Chapter 242 Water and Drought (Part 2)

Chapter 242 Water and Drought (Part 2)

When it comes to water conservancy projects, there are roughly three categories. Fortunately, Guangchengze has them all.

The first type is the ditch.

Qualities are where water lives.

Rivers are created by nature, canals are created by man.

To put it simply, it means digging ditches and diverting river water for irrigation.

Guangchengze is a huge wetland. There are seven large rivers and more than a dozen small rivers flowing into the periphery, and the water transport volume is huge.

Many of the farmland that has been cultivated today relies on ditch irrigation. This is the simplest and most traditional water conservancy project. It began to appear in large numbers during the Qin and Han Dynasties.

Canals are divided into two types: artesian canals and lift canals.

The water surface of the former is higher than the farmland. After digging the ditch, the water will flow by itself.

The water surface of the latter is parallel to or lower than the farmland, and water trucks need to be lifted.

When Shao Xun was just wandering around, he was thinking about a question.

This will be the spring flood season. It is reasonable to say that the river water level will rise sharply, but some water trucks are no longer able to operate, and the water level is terrifyingly low.

This is a "national project". The waterwheel made by Shaofu craftsmen has only been used for a short time and there is no quality problem.

In fact, you can see it with your eyes. Whether there are spring floods or not is a big problem.

The second type of water conservancy project is called "Pi".

Pi, pool.

When Pi gets a training pond, Pi talks about the obstacles outside it, and Chi talks about the water stored in it.

To put it simply, it is an artificial reservoir.

There are too many lakes in Guangchengze.

Historically, until the Tang Dynasty, Guangchengze became land after more than 300 years of siltation during the Little Ice Age, and its area has shrunk a lot. However, there are still 36 Pis in Ruzhou, of which Huangpi (not Hubei Huangpi) in Liang County is the largest. , irrigating thousands of hectares of farmland - in fact, most of the 36 Pis are located in Liang County.

One artificial lake (Huangpi) irrigates 100,000 acres of farmland, which shows the excellent agricultural resources here.

At this time, the area of ​​Guangchengze was much larger than that of the Tang Dynasty, and the water resources were more abundant. It can be said to be a primitive and wild swamp. Several years of artificial development have only domesticated a small part of it.

After Shao Xun walked around, his anxiety eased, and he said to Chu Hui: "If a severe drought comes, the river may not stop flowing, and Pichi is particularly critical. This is what you have organized. What’s the name of the largest Pichi?”

Chu Hui turned around and asked.

He came late and did not participate in the water conservancy projects in previous years. After receiving the confirmation, he glanced at Shao Xun and said: "This is 'Shaogong Pi', which can irrigate more than a thousand hectares of farmland. In late autumn last year The newly created fields are all irrigated by this pond. If there is an emergency, Xitian is not far from here, and people can be dispatched to carry water to irrigate the fields."

"This..." Shao Xun was stunned.

When I went boating on the lake with Lan Ji last year, I didn’t have a name yet. Why is it called “Shaogong Pi” now?

But this Pichi is really beautifully built.

There are lush bamboo forests beside the lake, wild flowers everywhere, and even acres of mulberry forests. In some places, stone steps and piers have been built, and you can take a boat to Zhilan Yuan in the distance.

At this time, there were already some boats fishing on the lake. After the beginning of spring, the rivers thawed and the fish were plump. Some were caught to make soup and distributed to the slaves and camp workers to make them stronger.

Shao Xun no longer dwells on this issue.

To the northwest of Shaogong Pi is a vast expanse of wasteland, which was opened up last year, totaling 1,340 hectares.

Millet was planted this spring and was cultivated by Shile tribesmen captured in Hebei. There were more than 7,000 people. They were organized into the second and third battalions of the Jizhou Tuntian Army. Several hundred people were sent by the Yi Cong Army to temporarily guard them. .

Shao Xun originally planned to give this field to the farmers who had retired from Luoyang Sanyuan for cultivation, but they expected that they would not be able to come south until autumn, so they gave it to the prisoners to plant a crop first, turning the wasteland into Be more mature.

“If there is a severe drought, I don’t know if these spring-planted millets will be able to survive until the autumn harvest.” Shao Xun said, pointing to the farmland where sparse millet seedlings have grown.

