The wind roared, the ice and snow were cold, and the sky and the earth were snow-white! In the heavy snowfall, the banks of the Wushui River are in full swing!

Luo Tong, Changle, Ma Zhou and other officials in civilian clothes walked together on the banks of the Wushui River.

To their left, tens of thousands of young and strong people braved the bitter cold, wielding hoes and digging a long ravine.

"How's it going?" Luo Tong looked at the people who were in full swing, and felt a little relieved in his heart. Opening a canal is a bitter and tiring thing, and in the winter, some people are inevitably sweating profusely, but Luo Tong still saw hope for the future on their faces, and the numb expression on his face disappeared.

About how to govern Xia Zhou!

Luo Tong hastily instilled in everyone the governance concept of leading from point to area and radiating the surroundings! In the 21st century, large cities and urban belts have developed in this way, and Luo Tong is no stranger to them.

Xiazhou is already outside the grassland pass, located in a remote area, if there is no economic heart, even if it takes ten times the effort, it is in vain. It is better to directly invest the funds in Shuofang, the largest city in Xiazhou, and develop Shuofang into the economic center of Xiazhou to attract traders here!

There are few scribes in Xiazhou, but all of them are cutting-edge talents in this era, so how can they not know the magic of this method?

The clerks in charge of government affairs began to discuss the subject!

During the discussion of politics, Luo Tong appointed Du He to be in charge of silver statistics, Ma Zhou to be in charge of economic development, and Shangguan Yi to be in charge of administrative affairs according to their strengths!

Ma Zhougan is a little extraordinary, and after Luo Tong left Shuofang, the first development plan was also launched.

There is a shortage of water in Shuofang, and the wells in the city are only enough to drink, and there is a possibility that the wells will run out of water in the dry season. Most of the water used to grow vegetables in this irrigation field has to go to the Wushui River, which is miles away, to get water, which is extremely inconvenient.

Ma Zhou's first step was to open a canal to Shuofang, opening the door to the people of Shuofang.

Here Ma Zhou learned the lesson of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty: Yang Guang opened the canal is not a bad thing, but he made the heavens angry and resentful, and everyone in the world hated him to the core. The main reason is that they are too anxious and do not care for the people's forces. So much so that the local officials forced the people to go down to the river, and worked hard day and night, and even their waists were soaked in water and rotten, and maggots grew. In order to escape this sin, the people even did not hesitate to break their hands and feet and become crippled, which is called blessed hands and feet.

In order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, before opening the canal, Ma Zhou patiently told the people in detail what the intention and purpose of the canal was opened, and did not force the people to serve labor, but only promised that those who participated in the canal opening would be able to eat and live, and get wages.

The people of Shuofang and the retired Shuofang army were already trapped in Shuofang because of the policies of the Tang Dynasty, and their families had no surplus food and relied on help. There was nothing to do in the winter, and in the face of this reasonable recruitment of workers in the Tang Dynasty, they all showed great enthusiasm, and more than 60,000 people were recruited in a short period of time.

Luo Tong, as the governor of Xiazhou, although he handed over the vital economic plate to Ma Zhou with full authority, he did not let him act arbitrarily and ignore him as a confused governor.

After reading Ma Zhou's development plan, project progress and other official documents, he took his curious baby Princess Changle to take a special look at the excavation work of the canal.

"King Bin! How is the canal progressing? Can it be penetrated before spring ploughing? "Whether the canal can be connected is related to spring ploughing, and whether spring ploughing is smooth or not, directly means whether there is a good harvest in the coming year, spring ploughing is coming, so Luo Tong attaches great importance to this,

"We have completed the progress of 30 percent...... It should be able to be completed by the time the planting is in the spring. Luo Tong came here early in the morning, which surprised Ma Zhou, but there was a little joy in his heart. Luo Tong came here on the first day he returned to Shuofang to show that he was concerned about this matter, which was what he should do as the governor of Xiazhou. So he enthusiastically introduced him to the situation of the canal.

"This canal is the first step, the source of Wushui is Qiwu Mountain, I have asked many local elders, they have never heard of the Wushui cut off, which shows that the Wushui water source is sufficient, and it is completely possible to open a canal to irrigate the entire Xiazhou. However, according to the current situation, the matter must be considered in the long run. The current situation of my Datang is not enough to carry out a huge project, and the canal can be put aside. ”

Walking in the direction of the canal, I saw thousands of burly and sturdy people dancing with hoes, iron drills, and hammers! Although they worked very hard, the effort was not proportional to the gain, because it was all hard stones, and only a small piece of it was knocked out when one guy went down.

Ma Zhou sighed: "The next seven miles of canals are all such hard stones, and the entire canal process is blocked, and the people who dig this canal are all retired border troops from Qing, Sui, and Yan Prefectures. ”

Luo Tong walked up, took a long iron drill from the hands of a common man, held it with both hands and thrust it hard, and with a "bang", the gravel splashed and flew everywhere! The iron drill is more than three feet in,

Amazed!

