"Don't scare the kids!"
Xue Pan snatched her daughter back from Xiao Han's arms with dissatisfaction, took out a handkerchief, wiped her little face, and kissed her after that, then she raised her head and continued to talk to Xiao Han: "Both the governor of Yangzhou and Bie Jia are here." When we get to the pier, don’t you go down and have a look?”
Xiao Han was slightly startled, but still shook his head: "Forget it, if we go down, we don't know how long we will be delayed. Time is running out, so let's set off quickly!"
"Huh? Why are you so anxious all of a sudden?" Xue Pan looked at Xiao Han and asked worriedly: "Did something big happen?"
"No, what could happen? It's just that Chang'an is urging food more urgently." Xiao Han answered naturally, as if it was really just Chang'an that was urging food.
Men, even if the sky falls, they will choose to carry it silently. What does it mean to let women worry about them?
Next, after greeting Butler Lu and the master one by one, Xiao Han quickly came to the side of the ship and waved to Cui Jingzhi and Yang Wanli who were waiting on the dock.
The two people stood on the pier, waving their hands vigorously, and seemed to be shouting something in this direction.
But because the distance was too far, the sound reached the ship and was so weak that it was undetectable. Only a few sporadic words of "take care" and "goodbye" could be heard vaguely in the wind.
Parting is always sad.
The longer Xiao Han lived in the Tang Dynasty, the deeper his understanding became.
Just when he was gathering his emotions and was about to squeeze out a few tears to say goodbye, the idiot next to him suddenly let out a soft sigh, put down his binoculars, pointed at another group of people on the pier and said, "Huh? Why is that guy from Li Yifu here? Yes? It seems, how many students are there in the academy?"
"Hmm? Where?!"
Hearing this, Xiao Han, who was busy squeezing away tears just now, suddenly opened his eyes, grabbed the telescope from the idiot's hand and looked towards the shore!
Sure enough, among the crowd on the shore, he saw Li Yifu, Mr. Song, Xiao Shisan, Wang Chongan, and Yin Can standing behind them, gently waving a folding fan.
Perhaps seeing Xiao Han looking over, several people bowed in unison and gave a salute.
Xiao Han also saw the little Li Yifu wiping tears while saluting. Even Yin Can, who was standing behind them, put away his folding fan and cupped his hands towards him from a distance.
"It's such a cold day and you're still fanning, what a slut!"
Looking at the familiar figures, Xiao Han murmured in a low voice, threw the binoculars at the fool, and turned away without looking back.
"Hey? Why are you crying, Master Hou?"
He hurriedly took the telescope, looked at Xiao Han's back strangely and murmured...
——————
The fleet soon left Yangzhou and continued northward.
During the next journey, the grain ships behind gradually followed up, so the entire team had three to four hundred ships! Looking from the middle, the real thing is that you can’t see the beginning and you can’t see the end behind!
Such a fleet traveling on the canal is naturally very eye-catching. Everywhere it goes, it will be watched by local people.
Seeing this situation, Ma Laoliu, after discussing with Xiao Han, decided that except for necessary supplementary supplies, the fleet would not dock again, but would sail day and night to Chang'an.
During this process, it was not all smooth sailing for the fleet. Changes in water conditions in some rivers or the emergence of ice floes also caused a lot of trouble for the fleet.
Fortunately, Fu Chuan, who was responsible for opening the road in front, came up with a way: every once in a while, or whenever the water conditions changed, they would throw a wooden board with engraved characters into the water and let it float down the water.
In this way, after the sand boat filled with grain behind picks up the wooden planks, it can quickly learn the water conditions in front and make changes accordingly.
After nearly ten days of non-stop sailing, the fleet has crossed the Huai River and entered the Tongji Canal.
The Huai River is the symbol that divides the north and the south. Once you enter the north, the water conditions become complicated instantly.
Many times, the fleet does not dare to move at all at night. They can only wait until the water conditions are clear during the day before they dare to move forward cautiously.
At first, when Xiao Han was crossing this section of waterway, he had wondered, since it is an artificial river, shouldn't it be built straight to save effort and safety?
This question was only revealed to him after the ship boss explained it later: When digging this section of canal, the Sui Dynasty used natural waterways and local canals that had been dug before to save money.
At that time, they only dug, widened and dredged these original river channels to form the current Grand Canal, so twists and turns are normal.
However, this approach saved money at the time, but for the subsequent fleet, it was a huge waste of money!
Because the rivers in many places are very winding, the water flow inexplicably accelerates, and the loaded ships are too heavy to pass against the current by wind alone.
So whenever you encounter such a place, you must use trackers!
It would be easy to say that there is only one such place.
The key is that there are countless places like this in the 800-mile waterway of Tongji Canal, so the money given to the trackers alone is a major expense for the fleet!
According to Ma Laoliu, I heard that in the past, 30% of the freight cost for a shipment was lost in it.
However, Ma Laoliu's troubles were not considered troubles when it came to Xiao Han.
The officials along the way had already received the news in advance and knew that this was the fleet belonging to the Marquis of Sanyuan County, so they led the people early. Wait for those areas that need to be stretched.
As soon as they saw the ship coming, the people below started working directly without saying a word.
After the first stretch, Butler Lu wanted to get off the boat and pay, but when the officials saw the copper coins, they felt as if their hands had been burned, and they even dared not accept it until they died.
According to them, Xiao Han is a prince, and the grain transported this time is not private property. As a rule, no money can be collected!
As for the trackers, their work is not in vain, because this time the corvee has been recorded on the corvée list.
After Xiao Han received the reward from Butler Lu, he only thought about it briefly before accepting the money for sex.
He still knew the story of Zigong's redemption. If he broke the rules, it would probably be difficult for him to be an official ship later.
However, I can’t give money, and I didn’t say I couldn’t give rewards.
After Xiao Han affirmed the local officials' attitude of abiding by the rules, he waved his hand and rewarded each tracker with a hundred big sons.
It's not that he has money but no place to spend it. It's just that he can't bear to see the trackers with their bare feet and ragged clothes. A hundred rich men are enough to buy a set of clothes for each of them.
From then on, every time he went to a fiber-drawing place, one hundred coppers became a certain amount.
Ma Laoliu made a calculation secretly in his mind. After such a calculation, the reward alone would amount to thousands of dollars! It is estimated that only a wealthy owner like Xiao Han can afford the reward.
