Chapter 195: The Canal

Si Qi'er and Miss An'er also talked to Wan Qiyang last night because they were forced to talk, so they also slept soundly this morning, and they didn't even wake them up when Wan Qiyang got up. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Wan Qiyang looked at it like this, so as not to be sad when they were separated, he took out the letter that had been prepared a long time ago, and gave one to each of them, in which they had instructions and tasks, otherwise they would be very bored, and at the same time, there was also a letter to Feng Qingbai and Feng Xiaoqing, anyway, everything in the capital after he went out should be 'stable' as the standard, don't be in a hurry. He quietly took Song Changqing and the others out of the city together, and there was a car waiting outside the city early in the morning, which was also booked by Song Changqing in the afternoon of the previous day, plus a lot of money, so the owner of the car was naturally waiting for this business early in the morning.

There is also a distance of about 30 kilometers from the capital to Tongzhou wharf, because the waterway transportation is convenient, and it is a wharf, so the floating population is more, and it is relatively messy, so the government deliberately has some garrisons here. As the northern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal became the north-south water transport trunk line in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was led by the rulers of the current dynasty to dig and renovate, and the rulers gathered huge manpower and material resources to dig the canal for the main purpose of transport. The canal was born for the real purpose of Cao Yun, which was the life support and power supply system of the feudal dynasty to maintain the life continuation of the dynasty. Due to the difficulty in solving the problems of piracy, wind and waves in the sea, canal water transportation is the main preferred solution in the history of water transportation.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was built in the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, canals were basically dug to serve the military campaign to conquer other countries. For example, the direct purpose of Wu Wangfu to send people to dig a ditch was to transport the army to the north to invade the Qi country, and the chasm dug by King Wei Hui in 360 BC was basically to serve the military campaign to conquer other countries.

Construction of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal began in 486 BC. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu State for the Northern Expedition to Qi State to dominate the Central Plains, in the vicinity of Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province dug a canal that led the Yangtze River water into the Huai River (called Hangou), and then on this basis, continued to develop to the north and south, extended, especially through the Sui Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty two large-scale expansion and rectification, basically completed the scale of today's Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

Many sections of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal are made of the original natural rivers and lakes, and some sections of the river are excavated manually, and the water flow of the canal is mainly replenished from the natural channels that communicate. When he arrived at Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (Yang Guang), it is said that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dug a canal from the Beijing-Huai section to the south of the Yangtze River in order to go to Yangzhou to see Qionghua and to transport grain from the south to the north, with a total length of more than 2,000 kilometers. By the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty (present-day Beijing) had to dig a canal to transport grain from the south to the north. To this end, three sections of the river were dug successively, and the horizontal canal of the Sui Dynasty with Luoyang as the center was built into a longitudinal Grand Canal with Dadu as the center and went south to Hangzhou. The old canal route in the Ming and Qing dynasties, from the south gate of Jining through the Shunhe Gate to the small gate into the lake, in the lake through Nanyang Town, Wuli Gate, Qili Gate, Zhaozhuang, Jianzhen, Ma Gate, Dianzi, Shikou, Makou out of the lake, along the east of the lake and then through Zhangkou, Wangkou, Changkou, Xiazhen, Xishan, Zhuji Gate and other places to Hanzhuang.

Because he slept late last night, Wan Qiyang fell asleep because of the rickety car after getting on the car, and he didn't know how long he walked.

"Childe, the dock has arrived." Outside the car, Song Changqing reminded Wan Qiyang that he had come to the dock.

"Got it!" Wan Qiyang immediately got out of the car, and what caught his eyes was a hurried flow of people, including large and small boats leaning on the dock, and there happened to be a ship parked at the dock and unloading. In ancient China, the fortune ship and the Guangzhou ship, the sand boat, and the bird ship were called the four famous ships in ancient China, and the cargo ship parked at the wharf had two masts, one large and one small, and the draft was four or five feet deep, and the hull alone was more than 30 meters.

"Childe, this is a special fortune ship for Cao Yun, there are three layers of cabins on board, if there is an official 'boat festival' you can take such a fortune boat, this ship is extremely fast on the canal in terms of speed, except for docking at the dock to replenish the ship, all sail with all its might, and because there is an official flag, plus there are generally water bandits and special guards, so it will save a lot of time to be able to take such a lucky boat, and safety can also be guaranteed." Song Changqing saw that Wan Qiyang Gongzi was looking at the lucky boat parked at the dock on the shore, so he took the initiative to introduce him.

"Oh?! Can you still get on this big ship? What is this 'Boat Festival'? Where to get this thing? Wan Qiyang couldn't help but think when he heard Song Changqing's introduction.

"Childe, this place also belongs to the jurisdiction of Shuntian Mansion!" Song Changqing's words also reminded Wan Qianyang at once, but now that he has arrived at the dock, can he go back to the capital to find Master Zhang, and he doesn't know whether this 'Boat Festival' is easy to open or not.

After his repeated thinking, Wan Qiyang thought that it was the right choice to arrive in the south as soon as possible, and now time was his biggest tool, and if he could do more things in a short period of time, it would play the greatest role in his future development, so Wan Qiyang decided to go back to the capital to try.

"Okay, you go and inquire when this ship will depart, and we can decide whether to sit or not." Wan Qianyang's decision was an order, and Song Changqing immediately sent someone to inquire when the ship would start, because it was very simple, and it only took a small amount of money to get the news.

After a while, I got the news, "Returning to Gongzi, I have inquired clearly, this ship is ready to return to Hangzhou directly after unloading and replenishing." I'm ready to leave in the early afternoon! ”

Wan Qiyang thought that it would only take about two hours to ride back and forth on the way back to the capital at this time, and it was still too late. At this time, Wan Qiyang decided to go back to the capital and take a walk around Shuntianfu, and it would be easy to get the 'Boat Festival'.

"Li Chang, go and see if there are any horses for sale, just go buy two horses," Wan Qiyang took five hundred taels of silver tickets, anyway, what can be solved with money at a critical time is just the result.

"Senior Song, you and I will go back to the capital in a while, and the others will drink tea and wait in the tea shop here, remember that everyone can keep a low profile at this time." Wan Qianyang's words were listened to, and everyone nodded.

"Childe, the horses have been bought, and these two horses have good foot strength." Everyone else agrees with Li Chang's words, and it seems that everyone is an expert.

"You can just drink tea and wait in the tea shop over there. Weisan takes care of everyone! Wan Qiyang and Song Changqing immediately rushed to the capital.

When Wan Qiyang came to the capital Shuntian Mansion, it was only about nine o'clock in the morning, and when Master Zhang heard that the master came to inform Yang Gongzi's visit, he was still a little hesitant, and finally determined that it was Wan Qiyang, and he actually went out to greet him in person.

"Young Master Yang, what kind of wind blew you here, please come in!" Master Zhang was obviously overjoyed.

Wan Qianyang followed Master Zhang into the back office, and Song Changqing of course led the horse to drink water and feed the grass.

(End of chapter)