Zhuge Liang arrived in Changsha in mid-May.
First, he went to Changsha County to talk with Liao Li for a while, spent a few days learning about Changsha's government affairs, and then stayed for a few more days to inspect the military camp where Kou Feng belonged.
After doing these things, Zhuge Liang crossed the river in late May, arrived at the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, and found Zhang Xi's station.
In late May, it was already midsummer and it was very muggy.
But Zhuge Liang was in a good mood. He saw a large area of slightly sparse rice fields.
Well, although it's a little sparse, but yeah, it's still much better than before.
You must know that originally this place was either a swamp or a tidal flat. Even if rice could be grown, the yield would not be too high. It might be flooded in case of heavy rain.
But now, Zhang Xi has planted more than ten hectares of rice fields here, built canals and drainage ditches, and set up a camp. If it is renovated a little and houses are built, it can be regarded as a small village.
Zhuge Liang was quite satisfied and then found Zhang Xi.
Zhuge Liang didn't talk about the transformation of the field at first, but first briefly told Zhang Xi about the current changes in the situation.
After all, Zhang Xi is not really just responsible for transforming the fields. He is an important adviser to Liu Bei Group. If anything changes in the future, Liu Bei will definitely ask for his opinion.
It would be better to tell him about this change in the external situation earlier.
The current external situation is mainly divided into two aspects.
Regarding Jingzhou, Sun Quan and Liu Bei finally reached an agreement on land exchange in February. Liu Bei exchanged Jiangxia and northern Changsha for Nanjun controlled by Jiangdong.
Needless to say, Nanjun is mainly the part extending from Linju to the north and Yiling to the west. The core is Jiangling City.
Changsha is bounded by Baqiu, with Sun Quan of Jiangdong in the north and Liu Bei in the south.
After the land change, Sun Quan made Cheng Pu the prefect of Jiangxia and settled in Shaxian. He also established Hanchang County in the north of Changsha, and Lu Su temporarily took over as the prefect. Liu Bei appointed Guan Yu as a partial general, led the governor of Xiangyang, stationed in Jiangling, divided the land in the west of Nanjun to establish Yidu County, and made Zhang Fei the governor of Yidu.
But there is one thing that is very strange. It is not clear whether it is a tacit understanding between the two parties.
Zhou Yu's title of Grand Administrator of Nanjun was not revoked by Sun Quan, and Liu Bei did not appoint Guan Yu as Grand Administrator of Nanjun. Instead, he directly gave Guan Yu the title of Grand Administrator of Xiangyang, which was still under Cao Cao's control.
There is certainly hope that Guan Yu will capture Xiangyang in the future and encourage Guan Yu, but Zhou Yu seems to have given away his twenty hectares of land in Nanjun too early.
But even so, Zhou Yu was still recuperating in Chaisang. Sun Qian, the envoy to Jiangdong, came back and said that Zhou Yu's body had generally recovered. However, Sun Quan still had actual duties for Zhou Yu, so Zhou Yu still recuperated at home.
This is the current situation after the Sun and Liu families changed places. Zhang Xi feels that except Zhou Yu is still alive, he has returned to the original historical line.
As for the north, Cao Cao finally made a big move.
After two years of recuperation, Cao Cao finally planned to invade Hanzhong via Guanzhong in January this year to attack Zhang Lu.
Then it caused a backlash from the princes in Guanzhong.
At this time, the Guanzhong area, the two prefectures of Yongliang and Chang'an, including the old capital Chang'an, had actually been under the control of Ma Chao, Han Sui and others.
After all, Guanzhong is really dilapidated and there is not much value in garrisoning troops. In addition, all the princes in the Guanzhong area have nominally submitted to Cao Cao. When Cao Cao defeated the high officials in Bingzhou, the Guanzhong Allied Forces also sent troops to help, so Cao Cao has always been There was no free hand to solve this matter.
Now, on the surface, Cao Cao said he was using the road to attack Zhang Lu, but did he really think that the princes in Guanzhong didn't know about the matter of destroying Guo through the false road? !
