In the early morning fog, Xu He took Gu Hengbo and Wu Decao by boat to go north.
On the wide surface of the Grand Canal, due to the fog, only the shadowy boats on both sides can be seen.
The accompanying county government team No. 3 is currently eating dry food in the back cabin.
Xu He and Gu Hengbo, who were dressed in men's clothing, stood on the bow of the boat and looked at the calm Grand Canal. They couldn't help but sigh: "Even after the death of the Sui Dynasty, this river has never been connected to the waves for thousands of miles! If there was no water palace dragon boat incident, we would have shared Yu's life together. In terms of merit, it’s not much!”
Gu Hengbo laughed and said: "My brother is a man after all, but he is so emotional when he thinks about it!"
Xu He asked curiously: "Then what sentence is in Sister Gu's mind at this moment?"
I saw Gu Hengbo standing on the bow of the boat surrounded by breeze, looking into the distance and slowly saying: "White dew crosses the river, and the water light reaches the sky. Even if a reed is like this, the vast expanse is blank. It is as vast as Feng Xu flying in the wind, And I don’t know where it’s going; it’s as if it’s left alone in the world, emerging as an immortal and ascending to immortality.”
Xu He smiled: "It turns out to be Dongpo's "Red Cliff Ode". Well, although this article describes autumn scenery, it is appropriate to apply it to today's canal. However, there is another sentence at the end of this article: "Gui Xi Lan Paddle" , Strike at the clear sky and trace the flowing light. I feel the vagueness in my heart, and I look at the beauty in the sky]. Isn’t it the Dongpo layman who didn’t appreciate the talent, and the words have a certain meaning? This is not an article that little girls like to read! "
Gu Hengbo gave him a charming look and said, "Scholar Su's writing is eloquent, clear and fluent, and his words are astonishing when he reads it. What's wrong? My brother thinks that women can't like this kind of writing?"
Xu He was probably not idle when trying to reason with women, so he quickly pretended to be remorseful, cupped his hands and said, "Brother Gu is right, I am narrow-minded!"
As expected, Sister Gu pursed her lips and laughed happily.
However, the two of them soon stopped laughing.
The morning mist dissipated, the scorching sun hung high, and there was no room for people to stand outside the cabin, so the two had to go to the cabin to rest.
Fortunately, the Li-style official ship sent by Chen Hua this time had front and rear cabins, so the two of them did not have to squeeze together with the third class of government officials.
But the stuffy heat in the cabin, coupled with the fact that the government officials in the back cabin were shouting and drinking and playing around with money, really made the two of them irritated.
Because it was under the banner of Hailing County Government, the journey went smoothly.
After passing Baoying, there were more and more water boats on the river, and there was even congestion.
Among them, a ship carrying grain leaked and slowly sank into the river.
The troops and workers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait turned a blind eye to this, and some even pointed at the sinking grain ships and smiled happily.
When Gu Hengbo saw it, he quickly said to Wu Decao, who came to watch the excitement: "Brother Yaochen, hurry up and ask them to save food! With such good food, we can save as much as we can!"
Before Wu Decao opened his mouth, the boatman from the official boat over there said to several people: "Don't make any noise, so as not to get into trouble."
Gu Hengbo frowned when he heard this: "What kind of trouble can this cause? It's just to save some food."
The boatman looked at the canal that sank to the side of the ship not far away, and sighed: "The canal transporting grain can have countless accidents in a day, and how can we manage it!"
"In those days, nanmu was mostly used when building canal boats. This type of boat is strong and durable. However, in recent years, the boats ordered by the Songjiang Shipyard to be built by the imperial court have all been made of pine wood. Pine wood boats are prone to cracking and are at risk of capsizing within five years!"
Seeing that the boatman was quite knowledgeable, Xu He asked curiously: "Why not continue to use nanmu?"
The boatman said: "There are many reasons. First, there used to be a lot of nanmu in the deep mountains of Huguang, so it was relatively easy to get it. But now that Huguang is no longer available, the big wood for shipbuilding can only go to Yunnan and Guizhou. The cost is too high!"
"Also, the shipyards in Songjiang are all properties of Shenge's hometown. I heard that the imperial court allocated money for Nanmu shipbuilding, and they built the pinewood ones! The profit there is, tsk tsk!"
Xu He heard the boatman talking about the Shen family and thought about how this kind of behavior was incompatible with the gentle and elegant Shen Zongqi in his mind.
"There's more!" said the boatman: "The Caoyun Yamen and the 12th Battalion of the Cao Army are not good things. They resell the grain and then tamper with the boat during the transportation. The boat sails in the river and removes the plug on the bottom plate. , the water came in immediately!”
When Xu He heard this and looked at the group of people pointing at the sunken ship and laughing, he suddenly understood.
It turns out that it's not that these people are cold-blooded and watch the fire from afar, but that they all know that if they stand out, someone's financial path will be blocked. Simply, everyone has agreed that no one should meddle in other people's business.
In this way, the canal workers, canal transport yamen, canal camps, and everyone who relies on the Grand Canal for a living seem to have benefited.
But whose flesh and blood did these benefits come from?
It's the court, it's the country.
Xu He suddenly had a feeling that the country was sick and his illness was difficult to recover from. No one person could turn things around. What he needed was a revolution of blood and fire, a revolution that would warn the world with rolling heads.
At this time, he and Gu Hengbo had long lost the leisurely and contented mood they had in the early morning, and their eyes were full of anxiety and compassion.
Where is the food that sank?
That is the hope of an old farmer in any prefecture or county who faces the loess and his back to the sky!
Early the next morning, when Xu He got up and washed up, he found that the Hongze Inspection Department was not far away and they had entered Qinghe County, Huai'an Prefecture.
Ganluo City, not far from here, has Huai'an in the south, and merges with the Yellow River in the northeast. It is called Qingkou, because from Xuzhou to here, it is the old route of Surabaya, which was taken over by the Yellow River. To the south is Hongze Lake. This flood It was caused by the dam failure of Hongze Lake, a hanging lake.
Therefore, both sides of the canal were in a mess at this time. House rafters were floating on the river, and the corpses of people and animals were swollen and horrifying in the grass beside the river. No one has taken care of them yet.
When Sister Gu got up and saw this scene, she was so frightened that she quickly retreated into the cabin.
Xu He's face was as serious as iron, and he gritted his teeth and said: "The two sides of the bank are obviously full of Cao troops, why don't they help with disaster relief?"
The boatman from yesterday sighed and said, "Young master, you don't know. The Cao Army is controlled by the Cao Governor and will not care about trivial local affairs."
Xu He said angrily: "Is this a trivial matter? These were originally living people. They were all raised by their parents. Now their corpses are floating on the river. It's like this. If they were themselves, others would look on with such cold eyes. ?”
The boatman was silent and stopped talking.
At this time, Wu Decao on the side pulled Xu He's sleeve and motioned for him to speak aside.
After entering the cabin, Wu Decao looked outside the cabin and whispered: "Liangsheng, I think you should say less, right?"
Xu He frowned and said, "What's wrong?"
"Don't you think that boatman is a bit..."
Xu He was suddenly startled when he heard this. He really didn't notice anything unusual about the boatman just now.
He originally thought that the reason why the boatman spoke so insightfully was because of the knowledge he had accumulated from traveling on boats for many years.
But now that I think about it carefully, the insights in the other party's words are not what an illiterate boatman should have.
When he thought of this, he nodded to Wu Decao, then sat in the cabin and waited quietly for disembarkation, and stopped talking!
