At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Su Yuan breathed a few breaths of relief indiscriminately, constantly calming down his high-speed heart, and then slowly and carefully massaged Guo Peng's shoulders.

Through the subtle touch of his fingers, Su Yuan couldn't help sighing——

Your Majesty's bones.

Still so strong.

chapter 989 nine hundred ninety-nine

Regarding Cheng Tian's party struggle, at that time, Guo Peng was waiting for the change of the court with the mood of watching a drama.

As a result, after waiting for two months, there was no movement.

Someone in Guo was wondering if this group of people were making a lot of noise, or something was wrong with him, and then in April, he really waited for this outbreak.

The fierce battle between Cheng Yu and Tian Feng has officially come to the fore.

Before Cao Cao and Tian Feng were ordered to jointly discuss the feasibility and specific operation details of the Grand Canal, the discussion was quite pleasant, and the two sides reached a lot of consensus based on the actual situation.

But the situation changed suddenly. After the Cui Qu case, Cao Cao sided with Cheng Yu and became enemies with Tian Feng, so this consensus was overturned a lot.

Conflicts between the cabinet and the Ministry of Industry began to erupt.

From February to April of the fourth year of Yande, this kind of consensus disappeared completely, turning into tit-for-tat dissent.

It is no secret that Guo Peng wants to dig the Grand Canal to connect the north and the south, and everyone in the court knows it.

Although many people think that Guo Peng's work is not worth the loss, but the emperor must do it for "the descendants of 30 or [-] years later", and they can't help it.

They don't quite understand the strange reason that every year is colder than the last.

But who made Guo Peng the emperor?

And from an objective point of view, even if the illusory so-called large-scale reduction in grain production in the next 30 years is completely discarded, it is a great thing to simply connect the north-south transportation.

The first and most important thing is to strengthen the Wei Empire's control over Jiangnan.

The foundation of the Wei Empire was in Qingyan and Yanzhou, in Jizhou, and later Yuzhou was added. Generally speaking, it was in the Kanto area and the Hebei Plain, not in the south of the Yangtze River.

Jiangnan was not even the center of gravity of the Western Han and Eastern Han.

The emperors of the Western Han and Eastern Han dynasties were not interested in developing Jiangnan, which left the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River empty and unable to be developed.

After the Great Plague and the war, the population of Han people in the south of the Yangtze River decreased sharply, and it was no longer the same as before.

If the population is small and cannot be developed, there will naturally be many forces that are not under control, such as Shanyue, Wuxi barbarians, Wuling barbarians, etc., which will cause disasters in the south of the Yangtze River.

This made the gentry and landlord class less interested, and had no interest in paying high costs to develop wasteland.

Opening up wasteland requires huge and high costs, including labor costs, material costs, food costs, and time costs.

It is not possible to grow food on a piece of wasteland by simply digging the soil, and the food that has just been planted cannot be harvested the next day.

During the one-year or even two-year or even three-year land reclamation period, it is necessary to provide farmers with rations, farm tools and certain cattle to maintain their livelihoods. Such high costs are not at all willing to be borne by the big landowners.

Serving a piece of land is really hard.

They just want to occupy well-developed land with complete drainage and irrigation functions that can be cultivated immediately.

The wasteland is not in their sights.

Of course, if someone worked hard to reclaim the wasteland, they certainly wouldn't mind taking that former wasteland over.

Only the state is willing to pay high costs to reclaim wasteland, and only the state has the financial and organizational power to arrange a large number of farmers to reclaim wasteland and develop a large amount of land to increase the country's land.

This kind of thing exists and only Guo can do it.

After Guo Peng unprecedentedly strengthened the power of the Wei Empire, he carried out a large-scale conquest of the south of the Yangtze River, and concentrated the power of farmers to reclaim the wasteland in the south of the Yangtze River on a large scale, and vigorously developed the agriculture in the south of the Yangtze River.

The special investment funds are calculated in the hundreds of millions, and it seems that it is not yet known when the cost will be recovered.

Some officials think that Guo's spending so much money on the development of Jiangnan is a brain problem, and it's a great achievement.

And Guo's behavior gave more courtiers the impression that Guo Peng decided to develop Jiangnan and shift the focus of policy to Jiangnan. Jiangnan will develop very well in the future.

