At night, Jiang Xinghuo sat alone in front of the lamp, holding a book and reading quietly.
This book is "Hydrological Records of Taihu Lake", which is an ancient book he found. He has made a thorough study of the hydrological conditions of Taihu Lake in past dynasties.
He looked through the ancient scrolls, stopping from time to time to record a few entries. Suddenly, there was a strange movement outside the door.
Jiang Xinghuo looked up and saw that it was Song Li who had returned after a long journey. "Big Ben, sit down."
Jiang Xinghuo smiled slightly and asked Song Li to sit down.
Song Li didn't have time to take a breath, and said with a joyful face: "National Master, the craftsmen of the Nanjing School are here!" Hearing this, Jiang Xinghuo perked up and stood up immediately: "Let's go! Let's go and greet them!"
The showers have just stopped, and now the moon is as bright as water, illuminating the dark corridor.
On the ground of the county government office, patches of water accumulated one after another, and the stars reflected in them, twinkling and intertwining.
At the end of the corridor, Jiang Xinghuo saw more than a hundred craftsmen gathered together in a dark crowd, including those from the Inner Court War Bureau and the Ministry of Industry's Ordnance Bureau. Everyone was carrying bags and boxes as they shuttled through the yard. Inside.
The leader is a man in his thirties, named Sun Kun, who is the head of the Department of Cleaning and Cleaning in Dushui, Ministry of Industry.
The Dushui Qingli Department is the department with the largest authority in the Ministry of Works. Unlike the Yingxiu Qingli Department, Yuheng Qingli Department, and Tuntian Qingli Department, which only have one doctor each, the Dushui Qingli Department has five doctors.
This is because the Dushui Cleaning Department is in charge of river water conservancy, seawall embankments, bridges, boats and vehicles, ice storage and other matters. It has very heavy powers. It is divided into the Duli Department, the River Defense Department, the Bridge and Road Department, the Weaving Department and other departments... ...And Sun Kun is the person in charge of managing the river prevention department, so he is his professional counterpart.
"Master Imperial Master!"
"You're finally here!
Jiang Xinghuo hurriedly greeted him.
Sun Kun saluted Jiang Xinghuo and Song Li with his hands raised, revealing a trace of unconcealed tiredness: "From Nanjing to Songjiang Prefecture, the Yangtze River waterway is not that far away, but the rain is too heavy now. In the past, walking along the Yangtze River was smooth sailing. Who knew it would take longer to get there now."
After that, he pointed to the craftsman behind him who was carrying supplies and said, "But fortunately, everything is complete. "Did you bring the gunpowder?" Jiang Xinghuo asked. This was the question he was most concerned about.
"I brought it with me. Eunuch Zheng helped load several large ships. He is watching it personally at the dock of Jinshanwei. It's just that it's difficult to transport it to Huating County now."
"There is no need to transport it to Huating County."
Jiang Xinghuo breathed a long sigh of relief and said to Wang Bin who appeared from the shadow in the corner: "Send someone to pass on my order and entrust the eunuch Sanbao to lead the ship loaded with gunpowder. Pull the anchor from Jinshanwei and go back a little detour, from Wusong. If you reach an area where the river is narrow and difficult to navigate, you can transport it by small boat... If the small boat reaches an impassable tidal flat, try to get as close as possible to Dahuangpu, and there will be civilians to help move it. past."
Sun Kun was stunned. He only knew that the imperial master had asked for most of the gunpowder in Nanjing's city inventory, but he didn't know what to use. Now that he thought about it, it was probably... to blow up the barrier lake?
"Could it be that the Imperial Master wants to blow up the barrier lake accumulated in Dahuangpu?" Song Li next to him said, "That's right."
Sun Kun hesitated for a moment and then asked again: "It's easy to say that the Dahuangpu will explode, but the water is not easy to control. Unless a slope is dug in advance to allow the water to drain in a certain direction... But... Even so, the released water can easily spread around, destroy the farmland on both sides, and re-form a lake."
Jiang Xinghuo said simply: "Reinforce the original dams on both sides of the river around Shanghai Pu to allow the water from Dahuang Pu to rush towards Shanghai Pu.
Sun Kun's heart suddenly twitched. A water conservancy professional official at his level naturally knew about the water control plan planned by the Imperial Master and Song Shilang, and the officials of the Ministry of Industry also clearly realized that the Taihu Basin and Jiangnan Zhuang The key to water control in the government is to dredge the downstream river channels, that is, how to make floods flow smoothly into the sea.
The lower reaches of the Wusong River are too silted up, and re-dredging is too expensive. In other words, it is almost impossible to reuse the old Wusong River route, and a new one must be opened.
Therefore, the plan of the Imperial Master and Song Shilang is to focus on Xiajiapu
, divert water from the upper reaches of the Wusong River to the Yangtze River via the Liujia River; and focus on digging Fanjiabang to connect it with Dahuangpu, and discharge water from rivers and lakes in the eastern part of Taihu Lake, especially water from western Zhejiang, into the Yangtze River along the Huangpu River , In this way, the water discharge situation in the lower reaches of Taihu Lake can naturally be improved, and the water discharge pattern can be changed from the Wusong River as the main discharge channel to the Huangpu River as the main discharge channel.
But the problem is that the current statement of the National Master is different from the planned plan! "Then it will be poured directly into the Wusong River waterway."
Sun Kun tried his best to say: "The Wusong River waterway is already heavily silted downstream. If water is poured into it, the waterway will be completely destroyed. I am afraid that some farmland on both sides will also be submerged."
