The mouth of Wuliu River is more than a hundred feet wide, and the west bank is quite deep and steep. It can be used as a natural river port, but the river channel of Wuliu River is not conducive to navigation.
Wuliu River originates from the southern foot of Longya Mountain, flows through the southeastern platform of Longya Mountain, and finally flows into the Yuanjiang River. It is the most important river in Yushu Bay.
The Wuliu River is winding and winding, about 40 miles long. The river has a large drop in its path. Not to mention autumn and winter, in spring and summer, the rapids and shoals are dangerous, making it difficult for boating.
More importantly, when Wuliu River leaves Longya Mountain, it carries a large amount of sediment to block the river channel, and the platform it flows through is on average twenty or thirty meters higher than the alluvial plain of Yushu Bay on the west side.
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The water in Wuliu River surges in spring and summer, overflowing from the blocked river channel, and the entire Elm Bay will be flooded and cause disasters.
In addition to the fact that the Xi clan strictly prohibited the refugees from gathering at the southern foot of Longya Mountain in the early years, and that the Yuan River turned sharply here and was extremely powerful, the special characteristics of Wuliu River were actually the most important obstacles and bottlenecks that restricted the reclamation of Yushu Bay by previous generations.
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Han Qian had personally visited Yushu Bay twice before.
In the past year, Han Qian ordered Ji Xiyao to understand the hydrology and geography of the southern foothills of Longya Mountain, the coast of Wuliu River, and Yushu Bay. Before arriving in Xuzhou this time, he had already made plans to tame Wuliu River.
The plan is to dig a new canal when Wuliu Creek leaves Longya Mountain and lead the water from Wuliu Creek into the sand river flowing through the hinterland of Yushu Bay in the west.
However, in order to prevent the banks of the Shah River from being overrun by the surge of floods during the spring and summer rainy seasons, it is necessary to build a diversion weir and a water diversion weir between the newly dug canal and the original Wuliu River.
An overflow weir was built on the old river channel to regulate the upstream water inflow of Wuliu River in different seasons.
After the completion of the entire water conservancy project, every autumn and winter dry season, the incoming water from the upper reaches of Wuliu River will be blocked by the overflow weir and forced to bypass the water diversion weir and flow into the Shahe River from the diversion canal to ensure the reclamation of Yushu Bay during the dry season.
There is also sufficient irrigation water for the farmland; during the flood season, a large amount of flood water rushes out from Longya Mountain, and the water level rises. A large amount of river water can pass through the overflow weir, enter the old channel of Wuliu River, and divert into the Yuanshui River.
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The construction of diversion weirs and overflow weirs must be clever, not only to ensure that the upstream water can irrigate the grain fields in the bay mouth during the dry season, but also to ensure that most of the upstream water can be sent into Wuliu Creek during the wet and flood periods.
The old river channel will not cause damage to the grain fields in the bay mouth.
Water conservancy projects like Wuliu River are far from unprecedented. The Simingshan Weir built by Chen Jitang's father in Mingzhou may not be as complex as the Wuliu River Weir, but it is by no means a kitten or puppy.
Dare to build such a water conservancy project in Xuzhou to tame the unruly Wuliu River.
At least Xuzhou has never encountered such an expert in flood control for thousands of years.
Wuliu River was not easy to navigate, so after Han Qian and others got off the boat at the mouth of the stream, they led five to six thousand people on foot to the mouth of Wuliu River where it leaves Longya Mountain.
A small-scale earthen village has been built on the west side of the river mouth. There are a few decent wooden buildings in the village, but outside the village there are large and messy shacks. Han Qian led the crowd over, and many unkempt people stood in Wuliu.
He looked curiously by the stream, his eyes full of worry and fear.
After all, after the death of Han Qian, the new state camp of 500 armored soldiers was full of murderous intent and was not just for show.
From the north of the village, along the not too steep bank of Wuliu River, there is a trail deep into Longya Mountain. Han Qian knew that if you walk more than 20 miles into the mountain along this trail, you will find the ancestral home of the Xi clan.
