In the Xuanzheng Palace.

Luo Cheng found that Wei Zheng, the servant of his door, already had gray hair, "Now that many Zaifu of the government are out to patrol the place, the burden on your shoulders in Beijing is much heavier." I heard that you are all working hard, and you have to do things every day until the second watch, I also remind you, you are all the pillars of my Great Qin, you still have to know how to take care of your body, after all, the body is the capital of things, and you have to work hard. Grasp the big and let go of the small, and the specific affairs can be handed over to the following department and temple supervisor to do. ”

Luo Cheng also gave a lot of supplements to the ministers.

"Speaking of which, none of you lack this thing, you are all big families, and you don't want to say that I am stingy."

Wei Zheng said with a smile, "We people are blessed by His Majesty, although our family also runs some industries, but no matter how much it is, it is not as precious and decent as Your Majesty's reward." In this year's catastrophe, His Majesty collected locusts for disaster relief, but the cost was not known to be hundreds of millions. ”

"Take it from the people, and use it for the people." Although the money in my inner treasury is not taken from the people's taxes, it is also obtained from the people, and the money is all outside the body, as long as it is used in the right place, it is worth spending more. "This year's catastrophe, the imperial treasury pulled out a lot of money and grain to help the people, the emperor's inner treasury did not spend less, just the purchase of tens of millions of stone of locusts, has basically been the original years of accumulation of the royal treasury granary of the grain exhausted.

This year, the inner treasury also went all out to purchase and dispatch grain from Guanwai, Lingnan and other places, and spent a lot of money.

But Luo Cheng is not stingy, he spends the money when it should be spent, and earns it when he finishes it, he is not the kind of miser who refuses to spend it after collecting money, or only cares about his own enjoyment.

"In any case, now that the catastrophe is almost over, there are reports of rain and precipitation in various places, and the drought has finally passed, except for a few counties where the control of locusts is not effective, and there are large swarms of locusts, and the locusts in other places are basically wiped out, and the rest are not plagued. It's not easy, this battle was hard, but it was won. ”

The monarchs and ministers in the palace all felt extremely proud, yes, originally a great locust plague that was rare for decades would sweep the entire Central Plains, but under the leadership of the emperor and the concerted efforts of the government and the opposition, this locust plague was finally eliminated and the loss was minimized.

"Your Majesty, the most congratulatory thing is that there is such a serious drought this year, and there is also locust news, but after so many counties and counties failed to harvest in the first half of the year, there is still no great famine, and there is no phenomenon of displaced people." Wei Zhengdao.

Several other prime ministers also nodded, just a few years ago, the year of the catastrophe was followed by the great famine, the homeless, the bandits and then the rebellion, thousands of miles without the crowing of chickens, white bones exposed in the wild, people changed children and eaten.

But this time, the efforts of the whole court finally achieved good results, there were no displaced people, no large bandits, and no cannibalism.

Not to mention, the unexpected civil strife in Xiao Milling Domain, the imperial court still withstood the pressure at this difficult time, and finally succeeded in controlling Jingxiang and successfully abolishing a feudal domain.

"Qin Qiong is now in Jinghu, disaster relief and relief, and governance of Jinghu, and the results are gratifying." Luo Cheng was very satisfied with Qin Qiong's performance in Jinghu, although this cousin was a military general, but he went out to patrol Jinghu, and his every move was remarkable.

Qin Qiong, who temporarily took over Xiao Milling's mess, not only did not let the situation in Jinghu go down, but also quickly turned into stability, and at this time mobilized the people of Jinghu to start water control and farmland.

"Your Majesty, Qin Qiong spends a lot of money and food in Jinghu, in addition to the food needed for disaster relief, the first phase of the Jinghu Water Conservancy Project is now being built, which costs a lot, and now Jinghu has a list like snowflakes every day to enter Beijing, all of which require money and food."

After all, the imperial court will not use the victims to dig rivers for free, let alone let them not eat and sleep well, so if they don't do well, something big will happen.

To eat well, to live well and to have wages, this is a huge human expense, not to mention the construction of such a large water conservancy project, even if it is only the first phase, it also needs to use many other tools, materials, etc.

"I also know this, but the Jinghu Water Conservancy Project is as important as the Grand Canal, and it can even be said to have a greater impact than the canal, which is a major event involving millions of people in ten counties. If it is really managed, it will turn from a disaster area with nine disasters in the past ten years into a granary of the world. This battle has been planned by the imperial court for thirty years, maybe even longer, but I still insist on fighting, not only to fight, but also to devote all my strength to fight beautifully. Luo Cheng once again reiterated his position and attitude, "Of course, we can't be as eager for quick success as Yang Guang, we can't say that such a big project will have to be completed in a year or two, and we can't fill it with human lives and bones, this can't work, we have to plan reasonably, and we have to take into account the people's ability to bear it." ”

"When people dig rivers, they must be paid, and they cannot be conscripted to dig rivers for free. The imperial court was under great pressure and money and food was tight, so I thought that we could raise part of the shortage of money by issuing new treasury bonds, and when the river was repaired in the future, we could collect special river navigation customs fees on it, and this money could be used to repay the national debt, or we could take out some of it for sale and sale after the polder was enclosed and cultivated in the future, and the proceeds would be used to cover the treasury expenses. ”

Of course, Luo Cheng will definitely put some of it into it himself.

Wei Zheng said, "Qin Qiong is now in Jinghu, not only for disaster relief and digging rivers, but also for cleaning up temples, encircling and suppressing bandits, cracking down on local bullies and profiteers, and cleaning up the borderless land, and he can also raise a lot of money." ”

"If the local people in Jinghu don't have enough manpower, I think we can recruit and hire people from other counties in Jinghu, even Bahan, Jiannan, Qianzhong, Henan, Guanzhong, Huainan, and Shandong to dig rivers and repair embankments."

