King Qin listened carefully to Wei Ran's introduction, and then asked, "Why do you plan this?"
Wei Ran said: "From Shangdang to Handan and Dao Taihang, the distance and distance are about the same, but the dangers are great. If we don't win with surprise troops, we can't go out on the main road to attack."
The King of Qin said: "This matter will be discussed later. The Queen Mother has granted me a marriage, and the young master has already agreed. I should report my marriage to Chu. I am an orphaned young girl who does not want to marry far away, but wants to marry close to me. I hope all the ministers will make it happen!" Everyone responded.
The King of Qin asked Zhang Lu again: "You have already passed through Shu. Where should you pass now?"
Zhang Lu thought for a while and said: "Anyi's new service has intertwined forces, and I am willing to connect with them."
The King of Qin looked at the rest of the people and asked, "After Qiu's visit to Anyi, what do you think?"
Wei Ran said: "I believe that the use of troops in the Autumn period should be used to expand territory and not to build roads."
Zhang Lu said: "Anyi has been Qin for several years, but the taxes are not paid, and it is unable to protect itself. It is not only useless, but also harms the national strength. What is it? The land is far away and the situation is inconvenient. If the army comes day and night, Qin's law will be established, and the grass will be destroyed." It must be cultivated. And there are salt ponds in Anyi, and the world depends on them. If they are connected, there will be the Dan of Ba in the south and the salt of Anyi in the north. They will circulate all over the world, and wealth will be gathered."
Mi Rong said: "Zhang Qing's praise and praise are based on Dan; Tong'anyi's meaning is salt. The contrast of red and white must bring good news." Everyone laughed, and the matter was settled.
The King of Qin said: "The troops of the Queen of Autumn are far away in time. Don't be too late to seek marriage from Chu." Everyone should retreat.
Mi Rong is solely responsible for liaising with Chu State. In fact, it is just troublesome, but not difficult at all. After envoys came and went for half a year, the King of Chu seemed to reluctantly agree that the Prince of Chu would stay in Qin to get married. What both parties deliberately avoided talking about was when they would return to China after getting married.
Xianyang began to build a palace for the Prince of Chu. Chu State also sent people to bring betrothal gifts, and the relationship between Chu and Qin quickly became heated and became a hot topic in the capitals of various countries.
Since the prince was given the marriage, Huang Xie has not stopped. The King of Chu only needs to send envoys over, and he must always face the Queen Mother, King Qin and other ministers, dealing with complex relationships. He has a dual identity. He is both an important minister of the King of Chu and the father-in-law of the prince. Many times, the King of Chu will let him make decisions. This kind of idea involving the relationship between two major countries is so easy to get! Fortunately, the prince and the princess seemed to like each other very well, so no accidents occurred.
Qin Chu's marriage became a central event in diplomacy for a while. Envoys from various countries came to Qin and Chu one after another to inquire about various news, speculate on the relationship between the two countries, and decide their own policies. Even the State of Zhao, which had always been dissatisfied with Qin, sent its official Zheng Zhu to express its willingness to restore friendly relations between the two countries. Ranghou and King Qin had important diplomatic talks almost every ten days.
Neither diplomacy nor wedding preparations had anything to do with Zhang Lu. As soon as the plowing started, Zhang Lu began to take people to Anyi to inspect and prepare for road construction after the autumn harvest. Since he became the guest minister, he has been able to find engineering design and supervision personnel from the master craftsmen, and Huang Xie's support is no longer necessary. But he still went to Huang Xie's place, found Mr. Che You and others, and made a serious calculation.
As early as three hundred years ago, Anyi was a fiefdom of Wei. After Wei became a vassal, Anyi built a tall city and became the capital. Also built at the same time was the Yuan City.
