There are more than 100 miles of waterway from Jiuhua to Chongcheng, and when it is nearly dusk, Lin Tie welcomes Liu Tingzhou, Liang Wenzhan and others, and first stays overnight in Jiuhua.

In the early years, Jiuhua was the water and land wharf of Chongzhou and Hecheng grassland connecting Gaocheng and Xinghua counties.

It's just that the salt river was shallow earlier, which was not conducive to the navigation of large ships, and there was no river connection between the Xishan River and the salt river, and Chongzhou was located in a remote corner, and the function of Hecheng grassland was single, and Jiuhua was only a very inconspicuous small commercial port between the three counties.

The connection between the Xishan River and the Yunyan River, the dredging and widening of the Yunyan River, Chongzhou has become the core starting point of the Jinhai Grain Road, and nearly half of the rice and grain in the counties in the hinterland of Huaidong have to pass through Jiuhua by waterway, transported to Hecheng and Chongzhou, and moved to the sea.

In less than two years, Jiuhua has risen to become a prosperous town.

Under the auspices of Hu Zhiyong, Jiuhua City has been built.

The scale of Jiuhua City is not large, 100 steps on Saturday, and it can only be regarded as a military base and a walled city.

The city is built solidly, digging out the floating soil, paving the stone as the base, rammed earth as the core, and covering the city wall bricks, which is a solid barrier standing at the mouth of the Xishan River and the Yunyan River.

Lin Tie out of the town of Huaidong to set up envoys, stationed heavy troops on the front line of Shanyang and Siyang, Jiuhua did not have the pressure of garrisoning.

However, Lin Jian still has two battalions of soldiers stationed in the Jiuhua military camp.

Xinghua, Gaocheng, Jianling and other counties in the hinterland of Huaidong, if there is an incident, it is better to transfer troops from Jiuhua than to directly transfer troops from Chongzhou.

The garrison does not interfere with local affairs, and those who catch thieves and set up cards in Jiuhua are still sword and archers directly under the jurisdiction of the Inspection Department.

Liu Tingzhou's understanding of Chongzhou only comes from local chronicles, and coming over at this time, he can be regarded as having a new perception of Chongzhou.

Jiuhua is under the direct jurisdiction of the Huaidong Envoy as the Inspection Division, but Liu Tingzhou takes a closer look at the people's situation here and can realize that under the Huaidong Envoy Division, there are obvious boundaries between military and civil affairs and are managed separately.

Thinking of this, Liu Tingzhou glanced sideways at the black and thin man with a somewhat restrained expression behind Lin Lian.

I made an introduction just now, and Liu Tingzhou and others already recognized him as the blacksmith Sun Da Furnace who had stirred up a lot of discussions in Huaidong during this time. Listen to his name, make a furnace, and make a furnace, you can know his identity as a craftsman.

Metallurgical Supervisor and Deputy Metallurgical Supervisor are only official titles placed within the Cabinet Envoy Department. The imperial court can't control so many tricks, and the official positions such as the ship envoy, deputy envoy, hundred work supervisors, deputy supervisors, ordnance supervisors, deputy supervisors, etc., are all uniformly called generals and generals, and they are listed as eight and nine grades, which are low-level civil officials.

However, how to say it, Lin Lian promoted the craftsman household as an official, and poured a scoop of cold water on the boiling oil pot, which was considered a big taboo.

Lin Tie set up a banquet in the post house to entertain Liu Tingzhou, Liang Wenzhan and others, and on the Chongzhou side, Lin Mengde, Qin Chengzu, Sun Dalu and others were accompanied.

When he was seated, Hu Dahai of Yandu Zhixian happened to sit with Sun Dalu in the opposite case.

Hearing that Chongzhou had appointed a blacksmith as an official, Hu Dahai was resentful in his heart, and when he saw Lin Lian deigning to welcome Liang Wenzhan in person, he was envious in his heart, and he couldn't hold it back in his heart. Seeing that Sun Dalu was sitting indecently, Hu Dahai couldn't hold back more and more, and couldn't help but tease: "Lord Sun was an adult at the beginning, do you know what the word 'adult' means?" ”

In the past half a month, Sun Dalu has been adapting to his new identity, listening to Lin Bin's instructions, and entering the most basic literacy class of the War Training Academy, which is far from reaching the level of breaking words and analyzing characters.

The status of the craftsman is lowly, but outstanding people such as Ge Fu and Sun Dalu are only from the background of humble thieves, restricting them from reading and writing, and they cannot become officials, but in terms of intelligence and intelligence, they are far above ordinary people, and they also have a sense of arrogance.

couldn't understand Hu Dahai's words of chewing words, Sun Dalu didn't panic, he held the table with his hand, and waited for someone to help him.

