Lord of the House

At night, the lights are dim, the north wind is blowing, and the trees in the courtyard of the Chongcheng Posthouse are whistling.

Zhang Yan sat frowning under the lamp, and the draft of Huaidong Han's seawall construction plan was spread out in front of him.

The servant in Tsing Yi who was waiting next to him kept his eyes open and did not dare to doze off. I don't know what happened to the adults. I took this stack of thirty or fifty pages of paper. When I came back in the afternoon, I sat in front of the window without moving my feet. I read it over and over again, wishing I could dig out every word and eat it.

"Go ahead and see if Liu Tingzhou is sleeping?" Zhang Yan instructed the tsing-clothed servant who was sideways.

The young servant in Tsing Yi thought to himself: Dawn is almost breaking, how could he not fall asleep? Not daring to reply, he responded and walked out quickly.

In order to repair and defend the seawall, Lin Fu sent the inspectors of the Sheyang and Dafeng salt farms to Chongzhou to discuss the matter. Not wearing a forest tie may be a hidden trick, so he did not hesitate to surrender his identity and personally went to Chongzhou to participate in the discussion.

This is Zhang Yan's third day in Chongzhou, and it was only this afternoon that he received a relatively complete draft of the seawall construction plan, which indeed made him see a lot of tricks in it.

The construction of the seawall in Huaidong involves Huainan Salt Area, Hailing House, and Huai'an House.

Zhang Yan came, and Liu Tingzhou came; Liu Shidu was in Chongzhou before, and he went to Jianling and Gaocheng after a field trip, and also came to Chongzhou.

Zhang Yan did not trust Liu Shidu, but he wanted to communicate with Liu Tingzhou privately before tomorrow's decision, so as not to be isolated and unsupported during the meeting tomorrow.

The boy in Tsing Yi turned his head and walked back, reporting: "There is a light in the front yard. I only found out after asking, that Master Liu just sent someone to deliver supper, so he probably didn't fall asleep..."

Hearing what the servant said, Zhang Yan also felt hungry.

Although Zhang Yan is the salt and iron envoy of the fourth rank, but he and Liu Tingzhou are not under each other, and it is inconvenient to call Liu Tingzhou to see him.

Afraid that Liu Tingzhou would fall asleep and could not take care of his hunger, Zhang Yan picked up the herbs and walked to the front yard to meet Liu Tingzhou.

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"Master Liu, what do you think of the herbs for defending the sea pond?" Zhang Yan couldn't wait to ask Liu Tingzhou's opinion before he could wait for his servants to make tea.

"It's perfect, and the envoy must have been prepared long ago." Liu Tingzhou said.

Liu Tingzhou wrote that the court wanted to use salt and silver to repair the seawall in Yandu, but Zhang Yan knew about it. Of course, this kind of thing does not require Zhang Yan to come forward, and it is impossible for Liu Tingzhou's book to enter the palace and present it to the emperor.

It is not difficult for Zhang Yan to guess Liu Tingzhou's attitude towards repairing and defending the seawall. However, in the later period of the Huaisi War, Liu Tingzhou and Lin Fu had a very stiff fight. In this matter, he could only win Liu Tingzhou's support first.

"From Hecheng north to Punan of Qingjiang River, two hundred miles away, only four river gates will be built. Only four river channels in the three counties can pass through the embankment and connect to the sea. If there is a flood in Huaidong, how can the four river gates be able to drain the flood?" Zhang Yan said.

"Waterlogging and tidal intrusion are all harms to East Huaidong. However, tides occupy nine points, and flooding only accounts for one point. Even if a river gate is not repaired and a sea wall is built, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages." Liu Tingzhou originally said A native of Baoying County, and a long-term official in Huai'an, he knew the situation in Huaidong well.

It is not a simple matter to repair the river gate in the world. A double-string or three-string river gate with a width of more than ten feet, piling and burying bricks, laying stones and melting iron, must be built extremely strong to resist the impact of the tide.

The river sluice is set up with movable gates, and beams and bridges are built on it to connect with the causeway, and the cost is even more than a fortified city.

