wrote a letter to Zhang Dun, who was far away in the capital, and Han Gang didn't care about leaving behind the "Hand Practice Method" that Lu Huiqing hoped to use to show his talents. In the early summer of the first year of Yuanfeng, which was hot day by day, he put most of his energy on Xianghan Caoyun.

In half a month, Han Gang ran back and forth four times on the Caoyun road between Ruzhou and Tangzhou. From the waterway that was being dredged to the track foundation that crossed the Fangcheng Pass, he carefully checked it back and forth several times. The transfer envoy is so concerned, of course, the officials below and even the officers and soldiers of the box army do not dare to ignore it.

By the time it was almost June, craftsmen and materials had arrived at the construction site.

The craftsmen who built the road came from Beijing and Xuzhou, a total of more than 20 people. Among them, there are six big workers, each of whom has rich experience, before starting to build the track, they have the experience of building palaces, bridges, roads, and dams all year round, and they have been building the track for several years, which can be said to be the best group of people in the country.

The timber for road construction mainly comes from the south, and the hardwood used for rails and the cork used for sleepers are transported to the wood work under Fangcheng Mountain through the Han River, the water draining and the water blockage. All of them are shipped from the shipyard in Gangneung, and after several years of drying and cutting, they can be used immediately, so there is no need to worry about the drying and shrinking of fresh wood after dehydration.

To the north of Fangcheng Pass, along the waterway, there are boatloads of slag and pebbles used as the track subgrade, and of course, tens of thousands of catties of iron. Although there is no iron-smelting slag near Fangseongshan and there is a lack of pebbles, these heavy raw materials have been transported from Gyeonggi for thousands of miles, and it is more important to test whether the transportation from the northern foot of Fangseongsan to the Caihe River is running smoothly.

In addition to the weir that has been prepared to start construction, the Xianghan Caoyun will be able to be initially opened before the end of the year. All that remains is the question of how much can be transported. On the same road, if the dispatch command is excellent, it is possible to double the transportation volume per unit time, or even increase by an order of magnitude.

Of course, Han Gang will not expect the transportation dispatch of this era to be comparable to the professionals of later generations, but the shipping division that will be established for this purpose, Han Gang expects them to have at least the average level of the six shipping divisions and the three white wave shipping divisions. Although I think about it a little earlier now, if I practice it a day earlier, I will have an extra day of experience. Han Gang just wanted to see the results of the experiment.

The result is certainly perfect. Facts have proved that the Cao Yun channel dug out in the south and north of Fangcheng Mountain a hundred years ago can still be used today, and the officials who command and dispatch are also very good. However, the unloading site is a little far away from Fangcheng Mountain, and the two sections close to the pass must be dredged again before they can be used, and in the planning plan, it is necessary to raise the water level through the weir and set up a lock to connect the deep-hewn pass channel. It is because of this that when the plan to set up a weir to lift water was finalized, the track temporarily used to connect the north and south of Fangcheng Mountain had to be lengthened for more than 30 miles.

Once the dam raises the water level, the previous dredging of the river is useless. Compared with the amount of dredging work and the delay in time, it is easier to build the track. But in this way, there is one more trouble - to repair the bridge.

There are also rivers in front and behind the Fangcheng Pass, the south is a tributary that blocks the water, and the north is a tributary of the Shahe River. If the transit point of the Xianghan Caoyun can be moved upstream, these tributaries can be avoided, but in the current situation, a bridge must be built to cross it......

There are four streams in total, each of which is not wide, and the widest one is only four or five zhang. At this time, the level of bridge construction was a breeze. But every few years, there is often a year when the rainfall in the Fangcheng Mountain area is too heavy to cause floods, a hundred years ago the Cao Canal failed to be dug up, and there are also factors such as the Shahe dam being washed away by the flood, how to avoid the bridge across the river being washed away, is also a difficult problem.

"If you want to cross this Sanli Creek, it is better to build a stone bridge. There is no shortage of stones in Fangcheng Mountain. Li Jie said his opinion to Han Gang and Shen Kuo, who came to inspect by the stream, "If the wooden bridge is to prevent flooding, the arch of the bridge must be raised, but it can be raised too high, and it is difficult for cars and horses to travel, so it is much more convenient and stronger to replace it with a stone bridge." The style of Zhaozhou Bridge can be modeled, with open-shouldered stone arches, one large arch and four small arches, across the flood area of the river, the bridge arch is curved, the bridge deck is gentle, and it is just suitable for track traffic. ”

"Do you remember the style of Zhaozhou Bridge?" Han Gang was a little surprised.

"Most of the stone arch bridges are similar," Li Jie said confidently, telling Han Gang and Shen Kuo how to build the stone arch bridges one by one.

Han Gang praised repeatedly. Li Jie was a surprise to him. His talent in architectural construction not only made Han Gang admire, but also made Shen Kuo admire for a long time.

"There are ...... relics in the wild," Shen Kuo sighed, and felt that this statement was not appropriate, "It is rare to find talents, but they are left behind." ”

Li Jieyan hurriedly humbled when he heard this: "Students don't like to learn since they were young, and they only have a little experience in craftsmanship." ”

Han Gang sneered: "The world only values poetry and articles. The materials that can be used by the world can not be measured by mere chapters and sentences. ”

Li Jie humbled himself a few words for Han Gang's praise, chatted for a while, and then said goodbye to Han Gang and Shen Kuo, he still had something to do.

