At the same time that Zhu Si's army sneaked into Yangzhou, Guo Song led three thousand troops into Guanzhong from Pujin Pass. In the early morning, he ordered three thousand troops to station on the north bank of the Weihe River, and he led dozens of cavalry to inspect Tianbao Canal.
Tianbao Canal is actually very short. From Luowei Town to Fenglingdu of the Yellow River, it is the last section of the Wei River that flows into the Yellow River. It is only more than 30 miles long, but it has always been an intestinal obstruction for water transportation in Guanzhong.
First of all, the terrain is high in the east and low in the west, and the water flow is slow. It is extremely difficult for ships to come from the east and sail against the current. A large number of trackers must be pulled, but this is a steep canyon, and the trackers have no way to go, so they must be on both sides.
A towpath is dug into the rock.
Another problem is that the river here is narrow, and the terrain is high in the east and low in the west. A large amount of sediment carried by the Wei River and Luo River often accumulates in this section of the river, causing flooding and seriously affecting shipping.
The last time the river was dredged was in the first year of Tianbao, so it was called Tianbao Canal. A few decades later, the river was blocked again, seriously affecting shipping. Ships from Chang'an could barely get out, but to transport it into Chang'an from the east, it was basically
It was impossible. Before, Zhu Si transported grain to Luoyang. They sailed from west to east and were not greatly affected. However, Guo and Song's large amount of supplies had to be transported into Guanzhong, and this section of the river was severely hindered.
Currently, Tongzhou Governor Shi Yang Tianhua is responsible for dredging this section of the river. It has been dredging for several months from last year to this year, and Guo Song wanted to take a look at the progress.
In the afternoon, Guo Song arrived at Luowei Town. Luowei Town is named after Luoshui flows into the Wei River. This is not only where Luoshui flows into the Wei River, but also where the Cao River flows into the Wei River. The water volume of the Wei River suddenly becomes larger here. In the first year of Tianbao,
At that time, a large artificial lake was dug here, called Qianchi, covering an area of 10,000 acres, and a large number of water transport ships were parked here.
Hearing that His Royal Highness the King of Jin had arrived, Yang Tianhua hurried over. Yang Tianhua was the former chief registrar of Purun County. He advocated that the imperial court vigorously develop roads and water transportation, strengthen material circulation, encourage commerce, and criticize customs and tax offices in various places. His insights won Guo's favor.
Song's high regard promoted him from a small county chief to the governor of Tong.
Yang Tianhua lived up to Guo Song's expectations. The first thing he did when he took office was to cancel the tax offices and checkpoints at Pujin Pass and Tongguan. These were the two major checkpoints that had troubled businessmen for decades. Businessmen had been calling for them for decades.
But no one paid attention, and now it has finally been cancelled, much to the joy of the businessmen.
The second thing Yang Tianhua did was to recruit civilians to dredge the Tianbao Canal. This decision was fully supported by Guo Song, who specifically ordered Pan Liao to allocate 200,000 yuan for this major project, which not only involved transportation and commerce.
Development is still related to the logistical support for future military expeditions.
"Is that the Ganchi over there?" Guo Song asked, pointing to a bright white frozen lake in the distance.
"Your Highness is right, that is Ganchi, and the river in the distance is Caohe, which connects to Chang'an City."
Although the Wei River is the mother river of Guanzhong, the Cao River is the economic lifeline of Chang'an. All materials transported to Chang'an are transported by this waterway.
"Does water transport need dredging?" Guo Song asked.
Yang Tianhua shook his head, "No need!"
He suddenly felt that his tone was too harsh, and it was His Highness the King of Jin who asked him! He quickly continued to explain, "Reporting to Your Highness, the water quality of the Cao River is relatively clear, and we do not want the Wei River and Luoshui River to carry too much sediment, so as long as it does not burst the banks due to heavy rain,
, basically no repairs are needed, of course, it is necessary to strengthen the embankment every few decades."
“Go and see Tianbao Canal!”
Guo Song turned his horse and headed east, and Yang Tianhua hurriedly followed. Although Tianbao Canal was short, it was divided into two sections according to the terrain. One section was a plain river channel, about 20 miles long. The eastern part of the river had been dredged and the river channel had been widened.
It was half as wide and dug five feet deeper.
But the really difficult part is the second section, which passes through a ten-mile-long canyon with steep rocky mountains on both sides. The towpath is cut out of the rock.
The terrain in the Guanzhong Plain is relatively low. When you reach the mountainous area, the terrain gradually becomes higher, and sediment accumulates easily. Because there is too much sediment, the water is relatively shallow, and cargo ships with a deep draft cannot pass upstream.
