Chapter 413: The Yan Party will die!

The North-South Canal was excavated and constructed during the Sui Dynasty.

It seems to be one of the factors that led to the demise of the Sui Dynasty.

But after the Sui Dynasty, there is one fact, that is, all subsequent dynasties continued to repair and expand this north-south canal.

But until now.

In fact, this canal is not a complete north-south transportation link as most people think.

Nearly half of the time in a year, the canal is unable to serve its transportation purpose due to water flow problems.

For example, in the first month of the lunar year now, because spring has not yet arrived and there has been no heavy rainfall in the north and south, the water flow in the canal has decreased, which will cause shipping to come to a halt.

but.

There are always two sides to things.

For example, now, ordinary people cannot use the canal.

But it did not prevent Yan Shaoting from traveling south to the south of the Yangtze River on an official ship on the canal.

In addition, the trackers on both sides of the river pulled the official ship through ropes connected to it to provide it with power to move forward.

Over the past few hundred years, the government has also built one sluice after another on the canal.

Through these sluice gates, it is possible to artificially adjust the water flow in the river to a certain extent.

It is true that the thousands-mile-long canal is not unobstructed with continuous water flow, but a whole canal transportation system is formed with sluice gates built according to local conditions to regulate the water flow.

On the official ship with the king's flag.

Bow deck.

Yan Shaoting took off his heavy cloak, stood with his hands behind his back and looked ahead.

Although it is not spring yet, the temperature is rising as you go south along the canal.

The water in the river is also deeper than in the north, but it has not reached the deepest depth in spring and summer.

That's why.

At this moment, on both sides of the bow, several thick ropes were stretched tight and finally fell on the shoulders of hundreds of trackers on both sides who were only muscle and had no fat on their bodies.

Half of these trackers were laborers conscripted by the canal water post stations and local prefectures and counties, and the other half were hired by the countless water transport gangs on the canal.

A canal.

From south to north, the canal supported nearly one million people. The canal transportation was also known as the money canal, and it became the basis for the food and clothing of millions of people.

Yan Shaoting calmly watched the boatmen wearing only half-sleeved, double-breasted jackets that exposed their arms, straw sandals on their feet, and a thick and worn piece of linen on their shoulders. The ropes towing the official ship were deeply embedded in the linen.

This thousand-year-old canal only solved the problem of transportation between the north and the south of the Central Plains, but did not solve the livelihood issue of the people.

Mixed emotions arose in my heart.

Yan Shaoting heard footsteps behind him.

"Matou Town is in front of us. Twenty miles to the southeast is Huai'an Prefecture. To the west is Hongze Lake, which stores the Huai River."

"According to the itinerary, we will rest in Matou Town today and continue our journey tomorrow, passing Huai'an Prefecture City. We will go south all the way, enter the Yangtze River from the river outside Jiangdu City in Yangzhou Prefecture, and finally go up the river to the Waijinchuanmen Wharf outside Nanjing City."

The person who spoke was Zhu Qi, a captain of the Northern Pacification Division of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He stopped half a step behind Yan Shaoting and followed his gaze towards the trackers on the shore.

Yan Shaoting hummed: "How many days will it take to get to Nanjing?"

"It will be soon. We will be able to enter Nanjing in three days."

Zhu Qi replied, thinking about other things silently in his heart.

For this trip south, the Emperor specifically requested that the Imperial Guard send someone to accompany Yan Shaoting to Nanjing City.

Although there were Jinyiwei left in Nanjing, it seemed that the emperor did not trust the Nanjing Jinyiwei, so he led his men to go south with Yan Shaoting.

There is only one purpose.

He took over the Nanjing Jinyiwei and worked with Yan Shaoting in the future.

When Yan Shaoting heard that it would take another three days to reach Nanjing, he just smiled faintly.

After all, due to the season, the canal is more difficult to navigate than usual.

If it were the flood season, it would only take twenty days at most to travel from north to south along the canal, but now it had taken me more than twenty days just to reach Huai'an Prefecture.

There is still room for improvement in the canal.

However, Yan Shaoting frowned.

Although he did not understand water conservancy projects, let alone how to repair the canal, he knew that the canal did not exist independently but was closely connected with the Yellow River.

Take the vast expanse of water in the southwest called Hongze Lake, for example. During heavy rains, it becomes a flood storage area for the lower reaches of the Huai River and the Yellow River.

In addition, the flooding water of the Yellow River has repeatedly impacted the canal.

River management.

This is a huge and complex proposition.

He could bring countless money and grain to the Ming Dynasty, but he could not rely on himself to manage the river that had been bothering the people of the Central Plains for thousands of years.

