The salt industry in Hedong is an important pillar industry in the territory, so many personnel in the territory are also arranged around this.
Previously, the Northern Wei Dynasty ensured that the salt produced in Hedong could be easily transported and diverted the passenger water that flowed into the salt pond due to various accidents. It also built a canal in the territory called Yongfeng Canal, which led directly from the salt pond to Puban.
Li Taiben started his career in water conservancy and was well aware of the importance of smooth logistics, so he chose to go to Yanchi via Yongfeng Canal. Most of the countrymen who came to Puban to greet him were arranged to disperse and go home, leaving only those with official positions.
Follow the escort.
The overall terrain of the Yuncheng Basin where Hedong is located is relatively low-lying, so there are many ponds in the territory. The Yongfeng Canal was built based on these surface water sources. Because it intersects with Suishui, another important river in Hedong, downstream, the water volume and navigation conditions of the river channel
Still relatively good.
However, after going upstream and passing a lake called Wuxing Lake, the water conditions of Yongfeng Canal became visibly worse. The river channel narrowed, the water volume decreased, and congestion and siltation occurred in some places.
In general, not to mention navigation and transportation, even more basic flood drainage and drainage cannot be done.
The first reason for this situation is that the river is obviously in disrepair. It should be noted that even naturally formed rivers must be dredged regularly to ensure smooth water flow. Artificially excavated rivers require higher maintenance work. If maintenance
If it is not done well, it will lose its water conservancy effect in just a few years.
The second reason is that Li Tai saw that there was a lot of newly reclaimed land along the river canals, and these lands were irrigated by arbitrary diversions along the river canals. With the forks in all directions, the water flow in the main river canal was naturally limited.
decreased.
"Although I have not visited this township, I know how important the Yongfeng Canal is to the maintenance of rural affairs in Hedong. Now that the canal is in this state, can you, the state and county pastors, and the governors be exempted from the blame?"
Li Tai rode his horse on the road beside the Yongfeng Canal, pointing at the river in extremely poor condition, looking at Cui Quan and other state and county officials and frowning.
Cui Quan, Pei Xia and other Hedong government officials heard the rebuke from the Duke of Tang. They hurriedly got off their horses, walked back and bowed their heads and said: "I failed to fulfill my duties after entering the country and failed to live up to my favor. I am indeed guilty. Yongfeng Canal Siltation
The widespread disaster will not only occur in a short period of time, but it will not be solved by dredging. In order to avoid using harsh orders and hurting the public sentiment, we can only work hard slowly. Please take a short leave, and the ministers will properly deal with the disasters in this area.
solve!"
These few of them were appointed here because they were close associates of the Ba Mansion. With such a situation in Hedong, they must have communicated with each other for a long time. Now that Li Tai reprimanded them for dereliction of duty in front of everyone in Hedong, he was also showing that the Ba Mansion was targeting them.
attitude towards this matter.
"Is it because I don't give you time to wait? When you look back at the poor villagers, once the disaster in this canal breaks out and affects the salt pond, you will have the face to look down on this place in the world!"
Li Tai waved his hand to interrupt these people impatiently, then frowned and asked: "Why did things come to this? Can anyone explain clearly to me?"
"Your Majesty, there is indeed a reason why Yongfeng Canal is here. Please allow me to report it in detail!"
Pei Xia took a step forward and began to explain in detail the reasons why Yongfeng Canal was in disrepair.
First of all, the responsibility also lies with the original Bafu. As Hedong is the front line of the east-west war, the people's taxes and servitude are already relatively heavy, and the manpower and material resources required to dredge such an artificial canal that is hundreds of miles long are also very considerable.
However, Bafu has not made any arrangements for this. Not to mention allocating personnel and materials to dredge the canal, there is not even a compensatory reduction or exemption of part of the tax. Therefore, the dredging and maintenance work of Yongfeng Canal can only be carried out by both sides of the river.
The large clans organized manpower to carry out the work, so it was natural that the process would come and go.
Li Tai also has a deep understanding of this. Not to mention the canals here in Hedong, even in Tongzhou where Bafu is located, he took the initiative to take on this task.
The Hedong clan itself has interests, and the Bafu is indifferent to this, but they cannot turn a blind eye. After all, the Yongfeng Canal has been maintained, and they are also the most direct beneficiaries. Moreover, the interests from the salt pond plus the land cultivation along the river
The harvest was enough to sustain their investment. It should be noted that back then, even if Li Tai simply put money into it, he was still willing to do it in order to gather the power of the village.
Previously, the local wealthy families in Hedong were willing to invest in this, but the turning point occurred when Bafu implemented the salt introduction system, which imposed relatively strict restrictions on the production and sales of salt, which also caused certain damage to the interests of these large families in Hedong.
