"The south-to-north water diversion project or the east-west water diversion project proposed by His Majesty can be taken as the goal of the second phase and be gradually completed in 50 to 100 years.

For example, the existing Grand Canal can be developed into a tributary first, and continue to extend to Liangzhou, Bingzhou and Youzhou.

In addition, there are many rivers in the northeast, and the amount of water diverted from there to Liaozhou is much smaller than that of the water diversion project from the south.

Of course, in a hurry, it is impossible for the minister to come up with a perfect plan at the right time, and His Majesty can appoint the relevant personnel of the Ministry of Industry to make detailed measurements and estimates of the terrain and water conservancy situation in the northwest.

When the time comes, we will gather professionals and make reasonable plans, what does Your Majesty think? ”

Water conservancy projects are not completely decided on paper, Xun Shuang has always been pragmatic, so it is naturally impossible to talk about it and talk about it.

"Very good, since Xun Qing agreed to build a water conservancy project, I will reconvene the meeting in two days and discuss it separately."

Of course, Xun Shuang came here more to show his attitude, and his suggestions and suggestions were secondary, and everyone was relieved when he met the emperor.

In the past few years, Liu Zhi's actions have become more and more difficult to figure out, especially after he became seriously ill, he no longer did things as unhurriedly as he did back then, and he planned and then acted.

He is now worried that his body will not be able to live long, and there are many things that he wants to do in a hurry, so that he is in a hurry to achieve quick success, and he is a little out of the actual situation of the Han now.

This is a very dangerous signal for the monarch of a country, even if his policies were wise and martial before, now they may lead the country to the ditch.

Chen Fan, Xun Shuang and others have all keenly discovered this sign, although they are faintly uneasy in their hearts, but with Liu Zhi's stubborn personality now, it is not easy to work hard.

After all, the decisions made by Liu Zhi were all from a good starting point, and the policy was not wrong, but it was just too hasty.

Just like a half-grown teenager, before he grows up, he is in a hurry to be pulled onto the battlefield to fight, no matter how powerful he is, he lacks experience and adaptability, and the result is naturally very dangerous.

After Xun Shuang left, the second person to enter the palace to ask to see was Chen Yu, and it was obvious that he had thought it through.

"Your Majesty, the old minister is willing to take people to the northwest to explore the terrain to see what the situation is and whether these water conservancy projects should be built.

If necessary, how to build it, so as to not only meet the national conditions, but also achieve the goal. ”

In other words, so far, Chen Yu still has not expressed his position, but with his usual style of acting, he naturally speaks with facts.

In his eyes, all arguments are empty buildings without any foundation, so his opinion is that only when the investigation is clear, can he have a real right to speak.

"The exploration work must be done, but Chen Gong has more important things, so stay in the capital and help me.

Leave exploration to young people, and they need to hone more. ”

Chen Yu did not insist and immediately surrendered to orders, but Liu Zhi put aside the northwest issue and talked about the situation in the northeast.

His title of Governor of the Northeast, although it is said to be the second grade, is really a temporary position.

Even if he was officially transferred back from Zhuozhou by the official edict this time, he still didn't have an official title, so he hung it without embarrassment.

However, Chen Yu himself didn't mind at all, but was calm and calm, and in general, for him, as long as he could contribute to the country, it didn't matter what grade of position.

This point has made many people admire, the Manchu Dynasty civil and military, in addition to him, there are several people who can do it wholeheartedly for the country.

Next, Chen Fan finally belated, his position was simple, basically somewhere in between, agreeing with Liu Zhi's plan, but asking for the construction period to be postponed and extended......

Of course, it is impossible to wait for one or two decades before proceeding, as the official in the court said, and at most it will only be postponed for three or five years.

Moreover, it is best to build in sections, stabilize little by little, and at the same time encourage the people in the northwest border to help themselves, and open the door for them to make it easier in terms of policy......

Two days later, Liu Zhi convened the court meeting again, and regardless of whether they agreed in their hearts or not, on the surface, the ministers of the DPRK and China basically unified their voices.

Liu Zhi is naturally happy to see this result, because the continuous drought of 200 years did not take place overnight, and soil erosion requires a long-term treatment process.

The most important thing is not to build water conservancy projects immediately, but to raise everyone's attention, and then consciously protect the environment in the northwest and slow down the process of desertification.

After this operation, the court once again learned the emperor's extremely stubborn side, although he did not force the order, but used his own way to force them to make concessions.

