Xu Xing received Li Shimin's warning, and he immediately saluted: "The minister obeys the order." ”

"Well, yes, then you lead the way. I think the farmland near Zibo County is doing well, is there a lot of people who have migrated here? Li Shimin asked curiously.

"Yes. Many people have migrated from mountainous areas and other areas where there is a shortage of fields, and the distribution of land and other work has been put in place, and this year's grain output has increased by 70 percent over the whole year. Xu Xing immediately opened his mouth to report.

"It's a good job, ensuring food production is one thing, so that the people can live a better life is another aspect, is there a requirement for the people to farm now?" Li Shimin asked curiously.

It's also strange to say, he Li Shimin has actually not asked much about the government for nearly two years, although he also looks at it, but only to take a general look, to understand a rough, specific matters are all Li Ke is doing.

He was not interested at all at that time, but now that he has suddenly become the emperor, Li Shimin is interested in these things instead.

Of course, he was just interested, just wanted to know something, but he didn't want to meddle at all.

It's nothing to do! This kind of inquiry, which is more like traveling, is in a pleasant mood to watch Datang get better little by little.

But if these questions are for the sake of court affairs, then it may not be.

"No, now the imperial court has tried a new policy this year, that is, in addition to requiring the people to sell a certain amount of food, there is no longer a mandatory requirement for the people to plant anything."

"And the people are required to sell a certain amount of grain to the Tang Grain Reserve, in order to ensure the grain planting area of the Tang Dynasty and avoid food shortages, as for the remaining part of the people, they can plant whatever they want."

"Now the people's cultivation structure is also more freewheeling, such as the corn that began to be promoted this year, there are many people who have planted, these corn is also a kind of grain, although the taste of cornmeal is rough, not as good as wheat and rice, the staple food, but I heard that the yield of corn per mu can also reach 1,000 catties!"

"And corn stalks can be used as feed for pack horses, cattle and sheep in winter, which is very good. However, according to the instructions of the Ministry of Agriculture, corn should be rotated every few years. Xu Xing gave the answer as soon as possible.

"It's good, but when I walked on the road before, I saw a lot of people returning en masse with farm tools, what's going on?" Li Shimin asked again.

"It is a water conservancy project arranged during the agricultural slack time. It is estimated that it will last for many years, and the imperial court has given a special appropriation. Xu Xing replied immediately.

"Building water conservancy? What kind of water conservancy is built here. Li Shimin was stunned for a moment, he really didn't know much about this.

"It is about the Yellow River, and according to the documents jointly issued by the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and other departments, some water conservancy experts of the Ministry of Construction have been surveying the situation of the Yellow River within the scope of the entire Shandong Province."

"Historically, the Yellow River has been diverted several times, and because of soil erosion on the Loess Plateau upstream, the Yellow River carries a large amount of sediment downstream, and according to the county records of these counties near the Bohai Sea, much of the land in these counties is now due to the impact of the sediment carried by the Yellow River over the past hundreds of years."

"And now the Yellow River bed is also rising, and the Yellow River may also be diverted in the future, and if it is diverted at that time, it may cause huge losses."

"So now some areas have begun to survey, widen part of the river, and consider whether to establish a backup channel for the Yellow River according to the topography of the river." Xu Xing said quickly.

Li Shimin was a little amazed, he didn't expect Li Ke to think so far, and now he began to survey the course of the Yellow River.

Shouldn't the normal practice be to build water conservancy in the current river and treat the sediment in the current river? Is this a backup measure?

But what Li Shimin didn't know was that the harm caused by the number of diversions of the Yellow River in history was a huge number, not to mention the number of people who died each time.

And now that Datang has stabilized, it is impossible for Li Ke to sit back and watch this kind of thing happen.

Fortunately, the current Yellow River channel of the Tang Dynasty has changed from the estuary of Tianjin in the Western Han Dynasty to the estuary of the Yellow River in later generations.

However, after flowing for a thousand years, this river channel will be diverted again in the Northern Song Dynasty to the north back to the mouth of the sea in Tianjin, and then in the Southern Song Dynasty, until the Ming and Qing dynasties, it will enter the sea from Binhai County, Yancheng, Jiangsu Province.

It was not until 1855 that it was diverted to the modern Yellow River.

It can be said that in the entire land of Shandong, the Yellow River does not know how many people have been harmed.

Since Datang now has this strength and the ability to take precautions, Li Ke must have to investigate it in advance, mainly to let people in water conservancy and other areas pay attention to it.

Even if the current Yellow River will not be diverted in 400 years, and after Li Ke reformed the Loess Plateau upstream, it is impossible to say that the Yellow River will be completely stabilized.

"It's a good job, it's really right to take precautions, but when you are taking precautions, the wages of the people to work cannot be delayed, and the most important thing is to strictly investigate the behavior of the people below who deduct rations and monthly money." Li Shimin explained two sentences.

"Yes!"

While asking all the way, Li Shimin followed the other party into Zibo County.

This county town is not big, but the people he saw on the road made Li Shimin very pleased, these people were wearing good linen clothes, and their faces were full of smiles.

At the very least, Li Shimin has not met many people with yellow faces and thin muscles, although these people are not fat, but they are also not thin with yellow muscles, obviously after the people have been able to eat enough in the past few years, this body is naturally much stronger than before.

The point is that Li Shimin saw a lot of children playing on the road, and many children actually memorized some poems in their mouths, and some books such as thousand-character essays to be able to hear things.

And these things, in the past, the children of these ordinary families had no chance to come into contact with at all, and it is obvious that many of their children here have gone to school.

"What is the percentage of people in Zibo County who go to school?" Li Shimin asked.

"It's a lot more than last year, since last year's His Majesty's national examination, many people have sent their children to school this year, especially when His Majesty ascended the throne some time ago, which also made many people send their children to school."

"It's just that most of the ordinary people still send more boys than girls, and most of them are boys." Xu Xing hesitated.

"This is indeed a problem, but some of Li Ke's current policies are right, and many female official positions have been given in the court, and with the expansion of these female official positions, more and more girls will be sent to the academy by the people of the Tang Dynasty." Li Shimin nodded.