On the Hebei Road in the twelfth lunar month of the fifth year of Jiayou's reign, dripping water turned into ice, and breathing turned into frost; the north wind blew, and the grass fell all over the sky, making everything desolate and desolate.
The Yellow River has frozen, like a silver dragon, lying quietly in the dike. It is unimaginable how domineering it will be during the disaster. On both sides of the dike, thousands of people are carrying burdens, pulling carts, holding shovels, and shovels.
, waving the stick like ten thousand ants clinging to the tree, working hard.
In previous years, river work would not take place until the winter solstice at the latest, because the weather is freezing after the winter solstice. Not only are people susceptible to frostbite, but it is also time-consuming and labor-intensive to deal with the frozen riverbanks, which may cause problems in the coming year.
But half a month has passed since the winter solstice this year, and there is still no intention of stopping the river work. The villagers sleep in simple shacks, feeling cold and tired. Many people freeze to death and suffer frostbite every day. As soon as it breaks, some people can't get up anymore.
Come, after those who can get up go to work, the soldiers will go out by the truckload to pull people to death...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a sunny place two miles away from the river embankment in the north, there is a newly built courtyard, which is the office of the Hegong Yamen.
Although it is a temporary place, the building is unambiguous at all. Within the courtyard wall that is several feet high, there is a brick mansion with three entrances in front and three in front. The doors and windows are all tightly wrapped. The dragons inside are jumping into the fire, and it is as warm as spring, which is completely different from the outside.
world.
Zhao Zongshi, who was sitting on the hot bed in the study room in the backyard, heard that more than a dozen people had died last night. His face was full of unbearability and he said: "Amitabha, what a sin..."
"It's too cold today." Zhao Conggu just came in from outside. He insisted on patrolling the river. Even though he was wearing thick fur, his face and ears were still frostbitten. He even said with an unnatural expression: "Why don't we stop working temporarily.
, let’s talk about it next year?”
"How is that possible?" Before Zhao Zongshi could say anything, his deputy over there, Han Gang, a doctor in the Ministry of Water Affairs, shook his head and said: "It looks like it is about to be completed. If we stop work now, we will not resume work until after the autumn harvest next year!"
"
"Persistence will kill you!" Zhao Cong was downcast. He was tall and big, and his face had been tanned over the past few months. He had the style of Taizu.
But Han Gang came from a famous family and had Zhao Zongshi's support, so he was not afraid of him at all.
Seeing that the two of them were frozen, Zhao Zongshi said, "If we hurry up, how long will it take for the dragons to be united?"
"Ten days at most." Han Gang rushed to say.
"It will take half a month!" Zhao Conggu frowned.
"That's ten days and a half..." Zhao Zongshi put on his shoes and went to the ground, walking on the sidewalk: "If we stop at this time. Apart from other things, there are mountains of soft and hard materials outside, as well as hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cement. It will definitely be
It will be destroyed before construction starts next year."
"Yes..." Han Gang nodded quickly.
"In recent years, the national treasury has been empty and the border war has been tense. We all know how much effort the imperial court has put in to collect funds for river control." Zhao Zongshi shook his head and said: "Next year, the southern Forbidden Army will be added, and we don't know when the war in the southwest will be completed.
Already? Where is the money to do it again?"
"Yes." Han Gang agreed again.
Although Zhao Conggu nodded, he sneered secretly in his heart. He finally understood why Zhao Zongshi was able to quickly gain their support after offending the Jiangmen Group.
It turned out that when he was checking the vacancies, he also promised them that they would make up for it elsewhere in the near future. Sure enough, last month, there was news from the DPRK that because the southern troops were weak, if something happened, they would be stretched thin and needed to
Establish several more forbidden troops south of the Yangtze River.
It seemed that the establishment of the additional Forbidden Army was caused by the internal invasion of Jiaozhi, and it seemed reasonable. But when Zhao Conggu received the charter for the establishment of the Southern Forbidden Army, he could not help but secretly exclaimed that it was shameless.
The seven pre-increased forbidden troops are the Yangzhou Army on the Huainan East Road, the Luzhou Army on the Huainan West Road, the Jiangning Army on the Jiangnan East Road, the Hongzhou Army on the Jiangnan West Road, the Tanzhou Army on the Jinghu South Road, the Yuezhou Army on the Zhejiang East Road, Fujian
The Fuzhou Army... has no plans whatsoever in the Lingnan area where reinforcements are most needed.
In this regard, the Privy Council explained that Lingnan is too far away, the road is rugged, and supplies are difficult. The cost of stationing a permanent army is too high, so it is better to set up troops in Fujian, Hunan and other places to defend both Guangdong and Guangxi...
But in fact, everyone knows that this is because those spoiled generals are unwilling to serve as officials in the place of exile... Hunan in this era is an undeveloped remote area, and Lingnan is full of miasma in the eyes of the border people.
The road of no return with poisonous insects.
In the final analysis, these forbidden troops were prepared for unemployed military attachés who lost their official positions during the disarmament. In the subsequent provisions issued by the Privy Council, this point was not concealed, requiring "Each faction to select generals who have served as military ministers as soldiers and horses"
Du Jian and other officials'.
Of course, when this rumor came out, Zhao Zongshi had already been in Hebei, and no one thought that it was related to him at first. But after Zhao Conggu took over Zhao Zongji's errand, he and he didn't look up or down the whole day, even if the other party hid.
