During the heyday of Luoyang City, in addition to the Luoshui River running across the city, there were also three natural water systems: Yishui, Gushui, and Xishui. They were all connected with the Luoshui, forming the image of a river.
In addition, there are more than ten ditches of various sizes, such as Yongji Canal, Tongji Canal, Tongyuan Canal, Tongjin Canal, Xiecheng Canal, and Yun Canal, which were successively excavated by successive dynasties. They are spread inside and outside Luoyang City, forming Tongguanzhong in the west and You in the north. Ji, the canal system extending from the Yangtze River to the Huaihe River in the east. On the canals, boats and boats travel for many years, and water transportation is extremely prosperous.
Xiecheng Canal enters from Deyou Gate, passes through Hanjiacang City, passes through Daoguang, Qinghua, and Lide Sanfang, connects with Tongyuan Canal, and connects to Luoshui. It is the only waterway for entering the warehouse.
Yang Zhaoxi left Cui Mansion, headed north, crossed the pontoon bridge, and turned straight into Lidefang. He began to follow the veins of the Xiecheng Canal and carefully explore the traces of river dredging.
At this time, half a month had passed since Luo Rou overheard the secret conversation between Hong Taizhu and Chen Shaoyin. The dredging of the Xiecheng Canal had been basically completed. At every other section of the canal bank, there were piles of sand, stones, porcelain shards, etc. in the canal. The hill has not yet been cleared and transported out of the city.
What is strange is that the sand, stones and other objects in these hills are not piled up haphazardly, but have clear boundaries:
The mud is just sand, and the stones are just stones, as if they have been deliberately tidied up by man. As far as dredging is concerned, it is completely unnecessary!
Since this channel has been dredged, there are no longer any bad guards responsible for keeping watch to prevent stray people from approaching.
Yang Zhaoxi easily looked through the entire Xiecheng Canal and didn't find much that was strange. When he turned back from north to south, he asked some people in the street along the way and found out about the excitement before:
Since the ice disappeared in spring, the dredging of the river has begun. Henan Prefecture recruited civilians who are familiar with water properties, and ships several sand mining boats every day on the Xiecheng Canal, with winches installed on the bows of the boats.
There are six civilians in each boat, two of them holding bamboo baskets to launch the water to clear the silt; two people retract and release the winch to pull the sand, stones, etc. accumulated at the bottom of the canal onto the boat; and the other two rock the oars to control the boat. Prevent the hull from floating away with the current.
Once the boat is full, it will be unloaded at the shore. There are farmers on the shore who are responsible for sorting the salvaged sand, stones and other debris. If they encounter objects that resemble stone tablets or stone carvings, they will be stored separately.
The Imperial Water Supervision and Canal Department had a special water official, called the canal chief, who would come over every day to supervise the work and take away the stone tablets and sculptures.
Occasionally, someone would fish out bronzes, pottery, jades and other antiquities dating back thousands of years, and the canal director would order them to be handed over.
In the nearby market, there were active libertines who saw an opportunity and joined the ranks of civilians. They either went into the water to fish or sorted on the shore. Once the canal was long and the bad guards were far away, they would remove the suspected antiquities. Things go smoothly, exchanged for money, and become rich overnight.
Gradually, more opportunistic people in Luoyang City flocked to the ranks of civilians to fish out more ancient relics and hide them...
More stories of people getting rich overnight began to spread in the market, inspiring the people who were deeply involved and became more and more fanatical.
However, fishing for things in the water is not a foolproof way to make a fortune. Every now and then, a husband and wife will drown. It is not uncommon to see parents, wives and children holding the deceased wrapped in a ragged mat, shouting at the sky and fighting for the earth.
But money is the most touching thing! A few accidents cannot shake the enthusiasm of these fake people. Isn't there a saying that "wealth can be obtained through danger"?
After Yang Chaoxi heard this, he couldn't help but shook his head and sighed: Everyone is flocking to it. Although some people are seeking to get rich overnight, most people are just trying to make a living for their family. For example, Xiaodouzi and Little Monkey's father are just trying to make money every day.
