Everyone in the family ancestral hall smiled. The hatred between the Chen family and Changning Wei was not only related to Lutian, but also related to a series of disputes such as water sources.
The old man said: "This time the three Chen brothers returned to the village from the county government and wanted to have a good talk with our Changning Guards about dredging Jianxi River."
Su Ze asked: "Are they the Chen family's three dogs who work in the county government?"
"It's those three brothers."
Su Ze understood that among the subordinate officials in Nanping County, one tiger, one fox and three dogs were the most famous, and the fox among them was the household clerk Xu Shisheng, who had been killed by Su Ze's men.
The tiger is Li Hu, the leader of the strong class. He was hit in the shoulder by Su Ze's gunshot last time and is still recovering at home.
The three dogs are the three brothers of the Chen family in Beishan. Now all three of them are serving in the county government. The three of them know how to bully their superiors and flatter their subordinates. They are as docile as dogs in front of the superiors.
The last time the Changning Guards fought with Beishan Village, the three dogs of the Chen family did not participate because they had errands to do. This time it was related to the irrigation of Beishan Village. They took leave and returned to the village in order to have a good talk with the Changning Guards.
This time, the old man still handed over the important task of negotiation to Su Ze, with Lin Xianyang as Su Ze's deputy.
Grandpa's bottom line is that the Beishan Chen family can be allowed to dredge the blocked tributaries, but the water conservancy irrigation of Changningwei cannot be affected.
The next day, Su Ze had just finished breakfast with Ninth Aunt Lin Cainiang. Su Ze did not go directly to the ancestral hall to wait for negotiations with someone from the Chen family. Instead, he rode out of Changning Guard and walked around Jianxi to observe
After understanding the direction of Jianxi, we returned to Changningwei.
Lin Xianyang was already waiting for Su Ze in the family temple. He came to inform Su Ze that Chen's three dogs had arrived at the family temple.
The place of negotiation was the front hall of the ancestral hall. Su Ze was pulled in by Lin Xianyang and saw the three brothers of the Chen family sitting on the right.
The three brothers of the Chen family are not tall and not tall, but they are quite strong.
The eldest of the three Chen brothers, who was the leader, looked at Su Ze with a pair of white eyes. He forced a smile on his fierce face and said to Su Ze, "Is this Mr. Su who has become famous in the county recently?"
The three Chen brothers were also sizing up Su Ze. They didn't expect that Su Ze, who was obviously a scholar, was a head taller than them.
That's all for being tall. Su Ze walked like a tiger and looked like a scholar. He was not a weak scholar. Li Hu, the leader of the county government's strong class, was half a head lower than Su Ze in terms of imposing manner.
The eldest son of the Chen family was originally planning to use his momentum to suppress the people of Chang Ning Wei, but he did not expect that he would be overpowered by Su Ze, a scholar.
The eldest of the Chen family is named Chen Bofei, the second child is Chen Zhongfei, and the third child is Chen Shufei. The three of them have been fighting fiercely since childhood. When they became adults, they were appointed as servants by the Bai County Magistrate. Now they work as government servants in Nanping County.
However, the three of them worked in different places. Chen Bofei was the county government's catcher, also known as the policeman, responsible for catching the murderer and handling the case.
Chen Zhongfei is a grain servant. The grain servant's job is to guard the granary and inspect and accept grain when people come to the county to pay grain tax.
And Chen Shufei is a soap slave. He is the one in the costume drama who stands in the lobby of the Yamen and shouts "power", and is also responsible for carrying out flogging and cane punishment in the court.
Chen Bofei also had a headache. He had never fought anyone from the Changning Guard last time. This time he came to ask for water. It was not easy to get the Changning Guard to agree.
However, the clan sent someone to ask the three brothers to come forward, and the three brothers had to obey. Their status in the county government actually relied on the support of the Chen family behind the scenes.
Su Zeli responded thoughtfully. Chen Bofei was a rough man, but he didn't have any twists and turns. He went straight to the topic and said:
"This time I was invited by the leader of my Chen clan to check on the dispute between Changning Guard and Beishan Village for water resources."
Su Ze frowned and said: "Captain Chen, I'm going to ask you clearly here, are you representing the county government in handling the case of our Changning Guard and Beishan Village competing for water sources, or are you representing Beishan Village to negotiate with our Changning Guard?"
Hearing what Su Ze said, Chen Bofei secretly complained in his heart. Ever since a scholar like Su Ze appeared, Chang Ningwei has become increasingly difficult to deal with!
If in the past, Chen Bofei had directly moved out of his identity as the county government, he might have been able to intimidate the Changning Guards and pull the county government's tiger skin out of their skin, and the water source issue might have been solved.
