In the blink of an eye, it was the Spring Festival of the third year of Hongwu, and the peaceful and stable life for three consecutive years seemed to have smoothed out the harm caused by the Eight Kings Rebellion to the people of the Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Shu. In Luoyang City, every household lit up lanterns, laughter and laughter wafted everywhere, and the whole city was shrouded in a festive atmosphere.

The ordinary people were happy, and the whole court was also excited, because the financial revenue of the imperial court in the third year of Hongwu had a big explosion, and the total income reached 26 million yuan. This is more than double the income of Hongwu's first year, especially in the area of overseas trade, and the mining of silver and copper mines from Wajima alone has yielded 6 million kan.

The court was a little dizzy when they looked at the data submitted by the household department, and no one expected that in just three years, the financial income of the imperial court would exceed that of Emperor Wu. And looking at this, it is expected that after the imperial court unifies the whole country, there will be an explosion of finance.

Since there is a lot of money, you have to find a way to spend it, Sima Shu did not have the habit of storing money, and the ministers were also accustomed to the emperor's 'bad habit' of spending all the money every year. In addition to spending 13 million guan to maintain the necessary budget of the imperial court's various ministries, in order to speed up the construction of roads in various places, Sima Shu invested another 5 million guan in infrastructure construction.

In particular, the main artery of the highway that runs through the east and west, after three years of construction, has been completed by nearly one-third, according to this progress, within five years this highway artery will be completed, when the imperial court's control over the northwest will be greatly enhanced, its military significance is self-evident.

In addition to highway construction, the most important thing for Sima Shu next year is the Grand Canal that runs through the north and south, and the highway from Guzang to Donglai is the main artery connecting the east and west of the empire. In the future, then the 1,800-kilometer-long canal that runs through the north and south and connects several major rivers such as the Yellow River, the Huai River, and the Yangtze River will be the key to strengthening the connection between the north and the south of the empire.

Since last year, the Ministry of Cao Yun began to build the Grand Canal between the Huai River and the Yellow River, and this year, in order to solve the problem of labor shortage, the imperial court deliberately assigned 50,000 Baekje prisoners to construction units to engage in some dangerous and difficult work.

For the excavation of the North-South Grand Canal. Sima Shu can be described as calculating and calculating. He didn't want to be the Emperor Yang of Sui in history and make wedding clothes for others. Historically, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty dug this Grand Canal with great political and economic significance, and as a result, all the benefits brought by the canal were enjoyed by later dynasties.

That's not all, they enjoyed it while cursing the cruelty of Emperor Yang of Sui, and Sima Shu felt sad for Emperor Yang of Sui when he thought of it. In order not to make himself follow the path of Emperor Yang of Sui. Sima Shu did not dare to use labor excessively. In addition, the free conscription of civilians for forced labor was abolished. Instead, it was changed to an employment system.

Although this increased the burden on the imperial court, it benefited the common people, and in doing so, it could in turn inhibit the great achievements of the imperial court. In the past, emperors were for the so-called face and certain pleasure needs. Despite the hardships of the people, he insisted on starting some huge projects, and if there was not enough budget now, the court and the emperor would not be able to build them even if they had the heart.

In order to speed up the construction of the canal, Sima Shu deliberately set aside 5 million yuan from the financial revenue as a special fund for the canal, and in order to ensure that every penny was used on the canal, he asked the three departments of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Procuratorate, and the Audit Office to strengthen the monitoring of the funds.

At the just-concluded court meeting, Li Fu, the secretary of the Ministry of Cao Yun, can be said to be proud, and this year they have received a total of 7 million yuan of budget from the Ministry of Cao Yun, which is the department with the most money among all parts of Shangshu Province. In the envious and jealous eyes of the other Shangshu, Li Fu came to the Jiade Hall with the canal materials.

"Li Fu, the secretary of the Ministry of Ministers, Cao Yun, greets Your Majesty, long live, long live, long live!"

