How did the ship stop?

When Meng Zhaozheng was confused, he saw that Lin Fu had already led people to row to the shore in a small boat, and he was already going to negotiate with the slender men who were roasting the fire.

The Shandong boundary is the most difficult section of the river, because it is where the ridge is located and the source of the north and south rivers of the canal. Especially now that the water is dry, the flow of the river is smaller, so that the banks on both sides are already exposed.

When the boat reaches this section, the deepest part of the river is only up to the waist of an adult, and it is already impossible to drive normally, and it is necessary to pull the fiber to pass through this section of the river.

"Since it's the official's ship, then everything is easy to say!"

The leader of the slender man looked very honest, but his small eyes revealed shrewdness, and he glanced up at the official boats in the river, and even showed his attitude.

Most of the slender men are nearby villagers, and whenever the dry season comes, they will work here to make a living. However, disputes inevitably arise in areas where there are interests, and some good sections of the river have become the objects of contention between various parties, resulting in the development of slender man groups in some places into "associations" like the triad in Hong Kong.

They also look at the price of the ship, and the asking price for the merchant ship will be higher, but they dare not make a random price for the official ship, and generally only make a hard-earned money.

"You won't have a penny less, this is the deposit, you take it first, and there will be a reward for doing a good job!" Lin Fu didn't care about this little money, even if he handed over the silver, he said happily.

The leader of the slender man looked like an honest man who talked about the rules, and his tanned face showed a mouth full of yellow teeth, and he led his men to work seriously.

The official ship was not too big, but the wood was very strong, but fortunately there was no cargo on board, and it was not too heavy overall.

More than a dozen slender men plus Lin Fu took a few people to help pull the fiber, and walked forward step by step, and the official boat slowly advanced in the shallow river, which seemed to be fast and slow, and it had to walk hundreds of meters to pass this section of the river.

But I don't know if it's because of poverty, or because I'm worried that my clothes will be worn out by the rope, a few sturdy slender men are naked in this cold winter, and they are very hard to walk in the forefront.

When Lin Fu saw them like this, he secretly felt admiration in his heart, and he also worked harder to move forward.

Living in this era, in fact, it is not easy for anyone. If this were not the case, many ordinary people would not grit their teeth for their sons to go to school and study, hoping that the family would have a decent scholar who lives by the pen.

Lin Haoran has been standing on the deck, watching this group of slender men wearing thin clothes in the cold winter pulling the fiber, and can't help but sigh secretly in his heart, and asked the two protégés behind him: "This canal is almost finished, what do you two have to do about the cheats?" ”

In his opinion, from the analysis of economic interests, Zhu Di's relocation of the capital is not a cost-effective deal.

The grain production of the northern provinces was insufficient, and they could not be responsible for the rice needs of the capital and the clan, so that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal became the lifeline of the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that after the Grand Canal and the Yellow River were connected, the Yellow River silted up, flooded and other problems, so that the imperial court had to spend huge sums of money to maintain this fragile lifeline, which brought a huge burden to the finances of the Ming Dynasty.

If the imperial city of the Ming Dynasty is still in Nanjing, it will directly reduce the huge expenditure on maintaining this lifeline, and it will more effectively control the prosperous area in the south of the Yangtze River, and it can also strengthen the radiation to Fujian and Guangdong.

However, this is a fact after all, and the malpractice has become one of the stubborn diseases of the current Ming Dynasty, and it requires the rulers to use wisdom to solve this thorny problem.

Meng Zhao and Wang Shiju couldn't help but glance at each other when they heard Lin Haoran's inquiry, knowing that this was the teacher who was going to formally assess them. Meng Zhao was not in a hurry to answer, but nodded lightly to Wang Shiju encouragingly.

Wang Shiju adjusted his slightly nervous mood, and then replied: "Teacher, the disciple has always lived in the Shuntian Mansion, and he has never experienced the canal. Now witnessing this kind of situation, I feel a lot of emotion in my heart, and the disciple thinks that the disadvantage of the canal is the suffering of the soldiers! They transported grain from south to north, and it was not easy all the way, and the disciples saw that more than ten soldiers were covered in the Yellow River that day, and it was still difficult to sleep and eat! ”

The Cao soldiers of the Ming Dynasty adopted the military system, with a Cao Yun general soldier, a general who cooperated with the supervision of the transport, and more than a dozen generals. It's just that the general goes down, there is no military position, and the general directly commands thousands of troops.

Due to the lack of personnel rights, the serious cliques within the Cao soldiers, and the transportation of hundreds of stone grains, they are like a ship of scattered sand, and the Cao soldiers have a very difficult life.

Lin Haoran knew that this was indeed a problem, so he nodded lightly and asked Meng Zhao again: "Tinglun, what about you?" ”

"Back to the teacher, the disciple thinks that the root cause is that the canal is loaded!" Meng Zhao had set foot on this canal for the second time, and he already had a new experience, so he immediately responded respectfully.

When Lin Haoran heard this answer, his eyes immediately lit up slightly, and he asked in surprise: "Tinglun, your point of view is novel, why do you have this idea?" ”

"The disciple observes all the way, and at the same time thinks all the time! In particular, the battle with the prince of Yi Wang for the river lock made the disciple feel that the mouth was suddenly opened, thinking that it was not that the canal was sick, but that there were too many ships coming and going. The reason for this is that there is too much rice and grain transported by Cao, which has exceeded the capacity of the canal! Meng Zhao replied with a solemn expression on his face.

"Senior brother's words don't seem appropriate!" Wang Shiju's brows furrowed slightly, and he questioned what he thought in his heart.

Meng Zhao smiled slightly, but asked rhetorically as an example: "If this canal only transports a bucket of rice, do you think there will be so many disputes along the way?" ”

"No!" Wang Shiju thought for a moment, and immediately shook his head slowly.

Meng Zhao smiled proudly, and bowed his hand respectfully to Lin Haoran: "Teacher, what's wrong with not knowing what the students think?"

If there is anyone in this world who impresses him the most, it is the teacher in front of him. Like this time to the south to rectify the salt policy, the outline of the salt law is simply a stroke of genius, so that the salt malpractice can be easily solved.

In the same way, if anyone can solve the big stubborn problem of cheating, he knows that there is only this teacher in front of him, even if it is the current Zaifu Xu Jie, he does not have this ability.

"Your idea is very novel, you can indeed start by reducing the transportation volume of rice, and I plan to do this when I return to Beijing this time, but this is a cure for the root cause after all!" Lin Haoran nodded lightly.

When Meng Zhao heard the latter sentence, he knew that this was indeed not a cure, and he sighed secretly in his heart.

"Teacher, the rations of the people in the capital and the rice of the vassal kings in the north are all fixed, and the transportation volume of Cao rice may not be reduced, right?" Wang Shiju was a native of Shuntianfu, and immediately put forward the flaw of this move.

A crazy thought immediately flashed through Meng Zhao's mind, and he turned his head to look at Lin Haoran in shock and said, "Teacher, could it be that you are returning to Beijing this time to rectify the stubborn disease of the sect Lumi?" ”