In March, when the walls of Shanyang New Town were three zhang thick and more than five zhang high, there was no need to continue construction, and at this time, the ice and snow on the grassland began to slowly melt.

This new city built by more than 20,000 people in three months is much larger than the Shuozhou Zhishu Mayi, there are no city gates on the west and east sides, only two water gates, just let the Sanggan River pass through the city, and because the city wall is too tall and thick, even if someone is in the upstream barrage and impound water, the water will be blocked by the city wall here, and then flow quickly from the river to the downstream.

There are six gate openings in the south and north, which connect the two banks of the Sanggan River respectively, but this city is currently a county government built of blue bricks is still magnificent, and the rest of the places are empty, because the whole Shanyang County, there are more than 1,000 residents, and these residents have not yet had the financial resources to start a house, so they are still nested in the dilapidated old city not far away.

Of course, Sun Xiangfu would not let this situation continue, and the demolition order would be sent down immediately, but just as he was admiring his masterpiece on the newly built city wall, a letter brought the bad news of Chang'an.

In the first year of Zhenguan, there was no snow in Chang'an in winter, and there was no rain in the second year until the beginning of spring, and Guanzhong suffered a major drought in a hundred years, and the farmers sowed the seeds in the field, and even the buds could not grow, and the price of grain began to skyrocket, and the officials were helpless.

"It's over, everything in Guanzhong is over."

Seeing Ma Zhou's letter, Sun Xiangfu had already thought of the cruel scene that Datang would face next, Li Tang relied too much on the land of Guanzhong, and moved nearly half of the people in the country here, resulting in one million farmers who will not harvest this year, which is enough to shake the national capital of Datang.

"The flying pigeon sent a message to Chang'an, so that all the water ships in the shipyard should quickly go south and go to Lingnan to transport grain."

In fact, Sun Xiangfu's own grain of more than 50,000 acres of real estate has been transported to Shuozhou at the end of last year, otherwise, the people of Shuozhou do not have rice porridge to eat, but the situation in Guanzhong is different from Shuozhou, Shuozhou only has more than 10,000 households, less than 50,000 people, and it is Sun Xiangfu Yiyantang, he only needs to transport a hundred thousand stone grain, which is enough for the people here to maintain until this autumn's harvest, so the small landlords and the family are strong and strong, and they can't impact the market here, because the demand is small.

And in Guanzhong, once there is a precursor to a disaster, all the big families will start hoarding food as soon as possible, not to mention buying it in the market, at least they will not sell it again.

In a normal year, the grain harvested in the previous year is enough to eat the autumn harvest of the second year, and the production in Guanzhong was reduced by a small drought last year, but the price war in Lingnan allowed the imperial court to obtain a lot of low-priced grain, making up for the lack of Guanzhong.

Sun Xiangfu left Zhao Long in Lingnan, he should organize the villagers in Lingnan step by step to plant Zhancheng rice, at this time send a boat to the south, almost the first season of grain harvest, of course, his output of more than 50,000 acres of land, not enough for the people in Guanzhong to eat for a few days, where is the big head in Feng An, I just hope that Chang'an can hold on until the arrival of Lingnan's grain, not to produce any civil change.

Of course, Sun Xiangfu's response was more than that, he asked Zhao Qiang and a few craftsmen to ride fast horses to Luoyang day and night to wait for the fleet, and go south with the fleet, when the time comes, they will smelt all the gold in Lingnan and exchange copper coins all the way to Chang'an to deal with the locust plague that may occur next.

In the imperial study of Taiji Palace, Li Shimin didn't know how many times he pressed his temples, the entire harvest in Guanzhong was lost, and the people saw that the food at home was getting less and less, and there was no output in the fields, and they panicked.

"Your Majesty, Ma Zhou from the capital water supervisor is here." The chamberlain had to whisper to Li Shimin's side.

"Meet."

The king had to take the order and left, and after a while, Ma Zhou, who looked tired, was taken by him to the imperial study.

"I heard that you have been digging a river and building a dam last year, but have you ever stored enough water for irrigation?"

"Wechen is incompetent, and the water stored can only be used for drinking at most, and irrigation is absolutely impossible." Ma Zhou bowed down with a look of shame.

"You've done your best, but I haven't paid enough attention to it, no wonder you, excuse me!" Li Shimin's expression was a little gloomy.

"Your Majesty is sympathetic to the ministers, and the ministers are ashamed, and the ministers have been thinking hard about how to deal with them in the past few days, and feel that even if the land of Guanzhong does not produce grain this year, it may not be able to overcome the current crisis."

"Binwang already has a countermeasure? Tell me about it. Li Shimin was overjoyed when he heard this, and said hurriedly.

"Your Majesty, at the beginning of last year, Sun Zhengming, Housun Zhengming of Shanyang County, had a foresight of this year's drought, and only then did he go south to Jiaozhi to introduce new rice seeds, and now, the new rice seeds have been planted in Lingnan for two seasons, and with its output, there must be a huge grain stockpile, and His Majesty should order ships to go to Lingnan to transport grain, so as to ensure the grain supply in Guanzhong.

In addition, Huainan has sufficient soybean reserves, and more can be transferred to Guanzhong to make tofu products, sell them at low prices, and impact grain prices. ”

Ma mentioned Sun Xiangfu on Monday, and Li Shimin remembered that this guy who made him incomprehensible and often made him unhappy, everything he did was for the safety of this country, and he couldn't help but be surprised.

