The granary is the national vein, and the people's hearts are determined.

In all dynasties, the food problem has been the top priority of the country, and if the people have no food, the country will fall into crisis.

The Chongzhen Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty is an obvious example, why the peasant uprising can't be extinguished no matter how it is suppressed, it is very simple, there is no food to eat, and if you don't rebel, you will starve to death, and the rebellion can also go to rob the food of the royal family and those local tyrants and squires who are rich and unkind, at least they will not starve to death.

In this case, people don't have to think about how they will choose.

To solve the crisis of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the premise is that the people must be allowed to eat.

There are two ways to let the people have something to eat, one is to produce more food, and the other is to make the people less.

Historically, from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the second method was used, so that the common people became fewer, so that there were no starving people, and naturally no one rebelled.

Of course, Zhang Bin will not use this method, he plans to produce as much food as possible, so that the people can really have food as much as possible, instead of trying to make the people eat as few as possible.

However, he can only manage the two provinces of Fuguang now, and in other places, he is still beyond his reach, and the two provinces of Fuguang were not greatly affected by this natural disaster, which is recorded in history, that is, Zheng Zhilong moved tens of thousands of people to Dongfan when the drought broke out in Fujian.

Fujian also has a population of several million, and tens of thousands of ordinary people are really nothing compared to several million, which also proves from the side that the drought in Fujian is not serious, as for Guangdong, not to mention, there is no record of drought outbreaks.

There is no drought in these two places, so stock up on more food to prepare for future relief.

Zhang Bin's idea is as simple as that, he can't figure out how the situation will develop in the next few years, the only thing he can do now is to store grain.

There must be a granary for this grain storage, if it is piled up casually, it will definitely break down in less than a year, so after returning to Fujian, he immediately summoned Lu Xiangsheng, Bi Maokang and Chen Zizhuang to discuss the construction of the granary.

Lu Xiangsheng usually works in the Yamen of the Political Envoy Department, and it is very simple to summon these people, he went directly to Lu Xiangsheng's study and sat down, and soon Bi Maokang and Chen Zizhuang were recruited.

He actually only wanted to understand one problem when he was looking for these people, that is, how to build this granary, he had never built a granary, and he had never even seen a granary where grain was really stored.

As soon as Bi Maokang and Chen Zizhuang arrived, Zhang Bin immediately asked directly: "Jiandou, Menghou, Jisheng, do you know how to build a granary." ”

As soon as he said this, the three of them were stunned at the same time, at this time there was a drought in Fujian, and the three of them thought that he was recruiting everyone to discuss disaster relief, but they didn't expect to ask how to build a granary!

Lu Xiangsheng and Chen Zizhuang were both at a loss, because they hadn't paid attention to any granary, only Bi Maokang arched his hand and said: "My lord, the subordinates of this granary know a little bit about it. ”

A little understanding is just a modest speech, which means that he will build a granary, Zhang Bin heard this, and was overjoyed and said: "Oh, Meng Hou, have you built a granary?" ”

Bi Maokang shook his head and said: "I haven't built a granary myself, but when I patrolled Shaanxi, I checked the granary, and my brother happened to be in the household department at that time as a waiter and the governor's warehouse, and I also went to ask for advice, so I still know a little about how to build a granary." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he tried to take the school entrance examination and said: "I want to build a big granary in Fujian now, where do you say it is good to build?" ”

Bi Maokang is difficult: "It stands to reason that Fujian is not suitable for building large granaries, mainly because the temperature is too high, and the grain is most afraid of heating when storing, and it will mildew when it is heated, so the general large granaries will plant small saplings on the warehouse, once the grain inside is hot, the small saplings will turn yellow, then the grain in the warehouse can not be saved, and must be taken out and eaten immediately." If you have to build it, I recommend building it in Jianning Province, because it is far from the sea, and it is the northernmost part of Fujian, and the terrain there is high, and the temperature is lower than other places in Fujian. ”

