The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 38 Canal and Field

When Fusu walked to the front of the hall, he saw that his father was talking to the old general Wang Jian.

When Li Si also stood in front of the hall, a eunuch came forward to report.

The conversation in the hall stopped, and then the eunuch said, "Enter the hall."

Fusu walked into the hall, followed by Prime Minister Li Si. He first saluted his father, and then saluted the old general Wang Jian.

Li Si received the emperor's eye signal and sat down aside.

Only then did Fusu sit down.

Next, a huge map spread out in front of him, and Fusu listened to his father, the old general, and the prime minister talking about the southern expedition.

The old general has fought for half his life, and Prime Minister Li Si is the current leader of the Qin Dynasty's political affairs. The two sides can cooperate with each other.

Fusu heard the prime minister ask how many soldiers were needed, and the old general asked who would lead the troops.

In the end, the agreed number of troops was 200,000.

Afterwards, Fusu heard his father ask where these 200,000 soldiers and horses came from.

This kind of question naturally needs to be answered by the old general.

Prime Minister Li Si spoke first.

"I suggest that we first settle the borders with immigrants, then select exiles and prisoners for military service. After the troops are dispatched, we should recruit the Western Ou and Luoyue peoples along the way and ask them to submit to the Qin official seal of the Yue leader. If they submit, we can also allow them to govern themselves."

Wang Jian bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I believe it is necessary to conscript the people of Chu to transport the food and fodder."

Before His Majesty could speak, Wang Jian had just finished speaking when Li Si added, "For each level of beheading, one level of nobility will be awarded. Military merits will be exchanged for land and houses. The bronze artifacts and treasures obtained will be distributed among the soldiers according to their merits as an incentive."

Fusu listened to the words of the prime minister and the old general, and a large-scale battle was about to begin.

This year, Guanzhong and other parts of the Central Plains have a good harvest. Since the southern expedition was discussed this summer, this war is inevitable.

The discussion lasted from noon to dusk, and Fusu sat by and listened carefully.

It was almost nightfall when the discussion about the southern expedition ended.

Wang Jian and Li Si stood up and were about to say goodbye when Fusu stood up and said, "Father, I still have some questions."

Hearing this, Ying Zheng nodded and said, "What's the confusion?"

Li Si also frowned slightly.

Fusu bowed and said, "Your son believes that food and fodder can be transported by water."

Wang Jian, who had just stood up, sat down again, holding his waist, pouting and looking up at the map with an interested look on his face.

Fusu said, "There are countless mountains and forests along the way to the southern expedition. It would be better to dig a river to transport food and fodder."

After saying this, seeing that the people in the hall were silent, Fusu continued, "As the Minister of the Imperial Household, I often observe the various rivers in the Central Plains. If we dig a canal in one of them, transporting food and fodder by water would be much easier."

Ying Zheng slowly turned his gaze towards Wang Jian.

After observing the map for a long time, Wang Jian slowly nodded.

The canal connecting Guanzhong to Luoshui has not been dug yet, and now another canal is being dug. The Xianyang Bridge presided over by the young master has just been completed, and another canal is being dug?
It was almost nightfall, and Ying Zheng said, "It's getting late, General and Prime Minister, please go back first."

Li Si and Wang Jian looked at Prince Fusu, and seeing that the prince really had no intention of talking anymore, they both saluted.

From the morning court meeting until now, the sun has set.

There were three or two eunuchs escorting him in front and behind. Li Si walked beside him and said to the old general who was walking with a cane beside him, "Thank you for your help, old general."

Wang Jian, with white hair and beard, shook his head and said, "I only entered the palace at noon, and you were already in court at dawn. You work harder than me."

Since he came back last year, the old general has aged rapidly. By late autumn this year, he had reached the point where he needed a cane to walk, and even his hair and beard had turned gray.

Wang Jian, leaning on a cane, paused after each step and said, "Haha, you are taller than last year."

Li Si nodded slightly.

Wang Jian stopped and asked, "Did you teach us how to build the canal?"

Li Si lowered his head and said, "To be honest, I have never taught you these things."

"Did Zhang Cang teach you that?"

"I and Zhang Cang were both disciples of Xunzi, but I never heard the teacher teach Zhang Cang these things."

After leaving the palace, Wang Jian paused, his hands behind his back. His formerly hunched body suddenly straightened up, and he held his cane in his hand without leaning on the ground. He asked, "Who taught you that?"

The old general's tone became heavier, completely different from his previous old image.

Li Si replied, "Your Excellency has been building the canal since before you met Zhang Cang."

Wang Jian nodded slightly, walked steadily into the carriage, and without paying any more attention to Li Si, asked the coachman to drive the horses back to Pinyang.

Li Si stood in front of the palace gate and bowed to bid farewell to the old general.

