"The next step is to resume production in Guanzhong. Ladies and gentlemen, due to this year's war, drought and locust plagues, it is now October, and the five counties of Guanzhong and Longxi have not started to plant wheat. So, we will only have to plant one crop of spring wheat after the beginning of spring next year. Moreover, only this season of spring wheat can be harvested, and the entire Yongliang grain shortage can be completely alleviated. ”

"What Da Sima said is extremely true."

"But to achieve this goal, we must eradicate the effects of drought and locust plagues. After all, judging by the rain this autumn and the current climate, next year's weather should not be very friendly......"

Because of Zhuge Liang's relationship, all the officials of Shu Han are pragmatic. In addition, the Northern Expedition of Shu Han lacked soldiers and food for a long time, so almost everyone in Shu Han had a certain understanding of agricultural production. According to everyone's experience and the stories of local old farmers, next year's Guanzhong will most likely be a disaster year.

"Let's start with the locust plague. In other words, how is the locust market in Chang'an running now? ”

"Qi Qi Da Sima, Chang'an Locust Market has been open for nearly two months, and has accumulated more than 103,000 stones of locusts, more than 90,000 stones of jumping flies, and more than 18,300 stones of insect eggs. Of course, the data just listed by the subordinates are all dry weight. In addition, it should be noted that as the weather gradually cools, the locusts and jumping worms sent by various tribes and people from all over the locust market are almost non-existent. However, the number of eggs should continue to grow. ”

"Good. Beat all these things into powder and send some of them to Zitong. This official has already written that the production base of our Fuxing Society in Zitong began to raise more chickens and ducks early this year. After the powder is delivered, it can be used as part of the feed for chickens and ducks. The other part is mixed with wheat flour, which can be distributed in the relief grain later. ”

"Whoa."

"After the spring of next year, let Zitong County provide at least 30,000 chickens and ducks to Guanzhong. In addition, the spiders we had in Yixian a few months ago have started to lay eggs, right? ”

"Spawning has been laid in large numbers. The subordinates have ordered someone to protect the straw to which the spider eggs are attached. As soon as the weather warms up a little next year, it will be distributed to the fields all over Guanzhong. ”

"Good, everyone. Excavating locust eggs and preparing more chickens, ducks, and spiders are just precautions and a response to the locust plague in advance. But if there is a drought next year and no food grows in the fields, then these things are of no great use. The key is how to reduce the impact of next year's drought on production. Well, Hu Rangong, you are the assassin of Yongzhou, have you arranged all the chief officials of the counties below the ten counties of Yongzhou? ”

"Back to Da Sima, the ten county taishou and the sixty-three county magistrates are all in place. The Taishou are all transferred from the Chengdu court of Yizhou or the original county Taishou of Yizhou. Of the 63 county magistrates, 40 counties were transferred from Yizhou officials, and 23 counties were appointed by local virtuous people. The pavilion chiefs of the pavilions under the county have also been basically equipped in place, and all of them are veterans who retired due to injuries after the Great War. ”

"Good, everyone. The intention of this official is to re-dredge the ditches in Guanzhong in the last two months of this year and the first two months of next year, a total of four months! ”

The so-called Guanzhong Plain is actually a long and narrow river valley basin surrounded by the Qinling Mountains, Longshan Mountains and the Loess Plateau. In this basin, the plains, plateaus, and valleys are intricately intertwined.

The water source in Guanzhong is mainly divided into three parts.

The first part is the Wei River. The Wei River surged from Longshan, and after entering the Guanzhong Plain, the water surface widened and the flow rate slowed down. Across the entire Guanzhong Plain. It is the largest source of water in Guanzhong. The Guanzhong Plain is actually a river valley basin in the middle and lower reaches of the Wei River.

The second part is the many rivers that flow from south to north from the Qinling Mountains. For example, martial arts water, Luogu water, mangshui, waterlogging water, etc.

The third part comes from the Loess Plateau, a river that flows from north to south. The largest one, of course, is the Jing River. In addition, there are Huangshui, Qishui, Luohe and so on.

It should be noted that many rivers in the latter two parts basically end up flowing into the Wei River. It can be said that the entire Guanzhong water system can basically be referred to as the Wei River water system.

Having said all this, it is actually more intuitive to draw a picture: first draw a horizontal straight line (Wei River) in the center of the white paper, and then draw several vertical straight lines on the upper and lower sides of this straight line (many rivers in the north and south). This is the simplest natural water system in Guanzhong.

In this natural water system, there is no doubt that the land along the Wei River is basically free from drought. But the problem is that, on the one hand, the proportion of land along the Wei River is very low compared to the entire Guanzhong Plain, and on the other hand, drought in other places can cause locust plagues. Together with the locust plague, on the land along the Wei River, no matter how well the crops grow, it is in vain.

