Chapter 601: Trouble Caused by Silver
Mr. Wang said that it was originally an abandoned well, and since it was of use to the government, he would present it to the court.
Zhao Yulin immediately asked Liangchen to find well diggers from the surrounding area to dredge the well. He then took out a written letter and asked the guard captain Jing Gang to arrange a messenger to go to the Ministry of Works to mobilize people and equipment to plan the well digging.
At night, the Wang family took out the bacon and sausages buried in the middle of the rice from the granary and prepared a sumptuous meal to entertain them. Zhao Yulin unceremoniously pulled Hulan to sit in the main seat and asked someone to bring his own grain-rich drink.
In this era when there were no refrigerators or freezers, the country people had a unique way to store and preserve bacon and sausages, which was to put the smoked bacon into dried rice. This not only solved the problem of the bacon's air permeability and sealing, but also allowed the dry rice to absorb the oil and gas, so there was no need to worry about the lard leaking out and causing the meat to mold and spoil.
Zhao Yulin munched on the delicious bacon bones with gusto, praising them highly, calling them great kindness, and raised his glass to invite the old man to drink.
During the meal, the old man introduced to him that there were many ancient fire wells in the Qiongzhou area in the distance. He knew where they were and could lead the way to find them if needed. Maybe there really were some fire wells.
Zhao Yulin nodded and thanked him, and told the old man that fire was an underground resource and belonged to the state. In the future, individuals would not be allowed to dig wells at will. It would be brought under the unified management of the court like salt wells in various places to ensure the safety of well digging and resource sharing.
The old man agreed with this and told him that many workers in Huojing County had been buried while digging wells in the past. Some wells suddenly collapsed and buried entire families at once, leaving them without descendants.
Must be careful.
Tomorrow, he will personally go to the village entrance to slaughter a big red rooster to pay tribute to the God of Land.
Zhao Yulin was chewing on a piece of cured meat and couldn't speak, so he nodded.
This is a traditional construction custom. Every time construction begins in a certain place, a chicken must be killed for sacrifice. Although Zhao Yulin does not believe in ghosts and gods, the craftsmen need to feel at ease, so he just kills the chicken and treats it to treating the masters to a meal.
In Chengdu, Director Dai of the Mint arrived with the new currency, and the new Minister of Transportation Cao Ying immediately started issuing the new currency.
This was the second set of banknotes issued by the New Song Dynasty. Shunzhidi learned the lesson from the first set of banknotes and called on the entire state apparatus to take action. The Shunfeng Division and the Xuncha Division worked closely together to strictly investigate illegal crimes in the exchange of banknotes and took the opportunity to investigate and deal with the corruption of officials who hid stolen money.
The officials of Jinguan City suddenly became busy, and those corrupt officials and officials who accepted huge amounts of money immediately became nervous.
The imperial court issued an edict requiring officials to complete the exchange of their own new and old currencies within one month. Large exchanges of more than 2,000 strings of cash must be registered and filed with identity cards.
Cao Ying's move was to block the exchange channels for illegal income and expose the criminals in broad daylight.
How could the dignitaries in the city know that the court would take such a move? They panicked, and many of them thought of breaking the whole into small pieces. They took out the coins they had hidden and distributed them to their servants and relatives and friends to help exchange them. All these actions would inevitably leave clues, which gave the three courts the opportunity to investigate and solve the case, and they arrested several corrupt officials in succession.
Zhao Yulin didn't know that a storm was brewing in Chengdu and was using it to teach Chen Liu a lesson.
Chen Liu is his and Chen Xiaomin's son. Xiaomin died of complications during childbirth when Liu Liu was born. Zhao Yulin felt very guilty. In the past, he was too busy with official duties to take care of the child. Today, he must teach the child well if he has the chance.
He called Chen Liu to his side and patiently explained to him that he must treat himself as a servant of the craftsmen and provide careful logistical services. Only by learning from the masters wholeheartedly could he figure out how to dig wells quickly and well.
It was rare for Chen Liu to sit down and communicate with his father at such a close distance. He was both happy and nervous. He kept nodding his head like a chicken pecking at rice and agreeing with yess and nods.
Seeing that it was late at night, Hu Lan came over with a smile and said that he and his father were very tired and it was time to take a rest.
Chen Liu understood immediately and quickly stood up and left.
The young girl went up to Zhao Yulin, took his arm and said, "Sitting and talking after a meal is not good for digestion. Let's go for a walk in the yard."
He said that the guards and the employer's people were watching, so there was no need to show off their affection in such a way.
Hu Lan happily said that he wanted it, just right to let people all over the world know that our family is harmonious and sweet as honey. The woman put her head on his shoulder and looked up at the sky. The moonlight was clear and the stars were brilliant. She couldn't help but say it was beautiful and she really wanted to stay here and watch it forever.
He smiled and said that there were many things to do. Silly, don't you want to do anything? The girl still wants to be the queen of the grassland.
Hu Lan told him that the new currency was on the way and that the court had received an official document stating that after the new currency entered the treasury, the officials in Qiongzhou must complete the exchange within one month, otherwise they would be punished according to the law.
Zhao Yulin understood that this was Chengdu's way of cracking down on officials with huge illegal incomes.
He said: Let's go back tomorrow and leave this to your husband. Don't worry, I guarantee to dig a good fire well for you.
Hu Lan was amused and asked him with a smile how he could be so sure that he could really dig a fire well.
Zhao Yulin said proudly: Of course, my husband is so powerful and can do anything.
