After getting used to seeing the green and flat fields of later generations, and then looking at the uneven dry fields of the world, Li Jiqi will have an impulse to transform in his heart.

Spring is here, and the wilderness exudes an exciting smell of decay.

In the spring, everyone involved in farming is very hard.

Most of the Huangzhuang and Tuntian fields around Taiyuan Mansion have winter wheat, but it is not so hard to sow in spring. However, the wasteland just obtained by the garrison army in Tongyuan City at the foot of Shanbei, Xinkou Pass, Ningwu Pass and Baleng Mountain in Yunzhou needed to be reclaimed and sown, and Li Qi also got a large piece of reclamation land outside Yunzhou City.

In this winter, Li Qi recruited more than 6,000 homeless households from Guanzhong and Hebei into military households. This is not very difficult, although this army needs to work, but both in terms of life and treatment, it is much better than other troops. As a result, the Shanbei Army got an official name, and the size of the garrison finally exceeded 10,000 people.

After leaving the New Year, Li Qi began to inspect his "territory", and from time to time he pretended to be an example and personally helped the plow in the field and worked for a while.

In the field, holding the handle of the plough with your own hands, watching the moist soil gushing out like waves along the sides of the ploughshare, there is the illusion of riding a boat through the wind and waves. The steel ploughshares forged by the ancient Jiaoye Iron Workshop and the Jinyang Royal Manor Iron Workshop have a certain arc, which makes the plough more smooth to operate.

Don't look at this little change, the efficiency of the plough has increased by more than 10%.

The short work may give people a very novel experience, but if it is such a monotonous and boring work for more than ten days in a row, people will not even be interested in enjoying the scenery of the spring field. From the start of plowing to sowing, there are more than ten days in between. Only after all this is done, and then standing in the field and admiring the endless flat fields, will there be a sense of pride in transforming the world in the bottom of my heart.

The spring sowing in the Xindai Basin is still in progress, but Li Qi has traveled from Feihu to Shanbei, and the iron workshop under construction in Wuzhou Jieyun Ridge is the focus of his construction in Shanbei.

The Wudai Mountain and Yunzhong Mountain around the Xindai Basin are all iron-rich areas, and the Xinkou Longshoushan Hot Spring Manor will naturally not lack iron-smelting workshops. In this era, the profits of steel products were huge, and with the increasing number of iron parts used in his machine workshop, steel production became the most important thing for Li Qi.

The temperature in the Wuzhou and Fuzhou basins of Shanbei, surrounded by mountains, is much warmer than that of Yunzhou and Zhangbei grasslands across the mountains, and even in winter, the average temperature is more than ten degrees higher than that outside the Saiwai.

The site of the new iron-smelting workshop is next to the Yanghe Dam in the Broken Cloud Mountains, about ten miles north of Wuzhou. Preparations for the construction of a barrage dam have been underway since last summer, but construction began in earnest last fall, and the barrage dam, which has been under construction ever since, is now in the final stages of construction.

More than a dozen lime, cement and brick kilns on the hillsides near Wuzhou are emitting black smoke almost non-stop, trying to destroy the area's beautiful natural environment. The lime kiln has a few holes dedicated to burning a kind of "ash powder", which was not known for any purpose at first, but when the foundation of the barrage began to be officially built in the spring of this year, many craftsmen learned that this "ash powder" was called "cement" by the craftsmen.

This "cement" is mixed with sand and gravel and stirred together, and the poured dam foundation seems to become a whole boulder after solidification, which is very hard and firm, just like a whole mountain stone. The faces of the craftsmen who were overseers and foremen were full of pride, and such a magical thing could only be made by the Son of Heaven "with the divine gift of heaven", which surprised many Shanbei officials who had seen concrete for the first time.

After the beginning of spring, the water in the Sheep River began to swell and the waves rolled on the river, but the reservoir enclosed by the overflow dam that was built last year has begun to store water, although many culverts and agricultural canals have not yet been repaired.

After Li Qi arrived in Wuzhou, he did not rest, and went directly to the construction site of Jieyunling to inspect the construction progress of the iron-smelting workshop and the barrage dam.

The horses ran along the potholed dirt road on the east side of the river slope, and as far as the eye could see, the valley was flanked by large fields of green wheat seedlings. Due to the obstruction of the mountains, the temperature in the Xuanzhang Basin in the north of the mountain is higher than that in Yunzhou, and it is possible to harvest two crops a year, and after harvesting millet or millet in autumn, it can also plant a season of winter wheat.

In the Yanghe Valley on the side of the Broken Cloud Ridge, the construction site of the water storage dam with ancillary facilities still under intense construction is presented in front of you.

Due to the very limited production of cement, the several dams built by the Shanbei garrison are still mainly traditional masonry dams, and concrete is only used for the construction of culverts and hydraulic workshops, as well as some parts of the dam that need to be reinforced. Except for the two culverts below the workshop, the five- or six-foot barrage dam does not have any gates, and the main flood discharge method is in the traditional form of overflow dam. This type of barrage dam is not uncommon to connoisseurs, but only the concrete chute-style culvert is of great interest. The main reason is that the concrete is as strong as a mountain stone after hardening, which is quite magical.

Li Qi didn't expect that Pei You, the defense envoy of Shanbei, was also on the construction site.

This veteran in his forties has also attached great importance to the construction of the defense system of Shanbei facing the Khitan, and after seeing the Zhangyuan City, Yangchuan City and Huairong City built by Li Qi along the Yanghe River on the northern line, he is also full of praise for the defensive performance of this new type of fortress city.

Pei You, a tall man dressed in a crimson official uniform and a black gauze head, stood on a concrete embankment with his hands behind his back and carefully studied a hydro turbine that was being prepared for installation. His face is like black charcoal, and he looks like an NBA ball, anyway, it is difficult for Li Qi to associate this image with the so-called Confucian generals in the history books.

"I've seen Your Majesty." Seeing Li Qi's arrival, Pei Yue stood at the end of the culvert and said

Li Qi jumped off the horse after seeing Pei Yue, hugged his fists and said with a smile: "Why did General Pei come over too" I can't see that you are still very interested in water conservancy. ”

"Weichen is just going around the north of the mountain, by the way, take a look at these dams built under the auspices of His Majesty, these projects are indeed good things for the benefit of the country and the people!" Pei Yue said with a smile on his face.

Like An Jinquan, Yuan Xingqin, and Xia Luqi, veterans of the Jin army who supported him, Li Qi still maintained enough respect, and the influence of these people in the Jin army was sometimes greater than his own. And he also hopes that these old guys will live longer, in a sense, these veterans are the basic factor for the stability and unity of the Jin army.

These old comrades have fought for most of their lives, and they don't have much ambition, all they want is nothing more than wealth behind them, and in this regard, Li Qi thinks that in this world, no one will be better than him.

Li Qi was ready to transfer a part of the shares of the iron mill to these nobles, and the formation of political groups began with common economic interests......