This old general looks old in front of Your Majesty, but he is actually quite energetic outside and is in good health.

In the rear hall of Zhangtai Palace, Fusu stayed here to have dinner.

The First Emperor and Prince Fusu were eating noodles, and the noodles were pulled by Tian An himself, and they were very wide.

At this moment, outside the hall, the three clay stoves beside Tian An were burning, and the water in the pot was boiling. He pulled the noodles in his hand again and again, and noodles appeared.

Although the guards in front of the hall stood straight, they looked at the old eunuch from time to time, and their hands were very skilled in pulling noodles.

After eating a bowl of noodles, boxes of bamboo slips were moved in. Seeing that his father was about to deal with state affairs, Fusu stood up and was about to leave.

"I have read all the documents you reviewed last night."

Fusu came to his senses and put down his bowl and chopsticks again, wondering if he had written something wrong or if he had gotten into trouble.

Ying Zheng glanced at his son and said in a deep voice, "Sit down and let me look over these documents. You can also approve them."

Fusu understood what was going on, placed the bowl and chopsticks in his hand on a wooden basin, and had it taken out of the hall.

Inside the hall, under the astonished gazes of several eunuchs and palace maids, the young man very naturally found a place to sit down, and then took out a scroll of documents from a box beside him and looked at it.

When His Majesty also picked up the documents beside him and began to review them, the hall became quiet.

Only occasionally could one hear the sound of the wind outside the hall, and sometimes the wind blew into the hall.

Seeing that Prince Fusu had reviewed several documents in succession, Your Majesty only glanced at a few of them occasionally.

Afterwards, the documents reviewed by the prince were sent out directly, and His Majesty no longer asked about them.

Moreover, the young master's speed in reviewing documents is faster than that of Your Majesty. Normally, Your Majesty would need five or six hours to review all the files and documents, but the young master only takes three hours.

At this moment, the situation in the hall looked like a father and son fighting in a battle.

For Fusu, this was actually a process of answering questions, understanding the past of the Qin Dynasty, understanding the situation of the country, and giving a simple answer.

Fusu read another scroll, which mentioned the Jingye Canal in Jingye County. The text also recounted that when the Zhengguo Canal was nearing completion, Qin absorbed nearly 150,000 refugees from the six states. The First Emperor then issued a decree exempting all households that could move to Guanzhong from taxes for two years. Following this decree, the construction of the Zhengguo Canal saw the Qin state absorb 300,000 people, and the newly cultivated fields irrigated by the canal were all imported from other states.

Fusu looked at what his teacher wrote in the book. He first quoted the story of Zhengguo Canal and then mentioned Jingye Canal.

The teacher had previously said that if the Jingye Canal was dug further south, it would have to reach other counties and would no longer be within the scope of the young master's private property. Moreover, nearly half of the land was outside the private property.

At present, the people in the Central Plains are exhausted and the population is declining. We should lead the people from the old lands of the six kingdoms to Qin, use the Jingye Canal to reclaim land, exempt them from land tax for one year, and use this to divide the old people of the six kingdoms and consolidate the population in Guanzhong.

The teacher’s words were indeed correct, and Fusu also thought so in his heart.

Guanzhong is the foothold of Qin. Now people's livelihood in all parts of the world has declined. It is better to move people into Guanzhong. Only when Guanzhong is prosperous, has a sufficient population and strengthens the basic foundation, can we continue to build this country in the future.

In short, only when the place where the capital is located becomes strong can this strength be spread in all directions and influence all parts of the Central Plains.

After reading it, Fusu understood his teacher's intention. Originally, the farmland in Guanzhong was limited, but now there are tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land. These fields naturally need to be cultivated, and there is a new problem of who will cultivate them.

Taking this issue as a condition for strengthening themselves, while solving the problem of farming, it also increased the population of Guanzhong and divided potential enemies.

Fusu wrote a reply on his teacher's document and sent it down.

Before I knew it, it was already dark outside.

Ying Zheng frowned and straightened his back, then looked in front of him. There were only two volumes of documents left to be approved today. He took another look and saw Fusu's hand reaching out. He took the remaining two volumes.

The table in front of him became empty, and then he straightened his back and stretched his arms.

Ying Zheng looked back and saw that Fusu had already approved the last two volumes of documents. He said in a deep voice, "It's getting late. You should go back."

After his son left the hall, Ying Zheng's eyes were still on the empty desk. He had no idea when he got used to the desk piled with files.

Suddenly I felt empty and uncomfortable.

"Tell the Prime Minister and the Right Prime Minister that court will be adjourned tomorrow. If there are any errors in the recent documents, please have them delivered to me."

After the eunuch paid his respects, he went to deliver the message.

