November 8th. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The sky was a little gloomy, and Yang He and his party left Pizhou City.

But after seeing Pizhou, Yang He planned to inspect the lower canal.

It's just the right time, after all, if you have an official position in the future, you can't run around as you want now.

Yesterday, Yang He was busy with the affairs of the Ordnance Bureau, but he was busy for a day, spent more than 100 taels of silver, and only recruited one family of military craftsmen, but fortunately, there was good news from Yu Blacksmith's side.

But it was his in-laws, a blacksmith surnamed Li who was also willing to go to Xin'anzhuang, and the blacksmith's son Yu Youtie's Hunjia Li kitchen knife was his daughter.

Then the blacksmith Yu found another stove household, named Jiang Fuhai, a native of Yancheng, who claimed that he could not bear the oppression of the officials, and fled in anger, and fled to Pizhou City last year, taking a thin wife to work miserably in the south of Pizhou City.

I heard that the old blacksmith was recruiting people and would have a good life, so I took the initiative to find him to recruit people.

Then the blacksmith Li found an exiled blacksmith named Niu Jining, who had a son, Niu Xiaozhuan, but was a native of Dengzhou, and fled south to Pizhou, originally prepared to return to his old business, but if the foreign blacksmith went to the local furnace, he had to ask for permission from his local counterparts in advance.

Obviously, Niu Jining's family did not get this kind of permission, so they could only do some casual work, especially for Blacksmith Li, who was leaving, so he naturally wanted to take him away.

Then Niu Jin Ingot found another bricklayer, named Gu Jiu, in his early forties, thin and tall and powerful, but blind in one eye, claiming to be from Luzhou, he was injured in a dispute with officials when he was young, he was good at ramming walls and bricks, and he also knew some stonemason skills.

is also a foreigner, struggling to make a living locally, and life is very hard.

Then the bricklayer Gu Jiu found a craftsman surnamed Tao, who claimed to be from a rocket family, but at this time he was only selling things to coax children on the street, and he had no technical content.

These people Yang He has accepted, although Jiang Fuhai is not professional, but for the time being, he can be allowed to boil nitrate, and the craftsman surnamed Tao can also engage in gunpowder-related things.

Bricklayer Gu Jiu, he can use it now.

There are also Huang Steward to help Yang He recruit some local craftsmen, such as a few kiln masters, billet husbands, two original kiln factories in Pizhou, and the bricks and tiles burned by the second factory are used for the construction of the city warehouse, and the same is true for the billet husband, building walls and repairing warehouses.

However, Pizhou has not built for a long time, and the city is located in the important part of the canal, and the impact of commercial goods is great, and many things can be bought, and they are cheaper than the local area, so these people are basically unemployed.

Because these people belonged to ordinary skilled workers, Yang He did not have a rigid requirement for them not to leave Zhuangzi for three years, and when they heard that Xin'an Zhuang had work to do and food to eat, they were happy and willing to go.

Yang He was very happy to recruit these people, it seems that the matter of craftsmen is more effective for locals or local snakes to recruit slowly, so Yang He asked Huang Guan and others to slowly help him inquire.

At the same time, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, Yang He planned to take a look at the canal, and Huang Steward enthusiastically sent a local shopkeeper as a guide, and then when Yang Xianggong returned, he escorted the goods he purchased to Xin'anzhuang.

Steward Huang will also go with him, and he also wants to see that place with his own eyes.

The Yang River and his entourage go north from the west of the city to the north, and from this side to the northeast, they can go straight to the canal, which is about fifty miles away.

They went out of the city from the west gate "Tongyi Gate", although it was early in the morning, but the road was still bustling with pedestrians.

This side is the place of scenery of Pizhou City, if in the later generations, it is a tourist leisure area, there is Liuhou Temple outside the West Gate, there is Jishan Bridge on the opposite side, and then there is a Juchuan Shrine on the Yi River, there is a fishing pavilion on this side of the river, Tongji Temple, that is, the Dragon King Temple.

Bange Mountain is on the other side of the river, around the city, the shape is like Bange, there is Ganquan Temple on the side.

Soon, everyone went up to the embankment, although the Yi River was silted, but they could also walk in small boats, but everyone still rode horses.

In particular, this road is on the high, wide and wide embankment, and it is still convenient to walk.

In fact, the road used to be under the embankment, but there will always be meadows, lakes, reeds and grass, pedestrians take the embankment, and over time, the road under the embankment is gone.

"Yang Xianggong, that's from the mountain...... Yang Xianggong, that is the Great Yellow Mountain, according to legend, the Red Jacket Army once fought with tens of thousands of Jin generals here...... Yang Xianggong ......"

