Overlord!

Chapter 96 Building embankments to defend water and cultivate paddy fields

The current situation in Wu County is that the county is at the beginning of peace, and Xiao'an just came into being.

Of course, the government also hopes to improve governance, build water conservancy, improve roads, and even build cities.

Sun Ce asked several courtiers for suggestions on the roads in the county and the towns in Wu County, and Zhu Zhi was the first to speak.

"General, now that the territory of Wu County has been initially determined, the people are busy farming and resuming production due to the famine. And a water conservancy is already under construction. If we build roads, build cities, and raise troops at this time, we must have a plan, otherwise I'm afraid would be too hasty."

Sun Ce suddenly remembered that there was still such a project in progress, and asked, "How is the construction of the water conservancy?"

Gu Yong took the initiative to introduce: "This water conservancy is mainly to build a lake in the high place of Dongling Township, and then pass the ditches into the ridges at four o'clock, build embankments to defend the water, reclaim paddy fields, and transform more than a thousand hectares of Wangtiantian fields into paddy fields. .”

After listening to Sun Ce, he understood something. Some people always think that he is a general who doesn't understand agriculture and water conservancy, and that his saying that ten stones per mu is a fantasy.

In fact, Sun Ce's understanding of agriculture is even far superior to most officials in the world who advise on agriculture and mulberry!
The most important thing is that many people, especially those who have never been exposed to real farming, have been fixed by imaginary agriculture, especially from the north to the south.

They simply don't understand why Jiangnan, especially Wu County, is called the land of corn.

Many people think that diverting water for irrigation is just a matter of building a ditch to irrigate the land with water. Naturally, this kind of dry land only has a yield of two or three stones per mu, which means that the grain yield per mu is only between [-] and [-] catties.And the annual food intake of the world is [-] catties per year.How can it be possible for people in this era not to be sallow and emaciated?
But if it is so simple to build water conservancy, those officials who build water conservancy will be enshrined and commemorated by countless people for generations?
In fact, the real canal repair and weir is like that in Wu County, which transforms all dry fields in the irrigation area into paddy fields, builds ridges to enclose the ridges, builds dikes to defend water, and encourages farming and animal husbandry.The paddy field is built, and its benefits are doubled.

It was Fu Xuan, a great scholar of this era, who investigated the geographical advantages and concluded that "the fate of dry fields depends on the sky. Although manpower can repair them, once floods and droughts do not occur, the work of a year will be wasted." If it is repaired, the land will be beneficial." Therefore, "Since the Wei Dynasty, more than ten stones have been harvested in white fields, and dozens of stones in paddy fields."

This is why after the construction of water conservancy, farmland can not suffer from floods and droughts.Because of the Shaobei in Huainan, it has formed an area where you can't see the sky for a hundred miles.

Gu Yong also said at this time: "There is a huge gap between dry fields and paddy fields. The officials in the county have instructed the people to adjust the water temperature in paddy fields according to the "Book of Fansheng". "

Sun Ce nodded slightly. To develop paddy fields, two conditions must be met, one is sufficient water source, and the other is to build ditches.

The former land of fish and rice, this land is already satisfied.

But the latter builds ditches, you expect a group of small farmers to do this by themselves?Even if his children and grandchildren are endless, can a hundred or even a thousand generations dig out a lake and then build a ditch to irrigate his twenty acres of land?

Including many people in later generations who mention the development of agriculture and intensive cultivation, they only know the concept and know nothing about the specific content.I thought it was to allocate ten acres of land to the people, and let them guard their ten acres of land by themselves, and bury their heads in the ground with Lei Lei and hoes to cultivate it carefully.They think that this is the small-scale peasant economy, which is the development of production.

In fact, this is not called a small-scale peasant economy. According to this line of thinking, the level is at most called slash-and-burn farming.The upper limit of the level of understanding of agriculture is the level of the well field system.Each person carries water to irrigate the nine-tenths of land in the ridge of his field.I thought this was called intensive cultivation.

In fact, the farming scholar-bureaucrats were more knowledgeable than these ordinary people of later generations.They also know that in order to develop agriculture, the people must take their eyes off their own one-third of an acre of land, and only by gathering manpower can they develop agriculture, so that the fields no longer depend on the sky for food.

The most important reason why the agricultural economy of the Central Plains took off in the Song Dynasty was that the Song Dynasty did not establish a land system, and the big village owners and senior officials were able to gather a large number of tenant farmers to build water conservancy and transform fertile land.That's why we can have a magnificent scene with a yearly income of millions of stones.

In fact, as long as there is no war and no human intervention, the agricultural economy of the Central Plains has been developing in this direction.