"Well, Xiao Aiqing and Fang Aiqing also mentioned these two strategies before, and I have already issued an order to implement them, however, the Yellow River is dry, boats are difficult to travel, and transportation is very difficult, so I am afraid that it will be difficult to solve the problem in time." Li Shimin nodded and continued to worry.

"These two strategies can only be supplemented, not primary. Your Majesty, the land of Guanzhong has been harvested this year, and instead of letting the people sit in the city of sorrow, it is better to let them go out while there is still surplus food in their hands. Ma Zhou continued.

"Going out? How to get out? Li Shimin raised his eyebrows when he heard this, he didn't want to flee with the people like Emperor Wen of Sui, staring at Ma Zhou suspiciously.

"Your Majesty, Guanzhong will not harvest this year, even if the wind and rain are smooth next year, and there is a harvest in the fields, it will have to wait until next year's autumn harvest to produce it, so long to support millions of people in Guanzhong, even if the imperial court has more capital, it can't afford it, it is better to take advantage of the surplus grain in the hands of the people, and move them to a place with more wasteland to reclaim the wasteland, while it is still early this year, they can still grow a season of crops, and next year, depending on the situation in Guanzhong, see if the people need to be moved back." Ma Zhou suggested.

"Relocation?"

Li Shimin frowned when he heard this, you must know that the people in Guanzhong moved from all over the country after Li Tang established the country, so that the imperial court could control them nearby and grasp the core strength of the country.

You must know that the power of the magistrates in the Tang Dynasty was very large, and the execution ability of the central government orders down to the state level was already very low, and it was simply vague when it came down to the county, so let Li Shimin move the people who had finally moved to Guanzhong out again? Li Shimin's first reaction was no.

"Yes, the minister thinks that the secluded place, the land is vast and sparse, and it is suitable for relocation. Once the people began to move out in large numbers, grain consumption would inevitably decrease, and the families and merchants who stocked up grain would definitely release some of their hoarded grain when they saw this, so that the danger of grain use in Guanzhong should be alleviated, and it would not be a problem to transport grain to the south. Seeing Li Shimin's hesitant expression, Ma Zhou continued.

"The matter of relocating the people is too important, Rong Zhen will make a decision after discussing with the ministers, you can go down first!"

After Li Shimin asked Ma Zhou to go down, he immediately invited Xiao Yu, Fang Xuanling and others, and even Li Ji and Li Daozong, who had just returned from Bingzhou and Youzhou, also invited them over.

"Your Majesty, the ministers of other places don't know, Sun Zhengming in Shuozhou must want more people to enrich his rule." Li Ji's implication is to support Ma Zhou's suggestion, and point out the place where there is such a need, especially where Sun Xiangfu is.

"Needless to say, this kid has already done it himself, the people in Taiyuan, Shangdang, Jinyang and other places have been more than 20,000 households by this kid, and there are already 35,000 households in Shuozhou, can he feed it?"

Sun Xiangfu had already reported the re-determined household registration to Li Shimin, and told Li Shimin the reason for doing so, Li Shimin was naturally happy to see the use of the Wang family's human and material resources to develop the border plug, although there is no output yet, but the Wang family's twenty fortresses on the grassland have been established, and it is believed that it is only a matter of time before the grassland is reclaimed and the so-called spices are planted.

Sun Xiangfu said in the previous fold that spices are not food, and no matter how much they grow, they can't feed people, so it is normal for Li Shimin to have such worries.

"Hehe, Your Majesty can rest assured, Sun Zhengming's ability is to open up wasteland and farm, even if he gives him another 35,000 households, he can also live." Li Ji smiled leisurely.

"How?" Li Shimin said unexpectedly.

"This son's management of Shuozhou is different from any other place, let's just say that the military cantonment system! According to Guo Po's letter to the ministers, he divided the training, cultivation, and breeding time, steps, and divisions of the unity camp in great detail, and Guo Po said that he was very confident that the Shuozhou unity camp would be implemented according to this law, and not only could train a strong army whose combat effectiveness was not inferior to the elite of the guards, but also did not need the imperial court to spend military expenses, and even had a surplus to increase the soldiers' salaries," Li Ji explained.

"Farming and breeding are managed like the military?" Li Shimin and several ministers were stunned when they heard this.

Fang Xuanling also came out to speak at this time, "If you open up wasteland elsewhere and farm land, those people who move out will be able to support themselves at most, but if it is in Sun Zhengming's place, it is possible to harvest a lot of surpluses, Your Majesty, don't forget the wheat field that yields more than four stones per mu." ”

"In this way, the two Aiqing are also in favor of moving some of the people of Guanzhong out?" Li Shimin's eyes looked at Fang Xuanling and Li Jidao.

"Your Majesty, today's plan, this strategy can not only reduce the food consumption in Guanzhong, but also increase the output of border land, and prepare for the future garrison of troops in the border areas, which is also a good policy." Xiao Yu also suggested out loud.

As the prime minister, he has now begun to study the military cantonment system of Sun Xiangfu Lane, and this new local army management system is very feasible in practice.

"In this way, I plan to move 35,000 households to Shuozhou, and I want to see how far Sun Zhengming's kid can go." Li Shimin saw that everyone agreed, so he finally made a decision.