As the saying goes, "Spring rain is as precious as oil", to describe the rare and precious rain in spring.

However, the rain in the third year of Longqing was not bad at all. Since the beginning of spring, both sides of the Yellow River have been raining and sunny days.

This caused considerable trouble to the Ming army and civilians who were repairing the river embankment.

But no matter how great the difficulties are, it cannot prevent the court from blocking the breaking point as soon as possible, allowing the Yellow River water to return to the river channel and supplying water to the Grand Canal.

Since the Yellow River broke its dam in mid-February, under the strict supervision of the Ministry of Works, the river yamen, and the Governor's Office, the civil servants in more than a dozen prefectures and counties in the lower reaches of the Yellow River have been working day and night for two months.

In the past two months, more than 30 people have been removed from the places, rivers and waterways for crimes such as overdue progress and neglect of duty. More than 1,000 civilians have died of exhaustion, drowned, and work-related injuries!

With the court's investment at all costs and after making a tragic sacrifice, 200,000 soldiers and civilians finally blocked more than 130 large and small breaks from Pei County before the Maihuangshui came.

The rebellious Yellow River finally stopped flowing freely and returned to the river channel before the dam breaking.

With the upstream water replenishment, Qingou and Tumor River, which had been blocked by the menstrual period, finally began to rise. The turbid river water overflowed into the canal and ran south.

A day later, Huai'an Tianfei Gate, whose water level was almost bottomed, finally began to rise after two months.

Seeing that the yellow river water finally passed, the scale at the bottom of the marking stone on the gate was all cheering in vain.

"The water is coming! It's open to navigation!" Many civil and military officials were even excited to wipe away their tears. The canal is their parents who are fed and fed. They are sick and unable to work. Is it reasonable to bring filial sons to shed two tears?

The white-haired general of the canal transport officer, Gu Huan, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, also held his beard like a steel needle, and laughed happily at Zhao Kongzhao beside him and said, "Yuquan, look, there is no way out, right?"

Zhao Kongzhao has slept peacefully in the past two months, traveling all day long between the 600-mile rivers from Huai'an to Pei County, and traveling day and night to the capital, which is so exhausting.

However, at this moment, he felt that all the hard work was worth it. He went to Beijing and successfully suppressed the opposition from the river yamen and made the court adopt the emergency plan of the canal transportation yamen.

Now that the plan has been implemented successfully, the canal transportation can finally be restored! He also proved that he is correct. The person who knows best about river management is not the Minister of Works, the Prime Minister of the River, and not the non-staff member Pan Jixun, but his governor of the canal transportation!

~~

After watching the water coming upstream, amid the cheers of civil and military officials, Gu Huan and Zhao Kongzhao left the Tianfei Gate and walked along the high embankment towards the yamen.

"I can finally have a good sleep." The old marquis is the same age as Xu Jie, but his body is much harder. He patted Zhao Kongzhao on the shoulder and said, "Yuquan has also had a good rest for a few days, so you have exhausted you a while."

"Oh, it's not the time to breathe." Zhao Kongzhao shook his head and smiled bitterly: "The officials must make arrangements quickly and let the two thousand canal ships head north as soon as possible."

Previously, the Yellow River broke its dam and the canal was blocked. The two thousand canal ships that were first shipped this year were blocked in Huai'an and had been on the river surface for two months.

"So anxious?" The old marquis was stunned.

"It's rainy and rainy, so why don't you get the transportation quickly? When you arrive in the capital, you won't have a lot of mold and not enter the warehouse?" Zhao Kongzhao explained.

"That's true," Gu Huan nodded and frowned again: "But the water has just arrived upstream, the water situation is still unclear, and the newly replenished embankment is not yet solid. I would rather wait for the wheat and yellow water to pass before the luck is ready."

"This year's rain is in spring, so how can there be any yellow water?" Zhao Kongzhao shook his head and said disrespectfully: "And the 200,000 civilians are still on the dam. What dangers cannot be eliminated?"

I thought I could also ask them to help pull the fiber.

Seeing that Gu Huan was still worried, Zhao Kongzhao lowered his voice and explained: "Old Marquis, it's okay not to hurry up. Remember what the officials and the people of Jiangnan Group mentioned last time that they were talking about shipping grain from Suzhou to Tianjin Wei?"

"Yes." Gu Huan nodded and signaled him to continue.

"The day before yesterday, the North Canal came to report, and they came again. This time the ship doubled and transported 30,000 stones." Zhao Kongzhao said worriedly while rubbing against the mud on his official boots: "And it took only nine days to arrive in Tianjin."

"It's so fast." Gu Huan gasped and felt quite excited when he stood in Zhenyuan Hou's position. But he was the general officer of the canal transport and instinctively resisted this matter: "That's a drop in the bucket."

"The old marquis said it to the point. It was because of the small scale that they were lucky to succeed twice." Zhao Kongzhao snorted: "The sea storm is dangerous and the Japanese pirates are rampant. Once a large-scale grain transport is transported, it will definitely lead to disasters, and it will not be worth the cost!"

"It's a pity that the Jiangnan people who are obsessed with profits actually took advantage of our temporary predicament to promote sea transportation in Beijing!" Zhao Kongzhao said hatefully again: "In order to make some black money, he was in vain to take the safety of the Ming Dynasty's canal transportation and intends to lead the court on the evil path. It's really a pity!"