Sun Ce traveled through half a year, and basically did not make any changes to the country's politics, economy, and selection system. Even in terms of military affairs, he corrected the historical deviation of the little bully and returned to the right track. The recruitment system was implemented according to the current model of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Especially in the most important aspect of the agricultural economy, he can say that he did not intervene at all, but only acknowledged the objectively existing manor economic model.

If there were no wars and the development continued according to objective laws, these tyrants in the south of the Yangtze River would develop the south of the Yangtze River with their own steps, just like the literati and bureaucrats after Yongjia's south crossing.

As we all know, the first development of Jiangnan was due to the south crossing.Under the group development of the big family tribes and clan blood relatives, a large amount of farmland in the south of the Yangtze River was reclaimed, and the level of agricultural productivity was improved.

On the contrary, the Xianbei people in the north have just entered the Central Plains, and their idea of ​​governing the country is the same as that of ordinary people in later generations, relying entirely on innocence and imagination.

Seeing the equal-field system, I immediately clapped my hands. Isn't this a perfect agricultural system?Everyone guards dozens of acres of farmland, and there are fields to cultivate, so my great Wei country will not last forever?As for the end of the land equalization, what happened after that, even ordinary people in future generations can recite it backwards.

But the most remarkable thing about the Central Plains is that it can give the Zhuxia people a chance to choose again and again.

The country is in chaos, wars are everywhere, dynasties are changing, the cards are reshuffled, the economic order is broken, and the economic system can be redesigned.

How should I choose at this time?It's hard to say how to choose the emperor and general of the feudal dynasty, but if this is an ordinary traverser, he will definitely start shouting: grant land on an equal basis, prohibit land transactions, and cultivate intensively!
Sun Ce sighed, he has a long way to go to develop Jiangnan, how to break the concept of many people, especially ordinary small farmers, is definitely the top priority.

He asked solemnly: "Is the recruitment of corvees going smoothly? How many people have been recruited in total?"

Gu Yong immediately replied: "The recruitment process went smoothly. The reason why Quyan was selected in Dongling Township is because the three elders of the township tried their best to facilitate this, and persuaded the Zhu family, a big family in the township. Thousands of Zhu's clan's children took the initiative. Participating means turning one’s good land into a paddy field, doing good deeds, and promising to help the people build paddy fields on the land along the ditch. Sanlao, Lizheng and others successfully recruited hundreds of families to dig the ditch.”

Sun Ce frowned: "The Zhu family will take this opportunity to make a name for themselves. Obviously they want to call the people to help them build the ditches, but they say they are helping the people along the way to build water conservancy. Without the people along the way, wouldn't they still have to build the ditches?"

Gu Yong nodded with a smile, and said: "That's true, but no matter what, the Zhu family will be praised by the village this time, and the people of Dongling Township will definitely pass on the name of its benevolence and righteousness. If there is a bumper harvest in the paddy field in the future, the Zhu family is more likely to be famous. Yang County."

It is obvious that this kind of big family who will use the name of benevolence and righteousness in the village will not be an ordinary family.

Sun Ce asked, "Is it the clan of Captain Zhu Huan?"

"The general has sharp eyes."

The Zhu family is indeed worthy of being a big family in Wu County, and there are thousands of descendants in the clan.

This scale is probably enough to make up two or three miles.

Adding the parts, the number is close to 2000.It can be said that winning over the Zhu family is equivalent to winning over the hearts and minds of the entire Dongling Township.

There are only ten townships in the entire Wu County, and there are only eleven townships including the newly established Kunshan Township.

In this big family, Sun Ce remembered that Zhu Huan also had a very talented younger brother Zhu Ju, but Zhu Huan was just weak and Zhu Ju was still young.

Sun Ce said: "In the case of the Zhu family, Zhu Huan's devotion to justice may not be for the sake of fame, but simply to help the people along the way build paddy fields. Later, send someone to fetch a horse and a thousand pieces of cloth from the treasury. Give Zhu Huan [-] yuan to honor his loyalty."

One of the reasons why the rewards are so generous is that Zhu Huan doesn't care about money, and he distributes the salary and rewards to the tribe and tribes.

In fact, it was inconvenient for Sun Ce to reward the Zhu family directly, but indirectly gave the wealth to the Zhu family's children.

And another important reason is that Sun Ce discovered that according to the method of recruiting labor that Gu Yong said, it didn't actually consume much manpower!
With the support of the local big family, not only his decrees were implemented, but also the consumption was minimal, and the main cost was borne by the Zhu family.

