Shuning went back to her parents' room and told them everything in her brother's letter. Tong's eyes glistened with tears, and he took the letter and flipped through it.

Zhang Bao sighed and said, "This kid is really sensible, we didn't mistake him." Then he picked up the rattle and shook it twice, smiled and walked to his little son who was lying in the car, shaking and teasing him.

Tong put down the letter, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and said, "Although my son said this, we don't know what the actual situation is. ”

Zhang Bao smiled: "What are you worried about?" There is also a second sister-in-law in the capital, and there will be no problem with his son's daily life, he is the grandson of Ama Eniang, will he still treat him badly? You just love to worry about it. ”

Tong Shi smiled and said: "Duan'er said that the matter of choosing the prince to accompany him is too rash, why do you give up such a good opportunity?" If Amma had known, he would have been told. ”

Zhang Bao didn't care: "If you don't do it, you won't do it, what's this?" And it's been nearly a month since this letter was delivered here, and I'm afraid that the results have come down, and it's useless for us to say anything. And didn't it mean that Prince Jian's Tongying would ask someone to recommend him to the sect? That's not bad either. ”

Shuning also persuaded her mother: "Don't worry, my brother knows what to do, just like he said in the letter, if you really become the prince's companion, most of the people you follow are not the fourth elder brother, but it is easy to become the target of bullying by others, so it is better not to do it." As for in Zongxue, with Brother Tongying by his side, no one will bully him. ”

Tong Shi calmed down a little and stared at the few "Duanning Daily Behavior Pictures" to take a closer look.

Shuning turned around and walked to the side of the car, teasing the younger brother with her father, and after a while, she said to her father: "Amma, when we wrote back to Beijing, it was in the middle of November, but it was almost the New Year, so we arrived in the capital. The messenger came back from the sixth day of the new year, and it took more than 20 days to arrive all the way down the river. It took a few months to come and go, and it was really inconvenient. ”

Zhang Bao smiled: "This is also a helpless thing. Guangdong is so far away from the capital, this waterway is already easy to walk. If you encounter that rugged mountain road, I don't know how long it will take. ”

"My daughter is thinking that our family is also rich, and every time I communicate with my brother, I have to send someone to walk back and forth for several months. Ordinary people don't even want to connect with their relatives who are far away. If the imperial court had sent special people to regularly and regularly deliver letters between places for a small fee, it would have been much easier for people to communicate with people from other places. ”

"Oh?" Zhang Bao stopped the rattle in his hand, turned his head and asked her, "Tell me about it." ”

Shuning thought for a while and said, "For example, A and B are far apart. Someone in place A wants to write a letter to a relative living in place B, and as long as he writes the letter and pays a few dollars, someone will help him deliver the letter to his relatives. ”

Zhang Bao asked: "The same is true for sending letters now, if ordinary people want to ask someone to send a letter......

"No, it's not." Shuning shook her head. "That's just a few people to deliver it, and the person who delivered the letter happened to be in that place. Wouldn't it be much more convenient if the government sent a fixed number of people, once every two or three days, or once every five days, to go back and forth between the two places and deliver letters to people on a full-time basis? Then you don't have to wait for the right person to deliver the letter. ”

Zhang Bao thought about it carefully and felt that there was some truth: "It's just how many people do you need here?" And the situation is different from place to place, but I am afraid that it is not so easy to do. ”

Shuning smiled: "Actually, this is not a new method. Don't you remember? During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a box army engaged in the postal delivery of official camps, which was deeply praised by the people at that time. It's just that after the war, it was not implemented again. ”

Zhang Bao was reminded by her and remembered: "Yes, it is said that in the former Ming Dynasty, there was an emperor who also had plans to re-implement this law, but later the party in the DPRK and China was fierce, and the matter was over." In this way, this government-run post has also been done by its predecessors. ”

Shuning nodded: "Exactly." Although Amma's official position is too low to do such a thing, don't you know a high-ranking official? ”

Zhang Bao understood what she meant, but he was a little hesitant: "It was written in your brother's letter just now, and Wanning offended him......"

Tong interjected next to him: "It is precisely because I offended him that I have to think of a way to make up for it." Our Sanfang and Master Chen have always been good friends, how can we be estranged because Wanning's children's family is ignorant? You write a charter well, if you get his blue eye, he won't alienate you because of that incident in the future. ”

Zhang Bao thought about it and felt reasonable, so he agreed: "Wait for me to check the history books carefully, and then think about the entire charter." When you write a letter to the people of Yuheng, just pass it along the way. ”

Shuning said with a smile: "If I can really open a government-run postal service and come to Guangzhou, it will be much more convenient for me to write a letter to my brother." ”

Zhang Baogo couldn't help but smile: "Even if it can really be done, it will be implemented in the Central Plains or the prosperous places in the south of the Yangtze River, and it will be opened here, to say the least, it will be a few years later." ”

======================I'm the dividing line ===================== a few days later

Zhang Bao braved the light rain and rushed back to the city from other places. He had just finished inspecting the farmland and water conservancy facilities in the nearby townships, as well as the repair of river dams, and discussed with Mr. Su and other subordinates for a while, and then returned home with a frown.

Tong Shi saw that her husband seemed to be a little distracted during dinner, so she asked him if he had any troubles, and he said that it was okay, and Tong Shi did not continue to ask. After dinner, she saw Zhang Bao go to the study, so she wanted to follow, but Yahuan reported that Brother Xian'er was crying, so she had to go back to the room to see her son.

