In Chang'an, the imperial garden in the palace, Yuwen Wen was reviewing memorials under the pavilion. It is autumn now, and there are many things to do, so there are naturally many memorials waiting to be reviewed. He does not want to be a foolish monarch who ignores political affairs, so he can only work overtime from time to time.

Xiao Jiuniang was accompanying him as the secretary to assist Yu Wenwen in sorting out the memorials and preparing relevant information in advance. She was also very busy.

Yuwen Wen doesn't want her female relatives to be idle, because women in the harem will easily think about it when they are idle, and then enter the "palace fighting state". At that time, you will step on me, I will be humble, intrigue, destroy each other, and even keep a needle hidden in your words.

Just thinking about this kind of thing makes Yuwen Wen feel a headache.

There are rivers and lakes in places where there are people. There is a harmonious harem. The concubines are like sisters. Yuwen Wen just wants to reduce the probability of a fire in the backyard, so he cannot leave the female family idle.

This month, Xiao Jiuniang is on the rotation as secretary. Yuwen Wen is so busy that he is not in the mood to think about anything else. At this time, he happened to see the memorial from the Huangzhou General Manager. Seeing the other party taking the initiative to mention the situation of Guanghuang Railway, Yuwen Wen couldn't help but take a few more glances.

Railways are of course good things, but large-scale promotion of railway transportation is not realistic because steel production cannot be supported, not to mention that steam trains have more technical difficulties, so only rail carriages can run on the railway.

The transportation capacity of rail carriages is much better than that of traditional road transportation, but in order to maintain the transportation capacity of rail transportation, a large number of horses need to be stored for rotation. The food and grass consumed by these horses is not a small amount, which also affects the promotion of rail transportation.

Therefore, the relatively feasible breakthrough direction is steam ships (steam ships). As long as the steam ships can be practical, even by water transportation, it can make a qualitative change in national strength.

Products in the southeast region can be transported to Bingzhou by relatively low-cost transportation, directly supporting the large-scale combat of the government army against the grassland. Such a scenario is exciting just thinking, but it is not realistic.

In the early summer, the steamship was successfully tested, but it was abnormally damaged, so when the news came, Yuwen Wen couldn't be happy.

Although Lin Youdi later said in the memorial that the steamship had a major breakthrough and that the technical goal might be achieved within the year, Yu Wenwen did not dare to be too happy too early, for fear that the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

As he thought about it, Yuwen Wen got distracted. Xiao Jiuniang, who was beside him, saw him dazed and hesitated for a moment, and then deliberately coughed a few times in order to "awaken" the person involved.

This cough was indeed effective. Yu Wen Wen came to his senses instantly, looked at Xiao Jiuniang, and asked with concern: "Hmm? Cough? What's wrong? Catching a cold?"

Seeing that Xiao Jiuniang said that her throat was just itchy, he continued to read the memorial.

Thanks to the good news brought by the "drug-taking" steamship, the government bonds issued by the court were successfully sold not long ago, and the huge amount of funds raised (including food and other physical goods) provided strong support for the upcoming Tongji Canal Project.

After the autumn, the slack farming period is a good time to recruit labor force. When the labor period has come, the people will be hired by paid employment. With the additional "construction team" employed, the construction of Tongji Canal will continue.

It lasted for four years, connecting the Huai River and the Yellow River, and then connecting the Yangtze River and the Yellow River with the help of the existing Hangou.

In this way, the main section of the Grand Canal in history, which "has the disaster in the present and the benefits for thousands of years" will be completed in this era.

Emperor Yang of Sui built the Yongji Canal and Tongji Canal. The construction started in the same year and was completed in the same year. It did not care about the people's strength, so it forced countless people to death, causing people to resentment. But now, Yuwen Wen "treated with history" and spent four years each to build the Yongji Canal and Tongji Canal, and was not eager for quick success.

The negative impact of the construction of the Grand Canal has been greatly reduced.

It's extremely costly.

But Yuwen Wen doesn't care. He can find ways to make money when he loses money. He can't afford a series of serious consequences of abuse of people's power.

Although there are still four years left, Yuwen Wen has begun to conceive how to make good use of this expensive canal after the Tongji Canal is opened.

Then he got distracted again.

Seeing this, Xiao Jiuniang felt a little embarrassed because the same trick could not be used so quickly. She waited quietly for a while and found that Yuwen Wen was still distracted, holding the pen in her hand and the ink seemed to be about to dry out.

After a while, Yuwen Wen sighed.

