Father can be an enemy to the country

Unlike the Kong family, who could afford 10,000 large trees with ease, the Meng family had to drain their wealth to come up with these 10,000 large trees.

Zhu Zhen changed his previous lukewarm attitude and happily held Meng Keren's hand, almost shaking him apart.

"Oh, Lao Meng, you are so awesome. I can't thank you enough for the Meng family."

"It should be, it should be..." Although Meng Keren couldn't figure out what "give strength" meant, he could understand the second half of the sentence.

It was this second half of the sentence that he wanted. Boss Zhu's hatred of Mencius is a foregone conclusion, and no one can change this. However, emperors will change, but Mencius is always there. The Meng family has pinned its hopes on the next generation of emperors - the prince is a standard scholar, and there was no such thing back then. If you don't protect Mencius, Mencius will be better off after he reaches the great treasure.

But the fact that Mencius is better off does not mean that the Meng family is better off. To connect the two, someone must speak for the Meng family. I wonder if there is a better lobbyist in the world than the Sixth Prince?

Therefore, he must seize such a God-given opportunity to provide help in times of need. Even if he demolishes the beams of the ancestral hall and sells iron, he still has to give Lao Liu a favor.

~~

With the help of the wealthy people in Yanzhou, the material problem was finally solved. Car factories everywhere are operating at full capacity, working day and night on final production.

At this time, King Yan, who went south to explore the road, also came back.

"I went to the mouth of the Yellow River first. You guessed it right. Although the mouth of the Yellow River is frozen, it is useless at all. It makes a rattling sound when people walk on it, let alone the ice truck." Zhu Di threw the fur to Deng Duo , sat down by the stove, and said to Lao Liu: "So we can only go north to find a passable river."

In this era, the entrance of the Yellow River to the sea was not in Shandong. Instead, it invaded the Huaihe River Basin from the south and seized the Huaihe River channel to enter the sea. This is the famous "Yellow River Seizes the Huaihe River" incident.

Before the Jin Dynasty, the Yellow River burst southward several times, but the main stream of the Yellow River has always flowed northward, leading to the sea from Shandong and Hebei.

After the Yellow River captured the Huaihe River during the Jin Dynasty, due to the corruption of officials in the Jin Dynasty and the subsequent Yuan Dynasty, the court was unable to change the direction of the Yellow River and could only allow it to flood between the Huaihe River and the Si River. This was also an important reason for the obstruction of water transportation.

Therefore, the current mouth of the Yellow River, that is, the mouth of the Huaihe River, will naturally not form a thick layer of ice.

Zhu Zhen nodded and said, "Did you find the fourth brother?"

"It took a lot of effort. Although there are many rivers along the coast of Huai'an, they are either not connected to the canal, or the ice thickness is not enough." The fourth child proudly took out the map from his arms, unfolded it and said, "I have searched for it all. After three days and three nights, I finally found this one!”

Zhu Zhen took a closer look and saw that many rivers on the map were marked with 'X's by his fourth brother. There was only one approximately straight river that he marked with a red line.

"Salt River!" Zhu Zhen read out the name of the river in a deep voice.

"Yes, it's the Yancao River!" Zhu Di took a picture of the map excitedly and said, "This river is in Haizhou. It has been the main channel for Huaiyan salt water transportation since the Tang Dynasty, so it is also called the Yancao River. Through this river, you can go from the sea to Directly connected to the canal!”

"And it is directly connected to Weishan Lake through the Shu River, and the distance is much closer than from the mouth of the Yellow River!"

"Yes, it can save a day's travel." Zhu Zhen was also very happy. But I'm also a little depressed. What I'm holding in my hand should be the highest-level military map of the Ming Dynasty, but the rivers are not fully marked. I really don't know who to talk to for explanation.

"Is the ice firm enough?"

