Immigration continued until around the summer solstice before finally ending. Immigrants who came early could still plant a crop in time, but those who came late could not grow any food at all. These strong men can only continue to build roads to earn some food for themselves and the whole family without having to dig all the wild vegetables. As a result, the road construction army gradually expanded and slowly returned to nearly ten thousand people. At this time, with the harvest of the first batch of planted grain, the food supply tension was relieved to some extent.
After the manpower was increased, the progress of road construction returned to the original state: the road was completed in Yishi more than half a month later, where the famous businessman Yidun started. Regarding the story of Yidun, Zhang Lu came into contact with it during his study tour. He accepted Fan Li's guidance and started his business in animal husbandry in Yi's family. He gradually expanded his business to the salt industry and jade industry, and eventually became rich. Zhang Lu wanted to recreate Yidun's glory in Yishi. When the road approached Yishi, he began to inquire about Yidun's descendants. But the result made him very disappointed. The residents here were all Qin people who immigrated from Guanzhong, and there were almost no indigenous people here. These Qin people tenaciously reclaimed a small acre of land in a wasteland, planted food, and fought against the wildly growing weeds every day to protect their harvest.
Zhang Lu wrote a letter to Pi Wan, saying: "The Yi clan has been established, so we can move to herd there. The grass is very rich!" After Pi Wan received the letter, he immediately moved almost all the herdsmen from the three counties to the Yi clan. . The road construction army also stopped again to build houses for immigrants. This time it is not a simple hut, but a gathering under the unified arrangement of Yishi County. ——Only farmers are organized in the three counties along the river. Herders are still scattered, because there are no large tracts of pasture along the river, so they can only graze sporadically, and there are not many livestock.
After the herdsmen arrived at Yishi, the vast pastures were refreshing and there was barely enough space for the livestock to graze. Zhang Lu asked all counties to gather herdsmen and livestock here.
Unlike farmers who are self-cultivating farmers, herdsmen are not "self-herders". They are considered workers of the government, and their food is supplied by the government. One of Zhang Lu's important tasks is to discuss the food supply to the herdsmen with the Yi family. There is a serious shortage of Yi farmers. Obviously, it is impossible for them to bear the food supply of herdsmen. But the main significance of raising cattle and sheep for food is self-evident. Yishi Ling is a rough man, and it is impossible to conduct economic calculations with him; but Yishi Ling has one advantage: he resolutely implements the instructions of his superiors. After accounting, Zhang Lu proposed an injunctive plan to the Yi family: for every sheep or cow the Yi family raised, they would receive one stone of grain per year; one stone of wool would be handed over, and one stone of grain would be paid; the cattle would be rented to farmers once for farming, and one stone of grain would be paid; if When sheep and cattle die, their skins and meat can be converted into grain at the price.
Although Zhang Lu increased food subsidies to the Yi family, the Yi family was not satisfied with the order because the territory was full of herdsmen and it was difficult for him to organize an army. Zhang Lu praised his addition, adding horses to the types of livestock! This time Yishi was satisfied.
When the road passed through Jie County, Zhang Lu finally took action against the salt merchants and announced that all salt ponds would be taken over by the government. The salt merchants cried out loudly, and some even secretly carried out violent resistance. Zhang Lu beheaded dozens of resisting salt merchants by the Sushui River. Their blood dyed the river red! At the same time, Zhang Lu announced that salt merchants could participate in the operation of official salt, which was divided into several parts such as salt drying, salt production, sales and transportation according to the process. Each salt merchant could only participate in one of the processes. Tools for making salt and livestock for transportation were also provided by the government. Each process obtains corresponding grain according to the results of labor.
After stipulating the corresponding systems and methods, Zhang Lu continued to build roads. Before this, Zhang Lu built a road from Anyi along Zhongtiao Mountain to Yanchi, and then to Wucheng and Maojin. Now, another road has been built along the Sushui River to Anyi: there are two roads connecting Jie County to Anyi, thus strengthening the connection between the two places.
After entering Anyi, craftsmen previously sent by Pishi had repaired several kilns and were trying to resume the production of pottery, iron, copper and other utensils. Carpenters also repaired several buildings. The Anyi order wanted Zhang Lu to let migrant workers repair the city, but Zhang Lu refused. He believed that the repair of the city in Anyi could not be done by migrant workers with titles, but that it would be done with prisoners after order in Hedong was restored.
The road continued to extend forward, and finally one month after the construction of the Yishi, the road was built to the mouth of Sushui Valley. The reason it took so long was because in Jie County, in order to suppress the resistance of the salt merchants, the road construction army stayed for half a month.
Zhang Lu invited Pi Wan, who was left behind to handle immigration and economic work, here to discuss with him whether and in which direction to build the road to Quwo.
It is the height of summer, and the valley is in full bloom. Except for a few farmers farming, almost no one walks here. The road is hidden in the grass. Unlike before, although the road is not flat, the traces of trampled roads and The direction is clear at a glance. But here, a path must be carved out of the wild grass, and we don’t know where the path will lead.
