Tang Dynasty good doctor

Chapter 613 Inspecting the Surrounding Area
Wang Ping'an dismounted, walked to the side of a field, squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil, and rubbed it. The soil was dry and had no moisture.Throwing away the foam, Wang Pingan clapped his hands and looked into the field.

The Wang family is a well-known big landlord in Xuzhou. Wang Pingan has some understanding of farm work. Due to the underdeveloped irrigation technology in the Tang Dynasty, farmers mainly depended on the weather for food. When the weather is good, the farmers can earn more. Three or five buckets, but once there is a flood disaster, the crops will immediately reduce production, or even no crops.

Looking at the field with sparse green seedlings, Wang Pingan said: "It won't be long before the beginning of summer, and it will be the juncture of green and yellow, the fields will not show green, and the people are not at ease. Maybe people who go out to beg, There will be more!"

Hearing what he said, Che Sitong calmed down a little. It is God's business if he doesn't accept it. As long as the governor doesn't blame them, it doesn't matter. He wants to be held accountable. No matter how powerful Wang Pingan is, he can't ask Go to God's head!

He also squatted down and said, "My lord, do you know why the former Governor Ji ran so fast, and ran away the next day after handing in the seal?"

Wang Pingan pointed to the farmland in front of him, and said: "He can see that this year is not going to be easy, and the people can see it too. Presumably some people have gone out to escape, so he can run faster than a rabbit!"

Che Sitong hurriedly said: "Yes, that's what happened. He is afraid of taking responsibility, and he is afraid that the prince will blame him."

He thought to himself, you two are not at the same level, if you are both governors, it doesn't matter if there is something wrong with the predecessor in the handover, the incumbent can't take care of the predecessor.But you are many levels older than him, if you find fault with him, you can directly prevent him from going back to his hometown.Of course, even if he ran fast, you still sent someone to fix him!
Wang Pingan stood up and said, "Why didn't I see the canal for irrigation? What do the people here rely on to water their crops? Don't they just rely on God?"

Che Sitong stood up after him, and he said with a bitter face: "If you go back to the prince, you really can only rely on God to make it rain. Our Qingzhou is no better than other states, and the surrounding states are all richer than us. If the common people run into a disaster year, they will go to other states to beg for food, and there will be no labor in the fields, so they can't build any canals!"

Wang Pingan looked back at Di Renjie and Qiu Tingxuan, and said, "It's not written about this kind of thing in the book, right? What do you think? Tell me."

Di Renjie said: "To put it bluntly, the poorer you are, the less money you have to build water canals. The poorer you are, the poorer you are, and you have no money to repair them. This has a direct relationship with the magistrates. Building water conservancy is one of the important responsibilities of magistrates. what!"

Qiu Tingxuan said: "Based on this situation, the new method of disaster relief has its place. It can be funded by the government and the people contribute to repairing the canals in Qingzhou. As long as the irrigation problem is solved, even if there is a drought, the people will also be able to help." No more homelessness.”

Che Sitong looked at the two of them and thought: "On paper, no wonder the imperial court never let Xinke Scholars come out to be county magistrates. That makes sense! Great principles are well said, but unfortunately they cannot be implemented!"

None of the officials said anything, but what they thought was the same as Che Sitong's. Everyone can explain the truth, and everyone understands it. But the problem is that they know the truth, but they may not be able to solve it seriously!
Wang Pingan laughed dryly, shook his head and said, "What you are talking about is actually the same thing, that is, the common people are unable to build water canals, so the government should pay for the construction of water canals to benefit the people of one side, right?"

Di Renjie and Qiu Tingxuan nodded together, and said in unison: "Yes, that's how it should be. This is an unshirkable responsibility of an official!"

Wang Pingan smiled and said, "It's good that you have the wish to be a good official and to benefit the common people. My lords, do you also think so?"

There was no sound, none of the officials said anything, Che Sitong pondered for a while, and then said: "This is the truth, and there is nothing wrong with it, but in practice, you can't do it well with just your wishes and ambitions." !"

Only then did the officials nod together, expressing their opinions one after another. It wasn't that they disagreed with Di Renjie and Qiu Tingxuan's opinions, nor was it that they were powerless after being officials for so many years.Speaking, anyone can say; doing, may not be as simple as speaking.

Wang Pingan asked the two of them again, "Estimate how much it will cost to build canals on all the farmland here in Qingzhou?"

Qiu Tingxuan has read a lot, and his father is a great Confucianist, but the books are all about reasoning, even if they give examples, they are not too specific. If it is about building a canal, of course he will say, but how much does it cost? , then he has no idea at all, how does he know how much to spend!

Di Renjie understood the people better than he did. He said, "Just building the canals in Heshui County is a big project. At least [-] canals will be needed. If all the counties in Qingzhou are built, it will cost [-] canals. I'm afraid it's more than that!"

Wang Pingan hummed, and said, "If you were in Chang'an, you would have to spend eight thousand guan to build a house, and a thousand guan to build an ordinary one. To build the entire Qingzhou canal, you only need [-] guan, which is not too expensive." Mr. Che, what do you think?"

