From Jiangling to Lin'an, it is true that as Meng Heng said, the transportation is very convenient.

Take a fast boat, smooth the wind and water, along the Yangtze River all the way to the east, there are almost no obstacles, the river is wide, the channel is deep enough, no matter how large the ship can be unimpeded. If the face is big enough, it is a military ship of the imperial court, and there is a rollover configuration, then the speed can be faster.

Wang Kui took Meng Heng's boat, which was a clipper with an overturn.

The boat was sent by Dong Huai, there are not many other departments along the river, that is, there are many boats, the largest boat in the navy, can accommodate hundreds of foot soldiers to board the boat to fight, there are five or six masts on the boat, the largest one, and it takes two big men with long hands and feet to be embraced. Meng Heng's boat is used to go to Beijing, and it must pass through the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, but it doesn't need to be so big, and the medium one is ready. The people of Xichuan plus the Gangneung people who went with them on the boat, a total of more than 200 people on the boat did not look crowded at all.

The ship has four decks, the lowest layer is the ballast stone, and the penultimate layer is where the overturned car is located.

Two large, waterwheel-like overturned bodies stand on either side of the hull, connected to the hull by wooden brackets. When using it, twenty sailors must press the pedals to drive the overturned car to turn, row up the water, and the boat can fly in the water.

Such a device, somewhat like a steamship in the steam age, the only difference is power, which relies on manpower, and the steamship relies on a steam engine.

Changsun Hong is not Watt, and he has not been to the museum to see the principle of the steam engine, so he lay on the boat and looked at the overturned car, hoping to form a spark of science and technology in his mind, but after all, without professional knowledge, the spark could not come out, and in the end he could only pretend to enjoy the scenery and sigh in vain.

The ship is like flying, the hull is several sizes larger than the boat that Wang Kui and others sat on earlier, but it is much faster, and in two or three days, it crossed several roads through the state and came to Jiankang Mansion.

The eastern capital of Jiankang, that is, Nanjing in later generations, Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty fled from the north, set up the capital in Jiangning Mansion, and promoted Jiangning Mansion to Jiankang Mansion. After staying here for a few months, I still felt that it was still unsafe, so I stomped my feet and continued to run south, and when I arrived in Hangzhou, I felt that this place was repaired well by King Wu Yue, and there were mountains and rivers and outstanding people, it was a good place to go, so I officially started to operate, and promoted Hangzhou to Lin'an Mansion, set up soldiers and horses, built a palace, and settled down.

Passing by the river, you can see the stone wall of Jiankang Mansion standing on the river bank on the water, and when the water rises, you can jump on the city wall by taking a springboard from the bow of the boat. The city is majestic, as the Yangtze River defense line is almost the last to Lin'an's big city fortress, the guard of Jiankang Mansion is extremely tight, the warships of the sailors gather here, thousands of sails are like clouds, thousands of ships are like shuttles, almost form another city wall in front of Jiankang City.

From Jiankang past, it turned into a tributary, which is the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Canal starts from Hangzhou in the south and reaches Yijun in the north, which was developed by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty at the peak of his national strength, for political and economic reasons.

When the boat entered the canal, it obviously began to slow down, the canal is not as narrow as the big river, the water surface is much narrower, and there are more boats, which naturally affects the speed.

However, the scenery on both sides of the strait is very different from that of the Yangtze River. The towns are dense, the villages are dense, and on both sides of the riverbank, willow trees are planted, and the willow branches are caressing and swaying in the wind. In the distance, there are no longer large fields and thatched grass, but more plains and fields that cannot be seen at a glance, and there are no traces of steep mountains, and large fields can be seen everywhere.

