Chapter 434 Political Achievements

Chapter 434 Political Achievements

Chapter 434 Political Achievements
"Crack!" The fish was thrown onto the snow, jumping non-stop.

When the people who were digging the river saw this, they were all amazed: What a big fish!

"The bream is broad, thin and crispy, sweet but with little meat, and has fine scales, which is the beauty of fish." Someone read out a passage while shaking his head.

Everyone laughed. Since he had fallen to the point of digging a river with them, he should just put away his scholarly airs.

The scholar did not talk much with them, just immersed in his own emotions, and continued: "When I traveled to Henan in the past, I knew that Luo carp and Yi bream were as valuable as cattle and sheep. They are good things."

Everyone laughed again after hearing this.

What's so good about fish? It's not as good as beef or mutton. This person must have become stupid from reading too much.

"Don't make any noise." A loud voice came from not far away.

Everyone immediately fell silent, standing in the freezing cold mud and water, working hard to clear the silt, dredge the water, and slowly transform the pond.

This is Nandun, formerly a county under Runan and now the seat of Nandun County.

Although the county had only four counties, it had a very large population, the main source of which was immigrants from Hebei. They were the people from various counties in Hebei who were brought back by Le Mo from Dongyu. They arrived during the autumn harvest of the fourth year of Yongjia (310), and it had been more than two years since then.

To put it bluntly, their arrival almost changed the race of Nanton, and the population surged to about 20,000 households and 80,000 people.

In the fifth year of Yongjia, the people of Nandun, Ruyang, Shangcai and Pingyu counties planted millet for one season. Although they used cultivated land that had been left uncultivated after the Eight Kings Rebellion and Li Hong Rebellion, the harvest was still not very good, barely enough for them to eat, and still not enough to fill their stomachs.

This year, people in the four counties planted another crop of millet. The harvest increased significantly and their lives became much better.

After the autumn harvest, some people planted winter wheat and some planted turnips, and their lives were gradually getting back on track.

The prefect Wei Jun has always adhered to the will of the governor Lu Zhi and the shogunate. He took advantage of the opportunity of great order after the chaos to clean up the household registration, encourage farming and sericulture, and roughly transform the four counties of Nandun.

If there is a good harvest next year, people's hearts will be completely stabilized, and the four counties of Nandun will become the second Chen County.

The situation in Xincai State, southeast of Nandun, was similar. The Internal History Le Mo first cleared the land and farmhands of the King of Xincai, then accepted thousands of people brought back by Yu Chen from Ji County, and absorbed a small number of refugees from Henei, Guanxi and Yanzhou. Currently, there are about 10,000 households and 40,000 to 50,000 people.

When Shao Xun set the major policies in his early years, he focused on Chen County as the key management direction, followed by Nandun and Xincai counties, which were the second batch of key management areas.

Now Nanton is on the right track, Xincai is a little slower, but it will be stabilized in another two years.

The thirteen counties of the three prefectures of Chen, Nandun and Xincai have a large number of immigrants organized into battalions and teams, and a large number of garrison troops. They are the people belonging exclusively to the government and are not controlled by the gentry and powerful. They are the force that Shao Xun can mobilize without having to bargain with the aristocratic families - to put it bluntly, this is the most solid foundation for a warlord.

If the noble families, fort commanders, and manor owners support you and provide you with money and food, you can certainly become a warlord in an instant, but when they withdraw their investment, you will fall badly because you do not have a tax base directly belonging to you: self-employed farmers.

Walking on two legs will never go wrong.

The busy river digging work continued until noon.

The servants lined up to receive their meals.

Mr. Chen is kind and generous. He also provides meals when he is sent out on military service, which is really nice, although he does not always provide meals.

Moreover, these ponds are also beneficial to them, as they are conducive to irrigating farmland and increasing per-acre yields, so they are fully motivated to work.

While everyone was eating, the prefect Wei Jun also came to the river control site.

He did not come alone, but brought officials from the county and the magistrate of Nandun County with him. At this time, he was the leader, and they surrounded Yu Liang, a military officer of the shogunate.

The shogunate was an institution that focused on military affairs, and its official positions also had a strong military flavor.

As a military officer, Yu Liang was in charge of three major areas: Warehouse, Household, and Thieves, and had direct business contacts with county officials.

Theoretically, he could not directly manage local governance, as that was the responsibility of officials at the state, county and district levels. But in practice, he would go to the local areas to take an inventory of household registration, order county and district officials to arrest thieves, monitor litigation, and oversee warehouses - even large grain depots like Nandun Granary were directly managed by him, and the local authorities only provided assistance.

Over time, the shogunate officials gradually gained dominance over local officials and turned them into their subordinates, so Wei Jun, the prefect of Nandun, was very cooperative and answered all the questions.

"I heard that since the Han Dynasty, there have been more than ninety ponds in Runan. How many are there in Nandun?" Yu Liang asked as he walked along the river bank with high spirits.

"Only one remains now." Wei Jun replied, "This pond is called 'Xishu'. It existed during the pre-Han Dynasty. Cao Wei continued to repair it. It was neglected during the Ming Dynasty. Now it has been rebuilt again and can irrigate more than 2,700 hectares of farmland."

"Where is Gebei?"

"Between Xincai and Pingyu."

Gebi was built during the Western Han Dynasty. It is dozens of miles square and is considered a relatively large artificial reservoir.

Because of its importance, it was repaired frequently during the Han, Wei and Jin dynasties, and it still plays a huge role today.

In history, Shi Le suffered a great loss at Gepi, where many of his soldiers died of illness, and he had to return.