Hu Lan gave a wicked smile, her little face flushed as she said softly: Go back to the house, I have a blazing fire well here.
Zhao Yulin's blood boiled when he heard this. He hugged Hu Lan tightly and walked quickly into the house.
The next day, he sent Hulan away and personally supervised the craftsmen to go down to the well to clear the silt.
This time, Zhao Yulin required every master going down the well to wear a safety rope around their waists and hang a high-pitch bamboo whistle around their necks. Once a dangerous situation occurred, they would immediately blow the whistle and pull the rope, and the master at the wellhead would pull the safety rope to pull the person up.
After three days of digging, the soil had piled up into a small hill, but there was no movement.
Chen Liu reported to him that they had dug nearly five meters deep.
He said: What can we gain from Wuzhang? It is just to clear away the silt that has accumulated over the years. Keep digging.
Further down, it was all mud and rocks. Zhao Yulin asked the master on the well to split off a carpentry team, and refer to the method of caisson construction to make wooden well shaft accessories. They then installed them one by one to firmly support the well wall. It was quite easy to do, but still nothing was found.
Five days later, it was still the same. Chen Liu and the deacons sent by the Ministry of Works felt that there was no movement at all and were afraid that the animal was really dead.
Zhao Yulin disagreed.
They had only gone down to a depth of more than ten feet, which was obviously far from enough.
The gas wells drilled in this area in the past should have released most of the shallow natural gas long ago. We need to dig at least thirty or fifty feet deeper.
He knew very well that drilling teams in later generations had advanced exploration methods and were able to be more targeted. They would drill thousands or tens of thousands of meters deep, and often their work would be in vain.
He asked everyone to keep a close eye on it and make sure to support the well wall to prevent any landslide. After work was over, he asked Chen Liu to light a torch and drop it down the well to have a look.
After the torch was thrown in for a long time, the fire went out, which means there is no natural gas. We will continue digging tomorrow.
Moreover, before going down the well, workers must throw down a torch to test whether the well is hot. This must be done every day, and the craftsmen must never be allowed to be harmed due to negligence of this detail.
The next day, the craftsmen received new coal mining tools sent by the Ministry of Industry and continued digging the well with great enthusiasm.
Zhao Yulin felt it was too early to vent his anger, so he asked Zuo Liangchen to go back to the county town to take a look.
The bridge over the Baimo River was still under construction. The weather was hot and the flood season had already begun. He was a little worried and wanted to go and see the construction of the bridge pier in the middle of the river. When the group returned to the county town, the Baimo River under the big banyan tree in front of the fish dock was already a busy construction scene.
The bridge piers in the middle of the river have emerged from the water. Craftsmen are using boats to transport stone slabs for stacking. Concrete gantries on both sides have also been erected. Zhao Yulin was very satisfied when he saw that the underwater part of the river had been completed.
Liangchen pointed to the clanging iron stoves on the dock and said: Three iron furnaces have been set up, and the masters are working in three shifts to cast iron and connect the iron chains one by one, so that they can keep up with the progress of bridge construction.
He told us not to be anxious and to ensure the quality. The money was hard-earned and it was not easy for us to build a bridge, so we must ensure the quality.
Liangchen asked him not to worry. When the bridge was completed, the names of all the people who made the piers, the gate frames and the chains would be engraved on the bridge foundation so that the people of Huojing could see them clearly and no one would dare to be lazy.
Zhao Yulin gave Liangchen a thumbs up and praised him for his thoughtful consideration. This is how it should be done, so that everyone should shoulder their responsibilities.
After everyone had dinner at the county government office, Liangchen accompanied him to chat and drink tea, but saw Mr. Qiu from the Ministry of Works rushing over. He stepped forward to receive him and asked in surprise: "Mr. Qiu, what's wrong? Why do you have to come and watch over the well digging and bridge repairing?"
Mr. Qiu smiled awkwardly and said: The third young master is going to Huojing County to inspect the fire wells in person, so he, as the Minister of Works, must come to accompany him.
Zhao Yulin knew that Mr. Qiu was very busy with his daily affairs and it was impossible that he came here just for the fire well, so he ordered his good ministers to prepare to set off for the Wang family courtyard to wait for Mr. Qiu to inspect the fire well.
The two men went out immediately, riding side by side. Mr. Qiu said to himself: Chengdu is exchanging new currency, it's very lively now. Many officials usually accept gifts from visitors, and now they are worried about how to exchange it. My brother, you can just stay here and have some free time.
Zhao Yulin burst out laughing when he heard this, and told him that he was a generous person by nature and loved to eat grains. He spent all his income on entertaining his brothers, and he was really not in a hurry at all. Mr. Qiu didn't drink and didn't have any social events. Could it be that Mr. Qiu also had a heart disease this time?
Mr. Qiu's face changed immediately. He looked around and said: I was just about to complain to my brother.
He turned around and winked at Liangchen, and the young man understood immediately. He pulled the reins tactfully and followed behind from a distance.
The old man hesitated for a moment and said: It's all because of the money that caused the trouble. The New Song Dynasty court acts according to the law, and officials at all levels have positions and powers. The people of Chengdu are wealthy, and giving money and gifts to officials has become a common courtesy. Each red envelope is not a small amount. An official like him will receive hundreds of thousands of yuan a year, and the accumulated amount is terrifying.
Zhao Yulin was stunned.
Damn, this old man actually attributed the reason why officials accepted gifts and bribes to the good policies of the and the wealth of the people.
Officials have huge gray incomes because common people give them lavish gifts after they become rich.