Moreover, the Wei Empire now has more than 10 troops in the south of the Yangtze River. In addition to the self-sufficient part of the food and fodder of these [-] people, many of them are transported from Jiangbei, which also requires a lot of manpower and material resources.

Digging a Grand Canal seems to really save a lot of things.

From their personal point of view, it's okay, it's obviously beneficial.

The Grand Canal from Luoyang to Jiangnan can help their business travel team enter the Jiangnan emerging market faster and better to seize market share.

The transport capacity of water transport is more than ten times that of land transport and the time that can be reduced can help their caravans go farther, come back sooner, and earn more money.

In this way, you don't have to worry about traveling long distances to Jiangnan.

Caravans can start directly from Luoyang, take the road of the Grand Canal and go directly south to Yangzhou, and then go west along the Yangtze River waterway to Jingzhou.

Although the population loss in Jiangnan is serious, there are still millions of people remaining. After Jingzhou and Yangzhou are rectified, the population will not be small. After several years of development, the accumulated wealth is quite considerable.

They would love to go there and make a lot of money.

There have been people going there for years.

It's just that it's inconvenient to go back and forth, the distance is long, and the profit is limited.

After all, the land transportation in the south of the Yangtze River is not as developed as that in the Central Plains.

However, such a well-developed transportation network in the Central Plains limits the growth of commodity prices on the one hand, and on the other hand, a large number of toll stations also compress their profit margins, increasing the cost they need to pay.

But if you go by water, you can avoid many toll stations.

Although I don't know if Guo Peng will set up toll stations on the canal to spread the development costs.

Despite so many doubts, from their own point of view, this possibility is still worth celebrating.

Cao Cao and Tian Feng have long stopped considering whether to dig the canal as the focus of the debate. Their focus now is whether the canal should cross the Yellow River and be built to Jizhou.

From Yangzhou to Luoyang, this route has been approved by them.

Making full use of natural rivers and artificial rivers excavated by predecessors, and maximizing the advantages in this area can greatly shorten the construction period and reduce costs.

Then as long as the water channels repaired in the Eastern Han Dynasty around the Yellow River are connected from the upper reaches of the Yingshui River, the north-south connection can be realized.

Once the north-south connection is realized, it will be a remarkable achievement, and the central government's control and influence over the south of the Yangtze River will be greatly enhanced.

From now on, if Jiangnan wants to fight against the central government, it will not be so easy.

The central army can quickly go south along the canal without having to travel long distances, and the marching time will be shortened. Once there is a change in the south of the Yangtze River, the central army can reach the south of the Yangtze River at a very fast speed.

This is an extremely strong deterrent to any centrifugal force.

The development of the country's commerce will also benefit soon. The Jiangnan market will not be separated from the Central Plains market, but will be further integrated, making Wei's business more prosperous.

On the basis of this consensus, Tian Feng proposed the idea of ​​whether the canal could be built to Jizhou.

Tian Feng believes that this will further connect the north-south traffic, linking Hebei, the Central Plains and the south of the Yangtze River into a line, creating an unprecedented traffic lifeline, truly connecting the north and the south, and turning the natural moat into a thoroughfare.

Tian Feng is from Jizhou.

Cao Cao was from Yanzhou.

One is in Henan and the other is in Hebei.

The headquarters of the Tian Feng family is in Jizhou.

The base camp of the Cao Cao family is in Yanzhou.

Once the communication of the Grand Canal is completed, it will greatly strengthen the connection between Jiangnan and the Central Plains.

The commerce of Central Plains and Jiangnan will be further integrated, and Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Yanzhou and Sili will be connected together.

The major wealthy families in the Central Plains will further occupy the Jiangnan market, eat and eat, and make a fortune.

However, due to the increase in costs caused by transportation, if Hebei business travelers such as Jizhou and Youzhou want to go south to do business, they will have to pay more costs than Central Plains business travelers.

Although Jizhou and Youzhou also have the advantages of coastal shipping, but the sea is very windy and waves are strongly affected by natural conditions, requiring stronger and larger ships and more manpower and material resources, and seawater is far more corrosive than freshwater. The cost is much greater than that of the inland canal.

The Inland Canal has no associated threats.

This is bound to squeeze their profit margins.