As a guide, the shopkeeper's surname is Sun, a native of Lukou Town, who is quite talkative, and the surrounding scenery is like a few treasures.

"Yang Xianggong, this is Man Lake in the east, five miles to the northwest, there is Clam Lake, and the one over there is the ...... of the river berth."

Looking at the Yang River, along the canal line, there are many lakes, most of which are used as water tanks or gullies for the canal, and theoretically the surrounding area cannot be reclaimed.

Because of the swamps, many lakes and rivers cannot be cultivated, but there are many residents who live as fishers, and as long as there is a small piece of dry land near the lake, it is immediately crowded with simple reed houses.

Therefore, there is a river berth here, and the fish tax is collected by the official, and the local river berth was built as early as the 14th year of Hongwu.

Yang He and others went all the way up the river, because they walked along the embankment and rode horses, and the speed was still very fast, so after more than an hour, they arrived at the place where the Yi River and the canal meet.

When you get here, you can see many merchant ships, 4 million stone of grain every year, plus all kinds of large and small ships, it is estimated that there are nearly 10,000 ships, making the canal extremely prosperous.

However, at present, there are no boats, and there are not many merchant ships, but every year in Nanwang, Linqing, Shandong, a piece of land, every October 15 to build a dam, used as a large and small river channel, until the first day of February of the following year, the dam is opened.

Therefore, during this time period, all official and civilian ships will be suspended from traffic, waiting for the opening of the dam in the coming year.

In the south, the Huai'an Tongji Gate is the same, every early June, it is necessary to build a dam to stop the yellow water, to avoid the outbreak of submerged water, the yellow water backfills, and no longer pass through the boats.

The most prosperous time of the canal is from February to May, and most of the remaining boats are short-haul or spend a lot of money to hang themselves from the dam, and the slippers rely on this for food.

At present, the Liukou Li Qingshan is blocked in the Hanzhuang lock, which affects the passage of canal ships.

The Yang River overlooks the canal, although it is not in the peak hours, but there are still many boats driving on the canal full of ice floe, and I don't know how many have passed in a blink of an eye.

Zhang Songtao said in a low voice: "Xianggong, if you want to grow, this river must participate and even control it." ”

Yang He was fascinated, indeed, this is a river of wealth.

He looked around, this side formed a wharf bazaar, there are many temples on the embankment, such as the river temple, the dragon king temple, the jellyfish temple, the Yangong temple, the boat god temple and so on.

In particular, boatmen worship the river god before sailing, and those who cross the river for the first time and take a boat have to throw money into Hanoi, which is called "road money", in order to pray for a safe arrival on the other side.

And here, there are several ferries, each of which levies six taels of silver per year.

Yang He and others crossed the river by boat, and the horses were also carried over, and then arrived at the north bank of Yishui, and on the way, they also entered the river and threw some money to buy the road.

Speaking of the car and boat shop, if you are not guilty, you should be killed, of course, looking at Yang He and his party, the boatman is also interested in not daring to blackmail.

After crossing the opposite bank, Yang He and his party continued to walk along the canal embankment.

It can be seen that the embankment on the east bank is higher than this side, but in order to prevent the canal from collapsing into the Luoma Lake, the water level of the Luoma Lake rises sharply during the flood season, and the embankment between the Luoma Canal and the Luoma Lake is in danger of bursting at any time.

They walked north along the canal, on the whole, this side is still prosperous, only the countryside is less populated, but because of the troubled times, there are many thieves, and robbery will kill people, or put it in the ravine, or drift in the river and sea.

Of course, the idle thieves didn't dare to fight Yang He and the others' ideas, so they went all the way, and everything was fine.

Walking along the embankment on the west bank of the canal, a phenomenon was also found in the Yang River.

It seems that the Yi River is a big river, and the water level is also high, so it is directly connected to the canal without barriers, but it is replaced by other small rivers and small streams, and there are locks at the junction of the canal, and the same is true for some lakes.

The Yang River speculated that the water level of the canal was slightly high, so as to prevent the canal from backfilling and losing water.

I even saw some low water level lakes with high earthen embankments, which were paved with stones on both sides, probably to prevent the canal water pressure from being too strong and the embankment could not bear it, and some water gates were made on the embankment to regulate the excess water in the river.

Look at the water that flows directly into the lake through the water gate, or into the lowlands, or into a small ditch in the embankment, which is used as a reservoir.

In this way, the force of the water pressure on both sides of the river is dispersed, and the water in the reservoir can counteract the water pressure of the water at the same height of the canal, and the water in the lake in turn cancels the water pressure in the reservoir that does not exceed the water level of the lake, a very ingenious mechanical principle.

