If you hold on to Mr. Li's thigh, the Fan family will be worry-free for decades to come!
Fan Buzhu immediately said that he would visit his farm in the future and would pay more attention to the hard-working farmers.
Li Qiao was satisfied after hearing this.
He can't openly suggest to Sheng Hong that water conservancy should be developed in various places now, but he can influence the Xin family and the Fan family.
These two companies dug wells and ditches, enough to benefit a whole house.
But there were so many mansions in Dasheng, and natural disasters didn't wait for anyone, so he had to go find the seventh prince.
He had to get involved in the second question Sheng Hong gave to the princes.
Chapter 199: Giving New Year’s Gift to the Seventh Prince. The Sixth Prince comes to arrest someone, and Li Qiao intervenes in the second question.
The Seventh Prince has not been very busy recently.
In the past few years, Dasheng can be called Haiyan Heqing. The number of large-scale cases has been decreasing day by day, and the trivial matters are no longer his turn to deal with, so he is a little more leisurely than before.
But only a little.
If he didn't find out who was responsible for the death of Queen Zhou, and if he didn't help the eldest prince win the throne, then he could relax for a day.
He took Sheng Hong's second question very seriously.
His wharf is located in a small county called Shangshu in Hui'an Province. The small county has little cultivated land, many hills and many trees. Its specialty is tea and herbal medicine.
The common people make a living by picking tea and medicinal herbs, farming and fishing.
My life was average, not rich, but I had enough to eat.
However, this place belongs to the transition zone between north and south, and because it is close to the two major water systems of the Yellow River and Huaihe River, the weather changes drastically.
Droughts and floods are common, along with hail and strong winds.
This kind of extreme weather has greatly affected the lives of ordinary people. If he wanted to improve the economic level of this small county, the seventh prince thought about it for many days and decided to build roads and dig rivers first.
If roads are built, the local specialties can be transported.
By digging a river, it can be irrigated during drought and drained during floods, killing two birds with one stone.
Building roads and digging rivers are all infrastructure. The Seventh Prince did these two things first, but he currently has no idea what to do next.
He really wanted to imitate Hexi Prefecture and make the people of the entire prefecture rich in just a few years.
However, he was unable to invent something that could be transported over long distances and stored for one or two years and still taste delicious like vermicelli.
Therefore, although the Chinese New Year is approaching, the Seventh Prince is in a normal mood.
This year, before Li Qiao had time to send the New Year's gift to the Seventh Prince, on the 21st of the twelfth lunar month, Li Qiao, who had been captured by Sheng Hong, went to the Seventh Prince's Mansion with Tao Zhu after getting off work, carrying the carefully prepared New Year's gift.
The Seventh Prince's Mansion also built a greenhouse this year. Originally, the Seventh Prince did not want to build it, but Meng Yue kept talking about it every day, so he built several greenhouses in his house.
So after Li Qiao and Tao Zhu arrived, the Seventh Prince received their husband and wife in a multi-functional leisure hall similar to Li's house.
"Seventh Prince, this is the new black sesame and bean paste double-stuffed dumplings I made today. Please try it."
After Tao Zhu sat down, he opened a snack box that he and Li Qiao had brought. Inside was a double-brewed rice dumpling.
This pair of stuffed dumplings is placed in a paper tray. Through the outer layer of glutinous rice skin, you can faintly see the black sesame and bean paste filling inside.
The seventh prince only glanced at it, then picked up one: "This looks like glutinous rice balls."
"It's a double-stuffed glutinous rice dumpling that's cold and can be eaten directly. It's very glutinous. Please give it a try," Tao Zhu explained.
When the Seventh Prince heard this, he immediately took a bite. The sweet and glutinous taste made him curl his eyes.
tasty.
It's slightly sweet and a bit glutinous than Qingtuan. He loves glutinous food.
"It tastes good." He praised it.
"As long as you like it. I'll have people send some over from time to time. I don't have this thing in my shop."
Tao Zhu also raised his eyes and said.
"Okay, thank you for your hard work from now on, Mr. Tao."
The seventh prince responded without any politeness.
Li Qiao sat aside and saw that both of them had smiles on their faces, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
In his previous life, Tao Zhu saved the seventh prince in Sanliu Village. Why did the seventh prince appear in Sanliu Village at that time?
Moreover, Gao Zhiyuan mentioned that the seventh prince assisted the government. Did the seventh prince become the regent?
But there was no time traveler like him in her previous life. I wonder if Meng Yue passed the Jinshi examination. Even if she did, would she and the Seventh Prince have this kind of relationship...
Eighty percent of them don't.
Meng Yue, Xu Ying, and Zhuang Wen were willing to go to Beijing to take part in the joint examination after winning the national examination. It was purely because of his influence. If his hard work had not influenced these three people, none of them would have planned to go to Beijing immediately.
If he didn't enter the capital, he would naturally not be able to catch up with his relationship with the seventh prince.
Moreover, without the hatred value of the third and fifth princes, it would definitely be more difficult to get rid of these two princes than in this life.
Not to mention that without these new items he created, Sheng Hong Shengjun's finances would be in crisis. Without money, how many difficulties would he encounter?
The seventh prince must have suffered a lot in his previous life, and he must have been a man for the rest of his life and never married.
