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Chapter 672 New Year

The long flow of history has quietly entered the eighth year of Yanyou, and the founding of Da Chu has also entered the twenty-fifth year.

Ordinary people will not care about the power of the Mongol people and their rampant killings in the Hehuai area, nor will they care about the deeper internal and external troubles. The great Chu that has been blessed for eight years, under the joint governance of Your Majesty and the Queen Mother, seems to be quite powerful.

A scene of peace and prosperity.

Seven years have passed since the rebellion in Jinling. The inner and outer walls of Jinling have also been renovated. Boats and boats are like clouds on the Qiupu River and Jiangdangkou. The goods entering Jinling City from all over the mountains and seas are dazzling and piled up like mountains. Jinling City has also regained its former prosperity.

Externally, the homeland of Huaixi was also recovered. Liang was forced to negotiate peace, and Shu paid tribute and became a vassal, dividing the land of Xia and Liang. Going south, he captured Gui, Liu, Yong, Qin and other states, and almost captured Qingyuan.

The army controlled nearly one-third of the territory of the envoy's mansion, expanding the empire's territory almost thousands of miles southward.

Thinking about it this way, the disastrous defeat of the main force of the navy at Hongzepo in the three or four years of Yanyou's reign becomes insignificant.

Just after the New Year, the weather has not warmed up yet, and there was another heavy snowfall in Huaixi.

When Han Qian woke up early in the morning, he saw that the Lianyuan Garden was also covered in snow. Unfortunately, the snow in the yard in front and behind the study was trampled beyond recognition by Wen Xin and Wen Yuan who got up early.

It was only when Wen Xin was taken away by the guards to study in school that he felt a little quieter.

Han Qian held his daughter Wenyuan on his knees while reviewing official letters.

There were no emergencies during this New Year's Day, and Han Qian also had a rare few days off without directors. Today, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, it was the first time for him to walk into the Moyu Pavilion, his study in Liyang Lianyuan, where he specializes in handling official duties.

He saw that there was a large stack of official documents of all kinds waiting for his review.

Now Zhao Ting'er is focusing more on the construction and improvement of Liyang Academy, and Wang Jun finally confirmed that she was pregnant a year ago. Han Qian didn't think there was anything to make a fuss about, but everyone discouraged Wang Jun from having a baby during the pregnancy.

Exposure to things that consume your mind.

After repeated advice, Wang Jun rarely came to Moyu Pavilion in recent years.

Han Qian can't be lazy about many things.

Regulations have been drawn up for routine matters. Before there are any major changes, the General Affairs Department, the Metropolitan Government Department, the Engineering Department and the Military Intelligence Staff Department all handle matters according to the regulations. They only need to report to Han Qian.

However, the environment inside and outside Tangyi is extremely complex. It can be said that it is changing rapidly, and a large number of non-routine affairs require Han Qian's decision-making.

This workload is huge.

Han Qian went to Moyu Pavilion on the first day after the New Year to do business. He spent a very short time reading the official letters that had been submitted in the early morning. Then he held his daughter Wenyuan and had breakfast in the wing of Moyu Pavilion. The sun climbed behind the treetops.

, Feng Liao, Yuan Guowei, Ji Xiyao, Gao Shao, Zhao Qi, Chen Jitang, Wen Bo, Tan Yuliang, Xi Xunqiao, Zhao Wuji and others came over one after another with a bunch of unconventional matters to be discussed.

Han Qian held Wen Yuan in his arms and discussed matters with everyone.

"After more than a year of construction and trial production at the Datongling Coal Mine, it will be able to dump coal on a larger scale in the Gyeonggi region after this year. As the largest shallow coal mine currently built in Tangyi, the Datongling Coal Mine has invested a lot of money in the early construction.

The cost is huge, but it is currently expected to be able to produce up to one million tons of coal per year. Based on this production capacity, as long as sales can be guaranteed and coal prices are reduced by 30%, the input costs can be amortized within three years."

Ji Xiyao, who also heads the Department of Industry and Construction, is currently in charge of all water conservancy roads and city repairs and construction, coal and iron ore mining, and the Bureau of Industry and Construction of the government.

The Datongling Coal Mine was a key project promoted by the government at the end of last year, and it even used force to seize Shiliang County from Huaidong.

The mining of coal mines, especially the mining of shallow-seam coal, is not difficult. The key is the laying of tracks from the Datongling coal mine to the Shiliang River terminal, the construction of the Puyang River coal terminal, and the Yongyang connection between the Puyang River and the Shiliang River.

