20 miles north of Huai'an City, on the construction site of the Yellow River.

Groups of servants either carried burdens or pushed carts, shuttling back and forth. Some soap officers with leather whips in their hands roamed around, and when they saw people who were lazy and slippery, they came forward and reprimanded them, but the leather whips in their hands were raised more often than they fell.

In the crowd, mixed with some officials wearing black veils, they walked in a hurry, stopping from time to time to point at a certain place. At this time, their entourage will rush to the appropriate overseer to convey the instructions of the official.

Both the servants and the officials had mud stains on their clothes, showing the hardships of the project.

In the middle of the construction site is the Yellow River. However, at this time, the river channel has been cut off, and the river channel of more than ten zhang long has disappeared, and four trenches of nearly one zhang wide and one zhang deep have been dug on the ground, from west to east, and the Yellow River channel runs vertically. The bottom and sides of the trench were as smooth as a knife cut, and a dozen officials were standing in the trench, watching with great interest the results of the construction.

These four ditches are the female culverts of the Huai River suggested by Su Hao to Pan Jitao. Due to the limitations of construction technology, the craftsmen were unable to dig tunnels under the Yellow River to dig these four culverts, but they created a construction technique called "deep excavation and shallow burial" in later generations to solve this problem.

The so-called deep digging and shallow burial, in fact, is very simple, that is, digging a two-zhang deep long pit, and then capping it at a height of one zhang, and then filling it with soil. Once the landfill is complete, it is equivalent to digging a tunnel under the soil layer.

When Su Hao took the survey camp to fight with the Japanese invaders, Ma Yu and the others were not idle for a day, they carefully completed the site selection of the tunnel, and then prepared all the construction materials and equipment. Stay until it's freezing. When the Yellow River was completely cut off due to freezing, Ma Yu commanded his servants to dig up the river, excavate four long ditches perpendicular to the original riverbed, and poured the bottom and side walls of the long ditches with reinforced concrete.

After a few days, the concrete has fully set. At this time. Ma Yuzheng accompanied Pan Jitao and others to inspect the effect of concrete construction.

"It's really hard as a rock!" Pan Jitao used the small hammer handed to him by his entourage to randomly hit a few places on the wall of the trench, and then wore reading glasses and stepped forward to take a serious look at the marks that were beaten, nodded with satisfaction, and said to everyone.

Ma Yu replied humbly: "Governor Pan, don't worry, this concrete formula. It was repeatedly experimented by Xiaguan and Jiang Suozheng and Tan Suo, and it could withstand the knock of a twenty-pound hammer. In addition, there is a steel bar every inch in the concrete, which can distribute the force of striking one place to other places, which ensures that a place will not crack and collapse after being hit by an unexpected heavy blow. ”

"Hmm. It's a good idea to add steel to the stone, how did you come up with that?" Pan Jitao said.

Ma Yu said: "This method was created by Su Zhi, and when the lower officials were repairing the reservoir in Fengcheng, they had experimented and the effect was very good. By the way, now the entire territory of Huai'an Mansion is being re-cleared. A permanent boundary pillar is erected every five miles to prevent the loss of boundary pillars due to flooding in the future. These boundary monuments were built with reinforced concrete buried in the ground, and dozens of strong men could not move them. ”

"Not doing business!"

Ma Yu originally wanted to praise Su Hao, but after Pan Jitao heard it, his face showed disdain and gave a negative evaluation. Ma Yu hurriedly stopped, not knowing which sentence made Lao Pan feel unhappy.

"A river chief, running to help Huai'an Mansion clear what is it, it's really a dog with a mouse, nosy." Pan Jitao was still muttering dissatisfiedly.

"Actually. Su is in charge of Huai'an Mansion, which is not without benefits for the control of the river. Xiong Enzheng, the attendant, explained, "It is said that Huai'an Mansion has cleared out tens of thousands of acres of land that has been concealed, and the Han Governor has agreed. The land requisitioned for the construction of the Huai River into the sea channel will be compensated by the Huai'an government with official land, and there is no need for a tael of silver from the river. This should be regarded as the work of Master Su. ”

Pan Jitao's face was a little warm, in fact, his dissatisfaction with Su Hao stemmed from his appreciation for this person. He always felt that a person like Su Hao should give more ideas for the river project, instead of running errands for Hanwen all day long. Well, even if, as the rumors say, Han Wen has a beautiful daughter and wants to marry Su Hao, Su Hao shouldn't be abolish his public for personal gain, right?

"Ma Yu, when can this culvert cap begin?" Pan Jitao turned his head to Ma Yu and asked.

"We can start tomorrow." Ma Yu replied.

"How to cap it, have you planned it?" Pan Jitao asked again.

Ma Yu pointed to the top of his head and said, "We have already planned." We'll put a wooden shelf on top and install the top plate. Then the reinforcement is laid on the roof and the concrete is poured. In about 10 days, when the concrete is dry, the roof can be removed, and then the concrete can be piled up to restore the Yellow River. ”

"Can this concrete roof hold up the river above?" Pan Jitao asked.

Ma Yu said: "We have already tried this, and the steel bars used to make the roof are two fingers thick, which can fully withstand the weight of the soil layer above."

"Good!" Pan Jitao didn't ask anymore, after this period of work, he had a full understanding of the professionalism and professionalism of Ma Yu and others, and knew that what they did could be trusted.