If they want to maintain profits, they will reduce their competitiveness in the Henan and Jiangnan markets.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that the purpose of Guo Peng's communication between the north and the south is to further develop Jiangnan.

In the future, there will inevitably be a large number of Central Plains immigrants entering the Jiangnan area. The local market will expand and consumption power will also increase. If you occupy the market in advance, you will be able to enjoy that part of the policy dividend.

Cao Cao can see this part of the policy dividend, and naturally Tian Feng can also see it.

To unite forces that can be united against Cheng Yu and Cao Cao, Tian Feng needs to show his talents.

Cui Yan's endorsement alone is not enough, and Qiao Rui's joining alone is not enough. The real benefits must be seen by everyone.

As a native of Jizhou, one must seek welfare for the people of Jizhou first. Jizhou natives are natural supporters of Tian Feng, just as Yanzhou natives are natural supporters of Cao Cao and Cheng Yu.

Now the Grand Canal will inevitably pass through Yanzhou, and of course the people of Yanzhou strongly support Cao Cao and Cheng Yu.

At this critical juncture, Tian Feng must also show his ability, so as to stabilize the Jizhou base camp, and then stabilize Hebei, and then expand his power in Henan.

If the Grand Canal is to be connected to Jizhou, it must be not only for ourselves, but also for Jizhou.

With such thoughts in mind, Tian Feng submitted a form to Guo Peng, asking Guo Peng to think about the possibility of connecting the Grand Canal from Luoyang to Yecheng.

In the table, Tian Feng listed many benefits of doing so.

For example, in the future, Hebei will also be faced with the crisis of reduced grain production. If the canal can be connected to Jizhou, it will certainly greatly reduce the concern about transport capacity in this regard.

In the future, Jizhou will supply food to Bingzhou, Youzhou, and even Pingzhou, and there may be a shortage of food. At this time, with the Grand Canal, everything will be convenient.

Then it is said that when the army advances to Bingzhou Youzhou, it can also make full use of the canal.

In the future, Guo Peng still has plans for the Northern Expedition to Xianbei. If there is a Grand Canal, it will save time and effort. I don't know how many advantages we can gain. Isn't this a good thing?

Moreover, connecting Hebei, the Central Plains, and Jiangnan into a single line is an unprecedented major project and achievement.

In the future, when people talk about this matter, they will definitely praise Guo Peng's brilliance and prowess. His achievements in the present age will benefit him in the future. Isn't this what Guo Peng desires?

Guo Peng felt like laughing after reading Tian Feng's playlist.

The person who really accomplished this was not praised by later generations, but scolded bloody.

How long and how much money will it take to build such a Grand Canal, you Tian Yuanhao really don't know?

When did you Tian Yuanhao, who has always been known for your integrity, start to learn to look at problems selectively?

interesting.

Chapter 990 One Thousand So Someone Guo Feels That He Must Do Something

Yang Guang, who completed the Grand Canal project, has long been nailed to the pillar of shame.

And Mr. Guo didn't think he was wronged.

Yang Guang is always hot-headed when he does many things, and he always doesn't like to think about the consequences. This is one of the reasons why he has been scolded for thousands of years, and it is the direct cause of the demise of the Sui Dynasty.

The Tongji Canal, which connects the Huaihe River Basin to the Yellow River Basin, is such a long section. In order to pass heavy dragon boats, the channel has to be dug very wide and deep, and the amount of work is huge.

In the end, he only gave Yu Wenkai a five-month construction period...

With the engineering strength and technical means of the Sui Dynasty, the construction started in March and was completed in August. Then Yang Guang happily took his concubines to Yangzhou south.

And the price to pay for it?

Of the 200 million labor force, it is said that more than four-tenths, or nearly half, died.

When Yang Guang went south, carts carrying the corpses of young men who died of exhaustion and starvation for the construction of the Grand Canal were passing everywhere.

Xiao Che transported his body back to their hometown to be given to the grieving family for burial.

It's no wonder that Yang Guang planted trees and his descendants enjoyed the shade.

Someone in Guo didn't know whether the construction of the Tongji Canal resulted in the death of 100 million people, or whether there was artistic processing in it.

However, to complete such a large amount of work within a five-month construction period, the undead is a miracle in the world.