Autumn in Tokyo is a busy season, a large amount of grain into the city through the transport, the grain boats from all over the country lined up on the river, the slender man on the shore shouted the horn to advance, the grain ship is too heavy to be pulled by the slender man to enter the dock smoothly.

On the wharf not far from the water gate, the young boatman sighed while repairing the boats: "This West Water Gate is very lively in summer and autumn!" ”

The older boatman next to him smiled: "Is this still quite lively? You didn't see the original appearance, there are so many people that you can't say, even the officials who usually don't want to come can be seen everywhere, that pomp, that posture, swoop ......"

"Why is it not as good as before, I heard that our Great Song Dynasty now uses Zhancheng rice, two crops a year, and even three crops in the south, plus the official family dispatched 100,000 troops to open the Lingnan land on Jinghu South Road, our Great Song Dynasty should be a big harvest year this year?"

"It's a big harvest year, but now the summer and autumn taxes are not only our West Water Gate, Zhengzhou Guancheng also has a Cao Yun Wharf, and a lot of Cao boats went to Guancheng and took the highway into Tokyo City."

Speaking of the highway, the young apprentice's eyes lit up: "It turned out to be taking the highway!" Not to mention that the highway is much faster than our boat, I'm afraid it won't take half a day to arrive in Tokyo City, the last time I picked up the old lady into the city is to take the road, that is called a flat, there is a special carriage to sit, there are four horses pulled! ”

"Your kid is also extravagant enough now, he dares to sit in a carriage or a four-horse horse, and he is not afraid of having no money to support his family?"

"What's that! A trip is only ten cents, and now a cup of tea costs five cents! My wife and I stopped for tea at that time. ”

The old boatman was taken aback: "Scared! Only ten cents? We'll have a chance to sit down in the future! That's fair treatment......"

"Hehe, if it is nothing compared to the ministers, the big car of the people is enjoyed by one person, and our carriage has a full thirty people, and sometimes we have to sit on the board! But after all, it is cheaper to have a car, I heard that this is proposed by the Fan bachelor of the Road Administration Institute, and it is a good policy to benefit the people! ”

The two were about to say something, but the older man suddenly found the fluttering flags and the noisy gongs and drums, so that he put his hands on the pergola, and saw the flying dragon banner from a distance and was stunned, and the young apprentice said tremblingly: "This is the official family patrol? ”

"Well, it should be, followed by the ministers, if the official family is on patrol alone, they will not make such a pomp, I'm afraid that they are here to study the West Water Gate, we still do what we should do, don't say anything else."

The apprentice shut up and beat the wooden wedge honestly, the official family went out on patrol and actually came to a dirty place like the West Water Gate, although the West Water Gate has become much cleaner, but it is still the most chaotic place in Tokyo City, not to mention anything else, the muddy water on the cement road alone is enough to make the officials unable to get off, not to mention the officials and the ministers.

But his worries are obviously unnecessary, the loess mat, clean water splashing the street is the basic etiquette of the emperor's patrol, the officials of Kaifeng Mansion have already begun to prepare, and they began to splash before the arrival of the flag in the distance.

Doing so on the cement road is simply redundant, and the loess is washed by the water, which makes the cement road even more muddy.

The old man of Xishuimen knocked on the ground with his cane and shouted at the little official: "What are you doing? The official family is coming soon, you have made this cement road into a yellow mud road, so how can the official family walk? Isn't it over just splashing the street with clean water? The cement road does not absorb water, and it can be washed clean quickly! ”

The little official nodded and said, "It's still the old man's method!" ”

There are a lot of wells in Xishuimen, and everyone is busy working together for a while to make the cement road clean.

Zhao Zhen took the ministers to the West Water Gate mainly to check the West Water Gate of the water transport, under his planning should be reduced every year, in order to reduce the burden on the Yellow River tributaries, but also to check the Yellow River channel, now the Yellow River outside Tokyo is already very high, just like the river on the road, which is a huge threat to the city of Tokyo.

When Zhao Zhen was still the crown prince, he gave a way to dredge the Yellow River waterway, but now the effect is not obvious, mainly because of the excessive sediment in the upper reaches.