Everyone looked at each other in shock and doubt.

The big farmer Chu Hui was just out of duty. He saw that there was little rain this spring, so he reminded him, but he didn’t take it seriously. He was still thinking that it might rain heavily in a few days. , the water is turbulent.

But Mr. Lu Yang rushed over in a hurry, making him a little uneasy and subconsciously nervous.

No - is there really going to be a drought?

"Alas, at this time of the year, the Huns are still going to fight!" Shao Xun sighed, and couldn't help but curse: "We don't do our best to fight the drought and protect the crops, but we still want to fight. Fight, fight, my maid! When I raise my troops and go north, I will kill everyone and see if you still fight!"

He really can't understand Liu Yuan now.

If there is a serious drought, Bingzhou will not be unaffected, at most it will be slightly mild.

Agricultural production has been greatly affected, but you still have to fight. Are you sick?

Of course, he also knows that this may be the difference between farming thinking and nomadic pirate thinking.

When a disaster occurs, some people’s first thought is to fight the disaster with all their strength and reduce losses, while others think of making up for the losses within the dike and going to rob others to make up for the losses.

Even if Liu Yuan himself is clear-headed, his regime is destined to still have a gangster mentality.

"Mr. Lang should actually be lucky." Chu Hui thought about his words and said: "I planted winter wheat last year, and it will be harvested in two or three months. Even if there is a severe drought, it will not happen all at once. Come on, I will work harder and supervise day and night to ensure that the summer harvest is safe."

Shao Xun breathed a sigh of relief and felt that he really shouldn't add negative energy to the people below, so he smiled and said: "Mr. Chu is right. , Even if there is a severe drought, I expect it will be the worst in midsummer. We will be able to harvest this grain in May."

"No." Everyone looked brighter.

"If there is a severe drought in summer, this batch of winter wheat will really save lives. Master Shao prepared for the rainy day and had clear insights. He is actually a benefactor to thousands of people." Dian Shu Cheng Maobang said.

Shao Xun touched his head out of habit, and then he thought that Mao was twenty-eight years old and was no longer the child who hurt his ankle and cried endlessly, so he withdrew his hand and said with a smile: "It's just you. You can talk, aren't you stupid?"

Mao Er said with a serious face: "Before Master Shao came, there were very few people growing winter wheat in Sizhou. Not only did they harvest more grain, but they also had the possibility to avoid the big crops. Drought, I don’t know how many lives can be saved. Isn’t this an ende?”

When Mao Er said this, everyone else had their own thoughts.

A severe drought means a bad harvest, a bad harvest means hunger, hunger means unrest, and unrest will make more people unable to farm with peace of mind...

If this chain of events continues, within two years , bones cover the field, and everyone eats each other.

From this perspective, Lu Yanggong at least has countless living people in Sizhou, and it is not an exaggeration to build a shrine for him.

"I would rather there be no severe drought." Shao Xun sighed and said.

The Central Plains has been plagued by wars for years, and the population is not large to begin with. If this continues, how many people will be left in the north?

Just as the power vacuum will be filled, the land vacuum will also be filled.

The imperial dynasty has only been in the country for a few decades, and dozens of groups of barbarians have already moved south from the northern grasslands.

After filling up Bingzhou, Youzhou, and Yongzhou, they will advance to Sizhou, Jizhou, and Yuzhou, and go deeper into the interior step by step.

The five Xiongnu tribes under Liu Yuan's rule, the total number of men, women, old and young will not exceed 500,000.

But do you really think defeating these 500,000 men, women, and children is the end of it? In fact, in recent years, barbarians have continued to move south.

The population ratio in Guanzhong has been reversed. Shao Xun doesn’t know if this is the first time in history that the number of Hu people has exceeded that of Han people. It is now obvious that the Han people in Guanzhong are flowing out to Henan and Nanyang, and the Hu people are constantly flowing out. Immigrants, the ratio continues to slowly become unbalanced.

If Guanzhong is pacified in the future, I don’t know how much effort will be spent to assimilate these barbarians.

The entire Northern and Southern Dynasties, perhaps after such a kind of "emptying the cage and changing the bird", the entire north underwent a painful three hundred years of integration.