In the summer, the First Emperor talked about the southern expedition, but he did not immediately prepare for the expedition because it was summer at that time.

It is now late autumn, and the grain harvest has been abundant in all counties and regions. With grain in hand, we can start the southern expedition.

Today, the right prime minister Feng Quji brought Jianlu to meet the First Emperor. Afterwards, another imperial edict was issued, ordering Jianlu to be in charge of the transportation of grain and grass and the excavation of the Baiyue Canal.

As the First Emperor's edicts came down one by one, the Qin Dynasty's southern expedition began.

Fusu felt that the matter of the construction of the Lingqu Canal was mentioned in advance just because he hoped that the construction of the Lingqu Canal could be put on the agenda first and completed earlier, so that the war would go more smoothly and with less casualties.

"Sir, this is a letter from Prisoner Li." Tian An held a bamboo tube in both hands.

Fusu took the bamboo tube, opened the lid, and some sealing wax fell out from inside. He poured out a roll of silk from inside, and there was still some sealing wax on the knot of the rope that tied the silk.

Generally speaking, letters that are not allowed to be seen by outsiders or are important are sealed with wax.

Fusu pinched the wax seal at the knot and then slowly spread out the white cloth. Li You's handwriting was not very beautiful, but it was very neat horizontally and vertically.

In the letter, Li You expressed his concerns about the southern expedition. He sent a group of soldiers deep into the mountains for more than two months. Five people returned, but two of them were seriously ill.

After reading Li You's letter, Fusu asked Tian An, who was standing beside him, "Are there any doctors from Chu or Shu in the palace?"

"Yes, sir."

Fusu wrote down some rules for marching, including the advice to drink as little raw water as possible, bring enough dry food, and not march during the rainy season...

He wrote a lot of words and handed it to Tian An, then reminded him: "I am the Minister of the Imperial Household, and I have the power to supervise the construction of the canal. Ask Jianlu to come."

Jianlu has been very busy these days. With the recommendation of the right prime minister, he is about to follow the army south.

At home, Jianlu piled piles of bamboo slips on a carriage, working quickly and diligently.

Inside the house, a scroll of bamboo slips was thrown out, and then a woman with a sharp voice said, "Go, and don't come back."

The person who was speaking was Jianlu's wife. Jianlu was used to it. Although this woman was yelling and cursing, she was definitely crying in the house.

Jianlu picked up the bamboo slips on the ground, and seeing that this one was useful, he put it into his cart.

Then Jianlu said to his thirteen-year-old son, "From now on, you must take good care of your mother at home."

After that, another pottery jar was thrown out from the house, "It's better to die outside."

Hearing the angry curses, Jianlu's son shrank his neck in fear.

Jianlu patted his son's head lightly and was about to leave when he ran into a eunuch.

Thinking it was someone from the army coming to urge him, Jian Lu saluted and said, "Lu, I'll go to the army right away."

The visitor smiled and said, "Prince Fusu asked Master Lu to come over."

Jianlu turned around and told his son beside him: "You must take good care of mother. Daddy is going to the south to help the army."

Jianlu spoke his hometown dialect to his son.

"Well, Daddy, is he going to fight and kill people?"

Jianlu shook his head and said, "If you encounter any difficulties, go to find Prince Fusu, or go to Jingyequ to find General Zhang Han."

Seeing his son nod, he smiled.

In fact, Jianlu was not a Qin person. The eunuch could not understand what the father and son were saying and thought it was probably some greetings.

Jianlu drove the cart out of the house and put on his bag. He looked into the house from the gate and saw only a figure with his back to him.

After looking at his wife's back for a long time, Jianlu bowed deeply and then left with a cart of books.

After Jianlu left, the sound of a woman sobbing softly was heard again in the courtyard.

The army was really going to march south. The First Emperor knew that this war would inevitably arouse opposition from the doctors, so he adjourned the court. However, this also caused a lot of noise in Xianyang City, and everyone was discussing the southern expedition.

Jianlu walked through the noisy streets and followed the eunuchs into the palace gate and arrived at Gaoquan Palace.

Fusu was pruning a small pine tree when he saw Jianlu coming. He asked Tian An to give him two scrolls of books, put down the knife in his hand, and saw Jianlu carrying a bag. He asked, "Are you leaving now?"

"Luxu follows the army and dares not make any mistakes."

Fusu said, "These two volumes contain some methods for preventing diseases, but they are only for prevention. I have sent a few medical officers to you, and they will accompany you to Tu Ju's side."

"Thank you, sir."

Fusu bowed and said, "Thank you for your help."

Jianlu left in a hurry after receiving the two books.

Fusu saw that Jianlu's bag was only small, but he had a cart full of books.

Looking at his back, Fusu saluted again.

(End of this chapter)