The construction of the Grand Canal was a disaster for the common people - the strong men of the family were forcibly conscripted as coolies, and even women and the elderly were forcibly conscripted to be responsible for providing food for the people, and finally after preliminary statistics, a total of two or three million people died before and after the construction of the Grand Canal.

At that time, the people of the whole country all talked about the color change of the "river", and they all said that the Grand Canal was a cannibalistic river. It is no exaggeration to say that the Grand Canal was built with flesh and blood.

It is worth mentioning that after my father was promoted to be a waiter in the Ministry of Labor, the vacancy of the Zhuojun county order was filled by a local new jinshi, and the Huang official who repeatedly complained to my father about the mediocrity of Emperor Yang of Sui later wrote to advise him to abandon the plan to build the Grand Canal, and pointed out a series of drawbacks, which angered Emperor Yang of Sui, was demoted, and was transferred from Luoyang to Zhuo County, and made a county order. Originally, I only knew a thing or two from my father's conversations with others.

Dad was in charge of the canal construction project in the Zhuo County area, and was naturally warmly received by Huang Guan. Daddy and he were like confidants, and whenever they had time, they would get together and talk loudly, from astronomy to geography, from the imperial government to the dawn people, and there seemed to be endless conversations between them.

"After building the Grand Canal, the Dusk King is not satisfied, and then he is going to build a big ship." Officer Huang said indignantly.

"Hey!" Dad sighed heavily and said, "He has repeatedly recruited a large number of migrant workers, but this time he is harvesting wood in the south of the Yangtze River, which is indeed used to build dragon boats and boats of various names, and I heard that tens of thousands of ships will be built, which is a big project." ”

"Tens of thousands?" Official Huang was very surprised, and said angrily, "This faint gentleman is only greedy for pleasure for himself, and he has no sympathy for the vast number of people, and millions of people have died when he builds a Grand Canal, and he still thinks that there are not enough people who die?" ”

"Hey! It's a pity that we officials can't stop it at all, he is on the rise, and whoever says more will ask for his own hardship. Daddy patted Officer Huang's shoulder to show sympathy, "Brother Huang, you are really pitiful." ”

He said nonchalantly: "Demote me to Zhuojun to be idle, out of sight and out of mind, and I don't need to see his disgusting faint appearance often." ”

But complaining is complaining, Emperor Yang of Sui still built tens of thousands of ships as he wished, as his father said, they are only officials, there is no way to dissuade them, under the rule of such a king, it is also a kind of sadness.

The dragon boat that Emperor Yang of Sui took was extremely luxurious, with four floors, forty-five feet high, more than two hundred feet long, the upper floor had the main hall, the inner hall, the east and west courts, and there were one hundred and twenty rooms on the middle two floors. The appearance of the dragon boat is that of a giant dragon, with a high dragon head, angry eyes, and a high tail, pointing straight to the sky. The dragon boat is also "decorated with Dan powder, decorated with gold and pearls, carved and beautiful", and the lower floor is the place where the inner servants live.

The dragon boat that Empress Xiao rode was called "Xiang Yan", which was slightly smaller than the emperor's dragon boat, and the decoration was also very luxurious. There are nine water halls called "floating scenery" in the fleet, as well as thousands of large ships called "Yangcai", "Vermilion Bird", "Cangji", "White Tiger", "Xuanwu", "Flying Feather", "Qingjiao", "Yellow Scorn", etc., and some ships carry items used by all the passengers.

"It's extravagant!" Daddy couldn't help but say.

"It's all bells and whistles, go down to Yangzhou to see a Qionghua to be so prosperous, work the people and lose money, which is what a king should do?" Officer Huang echoed.

"Brother Huang, do you know what those boatmen are wearing?"

"I know all the good silk clothes, and the slender men who specialize in pulling dragon boats are also beautiful women selected from the Wuyue area, and they are all wearing silk and satin dresses that Yang Guang's family matches." Official Huang said indignantly, "Let's not talk about anything else, what kind of system is it to pull a group of beautiful women as slender men?" Isn't this nonsense? It's also the first time I've seen a boat pulled in silk and satin, and it's a lot of money! ”

However, I have to admit that these slender men have become a magnificent scenery - from a distance, it seems to be a moving brocade dragon.

The entire fleet stretched for more than 200 miles, and it took a total of 50 days for all of them to leave port. On both sides of the Grand Canal, there are smooth royal roads to facilitate the walking of tens of thousands of slender men and soldiers, and there are many cavalry escorts on the banks and banners in the air.

Along the way, there are more than 40 palace-leaving courtyards, which are placed with strange flowers, strange mountains and strange stones transported from various places, for Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty to rest along the shore and have fun.

What's even more excessive is that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty also ordered all the prefectures and counties where the tour fleet passed, and the residents within 500 miles should come to "offer food", and the food offered must also be some delicacies and waterway treasures.

"What kind of bullshit is this? He came to play, and asked the local people to spend it for him? Official Huang expressed dissatisfaction, "Anyway, our Zhuo County will definitely not give him food!" ”

"Brother Huang, let's not do anything with him, he will anger him and kill the whole family in minutes!" Even though Dad was dissatisfied in his heart, he still knew that he couldn't act rashly, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable, so he tried his best to persuade Huang officials to dispel this idea.