A series of supporting projects such as canal excavation were completed one after another years ago, making it possible for Datongling's coal mines to be exported on a large scale.

With the completion of Datongling Coal Mine, the annual coal mining volume in Huaixi suddenly surged from 600,000 tons to 1.6 million tons. At this time, the entire Gyeonggi region and the coal market that Han Qian first cultivated must be captured.

, it is possible to eat such a large-scale output.

Feng Liao, Ji Xiyao, who is in charge of the Engineering and Construction Department, and other relevant officials have been discussing for a long time, but they are still undecided on whether the price of coal supplied to Gyeonggi Province should be reduced by 30%, or directly reduced by 50%, which will directly crush the coal fields near Gyeonggi Province.

idea.

In addition, the Engineering and Construction Department discovered a large reserve of high-quality iron ore in Dayao Peak, fifteen or six miles south of Datongling. There was great controversy within the Engineering and Construction Department over the development and utilization of this iron ore.

On the one hand, after all the iron-making furnaces built in the past two years reach capacity, Tangyi's annual iron-making scale will reach 160,000 tons, which is almost the same as the total annual output of Guanye in the middle of the previous dynasty.

Many people are worried that the demand for iron materials in the Jianghuai region is not as huge as imagined. They advocate that Yongyang County or Chuzhou Prefecture should be responsible for building an iron smelting plant with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons in Dayao Peak according to the old practice.

Some people think that it is extremely rare to find high-quality coal and iron storage in such a close area at the same time, and it would be a pity not to build a large-scale iron smelting plant.

The Mopan Valley on the south side of Dayao Peak has relatively flat and open land, which can be used to build a large-scale iron smelting yard. However, Datongling only needs to build a nine-mile-long track based on the current track.

In order to transport coal and stone to the iron smelting yard planned to be built in Mopan Valley, it is advocated that the government directly build a large iron smelting yard with an annual output of 50,000 tons or more.

This matter was reported to Han Qian at the end of last year.

Han Qian asked Feng Liao and others to further study whether it was possible to combine the construction of the new city in Yongyang County with the investment in a large iron smelting plant.

Of course, most officials in the General Affairs Department are still worried that an iron smelting plant will have an additional production capacity of 50,000 or even 100,000 dans, while the other seven iron smelting plants that have been built will expand their production capacity in the future.

Can one hundred thousand dans of iron be dumped?

After all, the current largest iron smelting yard in Longyashan only produces 40,000 tons of pig iron and refined iron annually.

High-quality coal and iron storage are close together, and there are extremely convenient water and land transportation conditions. The larger the scale of the ironmaking site, the lower the cost can be spread, not to mention that the new ironmaking technology is still very broad in this world.

Space can be mined.

In fact, as long as the cost is low enough, the performance of fine iron castings is much superior to traditional wood, and the future application scenarios will be extremely wide. Han Qian will not worry that demand will be a problem.

In fact, the amount of iron used in an ordinary iron girder bridge is unimaginably high. Even if three or four hundred thousand tons of iron are smelted every year, it may only be enough to build thirty or forty medium-sized iron bridges in the Jianghuai area.

this

This kind of demand for iron materials was beyond the imagination of officials at that time who mainly focused on limited scenarios where iron products were limited to knives, farm tools, and armor.

Han Qian is currently more concerned about the new iron smelting plant. How low can the average cost be spread when the production capacity is set at 50,000 tons or 100,000 tons? He is also concerned about the current technical level of the Institute of Engineering and whether it has the ability to build larger

Large-scale iron-making blast furnace.

This is also the key reason why Han Qian sent back the letter from the Engineering Department for further discussion and research.

In particular, whether blast furnace technology can successfully achieve a breakthrough is the key to a further significant reduction in ironmaking costs.

In addition, the Institute of Engineering has long since confirmed that the furnace is filled with high-quality lumpy smoldering coal, and that there is a direct relationship between the furnace temperature and structural data such as the length of the furnace.

If we can further build a large blast furnace that is stable and reliable enough, we may be able to reach the furnace temperature required to melt river sand, which will be the key to successful glass firing.

At present, in the iron-making furnaces in Longya Mountain, crystals similar to colored glaze, but cleaner, are found in the slag.

It can be seen that the iron-making furnace in Longya Mountain can barely reach the furnace temperature for melting river sand and sintering glass. However, in order to sinter glass stably, the structure of the furnace needs to be further optimized.

