After discussions between the Cabinet and the Prince, and after soliciting opinions from all parties, the Cabinet finally introduced the policy of 'cash for work'. Zhang Hua, the first assistant to the cabinet, said when questioned in Menxia Province: "After the implementation of this policy, the empire will increase the number of construction projects, and at the same time gradually reduce the supply of basic living materials, so that ordinary people can earn their own living materials through work." ”

As soon as this policy was introduced, it immediately caused a great shock, after all, the Chinese people seemed to be accustomed to receiving financial support from the state in times of difficulty, and now the empire suddenly stopped providing direct relief. However, it did not cause a big stir, after all, the subsequent cash-for-work program can benefit more people.

And in cash-for-work programs, ordinary people receive much more than direct relief. As long as ordinary people work on the construction site, they can not only ensure food and clothing, but also earn a certain amount of wages, which is much more cost-effective than just receiving one ration. But anyone who has some ability has no hesitation to choose cash-for-work.

Subsequently, in the name of the cabinet, the imperial court quickly launched a series of cash-for-work projects, which mainly focused on infrastructure construction and mine construction.

In a very short period of time, nearly 300 cash-for-work projects of various sizes have been opened in Qinghai, Xuyu and other prefectures, covering all counties, counties and counties in the Central Plains.

The money stolen from the Central Plains family was quickly put into the Central Plains reconstruction plan, and now it is equivalent to taking money from the family's pocket while using it to build those cash-for-work projects in order to develop the economy of the Central Plains.

With the support of the existing factories in Guanzhong, a large number of projects were quickly established with the support of the imperial court, and now the Central Plains has become a large construction site. Everywhere is the lively scene of the start of construction, the enthusiasm of the people of the Central Plains has been greatly mobilized, in order to build their hometown, many people began to work without sleep and food.

At the same time, the mines in the Central Plains entered a state of full construction, and although these mines were built, they were not built for economic reasons, but for war considerations, so these mines were not mined immediately after they were built.

In addition, in order to strengthen control over the various parts of the empire, the construction of transportation facilities will be a top priority in this cash-for-work operation. With Luoyang as the center, the east-west artery will start construction in an all-round way, and this cement road is up to 30 meters wide, which is not much different from the Qinzhi Road hundreds of years ago.

This artery will start from Donglai County, Qingzhou in the east, pass through Qingzhou, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Sizhou, and extend to Chang'an, Guanzhong, and then directly to Guzang in Liangzhou, with a total distance of more than 1,000 kilometers, and is planned to be completed within ten years. When completed, it will be the main arterial road for the east and west ends of the empire's control.

And once this major artery running through the east and west is completed, it will greatly strengthen the empire's control over the northwest, which has great military significance. Whether it is to deter the Qiang people in the northwest or to send troops to the Western Regions in the future, this major artery will exert a powerful energy.

Sima Shu's practice of concentrating on doing great things drew on the construction experience of the early days of New China in later generations, and it is precisely by virtue of such measures that later generations developed New China from a poor and white agricultural country to a country with an industrial base.

With the strong support of the imperial court, the cash-for-work project was carried out at an unprecedented speed. Sima Shu planned to build the Central Plains into another industrial base, and once completed, the Western Jin Dynasty would have two major industrial centers, Guanzhong and the Central Plains, which would be enough to support him in any war.

The economic recovery speed of the Central Plains is far faster than that of Guanzhong, because the foundation of the Central Plains is much stronger than that of Guanzhong, and the peace of the early Western Jin Dynasty for more than 20 years has long been the prosperity of the Central Plains. Now the imperial court is developing the economy of the Central Plains by plundering the wealth of the family, so that the Central Plains can soon develop.

In addition, the Central Plains has a large population, reaching nearly 10 million, so many people, a large part of them have begun to build projects with cash-for-work, how fast will this construction speed be?

And the project that was built belonged to the empire. Most of the raw materials needed for the construction of the project were purchased from the Imperial Guanzhong, and the imperial court deliberately reduced the taxes on various raw materials, so that the cash-for-work also greatly promoted the economic development of Guanzhong.

Moreover, these cash-for-work projects not only restored the empire's economy, but also solved many problems with this policy.

First of all, the imperial court changed the habit of providing free assistance to the victims of the disaster, so that the novel method of disaster relief through work for work quickly became deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In this regard, even Sima Shu expressed his surprise at this, you must know that it has been so many years since the imperial court provided food and clothing free of charge when the disaster occurred, but I didn't expect that everyone would quickly get used to cash-for-work.

There are many advantages to cash-for-work, first of all, the empire can get rid of the losses, and at the same time the workers can get paid, although not very high, but always higher than the free living goods that they originally received aid.