Zhu Qi looked at Yan Shaoting, who had been silent for a long time, and asked with a smile, "The guest doesn't seem to be worried about this trip south."

Yan Shaoting frowned, turned his head and looked at Zhu Qi with a puzzled look, then smiled and said, "I was just thinking about the canal, the Huai River and the Yellow River, and I was distracted for a while."

A look of suspicion appeared on Zhu Qi's face.

I didn't quite understand why the topic turned to the river.

He shook his head. "River management? As far as I know, the guest doesn't seem to be familiar with this."

River management is a tough job.

If you do it well, it is your duty; if you do it poorly, it will be a capital crime punishable by natural disasters or man-made calamities.

Yan Shaoting withdrew his gaze from the bank of the canal and turned to look at Zhu Qi: "Throughout history, river management has taken hundreds of years. But the river has been violent for thousands of years. If it can be tamed, it will be a great merit for a thousand years and will benefit countless people on both sides of the river."

Zhu Qi nodded: "The guest is concerned about the people, but the people in Nanjing are probably like frightened birds, craning their necks to wait for the guest to enter the city."

He felt that river control was too far away, and now he should think more about how to deal with the people in Nanjing city.

At this moment.

The official ship under the feet of the two men had also reached an open water surface.

The boat was being pulled by the boatmen on the east side, and they were approaching the dock at Matou Town on the opposite side.

The trackers on the west side also boarded their boats on the shore and started heading towards the Matou Town Pier across the river mouth.

It seemed that the flag flying on the ship and the people who had gone there first in a small boat had already reported the news.

Small boats began to sail out from the Matou Town Wharf, surrounding the official ship and leading it to the wharf where it slowly docked.

Although the whole process was cumbersome, with the joint efforts of countless people, it only took less than half a quarter of an hour for the official ship to finally stop steadily.

On the dock.

A middle-aged clerk in official uniform, with a fat head and big ears and a greasy face, with a face full of worldly wisdom and flattery, stepped quickly in his white-soled boots and walked all the way to the wooden board lowered from the official ship at the dock.

Haven't seen the real owner yet.

The clerk, together with the other minor clerks who came with him, bowed their heads and spoke loudly.

"I respectfully welcome Governor Yan."

"Matou Town has received the news and has prepared a banquet and a guesthouse, waiting for the governor to stay."

After shouting, the clerks and their group waited at the dock with their heads lowered in a humble manner.

Although the imperial court's decree was not to let Yan Shaoting directly govern the affairs of the six provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, everyone could understand the meaning of the imperial edict.

As long as Yan Shaoting is willing, the six provinces in the south of the Yangtze River will have to operate according to his will.

A small clerk at the dock would not think about whether there was a struggle among the upper class, and would not dare to be negligent at all.

On the dock.

Now that the first month of the lunar year has passed and the canal is about to open, quite a few people who make a living from the canal transport have gathered here.

At this moment, they all hid in the distance, stretching their necks to look at the official ship docked at the pier.

in the crowd.

There was a lot of discussion about the official background of this grand official.

"Looking at his appearance, he seems to be a high-ranking official from the capital."

"To make Zhang Baopi, an old dog, pay such attention to me, he must be a high-ranking official."

"You haven't heard that the capital decided a year ago to send a great master to Nanjing to govern the affairs of the six provinces in the south of the Yangtze River."

"I heard that the master was holding an imperial decree that could chop off people's heads, saying that he wanted to let a few baskets of heads fall in Nanjing."

"The imperial court wants to kill people and behead them in Nanjing?"

"Is this news true?" The rumors became more and more outrageous, but the crowds watching became more and more excited and believed them more and more.

Everyone became even more curious about the official ship that had just docked at the pier.

"Humph!"

It was at this time that different voices emerged among the crowd.

"Can any of those high-ranking officials in the court be good?"

"They say they are going to Nanjing to be beheaded, but I think they are just going there to seize power and gain benefits."

"Who knows, when the time comes, the great master will issue a document and we will have to pay more money and grain in the future."

"Don't let it happen that no one in Nanjing loses their heads, but our heads will be lost instead."

No matter when or where, there will always be people with conspiracy theories appearing in an endless stream.

These words immediately caused everyone's concern.

"No way?"

"I heard that this great master who came here seems to be very considerate of us peasants in the court."

"Thinking about it? Have you seen it?"

The rhetorical question came immediately, causing the hesitant person to shut up immediately.

After a brief silence.

A voice was heard again from the crowd.

"Whoa!"

"No matter what these officials want to do, can we still rebel?"

