Chapter 493: Full of Doubts, Wang Shichong (Happy Lantern Festival)
What does it mean to seek death through tricks? This is exactly what Yang Guang did.
In just four or five years after he ascended the throne, Hebei's people's power was almost exhausted.
To rebuild the northern section of the Great Wall, one million people were recruited first, and the construction was completed within twenty days. Fifty-six out of ten people died. Then another two hundred thousand people were recruited to extend the Great Wall outside the Great Wall, and more than half were killed or injured.
The Northern Patrol showed off its force and recruited millions of people. In just a few months, it built a native highway that was more than 2,000 miles long and passed through the Taihang Mountains. More than half of the people were killed or injured.
The eastern capital of Luoyang was built, and two million people were recruited. In three years, fifty-six out of ten people were killed or injured.
Yang Guang prepared to take action against Goguryeo, and recruited a million men from the north of the Yellow River to build the Yongji Canal. As a result, the men were not strong enough to fill the number of women. In just a few months, the Northern Canal of more than 2,000 miles was built, and the men and women were strong.
There were countless casualties.
In addition, since Yang Guang succeeded to the throne, he overhauled palaces, granaries, and recruited tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people. There were luxurious palaces in the east and west capitals as well as Yangzhou and Jiangdu. He also overhauled Luocang in the east capital on the bank of the Yellow River. He died of hard labor.
There are hundreds of thousands of young and strong civilians.
All these things are simply a trick to death. The number of young people who were tortured to death by Yang Guang alone was at least more than three million, leading to the tragic situation of insufficient young people in the north of the Yellow River, and this guy was particularly insufficient.
Yang Guang also particularly liked to run around, always bringing countless officials and civilian servants with him. In just a few years, he and the heroes of the grassland and the western regions hunted outside the Great Wall many times. In order to show the power of the Sui Dynasty, he carried out various construction projects according to the situation.
The number of casualties due to fatigue, hunger and thirst is still astonishing.
In short, Yang Guang has been very troubled since he came to the throne. He did not take the strength of the young people seriously at all. Every time a minister tried to persuade Cambodia to move, he was blamed. It was crazy.
That is to say, the accumulation during the Kaihuang period was sufficient, and the Great Sui Dynasty had not completely collapsed. However, the people were also filled with complaints, and instability had begun to appear in various places.
Don't think that Yang Guang will only torment the people in the north. The people in the south cannot escape either.
The Tongji Canal from the Yellow River to the Huaihe River has also been repaired in just a few months. The number of Huaibei men recruited was only about 500,000, but the number of casualties was also high, causing local wailing.
Not only that, the canal from the Huaihe River to the Yangtze River was also started. Not only did this not only recruit young people from the north of the Yangtze River and the south of the Huaihe River to participate in labor service, they even sent recruitment documents to the Duke of Wu in the south of the Yangtze River.
Duke Lei Hu of Wu naturally refused to submit obediently. He planned to take this opportunity to make a deal with Yang Guang and the imperial court.
The canal project from the south of the Huaihe River to the north of the Yangtze River can be taken over by the Wu Guogong Mansion. There is no need to frantically recruit young people. There is a professional construction corps under the Wu Guogong Mansion, and the imperial court only needs to distribute sufficient grain and grass.
Even the Duke's Mansion of the Tool Kingdom was included.
"Opportunity, this is an opportunity to vigorously expand our influence. Even if we suffer a small loss for this, it is nothing!"
At an internal meeting in the Duke's Mansion, Lei Hu's opponent, Wenwu Chongchen, said: "There is still one very important point, that is, the Huainan and Jiangbei areas cannot be chaotic, otherwise it will seriously affect the economic development of the territory!"
The current situation north of the Yellow River is already quite bad. Not only are the people's manpower exhausted, but even private wealth has been completely plundered. The living standards of ordinary people have dropped significantly, and the number of people who have no money left in their hands has reached an alarming proportion.
This was all the trouble that Yang Guang wanted to cause because of his extravagance, especially since he repeatedly showed off his wealth and force in front of the heroes outside the Great Wall and the Western Regions. He always transferred the huge wealth from the land north of the Yellow River and showed it off outside the Great Wall, and he did not hesitate to show off his wealth to the heroes outside the Great Wall and the Western Regions.
The rewards of heroes.
Lei Hu looked down upon this kind of move of only going out but not going in, saving face and suffering at the same time. He didn't want Yang Guang to harm the essence of Huainan and the northern part of the Yangtze River.
It is true that the territorial economy is developing rapidly, but this is a benefit that arises in connection with the external environment.
If the economy of Wu Guogong's territory alone develops rapidly, and the neighboring Huainan and Jiangbei regions become poor, the economic development of the territory will also be affected and the growth rate will slowly slow down due to the impact of the external environment.
This was not the result Lei Hu wanted, so when Yang Guang and the court were recruiting young people from Huainan and Jiangbei, Lei Hu sent out several envelopes in succession to Yang Guang, who was wandering around.
At the same time, the heads of the three powerful families in the North, as well as the heads of wealthy families with great interests in the south, all received secret letters from Jiangnan.
I don’t know how it was done in the end. In short, Yang Guang issued an order soon after and agreed to all the requests of Wu Guogong Lei Hu, and set a time limit for him to quickly dredge the Grand Canal in Huainan and Jiangbei. He also made it clear that he would directly wait for the canal to be opened.
The boat goes south to the river for inspection.
"Everyone, it's time for us to show off our skills!"
After receiving Yang Guang's imperial edict, Lei Huchong smiled and said to his civil and military officials: "This time, we must win the hearts and minds of the people in Huainan and Jiangbei!"
