The Wenyu River in the northeast of the capital originates from the foothills of Jundu Mountain in Changping District, is formed by the confluence of hundreds of springs in the mountains, and there are three larger tributaries of Dongsha River, Beisha River and Nansha River in the upper reaches, and there are several small rivers in the middle, and the North Canal flows into Beiguan in Tongzhou District, and the river is nearly 100 miles long.

The middle reaches of the Wenyu River are commonly known as the Shahe River, which flows into the southwest of Shunyi County from Changping, commonly known as the West River, and flows southeast through Tianzhu Village in Shunyi. The Nanbeisha River has abundant water and is an important water source for irrigation of farmland on both banks.

In the sixth year of Longqing, the imperial court sent 3,000 soldiers to dredge the 140-mile river from the Nansha River to the Tongzhou ferry. The navigation capacity of the Wenyu River has been improved, and the rations of the Changping garrison and the soldiers and civilians guarding the tomb and building the tomb can reach Changping directly from the south of the Yangtze River through the North Canal.

During the Wanli period, the imperial court introduced the Xiaoqing River into the Nansha River, and the Nansha River became an important waterway transportation artery in northern Beijing.

This year, the imperial court launched a project to control the Haihe River system, and the Wenyu River and the North Canal began to dredge and repair the embankment.

As an important waterway in northern Beijing, the Wenyu River is usually well managed, so the work of renovating the river is not heavy.

However, in order to control the amount of water flowing into the Haihe River, and to ensure the use of water in the dry season. The Water Control Headquarters decided to build six small and medium-sized reservoirs in the mountainous areas of the upper reaches of the river to store water sources as flood control and water conservancy projects.

In addition, embankments were built along the river, and 4 sluices were built as water conservancy projects on both banks. It is expected that the project will be completed within two years, and the irrigated land on both sides of the river will increase from thousands of acres to more than 10 million acres.

Sun Boyang stood on the embankment of the Shahe River and looked into the river below. The nearly five-mile-long stretch of the Sand River, which was rippled a month ago, has now become a muddy pond after the upstream water has been diverted.

Nearly 10,000 river workers are digging up the silt at the bottom of the river and expanding the width of the river. We are going to take advantage of the dry season in May and June to rush out this section of the river.

These river workers were mainly farmers drawn from nearby villages, and the river workers who had to use the threat of force by the overseers and officials to do some work now seemed to be full of self-consciousness.

They were in high spirits, humming local tunes, digging hard and carrying baskets of large chunks of mud. They seem to have completely forgotten that this was the river labor they hated most in the past.

It is not only these male river workers who have been recruited to work on the river construction site, but also many of the family members of the river workers on the river embankment have also been organized to boil water and cook to do some work within their ability.

The excavated river mud is loaded on donkey carts and transported to the village in order to be used as a base for the fertile fields.

"It's like a swarm of ants." Sun Boyang, who was standing under the willow tree, looked at the flow of people up and down the river embankment and the vehicles that carried away the silt, and couldn't help but have such a thought in his mind.

The scene in front of him was something he had never seen in his life, there was no supervision from the officials and the army, only the person in charge elected by each village, under the command of several officials of the Ministry of Works, coordinating so many people to do one thing consciously.

The positive and optimistic labor spirit that erupted from these people, and the hot labor scene, made Sun Boyang feel excited every time he saw it.

There are nearly 20 more such construction sites up and down the Wenyu River, and this is the largest one.

Sun Boyang always wanted to write something for this scene, but every time his emotions were about to burst out, he was never able to express what he felt in words in poetry, and at this time he felt how correct the emperor's criticism of himself was.

With a sigh, Sun Boyang turned around and walked towards a shack behind the embankment. After the Guozijian Zhusheng was reprimanded by the emperor, within a few days, the personnel of the Guozijian were pulled to Yingzhouwei to assist in the work of land clearance.

After that, many things happened, and when everything settled down, they were given two choices, one was to return to Yenching University to receive a new education, and the other was to accept the appointment of the imperial court to form various public schools in Shunyi, and after three years, they were qualified to participate in the Jinshi examination.

Sun Boyang didn't want to go back to Yenching University and be isolated again, and in these days in Shunyi, he liked the peaceful life in the countryside, so he chose the latter.

After the Wenyu River improvement project began, as the principal of Tianzhu Village Primary School near the river, he was also the most literate person in the local area.

The scale of the river improvement project is large, so it is divided into a section of the river project, and there are too many projects in the hands of the Ministry of Engineering, and there is a large shortage of manpower to write and calculate, so Sun Boyang also pulled to the project department of this section of the river project in Tianzhu Village, responsible for some writing and calculation work.

Although Sun Boyang was known for his excellent Baguwen in the Guozi Prison, he was in fact also proficient in arithmetic. Because he had a small pawnshop in his house, he learned how to plan before he even went to school.

