The Song Dynasty, which was not threatened by the Mongols, actually had a very nourishing life.

I don't know if Emperor Lizong's eight characters are good, or the ancestral tomb incense of the Zhao family in the past two years is high, in the past year, the Great Song Dynasty boundary, which had frequent natural disasters every year, was calm and calm in the Chunyou period, and there was almost no large-scale famine that swept a province, although there were some small disasters and small epidemics, but in the overall situation of the country, it was not enough to cause a big impact.

From Huainan East Road in the north to Guangnan West Road in the south, a piece of rippling golden wheat waves ripple on the fields, and the two crops of rice in the paddy fields are also green and joyful.

If agriculture is prosperous, the country will be stable, and if the country is stable, business will rise. Behind them, either the porters who are buried in their carts and carrying their hands on their shoulders, or the coachmen who are holding their whips high and urging the carts and animals in a funny tone of "have to drive", the merchants' faces are filled with inherent smiles, and the expressions between their eyebrows clearly show that they are calculating how much they can gain from this journey.

Money will definitely be earned.

The heavy load was placed in the load, on the cart, and then pressed to the ground through the porter's feet and the wheels of the cart, and a series of footprints and deep ruts were imprinted on the muddy ground, stretching over the official road until it reached the other side of the deep woods in the mountains.

The roads are rugged, and although they extend in all directions, there are always many inconveniences.

Where there is a waterway, it is much more convenient, at least not a high-cost mode of transportation such as manpower and livestock, and the flat-bottomed boat sails on the water, brisk and efficient.

The south is more than the north, the most significant difference is here, although the south is mountainous, hilly, undulating, few plains, but the dense cobweb-like waterway is the north in any case can not be compared, in the Song Dynasty where all transportation relies on legs, the more and less, dense and sparse, directly related to the efficiency and speed of transportation.

The south water represented by the Yangtze River, Huai River and other big rivers supported the artery of the east-west traffic in the Song Dynasty, and the water transportation was unprecedentedly developed, and the waterways developed at a rapid pace since the Tang Dynasty have been built and expanded by various dynasties many times, and when it came to the Southern Song Dynasty, it has become the main way to communicate with various places and concentrate the income of many transshipment envoys to the capital.

It can be said that it is precisely because of the vigorous and powerful waterway transportation that the Song Dynasty set up a transshipment envoy to concentrate the wealth of the whole country in the center of the political idea to have a basis for realization, without such an unprecedented waterway transportation capacity, relying only on primitive land transportation, a cart of grain sent to Beijing is afraid that most of the road will be lost, and half of the cart of silver must be paid to the coachman porter.

So the vast river surface, the ships shuttle like the carp across the river, dense, the blue sky is clear and cloudless in the good weather, standing on the bank of the Yangtze River pass Yichang area, stop and overlook, into the eyes are all sails, hundreds of boats compete for the current, thousands of sails compete, there is really the momentum of the blue waves of our generation.

Sail along the water, talking about speed, if it happens to catch the wind, it will be even cooler, the boatmen almost don't need to work hard, just lazily stand on the boat, look at the rudder of the boat with artemisia, and the water and wind will automatically push the boat forward.

Yichang in the Southern Song Dynasty, called Xiazhou, belongs to the North Road of Jinghu, from Sichuan into Huguang, after passing the Kuimen down the river to Xiazhou, even if it enters the jurisdiction of Jinghu.

After passing through the narrow waterway around Kuimen, the Yangtze River is cheerful here, like a giant suddenly moving away from the mountains of the surging river, the surging river suddenly loses the heavy stones that wrap itself, the water surface suddenly calms down, the open river surface is calm and natural, like a spicy Sichuan girl, after coming to Huxiang, she immediately changed her body and became gentle and shy.

Wang Kui stood by the window on the second floor of the official ship, listening to the officers and soldiers on the bow of the ship raising flags and shouting loudly to the civilian ships in front of him to get out of the way, while looking at the picturesque landscapes on both sides, and sighed incessantly.

"Second brother, come, come, come, look, go from here, that's there, go ashore from there, ride a horse and run up a few miles, it's Xiazhou, called Yiling in ancient times, and Lu Xun burned Liu Bei's army during the Three Kingdoms, which happened here."

He dots his fingers and spits in his mouth, and has great potential as a tour guide.