Han Qian looked through the conclusions of the discussions between the General Affairs Department and the Engineering Department during this period. The Institute of Technology is still in the research stage for the new blast furnace, and no ironmaking plant has yet begun to build the first test furnace for verification.

Han Qian discussed with everyone for a long time, and then decided to build a test blast furnace in Dayao Mountain first, and wait to see the operation of the test blast furnace before deciding on the construction of Yongyang New City and the final construction scale of the Dayao Mountain Iron Smelting Field.

There is one more thing that needs to be decided immediately.

In the past two years, Huaixi has successively recovered Haoshou, Guanghuo and other prefectures. The number of counties under the jurisdiction of the Zhizhe Prefecture has increased from the original fourteen counties (including Xu Prefecture) to forty-two counties, and the number of townships has increased from ninety-six to six.

To two hundred and seventy-four.

After more than a year and a half of sorting out, digesting, newly recovered and newly established counties and townships, the situation in all aspects has been generally stabilized, and further in-depth construction and management will be needed in the future.

It was decided years ago that primary schools should be opened in these newly-established townships, while intermediate schools should be opened at the county level.

The two-year academic system of the junior school can only meet the basic needs for literacy for ordinary people. The standards for graduation only require reading a thousand Chinese characters, being able to read through simple articles and mastering basic calculations, and also

Teach some basic farming techniques.

The content taught in the intermediate school should be deeper and broader, including law, arithmetic, geography, surveying, object research, and military basics. It will also ensure the continuing education of local officials, engineers, and divisions; the literacy education and training of garrison military attachés will also be provided by

Intermediate schools in each county are responsible for this.

Only by combining it with comprehensive schools can the government-run education system be initially completed.

The problem is that nearly 200 junior schools and intermediate schools have been added at once. Currently, the Liyang Academy, which was officially established three years ago, can only provide less than 100 teachers this year, who are drawn from schools in other places.

There were less than two hundred people in total.

It's impossible to support a school by sending only one teacher, right?

At present, the schools established by counties and townships are allocated two to five teachers according to the size of the students.

Even so, the existing school teachers are still in extremely short supply; the junior schools run by township bureaus can only ensure that about 20% of local teenagers receive the most basic literacy education.

For a long period of time in the future, the Government's government-run education goal in Huaixi is only to ensure the literacy rate of 20% of the new population. It is difficult to expect a higher rate in the short term.

Even so, if the population size of Huaixi remains unchanged, the annual enrollment in junior schools will be as high as 50,000 to 60,000, and only 20 to 30% of them will be able to receive secondary and higher comprehensive education.

School education.

And by being able to do this, Tangyi can completely solve the shortcomings of aristocratic clan clans and generals monopolizing education and then monopolizing local officials and military affairs. It can also help the state, county and township bureaus control local jurisdictions and the current industry and mining industry.

, provide necessary human resources for the development of manufacturing industry.

It's just that more than 200 new junior and intermediate schools will be added at once, and four to 600 teachers need to be recruited from various places.

Where will these manpower come from?

Don't underestimate the fact that Tangyi has cultivated a lot of available manpower over the years, but the stalls are even bigger.

In the past, Xuzhou had only two levels: junior school and professional school. In order to ensure the quality of training for engineer and physician apprentices, Han Qian subsequently extended the educational system of Chenzhong and Liyang schools to three to four years, among which doctors

The academic length of the college has been extended to a maximum of five years.

This means that the three schools can steadily provide only about a thousand qualified students every year, but there is competition for these thousand students everywhere.

Feng Liao thought about recruiting another 600 graduates this year regardless of category to open a school for new township officials. Many people wanted to spit on his face. In desperation, he had no choice but to leave it to Han Qian.

Decide.

There is also a shortage of officials in prefectures, counties and townships, and all tasks are heavy. Han Qian took the list of students who could graduate from Liyang Academy this year handed over by Feng Liao, scanned it, and said: "The names of the Han family, Chen Qiao and other families

Children, please put them down first to fill the vacancies in rural schools..."

"This..." After hearing Han Qian's decision, Feng Liao was quite hesitant.

The Tangyi Army first established a defense line along the Chu River and Fucha Mountain, and then won the great victory at Wujin Ridge. After gaining the advantage of suppressing the Shouzhou Army in Huaixi, Chen Qiao and others from Xuanchi and other prefectures, and the family clans who were related by marriage to the Han family

Valve suddenly accelerated the process of integrating into Tangyi.