"Qin Qiong reported that the Jianghan Canal, a key project in the first phase of the project, has now started on the whole line, and it is expected that it will be able to be completed before the year."

Jianghan Canal, is the imperial court's Jinghu water conservancy project in the first phase of the key project, from Jiangling to the east of the Han River, so that there is a more convenient canal waterway between the Jingjiang River and the Han River, after the canal is opened, from Jiangling to Qianjiang, Jingling (Tianmen), it can be reduced from the original 1,200 miles of waterway distance, to 200 miles, a full reduction of thousands of miles.

At the same time, the canal can also play a role in flood discharge and drainage.

In fact, this canal has been excavated as early as the Western Jin Dynasty, and it was called the Yangxia Canal at that time, but by this time, most of it had already been silted.

Therefore, the Jianghan Canal, although part of the use of the Yangfu Canal, is still a brand new canal, the canal from the south of Gangneung City out of the Yangtze River, in the east of the Qiankou into the Han River, reducing the distance of 1,000 miles.

From the Qianjiang River to Xiangyang, and then there is another canal built by the imperial court two years earlier for the Baicai Canal, this river starts from Xiangyang, through the dam to store water, using the discharge balance, water culvert, steep gate, weir dam, large balance, water balance, reservoir, etc., intercepting the Baihe, Danjiang and other water has been led to the Fangchengkou of Funiu Mountain.

This is the junction of Yingchuan County, Henan Province and Nanyang County, Hubei Province, and it is also the watershed between the north and south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River.

The imperial court dug a channel in Fangcheng Dukou just like the Guilin Ling Canal that communicated Wuling, and through various canal and canal techniques, the water was raised at Dukou, so that ships could pass through Dukou, and then connected to the Cai River, which was also dug deep in the north of Dukou.

Although there are many dams and steep gates along the way from Xiangyang to Caihe, and it is not possible to sail directly, but through sectional transportation and other methods, the canal water transportation is still realized, which greatly facilitates the communication between Henan and Xianghan.

Historically, the Song Dynasty dug the Xianghan Cao Canal here, but they failed, because according to their design, they had to dig the dumb mouth seven zhang low, although the dumb mouth is not long, but even if the digging depth is seven zhang, it will face the dilemma of water shortage for a long time every year.

Therefore, the last canal, in fact, needs to get off the boat and transfer the horses to cross the mountain when crossing the dumb mouth.

However, in the later China South-to-North Water Diversion Project, through the construction of the Danjiang Reservoir, the south-to-north water diversion project was carried out by digging only two zhang deep through the Dudukou.

It is under this line of thinking that the imperial court gathered many water conservancy and engineering experts according to the idea of Emperor Luo Cheng a few years ago, and finally through the complex water conservancy and canal technology, only dug two zhang of dumb mouth, and successfully let the canal communicate with Cai Shui, and no longer have to worry about the lack of water in the Cao River.

Luoyang to Yingchuan Caishui has achieved communication, and Caishui is connected to Hanshui, so if the Jianghan Canal is opened again, then from Jiangling to Luoyang, there is a golden waterway, Jiannan, Bahan, Jinghu, and even Qianzhong, Yunnan and Jiangxi and other places, it is extremely convenient for money and grain taxes and commercial goods to enter Luoyang in the future, and even Guanzhong can enter the Baicai Canal through the Badancao River into Luoyang.

In these years, transportation still mainly relies on waterways, and if you can pass through water transportation, then the cost and efficiency of transportation will be greatly improved, which is basically the highway of this era, and the opening of a canal will bring obvious benefits.

"Very good, tell Qin Qiong, I have written down his words, and I will see the smooth flow of the Jianghan Canal before the year. In order to welcome this canal, I decided to establish a new county at the mouth of the Han River on the east side of the canal, which was named Qianjiang County, and established a new county seat and a canal wharf. ”

Historically, the Song people used 100,000 people to dig seven zhang lower than the dumb mouth of the 120-mile square city, but in the end there was no water to pass, so it was still impossible to navigate.

However, the imperial court dug through the Baicai Canal a few years ago, and only dug two zhang at the dumb mouth, using the water of the Danjiang River, and there has been no shortage of water and no navigation in the past two years.

Now digging the Jianghan Canal, digging is still the old canal in the past, the main thing is to dredge, it can be said that it is much easier, there is no technical problem at all.

"When the Jianghan Cao River is opened, it will be navigable from Luoyang to Yingchuan, and then through the Baicai Canal through Nanyang to Xiangyang, and then Xiangyang will arrive at Qianjiang from the Han River, and then from the Jiangjiang Cao River to Jiangling, and then go down to the Xiangjiang River, until it reaches Wuling, through the Lingqu to Lingnan, Guangxi, Guilin, and then along the Li River into the Yujiang River, and then directly into Nanhai County, to Nanhai Port." The more Luo Cheng said, the more excited he became, it is foreseeable that this waterway will be opened, it will be a real golden waterway in the west, with the North-South Grand Canal in the east, the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the Huai River waterway in the east and west, and the sea route in the east, but in the west, there is still a lack of fast communication waterways between the north and the south, especially an important waterway that can connect Gyeonggi, Jinghu, Bashu and Lingnan.

After the opening of the Baicai Canal, in fact, this waterway has been opened, but now if the Jianghan Canal is opened again, it can reduce the waterway by 1,000 miles, which is very important.

The Grand Canal in the west is opened, and if Jinghu Lake is well managed, then the area of Jinghu will immediately take off and become a real grain river in the world, which can produce grain and is easy to transport into Beijing.

"Bookmark for easy reading"