In the wilderness, the only signpost that can indicate the road is the Sushui River. After some deliberation, Zhang Lu and Pi Wan decided to build the road along the Sushui River first. The soil in the valley is not as crunchy as outside. It has become very dense due to the plants. Building roads here is almost equivalent to clearing land.
Find out all the iron shovels still left in each county and transport them to the mouth of the valley. The crowd turned over the grass like ditches and ridges. It also became very difficult to get soil. In the end, they found that instead of digging on the spot, it would be easier to get soil from outside the valley.
According to the changes in working conditions, the headquarters promptly adjusted the labor allocation and organized a special team to carry earth and earth, so the progress of road construction naturally slowed down. After about half a month of repairing, Zhang Lu discovered a wide valley mouth, and a small stream flowed out of the valley and poured into Sushui. Judging from the traces at the entrance of the valley, there are quite a lot of pedestrians here, and it seems to be an important passage on one side. Zhang Lu sent people to guard the valley entrance. When he met pedestrians, he only asked them where they came from, where they were going, and where the valley exit was. Travelers often travel in groups, forming teams of hundreds of people to move collectively. When they suddenly see a large number of soldiers appearing in the valley, they are all surprised.
It only took a few days for Zhang Lu and the others to understand that they had found the entrance to Zhi Dao!
After confirming the news, everyone present was shocked. The Zhidao that he had been thinking about was actually right in front of him. Zhang Lu suddenly remembered that a pedestrian came out of Zhi Road. He quickly sent people back to Anyi to look for the pedestrian who entered Zhi Road that time. These travelers had already returned to Xianyang. Zhang Lu immediately compiled a book, reported his findings, and asked Xianyang to look for the pedestrians who returned from Anyi at the beginning of the year and the pedestrians who followed the Wei army into Zhi Road.
More than ten days later, Xianyang finally found all the pedestrians and sent them to Anyi again. Zhang Lu and others met them in Anyi. The last time these travelers came to Anyi, Anyi was still very dilapidated. This time, although it was not that good, it was much prosperous, especially the construction of roads, which immediately improved the taste of Anyi.
After Zhang Lu met with them, Zhang Lu asked them to recall the location of Zhe Road. So the pedestrians took Zhang Lu and others up the Sushui River, and as expected they entered the valley with a small stream flowing out. Then, a group of pedestrians pointed out to Zhang Lu and others that they could go to Tang, Yi, Jiang and other places along this road.
After confirming the location of Zhidao and the strategic importance of this valley, Zhang Lu and others saw off the pedestrians, who were all shocked. Everyone thinks they have found a treasure here! With almost no hesitation, the architectural plan for this valley was developed. Quwo is naturally the first position to attack. But when Anyi was still weak, it was necessary to establish a support position in this valley, on the one hand to accumulate food for the next move, and on the other hand to provide a cover for Anyi.
At this time, the road had been built into the valley under the Jinhou Cemetery. Zhang Lu met with the old Jin people guarding the tomb and said that he was just passing by to build a road and had no other intentions. At the same time, the tombs of Jin kings were visited, especially the tomb of Duke Wen of Jin.
A few days later, the road was finally built to Quwo, which meant that the entire road construction project in Hedong had been completed. Qu Woling prepared a grand banquet for Zhang Lu and his party, and all the migrant workers also had a pot of meat soup and a plate of salted plums.
Zhang Lu asked Qu Woling and Wei to move to the valley behind the mountain, and arranged half of the migrant workers in this valley. He requested that Quwoling must develop in a hidden way and not easily show signs that a large number of people have immigrated, so as to avoid being taboo and attacked by others. After all preparations are completed, a thunderous strike will be launched. Although Qu Woling didn't know the specific deployment of Zhang Lu and others, he knew that he would play an important role in a major military operation, and he was very excited.
Quwo Cheng stayed in Quwo outside the mountain and managed the daily affairs of the city. Qu Wo Ling and Qu Wo Wei both retreated to the valley behind the mountain to arrange immigration. The water and grass here are abundant and suitable for farming. Some people have reclaimed the land here before, but it is not the focus of production. Now, Quwo wants to shift the focus of production from the front of the mountain to the back of the mountain.
Migrant workers who were arranged to immigrate to Quwo gradually moved their families along the road. Qu Woling measured the land, demarcated the settlements, and organized the villages. Since Qin Law has detailed provisions in this regard, officials and people were all very familiar with it, and they quickly got on track.
Although the Wei people in Quwo have also retreated, because Quwo is located at the junction of various countries, many people still immigrated there, and the surrounding city outside the mountain is also very prosperous. Now that the farming season has passed, it can be used to open up wasteland. At Pi Wan's prompting, Qu Woling allowed the families of these immigrants to graze behind the mountains to provide them with food so that they could survive this period of land reclamation.
Of the 17,000 to 8,000 people, more than 3,000 will eventually return to Shangjun. Since the project was finished, Zhang Lu asked Dr. Gong to take them back. But Dr. Gong first went back to Shangjun. When he came back, he said that although the disaster situation in Shangjun had been alleviated, too much food had been consumed in the past few months and the treasury was basically empty. If these three thousand people are allowed to go back, they will only suffer from hunger. Please ask Hedong to find some work for them and come back after the New Year.