Under the surprised gazes of the surroundings, Luo Tong, who was the perpetrator, pulled out the iron drill, frowned, and said: "It's quite hard, I hit with all my strength, and I only got in so little." ”

When the people heard this, they almost fainted en masse!

Three feet long, and a little bit! So what are they doing? Playing house?

Ma Zhou and other officials were also dumbfounded, they only heard that Luo Tong was very powerful, but they never saw him powerful, until this moment, through the comparison with those strong men, they knew what natural divine power was, where he was polite and polite like an invincible general, it looked weaker than Ma Zhou and them, everyone really didn't know how his terrifying power came from, Ma Zhou couldn't help but sigh: "The courage of the overlord, nothing more than this." ”

Changle's beautiful eyes are colorful, and she feels that her natural divine power is born for her husband!

Luo Tong jumped aside as if he was doing a trivial matter, and said, "You can't do it so brutally!" Gotta figure figure it out. ”

Ma Zhou smiled bitterly: "I have thought of all the ways I can think of." ”

"What about the fire?"

"Fire... Burn... I haven't tried this. ”

Luo Tong stopped the project, asked the people to set up dry firewood to burn, and when the stone burned red, and then buried it with ice and snow. Then let the people use iron drills and hammers to smash them, and soon knocked off a thick layer, which is dozens of times faster than using iron drills and hammers, and can save effort.

A fire, a pile of ice and snow, easily did the previous hundreds of people in a few days of work, and it took less than half an hour before and after.

After being stunned for a long time, Ma Zhou couldn't bear the excitement in his heart anymore, the scholarly temperament had long been thrown aside, and roared loudly like an angry lion: "Why are you stupid!" Immediately carry firewood for Lao Tzu and shovel snow to ......"

This was the only gaffe in Ma Zhou's life, but when someone asked about it later, Ma Zhou denied it.

Back at the Governor's Mansion, Luo Tong called Wang Xuance.

"Your Excellency!" Wang Xuance made a salute.

Luo Tong didn't like this kind of red tape very much, and he didn't want to persuade these big people for a long time, so he let them go.

"How's your intelligence network going?" Things gradually got on the right track, and Luo Tong also gave Wang Xuance a task, asking him to send people to go deep into the Turks, establish an intelligence network, and find out the inside information of the Turks.

Wang Xuance was deeply moved by Luo Tong for letting him master such a military secret, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to this place, selecting astute people from the army, and sending them to go deep into the Turks to either engage in business or settle down, step by step, to establish an intelligence base area.

"This ......" Wang Xuance said in embarrassment: "There is no news yet, Governor, according to Xuance's opinion, this matter cannot be rushed or immediate." We are not for the sake of momentary information, and we can unscrupulously inquire about information. We must not rush to long-term interests, but let the people sent out gain a foothold in the Turks and let them gain trust. When they are integrated into the Turks, they are threading the needle and connecting them, so that we can provide us with a steady stream of information so that we will not be discovered. ”

"You have a point!" Luo Tong nodded in satisfaction, knowing that he had not seen the wrong person. Wang Xuance's wisdom and stability can make him easily grasp the advantages and disadvantages in this regard.

"You also misunderstood what I meant, I didn't say any details, the information I asked for was about Jieli and Tuli. It's not a secret that you can find out just by asking. I need to know where their armies are, especially when they are fighting each other to the death, and I need to know as soon as possible. ”

Wang Xuance apologized: "It's a misunderstanding by my subordinates, what the adults said is so easy, according to the situation I found out a few days ago." Jieli and Tuli both fought for their lives, one braved the cold to storm Tiele, and the other attacked the eastern tribes...... All the people in their upper and lower tribes are soldiers, and when the army moves, they don't need to do more investigation, they can know it at the first time. My subordinates will pay special attention."

This year's wind and snow are very heavy, if in the past, the grassland people were busy avoiding the cold, and when spring begins, they have to choose the peaceful and abundant water and grassland, because they are busy ensuring the livelihood of the tribesmen and have no intention of fighting. Traditionally, they move their troops at the most free time of day in late summer and early autumn. It is still very rare to fight in the winter like this, and it seems that Jieli and Tuli both realized the importance of time, and both wanted to stab each other after ending the war.

Luo Tong nodded with satisfaction: "Okay!" I'll leave it to you. Now focus on Jieli's side, I'm afraid they're going to launch a surprise attack on us. ”

"Whoa!" Wang Xuance retreated.

Luo Tong thought about it, and summoned Liu Renliang, who was both military and political and focused on military affairs, and asked him to select 15,000 bloody and unwilling to fall from the retired border army and Shuofang army handed over to Ma Zhou to gather and hand them over to the generals Xin Fang'er, Zhao Feiyang, and Niu Tong for rigorous training, teach them battlefield martial arts, and make sure that they have the power to fight in late summer and early autumn.

Xin Fang'er, Zhao Feiyang, and Niu Tong are all good generals, but they just followed the wrong Liang Shidu. After half their lives and nothing, they are suspected by Liang Shidu, they have no talent and nowhere to use, and they are not willing to be mediocre, and now they are reused by Luo Tong, and they will definitely be able to burst out with dozens of times enthusiasm and train this reserve army.