On the traditional Huainan impact plain, with the sound of thunder and heavy rain, the hottest summer in July has also begun to come to an end.

As the water surface gradually rose in the alleys of the large and small rivers that were almost depleted and pulped by the sun, most of the canal-related projects had to be halted one after another, and most of the manpower and animal power were quickly transferred to the nearby labor camps in the fields.

The sound of frogs in the grass of the rice field was endless, and once again overpowered the hoarse cicadas that were exposed to the sun.

Continuously distributed between many low mountains, hills and hills, a large area of green and yellow rice fields are mixed with soybeans, rape, tobacco and other cash crops, representing the achievements of Huainan in these years;

After all, it has been one of the largest rice-growing areas in China since ancient times, and it is also rich in leather, timber and fish because of the extensive network of water towns and rivers. Its history can even be traced back to the Longshan cultural period, when Wu and Chu were competing for hegemony in the Spring and Autumn Period, there were already people who built artificial ponds in Huainan to facilitate the harvest of farmland irrigation. Therefore, the foundation of water conservancy and irrigation left is very good, but it has fallen into disrepair and has been abandoned and silted up for many years; The land is also mostly Ueda and paddy fields with high opening;

Therefore, after the engineering troops and labor battalions from Huaizhen initially stabilized the regional environment and climate through the repair of water conservancy and the restoration and diversion of the river, the follow-up pioneer regiments and cantonment sites were able to make good gains with only a little resumption of farming.

Therefore, those feudal towns in history were able to recover quickly as long as they took a little rest and recuperation for a while; Although the protracted and continuous Great Cloud Rebellion in history greatly destroyed the local economic structure and household registration foundation in the tug-of-war and attack, it relied on the laissez-faire of two or three generations to regenerate the population of Huainan.

According to the history of Cui Zhiyuan's "Guiyuan Pen Cultivation Collection" volume 13 "Shanyang (Huai'an) fertile soil, Huaipan Olympic District, land occupies three patrols, more than 10,000 hectares of land", therefore, Chuzhou alone has as many as 20,000 or 30,000 hectares of campland; Although it has been reduced due to the occasional flooding of the Huai River and the repeated flooding of the coastal areas, the technology that has been left to this day is still quite large.

Until the soldiers of the First Northern Expedition set foot on the land of Jiangbei, although the Cao River was still silted everywhere, and the large coastal areas were deserted, the registered household registration under the rule of more than a dozen feudal towns of various sizes in Huainan had reached two or three million; This is not counting the hidden heads of those who hide in the name of tenant servants and slave laborers under the name of local wealthy and powerful households.

However, all this was once again destroyed by the continuous war and the subsequent continuous famine; Among them, there was even a credit to the army under my command at the beginning, when the army of the Eastern Route was hunted and killed, and through the army under my name, there were many people who were trafficked and sold to various overseas feudal islands; Later, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Huai River, a large number of displaced and desperate Huainan people were recruited and recruited along the Huai River;

Therefore, the situation that Huaizhen has to face now is much more arduous and difficult, and in the seven prefectures under the direct or indirect control of Huainan, it is only necessary to search and inspect 200,000 or 300,000 people in the local area, and most of them are old and weak women and children who do not have high production value, and even children who can hardly provide production value.

It can be described as sparsely populated.

Relying on their own organization to produce self-help or something, not to mention feeding the garrison, even if they want to achieve barely self-sufficiency, it is very problematic; Therefore, in fact, the main force of Huainan development still relied on the tens of thousands of Jiansheng troops transferred from Huaibei, and their tens of thousands of prisoners, prisoners, and feudal slaves, as well as dozens of large-scale immigration and development groups that had been relocated one after another under the management and organization of the Camp and Field Administration.

Of course, according to the incentive policies provided by Huaizhen, and the conditions for going to a risky and unfamiliar place to reclaim wasteland; In addition to the leasing and lending of agricultural tools and seeds, and the stripping and assistance of agronomic technology, after overcoming the thorns and thorns, the operation of the blue wisps of the road and the excavation of the potential with hard work, a large part of these reclamation regiments will obtain the right to use and benefit from the corresponding acres of land for generations (field skin), which will take at least five to fifteen years of hard work to redeem the redemption period; And it takes at least two generations of operation before the corresponding ownership (Tian Gu) can be officially obtained.

