"An increase of 50%? Did I hear you correctly? Even now, the wages of these workers are the highest in the entire Ming Dynasty. Why do we need to increase it by another 50%?" Feng Yong paused, turned around and asked in surprise Dao, an increase of 50% is not a small amount.
There are hundreds of thousands of people now. If everyone's salary increases by 50%, it will be an astronomical figure. No wonder Feng Yong is surprised, because in his opinion, this is completely inconsistent with the laws of business - he Having been a cashier for so many years, he naturally considers himself a businessman.
Zhang Lei doesn't care about this. He never calculates how much money he has now. For him, it is enough, because he always thinks that money is money only when it is spent, and what is saved is at most one. Just a pile of metal.
"Why are you worried about this? Isn't this what you showed me just now? All the money we spent has been earned back through our shops, so we won't lose money no matter how much money we give them. That won't be the case then Want to get it into our pockets? We just have to control it carefully." Zhang Lei said.
Feng Yong thought about it, and it seemed to be the same, and said: "Well, since Mr. Zhang said so, I will go down and get ready. I believe that these people will be very happy if they get half the salary now. happy."
Zhang Lei then began to check the intelligence sent from other places. Zhang Lei would not expect all of the hundreds of thousands of workers to behave themselves. Naturally, there would be some troublemakers, and Zhang Lei would need to pass these people through his intelligence system. Come and find out, and then clear out the team in time.
Sudden. Jiang Yuyang hurriedly opened the door from outside and rushed in, startling Zhang Lei. Seeing something wrong with his expression, Zhang Lei couldn't help but ask: "Old Qi, what happened? You are now the director of the Intelligence Department, so you should stay calm when things happen."
"Master Zhang, I really can't calm down. I just received the news below that the Yellow River has burst, and many of our people have drowned. Those who are interested will make a fuss about this matter, saying that it is We have angered God and want to punish us. How can you be calm about this matter?"
"The Yellow River bursts?" This news was so shocking that Zhang Lei couldn't calm down. He almost jumped from his actions, "Where did your news come from? When did this happen? Things that happened?"
Jiang Yuyang frowned and said: "Oh. It's what happened a few days ago. The report from the people below is definitely not false. Mr. Zhang, what should we do now? If we don't handle it well, I'm afraid it will Master Zhang¡¯s reputation will be affected.¡±
"It's more than just having an impact. This is simply killing me. Let's go, don't worry about anything, take people to the place where the Yellow River bursts to have a look. There haven't been any big floods recently. Why did it burst? , This is unscientific." Zhang Lei said hurriedly.
"Do you really want to go? Okay. I'll go down right away and prepare the carriage." Jiang Yuyang said.
Zhang Lei said: "The carriage is too slow. We go on horseback. We don't need to bring anything with us. We can just let a team of cavalry follow."
Jiang Yuyang had never seen Zhang Lei like this before. He also realized that this matter seemed to be really extraordinary, so he did not dare to delay at all. In just half an hour, a cavalry team of 5,000 people came to the rescue. It's all in place. Most of these five thousand people are Zhang Lei's old subordinates, and some are talented strangers recruited. Their role for Zhang Lei is like the role of the Imperial Guard to Chongzhen.
Zhang Lei's actions naturally attracted everyone's attention, and Zhang Lei didn't have time to explain. With his people, they came all the way to Shanxi. The scene they encountered was very different from a year ago, and it was much more prosperous. The impact of the war has been rarely seen.
"It seems that the recovery here is good." Although Zhang Lei was in a hurry to deal with things, Zhang Lei was still very pleased to see this scene. These are his own achievements.
Jiang Yuyang said with a smile: "This is true. Master Zhang has not been walking around outside for a long time. You may not know it. We who are outside know very well that after a year and a half, half of the country seems to have changed drastically. . The people have escaped from the turmoil, and this is all the result of Mr. Zhang."
"In that case, I'm satisfied. I originally thought that you could help me manage this place well. Now it seems that the effect is very good, but the Yellow River breach is really puzzling." Zhang Lei explain.
The group of people came to Yuncheng from Shanhaiguan.
Yuncheng, named after the "City of Salt Transport", is the hometown of Guan Yu, the famous Shu-Han general in the Three Kingdoms. It belongs to the southern Shanxi region and is the southern gate of Shanxi. It was called Hedong in ancient times. Yuncheng is located at the junction of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan provinces, with Luliang Mountain and Luliang Mountains in the north.It borders Linfen City, Zhongtiao Mountain and Jincheng City in the east, and faces Weinan City in Shaanxi Province and Sanmenxia City in Henan Province across the Yellow River in the west and south. Yuncheng has a long history. It is the ancestral root of mankind and Chinese national culture. It is the origin of mankind. It is the place where mankind first used fire. It is the first place where mankind eats salt, begins smelting and farming civilization, and is the earliest place where Chinese ancestors gather to live. It is the place that was first called China, Zhonghua, and Huaxia. It is known as "Five thousand years of civilization depends on Yuncheng." Yuncheng is the birthplace of "clothing, food, housing and transportation" and the birthplace of "playing music, chess, calligraphy and painting". The source of China's earliest poetry collection "The Book of Songs" and the source of the pre-Qin ancient book "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" are all in Yuncheng.
