The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 873

March of the fifth year of Rende.

Qinghe County, Huai'an Prefecture.

There is Qingkou in Qinghe County, which is in Hongze Hubei.

As mentioned earlier, there was a question for Ding Ye's exam before: Qingkou is the place where the Yellow River and Huaihe River meet, and Yuntiguan is the only way for the Huaihe River and the Yellow River to enter the sea.

That is, to prevent the Yellow River from breaching downstream, and to cure the downstream, what should be done best?
At this time, Ding Ye was leading the patrol up and down Qingkou.

At the end of the third year of Rende, Ding Ye was appointed as the doctor of Jiangsu River Department, responsible for the repair of nearby rivers.

The first one to treat was Qingshuitan near Gaoyou. It took him more than a year to clean it up. The method was the same as he used in the exam. He built a dam on the Caodi in Jiangdu to block the breach of Qingshuitan, and then left in the lake. A crescent-shaped embankment was built at the place where the breach was 840 or [-] feet long, and a west embankment was built, which was [-] feet long, and was stretched around the Xiyue River, which was [-] feet long.

After the success, the imperial court also issued a decree to reward Ding Ye, and at the beginning of this year, promoted him to be the deputy admiral of Jiangsu Hedao. It is the fourth grade.

The accompanying Song Changlin, Xu Shengfeng, and Chang Jin were all promoted to one level, and everyone was very happy.

Before Chang Jin, he looked down on Ding Ye a little bit, and felt that he had a personality problem, but he didn't expect that after more than a year with him, he would accomplish a big thing and get promoted, so he couldn't help but look at Ding Ye differently.

But if he knew that Ding Ye was the emperor's son, he would be treated like this. I don't know what he thought.

Today is their first arrival in Qingkou, and they are ready to start managing Qingkou.

With the experience of Qingshuitan, they felt that this time it would be easier.

"We have tested this question during the exam, and I plan to follow the answer of the exam." Ding Ye decided to follow his own idea after turning around a few times.

After all, he had studied here for half a year before, and Song Changlin, who was with him, also supported his decision.

Their first step is to mobilize 16 civilians or hoard troops, dig out the mud at Qingkou, divert the river four ways, dredge the river from Qingjiangpu to Yuntiguan, and then build Shushui dams of [-] feet to block Wangjiagang and Wujia. There are [-] large breaches in the pier.

In order to prevent the downstream of the Yellow River from bursting, he also built a dam upstream. Each dam has six holes, each hole is 2 feet 8 feet wide, and can discharge a total of 16 feet 8 feet. When the water rises, it can be opened to release the flood.

His idea was the same as that of Jin Fu in the same period, but he was slightly different in reducing the dam.

When Jin was repairing, each dam had seven holes, each of which was 1 Zhang 8 feet wide, and could discharge flood water of 12 Zhang 8 feet.

Jin Fu was thinking about the current situation at the time, and Ding Ye had been with Ding Yi for so long, so he would think about it for a longer time in the future.

Because he built the hole wider, it can release floodwater 16 feet and 8 feet, so the effect is better and the service life is longer.

After deciding on the plan, they reported the plan to the court and started looking for someone.

The first step is to dig out the mud from Qingkou and dredge the river from Qingjiangpu to Yuntiguan.

Song Changlin first went to the local troop hoarder, a retired Chief Qian.

Dagan has [-] hoarding troops in each province. Usually, he mainly hoards land, and also helps build various infrastructures such as water conservancy and roads throughout the province. The local governor's office and the counties and governments themselves pay for it.

When Song Changlin found Mr. Qian, Mr. Qian said that now that water conservancy projects are being built everywhere and schools are being expanded, the hoarders are almost used up, and there are only 3000 people on hand.

Song Changlin asked for these 3000 people, and agreed that each person would be paid [-] Wen a day, and Song Changlin was also responsible for eating.

If they live, they have their own tents.

Song Changlin considered that he still had to invite civilian husbands, and signaled them to leave immediately, and then helped the civilian husbands behind to build simple huts. In this case, their wages would be calculated immediately.

After the talk, Song Changlin went to the magistrate of Qinghe County again.

Ask him to mobilize 5000 civilian husbands.

The county magistrate of Qinghe was called Qian Zhicai.

When Qian Zhicai heard this, he immediately said, the county only has a total of more than 1 people, so there are so many people, Huai'an Prefecture has to mobilize other counties, such as Andong County, to be on the waterway they want to build.

Song Changlin asked, how many people can county magistrate Qian mobilize at most?
County magistrate Qian said with a smile: "I don't know. It depends on your bids. If you bid, we will go to publicize it, and we will mobilize as many as we can."

Song Changlin said, fifty coins a day, including food.

County magistrate Qian promised to send people to mobilize immediately, and agreed with Song Changlin on the meeting point.

Not long after Song Changlin left the county, someone caught up with him.

"Master Song."

Song Changlin looked back at this person, but he didn't recognize him, but he saw that this person was fatter, with a kind face, and there were two guys by his side.

"Xiaomin is the shopkeeper of Qinghe Restaurant, Xiaomin's surname is Wu, just call me Old Wu."

"Is shopkeeper Wu okay?" Song Changlin was puzzled, and the other party actually knew his surname was Song.

"It's like this. I heard that the adults want to do things for the people and repair the river, and the people are willing to do their bit."

Song Changlin was delighted to hear that, so he wanted to support us.

Unexpectedly, shopkeeper Wu's tone changed: "It's better to leave the food and drink of these tens of thousands of people to Xiaomin."

"Xiaomin has been operating locally for many years. He is very familiar with all kinds of vegetable vendors and chefs, and he guarantees that the business will be done properly."

It turned out that this person surnamed Wu wanted to contract everyone's food.

