Rise of a Lonely City: From Exiled Prince to Ruler of the Nine Provinces

Just as Xiao Chen was secretly planning to bring his mother back and investigate the case, echoing the undercurrents in the capital, Han Yuan's overt developments also entered a new phase.

The city walls of Zhenbei City rose from the ground at an astonishing speed, and the cement official road, like gray veins, tightly connected the core area controlled by Hanyuan.

However, Xiao Chen's gaze did not remain solely on the land.

Although the northern region is generally arid, water resources are not absolutely scarce. The Whitewater River and its several tributaries provide valuable water sources.

In the past, apart from being used for a small amount of irrigation, drinking water for people and livestock, and waterwheels for water lifting that have been successfully promoted recently, the greater potential of these waterways—especially their shipping potential—has not been fully developed.

In Xiao Chen's view, waterway transportation has natural advantages such as high load capacity, low cost, and suitability for long-distance bulk cargo transportation. It is an indispensable supplement to land transportation and an important strategic channel for future communication with a wider area, especially connecting the south.

Therefore, after the "official road was opened", a new and massive plan was put on the agenda - to manage the water system, build water conservancy projects, and initially construct a "water network" with the Baishui River as the main trunk and connecting major tributaries and artificial channels.

This project was more complex than building city walls and roads, involving multiple aspects such as water conservancy, geography, and engineering.

Xiao Chen once again entrusted the important task to the "Academy of Natural Sciences" and the Department of Works, and asked Han Lie to draw on capable personnel from the Department of Civil Affairs to form the "Department of Rivers and Canals" to take special charge.

The primary objective is to dredge and widen the main channel from the northern part of Baishuihe Town to the old town of Hanyuan.

This section of the river is about 30 miles long, with a relatively gentle current, but there are many shallows and sandbars, making navigation difficult during the dry season.

The River and Canal Bureau organized a large number of people to take advantage of the dry season and adopted the primitive but effective method of "building dams in sections, draining and dredging" to deepen the river channel, remove obstacles, and reinforce some of the easily collapsible riverbanks with quarried stones.

The Gewu Institute dispatched personnel from the Department of Mathematics and Geography to survey the water depth, flow velocity, and riverbed geology along the river, and to draw detailed waterway maps to provide a basis for more precise future management and ship design.

Meanwhile, in the planned dock area of ​​Zhenbei New Town, the construction of stone revetments and piers has begun.

Solid berths were constructed using "stone-mud" concrete and stone blocks to accommodate larger and more numerous vessels in the future. The dock area was directly connected to the city's main roads and warehouse areas, ensuring convenient loading, unloading, and transshipment of goods.

While dredging the main channel, another key project also began – the excavation of an artificial canal connecting Zhenbei New Town with Qinghe Town in the northeast.

Qinghe Town is located beside a tributary of the Baishui River with a decent flow of water, but there is no direct navigable waterway between the tributary and the main stream of the Baishui River.

If the two places can be connected by waterway, Qinghe Town can be more closely integrated into the core area, and its tributaries can be used to explore waterways further north.

The planned "Zhenqing Canal" is about 15 miles long and needs to pass through some hilly areas, making the project quite challenging.

However, with the availability of "stone and mud," a relatively sufficient manpower, and the assistance of the Institute of Geology in surveying and earthwork calculations, the project was able to commence.

The canal was designed to be five zhang wide and one zhang deep, with simple locks along the way to overcome the difference in water level.

In addition, a small reservoir and weir has been built in a bend of the Baishui River upstream of Zhenbei New Town, taking advantage of the natural terrain.

Its purpose is threefold: first, to regulate the water volume in the lower reaches of the Baishui River and ensure the water depth of the navigation channel, especially during the dry season; second, to utilize the water level difference to drive larger hydraulic machinery and provide power for the future new urban industrial area; and third, to store water for irrigation of newly reclaimed farmland in the surrounding area.

This water conservancy project, named "Dingbo Weir," was Hanyuan's first attempt at a large-scale hydraulic structure. It was jointly designed by the "Construction Department" and "Craftsmanship Department" of the Gewu Institute. It adopted a mixed structure with a rammed earth core, an outer "stone mud" concrete and stone strips, and a controllable spillway gate.

The entire "water network" project involved tens of thousands of workers and was listed alongside the city construction project of Zhenbei City and the official road paving project as the three major construction tasks of Hanyuan.

Along the banks of the Baishui River, there were laborers dredging mud and clearing silt, teams transporting stones, and officials and craftsmen surveying and mapping.

At the Dingbo Weir construction site, the sounds of workers' chants filled the air as massive wooden frames and rammed earth hammers rose and fell incessantly. Along the Zhenqing Canal, sections of trenches were dug, stretching into the distance.

This is not just physical labor, but also the practice and challenge of knowledge and technology.

How to calculate earthwork, how to stabilize riverbanks, how to design locks, how to build weirs resistant to water erosion... Countless problems emerged in practice, and answers were gradually found through arguments, experiments, failures, and improvements.

The archives of the Gewu Institute are seeing a rapid increase in records about hydrology, geotechnical engineering, and material properties. Many migrants who originally only knew how to farm or do manual labor have become half-"hydraulic engineers" or "stonemasons" after participating in these projects.

Xiao Chen frequently appears at various water conservancy construction sites.

He stood beside the dredged riverbed, watching the turbid water being diverted into the newly excavated diversion channel, revealing the dark riverbed; he climbed onto the foundation of the Dingbo Weir under construction, feeling the vibration of the ground beneath his feet and the sweat of the craftsmen; he walked along the planned route of the Zhenqing Canal, imagining the scene of boats shuttling back and forth on this new waterway soon.

He knew that once this "water network" was initially completed, its significance would be extremely profound.

It can not only improve internal logistics efficiency and reduce transportation costs, but also spread the influence of Hanyuan more smoothly through waterways.

In the future, we may be able to extend our influence further upstream along the Baishui River and its tributaries, and even explore the possibility of accessing other water systems.

With convenient waterways, the flow of people, goods, and information will become more frequent, and the ability to attract and control surrounding areas will be further enhanced.

On land, official roads crisscross the land, and boats travel on the water. Han Yuan's control over this land is deepening from "points" and "lines" to "surfaces" and "networks".

This vast network, with fortified cities as nodes, roads as warp and weft, and rivers as veins, is being woven brick by brick, stone by stone, shovel by hoe, across the northern lands.

The dense network of waterways will bring more vibrant life, greater strength, and... a broader vision and ambition.