The lights are dim in the middle of the night, the north wind is blowing, and the garden trees in the Chongcheng Post House are whirring.

Zhang Yan sat frowning under the lamp, and the herbs for the construction of the Huaidong Han seawall were spread out in front of him.

The young man in Tsing Yi who was waiting next to him opened his eyes and didn't dare to doze off. I don't know what happened to the adults, I took this stack of thirty or fifty pages, came back in the afternoon, and sat in front of the window without moving my feet. Reading it over and over again, I couldn't wait to pick out every word and eat it, my brows tightened more and more, and I didn't squeak for a long time.

"You go to the front to see if Liu Tingzhou is asleep?" Zhang Yan instructed the little guy in Tsing Yi on the side.

The little guy in Tsing Yi thought to himself: It's almost dawn, how can he not sleep? I didn't dare to reply, so I answered and walked out quickly.

In order to repair and defend the seawall, Lin Yan also summoned the inspectors of the two salt farms in Sheyang and Dafeng to which the salt and iron envoys belonged to Chongzhou to discuss the matter, Zhang Yan was relieved a lot, and he was afraid that the salt officials in Sheyang and Dafeng would not be able to see through the hidden cats that Lin Tie might hide, so he did not hesitate to bend his identity and personally went to Chongzhou to participate in the deliberations.

This is the third day that Zhang Yan has come to Chongzhou, and it is also this afternoon that he got a relatively complete herbal book for the construction of the seawall, which did make him see a lot of cattiness from it.

Huaidong repaired and defended the seawall, involving Huainan Salt District, Hailing Mansion, and Huai'an Mansion.

Zhang Yan is here, Liu Tingzhou is here; Liu Shidu was in Chongzhou before, and he walked around the two counties of Jianling and Gaocheng, and also came to Chongzhou.

Zhang Yan didn't believe Liu Shidu, but wanted to communicate with Liu Tingzhou privately before the decision tomorrow, so as not to be isolated and not supported during tomorrow's deliberations.

The little girl in Tsing Yi turned his head and walked back, and said: "There is a light in the courtyard in front of me, and I found out after asking that Lord Liu just asked someone to send supper over, so he should not have slept ......."

Hearing what the little guy said, Zhang Yan also felt hungry.

Although Zhang Yan is the salt and iron envoy of the fourth grade, he and Liu Tingzhou are not subordinate to each other, and it is inconvenient to summon Liu Tingzhou to see him.

Afraid that Liu Tingzhou would fall asleep, and he couldn't take care of his hunger, Zhang Yan took the draft book and walked to the front yard to see Liu Tingzhou.

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"Lord Liu, what do you think of the herbs of Hanhaitang?" Zhang Yan didn't wait for his subordinates to make tea, so he couldn't wait to ask Liu Tingzhou's opinion.

"It's also perfect, and the system must have been prepared for a long time." Liu Tingzhou said.

Liu Tingzhou wrote to the imperial court that he wanted to use salt and silver to repair the seawall in Yandu, but Zhang Yan knew about it. Of course, this kind of thing does not need Zhang Yan to come forward, and it is impossible for Liu Tingzhou's excerpt to enter the palace and present it to the emperor.

What is Liu Tingzhou's attitude towards repairing the seawall, Zhang Yan is naturally not difficult to guess. But in the later stage of the Huaisi War, Liu Tingzhou and Lin Jian had a rather stiff quarrel, and in this matter, he could only win Liu Tingzhou's support first.

"From Hecheng to the north to Qingjiang Punan, two hundred miles, only four river locks were built. There are only four rivers in the three counties that can pass through the embankment to the sea, once the Huaidong floods, how can the four river sluices have time to drain the water? Zhang Yan said.

"Waterlogging and tide invasion are all harms of Huaidong, but the tide encroaches on nine points, and waterlogging only accounts for one point, that is, a river sluice is not repaired, and building a seawall is also more beneficial than disadvantageous." Liu Tingzhou was originally from Baoying County, and he has been an official in Huai'an for a long time, so he knows the situation in Huaidong well.

When the world repairs the river sluice is not a simple matter, a double or three string river sluice more than ten zhang wide, piles and buried bricks, and stone and molten iron, must be built extremely strong in order to block the impact of the tide.

The river gate is equipped with a movable gate, and a bridge is also erected on it to connect with the causeway, and the cost is even more than a fortified city.