Roughly speaking, according to the principle of mortgage installment repayment in later generations, after sampling thousands of sample data from at least dozens of places, based on the most moderate balance between the maximum stimulation of personal potential (value extraction) and the maximum upper limit of tolerance and non-resistance, a large number of potential "field slaves" who are willing to endure exploitation and have all kinds of gratitude and virtue have the characteristics of Huaizhen have been created.

In the rain curtain when the whole world became cooler, I also sat in the three-story flat-topped tugboat cabin towed by a large water tanker under the escort of the water camp fleet, and embarked on the journey back to Xuzhou.

On the roads accompanying both sides of the canal, from time to time, you can see the troops marching back and forth in the sound of singing in unison with duct cloth rain covers, and the crowd running up and down and shouting trumpets with bare arms and short hips; That is to rush before the arrival of the real flood season, to inspect and strengthen the rivers and embankments that have been dredged and widened.

The so-called water towns and rivers have both the advantages of irrigation and the old disadvantages of flooding every year; Therefore, the most important test and challenge is the overall planning of water conservancy projects, and the overall deployment and mobilization capabilities.

However, if this situation can be stabilized, most of the gains of the autumn harvest will be preserved; In the next few years, the maintenance resources and manpower required by the corresponding water conservancy system will gradually decrease, bringing about a more obvious surplus effect.

After all, as one of the most traditional agricultural production areas and granaries since ancient times, and under the evolution of this world and the external environment; No one is disgusted with the fact that too much food is produced.

Moreover, in the coming year, if the situation in Huainan is further stabilized, I plan to continue to promote planting in the local area, and I have already tried to plant the successful three-crop rice in a small part of Huaibei;

Although this kind of thing has a very poor taste because of its short growth cycle, it belongs to the feudal slaves and natives, and even the animals in the outer domains of Haizhou; Moreover, after the introduction of seeds to Huaishang, there are still some kinds of diseases, mutations and yield reductions that are not adapted to water and soil, and the manpower and man-hours invested are more than half of the traditional ones, but it is also a kind of rice with high yield.

Especially with respect to the Central Plains. As far as the traditional rice varieties in Jiangnan are concerned, this kind of yield of three crops a year is enough to beat most of them; At least in the eyes of those homeless people who urgently need to fill their stomachs, being able to eat rice is already a great happiness and blessing, and they are not qualified to dislike what tastes good or not.

At least in the various labor camps and administrative fields in Huaidi, "work harder and work harder to eat rice" has become a slogan and pursuit that is quite deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

It's just that during this period, there was also a small episode, because Huaizhen's current control is mainly concentrated in the transportation hub and along the road, and when it enters the territory of Siyang County in the Hongze Lake Basin,

After witnessing and seeing all kinds of displaced people on the shore and their various tragic scenes, Xiao Jinjun was silent for a long time before a sentence came out of my arms.

"Can't you find a way to make them all eat sugar cakes?"

At this moment, I felt as if I was possessed by some kind of malice and déjà vu that traveled through time and space.

Well, perhaps the most sparse and ordinary thing in her living environment is sugar cakes. Well, at least not "why not eat minced meat" yet.

..............

In Jiangning Mansion, among the left-behind Si Yamen, who had been busy and quiet, Sun Jingbang, the general who was waiting for the results of his final disposition, also ushered in visitors who were a little abrupt and reasonable.

"The court still decided to let you come back."

It also seemed that Sun Jingbang, who was much older all of a sudden, and was full of tiredness and twilight, looked at the person in front of him.

“。。 Take care of the aftermath?"

"Do they still have any hope and plan to reconcile with Huaizhen again?"

Then, he glanced at the person standing behind him again,

"It seems that the imperial court no longer needs to summon me back to explain and present my case."

(End of chapter)