Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 203 Unpredictable Turbulent Times: The Three Kings' Power (Part 2)

There was never any "King of Hanzhong" Zhang Yun during the Chongzhen reign in history, let alone an army of 500,000 that suddenly appeared.

The three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou, including Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, were all somewhat bewildered.

Where did this King Zhang Yun of Hanzhong come from, and where did he get so much money and grain to support an army of 500,000?

Rumor has it that this guy is also going around luring disaster victims to Hanzhong Prefecture, and he even boasted that the disaster victims who went there would be able to eat their fill.

There are probably more than three million disaster victims gathered in Hanzhong Prefecture right now!

Where did this guy get so much food to feed so many disaster victims?
To be honest, all of this is incomprehensible.

The three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou could not possibly provide enough money and grain to support so many people and disaster victims.

Leaving aside where Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, got his money and provisions, the key point is that this guy had absolutely no connection with them.

The sudden emergence of such a powerful force could very well ruin their plans. If this guy leads his army to Shanxi, he might just rob them all!

The three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou could not sit idly by. No matter what, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong had to suppress this so-called King of Hanzhong, Zhang Yun.

Gao Yingxiang was forced into a corner and frantically recruited men.

This is because if he didn't frantically recruit troops, he wouldn't be able to contend with Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong.

As for money and provisions, the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou would never give him that much.

If all else fails, he will have no choice but to attack vassal states and seize the property of their kings and royal families.

Hong Chengchou was anxious precisely because he feared that Gao Yingxiang would be driven to desperation and resort to desperate measures.

What would he do if the princes and their families were truly slaughtered?
Zhu Jue naturally didn't care about any of that. He had already handed over the matter of dealing with the rebels to the brothers Pan Guozhong and Pan Yunteng. Right now, he was focused on how to increase the income of the soldiers in the Beijing garrison.

The next morning around 9 a.m., he had just finished reviewing the memorials when he led Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others on horseback to the moat north of the outer city.

At this moment, Lu Xiang-sheng was already leading nearly 200,000 soldiers from the Beijing garrison to break through the ice, cut off the flow of water, and dig irrigation canals.

The irrigation canal was relatively easy to manage, as it was only about half a zhang wide and two or three zhang deep. Building a canal wharf would only require widening the moat to about forty zhang, so they would only need to dig a length of about thirty zhang.

These small irrigation ditches are nothing to them. Right now, they've already dug through the ice on the ground and dug down to a depth of nearly a foot in the hundreds of irrigation ditches on both sides of the North Gate.

On the contrary, the soldiers who were trying to break the ice on the river to stop the flow did not seem to have made much progress.

The ice was more than three feet thick, making it difficult to even dig a hole, let alone a cross section.

There's no need to even try using hoes and shovels; they definitely won't be able to dig it up.

Fortunately, Song Yingxing had ordered people to work overtime last night to produce over a thousand ice chisels for them.

The so-called "ice chisel" is a metal rod with a handle on top, resembling an iron shovel, and a straight iron rod at the bottom, with a sharp point like a spearhead.

Thousands of soldiers from the Beijing garrison took turns using ice chisels to break holes, but each time they could only manage to create a pit the size of two or three fingers.

When Zhu Jue got closer, he saw that even after thousands of soldiers had been chiseling for so long, the pits on the ice surface were still less than half a foot deep.

Fortunately, the ice was only a little over three feet thick. Even if it took an hour to chisel half a foot deep, it would take ten hours to chisel through it.

After observing for a while, he walked over to Lu Xiang-sheng and asked, "Jian Dou, won't the ice sink after we break through it?"

Lu Xiang-sheng shook his head repeatedly and said, "No, Your Majesty, the ice is so thick that it's almost like a boat. This section is equivalent to a boat more than ten miles long, and both sides are frozen to the riverbank. Even if tens of thousands of people stand on it and break through the ice, it won't sink."

That's good.

Zhu Jue looked at both sides and asked, "It seems like you haven't prepared anything. How are you planning to cut off the flow?"

