Zhang Wu's eight-year canal construction work is still progressing smoothly. The dredging of Hangou was the first to be completed. The entire project took three years.
The main reason is that most of the river channels are expanded and dredged on the original river channel, and there is no need to dig a new river channel, so the work in Guangling was completed the fastest.
In November, the imperial court learned that the excavation work of Hangou was completed and had reached the acceptance stage, so it sent the new servant Guoyuan to check the situation.
The original servant Wei Duan died of illness at home at the beginning of this year. Guoyuan had also been an official with Liu Bei for many years and had deep qualifications, so he was promoted to Jiuqing.
The inspection and acceptance work lasted for more than a month, and it was not until the beginning of the ninth year of Zhangwu that all the surveys were completed and reported to the court.
On the tenth day of January, it is mid-spring. While Liangzhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, Yuanzhou, Liaozhou and other places in the north are still experiencing heavy snow, Huainan and Huaibei are already experiencing the warmth of spring and flowers are blooming.
Dongling Pavilion in the east of Guangling County, the sun is shining brightly, not far to the south is the rolling Yangtze River, the river is rippling, and the Hangou water flows from north to south, slowly pouring into the river.
There were crowds of people on both sides of the ditch. A huge ship slowly sailed in from the Yangtze River estuary. Under the gaze of countless people, it arrived at Donglingting Port.
Dongling Pavilion is actually located at the estuary of the Yangtze River, about 20 kilometers southeast of Yangzhou City in later generations. It has the Yangtze River to the south and Hangou to the east. It was mainly used to prevent pirates in history.
But today's bandits are almost worthless in front of the Qingzhou Navy.
Especially after the cannon was invented in Qingzhou, no matter how many cannons were installed in various ports or on sea ships, no matter how fierce the pirates were, they could only wait and surrender.
So now Dongling Pavilion has lost its original function, but it has a new function.
That is to become the starting point between Yangzhou Jiangnan Canal and Huaizhou Hangou. In the future, Huaizhou will collect commercial taxes and tolls here.
And today is the day when Hangou is officially opened.
Although the current river section only extends from Dantu County in Jiangdong to Huaiyang County in Xuzhou, this itself marks a starting point for the Grand Canal.
Therefore, the entire Huaizhou Prefecture officials and even the Xuzhou Prefectural Shepherd came to attend the navigation ceremony.
The ship used for the trial voyage was the latest steamer manufactured by Qingzhou Shipyard - Linzi.
Since the advent of rubber, steam engines no longer need to be treated as carefully as before, for fear of accidents and damage caused by insufficient sealing during trial operation.
Nowadays, sealing materials are following up, whether it is mass production or continuous improvement, there is no need to worry about leakage problems caused by excessive power.
Thanks to Ma Jun's experience with steam engines for more than 20 years, the power and overall design of the steam engine he developed are close to the limit, no worse than the double-cylinder steam engine manufactured by Watt.
Structurally, Ma Jun's steam engine also had two cylinders, and its internal parts and design were even more sophisticated. With the same power, it was also much smaller.
Linzi was the first ship to be equipped with a steam engine.
It is not particularly large in size, about twelve feet long, which is 28 meters, and three feet wide, about 7 meters. However, in the middle of the ship, there is no longer a raised sail, but a tall chimney, which is standard.
Wooden steamboat.
Although it is not that kind of super-large ship, and it is not even comparable to the wooden ocean-going sailing ships in Qingzhou today, the existence of the "Linzi" itself is of extraordinary significance.
Under the watchful eyes of countless people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the Linzi slowly sailed into Donglingting Port. It belongs to Qingzhou Shipping Company and is a state-owned enterprise ship.
At present, the largest group among state-owned enterprises is the company of Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping. Su Shuang died of illness the year before two years ago. In addition to the title, he was also given a posthumous title and a very grand funeral was held for him in recognition of Su Shuang's years.
