Chapter 3346: Convenient Transportation
Life is like this. When you think you are going smoothly and can face it calmly, it will pour a basin of ice water from the sky on your head. After you suffer, it will still wave the whip from behind to drive you forward, not daring to slow down for a step.
This is the life of Zhou Man and Bai Shan.
The two were transferred back to the capital from Qingzhou and have been living in the capital for several years, taking steady steps and living a peaceful life.
As a result, because they sat down and talked for a few more words at a tea stall in Longzhou, Bai Shan instigated Bai Erlang to write a memorial together to dredge the river and manage the grain transport, and another memorial to open more granaries and stabilize prices. From then on, their lives were unknowingly tied to a mule. The emperor and the prince took the whip in their hands and cracked it hard, and they were pulled around by the mule.
Bai Shan went to Bingzhou to meet up with Tang He. The two began to urge local officials to build more granaries and purchase grain. They also investigated the governance of local grain merchants and officials.
In addition, they also had to look up local county annals and find the River Map to send back to the Ministry of Works and the Hanlin Academy.
Zhou Man, in order to dredge the Fen River area, took students from the Imperial Medical Bureau to the Fen River. After researching two prescriptions for preventing cold and epidemics and one for antifreeze ointment, he ran around to watch people repair dams and dredge rivers.
There was no way out. The emperor seemed to like to take advantage of their family. As an official of the Ministry of Works, Liu Huan was also sent here this time.
Liu Huan, a useless guy who was on par with Bai Erlang, was suddenly thrown in to dredge the river, and his tears were almost dried up.
In fact, his grandfather was the Minister of Revenue. If he was lazy and didn't work, the officials in charge of the matter and the local officials would not say anything. As long as he didn't cause trouble, he could be a mascot.
But Zhou Man happened to be here.
As a true "elder", she just glanced at him and Liu Huan didn't dare to be lazy. He could only roll up his trouser legs and follow her down to the river to see the situation.
Most of the Fen River is open, but some places are blocked due to silt accumulation, or are diverted or spread.
What they have to do is to dredge these places, or simply design a more reasonable river channel along the changed road and dig through to form a new river channel.
When they finally returned from Fenhe, Liu Huan had not only become darker, but also much thinner. All the weight he had gained from years of living a life of luxury had been lost, and he was much thinner than when he was in school.
He looked much more energetic, but his hands, feet and ears showed signs of frostbite, which made Mrs. Liu Shangshu feel distressed for a while. However, she was still happy to see that her grandson was so capable.
That year, the Fen River was not dredged until June of the following year, along with the Wei River.
When navigation was opened, the Zhou family not only ran to the Wei River to join in the fun, but Zhou Silang also prepared a large amount of goods and traveled from the capital to Daizhou via the Fen River. From then on, their family had another trade route opened.
But the emperor seemed to have discovered another use for Zhou Man and Bai Shan, and from then on he was keen to send them abroad.
Zhou Man was sent to inspect the medical offices in various places, and Bai Shan was sent to inspect the grain administration in various places. By the way, he collected river maps. Bai Shan then formulated a specific policy of segmented governance...
The comfortable life in the capital was gone forever.
The couple would occasionally meet in other places and occasionally meet in the capital.
When they are lucky, they can stay in the capital for a year or two, but when they are unlucky, they will have to travel outside for a year or two.
Fortunately, the rivers were dredged one by one, and the river maps produced by the Ministry of Works and the Hanlin Academy became more and more detailed. More and more lights were lit up on the maps in Bai Shan's hands, making their travel much more convenient. Sometimes it would only take three days to get from the capital to Jiangling.
The construction of the canal was not a one-day task, and the busy farming season had to be taken into consideration. The imperial court only issued labor orders and recruited civilian workers during the slack farming season. Except for the garrisons in various places that did not farm, they spent no more than two months on the river each year.
Therefore, it took a full twelve years from the time the grain transport was proposed to the time it was considered completed by the court, and this became one of the many achievements of Emperor Gaozong's life.
This time, the river dredging is mainly to dredge and build docks, and the secondary focus is to dig the river channel to allow the two sections of river that do not seem so far to connect to each other and allow ships to pass through.
Thanks to the high grain yield, developed commerce and continuous annual tax revenue in the Dajin Dynasty, such a huge consumption could be supported.
