The quarry closest to Qiantang is only about dozens of miles away. The large stones there are all chiseled from the mountain, and these stones are also chiseled and smaller and sold by pieces.

Those who work in the quarry are exiled prisoners sent by the imperial court, and there are also officials who are in charge of the government.

Su Zhiyuan was not wrong. There were rivers not far from the quarry, but that river was very ordinary. It was obviously unlikely to be used to transport large stones.

Lord Chang took his subordinates who often supervised water conservancy fortifications to go to the quarry with Su Zhiyuan. There was also a stream next to it, but the water could not carry the big boat.

Maybe it is because of the wet weather, the road here is not easy to walk, and it is not difficult to speed up the journey even when riding a horse.

I took a group of my subordinates and rushed to the quarry, where there were traces of the shaft pressing over the carriage everywhere.

"Who are you? This is an important place for the government, and no one is allowed to enter!"

When he heard the noise, several officers and soldiers in charge of guarding came out quickly.

"This is Lord Chang, the navy admiral. We came to build stone for Qiantang." The subordinates first came out and shone their official seals, and the guards cleared their doubts.

"It turns out it's the Admiral of the Navy, please come in!"

It was the first time Su Zhiyuan came to such a place. He felt like deep mountains and old forests. The air was good, and the mountains and trees made people feel like they were returning to nature.

I have to say that after it was useful, Lord Chang became much more polite to Su Zhiyuan, and he praised him from time to time, which made it a bit unbearable for people like him who were extremely thick-skinned.

Those wearing prison uniforms were carrying stone, and some also used tools to dig stone. Because the chiseling tools could chisel the shackles on their bodies, the officers and soldiers took strict care of these people, and daily body searches were necessary.

It was difficult to see people outside. The prisoners kept watching Su Zhiyuan and others, but they waved them with a fierce whip.

"What do you think about it? Work! If you can't make these stones today, don't think about eating at night."

In the wooden house

"Sir, I want to know how much money can I have to prevent floods now."

After Su Zhiyuan started doing this, he had to control his budget and consider the feasibility of the whole thing. If he didn't know how much silver there was, he couldn't do it.

Lord Chang hesitated for a moment and said, "It's 20,000 taels. In the past, it was not enough to build a dam without 50,000 taels."

"What if the adults do the flood control as I do?"

"I'm afraid it won't be used even if you have ten thousand taels."

Su Zhiyuan laughed, and the others laughed for some reason.

At this time, firecrackers and gunpowder were already there, and large stones were mined in two ways to blast and fall naturally. As for digging directly on the mountain, those were small stones.

Large stones are more than one meter high, and it is very difficult to transport them. There are many trees in this mountain, and there are also many wood left after building wooden houses in the open space of the quarry, which seems to be able to make some buoyancy devices.

Fortunately, the admiral's men were very capable of doing things and they fixed the wood without long. Although it was a bit inappropriate, in order to facilitate the transport of stone in the water, people with good water properties are also indispensable.

The officers and soldiers under the Navy Admiral's Office were naturally indispensable to the water. When the first stone that was almost as big as a stone rolled down from above, everyone dug a small ditch like a track on the ground according to Su Zhiyuan's request, and followed the river to the point where they gradually fell.

When the stone is pushed onto the track, irregular stones still push forward along the track, but because they are not round, they are difficult to roll. However, in order to facilitate fixing when they are by the river, they have to leave a convenient location for digging the stone holes so that they generally look almost round.

Stones were gradually rolling towards the river, and the trees were also being cut down one by one to make buoyancy devices. Just as the river was closest to Qiantang, a large canal was also being excavated.

Thousands of taels of silver have been spent, including the iron chains and fishing nets and hemp ropes he bought. Su Zhiyuan did not expect that he would still be held in this position.

The navy admiral trusted himself so much and asked him to be responsible for such a project. Su Zhiyuan could not have thought of which woman was recommended, but he asked about the woman's identity indirectly. Lord Chang didn't say a word, and he was very frittered.

"Sir Chang, is this budget expenditure okay?"

Su Zhiyuan knew that there was not enough manpower and wanted to prepare the flood control facilities within one month, he had to spend money to hire strong men to dig the canal and transport it, otherwise there would still be big problems here.

