Especially those ministers who have overseas business contacts at home are even brighter-eyed.

"In this way, wouldn't the ships be able to enter the capital from the sea?"

"Yes, not only that, but it can also regulate the amount of water in the north and south, which can solve the problem of irrigation and water use in farmland in the arid areas of the north."

Yuan Xuan was one of the first people to know about this plan, and it was he who practiced it and presided over the surveying plan.

Therefore, for the Grand Canal, except for Liu Zhi, he is the person who has the most right to speak, and he is also the emperor's spokesman on this matter in the court.

Anyone who has done business knows how difficult the overland Silk Road was, not only because it was a long way, but it also went over the mountains and mountains.

What's more, the amount of goods transported is too small, and the cost is so large, but only such a small amount of goods are shipped, and the pay is somewhat disproportionate to the benefit.

Therefore, the overland Silk Road is only suitable for transporting some valuables, but the risk cost also increases exponentially.

There are many countries along the way, and the situation is complicated, and it is difficult to ensure that there are many thieves and black shops who forget their righteousness, so many caravans travel in groups, and the journey is mighty.

And many large caravans have their own armed protection, and each trip is equivalent to an adventure.

If the entire Maritime Silk Road is completed, many problems can be solved.

First, the transportation time can be greatly shortened, but the carrying capacity can be multiplied, which can greatly promote trade with the West and the South Sea countries.

In addition, it is also beneficial for domestic North-South trade, aside from business matters, it is also of extraordinary significance for the mobilization of national strategic materials and military movements.

There are also regional benefits to transportation and postal routes, especially in a country that is based on agriculture, the benefits of irrigation and drought control alone are already enormous.

However, even if there are a lot of benefits, there are obvious shortcomings.

First of all, the amount of work is huge, and the cost of manpower, material resources and time required is incalculable.

And except for the Maritime Silk Road, the rest of the benefits are basically only local areas.

After some debate, the vast majority of people agreed to build the Grand Canal, after all, there was a clear stake in it.

However, there is a great deal of disagreement about the timing of the construction and whether it will be built in stages.

Some people believe that with the current national strength, it is not suitable to start such a large-scale project, and it is necessary to wait for the right time.

Others believe that these two things are complementary to each other, not to mention that the Grand Canal does not have to be completed at once, but can be divided into several stages.

There are also those who believe that since the excavation is to be excavated, there is no need to procrastinate, and it is enough to simply divide the tasks, and each state is responsible for its own part, and in the end it will be connected together.

Yuan Xu, on the other hand, believes that sectional excavation is feasible, but it cannot be forced to stipulate that each state is responsible for itself.

After all, the situation is different in each state, some are completely digging new routes, while others only need to repair old canals.

As a result, some states will not be able to complete it in ten or eight years, and some states will have a large amount of idle manpower.

It would be more cost-effective for the Ministry of Industry to deploy it uniformly, and the imperial court could also set up a temporary body to bring together representatives of all the departments involved to take charge of this matter.

This proposal was originally instructed by Liu Zhi, and naturally he agreed.

Now he has almost absolute authority in the court, as long as it does not involve the fundamental interests of the family class.

He opened his mouth, and everyone was in favor of the matter, so he half-pushed and half-on-the-spot.

There is nothing to discuss on the route, and the mapping has been successful before, but there are many imperial departments involved in this matter.

The household department and the Ministry of Industry bear the brunt of the task, one has to allocate money and grain, the other has to carry out the project budget, and professional engineering personnel have to be dispatched to command.

There are many states and counties directly involved, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Qingzhou, Jizhou and Sili.

It is impossible for the other neighboring states to sit idly by, and Jingzhou, Yanzhou, Bingzhou, and Youzhou are all duty-bound.

Even the states and counties that are relatively far apart, such as Yizhou, Jiaozhou, Liangzhou, etc., can actually benefit from the completion of the Grand Canal.

Therefore, this huge project can only be completed with the strength of the whole country.

At this time, compared with the Sui Dynasty, the land of the Han Dynasty was more vast and the population was larger, and it was really impossible to recruit a group of laborers from Nanyang by ship, so there was no shortage of manpower.

As with the usual construction of water conservancy projects, the main start of construction is in autumn and winter, and the rest of the season reduces manpower, so that agricultural production will not be delayed.

For the time being, food is sufficient, but as a superpower, it is necessary to prevent special situations at any time.

Therefore, Liu Zhi planned to buy a batch of grain from other countries to be prepared.

