The biggest reason for building the canal was not for trade.
Fu Zhiyu still remembers the flood in his previous life. It rained continuously for a month and the people were miserable. The food was flooded and the houses collapsed. When the flood happened, Fu Zhiyu was still the emperor. The subsequent disaster relief was ineffective and the officials were corrupt, which led to people who could not survive to rise up in rebellion. Therefore, when Xie Ke rebelled at that time, he received the support of a large number of people. It can even be said that it was the popular choice.
This matter actually had nothing to do with Xie Ke, and he was not the one who made the rain. It was the guilt he felt at that time that became a shadow that Fu Zhiyu could not erase.
I feel sorry for those people. It was because he did not manage his officials well and failed to give them the help they deserved.
There are still several years before the flood occurs, which is enough time to prepare. Fu Zhiyu has donated a lot of money through the Yuan family to build dams along the way in recent years, but he feels that it is still not enough. The idea of the canal has gradually taken shape. After seeing Fu Yanran's reply, he found that his idea coincided with his own, and he had even started doing it a long time ago.
"The Xie family also mentioned the canal construction, and they have already recruited workers along the route," Fu Yanran wrote in the memorial. "I think that although the flood is not widespread now, it could easily cause a disaster during the rainy season. Although there are dams along the route, it is better to drain water than to block it. After much thought, it is better to build a canal, which will benefit the country and the people and bring benefits to future generations."
Fu Zhiyu had also visited the Deng family shipyard. The craftsmen were good and many things had prototypes. If the technology could be improved to a better level in the next few years, perhaps large-scale machinery could be built, so that digging canals would not rely solely on manpower and would be more efficient.
However, given the current situation, it is too far-fetched to think about these things. Let’s just do these little things first.
The last family to come was the Lin family. Fu Zhiyu gave him quite a lot of drawings, ranging from small farm tools to water wheels. Their family specialized in this, so he thought they would have no objection like the Deng and Qian families.
The head of the Lin family is called Lin Yan. He is the oldest among the four heads, one year older than Yuan Jiangwen. Unlike the other three families, his family has a long history of doing business and has accumulated a lot of wealth. Although they are not as enterprising as the other families, the land and farms they have accumulated are enough for the Lin family to live on for a lifetime.
What made Fu Zhiyu look at them differently was that the Lin family's land was not only in Jiangnan, but also spread across many places on the mainland. As they were an old family with many years of history, they had many branches. For example, one branch of the Lin family had a farm among the barbarians, specializing in growing cotton. In fact, the raw materials for many merchants were provided by their family.
Both the Deng and Qian families' evaluation of the Lin family is two words - old-fashioned. Fu Zhiyu investigated the sacrificial ceremony at that time. The Lin family withdrew from the beginning and even made efforts to stop them from doing it, but they failed in the end. This is quite interesting.
Yuan Jiangwen made a few more comments about this person, saying that he is conservative and cautious.
"I don't know if it's because of this, but he still hasn't married. He rarely speaks and is silent most of the time," Yuan Jiangwen and Fu Zhiyu introduced. "The Lin family is a large family with so many branches and many outstanding talents. The heirs of this family are all chosen through competition. If he doesn't get married, many people in the Lin family would like it to be like this, so no one says anything about him."
"Lin Yan is just a rock," Yuan Jiangwen thought for a moment and made his final conclusion. "Don't beat around the bush when talking to him. Just speak directly. He doesn't take soft or hard words. He always has his own way of doing things."
When Fu Zhiyu heard this, he was quite nervous at first, but after he showed him the blueprint and briefly explained it to Lin Yan, he stared at the blueprint carefully for a long time, and finally a little expression appeared on his stone-like face.
A little surprise and a little relief.
Lin Yan still looks good with some expression on his face. Maybe it's because he has been paralyzed for too long and his face is frozen. He has fewer wrinkles and looks younger than Deng Qian in the game.
This was the first time Fu Zhiyu met him formally, but because of what happened before, she had a good first impression of him.
"I think it's great, there's no problem," Lin Yan said, "Just follow King Zhao's idea. My Lin family has no objection. If there's anything you need, we'll do our best to help."
Quite refreshing.
Fu Zhiyu's favorability towards him increased a little more.
The Deng and Qian families actually agreed with the design as soon as they saw the blueprints, but they had a lot of ideas and would not say them at the beginning. They would think about it for a while and test Fu Zhiyu's attitude. They would only nod their heads when they understood the idea in detail.
In comparison, Lin Yan was really easy to talk to. Fu Zhiyu thought, it was true that one could only evaluate a person after getting to know him personally. The evaluations of his uncle and the others were a bit one-sided.
But Lin Yan hadn't left yet, and Fu Zhiyu saw him looking around the place inconspicuously. This was not the government office, so they had chosen to meet at home this time.