This will also help to stop the flow when it freezes. Lu Xiang-sheng explained in detail: "Your Majesty, I plan to have them chisel out a gap about three feet wide, then nail two rows of three-zhang-long wooden stakes on both sides, and fill the middle with clay, that should be about right."

Okay, it doesn't matter much if the water doesn't completely stop flowing in this freezing weather. Anyway, any small leaks will be frozen over very quickly.

Zhu Jue glanced at the seemingly endless ice surface again and sighed, "I wonder how long it will take to drain this ten-mile-long moat."

No one has ever done something like this before.

Lu Xiang-sheng could only estimate: "Your Majesty, we have dug two hundred and fifty canals, each about forty feet long. If you include the width, that's roughly equivalent to a moat one mile long. In other words, we only need to scoop out the water from the canals about ten times to drain this section of the moat."

The soldiers all said they only wanted to rest for two days on New Year's Eve and during the Spring Festival. If we start counting from now until the end of the festival, there are still more than twenty days. I estimate that draining this section of the moat shouldn't be a problem.

Are they working this hard?

As they were talking, Yuan You led hundreds of craftsmen and a hundred carts of ice troughs out of the new north gate and headed towards the place where the irrigation canal was being dug.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Jue immediately said to Wang Chengen, "Send someone to summon Yuan Guozhang over here."

Soon, Yuan You hurriedly abandoned the convoy, rushed over, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Father-in-law, did you bring the blueprints for the canal wharf here?"

Yuan You quickly took out a neatly folded blueprint from his bosom and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, this is the blueprint for the new North Gate canal wharf."

Zhu Jue took the blueprints, unfolded them, and nodded slightly.

This new canal wharf is much more organized and much larger than the Tongzhou canal wharf.

The original canal wharf in Tongzhou City was only four or five li long, while the canal wharf here is divided into east and west sections, each about five li long, with a passage about one li long in the middle, directly facing the city gate.

Furthermore, the canal wharves here were built on the opposite bank of the river, so there was no need to consider the gap between the city wall and the riverbank. Therefore, rows of warehouses were built on the north side, corresponding to the wharves, making them look neat and uniform.

However, this canal wharf is not without its problems.

Not to mention that this canal wharf was built on the north bank of the moat and couldn't defend against Jurchen invasions, the key issue was that there was a drawbridge across the moat between the two wharves.

The drawbridge at the city gate must be built on the riverbank. If it's lowered, boats can't cross; if it's raised, goods from the other side can't be brought over. It seems like a contradiction.

Zhu Jue examined it carefully, then pointed to the location of the drawbridge and said, "Father-in-law, once this drawbridge is lowered, it will block the waterways on both sides of the dock. Have you thought about how to resolve this?"

There's no way to solve this.

Yuan You explained in detail: "Your Majesty, it is basically impossible to lower this suspension bridge during the day. If boats on both sides of the dock want to go to the other dock, they can only do so at night."

However, I think we can divide the arriving ships into two groups. For example, all the cargo ships can dock at the eastern dock, while all the ships delivering goods from the outer cities of the capital can dock at the western dock. Additionally, ships delivering raw materials from various places and ships hauling raw materials from the outer cities of the capital can dock at the western dock.

In this way, the ships on both sides basically don't overlap; they don't need to travel from the east dock to the west dock, or vice versa.

Hmm, splitting the boat into two sides beforehand is a good idea.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Jian Dou, when do you estimate that these two sections of the moat will be widened?"

Lu Xiang-sheng pondered, "This is equivalent to a canal that is roughly ten miles long and forty feet wide. Based on the time it took to dig the canal in the southeast outer city, it should take about a month for 100,000 soldiers to finish digging it."

However, I believe that, considering the issue of recouping costs, we should ideally complete the construction of the shops before March. This would allow me to send 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers to excavate before March. After they excavate for over a month, plus the soldiers who have finished building the shops and come to help, the expansion should be complete by mid-March next year.

There's still time.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then instructed, "Father-in-law, Liangfu and Changgeng are quite busy, so you will be in charge of the construction materials for this dock. You should have all the materials ready by mid-March next year."

Yuan You nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

(End of this chapter)