Looking at himself, he also discovered that Li Zhaoliang, the famous governor, and others had a close friendship with Zhao Zongshi.
Now that I see that in order not to affect the increase of the imperial army in the coming year, he actually asked the civilians to brave the severe cold to work hard, I am even more convinced that there must be some kind of promise and exchange behind this.
Zhao Conggu couldn't help but sneer. There is a saying that 'if you thrive on this, you will perish', and the ancients do not deceive me. This Zhao Zongshi can stand out from the crowd, all because of the two generations of him constantly building relationships, and forming a relationship that you can win.
I, I have your big net in me.
With the support of this large network, he can have the voice he has today. But these people support him not as an obligation, but as an investment. Everyone expects to get returns from him. Although he pays more attention to long-term returns, if there is no
They will also unceremoniously propose recent returns that are detrimental to the overall situation.
In order to satisfy these people, Zhao Zongshi had to do inappropriate things. These things seemed trivial and had no impact at the time. But a thousand-mile dike breaks in an ant nest. Once something happens in the future, this will be the last thing that breaks the camel's back.
straw!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zhao Conggu was a little distracted. After hearing what Zhao Zongshi said, he calmed down and said, "What did you say?"
"I say, the overall situation is the most important thing." Zhao Zongshi said with a look of dismay: "Just give the people a hard time and hurry up and finish the work." He said to Han Gang: "Light charcoal basins in the shacks of the peasants at night, and create a few more beds.
Under the covers, make sure no more people die."
"Your Highness is benevolent and righteous," Han Gang said respectfully, "I will obey your orders."
"What about the dead ones?" Seeing that they didn't say anything, Zhao Conggu had no choice but to ask: "Many of the surviving family members came to make trouble and were arrested by the county. I'm afraid it wouldn't be good for this matter to spread."
"Go and ask. If you catch me, let them go." Zhao Zongshi waved his hand and said, "And I'll make some compensation from the river workers' silver."
"Okay." Zhao Conggu nodded, and when he saw that everyone kept their mouths shut, he understood what was going on.
After leaving the Hegong Yamen, he returned to a small courtyard next to it, which was the temporary office of the Water Supervision Bureau. The conditions were naturally not comparable to those of Zhao Zongshi, but it was still possible to avoid the wind and cold.
As soon as he entered, the Capital Water Supervisor, Jia Dan, came up to him, handed him a hand warmer, took his cloak and said, "How about it? Can we stop working?"
Zhao Conggu shook his head and sighed: "I even fell out with him, but he just ignored me." This was half true and half false. He was persuading, but not so hard. Rather than discouraging, it was better to say that he was trying to persuade himself.
Pick it out: "He said, just keep the people warm, but you still have to hurry up."
Jia Dan stumbled and said: "This is not the problem of the people! It's because the weather is like this. It's impossible to build the river. Even if we build up the river channel now, we can't keep up with the part before the freeze! There will definitely be a big problem next year!"
"No way, we have cement to build the river this time." Zhao Conggu said: "Hasn't it been tested on the Hongshui River and it is impregnable?"
"Your Highness has seen how the Hongshui River was built?" Jia Dan sighed: "I have seen it myself. Chen Zhongfang built the Hongshui River by filling iron baskets with stones.
Connect them together, become one, and then seal them with cement! Then they will be impregnable!"
"But how was it built here?" Jia Gan sighed: "The cement is filled with fine sand, and the embankment base sits on pebbles. Once the high water level soaks the embankment body, it will easily become soft. When the soil slope at the embankment foot is soaked, it will become soft.
It is saturated and can easily collapse under the wash of a great flood!"
Zhao Conggu didn't quite understand the terminology of Jiaqi, but he knew that Zhao Zongshi was trying his best to meet the construction deadline. Because it was located in a plain, with no mountains within fifty miles, it was difficult to get stones, so he put soil in sacks instead. This method has always been
It is commonly used in river construction, but it is definitely not as strong as using stone.
Furthermore, the cement produced by the merchants on Hebei Road seems to be of poor quality. The earliest section of the embankment is showing signs of softening and cracking...
"Moreover, in order to meet the deadline, the river channel was built too narrow." Jia Quan continued: "If there is a flood, the impact on the embankment will be too great. With the current quality, I'm afraid..." He was led by Zhao Zongji
After arriving at the Capital Water Prison, Zhao Zongji later went south and asked him if he wanted to leave with him.
Jia Quan considered that he was only good at river engineering and not much else, so he rejected his kindness and continued to stay in the capital water prison, hoping to do his best for river engineering. However, Zhao Zongji was not as good as Zhao Zongji in the past, and the latter really dared to follow him
Zhao Zongshi slapped the table and glared, but the former did not dare. Therefore, in the past few months, the water prison has been ineffective, and Jia Dan was so anxious that he was furious. He came up with this delaying plan, hoping that the project would be suspended and he would go back to Chen Ke to discuss countermeasures.
"Stop talking!" But Zhao Conggu didn't seem to want to offend Zhao Zongshi. He shook his head and said, "This matter is settled."
"Your Highness..." Jia Quan said in disbelief.
"Alas," Zhao Conggu sighed: "Let me ask you, since there are so many problems, why didn't you report them earlier?"
"This..." Jia Quan said with sweat on his forehead: "Because they did not violate the regulations originally drafted, and after actual testing, it was found that there were problems with the design of the river embankment itself..."
"So you want me to act in hindsight?" Zhao Conggu looked down. (To be continued)
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