Governor Zhao's worries soon became a reality.

Three days later, news came that the fleet was stranded just after passing Siyang County. A large number of sinking canals blocked the river channel and the team was forced to stop.

I was really afraid of anything I was going to do. Zhao Kongzhao and the deputy general of the canal transport, Pingjiang Bo Chen Wangmo, braved the annoying spring rain and rushed to Siyang County, 80 miles away.

The Huai'an prefect was also called by Zhao Kongzhao. Huai'an Prefecture belonged to Nanzhili, but was not under the jurisdiction of the Governor Yingtian, but was under the jurisdiction of the Governor of the Grain Transport and the Governor of Fengyang. Therefore, the Huai'an Prefecture was Zhao Kongzhao's direct subordinate. Of course, if you call him, you will come, and if you waver, you will go.

The fleet only took eighty miles in three days. It is easy to imagine how difficult this trip was.

One hour later, Governor Zhao and Ping Jiangbo caught up with the tail of the fleet... Two thousand canal ships were parallel on the canal, with the head and tail at least forty miles apart.

Looking at the spectacular scene of the ship blocking in front of him, Pingjiang Bo asked someone to ask the Caoden and learned that they had been blocking here for a day and a night.

"Damn it!" Chen Wangmo spat depressedly: "At this speed, this little grain is not enough for the people on the boat to eat. It's better to drive over directly at empty ships and go to Shandong to buy grain to transport it to the capital!"

When Zhao Kongzhao heard this, he turned his head and looked at him deeply.

Although Chen Wangmo was an earl, the Ming Dynasty valued culture and over military affairs. He was still a little afraid of Zhao Kongzhao, and couldn't help but say embarrassedly: "I'm joking."

"Why didn't you say it earlier? You can't wait for the horse." Zhao Kongzhao sighed and rode his horse forward.

Chen Wangmo realized that the Governor thought this was a good idea...

"Hehe." Ping Jiang Bo laughed and quickly slapped in to follow.

The two of them walked for more than forty miles, and only after noon did they reach the place where the canal ships sat in the sinking place. It turned out that this was a wide shallow, and there was even a huge sandbank at the center of the river, which the locals called Maspit Island.

The water flows slowly in Mapeng Island, and the silt is very easy to accumulate. Every year during the dry season, the canal transportation offices have to organize manpower to carry, dredge and clear the silt. It was just April, and Zhao Kongzhao felt that the problem should not be big.

Who would have thought that I was too optimistic? The canal was cut off from water in the previous period, and huge amounts of silt were deposited here, which made the last year's merits become futile, and the silt situation even worse.

The two magistrates from Sihong and Suqian had long led the civilians to command the slimness on the spot.

When he heard that the Cao Governor and the Mansion were coming, two county magistrates covered in mud and water quickly stepped forward to welcome him.

"What's the situation now?" Zhao Kongzhao turned over and dismounted. Seeing that the newly replaced official boots fell into the yellow mud soup again, he couldn't help but frown and curse his hometown dialect: "Doctor!"

"Wishutang, the river surface in this area is too wide, which causes great difficulties in fibre drawing." The magistrate of Sihong replied hurriedly.

"Our two counties are working hard to negotiate and try to come up with solutions as soon as possible." The magistrate of Suqian also replied.

Zhao Kongzhao knew that 'active consultation' meant 'bidden dispute', so he cursed again, "I don't do serious prosecution!" Then, with the help of his personal soldiers, he walked up the river embankment angrily.

When he saw the embankment, he was also very imposing. The river surface was too wide. The boat was sitting in the middle of the river, and the civilians could not pull it from the shore.

The boaters could only go down to the waist-deep water to pull the fiber. The soft and deep mud under their feet was so soft that they could not exert force at all. They were slippery and tilted, but the boat still remained motionless.

"Why don't the canal ships behind you pass by the side for such a wide river?" Zhao Kongzhao asked with a frown.

"That is the deepest place, and the edge is even shallower, so you can't pass." Suqian magistrate smiled bitterly and pointed at the canal ship stranded beside him and said, "Those ships just don't believe in evil, and all of them are sunk."

Zhao Kongzhao walked by the river for a while, and finally ordered depressedly: "Unload the ship! Clear the ship, drive it over and load it!"

"Yes!" The two magistrates quickly took the order and left. They had thought of such a simple method long ago. But they had no right to order the grain ships to unload grain, so they could only discuss with the officers who were escorting the ships.

But the other party firmly disagrees. There is no village in front of it, no shop behind it, and there is not even a wharf, let alone a warehouse. How can I unload and load the ship? Besides, it is still raining in the sky, and the food is just placed on the shore. It takes less than half a day to water it all.

When you arrive in Beijing, you don’t have to send it to Taicang, but you just send it to the bar to the bar.

Now that the Cao Supervisor order is ordered, the officers no longer have to take care of the matter, so they will naturally follow suit.

So the county first drove a small boat, unloaded the five or six grains from the stranded canal boats one by one, and transported them to the temporarily built reed shed by the river one by one.

Although the canal boat is only half a load, there are nearly 300 sacks of canal rice in a boat. The boat can only hold five or six bags at most, so I dare not put it too much, otherwise it will have to be stranded.

This made the efficiency extremely low, and it was not until midnight that the canal ships were emptied.

The empty canal ship automatically floated out of the mud and was pulled across this damn river by the people.

~~

The river surface was empty, but the canal ships behind did not dare to follow, otherwise they would have to be stranded.

Moreover, they are in total of two thousand, and they are unloaded like the six canal ships and then loaded them. It is estimated that they will be winter when they arrive in the capital.