But now that Su Ze is here, things are different!
Su Ze is a scholar who was given a cousin name by Fang Zhifu and praised by Baizhi County!
Although Su Ze is not yet a scholar, his influence in the county is not small at all.
Although the three Chen brothers had a notorious reputation, they did not dare to lie about official duties at the Yamen. If Su Ze really went to the Yamen to inquire, he could easily expose Chen Bofei's lies.
Chen Bofei immediately said: "We three brothers are not here to do official business. We are just here to negotiate with you as members of the Chen family."
It turns out he’s not from the Yamen!
Lin Xianyang glanced at Su Ze and saw that he was a good scholar. He immediately tore off the tiger skin from the three brothers.
Without the status of "a yamen person", Chen Bofei's momentum has become much weaker.
Chen Bofei said bravely: "Changningwei and our Beishan Village have been neighbors for several generations. As the saying goes, distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors. Now the Jianxi River is silted up. We in Beishan Village want to dredge the Jianxi River and hope that Changningwei can make it easier."
If in the past, Chen Bofei's words must have been righteous when he was focusing on his reputation as a county government official.
But now that his identity has been exposed by Su Ze, his momentum has become much weaker, and his words are even less confident.
The tributaries of Jianxi that need to be dredged are all within the scope of Changningwei. If you want to touch other people's water sources, how can others agree?
Sure enough, as soon as Chen Bofei finished speaking, Lin Xianyang said: "Jianxi doesn't flow through your Beishan Village, so why should you disturb the water source of our village!"
At this time, the second son of the Chen family stood up and said: "Jianxi doesn't just flow through your Changningwei! The tributary of Jianxi that flows through our mountain village is now shallow! We suspect that Changningwei has cut off the water source!"
Chen Zhongfei's words completely ignited the anger of everyone in Changning Guard. Everyone in the ancestral hall stood up to greet the Chen brothers.
The Chen brothers were not to be outdone. The three of them were as good as Ning Wei, the head of the ancestral hall, and the others scolded Qi Hu.
Su Ze remained silent until the Chen brothers were tired of scolding. Chen Bofei said in a hoarse voice:
"Ms. Su, do you really want to go to court?"
This kind of case between two villages fighting for water sources was also the most common case handled by the Ming government.
There was a vague threat in Chen Bofei's words. These days, court is the last resort for both the plaintiff and the defendant.
The legal spirit of the Ming Dynasty emphasized mediation and suppressed litigation. If Beishan Village and Changningwei really wanted to litigate, the first step would be to undergo a round of mediation at Jingming Pavilion.
If both parties are satisfied with the outcome of the mediation, then it will be stamped and notarized in the presence of the county clerk, and they will promise not to litigate this matter again in the future.
If mediation cannot be reached, the next step is to go to court.
At this stage, the old man in the torture chamber will let you know what it means to eat the defendant and eat the plaintiff.
The three brothers of the Chen family are well versed in the ways of the county government, so naturally they are not willing to go to court.
Su Ze said nonchalantly: "Okay, let's go to court. The lower reaches of Jianxi River belong to our Changning Guard!"
Now the three Chen brothers were completely defeated. Su Ze was obviously a knowledgeable person. The case was brought to the county government, and the head of the family, Ning Weizhanli, was also involved.
After losing so miserably in the last battle with weapons, unable to rob and win, and unable to win the lawsuit, the three brothers stood up in despair, preparing to tell the clan leader the bad news.
Su Ze said: "But if you want to dredge Jianxi, it's not a bad idea."
The three brothers had already stood up and immediately sat down again after hearing Su Ze's words.
Chen Bofei immediately asked: "Ms. Su, is it really possible?"
Lin Xianyang also looked at Su Ze. He didn't understand why Su Ze agreed to let Beishan Village dredge the water source. Isn't it time to pursue the victory and let Beishan Village know the power of Changning Guard?
Su Ze continued: "Get the hydrograph."
Lin Xianyang immediately took out a yellowed atlas from behind the ancestral hall. This thing was a watershed map of Jianxi River flowing through Changningwei.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were hydrological maps like this from villages to counties.
Hydrographs record the direction and branches of a river, as well as its width and basic shape.
On the one hand, hydrographic maps record basic hydrological information, and on the other hand, they also confirm the ownership of rivers. If a river belongs to different villages, or which village the upper reaches of the river belongs to, these must be marked on the hydrographic map.
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Su Ze looked at the hydrograph and found that, as he had observed this morning, the silted tributaries were in the bends of the river.
Although Jianxi is called a stream, it is actually a very wide river. Otherwise, Changningwei would not be able to irrigate such fertile fields by relying on Jianxi.
