Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han Dynasty praised the prosperity and wealth of Nanyang, and this is indeed the most highlight moment in the history of Nanyang.

In the agrarian society of the Middle Ages, the most fundamental thing for any region to achieve rapid development and prosperity was to develop agriculture. Agriculture is the root of all industries, and only when agriculture is prosperous can all industries prosper.

The development of Nanyang naturally benefits from its superior geographical environment and resources, and the water conservancy is the one that can fully develop and utilize the environmental resources. In ancient times, there must have been excellent water conservancy projects in areas where agriculture was developed, such as Zhengbai Canal in Guanzhong, Dujiangyan in Shuzhong and so on.

The prosperity and development of Nanyang is also inseparable from this, the Western Han Dynasty of Nanyang Taishou Zhao Xinchen is the earliest recorded in the history of the systematic construction of water conservancy fortifications in Nanyang, during his tenure in the Nanyang area to build dozens of water conservancy facilities including Liumenyan, so that the Nanyang area has a systematic water conservancy irrigation facilities, for the development of the region can be said to be a great contribution.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Nanyang Taishou Du Shi greatly repaired the water conservancy facilities in the governance on the basis of the previous dynasty, and invented and created various water conservancy and agricultural machinery such as water drainage, which further promoted the development of productive forces.

Nanyang can become the prosperous and prosperous southern capital of the Han Dynasty, and the two good officials before and after have made great contributions, so the people of Nanyang are praised as "the former has called the father, and the back has the Du mother", and the state and county officials are called the parents officials, which is also from this.

However, with the decline of the Eastern Han Dynasty regime, Nanyang will no longer be the scenery of the southern capital emperor's hometown, except for the appearance of a Yuan Shu in the last years of the southeast. By the time of the Wei and Jin dynasties, it was only one of the Tuntian districts of the northern regime.

After the Northern Wei Dynasty seized the land of the northern part of the country, it established Jingzhou with it, but it was only regarded as a former town for confrontation with the Southern Dynasties, and did not intend to restore and promote agricultural production in the Nanyang area.

The Nanyang area that Li Tai is now in charge of can be called the lowest period of decline in this region. Taking the most basic population indicator as an example, there are only more than 8,000 households in Jingzhou today, or more than 40,000 people.

This number is not too small at first glance, but you must know that the population of Nanyang in the heyday of the Eastern Han Dynasty reached more than 2.4 million, and there were still more than 1 million people here during the Yuan Shu period at the end of the Han Dynasty, even during the Great Advance of the Song Barbarians in the Southern Dynasty, there were still more than 80,000 people.

In other words, Jingzhou under the rule of the Western Wei Dynasty has a temperament that is also very in line with the consistent image of the Western Wei regime, except for a poor shell!

On the one hand, there is an incomparably glorious past history, on the other hand, there is an incomparably bad reality, Li Tai also knows that it is not easy to reverse the regional decline and pull Nanyang out of this trough, and it is destined to be a long way to go.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, and only by finding the right entry point can we get twice the result with half the effort. There are many reasons for the collapse of the Nanyang area, but the most critical is the damage to productivity and the production environment caused by the war.

Now Li Taixian attacked Xiangyang to deter the Southern Liang, but the Eastern Wei was still trapped in the Hou Jing Rebellion and the Northern Expedition of the Southern Liang, and even Wang Sizheng of Yingchuan had to be ranked behind, so he naturally had no time to take care of Jingzhou.

Therefore, Li Tai also secretly set a small goal in his heart, that is, in the next year, the population of the state capital should reach at least 100,000, and at least more than 50,000 hectares of fertile land.

Neither of these two small goals is easy to achieve. In addition, the nearly 10,000 soldiers and civilians who moved from Fancheng increased the population under the jurisdiction of the state government to 50,000, but it was very slim to double it in just one year, unless it was a war or a relatively thorough expansion of households and land.

As for the land that the state capital can grasp now, it is far less than 10,000 hectares, and the gap from Li Tai's small goal is even greater.

When they heard Du Zhaohui's suggestion that the money and goods be used to repair the Liumenyan, the reaction of the people present was not very enthusiastic, although a few people echoed it, but the vast majority remained silent, obviously this is not a proposal that everyone expected.

Li Tai was not surprised by the reaction of the crowd, and the reason was simple, that is, they did not need it much.

It is important to know that the Nanyang Basin could carry a population of more than 2 million in its heyday, so it needs a developed water conservancy system to promote agricultural development. Nowadays, even though there is a large shady population in the territory,

With the addition of registered residents, it is estimated that it will never exceed 200,000.

