In late February, after a series of intensive preparations, Yuzhou Daxing River Engineering was launched.
On February 22, the day when construction officially started, dense crowds of people lined up from the river to the bottom of the dam, with piety written all over their faces.
Before constructing a river, one must first sacrifice the river.
Yellow River sacrifices began in the Xia and Shang Dynasties and flourished in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. By the Zhou Dynasty, river disasters occurred frequently, and official and private reverence and worship of the river god became more and more profound.
Temples dedicated to the river god can be seen everywhere along both sides of the river. The imperial court also conferred official titles on the river god and ordered local officials to offer sacrifices every year.
Yuzhou is naturally no exception.
At this moment, on the river bank thirty miles outside Mi County, an old river worker was shirtless, wearing a wicker ring on his head, holding incense in his hand, leading thousands of civilians, facing the river with the most solemn prison.
Offer sacrifices to He Bo.
Wei Chen did not believe in ghosts and gods, but he always had a reverence for nature in his heart. Therefore, he did not laugh at the ignorance and ignorance of these river workers. Instead, he stood not far away and quietly watched the scene unfold before him.
After the river sacrificial ceremony was completed, Wei Chen came to the river, performed the foundation laying ceremony with the river workers, and called everyone to give lectures.
Wei Chen had experienced too many of these formal rituals during his scientific research. At that time, he was often dissatisfied with this, thinking that these were meaningless red tape.
But looking back today, I have a completely different perspective than before.
Only by being careful at the beginning can we respect the end.
Before doing something important, a solemn sense of ritual must be created through a series of forms, so that people can take the matter seriously from the bottom of their hearts.
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When Zhizhou Weichen shoveled a shovel of soil into the car with his own hands, the crowd suddenly burst into cheers and applause. The river workers picked up their tools and walked onto the embankment according to the pre-arranged arrangement, flexing their arms and working hard.
At this point, the "Yuzhou River Protection Renovation Project" completed by God for seven years finally officially started with loud chants.
Wei Chen took Zhao Ceying, Gu Tingye and others, as well as a group of Mi County officials, to the river beach for inspection.
Looking from the vast river beach, we can see thousands of shirtless men working enthusiastically on the embankment. The sun shines on their bronze skin, revealing a masculine beauty. The scene is spectacular.
.
Not far away from Wei Chen and others, eight men were gathering together to "walk together."
The so-called me is usually a large round stone or iron cake-shaped object, weighing from a few dozen kilograms to more than a hundred kilograms, with several ropes tied around it.
Xingwo is a form of tamping, which is widely used in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. It is mainly used to tamp the foundation when building embankments and dams.
The principle is that everyone works together to lift the stone off the ground, rise to a certain height and then put it down. The stone's own gravity and the traction of people are used to land smoothly and compact the empty soil.
What I pay attention to in my performance is unity and cooperation. Cooperation between each other is extremely important and is the key to whether I play well, because before each performance, there is a lead singer who sings slowly and conducts, and everyone follows the call.
Wei Chen grew up in the south of the Yangtze River, and this was the first time he saw this scene of people walking along the banks of the Yellow River singing trumpets.
I saw the eight men surrounding Shi Gou each bending their backs and holding the rope tightly with both hands. Then the trumpet leader who was in charge of singing sang loudly: "There is a building high on the mountain! Three sisters are combing their hair!" p>
Everyone sang along: "Hey!"
While singing, they worked together to throw the stone up high. The stone stopped in mid-air for a moment, and then smashed it into the rammed earth, making a loud bang and shaking up a cloud of dust.
"The boss combs his hair like a dragon beard, and the second brother combs his hair like a dancing phoenix!"
"Hey!"
"The remaining mistress has nothing to comb, so she combs her hair like a lion and rolls embroidery balls!
"Hey!"
"The hydrangea rolled to the east ocean and blocked the Yellow River from flowing!"
"Hey!"
