's path to the north was completely blocked, leaving only the southward flood.

Therefore, every time the Yellow River flooded, it would not threaten the north of the Yellow River, but after it broke to the south, it would repeatedly take the Huai River into the sea, causing great damage to the Xuhuai area.

At the same time, it also began to threaten the Ming Zuling.

The Taihang Dike still had to be repaired. The consequences of the Yellow River breaking to the north were more serious. Once it broke to the north, the Yellow River floods would mostly break through the Huitong River from Zhangqiu, and the grain transport of the year would be completely blocked.

Because in the north, there were fewer river channels, and the Huitong River would be completely blocked by yellow sand when the water of the Yellow River passed through it, and it could not be dredged without a huge amount of manpower.

Well, Liu Daxia mainly repaired the Yellow River North Dike, and the South Dike was just a symbolic repair, and he also explained to the court that the purpose was to let the Yellow River take the Huai River into the sea.

Liu Daxia didn't even think about it. The Yellow River just followed your instructions so obediently.

Even if the Huai River was diverted to the sea, the result would be floods south of the Yellow River, and river sand would block the Huai River later.

In fact, the so-called protection of the grain transport was not possible at all.

However, Zhu Heng couldn't blame Liu Daxia now. He had been dead for many years, and he still had to think of a good way to govern the Yellow River.

But at present, the inspection of the river bank should be put first. Preventing the possible flood of the Yellow River next year is the first priority of the court.

Immediately, Zhu Heng called the entourage and began to order to change the original itinerary. He wanted to go to Gaojiayan first.

Gaojiayan is also the Hongze Lake Dam. It was first recorded in the middle of the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, it referred to a section of the Huaihe River embankment near Gaoyan Village in Huaiyin County. It was said to be built by Chen Deng in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is the earliest artificial dam in the world for more than 2,000 years.

Although the archaeological evidence of the Eastern Han Dynasty is not credible, the existence of the Gaojiayan embankment is indeed an important part of protecting the Huaihe River from being eroded by the Yellow River.

Since Liu Daxia, the Ming court has actually acquiesced to the Yellow River taking over the Huaihe River, but it is only to prevent the Yellow River from eroding the large and small lakes in the Huaihe River system and to prevent these lakes from being blocked by yellow sand.

Hongze Lake is related to the Ming ancestral mausoleum, so Zhu Heng’s top priority now is to inspect the Gaojiayan Dam to prevent the Yellow River flood from flowing into Hongze Lake and threatening the Ming ancestral mausoleum.

The journey of the Kanchaka Canal was interrupted in this way, and officials of the Ming court, big and small, appeared in the entire Huanghuai River Basin, inspecting the embankments on both sides of the river.

Perhaps this is the Ming Dynasty version of the superiors talking and the subordinates running around.

But how many of them are real inspections and how many are just formalities is unknown.

Huai'an Prefecture, the Office of the Governor of the Canal Transport.

Wang Zongmu also received an official document from the capital, and then he handed it to the general of the grain transport, asking him to immediately order the grain transport guards to set off early again, rush to Huai'an by boat, and wait for the northern section of the Grand Canal to be unfrozen and then immediately transport the grain to the capital.

After handling official business, Wang Zongmu returned to the back hall and received a secret letter from Wei Guangde in the capital.

"Take the messenger down to rest, I will reply to Lord Wei as soon as possible."

Wang Zongmu ordered the servants to take the messenger down to settle first, and then he opened the envelope and took out the letter to read.

"Five hundred thousand shi?"

After Wang Zongmu finished reading the letter, he was also a little surprised by Wei Guangde's boldness.

The court previously set a permanent quota of 120,000 shi of grain to be sent to the capital by sea every year. When he was governor from Nanjing to Huai'an, he also heard news that someone wanted to stop the sea transportation of grain, but it was unsuccessful.

He never thought that Wei Ge Lao was so bold that he wanted to continue to expand the scale of sea transportation of grain in just one year, and directly doubled it.

But for him, it didn't seem to be a bad thing.

As a Zhejiang native, he was no stranger to the sea, so he, like Liang Menglong, supported the court to open up sea transportation.

To this end, he and Liang Menglong did a lot of work and completed the trial voyage of sea transportation of grain and the determination of the route.

He was not worried that Yu Dayou would not cooperate. It took a large number of sea vessels to transport so much grain, and the Caosi did not have so many ships.

The Caosi used to have a large number of sea vessels, but after so many years, the sea vessels had long been scrapped, and the Caosi built the Caosi afterwards. The river ships used for inland navigation were not suitable for sailing on the sea.

The last Fushan Island shipwreck, the losses were all cargo ships of the Caosi, while the warships sent by the Nanyang Navy were intact, which can be seen.

With the sea vessels, the next thing is the storage involved in the court documents.

At that time, we can just unload the grain from the grain ship and transfer it to the sea-going ship.

Earlier in the lobby, he had asked people to arrange the storage, but after seeing Wei Guangde's letter, he had to consider moving the storage to a place near the sea, which would be more convenient for the transportation of grain.

After all, 500,000 shi and 120,000 shi are completely different things.

Wang Zongmu began to intervene in the storage arrangements, and another letter from Wei Guangde was also being sent to Hangzhou, Zhejiang by express horse.

At this time, Yu Dayou chose the Nanyang Navy Headquarters here, because both land and sea transportation were extremely developed here, and the most important thing was that this place was currently the main shipbuilding site of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, Zhejiang merchants had been secretly engaged in smuggling trade before, and their demand for sea-going ships was huge, which also maintained the lives of Zhejiang shipbuilders.

The Nanjing shipyards, which once represented the highest level of shipbuilding technology in the Ming Dynasty, now only had the ability to build inland ships, and they were already powerless to build large sea-going ships.

Although Fujian's shipbuilding strength is not inferior to Zhejiang, its land transportation is much worse.

Yu Dayou received Wei Guangde's letter two days after Wang Zongmu.

After reading the content of the letter, he hesitated a little and made up his mind. This time he would take the main force of the Nanyang Navy to the north.

After completing the transportation of 500,000 shi of grain at one time, he would lead the navy fleet to the south.

Calculating the time, it seems to be just right to prepare for the Japanese.

The Nanyang Navy has traveled all the routes from Zhejiang to Guangxi in the past two years, but the route to the north has only been traveled by the small fleet sent at the beginning of the year.

Wei Guangde wanted to build a Ming Dynasty navy that dominated the ocean in the early Ming Dynasty, not just active in several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, what made Yu Dayou most embarrassed was that Wei Guangde asked him to send people to Haojing in the letter to contact the cannon casting craftsmen and shipbuilding craftsmen there, hoping to directly dig people to the Ming Dynasty and teach them their skills.

It's not that he didn't consider this before, but he was worried that once he contacted them, the news would inevitably leak out.

It would be best if he could dig people over, but if he failed, the Portuguese would definitely know about it, and many things in the future would be more difficult to deal with.

This is why Yu Dayou did not plan to take the initiative to contact these skilled craftsmen, but arranged for young craftsmen from the garrison to sneak into Haojing secretly and learn from them in the name of work.

He had to think about this matter arranged by Wei Guangde again, and even this time, he wanted to talk to Wei Guangde face to face about the pros and cons of it while taking the opportunity to transport grain to Tianjin.

After all, Wei Ge Lao was thousands of miles away from Haojing, and there were always things he didn't consider carefully.

It's not easy to say in a letter, so it's better to remind him in person. (End of this chapter)