Uncle Hong Lou Rong

Chapter 210 The Enough Dark Water Transportation Department
A group of people went to Xue's shop first, Brother Rong first met the shopkeeper, and then Xue Baochai.The matter was clearly explained, Jia Chang, Jia Ling and others went with the Xue family from Jinling East to Suzhou.

"I just read the list, and the Xifu paid a lot of money for this visit." Xue Baochai sighed leisurely, "To save face, but to hollow out all the money of the Rongguo Mansion. Calculated in this way, I don't know if this is a good thing or not. Bad thing."

"Who knows?" Brother Rong took Baochai's little hand and entered the backyard of the shop.The shopkeeper in the shop frowned and turned his head away, not daring to look directly.

"You are a bold person. The shopkeeper in this shop is the uncle of the Xue family. Are you afraid that he will write a letter to Shenjing after seeing it?" Xue Baochai let out a light annoyance, and then said leisurely: "I also got a mother two days ago. Shuxin, the family has moved out of Lixiangyuan, and changed to another secluded courtyard on the east side of Rongguo Mansion."

Brother Rong hummed.Their Ningguo Mansion is spacious and has many spare yards.But now there is no good reason for the Xue family to move to Ningguo Mansion.He laughed and said, "What's wrong with being accused of going to Shenjing? If my aunt knows the inside story, I'll go over and plead guilty, so I won't be able to take you into Ningguo Mansion. It also saves you from continuing to look at your sister in the name of Go to Ningguo Mansion."

Xue Baochai said: "I didn't go to see Xiangling to find you. I just worried that this little girl doesn't understand the rules, so as not to leave a bad impression in front of your grandma Rong."

"You care about her."

"Although we are relatives, we have to be like that when we go back and forth." Xue Baochai smiled softly, and asked again: "I really don't want to go to the clothes making place to see? Where did you leave a few styles, which will definitely make you happy." You are feasting your eyes."

What a nice little set of underwear.Brother Rong asked her suspiciously, "But Bao'er will try on each suit and let me visit Haosheng?"

Xue Baochai snorted, "This is delusional."

"..."

In the end, Brother Rong still couldn't see Baochai trying on clothes in person, so he went back to the kiln outside the city in embarrassment.A few days later, he received a letter from Duan Yu.

"It's been half a month and you haven't sent anything from heaven?" Brother Rong couldn't believe it.It only takes a few days to travel from Pinganzhou to Huaiyang area. "Why did it take so long for half a month?"

"It's not a big deal at all. It's just that the water transportation will be closed in the next few months, and now it's a critical period to repair the three river gates of Hongze Lake. If the sky is short, Hongze Lake and many places in Xuyi County The construction will be stalled. No one can afford it for a few months."

Brother Rong asked suspiciously: "It's fine, why is the water transport blocked?"

The person who sent the letter explained: "Now that October is approaching, all the grain from the south has gathered in Huai'an, and we only need to wait for the Ministry of Water Transport to open the grain transport. By then, thousands of grain boats will come and go to the canal. It is other interests that have completely changed his way of dealing."

It turned out that it was time to deliver grain, which was indeed a troublesome matter.Transporting grain by grain is not as simple as transporting natural objects, because there are so many grains in grain, the escort is extremely slow.And because every time the grain comes to a gate, it has to be unloaded and checked for inspection, and it can only continue northward after receiving a license.

Originally, the one-month journey took at least two or three months.

Jia Rong asked: "Do you have any letters from the kiln factory in Ping'an Prefecture? Did Huanhua Tianwu come here by dry road?"

The visitor smiled bitterly and said: "If there is a letter, Yu Shangguan does not need to find Rong's guards. However, there is no news now, and the canal is closed to store water because of the grain, and the north-south travel is not as convenient as before."

Brother Rong said helplessly: "Could it be that the canal was blocked, and Qin Zhong and others changed the land route. If this is the case, the land road is remote and heavy objects are difficult to move, so it is normal to delay for a long time."

He didn't expect that the governor of the water transport really thought of a way to seal the canal with such an incomprehensible reason as escorting grain, which prevented the cement from Ping'an Prefecture from being sent to the south of the Yangtze River.It's just that Jia Rong felt that something was wrong, even if it was sealed, it was impossible to ban it completely.

The visitor said: "Shangguan Yu also thought so, so he sent his subordinates to ask, when will the kiln in Jinling be completed?"

Brother Rong said: "There is no such thing as fast, it will be December at the earliest."

"There are still two months to go. What should we do? The water conservancy projects in Hongze Lake and Xuyi County must not be shut down. Several big families in Xuyi have donated more than [-] taels of silver."

On the same day, Brother Rong came to Jia Qiang to explain, and he rushed to Yangzhou overnight with the people from the Hedao Yamen.

