Yang Congyi's life in Taihu County was very comfortable, and when there was no case, he had nothing to do, so he was called by the county magistrate to collect autumn grain.

Autumn grain collection generally begins with the autumn harvest and continues until the beginning of winter. Taihu County's collection of autumn grain does not need him to go down to the field to collect it from every household, most of the peasant households or landlords will send it by themselves, and the officials only need to check whether the grain handed in by the peasant households is enough, and how much grain should be paid by each household.

The ancient tax system was very complicated, and there were many kinds of taxes, how to calculate and collect, Yang Congyi had no interest in understanding, and according to the amount written in the household register, the collection and registration was just that.

The tax collection of each county is rich in oil and water, and it is generally responsible for the county or the main book, but there is only one official in the entire county government of Taihu County, that is, Chen Rushi, the county magistrate, he is not interested in collecting money, and it is generally collected according to the regulations of the imperial court, not more, not more, so the tax burden of the people of Taihu County is much lighter than that of the surrounding counties, and it is precisely because of this that his strict punishment and strict law did not force the people to rebel, otherwise how could he have an idle county lord to do.

The collection of autumn grain was very smooth, and the vast majority of the 12,000 registered households, except for the more than 4,000 households exempt from tax, paid the autumn grain in full within half a month, which shocked Yang Congyi very much.

In his impression, the autumn grain collection should be collected from the grain poor door to door, and the peasant households are unwilling to pay, and when they can't collect it, they have to use force.

Regarding the situation of peasant landlords competing to pay grain every day, Yang Congyi can only understand that they are afraid of Chen Zhixian's promotion to the court, after all, they can even go to prison for a quarrel, let alone not pay grain tax.

As fewer and fewer farmers came to the county to pay grain, Yang Congyi did not participate anymore and continued to practice calligraphy every day.

One day, Yang Congyi was concentrating on practicing calligraphy, but a servant came to tell him that the county lord called him over.

Yang Congyi wondered in his heart, the autumn grain has basically been collected, and there are no cases recently, what can the county magistrate do to find him? However, he did not hesitate, packed up his pen and ink a little, and went to see the county master.

After being reported by the maid, Yang Congyi was taken into Chen Zhixian's study.

As soon as I entered the study, a strong fragrance of ink wafted into my heart, and I saw Chen Zhixian sitting at the desk with a document in his hand. The bookshelf behind him is full of books, and on the wall on the left side is a pair of words, which read, "Old books are not tired of reading a hundred times, and you know yourself by reading them carefully", and in front of the desk is a landscape painting, I don't know the source.

Yang Congyi was inconvenient to look at more, so he walked to Chen Zhixian's desk three feet away and stopped, and asked carefully, "My lord, I don't know what to tell me?" ”

Chen Zhixian was seriously looking at the document in his hand, looked up at him, and said to himself with some sorrow, "Jinghu South Road and Jiangnan West Road reported to the imperial court that this year's flood and the autumn grain production was reduced by seven or eighty percent. The household department sent people to verify and learned that the floods in these two roads were caused by the disrepair of the river embankments and waterways, and the man-made disasters were far greater than the natural disasters. When the emperor learned about it, he was extremely angry, and dismissed all the two roads to the top of the warehouse and down to the county magistrate, and never hired. After hearing about this, the Huaixi pacification envoy was very worried, fearing that there would also be uncontrollable floods in Huaixi, so he sent down an official letter asking all prefectures and counties to clean up the river and renovate and strengthen the river embankment before the end of the year. ”

Yang Congyi didn't know what Chen Zhixian's intention was to tell him this, he was just a temporary worker who had just filled the vacancy for less than a month, and was doing chores for the yamen, so there was no need to tell him this, and why did he tell him this? However, he didn't ask questions, but waited for Chen Zhixian's next step.