Sure enough, Zhang Bin immediately said excitedly: "Okay, Meng Hou, tomorrow we will set off to Jianning Mansion and find a place to build a granary." ”

Bi Maokang was stunned when he heard this, and then carefully reminded: "My lord, I'm afraid it's too late this year." ”

Zhang Bin was also stunned, he asked curiously, "Why is it too late?" ”

Bi Maokang explained: "The granary is not built to store grain in it at any time, if you want to store it for a long time, it is best to store it in the coldest time before the year, and keep the grain inside dry and low temperature with the mat chaff method, so that the grain is not easy to mildew." ”

There are so many exquisitenesses, so it can't be delayed, Zhang Bin immediately clapped and said: "That's okay, let's find a suitable place as soon as possible, find a place, and immediately gather people to build a granary." ”

Early the next morning, he set off with Bi Maokang, a group of guards, on a few wheels.

The reason for taking the wheel boat is to be in a hurry, and the other is to survey the waterway, and the grain must be stored in a place where the wheel boat can reach, otherwise, it will be too troublesome to transfer back and forth.

Fuzhou Mansion to Jianning Mansion is more than 600 miles, in the afternoon they rushed to the small port near the city of Jianning Mansion, Zhang Bin took a group of people in Fujian Xingdu Si Yamen to rest for one night, the next day he pulled Fujian Xingdu Si Du Commander Zhao Yuncheng together, along the Jianxi waterway, half of the people took a boat, half of the people hit horses on the shore to run, looking for a suitable place.

There are indeed many valleys here, but there are generally small streams flowing in the valleys, and the trees on both sides have not withered due to the great drought, which proves that there is still moisture in them, and it is still not suitable for storing grain.

The group explored more than 100 miles north and finally found a valley without a small river.

The valley was quite deep, stretching directly to the northwest for dozens of miles, and it was still relatively dry, there were not many trees in the whole valley, and they were all yellowed by drought.

Bi Maokang accompanied Zhang Bin to drive the horse in the valley for a while, carefully observed the surrounding situation with a telescope, and then said to Zhang Bin: "My lord, it's barely okay here, fill in the middle a little, this road is counted out, and the granary can be repaired on both sides, but only the above-ground granary can be built here, and in order to prevent the moisture from seeping into the granary after the rain, the granary must be overhead underneath." ”

These are all easy to do, Zhang Bin immediately nodded and said: "Okay, let's go back to the Yamen of the capital immediately, you work hard, draw a sketch of the granary in the past two days, and I will mobilize people to build the granary." ”

Bi Maokang nodded, carefully observed the terrain on both sides of the valley, and then turned his horse's head and went out of the valley with Zhang Bin, and rushed back to the capital of Fujian.

Due to the urgency of time, Zhang Bin decided to directly mobilize the soldiers of the East Fan Jiuwei to build the granary, and he issued an order in the afternoon of the same day, 30,000 soldiers, directly transferred 20,000.

Later, he also drew sketches, but instead of granaries, he drew walls and fortresses.

After all, this valley is a heavy place for grain storage, and the defense must be tight, and he does not want the idlers and others to discover the secrets inside, so the mouth of the valley must be blocked with a city wall, and a small fortress must be built on the top of the surrounding mountains to guard it.

In two days, Bi Maokang drew a sketch of the granary, he drew rows of brick and stone houses, the bottom is about three feet above the top, the bottom is a layer of stone slabs, and the top is built with bricks and stones about a foot high, and the roof is a four-type warehouse roof, with four roof ridges distributed diagonally, all built with stone slabs.

Inside these houses are rows of circular granaries, which are directly enclosed with hay mats, and they are surrounded by two layers, and the chaff is stuffed in the middle, and after they are filled with grain, hay mats are poured on the top, a layer of chaff is added, and then a hat-shaped dome is built.

This is indeed temperature insulation, moisture insulation, and fire prevention, but the amount of work is very huge.

Zhang Bin had to make a division of labor, slates, bricks, and straw mats were ordered to be processed by the guards everywhere, and another 10,000 sailors were transferred to the ports, roads, city walls, and fortresses to build them, and the soldiers were specially responsible for building houses and granaries.