"Prepare overnight and start dredging tomorrow morning." Zhao Kongzhao wiped the rain on his face and ordered directly.

Artificial rivers are most likely to be silted. The canal transportation yamen has been set up for 150 or 60 years, and there is no one for dredging. Naturally, a wealth of means have been accumulated, which can also be silted when water is generated in peach, fu, and autumn floods.

"This..." Suqian magistrate and Sihong magistrate looked embarrassed.

"What?" Zhao Kongzhao frowned irritably, "Don't you want to do it?"

"The ministry's orders, how dare the subordinates not obeyed?" The two county magistrates hurriedly said the crime and explained: "It's because the river prime minister came in person today and ordered us to go to the Yellow River embankment to be on duty to prevent floods from tomorrow."

"Yes, the Ministry of the Tang Dynasty, Weng Zhongcheng said that this year's wheat-yellow water is far stronger than in the past year. The newly repaired dam must continue to be reinforced and be on duty day and night..." Sihong magistrate pointed at a high city wall with lights in the night, and the sound was like a mosquito.

It was not a city wall, but a large embankment of the Yellow River. The fire was the lantern in the hands of the civilians patrolling the embankment. The Yellow River and the Canal passed parallel to Huai'an, less than ten miles apart.

The magistrates of each county are also in charge of the rivers of the county, and accept the leadership of the river yamen in flood prevention and water conservancy affairs. Being an official in such a ghost place is really a big deal.

Sure enough, the two of them immediately ate a meal from Master Fuzun. "Listen, is this human word? The orders of the river yamen are important. Can the words of the ministry be heard by the wind?"

"I'm afraid." The two of them quickly shook their heads into rattles. The Governor of the Canal Transportation was also the Governor of Fengyang, and they were their big boss, and of course they were more important than the Prime Minister of the Hedao.

But the problem is that the Yellow River is much more terrifying than the canal. The canal is blocked, and at most the grain cannot be transported north, and the people of Huai'an cannot be hungry. But if the canal breaks, the two counties will follow the footsteps of Pei County, Zou County, Teng County and other places and become a yellow zone...

But they didn't dare to mention this to the Governor, so the two had to bite the bullet and respond.

Zhao Kongzhao looked at the continuous rain in the sky and felt a burst of uncontrollable irritability.

"I will not delay your river work. Let's do this. I will give you two days. If you can't clear the waterway in two days, you can take off your black veil and apologize!"

He left an unquestionable sentence and then brushed his sleeves down the dam and went to rest.

"You think of a solution." As soon as the governor left, the prefect changed his face and whispered to his two subordinates: "You are wronged."

When Sihong heard this, the magistrate muttered: "The court is not unaware of the situation here. What's wrong with the canal boats leaving for a few days late? Why do you have to join in the fun?"

"Yes, even if the ministry sends a few boats to try the waters first, it will not be as difficult as it is now." Suqian magistrate nodded and agreed.

"You are only staring at the things in front of you, of course you say that." The prefect smiled bitterly and lowered his voice: "It must be that the court is under pressure. Have you not seen it yet? The ministry now wants to let the canal ships go north as soon as possible. Don't be blind, two of you."

"Oh, I understand." The two poor magistrates bowed to the prefecture and went back to find a way to see if they could take care of it.

~~

The last solution the two of them came up with was to bring people to the canal to clear the dredging, and Feng County, Sihong, guard the Yellow River embankment. Once there was a flood, or Weng Dali came to inspect, Feng County quickly sent someone to call Liu County to the embankment, and barely deal with it.

In this period of flood water, the dredging was cleaned by boats, which meant that the iron dragon like a rake was sank at the bottom of the water, tied a rope to the stern of the boat, and then the boatman rowed desperately to let the boat go downstream. This was repeated hundreds of times, just like plowing the ground, digging up the mud at the bottom of the river and taking it away with running water.

The second is to use a large iron spoon-like iron bar to ride a boat to catch the river mud, fill it with a boat and unload it to the shore, and then come back to dig it.

But these two methods are not efficient. County Magistrate Liu collected hundreds of boats and hundreds of people kept digging on the river surface. It took two days to clear the two-mile long river channel.

Who knew that as soon as the dust was cleared, the sky was filled with thunder. The spring rain that had been slow suddenly became urgent and fierce.

"Damn it, it's a waste of time." County Magistrate Liu was not careful and fell on the sandbank, cursing with laughter and tears.

Judging from the rain, the water surface of the canal will rise soon. If I had known this, there would be no need to clean up the dredging at all, and even those ships of food would not have to be wasted. Waiting for the water level to rise, the canal ships would be able to escape automatically.

Half of his body was soaked and standing in the heavy rain, Zhao Kongzhao was also mixed.

What’s good is that since this rain, there is no need to worry about being stranded. What’s worrying is that such heavy rain will inevitably bring about greater floods. Can the Yellow River embankment be blocked by the holes?

"Send the order, all ships will unveil their cables and set sail, and leave this section as soon as possible!" Governor Zhao suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and ordered in a deep voice.

"Midang, how can brothers take a boat when they rain so heavily?" Ping Jiang Bo frowned.

"I don't care about that much!" Zhao Kongzhao's voice trembled and pointed to the sky and said, "The black clouds come from the north. The upstream has probably fallen, and the wheat and yellow water almost comes in front and back!"

It seemed as if to prove his words, a rumbling sound continued after a snow-white lightning.

At first, it was spring thunder, and later, it was spring tide!
Chapter completed!