There were two main landmark initiatives at that time.

First, these in-law clans not only took the initiative to stop the slave trade in Xuanchi and other places, entered East Lake to open workshops and plant medicine fields, but more importantly, they transferred their clan properties to the official money bureau on a large scale to support the Tangyi army.

In terms of military expenditures and local construction in Huaixi, the Official Money Bureau received almost more than 1.8 million yuan of capital from local forces in Xuanchi and two prefectures who were related to the Han family three years ago.

This is also the key to why the total capital of the Official Money Bureau has continuously crossed the threshold of four million yuan and five million yuan.

The second is that these in-law clans will successively send 500 direct and collateral descendants with a certain family education background to Liyang Academy to receive training in new learning.

The Han family has the largest number of children from the in-law clan in the first batch of enrollment, almost 320 people. After all, from the in-law clan in Xuanchi and other places, a large number of young people aged 12 or 13 to 23 or 24 years old have no way out.

, all entered Liyang Academy together, just in time to graduate after the new year.

Although the teachers of the rural primary school are also included in the list of officials in the Zhizhifu, and their salaries are allocated by the state and county, the conditions of the rural secretary are currently limited.

It can be said that it is quite difficult. Obviously, there is a big gap between the psychological expectations of the children of the Chen Qiao and other clans who want to serve as officials in the state and county government offices.

If manpower is drawn from various subjects in Liyang Academy according to a fixed ratio, it is inevitable that some of the children of in-laws and clans will be filled into the township school for official reasons. Feng Liao is naturally not afraid of being pointed at and scolded.

Fortunately, this time, all the descendants of the in-laws and clans, especially a few direct descendants of Chen Qiao and other families, who were already in their early twenties when they entered the hall and were full of expectations to serve as officials in Tangyi, were sent to them.

Going to work as a teacher in the Xiangsi Junior School, where the conditions are the most difficult, and dealing with the weak-legged children. Not to mention that Chen, Qiao and other families are dissatisfied, but these graduates are still going to cause trouble?

"If anyone asks, just say it was my decision. It is difficult for the children of the clan to get rid of their arrogance and extravagance. Only by going to the township office, studying in the township, and truly getting in touch with the lives of the poor at the bottom can they grow into pillars of talent," Han said

Qian said, "This rule will be formed in the future. Candidates who really want to serve as officials in prefectures and counties must have experience in grassroots work. The Chen family, Qiao family, and Feng family are no exception, and the Han family and Wen family are no exception.

, your sons and nephews will all be like this from now on, if anyone can’t change their mind, then let them stay in the township for the rest of their lives, they will be useless anyway.”

Seeing Han Qian say this, everyone fell silent.

"With your rhetoric, I can use it to silence everyone." Feng Liao said with a bitter smile.

After discussing many things, it was almost noon before I knew it.

The New Year's Day has not yet passed, Han Qian asked the government to arrange a luncheon and left everyone to dine in Lianyuan. However, before they left Weiyu Pavilion and walked to the dining room, they saw Wang Jun, who was already pregnant, and Xiangyun.

Walked in and said: "There is a flying pigeon coming back from Xingzhou..."

The selection, breeding and training of homing pigeons are all delicate tasks that cannot be done by ordinary people. To form an emergency communication system, not only must breeding be carried out in multiple locations at the same time, but homing pigeons must also be trained in large quantities, which requires a lot of manpower.

Few - the social division of labor is less than a certain level, or there is not a large enough team of officials. This is something that ordinary forces cannot do.

Fortunately, Tangyi has a tradition of employing female workers and female officials, and the families of generals and officials do not have the habit of being kept in boudoir to fiddle with family affairs. The atmosphere is more open than that of the current and previous dynasties.

For matters such as the selection, training and rotation of pigeon nests, Han Qian specially opened a new department in the Military Intelligence Staff Department, with Xiangyun in charge and a dedicated female official.

Xingzhou is currently the focal point of the confrontation between the Hehuai-Liang Army and the Weizhou rebels and the Mongol people. In order to keep abreast of changes in the war situation in Xingzhou, the Military Intelligence Staff Department sent a number of spies to Xingzhou.

Even if there is no urgent information, in order to ensure that the homing properties of the homing pigeons will not be reduced due to long-term stay outside, a new batch of homing pigeons will be sent to Xingzhou regularly, so that the previous batch of homing pigeons can fly back to the pigeon nest at an extremely low cost.

Philippines.

