The fleet led by Zhao Kai and Zhao Ziqing walked the Tongji Canal section of the Grand Canal dug out of Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of Sui, which was still operating normally. Emperor Yang of Sui built the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty into four: Tongji Canal, Hangou, Yongji Canal, and Jiangnan Canal. Tongji Canal diverted the Yellow River water from Banzhu and poured into the Huai River. At that time, Emperor Yang of Sui sent more than one million men and women in Henan counties to open the Ji Canal. Tongji Canal is divided into three sections: the western section is from Xiyuan, the eastern capital Luoyang, which diverted Gushui, Luoshui, and the east Xunyang Canal from Luoshui to the Yellow River from Luoshui; the middle section is from Luokou to Banzhu, which uses the natural river of the Yellow River; the eastern section starts from Banzhu, which leads the Yellow River water through the old path of the Bian Canal and pours into the Huai River. The route passed by the eastern section is to divert the Yellow River water along the old path of the Bian Canal, enter the Si River, and injects into the Huai River.

Tongji Canal is also called Bian Canal. Bian River, which is what we often call Bian River now. It is the Central Plains channel connecting the Yellow River and the Huai River. It flows between Kaifeng and Xuyi. Because the canal head connects the Yellow River, the river water contains a large amount of silt and is most likely to be silted. Every early spring, the effective government will organize a large amount of manpower and material resources to "block the long water to prevent silt", unblock the weir entrance and repair the channels. Otherwise, the weir entrance will be blocked and the Yellow River water cannot be directed into the channel, and the canal transportation will be interrupted.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the Tongji Canal was blocked, and there were no canal remains to be found. There are two reasons: 1. During the Southern Song Dynasty, the north fell. In order to prevent the Jin soldiers from moving south, the rulers of the Southern Song Dynasty destroyed various facilities on the canal, so that the Jin ships could not go south. In the fifth year of Shaoxi (1194), the Yellow River broke its mouth in Yangwu, and the floods went south, seizing Si into Huai, and seizing Huai into the sea. The rulers of Jin allowed the Yellow River to flood, causing disasters to the Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, floods often occurred in the Huai River basin. The Huai River flowed from the south of the canal into the Yangtze River. The Tongji Canal gradually silted into land. 2. The Yuan Dynasty established its capital in Beijing, began to dig the Grand Canal, and opened up sea transportation, resulting in the Tongji Canal gradually losing its importance.

Disaster relief is like putting out a fire. After leaving Kaifeng, Zhao Kai and Zhao Ziqing and their group did not stop too much, and they were basically on the boat. They didn't think anything about these big men, but this made the bitterness of Emperor Roufu, the golden branches and jade leaves. Moreover, she was wearing men's clothing, and she was even more inconvenient. In order to reduce sweating, she basically stayed in the cabin, and she repeatedly talked about the poems in "Journey to the West" every day, and wrote some small illustrations from time to time. This day was not sad.

After three days of the boat, he had already passed Chenliu and passed Yongcheng. Suzhou was still vivid in his sight. The reason why Zhao Kai had not yet seen his sister's identity was that he and Zhao Ziqing fought in the chessboard on the boat, making the sky and the earth dark, infatuated, completely forgetting himself, and not knowing the years.

It was already almost noon this day, and it was drizzling in the morning. At this time, the rain stopped and the clouds were clear. The warm wind was like wine. The air smelled sweet. The fragrant fruits on both sides were hidden. The scenery was so beautiful. Zhao Kai and Zhao Ziqing in the cabin had a hearty talk. After lucky win, they stopped halfway and drank a bowl of tea. Suddenly smelled a strange fragrance. The two felt hungry. Their followers appropriately brought a fat fish they had just cooked to the two. In an instant, they swept the wind and swallowed the clouds. After they had enough wine and had enough food, they talked about the local customs and customs to the beautiful scenery outside the porthole, and they were happy to be happy.

