I have to say that Cheng Jingzhou guessed the emperor's thoughts.

His excerpt is written in a roundabout way, not directly asking for silver, but about how he intends to open up these wastelands, which mentions the method of adapting measures to local conditions, and naturally also mentions that some soil is of good quality and can be reclaimed into fertile land, but it is necessary to build canals and so on.

Cheng Jingzhou's excerpt was a serious procedure, and then sent to Shangshu Province, in addition, he also wrote a letter to his father-in-law, specifically asking him, wanting to ask if this matter could be done.

Xie Xiuwen has been an old fox in the officialdom for many years, and naturally understands Cheng Jingzhou's intentions, so when he specially summoned him in the saint, he mentioned the matter of digging a ditch.

As for the excerpt reported to the report, it is written very formally and has deep meaning, otherwise, he would not be able to send the excerpt of a six-grade county order to the emperor.

The excerpt not only mentions the water source and grain planting in Feng County, but also mentions the excavation of ditches and the construction of embankments, which are not only important measures to solve the demand for irrigation and ensure grain production, but also play a key role in preventing floods and protecting the safety of people's lives and property.

This point attracted great attention from Emperor Jing Wen.

That's why he summoned Xie Xiuwen in to discuss it together.

When Xie Xiuwen came over, the Ministry of Industry was also there.

The repair of water canals is indeed under the responsibility of the Ministry of Works.

"Back to the saint, what Cheng County ordered on the excerpt is indeed true, if this water conservancy can be repaired, it can indeed kill two birds with one stone. It's just that this is also a big project, which costs people and money. How to decide, but by the command of God. ”

Xie Xiuwen was silent, after all, Cheng Jingzhou was his son-in-law, at this time, it was good to just listen.

Xie Lin, the head of the household department, is also there, after all, it involves the appropriation, so the person in charge of the money bag can't help but come.

"Back to the saint, Weichen thought that this canal should be dug."

Emperor Jingwen raised his eyebrows: "Oh? Let's hear it. ”

Xie Lin said respectfully: "Back to the saint, this excerpt has also been read by Weichen, Cheng County's order is written in great detail on it, some are really far away from the water source, and the soil is desertified, then simply give up the water source in the past, but directly select some crops that are drought-resistant, which has already made great efforts to avoid labor and money." Moreover, Cheng County's order also attached a drawing, the three canals painted on it are not long, and they do not need other precious materials, and only need their local people to serve as laborers to solve the problem, Weichen thinks that this matter is feasible. ”

Xie Lin's words are tantamount to telling the Ministry of Industry that the four words of labor and money are really not counted.

After all, there was no need for the imperial court to send any more workers, only some silver needed to be allocated for those laborers to eat and drink.

How much silver does this cost?

Compared to building a palace in the palace, it is simply not worth mentioning!

These words made the Ministry of Industry Shangshu embarrassed, just digging a canal in the countryside, it is indeed not a big project, and it is not the kind of river that wants to lead to large merchant ships, he just said it is indeed exaggerated.

Emperor Jingwen looked at Xie Xiuwen: "Xie Shangshu, tell me, how should this matter be arranged?" ”

"Back to the saint, Weichen saw that the fold was written in great detail, and Cheng County's order also said, specially invited the local famous old man who repaired the canal to read it, and asked a few small officials who retired from the Ministry of Industry, presumably they also had an idea."

These words are tantamount to telling the Holy One in disguise that he is not untargeted, but that everything has been investigated.

"Well, this matter is indeed beneficial to the people, and according to Cheng Jingzhou, once these three canals can be built, at least thousands of acres of barren land can be reclaimed in Feng County, and in addition, there will be hundreds of other acres of fields to benefit, which is a good thing!"

Xie Xiuwen's mind moved, and he echoed: "What the Holy Lord said is extremely true. Even if it is calculated according to the output of 100 catties of grain per acre of land, the output of these thousands of mu is enough to feed the people of a village. ”

The Ministry of Industry Shangshu has already listened to the numbness at this time.

He also saw that the saint was obviously biased towards Cheng County's order.

Therefore, this aqueduct must be dug.

Anyway, it's not a big project, so there shouldn't be any need for the Ministry of Engineering to arrange people to go over.

It's a pity that the Ministry of Industry Shangshu wants to be left.

In Emperor Jingwen's opinion, this digging of the canal is a good thing.

Moreover, in the water control ideas of the emperors of the Great Zhi Dynasty, the ditch is the vein of flowing water, and the embankment is the barrier against flooding.

Therefore, the construction of ditches and dikes were the two major focuses of the water conservancy project in the Dazhi Dynasty.

In terms of digging ditches, this labor is still different from the construction of city walls, after all, digging canals is to improve agricultural production, so the imperial court encourages the participation of farmers, and is even willing to give some benefits to the local squires, just to let them contribute money and efforts, while ordinary people, who can eat three meals a day and perform well, can get consistent money as a reward.

In fact, this is to allow farmers to improve their own lives while also making some contributions to the construction of water conservancy projects in the imperial court.

In the construction of the embankment, it was a large-scale water conservancy project led by the imperial court.

The imperial court would employ a large amount of labor, and also consume a large amount of stone and stone sand to ensure the strength of the embankment.

Of course, this kind of labor force is required by the imperial court.

And now in the excerpt on Cheng Jingzhou, although the embankment is also mentioned, it obviously does not mean to exceed the norm, only mentioning that the embankment in Feng County needs to be reinforced, and they can recruit labor to do it at that time.

The final result was that Emperor Jingwen ordered the household department to allocate 10,000 taels to Feng County, mainly for digging canals and subsequent construction of embankments.

10,000 taels, if you even build a dike, then the designation is not enough.

But Jing Zhou didn't dare to say more, after all, if the 10,000 taels of silver were just digging a canal, it wouldn't cost much silver.

The construction of the levee will not be until the autumn, when the time comes.

Next, two county lieutenants began to recruit labor and dig canals.

Cheng Jingzhou pondered that the 10,000 taels of silver must not be spent indiscriminately, and the embankment had to be repaired in the future, so he asked the master book to keep a good account, and then ordered people to pull some of the gravel or gravel cleaned out by the officials to the empty house near the dock by ox carts, and then sent someone to guard it.

These can be used to build dikes in the future, which can save a lot of money to buy stones.

Even if they go to the mountains to get stones themselves, shouldn't they have to work hard?

So, right now, that's just right.

The three canals are naturally dug one by one.

There are many people with great strength, and the first one dug the closest to the river is only a little more than six miles in total, and in less than ten days, this canal has been dug through.

The second one was longer, almost ten miles long, and it was a big project, much more difficult than when the first one was dug.

Because when we dug the first one, everyone had just come over, and they still had more strength and energy.

Now in the second one, nearly half of this strength has been discharged.

Cheng Jingzhou saw that everyone was obviously not so energetic, so he ordered: "Give them stew meat to eat tomorrow!" ”