my grandfather was qin shi huang

Do it when you think of it.

Once the First Emperor and Zhao Ying made the decision, the matter was finally settled.

All that’s left is execution!
He summoned relevant government offices to conduct on-site surveys, develop the best canal route, and draw construction drawings. Although Zhao Ying knew the general direction of the canal in his previous life, he had no idea where the canal would pass, which villages it would pass through, and which cities it would pass through, considering geographical and cultural factors.

This is a very specific and very hard job.

Naturally, there would be people from the Shaofu and disciples of the Mohist school who were proficient in engineering planning to do these tasks.

He summoned the three dukes and nine ministers, put forward his ideas, and asked everyone to discuss and improve the specific policies for digging the canal together with local wealthy businessmen and nobles.

The fundamental interests of the imperial court cannot be shaken, but sufficient benefits must be offered. Otherwise, those wealthy businessmen and local clans are not fools. Who would be foolish enough to contribute money and effort if there is no profit to be gained?

Therefore, after Zhao Ying put forward this general idea, he let the group discuss it.

To deal with ancient people, you have to be the best of these ancient people.

Soon, a more complete and specific plan came out. After reading it, Zhao Ying couldn't help but frowned and looked at Li Si, Feng Quji and others with a hesitant tone.

"Isn't this a bit harsh..."

"Your Majesty is benevolent and cherishes the people's strength. This is known to everyone in the world. Therefore, when we discussed these plans, we have fully considered this point. Many policies are already very generous and kind..."

Li Si stepped forward, bowed, and analyzed the pros and cons and reasons for consideration to Zhao Ying one by one.

"Your Majesty, these local merchants and wealthy families fear power but not virtue. They are used to taking advantage of every opportunity and are greedy. How can they ever know when to be satisfied? Even if Your Majesty sympathizes with them and gives them more favors and rewards, they will take it for granted and even think that the court is easy to bully and want to grab more benefits..."

After hearing this, Zhao Ying couldn't help but feel ashamed.

I have traveled through time for so long and have been a superior for so long, but when I consider issues, I am still consciously or unconsciously influenced by some concepts from my previous life and cannot get rid of those deep-rooted ideas.

They forgot that this place had not yet completely gotten rid of the slavery system of the Qin Dynasty, and overlooked the awe that the local people had for the imperial court at that time.

Zhao Ying nodded and praised.

"Good, indeed, these are all wise words for the state. Let's implement this plan according to your family's plan..."

It is a bit harsh, but it does not necessarily mean that Li Si and others are wrong.

No matter what era it is, it is actually the same. If you cannot gain enough benefits from a sufficiently wealthy group, you must start with another sufficiently poor group.

"The way of heaven is to reduce the surplus and make up for the deficiency, and the way of man is to reduce the deficiency and serve the surplus. Isn't this what you are thinking and worrying about..."

The Second Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Ying, stood in the main hall, overlooking his three dukes and nine ministers, and could not help but sigh.

……

The heavy snow continued for another four or five days.

At this point, even Zhao Ying could not remain calm. He specially ordered all the garrison officers and soldiers in each county to mobilize to help the local people, clear the snow, repair houses, clear roads, and avoid casualties.

What worried him most was the transportation of food and fodder.

But in fact, the speed of transporting food and grass was countless times faster than he had imagined. It was not because the sled worked well, but because the ice bed, which he thought could only be used on rivers, played a big role.

Under the coordination and command of Li Si, Feng Quji and others, local government officials dispatched officers and soldiers to compact the snow on the official roads in their jurisdiction in advance, and then use the compacted snow as ice!
The speed of sliding on the ice bed is not much slower than that of a horse.

The only thing that needs to be done is the cooperation of counties and prefectures everywhere, and this is what the Qin Dynasty is best at. Coordinated operations, with the court giving the order, counties and prefectures everywhere will take action.

It didn't delay at all.

Wherever the army transporting grain and fodder went, all the snow-covered roads were crushed neatly and smoothly, just like ice.

Therefore, the most important thing is that because it can save animal power, it can travel day and night, which is actually faster than before. Of course, there are also disadvantages, that is, it is a bit laborious. Your Majesty will ask the counties and prefectures where you pass to clean up the road, and it will become very troublesome to clean it up later.

But compared with the immediate benefits, none of this matters anymore.

Being able to ensure the smooth flow of materials in such a harsh environment is already an unimaginable miracle in this era. But what Zhao Ying never expected was that the people of this era were much smarter than he thought.