Compared with the first game of Chen Dong's house in Lanzao Lane, the two of them got rid of their grudges after getting along for the past few days, and the game seemed more relaxed and comfortable. Zhao Kai had probably figured out some rules for the way Zhao Ziqing's "Quick Chess King" and the disassembly on the chessboard became more and more handy. What's more, the several martial artists who were pressing the boat recommended by Chen Dong were very capable. After being assigned to each ship, they took care of life and other things in a well-organized manner. Zhao Kai and Zhao Ziqing had the leisure to talk about chess and fight on the boat every day.

Along the way, Zhao Kai had already sent capable generals to open up the joints of the prefectures along the way. Zhao Kai avoided all the officials who came to flatter and please, and even did not give them the chance to meet. On the golden dragon flag on the bow of the ship, there were eight big words "Idle people, please avoid them." that made the officials along the way laugh and cry. The prefecture, which was originally excited to come to greet the officials, complained deeply, and the third prince, who was highly praised by Prime Minister Cai Jing, could not scoop the same pot with them?

"Brother Zhengzhi, yesterday you said that these two mother rivers that have blessed the eternal love of Chinese children, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River are in the Bayankala Mountains, one facing north and the other facing south, and the same journey is the same. Then I will listen to you carefully today."

Zhao Ziqing smiled slightly and casually used black and white chess pieces to set up two black and white symbols of the Yellow River on the chessboard, two curved lines of the Yangtze River. The water of the Yellow River is relatively turbid. Use blackspots, and the water of the Yangtze River is relatively clear. Use whites to complement each other.

"The Yellow River is like a dragon, first raised its head north, then swooped south, then poured eastward, took away ten thousand feet of loess, spreading over the thousand-mile plain. The Yellow River brought the fertile soil of the Central Plains and brought disasters again and again. Like a double-edged sword, the people of the Chinese sang here, cried here, and gathered at the nationals here."

Zhao Ziqing paused and continued: "The Yangtze River originated from the trickle stream at the bottom of Bayan Kala Mountain. It first flowed to the deep valleys in the southwest, stormed the Jinsha River, and then flowed into Western Shu to accept the Tuojiang River, Minjiang River, and Jialing River. It gathered the Lingshui River from the Tibetan border, and then became a torrent. From then on, the river flowed eastward. When breaking through the obstacles of Daba Mountain, it rushed and roared. The peaks on both sides were high and the sky were covered with the goddess, the clouds of Wu Gorge, the vines drooped green, and the dangerous waters of the beach were rapid. After leaving the gorge, it poured thousands of miles into the hilly lakes of Huguang, and was magnificent and unrestrained, and became a great weapon. It accommodated Xiangziyuanli,

As well as the Gan River, the southern rain flow brought by the Qing River and the Central Plains loess brought by the Han River, the stars sink to the plains, the moon rises to the east, the trees and nearby mountains, and the river bank is beautiful. From then on, the river water is vast, the sun and the moon enter and exit, and the shadow of the mountain is visible across the bank. After passing Jiangning, it connects with the sea, Guangling night tide, and Shicheng tide stops. The rivers and seas refuse to greet each other, and between advance and retreat, the rivers accumulate to form a continent, blocking the rivers and intercepting the rivers; or the rivers wash away, and the rivers erode and cracking the bank and rocks collapse. Finally, the rivers pour into the sea, and the green tide ribbons are hard to hide their traces. All rivers go to the clan, and the huge seas disappear, and finally become vast."

"Listen to your words is better than reading ten years."

"There is no constant force in the war, no constant form in the water, God gave it, you and I have a little more awe, it is always good. But..." Zhao Ziqing wanted to speak but stopped, glanced at Zhao Kai who was sitting in front of him, observing the expression on his face, not knowing whether he should say the next words. As for what was transported, he, the official in the prison, had been completely unclear, which was too unreasonable.