After all, Ma Chao is also a well-known figure after General Fu Bo and Ma Yuan.
Therefore, Cao Cao's move immediately caused a backlash from the princes in Guanzhong. They united with Han Sui as the commander-in-chief, occupied Tongguan, and started a war with Cao Cao.
Then came the famous Battle of Tongguan.
When the news reached Jingzhou, the Battle of Tongguan had already ended, so the result was clear, Cao Cao won.
As for the process, there was no such thing as Xu Chu fighting Ma Chao naked, but Cao Cao was indeed killed by Ma Chao and had to cut off his beard and throw away his robe. He fled in embarrassment, and finally escaped with Xu Chu's desperate rescue.
At that time, in order to attract the attention of the allied forces in Guanzhong, Cao Cao led his troops to cross the Yellow River from Tongguan Ferry to the north, but secretly ordered Xu Huang and Zhu Ling to cross the Yellow River from Pubanjin to the west and enter Guanzhong.
Cao Cao didn't know what he was thinking. He actually let the large army cross the river before Tongguan, while he only left a few hundred people on the south bank of the Yellow River.
Ma Chao took a look and realized that if he didn't take advantage of such a good opportunity, he would be sorry for Cao Cao. He personally led the cavalry out and went straight to Cao Cao's camp.
Cao Cao was still sitting still at first. He wanted to show that he would not act in the face of danger and asked Chu not to do anything. How long has it been since he was still pretending? !
He immediately dragged Cao Cao to escape, escaping and chasing him all the way. Cao Cao could not withstand Ma Chao's pursuit so closely that he had to cut off his beard and abandon his robe. Finally, under the cover of Xu Chu, he boarded a ship to escape.
Then, Cao Cao wiped out Han Sui's book, which caused the Guanzhong Allied Forces to disagree. Cao Cao took advantage of the situation and defeated the Guanzhong Allied Forces in a duel. Ma Chao and Han Sui retreated to Liangzhou to protect themselves.
After Zhuge Liang told Zhang Xi this, Zhang Xi suddenly felt that Cao Cao was becoming jealous again.
In the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao was defeated and returned to the north. In fact, it had little impact on his own strength. Most of the soldiers who died were the soldiers who surrendered in Jingzhou, and the warships in Jingzhou were burned.
But it dealt a huge blow to Cao Cao's own prestige, so in the past two years, there were problems everywhere within Cao Cao. Either the aristocratic family was ready to make a move, or some courtiers wanted to seize power.
Therefore, Cao Cao stayed stable for two years just to clean up internal relations and stabilize the situation again.
Now with one move, the coalition of princes in Guanzhong was defeated, Guanzhong was reoccupied, especially the old capital Chang'an, and it was back under Cao Cao's control, and its political influence was very great.
Zhuge Liang was also a little worried about this, worried that Cao Cao would take the opportunity to send troops to Hanzhong, attack Zhang Lu, and then march into Yizhou.
If Sun Quan wants to advance to Yizhou, Liu Bei can still think of ways to stop it as an alliance. But if Cao Cao wants to advance to Yizhou, then Liu Bei really has nothing to do.
Zhang Xi didn't care about this. After all, it was not easy for Cao Cao to defeat Zhang Lu. If the Liangzhou Group behind him was not resolved, Cao Cao would not dare to march westward to Yizhou easily.
one more.
"Did Fa Xiaozhi go back to Yizhou?!"
"I said goodbye to the Lord at the beginning of spring, and now I have returned to Shu. Yuan Chang asked me what I was doing?!"
Well, no reason, just go back.
When Fa Xiaozhi comes next time, he will bring his soldiers to invite our lord to Sichuan.
As for when, it won’t be later than after this autumn harvest at the latest.
Zhuge Liang doesn't understand Zhang Xi very well and feels that this guy is really talkative sometimes.
But now that these things have been said, it's time for Zhuge Liang to discuss the situation of this swamp transformation field with Zhang Xi.
