Unlike the Kong family, which can take out 10,000 big trees with an understatement, the Meng family hollowed out the family foundation to take out these 10,000 big trees.

Zhu Zhen changed his previous lukewarm attitude, happily held Meng Keren's hand, and almost shook him apart.

"Oh, old Meng, it's so powerful, this king is very grateful to your Meng family."

"It should be, it should be......" Although Meng Keren couldn't figure out what 'powerful' meant, he could understand the second half of the sentence.

That's what he wants. Boss Zhu's hatred of Mencius is a foregone conclusion, which no one can change, but the emperor will change, Mencius is always there, and the Meng family has pinned their hopes on the next generation of emperors - the prince is a standard scholar, and he did not protect Mencius back then, and after he ascended to the throne, Mencius will be better.

But Mencius is better, it doesn't mean that the Meng family is better, to connect the two, someone has to speak for the Meng family. Is there a better lobbyist in this world than the Six Princes?

So such a God-given opportunity to send charcoal in the snow, he must firmly grasp it, that is, to demolish the beams of the ancestral hall, and to smash the pot and sell iron, he must also send the favor of the sixth child.

~~

With the help of the large households in Yanzhou, the material problem was finally solved. The various car factories are working at full capacity, day and night to carry out the final production.

At this time, King Yan, who had gone south to explore the way, also returned.

"I went to the mouth of the Yellow River first. You guessed it right, although the mouth of the Yellow River is frozen, it is not useful at all, and people can click when they walk up, not to mention the ice car. Zhu Di threw the fur fur to Deng Duo, sat on the edge of the stove, and said to the sixth child: "So I can only go north to find a river that can be passed." ”

In this era, the estuary of the Yellow River was not in Shandong, but invaded the Huai River basin in the south, seizing the Huai River waterway into the sea, which was the famous 'Yellow River seizing Huai' incident.

Zhu Zhen nodded and said, "Did the fourth brother find it?" ”

"Salt River!" Zhu Zhen read out the name of the river in a deep voice.

"And it is directly connected to Weishan Lake through the Shu River, and the distance is much closer than from the mouth of the Yellow River!"

"Yes, it can save a day's travel." Zhu Zhen was also very happy. But I'm also a little depressed, what I hold in my hand should be the highest-level military map of the Ming Dynasty, but the river is not fully marked, I really don't know who to talk to.

Therefore, the current mouth of the Yellow River, that is, the mouth of the Huai River, naturally does not form a thick layer of ice.

"Yes, it's the Salt River!" Zhu Di patted the map excitedly and said: "This river is in Haizhou, and it has been the main channel for Huaiyan Cao transportation since the Tang Dynasty, so it is also called Yancao River." Through this river, you can go straight to the canal from the sea! ”

Zhu Zhen looked at it, and many rivers on the map were marked by the fourth brother with a '×' number, and only one river that was almost straight was marked by him with a red line.

"It took a lot of effort. Although there are many coastal rivers in Huai'an, they are either not connected to the canal, or the ice thickness is not enough. The fourth child proudly took out the map from his arms and unfolded it: "I searched for three days and three nights in a row, and finally found such one!" ”

Before the Jin Dynasty, the Yellow River also had several southward breaks, but the main stream of the Yellow River has always maintained a northward flow, from Shandong Hebei to the sea.

"Is the ice strong enough?"

After the Yellow River seized the Huai during the Jin Dynasty, because of the corruption of the officials of the Jin Dynasty and the subsequent Yuan Dynasty, the imperial court was unable to change the direction of the Yellow River, so it could only let it flood between the Huai and Si, which was also an important reason for the obstruction of Cao Yun.

"Enough, enough! The Salt River is nearly 300 miles north of the mouth of the Yellow River. Zhu Di nodded heavily and said: "I went up and tried it myself, and I can run a horse, let alone a sports car." To be on the safe side, I looked for a carriage and tried it with a full load, and there were no problems. ”

After a pause, he added: "There has been a cold snap in the past two days, and the ice will definitely be thicker, although it will be a little harder, but the safety is more guaranteed." ”

"Hmm." Zhu Zhen also nodded and asked, "What about the sea?" Is the ice bad, can you rely on the boat? ”

"No problem." Zhu Di said with a smile: "I saw a lot of ice floes on the sea surface at the mouth of the Yellow River, but on the sea surface of the Salt River Estuary, I didn't see anything, and there was no ice at all, do you say it's strange?" ”

"Normal." Zhu Zhen smiled and explained: "It is said that it does not freeze, but the Yellow River has a large amount of water, which dilutes the salinity of the estuary, so it will freeze." The Salt River is an artificial river, and after the Yellow River seized Huaisi, there was no more water, and it could not change the salinity of the coast at all, so the sea surface would not freeze. ”

So he clapped his hand and said, "Then let's transport it from the salt river!" ”

~~

The transfer site must be lowered, and the first batch of 20,000 ice cars will set off for the south without waiting for all the ice trucks to be built.

The width of the canal is between six and ten zhang, and 100,000 ice trucks set off together. Therefore, Zhu Zhen planned to divide all the ice cars into five teams, and the departure interval was half a day.

On the morning of the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the first team set off led by Zhu Di; At noon, the second team set off led by Hu Rang.

Early in the morning of the 13th, the third team set off under the leadership of Ping An; At noon, the fourth one was led by Wu Yin and set off.

And the evening of the 13th is the time when all 100,000 ice trucks will be completed.

Early in the morning of the 14th, Zhu Zhen personally led the last team to the south on the ice car that had just been built, and rushed south to the Salt River.

At this time, the first team that set off at the earliest had already started loading at the mouth of the salt river!

Of course, it is inseparable from the cooperation of the maritime department.

On the second day of the first lunar month, Prime Minister Haizheng Yamen received an order asking them to transport 2 million stone military rations to Huai'an within seven days to stand by.

Han Yike immediately activated the first-level plan, gathered all the officials and soldiers who were at home for the New Year, and requisitioned 50,000 people from Taicang Mansion, opened the warehouse quickly, and transported grain and loaded the ship day and night, and the loading was completed on the seventh day of the first month.

On the morning of the eighth day of the first lunar month, the 300 large sea ships of the grain convoy set sail and left Liujiagang.

The sea ships built by the Haizheng Yamen still continued the style of the Yuan Dynasty, with the large ones carrying eight or nine thousand stones of grain, and the small ones carrying two thousand stones. The former is used for shipping, and the latter travels on the Yangtze River.

Therefore, it only took 300 boats to load all the 2 million stone grain. The gap between water transportation, especially sea transportation, and land transportation is so big that it is simply a world of difference.

From the mouth of the Yangtze River to Huai'an, it is only 800 miles by sea, and if it is usual, it will arrive in two days. But it's winter, and the coastal currents and winds are all from north to south, so the fleet is going against the current. Although the Chinese sails are exposed to the wind on all sides and can sail against the wind, the speed is really miserable, and it can only travel 200 miles a day.

Moreover, when sailing against the wind and water, the ship can not go in a straight line, but has to take a zigzag road to the northeast or northwest, this kind of wind running attitude is called 'counterpart oblique', so the actual voyage is more than 1,000 miles, and it took five days to reach the mouth of the Yellow River.

As soon as he arrived at the mouth of the Yellow River, he received an order to continue northward, and when he arrived at the mouth of the Yanhe River, it was already late at night on the 13th.

And Zhu Di's first batch of grain transportation teams also arrived at the mouth of the Yanhe River in the evening of the same day.

The cooperation between the two sides is seamless.

(End of chapter)