Contributions to the Han Dynasty.
Strictly speaking, state-owned enterprises are still government agencies. At the level of Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping, they are already second-rank officials, ranking higher than Jiuqing. Among the enterprises they control, they have unparalleled power.
Originally, the two companies were combined, but they have been gradually separated over the years. For example, new factories for grain, salt, horses, cotton, shipbuilding, steel manufacturing, etc. have all been set up independently.
These enterprises were originally established by Chen Mu, but were simply handed over to them to manage. It can be said that over the years, the court's repeated support has become worthy of their early funding.
Now the Qingzhou Shipbuilding Company and manufacturing plant are under the name of the Qingzhou Prefecture. The manager is Su Shuang's eldest son Su Ji. He is also the director of the Qingzhou Salt Company. He is considered the largest successor to Su Shuang's property. Currently, the official
As a third-level official, he was the one who came personally for this trial voyage.
After the steamer stopped at the port, Su Ji, who was already forty years old, stepped off the ship. His face showed both the shrewdness of a businessman and the majesty of an official. When he came to many officials in Xuzhou, Huaizhou, and Yangzhou, he bowed his hands and said, "Ji has seen you."
Colleagues."
"Director Su is polite."
The servant Guoyuan came over and saluted on behalf of many officials and said: "Your Majesty and the Prime Minister attach great importance to this trial voyage and specially ordered me to come and preside over the ceremony. I will leave everything to Director Su."
"Your Majesty, don't worry."
Su Ji nodded and said seriously: "Qingzhou has also received instructions from the Prime Minister. This time I will not disappoint the court, your Majesty, or the Prime Minister."
"Um."
Guoyuan turned his head and said to Huaizhou Mu Bingyuan: "Let the ceremony begin."
"only."
Bing Yuan bowed his hands and announced the beginning of the ceremony.
In addition to sea trials, the navigation ceremony also includes sacrificial activities. People in Jiangdong have worshiped the river for a long time. The ancients believed that there are gods in the five mountains and four mountains.
Although it is a feudal superstition, this kind of thing has advantages and disadvantages, depending on how you interpret it.
Chen Mu abolished all human sacrifices and declared to the world that gods are gods of nature and will not take human lives. All gods that require human lives for sacrifice are not good gods but evil gods. It is a crime to believe in evil gods.
The Yangtze River is one of the Four Rivers. Among them, the water god of the Yellow River is generally recognized as He Bo, the protagonist in "Looking at the Ocean and Sighing", while there are several water gods of the Yangtze River.
For example, the water god believed in the upper reaches of Sichuan is called "Qixiang".
The two lakes areas in the middle reaches have more mixed beliefs, some believe in Qu Yuan, some believe in Xiangjun, and some believe in the goddess of Wushan.
There are two famous river gods in the downstream Jiangdong area, one is Wu Zixu and the other is Tianwu.
However, Wu Zixu is mainly the water god in the Qiantang River area, and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River mainly worship Tianwu. Therefore, this sacrificial activity is mainly for the worship of Tianwu God.
After the abolition of human sacrifice, the sacrifices mainly consisted of three animals, five grains and six livestock. The whole sacrificial process lasted for about an hour.
It was not until Guoyuan finished reading the memorial text and all senior officials finished speaking that the navigation ceremony began.
The excavation work of Hangou this time is even more grand than when it was built by King Wu Fu Chai. The average width before was 20 meters, but now it has grown to 30 meters, and the overall width is between 30 meters.
Under the gaze of countless officials and people on both sides of the strait, the ship lock located above the river was pulled by a winch and opened to both sides like two huge iron doors.
The rivers below are originally connected together, so there will be no flood discharge.
At this time, the steamer immediately began to burn coal in the boiler inside the ship. The rumbling steam power drove the paddle wheels on both sides of the ship. The paddle wheels rolled in the water and pushed the ship forward.