Changsun Hong stood beside him, nodded again and again, and let out an exclamation of "oh oh" very cooperatively.

To be honest, this is also the first time that Changsun Hong has gone east out of Sichuan and gone to other places, and everything is indeed very fresh.

Along the way, everything you see and hear has a strong visual impact. The Yangtze River waterway, which was comparable to the high-speed railway of later generations, completely subverted his understanding of the shipbuilding industry of the Song Dynasty.

Originally, I thought that the Southern Song Dynasty, which was more than 1,000 years AD, could make something like a sampan, but I knew that this was not the case.

Take the official ship under its feet, for example, with a displacement of about 200 tons, ten zhang long and two zhang wide, a flat-bottomed square head, a two-story building on the deck, an all-wooden structure, the ship's board is nailed to death with rivets one by one, firm and solid, the towering herringbone mast is more than five zhang high, deeply penetrating into the three-layer deck and inserting into the bottom compartment, the sail is large and wide, and when the whole sail is opened, it is like a fan eating the wind steadily. The huge rudder behind it was more than a man tall.

Such a ship, sailing on the Yangtze River, is majestic, ordinary civilian ships have avoided it, and those short and round cargo ships like turtles dare not approach, and the majesty of the imperial court can be seen.

However, from the mouths of the boatmen, Changsun Hong learned that if this kind of ship is in the coastal area, it is a row, and it is not big at all.

The treasure ship that goes to sea is amazingly large, a ship with a displacement of at least 1,000 tons or more, the boat gang is four or five stories high, can carry a thousand people, sail through the storm in the four seas and be unharmed, often a sea is a year and a half years, and when it returns, the income can be a big rich man.

Changsun Hong was thinking about the port by the sea in his mind, and he was not very interested in Lu Xun's affairs, and while "oh oh", he touched the window frame and thought about something.

Wang Kui said that he didn't notice his brother's demeanor at first, but he still scratched his fingers a little bit, and his mouth was full of lotus flowers, and when he finished talking about the Three Kingdoms, he turned around and found that Changsun Hong was actually looking in the other direction with his head held high and his hands on the pergola.

The bearded maker was a little angry, just like a storyteller who had been talking for a long time but found that the audience was playing mahjong below, and he didn't have face at all.

"Second brother, what are you looking at?" He couldn't get angry, so he asked with his breath in his breath.

Changsun Hong suddenly came back to his senses, noticed that Wang Kui's tone was different, and knew why, so he hurriedly smiled apologetically: "Brother, I'm sorry, I'm looking at Rui Fuxiang's shop on the shore." ”

"Rui Fuxiang's shop?" Wang Kui felt strange: "There is also a semicolon here?" What's there to see? ”

He followed the gaze of Changsun Hong to the shore, and sure enough, on the bustling riverside street on the Xiazhou wharf, he saw a huge and eye-catching flag waving in the wind in the most conspicuous position, and the three big characters of "Rui Fuxiang" were larger than the three door panels.

However, this is not surprising, Ruifuxiang is a well-known big business name throughout the country, with diverse operations and rich wealth, and Xiazhou is the gateway to Sichuan and Jinghu, and it is very common for it to appear here.

Wang Kui glanced at it a few times, seemed to understand something, and said with a smile: "The second brother's business is booming, you want to show off in front of me?" ”

The eldest grandson Hong grinned slightly, turned around and arched his hand: "Where is my brother, Rui Fuxiang's business is good or bad, it is all handled by the shopkeeper, I do not participate, and the profits and dividends obtained are all invested in the livelihood of Dali, and almost nothing falls into my private pocket." How can you have the capital to show off in front of your brother. ”

Wang Kui raised his eyebrows and smiled without saying a word.

Changsun Hong was also free and easy, not to be entangled, and turned back to the window, and said to Wang Kui: "Actually, what I see is not Rui Fuxiang's signboard, but the ships docked at the freight dock under the signboard flag. ”

"Boat?" Wang Kui stopped laughing, was slightly stunned, and turned his gaze back on: "It's just some cargo ships." ”

"That's right, if this kind of cargo ship is used to transport troops, how many people can be carried in one ship?"

The eldest grandson squinted, the morning sun shone on his face, reflecting his face golden, and the scarf on his head covered his forehead, making him look like a rich boy inspecting his fleet from the side.

(End of chapter)