Ji Hu was shocked, but Kui Duoyou spoke again: "If our army wants to win, we must first consolidate our roots and then attack them in one fell swoop!" If we don't fix our roots, even if we win a lot, we will not be able to eradicate the plague of the rampant, and we will eventually be entangled in generations."

Is this a satire on the strategic failure of the previous kings of the Great Zhou Dynasty? Ji Hu endured the unhappiness in his heart, and left the border army camp with the determination of "no need to suspect people, no suspicion of employing people".

Leaving the north and heading south, Ji Hu immediately inspected all parts of Guanzhong non-stop. At this time, the civil power in Guanzhong had all been pressed into the waterlogging, and among the villages, except for the sick and the old and weak who could not move around, there were really ten rooms and nine emptiness. At this time, there were only two major things that Ji Hu wanted to supervise:

First, did the local officials distribute river grain to the old and weak in a timely and sufficient manner, and did any evil government occur when people died of starvation?

Second, did the officers and lieutenants left behind carefully inspect and did there any evil examples of homeless robbers taking the opportunity to loot the Void Villages?

At the end of the first month, Ji Hu's horse team passed through one deserted village after another, and entered Guanzhong with difficulty. After days of toiling, he finally fell ill. Back in Hojing, the imperial physician ordered three old doctors to stare at the Son of Heaven every day to take medicine. Although Ji Hu did not delay the daily disposal of official documents, he couldn't move around, and he was so irritable and depressed that his face was gloomy when he saw the imperial doctor and the medicine cup.

At this moment, Ji Hu's biggest concern is the progress of the waterlogged canal, although he knows that everything will go smoothly if he does not report it, but he is always worried and cannot relax. After all, he has never been flooded, and how big is this canal, which is regarded by all the ministers of economy as the foundation of a strong country? How much benefit can it be after cultivation? He never had a vision of the foundation, and if he didn't personally investigate, he always felt uneasy.

According to Rong Yi's original plan, King Zhou's priority was to stabilize the overall situation, and as for the river canal, as long as it was at the time of the water ceremony, there was no need to inspect it the rest of the time. Ji Hu clearly knew that the reason why Rong Yi didn't want him to inspect the river canal was also a painstaking effort. One is to realize that he is too busy to worry him; Second, if he goes to inspect, there will be a lot of additional paving and nuisance, which is not conducive to the construction period.

But he really wanted to go and see it, and after thinking about it repeatedly, Ji Hu still made a decision: before the water ceremony, he must go to the river canal to see it with his own eyes.

As soon as the ploughing ceremony in early March passed, Ji Hu immediately secretly ordered: the light car was simple, and went straight to the waterlogged canal. Rui Liangfu is in charge of the itinerary and wants to send a fast horse messenger to inform Rongyi. Ji Hu said, don't alarm anyone, you can't listen to nature when you encounter it, the important thing is to see it yourself. Rui Liangfu thought about it, this trip was in the hinterland of Wangji, and it was easy for all parties to take care of it, so he no longer insisted on it.

After mobilizing the original team who often followed the inspection, Rui Liangfu set the date for the third day of the third month of March. Before leaving, Ji Hu still suspected that there were too many people and horses and were too ostentatious, and ordered that as long as Rui Liangfu and Qi Zhong and five Wang Cheng Ruishi followed, they would not ride the king's chariot, and all of them would ride horses. Rui Liangfu was worried, but he couldn't be stubborn, so he had to tell a knight who stayed behind to fly to the royal city to order the attendant Jia to answer, and then hurriedly got on the horse and chased after King Zhou and his party.

Early in the morning, the eight-horse pony team went out of the north gate of Haojing, and after galloping for about an hour, they saw the clear and clear water. After more than an hour, the section of the Yuanpo River came to an end and entered the upper reaches of the vast mountain forest.

Rui Liangfu pointed out that the eastern foot of Qingshan Mountain, which stands on the east bank of the waterlogged water, is the construction site of Gukou. The mountains and valleys were rugged and difficult to navigate, so Ji Hu ordered the horses to be left to be tended by a knight, and the other six people followed him up the mountain on foot.

Ji Hu had been prepared for a long time, dressed in knight's soft armor, wearing a refined long sword and a special horsewhip at his waist, and did not wear a cloak that attracted people's eyes and was easy to hinder his steps, almost no obvious difference from his fellow knights. Along the way up the mountain, the long sword dialed the thorny bushes to find the way, and the horsewhip sometimes threw up the trunk to borrow strength, without Qi Zhong's hand, and walked lightly and neatly.

Halfway up the hill in a moment, a large tent camp appeared in the woods, with a few black and dirty flags fluttering, but it was empty and difficult to find.

After walking through the camp for a while, I saw five or six old men busy cooking in front of several earthen stoves, and there were puffs of smoke and a strange smell of choking in the forest. Rui Liangfu walked over and asked an old man, saying that this was behind the gourd, and that if you went up to the top of the mountain, you could go down to the canyon. This is a camp of 1,000 people, and the assigned work is to take care of the water intake that has already been opened. As for the smoke? The old man smiled, "You will know when you go up and take a look."

"It smells weird! Sour and smoky, are you making wine?" Qi Zhong shouted.

"Let's go! Go up and have a look." Ji Hu strode up the mountain.

When I arrived at the top of the mountain, I suddenly saw a different scene in front of me. On the left, a mountain forest surrounded by rocks, which is obviously an open and temporarily closed water inlet; The east canyon is steaming with white smoke, and occasionally there are sky-high fires churning and jumping in the smoke, and the pungent sour gray smell is much stronger than in the middle of the mountain.