In Yangzhou City, he finally met Duan Yu who was like an ant in a hot pot.

He asked, "Brother Yu isn't supervising the work on the embankment of Hongze Lake, why did he come to Yangzhou?"

How could Duan Yu still be in the mood to say these things? If he hadn't been unable to leave, he would have wanted to go to Jinling to find Jia Rong.He asked eagerly, "How should things be done?"

Seeing his serious face, Brother Rong pulled up, it seemed that he was really anxious.He asked: "Can the Governor of Hedao and Master Guan Hedao be in Yangzhou? What calculations do they have?"

Duan Yudao: "Guanhe went to Huaidong to build the diversion channel for Hongze Lake into the sea, and the governor of the river channel opened flood discharge canals in Surabaya and Lema Lake. Now Hongze Lake is only managed by our two brothers. They don't know that the cement is broken. matter."

Brother Rong asked again: "In one month, you don't need much cement? Is it really so urgent now?"

Duan Yu nodded and said: "How can we not be in a hurry? Although excavation is the main focus now, several new gates will be built in Xuyi County. In this section, the work of repairing the gates on the Huaihe River will be postponed a lot."

dry.

Brother Rong gave this guy a blank look and almost scared me to death.I thought that the excavation of several projects in Xuyi County had been completed, and it was time to repair gates and dams.It turned out that the excavation was still going on, the cement was so urgent.

He said: "Since there is no need for a large amount of cement, we don't need to worry, maybe the cement in Ping'an Prefecture will be delivered in a few days."

Duan Yu said: "I haven't come for half a month, how many days will I be able to come? It's really hard. The further you go, the colder the weather will be. In a few days, it will snow in the north. By then, the transportation will be even more troublesome."

Jia Rong comforted her and said, "If Shangguan Yu is really worried, he can go to the Lema Lake Palace and report to the Thirteenth Lord. Take an emergency board and let the Ping'an State Kiln Factory deliver the objects smoothly."

Duan Yu was at a loss for words when he heard it.What he was going to say was actually said by Jia Rong, this... He coughed twice, and said: "Brother Rong, something is wrong. The cement and objects belong to your Ningguo Mansion, and the Hedao Yamen bought it with money. You can't send it now...Why is Brother Rong going to the Lema Lake Palace to look for the Thirteenth Master?"

Going to Lema Lake again?This place is far away.Brother Rong sighed and said, "Brother Yu, have you forgotten that Lord Shisan ordered me to supervise the completion of the Jinling cement kiln factory, and now it is an important matter. Fortunately, Jinling is not far from Yangzhou, and my younger brother can still come here. I’m going to Lema Lake, and it will take at least ten days to go back and forth.”

"I'd like to go there too, but this matter belongs to your family, and it may not be useful if I go there." Duan Yu sighed twice, life in Xuyi was not easy.The wind and rain every day made her face darken to several degrees.Seeing that Jia Rong didn't answer, he said again: "Brother Rong, if you solve this problem, how about my brother asking you to stay in Jinling for a longer time?"

"Really?" Brother Rong was overjoyed.

"Really... Seriously." Seeing his expression, Duan Yu always felt that something was wrong, but couldn't tell.

Brother Rong quickly responded, and said: "It's okay, if I solve the cement shortage, in the past few years, the Hongze Lake and Xuyi matters will all be watched by Brother Yu."

Duan Yu pondered for a moment, wondering if there was any fraud in it.After thinking about it for a while, it didn't look like a fraud.He heard that the Jinling Kiln Factory would not be completed until December, and Brother Rong couldn't come back from Jinling at all years ago.

So he promised: "Brother Rong, if you solve the cement problem and the repair of gates in Xuyi County, I will watch them all years ago."

"It's easy to say." Jia Rong laughed twice. "It shouldn't be too late, my little brother rushed to Lema Lake overnight."

"So anxious?"

"Of course." Brother Rong smiled secretly, he had already settled the matter here, and returned to Jinling early to accompany Sister Feng and Baochai.There are Jia Qiang and Zong Cheng in the Jinling Kiln Factory, and I have almost explained what I should explain there.

He bid farewell to Duan Yu and went all the way by boat.After passing through Huai'an, I realized that it was not considered a ban, but that the Ministry of Water Transport changed the rules of the gates of the canal for the grain transported for escort.Now each ship lock requires hundreds of ships to open the lock, and the fees for each checkpoint are rising rapidly.

Jia Rong secretly sighed: "It turns out that it is such a banning law. Officials at various sections of the canal took advantage of this opportunity to reap benefits, but they wronged the Governor of Water Transport."

Before arriving at Lema Lake, Jia Rong ran into Qin Zhong and others all the way, and was very surprised.

"Why are you here?"

"Uncle, you are responsible." Qin Zhong, who was still young, sighed in embarrassment.The expression on that immature face almost made Jia Rong think that he was an adult.

