On top of the tall and strong embankment, Wei Chen and the other three stood quietly, looking at the Yellow River not far away. The sound of the roaring waves of the river was endless.
Zhao Ceying turned around and looked around, but saw that the embankment was high and the city was low. The Mi County town behind her seemed to be in a well, and she couldn't help but feel deeply worried.
Fortunately, Wei Chen proposed a good strategy for regulating the river. As long as this strategy is implemented, the people of Mi County will no longer have to worry about the Yellow River in the future.
Zhao Ceying immediately offered his hand to Wei Chen and said, "Since the teacher has this river management strategy that will benefit the country and the people, why not write a letter to dedicate this strategy to the imperial court and promote it throughout the world?"
Wei Chen smiled and shook his head. Zhao Ceying still thought of things too simply. How could it be so easy to be the first to eat crabs?
Even under normal circumstances, once the renovation of the embankments along the Yellow River is carried out on a large scale, it will be possible to mobilize all the efforts of the country and mobilize materials and labor from the prefectures and counties along the river.
In order to achieve the effect of concentrating water and attacking sand, one more inner embankment must be built than before, which will only cost more.
And because the inner embankment was built close to the river, it is easily damaged during the flood season. It needs to be repaired every year, which is a big expense.
According to the experience of Pan Jixun, an expert in river control who was the first to propose constricting water and attacking sand, it takes an average of one thousand taels of silver to build a mile of embankment. This shows how expensive river engineering is.
In the Great Zhou Dynasty, Wei Chen initiated the strategy of condensing water to attack the sand, and there was no precedent to follow. Even if Wei Chen boasted about it, no one knew whether it could be implemented except Wei Chen.
Even as the emperor, Zhao Zhen couldn't just slap his head and let Wei Chen do it.
This kind of important matter related to the national economy and people's livelihood must be brought to the court, discussed and discussed, studied and studied. During this period, there will be no shortage of conflicts and fights.
At the moment when the battle for the right to inherit the throne is intensifying in Bianjing City, if Wei Chen submits the proposal to seize water and attack the sand at this time, it will inevitably trigger a big discussion that will shock the entire court.
What was originally a pure river construction matter will most likely become a victim of the struggle between the Yongwang and Yanwang parties, and Wei Chen, who submitted a letter to offer advice, will inevitably be involved in the vortex of fighting for the heir.
This far deviated from Wei Chen's original intention of leaving Bianjing and taking up his post in Yuzhou.
In fact, Wei Chen never thought from the beginning that he could implement the strategy of confining water and attacking sand to the entire Zhou Dynasty in the last two years of Zhao Zhen's reign.
More haste less speed.
Wei Chen would be satisfied if he could repair the thirty miles of river embankments in Yuzhou during his term of office.
Of course, Wei Chen also had an idea that was not humane to outsiders, and that was to present Yuzhou's river defense reconstruction as a pilot project in front of Zhao Zongquan and his son.
It is precisely because of this that Wei Chen specially brought Zhao Ceying to the Yellow River embankment today.
Let him see with his own eyes the effect of concentrating water to attack sand, and then sincerely agree with this river control strategy, which is more effective than Wei Chen trying to talk about it 10,000 times.
In this way, many unnecessary setbacks can be avoided when water beams are used to attack sand on a large scale in the future.
After inspecting the Yellow River for half a day, Wei Chen led Zhao Ceying and Gu Tingye on horseback back to Mi County.
Although the main reason for coming to Mi County this time was for river engineering, Wei Chen still had to take a look at the county government office, county school, and nursing home in Mi County. This was also his duty as the governor of the state. location.
After walking around, it was getting dark. Sun Zhuo, the magistrate of Mi County, showed his kindness as a landlord and held a banquet in the county government office to entertain Wei Chen and his party.
After having had enough wine and food, Wei Chen withdrew, leaving Sun Zhuo alone to talk.
Wei Chen got straight to the point and told Sun Zhuo about his plan to build a river project in Mi County, and also gave a general introduction to the river control idea of concentrating water and attacking sand.
At the end, Wei Chen said to Sun Zhuo with a serious face: "Zhi County Sun, repairing the river is the top priority this year. Mi County is adjacent to the Yellow River, so the task is heavy. You must be mentally prepared to overcome difficulties."
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"I understand."
Sun Zhuo hurriedly responded.
Although Sun Zhuo had already guessed Wei Chen's thoughts when he saw Wei Chen non-stop patrolling the Yellow River during the day, Sun Zhuo was still very surprised when he heard Wei Chen vividly explain to him the principle of beaming water to attack sand.
Unexpectedly, at such a young age, the magistrate of Zhizhou knew so much about river engineering and water conservancy. Although Sun Zhuo had never heard of this Lao Shizi beaming water to attack sand, it sounded like it made sense.
Of course, even if it didn't make sense, Sun Zhuo would not disobey his immediate superior's order.
Wei Chen is the magistrate of the state and has a profound background. Sun Zhuo will do whatever he says. Anyway, if the sky falls, Wei Chen, a tall man, will hold it up.
So Sun Zhuo immediately nodded in agreement, saying that he only followed Wei Chen's lead.
Seeing Sun Zhuo acting so obedient, Wei Chen nodded with satisfaction.
The main purpose of repairing the river is within Mi County. If you want to repair the thirty-mile dike along the river, you can't do it without the cooperation of Sun Zhuo, the magistrate of Mi County. Wei Chen can't stay on the dike all the time.
Afterwards, Wei Chen discussed with Sun Zhuo the issue of labor service. According to Wei Chen's idea, this time the people would not be forced into service, but 3,000 people would be hired in Mi County and Xinzheng.
The main time to repair the river is from late February to mid-April, two months, and the wages are one to two or seven taels of silver.
This treatment is already quite good. Tenant farmers who work for wealthy families in Yuzhou cannot earn so much money, and the government also arranges meals.
Of course, the state government's expenditures are correspondingly much higher. The money for hiring civilian labor is nothing, but the money for various materials used to build the embankment is the big one.
According to a rough estimate by Wei Chen's aide Fang Yuan, a total of about thirty thousand taels of silver would be needed to build a thirty-mile embankment in two months.
This is already worth an entire year's tax in some states and counties.
Wei Chen also had money in his hands now and was not in a panic, so he dared to spread the stall so big. When he first arrived in Ren Yuzhou, he was afraid that the state government would be declared bankrupt before he could even build a mile of embankment.
Of course, although the state government has money now, the money did not come from strong winds. Wei Chen knew very well how greedy these officials were. If they were not strictly supervised and held accountable, he was afraid that the 30,000 taels of ICBC would be lost. If we continue to allocate money, it will eventually fall on the project, and there will be no more than 10,000 taels.
Therefore, Wei Chen mercilessly beat up Sun Zhuo in advance, saying ugly things first, so as not to find out later and make everyone's faces look bad.
When Sun Zhuo saw Wei Chen's unpretentious expression, he immediately realized how much Wei Chen cared about the river work, and couldn't help but feel a little frightened.
With Wei Chen's background, it was too easy to deal with a small county magistrate like him. If he really dared to attack Hegongyin, the end would be extremely miserable.
It's better to be cautious.
Wei Chen caught a glimpse of Sun Zhuozhan's trembling look, smiled indifferently, picked up a kerchief to wipe his hands, and said in a deep voice: "The first amount of money will be transferred to your account in three days, and the mobilization of county civilian services will begin tomorrow. Be sure to post notices in every township, and if the people are illiterate, arrange for someone to read them to them."
Sun Zhuo immediately stood up and left the table, bowed and said: "I would like to follow the instructions of Master Zhizhou!"