Lin Jian sat in front of the main case in the center, and only smiled, and said to Sun Dalu: "Lord Hu asked you the reason for being an official......

Sun Dalu saluted Lin Tie, and then said to Hu Dahai, who was sitting on the opposite case: "My Sun Dalu hasn't read much, I don't know the truth of being an official, I only know how to strike iron?" Does Master Hu know how to strike iron? ”

"I don't know how to strike iron, but if I want to take care of iron, I will choose the best from the craftsmen, think it is the head of the craftsman, whip the moss, and let them do their own business, so that their business will not ......be chaotic," Hu Dahai said.

"What is good and what is not good, my grandson has been rolling in front of the iron furnace since birth, I can tell, how can Master Hu tell the difference?" Sun Dalu asked rhetorically.

Hu Dahai didn't expect that this reckless man would also be sharp-toothed, so he argued with himself and sneered: "Good or not, there is word of mouth, how can an official not notice it?" These are all the skills of the imperial officials, if Lord Sun has the heart to learn, this official will not hesitate to teach him......"

Liang Wenzhan smiled slightly, Hu Dahai's words were also aimed at him. It seems that Lin Lian came to Jiuhua to greet him, which really stimulated him, making it difficult for him to make things difficult for Sun Dalu, and at the same time, he couldn't help but have a heart of showmanship.

"How to be an official, I made Master Hu confused for a while. However, my lord has said that as long as I can make the iron-smelting factory produce more good iron every year, it will be up to me to do it; If I can't, no matter how beautiful I speak, the adults will also remove me as a young man and replace it with ......someone else," Sun Dalu said, "I am a rough person, and I only learn the ability to strike iron, and I don't know what other officials have to do to be good." As far as Zuo Shaocheng is concerned, I think that as long as I can produce more good iron, I will be considered to be doing a good job. If Lord Hu can instruct Sun Dalu on how to make the iron-smelting workshop produce more good iron, Sun Dalu is willing to worship Lord Hu as a teacher; If you learn to be an official, then forget it......"

Lord Sun's words were wonderful, and Wen opened his eyes. Wen Zhan thought about it, Sun Daren's words can be summed up in one sentence: emphasizing actual achievements and ignoring scientific names," Liang Wenzhan was on the side, he knew that Sun Dalu's remarks should be caused by the influence of Lin Tie during this time, and it was actually the foundation of Lin Tie's selection of talents in Chongzhou, he changed the topic and said, "The most important thing in Huaidong at hand is to repair and defend the seawall." Whoever presides, if the repair of the Hanhai embankment can be completed and repaired, it is the waiter of the Ministry of Works and the Shangshu who deserve it; Otherwise, like Chen Zhongnian, no matter how good the morality and articles are, what good will it be? It's just more harmful...... Speaking of repairing the embankment, how does Master Hu think this seawall should be repaired? ”

Liang Wenzhan said that the Yellow River was repairing embankments and the people were in chaos, and Hu Dahai was also speechless.

Liu Tingzhou was silent, pondering the words of Sun Dalu and Liang Wenzhan, and said secretly: If you test it by actual performance, who can preside over the fast and good construction of the Hanhai Embankment is more qualified than Chen Zhongnian for the position of the waiter of the Ministry of Works.

Lin Jian didn't care about the verbal swords, such a dispute would last for a long time, and he was mentally prepared.

Although after the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty respected Confucianism, there were no other academic schools in the world. There is a big controversy that will create antagonism, and there will be many benefits. His ultimate goal is to be able to build on the old learning. Instead of clinging to the defects and letting the brains of the people of the world continue to ossify.

It may take several generations to do this, and there is no rush to achieve it for a while, but in front of you, attracting talented people and skilled craftsmen can increase Huaidong's strength.

Lin Jian instructed the entourage beside him: "You go out and have a look, have they come back?" ”

After a while, Ge Siyu and the old engineer Ge Fu walked in.

Although Ge Siyu is a child of a craftsman, he has shown his talent and fame in the examination, and has served as the director of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry.

Ge Siyu changed into a lake-blue official robe, and walked into the hall to salute everyone.

At this time, the weather was cold, and Ge Fu was wearing a fur jacket with deep gray stains, and a leather melon hat, like an old farmer in the countryside, and his appearance was not good.

Lin Jian had a table beside him before, and then stood up and said, "Old engineer, you sit here......

Hu Dahai saw that Lin Tie had arranged a seat equivalent to Liu Tingzhou by his side, and thought that there was some important person coming, but he didn't expect it to be a bad old man, his sharpness was frustrated by Liang Wenzhan and Sun Dalu, but he wanted to see what kind of character this old man was.