I only heard Chen Zhixian say again, "I have been the county governor of Taihu Lake for more than three years, but I know very little about the mountains and rivers in this county, and I am not very good at repairing embankments and dredging. Historically, natural disasters have been accompanied by man-made disasters, and once a flood occurs, it will inevitably be difficult for the people to make a living. Taihu County is located in a remote area, and in the north of the Yangtze River, susceptible to the invasion of Jin soldiers, except for me, the imperial court did not send other officials, more than 100,000 people in this county, the official affairs are complicated, many affairs are not enough, can only fake others, but the county government this gang of small officials stealing and playing tricks, has become a nature, such a major matter related to the people's livelihood, I don't worry about letting them do it. Yang Zhutou, when you first entered the public gate, you did not merge with other small officials, the road was uneven, you helped each other with righteousness, you were quite chivalrous, and you had read the sage book, and you could read and break words, which was also rare. Recently, I see that you have also done your duty and impartiality in assisting in the collection of autumn grain, and you have done a good job in such important matters of people's livelihood. I called you here today to hand over the matter of repairing the embankment and controlling the river to you, what do you think? ”

Where can Yang Congyi build embankments and control rivers, he studied human resource management in college, not engineering management, he has a few catties and taels, he knows very well that this is a matter of people's lives, no jokes, no adulteration. Besides, Taihu County belongs to the Yangtze River water system, the rainy season is long, the precipitation is large, and the flood will definitely occur every year. Then he refused, "My lord, I am only a shallow learner, and I don't know anything about water control, so I'm afraid it will be difficult to do it." ”

Chen Zhixian's tone changed slightly, and he said coldly, "If this county knows how to control water, it won't let you come to control it, which is also a last resort." The county has full authority to control the water, and if you want someone to give it, the county will give you money, and if you want it, the county will give you money, and if the matter is done, the county will have another reward. ”

This is obviously to catch the ducks on the shelf, Yang Congyi heard Chen Zhixian say this, and knew that the matter of water control could not be shirked, and the entire county government knew that the county lord was an official, everything was decided by the county magistrate, and who could he push it to, so he had to nod his head and said, "I listen to the arrangement of the adults and try my best to do a good job in this matter." ”

Seeing that Yang Congyi agreed, Chen Zhixian's face softened, "Okay, I didn't see the wrong person." You can choose any people in the yamen, as long as you can cure the water, you will give whatever you want. ”

Yang Congyi said, "My lord, the matter of controlling the water is also very complicated, let me go back and think about it first, and if there is a need, I will report to the adult." ”

Chen Zhixian said, "Okay, let's go." ”

Yang Congyi answered, and then withdrew from Chen Zhixian's study.

Flooding has been a major problem since the beginning of mankind and cannot be avoided. Water is the basic element of survival, and when transportation is not convenient, people only have to get closer and closer to the water source, and the closer they are to the water source, the closer they are to the flood. As the mother river, the Yellow River gave birth to the Chinese civilization, but whenever she flooded and roared, she did not recognize the children and grandchildren who relied on her for survival.

For the Yellow River, the descendants are grateful and suffering. The Yangtze River is the same.

Yang Congyi knows that human beings will never be able to lock up the water, and there will never be an end to the water control, but he understands that it is too irresponsible to abandon it and let the flood rage because it is not cured.

He needs to think about it, how to treat this water, there must be a lot of rivers in places like Taihu County with abundant precipitation, whether it is to clean up the river or raise the embankment, it is a big project, there are only four months before the end of the year, no matter what to do, the time is very tight.

Yang Congyi returned to his room, he needed to make a rough plan first, like a headless fly, it would definitely not work out.

For a whole afternoon, Yang Congyi locked himself in his room to write a water control plan, he had never been exposed to water control-related things, and he knew that making plans was just behind closed doors, but he had to build it, and it was better than nothing.

That night, he went to Chen Zhixian with a plan to discuss. Chen Zhixian didn't know how to control water, and he was not interested in listening to it, but Yang Congyi still insisted on reporting the plan to him.

Yang Congyi told Chen Zhixian that starting tomorrow he will visit every village and town in Taihu County, investigate the situation of every river during the flood season, and mark every section of the river that threatens people's livelihood. After all the river conditions are fully understood, the elders and patriarchs of the villages and towns who have prestige in the local area are summoned to arrange the dredging and repair of embankments in specific river sections. Although the people's water control is for the benefit of the people and themselves, since it is advocated by the government, it is better to make some efforts.

After listening to Yang Congyi's ideas for water control, Chen Zhixian nodded again and again, promising to let him do it, and told Yang Congyi that when it was time for him to come forward, he would never shirk.

Water control is related to people's livelihood, and a major flood can displace many families and destroy them, so we must be cautious and not careless.

Yang Congyi has been in the yamen for many days, and he can see clearly that those officials are quick to arrest, and almost none of them are serious about doing things, and they will never do it if they don't arrange it, even if they are arranged to do it, they are also cheating and playing tricks, so that they are smart, and they can rely on it. It is very important to investigate the matter of the river, and he is determined to run Taihu County in person, but he is not familiar with Taihu County, and he knows very little about the local customs and customs, and he still needs help, he does not have many acquaintances in the county government, and at this time he thought of Liu San, the official who was living in the yamen.