There is a large body of water in Yuncheng, which passes through the Yongji Canal to the southwest and meets the Yellow River at Fenglingdu. And this Fenglingdu is Zhang Lei's destination this time.
Yuncheng officials had already known that Zhang Lei and the others were coming and were ready to receive them. Zhang Lei and the others immediately arranged their accommodation as soon as they arrived in Yuncheng. Zhang Lei was not in the mood to stay, so he immediately went to the scene of the accident with his people.
Fenglingdu is located at the corner where the Yellow River turns east. It is a transportation fortress in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan provinces, crossing the boundaries of North China, Northwest China and Central China. It has been the largest ferry on the Yellow River since ancient times. For thousands of years, Fenglingdu has been an important junction of the Yellow River. I don¡¯t know how many people passed through here and entered the Qin and Jin Dynasties. There is a sentence in "Fenglingdu" written by Zhao Zizhen of the Jin Dynasty: "With water flowing from the north to the south, the energy of the Central Plains is self-contained. The clouds and mountains are connected to the soil of Jin, and the smoke trees flow into Qinchuan."
The thing is like this. Not long ago, when workers were constructing, they encountered a huge stone that could not be excavated manually, so someone suggested using explosives. After discussion, everyone thought that this method was okay, but they They didn't take into account that this was originally a river wetland with loose soil, and the dose of gunpowder might have been too high. While all the rocks were blown to pieces, a groundwater was also blasted out. The flow of groundwater carried away the sediment and soaked the foundation, causing the Yellow River dam to collapse, causing the Yellow River water to rush towards Fenglingdu.
Today, Fenglingdu has become a vast ocean. Zhang Lei and the others have already encountered soldiers maintaining vigilance at a long distance away. However, there are very few soldiers. Those panicked people still enter Zhang Lei from time to time. s eyes. He had to send out most of the people he brought with him to maintain order, while Zhang Lei only brought one or two hundred people and continued to the location of the incident, even though those who accompanied him said that it was dangerous ahead. , but it couldn't change Zhang Lei's determination at all.
On a small hillside, Zhang Lei stopped, not because he changed his mind, but because the front of him seemed to have turned into a vast ocean, and there was no road ahead.
In the more than 2,000 years of recorded history, more than 1,500 breaches and flooding occurred in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and 26 major diversions occurred. The lower reaches of the Yellow River with written records generally pass through Hebei, from the present-day Ziya River to the sea near Tianjin, and are called the "Old Yu River Course". From the first major diversion of the Yellow River in 602 BC to the current river course in 1855 AD, 1128 years ago, the river went north of the current river course and entered the sea from Tianjin, Lijin and other places; after that, it went south of the current river course, taking the Huaihe River and entering the sea. . Historically, there is a saying that the Yellow River "breaks its mouth twice every three years and changes its course once every hundred years." Therefore, Zhang Lei did not find anything strange about the breach caused by an operational error this time. However, under the publicity of those who are interested, this has become a manifestation of Zhang Lei's anger.
On a small hilltop, looking at the turbid Yellow River water below, Zhang Lei stopped. He was thinking about what he should do. In fact, it is simply impossible to prevent the Yellow River from flooding and bursting in the future. Let¡¯s not talk about the matter now, even those people three or four hundred years from now will not be able to completely solve it. All Zhang Lei can think of is to clean up the river, remove the accumulated sediment, and lower the terrain in some places, at least so that they will not become "above ground rivers." As the second largest river in China, the Yellow River needs to be completely cleaned up, so you can imagine how big the project will be.
But Zhang Lei will not back down. He believes that China's large population will be able to accomplish such a feat, but this must go through careful planning. The first is to redesign the river channel, and then the sediment must be transported after being dug out. Where to go. There is also the manpower. Zhang Lei initially estimated that at least millions of migrant workers would be needed. With so many people gathered together, someone would rebel if they were not careful. As far back as the Qin Dynasty, this was the case when building the Great Wall, so it was impossible for Zhang Lei not to take precautions.
After standing on the top of the mountain for more than an hour, the wind made Zhang Lei feel numb all over. Only then did he seem to come back from his meditation. He said to Jiang Yuyang, who had been standing beside him, "Old Seven, let's go back." Let¡¯s go.¡± (To be continued.)