‘Erlang, what’s wrong?’

Xiao Jiuniang asked with concern, Yuwen Wen put down his pen and said, "It's too expensive..."

"Gui? Erlang said?"

"The grain transport from Jiangnan to the capital city has not been cheap in the past few years... Look." Yuwen Wen took out the notepad he carried with him, flipped through it, Xiao Jiuniang leaned over and took a look, and his heart suddenly shrank.

But I saw four big words written on that page: Dog officials should be killed.

Such four murderous words made Xiao Jiuniang frightened. She didn't know who this "dog official" was. Now that she saw it, she could only treat it as if she hadn't seen it.

Seeing that Yuwen Wen turned the wrong page number, he quickly concealed it: "Hey, who is writing or drawing randomly..."

After quickly turning a few pages, he pointed to a set of numbers above and said: "One stone of rice is transported from Jiangnan through the inland water system to Chang'an, and there is also land transportation. After thousands of miles apart, the freight of one stone of rice is no less than the usual amount, but what is the price of one stone of rice?"

"The freight is so expensive, but it has to be transported. Chang'an has a population of hundreds of thousands, just waiting for Guandong's grain supply. How much does it cost to maintain the prosperity of the capital?"

"It can save some money when moving the capital to Luoyang, but what to do with Longyou? What to do with the Turks attacking? We still have to station a large army in Guanzhong, and we have to rely on transporting food outside."

"People go to high places and water flows to low places. This big river and the many water systems of the Central Plains are mostly flowing from west to east. If you want to import Guandong grains into Guanzhong, that is, you go from east to west, and the canal transportation must be a boating against the current."

"The canal ships sail against the current and rely on human towing. After walking thousands of miles of water, it is good to travel 30 miles a day. Even if the Tongji Canal is open to navigation, the canal ships departing from Guangling at the east end will take at least two months to reach Xingyang at the west end."

Speaking of this, Yuwen Wen was helpless: "The freight of one stone of rice is more than usual, and the people who help along the way also consume a lot of food. The freight is really expensive..."

When Xiao Jiuniang heard this, she asked curiously: "Isn't there a steamship? Didn't it mean that in a few years, the Tongji Canal will be used?"

"Ah...yes..." Yuwen Wen didn't let it go this time. He knew that the progress of the steamship was not satisfactory. Even if Lin Youdi said that there was a breakthrough progress, he did not dare to be too optimistic.

From Yuwen Wen's performance just now, Xiao Jiuniang realized that something seemed to be wrong with the steamship, but she was silent. She knew the right way, so she pretended not to know.

Seeing Yuwen Wen continue to read the memorial, she began to organize the information. After a while, an eunuch came hurriedly and held a rectangular box up.

Xiao Jiuniang recognized that this kind of box was usually filled with memorials from Lin Youdi and others. Because it was directly transmitted to the palace without going through the Secretariat, it was considered a secret report.

She sat farther away silently to avoid being suspicious of peeping, but saw Yuwen Wen take out the memorial from the box. As she looked at it, her breathing suddenly became rapid, her face turned red, and her hands trembled slightly.

Yuwen Wen rarely loses his composure when reading the memorials. Xiao Jiuniang felt strange in her heart. She was about to ask, but she saw Yuwen Wen suddenly stood up, holding the memorial in one hand, panting, and circling around the pavilion like a headless fly.

After a few turns, he suddenly ran out, but when he went downstairs, he staggered and then fell to the ground. Xiao Jiuniang was shocked when she saw this and quickly stepped forward to support her, but Yuwen Wen got up, as if she was crazy, shouting and running forward.

"It's done! It's done!"

Yuwen Wen shouted loudly, stumbled on the grass, waved his arms, and immersed himself in great joy.

Lin Youdi, who is in Xiyang, Huangzhou, reported that after technological improvements, the steamer finally achieved the most basic technical indicators: sailing against the current on the river, with a speed of no less than fifteen miles per hour.

Such a result was completed with a load capacity of 1,000 stones. During this trial, two steamships sailed for fourteen hours in a row, arrived at the upstream Ezhou Xiakou from Bakou, Huangzhou, and completed a voyage of about two hundred miles.

How could such good results not make Yu Wen Wen not excited? He thought that he would never see the steamship entering the practical stage in his lifetime, but he did not expect happiness to come so quickly.

He was like a lonely runner, running along an endless road, running silently, and had been running for twenty-one years.

Just when he thought he would run for another twenty years, he suddenly arrived at his destination.
Chapter completed!