From Hecheng north to Punan of Qingjiang River, to defend the middle and northern sections of the seawall, the budget for the 200-mile dry embankment is 700,000 taels, and the budget for the four sea-going river gates alone is 300,000 taels.

Every time a river gate is added to the sea, an extra 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver will be paid, and no one can bear this pressure on anyone's shoulders.

In Liu Tingzhou's previous plan for building a seawall in the east of Yandu County, he did not even plan to build a river gate. In the face of huge costs, he was forced to make a trade-off between waterlogging and marine invasion.

"Jiangmen and Hecheng have actually fallen into Lin Fu's pocket, and the seawall will be repaired from Jiangmen and Hecheng to the north, across the east of Huaidong," Zhang Yan said. "Master Liu is not afraid that Lin Fu has other plans?"

Liu Tingzhou sighed slightly and said, "It takes two years to complete the training, I don't think it is possible to compete in three or five years. In three or five years, Chongzhou has been investing a lot of money here, even if he has a plan, it is far away from three or five years. Years later...three or five years later, inland waterway transportation should also resume."

Most of the grains in the world have to pass through Huai'an. The prefect of Huai'an has the responsibility of supervising the water transport. Liu Tingzhou is also quite familiar with the water transport affairs. It is not difficult to guess that Lin Fu actually raised money and grain from the Yanyin Guarantee and Jinhai Grain Road to repair Hanhai. embankment.

Calculated by the volume of grain transport, Chongzhou obtains silver from the salt and silver to protect the grain, and it is only four or five million taels of silver every year.

Now that Lin Fu has put all the money into repairing the seawall, this will also stop him. Are you forcing Lin Fu to use the money to gather troops? The lesser of two evils should be weighed, such a simple truth, how could Liu Tingzhou not understand?

Liu Tingzhou knew why Zhang Yan objected.

Lin Fu wanted to repair and defend the seawall, and he first proposed to protect the three counties of Yandu, Jianling and Gaocheng from the tide. However, when the real plan came out, the entire seawall had to be built within the Huainan salt area. Zhang Yan was afraid that Lin Fu would take this opportunity to disguise the Huainan salt area into the defense area of ​​the Huaidong System and Envoy.

Zhang Yan had already suffered a lot on the Hecheng pasture, so it's no wonder he was wary at this time.

Liu Tingzhou secretly said: Defending the seawall is built in the three counties of Yandu, Jianling, and Gaocheng. Are you still worried about the infiltration of Lin Fu's forces into these three counties? It is impossible to repair seawalls into the sea.

The three counties of Yandu, Jianling, and Gaocheng each have their own land. In these three counties, defending the seawall and repairing it takes time and labor to acquire land and land, but there is no such trouble in the Yan area.

More importantly, the construction of seawalls must have the dual function of protecting fields and salt.

Every time the tide is invading, it is the Yanto who lives by the sea who suffer the most. There was nowhere to escape, and there was no time to escape. Often the houses were floating in the sea, and there were countless drowned bodies.

The seawall is passed through the salt area, the salt is boiled outside the embankment, and the salt households live in the embankment.

The plan also mentioned that a large number of high tide piers should be built outside the embankment. When salt households encounter sea invasion while cooking salt outside the embankment, they can also take temporary refuge on the nearby high pier.

God knows how much the 100,000 salt people yearn to build such a sea-protecting levee in the salt area!

Besides, Lin Fu draws silver from "salt and silver to protect food", which makes perfect sense.

Zhang Yan was worried that Lin Fu would reach out to the Huainan Salt Area, and disguised the Huainan Salt Area into the defense area of ​​the Huaidong Envoy Area. This is entirely possible.

In the construction plan, the southern section of the embankment between Hecheng and Jiangmen will be built first, but in the east of Yandu, Jianling and Gaocheng, seven post forts will be built every 30 miles.

One is to prepare for the construction of the embankment in the Ming Dynasty, and the other is that the built fort will be embedded with the embankment in the future.

The entire seawall is built, and it is also a large post road running through the eastern part of Huaidong. The post castles separated by 30 miles can naturally be used as post stations. Among them, four of the post stations coincide with the Chuhai River Gate, which actually controls the four main rivers entering the salt area.

