Although Li Su likes to enjoy comfort, when he really devotes himself to work, he is still very powerful and extremely efficient.

The main reason is that he doesn't have any layman who is in charge of the insider's blind command leader and can set KPIs for him.

Liu Bei is a typical full-trust boss, who will not manage Li Su's work at all, and will do whatever he wants.

This leads to Li Su being completely driven by a sense of achievement, as long as he enters the working state, he will definitely not be lazy.

What's so good about touching fish? If you want to play generously, come back to work when you get tired of playing! Having the opportunity to change the world is a blessing!

Within a few days of arriving in Yandao, Li Su took 2,000 guards and soldiers, thousands of local winter recruits, and Tuntian Duwei Guoyuan, who had rushed to rendezvous, and together they traveled up the Lushui River, exploring the river surface for more than 100 li, passing through two small counties on the side of Yuewang County, such as Anshang and Mahu, as well as Xindao County, which was newly established this year on the side of Zhuti County.

As a result of the exploration, there were more than a dozen dangerous shoals where the sediment had accumulated and was not easy to navigate, and there were also three or four reefs and rocks, all of which were marked on the map by the staff of the army.

If the siltation and dangerous shoals can be excavated and cleared on the spot, the silt and sand are dug up on the spot and piled up on the river beach plains on both sides. Then mark it on the map, and consider co-ordinating the Tuntian point nearby in the future. The silt in the river was dug up to level the land on both sides of the river.

Because Li Su knows that the silt shoals formed by the river are the result of natural erosion, and it is not good to dig once. It is because the river bends and the flow velocity decreases, and at certain points it is easy to accumulate because of the geostrophic deflection force in the northern hemisphere. It is necessary to dig every few years, so that it is not easy to form a stranded shoal and facilitate the navigation of ships.

As for the reef, it can't be dealt with at once, so let it go first and slowly concentrate forces to gnaw it off.

After rectifying all the way, Li Su found that the construction was not difficult, and the cost of money and food was also within the acceptable range. Thousands of men and soldiers were recruited to work, and as long as they raised 10,000 or 20,000 stone of grain from Qianwei County Officials' Warehouse every month, and paid a little for iron and tools, it was not much money.

"Well, it doesn't seem that difficult at all. In a month, including the reef, the channel in front of more than 100 miles was renovated, and it was absolutely not difficult. If I leave in the first month, you can continue to do it, and before the spring ploughing, you will work more than 100 miles to Zhuti County, and there will be no problem. Why didn't those predecessors who were officials in Qianwei and Yuewang think of doing this? It's really a corpse vegetarian meal. ”

One day in the middle of the month, after renovating a dangerous shoal, Li Su stood on the high slope of the mountain next to him and pointed out the country with emotion.

Zhu Ti Taishou Pang Xi, who was following him to inspect on the side, pretended not to hear, anyway, he had only been in office for a long time, so he was definitely not talking about him.

Tuntian Duwei Guoyuan was more pragmatic and pointed out some of Li Su's views very pertinently:

"Governor, don't underestimate this matter. In my opinion, we are doing it fast now, just because we have been clearing the mudflats and not digging deep. Only the silt that has surfaced is dug up and piled up to the shore, and the depth below the surface of the water is not more than two feet. This depth is not enough to exceed a large ship of hundreds of stones, and at most it is navigable. At that time, the big ship will not have to unload the pallet and pass by. ”

Li Su smiled when he heard this: "If it is really as you say, then dig deeper next winter." Anyway, what we have is time, and if we can't do it in a year, we will be a year late. But I'm willing to bet that if the shoal is dug two feet below the water now, it will definitely be navigable in May next year—

The Yangtze River also has dry periods and wet periods, with less ice and snow melting in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in winter, less rainfall, and lower water levels. That's why we took advantage of the coldest time in winter when the water level was the lowest, and now we dig to the shallowest part of the shoal, and the water depth is two feet, and in May, it can be at least seven or eight feet or even one foot deep! What a big ship can't pass! ”

Rivers have water level differences between dry and wet periods, which is common knowledge that is easy to think of in later generations. But the people of the Han Dynasty obviously didn't pay much attention to these, Guoyuan was still a water conservancy worker in Tuntian, and he only noticed this problem when he was reminded by Li Su. And everyone else doesn't have that string in their heads.