However, starting a few decades ago, the water flow in Jianxi River has gradually become smaller, and there is a lot more sediment in the water.
When there is little rainfall, Jianxi River may even dry up.
The reason is actually very simple. The upper reaches of Jianxi River pass through a mining area. Due to excavation and mining and the scouring of mud from the mine pits, the sediment content in Jianxi River increases. Because of the increase in sediment, the river bed of Jianxi River is raised and the water flow slows down.
a lot of.
The raised river bed not only caused the river to slow down and easily dry up, but also prone to floods during heavy rains. Changning Wei's family tree records many deeds of "river management".
Beginning in the 20th year of Jiajing, government-run mines continued to destroy land to excavate ore for the Dogon mining tax. Jianxi River also flooded almost every year instead of once every few years.
For the people of Changningwei, the fact that Jianxi River flows through Changningwei is both a blessing and a curse.
Originally, the Changning Guards were in need of help, and Su Ze couldn't take care of the management of Jianxi River, but this time Beishan Village came to his doorstep, and these manpower were not used in vain, so he simply took the opportunity to manage Jianxi River.
Although Su Ze's [Water Conservancy] skill is only Level 1 now, Jianxi is just an ordinary tributary of the Minjiang River. With the Level 1 knowledge system and Su Ze's experience in reading the history of water conservancy in his previous life, it is more than enough to manage this creek, right?
Su Ze said to the Chen brothers: "I plan to manage the Jianxi River so that the river in Beishan Village will not be silted up, but the manpower to control the stream will have to go out from Beishan Village."
The Chen brothers were stunned, and even the Changning Guards were stunned.
The old man coughed and said, "Ah Ze, I have asked Cao Dianshi from the canal house to take a look at this problem in Jianxi. Cao Dianshi said that as long as the mines in the upper reaches continue, there will be no peace in the lower reaches."
The Chen brothers also nodded and said: "Xiangong Su, there is too much silt in the Jianxi River. Even if we, the Chen family and the Changning Guards all mobilize, we can't dig out the silt in the stream."
Su Ze knew that this was because everyone did not believe in him.
Water conservancy has always been very professional.
For example, the officials in the county government canal office have been engaged in water conservancy work for generations.
The Ming Dynasty attached great importance to river management, and specially set up river yamen to be responsible for water control.
However, another characteristic of the Ming Dynasty was that the finances were extremely tight, and various yamen were seriously short of funds.
Water conservancy projects have always been projects with huge investments but slow returns.
Therefore, after the development of water conservancy projects in the early Ming Dynasty, water conservancy project construction entered a period of stagnation in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.
It would be great if Nanping County Qufang can manage the Minjiang River well, but it cannot manage tributaries like Jianxi at all.
Even when there is heavy rainfall, floods will be directed into Jianxi to discharge the floods.
Not only in Nanping County, but also in the entire Ming Dynasty, the water conservancy projects were in disrepair. Old projects could not be maintained, and there was no money to start new projects.
Su Ze secretly thought that when reading history books, he always felt that each dynasty "ran out of luck" in the later stages, and natural disasters continued throughout the dynasty. It seemed that God was going to send this dynasty away.
But in fact, this view reverses cause and effect.
It was because in the later period of the dynasty, the government's finances collapsed and it could no longer carry out large-scale engineering construction at low cost and efficiency as in the early days of the dynasty. This caused various water conservancy facilities to fall into disrepair. When encountering floods, "the embankments will burst and thousands of miles of rivers will be destroyed."
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Or when locust plagues or droughts break out, if the dynasty is strong and powerful, there will naturally be ways to provide disaster relief. However, by the end of the dynasty, the court is almost unable to pay official salaries, and naturally it is unable to organize disaster relief.
But the time of the Jiajing court was different. At that time, the emperor was not the grandson of his grandson, and the court could still receive a large amount of money from the people.
It's just that this "intelligent" emperor was more willing to spend money on building palaces than on his "people".
The treasury of the Ming Dynasty was empty, but the emperor's private treasury was filled with gold and silver.
Emperor Jiajing was like an extreme miser, charging interest on the money he "borrowed" from Taicang to the treasury.
Except for the Minjiang River, the management of other water systems relies on private funds raised by the private sector.
Su Ze said confidently:
"I only need fifty young men who can work, enough to heal the tributaries of Jianxi and Beishan Village."
Chen Bofei couldn't help but ask: "Does Mr. Su really have a way to control the river?"
Su Ze said firmly: "I have a method of 'bundling water to wash away the sand', which can be a century-old plan to completely solve the problem of sedimentation in Jianxi River."