On the third day, the soldiers and soldiers of the navy arrived one after another, and Zhang Bin directly lived in the military tent in the valley with Bi Maokang to direct the construction on the spot, because it was located in Jianning, Zhang Bin directly named it Jianning Cang.

The construction of Jianning warehouse, the amount of work is indeed very huge, the largest granary in history Hanjiacang can only store more than 500,000 stones of grain, and Hanjiacang is located in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, it is dry and cold, and it can be dug in the ground for cellaring.

And Zhang Bin wants to build at least a granary of tens of millions of stones, and he must build a house to prevent fire and moisture.

Fortunately, it was the autumn harvest at this time, and the weather in most parts of Fujian was relatively hot and rough, so the materials for making hay mats were relatively sufficient, otherwise, the hay mats in the granary alone would be enough for him to have a headache.

Under the personal supervision of Zhang Bin, the progress of various projects is quite amazing.

The first thing to build is not a granary, but a port and a road, and if the port and road are not built, the materials will not be able to enter, so we must first concentrate on building the port and road.

It is easier to build a port on this river than at sea, because the river is basically washed out, and the river bank is generally shaky, basically as long as the wharf is stretched out a few zhang away, it is almost, unlike the coast, the slope is generally relatively gentle, and some even have to stretch out to hundreds of zhang of water depth to be suitable for berthing boats.

In order to facilitate the loading and unloading of grain, Zhang Bin designed a zigzag dock similar to a comb, that is, more than ten separate docks stretched out side by side, and then the middle was flattened, leaving only one wheel to come in, so that both sides can be loaded and unloaded, and more than ten wheels can be parked at the same time, and the loading and unloading speed is very fast.

As for the road, the section from the port to the city wall was naturally as wide as the valley was, and it was as smooth as a square to facilitate the parking of horse-drawn carriages.

Time is quite urgent, Zhang Bin did not dare to slack off, from the construction of the wharf he began to supervise, of course, he did not have to take a whip everywhere, as long as he went to the river bank next to the wharf for such a stop, the sailors and soldiers were as motivated as stimulants.

Wooden piles were driven into the river one by one, and the thick planks of the wharf were laid up one by one, and the wharf was taking shape at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in less than five days, a wharf capable of berthing more than a dozen wheels at the same time was built.

The road from the wharf to the valley was completed at the same time, and even the first hundred wagons were delivered.

Then came the building of the walls and the houses.

In order to hide people's eyes and ears and make it unclear what is going on, the city wall was not built at the mouth of the valley, but at a depth of nearly two miles in the valley, and in order to prevent curious people from coming to explore, Zhang Bin built a sentry post next to the wharf and at the entrance of the valley.

The city wall is relatively simple, the city wall is only more than a mile wide and more than 10,000 people repair, it is as fast as building blocks, the fortress on the mountain is more troublesome, all the materials have to rely on people's backs, and the construction is very slow, however, there is no grain stored in the valley at this time, and the fortress is not very urgent, Zhang Bin directly left 10,000 sailors and soldiers, and let them slowly repair themselves, and he began to supervise the construction of the building that carried the granary.

The number of this house is more terrifying, one acre of land is almost 10,000 stone taels, that is, more than 200 square meters of houses three, 10 million stones, to build more than 200 square meters of houses 3,000!

Of course, there is no need to build all 3,000 houses this time, because this year's grain needs to be stored is only more than 1 million stones, and almost 400 houses can be built, and if there are 3,000 houses, 20,000 people will not be able to build them until the New Year.

Turning his head and a boatload of stones, a boat of stones appeared, and the houses appeared in the valley one by one, and everything was not all right after the house was built, and all the crevices had to be smoothed with clay, especially the roof, and if it leaked, the food in it would be wasted.

In order to prevent fire, Zhang Bin also deliberately asked people to cut down all the trees in the valley, so that the whole valley became sudden, except for stones or stones outside, unless someone ran inside to light a fire, otherwise, this granary could not be burned.