Soon the boat sailed slowly into the Hangou. Although it was sailing against the current, it was very fast and disappeared from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye.
When the steamship passed Dongling Pavilion, bursts of cheers suddenly erupted from both sides of the bank. Guoyuan and other senior officials took the lead in applauding. This was one of the new "etiquette" formulated by Chen Mu. For a while, there was a roar of applause and the people cheered.
.
Su Ji smiled and said to Taifu Guoyuan, Yangzhou Mu Cuiyan, Huaizhou Mu Bingyuan, Xuzhou Mu Maojie and other senior officials: "This steamship is the result of many years of research and development by the horse division and the Qingzhou Shipyard. It has amazing speed.
It's fast, I can run more than 70 or 80 miles in one hour, and I expect to reach Gaoyou in two hours."
"More than seventy or eighty miles in one hour?"
Everyone's expressions suddenly changed. Guoyuan couldn't help but said: "Doesn't that mean that after the Tongji Canal and Yongji Canal are opened in the future, it will only take three or four days to go to Luoyang or Youzhou?"
"Let's go to Luoyang for two days and go to Youzhou for three days."
Su Ji replied: "This ship can run non-stop for twelve hours. According to the new time calendar released by Professor Yuan Zhuo the year before last, its average speed can reach 38 miles per hour."
Professor Yuan Zhuo was Liu Hong, a mathematician, astronomer and calendarist in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He was known as the sage of calculation.
Chen Mu and Liu Hong studied the calendar and changed the time calendar. During the Han Dynasty, a quarter of an hour was a minute. There was an error of more than 1 minute in an hour. The error in a day could be more than 20 minutes. It was just spread out evenly. Ordinary people
Just can't feel it.
But after accurately calculating the twelve hours, now one breath is changed to one second, sixty seconds is one minute, fifteen minutes is one quarter, four quarters is one hour, and two hours is one hour, thus the time is accurate.
Ma Jun also used a pendulum to create a mechanical clock and used springs to study watches. In this way, the specific concept of time officially became popular in the Han Dynasty.
However, the mileage is still the same as Han miles. If converted, the average speed of the steam ship is 15 kilometers per hour.
This speed is much higher than the speed of the first steam engine ship in later history, because that ship used one steam engine, and the Linzi used two. The steam power was pushed through the piston movement to push the hull lever together and accelerate.
The operating speed of the paddle wheels on both sides.
As the top master of machinery and invention in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Ma Jun's steam engine structural design was already ingenious. The size of the steam engine was also much smaller than that of Watt's steam engine, so he was able to accommodate two steam engines and two boilers.
certainly.
The appearance of the Linzi itself was to prove the power of the steamship and this trial. Most domestic steamships in the future should not use two, and the speed will definitely not be that fast. It will be enough to maintain an average of 8-10 kilometers per hour.
As for ocean-going steamships, that's another story.
Qingzhou is currently discussing the development of a giant iron ship. At that time, whether to build a larger steam engine or multiple steam engines with higher power, the discussion has just begun.
Although ocean-going steamships are still in the research and development stage, ocean-going ships are bound to be faster than inland sailing ships.
For example, the speed of ocean-going steamships in later generations is generally more than 27 kilometers per hour. The famous Titanic is a steamship. It is many times larger than the Linzi and can reach a speed of 42 kilometers per hour. The size of the ship and the power of the steam engine
The size, power and quantity far exceed that of the Linzi.
Therefore, there is a big difference between inland ships and ocean-going ships and cannot be used for comparison. At least for today's big people, inland shipping with a speed of 8-10 kilometers per hour is more than enough to meet the current economic development needs.
Many ministers present waited for about an hour. Amidst the whine of the whistle, the Linzi slowly appeared in people's sight, then quickly approached and stopped at Dongling Pavilion again.
Thunderous applause erupted again.
The navigation ceremony was over, not to mention that many ministers present held a grand banquet after the ceremony. Just five or six days later, the news quickly spread to Luoyang.