At present, the river has stopped flowing due to ice, so farmers installed two plank roads on the river bed and transported the soil out along the plank roads.
"We took advantage of the ice in winter and asked soldiers to use iron fire mines to blast open the ice. We first cleaned up the ice and then dug down. But in winter, it was all ice and slush. It was frozen hard and it was difficult to dig. So we still used iron.
Explode the fire and thunder to loosen the ice mud, and then concentrate on digging a section."
As soon as Yang Tianhua finished speaking, he heard a loud "Boom!" in the distance, like thunder rolling in the sky, and heard shouts in the distance. Guo Song got off his horse and walked along the plank road.
Not long after, countless people appeared in front of them, pushing deer carts filled with ice and mud and rushing towards them. Guo Song quickly retreated to the towpath and got out of the way. After thousands of people had finished walking, he continued to move forward.
After walking for several miles, I saw a dense crowd of civilians in front of me, tens of thousands of them. They wielded pickaxes and shovels, first put the ice mud into baskets, and then put the three baskets on the deer cart.
The farmer pushed the wheelbarrow and drove away.
There are also thousands of donkeys, carrying two large bags of soil on their backs, which is about three baskets.
They dug the ice mud about one foot deep so that the fleet could enter Guanzhong.
"How long will it take for dredging to be completed?" Guo Song asked.
"I'll try my best to finish the work before the river thaws. I'm 70% sure!"
This statement made Guo Song very satisfied. If it was opened to navigation before the thaw, his wife and daughter would not have to transfer to land at Pujin Pass, but would go directly to Tianbao Canal, and the entire journey would be by water.
Guo Song asked again: "What other difficulties do you need help with now?"
"It's a little difficult!"
After a long while, Yang Tianhua squeaked and said: "The iron fire mine used now is a small iron fire mine. I heard that there are larger ones, but the army said that it requires His Highness's approval before it can be used. That thing is easy to use!"
Guo Song laughed. Currently, small iron fire mines are approved for both military and civilian use. Large iron fire mines are too powerful and can only be used for military purposes. If they are to be used for civilian use, Guo Song must give special approval.
Guo Song nodded, "The large iron fire thunder is too powerful and can blow down city walls and easily injure people. If you want to use it, I can give special approval, but you must be careful."
"Thank you, Your Highness, for your approval!"
Yang Tianhua was overjoyed. With the large iron fire thunder, they could speed up.
.........
After inspecting the canal, Guo Song led the cavalry and continued to march towards Chang'an. Three days later, they finally arrived in Chang'an.
Although he had only left Chang'an for a few months, Guo Song could still feel some subtle changes. The number of caravans increased slightly. At least he saw two caravans with over a thousand camels.
"Thanks to Shi Donglai for this, he vigorously promoted propaganda in the Western Regions and told the merchants that it was his junior brother who controlled Chang'an. Large caravans came one after another, and there will be more in the future."
At the reception banquet in the evening, Zhang Lei told Guo Song the answer. He poured a glass of wine for Guo Song with a flattering smile on his fat face, "I heard that the military wants to order a batch of marching sleeping bags. See if you can.
..."
Guo Song's eyes widened, "You're too greedy! I just gave you the business of 100,000 sets of winter military uniforms last year. Do you think you can calculate how much you earned?"
"I'm making a lot of money!"
Zhang Lei slapped his thigh anxiously and began to complain, "I really didn't make any money on the military uniforms. The military lowered the price too hard and the delivery was urgent. I had to process the money. In the end, my wife calculated that I only made money on one set of military uniforms."
Fifty Wen, after three months of hard work, I only made 5,000 Guan. If it weren’t for your sake, we really wouldn’t want to take on this business.”
Next to him, Li An also smiled and said: "Your Highness, I can testify to this. Fatty Zhang and I made a careful calculation. In the end, he can make money because I gave him a little cheaper on the fabric price. Otherwise, his business
You will definitely lose money.”
Guo Song nodded, "You'd better not take over the business of marching sleeping bags this time. That's for the Dugu family. They also opened a quilt factory in Taiyuan. I'll find another big profitable business for you."
"What business!"
Zhang Lei hurriedly came forward, blinking his little eyes, and Li An was also tempted, and leaned forward slightly.
Guo Song said with a smile: "I want to solve the accommodation problem for low-level officials. I plan to build a number of courtyards, probably more than a thousand. I see that there are many shabby houses that no one lives in in many houses in Chang'an City. You can take these shabby houses that no one lives in."
Buy them, demolish them, and build them into small single-family homes. What’s the area? Half an acre of land is enough. How about I give you 30% of the net profit?"