"Yeah." Gu Huan nodded, thinking that this fucking scholar would just be a hat. The old marquis sneered and said, "But you don't have to be too nervous. When the court was in trouble, someone jumped out and asked for grain transportation in the sea. Which time was it in vain?"

"This time it's different, Old Marquis!" Zhao Kongzhao sighed, waved his hand, and asked his personal soldiers to go away. He held an umbrella himself and watched thousands of raindrops hit the yellow water surface.

"They told Xishan Company to join forces to lobby everywhere, and the impact was unprecedented." He lowered his voice: "I heard that many senior officials of the ministry were told, and even the Minister of Revenue Ma Zhongyang privately said that he could give it a try."

"Oh, is that?" After hearing about Ma Sen's attitude, Gu Huan finally changed his face.

Although the canal transportation yamen is on the same level as the Ministry of Revenue and no one cares about each other, it ultimately serves the Ministry of Revenue. Now that the canal transportation is cut off, the Minister of Revenue has every reason to find a new mode of transportation to transport and supply the grain from Taicang, so Ma Sen's opinion is very important at this time.

Mr. Gu finally understood why Zhao Kongzhao was so anxious.

"Yes." Zhao Kongzhao sighed long, "So we have to send the grain out quickly and transport it to Beijing one day earlier, so that the night can be stopped sooner!"

"Yes." Gu Huan gathered his gray beard and arrived in Beijing for two thousand ships of grain. The maritime transportation discussion could indeed come to an abrupt end. "Then let's do it according to Zhao Butang's wishes."

"Okay." Zhao Kongzhao breathed a sigh of relief. If Gu Huan was stubborn, it would be difficult for him to do.

~~

After returning to the yamen that day, Zhao Kongzhao issued an order to order the two thousand grain ships stranded in Huai'an to ship north as soon as possible!

In order to prevent the canal from being stranded and the canal was stranded, he also ordered officials from the Governor's Office to lead soldiers to carefully inspect each canal ship and unload all the private goods carried by the canal.

If you don’t check it, you will be shocked when you check it. The weight of the private goods carried by each canal ship to merchants is at least twice that of the grain. In order to increase the private goods, some canals have increased the grain, and changed the grain from 400 materials to 1,000 materials!

Looking at the various cargo piled up on the dock, Zhao Kongzhao couldn't help but be stunned. No wonder one-tenth of the canal ships are grounded and damaged every year, and the locks and rivers in various places are severely damaged. How can the canals and canals afford to build these guys like this?

But now is not the time to take a closer look, and he cannot take a closer look. The taxes and customs on the canals, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Revenue, the Censorate of the Palace, the officials of the prefectures and counties along the way, and businessmen from both north and south, all pointed at these private goods for dinner.

He thought to himself, just relying on so many yamen and so many mouths, the grain transport is transported by sea? Go dreaming!

Hearing the curses on the canal ship, Zhao Kongzhao ordered his subordinates to say, "Tell me, it is an extraordinary time now, and transporting the canal grain to Beijing as soon as possible is the most important thing."

"Don't worry, brothers know." The officials responded quickly. "The death order has been issued, and more than half of all water lines are not allowed to be released!"

The canal ships are all made uniformly by Qingjiang Shipyard, and the specifications are exactly the same. The ship's side is painted with markings. The deeper the load, the deeper the draft. If the waterline is no more than half, the canal ship will be about half a load.

A 400-foot-foot-carrying ship is loaded with 300 stones of grain. In order to ensure that it can pass through dangerous river sections, one ship is now transporting 150 stones. It can be seen that the rumors of "sea transportation of grain" puts a lot of pressure on the grain transportation yamen. The grain must be transported to Beijing at all costs, so as to prove that the canal can still be relied on!

"When I go back, in the name of the Governor's Office and the General Office, the county along the coast of Lianhexingwen, and organize enough manpower to pull the fiber. Whoever misses it, I will let him fall into the ground!" Zhao Kongzhao ordered with a stern expression: "Tell them that even if the water is shallower and the boat is on the beach, I have to pull it over!"

"I understand!" The officials took the order with a loud bang.

~~

The torches at the pier shine on the sky, and the canal transportation yamen completed the preparations before departure in the rain overnight.

The next morning, just as the sky was dawn, there were crackling sounds of firecrackers on the canal wharf. When the firecrackers stopped, the whimpering horns started, and the canals shouted together: "Det you set off the boat!"

The canal boats that had been carrying a half-load slowly left the dock, lined up into a long snake, winding northward.

The scene of two thousand canal ships being dispatched at the same time was really spectacular. The front team had already left the Tianfei Gate, and the back team was still at the canal terminal without unplugging the cables.

It was not until dark that all the canal ships were released. Zhao Kongzhao looked at the empty pier, but did not relax at all, but became even more nervous.

Before, he was just thinking about everything and wanted to let the fleet set off quickly. Now that the fleet really set off, he finally worried about the six hundred miles of water from here to Pei County.

He has traveled back and forth several times on this canal these days, and of course he knows that Gu Huan's concerns are very reasonable. The water from the river in the past made the canal very silt. According to the normal process, we should take the opportunity to dredge and clear the silt, clear the river channel until it can pass through the ship, then restore water supply, and re-transportation.

Now he skipped the dredging and directly restored water supply. He was actually taking a risk! If the ship was silted during the journey, would it be all about manpower to pull out six hundred miles? Then wouldn’t it be a land boat?

"Oh..." Zhao Kongzhao sighed to the sky and said to himself, I'm so hard.
Chapter completed!