A huge fleet sailed south along the canal. This fleet was a fleet of grain merchants in Huguang. The fleet was marked by Ma Shiqi and Du Yinxi. The lanterns of the government were hung on the ship. Along the way, the governor of the grain transport army did not dare to stop it, and no one dared to collect taxes along the way.

Ma Shiqi was a disciple of Ye Maocai. Although he was a Donglin Party, he had a very good relationship with the gentry of Huguang. Originally, Ye Maocai had a close relationship with the canal transportation. After Ye Maocai died, some merchants relied on his students to protect him.

This fleet usually transports grain to Beijing and cargo is also carried on the return trip, but it is not enough to fill the cabin, and almost all the empty ships run back.

But now, this fleet is filled with engineering teams heading south.

Wu Guoming was a member of the engineering troop to the south. He was originally from Henan. Not long ago, when he was hungry, an army passed by his hometown, built a porridge shed, and distributed porridge to the hungry people. So Wu Guoming was saved. After being rescued, he followed the army to Kaifeng.

When we arrived in Kaifeng, some officers from the south, wearing red tassels, hats and mandarin ducks and war jackets came to select personnel among the hungry people and asked if they were willing to join the Huai Army. They would be full of two meals a day and pay one or two taels of silver per month.

Wu Guoming was a strong man in his early twenties. He heard that he was recruiting soldiers, so he joined the army without hesitation. After all, being a soldier can fill his stomach.

After becoming a soldier, Wu Guoming realized that he was an engineer soldier. The team was pulled near Xuzhou, and each of them gave him a set of mandarin duck battle jackets and a red tassel hat. After changing into a new military uniform, he boarded the ship and headed south.

Whether you are heading east along the Yellow River or taking a canal boat south, you will have two meals along the way, and there is no limit to the amount of mixed grains and brown rice. The dishes are two dishes and one soup, which are made of cabbage, cabbage, tofu, etc. Occasionally, there is a little bit of dried fish and minced meat. The dishes made by the head soldiers add some red things to the dish. The taste is a bit spicy, but it is very delicious and very delicious. There is no limit to the amount of mixed grains and brown rice, mixed grain porridge and steamed buns, and you can eat them casually. Wu Guoming ate with his belly and was full.

Wu Guoming is a bachelor who is full and not hungry for his whole family. It is very good to live such a life now.

"Renjie, you have a wife and daughter at home. Why are you going south to build a dam like us bachelors?" Wu Guoming asked Ye Renjie, who was sitting at the bow of the boat and watching the scenery.

Ye Renjie, a self-cultivated farmer in Henan for generations, had a relatively high farming level and a pretty good family background. So he married a wife and gave birth to two daughters. However, in the past two years, a disaster caused great disasters, and the court had to urge him to pay food and pay. He sold the land but could not buy it. Nowadays, Henan, which suffered from disasters, had few people and many land. Who would still buy land? Even if he bought land, he could not grow the dealer.

However, the court could not pay the food and salary. It is said that it could not pay the food and salary. He had to sell his wife and daughter to pay the debt, or just wait to go to the prison! He really couldn't survive and joined the refugees, left his hometown and embarked on the road to escape. He originally planned to go to the King of Chuang, but he met an official army on the way to fight. At first, he met this official army. At first, he felt scared, afraid that he would be arrested by the officers and soldiers and sent to the government. He took his family to escape, and the tax evasion happened. Later, his wife and daughter were so hungry that she couldn't stand it. She smelled the scent of porridge and stepped forward.

This official army is completely different from other official army Ye Renjie has seen. He treats the people very kindly and gives porridge to these victims who follow them every day.

The victims volunteered to follow the army all the way east because they had food to eat with them.

After arriving in Kaifeng, someone came to recruit new recruits. Considering that one or two taels of silver per month, Ye Renjie also chose to join the army.

"They helped me arrange my wife and children to the Shandong Military House. Anyway, my wife and children are not hungry, so I went south to earn more extra money. I heard that Shandong has allocated 30 acres of land for each of us soldiers. With such good conditions, why not join the army?" Ye Renjie said with a smile.