With a hundred dollars a day, he sacrificed his life to the river god. He left the helpless sister and brother behind and almost fell into the hands of the bad guys.
Folks in the street also mentioned something: in recent years, river canals have only been dredged in spring. The canal chief said that to avoid summer floods, autumn floods, and winter ice, only spring is the most suitable for dredging. But in spring, it is not appropriate to recruit people.
It conflicts with spring plowing and spring planting, so that farmers who have been recruited from the suburbs all complain.
However, the Henan Prefecture and the Capital Water Supervision were not considerate of the public sentiment. Apart from increasing the daily foot fee by 30% to alleviate public complaints, they did not adjust the annual dredging season.
As for the increased foot fees, most of them were still being deducted by officials from Wuhou Pu of Luoyang Prefecture and the Water Supervision and Canal Department. The most they got was only 150 yuan, and the least was only 70 or 80 cash.
Therefore, at the river canal data site, there have been several cases of mutiny by civilians and cases of people attacking public servants, but they were all suppressed.
The leading civilian husbands were often arrested and even killed on the spot. However, they were killed because they spoke lightly, and no one came forward to avenge these civilian husbands. It is said that the civilian husbands who were arrested and imprisoned had a miserable end, and most of them died in prison;
Those who were lucky enough to survive either had broken legs or arms, or were mute and blind. Almost none of them was intact.
When Yang Zhaoxi heard this, his face became extremely gloomy. A fledgling warrior had not seen much of the incompetence of the imperial court, corruption of officials, chaos in the world, and the hardships of people's livelihood... When encountering such injustices that ordinary people are accustomed to, he revealed a few things.
This is a rare moment of righteousness. I have already begun to think in my mind that I am secretly investigating. If I can catch some moths, I can also eliminate harm to the people.
The exploration near Xiecheng Canal did not yield much results. Yang Zhaoxi turned back all the way to Lidefang, where Tongyuan Canal and Xiecheng Canal meet, and prepared to continue exploring from west to east along the Tongyuan Canal, which was being dredged.
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After dredging, there are still intermittent piles of sediment, stones and other debris on both sides of the canal section, which are also sorted by category. As we move eastwards, more and more unscrupulous guards start to drive away people who are near the dredging site.
Yang Zhaoxi showed the Cui Mansion Fish Talisman and said he wanted to go in to find a fellow villager. He said a few words and then left. As expected, the bad guard frowned, waved his hand reluctantly, and let him into the dredged section of the Tongyuan Canal.
He also told him to hurry up and not to let the leader of the canal and Marquis Wu collide.
Yang Zhaoxi cupped her hands and lowered her head, and responded repeatedly. She walked quickly for more than ten feet and looked around. Sure enough, there were several sand mining boats lying on the water of Tongyuan Canal. Many civilians in brown clothes and linen robes were densely covered like a colony of ants.
On the boat and ashore, everyone was busy with their work.
Occasionally, one or two scoldings were heard, but it was the unscrupulous guards on the shore, scolding the lazy civilians. Following the scoldings, there were also scabbards and riding whips.
Some people who look like peasants are picking through the sand and stones that have just been piled on the canal bank. Although these people are also dirty and messy, most of them have sly eyes. They are obviously not farmers who have been farming for many years.
Together, they carefully placed the stones that resembled stone tablets aside; they also placed the jars, black rusty ironware, broken porcelain bottles, etc. found in the mud and neatly on the other side.
When the patrolling bad guards went to the toilet or took a nap while sitting on a stone, these people quickly put the small objects they were interested in into their arms, or buried the large objects back in the sand, and then marked them.
Wait until nightfall and then quietly come and pick it up.
The flexibility and wit of ordinary people in the market sometimes seem to be amazing.
Yang Chaoxi didn't squint his eyes, pretending not to see, and continued walking forward. However, he saw a dozen people gathered in front of him, including civilians, officials, and unscrupulous guards. It seemed that something had happened. Yang Chaoxi hurriedly quickened his pace and joined in.
