During the spring flood, the Yangtze River will rise, almost every year the people in the lake area will see the situation, the future generations of Sun Xiangfu grew up in this area, naturally will not see the big water on the panic, but can make the entire clear river water turbid, a day to rise two or three meters of water, it is not so common.

When he came back from the embankment, Sun Xiangfu looked worried on his face, and when the warrior asked, he knew it in his heart, and said, "In the land of Jinghu, the spring flood and high tide every year are inevitable, Zhengming only needs to give an order to let the low-lying prefectures and counties notify the people in the townships under his rule to pay attention to the water level and be ready to take shelter in higher places at any time, but most of the people will not pay attention to the warning of the government, because it is spring ploughing at this time, and if the fields are not planted, it will be more difficult than floods." ”

Sun Xiangfu nodded and said, "This is exactly what I'm worried about, the land of Jinghu, the land is fertile, the water source is abundant, it is the best place to plant two crops of rice, however, when the first season of spring cultivation is completed, it will encounter spring floods, and when it is cultivated in the second season of summer, it will encounter summer floods, and if the floods are not cured, this place will not become the main grain producing area of the country after all." ”

Sun Xiangfu's research on high-yield rice is to solve the problem of feeding the people in China, if the grain-producing areas will often be threatened by natural disasters, then it may cause national turmoil, which is a very dangerous thing.

"Isn't it a good solution to this problem?"

"But the speed of building the fields is too slow, it has been two years, and only three fields have been built, and if you want to wait until the output of the fields here can supply the entire country, I am afraid that after dozens or hundreds of years, with the current population development rate of Datang, you can't wait."

Historically, after four years of Zhenguan, only in the Central Plains, there will be an average annual increase of 70,000 households, more than 200,000 people, these new extra population, most of them are newborns without labor, at least more than ten years later.

And now, the population of Datang has more than doubled compared to history, if the growth rate of newborns is consistent with history, the number of newborns per year can reach at least four or five hundred thousand, and when these newborns have labor force in more than ten years, the number may accumulate to seven or eight million, or even tens of millions, which requires that Datang's grain output must increase by at least forty or fifty million stones in the past ten years, and in this growth process, the number of labor force for farming will not increase. It will even be reduced because of the needs of other industries, and women giving birth every year, etc., from the height of Sun Xiangfu, the pressure on agriculture is really not small.

As Wu Shi Tong said, the embankment that is several times higher and wider than the city wall can basically withstand all the floods in this period, however, the embankment has to be built wide and high, even if it mobilizes one or two thousand people, it can't pick much in a day, and it has made these people very hard to build one or two fields in a year, after all, digging and picking soil is heavy physical work, and they are also responsible for a certain amount of farmland cultivation.

"Actually, the old man was also thinking about this before, but he just thought of a way to speed up a little."

If the number of fields in the Jinghu area increases even if it is only a few dozen, so that more than 100,000 households can live in the area, then the whole situation will be revitalized, because at that time, he will be able to easily increase the number of hundreds of thousands of young and strong people to build new fields during the slack period, and the manpower will be enlarged nearly ten times, and the speed of building will increase by nearly ten times, and the number of fields will increase by nearly ten times, and one or twenty more fields will be increased a year, and after three or five years, After all, the ecological environment is very good during this period, and the cause of flooding is not soil erosion, but because of the relative concentration of heavy rains in spring and summer, which is generally not too big and will not last too long.

When Sun Xiangfu heard that there was a way, he was overjoyed and said, "What is the way, Ying Gong will also invite him to come." ”

The samurai twisted his beard and said, "In the area north of the Yellow River, even in Henan, after the autumn harvest, the people basically have nothing to do, and in November, it snows heavily, and the people will all shrink at home for the winter, and they will not go down to the field to cultivate until the spring of the following year after the snow melts."

In the land of Jinghu, the climate is warm, even in winter, it is usually a few light snowfalls, which will not affect the work too much. If, the north is young and strong, after the autumn harvest, come here to pick up the embankment and build the embankment, even if it is only about three months of labor, the number of people is large, it will also be of great help to the progress of the construction of the embankment, transfer 100,000 people, a winter, at least three fields can be built, transfer 200,000 people, that is, six fields. The more fields there are, the more people can be resettled, and when the farming is slack, the more people can be recruited.

It's just that this kind of nationwide transfer, unless His Majesty can't call the shots, the old man wanted to requisition the young and strong people in Shannan Province before, but they all suffered from no money and food support. ”

Hundreds of thousands of people, just eating and drinking every month, they have to get hundreds of thousands of stone rice, and, in this cold weather, do heavy physical work, there is no high salary conditions, the people will definitely complain, according to the current wage of Datang, do heavy physical work, the monthly salary is not given to three times, it is not a high salary, even if it is only 200,000 people, with a three-month working period, the monthly salary alone must be paid 1.8 million yuan, plus edible grain and rice, and accommodation, The consumption of coal, all kinds of clothes, tools, etc., for heating, is not three million, but I am afraid that it will not work.