Obviously unwilling, in the end, everyone actively made suggestions and was very enthusiastic, just to minimize the pressure caused by this matter to the imperial court.

The emperor said a word, but it was they who were nerve-wracking, mobilizing people, preparing materials, and raising food...... It's as easy as it gets.

Chen Yu came forward to select personnel from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household to conduct a large-scale survey of the hydrological and geographical conditions of the northwest.

The team brought together a large number of craftsmen who were involved in the design of the Grand Canal, and they all had extensive experience in surveying and designing routes.

At that time, he had followed Chen Yu and traveled all over the mountains and rivers of the Central Plains, although Liu Zhi had already planned the big route at that time, but the specific plan still needed to do a lot of work.

When the Grand Canal was built, in order to save time, the method of going hand in hand with sections was adopted, and multiple lines were started at the same time, which was a huge test for the commander-in-chief Chen Yu.

If he hadn't cultivated a group of pragmatic and hard-working grassroots officials from among the craftsmen, how could he solve these thorny problems?

Now, under the promotion of Chen Yu, these craftsmen have become the backbone of the Ministry of Industry, and the old boss sent a message, and under an order, they were formed as quickly as possible.

Going to the northwest is very different from the Central Plains, where the territory is vast, the geographical conditions are changeable, and the mountains and rivers and Gobi are all uninhabited, which is extremely challenging.

The exploration team is divided into 12 detachments, which go to different areas, which are carefully selected by professionals.

It is distributed in Youzhou, Bingzhou, Liangzhou, Xizhou, Hun Zhou, Wuzhou, and Liaozhou, etc., of which Xizhou and Liaozhou are the focus.

As for Connecticut and Wanzhou, there is no need to think about it, which has already passed the Himalayas, and is affected by the Indian Ocean monsoon climate, with abundant rain.

Even if there is a drought, it will not last for one or two hundred years.

Although the water resources of Liangzhou, Bingzhou, Youzhou and other places are not as abundant as those in the Central Plains, they are much better than those in the northwest.

What's more, the Grand Canal has extended to Chang'an at the farthest, and not far ahead, it has entered Liangzhou, and Zhuo County in Youzhou has already opened the canal, and it will not cost much to repair it further.

Relatively speaking, it is a little more troublesome to merge the state, but fortunately, the water resources of the merger state are quite passable, and it is really not possible to pass through the Fenshui diversion ditch, which can be regarded as solving some of the problems.

The most difficult ones are still Xizhou and Hun Prefecture, the road is far away, and it is impossible to divert water from the Central Plains, so the cost is too high.

You can only make an idea on the snowy mountains, since the continuous drought, it also means that the temperature will rise, and the ice and snow in the snow-capped mountains will melt a lot.

If we can find a way to make use of all this snow water, we should be able to solve the problem of drinking water, and then intervene in advance to preserve the existing lakes and oases as much as possible.

As early as the Western Han Dynasty, the Western Regions had begun to build qanats, and after Liu Zhi stabilized the situation in the Western Regions, he carried out a reasonable transformation of the original form of qanats, and then vigorously promoted them.

Therefore, the drinking water in the Western Regions is mainly supplied by qanats, and this advantage can continue to be carried forward.

However, even in the modern era of industrial development, solving the problem of drinking water in the northwest is still an extremely severe test.

Experts have proposed a variety of plans, such as bringing Bohai into Xinjiang or Tibet into Xinjiang, and expanding the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

But in the end, none of these plans actually came to fruition, and there is only one reason, and the problem that these ministers are worried about now, that is, the cost is really prohibitive.

Even a country of this magnitude cannot afford it.

However, Liu Zhi thinks that the diversion of Tibetan water into the Western Regions, or it can be considered, there was a plan called the Hongqi River in modern times.

It is to enter Xinjiang from the edge of the border between Tibet and Xinjiang, and take advantage of the altitude difference between the two sides to let the water flow through on its own.

The entire amount of work was indeed much smaller than other plans, but in later generations, it encountered an insurmountable problem, which finally led to the stranding of the Hongqi River plan.

The problem is the desertification of Xinjiang, through which water passes, and as soon as it enters the vast desert, it falls directly into it, and it is impossible to pass through it at all.

The slender ditch in the desert is technically difficult to pass, and eventually the Hongqi River is lost, and many people even think that it is a scam of the century.

