In the Boshan Hall of Cui Zhai in Jixian County, Cui Chengxiu was holding a tea bowl that had rained through the sky and carefully wiped it with a white cotton cloth under the west window.

He wiped the tea bowl and looked at it from time to time in the light shining in from the window. Under the illumination of the light, the color of the tea bowl in his hand also changed miraculously under the slow rotation, like a fickle cloud.

This tea bowl is known as "into the kiln one color, out of the kiln ten thousand colors" of the Northern Song Dynasty Jun porcelain, Jun porcelain glaze kiln change is not artificial, but in the kiln fire in the high temperature of the natural formation. That is to say, there will never be two identical Jun porcelain in this world, each Jun porcelain is a unique existence, but also an irreproducible treasure.

Because of this characteristic, Jun porcelain has become the first of the five famous porcelains of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is known as "gold is priceless and priceless" and "there are thousands of homes, it is not as good as a piece of Jun porcelain".

The beauty of the glaze color of the Jun porcelain kiln finally attracted the attention of the government and the opposition in the Northern Song Dynasty. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty handed down his will to build an official kiln near Juntai in Yuzhou to burn tribute porcelain for the palace, which is the official kiln of Jun porcelain.

The official kiln is a tribute for the royal firing, only for the exquisite utensils, can be regardless of working hours, regardless of cost. Therefore, the Jun porcelain produced by the official kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty is even more precious, but after the change of Jingkang, the official kiln declined, the craftsmen scattered, and the manufacturing technology of Jun porcelain was lost.

After the war of the two Song and Yuan dynasties, the number of official kilns in the world has been extremely rare, and most of them are collected in the imperial palace. At this moment, the official kiln boutique in Cui Chengxiu's hand can be ranked even compared with the Jun porcelain collected in the palace.

Because of this, Cui Chengxiu regards this tea bowl as his life, and he is not willing to even clean it. He was looking at the tea bowl while cleaning when he suddenly heard a loud shouting sound coming from outside the door.

The sudden sound woke him up and made his hand tremble, but fortunately he didn't let go because of his quick reflexes. Although he kept the tea bowl in his hand, it completely dispelled his mood of appreciating the tea bowl.

Cui Chengxiu carefully put the tea bowl in his hand back into the rosewood box in front of him, and then carefully closed the box. When he was doing these movements gently, his eldest son Cui Duo had already run into the door, stood behind him, and said to him breathlessly: "Father, it's not good to be big, big. ”

Cui Chengxiu turned around, stared at his son fiercely, looked at him and lowered his head, and then said in a cold tone: "How many times have I told you, you must be calm when you come to a major event." You're not a hairy boy now, you're all people with children, how can you encounter something, and you're still so babbling..."

Cui Duo had to stand there with his head bowed and respectfully, and was reprimanded by his father for a long time, before he finally heard Cui Chengxiu stop talking and ask him what happened when he came in such a hurry.

After hearing his father stop reprimanding, Cui Duo, who was accustomed to it, immediately raised his head and said nervously: "Jiang Dejing, the squire of the Ministry of Works, who is in charge of controlling the Haihe River, after talking with several officials who have surveyed the entire Ji Canal basin, plans to build a dam between Cuiping Mountain and Phoenix Mountain in the east of the city, and use the valley between the two mountains as a pond to store water.

Father, our family accounts for nearly two-thirds of the 150,000 acres of irrigated land on the banks of the Dongzhou River in this city. Jiang Dejing is doing this, isn't he having trouble with our family? Also, the ancestral graves of many of my fathers and elders in Jizhou are in that place, and if this barrage dam comes together, won't it flood other people's ancestral graves?

Father, you have to talk to that Jiang Dejing about this. We can't let him bully our family..."

When Cui Duo was still chattering to persuade his father, Cui Chengxiu had already interrupted him impatiently, "Shut up, Jiang Dejing is also your name?" People are from the right path, and now they are members of the imperial court, do you dare to be so open-mouthed, do you want others to scold me for not having a tutor? ”

Cui Duo was frightened and immediately closed his mouth. Cui Chengxiu rolled his eyes and thought for a long time before asking his son, "Where did you hear this news?" ”

"At noon, I met Master Huang, a staff member of the county magistrate of Benzhou, in the restaurant, and he told me quietly. It is said that when the county government sent people to follow Jiang Shilang to survey the terrain on the spot, they were heard discussing this plan on the side. Cui Duo answered his father's question honestly.

The irrigated land in the north is already equivalent to the upper field in the south, although Jizhou is close to the border, so the land price is low, but the irrigated land in the east of the city is at least 8 or 9 taels and one mu.

This Jiang Dejing moved his mouth, and he was going to lose 8 or 90,000 taels, Cui Chengxiu was naturally a little annoyed in his heart. But after all, he is not as good as before, he is not Cui Benbing who leans towards the government and the opposition, but just an official who guards the system at home. Therefore, Cui Chengxiu, who has always been domineering, is willing to think for a while when he encounters things.

Cui Chengxiu suppressed her anger and thought about it carefully a few times, but she was a little confused. Even if Jiang Dejing wants to get along with him, he shouldn't make such a big deal. Flooding more than 100,000 acres of fertile land is not a trivial matter, if he collects the opinions of Jizhou's fathers and elders to appeal to the imperial court, Jiang Dejing will also not be able to do any good.

