Chapter 62 The rainstorm abuses the prince to travel (2)
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Not far out of the city, Lu Bing took Dao Chi, got off the carriage, and got on their horses. Their mounts were all prepared by the palace, and they were all half-sized ponies.
However, they were just riding horses. The one who wanted to race could not do it. Just looking at Lu Dian's black face, the two of them did not dare to make a mistake. Even so, Lu Dian also made Lu Dian roll his eyes and scolded Lu Bing in a low voice, "Smelly."
"Boy".
Lu Bing immediately became honest and looked languid.
Dao Chi knew Lu Dian's scruples. If the prince's interest was aroused because of their riding, he would ride with him. If the prince and princess were not around, it would be troublesome for anyone to stop him. But he looked at the prince's age.
Although he is not big, he has a very disciplined temperament. Even if someone brings a horse out, he has no intention of riding it on the road.
Among the accompanying guards, the ceremonial guards were on horseback, but the three hundred soldiers were foot soldiers. For this reason, the carriage did not move very fast.
The forty-five-mile journey included a two-quarter-of-an-hour break, and it took more than two hours to reach the destination, Yuling Mountain in Chengnan Village.
The tomb of the king is built on a hillside. Even if the entire valley and plain is flooded, it will not be able to flood here. The so-called worry about heavy rains hitting the tomb of the king is just an excuse. The most important thing is that it is adjacent to the valley and plain, not far from several old dykes.
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King Liang was the ninth son of Renzong and was granted the title of King of Liang. He joined Anlu at the age of nineteen and died of illness at the age of thirty-one. His posthumous title was "Zhuang", so he was also called King Zhuang of Liang.
More than seventy years after the death of King Liang, the tomb of King Liang still looks solemn and solemn. King Zhuang of Liang and his wife Wei are buried here together, and his wife Zhang is buried with them.
The entire royal tomb is surrounded by a red wall, with a circumference of 130 feet. There are five enjoyment halls, six east and west chambers, 20 divine kitchens, sleeping rooms, slaughtering rooms, and two stele pavilions.
An official residence.
Eight hundred meters away from the tomb of King Liang, a small village was stationed, and eighty military families who guarded the tomb lived in it. After the prince offered incense at the Xiang Palace, he took his people to the small village to rest.
Zhuangtou, who had a military rank, belonged to a hundred households. Hearing that the prince was coming, he came with a few subordinates. These eighty military households were ordered to guard the tomb of King Liang after his death, and they have been passed down for several generations. 2.
More than ten years ago, after King Xing came to Anlu, the two royal tombs in Anlu were placed under the care of Prince Xing's Mansion. These military households were also placed under the jurisdiction of Prince Xing's Mansion. In recent years, there has been no shortage of young men to supplement the royal family's personal troops and ceremonial guards.
When the crown prince came over, he was regarded as their little master, and all the military households in the village were very respectful.
The chief official, Yuan Zonggao, had already ordered a few of his men to do business, which was to inspect the dam ten miles away; Lu Bing took the remaining people to protect the prince here.
Calculating the time, everyone can rest in Xiaozhuang for two hours. After two hours, the large army will set off back to the city.
The prince finally rode on his "Red Cloud", took a few companions and a few personal guards, and left Zhuangzi, intending to shoot a hunt or two.
Everyone carried their bows and arrows and wanted to try their archery skills. After a year of study, even Lu Wenzhao could draw a bow and shoot an arrow, but his strength was insufficient and his aim was inaccurate.
The idea was very good, but after walking around the village, there were occasional toads popping out, but I didn’t see any pheasants, hares or the like. The prince felt disappointed, but Lu Bing looked excited and pointed at the pile of firewood at the entrance of the village.
, said: "Your Highness, there, there are chickens there!"
Everyone followed his hand and found that there were indeed a few chickens there. However, everyone rolled their eyes because they were domestic chickens. When everyone followed the large army into the village just now, they did not see these chickens. They were probably
When the noise was loud, the chickens were frightened away; now that it was quiet, they jumped out again.
"Very fat!" Lu Bing looked at the prince and said pitifully.
Although the Crown Prince had always been accustomed to Lu Bing, at this moment he shook his head, shook the reins, and took the lead in riding back to the temporary station.
Lu Bing followed behind on horseback, muttering in a low voice: "After all, it's a living creature, and it's not for nothing, just give it money."
Wang Qi happened to be riding alongside him, holding back his laughter and said: "You can afford to lose that man, but His Highness can't afford to lose that man. If you can't find any prey, just block the entrance to the village and shoot chickens. If you say it, go out and make people laugh."
"
The temporary garrison was set up in the square in the middle of Zhuangzi, because the military households living here were the place where they usually went out to train troops. About 400 people settled there, and it was full of people.
Since I already knew that I was going to eat out, it was easy to prepare the food before setting off.
The prince and his companions read here, and brought with them snacks and sauce meat prepared in the royal palace's kitchen, and filled them with a random bite.
The two hours of rest time passed in the blink of an eye.
The people who had been sent to patrol the dam did not come back. Yuan Zonggao discussed with Lu Dian and sent five more people on horseback to have a look. The remaining people broke camp and returned.
Compared with the sunny weather in the morning, the weather suddenly became cooler in the afternoon.
Even Lu Bing, who loved being most active, refused to ride any more and got into the prince's carriage.
