It is the spring season of March, the courtyard of the Yang family is full of flowers, the willow-eyed peach cheeks are full of spring trees, and the big waterwheel that is leisurely transferred has been dyed with a faint moss mark, which looks simple and natural, and the surrounding antique cornices shake the arch together, elegant and poetic.

On the rockery of the pool, Yang Yi asked Cai Jing to inscribe the couplet of "lotus root because of lotus, apricots without plums", and the sprinkler below sprayed out clusters of lotus leaves, holding these two couplets, which was pleasing to the eye.

Qing Niang often lingers by the waterwheel, reminiscing about the good old days, if life is only as first seen...... Today, Qin Zigui, Nong Shiqiu, Zhou Bangyan, Liu Yu, Wan Shifang, Luo Cheng, Liu Hai, Wade, Zhao Ruo, Ma Hanqing and others gathered at Yang's house.

Under the hall is Su Mingpei, who volunteered to perform, the piano and drums, the songs are around, the dancing posture is graceful, the beautiful eyes are full of anticipation, and the thousands of styles are self-evident.

The wealthy families in the city of Tokyo generally have kabuki, and when they feast with friends, they invite them out to entertain them with singing and dancing, Yang Yi is "stingy" and has not been raised, and when he feasts his colleagues and friends, he temporarily goes outside to invite people.

He was embarrassed to invite Ming Pei, but now he is an Oiran lady in the capital, and he wants to be a side, and he is often golden. The point is that there is something between the two of them...... However, there were still two "Neiying" of Wu Pei in ambush in the house, and after learning that the Yang family was going to invite a kaki banquet, they took the initiative to come to the door.

After Thirteen Niang learned about this, she came out quietly and glanced at Su Mingpei a few times behind the screen, Yang Yi also found that there was a silver light reflected by an embroidery needle behind the screen, so she knew that she had hid behind the screen.

At that time, Yang Yi was raising his glass and wanted to drink, and his wrist was shaking, as if he had been stabbed by a needle...... Shen Qingzhi just returned to Beijing because of the urging for the river control money, so he went to visit the house together, and his whole person was much darker and thinner than before, which showed that it was not easy to blow and rain on the embankment.

Yang Yi was very concerned about the river control project, he and Shen Qing invited him to have a drink, and then asked: "Brother Zhengcheng, why did you come from when you went to Beijing to collect money?" Could it be that the Ministry of Households is in arrears for river control? ”

As far as Yang Yi knows, although a huge project to control the river was launched, and a great deal of investment was needed to harness the newly expanded land in the northwest, the annual income of the Great Song Dynasty last year was close to 170 million guan, and the annual investment in the river control project was only 20 million or 30 million guan, and this expenditure was still the military expenditure saved after the disarmament, so the household department should not even be unable to come up with the funds for river control.

Shen Qingzhi replied with a slight arch of his hand: "My lord, this time the household department did owe part of the money for river control, and the lower official estimated that before the lord sent back the news, Cai Shangshu planned to embezzle the river control funds first to deal with the money shortage in various places. ”

Yang Yi nodded, in order to protect himself, it is not surprising that Cai Jing embezzled the money to deal with the shortage of money in order to protect himself, but there are still doubts.

"That's not right, this official shipped back more than 50 million guan from Japan, which is enough to be reissued as a reserve, why is the household department still in arrears for river control?"

"Yesterday, when the official went to the household department to collect the money, Cai Shangshu gave the statement that the gold and silver shipped back from Japan could not be moved, and it was used to solve the money shortage, and at the beginning of the spring, the imperial court bought a large number of cattle and horses from the Liao State and sold them to the newly resettled people in the Jinghu area.

Ma Hanqing on the side said: "My lord, this is indeed the case, the longer the jurisdiction is getting stronger and stronger, the soldiers have approached Shangjing, the Liao State has been fighting for many years, the economy and people's livelihood have been greatly damaged, and now even the soldiers' salaries and silver cannot be paid, so they have to sell a large number of livestock to my Great Song Dynasty in exchange for war funds." Seeing that the price was cost-effective, the imperial court bought a large number of them and resold them to the people in the Jinghu area for farming, which not only solved the problem of the lack of cattle for the common people, but also allowed the court to earn some price difference. Therefore, the household department allocated a total of more than 8 million yuan for the purchase of cattle, horses, donkeys and other livestock, which have just been transported to Jinghu, and I am afraid that it will take some days to return the funds. ”

Yang Yi also knows that Cai Jing is really not easy, don't look at the growth in the past few years, but the expenses are also high, and the most headache is the number of households.

Ma Hanqing continued: "My lord, there is one thing that adults have to pay attention to, the Liao lord Yelu Hongji is old and frail, from August last year to February this year, he has been seriously ill twice, according to this, I am afraid that his life will not be long, the Liao State and the Chang Jurisdiction are in a fierce war, and the prestige of Yelu Yanxi, the king of Yan, is insufficient, if Yelu Hongji dies at this time, it is very likely to cause violent turmoil in the Liao State. ”

Ma Hanqing stopped at the point, and Yang Yi didn't ask much, if this matter continues, it will be related to the national politics of the Great Song Dynasty, so it is naturally inconvenient to talk about it on such an occasion.