After thinking about it for a long time, Cui Chengxiu looked up at his son again and asked, "What have the people in the yamen heard, you tell me from the beginning." ”

Cui Duo blinked his eyes and was a little dumbfounded, he replied in a low voice: "I heard the news and hurried back, I haven't had time to inquire about the details or anything." ”

Cui Chengxiu suddenly lowered his face and reprimanded his son: "Then what are you waiting for, why don't you go and find those few people who heard the words, I want to listen to them in person..."

When Cui Duo was kicked out by his father to inquire about the news, in a house on Yahou Street in Jizhou County, Jiang Dejing, who temporarily lived here, was listening carefully to several officials who surveyed the topography of the river and told them about their plan to control the Ji Canal.

"The main stream of the Ji Canal begins in Jiuwangzhuang, Jixian County, flows through Jizhou, Baodi, Ninghe, Hangu and Tanggu counties, with a total length of about 300 li, and enters the sea through Beitangkou.

The biggest drawbacks of the river are its meandering channels, small cross-sections of the main channel, and lack of maintenance of the embankments on both banks. As soon as the rainy season arrives, the downstream floods. However, in the dry season, there is not enough water in the river, and it is difficult to irrigate the fields on both banks. As a result, the lower reaches are all swampy wastelands, or places of repulsion.

The topography of Jizhou is high in the north and low in the south, and the height difference between the mountainous area in the north and the depression in the south is nearly 1,000 meters. The mountainous area occupies about half of Jizhou, and many of the rocks on the top of the mountain are exposed, making it impossible to retain rainwater.

If we can split the mountain between Fenghuang Mountain and Cuiping Mountain in the middle reaches of the Zhou River, and turn the upstream riverside basin into a lake in the mountains with vast waters, we can not only eliminate the flood disaster downstream, but also solve the water problem of the people in the upstream and downstream.

According to our calculations, as long as the reservoir can hold 165 meters of water, 1.5 million acres of fertile land can be developed downstream. A middle-aged official said eloquently to Jiang Dejing.

Jiang Dejing, who was sitting in a chair, pressed his temple with his hand, trying to sober himself up. Although Chongzhen himself served as the commander-in-chief of the Haihe River governance, it was him, the deputy commander-in-chief, who really did the work.

The management of the Haihe River may sound like just one river, but in fact it has included all the water systems north of the Yellow River and the North China Plain.

Although a branch headquarters was established for each branch river, Fan Jingwen also helped him take over the management of the Luan River system. But Jiang Dejing still thinks that it would be good if he could divide himself into several people to use.

The Ji Canal was the least difficult river management work, but after several survey officials traveled through the entire river basin and proposed a grand plan to use the valley as a reservoir, Chongzhen's interest was immediately aroused.

Officials of this era, including Jiang Dejing, were still in the concept of tinkering with the river. Basically, no one would have thought about the grand idea of submerging hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land upstream and then transforming millions of acres of fertile land downstream.

In fact, this desire to change the world can only occur in the rising period of a dynasty, and in the last years of the dynasty almost no one has proposed such a risky plan.

When he first heard about this plan, Jiang Dejing didn't think so, thinking that someone wanted to cater to Chongzhen and win the emperor's favor. After all, since Chongzhen ascended the throne, he has been pushing forward one major project after another.

Now the officials of the government and the opposition know that His Majesty is not an emperor who likes to be quiet, but a bit like Emperor Yang of Sui, who is very happy. All officials who want to rule everything will basically be put into a separate book by Chongzhen, but some officials who love to toss often get Chongzhen's greetings.

With such a direction in the imperial court, there is naturally no shortage of villains who want to be close. But after arriving in Jizhou and surveying the valley with several officials, Jiang Dejing had to admit that this was indeed a good plan. If it can be successful, it can greatly alleviate the problem of insufficient grain production in the north.

"If we follow this plan, how many people will be displaced from this valley? How long will the project take? How much does this barrage dam cost? Jiang Dejing put down his hand and asked the few officials in front of him.

Seeing that Jiang Dejing no longer had the color that he was dissatisfied with when he just arrived, this made several officials who proposed the reservoir plan feel a lot more relieved.

One of the officials immediately replied: "There are about 76 villages in the valley, and more than 8,000 people are going to move out. The total length of the barrage dam is 2,203 meters, the height of the dam is 20 meters, and the width of the dam crest is 6 meters. With 40,000 laborers, it can be completed within a year..."

"If that's the case, then it's better to start construction now in the winter so that you don't have to delay for a year." Jiang Dejing said thoughtfully.

Several officials in front of him nodded their heads again and again, but one of them looked at Jiang Dejing's face carefully and said, "But somehow, this news has spread now." The squires and the common people of Jizhou don't seem to be very happy. It is said that two-thirds of the land in this valley belonged to the family of the former military department Shangshu Tsui. ”

Jiang Dejing only hesitated, and then said: "Don't worry, I'll write a letter first, and submit your detailed plan to Your Majesty." After His Majesty has made a decision, I will go to see this Cui Benbing again. ”