When everyone broke up camp and reached the halfway point, the two men who went to explore the dam turned around and caught up with the large army...
There are no blind robbers who need to stand up to protect the Lord; there are no natural disasters like mudslides and floods that make people panic; there are no beauties in distress who need a helping hand. The road that everyone is traveling on was originally visited by people from Prince Xing's Mansion yesterday.
If there is even the slightest danger, the prince and princess will not allow the prince to come out.
Everyone came out peacefully, and when the sky darkened, they came back peacefully.
The companions returned to their studies, and the prince went to see King Xing with Yuan Zonggao and Lu Dian.
The situation on the other side of the dike is not only bad. Not only are there two places where the dike has been breached, but even where there has been no breach, the foundation of the dike is somewhat unstable. Several families downstream were washed away by the bursting of the dike the day before yesterday and drowned.
That's four people.
The rain the day before yesterday was really heavy. The heavy rain day and night caused serious damage to the dike. Although the dike is still holding on, if there is another two heavy rains, the dike may collapse.
It is only the middle of May, the rainy season has just entered, and Huguang is a place with abundant rainfall. If the dams are not built, thousands of hectares of fertile farmland in the river valleys and plains will probably be affected.
But building embankments is not an easy task. In addition to the more than twenty miles of old embankments that need to be repaired, another twenty miles of new embankments need to be built.
King Xing had always been afraid of the heat, and he looked a lot thinner due to the harsh summer weather.
Listening to the reply from the chief official Yuan Zonggao, King Xing's brows furrowed more and more.
Building embankments and dams is not an easy task. River valleys and plains are flooded nine times in ten years. The only difference is the severity of the flood. However, the local government has no intention of building dams. It is just because there are many involved, so it is not easy to make achievements, but it is easy to make mistakes.
The more than 20-mile dike was built several times under the leadership of Prince Xing. Since the dike was built, floods in the valley and plains have been eliminated. I would have thought that the old dike could last for decades, but these few years
There is plenty of rain every year, and this year's rain is even worse than in previous years.
Not to mention other things, the heavy rain the day before yesterday was unprecedented in a century.
Long before the Crown Prince and his party returned, King Xing received reports from local officials that due to the heavy rain the day before, more than 300 houses collapsed in Nancheng and dozens of people drowned.
In the age of peace and prosperity, this was already a major disaster and needed to be reported to the court.
How dare local officials conceal such a major event? They came to the palace to see what King Xing wanted. Whether he wanted to "report heavily" or "report lightly" was a question.
King Xing's intention was to "repay again", and he also mentioned the matter of building a dam to prevent floods.
It is a dream to ask the court for money; the local treasury will not have such a large amount of spare money. When King Xing gave the account, he only said that the palace wanted to provide money and grain to build the dam. There was no need for the court to pay for the money.
To bring peace to the people, the imperial court will not only give an accurate answer, but may also be rewarded with some kind of praise.
After receiving the court's approval, Prince Xing's Mansion could invite the Lu gentry and other people to "join the great event". After all, the river valley and plains were not just the Prince's village. The earlier 20-mile dam was like this: "The Prince took the lead, and the gentry took the lead."
It was built using the "inlaid" method.
It's just that the rains in previous years were not so severe. The dams were built at critical locations and were built one after another for more than 20 miles.
Even though King Xing gave the court a serious warning about the flood, he never thought that the situation would be so critical. Instead of three miles or five miles, twenty miles of dikes would need to be built. And when building new dikes, the more than twenty-mile dikes would need to be built.
The old embankment inside cannot be slacked off either.
King Xing felt a headache as he thought about it. He looked at his son sitting next to him and said, "Cong'er, what do you think about the dam issue?"
The prince thought for a while and said: "The river valley plain is low-lying and is between two rivers. Due to floods in the early years, it was mostly wasteland. It was because my father had people build dams and cultivate fields in the early years that the area gradually became better and safer.
The land has also gained thousands of hectares of fertile land... If left unchecked, it may turn into wasteland again in a few years...
This was something that King Xing couldn't bear.
The little money in the official fields is not enough to cover the expenses of the palace. If there is no harvest in the civilian fields, the palace will be in embarrassment. For a prince who has lived in comfort and enjoyment for half his life, this is unbearable.
King Xing took a long breath and said: "Okay, let's build the embankment!" After saying that, he turned to Yuan Zonggao and said: "Sir, please make arrangements on behalf of me. I will send out a post tomorrow. Later, the King of Japan will summon Anlu officials and gentry to discuss it."
Precautions..."
In the Fu School, everyone's excitement for going out has not subsided, and they gathered in the Lequn Hall to talk about today's trip.
Although horse racing and hunting are all legends, the novelty of going out with the prince for the first time also aroused people's hearts.
Even if the three families of Wang, Liu, and Lu were all local surnames, their children would cheer and support each other when traveling, but nothing could compare with the posture of the prince. Today, when the prince travels, it is still a "simple guard". If there is a full set of ceremonial guards, it will be even more powerful.
Not to mention other things, let’s just say that before the Crown Prince left the city, not only did he have to clean the streets, but people on both sides of the road also had to kneel down to greet him. Even his entourage was bowed down by the people, which was a bit like "a fox pretending to be a tiger".
While everyone was talking lively, there was a burst of thunder, interrupting everyone's words, and the heavy rain came again...