The river project involved tens of thousands of people. In the previous dynasties, the slaves brought their own food. Ding Yi paid for the food in order to stabilize the livelihood of the people in the country.

And this person surnamed Wu actually wants to contract the food and drink for tens of thousands of people. He wants to make a lot of money.

Song Changlin and the others have done it once in Qingshuitan, and they are very experienced. The grain and rice are provided by the imperial household department, and they buy the vegetables themselves. They ask chefs from all over the place to help.

"No need, we are all prepared." Song Changlin politely refused.

Being contracted by others will inevitably cost a lot of money.

Shopkeeper Wu's face changed slightly, and then he forced a smile: "The food here is not easy to buy, and the chef is not easy to find?"

Song Changlin shook his head, noncommittal.

From Qingshui to Yuntiguan, about 2 miles long, [-] people lay flat and dig along the line, and there can be seven to eight people per meter.

There are many villages along the [-]-mile road, and it is enough for each village to find some people to cook.

Moreover, many of the soldiers in the hoard can cook, and they can also be used for cooking, so there is no need to hire a special chef.

As for buying vegetables, they always buy vegetables from villagers in various villages along the road. The side vegetables grown by the villagers are inexhaustible, and the chickens, pigs, and fish raised at home can be sold to them.

Normally, the villagers have to go to the county towns and towns to sell them, but now they sell them nearby, and the price is slightly higher, so don't be too willing.

Song Changlin affirmatively expressed his refusal.

Shopkeeper Wu smiled and walked away.

Shopkeeper Wu quickly returned to the county government office and met Qian Zhicai, the county magistrate.

"The one surnamed Song didn't agree, so he has to do it himself."

Qian Zhicai stroked his mustache and nodded. This guy is a former Ming official. Although the law is strict and it is difficult to accept bribes, he still thought of a new method, or a loophole.

His family used to open a cloth shop, and after Ding Yi came to power, he asked the county governments to provide meals, so shopkeeper Wu came to the door and asked to be contracted to open this matter.

Shopkeeper Wu gave him 500 taels of silver at that time. At that time, the Dagan Code had not officially started, so of course Qian Zhicai accepted it calmly.

After the implementation of the Dagan Code, shopkeeper Wu didn't dare to give it away, and Qian Zhicai didn't dare to accept it, and they were wary of each other.

But what if shopkeeper Wu still wants to do this?
So he immediately thought of a new way, shopkeeper Wu went to Qian Zhicai's shop to buy cloth, because the Dagan Code stipulated that things in official shops could not be sold at a price significantly higher than the market price.

Shopkeeper Wu later suggested that you find someone to make clothes and I will buy them.

There is a unified market price for cloth, which does not come and go much, and is expensive and expensive.

But the clothes are hard to say, the workmanship and style are different, and the price is also very different.

The same clothes, different tailors, different prices.

Qian Zhicai immediately invited a famous local tailor to add a garment-making function to the cloth shop at home.

Shopkeeper Wu came to buy a lot of clothes every year, and gave them to the shop assistants if they couldn't wear them all. Both parties knew that there was nothing illegal anyway, and the Dagan Code didn't say that officials could not sell clothes.

Later, Qian Zhicai found out that it was still not working, and the money came slowly, what should I do?
He opened salt shop, sugar shop, groceries, and opened six shops in Qinghe in one go. People who came to him for work would go to the shop to buy things first, and the price was naturally slightly higher than other shops.

The imperial court has a limit of 20.00%, so it is 20.00% more expensive, and the price fluctuates, and sometimes it is okay to be 30.00% more expensive. Who would stare at this price every day.

The matter of Qian Zhicai had actually been secretly reported to the imperial court long ago, using power for personal gain.

But the imperial court did not say that officials are not allowed to do business. Now even Ding Yi himself is doing business, and he has established many companies with his brothers.

Moreover, almost [-]% of the homes of the ministers of the DPRK and China have shops, and many of them are indeed more expensive than the market price.

As long as Qian Zhicai is not outrageous and keeps within 20.00% all the year round, the court will have nothing to do with him.

In this way, Qian Zhicai became more and more courageous, and made a lot of money in the past two years.

Now that Ding Ye is here to do business, if shopkeeper Wu is contracted for the meal, shopkeeper Wu can go to Qian Zhicai's shop to buy a lot of salt, sugar, seasoning, etc., and even vegetables, which can make Qian Zhicai a lot of money .

These 2 people have been digging in Qinghe for at least half a year, and they can make money by eating, drinking, and scavenging.

Now Song Changlin simply refused, because he did not give County Magistrate Qian and Shopkeeper Wu a chance to make money.

After Qian Zhicai waited for shopkeeper Wu to leave, he summoned the master bookkeeper and said: "The imperial court needs to recruit [-] civilians to repair the Qinghe waterway, and the daily fee is [-] yuan, including food. Let people go down and post notices to promote the mobilization. .”

There was nothing wrong with what Qian Zhicai said, but the director called out: "How can there be so many civilian husbands in our Qinghe County?"

Qinghe has a population of tens of thousands, of course, but don't you have to do your own thing? Earning more than 1 yuan in a county, isn't this nonsense?

"There is an order from the imperial court, and it's not easy for us to object, just do your best." Qian Zhicai said kindly.

Zhu Bo was upset. He felt that the imperial court was targeting them. It was impossible for Qinghe to recruit more than 1 civilian husbands all at once. Less, because there are still widows, widows, orphans, lonely, and non-servants in each ri.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were 300 households in a mile, and if there were three people in each household, there were more than [-] people.

There are more than 300 talents and ten yamen servants.

If you let Qinghe pay more than 1 people, you need more than 300 million talents.

(End of this chapter)