, after all, through the system, some participants have been added, and these new entrants will inevitably squeeze the profit margins of the original practitioners.
Although these losses will not make the big households in the east of the river break their bones, the discomfort is inevitable. Therefore, the original enthusiasm for rural affairs gradually changed, and they began to destroy the rivers with resentment, and the maintenance of the river channels also began.
He became less concerned about it.
Although Bafu has added management procedures, it is unwilling to increase investment costs and remains as indifferent to the dredging of Yongfeng Canal as before, so the canal became blocked.
Another point is that with the implementation of the salt introduction system, the amount of salt that can be sold every year has become rationed. Even if more is produced, it will be difficult to export and sell it, which will inevitably affect the scale of salt production. After all, the more salt produced, the more salt will be produced.
It consumes labor and requires certain warehousing costs.
There are tens of thousands of salt households producing around the salt ponds in Hedong. As production capacity is reduced, a group of salt households will inevitably be eliminated from the production process. These people do not have any unemployment benefits. If they want to survive, they can only switch to farming.
Reclaiming wasteland will greatly increase water consumption, further increasing the pressure on Yongfeng Canal.
Although Pei Xia has been working in Shannan Daoxingtai for the past few years, he is a native of Hedong after all, and the reasons for this are all reasonable.
After listening to Pei Xia's explanation, Li Tai frowned and thought deeply. Of course, this conversation and his expression were all for the Hedong people who were following him to see.
After pondering for a long time, he spoke: "In the past, the imperial court did not pay enough attention to the people's livelihood in Hedong. Some of them were not compassionate and some were not punished! Based on this, Yongfeng Canal is now
There is no one party to blame for the blockage. But if it can be repaired and dredged, the people who will benefit will also be the people of this town.
Since Hedong is now my feudal state, I really can't bear for the people to be trapped by sorrow. This year's tax revenue collected by the state will be used to dredge this canal. Even if it doesn't work for one year, it will be done again next year. In short, this canal will be dredged in one day.
If it is not smooth and unobstructed, no silk from the country can cross the river and enter the government!"
The blockage of the Yongfeng Canal is a potential surface hazard reported by Cui Fan, Pei Xia and others. If the canal is not smooth, it will affect not only waterway shipping and agricultural irrigation. The biggest danger is if flooding occurs in the upper reaches of the river.
If it is poured into the salt pond, it will greatly affect the production of the Hedong salt pond, and more seriously, it may even cause a permanent reduction in production.
Of course, Li Tai could not let this happen, so he would rather use the tax revenue from the feudal state to dredge the Yongfeng Canal.
Of course, some things need to be explained clearly in advance. The Bafu did not take enough care of you before, but at the same time, it also gave you a lot of extrajudicial favors to the big households in Hedong. Now that he is spending money to govern, everything from now on will naturally have to be dealt with.
Follow his rules. Among other things, the phenomenon of arbitrarily digging canals to collect water must be strictly prohibited in the future!
People in Hedong may not know the importance of Yongfeng Canal, but they are still somewhat short-sighted in their hearts. As the saying goes, the three monks have no water to drink. They only feel that the profit side has increased, and they cannot pay all the costs. Now
Since Tang Gong was willing to take on this matter, they were all happy to see it come to fruition, so they all praised Tang Gong for his righteousness.
The salt ponds in Hedong are mainly located on the southeast side of the Yuncheng Basin and the northern foothills of Zhongtiao Mountain. It is a completely closed artesian basin. The salt ponds are mainly distributed in two parts. The one in the southwest is called the female salt pond. It has many impurities and the salt produced is of poor quality.
Poor, usually just used as a backup production area.
Located on the northeast side, also known as Jiechi, it is the main production area of salt in Hedong. The salt pond is more than 80 miles long from east to west and ten miles wide from north to south. It is artificially divided into different salt-producing areas. The brine in the pond is introduced into the square
In the pond, through sunlight and evaporation, salt will naturally crystallize at the bottom, and then the salt collectors will fish it out and air-dry it before it can be sold.
Later Li Tai also visited the salt pond, but he could no longer see the bustling salt production scene. Now he can see thousands of salt cubes working hard in the salt fields, and the salt fields are full of crystals.
The salt is like patches of snow, and the picture is extremely magnificent under the sunlight.
Both the government and the people participated in the production of Hedong Salt Pond. The share of direct production by the government was not large, and it was mainly used for the use and consumption of the Bafu and the imperial court. As for the sales to the market, it was mainly carried out by powerful local households.
As for external transportation and sales, they are controlled by the government. Through the division of different links, a benefit distribution plan that is convenient for both public and private parties is reached.
Li Tai stayed in Yanchi for another two days. In addition to inspecting the production and sales of Yanchi, he also waited for Shaozhou Governor Yang Guo to come here to meet him.