July is a season with frequent summer rains. From the second day to the fifth day of July, five consecutive days of torrential rain once again caused flooding in Beiping City. Summer floods and spring droughts made Beiping City really not a livable city. However, it was used to prevent the Mongols from going south. It is an important town with a very important strategic location. Even if the capital needs to be moved in the future, this place must be retained as the military capital.
Even if Peiping is not a major military town, it is still a big city that cannot be abandoned, so no matter how troublesome it is, Wan Lei must take good care of waterlogging. As the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, Peiping has a history of more than a hundred years. Like many old cities, the entire city's The drainage system has been clogged and paralyzed. Not only must great efforts be made to dredge it, but new drainage channels must also be planned as a whole.
As the saying goes, good fortune never comes singly, and misfortunes never come singly. Just as Wan Lei was busy working on the drainage facilities, bad news came from the south of Beiping City - the Lugou River burst, and floods rushed everywhere, cutting off the Shuntian Prefecture and the Southern Prefecture overnight. Land transportation and business travel have been cut off.
The Lugou River originates from Shanxi and flows through the southern part of Shuntian Prefecture. It is one of the important rivers in Shuntian Prefecture. Because its upper reaches flow through dune areas with low vegetation coverage such as Taihang Mountains, Yinshan Mountains, and Yanshan Mountains, the Lugou River contains sand. The amount is so high that it is known as the Little Yellow River.
After entering the territory of Shuntian Prefecture, the river drop becomes smaller, the flow slows down, and a large amount of sediment accumulates. The river bed gradually rises above the ground, forming an above-ground river. Like the Yellow River, it is easy to burst. Because of the unpredictable migration of the river, the people on both sides of the river are also called It is the Wuding River.
In order to ensure the safety of this river, the previous government recruited people to repair the river embankment almost every year. Since Shuntian Prefecture became "independent", due to various reasons, the river embankment has not been repaired. The fact that it has not collapsed until now is considered a success. Lucky for you.
Wan Lei never expected anything like luck to happen. As soon as he heard that the Lugou River burst its banks, he immediately handed over the work of controlling waterlogging to officials at all levels in Beiping City. He led an inspection team and went out of the city in the rain to inspect the disaster. .
Fortunately, the Lugou River breach was a northern breach, and the flooded areas were all within Shuntian Prefecture. The winter wheat in Shuntian Prefecture had already been harvested. Although some cotton fields were flooded, the impact was not significant because the cultivated land that Shuntian Prefecture focused on developing was in the north of the city. The area to the west and south of the city is mostly saline-alkali land, which cannot be rectified for the time being, and few farmers come here to farm.
The affected farmland area was small, but what gave Wan Lei a huge headache was that the most important bridge on the Marco Polo River, the Marco Polo Bridge, was washed away.
Marco Polo Bridge, located southwest of Beiping City, is one of the main thoroughfares entering Beiping City from the south. This large stone bridge, nearly 300 meters long, was built in the Jin Dynasty and has a history of more than 200 years. It can be said that it has gone through many vicissitudes. Because the bridge body is The stone structure is naturally slightly less solid.
Moreover, in the past two years, a large amount of coal and iron supplies shipped from the south to Peiping have passed over this bridge. Convoys of horse-drawn carriages weighing several kilograms have been constantly rolling over it. The bridge was finally overwhelmed. After several floods, it collapsed. Disconnected from time to time.
The most severely damaged part of the Marco Polo Bridge was the steel plant in Beiping City. If repairs were not made in time, the steel plant would be forced to stop production due to lack of raw materials. At the same time, the traffic between the north and the south was interrupted, which not only had a great impact on business travel, but also had a severe impact on Baoding. The stability of the two Hejian provinces also had a serious impact.
At noon that day, Wan Lei and his party finally arrived at the Marco Polo Bridge area. He looked at the broken stone bridge surrounded by floods and frowned. Because the bridge could not be repaired before the floods receded, and there was no need to worry now. We have no choice but to wait, and even the planned advance construction of the Pingbao River Railway has to be temporarily suspended.
"Send someone to send a message to Hejian Mansion, asking them to pay attention to the water conditions of the Yellow River, check the river embankments carefully, and repair the places that need to be repaired as soon as possible to avoid flooding as much as possible." Wan Lei was loyal to the accompanying people. The captain of the guard said that natural disasters are so terrible, they come at any time, and after the Yellow River North Faction, it happens to flow through the territory of Hejian Mansion, so it has to be guarded against.
In fact, the problem of flooding in the north has always been the most troublesome problem for various dynasties. In addition to the most "unruly" Yellow River, the Lugou River near Peiping is also a difficult river to control. Wan Lei asked himself that he was not a water conservancy expert, but he also knew The root cause of floods in the north is sand. Building river embankments can only cure the symptoms, but the root cause must be sand control.
If you want to control sand, just relying on human digging is not enough. A feasible method is to build a dam to block the sand and use water to flush the sand. Regardless of whether you want to trap the sand or flush the sand, you must build a large dam, and the difficulty lies in building the dam. Why doesn't Wan Lei want to build a large reservoir on the upper reaches of the Marco Polo River to solve the flood problem of the Marco Polo River in one fell swoop?
It's a pity that dreams are full, but reality is very skinny. Wan Lei is short of funds and raw materials. The biggest shortage is still cement. The little cement grinded out by the small mud factory in Beiping City can be filled in. Went to Liaodong.
