The second topic is water conservancy.

The reason for this issue is the locust plague in Qingzhou.

In the summer of 197, in May, Qingzhou locusts.

In the first year of Xingping (194), there was a great drought in Guanzhong, and the price of grain was expensive: "Sanfu was in great drought, from April to this month. It is 500,000 yuan in the valley, 200,000 yuan in beans and wheat, cannibalism, and white bones. "There was an incident of cannibalism.

The drought that began in the first year of Xingping will last for four years, covering Guanzhong, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Qingzhou, and Jizhou. Locusts will come after a long drought, and the locust plague caused by drought will also last for four years.

Locust plagues mostly occur in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, where there are frequent droughts and no rain for months. Liaodong is cold all year round, and the temperature is below zero for half a year, and locusts and locust eggs will be frozen to death; Jiangdong (south of the Yangtze River) is a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, which is rainy all year round and has a lot of humidity in the air. Rainy and humid conditions have many adverse effects on locust reproduction, and can also cause locust epidemics, among other things.

Therefore, locust plagues rarely occur in Liaodong and Jiangdong (south of the Yangtze River).

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, 20 million people died from the plague, and at the same time, there were various serious natural disasters, so that there was a serious situation of "empty fields, empty courts, and empty warehouses".

These droughts and locust plagues have exterminated the population second only to the plague, and the tragedies of cannibalism abound; War can only come in third, and he only exacerbates disasters, such as causing large-scale plagues.

Therefore, the second topic of the meeting in Liaodong is disaster prevention and preparedness.

Guo Yuan has been working hard all these years to reclaim the land, so he has the most right to speak. Guo Jia asked him to speak first.

Guo Yuan's face was dark, if he met him in the field, he would definitely not recognize this person as a great Confucian, this person was a scholar.

Guo Yuan said very calmly: "After 8 years of reclamation, the five counties of Liaodong have changed from the original grain buying country to the largest grain production base in the country.

In recent years, under the leadership of agricultural experts such as Nongxing, water canal waterwheels have been popularized in every village. There are many rivers and lakes in Liaodong, and there is no shortage of water. At most, in the countryside where there are no rivers and lakes, some pools and reservoirs should be built for backup. ”

Digging canals, building water wheels, ponds, and reservoirs is not only a way to increase the yield of fields, but also a method of disaster prevention and preparedness.

Guoyuan has been staying in Liaodong, so he only talked about the situation in Liaodong, which is the caution of Confucianism, knowing is knowing, and not knowing is not knowing.

Tian Chou had to take over the topic and talk about Xuzhou and Qingzhou, he said: "Xuzhou's water network is all over the place, and water conservancy is already very developed. Xuzhou just needs to be repaired, and the amount of work is not large.

Therefore, only the situation in Qingzhou is the most severe, the Yellow Turban Army has been doing evil in Qingzhou for many years, thousands of miles of people are uninhabited, and there are white bones on the side of the road. The population is scarce, the fields are barren, and the canals are abandoned. ”

Xu Miao also knows Qingzhou very well, he said: "Qingzhou's water conservancy should only be vigorously renovated in Donglai County and Beihai Country. The rest of the Le'an Kingdom and Qi Kingdom only have our soldiers in Tuntian, and there are almost no people. Moreover, as the front line of the battle with Yuan Shao, it is going to be broken, so there is no need to renovate. ”

Gongsun Kang agreed with Xu Miao's statement, saying: "The entire Central Plains: Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Jizhou, and Guanzhong will continue to be affected by disasters for many years, so Liaodong must recuperate and not expand blindly." It is likely that a large number of refugees will migrate to Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Youzhou and Liaodong.

We have reduced the kingdom of Goguryeo to a vacant land that can accommodate the victims of the disaster without conflicting interests with the old inhabitants of Liaodong.

In recent years, Liaodong has stored a lot of grain, and the grain in the grain depot is almost out of stock. So there is no pressure to resettle hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people in these states. ”

Because Qingxu Erzhou will be the front line of the war in the next few years. Therefore, Gongsun Kang did not want to leave the victims in the Central Plains and let them die innocently in the war.

In addition to building water conservancy, digging canals, and building water trucks, there are many ways to prepare for disasters.

For example, grain depots should be established to stabilize grain prices. This has always been a regular method in the Han Dynasty. Liaodong has been doing it, so much so that now there is too much food to pile up.

Food is also time-sensitive. If you put it for 10 years, the best refined grain will also turn into dust, and there is no way to eat it again. So it also needs to be consumed in time.

The third means is to return to farming. Drought and locust plagues generally occur from June to September in the summer, so winter wheat can be planted, planted in the autumn of the first year, and the growing season is in the winter and spring of the second year, and it can be harvested in the summer of the following year to avoid locust infestation.

The fourth method is animal husbandry, which raises large quantities of poultry, especially chickens and ducks, and releases them into the fields when locust plagues occur. Chickens and ducks are able to destroy some of the locusts, and play a part, albeit not large, role. But the locusts that were killed could become food for chickens and ducks, feeding them and ducks, that is, providing people with eggs and meat, which could feed more humans.

The fifth means is to eat: let the victims go directly to eat locusts, which can be fried and roasted. Later generations of rural children ate grasshoppers when they were young. Grasshoppers are some of the groups of locusts, indicating that locusts are definitely edible.

Later generations used more means, such as spraying pesticides on airplanes; For example, let the air dry less than 10%; For example, adjust the temperature: long-term high temperature (above 40 degrees) or low temperature (below 13 degrees), locusts do not feed, hot or cold starvation.

All in all, the locust plague is more opportunities than losses for Liaodong. A large number of victims can be harvested; It can also weaken the princes of all stripes.

In particular, Yuan Shu, in such a disaster year, was even extravagant and promiscuous, and expropriated violently, causing the Jianghuai region to be ruined and many people to starve to death. The people of Jianghuai are almost dead, he has been abolished, it is really: dry bones in the grave, why do you mind.

Thinking of Yuan Shu, Gongsun Kang thought that his mistakes should be avoided. Therefore, Gongsun Kang ordered: In the next three years, the taxes in Qingzhou and Xuzhou will be halved. Severely affected areas can be exempted from tax for three years!

He didn't mention opening a warehouse to release grain, thinking that the severely affected areas could use the method of eating enough to lure them to relocate to the homeland of the Goguryeo Kingdom.

(End of chapter)