King Zhongshun is in a good mood today, and everything in Jiangnan is going very smoothly. After the Yellow River captured the Huaihe River, the Lema Lake and Yi River basins have been plagued by disasters all year round. Now a new channel has been opened between Lema Lake and the Yi River to enter the sea, which can be regarded as reducing the impact of the water potential in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
The main canal of Hongze Lake into the sea is also being excavated. Only after these two new river canals are excavated, the frequent Huanghuai flood disasters may become a thing of the past.
At this time, King Zhongshun, who was patrolling by the Yi River, seemed to have great pride. The Huanghuai flood disaster had not been solved for several dynasties and generations. Now this problem would be solved in his hands. A deep smile couldn't help but appear on Vicissitudes' face, and he said to the river governor: "There is no need to delay the opening of the new river in the upper reaches of the Huanghuai River. When the two main canals into the sea are dredged, the excavation of the new river in the upper reaches will also be carried out urgently. "
The Governor of Hedao nodded and said: "I will definitely live up to the prince's expectations."
King Zhongshun hummed and said: "I have always seen your achievements in my eyes. The water transportation of this dynasty has reached a period of necessary reform. If the progress goes well, I will recommend you as the new governor of water transportation."
However, the Governor of the River Channel knew that the topic of water transport reform had been debated since the beginning of Emperor Xian De's ascension to power, and now there has been no progress in the past five or six years. He ignored his delusions and said with a shy smile: "Thank you for the promotion, Your Majesty. I'm just worried about the water conditions of the river and don't understand water transportation matters."
King Zhongshun chuckled and said: "There is no need to belittle yourself. All the officials in the court know your ability. You have controlled the water conditions this year, which is a great achievement. When the Supreme Emperor was in power, there were many water transport governors who were also in charge of rivers. They held two positions. , there are examples to follow.”
The governor of the river said: "I dare not take credit for my humble position. The contribution of the Huanghuai flood control should be greater to the Rong guards in the prince's house."
"What does he know?",
King Zhongshun snorted, but he couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth. Speaking of this kid, I can't help but think of the time that bastard made Jia Qiang and others kneel outside his house to accuse him. This guy doesn't have serious methods, but he only knows some crooked ways. He is relatively good, but his heart is not bad, and he has done some things for the court.
It's a pity that he was born in the Jia family.
Alas, the Jia family has a big tail. As long as the four princes and eight princes stay together for a day, the emperor's brother will not be able to sleep well in the palace for a day.
King Zhongshun asked the guard beside him: "Is there any news about that bastard recently?"
"At the end of last month, Guard Rong went to Jinling and met with Jia Qiang, the supervisor of the Ministry of Industry. He stayed at the cement kiln factory of Ningguo Mansion in Jinling for nearly a month. During this period, someone from Rongguo Mansion came to see him and went there with him. Jinling Zhen’s family is probably about the construction of the provincial residence.”
"Professor to the other hospital? Their family knows how to calculate." King Zhongshun smiled nonchalantly and looked at the waves rolling up on the bank of the river. Said: "This bastard didn't write a letter, saying how long it will take for his kiln to be completed. I am willing to let him go back to Shenjing, but if I don't calculate the natural resources for the Jiangnan river project, where can I let him go?" he."
The governor of the river said with a smile: "But the queen has sent a reminder again?"
"Who else could be there besides her?" King Zhongshun said helplessly, "She treats her godson as her own daughter, but Baogui is so distressed that she wants to instruct this king to return that bastard boy to Shenjing as soon as possible."
The Governor of the River Road was sent by Prince Zhongshun and was promoted by the Thirteenth Master. So he knew a lot of inside information, so he frowned and said, "Could it be that something has changed in the palace?"
King Zhongshun hummed slightly but did not give him an answer. I just looked at the river in a daze, not knowing what I was thinking, and felt a dull pain in my left leg and knee. Taking a deep breath, his face gradually became ugly.
Sighing: "It's getting colder."
When King Zhongshun returned to the royal palace on the west bank of Lema Lake, he saw a familiar figure outside the palace. He couldn't believe it. Wasn't this bastard from Jinling? Why did you come to Suqian?
At this time, Jia Rong was kneeling outside the hall, with a rotten wooden barrel and a dark package in front of him.
"When did he arrive?"
The guard replied: "Guard Rong arrived at the palace later in the afternoon, and as soon as he arrived, he was screaming for injustice. Although the brothers made it clear that I was going to patrol the river, Guard Rong insisted on kneeling here and waited for me to come back."
"What are you doing again?" King Zhongshun glanced at Jia Rong's back, his eyebrows filled with confusion. He gently twisted his left leg, passed by Jia Rong, and entered the hall.
What the hell?
Jia Rong, who was kneeling on the ground, only felt pain in his knees, and saw that the Thirteenth Master ignored him and went straight into the palace. He curled his lips, stood up quickly, and followed him into the temple. He shouted: "It's unjust, I'm wronged."