"According to urgency, the court will pay compensation for the farmland that has been flooded in Dahuangpu and Wusong River due to this irrigation, and people living within a few miles of both sides of the strait will also be relocated in advance."
For this reason, Sun Kun had nothing to say.
But as an official who knew the inside story, Sun Kun was skeptical about whether the imperial court had money.
The Taicang Bank of the Ministry of Revenue is running out of money. We have to build the Yongle Ceremony, we have to control floods and provide disaster relief, we have to build a fleet of treasure ships, and we have to prepare for the conquest of Annan... Excuse me, where does the money come from?
But unlike Sun Kun, Jiang Xinghuo certainly has the confidence. Where does the money come from? Of course it comes from a manual workshop.
The most urgent task now is to transport food to the army on the front line. If the army can quell the civil unrest of the White Lotus Sect as soon as possible, it means that hundreds of thousands of people can be freed from the control of the gentry and the White Lotus Sect as soon as possible, and let They adopted a work-for-relief method, with men building water conservancy projects and women working in factories to weave. In this way, not only could the floods in Jiangnan be cured, the Ming Dynasty would be able to receive more taxes more stably, but it could also cultivate the first batch of large-scale The cotton textile industry emerged.
Next, when the Ming Dynasty's army goes overseas, it will naturally find a market for these cotton textiles, and won't the money come out?
The cycle went full circle, the trapped people were rescued, the emperor expanded his territory, the army achieved military success, the goods were marketable, the people who worked for work received their wages and improved their lives, and China made great strides into the first industrial revolution.
Dai...how perfect.
So, take a long-term view.
What's the point of paying some money to the farmland that has been flooded by self-initiated irrigation? The lives of more than 100,000 people are at stake, and that is the most important thing.
If the chaos is put down one day late, countless more people will starve to death!
"First, blow up the Dahuangpu barrier lake, connect Dahuangpu and Shanghai Pu, and open up a navigation channel for the grain stranded in Huating County to be transported against the Wusong River to the front line. This is the most important thing. As for the old route of the Wusong River, originally It is to be abandoned, and we will naturally organize manpower to excavate Xiajiapu and Fanjiabang later, and completely rectify the Wusong River water system."
The Imperial Master thought carefully and explained clearly to him, the actual executor, so Sun Kun naturally had nothing to object to.
"Are these craftsmen still skilled in their skills?"
In addition to blasting, what is to be built this time is the large-scale water conservancy network of the Wusong River, which involves various materials and equipment. Naturally, carelessness is not allowed, so the Ministry of Industry sent almost all experienced and skilled people to participate.
Sun Kun smiled all over his face: "Of course, these craftsmen are all carefully selected by me..." While the two were chatting, someone suddenly shouted: "Hello, Principal Jiang!"
Several people came hand in hand. The leader was Liu Sheng, the commander-in-chief of the Left Army, followed by Zhang Anshi, Zhu Yong, Xu Jingchang and other military academy students.
"You're here too."
Naturally, the more helpers, the better. Starting from the incident in Changzhou Mansion, Jiang Xinghuo felt that he had too little help and was a little overwhelmed in dealing with various things.
He was not wearing armor, only wearing military attaché uniforms. He cupped his fists and said, "Principal Jiang, we brought a new type of matchlock musket, as well as five small bronze cannons. The cannons were thrown on the ship and we didn't dare to unload them. The matchlock musket was packed in a box. , carried it all the way from Jinshanwei."
Xu Jingchang: "That road is not for people to walk on..." Zhang Anshi: "The blisters on my hands are all worn out." Zhu Yong: "Don't be such a bitch." The three boys also chanted a few words. Voice.
"There aren't so many complaints on the road. These guys are
Asking the principal for credit. "
Liu Sheng smiled and explained, then said, "Master, let's go see the firearms first!"
Jiang Xinghuo nodded slightly and said, "I know you have worked hard all the way. If the rain stops, the firearms can be sent to the front line, and they will have to be controlled by you to show off your power."
Xu Jingchang and Zhang Anshi smiled happily, while Zhu Yong rolled his eyes. Liu Sheng brought Jiang Xinghuo to the front yard.
Next to the stables in the front yard of the Huating County government office, a large-scale warehouse was built before. There were various utensils piled in it, including wooden, iron and ceramic utensils, as well as many bottles and jars and other miscellaneous things. There were more than 600 in total. The items have now been cleaned up.
The military cadets and some accompanying auxiliary soldiers were carrying boxes of new matchlock muskets in. The wooden boxes were tightly tied with double layers of raincloth with ropes to ensure that no water would enter.
"Master, please come here to watch."
Liu Sheng said and walked to another room, took out the key and unlocked the door, then opened the door and walked in. Squeak--
The heavy wooden door was slowly pushed open with a soft sound.
There were more than ten large boxes in the center of the room, stuffed to the brim.
Wang Bin drew his sword and pried open a box and saw that inside was a Yongle-style matchlock blunderbuss. The skilled craftsmen of the Bingzhan Bureau, following the instructions given by Jiang Xinghuo, quickly produced the first batch.
Although there is no lathe, the advantage is that there are many craftsmen in the war, and they are all skilled. They are used to making firecrackers. Now they have slightly improved the firecrackers and made them in groups. Even if they are "hand-rolled", the speed is not slow. In addition, With the cooperation of the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, the production capacity was quite extraordinary. In just over a month, after working around the clock, more than a thousand matchlock muskets were produced.