Uncle Rong asked, "What's going on?"

A colleague in charge said: "I don't know what's going on recently. All the way here, the officials of each gate seem to find fault on purpose. All the goods have been inspected many times, and..."

Brother Rong frowned, it seemed that the delay in the trip was not due to the closure of the canal, and he had other wishes.

Qin Zhongdao: "It's all my fault that I wasn't careful enough. I didn't prepare more benefits, so I was made things difficult by the water transport officials at various sections. Some cement was also 'accidentally' pushed into the river by the water transport officials, causing our boat to The team lost a lot."

Pushed into the river?
Brother Rong's face gradually turned cold.Was this done by the officials of Water Transport in private, or ordered by the Governor of Water Transport?He gritted his teeth secretly, and whatever the hell, anyway, put the blame on the Governor of Water Transport first.

Since Jia Rong met Qin Zhong in Taoyuan County, Huai'an Prefecture, she is not in a hurry to go to Lema Lake.Several people found a place to rest, eat and drink.

Asked why again.

Qin Zhongdao: "I don't know why, the officials of various sections of water transportation suddenly increased the shipping fee, and there are several categories such as gate money, yearly money, etc. Every time a boat crosses a boundary, it costs a lot of money. Even the boatmen Just reach out and ask for benefits, if you don't give benefits, we will go ashore."

Another person answered: "There are even worse things. After a meal, we lost a few barrels of cement in the boat. Many wooden barrels were smashed, and we reported to the officials again, but those officials Although I took care of things, I suddenly accidentally pushed a few buckets of cement and fell into the river."

Qin Zhongdao: "After all, it's all because of not enough money."

Unexpectedly, there are so many tricks in a canal.If it wasn't just for my own family, it would be sensational.No wonder everyone says that the Governor of Water Transport is the most profitable official.All the way along the Grand Canal, cities, counties, towns, gates, so many places.There is a lot of traffic on the river, so I don't know how much money I will be greedy for in this way.

Although the money collectors are all small officials below, but in the end, the accumulation of small amount becomes more, and finally the big head has to pay tribute to the Governor of Water Transport?

Jia Rong secretly nodded and wrote it all down.Question: "It can be seen that other ships also pay fees like this?"

"It's all like that." Qin Zhong sighed helplessly, "I wanted to report the name of the Ningguo Mansion, but the water transport officials didn't appreciate it. Instead, they said that they should follow their rules when they report to the Heavenly King and Lao Tzu."

"What an arrogant guy." Brother Rong gritted his teeth and scolded, "A bunch of pigs and dogs who chew on maggots are really not afraid of death. We must deal with them this time."

He asked again: "How much damage has been counted?"

"Thousands of catties were destroyed, almost [-]% off." Qin Zhong lowered his head in shame, his eyes immediately turned red.His voice gradually became low and he wept, "It's all because of me, if someone else from the kiln came, this kind of thing shouldn't have happened."

"It's only a few thousand catties, that's not bad." Brother Rong comforted.

Qin Zhong said in a muffled voice: "This time all the cement was sent was the best grade. The loss of a few thousand catties is equivalent to dozens of taels of silver."

"what?"

Brother Rong almost jumped up when he heard the sound, lost dozens of taels all at once?

Qin Zhong said again: "The officials of the water transportation have asked for dozens of taels of silver from these dozens of ships. This trip... we are afraid that it will be in vain."

I rely on.

Jia Rong stood up.Question: "How come there are so many? Even if the water transportation officials in every county send some copper coins, why don't they have to pay a few dozen taels per trip?"

Someone answered in a muffled voice: "In the past, a few pennies were released, but now each is tens of pennies. And we have a lot of boats. We stack them up one by one, and unknowingly send out dozens of taels."

Grass!
Brother Rong's eyes were filled with stares when he heard this, but he felt a tight breath in his chest, which was tightly blocked.It's uncomfortable, the loss is a lot of tens of taels, and it's a fart business.

Jia Rong gritted her teeth and snorted, "What a water transportation department, this time the matter is endless."

"..."

"Master, let's..." Qin Zhong said timidly, "The Ministry of Transport is in the court..."

Brother Rong said: "Who cares about him in the court? Although all ships are treated the same, but this loss will not be recovered, how can I feel comfortable. Qing Qing, you plan to go back to Ping'an Prefecture at any time."

"Ah? Why, the things haven't been sent to Hongze Lake yet."

There was a cold light in Rong'er's eyes, and he gritted his teeth and said, "I won't give it away, just give the tens of thousands of catties of cement directly to the Grand Canal."

"To the Grand Canal?"

"For the Grand Canal, it is also given to the Ministry of Water Transport and the Governor of Water Transport."

(End of this chapter)