When the four hundred houses were built, it was almost December, at this time, the mountains in the north of Jianning were really cold, even thin ice was formed on the surface of the river, and the natural disaster of the Xiaoice River became more and more obvious, but this weather was just right for storing grain.

Under the guidance of Bi Maokang, a granary was enclosed in the house, and the grain was slowly put into it, and the granaries were sealed, and the grain would not be moved for at least five years, and it would depend on the situation after five years.

Looking at the boatloads of grain entering the warehouse, Zhang Bin was finally relieved, it was December at this time, and he had been nesting in this valley for more than a month, and there were many things that needed to be inspected.

For example, in Fujian's disaster relief situation, although Ni Yuanlu and the guards he sent out for an unannounced visit had reported the situation, and there were no problems with the distribution of disaster relief food, he still wanted to see it in person.

Another example is the production of Yuegang Foundry and Zhuhai Foundry, and I don't know how much the progress has accelerated after adding the rail flatbed car and hoist.

There is also the Kaohsiung Shipyard, and the production of the Zhenyuan cruiser and the Weiyuan battleship is not known, and according to the schedule, it is time to make a few new ones.

In short, there are a lot of affairs, he can't always nest here, more than a million stone of grain will be put into the warehouse, I'm afraid it will be before the New Year, he doesn't have the time to keep an eye here.

After the first batch of grain was put into the warehouse, he explained to Bi Maokang, and then he took a few villages in Jianning and Yanping that were more seriously affected and visited them all the way.

After visiting a few places, he was finally relieved, there was no problem with the distribution of disaster relief food, and the people were quite happy, and they could still eat their stomachs after the disaster, and it was basically impossible to change it to previous years, and all the people affected by the disaster were grateful to him, and he was embarrassed to continue the visit, so he went directly to the Yuegang Foundry by boat.

At this time, the efficiency of the cannon foundry has also been significantly improved, with the rail flat car and hoist after the handling is basically not much delay, the output of artillery has increased by almost fifty percent, and the Yuegang Cannon Foundry can produce almost one hundred and fifty guns a month.

Immediately afterwards, he rushed directly to the Kaohsiung shipyard by ship, and the production of battleships was also quite good, two brand-new Zhenyuan cruisers and three brand-new Weiyuan battleships had been moored in Xizigang Bay, and other battleships were also in full swing.

After turning around, he finally replied to the Governor's Mansion of Dayuancheng, at this time it was already mid-December, the New Year was approaching, and he, the head of the family, had also rushed back, and the entire Governor's Mansion suddenly burst into laughter.

He deliberately tested Zheng Chenggong's learning, "Analects" and "The Art of War" he learned quite well, not to mention memorizing the content of the content, a six or seven-year-old child can do this level is quite good.

Zhang Bin was even thinking that in history, maybe because the Ming Dynasty died in the country, he had no chance to participate in the imperial examination, otherwise, with his talent, it would definitely not be a problem to be a Jinshi, and even a top three, champion, list, and tanhua are all possible.

At this time, Qi Fanghua's belly is also bulging day by day, his first offspring is about to be born, everything seems to be so smooth, but when the Chinese New Year is approaching, it is more than 20 months old, and an official document instantly ruined all his good mood.

This official document was sent by the Ministry of Officials, and the content seems to be very normal, that is, he was asked to return to Beijing to report on his work after the New Year.

Zhang Bin knew that this official document was extremely abnormal, he had indeed been in Fujian for more than three years, and it stands to reason that he would return to Beijing to report on his work after the Chinese New Year last year.

However, he was obviously in the capital during the Chinese New Year last year, and he also made great contributions to beat Huang Taiji to retreat in a hurry.

Chongzhen not only promoted him to an official but also gave him a marriage, and even named his mother Huang as the second wife.

Isn't this a debriefing?

The only thing that is bad is to go to the ministry to take a turn, Chongzhen will not know, but he just received such an official document, there is no ghost in it!