Zhao Zhen grabbed a handful of sediment from the river and frowned slightly at Wang Zeng: "Why is there still so much sediment in the upper reaches, can't it be rectified a little?" And how many times have I said that the river embankment should not be planted with willows, just for the pleasure of the scenery and ignore the risk of destruction of the embankment? ”

Wang Zeng said helplessly: "It is a common practice to weeping willows, and they are very loved by literati and artists, and the cost of removing willows is huge, so the local government is unwilling to do such a thankless task." ”

"Then watch the bottom of the river being destroyed by these willows? I ordered people to cut down the willows on the embankment of the Yellow River, and to ensure the safety of the embankment, I don't want the city of Tokyo to be submerged in water. ”

Wang Zeng nodded and said, "Since Your Majesty has a strict order, then they will also do what is needed, and please ask Your Majesty to let the three divisions allocate it." ”

Zhao Zhen nodded slightly and said, "This is very good, Cai Boyu's fleet should also come back, right?" ”

"I said Ying Tianfu half a day ago, and according to the speed of the boat, it should be almost there."

As soon as Wang Zeng's words were finished, he saw a junior colonel approaching on horseback, turned over and dismounted, and saluted a standard military salute: "Qi Guan's house, the mission has entered the territory of Kaifeng Mansion, and it will be in about half an hour!" ”

Wang Zeng suddenly realized that the official family took the ministers on patrol this time to welcome the mission, and it seems that this time the Great Song Dynasty sent an envoy to the Wa Kingdom of special significance.

Zhao Zhen said before that there was a lot of silver in the Wa Kingdom, which was almost impossible in the eyes of the courtiers, after all, silver was a precious metal that was very valuable in Huanghuang China, let alone the wild land of the Wa Kingdom.

Zhao Zhen knows the thoughts of these scholars, to be precise, all the people in the Central Plains Dynasty have the idea of being superior to foreign barbarians, which is the Confucianism of thousands of years, in their opinion, the so-called people who don't know the number of etiquette are foreign barbarians, since they are barbarians, they must be poor.

The fleet with a special flag slowly sailed into the West Water Gate, and there were as many as five ships loaded with tribute, and the courtiers who watched were dumbfounded, but then someone reacted and said: "It's a little bit of a special product of the Wa Kingdom, and something like that......"

Zhao Zhen grinned silently, a specialty country? What things can Cai Boyu's personality bring? It is already quite good not to bring the silver mines of the Wa Kingdom back to the Great Song Dynasty, and the price of Cai Ji's goods is quite expensive.

The fleet landed at the West Water Gate, and when Xia Zhu and Cai Boyu appeared in front of the people, Zhao Zhen breathed a long sigh of relief, fortunately, this kid came back with all beards and tails, if he was missing arms and legs, he really couldn't explain to Zhao Miaoyuan, and he didn't know that Zhao Miaoyuan had a private meeting with Cai Boyu in Yingtianfu.

Xia Zhu walked up to Zhao Zhen and bowed and saluted: "The official family, the minister and the concubine sent an envoy to the Japanese country to obtain a letter of state from the emperor of the Japanese state, and submitted it to the official family!" ”

This is all within everyone's expectations, Xia Zhu and Cai Boyu have been envoys to the Wa Kingdom for a whole year, which is completely beyond expectations, and everyone is worried that they will never return, after all, any accident can happen in the vast sea.

But Xia Zhu's next words stunned everyone: "This time to the Wa Kingdom, the ministers and horses were unfortunately blown away by the storm and lost in the vast sea, just when the ministers and others were in despair, they saw a group of small islands appear on the sea like a link, and the ministers sailed into the island and found that this was the Liuqiu ......country in the Sui and Tang Dynasty documents."

Xia Zhu's words surprised Zhao Zhen, he didn't expect these two people to arrive at the Ryukyu Islands in later generations, and what is even more valuable is that they also brought back the letter of the King of Tiansun, is this considered a blessing and misfortune?

Undoubtedly, Xia Zhu's unexpected envoy made him win the praise of the courtiers, whether these praises were sincere or not, but his behavior of raising the atmosphere of the state and educating the vulgar people can really afford it.