And in the water source of Guanzhong, the river from the Qinling Mountains is okay - the vegetation of the Qinling Mountains in this era is very well preserved. The rivers from the Qinling Mountains have abundant water flow and low sediment content. But the rivers from the Loess Plateau are not so good: not to mention the large sediment content, they are prone to flooding when the water volume is large, and it is easy to break the flow when the water volume is small.

Finally, it is located in the northwest region of China. In fact, the rainfall in this area has not been very sufficient. Therefore, if the irrigation system in the Guanzhong area is not artificially transformed, it purely uses the natural water system for irrigation, and the rest is to rely on the sky for food. The so-called thousands of miles of fertile fields in Guanzhong cannot produce much grain.

However, this place in Guanzhong is the foundation of the Qin Empire and the Western Han Empire. The rulers of both dynasties attached great importance to agricultural production here. Both dynasties have made great efforts to transform the natural water system here.

How to retrofit it? Repair canals.

The Qin Dynasty poured the power of the country into the construction of the famous Zhengguo Canal. The main function of the so-called Zhengguo Canal is to link Luoshui and Jinghe.

As mentioned above, although there are many rivers in Guanzhong, except for the Wei River, which flows in an east-west direction, the other rivers flow in a north-south direction. Under natural conditions, these rivers are not connected to each other unless they all end up flowing into the Wei River. However, the rivers from the south on the Loess Plateau have a large sediment content and cannot be directly used for farming. As a result, far from the north bank of the Wei River, there are rivers on both sides, but it is not possible to effectively use the water for farming.

As for the Zhengguo Canal, it is an east-west direction, starting from Luoshui and ending at Jinghe. To the north of the Wei River, Luoshui and Jing River were linked in advance. Moreover, the place in Guanzhong is high in the north and south, and low in the middle. Now the Zhengguo Canal hangs north of the Wei River, due to the topography. The water flow in the Zhengguo Canal can rely on the natural southward flooding of the terrain. As a result, the area south of Zhengguo Canal, north of the Wei River, east of Luoshui, and west of the Jing River suddenly changed from a saline-alkali land with scarce water sources to a fertile field with water and drought from thousands of miles of people.

According to historical records, after the completion of the Zhengguo Canal, the Qin State suddenly had 1.1 million mu of arable land, and nearly 5 million stone of grain could be harvested from this newly added fertile land every year. At that time, the population of the whole country of Qin was more than 6 million. In other words, just one Zhengguo canal can give all the people of Qin State nearly a month's extra rations!

Therefore, after the Western Han Dynasty set the capital of Chang'an, it also vigorously built the water conservancy system in Guanzhong. The main method is also to dig a canal. The main purpose of the canal is the same as that of the Zhengguo Canal: to connect the rivers running north and south through various new ditches, and to link them before they join the Wei River. At the same time, through the different geographical environment of the construction ditch, the flood irrigation of Zhengguo Canal was changed to irrigation...... Then the ditch passes through the land that is dry from water to water from the fertile land of man.

Throughout the Western Han Dynasty for more than 200 years, many new canals were built in Guanzhong, and all kinds of new canals were classified according to irrigation and transportation. A powerful water conservancy network has been formed. Thus ensuring the strength of Guanzhong.

The Western Han Dynasty was later usurped by Xin Mang, and then after Liu Xiu established the Eastern Han Dynasty, the political center of the country was transferred to Luoyang. Many water conservancy projects in Guanzhong inevitably lack maintenance. Later, Dong Zhuo, Li Dao, Guo Yan, Han Sui, Ma Chao and others successively controlled Chang'an, and after Guanzhong was repeatedly destroyed by war, most of the water conservancy projects here were in a state of abandonment.

After Cao Cao completely drove out Ma Chao and re-incorporated Guanzhong under his rule, he sent Zhang Ji to serve as the assassin of Yongzhou. During his reign, Zhang Ji did his best to repair part of the Zhengguo Canal and dredge part of the Bai Canal—but at this time, the country's political and economic centers were in Luoyang and Yecheng. After Liu Bei took Hanzhong, Guanzhong became a border area that was often harassed by Shu Han. Therefore, whether it is Cao Wei or Jin Guo, the investment here is really extremely limited. Therefore, the water conservancy in Guanzhong has never reproduced the grand occasion of the Western Han Dynasty.

Now, Guan Yi is here.

"This official believes that in the current situation, although the people still have some surplus food in their hands because of the relief of the Jin Kingdom some time ago. But they all know that this surplus will not last next year's harvest, or even this winter. Therefore the hearts of the people were terrified. If we simply and continuously distribute food to the people, hehe, we need to know that people's hearts are never enough, and this method is actually not much better. Therefore, the official believed that it was necessary to take advantage of the approaching winter and the peasants were generally idle, and organize the people of the whole pass to concentrate on dredging and rebuilding the ditches in the pass. In the process of construction, according to the amount of work of the people, food was distributed to the people as payment. This method is called cash-for-work! ”