"Mr. Wan, the Marco Polo Bridge has collapsed and it may be difficult to repair it in the short term. My subordinates suggest building a pontoon bridge to temporarily restore traffic, and then rebuild the bridge after the river water recedes." Next to Wan Lei, a middle-aged man named Kuai Fu suggested. .
Kuai Fu was not from Peiping, but came north to escape the war not long ago. Of course, the reason why he chose to come to Peiping was also because of Liu Jing's "encouragement". Although this Kuai Fu looks like an honest man, he once served as a Ming Dynasty official. The head carpenter of the palace was very accomplished in civil engineering and had some friendship with Liu Jing.
Kuai Mu Gong was born in a craftsman family and had a very humble status. This kind of professional talent was not popular in the Ming Dynasty. As soon as the palace was built, he was driven home. However, it was different here in Wan Lei. He was directly reused and also The arrangement provided housing and various benefits, which made this master carpenter, who had been a "servant" for half his life, very happy to meet Bole.
"Well, that's all we can do now. Master Kuai, please calculate how long the chain is and go to the ironworks to cast it." Wan Lei also knew that building a pontoon bridge was the only feasible remedy, but The pontoon also needs to be fixed with long iron chains.
"To pass the big car, the pontoon bridge must be at least two meters wide. An iron chain is added for every half meter to fix it. Five iron chains are needed. The river is now flooded and the river width is at least 400 meters, so each iron chain must be at least longer. Four hundred meters." Kuai Fu visually measured it for a while and then reported the data.
"Well, I will urge the ironworks to deal with the iron chain urgently. Now calculate how many wooden boards will be used and have people collect them, so as to restore traffic in the shortest possible time." After Wan Lei finished speaking, he looked at the river with a telescope. Across the way, many people were seen standing by the river and watching anxiously. They must be eager to go to Peiping for a business trip.
"Have someone fetch some boats and let's go take a look."
Although the peak of the flood had just passed, the river was still very fast. Wan Lei and dozens of Jingzhong guards crossed the river with difficulty in a few small fishing boats found nearby. When businessmen on the south bank of the river saw someone coming by boat, they all gathered around After asking for information, some people who are eager to go north want to rent fishing boats.
However, when these people found out that the visitors were Wan Lei and Jing Zhongwei, they did not dare to mention the boat rental. After all, in their minds, Wan Lei was their parents, the official, and the official's car and boat. How could ordinary people dare to overstep their bounds? ah.
"Don't panic, everyone. We have sent people to build a temporary pontoon bridge. I believe it will be restored within two days. If you are not in a hurry, just wait patiently. If there is an urgent matter, go over there and sign up. We will give you You arrange a boat to cross the river." Wan Lei said loudly.
"Mr. Wan must have something important to do when he comes here. We are not in a hurry. Sir, there is no need to distract us." An old man from Beiping City said. Among the people waiting to cross the river, he was the only one who knew Wan Lei's character, so he Only then did I dare to talk to Wan Lei normally. The others came from Baoding Hejian and other places, and they were still very afraid of officials.
"I have nothing urgent, I just came to see the disaster." Wan Lei shrugged, looking casual. He just glanced at the old man and knew that he was a porter who specially helped some bosses to transport goods, so he smiled Asked: "Old man, who is your employer?"
"Old man, I'm quite old. Thanks to Mr. Liu of Jifu Hao, I arranged this worry-free job. This time, there was a disaster on the road and I couldn't transport the goods on time. The older I get, the more useless I become. "The old man shook his head and said with a bitter smile.
"This is a natural disaster that cannot be changed by human beings. I don't have to blame myself. I know the character of Boss Liu of the Fortune Collection Company. He will not blame you for this matter." Wan Lei patted the old man. He looked over his shoulder and asked: "You must have worked very hard to escort the goods all the way, right?"
"It's not hard work. This business is all about the market, and the market in Beiping fluctuates day by day. If you get lucky early in the day, you might be able to find a good market, so the boss usually requires us to try our best to travel day and night. , If it can be shipped as early as possible, it will be shipped as soon as possible. If there is a delay on the road, wages will be deducted."
"Oh, it's so hard." Wan Lei frowned and said: "Old man, let me tell you something. It could be one year at the earliest or two years at the latest. I'm afraid you won't be able to do the escort job."
"Ah!" The old man couldn't help exclaiming, and other people traveling with him also looked at Wan Lei in surprise, "Mr. Wan, you, are you going to..."
"The provincial government of Beiping has passed a plan to build the Pingping-Baoshun Railway. Once this railway is completed and opened to traffic, there will be at least one train going back and forth every day. The trains have large transportation capacity, fast speed, and low freight. I believe store owners will give away their goods. The train is coming. You may be unemployed when you arrive. I told you this in advance. I hope you are prepared." Wan Lei said apologetically. He knew that although trains and railways are good, they will still kill some people. of rice bowl.
"Oh, since it is the government's decision, of course we must support it. If this job is gone, it will be gone. I will find a new job in the future. Anyway, we have land at home, so we will not starve to death." The old man gave a wry smile, his mouth Saying this, I was secretly complaining that at his age and not very literate, it was really difficult to find a new job.
"Our original intention of building roads is to benefit the people. We didn't expect that it would ruin your job. But you don't have to be discouraged. This railway system also needs to be maintained by someone. Soon, some tutoring classes will be held in Beiping City. You have a sense of responsibility. Maybe we can choose a dispatcher."