The whole plan is quite ingenious. The seven post forts are under the control of the Huainan Army, and the Haidi Avenue runs through the Huainan salt area. It is not difficult to imagine the control and penetration of the Huainan salt area when the embankment is completed. .

Of course, Lin Fu promised to hand over the levee and the fort to the Salt and Iron Division after completion, but Zhang Yan couldn't believe Lin Fu's character.

The role of defending the seawall in protecting salt is very obvious and important. Zhang Yan wanted to oppose it but couldn't find an excuse, so he wanted to come and see what Liu Tingzhou said. As long as Liu Tingzhou supports him, Zhang Yan gritted his teeth and insisted on moving the Hanhai Dike 20 miles westward to prevent Lin Fu from taking this opportunity to spread his hands all over the Huaidong Salt Area; but Liu Tingzhou pretended to be confused at this time.

The restoration of inland waterway transportation in three or five years will naturally cut off Chongzhou's biggest financial source. And Chongzhou had invested money in Xiuhanhai Embankment before, so Lin Fu didn't have many choices other than being a loyal minister of the Dayue Dynasty.

What if three to five years later, the inland waterway transportation cannot be restored? At that time, Feng Hou and Feng Guogong could satisfy the ambition of the already well-fed Lin Bie?

In Liu Tingzhou's view, it is better to build the Hanhai Wall on the boundary between the three counties and the Yan District than to build the Hanhai Wall entirely in the Salt District?

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Failing to win Liu Tingzhou's support, Liu Shidu also expressed his supportive attitude early, and Zhang Yan also knew that he was alone. Even Yue Lengqiu also hoped that Chongzhou's money would be spent on repairing the Hanhai Embankment. He was the only one who opposed it, and if he went to Beijing, he would have a disagreement with Zhang Xie and Hao Zongcheng, while Li Zhuo had always been against Huaidong Army. attitude of support.

Zhang Yan can only hope that the construction of the seawall can be delayed for three to five years, and he can only hope that the river transport can be restored in three or five years. The seawall runs through the Huainan salt area, and this is a secret drag.

In this way, by the end of November, the construction plan for defending the seawall has been generally settled.

The southern section of defending the seawall entered the implementation stage first, and the conditions were the most mature.

The envoy of Huaidong has set up inspection divisions and built fortresses in Hecheng and Jiangmen long ago. UUkanshu www.uukanshu.com also built a road between Jiangmen and Hecheng, in order to prevent the luxury family from sending troops from the sea to harass Chongzhou. , Three strong beacon and sentry forts were built between Jiangmen and Hecheng. When Lin Fu decided to build the Hanhai Embankment, Hecheng and Jiangmen first built a large number of temporary military camps.

Chongzhou has the Yangtze River in the south and Yunyan River in the north. The terrain is slightly higher than the Hudang Plain in the north. There is no river gate between Jiangmen and Hecheng. At this time, as long as people are pulled up, the embankment can be built in four sections immediately.

In the northern and middle sections, seven post castles must be built every 30 miles, followed by the Haihe River sluice, and finally the embankment will be built in sections to connect the post castle and the river gate.

By the end of November, the refugee army Ding Zhuang and his family had moved from Huaisi to Chongzhou, except for a small number of them resettled in Shanyang, mainly along Hecheng and Jiangmen.

Of course, the initial investment is also huge.

The labor camp has 60,000 soldiers, and the monthly grain payment is 30,000 shi of rice and 20,000 taels of silver. This is not difficult to bear, after all, it is invested monthly.

Besides, so many people are the basic soldiers of the Huaidong Army, and they must be raised in strict accordance with the formation of the battalion.

If the Huaidong Army had not built iron smelting and various artisan workshops in Chongzhou, only tens of thousands of iron tools could have been purchased immediately without money.

Whether the embankment can improve the efficiency, the input of a large number of iron tools is essential.

When Lin Fu first came to Chongzhou, he used wooden shovels and shovels to dig holes in the village. Every time the county is conscripted to work, how can the efficiency be high?

Of course, in addition to a large number of iron tools, a large number of mules, horses and vehicles must be invested; in this way, the construction period can be guaranteed to be completed within two years as much as possible. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter