On the way back to Yangcheng Lotus Village, looking at the scene in the devastated control area, Xiao Tianjian couldn't help but sigh the cruelty of the war, no matter when, as long as there is a war, the people who suffer the most are the people, with the retreat of the official army, a large number of people who hid in the mountains are also under the organization of the local security chiefs, and gradually returned to their original villages, but what was left to them after the war was basically a ruin.

And for such a situation, even Xiao Tianjian has a sense of powerlessness, so he can only pass on the order, and ask the local security chiefs to lead the villagers as much as possible to restore their homes as soon as possible, and immediately devote themselves to spring ploughing.

In March, the temperature in Shanxi has begun to gradually warm, and if this spring ploughing season is missed, it is expected that there will be a large-scale famine in the area under the jurisdiction of the Xingtian Army without waiting for the autumn harvest.

For this reason, after Xiao Tianjian led his troops back to Yangcheng, he immediately summoned Fu Deming and other personnel in charge of civil affairs to discuss how to deal with this disaster year.

For this ferocious drought, Fu Deming and some of his subordinates had a premonition years ago, when Xiao Tianjian asked about this question, Fu Deming stood up and said to Xiao Tianjian: "General Qiqi, at this time, we have already planned, now that the spring ploughing season has arrived, it is not okay to sit and wait!" Fortunately, the officers and troops have retreated, and the spring ploughing in various localities must be carried out as soon as possible.

As for the problem of spring drought, the lowly people have also discussed, at present, within our jurisdiction, although it is also in the scope of the drought, but Qinshui, Yangcheng, Yuanqu and other places are mostly mountainous, there are still a lot of rivers in the territory, and the water source is not very lacking!

The most critical is the problem of irrigation channels, many of the original ditches, after so many years of disrepair, have long been silted up, if these channels are still there, even in such a drought, as long as there are canals for irrigation, it is basically not a catastrophe.

Therefore, if we want to survive this drought this year, we need to organize the villagers to dredge the original abandoned channels as soon as possible, and introduce the water sources of various rivers into the channels to irrigate the farmland. ”

Xiao Tianjian nodded after listening, he now has a clearer understanding of what Fu Deming said, although it is often said in history that Chongzhen is an unlucky emperor who took over a big mess, not only caught up with the rebellion of the Jurchen slaves in Liaodong, but also encountered a rare drought in the north, but in fact, after Xiao Tianjian came to this era, he found that although the real drought existed, it was not just a natural disaster, and the more serious of it was caused by man-made disasters.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, after more than 200 years of large-scale land annexation by the privileged class, nearly half of the farmland of the ordinary people was basically annexed to the hands of the privileged class, and the government officials were even more greedy for ink, and many farmland and water conservancy projects existed in name only, and no one paid attention to this kind of thing at all, and the rich landlords who actually controlled a large amount of land went their own way, and no one would consider the overall irrigation problem, but only take care of the water conservancy facilities on their own fields. As a result, the original irrigation facilities for farmland were largely abandoned.

Under the normal year, if God opens his eyes, the common people look at their own few acres of thin fields, but they can still make do with the past, but once they encounter a year like this drought, the people will be completely blind, even if there is a water source in some places, but because the ditch is blocked, it is impossible to introduce the water source into the field for irrigation.

But even so, because of the war in Liaodong, the imperial court has increased salaries year after year, resulting in local finances are also tight, and local governments around the country are even more unable to consider the construction of water conservancy, but they have intensified this kind of salary to the ordinary people, forcing the people to farm for a year, not only not surplus, but also upside down, so that the vicious circle continues, will cause a large number of displaced people to form in various places, as soon as someone raises their arms and shouts, they immediately rebel like a cloud, and finally overthrow the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Xiao Tianjian now understands that the demise of the Ming Dynasty is not just the cause of natural disasters and bad luck, but the entire social structure has been problematic, even if there is no rise of Jiannu, it will be difficult for the Ming Dynasty to continue to last long.

After listening to Fu Deming's words, Xiao Tianjian rubbed his forehead and said to Fu Deming: "What Mr. Fu said is reasonable, although the current drought is a foregone conclusion, but we can't sit back and wait for God to rain for us, we must organize the people in our jurisdiction to help themselves as soon as possible, otherwise, with our food reserves, even if all the soldiers and generals are scattered to rob, it is estimated that it will be difficult to solve the problem of eating for the hundreds of thousands of people in our jurisdiction."

I don't think we should hesitate to dredge the canal, and Mr. Fu immediately arranged for it to be carried out by the local security chiefs, so as to ensure that the important fields can be effectively irrigated as soon as possible.