Che Sitong shook his head slowly, but didn't answer. He didn't want to offend Di Renjie and Qiu Tingxuan. These two upstarts had a bright future, and they might be their bosses in the future. Opposing them now would mean putting on shoes for themselves in the future. Well, I can't make it!

The officials are also silent, as long as they don't ask them personally, they will all get rich in silence!
Coincidentally, that Cui Dawei ran over at this time. He had already written a letter to the official department, found this place outside the city, and handed the letter to Wang Ping'an.After Wang Pingan read it, he immediately used his seal to send the letter to Chang'an.After dealing with the letter, Wang Pingan repeated what he had just said, and asked Cui Dawei if he wanted to build aqueducts in the whole state, would one hundred thousand canals be enough?

Cui Dawei is a master who dares to speak, he can't play meditation.He shook his head and said, "Our Gyeongju is no better than Chang'an. Manpower is not worth much, but materials are more expensive. To build aqueducts that benefit the whole Gyeongju is an absolute big project. The government wants to save money, and it will cost you ten years to save it." It is not guaranteed to be able to repair it. It takes so long to make preparations in advance, and in the year of repairing, you have to endure a year's lack of harvest, and you have to support most of the people in the state for a whole year! One hundred thousand guan does not sound good. Not much, but if you really spend it, you can’t help but spend it, it’s very likely that it’s not enough!"

With the first one who dares to speak, the people behind will all dare to speak. If there is one, there will be two, and if there are two, there will be a series.Che Sitong: "For ordinary people, it costs more than ten guan to drill a well, not to mention repairing canals!"

Qiu Tingxuan frowned and said, "Does it take such a long time to prepare for the construction of the canal?"

But Di Renjie said: "You don't need to worry about money, but you need to support half of the state for a year... Oh, I understand. If the people are served in corvee, then the farm work will be delayed. It is not enough to rely on the old, weak, women and children in the fields, and even Even the old and the weak, women and children will also be recruited to be responsible for the diet of the strong men when the canal is being built."

Cui Dawei said: "The three adults are absolutely right. To build aqueducts, you must not only save money, but also save food. But there is no surplus food in Qingzhou, and it usually has to transfer food from other states for relief. How can it be saved?" You have to pay for food, there is no money and food, and talking about building canals is just empty talk!"

Qiu Tingxuan and Di Renjie blushed at the same time. They didn't consider the matter thoroughly, but they expressed their opinions very quickly. This is embarrassing. It completely exposed their inexperienced shortcomings and made others laugh.

Di Renjie said: "Brother...Master Inspector, why don't you pay for it?"

Qiu Tingxuan shook his head and said: "It seems inappropriate for the governor to pay the money, one hundred thousand guan plus the food needed by the common people, I am afraid that even the governor will have a hard time!"

Wang Ping'an patted the dust off his hands, and said, "Even if I pay without effort, I will not pay the money."

Di Renjie asked: "Is that going to be another fundraiser, or let the big businessmen from Chang'an come to Gyeongju to start a business and ask them to pay?"

Qiu Tingxuan also remembered that the big businessmen had told Wang Pingan back then that even if they used money to spend money, they would still give Wang Pingan political achievements. Now it is time to use them!

Wang Pingan got on his horse, still shook his head, and said: "I won't let them pay for it. It's impossible to pay for nothing, but if they really pay, the capital may not be recovered in three to five years. If you want to see the benefits , it will take longer."

The officials got on their horses with him and walked slowly along the farmland to the distance.

Only then did Di Renjie and Qiu Tingxuan vaguely understand that they thought they understood that even if those businessmen paid for it, they were only helping Wang Ping'an's political achievements, and Wang Ping'an could not stay here for more than three years, and he might return to Beijing in two years After he left, no merchants would want to do business here. Those in the backcountry can make a lot of money with a lot of effort. For those big businessmen, they may not be able to catch big fish if they put a long line here, so they won't want to.

Wang Pingan led the officials all the way, walked a long way, and came to a river.This river is not too small, with a width of about [-] feet. The current is medium, but the water level is low, and the river is far from the shore. If you rely on buckets to fetch water, it will be very difficult.

Wang Ping'an looked upstream along the river and saw a wooden bridge in the distance, on which stood more than a dozen civilians, who seemed to be fetching water.He waved his hand and asked the officials to follow, and they ran towards the bridge together.

The people on the bridge also saw Wang Ping'an and his group. They were all ordinary people, and they belonged to the kind of abject poverty. If they were not too poor, they would have wells in their homes, so why bother to fetch water from the river.

Seeing a large group of officials galloping on horseback, a commoner shouted, "Oh my mother, are you here to arrest us?"

A younger commoner said: "We haven't violated the king's law, why should the officials arrest us?"

Another old commoner said: "If the officials want to arrest you, it doesn't matter whether you violate the king's law or not. If you don't let them arrest you, that's called breaking the king's law!"

The people were all afraid. Many people wanted to get off the bridge and escape after carrying their buckets. They didn't even want to fetch water.

Seeing that they were about to leave, Wang Pingan hurriedly shouted: "Fellows, fellows, don't go, I'm thirsty, I'm begging you for some water!"

(End of this chapter)