After that, Yang Congyi took Liu San to go deep into the 157 villages and towns of Taihu County, carefully inspect the 98 rivers in the territory, from autumn to winter, lasted two months, and brought back a large number of water pattern materials.

When Yang Congyi appeared in front of Chen Zhixian again, Chen Zhixian almost couldn't believe his eyes, he stood up excitedly and walked to Yang Congyi, held his shoulders with both hands, said a few hard times, and then asked him to sit down.

Looking at the young man in front of him with a dark face and his hands full of wounds, Chen Zhixian was uneasy, once upon a time, he was also a hot-blooded young man, determined to sprinkle a piece of blood and protect a landscape, who knew that in just a few years, he became hiding in the study all day long, what changed his original intention? He fell into deep thought.

Yang Congyi saw that Chen Zhixian was silent, so he took the initiative to report, "My lord, let me tell you about the situation investigated during this time. As he spoke, he flipped through the large booklets he had brought with him.

Chen Zhixian heard Yang Congyi speak, and then he came back to his senses from deep thought.

I only listened to Yang Congyi's information from the investigation and slowly said, "This time, we went to more than 150 villages and towns, and inspected in detail the 98 rivers that pass through the people's living areas. According to the local people, there are 47 rivers that are seriously flooded every summer, and 11 places that are flooded only in the event of a major flood, and a total of 58 rivers need to be repaired. Thirty-five of the 58 rivers have been repaired, but they have been washed away by the river for some years, and there are 23 places that have hardly been repaired, and the local people are just raising the embankment on the edge of their fields to resist floods, but it has little effect, and these need to be organized by the government to be repaired intensively.

There are still dozens of hidden dangers and less harmful places, and we have asked the villagers to clean up their own fields when the farm is slack, so as not to damage their fields when the water rises. There are 87 villages and towns that need to be organized and coordinated by the government, and we have notified the Li Zheng and the sect chiefs of these villages and towns in advance, asking them to come to the county government on the third day of the winter month, and everything is subject to the arrangements of the county magistrate. Today is the first day of the new year, if there is no problem, they will come the day after tomorrow, and then the adult will need to preside over it in person. This is the situation of the villages and towns involved in the 58 rivers and the local people sorted out according to the rivers, and most of the river repairs involve two or more villages and towns, and the mutual prevarication is quite serious, and the contradictions are very great. ”

After speaking, Yang Congyi put several booklets recording the details on the case of Chen Zhixian.

After listening to Yang Congyi's report, Chen Zhixian opened the booklet he had sorted out, and looked carefully, only to see that there was a river painted on each page, what direction the river was going, what villages and towns were around, how many households, where the river threatened farmland, how much farmland would be affected by floods, etc., marked clearly, and couldn't help but slap the case, and said with great emotion, "It's amazing, it's amazing, young and promising, it's really condescending to let you be a little head catcher." ”

Yang Congyi said, "Don't dare, thank you for lifting up." ”

Chen Zhixian continued to boast, "You don't have to be so modest, judging from your record alone, it is very unusual." For each of these flooded rivers, you indicate the exact location, the number of acres of land that will be endangered by the flooding, the length of the river that needs to be trimmed and the height at which it needs to be reinforced, and the number of people in the villages and towns involved in the river. Looking at each record, I knew everything about it as if I had been there myself. It's really rare, Lord Zhang is really discerning. ”

Yang Congyi thanked again, "My lord has won the award." ”

Chen Zhixian said, "You have been running around for more than two months, and you are tired, go back and rest for a few days, and I, the parent official, should do the rest." ”

Yang Congyi got up and said goodbye, "Yes, Lord Xie." ”

He was indeed very tired, running in the fields all day, and it was common to cross the mountains and mountains, and these two months were much harder than he had been hunting in the mountains before, and he went back to his room and fell asleep.

In the next two months of river embankment management, Yang Congyi was not allowed to continue to participate, but Chen Zhixian still asked him to do the final acceptance, after all, he was familiar with the situation in every place.

Even so, Yang Congyi has a lot of time to read and write, of course, reading books is not for the imperial examination, he doesn't have that mind, purely to make himself look more like a Song Dynasty person, and integrate into this era more naturally.