The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 135 Land reclamation project

The northeastern part of Anding County and the lower reaches of Yangjinchuan are densely covered with water networks and luxuriant woodlands.

The terrain here is gentle, with large areas of primeval forest scattered around, and several villages scattered nearby. The villagers make a living by hunting in their spare time.

Yangjinchuan and two other tributaries of the Jinghe River meet here. Over countless years, the river has washed out tens of thousands of acres of flat land suitable for large-scale reclamation.

After exploration and inspection, Zhu Xiu designated this vast area as Jingzhou's immigration economic development zone.

More than 3000 men and women, young and strong, and [-] soldiers moved in. They worked in full swing for more than half a month, felling trees, digging canals, leveling the land, and planning farmland.
Tens of thousands of acres of vast land have turned into a bustling construction site.

Four well-shaped ditches will be excavated simultaneously. Once completed, they will connect three main rivers and more than a dozen streams, and tens of thousands of acres of land will be turned into paddy fields.

Regarding the construction of water conservancy projects, Zhu Xiu's understanding came entirely from theoretical works such as "Research on Dredging Works on the River" and "Tongyi on River Defense".

He knew the importance of building water conservancy projects, but he didn't know how to survey the terrain, design the project, and what the key points of construction were.

There are specialties in the art industry, and Zhu Xiu will never point fingers in areas that he is not good at.

At that time, Jiedu Mansion was repairing the city gates and defenses, and among the craftsmen recruited, there were also a group of skilled workers.

It's a pity that these days, craftsmen who master construction techniques are not valued by the government. They are often regarded as tool workers, recruited temporarily when they are used, and given a hard-earned money when they are used up.

The experience accumulated by many old craftsmen after a lifetime of exploration is ignored and cannot be passed on and carried forward.

In order to hire a qualified chief water conservancy designer, Zhu Xiu held a special meeting, reviewed past personnel information, questioned subordinate officials one by one, and even asked Shi Kuangwei, but he could not find a qualified candidate.

Shi Kuangwei disagreed with this, thinking that Zhu Xiu was making a fuss and just digging canals. Wherever the design and skills were needed, thousands of people were recruited to dig out the canals. Wherever water was needed, just dig wherever it was needed.

Of course Zhu Xiu would not listen to him, and gave him a few big looks. From then on, he never talked to Lao Shi about related topics again.

Fortunately, in the end, Wu Dazhuan, a merchant in Anding County, heard the news and asked Wen Zhongping to recommend an old man named Shi Libu to Zhu Xiu.

The old man is from Lantian County and is over fifty years old. He claims to have been the head of the Water Supervision Bureau 30 years ago. Later, he took his son and daughter to settle in Jingzhou to avoid the war. He has been living as a tenant of the Xue family.

Shi Libu also helped the Xue family build a salt factory, and he also presided over the expansion of Zhecheng City. The Xue family gave him some reward afterwards.

After the Xue family was annihilated, Shi Libu's tenanted fields were transferred to his own name, and his family changed from tenants to owner-cultivators.

At first, when Wu Dazhuan took Zhu Xiu to find Shi Libu, Zhu Xiu was deeply suspicious of this thin, dark, gray-haired old man.

But when he tested a few questions in "River Defense General Discussion", the old man could answer the questions accurately after thinking about them for a while.

Zhu Xiu patted his thigh and got excited. This little old man with an unattractive appearance did have real engineering experience.

It was immediately decided to ask Shi Libu to inspect the forestland downstream of Yangjinchuan with him, and jointly discuss a series of engineering designs such as digging canals, clearing forests and preparing land.

Zhu Xiu had his own ideas on how to develop land. What he lacked was how to design and construct the land. The arrival of Shi Libu perfectly made up for his shortcomings in this regard.

Old man Shi was also unambiguous, knowing that Zhu Xiu wanted something from him, he boldly asked for a series of conditions.

Old Man Shi himself had nothing to ask for, except that he had three sons and two daughters. If he did not want his family to work hard in the fields for generations, working for Zhu Xiu this time would be an excellent opportunity for advancement.

After some bargaining, Zhu Xiu agreed to give priority to allocating land to his three sons, and also accepted his eldest son, who was proficient in writing, as a minor official in Jiedu Prefecture.

Zhu Xiu gave Mr. Shi the title of engineering consultant, and he could receive [-] coins and [-] kilograms of grain every month. He also promised him that if he could ensure the completion of the project on time, quality and quantity, he would also give him other generous rewards.

As a result, Shi Libu was so motivated that he traveled throughout the entire area to be developed in a short period of time and designed the route and project quantities of the well-shaped water channel in detail. After Zhu Xiu inspected it, he decided to construct it accordingly.

