Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 533 Patrol
During the spring flood season, the Yangtze River will swell, which is a situation that people in the lake area will see almost every year. Sun Xiangfu of later generations grew up in this area. Naturally, he will not panic when he sees the flood, but he can turn the clear river water into turbidity. It is not so common for the water to rise two or three meters a day.

When Sun Xiangfu came back from the embankment, Sun Xiangfu had a worried look on his face. When the samurai asked, he knew it, and said, "In the land of Jinghu, it is inevitable that the spring floods and tides will rise every year. Zhengming only needs to give an order. In low-lying prefectures and counties, it is good to inform the people in the townships under the rule to pay attention to the water level and be ready to take shelter in higher places at any time. If you don’t plant them, it will be worse than a flood.”

Sun Xiangfu nodded and said, "This is exactly what I am worried about. The land of Jinghu is fertile and has sufficient water. It is a good place to plant rice for two seasons. However, when the first season is planted in spring, there will be bumps. There will be spring floods, and during the second season of summer farming, there will be summer floods again. If the floods cannot be cured, this place will not become the country's main grain-producing area after all."

Sun Xiangfu's research on high-yield rice is to solve the food problem of the domestic people. If the grain-producing areas are often threatened by natural disasters, it may cause national turmoil, which is very dangerous.

"Wada, isn't it a good solution to this problem?"

"However, the speed of building the embankments is too slow. It has been two years, and only three embankments have been built. If you want to wait until the output of the embankments here can supply the entire country, it may take tens or hundreds of years. Tang’s current population growth rate cannot wait.”

After the society is stable and there is no need to worry about food and clothing, the speed of population reproduction is very fast. Historically, after four years of Zhenguan, only the Central Plains area will increase by an average of 20 households every year, with a population of more than [-]. These new additions Most of the population is newborns without a labor force, and it will take at least ten years to become a labor force.

Now, the population of Datang has more than doubled in history. If the growth rate of newborns remains the same as in history, the number of newborns every year can reach at least 50 million. After more than ten years, these newborns When the labor force is available, the number may accumulate to 800 million, or even tens of millions. This requires that the grain output of Datang should increase by at least 5000 to [-] million shi in the past ten years. In the process, the number of laborers for farming will not increase, and will even decrease due to the needs of other industries and women's annual births. From the perspective of Sun Xiangfu's height, the pressure on agriculture is really serious. Not small.

As the samurai Xun said, the levee, which is higher than the city wall and several times wider, can basically withstand all the floods during this period. However, the levee needs to be wide and high. In one year, building one or two paddocks has already made these people very hard. After all, digging and picking soil is a heavy physical work, and they are also responsible for a certain amount of farmland cultivation.

"Actually, the old man was also thinking about this problem before, but he just thought of a way to speed up the process a little bit."

The samurai Xun really likes this kind of embankment that can not only ensure the safety of the people under his rule, but also produce high grain. If the number of such embankments in the Jinghu area increases, even if it only costs a few dozen yuan, it will allow more than 10,000 households to live In the field area, the whole situation will be revitalized, because at that time, during the slack period, he can easily add 20+ young and strong people to build new fields. It will increase nearly ten times, adding [-] yuan a year to the paddy fields. After three to five years, the paddy fields in the entire Jinghu area will be connected along the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake. Then, basically there will be no problem of flooding. After all, this During the period, the ecological environment was very good, and the cause of the flood was not soil erosion, but the relatively concentrated rainstorm in spring and summer, which was generally not too large and did not last too long.

When Sun Xiangfu heard that there was a way, he said happily, "What kind of way is it, Mr. Ying will ask for it."

The warrior twirled his beard and said, "In the area north of the Yellow River, even in Henan, after the autumn harvest, the people basically have nothing to do. In November, it will snow even more, and the people will all spend the winter at home. After the snow melts in the spring of the following year, the fields will be cultivated.

In the land of Jinghu, the climate is warm. Even in winter, there are usually a few light snowfalls, which will not affect the work too much.If the young and strong in the north come here after the autumn harvest to pick embankments and build embankments, even if they only work for about three months, a large number of people will be of great help to the progress of embankment construction. Transfer 10 people, one In winter, at least three paddocks can be built to transfer 20 people, that is, six paddocks.The more paddy fields here, the more people can be resettled, and when the farming is slack, the more people can be recruited.

However, this kind of national mobilization cannot be decided by His Majesty. The old man wanted to recruit the young and strong people in Shannan Road before, but they all suffered from lack of money and food support. "

A large number of people have been transferred here. It is not impossible to implement the policy. Money and food are the key. Several 10 people need hundreds of thousands of shi of rice every month just to eat and drink. Moreover, in this cold weather, the dry weight Manual work, if there is no high salary condition, the people will definitely complain. According to the current wages of Datang, if you do heavy manual work, the monthly salary is not paid to three times, it is not considered a high salary, even if it is only 20 people. Calculated for a three-month working period, the monthly salary alone will cost 180 million guan, plus food and rice for food, accommodation, heating coal, various clothes, tools, etc., there is no such thing as 300 million guan, I'm afraid it won't work .