From Hecheng to the north to Punan, Qingjiang, in order to defend the middle and northern sections of the seawall, the budget of the 200-mile dry embankment is 700,000 taels of silver, and the budget for the four river gates alone is 300,000 taels.

Every time a river gate is added, it will cost an extra 70,000 or 80,000 taels of silver, and this pressure cannot be borne on anyone's shoulders.

In Liu Tingzhou's previous plan for the construction of a sea pond in the east of Yandu County, there was not even a single river sluice gate, which was forced to make a trade-off between waterlogging and sea invasion in the face of huge costs.

"Jiangmen and Hecheng have actually fallen into the pockets of Lin Tie, and the Han Hai Hai is built from Jiangmen and Hecheng to the north, traversing the eastern border of Huaidong," Zhang Yan said. ”

Liu Tingzhou sighed slightly and said: "It is said that it is completed in two years, but I don't think it will be possible to compete for merit in three or five years." In the past three or five years, Chongzhou has continued to invest a lot of silver in it, which is a plan, and it is far away after three or five years...... Three or five years later, it is time for inland water transport to resume. ”

Most of the world's grain has to transit from Huai'an, the prefect of Huai'an has the responsibility of supervising Cao, Liu Tingzhou is also quite familiar with Cao Yun affairs, it is not difficult to guess that Lin Tie is actually from the salt and silver grain, Jinhai grain road to raise money and grain to repair the seawall.

In terms of the amount of grain transported, Chongzhou obtained silver from salt and silver to protect grain, and it was only four or five hundred thousand taels of silver per year.

Now that Lin Jian has invested all this silver in repairing the seawall, this is also going to be blocked, is it forcing Lin Jian to use this silver to accumulate troops? Weigh the lesser of two evils, such a simple truth, how can Liu Tingzhou not understand?

Liu Tingzhou knew why Zhang Yan was opposed.

Lin Tie wanted to repair the seawall, and the first thing he proposed was to protect the three counties of Yandu, Jianling, and Gaocheng from tidal invasion, after all, the two Huaiyan areas were not within the jurisdiction of Lin Tie. However, the real plan came out, and the entire seawall should be built within the Huainan Salt District, and Zhang Yan was afraid that Lin Jian would take this opportunity to put the Huainan Salt District into the jurisdiction of the Huaidong Envoy in disguise.

Zhang Yan has suffered a big loss in the Hecheng grassland, and it is no wonder that he is wary at this time.

Liu Tingzhou said secretly: The defense of the seawall is in the territory of the three counties of Yandu, Jianling, and Gaocheng, and you have to worry about the infiltration of Lin Bin's forces into these three counties? You can't build a seawall into the sea.

In the three counties of Yandu, Jianling and Gaocheng, the fields all have their own owners, and the seawall is repaired in these three counties, and the land acquisition is time-consuming and laborious, and there is no trouble in the salt area.

More importantly, the construction of the seawall should have the dual role of protecting the land and salt.

Every time the tide invades, it is the salt farmers who live by the sea who suffer the most. There is nowhere to escape, and there is no time to escape, often the houses are floating in the sea, and there are countless drowned, the salt households are extremely harmed, and the production of the salt area is also greatly affected.

The seawall passes through the salt area, and the salt is boiled outside the embankment, and the salt households live inside the embankment.

The plan also mentions that a large number of tidal shelter piers should be built outside the embankment. When salt households are boiling salt outside the embankment, they can also take temporary refuge on the high pier nearby.

God knows, how 100,000 salt people would have wished they could build such a sea-defying embankment in the salt area!

Besides, Lin Jian drew silver from the "salt and silver to protect the grain", which makes perfect sense.

Zhang Yan was worried that Lin Tie would reach out to the Huainan Salt District and put the Huainan Salt District into the jurisdiction of the Huaidong Envoy in disguise, which was entirely possible.

In the construction plan, the southern section of the embankment between Hecheng and Jiangmen will be built first, but seven post forts will be built every 30 miles to the east of Yandu, Jianling and Gaocheng.

To build the post fort, one is to prepare for the construction of the embankment in the future, and the other is to build the post fort in the future to be embedded with the embankment.

The whole Hanhai embankment is built, and it is also a big post road that runs through the eastern part of Huaidong, and the post fort separated by thirty miles can naturally be used as a post station. Four of these stations coincide with the Chuhai River Locks, effectively controlling the four main rivers entering the salt area.