It's just that in order not to be despised by his classmates in the same prison, he has been hiding his family.

Within a few days of coming to this project, Sun Boyang immediately stood out. The personnel sent by several other villages really didn't know anything about calculations.

Sun Boyang soon became an important role in the project department, calculating earthwork, calculating labor, transporting earthwork, etc., all of which required him as the final audit.

In order to reduce his workload, Sun Boyang quickly got the project department to agree and set up a temporary school, where he came to teach simple writing and various arithmetic knowledge.

Sun Boyang's students quickly expanded from the arithmetic and writing documents sent by the villages to the children who followed their parents to work on the construction site. A few villagers in charge of the river project thought that instead of letting the children run around the construction site, it would be better for them to recognize a few words with Mr. Sun.

Sun Boyang walked back to the shed, which was a large shed with ventilation on both sides, and the roof was piled with thick thatch, so as to ensure that the shed would not be wet from the rain.

Seeing Sun Boyang walk in, nearly 100 people of all sizes in the shed immediately got up to greet him. The students were of all ages, the oldest of whom was almost 15 or 6 years old, and the youngest of whom was only 4 or 5 years old.

There were no tables in the shack, only homemade wooden benches, and some students didn't even have a bench, just a stump.

The students were better-off, holding a sand table made of wood to learn to write, and almost a charcoal and a slightly flat stone.

In front of Sun Boyang stood a three-foot-square blackboard and half a box of chalk, which he had purchased from the capital at his own expense.

Every time he stood in front of these students, Sun Boyang felt that he could do anything, and what he said was regarded as a classic by these students, and this spiritual sense of achievement and satisfaction made him forget the humiliation of being reprimanded by the emperor in the country.

Zhu Youzhen and Jiang Dejing, who were dressed in regular clothes, rode side by side, escorted by a small group of cavalry behind them.

Zhu Youzhen pulled the reins, not as good as Chifeng to run out of character, and turned his head to say to Jiang Dejing, who was a horse's head behind him.

"The construction sites on the North Canal and the Wenyu River, we have just seen 4 of them. I found that all the construction sites that used prisoners as river workers were lagging behind, and it seemed that some measures should be taken to encourage them, otherwise they would not have been completed in time for the summer flood season. ”

The emperor's words made Jiang Dejing think for a moment, and then came up with an idea: "Your Majesty, since ancient times, if you want to make people do things well, there is nothing more than fair rewards and punishments.

Among these prisoners were felons who assaulted people, and there were also petty offenders who simply extorted small people on the streets. Now His Majesty has made them atone for their sins by the work of rectifying the river, which is the way to punish them.

However, their sentences are fixed, which means that no matter how much effort they exert or how many rivers they build, they have nothing to do with their sentences, so they cannot reflect the way of rewarding merit.

In order to increase the motivation of these prisoners, it is necessary to give those who have performed well a reduced sentence. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded subconsciously, and then said: "You work out a reward clause to reduce these prisoners, and I will negotiate with the Criminal Department." What is the construction site ahead? ”

Jiang Dejing looked up at the terrain and replied, "It's Tianzhu Village." ”

After the Ministry of Labor, who was on duty on the embankment, got the report, he greeted him from afar.

Accompanied by this small official, Chongzhen and Jiang Dejing inspected the entire river construction site. Although the progress of the project did not seem to be slow, Zhu Youzhen asked the little official quite worriedly.

"With so many people requisitioned at this construction site, will it affect their work in the fields? Is there a shortage of materials distributed by the Ministry of Industry? ”

The little official bowed down and explained to the emperor nervously: "This section of the river is relatively gentle, and in the past, the fields on both sides of the river could be watered by the river, so the land is relatively fertile, and the population of several villages along the river is larger than that of other villages.

In addition, now that spring sowing is almost over, there are a lot of surplus laborers in each village, and now they work according to the village, some people are arranged to complete farm work at home, and the other part goes out to work in the river, which is just not delayed.

The excavated river mud is the best fertilizer, and the project department distributes it according to the number of workers in each village, so every household in the village can benefit, so everyone's enthusiasm is quite high.

In addition, the rations and salt distributed by His Majesty according to the number of workers just allowed these people to save a few mouthfuls of food for their families, and they did not have to borrow from the landlord as in previous years, which also helped them breathe a sigh of relief.

As for the materials raised by the Ministry of Industry, there was no shortage of them except for stones. ”

Zhu Youzhen glanced at the river and understood that these stones were used to protect the foot of the embankment and prevent the river from directly washing the embankment.

Jiang Dejing watched the emperor turn his searching gaze to himself, and could only spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "Changping is where His Majesty's ancestral tomb is located, and there are not many places where you can quarry. Now these stones are from Mentougou and Fangshan areas, and it is really inconvenient to transport stones from these two places. The minister thought that if he wanted to complete it as soon as possible, he could only modify the design and shorten the river channel that used the barrier. ”

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