Rebirth of Wu Ba Spring and Autumn

Chapter 939 Construction of the Guanzhong Canal
The autumn is crisp and clear, and there are no clouds in the sky.

At this time, Qing Ji, accompanied by Fan Li, Bo Tong, Lu Ban, Gan Jiang and other ministers, as well as the guards, took a military chariot and patrolled the fields outside Xianyang City.

It's the autumn harvest season, and farmers are cutting millet in the fields with sickles.

Rice, millet, millet, wheat, beans, these five grains are the staple food of people, so whenever the harvest season comes, every household can always take out excess grain and use it to sacrifice to the God of Five Grains.

The whole family is busy.

The adults are in charge of harvesting the ears of millet, while the children are crushing the corn and dropping the ears of corn. After getting a bag of corn, they put the rice bag aside with a smile on their faces.

"Your Majesty."

"See Your Majesty!"

After seeing Qingji's figure, Li Shu, who was still busy, quickly knelt down and bowed to Qingji.

"You don't have to pay attention to the widows, and go about your own work."

"Thank you king!"

That's what they said, but with Qingji by their side, how could they not want to look up at Tianyan?

After a while, a large group of people sat under the old locust tree, surrounding Qingji in the middle.

Qingji has always had the style of a virtuous monarch in ancient times, and he is approachable. Whenever he is out on tour, he will always kindly condolences to Li Shu and understand the people's feelings, and this time is no exception.

"Old man, how is the harvest this year?"

"Thanks to your majesty's blessings, the heavens are beautiful, this year's harvest is very good, after paying the land rent tax and various taxes, the surplus grain and rice in the family should not be less than three hundred shi."

The old man replied with a smile on his face.

It stands to reason that for an adult, the ration for one month is three shi, and one year is 36 shi.

For a family of five, it costs 180 stone a year.

However, the elderly, weak, women and children will not eat so much, so this data will be greatly discounted.

"How many people are in your family?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Caomin has a wife, a son, three grandsons, and a granddaughter."

That's a family of seven.

According to the laws and regulations of the state of Wu, men must marry when they reach the right age, and women must marry when they reach the marriageable age, otherwise they will be fined.

Moreover, after a man gets married, he usually has to "separate households", leaving only one son to take care of the elderly.

Basically, every household in Wu State now has many newborns.

For a family of seven, the annual grain harvest is [-] shi.

Almost 250 shi of grain are eaten a year.

It seems that there are not many left, and there is not much food left!

This made Qingji a little unexpected.

After all, the Guanzhong Plain was so fertile, and it was a year of good harvests, so how could there be only fifty shi of surplus grain left in a year?

Qing Ji frowned, and asked again: "Old man, how many acres of land does your family have?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Caomin's family has [-] mu of arable land."

[-] mu of cultivated land is quite a lot.

The state of Wu has light corvee and thin tax, one tax per fifteen, plus counting tax and more tax. If a peasant family has [-] mu of land, it shouldn't only produce so much grain.

"How much does one mu of land produce?"

"Fine fields produce more than three stones, while ordinary fields can only produce more than one stone, less than two stones."

"Why? From the perspective of a few people, Guanzhong is fertile and wild, and the land is very fertile."

"Your Majesty doesn't know something. Although it is a good harvest year, the weather is beautiful, and there have been several heavy rains this year, but sometimes there is not enough water in the farmland, and the irrigation canals are not in place."

The old man sighed and said, "In the past, people from two villages would have fought for the water source to irrigate the farmland. Fortunately, Wu's laws are strict and private fights are prohibited. In addition, the officials are wise and often urge farmers to build canals for irrigation. , properly distribute water sources.”

"If not, the harvest may be reduced."

After learning about these situations, Qingji stood up again and looked around.

Is it an irrigation problem?
You must know that the Guanzhong Plain has not been well developed at this time.

In the past, under the rule of the Qin State, most of Guanzhong was still pastures with lush water and grass, but there was not much arable land, and three-fifths of the arable land had not been cultivated.

Even if it is reclaimed, there is not enough water for irrigation, and the grain harvest is still not good.

Zheng Guoqu!
Qingji remembered that great project in history.

At that time, South Korea was afraid of Qin, so they sent Zheng Guo, a hydraulic engineer, into Qin to offer advice on building canals, so as to consume Qin's manpower and resources and weaken Qin.

This move backfired and made Qin stronger.

According to historical records: canals were formed, filled with silted water, irrigated more than 110 hectares (about 100 million mu) of brine land, and harvested every mu for one bell (about [-] kilograms), so Guanzhong was a fertile field. Wealthy and powerful, died and merged with the princes, and called "Zheng Guoqu" by order...

"Uncle, here's the map."

"promise!"

Qingji took a sheepskin map, and then sat on the floor with the officials.

"Second and third sons, I want to build a large irrigation canal in Guanzhong."

"The Jingshui is diverted from the west to the Luoshui to the east, and it is more than three hundred miles long."

Qingji told his officials what he thought.

The Jing River rushes out of the mountains in the north of Chang'an County, flows to Liquan and enters the Guanzhong Plain.

The plain is hundreds of miles from east to west and tens of miles from north to south.

The topography of the plain is slightly higher in the northwest and slightly lower in the southeast.

The state of Wu could make full use of this favorable terrain and start building canals at the mouth of the valley in the northeast of Liquan County, extending the main canals along the foot of the northern mountain to the east, naturally distributing the main canals in the highest area of ​​the irrigation area.

In this way, not only can the irrigation area be controlled to the greatest extent, but also a self-flowing irrigation system can be formed, which can irrigate more than [-] hectares of fields...

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

All the ministers complimented him.

"Luban."

"Chen is here!"

"I will give you full responsibility for the construction of the Guanzhong water canal. You can enlist 30 Kunlun slaves to dig the canal, and let the common people in the slack farming do the repairs. You don't have to think too much about it. The manpower, material and financial resources can be satisfied one by one."

"promise!"

Lu Ban immediately agreed.

It is conceivable that once this large irrigation canal is completed, it will be a good thing for the present and future.

……

In the Zide Hall.

At this time, Qingji was sitting on the majesty's platform, receiving one of his favorite sons——

Young master Wu worry!

Prince You is the eighth son of Qingji and Mrs. Zhu Ji, a concubine, but quite talented.

Young Master Wo's talents are not in the military and political fields like the rest of the brothers, but in research and development.

Young Master You inherited Qingji's good gene of "love to invent", and by nature, he has been learning from Ganjiang and other equipment masters, and he is good at adventure and likes to travel in mountains and rivers.

This time, Young Master You came back from across the ocean from various islands in Southeast Asia.

"Son, Wu You, see Father King! Father King Wannian!"

The young master saluted Qing Ji respectfully and respectfully.

"Wu You, don't be too polite."

Qingji stepped down from the majesty's stage, helped young master You up, and said with a lot of emotion: "You are black, and your body is also much stronger. You have suffered a lot outside these two years, right?"

"Hey, father, it's hard to say that it's suffering. Anyway, it's impossible not to get tanned on the boat and the island under the wind and sun."

The young master smiled sadly.

"Have you met your mother and concubine?"

"not yet."

"Your concubine misses you very much, remember to meet her later."

"promise."

The young master answered worryingly, and then said: "Father, this time, I have benefited a lot from traveling across the ocean. I have captured a total of seven people from various islands such as Wa Island, Malay Island, and Java Island. More than 5000 Kunlun slaves."

"it is good."

(End of this chapter)