"This Yongjun is so troublesome, just to take a look at the Qionghua in Yangzhou, and to build the Grand Canal, and to build tens of thousands of big ships, you look at how difficult the life of the people is now, he is now also putting forward an unreasonable request for food, the people have lost labor at home, food and clothing have become a problem, why do you need spare resources to offer food? I also heard that some states offered as much as more than 100 yuan of food, and for those foods that could not be eaten, Yang Guang had people dig a hole next to the river bank and pour all of them into it. The more Huang spoke, the more excited he became, and it looked like he was about to beat someone at any moment.

"Brother Huang, let's give a little more, last time you dissuaded him from building the Grand Canal, he only lowered your official position, and if you refuse to offer food again, maybe he will order your whole family to be killed!" Daddy said, "It's better not to go against him, I'm in the same mood as you, and I'm angry, but it's definitely not a wise thing to do." ”

"If you don't sacrifice, you don't sacrifice, I have no wife and no children, and my mother has already died, if you want to kill him, you have to follow him, anyway, I just won't let the people of Zhuo County give him food!" Huang's tone was firm.

The tour fleet passed through Zhuo County as scheduled, and sure enough, there was no food for Emperor Yang of Sui, so he was so angry that he sent someone to question the Huang officials.

"Huang County Order, Emperor Yang of Sui's tour fleet passed through Zhuo County, why did you arrange for the local people to make offerings?"

"The people have been squeezed by him to the point that they have no resources to eat!"

"Bold! So many states and counties have given food, why is there no resources for Zhuo County alone? If you really don't, then you have misgoverned! ”

Daddy acted as a peacemaker in the middle, "Lord Deng is angry, it's really too early for the tour fleet, we are not ready, please ask Lord Deng to help us plead in front of Emperor Yang of Sui, give us a few more days, we will definitely arrange it." ”

"Needless to say, it's useless to say more!" Official Huang said, "I just don't want to give food to the faint king, even if I have resources, I'd rather feed the pigs and dogs than give it to him!" ”

"Bold!" Lord Deng jumped up from his chair, his face flushed, as if Officer Huang was talking about him, "You dare to insult Emperor Yang of Sui like this, be careful to reward you for the nine clans!" As he spoke, he pulled out the sword hanging from his waist and pointed it at Officer Huang, and the formation looked as if he would kill him if he said the wrong word again.

"Lord Deng is angry!" Daddy took his sword from his hand and put it in its scabbard, "Give us a few more days, and we promise to give food to Emperor Yang of Sui." ”

"If it weren't for Li Shilang's face, I would have killed you just now!" After saying that, he left the county office.

"Oh, Brother Huang, why are you so stubborn? What are the benefits of doing this? Daddy frowned and said, "I know you're uncomfortable, but ......"

"I really can't stand Yang Guang's fight!" His fists have been clenched tightly since he confronted Lord Deng just now, "And the lives of the people are already very difficult, and letting them offer food again will undoubtedly add fuel to the fire!" ”

Daddy nodded in agreement and said, "Let's collect more food from the local wealthy families, and I'll make up the rest, I've been an official for so many years, and I have some savings, let's deal with Yang Guang first." ”

"Brother Li, I'm sorry for you!" Officer Huang said, "I also took out my own savings to make up for it, and I can't let you spend too much!" ”

"What are you talking about? What's more, I have also been the county magistrate of Zhuo County for so long, and it is also appropriate to do what I can for the local people! ”

Emperor Yang of Sui's tour fleet finally sailed away from Zhuo County, not to mention how happy Daddy and Huang officials were, you must know that serving Emperor Yang of Sui these days is really worrying.

The fleet came to Yangzhou, the place where Emperor Yang of Sui thought about it, the place where it was rumored to have the most beautiful flowers in the world, but the great joy was that Emperor Yang of Sui went to Yangzhou so much to see the Qionghua at a glance, but it quietly withered, and then Emperor Yang of Sui angrily made people cut down the Qiong tree, and the Qiong tree emitted a dazzling light. Some people say that Qionghua withered because of shame to see Emperor Yang of Sui, and some people say that there is no Qionghua at all, and Emperor Yang of Sui is just using it as a cover for building the Grand Canal, who knows?

A local scholar in Zhuo County also wrote a poem in private-

The Mid-Autumn Festival in Yangzhou, Qionghua shame self-elimination.

Long Yan was furious and slashed Qiongshu, and the light was dazzling.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty lost a lot of financial resources during his trip to Yangzhou, and many people suffered from levying and offering food, and they had already lost their labor and grain reserves, and countless people went bankrupt.

Daddy also looked particularly annoyed, and scolded angrily: "Faint king! Coveting the beautiful scenery, losing money and harming the people, I was responsible for the construction of the Grand Canal in the area of Zhuo County, and there were countless deaths, I was already guilty, and now I will never live like this again! ”

Dad then unloaded his armor and returned to the field, and the family moved back to Zhuo County.

Due to the construction of the Grand Canal, water transportation has become more convenient, and Zhuo County has become more fertile, but many people are not happy, because their families have "fed" the Grand Canal.