In Luoyang, the eastern capital of July, it is extremely hot, and people who are hot do not want to go out. But on the Luoshui River that passes through the city, there are still countless boats, and countless boats and convoys are still coming in and out of the wharves and city gates along both sides of the river inside and outside the city.

After the imperial court designated Luoyang as the eastern capital, this city immediately became the center of the entire Kanto region, and the center of the world, which was already populous and prosperous, immediately became more and more lively. Luoyang banks, newspapers, trading houses, post offices, garrison barracks, and newly opened shops have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. In addition to the Han people on the streets, there are countless Hu people of various colors, all colors, and various languages.

Since the imperial court established Luoyang as the capital, military and civilian officials, their families and the merchants who came with it have added at least 200,000 people to the entire Luoyang City. The population of the entire city of Luoyang quickly climbed to 500,000. With such a large population, whether it is the luxury needs of the palace and the hundred officials and generals of the army, or the necessities of life of ordinary officers and ordinary people, the needs of the entire Luoyang City are very amazing. And this qiē all depends on the rapid stability of the Central Plains, as well as the already well-developed water and land transportation industry in the Central Plains and the large number of people engaged in this industry. Nowadays, the implementation of a large number of four-wheeled carriages, as well as the carriage tracks in the wharf and other places, and the pulley lifting cranes in the wharf, etc., have greatly enhanced the freight capacity. Even the Ministry of Industry has already proposed to the imperial court to start the construction of the original Bianshui between the Yellow River and the Huai River, as well as the Huai River and the Yangtze River? The ditch was fully dredged and enlarged, so that there was a direct and wide canal from Luoyang to Yangzhou. Greatly improve the connection between the imperial court and the Huainan and Jiangnan regions.

The canal was built with a long history. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the Xu River was excavated, and it has been more than 1,100 years since then. And after Qin unified the world. In order to communicate the shipping between the Xiang River and the Li River, the Ling Canal was also dug. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu Wangfu sent to build Hancheng, dig a ditch, communicate the Jianghuai waterway, Hancheng is Yangzhou City, this ditch is after thousands of years, and it is still the most important water transport channel in Jianghuai.

At the beginning of the founding of the dynasty, the capital of Guanzhong Chang'an was built, and Chang'an in Guanzhong had a large population, and the grain was mostly supplied to Guandong. Take the Yellow River more, but many waterways in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River are dangerous and dredged, and there are many accidents in boats. Therefore, in the fourth year of the emperor's opening, Emperor Wen made Yu Wenkai lead the hydraulic engineering to open another Cao Canal, divert Wei water from the northwest of Daxing City in Guanzhong, slightly follow the old road of Cao Canal in the Han Dynasty and go east, to Tongguan into the Yellow River, more than 300 miles long, famous Guangtong Canal. Since then, Caoyun has been profitable. Guanzhong relies on it, so it is also called the Fumin Canal.

Then, in the seventh year of the emperor's reign, in order to raise troops to attack Chen, he unified China. In particular, between Huai'an and Yangzhou, the mountain was opened and Yangdefu, and later it was straightened and rectified by no longer detouring to Sheyang Lake in the middle.

Arguably. The people of insight in the government and the opposition of this era have long recognized the importance of the canal. The canal is more convenient and faster than land transportation. At the same time consumes less, a canal. It is the highway of this era, which not only has an important impact on the economy, but also has a huge help for the political and even the military.

Regarding the plan proposed by the Ministry of Industry, Yifeng is in favor of it in principle. Although later generations mentioned the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty, they remembered what 100,000 dragon boats, went down to the south of the Yangtze River to see Qionghua, faint king, mourning the country and so on. However, in reality, the canal is a project that is more harmful than good, and even a project that benefits the future, and is even more practical than the Great Wall. The bad impression of the canal in later generations is mainly that when the Sui Dynasty excavated the canal, the project was too large, and at the same time, the construction period was too tight, and the labor of the people was very hard. In fact, Yang Guang had already dug several sections of canals in the Yang Jian era before Yang Guang, and they were all quite smooth and there was no problem. The two sections of the canal opened by Emperor Wen have been in traffic for more than ten years, which have been praised by the people and have also contributed greatly to the transportation of the imperial court.

The reason why Yi Feng was cautious and did not immediately approve and agree was also to absorb the chaos caused by Yang Guang's digging of the canal later. It is good to dig a canal, but it is necessary to draw up a detailed project plan in advance, and even plan the budget for the project, as well as the logistical supply, the conscription of labor, and so on. To fight a war, you must first be completely prepared according to the actual situation, and then you must choose the right generals and have a good executive leadership team. The same is true for doing projects, if only the central government proposes a project, and no preparatory work has been done, and it is immediately handed over to an unprofessional person to lead the operation, then it is really strange that this matter is not out of chaos.