If it was not an emergency, Xiangyun would not send the letter directly. Han Qian took the opened wax paper letter and the read note, and sat there with a big frown on his face, not knowing what to do for a while.

, a chill ran down my spine.

Feng Liao took the note, frowned slightly and said: "The Weizhou rebels are digging the embankment on the south bank of the Yu River (Yellow River) on the northeast side of Xingyang right now? They want to wait for the Yellow River ice to melt to divert the floods.

Attack the area east and south of Xingyang City?"

After a while, Han Qian looked around and saw that everyone had guessed what Liang Shixiong's intentions were in Xingyang, but it was obvious that everyone was in a hurry and did not realize the seriousness of the matter.

Four to five hundred years ago, the forest coverage in the Guanzhong area was still extremely dense, but the two generations of Central Plains dynasties all had their capitals on the banks of the Weishui River, and the ecological carrying capacity was severely tested.

The capital of the old dynasty (Jingzhao Prefecture), dominated by Yongzhou, had more than two million households at the peak of the former dynasty.

It would be okay if they were ordinary households, but a large number of these people are descendants of noble clans, and their lives are extremely luxurious. The Guanzhong area has been building palaces, palaces, houses and buildings for hundreds of years. In the cold winter, they cut wood and burn charcoal for heating.

The firewood used for drinking was even more terrifying, and soon all the trees on the left and right of the hilly plains and peaks were cut down.

Around the middle of the previous dynasty, Guanzhong wanted to repair the main hall. Not to mention the Qiuyuan in the north, and the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains in the south, there was not even a single large tree that could be used as a beam or pillar. It needed to be done from more places, regardless of manpower.

Transportation of materials to Guanzhong.

This change in the ecological environment has been clearly recorded in history books as the water of the Yellow River changed from clear to turbid in the middle of the previous dynasty. It was also at this time that the name of the Yellow River gradually replaced the old name of the Yu River in the folk.

After that, there was two hundred years of siltation.

Even though Han Qian is not sure whether the Yellow River has completely become a suspended river at this time, the Yellow River has burst its banks several times in the past hundred years, each time more serious than the last, and the levees on both sides of the Yellow River have been built higher and higher.

He was worried.

In the late years of the previous dynasty, although wars continued in the Hehuai area, the Hehuai area had always been occupied by extremely powerful vassal forces, so every time the Yellow River burst its banks, it could be quickly blocked.

Another reason is that in the past hundred years, even if the Yellow River has been hit by heavy floods, most of the holes where the Yellow River has burst its banks have been between Shandong and Henan, or from Weibo and other places where it is relatively easy to seal the breach downstream and the flood receiving area is wide.

Floods broke out in the Heshuo area to the north, and had less impact on the Hehuai area on the south bank of the Yellow River.

The Weizhou rebels dug up the Yellow River embankment in Xingyang. Their intention may simply be to block the Hehuai Liang Army's approach to Xingyang City, the eastern gateway of Heluo, but the location northeast of Xingyang City is too critical.

Han Qian didn't know whether Liang Shixiong specifically chose to dig the embankment at this location, or whether it was just a coincidence.

Han Qian spread out the map and marked the point where the rebels were digging the embankment. It was indeed on the west side of the Jialu River Gate, which meant that if the embankment at this location was opened, the Yellow River would flood out and it was probably already high.

It crosses the riverbed on both sides of the flat land, follows the terrain, and flows into the Jialu River (Chasm), and then invades the Shaying River to the south.

In February and March, the water in the river is dry, so the problem is not big. However, in April, various places have entered the rainy season, and the melt water of Jueling Glacier in the northwest plateau has increased significantly. The upper reaches of the Yellow River has entered the Jialu River, and the amount of water in the Shaying River will be alarmingly large.

The channels of these two rivers are shallow and narrow and cannot accommodate such a large amount of water. This will inevitably cause the Xuying, Chensong and other states on both sides of the Jialu River and Shaying River to become a vast ocean, and will also directly affect Ying, Qiao and other states on the north bank of the Huaihe River.

Two states.

After the water of the Yellow River flows into the Huaihe River through the Shaying River, if the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River and the prefectures and counties along Hongzepu catch up with last year's rainfall, and the two phases are superimposed, there will be huge floods, and Chu, Si, Chuyang and other places will be severely affected.

, Shouchun and Haozhou are also not immune.

This is artificially "taking the Huaihe River and entering the sea", artificially creating a large area of ​​​​yellow flood area in the Hehuai River.


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