If a sufficient population of the dominant ethnic group could be maintained at this time, perhaps integration would not have to be so long and painful.

"Have a good time and do your best. If anything happens, report it immediately." Shao Xun waved his hand and left.

“No.”

******

Guangcheng Palace is located at the top of Kongtong Mountain. There is a small square outside the palace. It is not large in area, but it is very elegant in its carved railings and jade inlays.

Under the warm spring sun, Shao Xun was lying on a chair, thinking about things silently.

Something happened in March: the governor of Jingzhou and the king of Gaomi passed away.

As soon as he died, Sima Yue, who had originally planned to return to the capital in two months, could not sit still and immediately entered the capital via Xingyang, bringing with him more than 20,000 troops.

In the past few years, Sima Yue's power has disappeared a bit quickly.

First, Sima Wei, the king of Fanyang, died suddenly. Then Sima Teng, the new king of Cai, was killed by Ji Sang.

Now Sima Lue, the king of Gaomi, died of illness.

The lineage of Sima Yi's fourth brother Sima Kui also began to wither.

The only ones who still hold the power now are Sima Mo, King of Nanyang in Zhenguanzhong, and Taifu Sima Yue himself.

After Sima Yue entered Beijing, the first thing he did was to relieve Yanzhou Mu and lead Situ.

Wang Yanze became a Taiwei.

Wang Dun was also appointed as the governor of Yangzhou, and Shangshu Youpu Sheshan Jian was appointed as the governor of Jingzhou and established Xiangyang.

In addition, with Wang Bing as the left guard general and He Lun as the right guard general, the two most powerful imperial troops were in the hands of the right guard general Pei Kuo. In other words, he was dismissed. Cleaned.

And this is probably just the first step in the purge storm that Sima Yue will carry out.

He has been away from Luoyang for too long. There are too many officials and imperial guards who have violated him openly and secretly. It is not too late to clean them up now. Any later and things will be much more difficult or even impossible to clean at all.

Shao Xun has only received so much information for the time being, but it is enough for him to analyze for a long time.

"The Tutor still needs Wang Yan." The palace people washed some mulberries, and the sheep Xianrong asked them to disperse. They personally brought a plate and placed it on the table, and said softly.

"He is a Situ now, not a Taifu." Shao Xun said.

When he first came to Luoyang, Sima Yue was Sikong.

After running away to Xuzhou for one year and seven months, he returned to Beijing and became a tutor.

After two years of wandering around Xuchang, Juancheng, Puyang, and Xingyang, he returned to Beijing and became a Situ again.

I don’t know what to do with it.

Wang Yan followed him and also changed the positions of three officials along the way, from Shangshu Zuopushe to Sikong, then Situ, and now Taiwei.

“Are you worried?” Yang Xianrong lay facelessly on the table, looked at Shao Xun, and asked.

"I am indeed worried." Shao Xun said helplessly: "If I were Situ, I would indeed think about purging the court and banning the army, but now is really not a good time."

"Why?"

"It's inevitable that you won't be able to hold back your hands once the purge occurs. By then, everyone in the court will be in danger, and the people in the forbidden army will be distraught."

Yang Xianrong fiddled with a mulberry and asked Said: "You are in Guangchengze, with a crowd of more than ten thousand, what are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid that Liu Yuan will take advantage of the situation and come to kill him." Shao Xun said: "This year is very likely to be severe drought. The entire Henan Province will not say that there is no harvest, but there will definitely be a severe harvest failure. If it is still devastated by war, how will the people survive next year?"

After a drought comes, the most dangerous thing is not the current year, but the next year.

Because I still had some food reserves that year, I could barely cope with it, but what about the next year?

According to experience, it is easy for a locust plague to occur after a severe drought. If the locust plague breaks out in a large area next year, it will be a fatal blow.

Shao Xun wondered whether Henan was the worst hit this time?

He has been thinking about this issue in recent days.

Historically, the final fall of Luoyang was not unrelated to the severe famine.

Of course this is because water transportation was cut off by Liu Han's army and taxes from other places could not be transported into Beijing. However, the continuous outbreak of drought locusts around Luoyang must also be a major factor.