In the smoky canyon, there was a clanging hammer chisel and a continuous trumpet, and it was impossible to guess what was going on in this canyon for a while.

Rui Liangfu looked at the unfamiliar mountain and said, "To understand this construction site, it is best to find a canal official to lead the way. Wait a minute, the king, I'll go find someone, and don't tell Rong Yi."

Ji Hu waved his hand: "No need. It's not three mountains and five mountains, can you still get lost? Go down and see for yourself."

Suddenly, a high-pitched mountain song flew out of the mountainside, piercing through the clouds and fog around the canyon.

"Good song!" Rui Liangfu couldn't help but admire.

Ji Hu's eyes lit up, he didn't speak, and hurried down the mountain. After walking about a stone's throw away, I saw a smoky tree in the middle of the mountain, and under the tree stood an old man with snow-white hair, a swarthy and beautiful village girl. The old and young were pointing at the canyon and laughing loudly, happy as immortals in the world.

Ji Hu strode over, arched his hand and asked, "Is this young lady singing?"

The village girl echoed and giggled, "yes, isn't it good to sing?"

Ji Hu said, "Good! Is it a song made up by a young lady?"

The village girl giggled again, "I'll just sing. Grandpa made up the words."

The snow-white old man smiled: "General, the old man is not made up randomly, it is made up by the old brothers on the construction site. To be honest, it's all from the hearts of our people."

Ji Hu nodded repeatedly: "That's it, otherwise they can let you sing?"

The old man nodded happily: "The general is a man who understands!"

Ji Hu smiled and asked, "Can singing also count as work?"

The old man said with emotion, "The general doesn't know, my grandfather and grandson were originally masonry. Singing, it was just a lively time when I was off work. Coincidentally, Lord Rongyi inspected the construction site every day, and once heard my granddaughter singing, which was a great compliment, and forced my grandfather and grandson out of the work camp, and specially composed songs and sang, saying that it was to teach the spirit of the elder father, and I was excited to listen to it!"

Ji Hu laughed, "Good! Or Rongyi has a way, and the old man and the young lady have merit."

The old man suddenly pointed to the canyon: "General, look, the last three-pillar stone is about to be broken!"

The village girl pulled Ji Hu: "The general came here, and he can see it most clearly. Grandpa, be careful."

"Good! I've seen it too." Ji Hu strode with the village girl and walked to the bottom of the big tree on the cliffside.

The old man smiled with emotion: "The general has eyes! If you don't come today, I'm afraid you won't see such a spectacle in your life."

At the foot of Ji Hu and the village girl was a hawk's beak stone hanging out of the air under the big tree. Ji Hu roughly estimated, about two arrows from the bottom of the valley. Despite the puffs of smoke, the bird's-eye view of the canyon is still clear.

From a high place, a wide ditch has opened in the canyon, and the snow is white, like a snow valley in the smoke of the green mountains. In the middle of the ditch, there are three gray and bare boulders, squatting majestically like three blue-gray elephants. At this time, a group of shirtless men were constantly carrying thick tree trunks and chopping wood around the boulder. In a few moments, the strong men had formed three tall mountains around the boulder.

As soon as Chai Shan was piled up, there were three other teams of strong men each carrying a potbelly clay pot and shuttling forward, pouring jars of black and shiny juice at Chai Shan. Ji Hu understood that this must be fierce fire oil. I just don't understand, how can pouring fierce fire oil shatter this huge "stone elephant"?

"Raise the fire—" shouted from the high platform by the ditch.

With this shout, a war drum sounded loudly under the high platform, and a group of shirtless strong men each held thick fierce fire oil torches to surround Chai Mountain. There was another drum beat, and the fierce fire and oil torches of the strong men were neatly divided into three parts: one was thrown on the top of the firewood mountain, one was stuffed into the bottom of the firewood mountain, and one piece

The belly of Shibayama is as fast and neat as the sergeant of the battle array.

Suddenly, a fire erupted, and red smoke rushed up the mountainside. On the rocks of the mountain mouth, Ji Hu and Xiao Cun Gu both coughed violently. The fire in the canyon was thick with smoke, and the fire burned for half an hour. When the fire was extinguished, the thick ash slid down, and the three cyan boulders in the ditch suddenly turned into three red and translucent volcanoes, which were magnificent and gorgeous.

"Vinegar—" A hoarse roar resounded through the canyon on the high platform of the ditch.

"The final clearance, the hydraulic order is ordered by himself!" The village girl cried out happily.

Ji Hu looked intently, and saw that more than a dozen cloud cars were rapidly launched in the ditch, encircling the three volcanoes respectively; Each cloud car quickly climbed up a group of shirtless strong men and stood on each floor of the ladder; At the same time, more than a dozen shirtless men had already lined up under the car, and one by one the clay barrels and pots flew past their hands and handed them to the cloud car like flowing water.

Several strong men at the top of the cloud car roared and shouted, and the clay pots sent were lifted high, and there was a continuous stream of golden vinegar pouring into the air on the red and translucent volcano. Suddenly, thick white smoke rushed straight into the sky, and a thunderclap exploded in the white smoke, like a thunderclap.

With the sound of thunderbolts, the strong men up and down the cloud cart immediately raised a shield neatly to resist the pieces of flint that kept bursting out, but the team was not chaotic at all.