The Thirteenth Master, who was originally weak on his legs and feet, was so frightened by such a shout that he almost fell to the ground and turned around to glare fiercely. I was about to scold him, but I saw Brother Rong slouching, with a tired look on his face, and the corners of his mouth were dry as if he was seriously ill. King Zhongshun lost his mood and said in a low voice: "Why don't you just stay in Jinling and go to Suqian?"
Jia Rong held the barrel and package in her hands and shouted with aggrieved face: "I am wronged, I am wronged, and I feel bitter in my heart."
"This is a new thing. Is there anything else in the world that can make our Lord Rong feel aggrieved and miserable?"
King Zhongshun looked surprised, but there was a secret smile on his lips. It seemed that it was confirmed that Jia Rong was up to another conspiracy, just like the people from Ningguo Mansion had gone to Prince Zhongshun's Mansion to complain about Wu Er, but this time the bastard went into battle in person.
Why doesn't he believe it? Brother Rong was speechless. Who did he think he was? I'm not the kind of person to be mean. We are good people, very good people. Brother Rong shrugged his nose, keeping an aggrieved look on his face, and squatted down to untie the contents of the package.
"Master Thirteen has to make the decision for me."
"Huh?" King Zhongshun saw his actions and saw that the package was filled with cement dust, and he was puzzled. Asked: "Why did you bring this stuff?"
Brother Rong presented a book and shouted: "Thirteenth Master, our Jia family is wronged."
King Zhongshun opened the book in confusion and saw many words densely written on it:
"Your Majesty, I live in a humble position near the city of Jinling. I have a kiln factory with houses and fields, and my life is endless. Who would have thought that Tang Fufang was ruthless and ruthless, greedy for millions of taels of water transportation, and his officials followed suit. He destroyed my natural treasure. He took away my money and asked the Jia family to show their filial piety. The Jia family's children fell out with him, but were burned into smoke by a fire. My craftsman scolded him for bullying the good people, and he set fire to the canal. Hundreds of merchant ships were burned to the ground. Ah, it was all burned up. The poor heavenly things weighed one hundred thousand kilograms, and they all sank to the bottom of the river and the source of the water."
Master Thirteen's brows jumped when he saw it, and he was almost so angry that he wanted to rush over and kick him. It was only after seeing the content behind that he raised his eyebrows again. He snorted and asked: "What's going on? How did the Governor of Water Transport offend you, and you actually want to taint him like this, and even fight against him?"
Isn’t it all written above?
Brother Rong curled his lips and said aggrievedly: "The Jia family is wronged, and so is the prince."
King Zhongshun looked at him coldly, with a disbelieving smile on his lips.
Jia Rong cried out sadly: "That bastard Tang Fufang, he instigated the water transport officials to ask for high benefits from the cargo ships transporting heavenly goods. Our people from the Jiajia Kiln Factory gave it to them, but they didn't give up. Not only did they lose money along the way, Twenty percent of the natural objects were destroyed, and finally in Taoyuan County, all the natural objects and the ships were burned with a fire, completely burned."
"Is this really happening?"
"It is indeed true." Jia Rong said aggrievedly, "Does the Thirteenth Master still not trust the boy? The boy is a guard of your palace, a personal bodyguard. What kind of person the boy is, the Thirteenth Master knows it well, if not Really, why did the boy come all the way from Jinling to ask Master Thirteen for his decision?"
"Could it be that you burned the things yourself and then framed it on the Governor of Water Transport?" King Zhongshun looked strange and thought to himself: Of course I know what kind of person you are. Is there anyone in the world who knows you better than me?
Brother Rong was shocked, but there was no strange expression on his face.
Fortunately, people from the Holy Religion were asked to do it in the first place. Although the burning was an accident, the people who were looking for trouble were serious water transport officials. Although the official had the identity of another Holy Cultist, the blame must be placed on the Ministry of Water Transport and the Governor of Water Transport.
He said with a bitter face: "Master Thirteen knew that I was a money-lover, so how could I burn my own things so cruelly? I only found out later that there were many people present at the time, and many people had seen what happened. "
"Why would the officials of the Water Transport Ministry cause trouble for your Ningguo Mansion for no reason? No one in the world knows that the natural resources of your Ningguo Mansion are needed for the river project."
"Yeah, the kid is confused too. For no reason." Jia Rong whimpered, and he actually squeezed out two tears. Crying and saying: "Poor people in Jiangnan, I thought they would be able to avoid the Huanghuai flood disaster in the future, but I didn't expect that Shangguan Duan Yu was still waiting in Hongze Lake for the cement from Ningguo Mansion to pass. In the end, they were all burned. Shen We’ve arrived at the canal. This time, we have to wait until a month later.”