The money that Wu Shitong sold the land before couldn't afford such a big consumption, and after supporting the construction of the wall for two years, he could hand over to Sun Xiangfu about two million yuan.

However, Wu Shi Tong's words gave Sun Xiangfu some inspiration, Wu Shi Tong did not dare to think that the area north of the Yellow River is nothing, Shanyang, in the northeast, the winter is as long as five or six months! Especially in the Northeast, with a population of millions, it's too wasteful to be idle during the winter, so letting them come here to earn some money can not only increase their income, but also speed up their sinicization, which seems to be a good choice.

As for the money, in fact, there is no need to think too much, building a field is also one of the country's major infrastructure construction, using the treasury of the imperial court, it is a matter of course, in the next few years, the imperial court is basically no war, so much tax, do not need to come out to engage in construction.

"This plan may be feasible, but we have to expand the scope, not only in the areas north of the Yellow River, especially in the areas where the winter in the northeast is relatively long, we can find a way. As long as the imperial court pays a high salary, includes food and lodging, charters a car and boat to transport you to your home, treats you well in all aspects, and the propaganda work is in place, not to mention hundreds of thousands, I estimate that millions of people can get it. ”

Now, Li Shimin is the will of the people, his call, the people will respond more positively, and the people are idle, as long as they are willing to pay, I believe that their own will is also very strong, as long as they do a good job in the first year, the second year of recruitment, it will be even simpler, but unfortunately, even if Li Shimin can agree to this plan, it will need to wait until this winter to start implementation.

After the effect is magnified a hundred times, in a winter's time, dozens of fields can be built here, and the number of people who have been resettled continues to increase, and the number of people who continue to build the fields has also increased, and after three or four years, the number of fields has reached two or three hundred, and it is just when Sun Xiangfu's first phase of rice planting is successful, then, the problem of Datang's grain output can be solved.

Thinking of it, it is going to be done, Sun Xiangfu immediately wrote a long letter with Wu Shi Tong and sent it to Chang'an, of course, the current water situation of the Yangtze River, it is also not delayed, after the rice sprouts are sent to the field the next day, while waiting for the seedlings to grow and transplant There is still a period of time, Sun Xiangfu was accompanied by Wu Shi Tong, and began to inspect the relatively low-lying states and counties along the river by boat.

Sure enough, as Samurai said, although the government sent people to the various townships to warn about the water situation, but the local people, did not take it seriously, in their opinion, the spring ploughing period, planting the field, is the most important, if you don't plant, the consequences can be more terrible than the flood, that is, the water is overflowing to the feet, and there are almost no people, reason to give up farming.

In the face of such a problem, Sun Xiangfu has no better solution, and can only strengthen what the government can do.

"Du Wei, the next stop, but Huangzhou?"

"Yes, sir."

"After arriving in Huangzhou, let's check the regular liquidation."

Huangzhou, is the Huanggang area of Hubei Province in later generations, mainly plains, with a small number of hills, many lakes in the territory, is the alluvial area of rivers, away from Jiangling City, less than 100 miles, it is a relatively densely populated place in Jinghu area, and the terrain is relatively low-lying.

"No."

In the main cabin, Du Gou received the order and was about to inform the other officials on the ship, but the warrior Tong who was also there reminded him, "I'm afraid it's not so easy to check." ”

"Why?"

"Did Masaaki forget? Huangzhou, but the territory of the Huang family, even the officials of your Ministry of Agriculture in Huangzhou, are all surnamed Huang. ”

As soon as Wu Shitong said this, Sun Xiangfu remembered that due to the lack of manpower, when the Yamen of the Ministry of Agriculture was rolled out to the whole country, it adopted the system of election by the local people, with the county level as officials, and the state-level officials as officials, however, even if it was an official at the state level, no one was sent by the imperial court at that time, so directly among the officials in each county, a person with better conditions in all aspects was selected to serve as a person.

But the land of Huangzhou, since the beginning of the Han Dynasty, is a base developed by the Huang clan in Anlu, its people are all over the central Hubei region, it is the land of Jingxiang, the number one clan, the Huang Zu who has been in Jiangxia for many years during the Three Kingdoms period, and it is the private land of the Huang clan that operates here, and you can not get around their Huang clan people in whatever you choose in the local area.

"Ying Gong is saying that the Chang Closing of this Huangzhou is in the hands of their Huang family?"

"This is natural, but the old man dares to guarantee that there will only be more grain in Huangzhou's Changping warehouse than you think, but it will not help the people in times of crisis, and if you want to check, you should not check the grain, but check the account books."

"Books?"

Hearing these two words, Sun Xiangfu immediately understood what was going on, in the Shannan Province area, there has been no major disaster in the past two years, and the Huang family has bought a large number of fields sold by Wushi Tong before, so the grain produced under their names in the past two years will increase significantly, and how to sell the grain in the case of low grain prices in the country is their problem.

If this official communicates with the Huang family and buys a large amount of grain grown by the Huang family at a high price, he will transfer all the money from the Huangzhou treasury to their Huang family's private name.