As merchants from various countries began to exert their strength, truckloads of grain were continuously transported from the border to Zhao State. No matter how strict the checkpoints in various countries are, these people always have a way to get food out, which has to be admired.

After arriving in the territory of Zhao State, there is no need to worry, Zhao Kuo has already ordered that as long as the grain convoy enters Zhao State, it will not be blocked, and the entry tax will be directly exempted.

After the first batch of grain arrived, Zhao Kuo immediately carried out nationwide construction of water conservancy, dredging ditches, building city walls, and digging wells, telling the people that as long as they worked, they would have money to eat.

He had long wanted to work for relief, but there was no food.

The reason why famines in ancient times were all direct disaster relief, instead of cash-for-work, is not that they don't know the method of cash-for-work, but ordinary disaster relief only needs to give the victims a bowl of gruel to drink every day, so that the victims do not starve to death.

Cash-for-work is to ensure that the victims can be fed, otherwise they will have the strength to work.

As a result, the amount of food consumed in cash-for-work is three or four times higher than that of ordinary disaster relief.

And most of the time, once a famine occurs in a certain place, the whole country is not much better, and the imperial court can naturally save a little food is a little food, who will consume several times more food to work for relief?

Moreover, whether it is the monarch or the official in charge of disaster relief, they all know that the disaster victims are easy to make trouble when they are full, and they will not make trouble if they are hungry and have no strength.

Therefore, even if Fan Zhongyan of the Song Dynasty pioneered the cash-for-work relief, the famine that occurred in the Ming and Qing dynasties was still direct disaster relief, rather than cash-for-work.

This is still the case in the Ming and Qing dynasties, when the yield per mu was already very high, not to mention the Warring States period when productivity was low.

If there was no "help" from merchants to transport grain from various countries to Zhao, even if Zhao Kuo wanted to work for relief, there would be no way.

Agriculture has been fundamental since ancient times, especially in the period when productivity is not particularly high, and it is even more important. Therefore, Shang Ying chose to focus on agriculture and suppress business, tying more people to the land.

However, Zhao Kuo, as a traverser, naturally knows the importance of commerce, and with the current commercial prosperity of Zhao Guo, it is far from the point where it needs to be restricted.

In order to increase productivity, there are only other options.

After lunch, Zhao Kuo took Ben and his entourage to the workshop in the north of the city.

I have to mention here that after a few days of research, Zhao Kuo now understands that his personal guard army is not a real army soul legion at all, but can only be regarded as a pseudo army soul legion.

Because only when he is there is a military soul legion, what he is not there is an ordinary super elite, that is to say, the military soul of the pro-guard army is not himself, but he Zhao Kuo!

However, this also fits the definition of the guard, after all, the guard army was born to protect the king, and if the king is not there, the guard will lose its meaning.

As for Zhao Kuo's newly awakened talent: God's gift. In the end, whether it can improve the probability of the birth of Zhao Guocai, to be honest, Zhao Kuo is not sure at all, he can only sense that the talent does exist.

As for the specific effect, I am afraid that it will not be seen until at least one or two decades later.

The official in charge of the workshop is called Zhao Zhu, and he is a family that Zhao Kuo has never seen.

The workshop is under the jurisdiction of the Shaofu, which is the private wallet of the monarch, so most of it is the responsibility of people within the clan, after all, it has always been a traditional Chinese virtue to be virtuous and not shy away from relatives.

Hearing that the monarch was coming, Zhao Zhu hurriedly stood at the door with more than 1,000 people from the workshop to greet him.

Everyone knows that once a son of heaven and a courtier, his official position was appointed by Zhao Wangdan, and Zhao Kuo may get rid of him or even punish him if he is a little unhappy.

"Get up."

Zhao Kuo said that he was not going to target Zhao Zhu, a small official who was a little bigger than a sesame seed, and let them get up after saluting.

After everyone got up, they all looked at Zhao Kuo curiously, everyone knew that Zhao Kuo was an unborn genius of Zhao State, led Zhao State to defeat Qin State, and then besieged Handan to become the monarch of Zhao State, but I didn't expect it to be as young and handsome as rumored.

"Okay, you can do whatever you have to do, and I'll call you if there's any problem." Zhao Kuo waved his hand and said.

He knew that there were some things in the workshop that could not be stopped once they started, and that they would be scrapped once they stopped.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The craftsmen saluted again, then turned back to their place of work.

Zhao Kuo followed behind the craftsman, inspected around, and found that the environment of the workshop was very bad, even if the temperature outside was still around zero, the temperature inside still reached a high temperature of more than 30 degrees.

Zhao Kuo saw the craftsmen wielding hammers to repeatedly beat the iron tires, turning the pieces of iron tires into the appearance of heavy swords, and their bodies were almost completely soaked with sweat.

You know, it's only late winter and early spring, and if you wait until summer, you can imagine what the situation of the workshop will be.

"Why is the workshop built here, it would be much better if it was built next to Zhangshui." Zhao Kuo asked.

"The Point Guard Is Here"

Most of the workshops are built on water, as they require a lot of water and are better built by the river to cool down and treat the wastewater.

Built in a city like Zhao Guo, it is not only difficult to get water, which affects production, but also the environment will be worse, affecting the health of craftsmen.

Sewage can only be transported manually outside the city, which greatly increases costs.

"Your Majesty, the workshop was originally built by the Zhangshui River. But the king also knew that the other side of Zhangshui was the Wei State, and the Wei army could easily reach Handan as long as they crossed the Zhangshui, not to mention the workshops outside the city, almost every time there was a war between Zhao and Wei, some craftsmen would be taken captive, and in the end there was no choice but to move to the city and build it in the north of the city. Zhao Zhu said helplessly.

Don't look at the relationship between Zhao Wei and Wei now, in fact, they have been fighting for life and death before, don't look at the previous life and death, in fact, they can wear a pair of pants no matter how good they were before.

This is the case between nations, there are no eternal enemies, and there are no permanent friends.

"Now that Yecheng is in the hands of Zhao Guo, it won't be long before the workshop can be moved back to Zhangshui." Zhao Kuo patted Zhao Zhu on the shoulder and said with relief.

Zhao Zhu was immediately flattered, and he didn't know what to say.

"All the craftsmen in the workshop are here?" Zhao Kuo asked again.

"Your Majesty, it's all here." Zhao Zhu calmed down.

"How many of you can build farm tools?" Zhao Kuo asked.

"All craftsmen, including apprentices, build agricultural tools." Zhao Zhu said proudly.

Farming tools are the easiest to build compared to weapons, so when every craftsman first learns to build, they build agricultural tools. Only after becoming proficient and improving the quality will you begin to learn to build weapons, chariots, armor and the like.

After all, even if there is a problem with farm tools, it will delay the cultivation of one or two households at most.

If something goes wrong with the weapon, it can kill a human life, and it may even affect a war.

In any country, the construction of weapons is the strictest.