Wang Cheng's southern expedition went well and soon captured Guilin.

However, after the army marched south, the transportation of grain and grass became more and more difficult. The roads are difficult to travel, the weather is hot, and all kinds of poisonous insects and miasma have been plaguing the southern expeditionary army.

After defeating the Baiyue barbarians around Guilin, Wang Cheng temporarily stopped and began to write to Wang Luo, drawing more men and horses to support him.

At the same time, Wang Cheng also found that the distance between the Li River and the Xiangshui River in Guilin was only a few dozen miles away, and as long as a canal connecting the two rivers was dug, then you could take a boat from Guilin to Jinling.

When Guilin enters the Li River, it can continue to go south into the sea, and the land of Baiyue is unimpeded, and at that time, Daqian can completely rely on water transportation to conquer Baiyue without worrying about transportation problems.

Xiangshui flows all the way north into the Yangtze River, and then goes down the river, and soon comes to Jiangxia, where you can enter the Han River to the north, or you can continue to go down the river into Jinling. Daqian's supplies can go all the way south along Xiangshui to Guilin.

With water transportation, it saves a lot of time and makes it easy to transport supplies. The overland journey from Han Pingyuan all the way south was too difficult. Hundreds of stones of grain and grass are transported from Jinling, and when people eat horses and chew until Guilin, there are only about 30% left.

What's more, it takes a long time, at least two months. The manpower and material resources consumed in it are too high. On the contrary, water transportation is much more convenient, with a maximum loss of only 20%, and the capacity of human and animal transportation is reduced by 70%, and the time is only one month.

As long as this canal is dug up, this Lingnan land will be completely taken.

Wang Cheng carefully recorded the topographic maps of the mountains and rivers along the way, and then sent people to Jinling.

Jinling, Changyang Palace.

It has been more than two years since Wang Cheng led the troops to the south, and Wang Luo was very happy during the period when the good news was frequent. In the past two years, since the reform of the imperial court, the operation of the imperial court has become more and more smooth. Under the mutual restraint of the left and right prime ministers and Shang Shutai, it was no longer possible to threaten the imperial power, and at the same time, the tripartite handling of affairs also improved the efficiency of the Daqian court.

Luoyang, the capital of the gods, is also building rapidly, and the galloping roads in various places are also expanding. The length of the road has increased from 800 li to 1,500 li.

While building the Shendu Luoyang, Wang Luo also continued to enrich the population of the Shendu Luoyang. At the same time, the noble family of Daqian has also begun to move to Luoyang.

Moving the capital is already a sure thing, and no one dares to disobey the will of His Majesty the Emperor Wang Luo, so it is very important to go to Luoyang to grab territory.

Wang Luo knew very well that he had ordered in advance to collect most of the land around Luoyang and sent an inspector to inspect the imperial history. Those nobles had no choice but to go further afield to seize land.

At the same time, Wang Luo began to draw rich and powerful households from all over the country to prepare to fill Luoyang. The scale of Luoyang City can accommodate 400,000 people, and the surrounding area can also accommodate 300,000, but now the population around Luoyang is less than 200,000, and the gap is too big to meet the status of the capital of a country.

From Jinling to Luoyang, Wang Luo will take at least 200,000 people, or even more. The remaining shortage of hundreds of thousands of people naturally has to be drawn from the rich and powerful households from all over the country.

The rich and powerful in various places are some local tyrants, Wang Luo is very clear about the virtues of these people, their existence is not conducive to the rule of the grassroots cadres, although from the Huai period, Wang Luo's ancestors have always suppressed the strong, but move away a group, there will be a new batch in a few decades.

The Six Kingdoms were destroyed and the nobles were liquidated, but the heroes were still there, and they took advantage of this opportunity to forcibly relocate these heroes. And Wang Luo and those nobles of Daqian have formed a tacit understanding, and Wang Luo forcibly ordered these heroes to move over.

These heroes are local tigers and soil overlords, but when they come to a place like Luoyang, where they are unfamiliar with life, they are a fat sheep, who was cut and squeezed by the founding fathers of the great cadres, and finally became ordinary people. Then enrich the population of Luoyang.

Through such migration of wealthy households, the local area became easy to manage, Luoyang got the population, and Wang Luo and the nobles also got a lot of benefits, a win-win situation.

Shang Shu ordered Wei Ling to take a step forward and said: "Your Majesty, General Zhengnan has written to dig a canal connecting Xiangshui and the Li River to conquer Lingnan and transport the army's food and materials. ”

"Digging a canal?" Wang Luo frowned, and then said, "Do you have a plan?" ”

"Yes." Saying that, Shang Shuling sent the bamboo slip respectfully.

Wang Luo opened the bamboo slips, and Wang Cheng had already written down the reasons and benefits of digging the canal, as well as the grain and grass needed. After seeing that after the construction of the canal, it was possible to take the waterway from Jinling to Lingnan, and Wang Luo was immediately interested.

Wang Cheng has already sent someone to investigate, and the Li River can go directly to Panyu and the capital of Xiou. If it can be done, the land of Lingnan will be in the bag.

"According to what the emperor said, the canal that needs to be dug is only a few dozen miles, and if it can be dug successfully, the waterway can go straight from Jinling to Lingnan."

"Your Majesty, the craftsman supervisor has sent someone to Guilin to investigate, and I believe he will come back soon."

"If the situation is true, then the edict ordered the craftsman to send someone to preside over the digging of the canal, and at the same time order the Taifu to allocate grain and grass materials to Guilin."

"Yes!" Everyone agreed.

In the eyes of Wang Luo and the ministers of the imperial court, it is very cost-effective, although it costs a lot to dig a canal, but whether it is politically or economically, it will obtain huge benefits, which can be called a million profits.

"If Lingnan is determined, I will have thousands of miles of land, these lands are full of barbarians, and we need to send a large army to suppress them, if we want to have long-term peace and stability, and completely turn into the land of my summer, we also need to implement the royal Taoism for a long time, and migrate the people to live." Sun Qian stepped forward and said.

"Your Majesty, please also ask for permission to exile the prisoners of crime to Lingnan in order to enrich the population of Lingnan."

"Accurate!" With Wang Luo's edict, from today onwards, exile in Lingnan has officially become the punishment of the great cadres.

The Lingnan Canal soon passed a resolution, and then began to allocate money, food, and manpower to Lingnan to dig the canal. Because Lingnan is located in the south, the climate is hot, and the roads are inconvenient, Wang Luo did not transfer too many people.

Instead, they are going to send a lot of master craftsmen to work as supervisors, as well as various craftsmen. These people are technicians, who are responsible for guiding the excavation of the canal, and Wang Cheng is responsible for preparing the manpower used in the excavation of the canal.

Wang Cheng sent troops to defeat the Baiyue barbarians near Guilin and captured a large number of people, who were used to dig canals. Only Huai Guo needs to supply money, food, weapons, tools, and various craftsmen. The rest of the large amount of manual labor can be done by these captives.

(End of chapter)