Anyi is a famous salt producing area. As early as the Shang Dynasty, some people made money selling salt here. After entering the Jin Dynasty, the Jin State always attached great importance to commerce. The salt industry in Anyi was an important financial pillar of the Jin State, and a large number of wealthy merchants appeared, such as the famous Yidun. After the Qin State occupied Hexi, Anyi faced the Qin State directly; on the other hand, with the decline of Zheng, Wei and other states, Shandong was very attracted to the emerging princes relative to Shanxi. The three Jin Dynasties unanimously moved their capitals from Shanxi to Shandong; but the price was that the defense of Shanxi's hometown became increasingly weak. And the first one to collapse was Anyi.
After Wei moved its capital to Daliang, Qin continued to harass the transportation lines between Anyi and Daliang. In the 21st year of King Qin's reign, Wei finally could not bear the disturbance and dedicated Anyi and the surrounding Wei lands to Qin. After Qin obtained Anyi, although nine counties were established there the next year, the Wei people were still dissatisfied. Qin had no choice but to let the Wei people return home and immigrate from Qin, and set up various preferential policies for them. However, the situation there was complicated. The three Jin Dynasties all built cities there. Their forces were intertwined and disputes continued. When the Qin people immigrated there, their number was small and they were not familiar with the local conditions. Even defense was very difficult, let alone farming with peace of mind, and the so-called salt industry was out of the question. It is really tasteless to eat and a pity to throw away.
After Anyi returned to the Qin Dynasty, it was generally called Hedong. In addition to Anyi, it also includes Weicheng and Wucheng in the south of Shannan and Hebei, the famous Yellow River ferry Puban, and the Yishi and Jie surrounding the salt pond; north of Anyi is the historical city of Quwo in the Jin State, which is also owned by the Qin State. , at least in name only; plus Fenyin, the mouth of the Fenshui River that had long been occupied by the Qin State, and Pishi on the shore of Longmen Ferry. This land has been prosperous and prosperous since ancient times and is a geomantic treasure. The legendary capital of Xia was built here; before the Zhou people entered here, this was the paradise of the Rongdi people.
Zhang Lu’s investigation first started from Puban. From the Weishui River, you can directly take a boat across the Yellow River and enter Puban. There are obvious instructions for building roads here: Shushui flows through a low-lying land.
However, the situation in the counties along the way made Zhang Lu very worried: the surrounding fields were deserted and overgrown with weeds. The Qin people obviously did not establish an effective management system here.
When the hundred-man team led by Zhang Lu entered Pu Ban, Pu Ling came to meet them. Seeing that Zhang Lu had brought so many people, he seemed very embarrassed, because there was no extra food in the public funds. Zhang Lu asked him why the vast wilderness here was deserted and uncultivated. Pu Ling pointed to the water channel: "Zhang Qing saw that the river was clear, so he must be able to irrigate it. In fact, it is not the case. The water dries up in spring and almost reaches the bottom; but when the rain comes in summer, the mountain torrents surge and are unstoppable. The fields are acres It has been destroyed many times. In the past twenty years, it has been repeatedly planted and destroyed, which has wasted manpower, so it has become desolate. Most of its young and strong people are burdened with salt ponds, and it is easy to eat on Fenbin."
Zhang Lu led people to carefully survey the river channel, and sure enough, obvious signs of flooding were visible. Zhang Lu raised his head and looked into the distance, thoughtfully, and asked: "How did the people of the Wei Dynasty live here in the past?"
Pu Ling said: "When I arrive, the Wei people have gone, the countryside has been lost, and I don't know how to make a living!"
Zhang Lu was as heavy as he could. At this time, various places in Guanzhong are busy preparing for spring plowing, but this is what it looks like here. He was even a little lucky that Wei Jun had not passed by here, otherwise he would not know what trouble would have happened.
He asked Pu Ling to gather all the county officials in the mansion tomorrow and he would lecture them.
After taking out some stored grain from the county treasury, Zhang Lu and his party had dinner, and Zhang Lu climbed up to the city to look at it. To the south is the towering Zhongtiao Mountain, and to the west is the surging Yellow River. Sushui flows through the south of the city and into the Yellow River. Zhang Lu couldn't believe that the place where the capital of Wei, the heroic lord of a generation, was so dilapidated!