"Enough, enough! The Salt River is nearly three hundred miles north of the mouth of the Yellow River." Zhu Di nodded heavily and said: "I personally went up and tried, and I can run a horse, let alone a sports car. To be on the safe side, I specially found a carriage , I tried it with full load and there was no problem.”

After a pause, he added: "There has been another cold wave in the past two days, and the ice will definitely become thicker. Although it will be a little harder, the safety will be more guaranteed."

"Yes." Zhu Zhen also nodded and asked: "What about the sea? Is it seriously frozen? Can we rely on the boat?"

"No problem." Zhu Di said with a smile: "I saw a lot of floating ice on the sea at the mouth of the Yellow River, but I didn't see anything on the sea at the mouth of the Salt River. There was no ice at all. Do you think it's strange or not? ?”

"Normal." Zhu Zhen smiled and explained: "It is said that it does not freeze, but the Yellow River has a large amount of water, which dilutes the salinity at the mouth of the sea, so it will freeze. The Salt River is an artificial river. After the Yellow River captured Huaisi , there is not much water, and it cannot change the salinity of the coast at all, so the sea surface will not freeze. "

So he decided: "Then let's transport it from the Salt River!"

~~

The transfer location was determined, and the first batch of 20,000 ice trucks set off south without waiting for all the ice trucks to be built.

The width of the canal is between six and ten feet, and one hundred thousand ice trucks set off together. It is unimaginable how blocked it will be? Therefore, Zhu Zhen plans to divide all the ice trucks into five teams, with a half-day interval between starts.

On the morning of the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the first team was led by Zhu Di and set off; at noon, the second team was led by Hu Rang.

Early on the morning of the 13th, the third team was led by Ping An and set off; at noon, the fourth team was led by Wu Yin.

On the evening of the 13th, it was the time when all 100,000 large ice trucks were completed.

Early on the morning of the 14th, Zhu Zhen personally led the last team, took the newly built ice truck, and headed south to the Salt River.

At this time, the first team to set off had already started loading at the mouth of the Salt River!

Such smooth progress would of course be inseparable from the full cooperation of the shipping department.

On the second day of the first lunar month, the Prime Minister's Hai Zheng Yamen received an order requiring them to transport two million stones of military rations to Huai'an within seven days to be on standby.

Han Yike immediately launched the first-level plan, summoned all the officials and soldiers who were celebrating the New Year at home, and recruited 50,000 civilians from Taicang Prefecture. He quickly opened a warehouse and transported grain to ships day and night. The shipment was completed on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year. .

On the early morning of the eighth day of the lunar month, three hundred large ships of the grain transport fleet set sail and left Liujiagang.

The ships built by the Hai Zheng Yamen still continued the style of the Yuan Dynasty. The larger ones carried eight or nine thousand dan of grain, while the smaller ones carried 2,000 dan of grain. The former is used for sea transportation, and the latter travels on the Yangtze River.

Therefore, only three hundred ships were used to load all two million stones of grain. The gap between water transportation, especially sea transportation, and land transportation is so huge that it is simply a huge difference.

The sea route from the mouth of the Yangtze River to Huai'an is only 800 miles. On normal days, it can be reached in two days. But it is winter now, and the coastal currents and winds are all from north to south, so the fleet is traveling against the current and the wind. Although the Chinese-style ship's sails are exposed to wind from all sides and can travel against the wind, its speed is really terrible and it can only travel two hundred miles per day.

Moreover, when sailing against the wind and current, the ship cannot go in a straight line, but has to take a zigzag path toward the northeast or northwest. This wind-running posture is called "counter-to-corner", so the actual voyage was more than a thousand miles, and it took five days to reach the mouth of the Yellow River.

Once we arrived at the mouth of the Yellow River, we received orders to continue heading north. When we arrived at the mouth of the Salt River, it was already late at night on the 13th.

Zhu Di's first batch of grain transport teams also arrived at the mouth of the Salt River in the evening of that day.

The cooperation between the two parties is perfect.