My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 235
Zhu Zhanhe waited in Tianjin for more than a month, and finally Zhu Di came.

They set off almost at the same time, but it took Zhu Zhanhe half a month to travel by sea.It took Zhu Di nearly two months to go northward via the Grand Canal by water.

This is still Zhu Di's trip, and the other ships on the canal have been emptied, so their speed is relatively fast. If they are replaced by grain ships for water transport, they may be slower.

Zhu Zhanhe came to the Sancha River Estuary in Tianjin to welcome Zhu Di. This is also the intersection of the Canal and the Haihe River. Not only water transport must pass through here, but even grain transported by sea needs to enter the Canal through the Haihe River and then sent to Beijing.

When Zhu Di raised his troops to go south, he was still stationed at Sanchahe Estuary. Later, Tianjin Guard was established here, and Tianjin officially became a city from then on.

Now that Zhu Di moved north to move his capital, he also passed through the mouth of the Sancha River.

After Zhu Zhanhe waited for Zhu Di's fleet at the mouth of the river, he boarded the dragon boat to meet Zhu Di.

"Okay, you started two days later than me, and you still walked in front of us!"

When Zhu Di saw Zhu Zhanhe, he was also quite surprised.

He sent someone to notify Zhu Zhanhe when he was leaving in Nanjing. Considering the time it took to deliver the news, Zhu Zhanhe must have left a little later than him.

"Grandpa Emperor, I personally took a trip to the sea this time, and found that the sea freight is not only a large volume, but also fast. We set sail from Taicang, Suzhou, and arrived in Tianjin within half a month. I have been waiting here Grandpa Huang has been here for more than a month!"

Zhu Zhanhe replied truthfully.

However, as soon as Zhu Zhanhe's words fell, a minister next to Zhu Di immediately stood up and said: "My son's words are wrong. Although the shipping volume is large and the speed is indeed fast, the risk is also greater. If there is a storm , I am afraid that the entire fleet may be wiped out!"

The person who spoke was Song Li, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry. Last year, he was the one who made great contributions in harnessing the river. He proposed to abolish sea transportation and use water transportation instead. Therefore, now that Zhu Zhanhe said that sea transportation is better than water transportation, he was of course the first to stand up against it.

"Who says I haven't been in a storm?"

Zhu Zhanhe had been holding back his breath for a long time, and he was also very annoyed at Song Li, the chief culprit who suggested the abolition of shipping.

"This time when we went to sea, we encountered three storms along the way, one of which was quite violent. Although the grain ship transported by sea was relatively old, and many crew members went to sea for the first time, under the calm command of the commander Zhang Fu, The grain ship passed through the storm smoothly, and the loss of grain was not much!"

"That's your auspicious sign, my son. You didn't encounter the most terrible storm at sea. You must know that when Meng Yuan conquered the Japanese kingdom in the east, he encountered a huge storm, which caused countless warships to capsize and almost the entire army to be wiped out. We have learned from this lesson before. , we can see how risky shipping is!"

Song Li still insisted.

"Hmph, since the storms at sea are so terrible, why do the fleets sailing to the West come back safely every time? Didn't they encounter storms along the way?"

Zhu Zhanhe stared at Song Li angrily and asked again.

He didn't deny that the risk of going out to sea was great, but it was by no means as scary as what Song Li said. He even felt that the other party seemed to be deliberately exaggerating the risks of going to sea, and his intentions were very sinister!

"The ships sailing to the west are huge, so they are naturally more resistant to wind and waves..."

Song Li was still trying to make excuses, but at this moment Zhu Di slapped the table and said angrily: "Okay, did I come here to listen to your quarrel?"

Seeing Zhu Di getting angry, Zhu Zhanhe and Song Li immediately shut their mouths, not daring to say anything more.

Zhu Di gave Zhu Zhanhe and Song Li a hard look, then reprimanded them a few more words, and then angrily made them retreat.

At this moment, Zhu Zhanhe felt inexplicable, obviously what he said was quite reasonable, why did Zhu Di scold himself too?

However, Zhu Zhanhe was quickly called back by Zhu Di, and this time he was summoned alone in the cabin.

"Is it wronged?"

Seeing Zhu Zhanhe coming in, Zhu Di immediately asked back with a smile. Seeing from his appearance, he didn't have the slightest bit of anger just now.

"I'm not wronged, but I just can't figure it out. Grandpa Huang, you know that I am right, why did you scold me too?"

Zhu Zhanhe replied truthfully.

"Sometimes there is no right or wrong about things in the court."

Unexpectedly, Zhu Di sighed, and then said again: "Song Li's request to abolish shipping last year may be entirely out of public interest, or he may have his own selfish intentions, but this is not important. The interests of too many people are by no means just abolished!"

"But the sea transportation has only been suspended for a year, and the water transportation is already at its tail end?"

Zhu Zhanhe understood Zhu Di's meaning. He scolded himself before, probably because he didn't want Zhu Zhanhe to continue talking, so as not to prove the advantage of sea transportation in time, but he couldn't abolish water transportation, which made him unable to step down.

"The water transport didn't start last year. In fact, the water transport started earlier than the sea transport. It's just that the canals were silted up and some sections of the river were blocked, so the sea transport was the main one. But the water transport has never stopped."

When Zhu Di said this, he suddenly asked Zhu Zhanhe, "Have you heard of the branch transportation method?"

"Branch method?"

Zhu Zhanhe was taken aback for a moment, and then shook his head. Although he has studied water transportation, he doesn't know what is the branch transportation method?
"It's normal if you don't know, because the Shipping Law was only implemented last year..."

As Zhu Di said, he briefly explained the branch transportation method.

The so-called branch transportation method is actually to divide the water transportation from south to north into four sections, such as transporting grain from Jiangxi, Zhejiang and other places to Huai'an, then from Huai'an to Xuzhou, and from Xuzhou to Dezhou, etc., and each section is transported By different soldiers and civilians.

The advantage of this approach is that it can mobilize the power of the people everywhere. As long as the people involved in the transportation can be exempted from the tax of the year, this not only reduces the burden on the court, but also reduces the burden on the people. It seems to be the best of both worlds.

"Who gave this idea? It doesn't make sense!"

After hearing this, Zhu Zhanhe slapped the table angrily and said angrily.

The branch transportation method seems to mobilize the power of the people and reduce the tax pressure on the people, but it divides the entire transportation into four parts, and each part is in charge of different soldiers and civilians, which is equivalent to passing a batch of food four times.

In this era, food is the greatest wealth. Even if there are no conditions, many people will find ways to create conditions to corrupt, but now transporting a batch of food by water four times is simply giving others the opportunity of corruption.

Zhu Zhanhe finally understood why water transportation in history was so criticized by others. These strange regulations were simply made to make people corrupt.

Zhu Di blushed at this time. He had a great responsibility in the matter of water transportation. He was too complacent before, or he only thought of the benefits, but ignored the various drawbacks of water transportation, so he easily stopped the sea transportation.

(End of this chapter)