The next day, Pu Ling gathered all the county officials in front of the county government, about ten of them. Zhang Lu said: "When I inspected this place, I saw that the fields were uncultivated and the city defenses were sparse, but I didn't understand the meaning. I hope you will teach me!"
Pu Ling shuddered a little and replied: "It has been eighteen years since I returned to Anyi. During this period, every ten orders were changed, and all were bad. I have lived here for many years, and I know that floods and droughts come from time to time, and the people suffer from toil." , all want to sell salt and iron, but waste their land in the fields. This is the crime of the ministers and others."
Zhang Lu said: "Encouraging farmers to use their fields is the most important thing in the countryside. The county should supervise it. What is there in the countryside now?"
Pu Ling said: "Although there are stingy people in the village, what's wrong with the lack of people in the village?"
Zhang Lu said: "How can this be true! If you travel far away without a home, how can you regard Qin's law as nothing? Now that you have a name and a home, how can you have no one?"
Zhang Lu took out Qin's method to talk about the matter. The officials did not dare to say anything and could only say: "I will go to the countryside to urge you!"
Zhang Lu said: "The weather is getting warmer. I will start farming soon. I don't wait for the time. I have been ordered by the king to patrol Anyi. Now I will go up the river. I will return in a few days. I hope that when I return, I will settle down my farmland. Be careful not to miss it!" "
Everyone had no choice but to reply: "Sincerely!"
It goes up the Sushui River, passing through Jie, Yishi, Yanchi and Anyi, and reaches Quwo directly. Quwo is right at the Jiangshan Mountain Pass. Beyond the mountain pass are the ancient Jin capitals such as Xintian, Jiangcheng, Tangcheng, and Yicheng occupied by South Korea. Surrounding both sides of the Fen River, it was the most prosperous area of the Jin State, with extensive pastoral areas. A busy scene. There are no insurmountable obstacles along the way from Puban to Quwo, which is 600 miles. It almost only requires compacting the soil to complete the project. But along the way, just like Pu Ban, the cities were in disrepair and the garrison was insufficient. Each city could not even recruit a thousand people. Zhang Lu also, like Pu Ban, strictly ordered local officials to persuade farmers to use their fields. But the results are not very good. Officials agreed in person and went to the countryside to supervise, but it was difficult to push forward.
The accompanying craftsman advised: "You are planning for the road, not for the farmers. But when you return to Xianyang and report to Marquis Rang, you must use the law to tie it down! How can you do it?"
Zhang Lu shook his head and sighed: "Anyi is to Wei, and it is fighting Qin alone. And Qin's governance was not as good as the small counties in Guanzhong. Is there any bias in its methods?"
After crossing the river from Puban, Zhang Lu did not return to Xianyang immediately, but went up the river to Xiayang. Wu Qi originally built the Great Wall here to defend the Qin army, and it was called Hexi. For hundreds of years, Qin and Wei fought repeatedly in Hexi and surrounding areas. Qin finally firmly occupied Hexi, captured Fenyin and Pishi opposite Xia Yang, and occupied the lower reaches of the Fen River. This was about fifty years ago.
The terrain here is obviously more complicated than that of Puban. Building a road from Fenyin to Pishi is okay, as long as it is built along the Fen River. But that doesn't mean much. If you continue to go up the Fen River, you will reach the old Jin land north of Jiangshan Mountain, which is now the territory of South Korea, and South Korea has strong defenses there. It is almost impossible to conquer without mobilizing heavy troops.
Fenyin and Pishi are two ferries on Longmen. In addition to Puban, Longmen is another important ferry crossing on both sides of the Xihe River. At the beginning, Wu Qi relied on Longmen Crossing to obtain war resources from Wei's rear, and won one war after another against Qin. But today, although Qin has occupied Longmendu, it is far away from its rear and it is difficult to get timely support from Xianyang. Fenyin and Pishi can only be two defensive strongholds.