Go up.
After squeezing into the crowd, I saw a soaked corpse. The corpse was dressed in brown linen robes, with a blue complexion, and the straw shoes on its feet were worn out. The chatter around them quickly gave a rough idea of what had happened:
The man had been in the water clearing out the silt for a long time and had exhausted all his strength. His legs happened to be stuck in the sand and he was unable to struggle out. Others were unable to save him, and he eventually drowned.
Next to him, there was a civilian husband in similar clothes. He was crying "Second Uncle" while folding his hands and pressing hard on the chest and abdomen of the corpse, trying to drag "Second Uncle" back from the underworld. However, after a long day of busy work, even though
There was sewage pouring out of the corpse's mouth, but "Second Uncle" failed to wake up in the end.
Only then did the sweaty civilian husband finally realize the truth, regretfully, and cried bitterly on his "second uncle".
Seeing this scene, the villagers surrounding them all sighed with regret. Some also wiped away tears. They must have had relatives who died while on the job of dredging the river.
The two bad guards in the crowd, which was rare, did not go up to scold and stop him. They only protected a middle-aged man to prevent the civilians from mutinying and bumping into him.
This middle-aged man wore a green robe, with long ears and a broad face. At first glance, he was from the public family. Yang Zhaoxi was about to inquire about the identity of the middle-aged man, but saw him approaching him, with a sad expression on his face: "This little brother! Life or death?"
If you are destined, please show some restraint. For the sake of the present, you should be buried as early as possible! It is a well-deserved death to honor your relatives and die for the sake of transporting water to the prosperous dynasty! I will report it to the superior official and ask for more money to comfort the deceased."
The civilian husband's crying stopped for a while, but he kept bending down to salute: "I would like to thank you, Mr. Mengqu... I just ask you to call a wheeled cart so that I can help you to send the body of my second uncle back..."
Meng Qu nodded, summoned the bad guard, gave a few brief instructions, and the bad guard left quickly. Soon he came back, pulling a wheelbarrow in his hand, and handed it to the farmer.
The mourning of the peasants did not stop, but they thanked and begged the peasants around them. Everyone was busy helping him carry the body into the car, and watched him gradually go away.
Yang Chaoxi remained silent. After watching the whole thing, he felt that the lives of ordinary people were as cheap as ants. It was just a human life, and it would be gone if he said it was useless. However, in the eyes of the officials, it was just a few nice words and a little more money.
thing.
It can be said that this Chief Meng Qu was very skilled in handling the drowning of civilian husbands, just right, and he could also take care of the civilian husband's pain of bereavement. He was already a capable little official.
It's just another question whether the extra money he promised to pay for the pension can be realized. Yang Chaoxi could only adopt a wait-and-see attitude at this time.
On the other hand, there were a few familiar faces among the people in the circle, which made Yang Chaoxi's heart skip a beat. Knowing that with the follow-up investigation, he had found some useful clues, and with a little more attentiveness, he would surely be able to dig out a piece of the truth.
For example, the two bad guards around Chief Meng Qu were people who had some connections with him. A few days ago, before the ambush of Tiger Demon and other murderers in Zeshanfang, Shang Sizuo, the son of Chun Zong of Hongdao Temple, personally identified these two people for him.
It was Shiyazi Shen Jingbin and Muyazi Shao Gengxian who were responsible for guarding him in the hut outside the manhole near Luoshui five years ago.
At that time, Yang Chaoxi was kidnapped and imprisoned, and the Taoist priests from Longxingguan took turns to take care of him. When he was rescued by Shang Sizuo, Fang Qidou, Zhuo Songtao and others, these two Taoist friends happened to be present, so they suffered a lot of anger.
Later, for unknown reasons, both of them escaped from Longxing Temple and became bad guards. They have been working under Wuhou Zhang Songyue. Unexpectedly, they were sent here again to be responsible for the supervision and garrison of river dredging.