"Li Aiqing is here?" Sima Shu was staring at a map in a daze, and when he turned around, he found that Li Fu was bowing and saluting, and he hurriedly asked the other party to get up. This Li Fu is the elder brother of Li Te, but he is not very talented in military affairs like the other brothers, but has amazing insights in government affairs.

"Your Majesty, this is the Ministry of Caoyun after exploration, and came up with a plan for the follow-up excavation of the canal. According to our plan, we plan to build the canal into a major transportation artery connecting the five major water systems of the Haihe River, the Yellow River, the Huai River, the Yangtze River and the Qiantang River in the next 30 years. ”

"This canal flows from north to south through the six prefectures of You, Qing, Henan, Hebei, Xu and Yang, and will connect the five major water systems of our country - Haihe River, Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze River, Qiantang River and a series of lakes along the coast. Your Majesty, the flow direction, water source and drainage conditions of the North-South Canal are different in each section and are very complicated. ”

"Well, yes, your Caoyun Department has considered it very comprehensively, which stage are you going to excavate first?" While listening to Li Fu's introduction, Sima Shu inquired in combination with historical experience.

"Your Majesty, in fact, the construction of this canal has started last year, of which most of the northern section of the Yangzhou to Luoyang section has been completed, and it is expected to be completed in another month. The Ministry of Transport plans to complete the construction of the canal from Yangzhou to Zhuojun in the next five to ten years, of which a total of nearly 50 million yuan of funds will be needed and 1.8 million man-times of labor will be invested. ”

"Only 1.8 million people? Not a lot, hiss! The people below won't cut corners, right? Sima Shu said to himself, in the original history, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty used millions of people to open the north-south canal.

"Well, compared with the canal project, the imperial court did not use many migrant workers, which was mainly due to the development of industrial technology in the imperial court in recent years. In particular, the promotion of various machinery and equipment has greatly reduced the dependence on manpower, coupled with the use of gunpowder, and in some areas a dynamite bag has become. Li Fu saw that the emperor seemed to suspect that the Caoyun Department was being deceived by the people below, so he had to explain it.

"Oh, I see." Sima Shu nodded a little clearly, although today's Jin Dynasty is not as good as the Great Sui Dynasty in terms of population, but it can definitely throw her a few streets in terms of technology accumulation, and now large industry and large handicraft industry have become the mainstream of the Great Jin Dynasty, and replacing manpower with machinery is the goal pursued by everyone.

Sima Shu's expectations for the North-South Canal were no less than the main artery of the highway that ran through the east and west, and in the past, land transportation in ancient times could only rely on human and animal power. The speed is slow, the volume is small, and the cost and consumption are very large, so the bulk cargo is transported by water as much as possible.

Especially in Sima Shu's planning, in order to make the economic distribution of the Great Jin Dynasty more reasonable in the future, Jiangnan will play a greater role. Historically, the development of the Yangtze River basin was carried out after the Yellow River basin had been devastated by war, and since the Sui and Tang dynasties, China has formed a situation in which the economic and cultural center is in the south, while the political and military center is in the north.

And now the arrival of Sima Shu has allowed Huaxia Jiangnan to be developed in advance. He did this to protect the Yellow River basin from being overexploited. In Sima Shu's planning. The political and military center of the Great Jin Dynasty will still be in the north, and the economic center will be divided into two, and the Yellow River valley will no longer bear all the burden.

In order to ensure the connection between the two major economic centers of the north and the south, and at the same time ensure that the taxes and materials of the south can be continuously transported to the north. Open and maintain a north-south waterway transport artery. It became extremely important for the imperial court.