The money that Samurai Xun had sold the land before could not afford such a large consumption. After supporting the embankment for two years, he could hand over to Sun Xiangfu only about 200 million guan.

However, what Warrior Xun said gave Sun Xiangfu some inspiration. Warrior Xun did not dare to think that the area north of the Yellow River is nothing, Shanyang, the northeast side, and the winter lasts for five or six months!Especially in the Northeast region, with a population of millions, it would be too wasteful to be idle during the winter. Letting them come here to earn some money will not only increase their income, but also speed up their Sinicization, which seems to be a good idea choose.

As for money, you don’t need to think too much about it. Building embankment is one of the country’s major infrastructure constructions. It is a matter of course to use the money and taxes from the imperial treasury. In the next few years, there will be basically no wars in the imperial court. It is impossible not to use the tax for construction.

"This plan may be feasible. However, we have to expand the scope. Not only the areas north of the Yellow River, but especially the areas in the Northeast where the winter is relatively long, we can find a way. As long as the court pays a high salary, includes board and lodging, chartered cars and boats to pick you up, everyone On the one hand, the salary is good, and the publicity work is well done, not to mention hundreds of thousands, I estimate that millions of people can come here."

Now, Li Shimin is what the people want, and the people will respond positively to his call. Moreover, the people are idle, as long as they are willing to pay, I believe their own will is very strong, as long as they do well in the first year. In the second year, it will be easier to recruit and recruit, but it is a pity that even if Li Shimin can agree to this plan, it will not be implemented until this winter.

A labor force of a million people is not comparable to tens of thousands of people. After the effect is magnified a hundred times, dozens of fields can be built here in one winter, and the number of resettled people continues to increase. , the number of people who continued to build embankments also increased. After three or four years, the number of embankments reached 300 yuan, and it happened to be the time when Sun Xiangfu's first phase of improved rice planting was successful. solved.

When I thought of it, I had to do it. Sun Xiangfu immediately wrote a long memorial jointly with the warrior Xun and sent it to Chang'an. Of course, the current situation in the Yangtze River cannot be delayed. Waiting for the seedlings to grow and transplant for a while, Sun Xiangfu, accompanied by the warrior Xun, took a boat to inspect the relatively low-lying counties along the river.

Sure enough, as the samurai Xun said, although the government sent people to various villages to warn of water conditions, the local people did not take it seriously. In their view, the most important thing is to plant the fields during the spring plowing period. Well, if the crops are not planted, the consequences will be even more dire than floods. Even if the water overflows to their feet, there will be few people who give up farming for any reason.

Faced with such a problem, Sun Xiangfu has no better solution, and can only strengthen what the government can do.

"Du Gou, the next stop is Huangzhou?"

"Yes, my lord."

"After arriving in Huangzhou, let's check Changping warehouse."

Huangzhou is the later Huanggang area of ​​Hubei Province. It is dominated by plains, with a few hills and many lakes in the territory. It is an alluvial zone of rivers. It is less than a hundred miles away from Jiangling City, but the Jinghu area is relatively densely populated and relatively low-lying. The place.

"promise."

In the main cabin, Du Gou received the order and was about to notify other officials on board, but the warrior Xun who was with him reminded him, "I'm afraid it's not so easy to check."

"Why?"

"Did Zhengming forget? Huangzhou, but the territory of the Huang family, even the officials of your Ministry of Agriculture in Huangzhou are all surnamed Huang."

When the samurai Xun said this, Sun Xiangfu remembered that due to the lack of manpower, when the Ministry of Agriculture's yamen spread to the whole country, it adopted the system of local people's elections, with officials at the county level and officials at the state level. However, even this state-level official was not sent by the imperial court at that time, so he directly selected a person with better conditions in all aspects from the officials of each county to serve.

However, the land of Huangzhou, since the Han Dynasty, has been a base area developed by the Anlu Huang family. Its people spread all over the Central Hubei region. Huang Zu even managed this place like Huang's private land. No matter how you choose in the local area, you can't avoid their Huang clan.

"Ying Gong is saying that the Changping warehouse in Huangzhou is controlled by their Huang family?"

"This is natural, but I dare to guarantee that the grain in Changping warehouse in Huangzhou will only be more than you imagined, but it will not help the people in times of crisis, and if you want to check, you shouldn't check the grain , but should check the books."

"Account books?"

Hearing these two words, Sun Xiangfu immediately understood what was going on. In the Shannan Road area, there had been no major disasters in the past two years, and because the Huang family had bought a large number of fields sold by warriors before, then, in the past two years, there were no major disasters. The grain produced under their name will increase significantly. With the national grain price falling, how to sell the grain is their problem.

Although the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture in Huangzhou are low-ranking, they are in charge of the grain trading in the Changping warehouse. If this official communicates with the Huang family and buys a large amount of grain grown by the Huang family at a high price, Huangzhou's financial situation will be reduced. All the money was transferred to Huang's private name.

(End of this chapter)