……
My chants are sometimes heroic, sometimes humorous, sometimes solemn, sometimes lively. The eight men bare their chests and backs, with protruding veins, and their shouts are shocking and touching.
The sonorous and powerful work chants are accompanied by smoke and dust all over the ground, and together with the rolling water of the Yellow River, slowly float to the sky.
Every time the stone fell to the ground, Wei Chen, who stood aside to watch, felt that his heart was also shaken, and he could not calm down for a long time.
A nation is rejuvenated by adversity, and a sage is born from worries.
The Yellow River overflowed and caused untold suffering to the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. However, the suffering could not defeat them. Instead, it forged their perseverance and joy in suffering.
Wei Chen looked at the group of workers with smiles on their faces, and his admiration for them spontaneously emerged from the bottom of his heart, and he became more determined to repair the levee for the people of Yuzhou.
However, although river control looks simple, it is actually very professional inside. Although Wei Chen talks endlessly when talking about river control strategies, in fact, he just proposes a big strategic policy and actually goes to the dam to implement it on the ground.
, Wei Chen must have darkened his eyes.
Therefore, Wei Chen had already delegated his authority and left all embankment repair work to experienced river workers.
As for the focus of Wei Chen's own work, it is to do logistical work for these thousands of civilian workers and ensure that various materials are continuously transported to the embankment construction site.
After patrolling the river beach where there was the sound of digging soil everywhere, the sun was already high in the sky. Wei Chen turned around and asked Sun Zhuo, the magistrate of Mi County: "Are the river workers ready for lunch?"
Building embankments and dams involves heavy physical work, which is even harder than plowing the fields, and it’s not enough if you don’t have enough to eat.
Therefore, Wei Chen had already ordered that the meals for the civilian workers working on the river should be provided according to the standard of three meals a day.
Ordinary people in the Zhou Dynasty usually have two meals a day at home. Wei Chen provides three meals a day to the civilian workers who are repairing the embankment. This is considered the conscience of the industry. Therefore, many landless households rushed to sign up after hearing the news.
Come and repair the river.
In order to ensure that the civil servants have the strength to work, a lot of money has been allocated from the state government's treasury, but they don't know the quality of the food provided by the officials here in Mi County. Wei Chen is also particularly concerned about this.
Hearing Wei Chen's question, Sun Zhuo replied tremblingly: "Sir, we have already prepared it. One black flour steamed bun and two black flour pancakes for each person."
Wei Chen nodded when he heard this.
The so-called black flour is a roughly processed grain. The taste is of course far inferior to that of white flour, but as long as it can be supplied in sufficient quantity, it is better than what most people eat on a daily basis.
At this time, dozens of peasant women had already arrived on the river beach carrying heavy baskets filled with steamed buns and pancakes piled up like a hill.
Wei Chen walked up to a peasant woman, took out a piece of scone from the basket beside her, broke off a small piece and stuffed it into his mouth.
The ingredients for this scone are indeed solid, but they are as hard as a rock, dry and astringent, making it difficult to swallow. Wei Chen couldn't help but frown after eating only a small piece.
I caught a glimpse of a wooden barrel containing soup next to me, so I picked up a horse spoon and scooped myself a bowl of hot soup. I soaked the scones in the soup until they softened, which made them easier to eat. After chewing them, I savored them carefully. There was also a hint of grain.
The sweetness.
Under the astonished gazes of the officials and subordinates around him, Wei Chen finished one steamed bun and two scones bit by bit with the soup. This was exactly what Sun Zhuo said earlier was the lunch portion for a civil servant.<
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At the end, Wei Chen patted his bulging belly, nodded with satisfaction, turned to Sun Zhuo and said: "In the future, the meals on the embankment will be exactly the same and sent to me. Remember, they are exactly the same."
When Sun Zhuo met Wei Chen's deep gaze, his heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly bowed and accepted the order: "I understand, I understand."