On the one hand, Zhuge Liang wanted to know how much manpower and material resources it would take to transform these twelve hectares of tidal flats, how much it would cost, and what the expected annual harvest would be.
On the other hand, Zhuge Liang also wanted to know for sure whether Zhang Xi's prevention and control methods were really effective in preventing and treating miasma.
If miasma can really be effectively prevented, then Zhuge Liang will consider immigrating to enrich the four counties in Jingnan.
It is true that Jingnan is mountainous, and it is true that Yunmengze is difficult to develop, but after all, Jingnan has too few small towns, and it will only become weaker and weaker if this continues.
One of the major problems blocking immigrants from Jingnan is miasma. No one wants to die in such a barren land.
If the miasma problem in Jingnan can be solved, there will be no obstacles for Zhuge Liang to immigrate. If together with Zhang Xi, the swamp can be transformed into fertile land, then it will be a matter of time before Jingnan develops.
Never underestimate people's desire for land in this era. No matter they are ordinary people or wealthy families, they will not dislike having too much land in their hands.
This is really a very important event, and Zhuge Liang couldn't help but come and see it in person.
Then Zhang Xi showed Zhuge Liang the various records that Zhang Xi had made since arriving in Changsha, as well as the money and food expenses that filled the room.
Zhuge Liang looked at Hanako and chewed his teeth.
"Yuan Chang. Why don't you simplify it a bit?!" Zhuge Liang flipped through a bamboo slip, glanced at it, and asked helplessly.
Zhang Xi shook his head and said, "If I summarize it in a concise way, it may not be detailed enough. Even if Xi comes from a humble family, he can't do this!"
Doesn't this have anything to do with whether you come from a poor family? !
Forget it, take your time and watch.
Zhuge Liang spent nearly ten days looking at a roomful of bamboo slips. Accompanied by Zhang Xi, he also inspected the entire rice field and camp area, and finally had a clear understanding of some of Zhang Xi's prevention and control methods.
The growth of the rice fields is okay, but the estimated yield per mu of the best-growing rice fields can only reach the mid-field level at most, and most of them are lower-field standards.
Zhang Xi also said that because it was the first year of renovation, he did not dare to make great efforts to improve the soil fertility and relied entirely on natural growth. Such growth was an unexpected surprise.
Zhuge Liang also knows this truth, and even with this output, Zhuge Liang is already very satisfied.
After all, it turns out that this place is just a swamp and a tidal flat, and cannot be used to grow food at all.
As for water conservancy facilities, because it is close to the Xiangjiang River, Zhangxi has not made many improvements. It focuses more on flood control and drainage, and has built many flood drainage ditches to prevent waterlogging.
In terms of terrain, the reason why these places become swamps is because the terrain is too low.
It can be said that so far, Zhangxi’s swamp transformation field experiment has been initially successful.
But Zhuge Liang combined it with the records in Zhang Xi's room and found that he was still hesitant in the end.
Without him, the cost is too high.
The labor cost of creating farmland around the lake was extremely high. A thousand people had worked hard for almost half a year, and they could only produce twelve hectares of low-grade farmland.
You know, twelve hectares of land is a lot for an individual, but for a force, it is really a drop in the bucket. Even the annual output of these fields is not enough to feed a thousand people. .
Of course, Zhuge Liang also knew that this was an early cost, and there would not be so much investment in the later stage. As the town develops, it will also drive the income of other industries to increase, and the labor cost can be significantly reduced.
However, the current Liu Bei Group really does not have that much manpower to mobilize.
Nanjun had just been acquired, and it was too late to win over people's hearts. It was impossible to launch large-scale corvee rashly, and it was even less possible for people from Nanjun to come to Jingnan to serve in corvee.
The Han Dynasty's corvee regulations stipulated that people would be conscripted into corvee service within a hundred miles of the local area and would not be conscripted beyond the territory.
The number of Dingkou in the Jingnan area is really not optimistic. The migration of refugees from other places to Jingnan has brought back the problem of miasma.
(End of chapter)