In addition, the new emperor was quite benevolent and was not in a hurry to see results. He allowed various places to carry out repairs slowly. Therefore, except for Bai Shan and the officials of the Ministry of Works who were always on business trips and had a hard time, others were unaware that one day they suddenly discovered that water transportation from south to north and from west to east was so convenient.
When the country's rivers were connected, Zhou Man, who was already the director of the Imperial Medical Bureau, happily submitted a letter of resignation.
The new emperor, who had spent ten years to master the document, just glanced at it and threw it aside without paying any attention to it.
Zhou Man did not give up and submitted another memorial, saying that although she had resigned from her official position, she was still devoted to Dajin and would still do things that were beneficial to Dajin and the emperor. She wanted to go out and study her medical skills in depth, collect information on difficult and complicated diseases from all over the country, and make more contributions to the people of Dajin.
The emperor simply glanced at her. "I take it you want to go out and dig up those flowers and plants, and catch those birds and beasts, right? For years, you've been scouring the land for those exotic flowers, plants, birds and beasts under the guise of inspections, and I've turned a blind eye. And now you're so audacious as to resign for this?"
Zhou Manjian insisted that she was not idle. If you don't believe her, just look at her medical skills and see if they have improved over the years.
The emperor pretended not to hear and turned to ask Bai Shan, who was also present at the small court meeting, "A husband's teaching of his wife is also the way of a minister. You should take good care of your wife."
Bai Shan said helplessly, "Your Majesty, who in the world doesn't know that I am henpecked?"
emperor:……
Other ministers: ...
Zhou Man turned his head and glared at him, then said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, I am sincere. Truly, there are so many diseases in the world, and my medical skills have improved so little in the capital. Please wait until I have completed my studies and return, and then I will serve Your Majesty."
In the past, the emperor would have believed it, but he was no longer the new emperor. Instead, he had been the old emperor for ten years and would not be deceived by Zhou Man.
She said she would return after completing her studies, but who knows when she will return?
When he issues a call for talent, if she doesn't accept it, can he still kill her?
So the emperor refused to agree and at most allowed her to go out and inspect medical offices in various places.
Zhou Man: ...Inspection, the main job is to check the conditions of medical offices in various places. How much time can be spared to see patients and find some flowers, plants, birds and animals?
The emperor was so shameless that Zhou Man was so angry that he walked around the yard three times when he got home. He couldn't help but yell to the sky, "I wish I could just resign and leave—"
She just shouted, but her voice was so loud that it was heard on the street. So the emperor ordered the city gates to be checked and Zhou Man was not allowed to leave the city. She was not allowed to go to the horse farm to watch people playing polo during the beautiful spring weather.
In the end, she had to go to the palace to express her loyalty to the emperor and swear that she would never leave without saying goodbye or resign, only then could she leave the city.
After leaving the city, Zhou Man went to the East Suburbs Horse Farm. Looking at the Wei River not far away, she almost burst into tears. "You have worked hard for twelve years for the transportation of grain along this river. My medical offices have also been set up all along the river. Now I can't even take a boat ride to explore and take a look."
Bai Shan was very calm, "What's the big deal? Just submit a letter of resignation every year and focus on training your subordinates. In three to five years, His Majesty will agree."
"real?"
"Really," Bai Shan said with a faint smile, "I will resign with you when the time comes."
This was something Zhou Man had not expected. He raised his eyebrows and asked, "Prime Minister Bai wants to resign?"
Bai Shan smiled and said, "After staying in the same position for too long, His Majesty will surely get tired of me. When the time comes, I will resign with you, and he will surely agree."
This prime minister is just like a dish. Looking at him all the time is like eating the same dish all the time. He won't get tired of it for two years, but after another four or five years, he will be fed up with it. When he wants to change the prime minister, he will naturally agree to the resignation of the two determined people.
Zhou Man looked at the shimmering Wei River in front of her, and became happy again. She took his hand and swung it, "You promised me."
Bai Shan nodded and said, "I promised you. First, I will take you to ride the rivers I drew one by one, and see them flow freely and go wherever you want to go."
The advantage of a side story is that you can write as long as you want in a chapter, but the disadvantage is that you can never grasp the word count.
(End of this chapter)
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