Yang Yi turned around and asked Shen Qingzhi, "How is the progress of the river control project?" ”

"The section from Gubai Mountain to Lingpingsi, because most of the main embankment is available, the progress is relatively fast, and half of it has been completed. Since the Yellow River flows north, many places in the east-flowing river channel have been silted, just re-digging the deep river channel, the amount of work is very large, from the current progress, it will take at least two years to complete the whole river control project. ”

Yang Yi calculated a little, in the past three years, the Great Song Dynasty spent at least 100 billion yuan on river governance in later generations, and this money was very worthwhile in Yang Yi's opinion; After the completion of the project, it will not only solve the flood problem that has plagued the Great Song Dynasty, but also invest this large amount of money into it, creating countless opportunities for the people of the Great Song Dynasty to make money, which will play an immeasurable role in stimulating the economic prosperity of the Great Song Dynasty.

Shen Qingzhi thought for a while and said, "If the imperial court can add more donkeys and horses, the project is expected to be completed faster." ”

Yang Yi shook his head and replied: "Brother Zhengcheng doesn't have to rush to achieve success, and then make additional investment, the court's revenue and expenditure are easy to be unbalanced, and everything must be done according to his ability." Moreover, the faster the project is completed, the smaller the economic promotion effect on the Great Song Dynasty. ”

Hearing Yang Yi's words, Shen Qingzhi couldn't help but be stunned, in his opinion, the control of the river is a matter of labor and money, since ancient times, because of this kind of big project to make the country ruin is not a few, so no one thought that such a project will promote the national economy.

It can be said that Yang Yi's casual sentence completely subverted his cognition of the river control project, and he couldn't help but think about it carefully, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it made sense.

To use the simplest analogy, in the past, the people didn't know who to sell the stones to, but now how much you sell and how much the court wants, the money will fall into the pockets of the people.

When the people have money, they are willing to buy some snacks for their children, and the vendors who sell snacks indirectly accept benefits, and so on, how many people can benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars in river control projects?

Yang Yi didn't bother him to think about it, Shen Qingzhi was the object of his key cultivation, and the wider and more mature his thoughts were, the more beneficial it would be to each other.

After a long time, Shen Qingzhi got up and hugged Yuan and said: "Listening to your words, it is better to read a book for ten years, adults have foresight, and honesty is not as good as in case, thank you for your advice." ”

"Brother Zhengcheng doesn't have to be polite, this river control project is not only related to the eternal achievements of the Great Song Dynasty, but also related to the name of Brother Zhengcheng for thousands of years, Brother Zhengcheng must ensure the quality of the project, must not have the slightest negligence, must be optimistic about you are all water supervisors and officials, found that there are cutting corners, cheating, no matter who he is, never be soft, if there is any problem, I and Zhang Xianggong will support you."

Shen Qingzhi nodded solemnly, as Yang Yi said, the river control project is related to the honor and disgrace of his life, as well as the name behind him, of course, he can't be careless.

At this time, Zhao Ruo came over and said, "Big brother, I suggest that another department be set up in the capital water supervision department to be responsible for supervising the quality of the river control project. ”

"That's a good suggestion, it's worth considering." Yang Yi expressed his approval.

At present, the quality of the project is not unsupervised, the imperial embassy, as well as the local river patrol officials have the responsibility of supervision, the river embankment to which state and county, the river patrol officials of which state and county supervise, if the section of the river embankment in the future, the imperial court will follow the map to find out the responsible person.

But is that enough? Man dies for money, and birds die for food. Zhu Hongwu even used the torture of skinning and cramping, isn't it the same as that an official takes a risk?

As soon as Zhao Ruo heard that his proposal was affirmed, he suddenly became energetic: "Big brother, if you can trust the little brother, you will transfer me to the capital water supervisor, and I will be in charge of this matter, not the little brother bragging, those things that steal chickens and dogs, eat and take cards, and corrupt the law, no one knows better than the younger brother, the eldest brother let me go, and the younger brother promises to catch one by one, and correct all the officials who are corrupt and pervert the law, and never embarrass you, otherwise, come to see you." ”

Yang Yi rolled his eyes when he heard this, and he really wanted to beat him: "You have embarrassed me now!" Look at what you say, do you seem to be an official of the court? I don't know if I thought we were a bunch of ruffians discussing a group fight! ”

"Big brother, it's not important, those corrupt officials are worse than ruffians, anyway, this is the principle, with the younger brother's many years of experience, whoever stretches out his hand will definitely not be able to escape the eyes of the younger brother." Zhao Ruo slapped his chest loudly, looking impassioned.

"With your years of experience? What experience? Experience stealing chickens and dogs? It's a shame that you still have the face to yell here, and even my big brother's face has been thrown away for you. ”

"Oh, didn't you say it, big brother? The prodigal son does not change his money, doesn't the younger brother change his past? But change is change, experience is still there, you just let me go, right? ”

"What are these words? Am I the only one who has to say the major affairs of the court? If you want to go, let you go? ”

"Anyway, the eldest brother is a scholar of Hallym University, and this little thing can still stump you."

"Go, go, make less fuss."

Although Yang Yi scolded again and again, he was really a little tempted, a son-in-law like Zhao Ruo, who had been nurtured by the family since he was a child, and he was a bad embryo, and he was very clear about the Taoism of those officialdoms.

It's rare that he still has a "chivalrous" spirit, he is not afraid of heaven and earth, and even his own old man dares to denounce him, and it is really suitable to put him on the river embankment to supervise the river control project.

(To be continued)