Therefore, in history, Cao Cao's crusade against Wuhuan was sudden, and only Tian Chou needed to guide the way, and only a geography master like Tian Chou, who was familiar with the local situation, knew that "the western Liaoning corridor is shallow in the autumn, and the deep is not open to cars and horses, and it is full of swamps, and the only way to detour is Lulongsai."

There are still too few people who can always pay attention to the common sense of geography in their heads.

Guo Yuan immediately came to his senses and said in awe: "It was my negligence that I didn't even think of the impact of the dry water on the fairway. It turned out that the governor let us dredge in the cold winter, but it had another profound meaning, saving a lot of people's money and grain. ”

When digging a channel, it is necessary to dig to a depth of two feet underwater, and to dig to a depth of one zhang under the water, the cost of the latter can be far more than five times that of the former in terms of engineering and technical difficulty in the Han Dynasty, because the construction cost increases exponentially when it reaches deep water, and it is easy to drown the people, which is very dangerous. It is already a great merit to be able to save people's manpower.

The officials and officials next to them listened to Guoyuan's praise, and there were fewer complaints about Li Su's levy of the people's power, and everyone's morale was also re-raised, after all, it seems that the new governor of the capital is still very sympathetic and cherishes the people's power.

The officials encouraged the people one after another: "Come on, everyone, dig a little more now, and you can do three or four times less when the farmers are busy in summer and autumn, and the governor will not treat everyone badly." ”

……

After solving the problems of route, method and morale, new doubts and contradictions will always be gradually exposed as the construction progresses.

Li Su personally inspected, supervised, and planned on both sides of the Lushui River, and was busy for about half a month unconsciously, and it was about to enter the second month of the lunar month.

As the improvement of the waterway gradually approached Zhuti, the depth of the army and the people into the no-man's land became farther and farther. As a result, not only the dredging of the waterway, but also the planning of Guoyuan's supporting tuntian is becoming more and more busy.

Because Guoyuan was reminded by Li Su and noticed the key point that "the shallowest and most suitable for dredging in winter", his follow-up work plan must focus on this technical feature to reduce the "total maintenance cost of the whole life cycle of the project".

Set up tuntian points on both sides of the Lushui River, so that the people of the tuntian points do not have to pay taxes to the imperial court, but dig up the silt and silt accumulated in the new year every winter when the farmers are slack, and replace taxes with this kind of forced labor, so as to save the cost of waterway maintenance to the greatest extent, and in the future, once and for all, there is no need for the imperial court to allocate funds, as long as dozens of peasant households are fed every dozens of miles on both sides of the Lushui River.

The workload of Tuntian point planning is too much, and Guoyuan also feels a lot of pressure.

Gradually, Guo Yuan took the lead in leading a group of small officials, and one night, discussed the issue of confidence and feasibility with Li Su.

"Governor, we don't say a word, and we ask the governor to solve our doubts, otherwise these people in Tuntian will not be placed in such a deep mountain by us again.

A few days ago, dozens of people had already fled back to the north as displaced people. Even when we asked farmers from Zhuti County to move to their newly silted fields and gave them white hair, they were reluctant to plant and wanted to return to their hometowns, even if their hometowns were less than 200 miles away. ”

Li Su was comparing and adjusting the map in the tent at that time, and when he heard this, he put down the pen ruler and realized that the problem had to be solved: "Why is it here?" Are they afraid that the imperial court will not be able to implement the system of tax exemption and substitution of forced labor for them in the future? I'm writing to General Zhengxi about this, and you see I've written half of it.

I am ready to propose the establishment of a set of regulations that allow the people of all counties and counties under the rule of Yizhou to carry out the 'rent adjustment law' on a county or township basis, and allow taxes, taxes, and servants to be substituted for each other. Where the barbarians send troops, military service is used in lieu of taxes. Tuntian points along the river to improve roads and shipping should replace tax payment with forms of forced labor such as river repair, water conservancy, and loading and unloading of goods. Everyone must believe me, General Zhengxi is benevolent and righteous, and he will definitely approve the implementation. ”

Guo Yuan waved his hand: "It's not that we are afraid that the levy taxes will not be able to replace each other, but the more we cultivate, the more upstream we are, and we are about to reach no man's land." These people who were moved over to maintain the river workers were afraid that they would live in the deep mountains and valleys isolated from now on, and they would feel homesick every day when they were either facing the mountains behind them or the water in front of them.