The local area is still the same place, but the population carried by it has been reduced by more than ten times, and the demand for water conservancy facilities has naturally been greatly reduced.

The perennial war and turmoil have also left these local tycoons without the need to expand their production scale. After all, not everyone is as anti-backbone as a time-traveler like Li Tai, who always wants to start his own business and subvert the regime, and most people in troubled times just want to live in peace.

These powerful people are satisfied with the status quo, but Li Tai is not satisfied, especially knowing that the Southern Dynasty is about to be in chaos, and there will be a large number of refugees in the Jianghan area who will be displaced to escape the war.

If the supporting facilities in the northern area can be prepared sufficiently, it will definitely be able to accept a large number of displaced people, so that the vitality of the region can be greatly replenished, and also provide a shelter for these poor Jiangnan people.

He waited for a while, and when he saw that no one had made a statement, he waved his hand to stop Du Zhaohui, who was still waiting to speak out, and said with a smile: "What Du Mingfu said is indeed a deep nostalgia, and the water benefits all things are indisputable. However, breaking ground and employing labor will inevitably be heavy, and once it is excessive, it will be abusing the people."

When everyone heard this, they all nodded in agreement, and their attitudes were more positive than before.

After all, they themselves don't have much water conservancy needs, and they know that the state capital is expensive, even if there is this new envoy to contribute, the specific servants must have to share the burden of the domestic families, of course, they are not very happy to have nothing to do.

If you say it more thoroughly, it is that they are more satisfied with the current rural order, and they are not very willing to intervene in the adjustment and change of the government, even if it is a good aspect, they are vigilant.

"The people are easy to abuse, and the heavens are hard to deceive! Even if it regulates the local atmosphere, but there is a loss of people, it is not a benevolent government. You are all heroes on the surface and exemplary in the countryside, and since you are not ordinary and humble people, I don't know if there is a way to teach me?"

Li Tai looked at everyone and said with a smile, and when everyone heard this, they shook their heads and waved their hands again and again, not daring to bear this praise, so as not to cause trouble for the sake of vanity.

Seeing their tacit reaction, Li Tai sighed again, no matter whether the nostalgia between them was good or bad, but when he came, this tacit atmosphere was about to disappear. From then on, Jingzhou could only have his own rules.

He learned from Daxingtai that no matter how powerful an individual is, the best way to fight is never to fight against the masses, but to let them roll in.

"You are too modest, you can defeat the enemy and enforce the law, you may not wait for me. But when it comes to understanding the nostalgia and caring for the people, I am not as far as you. Today, I am very willing to carry out the good deeds of repairing the canal weir mentioned by Du Mingfu, although I have the resources to make the servant, but I am intellectually poor, and I don't know how to sympathize with the people's strength, so I need to rely on the wisdom of the people."

Speaking of this, Li Tai stood up, slowly walked to the door of the hall, pointed to the pile of goods outside the hall and said, "Whether it is the government or the people, who can help me rebuild the Liumen weir without causing resentment among the people, and all the materials outside the hall are with it!"

"Is what you said true?"

Before Li Tai's words fell, the crowd in the hall suddenly buzzed and discussed, and many people rushed forward to ask for confirmation with excitement.

Looking at the excited expressions of these people, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh secretly that Guo Zhenren died for money, no one did the business of losing money, and the business of killing heads was rushed to do. On the pile of goods outside, the blood and water of the three families have not yet dried, and they have suddenly become the target of other people's scrambling.

"Dare to ask the envoy, is the repair of the Liumen weir limited to the pond weir in the east of the city or does it include the canal and pond that runs through the three counties?"

If it is the latter, the amount of work is too large, and some of the canals and ponds for hundreds of miles have been completely damaged, and the labor and material consumption are very amazing.

But if it is the former, then this transaction can be done, you must know that there are not only nearly 30,000 horses of silk and those thirty catties of gold from the state capital, but also the wealth accumulated by the three local tyrants for several generations and decades!

Li Tai naturally would not be responsible for the specific project explanation, and seeing that they were all full of interest in this, he decided to leave it to Changshi

Cui Qian, the first to propose Wanxian County Commander Du Zhaohui and others to form an official bidding agency, all interested people can put forward their own plans, and finally the government selects the best plan for construction.

This method of cooperation between the government and the people immediately aroused the interest of everyone, especially those who were already interested in this fortification, and they frequently asked questions and understood the details, and Li Tai also patiently explained them one by one.

If you want to get the fish to take the bait, you naturally have to put enough bait. With such a large amount of work, not all Haoqiang can eat it. Seeing that those who were small but interested in it were distressed, Li Tai also enthusiastically suggested that they could jointly bid for several companies.