Kuai Liang's face darkened, and he said, "Back to the lord, these two things are not eyebrow-raising yet. Those who live in the old city are unable to leave their homeland, and it is even more difficult to demolish their ancestral homes. Some of the land in the new city has also been sold, mainly by outsiders. Just now, Wang Zhen also proposed to buy a large piece of land, just behind the No. 13 shop, if the transaction is made, it should be the largest land sale. In addition, the dozens of families whose houses were burned down because of the last water walk have moved to the new city. ”

When Liu Xin heard this, he couldn't help but have an evil thought, if he set a fire and burned down the old city, there would be no problem. He himself was taken aback by this thought, and was silent for a moment before he said: "This matter is not in a hurry, slowly think of a way, remember, don't use force." ”

Kuai Liang is a native of Xiangyang, a villager in the township, he really can't pull his face, and he is still worried about what coercive means Liu Xin will make, but now he finally puts his mind at ease and promises repeatedly.

Within a few days, Liu Xin really arranged a place for Zhang Shiping outside the city to build a horse farm. Considering that Su Shuang will definitely sell horses with Zhang Shiping, this horse farm covers a much larger area than Zhang Shiping's requirements, and the land there is fertile, with abundant water and grass, which is very suitable for raising horses. Zhang Shiping was very grateful to Liu Xin, hurriedly purchased some goods, and went back to the north to report the good news.

Time passed day by day, and the popularity of Xiangyang New Town was still not strong, so Liu Xin did not dare to launch the third batch of shops.

The April sky is like a child's face, it changes as it says, and it rains all night until the early morning, and there is no sign of stopping. Liu Xin put on a robe, put on a hat, and rode to the academy as usual.

At the gate of the academy, Cai Yong had just stepped down from the carriage when he saw Liu Xin, and his face showed some embarrassment. Recently, for Cai Yan's family affairs, he has been very troubled, and his daughter seems to be determined to marry Liu Xin, but if she marries in the past, she can only be a concubine, where does this make his old face fall? Although he felt awkward in his heart, but when he met, he always had to greet him, Cai Yong deliberately looked up at the sky and said, "Lord, this rain is not small, why did you come to the academy today?" ”

Liu Xin smiled and said: "Uncle, you are so old, you are still rain or shine, I don't dare to take the opportunity to hide at home and be lazy." ”

After entering the academy and waiting for half an hour, the students had not yet arrived.

At present, there are 90 students in the academy, who come from official families, noble families and poor people. Families like Fu Zhu, Huang Zhong, Kuai Liang, Kuai Yue, and Cai Mao have all moved into the new city, not too far from the academy, and their children have all arrived at the academy on time. There are also some poor students, in order to let them study with peace of mind, Liu Xin implements a residential school system, and all meals and lodging are provided by the government for free. Considering that these children often have to take on some housework at home, the government will also give their families a certain amount of subsidies to encourage them to study hard. They all live in the academy, so naturally they will not be affected by the weather. But the children of the scholar families who lived in the old city were not good, and until now, none of them have come to the academy.

Seeing this situation, Liu Xin couldn't help but shake his head, and said to Cai Yong: "These sons and brothers have been pampered since they were children, how can they achieve great things in the future." ”

It is inevitable that there are a few of these students who are bright and very popular with Cai Yong. Hearing Liu Xin's opinion on them, Cai Yong hurriedly said: "The old man doesn't see that they are all afraid of hardship, maybe there are other things that are delayed." ”

Liu Xin didn't believe it, and muttered, "I hope so." ”

The rain was heavy and light, but it never stopped, and the water in some of the courtyards was already as good as shoes, but fortunately the roads were not affected. However, there were one-third fewer students, and Liu Xin's classes could not continue, so he had to go home early.

Until the next morning, the heavy rain still kept falling, Liu Xin became nervous, and couldn't help worrying about whether it would cause flooding, so he hurriedly sent someone to invite Fu Zhu and Kuai Liang to the house.

After listening to Liu Xin's words, Kuai Liang said with a smile: "Don't worry, my lord, this place is not as good as the north, and heavy rains like this are common in previous years, which will cause waterlogging in the city at most, and it will not have much impact on farmland." ”

Liu Xin muttered: "Waterlogging is also a very serious thing, so let's go to the city with you, especially in the new city, but I have spent a lot of effort to build the drainage system, and now is the time to test the effect." ”

Liu Xin has not personally experienced the situation of urban waterlogging, but he has seen it on TV in the past, and the roads in some cities are full of water on rainy days, and they will not be able to drain it for a while and a half.