"In the future, if you have any questions, can you come visit King Zhao yourself?" Lin Yan said. His voice was very cold, but if you listened carefully, you could hear a few tremors. "Just to talk about some... business."
His words were a bit of an attempt to cover up something, but Fu Zhiyu had heard him agree before, so she didn't pay attention to the details on his side. She reacted quickly and replied, "Of course, you're welcome anytime."
Lin Yan breathed a sigh of relief and said goodbye and left soon after.
After a while, Butler Zhou came in to clear the teacups on the table and mentioned to Fu Zhiyu, "Master Lin is so polite that he even brought a gift."
"Didn't I tell you that I don't accept their gifts?"
"He quietly placed it at the gatehouse when he came in. No one saw it at first. If it wasn't for the word 'Lin' engraved on it, I'm afraid no one would have been able to tell who sent it," Butler Zhou explained to him. "The servants chased after it immediately after they found it, but the head of the Lin family said it was just a box of dim sum made by the family's private chef. There was no point in pushing the dim sum back."
Sure enough, Fu Zhiyu smelled a sweet smell coming from inside after a while, and it turned out that the box was actually a food box.
"Forget it," Fu Zhiyu waved his hand and said, "If there is nothing wrong with this snack, just leave it. It's such a small matter."
At lunch time, Butler Zhou served the snacks sent by the Lin family on a silver plate. The snacks had a sweet and salty taste. Fu Zhiyu took one bite and never touched it again, but Yuan Wanyun ate a lot.
"There used to be a cook at home who could make this kind of snack. I loved it, but after that cook left, I never tasted it again," Yuan Wanyun said with some nostalgia. "It's been so long that I can hardly remember it. I just think it tastes so similar to what I remember. Is it a special snack from Jiangnan?"
Fu Zhiyu smiled and said, "I don't know either, but we can ask the cook at home to go to the Lin family to learn. I met Lin Yan today and I think he is quite easy to talk to."
Yuan Wanyun probably knew what her son was doing recently, but since she didn't understand such things, she didn't interfere. As for Zhiyu, she always supported him in everything he did.
"Don't make it so complicated. There are so many delicious things in the world. Do we have to move them all to the backyard?" Yuan Wanyun said, "I don't like them much either. I'm just a little surprised. Zhiyu, go do the big things. Although mother can't help you with this, I can't cause you more trouble."
After hearing this, Fu Zhiyu did not refute much, but smiled a little more gently, and said: "When I am done with my work these few days, I will make some snacks for mother. I have learned a few tricks from the kitchen before, and the snacks I make will definitely be more delicious than this."
Yuan Wanyun just smiled and said nothing.
However, Fu Zhiyu still underestimated how busy he was. Although he fulfilled his promise and made snacks for his mother a few days later, and the snacks tasted good, it was too late when they were made. Yuan Wanyun, who was waiting, had fallen asleep leaning against the small table.
Fu Zhiyu was also very sleepy, so he quietly sent his mother back to the room, packed himself up as quickly as possible, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep as soon as he touched the pillow.
The next day, he set out at dawn to check out the situation in the village near Luanzhou City. When he came back in the afternoon, he happened to pass by his own farm.
Fu Zhiyu also had a farm in the countryside, and he had it as soon as he came to Jiangnan.
The vegetables and meat eaten in the mansion were all supplied by the family farm. When the wolfdog Rongrong first came to Jiangnan, he had some difficulty acclimatizing to the climate there. There were many people in the city and it was very noisy, which made him very anxious. It was only after he was kept in the farm for a period of time that he got better and now he has adapted.
The farm also grows the melon seedling that Fu Zhiyu brought from the capital. Because it is now planted in the countryside, it no longer has the good treatment that Fu Zhiyu used to water it with his own tea water.
Fu Zhiyu only remembered that the melons grown there were not sweet and not delicious. It was far away from the farm, so he forgot about it for a moment. Now that he happened to pass by, he went to take a look.
It is still growing very well and lush, and every leaf is full of vitality.
"This fruit is very good!" The farmers in the village praised him, "It grows very quickly and the fruit is sweet. Everyone who eats it will praise it."
After hearing what he said, Fu Zhiyu slowly realized that the melon he often ate at home was grown from this plant. However, the fruits at home were always cut and placed on a plate when they were in front of him, and he had such a serious stereotype about this melon that he had never recognized it. He didn't expect that it had changed its appearance after coming to Jiangnan.
Apart from the fact that the soil and water in the south of the Yangtze River are suitable for the growth of melons, could there be other reasons for this change
"There are also melons like this in Jiangnan, but they are different from ours. The ones in our farm are much sweeter and bigger than theirs." Seeing that Fu Zhiyu was listening very seriously, the head of the farm boldly spoke up. He didn't learn any rules and spoke very straightforwardly. He smiled and looked very honest. "In addition to sending them to the government, our farm also makes a lot of money from this."