"Ma Yu, this culvert can be built, you, Jiang Yida, and Tan Qi are all heroes, and this governor will not treat you badly. When the work is completed, the Governor will write to the court and ask for a reward. I've heard that your classmates who stayed in the stable to do things for Su Hao have been given the title of the six grades of chief by the saint, and you have done more for the sake of Bendu, how can you have a lower rank than theirs?" Pan Jitao promised Ma Yu and the others.

"Thank you, Governor Pan." Ma Yu, Jiang Yida, Tan Qi and others hurriedly bowed, and their hearts were happy.

Pan Jitao then went forward to inspect, and Ma Yu continued to introduce him to the design ideas of the entire female project.

According to the design, the Huaihe River project includes a total of four culverts, the upstream connecting to the Gaojiayan Dam on Hongze Lake, and the downstream is the channel into the sea that Su Hao called the "Northern Jiangsu Irrigation Canal".

In normal times, only one of the four culverts needs to be opened to realize the discharge of the Huai River. When the water level of Hongze Lake is not high, the Gaojiayan Dam can not open the gate, so that Hongze Lake can play the role of water storage. During the dry season, by opening the sluice gates on the Gaojiayan dam, water from Hongze Lake can enter the main irrigation canal in northern Jiangsu through the female culvert, providing irrigation for millions of acres of farmland in Huai'an Province.

During the rainy season, the Gaojiayan dam can open multiple sluices at the same time, and all four culverts are also open to help the flood water drain. The capacity of the main irrigation canal in northern Jiangsu is designed according to the peak flow of floods that have not been encountered in decades, so that the flood water can be discharged smoothly into the East China Sea without causing harm to Huai'an Province.

With the female project, Hongze Lake no longer needs to maintain a high water level in order to be able to discharge into the sea, so that the upstream provinces of Sizhou and Fengyang will no longer be threatened by floods, and the floods that have plagued the middle and lower reaches of the Huai River for many years will be greatly alleviated.

Pan Ji tamed the river for many years, and what has been bothering him is the problem of mutual containment between the Huang, Huai, and Yun, and finally he had to sacrifice the Huai River in order to protect the canal and the Yellow River. The construction of the female project solved the problem of the Huai River in one fell swoop, and the next step is that Pan Jitao only needs to balance the relationship between the Yellow River and the canal, which is much simpler than facing the problem of three rivers at the same time in the past.

In addition to these benefits in terms of river control, the construction of these four female culverts also has another small impact, that is, the three culverts that are usually not open to water discharge can be used as a pedestrian passage for people to cross the Yellow River, and the exchange of goods and personnel on both sides of the Yellow River is more convenient.

"Director Su proposed that we can set up a banknote gate at the culvert to collect tolls, 2 wen per trip, and the money can be used to subsidize the cost of river projects." Ma Yu stubbornly told Su Hao's ghost idea.

"Nonsense!" Pan Jitao subconsciously reprimanded, "Isn't this competing with the people for profit? How could Ben Doge do such a thing?"

Ma Yu said: "Governor Pan, Director Su said that he has understood, and now the people have to cross the Yellow River to the other side to do business, and they need to pay 10 wen each time. If you pass through our culvert and pay 2 wen each time, it is also extremely economical, and they will definitely be grateful for the grace of the adults. ”

"Really?" Pan Jitao thought about it, and suddenly laughed: "This is not bad, anyway, in the past, it cost money for the people to cross the river, and now let them spend a little less, it is not a competition with the people." In this way, Guangping, after the culvert is repaired, you can arrange for someone to set up this banknote, and as for the money collected, it will not be needed on the river, so you can give it to the soldiers and generals who take care of the culvert, and let them subsidize the meal. ”

"Understood!" Xiong Enzheng replied cheerfully.

"This Su Gaizhi, what is in his head, he can also see this little profit." Pan Jitao said with a smile on his face.

"Brother Gai has always been good at thinking about problems holistically, unlike Xia Guan, who only knows how to engineer and does not eat fireworks in the world." Ma Yu said ashamedly.

"If you don't eat the fireworks of the world, you can't do it, if you don't know the suffering of the people, such an official will not be a good official." Pan Jitao said, speaking of this, he suddenly remembered something, so he asked Ma Yu in a low voice: "By the way, Ma Yu, Su Gaizhi once mentioned to the governor that the few wardens in your Ministry of Industry who are in charge of the servants on the river are suspected of corruption, and he said that he will let them go first, and then find trouble with them in the future." Now that Su Gaizhi has been in Huai'an for almost half a year, how is he going to deal with this matter?"

"The lower officials have limited knowledge about this matter, but they seem to be already preparing for the meaning of the brother who has changed. He said that when he was ready, he would report to Governor Pan. Ma Yu replied.

"Hmph, I know that he has a lot of crooked intestines, I'm afraid I'm worried that Bendu's mouth is not reliable and leaks his big plan, right?" Pan Jitao said indignantly.

Ma Yu didn't dare to answer, but smiled dumbly in his heart. There are probably not a few people who can make Pan Jitao repeatedly annoyed, and I am afraid that there are not a few in the entire Ming Dynasty. The more fierce Pan Jitao's scolding is, it actually shows that the more he values Su Hao, ordinary people, if they want Lao Pan to scold a few times, they are not qualified to do so. (To be continued.) You are welcome to come to the starting point to vote for recommendation votes and monthly passes. For mobile phone users, please go to read