Sighing in his heart, he spoke, first talking about the recent situation.
In this cold winter, the barbarians in the border town knocked on the pass twice, but they were repulsed by the well-prepared general Da Sheng.
According to the information investigated by Sheng Hong, the Hu people went south to harass Da Sheng because of the severe cold weather and difficult life.
Li Qiao couldn't help but sigh: "The temperature has been lower than in previous years in the past two years, and I don't know what will happen next year."
"There has only been one snowfall so far this winter, and there is a lack of snow water. After the third day of the Lunar New Year, farmers may have to go to the fields to water wheat."
The seventh prince answered.
Although Meng Yue became an official, the Meng family still worked in farming, so Meng Yue has always paid close attention to the weather and often prayed for good weather.
He was influenced by Meng Yue and developed the habit of paying attention to the weather every day.
In the past, although he cared about the people at the bottom, he was busy with his own affairs and had no time to pay attention to such details.
"Xiaguan's eldest brother and sister-in-law are also talking about this. They are already planning to dig more wells on the farm next year."
"We should dig more wells. However, well irrigation is still too hard. I heard Meng Yue say that some places in Pingcheng now use keel waterwheels to irrigate fields?"
After the seventh prince said this, he reached out and took out another double-brewed dumpling, chewing it slowly while looking at Li Qiao.
As soon as he said this, Li Qiao was a little surprised, but more importantly, he was happy.
When they meet next time, he will definitely praise Meng Yue. He didn't expect that Meng Yue would even tell such a trivial matter to the seventh prince!
"Yes, many people over there in Pingcheng are using keel waterwheels. A big river was dug before Pingcheng, and it flows through a quite wide area. In addition, there are mountains and rivers there, and the people are rich. So now all the houses that are close to streams, rivers, and ditches use keel waterwheels."
This river was the one Li Dazhong dug when he went to do corvee service when he first crossed it.
As for the keel waterwheel, it only appeared in his family's field at first.
Although this tool is convenient, it is expensive to make. Those whose fields are near water are reluctant to pay for it to be made by craftsmen.
But with the overall prosperity of the people in Pingcheng and the increase in his influence, now all the families in Pingcheng whose fields are close to water use keel waterwheels.
The keel waterwheel is more adaptable than the barrel wheel. The barrel wheel relies on the power of flowing water to rotate, but the keel waterwheel can be turned by human power. Therefore, even if there is stagnant water in a small ditch, the keel waterwheel can move the water. transferred to farmland for irrigation.
Just like before, Li Liang drained the water in the pond to dig lotus roots, using a keel waterwheel to drain the water.
It can be said that the keel waterwheel can not only irrigate farmland, but also pump water.
If there is a waterlogging disaster and you want to drain the water, the keel waterwheel is a good tool.
Therefore, when he came to see the Seventh Prince today, he not only wanted to talk about the importance of digging rivers and wells, but also wanted to mention the important tool of the keel waterwheel.
But he never expected that the Seventh Prince would mention the keel waterwheel first!
He praised Meng Yue again in his heart, and then he talked in detail about the current situation of the keel waterwheel in Pingcheng.
While listening, the Seventh Prince finished all six double-stuffed dumplings slowly. When Li Qiao finished speaking, he raised his hand and poured a cup of tea. He sipped the sweetness in his mouth and said, "This irrigation tool It is indeed good, I will arrange it for the tenants of my farm."
He was originally interested in the keel waterwheel by Meng Yue. Now that he learned the details about Pingcheng from Li Qiao, he immediately made a decision in his mind.
"But if you want to use this, the key is to have river water."
"In my opinion, Shengjing should dig more rivers and ditches. Anyway, Shengjing has several big rivers, such as Yongding River, which is just outside Shengjing City. It is very convenient to get water. In a few days, I proposed to my father that we should To facilitate farmers’ irrigation, we should make good use of the large rivers in Shengjing.”
"Ah, this..." Li Qiao looked like he was thinking, but in reality he was ecstatic: "This is a big project."
"It's not a big project, just call on the tenants and villagers to dig during their slack time."
"When the excavation is completed, I will equip them with keel waterwheels."
The seventh prince is very angry.
His financial resources are the weakest among the princes, but he has enough money to build a keel waterwheel.
"Well, if that's the case, then I would also like to donate some keel waterwheels to facilitate farmers' irrigation."
Li Qiao said immediately.
"You husband are the most generous. I will never forget you when the time comes."
The seventh prince nodded in agreement.
Li Qiao smiled when he heard this: "It's all for the people. But speaking of which, is there any progress at your Shangshu Wharf?"
"Huh?" The seventh prince, who was drinking tea with his eyes lowered, raised his eyes and looked at him: "Why do you ask this?"
"If you have nothing to do, please pay attention. After all, it is related to appreciating the imperial edict."
Li Qiao explained calmly.
"Then you'd better stop asking. I promised Brother Six that I won't consult you on this matter."
"The lower official knows. But the Holy Lord asked such a question because he wanted to see the big from the small. He wanted to know whether the princes have the ability to let the people live a better life than they do now."
"In the final analysis, it's all for the people. I also want the people to live a good life. Besides, appreciating the imperial edict can be exchanged for iron coupons in the alchemy book, so I'm thinking, why don't I get involved?"