Liu Bei, Chen Mu, and many senior officials in the cabinet were immediately delighted, and the scene was lively.
Emperor Longyan was so pleased that he asked the cabinet to draft rewards and held a banquet for all ministers.
After the cabinet discussed with the Li Yuan and Shaofu, it was determined that Chen Deng, the prefect of Guangling, and Yang Xiu, the magistrate of Guangling, who were the greatest contributors to the Han ditch digging work, were promoted to two levels, and all other officials, big and small, along the route were given rewards.
For a time, all the canal-building officials in the Han Dynasty were excited.
Because after the implementation of the nine-grade system, the promotion of officials is no longer the same as before. They can be promoted or demoted at will by spending money and a word from the emperor.
After the merit theory, even the emperor cannot deal with an official casually, but must see whether he has made mistakes and whether he is an incompetent and mediocre official.
Every three years, the Supervisory Yuan under the jurisdiction of the Taiwei, the Civil Service Yuan under the jurisdiction of Situ, and the People's Yuan under the jurisdiction of Sikong will examine whether officials have violated disciplines, whether their political achievements are outstanding, as well as public reputations and their own moral standards.
The Supervisory Yuan supervises all officials across the country and is equivalent to the Disciplinary Committee. The Civil Service Yuan is in charge of official promotions and is equivalent to the Organization Department. The People's Yuan is unique to the Han Dynasty. Because the Han Dynasty advocates rule by virtue, if the official's reputation among the people is not good, it will also affect
to promotion.
In this way, promotion requires more than just qualifications. You must make achievements in the local area, such as promoting education development, economic development, agricultural production, etc. Even if you are promoted, you can often only move up one level.
For an ordinary official, it would be good if he could be promoted to the level of the fifth or fourth rank before retiring at the age of sixty.
It is almost impossible to cross over to the provincial level between the third and second levels, or even to the Jiuqing Ministry of the second level, without outstanding political achievements and a strong background.
Therefore, at a young age, Chen Deng was only forty-five years old this year. He had already been promoted to the position of governor of Yanzhou. He was promoted from the fourth rank to the third rank. His leapfrog promotion made countless officials responsible for canal construction in Xuzhou, Yangzhou and other places jealous.
In fact, if Chen Deng was promoted from the fifth grade to the fourth grade, or even promoted from three levels to the fourth grade, many officials would not be so gloomy.
Mainly because as mentioned before, there are several hurdles for officials to get promoted.
One is to advance from civil servant to department level, that is, from no rank to ninth rank to eighth rank.
The second is to be promoted from the department level to the county level, from the eighth grade to between the seventh grade and the sixth grade.
The third is to be promoted from the county level to the city hall level, from the sixth grade to between the fifth grade and the fourth grade.
The fourth is to be promoted from the city hall level to a senior official, from the fourth rank of Zizheng to between the third rank and the second rank.
In the end, naturally, he was promoted from a senior official to the rank of public minister, from the second rank to the first rank.
Officials at the public and national levels dare not think about it, and the first few hurdles, no matter which one, require considerable political achievements.
When one is promoted to the city hall level, the political performance and relationship background required are unimaginable.
Therefore, the peak of ordinary officials is between the county level and the city hall level, from the seventh rank to the fourth rank.
But now Chen Deng has easily passed the last hurdle for officials and reached this level at this age. With a promising future as a minister, how can he not make the surrounding state officials jealous.
But jealousy is jealousy, but he has indeed done a good job in politics.
Not only did Hangou be built, Guangling County was also managed in an orderly manner. The county's grain output ranked among the top five in the country. The economy and agriculture developed rapidly, and free education was also vigorously promoted.
So there is nothing to say.
The surrounding state government officials can only continue to work hard one by one, repair the canals in Xuzhou and Yangzhou as soon as possible, and make enough achievements in their own affairs, so that they can be promoted like Chen Deng.