However, in the Eastern Han Dynasty 1,900 years ago, this problem was easily solved, after all, at this time, the Western Regions were full of oases, abundant water and grass, and the desert area was much less than that of later generations.

Originally, Liu Zhi didn't know much about these things, even in his previous life, he didn't care about it seriously, but he just vaguely listened to it.

These days, he has been thinking hard, carefully observing and thinking in front of the map every day, and the more he looks, the more desperate he feels, is there really no way to solve the water source problem in the Western Regions?

The so-called thinking by day and dreaming by night, he had been looking at the map before he fell asleep that day, and after falling asleep in a daze, he suddenly woke up.

"Zhang Rang, quickly bring me a pen and paper."

Zhang Rang, who was on duty at night, heard his call, and immediately trained him and handed him the things as fast as he could.

Liu Zhi excitedly waved his pen on the paper, and after a while, he got up again to look at the map, writing while reading, his expression revealing excitement.

After a while, he finally recorded what he saw in his dream, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Hahaha...... Zhang Rang, I'm so happy, God really help me! Haha......"

Although he didn't understand what the emperor was for, this did not prevent Zhang Rang from sincerely accompanying him to be happy.

"Your Majesty is blessed with the sky, and with the blessing of the Emperor of Heaven, you will naturally be able to be in trouble, haha......"

The two were happy for a while, Liu Zhi missed the dozing, and when he saw that it was still early, he simply got up and chatted with Zhang Rang.

Since he was critically ill that year, Zhang Rang was alone, and he traveled thousands of miles to Chaoge to see him, and Liu Zhi was moved and left him behind.

At first, it was just a middle yellow door, and now it has been promoted to the position of internal supervisor, but his responsibilities have not changed, and he still serves Liu Zhi closely.

This time he returned to the court, there was a clear difference from before, he was no longer keen on power and wealth, but just stayed quietly by Liu Zhi's side, always waiting for his orders.

His family is basically gone, living alone in this world, in his heart, Liu Zhi is his heaven, his spiritual pillar, and his last relative.

And Liu Zhi has long been accustomed to his company, looking at Zhang Rang, who is obviously one year younger than himself, but his face is full of vicissitudes, and he sighed.

"Zhang Rang, tell me, if I was still the Marquis of Liwu and didn't marry the daughter of the Liang family back then, what should we do now?"

After thinking about it, Zhang Rangcai replied, "Although Liwu County is a small place, it is also rich in production, and Your Majesty has a good life of food and clothing, which is still very different."

Now it is estimated that he has long been full of children and grandchildren, and he goes out to hunt every day and enjoys the joy of family. ”

What he is talking about is also the life of some ordinary royal county marquis, doing nothing every day, leisurely and leisurely, although it is not so noble, but the life is not too comfortable.

When Liu Zhi had just crossed over and woke up from the sickbed, the first person he saw was Zhang Rang, who heard that he was a royal county marquis, and he was very happy.

thought that he could live a good life without worrying about food and clothing, but who knew that he was ordered by the Empress Dowager Liang to be his sister-in-law, and since then he has embarked on a turbulent road of no return.

I can't say that he won't regret it later, after all, at that time, he couldn't help himself, and he couldn't decide his fate at all.

But if he didn't become the emperor, then today's Han Dynasty is already on the verge of collapse as in history, with external and internal troubles.

However, no one can change what has happened, and Liu Zhi and Zhang Rang just sighed by chance.

"Go and move a charcoal stove, let's make a hot pot and talk while eating."

As an emperor, no matter what you want to eat, as long as you can do it in this era, you can achieve it.

Therefore, more than 20 years ago, he promoted the new cooking method of hot pot in the capital.

Now it has become a delicacy that everyone from the royal family and nobles to the common people are very keen on from top to bottom.

His Majesty is in high spirits, Zhang Rang will not stop him, this time when he comes back, because Liu Zhi is not in good health, he has rarely eaten spicy dishes anymore.

Occasionally, a hot pot is also a clear soup base, which is not enjoyable at all.

Therefore, he specially instructed, "Serve a little spicy to relieve your cravings." ”

Regarding his diet and daily life, Zhang Rang often communicated with the imperial doctor who was in charge of his health, and naturally knew that he could already eat a small amount of chili, so he did not object.

The hot pot is very easy to prepare, there is a boiled base in the palace, and a dozen side dishes can be started directly as soon as they are served.