The government's ice beds served as an example, and soon people followed suit, with goods being transported on ice beds beginning to appear on the roads.

After hearing this, Zhao Ying immediately issued an order that during the period when the roads were blocked by heavy snow, all merchants transporting and selling food, fodder, clothing and other supplies urgently needed by the people would be exempted from customs duties. If they encountered force majeure, they could ask the local government for help at any time.

At the same time, we will crack down on illegal hoarding and ensure price stability.

With this combination of punches, the Guanzhong counties including Jingji Neishi, Longxi, Beidi, Shang, Jiuyuan and Yunzhong, as well as the three Mobei counties, survived the heavy snow that lasted for more than ten days safely.

Except for a very few unlucky people who froze to death in the wild because they went out in the snow, almost no civilians died from the wind, snow and hunger. It was unprecedented.

Zhao Ying issued a special decree to commend local government offices and local garrisons, and had a batch of money and grain allocated from the Shaofu as rewards.

cough--

The main reason was that the imperial court itself was already stretched thin in terms of money and grain, and only he, the emperor, had a little bit of surplus wealth because of the coal business, the glass workshop and the iron mine.

Zhao Ying felt that he was probably the richest king in the history of the Qin Dynasty.

Because all places were concentrating on dealing with the heavy snow, Zhao Ying's government affairs were much less busy than usual. In addition, Zhang Cang, the Minister of Chariots, had gradually become familiar with his job and was doing it more and more handily, which saved Zhao Ying a lot of energy. In the remaining time, Zhao Ying liked to go to the harem to visit his three precious children.

The three children all looked very healthy, with lively eyes. Especially the older daughter, Pan'er, could already babble when interacting with him, which made him like her even more.

Originally, Yu Ji was secretly worried because she had only given birth to a daughter. But now, seeing that Zhao Ying liked this daughter so much, all her worries disappeared, and a smile from the bottom of her heart unconsciously appeared on her face.

On the contrary, the First Emperor had nothing to do, so he took Ying Xi, Wang Jian and others who came to the palace to have tea with him, and braved the wind and snow to go to the Afang Academy to see his rare plant.

Because Zhao Ying specially had a glazed house built here, the strange plant that had grown on Tianci Island since childhood was not destroyed by the wind and snow. Instead, it sprouted a few new green leaves in this cold winter.

This made the old guys, who had been worried for a long time, feel relieved and in a much better mood. …

The heavy snow, which covered almost half of the Qin Dynasty's territory, lasted until early November before it finally stopped. This made the First Emperor and Zhao Ying secretly breathe a sigh of relief, and the local governments, who had been worried for a long time, finally let go.

The news that the imperial court was going to build a grand canal connecting the north and the south officially spread as the snow stopped.

Kuaiji County.

While the Yu family and the other families were still sorting out their internal affairs, Long Li, the head of the Long family, had already rushed to the county magistrate's mansion and found Li You.

"If the county governor doesn't mind, I am willing to bring my people to do my part in digging the canal!"

Li You looked at Long Li, who had a sincere expression, and couldn't help but smiled and nodded.

"Good! The head of the Long family is indeed a loyal family that is loyal to the court. His Majesty once told me that the Long family has a bright future. Today, I see that it is indeed true."

Long Li was overjoyed and stood up to express his gratitude.

Before Long Li had finalized with the county magistrate Li You which section of the canal his family would be responsible for, as well as some of the details of the contract, the head of the Zhong family arrived right after.

On that day, County Magistrate Li You hosted a dinner and personally entertained the Long and Zhong families. During the banquet, both the host and the guests drank and enjoyed themselves.

Speaking of which, Kuaiji County has the best mass base.

After all, everyone has seen the benefits of developing water conservancy projects and reclaiming land, so this time, it will naturally be easier to accept.

With the Long family and the Zhong family taking the lead, soon all the wealthy families in Kuaiji County took action. When the local wealthy businessmen heard that they could also participate, they were immediately excited and behaved more humbly and eagerly than the wealthy families.

Until the third day.

Most of the wealthy families in the county had already come to the door and wanted to share a piece of the pie. Only then did Yu Rang, the head of the Yu family, come to the door with a haggard and tired look. Li You did not show his expression, but personally met them with a gentle smile and gave them a benefit that was not much worse than that of the Long family and the Zhong family.