For some families, by participating in the Central Plains reconstruction plan, they not only did not lose much, but made a lot of money. And with the money earned in this way, they no longer have to worry about the reproach of the imperial court as before, and even the crown prince himself recognized the legal surname they obtained.

Moreover, the imperial court also supported them to build many civilian factories, as long as they paid a sum of money, these factories belonged to them. In this way, they don't have to look at the family in the Guanzhong area, so why not?

The family that took refuge in the crown prince was happy, and the common people also benefited, and it can be said that through a reconstruction program centered on cash-for-work, Sima Shu succeeded in pulling all strata of the empire to his side. Sima Shu believed that if the reconstruction project was successfully completed, the foundation of his rule would be more solid.

In addition, in the process, the royal family also made a lot of money. Under the instruction of Sima Shu, General Manager Liu took out a part of the money from the royal treasury and invested it in a part of the factories in the Central Plains. With the experience of Guanzhong and Xincheng, Mr. Liu became familiar with the road and quickly won dozens of promising factories.

With the satisfaction of the whole empire, this cash-for-work policy was smoothly implemented in all parts of the Central Plains.

Since it is a cash-for-work work, with a word for relief, the salary is not high.

Since the wage is not high, the cost of engineering construction is also very low, coupled with the low price of raw materials, the cost of engineering construction has dropped again and again.

Under such circumstances, the imperial court seemed to have infinite financial resources, and various projects appeared in various parts of the Central Plains of the empire. Among them, in addition to the large-scale projects presided over by the imperial court, there are also projects of local political axes. In the case of concrete roads, the empire planned to build 20,000 kilometers of roads in ten years, half of which were built by local governments.

The 20,000 kilometers of cement roads are mainly concentrated in the Central Plains, Guanzhong and the northern border counties, extending all the way to the northwest region and ending in Liangzhou. This is all for the sake of logistical supply for future wars.

In order to consider the logistics of the Northern Expedition to the grassland in the future, the empire will build three more cement roads in the north-south direction, one with Chang'an as the center and extending north to Shangjun. The other two are centered on Luoyang and lead north to Bingzhou, Youzhou and Pingzhou.

In addition to the large-scale projects under the auspices of the imperial court, each prefecture and county will each undertake the construction of a part of the cement road to serve as a liaison road in the state, and each prefecture and county will build a second-level cement road with the government office as the center.

In addition to highway construction, the most important of other large-scale projects is water conservancy projects, and the Central Plains region has always been a large grain producer, but it is also a flood-stricken area. In particular, floods occurred frequently on both sides of the Yellow River, and this time we took advantage of the opportunity to rebuild the Central Plains. The Cabinet decided to allocate a huge amount of money for the construction and improvement of flood control projects.

It is estimated that in five to ten years, the imperial court will decide to devote millions of dollars every year to water conservancy construction, and the labor force invested alone is expected to reach one million. It is planned to build more than 200 water conservancy irrigation systems, form more than 120 relatively complete irrigation areas, control the irrigation area of 50 million mu, and irrigate capacity of more than 28 million mu.

At the same time, according to Sima Shu's suggestion, the imperial court also planned to use the water surface of reservoirs and lakes to develop aquaculture. Moreover, Sima Shu from later generations attached great importance to environmental protection, and through the construction of farmland and water conservancy, he effectively transformed the natural environment and established a new good ecosystem.

In the planning of farmland and water conservancy construction, the imperial court paid attention to the comprehensive development of the river basin, so as to achieve unified planning, comprehensive management and common development of the whole river basin. For example, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River basin, after years of development, the imperial court strives to achieve comprehensive control and governance.

Millions of acres of farmland along the coast, which have been threatened by floods for a long time, will be transformed into fertile land that can be protected by drought and flood. The reconstruction plan launched by the imperial court not only developed agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fishing, but also industry. At the same time, new large farms, new rural areas, and various new cities have been built.

Once this plan is successfully implemented, the Central Plains will become a relatively advanced agricultural, animal husbandry and industrial area. Become another driving force for the economic development of the empire!

The launch of such a huge reconstruction plan by the imperial court has attracted attention from all sides, and has also taken care of the interests of all parties. Of course, it was not only praise, when the news reached Jiangdong, King Langya also summoned everyone to study it. However, limited to the lack of height for each person, they only saw that the court needed to spend a lot, but did not see the long-term benefits from it.

In Wang Dun's words, "As long as this so-called reconstruction plan is carried out, Sima Shu will not be able to wage war with the outside world for at least five years." This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us, the prince should take this opportunity to consolidate the Jiangdong region, with these five years as a buffer, who will lose and who will win in the future is not certain? ”

And Wang Jun of Youzhou and Liu Yuan of Bingzhou couldn't understand it, they could only ignore it!

However, Sima Shu didn't care about other people's opinions at all, and with his strong support, the cabinet quickly took action! (To be continued.) )