King Zhongshun heard this and was finally moved. He doesn't care whether things are true or not, the most important thing is the lack of cement supply. He frowned tightly and stared at Jia Rong. Question: "How much was destroyed?"
Jia Rong cried: "There are 50,000 kilograms of cement, and there are more than 80 cargo ships. Now even if the Jia family produces cement outside, they will not be able to find so many cargo ships to transport it."
"When did it happen?"
"Three nights ago, I don't know exactly what happened. I only heard from the person who transported the goods this time. It turned out that the water transport officials had made up their mind that the Ningguo government secretly transported smuggled salt from Ping'an Prefecture to Xia Yangzhou for sale. So buckets of cement were moved out of the ship, and then the buckets were dumped on the dock to check whether there was any illegal salt on the ground."
Jia Rong paused and continued sadly.
"We in the Jia family naturally know that there is none, but we dare not stop it. Just because those people say that there is nothing in one bucket, does not mean that there is nothing in ten buckets, and that there is nothing in ten buckets does not mean that there is nothing in a hundred buckets. They want to put everything together All natural belongings must be dumped at the dock for inspection, otherwise they will not be released.”
Anyway, the few water transport officials who caused the accident have returned to Ping'an Prefecture. It can be said that they are dead without any evidence. Jia Rong can say whatever he wants. Furthermore, there is still a lot of cement dust scattered on the Taoyuan County pier. After the cement dust meets the water, it will remain on the dock forever. It is absolutely impossible to completely remove it in a short time.
Brother Rong snickered secretly, and there were so many melon-eaters here that it would be difficult for the Ministry of Water Transport to deny it.
King Zhongshun gave Jia Rong a confused look. Is it possible that this king really guessed wrong, and this bastard suffered the real loss this time? Then he asked: "Since the Ministry of Water Transport is conducting an inspection, you Jia family members just need to cooperate. How come they are burning ships and goods again?"
"Replying to the prince, our Ningguo Mansion is cooperating. But the water transportation officials don't know what order they received to smash all the natural objects out." Brother Rong picked up the rotten wooden barrel in his hand and handed it over. Take out the water transport official uniform and water transport token from the bucket. He said: "This was smashed by the water transport officials. The boy also asked for their tokens from the officials who smashed the objects in the sky, in case it was an outsider pretending to be a water transport official."
When King Zhongshun saw these things, he took a deep look at Brother Rong. He said, "Okay, I understand."
"Ah? It's gone now?"
"What do you want?" King Zhongshun snorted and said, "Now is the critical time to transport grain. Millions of officials and people in Shenjing are still waiting for grain to celebrate the New Year. Do you think I can arrest the governor of grain transportation and come here to hold him accountable?"
Wherever there are millions of officials and people, there is nothing about the people. These grains are sent to the officials in the court and the soldiers of the various camps in the capital.
Seeing that he was unwilling, King Zhongshun said calmly: "You also know that there is an urgent shortage of cement in the south of the Yangtze River. Now that the cement has sunk into the river, you should urge your Ningguo Mansion to complete the kiln in Jinling as soon as possible."
""Brother Rong did not forget his inner plan, and said aggrievedly: "Thirteenth Master Mingjian, I really feel aggrieved when I come here. Secondly, it is also for the Jiangnan River Project."
"oh?"
"For the river project in the south of the Yangtze River, our Ningguo Mansion's loss of two thousand taels of silver is really nothing. It's just that the water transportation guards, officials and officials act like this, and the cement from Ningguo Mansion really cannot be delivered to Hongze Lake." Brother Rong It felt like a few fake tears had stuck to my eyelashes, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.
He rubbed it gently, trying to spread his eyelashes, his expression twisted. He added: "The delivery of cement has been delayed for a long time, and it will still be late if we try to deliver it in the future. Even if my Jia family pays the Ministry of Water Transport a few hundred taels of benefits every month as usual, we may not be able to guarantee that the cement will be delivered smoothly every month." ah."
"What's the benefit fee?"
Brother Rong curled his lips and said aggrievedly: "The Thirteenth Master doesn't know that the canal crossing fee is very high nowadays. There are not only shipping fees, lock crossing fees, boat crossing fees, canal maintenance fees, Caoding age fees, and shipping and birth fees. , patrol car and horse fees, and so on, there are no less than ten kinds of things. One delivery for each guard, and coming from Huai'an, Ping'an Prefecture Road, there are five or sixty taels of benefits at a time. This is just for our Jia family, no wonder they say that water transport officials are the most profitable."
"Nonsense."
King Zhongshun cursed.
Today's good mood was completely ruined, and my fists were clenched. The Thirteenth Master is different from other officials. He is responsible for many projects. It can be seen that the actual expenses of workers and farmers are only more than ten taels of silver per year. In the past, the official salary of the sixth and seventh grades was only a few dozen taels a year.
Unexpectedly, the fee paid by Ningguo Mansion for delivering cement was higher than the official's salary.