After Li Jie left, Shen Kuo asked Han Gang in private, "Is Yukun planning to recommend him?" ”

"Of course." Han Gang nodded.

"That's Li Nangong's son." Shen Kuo reminded.

Han Gang, as the transit envoy of the capital, not only accepted the son of the deputy transfer envoy as a staff member, but even entrusted him with important tasks, which will definitely be criticized. If Li Jie is recommended as an official again, it will not be a matter of criticism.

"It's okay." Han Gang doesn't care, this matter will not affect the stability of his position.

Since Han Gang has this attitude, Shen Kuo will not say it. Thinking about this matter carefully, Han Gang's self-confidence is actually not wrong, compared to the trust he receives, it really doesn't matter.

"Now that Tangzhou's money and grain have also been collected, there should be no problem with the needs of the first half of the road." Shen Kuo asked, "Do you want to speed up the progress?" ”

The summer tax collection is the highlight of the year, after the Dragon Boat Festival, it took 20 days for Tangzhou to collect the rated eighty percent, and the remaining two percent of the arrears, looking at the situation in previous years, most of them will not be able to make up for it until the autumn tax. For more than half a month, Shen Kuo's time and energy have been focused on collecting taxes.

"It doesn't matter if it's fast or slow, it's just that it can be done within the time limit." Han Gang said, walked up along the bank of the river, took two steps, and when he saw Shen Kuo coming up, he turned his head and smiled: "How difficult is it to collect taxes in Tangzhou?" ”

"The people of western Beijing are fierce, and it is not easy to collect taxes." Shen Kuo shook his head, "If it's in Liangzhejiang, at least ninety percent can be collected in half a month." ”

"It is also rich in Zhejiang, and the harvest in western Beijing is not much, but the tax paid is not much less than that in Jiangnan, so it is naturally more difficult...... But there is seventy or eighty percent, which is enough to meet the amount demanded by the imperial court. ”

"That's right." Shen Kuo nodded, "Everything that can be collected has been collected, and even if the rest is pressed, it may not be able to be recovered, and it will not be good for the people to sell their sons and daughters." ”

"It is not difficult to restrain the officials below and collect the quota." Han Gang said.

"How can I manage it?" Shen Kuo sighed, Han Gang was talking nonsense at all, "The Chonglu Law only made their hands a little shorter. ”

The national policy of the Great Song Dynasty was to defend the outside world, except for the border states, the forbidden army was concentrated in Gyeonggi, and there were few outside the road. The same is true in the economy, except for the border states, every state and county in the country has left a certain amount of savings, and the remaining tax revenue must be handed over to the imperial court. The amount of tax paid is basically determined, but this amount is not the amount collected.

On the day of the summer and autumn tax payment, the government collected money from the people, and no one could ever expect it to be 100 percent fulfilled, and the amount of taxes scheduled to be collected was much larger than actually needed. Generally speaking, the amount that can be collected to seven or eight achievements can be enough to be handed over to the imperial court, as well as to replenish the storage consumed by the state and county in the past year. As for the surplus, it is impossible to divide it privately, and it will still have to be transported back to the capital. If you turn in more, you can get back a good performance appraisal and an evaluation of talent for the local vassals - but if there is a mess in the process of expropriation, the pro-people officials should not expect a good result. Therefore, it can collect seventy-seven-eighty-eight, and the rest of the arrears are slowly supervised by others, and the officials generally do not push too hard.

But this is not to say how relaxed and moderate the government of this era is, the actual situation is the opposite, it just holds the bottom line of preventing the people from rebelling. In addition to the tax on the land, there are also a variety of additional taxes such as conversion and transfer, which have no fixed amount and depend on the mouths of the tax collectors. As a result, the money and grain that the people finally handed over to the tax collectors can rise by fifty or sixty percent in many cases, or even double or two. This money can be divided privately. Handed over a part to the imperial court to make an appearance, and the rest of the majority was divided between officials and officials, which has long become a common rule in the world, and only a few officials can be honest.

Speaking of which, if the tax is really levied according to the amount of the tax, and all the excesses and miscellaneous taxes are abolished, it is not necessarily that there will be a few people who evade taxes. When Wang Anshi proposed to change the law, he mentioned this matter in a series of concerts, saying that this was the source of chaos. Therefore, the new law promulgated in the world after that was more inclined to the poor below the middle level - the exemption money levied by the exemption law on the fifth-class households was not very much - but the loss and increase in the income of the imperial court were borne by the rich, and they received more scolding than before, that is, the possibility of good people being thieves was much smaller, and it was no longer the situation that Ouyang Xiu said in the later period of Renzong that 'a gang is more than a gang' thieves everywhere.

When it comes to collecting taxes, Han Gang just said it, so he sighed secretly. The atmosphere of the times is not something that he can reverse, or Shen Kuo in front of him, although he can't say it, but the general gray income will not give up.

But as long as the Xianghan Caoyun can be opened, at that time, the Caoyun line will naturally prosper, and the lives of the people here will be better than now...... That's it.