Old Xi Village.
After Feng Changyu destroyed the Xi family, he was worried about Yang and Xi, and put pressure on the three major surnames. In the end, he did not dare to directly annex the old Xi village. Instead, he destroyed the village, abandoned it, and sold the Xi family members into slaves. In the past ten years in Longya Mountain,
Since then, it has always been a no-owner’s land, let alone Yushu Bay at the southern foot of Mount Longya.
There are currently only four to five hundred indigenous people who have built more than ten small villages at the southern foot of Longya Mountain. They cannot be considered powerful, but the residents living in this large shack at the mouth of Wuliu River are obviously not.
Native people.
Ji Xiyao found coal and iron mines in Longya Mountain. Han Qian ordered Ji Xiyao to occupy the old Xi Village in the name of recruiting refugees to mine coal and iron mines. He also built a village at the mouth of Wuliu River at the mouth of Longya Mountain.
At this time, the people who built shacks around the village were mainly laborers and their families who were employed to mine coal and iron mines in Longya Mountain.
Seeing Han Qian leading a large and dark group of people, Ji Xiyao asked people to open the gate of the village and welcome them out happily: "The day before yesterday, someone came from Qianyang to report that the young master has arrived in Xuzhou. Xiyao couldn't believe it! There have been several people in the past two days.
I sent people to Wuliu River to spy on me, but Xiyao was worried about something happening and was timid, so he gathered all the people and horses in the village to be on guard against something happening. Xiyao failed to come to the mouth of the stream to greet me, so please forgive me, young master!"
Currently, coal and iron mines in the mountains are being mined and smelted by hiring refugees. These people live in hastily built shacks on the outskirts of the camp and have no loyalty to the Han family.
Ji Xiyao was worried that the current situation was turbulent and that these refugees would take advantage of the chaos to rob the supplies stored in the village, so he could only temporarily close the village to prevent changes. He did not know that Han Qian would come directly with a large group of people so quickly when he arrived in Xuzhou.
Han Qian introduced Chen Jitang, Zhao Qi and others to Ji Xiyao.
"The situation in Qianyang is uncertain. Why did the young master come to Longya Mountain in such a hurry?"
Ji Xiyao fully expected that the Han family could stand on their own in Xuzhou. In his opinion, it was most important for the Han family to stabilize the situation in Qianyang at this time. In the future, as long as they could really separate themselves in Xuzhou and stand on their own feet, it would not be too late to develop Longya Mountain and Yushu Bay.
Han Qian said with a smile: "Before the water rises in spring next year, we only have three months to repair the water diversion weir. How can I dare to delay in Qianyang City?"
In order to build the Wuliu River diversion weir, dig canals, build houses for so many people to live in, expand the mining scale of coal fields and iron mines, and sort out the new process of iron and steel making, Han Qian not only brought Lin Hai to
Zheng, Chen Jitang, Du Junyi, Du Junming and others all came to Longya Mountain. Zheng Tong and the hundreds of craftsmen who were kidnapped this time were also brought to Longya Mountain.
At this time, Zheng Tong had completely seen through the "wolf ambitions" of the Han family and his son, but he was helpless as he was coerced into Xuzhou like a bereaved dog.
He now dares not to violate Han Qian's will, but he is also afraid that if he devotes himself to Han Qian's use, it will implicate his family who stayed in Jinling.
Han Qian pointed at him and asked him to come forward and meet Ji Xiyao. Zheng Tong's old face looked like tree bark, full of bitterness and timidity.
"You old guy, who are you showing such a grimace to? Are you afraid that I will chop off your head?" Han Qian scolded with a straight face, "I will now hand over the coal field of Longya Mountain to
You take charge of it, and as long as you can transport 100,000 kilograms of coal cakes down the mountain every day, I will not embarrass you. After one year, if you are unwilling to stay in Xuzhou, I will send someone to escort you back to Jinling to reunite with your family!"
Han Qian had previously transferred a group of craftsmen to Xuzhou, but the number was limited after all. The coal yard Ji Xiyao had previously opened in Longya Mountain also built a hydraulic coal crusher, which produced 20,000 kilograms of coal every day, which could barely guarantee the downstream supply.