"Brother Zhengzhi, what else can you and me be in this place of walking between you and me?"

Zhao Ziqing made a fuss and plucked up the courage to say, "Then I will tell the truth. If I say it wrong, don't go to your heart. If you let me get off the boat and go back, I will never say the word "no", and I will not be jealous of you in my heart." Zhao Ziqing stared at Zhao Kai who was also seriously frowned, and said, "From here to transport grain from water to Chengdu, it will be a completely different way, and it will not be worth the loss. After all, this grain was originally transported back from Southeast 6th Route. If we keep on board like this, even if we are lucky, it will be difficult for a dozen or two of the grain to be saved."

Zhao Ziqing said this with certainty, and naturally he had his basis. After all, he had been a supervisor for many years. Almost no one knew better than him about the transportation of Jianghuai materials. At that time, the government adopted the method of transporting Jianghuai materials in sections, just like when Pei Yaoqing and Liu Yan of the previous dynasty reformed the transportation of canals, that is, the method of transfer. At this time, the distance between the capital and Jianghuai, the center of economic importance, was far closer than that of the Tang Dynasty, but because of the large concentration of troops, the demand for food was particularly large. On the other hand, the water of the canal mainly comes from the Yellow River. Due to the influence of the dry water of the Yellow River in winter, it can only be opened for navigation for about half a year from March and April, and in October it was impossible to ship due to shallow water. Since the canal only has about half of the time for ships to sail each year, the government had to make the north transportation of huge rice and grain in Jianghuai, so it had to make the best use of the time it could be sailed for the half-year.

In addition, the depth of the canal water is not as large as the Yangtze River, and heavy ships cannot be sailed like the Yangtze River. In this case, if the canal is to fully utilize the transportation efficiency, the magic weapon of the transfer is the most appropriate method. On that day, the rice and grain supplied on the sixth routes in the southeast were transported to the Transportation Warehouses of Zhen (now Yizheng County, Jiangsu), Yang, Chu (now Huaian County, Jiangsu), Si and other prefectures in the Transportation Warehouses, which are responsible for receiving them. The rice stored in the Transportation Warehouses of each prefectures will be transported to Bianjing by ship when the canal water is long and can sail.

The shipping department has huge amounts of money, which is used as a trash to buy rice, so that if the transport department does not transport the rice to Bianjing according to the prescribed time, it will be transported to Bianjing instead of the canal, so as not to miss the time when the canal can be shipped. The shipping department usually buys these pre-stored rice at the time and place of the harvest of agricultural products so that the poor harvest of agricultural products can be used instead to pay; therefore, it has made a significant contribution to the adjustment of grain supply and demand, whether in time or in space. In addition, because the government implements a salt monopoly, the salt produced in the coastal areas of Huainan is first concentrated in Zhenzhou, so that ships coming from Jinghu, Liangzhe and other routes will unload the rice and carry it back to various places for sale; this is naturally much more economical than returning to empty ships.

When it comes to the canal that transport rice back and forth, the shipping department often has 6,000 ships. Each ship carries three to four hundred stones of rice, three to four times a year (about ships starting from Chu Sizhou can transport four times a year, and only three times a year for Zhenyang). In addition to the boatman's food along the way, each ship transports about one thousand stones a year for a total of six million stones, which is combined. If many ships traveling back and forth on the canal are to be efficient, they cannot be unorganized. At the beginning of the dynasty, the government formed a transport team of ten ships, called "gang", and was escorted by an envoy or general of the army.

At the beginning of the ninth year of Xiangfu in Dazhong (1016), in order to prevent the invasion of official property, Li Pu, the shipping company, merged the three pillars into one pillar and escorted them by three people. The three people cooperated with each other and managed them more carefully. Later, in the second year of Xining (1069-1070), because the grain transport officials and soldiers often engaged in private fraud, Xue Xiangsui recruited passenger boats and the official boats to separate the traffic in order to inspect each other and eliminate the malpractice. As for the food consumed by the grain transport officials along the way, although it can be taken from the ship.