After all, in foreign trade, Dahan has always dominated the country, and most of the exports are high-end handicrafts and textiles, as well as some products with special technology.

The imports are basically raw materials, such as precious stones, ores, and furs, etc., and one more grain can also balance the trade gap.

Preparations are in full swing, but it is a difficult question who will be assigned to lead the construction of the Grand Canal.

This person must have rich experience in the scheduling of water conservancy projects, and must have the ability to do practical things, and the level must be high enough to be able to control the various state pastors and coordinate the relationship between the imperial court and the local government.

Having said all this, this position seems to be very important, but in fact it is a temporary title, a key and a heavy responsibility, and ordinary officials avoid it.

It's hard to highlight the credit for doing a good job, and once something goes wrong, then I'm sorry, you can't run away from the first one.

After calculating it, everyone thought of Chen Yu, the Taishou of Surabaya County, who was really a copper pea that could not be steamed or cooked.

The bite clangs, no one asks about it, and when there is a good thing, everyone can't think of it, and when there is a problem, it becomes important.

In fact, Liu Zhi also had this intention for a long time, Chen Yu came out late, he was not young, and he was not talented enough.

This is the best opportunity to directly raise his rank without facing everyone's opposition.

After some discussion, Chen Yu was transferred to the director of the Grand Canal, with the title of second rank, and was responsible for the construction of the prime minister's canal.

After the matter is completed, as long as there are no major quality problems, Liu Zhi plans to leave him in the capital logically.

The second rank, no matter which position he is in, can let him show his ambitions.

He attaches great importance to this matter, and in the long run, it is definitely a big project that benefits the country and the people, and can leave a name in history.

It's not that he is greedy for fame and fortune, with what he is doing so far, it is enough to make him write a big book in the history books, which is not uncommon.

For the public, he really hopes to develop the country's economy, but he still hopes that one day he will have the opportunity to travel all over the world and see all the splendid mountains and rivers.

After all, when he ascended the throne as the emperor, he was out of his plan, and in order to save his life, he went farther and farther, so that he finally completely took on the role and became a real emperor.

For more than ten years, it is rare that he still has an uninhibited soul, and he always hopes that one day he can retire and sail all over the world.

Just when the Grand Canal project was in full swing, a piece of news came from Pingyuan County, which made the Empress Dowager Yun fall into sadness.

Mrs. Ma unfortunately fell ill and died, and she couldn't even leave a word before she died.

After hearing this, the Empress Dowager Yun burst into tears, she was just the daughter of a small official, and she was able to love her husband without doubt, thanks to Mrs. Ma's fulfillment.

Without her, a virtuous and generous wife, how could she successfully give birth to her eldest son, and even surpass her son-in-law to inherit the throne.

Without all this, there would be no Liu Zhi's reign in the world today, so in the heart of the Empress Dowager Yun, she has always felt indebted to Mrs. Ma and Liu Shuo.

What's more, the two have been like sisters for decades and have long become real relatives.

Liu Zhi also thanked this gentle Mrs. Ma for treating her mother so kindly, so he discussed with Zongzheng Mansion and promoted her title to Chongyuan Guifei.

is equivalent to the position of the first emperor's concubine, although she is Liu Yi's wife, but after all, the Empress Dowager Yun is the emperor's biological mother.

He also ordered her to be buried next to Liu Yi's Boling, if Liu Zhi had not been the emperor, she would have been qualified to be buried with Emperor Xiaochong.

But now according to the etiquette system, the only one who is buried with Liu Yi in Boling can only be the Queen Mother.

Because Boling was in Liwu, Liu Shuo, the king of the plains, and Liu Kui, the king of Bohai, jointly helped the soul to return to his hometown for burial.

The princess of Changshe also rushed home to mourn, and Liu Zhi sent Zongzheng to preside over the funeral on his behalf, and rewarded many ritual vessels for the funeral.

Seeing the Empress Dowager Yun crying sadly every day, Liu Zhi was worried that she would become depressed, so he asked several princesses and princes to accompany her, hoping to dilute her sadness.

Seeing that her grandmother Liu Hua couldn't rest assured, she took the initiative to ask Ying to go to Liwu County instead of her to fulfill the old man's wish.

At first, Liu Zhi didn't know about it, until she was ready to pack and ran to find herself.

"You are a little child, it is a lot of trouble to run so far, it is good to have this heart."

Liu Zhi only regarded her as a child's nature, and when she was impulsive, she said casually.