Demand for lime, green bricks and pig iron.
Currently, Han Qian leads 6,000 people to the mouth of Wuliu River. In addition to repairing the water diversion weir, he also needs to build a number of large-scale enclosed houses with both defense and residential functions. He also needs to forge a large number of tools. He only needs 20,000 kilograms of coal cakes per day.
, is no longer enough.
Establishing a base, fuel and food are always difficult problems that must be solved immediately through force breakthroughs.
Although Zheng Tong was conservative and cautious by nature, he was considered a master craftsman in the traditional craftsmanship industry. Han Qian did not bother with him and directly assigned him the task.
From Zheng Tong's point of view, he was forced to do something by Han Qian, so he felt more accepting of it.
Sure enough, after Han Qian reprimanded him, Zheng Tong's expression softened slightly. He selected seven craftsmen who were familiar with the operation of the coal mine and followed the people assigned by Ji Xiyao to rush directly to the coal mine deep in Longya Mountain to take over the work.
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In addition to sending Lin Zongjing to lead a team of soldiers to Jiuxi Village deep in Longya Mountain to guard against possible enemy soldiers raiding from Chenyang County to the north of Longya Mountain, Han Qian led other troops to camp at the mouth of the river.
The Feng family's slaves include men under the age of sixteen and under fifty, and strong women under the age of twenty and forty, totaling 3,000.
At this moment, Han Qian didn't care about their crying for their fathers and mothers, and forcibly organized them into sixty work teams, including more than sixty unstable Zuosi scouts and the remaining 250 whose families were in Jinling.
The disciples of Zuo Si were divided into commanding these 60 labor teams. Under the guidance of the craftsmen of the craft camp, they took on the important tasks of quarrying stone and logging, digging canals, repairing water diversion weirs and building enclosed houses.
The construction of the Wuliu River Dividing Weir was considered a high-tech job at that time, but the main work was still gravity work.
Excavation of canals, construction of diversion weirs, and overflow weirs require the excavation and transportation of approximately one million square meters of earth and rock to finally complete the entire project.
Calculating the investment of 2,000 strong laborers, the main canal must be dug within ninety days. On average, one person has to dig and transport six or seven cubic meters of earth and stone per day; especially as the canal is dug deeper and deeper, people have to climb up, down, and back up every day.
A hundred trips, the hardship would be unimaginable to ordinary people.
In the past, there were only a few slaves in the Feng family who were actually engaged in heavy manual labor. Most of them were stewards and shopkeepers in warehouses, pawn shops or farms. Even if they directly served the maids of the Feng family in the Feng family, they were slaves.
The work of serving people is by no means a heavy physical work.
As the entire project unfolded, hundreds of people were so tired that they vomited blood within three or four days.
Although in the past six months, under Han Qian's instruction, Ji Xiyao hired refugees to work and built coal mines, iron mines, charcoal kilns, lime kilns, brick kilns and iron smelting yards in Longya Mountain, he was restricted by Xuzhou
There are too few familiar craftsmen, Ji Xiyao's own lack of prestige, and limited resources at his disposal, so many things are still very rough.
The first time Han Qian arrived at Longya Mountain, he took Du Junyi, Du Junming and others as well as a group of craftsmen abducted from Jinling to sort out the work, and left the construction of the water diversion weir and the excavation of the canals to
Lin Haizheng and Chen Jitang are in charge.
Han Qian first roughly sorted out the coal mines, iron mines, lime kilns, brick windows, iron smelting yards and other things built in the mountains, and asked Du Junyi to stay in the mountains to assist Zheng Tong in taking charge of the affairs. He then led people out of the mountains to the mouth of the river.
It is already ten days later.
At this time, three of the Feng family's slaves had died of exhaustion.
Even if Arita Castle led 400 elite soldiers to station at the mouth of the river to suppress the pressure, no one of the Feng family's slaves dared to openly resist, but the low morale made it difficult to continue the project quickly.