In August, the autumn flood was great.

After several days of heavy rain, the Yellow River rose and flooded the inner embankment.

All townships and villages along the river in Yuzhou mobilized on all fronts and organized people to guard the embankment.

Wei Chen and Sun Zhuo, the magistrate of Mi County, both lived on the embankment, carrying lanterns and patrolling around all night.

Although it sounds a little thrilling, in fact, it is a common thing in the flood season of the Yellow River, and the real once-in-a-century flood is much more ferocious than this.

It wasn't until the sun rose the next day that the water finally receded, and the newly built inner embankment resurfaced unharmed.

Taking advantage of the heavy rain to take a break, Wei Chen put on a hat and walked out of the bamboo shed to shelter from the rain and inspected the embankment.

Wei Chen didn't say much during the whole process, just asked Sun Zhuo to lead him to see how the people on the embankment repaired the embankment, and then went to see if the food served in the county was thoughtful.

After all, Sun Zhuo is the official who is directly in charge of the river, and he has proved his ability, so Wei Chen did not cross Sun Zhuo to point fingers at the river defense, but showed up and down that he had completely entrusted the matter of river defense to Sun Zhuo and gave Sun Zhuo enough respect.

Sun Zhuo Huanhai has been crawling for decades, because he was born in a person, he has to live under others soon, and he is used to the hardships of those bosses with high hands and low eyes, and his trust in Wei Chen is naturally grateful, and he can't wait to repay Wei Chen's kindness.

Wei Chen stood at the top of the embankment, looking at the scene on the river beach, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

In any case, this first small test from the Yellow River, the Yuzhou River Defense Project can be regarded as handing over a full score of the answer sheet.

At this time, he suddenly saw that a group of people under the embankment were under the command of several old river workers, using small carts to transport soil and tamp the foot of the embankment, and he couldn't help but move in his heart.

At that moment, he turned his head to Sun Zhuo and said: "These old river workers are experienced, and they can handle dozens of people in the river, such talents, they must all be left behind, so as to keep the embankment safe for a hundred years." ”

Sun Zhuo rubbed his hands, a little embarrassed: "Lord Zhizhou Mingjian, that is, this year, the government paid for hiring, so many old river workers came, and when they were sent to serve in previous years, these people were actually unwilling to serve."

They did not dare to tell the government that they knew about the river work, for fear that after the government found out, they would send all the servants to his head every year, and finally die of exhaustion on the bank of the Yellow River. ”

Wei Chen was furious when he heard this, and immediately snorted coldly: "This matter of river defense is related to the lives of the people along the river, and the people should be more anxious than anyone else to repair the embankment, otherwise when the flood comes, they will be the first to suffer."

However, the government forcibly sent troops to repair the river, which caused the destruction of the people's families, which was worse than the river disaster, so that the people complained about the river repair, and everyone deserted. Whose responsibility is this? ”

"This ...... is the ineffective handling of the lower officials, and the lord forgives the sin!" Sun Zhuo lowered his head in fear.

Wei Chen didn't mean to blame Sun Zhuo, after all, this was a chronic disease that had existed in the imperial court for many years, and it was not something that Sun Zhuo had the ability to change as a small magistrate.

After a little hesitation, Wei Chen said to Fang Yuan, an accompanying staff: "This official wants to set up a river engineering department to be responsible for river engineering. Those experienced old river workers, whether they are good at measuring water potential, repairing embankments, ramming earth or plugging breaches, in short, as long as they have a skill, they are all recruited to the River Engineering Department to hire them. When you go back, you draw up a specific charter and send it to me for review. ”

"Yes, Dong On."

Fang Yuan wrote down Wei Chen's requests one by one, and after returning to his residence later, he immediately started to handle the matter.

Sun Zhuo saw that Wei Chen was going to move seriously, and he was also secretly speechless.

Before, it was okay to hire servants to repair the embankment, after all, it was only three months of work, but now Wei Chen actually has to pay for the old river workers all the time.

Won't it cost thousands of taels of silver every year from now on?

Over the years, the extra cost is not a small amount!

Yuzhou has experienced so many Ren Zhizhou, and I am afraid that only Wei Chen has this courage.

Of course, this is also because Weichen's foundation is firmly laid and the treasury is sufficient, otherwise if you want to do things for the people, it will be difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice.

As far as Sun Zhuo knows, the annual income of the Keju competition, which is still in the ascendant in Yuzhou City, is worth thousands of taels of silver, which alone is enough to meet the expenses of establishing the River Engineering Department.

The people do not add money and taxes, Weichen can be said to have interpreted this sentence vividly.

In terms of making money, we still have to learn more from the people of Zhizhou!

Sun Zhuo sighed in his heart, and suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he thought of a matter that might be able to vote for Wei Chen.

At that moment, he stepped forward and bowed his hand to Wei Chen: "Lord Zhizhou, the hundreds of hectares of silt fields between the inner and outer embankments are worth a lot of money, but do you want the lower officials to gather the local gentry to discuss the sale and purchase of silt fields?" ”

"Silt fields?"

Wei Chen was slightly stunned when he heard this, and immediately followed Sun Zhuo's guidance and looked into the narrow passage between the inner and outer embankments.

As soon as the Fuqiu flood passed, the river receded from the outer embankment and the inner embankment, and the river channel was re-contained in the inner embankment.

Because of the construction of the embankment, the water that overflowed the inner embankment did not carry away the silt, leaving several feet of silt between the inner and outer embankments, forming a large silt field.

This is the anointed land in the eyes of the people.

As the saying goes, the grain fields in the north are fighting, and the grain fields in the south are talking about stones.

Ten buckets are equal to one stone.

In the south, where the water and soil are pleasant, it is not uncommon to produce two or three stones, or even four or five stones, per mu.

In the north, even in a good year with good weather and good weather, only six or seven buckets can be harvested per mu, and in normal times, only three or four buckets can be harvested.

Only this silt field is different.

The yield of three or four stones per mu is ordinary.

Such a high-quality good field, there are two or three hundred hectares at the moment, as long as you find those big families in Yuzhou to sell, it is naturally a large amount of income, Sun Zhuo is playing this idea, so he diligently offered advice to Wei Chen.

Wei Chen understood what Sun Zhuo meant, but he shook his head and said, "These are wastelands, not official fields, how can they be bought and sold?" ”

"Wasteland?"

Sun Zhuo was stunned: "But this is all the benefit that we can only fall by spending manpower and material resources to repair the embankment, and it should be counted as official land." ”

Wei Chen said: "The construction of water conservancy is a matter within the government's responsibility, how can there be a reason to make money from the people?" ”

Of course, Sun Zhuo understood what Wei Chen meant.

The Son once said, the people are enough, but who is the king and the insufficiency? The people are insufficient, who is the king?

This is the Confucian idea of hiding the wealth of the people, and this is what Wei Chen said.

But Sun Zhuo still didn't understand.

Obviously, Wei Chen was so enthusiastic about the art of cargo cultivation before, why was he not moved at all in the face of this large amount of money at his fingertips?

As if he understood the doubts in Sun Zhuo's heart, Wei Chen shook his head with a smile and sighed lightly: "These silt fields, instead of letting those big families with fat brains occupy them, it is better to give them as wasteland to those people who have no land at home to cultivate, and it should be regarded as compensation for the suffering they have suffered from the river disasters over the years......