"It's almost spring, and the canal is opening. Let's think about whether we can earn a few more ounces of silver this year to support our family."

This is actually what most people think.

Even if there were a hundred emperors in the capital, it would be nothing to them.

The most important thing is to have one more meal and earn one more penny.

But soon.

Someone else said, "If a knife is really placed on your neck, won't you rebel? If that time really comes, the only way for us is to rebel!"

This is already a big taboo.

Everyone looked around, trying to find the person who said this, but they couldn't find anyone for a moment.

But those words entered their ears.

Fearing they would be blamed for this, the crowd slowly began to disperse.

at the same time.

A caravan was heading east from west along the road along the shore of Hongze Lake and entering Matou Town.

Leading the way was an ordinary horse-drawn carriage, followed by three large carts covered with oilcloth and loaded with goods.

The caravan traveled all the way to the post station near the pier and stopped.

Then a middle-aged man dressed like a businessman got off the carriage. He explained to the people at the post station for a while, and then the carriages entered the post station.

Now that the new year has begun, the canal will soon be open to traffic.

Merchants traveling from north to south also began to transport the goods they had collected to the docks along the canal in advance, waiting to load the goods on ships and ship them to distant places to earn more profits.

The carriage stopped in the yard of the post station.

At this moment.

The people who were dressed as merchants were now waiting beside the carriage.

Then a bald, strong man in Confucian clothing walked out of the carriage.

And then.

There seemed to be a fragrant breeze coming.

The car curtain moved slightly.

Then a woman in a light green silk dress came out gracefully, and it turned out to be a young lady with a stunning face.

This woman not only has a stunningly beautiful face, but also a first-rate figure.

This caused the postman beside him to swallow a few times.

"Please give me two upper rooms and one common bed, feed the horses with bean cakes, and I will not lack money."

"May I ask, when will the canal wharf in Matou Town be able to load the cargo and start shipping?"

The woman who attracted everyone's attention spoke gently.

The postman trembled all over immediately, and felt that even his bones were soft. Then he hurried forward with a flattering smile on his face.

"There are enough rooms. I'm afraid we'll have to wait three to five days for the ship to arrive to load the cargo."

The woman nodded lightly and took out a piece of silver from her sleeve: "Please take good care of me these few days, little brother."

The postman received the silver and had close contact with this beautiful woman, and his heart was already filled with joy.

And this time.

Outside.

The clerk in charge of the wharf and post station in Matou Town had already humbly led Yan Shaoting and his party to the post station.

"Give it!"

"Give me all!"

"Hurry up and send the baggage of the governor and his party to the upper room."

The clerk gave loud orders to the people in the post station, fearing that his attempt to please Yan Shaoting would not be received.

Yan Shaoting didn't say much about the courtesy of this minor official.

Matters concerning the canal are complex and interconnected. He has not yet entered Nanjing City, and it is even more impossible for him to intervene in matters concerning the canal's finances at this time.

Zhu Qi stayed beside him, quickly looking around the post station.

Qi Dazhu, who went south with him, stayed on the official ship with his men.

As for Liu Wan, the chief flag officer selected by Guo Yuchuang from the Beijing camp, he followed a team of officers and soldiers into the post station.

The clerk was on the other side of Yan Shaoting, the smile on his face having never disappeared since they were at the dock.

His face was full of wrinkles as he said, "We just caught some fish from Hongze Lake this morning. I asked the chef from the restaurant in town to cook you a three-course meal with one fish. We also prepared some local dishes from Huai'an. Matou Town is small, so we are not well prepared. Please forgive me, Governor."

Talking.

The clerk's eyes swept over the caravan that had just entered the post station before them.

natural.

The extremely beautiful woman also caught his eye.

The clerk immediately whispered, "Too beautiful to be with such a beauty..."

After saying this, the clerk looked quickly at Yan Shaoting.

His face showed a look that all men understand, and he whispered, "If the Governor is interested today, I can..."

What can I do?

This experienced clerk didn't say it, but everyone understood it.

She was just a business woman, even if she had some money in her hands, but if she fell into the hands of government officials, she would naturally accept the punishment.

As long as the supervision is in your eyes.

So the person who is at Matou Town Water Station today is named Yan!
however.

That's the moment that all men understand.

Suddenly a loud noise came from the place where the horses and vehicles were placed in the post station.

The smell of gunpowder quickly spread in the air.

The untied horses were running around randomly, and the people were frightened out of their wits by the sudden explosion.

It is at this moment.

A loud shout was heard right next to Yan Shaoting's ears.

"Die Yan!"

…………

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(End of this chapter)