With the help of student Ma Baiqing, the work of inspecting Hangou was much smoother. There is no need for him to lead the way, and the second-generation map drawn by the Shanchuan Supervision Institute is very fine and accurate.

But communicating with the villagers is inseparable from this child, with him how much can make the villagers less afraid and more trusting, it is easy to do if you are willing to speak, a bottle of horse wine will go down, and no matter how wary people will tell you.

On the whole, the canal from Yangzhou to Gaoyoujun is relatively well maintained, and there is no need to repair it immediately. There are two embankments in the canal from Gaoyoujun to Baoying, and there is no danger of breaching, but it affects the smooth flow of the river and needs to be rectified.

From Baoying to Chuzhou in the north, there is no problem with the river embankment and the river channel, but the sluice gates are too old, not only leaking but also difficult to open and close, which seriously hinders the smooth flow of the canal.

The location of the warehouse of the Xiuhe system is about ten miles north of Chuzhou, and there is only one reason: it is close to the peat mine, which is the most suitable for building a coke kiln. Hu Chou'er had already brought people over to start work, and if nothing else, coke and coal tar would be available next month.

Gao Yu is not idle, his chemistry laboratory has been opened, and the foundation of the two acid and alkali furnaces has been laid, and the coke kiln of Hu Chouer can be officially ignited when it starts.

In order to hide people's eyes, the fertilizer plant was simply built together with the coking plant, and outsiders could not tell which was the coke kiln and which was the alkali furnace.

"Daddy doesn't have to go any further, the kids have checked it all. The section of the Guishan Canal is fine, but the most urgent repair is the Huaishui section. Although it is only a few dozen miles, this waterway is a ghost gate in the eyes of the trough. Usually they wait in the Guishan Canal for calm and good weather before going up together, and it often takes several days to catch up with bad weather. The child thinks that small repairs and small repairs are useless, and if he wants to make this section of the waterway smooth and the people on both sides of the strait feel at ease, he must make a big move. ”

Wang Qi is the most leisurely, there are no lime mines suitable for mining here, and the nearest one is near Guishan Town. However, he couldn't make the decision on this matter, so he simply used his free time to survey the canal first, and he used it at this time.

"The tone is not small, you have never done river affairs, how can you open your mouth and close your mouth and make a big fuss casually!"

Hong Tao was noncommittal about Wang Qi's suggestion, but he was not very satisfied with his attitude. As the saying goes, civil engineering should not be moved lightly, and young people should not be too crazy. Repairing the river is not better than building a city, the casual design of the square circle, and the accumulation of experience from a small place is not a major overhaul.

"Daddy, do you remember the Heishui River in Ganzhou?" Wang Qi was not modestly taught, which was not the habit of the children's group. Since childhood, my adoptive father has demanded that what is right must be insisted on, unless it can be proven wrong.

"Blackwater River...... You've built dams! Well, let's talk about the details, and if there is no mistake, Daddy will listen to you! ”

Hong Tao was dumbfounded, and always thought that Wang Qi had not been too involved in river engineering, and it was his own negligence. After he built Ganzhou City, he built a dam in the upper reaches of the Heishui River, and the idea was still his own.

It's hopeless to want to play sloppy with these children, and you can't scare them with this trick, and the only way to save face is to admit your mistakes and listen to whom.

"It's a bit big...... The boat is easy to solve, but where do you get so much wood? ”

Wang Qi was sure that he planned to use wooden stakes to nail down the river bank to form a wooden fence, plug the leakage with earth bags, and then drain the water on the inside of the wooden wall, dig up the silt, and finally use stone mixed with cement to build a slope like a wall.

With this stone embankment, the river water will no longer erode the soil, although the initial investment is relatively large, but the later maintenance cost is very low, and the service life is at least a few decades, which is a one-and-done idea, and it is also in line with the thinking mode of ancient people.

However, it is a bit difficult to do this project, and the cost of materials is also very large. Hong Tao is not afraid of spending money, but money is not omnipotent. Cement and stone can be fired and mined near Kameyama, but wood is not.

This is not a small number, as many logs are required to build a long embankment, and even if you cut the logs and use them, you will be dizzy to think about the number of logs required. The main reason is that there is no large forest in Huainan, so you can't cut down all the berm trees on the side of the canal, which is also a drop in the bucket.

"You can put wood from the upper reaches of the Yellow River like the Daimyo Shipyard, and there is no shortage of wood on both sides of the river!" Wang Qi also has a problem with this problem, how did the Daimyo Mansion get the wood for shipbuilding back then, and now he has learned the same.