The whole plan is quite ingenious, these seven post forts are controlled by the Huaidong Army, and the Hanhaihai Avenue runs through the Huainan Salt District, so it is naturally not difficult to imagine the completion of the embankment, and the degree of control and penetration of the Huainan Salt Area by Lin Tie.

Of course, Lin Jian promised at this time that he would transfer the embankment and the post fort to the jurisdiction of the Salt and Iron Division after it was completed, but Zhang Yan really couldn't believe Lin Lian's character.

However, the role of defending the seawall in salt preservation is very obvious and important, Zhang Yan wanted to oppose it but couldn't find an excuse, so he wanted to come over to explore Liu Tingzhou's tone. As long as there is Liu Tingzhou's support, Zhang Yan gritted his teeth, and he must insist on moving the Hanhai wall to the west for twenty miles, so as to prevent Lin Yan from taking this opportunity to spread his hands all over the Huaidong Salt Area; But Liu Tingzhou pretended to be confused at this time.

Within three or five years, the river transportation was restored, which naturally cut off Chongzhou's largest financial resources. And Chongzhou invested the silver in repairing the sea embankment before, and Lin Jian did not have much choice except to be a loyal minister of the Dayue Dynasty, and it was not a problem to be a marquis and a prince.

What if, in three or five years, inland river transportation cannot be restored? At that time, the marquis and the prince of the country could satisfy the ambition of the fledgling Lin Bin?

In Liu Tingzhou's view, it is better to build the Hanhaihai wall on the border line between the three counties and the salt area, than to completely build the Hanhai seawall in the salt area?

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failed to win Liu Tingzhou's support, Liu Shidu also expressed his support early, and Zhang Yan also knew that he was difficult to support alone. Even Yue Lengqiu also hoped that Chongzhou's money and grain could be spent on the repair of the sea embankment, but he was opposed by one person, and if he was stabbed into Beijing, he would have a disagreement with Zhang Xie and Hao Zongcheng, while Li Zhuo had always been supportive of the Huaidong Army.

Zhang Yan only hoped that the construction of the seawall could be delayed for three to five years, and only hoped that the river transportation would be restored within three to five years, and the policy of "salt and silver to protect grain" would naturally be nullified.

In this way, by the end of November, the plan for the construction of the seawall was largely decided.

The southern section of the seawall has entered the implementation stage first, and the conditions are also the most mature.

The Huaidong envoy had already set up a patrol inspection department in Hecheng and Jiangmen, built a walled city, and also built a road between Jiangmen and Hecheng, and in order to prevent the luxury family from sending troops to attack Chongzhou from the sea, Jiangmen and Hecheng also built three strong beacon forts. After Lin Jian decided to build a levee to defend the sea, a large number of temporary military camps were built in Hecheng and Jiangmen.

Chongzhou has the Yangtze River in the south, the Yunyan River in the north, and the terrain is slightly higher than the Hudang Plain in the north, and there is no river gate between Jiangmen and Hecheng. At this time, as long as the person is pulled up, the embankment can be built immediately in four sections.

In the northern and middle sections, seven post forts should be built every 30 miles, and then the sea sluice should be built, and the embankment will be built in sections to connect the post fort with the river sluice.

By the end of November, Ding Zhuang and his family members had moved from Huaisi to Chongzhou, mainly along Hecheng and Jiangmen, except for a small number of people who were resettled in Shanyang.

Of course, the initial investment is also huge.

The battalion is composed of 60,000 soldiers, and the monthly food and salary input is 30,000 stone of rice and 20,000 taels of silver, which is not difficult to bear, after all, it is invested month by month.

Besides, so many people are all basic soldiers of the Huaidong Army, and they must be raised in strict accordance with the battalion establishment.

If it weren't for the construction of iron smelting and various craftsman workshops in Chongzhou, the Huaidong Army would have bought tens of thousands of iron tools, not even silver.

Whether the embankment can improve efficiency, a large number of iron tools are indispensable.

When Lin Jian first came to Chongzhou, he dug soil and pits in the township, and used wooden shovels and shovels. Every time the county is conscripted to work, how can the efficiency be high if they don't pay for money and food for business trips, or let the villagers bring their own tools?

Of course, in addition to a large number of iron tools, a large number of mules, horses and vehicles were also invested; In this way, the construction period can be guaranteed to be completed within two years as much as possible.