So Sun Ce went on to say: "As far as I can see, the water conservancy burden is extremely light, and it doesn't seem to delay our construction of another project."

He Kui said solemnly: "So the top priority is to calm down the troubled times. As long as the war subsides, people's livelihood and financial resources are not used for military affairs, but for reclamation and development, which can be used by many people."

Sun Ce nodded, this is a wise saying.

There is only so much wealth in the society, and if it is used for military conquests, the people's livelihood will suffer.

Just like Zhu's thousands of children and trilogy, if they are in war, they can only become Zhu Huan's army and follow him to conquer everywhere.How can there be thousands of people here to build water conservancy and develop production.

Sun Ce has seen a black-and-white video recording the whole process of a Peking University professor and his family of ten eating during the Republic of China.

Peking University professor, this is definitely above the middle class.But the four dishes and one meal on the table are all the most common pickled vegetables, and the only hot dish is fried shredded radish, which doesn't have any meaty taste.

The staple food is not white rice, but corn bread.The only egg that was supposed to be eaten by the older parents was given to the youngest grandson, who later became a famous actor after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

In any case the meal was poor.

You know, the freedom of white rice has been realized in Daming.In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there was already a saying that the wine and meat of the Zhumen stink.

The impact of war on people's livelihood far exceeds the imagination of ordinary people.

A large amount of resources invested in the military will lead to an abnormal decline in people's livelihood.

The impressions of later generations on the lack of food in ancient times were mostly born in the era of war.That is to say, within a certain decade or even a few years of a dynasty.

However, during the other 200 years of peacetime, middle-class households were by no means deprived of meat.

And He Kui also had the same opinion, saying: "If the general wants to build another building, the military conquest must be suspended no matter what. But even so, if roads are built at the same time, the burden of building cities will be extremely heavy. It is best to Only choose one place to focus on. Or the general allows tens of thousands of troops to participate in the construction of civil engineering."

"Impossible! The army will never participate in forced labor and organize production." Sun Ce refused without thinking.

The army can participate in disaster relief and build fortifications, but Sun Ce will never allow the army to do these labor-related things.

Once the recruiting army becomes like the Great Song Xiang Army, its combat effectiveness will no longer be guaranteed.

Zhu Zhi said: "Then we can only choose between building roads and building cities."

At this time, it shows that the county government and the county government have different interests.

Zhu Zhi said: "I thought that the roads should be built first, especially the roads connecting the north and the south. The counties in the south are poor, while the counties in the north are rich. Now the roads are winding and muddy, making it extremely inconvenient for business. Once the new roads are built, the goods in the north can go south. A large amount of stored grain can be recovered.”

Speaking of this, Zhu Zhi's attitude is extremely serious: "Wu County is peaceful after all. Even if there was a war, it was only because I raised my troops for money." The strength of the county has not been lost much. So Wu County is definitely more than the money and food of the county government now. Yan Baihu can gather thousands of people and roar the mountains and forests, relying on Wu County's previous food storage."

"As long as money and goods pass and the roads are safe, a large amount of grain will be harvested in the south of the county. The Yangyang County has a household registration of [-]. How can there be no grain of [-] shi?"

This makes sense.

In any case, Wu County has nearly [-] household registrations, and each family can produce a stone of grain, which is enough for soldiers and food.

The point is, this one stone of grain is what the people of Wu County can afford.

After all, Wu County did not suffer too much from the war. Sun Ce defeated Liu Yao simply and neatly. The whole battle lasted only about a month. Zhu Zhi acted as the prefect on his behalf, and soon stabilized the situation.The common people were not affected much.

Sun Ce asked, "Mr. Zhu, how many people do you think will be needed to build the roads?"

Zhu Zhi said without hesitation: "If there is more, it will be repaired quickly, and if there is less, it will be slow. From Wuxian to Yuhang to Qiantang, it passes through four counties: Wuxian, Youquan, Yuhang, and Qiantang. Among them, Yuhang and Qiantang are connected as one, almost equal. Therefore After leaving Wu County, you can communicate with the south by passing through Youquan. I thought that each of these four counties would recruit more than a thousand people and build roads facing the north and the south, and it would not take long to complete the construction."

In fact, Zhu Zhi's proposal was very strategic. Later generations built the most important Jiangnan canal on the road he said, connecting Wu County and Qiantang River.

This is totally a golden waterway!
As long as the city Weisi is set up at the north-south ferry, it is like lying on the golden waterway to collect taxes. Every merchant ship passing by is the sound of clanging coins falling into the treasury.

With this waterway, the transportation of goods from north to south will be greatly facilitated, and a steady stream of wealth will be sent to Wu County.

(End of this chapter)