The soil here is soft and digging canals seems difficult, but it is the easiest of these measures. It is just to transport things, and there is no need to ask for the depth and width of the canal, so the canal was dug in less than ten days.

The stones transported to the river were piled up one by one. The very shallow water was in a row and the stonemason was tidied into small openings in order, allowing the iron chains to pass through one by one, and five or six stones were loaded together. The buoyancy device was placed in the river. When the stones were pushed one by one, the buoyancy device was tied to the edges of the row of stones with hemp ropes, but even if it was pushed like this, the effect was not very ideal.

Su Zhiyuan talked about his situation here with his family and learned that he was working for the government. Yuhuan and Sequoia also visited him specifically. It took more than ten days in a flash. He didn't even go to see the opening of Wushang Theater, so I don't know what happened.

The stone is too heavy and sinks to the bottom in the river, making it difficult to float. It is unlikely to transport it by manpower in the water, but there are still boats.

There is no way to drive large ships here. There are many fortification ships under the name of the Admiral's Mansion, and there are also small ones. It is better to make them now if you move them into a small river.

It is not difficult to make a small boat, but it is still paddling. With the buoyancy device and with more than one small boat, the heavy stone that countless people expected finally began to move. First, the first group was transported directly to the edge of the newly built ditches. Su Zhiyuan knew that what he said was sharpening the knife and chopping the wood. With the river, the speed of transporting it was indeed much faster, although it was indeed a little longer to use the sharpening knife before.

The newly dug channel connects the Qiantang River and successfully delivers the stone here.

At this time, the people on the riverside retreated almost. The terrain here is relatively low, and the water level is unstable now and it is still rising. If the water level cannot be controlled and the waves hit and this generation is submerged, it will be difficult to recover.

A batch of buoyancy devices were removed, and these large stones were placed by the river. Although many parts were in the water, the iron chains were tied and arranged in a U-shaped shape, the opening was aimed at the shore, and the hemp rope was fixed. As for the fishing nets, the opening was placed inside the opening.

Such a large stone is not easily dispersed by the waves at first. In addition, the residual dams before have weakened the power of the waves and fixed iron chains. This shape of the swing also weakens the impact of facing the waves.

The wave is no longer a whole, but when it is cut by various U-shaped stone pestles by the river, it will cause much less harm to the back.

The daily transportation of these stones finally took stone pestles along the river on the 25th day, and the silver expenses were more than 10,000 taels. However, from the outside, such flood control devices were inappropriate and people didn't seem to have confidence.

The water level is still rising, and the waves are constantly impacting the river. The stone pile array here is also placed in fan shape. When Su Zhiyuan and Lord Chang stood at the tip of the fan shape, there are very few water levels here. Although all the people have been evacuated here and there is a large area of ​​fields behind it, Lord Chang seems to be in a god and is very confident in what Su Zhiyuan has done.

What happened is the consequence? Su Zhiyuan didn’t know that there was a saying that he was guilty at this time. If the flood control was not done properly this time, what if he often threw Su Zhiyuan over?

He, Su, had already thought of an excuse.

"In the past, the worst situation was that fertile land was flooded, and the people were killed and injured. Everything was nothing in front of God. Now our Navy Mansion is not doing anything. We have tried our best. The Ministry of Works also knew that we were not rich enough, so we even issued some silver a few days ago."

Lord Chang looked at the wave and wore an official uniform, feeling quite worried about the country and the people.

"Aren't we finished building it? We still need money?"

Lord Chang laughed: "Young Master Su doesn't know anything about the officialdom. This officialdom is complicated and difficult to explain in one or two sentences. We are also a major event for the people. Why not? If you don't use it, you think you don't do anything. If you use it, even if you build a dam on the riverside, it's a merit."

Su Zhiyuan thought, if you use it in your pocket, you dare not say what is true.

"When this month passes, I will write a letter to the court to commend Mr. Su's achievements. How about asking the court to reward you with one official position?"

Su Zhiyuan: "There are such good things?"

"The current priests will punish their mistakes and reward their merits. This is a monarch with clear rewards and punishments. When Prince Su is willing to stand up when the court employs people, he should naturally reward them."

Su Zhiyuan bowed a lot: "Then I would like to thank Lord Chang!"

(To be continued)
Chapter completed!