The revival of Shu Han

Chapter 312 Recovery in Guanzhong ([-])
"The next step is to resume production in Guanzhong. Everyone, due to this year's war, drought, and locust plagues, the five counties of Guanzhong and the five counties of Longxi have not started planting wheat. Therefore, we can only plant wheat after the beginning of spring next year. Plant a season of spring wheat. And only if there is a good harvest of spring wheat in this season, can the entire food shortage in Yongliang be completely alleviated."

"What Da Sima said is absolutely true."

"But to achieve this goal, we must eradicate the effects of drought and locust plagues. After all, judging from the rain this autumn and the current climate, the weather next year should not be very friendly..."

Because of Zhuge Liang's relationship, all the officials of the Shu Han focused on practical affairs.In addition, the Northern Expedition of the Shu Han was short of soldiers and food for a long time, so almost all the officials of the Shu Han had a certain understanding of agricultural production.According to everyone's experience and the complaints of local old farmers, next year's Guanzhong is likely to be a disaster year.

"Let's talk about the locust plague first. Instead, how is the locust market in Chang'an doing now?"

"Reporting to Da Sima, the Chang'an Locust Market has been in operation for nearly two months, with a cumulative income of more than [-] stones for locusts, more than [-] stones for jumping gnats, and more than [-] stones for insect eggs. Of course, the data listed just now , all are dry weight. In addition, as the weather gradually cools, the locusts and jumping gnats sent by various tribes and people from all over the locust city are almost gone. However, the amount of eggs should continue to increase .”

"Good. Make all these things into powder, and send some of them to Zitong. The official has already written that the production base of Fuxingshe in Zitong will start raising more chickens and ducks early this year. After the powder is delivered, it can be used as part of chickens and ducks." Feed. The other part is mixed with wheat flour, and this can be distributed in relief food in the future.”

"Here."

"After the spring of next year, let Zitong County provide at least [-] chickens and ducks to Guanzhong. In addition, the spiders we had in Mei County a few months ago have all started laying eggs, right?"

"A large number of eggs have been laid. My subordinates have ordered someone to protect the stalks on which these spider eggs are attached. They will be distributed to fields in various places in Guanzhong when the weather gets warmer next year."

"Good, everyone. Digging up locust eggs, preparing more chickens, ducks, and spiders is just a precautionary measure to deal with the locust plague in advance. But if there is still a drought next year and no food grows in the ground, then these things are of no use Yes. The key point is how to reduce the impact of next year's drought on production. Well, Mr. Xiu Ran, you are the governor of Yongzhou, have you made arrangements for the chief officials of the counties below the ten counties of Yongzhou?"

"Reporting to Da Sima, the prefects of the ten counties and the magistrates of the 63 counties are all in place. The prefects are all from the Chengdu Chaotang in Yizhou or the original prefects of Yizhou were transferred. Forty of the 63 county magistrates are Yizhou officials In the transfer, the 23rd county is a local virtuous person. The pavilion chiefs of the pavilions in the county have also been basically equipped in place, and all of them are veterans who retired due to injuries after the war."

"Good, everyone. What I mean is to re-dred the ditches in Guanzhong in the last two months of this year and the first two months of next year, a total of four months!"

The so-called Guanzhong Plain is actually a long and narrow river valley basin surrounded by the Qinling Mountains, Longshan Mountains and the Loess Plateau.In this basin, the terrain of plains, terraces, and valleys is intricate.

The water sources in Guanzhong are mainly divided into three parts.

The first part is the Weihe River.The Weihe River surges from the Longshan Mountains, and after entering the Guanzhong Plain, the water surface widens and the flow speed slows down.across the entire Guanzhong Plain.It is the largest water source in Guanzhong.The Guanzhong Plain is actually the valley basin in the middle and lower reaches of the Weihe River.

The second part is from the many rivers flowing from south to north on the Qinling Mountains.For example, Wugong water, Luogu water, Mans water, Laos water and so on.

The third part comes from the Loess Plateau, the river flowing from north to south.The biggest one is of course the Jing River.In addition, there are Qianshui, Qishui, Luohe and so on.

It should be noted that the many rivers in the latter two parts basically flow into the Weihe River in the end.It can be said that the entire Guanzhong water system can basically be referred to simply as the Weihe water system.

Having said so much, it is actually more intuitive to draw a picture: first draw a horizontal straight line (the Wei River) in the center of the white paper, and then draw several vertical straight lines (many rivers in the north and south) on the upper and lower sides of this straight line.This is the simplest Guanzhong natural water system.

In this natural water system, there is no doubt that the land along the Wei River will basically not suffer from drought.But the problem is that on the one hand, the proportion of land along the Weihe River is extremely small compared with the entire Guanzhong Plain, and on the other hand: droughts in other places will cause locust plagues.With the plague of locusts, on the land along the Weihe River, no matter how good the crops grow, it is useless.