"Li Aiqing. In order to strengthen the imperial court's control over the canal, I decided to set up a governor of the canal and his subordinate agencies in Xuyi, in the lower reaches of the Huai River, to be responsible for the canal transportation. You go back and plan this matter, and in the future, this department will be fully responsible for your transportation department. We anticipate that before the rise of maritime transport, the North-South Grand Canal is estimated to account for more than half of the country's cargo traffic. ”

"Your Majesty, is this Caoyun Governor's Mansion only responsible for canal transportation?"

"Of course, you want to take care of something else? Hehe, Aiqing, don't be too greedy, I can make a bet for you here, and the canal alone will be enough for you to be busy in the future. ”

"What about sea freight? Your Majesty, doesn't shipping belong to the transportation of water? ”

"Hehe, I knew that you were going to fight for shipping, and I told you that the problem of shipping was complicated, and I planned to make it independent in the future, so Aiqing didn't fight. You will do a good job of the canal, and you will have a national hat in the future! ”

After Li Fu left, Sima Shu began to carefully study the canal plan proposed by the Ministry of Cao Yun, which basically included the content of the expansion of the canal by the later dynasties. In order to connect Chang'an and Luoyang, the Ministry of Caoyun decided to dig the Guangtong Canal between Weishui and the Yellow River, which is more than 300 miles long, and can also be navigated to the "Ark Giant Boat" after completion.

Today, the Tongji Canal is under construction, which is a water transport that connects the two major rivers of the Yellow River and the Huai River from Luoyang. The Tongji Canal is on the south bank of the Yellow River and is divided into two sections, east and west.

The western section is expanded on the basis of the East Hanyang Canal, starting from the west of Luoyang in the west, taking Luoshui and its tributary valley water as the water source, passing through the south of Luoyang City, to the southeast of Yanshi, and then following Luoshui into the Yellow River.

The eastern section starts from Banzhu on the edge of the Yellow River in the northwest of Xingyang in the west, leads the water of the Yellow River into Bianshui, a tributary of the Huai River, passes through Kaifeng and other counties, and then turns to the southeast, passes through Su County, and flows into Huaishui at Xuyi. The total length of the two sections is nearly 2,000 miles, and the Cao Yun Department also makes full use of the old channels and natural rivers during the construction, but because there is a unified width and depth, it mainly relies on manual excavation, and the project is huge and arduous. However, the duration is very short, and it is estimated that it will be completed in less than a year.

In addition to these two canals under construction or to be built, there is also a very important canal in the north - Yongji Canal, the starting point of this canal is at the mouth of the Qin River on the opposite bank of Luoyang, Jingshi, and then the use of natural rivers such as the Wei River and Lugou (Yongding River) to dig and deepen, straight to Zhuo County, Youzhou. It is expected to take two years to complete the project, with a total length of about 1,900 miles.

In addition to the northern section of the canal, the Ministry of Transport also came up with a part of the investigation plan for the southern section of the canal under the condition of incomplete information, including the canal connecting the Yangtze River and the Huai River - Shanyangdu, which was mainly widened and straightened on the basis of the ditch opened in the Spring and Autumn Period.

Due to the development of water transport in the south, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the southern vassal states started the construction of a large number of canals, among which the State of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period, that is, with the capital Wu (Suzhou) as the center, dug many canals in the Taihu Plain, one of which leads to the Yangtze River to the north, and one to the south to the Qiantang River, these two artificial waterways in the north-south direction are the earliest Jiangnan River.

This time, the plan of the Ministry of Transport is to carry out further dredging on the original basis. Once the north-south canal is completed, these channels will take the political center of Chang'an and Luoyang as the hub, radiate to the southeast and northeast, and form a complete system.

Once completed, the Grand Canal from Chang'an and Luoyang to Yuhang in the southeast and to Zhuojun in the northeast will be the longest canal in ancient and modern China and abroad. Because it runs through the five major water systems of the Qiantang River, the Yangtze River, the Huai River, the Yellow River, and the Haihe River, it is of great value to the imperial court to strengthen its control over various localities and promote economic and cultural exchanges between the north and the south. (To be continued......)