The drainage system in Xiangyang New Town is still quite effective, and the group went out of the state pastoral mansion and walked to many places, but did not see a large amount of stagnant water. Not far in front of us is a house that houses the ordinary people of the old city, and some people have already lived here, all of whom were affected by the fire in the north of the city last time.

Liu Xin suddenly saw that several houses had improvised dams made of bricks and stones in front of their doors, and a white-haired old man was standing in front of the door looking out, so he stopped and asked, "This uncle, isn't there water in your house?" ”

The old man saw that this group of people did not look like ordinary people, and hurriedly replied, "No, no, the family is fine." ”

Liu Xin felt strange and asked again: "Since there is no water, what are you doing piling these things in front of the door?" ”

The old man wiped the rain that had splashed on his face and replied, "If it had rained so heavily in previous years, the house would have been flooded long ago." Yesterday I saw that it was raining non-stop, so I prepared for it, but I didn't think I needed to do it at all. ”

Liu Xin turned his head and asked Kuai Liangdao: "In previous years, would your house also be flooded?" ”

Kuai Liang shook his head and said: "Naturally, there will be slaves in our family to fight the dam head when the time comes, and the situation will be better, and it will be normal for ordinary people to have water in their homes." ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said, "Let's go, everyone follow me to the old city to have a look." ”

More than half of the old city walls have been demolished, and the remaining foundations are still knee-high, forming a natural dividing line between the old and new towns. Liu Xin stood in the rain with an oilcloth umbrella, and could clearly see that the old city was already a piece of the city, no wonder the children who lived here couldn't go to the academy.

After this heavy rain, the water in the old town has slowly receded, leaving a pile of silt under the road, and the people who live here have long been accustomed to it. However, when they heard that the new city had not been flooded at all, they all had incredible expressions on their faces, and the number of people who went to Taishou Mansion to inquire about the relocation gradually increased, but only a handful actually took action.

In the old city relocation problem, those noble families played a bad role in this. Some of them were domestic slaves, and the foundations of their houses were much higher than others, so they were not too worried about flooding. These people's houses are usually surrounded by wide lanes, and as long as you are careful in your own home, under normal circumstances, fires in other places will not burn to them. And most ordinary people are accustomed to following behind them, and if these noble families do not relocate, ordinary people are unlikely to take the initiative to relocate.

Liu Xin has his own plans to renovate the old city, on the one hand, it can increase the popularity of the new city and drive the faster development of the new city. On the other hand, the layout of the old town is disorganized, which is easy to hide dirt and dirt, which is not conducive to future management. The best case scenario is to move the entire population of the old town into the new town, and tear down the old town and rebuild it. However, this heavy rain still gave Liu Xin a little inspiration, and in order to encourage these scholar families to take the initiative to move into the new city, he came up with a good idea.

After the summer, the academy will admit a new batch of new students, and this year's enrollment brochure came out very early, including a new rule that all those who live in the old city, whether they are scholars or commoners, will not be included in the scope of enrollment. The reason is simple, students who live in the old city are susceptible to rainy weather, which is not conducive to the completion of their studies.

As soon as this brief came out, the whole city was in an uproar. For the scholars, Xiangyang Academy is officially undertaken, and the future career of students who come out of the academy is naturally bright. For ordinary people, if their children can squeeze into the academy, they can not only reduce the burden on the family, but also have a good hope of getting ahead in the future.

The introduction of this regulation is clearly to force them to move to a new urban area. As a result, the fire did not scare them away, and the flood could not shake their determination to stick to their homes, but a policy on "school district housing" completely shook them.

There are still three or four months left before the start time of the new school year stipulated by Liu Xin, and those scholars who still live in the old city, and the children of the family have gradually reached the age of entering school, first of all, they can't sit still, and they run to Kuailiang's house, crying and rushing to buy land in the new city, and the popularity problem of the new city that has plagued Liu Xin for half a year is solved.

However, Kuai Liang is not easy to talk now, there are more people who want to buy land, and his waist is also stiffened, which is not at all like when he tried to persuade everyone to move to the new city. The price of the land has risen a lot, and they are also required to mortgage the title deed of the old house, which will be subsidized by the government at its discretion in the future.

Almost at the same time, Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang came to Xiangyang together, and they also brought hundreds of good horses at the same time. Liu Xin had already sent people to help them fence the horse farm on the outskirts of the city, and watchtowers were built at the four corners, and several houses were also built in the horse farm to use the horse breeder's residence.

Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang looked at the well-equipped racecourse, and said with emotion: "The adults have thought so much about us, this racecourse is opened by the two of us, so it will be called Suzhang Racecourse." ”

Liu Xin smiled and said, "This name is not good, I'll help you choose a loud name." ”