The fleet headed south, entered the Yangtze River from Guazhou in Yangzhou, and then crossed the Yangtze River, and then came to the prosperous Jiangnan region with flowers.

The engineers arrived in Yixing and set up camp next to the barracks of veterans who arrived in advance. Before Wu Guoming and Ye Renjie and others arrived, engineers had already arrived in Yixing. They arrived by the river and got off the boat. They saw soldiers on the river bank sweating profusely, digging river ditches and building embankments.

"What you have to do is very simple. Just work hard with the veterans. What do you do, what do you do? If you don't understand, ask them more about the veterans." An officer explained the precautions to Wu Guoming and Ye Renjie.

"Dig this pond deep." After Wu Guoming received the tools, veterans took them to the construction site to work.

This pond was not deep, only three feet deep. Now the water in the pond has been drained. Veterans are sweating profusely at the bottom of the dry pond. The dug out silt baskets of soil from the relay brigade standing beside them relay baskets of soil to the shore, poured into a swamp, and raised the swamp.

Wu Guoming also held a shovel in his hand and together with the veterans, he poured the mud at the bottom of the pond into the basket one by one. Ye Renjie stood aside. When a basket filled with mud was handed over, he took the basket and handed it to the next soldier. In this way, the basket filled with soil was handed ashore and poured into a swamp next to him.

"Sir, what's the use of digging deep ponds?" Wu Guoming asked when he was free.

"Digging the pond deeper and heavy rain falls, it can bring rainwater into the pond, which can reduce the disaster caused by floods." The officer replied.

"Doesn't it take to increase the dam when preventing floods?" Wu Guoming asked in confusion.

"Elevating the embankment cannot solve the problem. To prevent floods, the best way is to clear the flow diversion."

In order to deal with the floods in the south in the 13th year of Chongzhen, Li Guodong tried his best to ask Wang Quan's engineers to dig ponds, deepen the lakes, and expand the rivers connected between the lakes and the Yangtze River. He used the flood storage capacity of dozens of lakes of all sizes and sizes, such as Taihu Lake, Yangcheng Lake, Chenghu Lake, Dianshan Lake, Hongli Lake, Pangshan Lake, etc., which could reduce the harm caused by flood disasters in the south of the Yangtze River.

Just when Zhang Shiwen and his engineers were working in Jiangnan, the engineering troops led by Wang Quan were also working intensified construction in the Huguang area.

"Wangdusi, you brought more than 100,000 people to construction in Huguang. Will Huguang really suffer from a major flood this year?" asked Du Yinxi, the prefect of Changsha.

Although Du Yinxi is only the fourth-rank prefect, Wang Quan has already been the second-rank commander Tongzhi, but Wengui is a low-ranking military commander Tongzhi. He, the second-rank commander Tongzhi, still has to salute Du Yinxi: "When he returned to the palace, the last general only listened to Wu Weibo's prophecy, and came to Huguang to build a water conservancy project to minimize the losses caused by natural disasters in Huguang."

Du Yinxi stroked his beard and nodded slightly: "It is a good thing to prevent problems before they happen! In the past few years, natural disasters and man-made disasters have not been peaceful, and the north has already suffered drought. If there is another major flood in the south, the people will really not be able to survive."

There are many lakes in the lake. As long as the flood storage capacity of these lakes is reasonably utilized, natural disasters can be minimized.

In the grain production areas on both sides of the Yangtze River, Li Guodong adopted the method of clearing and diversion, and introduced water into lakes and low-lying areas. As for the border of the Yangtze River, he still adopted the method of increasing the river embankment to prevent floods from irrigating into farmland. On the one hand, the river embankment was raised on both sides, but the small rivers on both sides were used to introduce the rising river water into the lake.

Wang Quan was not smooth during the construction process in Huguang. Some places needed to widen the river, but was blocked by local gentry.

"You are low-lying land. Once the flood comes, all of you paddy fields will be flooded!" Wang Quan said to the local gentry who blocked him.

"Flood? Xiangjiang River, Yangtze River, and Yuan River are all broad rivers. How much water can flow into the Yangtze River. How could it cause a flood? Humph! Do you think this is the Yellow River?" The gentry were reluctant to dig their rice fields.
Chapter completed!