It has to be said that Cheng Jingzhou guessed the emperor's thoughts accurately.
His poem was written in a roundabout way. It was not about asking for money directly, but about how he planned to open up these wastelands. He mentioned methods to adapt to local conditions. Naturally, he also mentioned that some soils were of good quality and could be cultivated into good farmland, but they only needed to build canals, etc. wait.
Cheng Jingzhou followed the formal procedures and sent it to Shangshu Province. In addition, he also wrote a letter to his father-in-law, specifically asking for his advice and wanting to know if this matter could be done.
Xie Xiuwen had been an old fox in the officialdom for many years, so he naturally understood Cheng Jingzhou's intentions, so when he summoned him in the Holy Land, he mentioned the matter of digging ditches.
As for the notes to be submitted, they were written very formally and had deep meaning. Otherwise, even a sixth-grade county magistrate would not be able to send them to the imperial court.
The brochure not only mentions the water source and grain planting situation in Feng County, but also mentions the excavation of ditches and the construction of dams, which are important measures to solve irrigation needs and ensure grain production. They also prevent floods and can protect people's lives and property. Safety plays a key role.
This point attracted great attention from Emperor Jingwen.
That's why he called Xie Xiuwen in to discuss it together.
When Xie Xiuwen came over, the Minister of Industry was also there.
The construction of canals is indeed the responsibility of the Ministry of Works.
"Back to Your Majesty, what County Magistrate Cheng said in the brochure is indeed true. If this water conservancy can be repaired, it can indeed kill two birds with one stone. However, this is also a big project, which wastes people and money. How to make a decision depends on the instructions of the Holy One."
Xie Xiuwen remained silent. After all, Cheng Jingzhou was his son-in-law. At this time, he just listened.
Xie Lin, the Minister of Household Affairs, was also there. After all, it involved appropriation matters, so the person in charge of the money bag had to come.
"Back to the Holy Spirit, I think this ditch should be dug."
Emperor Jingwen raised his eyebrows: "Oh? Let's talk about it."
Xie Lin said respectfully: "Back to your Majesty, I have also read this excerpt. Magistrate Cheng has written it in great detail. If some places are really far away from the water source and the soil is sandy, then we should simply give up diversion from the water source and go there instead." Directly selecting drought-resistant crops is already a great effort to avoid wasting people and money. Moreover, County Magistrate Cheng also attached a drawing. The three canals drawn on it are not too long and not too long. If other precious materials are needed, they only need the local people to perform labor services, and Wei Chen believes that this can be done."
Xie Lin's words are equivalent to telling the Minister of Industry openly that the words "waste people and waste money" really don't count.
After all, there was no need for the court to send any more workers there, it only needed to allocate some money to feed and drink the workers.
How much money can this cost?
Compared with building a palace inside the palace, it is simply nothing!
These words made the Minister of the Ministry of Industry look embarrassed. However, digging canals in the countryside was indeed not a big project, nor was it digging a river channel that would carry large merchant ships. He had indeed exaggerated just now.
Emperor Jingwen looked at Xie Xiuwen: "Xie Shangshu, tell me how to arrange this matter?"
"Back to the Holy Spirit, I saw that the document was written in great detail, and County Magistrate Cheng also said that he specially asked a famous local old man who built canals to read it, and also asked several young people who had retired from the Ministry of Works for advice. Officer, I must have an idea."
This is tantamount to telling the Holy One in disguise that he is not aiming at nothing, but has examined everything.
"Well, this matter is indeed beneficial to the people, and according to Cheng Jingzhou, once these three canals are completed, at least thousands of acres of wasteland will be reclaimed in Feng County. In addition, hundreds of acres of other fields will benefit. This is a good thing. !”
Xie Xiuwen thought about it and agreed: "What the Holy One said is absolutely true. Even if one acre of land produces one hundred kilograms of grain, the output of these thousands of acres is enough to feed the people of a village."
The minister of the Ministry of Industry was already numb at this moment.
He also saw that the Holy One was obviously biased towards Magistrate Cheng.
Therefore, this ditch must be dug.
Anyway, it's not a big project anyway, so there shouldn't be any need for the Ministry of Works to arrange for people to go there.
It's a pity that the Minister of Industry has thought to the left.
In Emperor Jingwen's opinion, digging ditches was a good thing.
Moreover, in the water management ideas of the emperors of the Dazhi Dynasty, ditches were the veins of flowing water, and dams were barriers to prevent floods.
Therefore, the construction of ditches and dams are the two key points of the water conservancy project in the Dazhi Dynasty.
In terms of digging ditches, this kind of labor is different from building city walls. After all, digging ditches is to increase agricultural production, so the court encourages farmers to participate, and is even willing to give some benefits to local gentry, just to get them to contribute money and efforts. Ordinary people, who can eat three meals a day and perform well, can receive a lot of money as a reward.
In fact, this is to allow farmers to improve their own lives while also making some contributions to the court's water conservancy project construction.
As for the construction of dams, the imperial court led large-scale water conservancy projects.
The imperial court would hire a large amount of labor and consume a large amount of stone and gravel to ensure the solidity of the embankment.
Of course, the court needs to pay for this kind of labor.
And now in the brochure written by Cheng Jingzhou, although it also mentioned dams, it obviously did not mean to violate the rules. It only mentioned that the dams in Feng County needed to be strengthened, and they could recruit laborers to do it.
The final result was that Emperor Jingwen ordered the Ministry of Household Affairs to allocate 10,000 taels to Feng County. The main purpose was to dig canals and subsequently build embankments.
Ten thousand taels is not enough if the dike is to be built.
However, Cheng Jingzhou didn't dare to ask for more money. After all, if the ten thousand taels of silver were just to dig ditches, it wouldn't cost much money.
We will have to wait until late autumn to repair the dams. We will talk about it then.
Next, the two county captains began to collect labor and dig canals.
Cheng Jingzhou thought that the ten thousand taels of silver must not be spent indiscriminately, as the dam would have to be built in the future, so he asked the bookkeeper to keep good accounts, and then ordered people to collect some of the gravel or gravel that was cleared away by the government officials. They used oxcarts to pull them to an empty house near the dock, and then sent people to guard it.
These will be used for building embankments in the future, and this will save money on buying stones.
Even if they go to the mountains to get the stones themselves, shouldn't they have to put in the effort?
So, this is just right for now.
The three canals were naturally dug one by one.
With more people and greater strength, we dug the first channel closest to the river, which was only a little more than six miles in total. In less than ten days, the canal was dug.
The second one is longer, almost ten miles long. This is a big project and much more difficult than digging the first one.
Because when we dug the first one, everyone had just come here, and they still had a lot of strength and enthusiasm.
Now with the second article, nearly half of this strength has been exhausted.
Cheng Jingzhou saw that everyone was obviously less motivated, so he ordered: "Give them some stew tomorrow!"