Moreover, among the water sources in Guanzhong, the rivers from the Qinling Mountains are not bad—the vegetation in the Qinling Mountains in this era is very well preserved.The rivers from the Qinling Mountains have abundant water flow and relatively low sediment concentration.But the rivers from the Loess Plateau are not so good: Not to mention the high sediment concentration, when the water volume is large, it is easy to form floods, and when the water volume is small, it is easy to stop flowing.

Finally, it is in the northwest of China.In fact, the rainfall in this area has not been very sufficient.Therefore, if the irrigation system in the Guanzhong area is not artificially modified, and the natural water system is used for irrigation, the rest will depend on the weather.The so-called thousands of miles of fertile fields in Guanzhong can't produce much food.

However, Guanzhong is the foundation of the Qin Empire and the Western Han Empire.The rulers of the two dynasties attached great importance to the agricultural production here.Both dynasties spent great efforts to transform the natural water system here.

How to transform it?Repair the canal.

In the Qin Dynasty, the whole country was devoted to building the famous Zhengguo Canal.The main function of the so-called Zhengguo Canal is to connect the Luoshui River and the Jinghe River.

As mentioned above, although there are many rivers in Guanzhong, except for the Wei River, which flows from east to west, the other rivers flow from north to south.Under natural conditions, unless these rivers eventually flow into the Wei River, there will be no connection with each other.On the other hand, the rivers coming from the south on the Loess Plateau have too much sediment and cannot be directly used for cultivation.This has resulted in areas far away from the north bank of the Weihe River. Although there are rivers on both sides, it is impossible to effectively use the water here for farming.

As for the Zhengguo Canal, it runs from east to west, starting from the Luoshui River and ending at the Jinghe River.In the north of the Weihe River, the Luoshui River and the Jinghe River were connected in advance.Moreover, the Guanzhong area is high in the north and south, and low in the middle.Now the Zhengguo Canal hangs north of the Weihe River, due to the terrain.The water flow in the Zhengguo Canal can be flooded southwards naturally depending on the terrain.As a result, the area south of the Zhengguo Canal, north of the Weihe River, east of the Luoshui River, and west of the Jinghe River has suddenly changed from a saline-alkali land with scarce water sources to a fertile field full of floods and droughts.

According to historical records, after the completion of the Zhengguo Canal, the Qin State suddenly gained 110 million mu of arable land, and nearly 500 million shi of grain can be harvested from this newly added fertile land every year.At that time, the population of Qin State was only more than [-] million.That is to say, just one Zhengguo canal can give all the people of Qin State an extra month of food rations!
Therefore, after the Western Han Dynasty established the capital of Chang'an, it also vigorously built the water conservancy system in Guanzhong.The main method is also to open the canal.The main purpose of opening the canal is the same as that of the Zhengguo Canal: to connect the north-south rivers in Guanzhong through various new ditches before they merge into the Weihe River.At the same time, the geographical environment of the construction of the canal is different, and the flood irrigation of the Zhengguo Canal is changed to irrigation... Then the place where the canal passes will change from a dry land lacking water to a fertile land where people suffer from floods and droughts.

Throughout the Western Han Dynasty for more than two hundred years, many new canals were built in Guanzhong, and various new canals were classified according to irrigation and transportation.A powerful water conservancy network has been formed.Thus ensuring the strength of Guanzhong.

The Western Han Dynasty was later usurped by Xin Mang, and then Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the political center of the country was transferred to Luoyang.Many water conservancy projects in Guanzhong inevitably lack maintenance.Later, Dong Zhuo, Li Jue, Guo Si, Han Sui, and Ma Chao successively took control of Chang'an. After Guanzhong was repeatedly devastated by wars, most of the water conservancy projects here were in a state of neglect.

After Cao Cao completely drove away Ma Chao and brought Guanzhong under his control again, he sent Zhang Ji to serve as governor of Yongzhou.When Zhang Ji was in power, he tried his best to repair part of the Zhengguo Canal and dredged part of the Bai Canal—but in the end, the political and economic centers of the country were in Luoyang and Yecheng.After Liu Bei took Hanzhong, Guanzhong became a border area that was often harassed by the Shu Han.Therefore, whether it is Cao Wei or Jin, the investment here is really very limited.Therefore, the water conservancy in Guanzhong has never reproduced the grand occasion of the Western Han Dynasty.

Now, Guan Yi is here.

"My official believes that under the current situation, although the common people still have some surplus grain in their hands due to the relief from the Jin Kingdom a few days ago. But they all know that this surplus grain will not be able to last the next year's harvest, or even this winter. Therefore, the common people's hearts It is frightening. If we simply continue to distribute food to relieve the people, hehe, we need to know that people will never be enough, and the effect of this method will not be much better. Therefore, this official believes that we should take advantage of the approaching winter and farmers are generally idle At that time, all the people in the pass were organized to dredge and rebuild all the ditches in the pass. During the construction process, food was distributed to the people as a reward according to the amount of work the people put in. This method is called relief with work!"

(End of this chapter)