When they came, Yuzhou Wubao was still providing food and grass, but after hearing that they were defeated by the Jiangdong Navy led by Ji Zhan in the north of Shouchun, they suddenly turned hostile, fortified their walls and cleared the fields, and refused to provide food and grass, causing Shi Le to lose most of his 90,000 infantry and cavalry. On the way back to the north, "people ate each other", and only 20,000 to 30,000 people successfully returned to Hebei, which was much worse than Shi Le's strength in this time and space. Shao Xun occupied Yuzhou and prevented Shi Le from breaking through Henan and drinking from the Yangtze River. It was a good thing for him. At least he didn't have to let half of his main force be wiped out by the epidemic and lose the remaining half on the way back.

"There are ninety ponds in Runan, Xincai, and Nandun. Mr. Chen did not mention anything else, but he mentioned Ge Pond." Yu Liang glanced at Wei Jun and said, "Your Excellency should know its importance."

"I know." Wei Jun's heart trembled and he secretly memorized Ge Pi's name.

Because it is located at the junction of Xincai and Pingyu, it is quite complicated, and the pond can still be used, so he did not care. Now it seems that he has to discuss it with Xincai Internal History Lemo and recruit laborers to repair it before next spring planting.

Yu Liang felt relieved when he saw Wei Jun's respectful attitude.

Once you have power, you can issue orders, and it feels great.

However, after being trained by Shao Xun for a long time, he now has more experience in general affairs, and asked again: "Water control is very laborious, is there enough food?"

"Not enough." Wei Jun told the truth.

Water control, like fighting a war, is very energy-intensive. The difference is that after the water conservancy projects are repaired, lower and middle fields can be turned into upper fields, and even more arable land can be opened up, thereby increasing the total grain output. However, fighting a war may not necessarily have so many benefits.

After two years of peace and stability in Nandun, the government and the people finally had some savings, so they could recruit laborers and repair ponds. However, this kind of savings was not unlimited, so generally speaking, they had to do what they could.

"First, repair Xishubi and Gebi." Yu Liang looked at Wei Jun with dissatisfaction and said, "If this doesn't work, I will report to Lord Chen and ask him to make the decision."

Wei Jun was annoyed when he heard this, but he didn't dare to get angry and could only respond with a "yes".

Logically speaking, he followed Yang Bao's path and was able to meet Mr. Chen. After some tests, he was appointed as the prefect of Nandun.

He is actually Mr. Chen's man.

But how can I say it? Can I offend Yu Liang? Of course not!
Putting aside other things, once Mrs. Yu’s pillow talk came, no matter how great the merit was, it would be gone and he would have to bow his head.

Furthermore, dredging rivers and repairing ponds were major plans set by Mr. Chen.

Yu Liang was also a military officer in charge of the granaries, and he used chicken feathers as his authority to inspect various counties and states. No one could oppose what he said.

Your mother, since you said so, I don’t care anymore.

If public resentment boils over and even leads to civil unrest, don't put all the blame on me.

Yu Yuangui was impatient, hasty and fond of showing off, but that was all, that was all, haha.

Yu Liang naturally had no idea what Wei Jun was thinking. He continued walking along the river bank, thinking about what Chen Gong had done.

At present, most water control projects are located in Chenjun, Nandun, Xincai and Runan.

The first three are easy to understand, but Runan is intriguing.

It can be basically judged that what Mr. Chen cares about and trusts the most is the western half of Yuzhou.

The State of Runan was half-surrounded by Xiangcheng, Yingchuan, Nandun, and Xincai. It would be an eyesore if it was not under our control.

It just so happens that Runan has been very prosperous since the Han Dynasty, and it would be a pity not to make good use of it. During the Han Dynasty, Runan County was very large, with as many as 37 counties, which is not the same as the current Runan Kingdom with only 11 counties.

There are dozens of ponds in total, including Qisi Pond, Qing Pond, Hongxi Pond, Ge Pond, Taiyang Pond, Shitang Pond, etc. The smallest one can irrigate 37 hectares of fertile farmland, and the largest one can irrigate hectares (Taiyang Pond) of fertile farmland. The densest area is on both sides of the Ru River, with ponds.

Since the Han Dynasty, Runan has even diverted the Huai River to irrigate farmland. With rivers and lakes crisscrossing and many reservoirs, it is almost comparable to the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River.

Fubei County (now abolished), located in present-day Ruyin, "has many ponds for irrigating rice, so it is called Fubei County."

During the Han Dynasty, rice fields in Runan were very dense.

Yu Liang read ancient books and learned that in the southern part of Runan, "japonica rice was planted in March and sorghum rice was planted in April." Compared with the per-acre yield of millet and wheat, "the yield from high fields is five times, and the yield from low fields is ten times" - this is certainly an exaggeration, but it is an indisputable fact that rice yield is higher than wheat, and even higher than corn.

It is a pity that there have been wars for more than a hundred years since the end of the Han Dynasty.

Although Cao Wei and the Guo Dynasty made many efforts to repair ponds, the local irrigation canal system still inevitably declined, so that the once famous Fubei County (a metaphor for the county's many reservoirs) was abandoned.

With the current strength of the Xuchang Shogunate, it is certainly impossible to restore the pond irrigation canal system of the Han Dynasty, and it is even impossible to reach the level of the Taikang period of this dynasty. But as long as it is repaired and utilized a little, grain production will increase steadily.

There were continuous disasters in the third and fourth years of the Yongjia period, so there were no conditions. The fifth year was a period of recovery, and in the sixth year, a lot of recovery had been made, so we could start doing this.

Yu Liang keenly sensed the huge opportunity, so he took the initiative to take this matter as the main task for the next five to ten years. However, after seeing the slow progress of the local counties, he became a little anxious, so he threatened and urged them.

If he wants to achieve political achievements, he will naturally have to work hard in the local area.

(End of this chapter)