What's more, in the hearts of the local people, this Lushui has always been considered to be a miasma prevailing, especially in the beginning of spring every year, in March and April, the miasma can poison all those who cross the river, and it can only be crossed in May. If they are moved to these places, there is no land route to go out, only Lushui and water communication, they are afraid of being trapped here and abandoned by the imperial court. ”

Only then did Li Su realize the key point, and he immediately retorted: "Why do they have such an idea? Of course, the imperial court will not abandon them, and we have worked hard to dredge the Lushui waterway, in order to pass through the South China Sea in the future, and there will be a steady stream of business travel. At that time, the villages in their tuntian will grow into wharves and fertilization.

How could they think that Lushui was a dead river that could only be used in wartime? This is the source of the Yangtze River, the surging river, stretching for thousands of miles, development along the river, how much possibility is waiting for them? ”

To be honest, Li Su had been aware of this problem before, but he never understood why the people of the Han Dynasty were so resistant to continuing development along the upper reaches of Lushui, even the locals who were accustomed to the tropical climate.

It wasn't until the conversation came to this point that Guo Yuan's answer made Li Su realize another crux:

"What? Governor, although you are in a high position of authority, you can't talk nonsense with your eyes open...... The source of the Yangtze River, as we all know, is the Min River, and Lushui is just a poisonous miasma water from the south, shouldn't the people be afraid of it? ”

Li Su was stunned.

No wonder the Jinsha River has been called "Lushui" and "Lushui", although he felt awkward before, why from Yandao County upstream, only the "Minjiang River" is called "Jiang", and the "Lushui" representing the Jinsha River is just "water".

The ancients did not know that the Jinsha River was the source of the Yangtze River, thinking that it was just poisonous water from the land of the Southern Barbarians, and that the Minjiang River was the orthodox source of the Yangtze River.

Li Su laughed at himself: "I was negligent, I have done things since ancient times, and my name is right." First of all, I have to dispel the people's doubts that 'Lushui is the poisonous water of the Southern Barbarians', and then I can talk about governing the people and making them available to me." Here you listen to me first, do a good job, I will find time to write a book "Dajiang Zhengyuan Examination".

Of course, I will never do it behind closed doors, and if any of you have the heart, you will ride up the river on horseback. We are down-to-earth, seeing is believing, those "Shangshu. Yaodian, Historical Records. The nonsense and assumptions about the source of the river in Xia Benji are all put aside. If you dare to follow me back for a thousand miles, after passing through Yuewang County, you will definitely find that Lushui will turn north again and out of the snow-capped mountains.

Lushui is the source, at least there are thousands of miles, we can't finish, but as long as we get out of Yuewang County, we can prove that Lushui is definitely longer than the Minjiang River, it is the source of the river, the surging Yangtze River, how can it be poisonous water? How could it be that there would be no dense business travel in the future? I thought about it, and when I proved this, I changed the name of Lushui to Jinsha River in "Dajiang Zhengyuan Examination", why is only Minjiang called Jiang! ”

After all, Li Su is a learned Confucian in the world, and he is known for knowing the destiny of heaven.

Guo Yuan and Pang Xi saw that his words were conclusive, and refuted that the records on geographical knowledge in the "Shangshu" and "Historical Records" were made up blindly, and they believed it for a while.

Even if Li Su himself could not follow the geographical expedition team to do this, he could still do it if the imperial court sponsored an expedition team to look at it, draw a map, and fill in the blank parts on the map.

Guo Yuan thought about it for a while, and instructed his subordinates: "Li Zhonglang is a great sage in the world, learn from the heavens, he said this, let's explain it to the people first, stabilize people's hearts and let them continue to build, reclamation and dredging." The rest will be talked about slowly. ”

A crisis of confidence was temporarily postponed by Li Su.