"If it weren't for the old Gongguan Ge, I would have wanted to trouble the old Gongguan Ge to serve as the commander-in-chief of the embankment, and now the old Gongguan Ge is the advisor of the system," Lin Jian introduced Ge Fu to Liu Tingzhou, "After the construction of Chongzhou New Town, the old Gongguan Ge inspected along the Hecheng line, and he was also most familiar with the matter of repairing and defending the seawall. When it comes to repairing the seawall, I still have to ask the old engineer Ge......"

Liu Tingzhou thought of Ge Fu, who was the number one person, and sat in front of the desk and said: "It turned out to be the old engineer of Ge Fu who was praised by the Queen Mother as the 'clever master of the world', and Tingzhou was polite here......

"I can't afford it, I can't afford it......," Ge Fu replied.

Ge Fu is a special existence in the craftsman's household, and he has been rewarded with a special purpose, and his son Ge Siyu has to participate in the scientific examination as an official. Lin Jian asked Ge Fu and Liu Tingzhou to sit against each other, and Liu Tingzhou would not feel that he had surrendered his identity.

Hu Dahai also thought of Ge Fu, thinking about what Liang Wenzhan said just now, obviously he wanted to say that Ge Fu was more qualified than Chen Zhongnian to be the waiter of the Ministry of Works, although he was not convinced, he did not dare to be too presumptuous.

Lin Jian didn't care what Hu Dahai thought in his heart, Liu Tingzhou could naturally actively cooperate with the embankment repair, that was the best, and said to Ge Fu: "I also want to trouble the old engineer to briefly talk to Lord Liu about the embankment repair...... Strive to get things done before the end of the year. ”

"Well, I'll just talk about it," said Ge Fu, "although there is no complete seawall along the Huaidong coast, where there are conditions, some seawalls have been organized and repaired by themselves piecemeal, and some knowledge of waves and storms has been accumulated. Skilled craftsmen are hidden in the people, and after the list is posted in Chongzhou, dozens of people have successively gone to Hecheng and Chongcheng to offer advice. Although the embankment has not yet been repaired, and a lot of silver has been spent, there are indeed some insightful and skillful craftsmen. There is a great addition to the previous plan, some deficiencies have also been corrected, and with the help of these newly recruited skilled craftsmen, the old decay is more certain......"

Liu Tingzhou still didn't know about Chongzhou's Zhang Bang offering a reward to ask about repairing the embankment, thinking that it was after he promoted Sun Dalu to become an official.

Liu Tingzhou also has a set of plans to repair and defend the seawall in the east of Yandu County, so he hurriedly came uninvited. This set of plans was also obtained by visiting the township and summing up the experience of his predecessors when he was an official in Yandu, and it took him two or three years to think that he was quite mature.

Unexpectedly, Lin Jian used the blacksmith as an official to make a big impact, and in such a short period of time, he recruited a new group of craftsmen from the Huaidong coast who were beneficial to repair the embankment......

From this point of view, this matter spread rapidly in the Huaidong region, and most of them also included the connivance of Chongzhou.

The Hanhai embankment was built in sections, and the southern section between Hecheng and Jiangmen was first repaired, and the work was also the most sufficient, and the plan was naturally the most complete. The middle and northern sections from Hecheng to the north to Qingjiangpu are still relatively rough. Regardless of whether the plan is rough or not, Ge Fu gave Liu Tingzhou an introduction.

The northern section of the seawall is the Yandu County section, and the northern section proposed by Ge Fu is similar to the plan that Liu Tingzhou has been entrenched in the hinterland for several years.

Lin Jian said: "This northern section of the plan was offered by Zhu Ai, a native of Xinjin in Yandu, and Chongzhou sent people to Yandu twice, but I roughly thought that this plan was usable, and it has not been finalized. This Zhu Ai has some insight, saying that he knows Lord Liu, and Lord Liu has also consulted him about repairing the embankment, but he doesn't know whether it's true or not. If he boasts, I will drive him away, and if it is true, I will make him a second and lower the seat of an order......"

Liu Tingzhou sighed in his heart and said, "This official has indeed consulted him about repairing the embankment. This man was a cowherd, and when he was young, he was good at guiding the situation and talking about the war, and the villagers said that he was crazy. When he grew up, his temperament was still calm. When I passed by Xinjin, he came to offer advice and said that it did make sense. used to repair the embankment, he is a talent, but he fought fiercely when he was young, ruined half of his face, and damaged his appearance too much, otherwise the official would have promoted him to be a clerk in Yandu......"

"I'm a swineherd, so it's appropriate to use a cowherd." Lin Lian laughed, seeing that Hu Dahai's eyes were confused, he didn't know that there was such a number one person under his rule.

The Huaidong system has limited the number of adjutant officers and subordinate officials, but there is no limit to the number of officials, as long as they can afford it.