The boundary of Jingzhou Prefecture is 190 miles from east to west and 280 miles from north to south. 70.00% of the land within the territory is hills, broken plateau areas and river valleys account for 20.00%, and the remaining only 5.00% is suitable for farming.

Among them, only one percent has been developed into fields, totaling more than 200 hectares, or more than [-] mu.

Among them, dry fields account for nearly [-]%.

If Jingzhou maintains its current population, the harvest from these lands will be enough to meet daily needs, and some grain can be accumulated during the harvest season.

However, in order to absorb the refugees and settle down, new land must be opened up.

Zhu Xiu made preliminary calculations that Jingzhou's cultivated land area and output were enough to support a population of 950 households.During the Kaiyuan period, Jingzhou had 10 households and a population of nearly [-], which was the peak population in Jingzhou's history.

During the Yuanhe period, the number of households dropped sharply to [-]. After these years of recuperation and the number of newly registered households, there were nearly [-] households in total.

Therefore, in Zhu Xiu's view, Jingzhou is not as poor and poor as the outside world sees it. As long as the policies are appropriate and governed properly, it has great potential to become a shining pearl in the Jingyuan River Basin.

On this day, the sun was shining brightly. Zhu Xiu wore a straw hat, cloth shoes, rolled up his trouser legs, and squatted on the earth dam to discuss the construction details of several ditch intersections with Shi Libu.

Shi Kuangwei also dressed like an old farmer, carrying a pickaxe, and stood under the earth dam chatting with a few peasants.

Shi Libu talked about ditch design and construction plans, which made him confused. Naturally, these trivial and troublesome matters were left to Zhu Xiu to worry about.

A fast horse galloped from a distance, running through the construction site and passing through the sand in the sky.

Zhu Xiu pulled up her scarf to cover her mouth and nose, stood up and looked into the distance. The person who came turned out to be Bi Hongyu.

Zhu Xiu hurriedly ran down the earthen dam. Bi Hongyu rushed to him on horseback and jumped down neatly.

Shi Kuangwei looked at her and said with a smile, "Why did Hongyu come back?"

Bi Hongyu cupped her fists and saluted, looked at Shi Kuangwei, then at Zhu Xiu, lowered her head and said nothing.

"Hey~ Treat me as an outsider?" Squamwe hummed unhappily.

Zhu Xiu patted the dirt on his palms and said with a smile, "Tell me what you want."

Bi Hongyu then said: "Eldest brother asked me to come back and report that Tao Wenju and Yan Ping decided to assassinate a general of the Jingnan Army in Yilu County."

Zhu Xiu and Shi Kuangwei looked at each other in surprise and hurriedly asked: "What's going on?"

Bi Hongyu took out a note and handed it to him.

Zhu Xiu took it and saw that it was Tao Wenju's handwriting.

The content is simple and clear. The assassination of the Yilu County town general intensified the conflict between the Jingnan Army and Changwucheng, causing panic among the people and prompting more people to flee to Jingzhou.

Shi Kuangwei laughed and said: "This guy is really smart. If they succeed, Changwucheng will definitely fall into chaos! Hehe~ This time it is Wang Shouen's turn to have a headache!"

Zhu Xiu frowned and said, "But if this happens, the people of Changwucheng will have a hard time. If Wang Shou'en sends people to suppress them forcefully, many people will die."

Shi Kuangwei said: "The harder Wang Shou'en suppresses, the more fierce the people's resistance in Changwucheng will be, and the more people will be willing to flee to Jingzhou. In the end, our Zhangyi Army must take advantage. This Tao Wenju does have some brains, You kid didn’t hire the wrong person.”

Zhu Xiu shook his head: "To achieve the goal, the means are too harsh."

Shi Kuangwei said disapprovingly: "Compared with Wang Shouen's greed, these are nothing! With the chaos, the people of Pizhou will understand that the only way to survive is to escape to Jingzhou."

Shi Kuangwei waved his hand to Bi Hongyu and said carelessly: "I approve this plan! You go back and inform them and implement it accordingly, making sure that nothing goes wrong!"

Bi Hongyu glanced at him, said nothing, and looked at Zhu Xiu.

Shi Kuangwei was so angry that he blew his beard and stared.

Zhu Xiu hesitated for a moment and nodded: "Go ahead."

Bi Hongyu cupped her fists and bowed slightly, then got on her horse and turned back the way she came.

"Alas, the world is so hot! I haven't even returned home yet, and I can't speak anymore. Even a little girl dares to ignore me! Alas~~"

Shi Kuangwei leaned on his pickaxe and sighed.

Zhu Xiu glanced at him and muttered: "Pretentious~"

Climb up the earth dam and continue to discuss the construction plan with Shi Libu.

(End of this chapter)