"Father, the child has promised his grandmother, how can he break his promise, and Hua'er is not young, she is eleven years old this year.

As the eldest princess of the Han Dynasty, she enjoys the worship of the world, so she should take responsibility. If you can't do such a trivial thing, how can you talk about serving the country and the people in the future? ”

The little girl was full of words, and her face was full of seriousness, which made Liu Zhi speechless.

After thinking about it, he nodded and said, "Hua'er is reasonable, but my father's thoughts are bad."

It's rare that you have this heart, so let's go for your grandmother. ”

When Princess Anyang heard her promise, she immediately jumped up with joy, "I will go to say goodbye to my grandmother and mother immediately, and I will set off immediately." ”

Seeing that his daughter had already run away, Liu Zhi was still not at ease, and ordered Fan Chao to personally escort him with fifty imperial guards, so that he could go and return quickly and bring the princess back safely.

It seems that her daughter has also inherited the Deng family's character of liking freedom and valuing affection.

Born in the royal family, I don't know if such a character is a good thing or a bad thing, Liu Zhi sighed, no matter what, he will do his best to give her a free sky.

Fortunately, she is a princess, and she doesn't need to carry the future of the country on her shoulders, so what if she is left alone?

Because his mother was in a bad mood, Liu Zhi was worried that she was getting old, and if there was a bad one, she didn't go to court much during these days, and she talked with her in Yong'an Palace all day long.

All the pieces were sent here for review, and they were not delayed.

Originally, he wanted to take his mother to the suburban palace for a walk and relax, but the Empress Dowager Yun was too lazy to move, so she had to give up.

In the past few years, two or three beauties have been added to his harem one after another, with average positions and no particularly favored.

One is the princess of Annan, which can be regarded as a trophy, Liu Zhi saw that she was born charming and moving, so he pushed the boat down the river and stayed.

There is also an exotic beauty presented by the king of Tianzhu, who is good at dancing and charming, but she can't speak elegant words, and the two sides can't speak well, let alone have any soul communication.

The last one was originally a hundred opera geisha in the West Garden, but he happened to be in the eye of him, and he was accepted into the palace on a whim.

These three are currently in low positions, and Queen Deng Meng manages the harem in an orderly manner, so they can't afford to do anything stormy.

At present, there are only Geng Zhaoyi who are qualified to show their faces in front of the Empress Dowager, except for the queen.

The queen has a lot of affairs, and she has three children under her knees, so most of the time, Geng Xian is accompanying her.

Because of this, there was more contact with Liu Zhi, and the relationship between the two warmed up, which had the meaning of regaining favor.

When Empress Dowager Yun calmed down, Liu Zhi moved back to Deyang Palace.

In the early winter of this year, an incident occurred in Yuzhou, which alarmed the entire imperial court.

An ordinary farmer, because he was sick in bed, and his wife was a cowardly and thoughtless woman, in a hurry, he listened to the instigation of the rich man in the township and mortgaged the allocated Yongye field loan.

When he recovered from his illness, he found that the arrears had become astronomical, and he couldn't afford to pay them even if he smashed the pot and sold iron.

The other party took the opportunity to force him to take all the land, including the land of the mouth, to pay off his debts, otherwise he would have his wife and children sold into slavery.

The peasants argued that they had tricked their wives into borrowing usurious loans, not to mention the fact that the imperial court had stipulated that they were not allowed to buy or sell the land.

Ask for a partial reduction in the interest, and then give him some grace, and he promises to pay it back slowly.

The rich man relied on his relatives to be officials in the county, and he didn't give up, and he couldn't hold on to each other, and finally the rich man came up with a poisonous plan and deliberately set fire to his house in the middle of the night.

Who would have thought that his wife, because she was reluctant to keep the belongings in the house, ran out and turned back, but unfortunately burned to death inside.

He ran to the county government to complain in grief and anger, but was framed and beaten himself.

This person's name is Wei Ji, who retired from the Liangzhou border army that year, and he used to be a guard of the Zhenxi general Duan Cheng in his early years.

Although he has been retired for a long time, he knows that General Duan is a person who values love and righteousness, and he had to retire because of an injury and a broken arm.

Before leaving, Duan Cheng said that if there is any difficulty in the future, just come to him.

If it weren't for the ruin of his family, Wei Ji would never have bothered General Duan in his life, but now that he was forced to have no choice, he had no other way but this way.

So he entrusted a pair of young children to relatives and friends, and set out on the road to the Western Regions Protectorate, hoping to seek justice for his wife.

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