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There is another man among the people, who is nine feet tall and has gnarled muscles. He stands in the crowd, like a chicken standing out from the crowd. Although he is dressed as a man, his eyes are fierce, and you can tell at a glance that he is not an ordinary man, the kind of submissive man.
.
When Yang Zhaoxi first approached, he recognized him. It was Xiong Baisha, a warrior he met by chance at the Heshang Wine Shop that day. He was good at wielding a saber and was rough and irritable. But at this moment, he was unarmed.
If Shen Jingbin and Shao Gengxian just obeyed the orders of their superiors and came to do some errands, then if a fierce warrior like Xiong Baisha sneaked in, no one would believe it if they said there was nothing fishy!
Yang Chaoxi kept calm and quietly put away the Cui Mansion's talisman letter, then took out two balls of black mud from the ground, and smeared dirt on his hands and face on his uniform. Then he stepped forward and introduced himself: "Mr. Meng!
I am a hunter from Mang Mountain. I have strong strength and good water resistance. I will not die if I am suffocated in the water! I came to the city and want to find a job to make money. Please take me in and help me!"
Only then did Chief Meng Qu notice the dirty Yang Chaoxi. He changed his sad look and said with a cheerful smile: "Good thing! Good thing! I like to support young people the most. Although this channel dredging is dirty and tiring, there are two tasks every day.
One hundred and fifty bucks, after working for more than a month, it is more than enough to go back to the mountain and marry a wife! Shao Gengxian, take this young man to the account over there to sign a labor contract, and then we can arrange to work in the water."
Shao Gengxian was scared out of his wits since that night when the corpse turned into a corpse, and he no longer dared to stay at Wuhou Shop in Zeshanfang. So after thinking about it, he took Shen Jingbin with him, gritted his teeth, took out twenty taels of his savings, and found Wuhou in Demaofang.
Dong Zhongting, the Marquis of Wu, asked for a transfer opportunity. He had just been transferred the day before yesterday and was sent here to be responsible for the on-site supervision and garrison of river dredging.
At this time, after hearing the instructions from Chief Meng Qu, Shao Gengxian hurried up a few steps, pulled Yang Chaoxi and walked to the nearest curtain. Because Yang Chaoxi's appearance had changed drastically in the past five years, he did not recognize him, but simply asked his name along the way.
, elders in the family, marriage or not, etc.
Yang Chaoxi made nonsense and dismissed him at will. He also signed a labor contract in the tent with Hu's name, which was marked "Work in the water and do according to your ability. If someone drowns, you will be responsible for your life or death."
After the labor deed was signed, Shao Gengxian pulled him out and said as he walked: "Everything here is done by two people, but it is difficult for you to come alone. If you are willing to pay today's fee to Mr. Meng,
I'll point you to a strong partner on your behalf. Wouldn't it be much easier to earn money from work in the future?"
Yang Zhaoxi looked stunned and distressed, took out the money bag from her arms, reluctantly gave it to Shao Gengxian and said: "Master! I just came here today and haven't earned any money yet, so these are the family assets.
You should take more care of the people!"
Shao Gengxian grabbed the money bag, grabbed it casually, and said with a smile: "You only have a hundred and ten coins. I owe the rest first, and I will ask you for it tomorrow. However, I am always kind in my work, so I can help you first."
It's done!" As he said that, Shao Gengxian pointed at the boats in the canal, "Look, those few people who are alone, and that stupid guy at the other end! They are all peasants who have no partners and are struggling alone. You
Who do you want to partner with?"
Yang Zhaoxi deliberately hesitated for a long time, then pointed at the "silly big man" and said: "Master, he must be very strong. I want to team up with him..."
Shao Gengxian was stunned for a moment, then laughed loudly: "He has a vision! He has a vision! That's him." Then he shouted at the top of his voice, "Xiong Da, come here!"
Yang Zhaoxi also giggled, showing a satisfied look.
The "silly guy" turned his head when he heard this, a pair of bull's-eyes gleaming fiercely. It was Xiong Baisha, a warrior who had met him once in the Heshang Wine Shop.