After thinking about it carefully, Yi Feng ordered a prince's teaching, allowing hundreds of officials, officials from all over the country, and even people of insight to openly discuss the canal project, make suggestions for the project, and provide useful advice. And give a reward for this, only the useful advice put forward can be rewarded, at least 10,000 yuan, and even the most good can be awarded. In addition, Yi Feng asked the Propaganda Department to start with all its efforts and began to endorse the canal project, so that everyone in the world can thoroughly understand what the canal is, what the role of the canal is, why the canal should be dug and what benefits it will be for the people. In addition, even before the project was officially approved, Yi Feng had already begun to write an article in the Royal Weekly publicly, one of which was very important that the imperial court would borrow 10 million yuan from the Northern Bank for the special project funds for the canal project. As for the excavation of the canal, the imperial court no longer forcibly requisitioned the people for free, but adopted a completely new way. The imperial court recruited laborers from all over the country to dig canals, and all the common people who were recruited as workers were paid, with a minimum of 50 yuan per day, and those with various crafts and skills could also get even more wages. At the same time, the project party also covered the travel expenses of these workers, as well as food on the construction site, tents, etc., food and accommodation, and even clothes, shoes and socks for labor. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry also set up an engineering academy and began to temporarily train various engineering and technical personnel for the canal project in advance

In short, after the imperial court just recovered Huainan, followed by Lingnan's return to Shun, and Qifan's coming to the dynasty, now in the eastern capital, the most talked about is the excavation of canals. For many, the Prince's canal plan was a novelty, especially the fact that he was paying for labor.

Many people are not surprised by the 10 million loan from the Northern Bank, after all, the Northern Bank is the prince's private property, and now it is just the prince taking out the money in his pocket for national use.

Although it is said that the money from the state treasury is generally taken and put into the royal treasury, this kind of private money for the state is really rare, but it is also in line with the style of the prince who is praised by everyone today, and I heard that the army of the imperial court is basically supported by the prince's private money.

After all, such a large project, if the project is tight, it may require hundreds of thousands of laborers, and every man in the world has 20 days of free labor for the state every year.

And if the project is large, they even have to overstay their service, and the court will deduct some of their rent for the following year. Twenty days in a year may not sound like a long time, but it depends on the project. If it is a large-scale project of the national type, sometimes it often passes through the state and county, and just rushing to the project may have to walk thousands of miles in a month, work for 20 days, and return for two months, and have to bring their own rations and leave their hometowns, which is definitely a rather heavy labor task.

And now, the crown prince no longer forcibly conscripts them, and only levies a hundred wen yuan on each of them, and they can be exempted from this trip. According to the original standard of the imperial court, it was originally two feet of silk per day, and twenty days of service was to get one horse of silk and thousands of dollars. Now, the crown prince only accepts them for 100 wen and is exempted from military service. At the same time, if it is not far away, you can also sign up to work, even if you don't know anything, you can get food and accommodation a day, and you can get 50 yuan a day at the construction site. Many people were already secretly planning in their hearts to officially recruit laborers from the first-class government, and they immediately signed up to go. If you can work hard for a year, you can get 18,000 yuan in wages, and if you save all this money, you can buy back two cows, one big and one small, and even build a new house, and set a family affair for your son.

What the merchants noticed was the question of the canal toll that the prince had briefly revealed now, and after the canal was dug up, some canal checkpoints would be set up on the canal in the future to collect fees for ships passing through the canal. However, there is no further disclosure of how many toll checkpoints there will be on the canal, how to charge them, and how much the toll will be. Some merchants were worried about this, but immediately some merchants who were nostalgic immediately laughed and told them that they were worrying about the sky.

For example, today, with the ascension of the crown prince, the merchants of Huaihuang have also traveled all over the country and become the most famous group of businessmen in the world. They started with the prince, and now they are all wealthy, with the two big backers of the prince and the Northern Bank, these businessmen can be said to be invincible. As for the excavation of the Jianghuai Canal, they raised their hands in favor. And they are even more dismissive of the canal charges that some businessmen are worried about.

Dynasties have always suppressed merchants, but the crown prince is definitely an outlier. At the time of Huaihuang, it was the full support of the prince and his personal guidance that led to the rise of Huaihuang merchants. The prince also built roads and set tolls when he was in the wilderness, but the toll was not high. That little money is not worth mentioning at all, and after the prince repaired the road and set up a card to charge, he also sent people to patrol the road to prevent theft and banditry, and sent special personnel to maintain the road all the time, which brought great convenience to the merchants. Now there is a waterway to Jianghuai, but the boat is many and the river is narrow, and it is often easy to block the road, if you pay a little money, you can have a smooth river to go, which businessman will care about this toll. (To be continued......) R1292