Rice, but each ship is not allowed to cook fire and make rice freely. In each sect, only the kitchen boat of the sect can make rice for everyone to eat, and the rest of the stolen fire is not allowed to start fire to ensure safety; because on the one hand, fire can be avoided, and on the other hand, rice can be prevented from stealing. As for the canal transport personnel, they can eat and use the rice transported from their ships, because they need to avoid stagnation along the way. If the ship walks on the river, the rice and grain are prone to moisture and are more likely to be corroded over time. In order to hurry up, it is understandable that it is self-elimination.

However, in general, the annual rice transport amount of the canal is mostly six million stones, and sometimes it is reduced to five.5 million stones. In addition, the number of other materials transported by the canal in the north, such as gold, silver, money, silk, tea and various military supplies, is also very large. In the south, in addition to the six southeastern routes that supply rice, Sichuan is mainly transported to Bianjing through the Yangtze River and the canal every year because of its long distance, and the items transported to Bianjing through the Yangtze River and the canal are mainly gold, silver, incense, rhinoceros horns, ivory and department stores. Many of these materials constitute the economic basis on which the central government can maintain; and the reason why they can be transported to the central government from the south is the most important factor.

The huge amount of supplies transported from the south through the canal were not only used to support hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in Bianjing, but also to pay the administrative expenses of the central government. Some of them were then transferred north to Hebei, Hedong (equivalent to today's Shanxi Province) and Shaanxi to meet the national defense needs on that day. Because the threat of foreign troubles in the dynasty came from the Khitan in the north and the Daxia in the northwest, and the above three routes were appropriately attacked, so the government equipped them with heavy troops in these places to maintain national security and independence. With more soldiers, the military expenditure was greatly reduced.

The increase is by no means able to cope with local tax revenue, so the government had to transport some of the materials transported from the canal north to the above three routes to supply the huge demand due to the increase in garrison. Among the three routes, Hebei and the canal are more stationed there because of the defense of the largest foreign enemy (Kitan) on that day, so the materials transported from the Jianghuai River and the Canal north are transported there. In addition, in Shandong, when food panic occurs, the government often transfers the Jianghuai rice and grain from the canal north to provide for transportation.

In general, the canal was abandoned for a long time since the end of the Tang Dynasty, and some of it even collapsed and turned into a dirty water. Later, during the Xiande period of the Later Zhou Dynasty, Emperor Shizong pacified Huainan, opened the canal, and dredged it, laying the foundation for the resumption of navigation. When the founding of the country in the current dynasty, the canal became the main artery of the north and the economic center of the economy. The policy of establishing the country in the current dynasty was to avoid the disaster of the vassal states in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and centralization was mainly centralized. Because of the centralized policy, the government had to gather heavy troops to the central government to increase the prestige of the central government. Since the centralized army was stationed a lot, the demand for food naturally increased. In order to supply huge amounts of food, the government had to give up building capital in Luoyang and Chang'an, which was in a dangerous situation and inconvenient water transportation. As it was next to the canal, the southern rice and grain were more likely to be transported to a large amount of food.

Bianjing is the capital. From this we can see that the location of the central government is actually determined by the canal. Since then, due to the adoption of the general law, the canal transported millions of s of rice from the north and a large number of other materials each year, and a large number of other materials, constitute the pillars on which the central government relied. Not only that, in addition to paying the military and political expenses of Bianjing, part of the huge amount of materials transported to the north every year, was transferred north to Hebei and other places to meet the military needs caused by defense of external troubles; in addition, a small part was transported to Shandong for the purpose of relieving hunger. It can be seen that the relationship between the canal and the establishment of the current state is so close, mainly because its military and political focus is connected to the center of economic focus, resulting in a force that enables the empire of this dynasty to stand for a long time on the battlefield of international struggle that day.
Chapter completed!