Looking at these sluices, Shopkeeper Sun introduced to Yang He that in this part of the canal, it is more important to maintain the water level of the canal than to grow grain, and it is a felony to open the sluice gates without permission to release water.

Therefore, in the summer and autumn, local farmers will secretly open the sluices of the canal to survive and irrigate their crops.

The river officials want to keep the canal open, and they will strictly prohibit this practice, and there will always be countless disputes.

They continue to go north, to the junction of the Wu River and the canal, there is a big set here, called Guojiazhuang, during the Zhengde period, Liu Liu and other rogues made a rebellion, the official army was defeated in the mouth of the set, and then defeated in Guojiazhuang, it is near here.

Looking at this Zhuangzi, Yang He was envious, it was good to lean on the canal.

As far as the eye can see, there are many wharves, merchant ships pass, east and west streets in the set, and department stores are lined up one after another.

This is a Zhuangzi that occupies a completely advantageous area.

When they arrived here, it was also nearly eighty miles away from Pizhou City, and Yang He and his party rested a little in the concentration, ate a bowl of noodles, and continued to go north.

Walk more than ten miles, pass through the Wangshi Gate, is the town of Lukou, also known as the Lukou set, belongs to the junction of the Luhe River and the canal.

This place is still under the jurisdiction of Pizhou, and then walk 30 miles, it is the Taizhuang set of Shandong County, that is a big market town, there are more than 10 places along the wharf, where the ships often stay here, the wharf porters, slender men, officials, garrisons, residents, the population is estimated to be 20,000 or 30,000.

However, the Bakou market is also very prosperous, with dense mule-horse carts, hotels and restaurants, and a variety of markets, concentrated residents, plus nearby villagers, with a population of more than 10,000.

The home of the shopkeeper Sun is concentrated in this mouth.

……

After a hearty lunch at the shopkeeper Sun's house, Yang He and the others hired a boat to go south along the canal.

Although the boat was moving slowly, it was more relaxed and relaxed, and after riding the horse all morning, Yang He and the others almost froze.

Soon, Lukouji, Guojiazhuang, Erlang Temple, Qitang Bridge, Yiyun Wharf and other places were left behind, and in front of them was the cat's nest.

This is an important market town on the canal, Zhao Cun Post is located here, set up 40 water husbands, the old system Pizhou has Zhihe Station, Xia Pi Station, after the abolition of Zhihe Station, increase Zhao Village Station.

There is also a new canal mouth here in the cat's nest, the old days to transport ships to go straight to the mouth of the river, five years of the apocalypse, open the mouth of the Luoma Lake to the east bank of the Pizhou Zhihe River Horse Mouth River, where fifty miles, in order to avoid Liukou, Zhikou and Moerzhuang around the dangerous slip, directly the river.

In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, it was also discussed that there was a Chen Yaokou in the west of Suqian City, and the Chen ditch was reconsidered, and the Yellow River was avoided for 20 miles, which was called the Tongji River.

However, in the fifth year of Chongzhen, because the mouth of the Chengou River was silted, it was changed to travel from the mouth of Dongjiagou, twenty miles west of Suqian City, and the Tongji New River was renamed Shunji River.

In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Dongkou was silted, and the Grand Canal was changed from Luoma Lake to Yaowan Town.

At this time, although Yaowan was also prosperous, it was not one of the main wharves of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and it did not have the reputation of "night owl subset".

When they arrived at the cat's nest, it was almost dark, and Yang He and the others rested for one night at the inn.

The next day, they abandoned their horses and continued south.

They walked along the west bank of the canal again, twenty miles south, Wanzhuangji, and another twenty miles, to Tianjiakouji.

Walk another twenty miles, to Zhihe Town, there was a Zhihe post here in the old days, which has been abandoned.

From this side to the east ten miles is the soap river, connecting the Suqian boundary, and there is a Mopanzhuang at the straight mouth.

It is Liukou in the east, and Dongjiagou in the east.

However, although the Zhihe Town was abolished, a new Zhihe Estuary Inspection Division was established.

Shopkeeper Sun reminded Yang He and others that Jia Husu, the inspector of the Zhihekou, was a local tyrant, with the support of Han Lan, the commander of Pizhou Guard, and more than 50 archers under his command.

Passing by, be careful of this person.

……

Lao Bai Niu: Thank you for the reward and support of book friends such as Knife in Hand, Rain Insect World, Yuanbao Mother, Si Pu, Vegetable Farmer, etc., the next chapter is scheduled for eight o'clock tomorrow morning. (To be continued.) )