This time of severe drought, Henan is probably the hardest hit area.

Compared with Henan, Bingzhou, Jizhou, Yangzhou, and Jingzhou may not be so serious.

This is really God's will to destroy the Jin Dynasty, there is no way.

Even God won’t help you! Have you done anything that makes God very unhappy?

Disasters from the sky completely collapsed Luoyang, which was still barely holding on, and the balance of power between Jin and Hungary underwent major changes - in an agricultural society, the damage caused by drought and locust plagues may far exceed the losses on the battlefield. It's purely a dimensionality reduction blow.

"In this world, everyone is just protecting themselves. As long as they survive until May and slowly harvest the wheat, what are they afraid of?" Yang Xianrong tilted his head and looked at Shao Xun and asked.

"Guang Chengze alone cannot defeat the Huns." Shao Xun made a joke: "If Luoyang cannot be defended, I am afraid I will take you away."

" Take me... to run away alone?" Yang Xianrong asked softly.

After saying that, his face turned slightly red.

Shao Xun stretched out his hand and slowly approached Yang Xianrong's lips.

"You..." Yang Xianrong wanted to shrink back, but it seemed that he couldn't use all his strength and was completely frozen.

Shao Xun wiped the mulberry juice from the corner of her mouth and said, "I will definitely take you with me."

Yang Xianrong's face was as red as that morning on Zhengdan last year.

"Have you thought about it?" Yang Xianrong buried his face in his arms and asked in a muffled voice.

“What are you thinking about?” Shao Xun was puzzled.

Yang Xianrong turned his head, looked down the mountain, and said softly: "If you provoke me, all those messy women in the family will be sent away."

Shao Xun's hands seemed to be electrocuted. He quickly retracted, put the pillow behind his head, looked at the white clouds in the distance, gently rocked the recliner, and stopped talking.

Yang Xianrong’s eyes were filled with mist.

She is really aggrieved.

Being from a famous family, you are still a queen, and you are not satisfied with the condescension of your honor...

But soon, she remembered that in the shadow of the sword in the Tai Chi Palace, Shao Xun treated her He said "Don't be afraid".

I also remembered that when she fled to Liang County, Shao Xun, wearing armor and holding a sword, stood guard outside the door all night, soothing her frightened mind.

I also remembered that during the New Year, Shao Xun used his chapped fingers to prepare firecrackers for her in the cold wind.

Remembering that he said to her personally, "What happened before will never happen again."

Yang Xianrong was a little confused again.

"Life is impermanent." Shao Xun suddenly said: "For example, this fragrant orchid——"

As he spoke, Shao Xun stood up and walked to the railing, pointed to the orchid grass outside, and said : "Born between spring and summer, she is elegant, delicate and graceful. However, from summer to autumn, the days are getting shorter. When the autumn wind blows, the years are shaken..."

"Are you laughing at me? "Yang Xianrong glared at him.

"I'm talking about myself." Shao Xun walked up to her and said softly: "Life is unpredictable, and no one can predict what will happen in the future. I have a lot to do, and I have great ambitions. There are some benevolent women who want to save this world and save the lives of many people. I don’t know how long the war with the Xiongnu will last. Maybe I will be defeated and die just like this fragrant orchid, which was so beautiful at first. Alone, outstanding, and finally turned into mud, with no success."

"I really don't dare to provoke Queen Hui, I will retire, and I will go to see the pond later."

"The empress Hui sent people to supervise the construction of the embankment. It may be able to save many people. I am very grateful."

After that, he turned around and went down the mountain.

When I reached the bottom of the mountain, I quietly wiped the sweat from my forehead.

Yangyang hasn’t figured it out yet, why not go and sit with Princess Fan Yang.

Of course, this is a joke.

Shao Xun soon arrived at the Silver Spear Army's station and began to train sergeants.

What can be done to deal with natural disasters? What can be done has been done.

If possible, he hopes that this year's theme will be drought relief, but obviously this is wishful thinking.

The history of mankind is a history of war.

Fighting each other is the main theme.

The Huns are coming, so come, at worst, kill them quickly. Let people like Liu Yuanhai who take advantage of the situation see that your people are a bunch of shit.

(End of this chapter)