Seeing this, Shuning walked to the study and asked her father, "Is there anything upsetting about Amma?" E-Niang is very worried. If you have something, you might as well say it, although your daughter is young, she may be able to help with some ideas. ”

Zhang Bao had also seen her daughter's skills in the past, but this problem was not something she could solve as a child, but she couldn't resist her daughter's persuasion, so she told the matter.

It turned out that when he inspected other places, he found that there were many deficiencies in river engineering and water conservancy in various places. Flooding is susceptible to flooding in coastal or low-lying areas, and irrigation water is lacking in high-lying areas, both of which are not conducive to the cultivation of farmland.

At the same time, the Pearl River has a wide waters, many rivers and lakes, many of which were built in old years, and some places are even a little unstable, and there was a danger during the rainy season last year. He wanted to repair it, but if he wanted to complete it all, the project would be too huge, and it would be a question of whether the government's money would be sufficient, and whether it could be repaired before the rainy season.

He is now worried about these things, and he doesn't know what to do.

Sure enough, it wasn't a problem that an inexperienced person like her could solve, so Shuning had to worry about it together. Thinking about it, she remembered something.

She said to Zhang Bao: "Amma, I have heard that there is a thing called 'Sankey Fish Pond' in the Pearl River area, I don't know if you have ever heard of it?" ”

Zhang Bao asked what it was. Shuning replied: "I heard that on both sides of the Pearl River, the land is low-lying and often flooded, and farming is flooded nine times in ten years. As a result, the locals dig ponds in low-lying areas and raise fish in the ponds. The excavated soil is piled up around the pond to make the pond foundation, which can reduce the flooding. Mulberry trees are planted on the pond base, silkworms can be raised, and silkworm sand can be used to feed fish, and the mud in the pond can be used to fertilize mulberry, so that the cycle is endless. ”

Seeing that Zhang Bao seemed very interested, she continued: "In this way, the flooding will not be so serious, fish farming can be sold for money to help the family, and silkworm farming can get raw silk, which can be sold to Western merchants to be shipped overseas." However, this method also has two drawbacks. ”

Zhang Bao hurriedly asked: "What is it?" Shuning smiled: "Once you come to dig the pond, you can't use it for farming; Second, if people who use this method make a lot of profits, they may attract others to abandon the great farming industry passed down from generation to generation and go to grow mulberry and raise fish. ”

When Zhang Bao heard this, he pondered for a long time before he said to his daughter: "The 'Sankey Fish Pond' you are talking about, is it really local?" Shuning nodded and said, "My daughter also looks at it from the book, I think there is, Ama might as well call a local to ask?" ”

Zhang Bao asked Changgui to find Zhao Asheng. Not long after, Zhao Asheng and Hu Dong both came and asked Zhang Bao what he wanted. Zhang Bao asked Zhao Asheng if he had seen the "Sankey Fish Pond", he was thinking carefully, but Hu Dong took the lead: "Back to the adult, the villain has seen it, and the villain's grandmother has dug such a pond at home." ”

Zhang Bao asked Hu Dong for details, and Hu Dong replied: "The villain's grandmother's house is in Jiujiang in the South China Sea, where the terrain is low-lying and often flooded. The uncles of the villain dug the pond to raise fish, and planted mulberry trees in the pond base, and when there was a big flood every year, because the pond base was high, it was better than other houses. Moreover, their family collects a lot of raw silk every year and sells it to workshops or raw silk merchants, so that they can get a lot of income. The fish you raise is enough to eat for yourself, and you can sell it for some money. ”

Zhang Bao nodded, asked some more details, and let them go out, pondering alone in the lamp. Seeing this, Shuning didn't bother him anymore and went back to the room.

Zhang Bao invited Mr. Su to discuss the next day, and consulted experienced old farmers, and after submitting it to the prefect for approval, he first implemented the "mulberry fish pond" in some low-lying areas. But at the same time, it also shows that only ponds are allowed to be dug on wasteland, and farmers are not allowed to change the use of cultivated land without permission. In the early years, the farmland that was abandoned also encouraged by farmers who had spare power to cultivate it, hoping to increase the amount of grain fields in this way.

This measure was only implemented under the jurisdiction of the Guangzhou Prefecture, but somehow it was known to Zhu Hongzuo, the governor of Guangdong, who thought that this was a good way to encourage agriculture and mulberry, greatly praised the officials of the Guangzhou Prefecture, and also ordered the whole province to promote it, and at the same time, in accordance with the decree promulgated by the imperial court in the 22nd year of Kangxi, it was stated that if the land that was abandoned was reclaimed by someone, the original owner would no longer be allowed to ask, and the reclaimer would cultivate it for five years, and the land would belong to him.

It has only been a few years since Guangdong reopened its sea ban, and much of the land that had been abandoned for a long time has not been reclaimed. As soon as Governor Zhu's measure was announced, a vigorous reclamation campaign was launched in all parts of the province, with landless peasants vying to plough the abandoned fields, while the big landlords, who had left their land aside for several years and ignored it, also hired tenant farmers to reclaim the land so that their property would not be taken away.

This craze had little impact on Zhang Bao, and the credit basically fell on the head of the prefect, and he was used to it. And now Zhang Bao is busy repairing the river dams in various places, and then thinking about future problems after surviving this year's rainy season.

Time passed in a hurry, and due to the limitations of money and manpower, Zhang Bao could only ensure that the most dangerous parts of the embankments in various places were repaired, and the mulberry fish pond was only thirty or forty hectares in size, of which only half of the places were planted with mulberry saplings, and only tens of thousands of fish fry were released.

At this time, the rainy season has arrived.