Wang Qi's suggestion cannot be said to be wrong, but the feasibility is not very high. The reason why he was able to do this in the past was that in addition to the support of the emperor, there was also a notorious escort of the new army, and the state capital did not dare to stop it along the way. Now that these two favorable conditions are gone, it is a big question whether the wooden raft can be put down.

In addition, the advantage of Huangzhou timber is that it is a large wood for shipbuilding, and it is not cost-effective to build a river embankment with such high-grade wood, and it is not cost-effective to risk buying it back and have to process it deeply.

“…… Not only is the cost of putting down the line from Huangzhou, but the escort along the way is also a big problem. In fact, not only Huangzhou has wood, but there should also be a lot of Hebei Road. However, Wang Qi's suggestion reminded Hong Tao, why not keep an eye on Huangzhou, Hebei Road is also very familiar with it.

"Hebei Road? Daddy is going to cut down the forest? No way! "Wang Qi is more familiar with Hebei Road, there are indeed a lot of woods, but those trees are all for defense against the Liao cavalry, cutting down one is a crime, large-scale felling can be repaid, that is not to add chaos to Daddy.

"What's unacceptable, use your brain before you speak! I definitely couldn't cut it before, but maybe I can cut it when my father writes a letter...... Hey, hey, hey. "Of course, Hong Tao knows what Xingdaolin is for, but there is a good word, time has passed!

Now Youzhou is already the land of the Great Song Dynasty, with the Yanshan Mountains as a barrier in the north, and Hebei Road is no longer the front line, but a rear base, so the function must also be changed. Now defense is not the focus, and the main task is to provide strategic materials for the Youzhou front, especially food.

Under the change of this general situation, the original planting of street forests has become chicken ribs. Let's keep it, the woods and ponds occupy a large area of land, and a lot of people are needed to maintain the fire prevention. Cut it down, planting trees takes manpower, and cutting down trees is also not easy.

At present, the imperial treasury is empty, and the only money has to be used to build border defense facilities in Youzhou, and it will definitely not be able to come up with this money and grain. If you cut down and transport it yourself in the name of repairing the river, it is equivalent to doing the imperial court a favor, and it is also in line with the work of the river repair system, which is a win-win situation for both public and private.

But this idea cannot be proposed by oneself, and then whether it is right or wrong, it will be fiercely opposed by some courtiers, and the quarrel is likely to make the matter yellow.

So I have to trouble Empress Pang, she will blow the pillow wind with the emperor first, as long as the emperor passes, it is no longer her own proposal to cut down the tree, but the emperor ordered her to cut down the tree for the country, presumably no one will oppose it.

However, this matter is not urgent, and it is necessary to leave enough time for Empress Pang to operate privately. In fact, even if the timber is started immediately, it is not possible to start construction immediately, it is the rainy season, and the water volume of each river is at its highest, and the construction will have to wait until at least August.

In addition, wood alone is not enough, and the production of lime and stone must also keep up. Therefore, Wang Qi first wants to open a mine near Guishan, and it would be good if he could start construction in September.

Taking advantage of this time, Hong Tao first wrote to the imperial court in the name of the envoy of the two Huai River repairs, mentioning the repair plan of the Huai River, with only one purpose, policy.

Don't think about money, the imperial court can't take care of repairing the river at present, and the focus is all on Youzhou. After the Liao Emperor returned from defeat, he fell ill, and the Khitan nobles were not very united and quarreled over the heir to the throne.

Even though the Liao State had not yet agreed to cede Youzhou to the Northern Song Dynasty, they could no longer afford to go south in the short term. Taking advantage of this time, the Northern Song Dynasty court was building a military fortress in the mountains, intending to make the fait accompli a certainty. It is better to be able to negotiate it in the future, and if it can't be negotiated, it will have to be forcibly occupied.

There is no hope for manpower, it is said that the servants of several roads in the north have been transferred to Youzhou, and the people have also levied a lot, how can there be idlers sent to repair the river embankment for themselves to play.

But whether to give or not to give and whether to give are two different things, Hong Tao knows that the court wants no people, no food, no money, and still has to stretch out his hand with a dead face, and if they don't force them so much, they won't let go of the policy.

That's right, Hong Tao doesn't want people, money, or food, what he wants is policy. The establishment of lime mines, quarries, logging, expropriation of land along the river, and the hiring of people were not enough to build the river, and the imperial court had to be spit out before they could use chicken feathers as arrows.