"promise!"
All the important civil and military officials responded with excitement, but in their hearts they despised Yang Guang and the court in the north.
This kind of opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the people was reluctant to give up to the local princes. Either Yang Guang and the princes in the court could not see clearly the strength of Wu Guogong, or they thought it was a bad thing that cost the people and money and the reward was out of proportion, so they simply took the opportunity to give it to Wu Guogong.
This big fool has done it.
The Duke of Wu's government was extremely efficient. One day after receiving Yang Guang's permission, a minister specializing in large-scale project construction crossed the river and headed north with a production and construction regiment of 10,000 people.
…
"What, Wu Guogong's men came so quickly?"
Wang Shichong was taken aback, looked at the messenger soldier with round eyes and said angrily: "I hope you didn't lie to me, otherwise I want you to look good!"
With that said, he hurriedly rushed out of the palace superintendent's office and went to the palace manager's office. As expected, the manager of Yangzhou was preparing to look for him.
"Prince Palace Supervisor, this time the people from Duke Wu's side will be received by you personally!"
The general manager of Yangzhou directly ordered: "Don't neglect your hospitality. Duke Wu and his men are not easy to mess with. Even His Majesty won't be able to protect you if something happens. Do you understand?"
Wang Shichong nodded hurriedly in response: "No!"
After leaving the General Manager's Mansion, Wang Shichong rushed to the Yangtze River ferry with his men and his confidants. Looking at the large ships carrying personnel and materials on the vast and mighty Yangtze River, he couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.
It seems that he just received an order from the imperial court yesterday, saying that the Yangzhou General Administration Office was required to cooperate with the state of Wu to open the Huainan and Jiangbei sections of the canal.
At first, I was still a little confused. How come the task of opening the canal fell into the hands of Duke Wu?
Wang Shichong respected and feared Duke Wu's Thunder Tiger.
The title of the number one master in the world is not for nothing. Wang Shichong's own strength is considered to be the best among first-class warriors, so he naturally knows the importance of the number one master in the world.
Not to mention, Wu Guogong's territory is the most prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River, with a population of 6 million and an army of 100,000. All the people have a profound background in martial arts, and not just anyone can be offended.
Wang Shichong is ambitious and definitely a thoughtful person.
Ever since he embraced the current Sui Emperor Yang Guang's lap and skyrocketed, he had paid great attention to the Wu Guogong territory on the other side of the Yangtze River. During the Chinese New Year holiday, he even crossed the river to experience the bustle and bustle there in person.
It was indeed a beautiful place, but it was a pity that he couldn't think of any trouble.
Wang Shichong cannot afford to offend the Iron Gate family that is running rampant in Wu Guogong's territory, let alone the more powerful Wu Meng. Whoever dares to cause trouble in Wu Guogong's territory will face a gang that is the most powerful in the south.
Not to mention, everyone in Wu Guogong's territory practices martial arts. The martial arts here is at its peak and there are many good martial arts experts. In any inconspicuous neighborhood or village, there may be some good martial arts, even third-rate martial arts, or even second-rate martial arts.
In a place like this, even if the three great masters come, they will not dare to act wild easily, otherwise they will just risk their lives. Warriors in any city can kill the other three great masters in the world.
Of course, taking advantage of the prosperity of Wu Guogong's territory and his status in Yangzhou, the caravan Wang Shichong privately controlled has made a lot of money in recent years. Although he admired Wu Guogong Leihu, he could not help but feel sad.
A different kind of fear.
A middle-level official like him can make a lot of money with just a few tricks. The wealth in his hands has increased rapidly. How amazing the wealth of the entire Wu Guogong territory is, no one except the senior officials of the Duke Government can figure out.
Now the Wu Guogong Mansion once again showed extremely high operational efficiency, which shocked Wang Shichong.
He only received the news yesterday that no matter how fast he wanted to get to Wu Guogong's mansion on the other side of the Yangtze River, he would only have two or three days to spare at most.
But in such a short period of time, a team of at least more than ten thousand people was organized on the opposite side to cross the river by boat.
Wang Shichong's heart moved, and he immediately understood what was going on. Apparently, the Wu Guogong Mansion opposite had been prepared for it.
Otherwise, there is no way to justify it.
In just a few days, the administrative efficiency and energy have been achieved, and tens of thousands of people can be summoned with ease.
However, there are also matching supplies, as well as the tools and materials needed to build the canal, which cannot be collected in just two or three days. The only explanation is that the other side has been prepared for it.
However, what made Wang Shichong feel extremely puzzled was that opening the canal was not an easy task, but Wu Guogong's mansion, which was not on the other side, rushed to take over it?
According to the information disclosed by the Yangzhou general manager, it seems that the other side only asked for a sufficient amount of grain and grass from the court, and did not even ask for a penny of money, so it took the initiative to take over the opening project of the Huainan and Jiangbei sections that stretches for hundreds of miles. It is called
People feel so stupid.
Wang Shichong didn't think that the people on the other side of the country's government were all stupid idiots.
If it weren't for the huge benefits that people can't see or touch, the Duke's Mansion on the other side of the Yangtze River wouldn't be so active.
Wang Shichong's mind was spinning rapidly, and he never thought about the benefits it would bring.
"Palace Superintendent, they are coming!"
A reminder from his subordinates brought Wang Shichong out of his thoughts. When he saw the dock controlled by the government and heard a row of river boats, he walked over with a smile on his face and laughed at the official of Wu Guogong's mansion who had just disembarked from a distance.