The old man Yu Song of the Yu family had a smug look on his face, and he glanced at the wealthy businessmen of Kuaiji County around him with an arrogant look. The clan leader Yu Rang knew that this was all for the sake of the current emperor's face, so he looked ashamed and bowed to express his gratitude respectfully before leaving.

Looking at Yu Rang's departing back, Li You couldn't help but shook his head slightly.

Yu Rang was a man of some insight, but he lacked the courage and prestige to shoulder the responsibility of ruling the entire family. As a result, Yu Ji, who could have risen to prominence by relying on her relationship with Concubine Shu, became a nobody. This was an example of a person who misused a good hand badly.

Sometimes, when doing things, it really requires a herd mentality.

Therefore, a rather interesting phenomenon occurred in this major project of digging the canal. It actually spread all the way from Kuaiji County to the north. Its smoothness was so great that even the First Emperor and Li Si could not help but marvel at it.

When the news reached Zhao Ying's ears, Zhao Ying couldn't help but nodded with a smile, looked around and praised.

"Is the Kuaiji Long clan going to prosper?"

An imperial edict was immediately issued, specially decreed that Long Li's eldest son Hou would study in the Afang Academy, and his second son Zhang would join the Imperial Guard to serve as the emperor's personal guard. Even the Zhong family was granted a son to join the Imperial Guard.

For a time, the morale of Kuaiji County was greatly boosted.

Everyone was rubbing their hands in anticipation of becoming the next Long and Zhong families. On the contrary, there were some discordant voices in the Yu family, and the elder Yu Song even slammed the table and cursed after getting drunk.

"Your Majesty, how cold-hearted you are! How can you be so cruel to my Yu family? My Yu family is the real royal family. How can he be so ungrateful? How can he rather warn those opportunistic villains like the Long and Zhong families than support his own relatives..."

Upon hearing the news, Yu Tian, ​​who was now serving as the Shaofu, ran to the palace in person and knelt down to thank and apologize to Zhao Ying.

Zhao Ying smiled and waved his hand.

"This matter has nothing to do with your family. It's just some ignorant people barking incompetently. You don't need to take it to heart..."

No matter what the Yu family thought or what emotions they had, they were just insignificant ripples under the overwhelming trend and soon disappeared.

The renovation of the Grand Canal officially began in Kuaiji County, where the weather was the warmest.

And time passed in a blink of an eye, and it was January 27th of the 28th year of Emperor Qin Shihuang's reign.

The snow in Xianyang City has faded, and the willow trees on the streets have a faint layer of green and a few softer colors. Compared with previous years, the people on the streets, although still wearing shabby clothes, have a brighter light of hope in their eyes.

They never thought that one day they would be able to survive such a terrible winter.

It was in this kind of atmosphere.

Xiang Yu finally welcomed his first child.

Zhao Wan gave birth!
Queen Wang Nan went to congratulate him in person, and the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Ying, sent Zhang Cang, the chariot officer, and Ying Bu, the halberd bearer, to represent him, and personally gave him the good name of Kuang. He meant that when he grew up, he could help the Qin Dynasty.

Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu went to the palace in person to express their gratitude.

It was the sixth day of the second month in the spring of the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi.

Xiang Yu, who had been living in Xianyang City for half a year, could no longer wait for his son to be one month old, so he and Peng Yue went to the palace together to resign from Zhao Ying, wanting to take advantage of this season to lead his troops westward.

Zhao Ying agreed.

After the news spread, many young men in Xianyang asked their elders to ask Zhao Ying to follow Xiang Yu to the west and make achievements. Even some students in the Afang Academy and young scholars who stayed in Xianyang and were preparing to take the imperial examination next year came to the door, wanting to follow Xiang Yu and Peng Yue to the west and get some credit.

Some of the aristocratic families who had originally planned to send their young men to represent the family, to expand the border westward, and to take the opportunity to send away those restless elements who were making trouble in the family and wanted the family to thoroughly implement the court's Enfeoffment Order and divide the family assets, also changed their minds and allocated some of the family's elite private soldiers.

The First Emperor demolished all the armies in the world, but this thing was far away from the emperor, so how could he really control it?

Of course, these people would not openly wear armor and carry bows and crossbows and parade through the city, but the imperial court was also tacit and did not check these teams that obeyed the court's call and led their tribesmen westward. They even provided some help within their capacity in a friendly manner.

If there were satellite maps in this era, looking down from the sky would certainly be as spectacular as thousands of rivers returning to their current.

Compared with the forced migration during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, this spontaneous migration was called the Great Development of the Western Regions by later generations. (End of this chapter)