As for the drilling of wells, do not delay, we can provide tools for the people everywhere to dig wells, and at the same time mobilize craftsmen to build all kinds of waterwheels and send them to the fields for irrigation by the common people! In short, we must do everything we can to solve the problem of the great drought in our jurisdiction first! You people have to think of more ways to do this kind of thing! ”

Fu Deming bowed down to receive the order, but then said: "But now there is a troublesome matter, although the general has led the army to repel the official army, but it is only the main force of the official army out of our jurisdiction, after a few battles, many officers and troops were scattered by our army, flowing to the nearby mountains, recently in our jurisdiction has committed a lot of terrible evils, if these routs are not clear, then even if we want to gather manpower to carry out large-scale dredging of the channel, I am afraid it will be difficult to carry out!"

Therefore, if you want to smoothly implement the dredging of the channel, these problems of rout must be solved as soon as possible!

In addition, a large number of people are needed everywhere for the dredging channel, in addition to the surplus grain in the hands of the local people in Yangcheng County, there is almost no surplus grain in the hands of the people in the newly acquired territory in Qinshui, Yuanqu, Zezhou and other places, if they are organized to dredge the channel, a large amount of grain will be needed, which I am afraid the general will also take into account! ”

After Xiao Tianjian listened, he was the first two big, of course he knew about the rout of the officers and troops scattered in this battle, but when it came to the matter of food, he was a little big, although last year's summer harvest and autumn harvest The Punishment Heavenly Army accumulated a lot of grain, but after these months of consumption, it is only enough for the Punishment Heavenly Army to eat the summer harvest, if they are all taken out and now put into dredging channels to solve the drought problem, then it is ironclad that in the next few months, the soldiers of his Punishment Heavenly Army will fight famine.

Xiao Tianjian never felt that an army could be hungry and still strong, and eating well in the army of this era is the lowest demand for soldiers, especially as a righteous army like them who have to rely on their own hands, so that the officers and soldiers can be fed to drive them into battle, otherwise everything is empty talk, the reason why he has been able to lead his soldiers to win consecutive battles in the past two years is actually a very important reason, that is, he can make his officers and soldiers all have enough to eat, can struggle to survive in such troubled times.

If all the food is put into the relief of the victims at the moment, then the soldiers of the Xingtian Army will definitely not be able to eat enough, so the combat effectiveness of the Xingtian Army will definitely be greatly weakened, once the imperial court relieves his mind and gives him another attack of this scale, then he dare not guarantee that he can be so lucky to successfully repel the official army again.

After Xiao Tianjian coughed dryly, he nodded and said: "You don't have to worry about the deserters scattered in the mountains, in the past few days, I have arranged for each battalion to go to various places and start to clean up these routs with the local township soldiers, and within ten days, the problem of the rout can basically be solved, and the matter of organizing the people to dredge the channel will not be greatly affected because of the rout."

What's more, the security chiefs in various places are now organizing township soldiers, and when dredging the channels, they are mainly young and strong laborers, so that they can bring weapons to act, even if they encounter a small number of defeated soldiers, they are also enough to protect themselves!

As for the problem of dredging the grain in the channel, Mr. Fu also knows that our current limited food stock is not enough to support the food problem of so many people, and even if we follow the cash-for-work like last year, I am afraid it will not solve the problem of eating so many people!

But I can allocate the part of the grain that I have captured from the hands of the officers and soldiers this time for your use, and the shortfall will have to wait for me to consider it! ”

After receiving Xiao Tianjian's reply, Fu Deming was already very satisfied, and hurriedly got up to thank Xiao Tianjian, but Xiao Tianjian shook his head with a wry smile and said, "How can Mr. Fu thank me?" Am I not doing this for our own sake? ”

Fu Deming shook his head and said, "Definitely! The reason why Fu asked General Xie was not because the general was willing to take out these grains to help the people, but because the general was really thinking about the people, and it was not just for his own selfish interests! The common people know that the general is so kind to them, how can they not be with the general! If this continues, the general will one day achieve great things! ”

After hearing this, Xiao Tianjian laughed and said: "Those who do great things, how can they not pretend to be the common people in their hearts?" Otherwise, no matter how big the trouble is, it will just be a rootless Ping and a castle in the air!

Okay, let's not talk about that! For this year's spring ploughing, I have something to tell you, this year's spring ploughing is not busy planting sorghum and wheat, since the drought is a foregone conclusion, then we might as well plant something this year! I have a great thing to tell you about today, but I'm afraid you will be surprised when you hear it!

In this way, I don't need to talk about this matter this time, let's let Uncle Chen tell you in person! Uncle Chen, it's up to you to talk about this matter! ”

As he spoke, Xiao Tianjian pointed to a corner of the hall, and at this time, the civil affairs officials who followed Fu Deming to see Xiao Tianjian noticed that there was an inconspicuous old man here.