"Good boy, this river was dug by man?" A barbarian general named Yang Xiaolei stuck out his tongue and couldn't stop sighing: "How much manpower and material resources does this cost?" I'm afraid it's enough for us to eat Shimen Fan for a year, right? ”

"Hehe, you're wrong." Changsun Hong corrected him: "This river was widened and deepened on the basis of a few small rivers dug in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the cool official Ma Shumou who presided over this project used as many as 50,000 supervisors alone, and hundreds of thousands of people died here during the construction period. ”

Yang Xiaolei and the others were dumbfounded when they heard this, and their eyelids were shaking.

"Hundreds of thousands of dead? No wonder the Sui Dynasty is going to die, isn't this not treating people as human beings? They smashed their tongues and shook their heads vigorously: "It's even more ruthless than the Mongols." ”

"But this river, after it was built, has played a big role. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, four hundred years of turmoil, the north was beaten into a ruin, the clothes crossed to the south, the south gradually rose, and there was foreign shipping, industry and commerce were prosperous, rich and golden, agriculture was developed, and the products were abundant, compared to the north, one heaven and one underground. ”

In order to broaden the horizons of his subordinates, Changsun Hong was bored on the boat, so he simply explained the source and function of the canal to a few people: "Emperor Yang Guangding of the Sui Dynasty is Luoyang, which is thousands of miles away from here, and his hand can't reach out, so he has to walk for several months to send someone back and forth on the road, not to mention transporting the grain and rice taxes from here to the north. ”

"In addition, the powerful in the south have money and food, and do not obey discipline, so how to strengthen the influence of the central power in the south and take into account the control of the northern border?"

Changsun Hong asked, looking at a few subordinates.

The subordinates scratched their heads, thought for a while, and then gossiped.

Kowloon Onde said: "It's better to move the capital, move the capital to the south, and follow the example of the two Jin." ”

"No, how can the capital be moved at will." Changsun Hong shook his head: "Foreign invasions are all coming from the north, the capital is inward, the north will naturally be relaxed, the border is related to the survival of the country, and the Sima family of the two Jin Dynasty has been suffering from it all their lives, and it is because of this." ”

"That can move the rich people from the south to the north and bring their wealth with them, which can not only prosper the economy of the north, but also weaken the powerful forces in the south, killing two birds with one stone." Yang Xiaolei said.

"The reason is good, but such a coercive method is equivalent to drinking water to quench thirst, and the damage to the people's power is too great, and it is easy to provoke a backlash. Changsun Hong vetoed.

"That'...... The only way to make the north and south sides as convenient as possible is to make them as convenient as possible. One of his subordinates scratched his head and hesitated.

"Exactly!" The eldest grandson Hong said approvingly: "It is difficult to travel by land, so you can only rely on water, which is the reason why Emperor Yang of Sui built the canal." The existence of this river was not only important to the original Sui Dynasty, but also the lifeblood of the current Great Song Dynasty. The canal to the north is in the hands of the Beiyu, we don't want to talk about him, just the Jiangnan canal under our feet is extremely important. ”

"The two Huai area, all the way to Shandong Zhulu, are battlefields, a few years ago the Red Turban Army fought with the Great Song Dynasty, fought with the Jin people, and finally we fought with the Mongols, it has been scorched earth, but it can't be lost over there, otherwise Jiankang will be under the blade of the Beiyu. How to maintain the food consumption of the two Huai military and civilians? It's by this canal. ”

"Every day of the month, there are boats going up the current to transport grain and grass and soldiers." Changsun Hong pointed to the fleet that was constantly going up and staggered with him, and said: "The transportation of troops from the south to the north and the transfer of grain from the south to the north are all dependent on the canal, so you say, is it worth spending so much manpower and material resources to dig this river?" ”

"Value! Worth it absolutely! The generals of Xichuan were enlightened, and they all nodded.

"Bang Bang!"

Others applauded.

But it was not a slap from the generals of Xichuan, the applause came from the side of the ship a little farther away, a tall man in a Taoist robe.

Everyone turned their eyes and looked at it, and Changsun Hong's eyes lit up.

It was Li Tingzhi who was leaning on the side of the boat and watching the sky idly.

(End of chapter)