Dou You said as a matter of course: "The purpose of preparing for war is naturally to maintain the hegemony of the Chu State, to seize the land and people from other countries, and to enhance the strength of the Chu State." ”

"In my opinion, the purpose of the Chu State's conquest is also to enhance its own strength." Xu Xing nodded, and then asked Dou You: "It's just that there is a question below, will you definitely be able to win if you send troops to fight?" ”

"There is no guarantee of victory."

"Then if you want to send troops to fight, you can't guarantee that you won't lose a single soldier, right?"

"That's nature, the war is dangerous, how can you not die!"

After hearing Dou You's answer, Xu Xing bowed to the king of Chu and said, "Your Majesty, the minister just said so much, just to want the king to explain one thing, that is, instead of using food on conquests that do not guarantee victory, it is better to use it on building canals. ”

"Taking the land of Huainan as an example, before there was no canal, the yield per mu of Huainan was only more than one stone, and after Sun Shuao built the canal, the yield per mu of Huainan immediately increased to three to five stones per mu, which is the role of the canal."

"If a large number of canals are built between the river and Han, the grain output here can reach three or even five stones per mu, then this is an increase of one stone or even three stones of grain per mu. If it is calculated by just adding two stones per acre, it means that there will be two stones of grain per acre, in other words, the land and population will be doubled wherever the canals benefit. ”

"There are thousands of miles of land between Jianghan and Han, and the area around Yunmeng is a place where it is easy to dig a canal. This area is about 200 miles long, and in addition to the mountains and rivers and the places where the people live, there are at least 60,000 hectares of land that can be used for farming. ”

"If all these 60,000 hectares of land are covered by canals, it is equivalent to the Chu State snatching 200 li of land from other countries, as well as millions of people on these 200 li land."

"How big is the land of two hundred miles, this is quite the land of the Song Kingdom. If the Chu State wants to defeat the small half of the Song State, it does not know how many costs it will have to pay under the control of various countries in order to succeed. ”

"But if you build a canal, it's completely different, you just need to gather the people and give some food, and you can see results."

"Therefore, it is difficult and easy to enhance strength, and the minister thinks that it is not the work of a wise man to pay a huge price and fight for unpredictable results, so the minister asks the king to consider it in detail."

Seeing Xu Xing saluting to the King of Chu, Dou You couldn't help but sneer, the plan to cut Yue was laid out by the King of Chu himself, and it had been carried out for almost ten years, how could the King of Chu agree.

Thinking about it, he didn't refute, and he also saluted: "King, please think twice!" ”

Xiong Huai was silent for a long time when he saw this.

Seeing that the King of Chu did not speak, Jing Li bowed his hand to Xu Xing and said: "Xu Zi, as Mr. said, the construction of the canal will naturally not cause casualties among the people, but is it easy to build the canal?" ”

Xu Xing nodded and replied: "Although it is not easy to build a canal, it is easy compared to war. ”

Jing Li smiled and asked, "I wonder if Mr. can know how much time it took my Chu sages to build Shaobi?" ”

Xu Xing opened his mouth, and then responded: "It seems that it took a total of eight years before and after. ”

Jing Li nodded: "Yes, Shaobi did take eight years. ”

Then, Jing Lili asked, "Does Mr. know how much fertile land is benefited from Shaobi?" ”

Xu Xing was stunned when he heard this, this Jing carp seemed to be prepared, but, fortunately, he had been preparing for a long time.

Thinking about it, he replied: "I heard that Shaobi can irrigate thousands of hectares of fertile land." ”

After hearing Xu Xing's answer, Jing Li no longer asked Xu Xing, but arched his hand to the king of Chu and said:

"What Xu Zi said is indeed reasonable, but if you want to get the 200 miles of land in Xu Zi's mouth, then you have to build all the canals, according to the time when the sages built Shaobi before, it will take eight years for 10,000 hectares of land, that is, 1 million acres of land, and 6848 years for 60,000 hectares of land."

"Moreover, there must be no natural and man-made disasters, plus all countries do not come to attack our Chu country. Once the countries attack, it will take at least 50 years."

As soon as these words came out, all the ministers gasped, and then, they all looked at Xu Xing suspiciously.

It's not that I don't know, I'm shocked, if the king listens to this guy's slander, then Chu State doesn't have to do anything else next.

Xiong Huai was also taken aback by Jing Li's words.

Only then did I realize that the current Warring States period was not the mechanized modern of later generations, but it was all manual construction. The construction of a large-scale water conservancy project can often take ten years.

If it really takes more than fifty years, then unless there are three generations of monarchs in the Chu State who are keen on farming, otherwise, there is no need to think about this matter.

Thinking about it, Xiong Huai looked at Xu Xingdao and said, "Sir, I don't know what Ling Yin said?" ”

Xu Xing shook his head and said, "King, if it is according to Ling Yin's algorithm, it will naturally take more than fifty years..."

Before Xu Xing's words were finished, Dou You immediately spoke: "King, the minister thinks that Xu Xing is a spy of another country, and this move is to consume the strength of my Chu State, please expel Xu Xing immediately." ”

After Dou You finished speaking, he immediately received a response from many ministers, especially those who were already ready to fight against the leading troops of the Yue Kingdom.

After Xu Xing saw that most of the ministers had asked the King of Chu for orders to expel him, he immediately let out a string of mocking laughter.

Xiong Huai saw Xu Xing laughing, so he asked, "Why is Xu Zi laughing?" ”

Xu Xing said with a smile: "Hundreds of years ago, one person cultivated the land, but it was only ten acres. Today, one husband can govern 100 acres of land. In ancient times, the mu harvest was not more than one stone, more than 100 years ago, an acre of land was harvested one and a half stones, and now the mu harvest is close to two stones. Two hundred years ago, the country of a thousand times was a big country, and now the Song country has five thousand cars! ”

Saying that, Xu Xing smiled and saluted to the King of Chu: "King, if the State of Chu is still the same as it was hundreds of years ago, one person cultivates ten acres, and the strength of the whole country is only 100,000 troops, then the ministers will leave and dare not say anything for the rest of their lives." ”

Xiong Huai smiled self-deprecatingly when he heard this, and then, seeing Jing Li's embarrassed face, he immediately stopped smiling and said, "Mr. said that he was joking, Ling Yin just wanted to ask Mr., if my Chu State opened a canal around Yunmeng, how many years would it take?" ”

Xu Xing replied: "Your Majesty, please take the Zhanghe Canal built by the Ximen Leopard of Yecheng of Wei more than 100 years ago, the Zhanghe Canal was just used by the people of Yedi, and only a few years have passed, and twelve canals have been dug up, and Yecheng has now become an important city of Wei. ”

"If the king thinks that Yecheng has been in Yecheng for too long, then you can also refer to the chasm of Wei, for decades, King Wei Hui dug the chasm with the power of Wei, but in two or three years, it connected Huaishui and the river."

"Therefore, the minister thinks that it will only take three to five years to build a canal with the power of the whole country, and if it is only to recruit the people between Jiang and Han, then within ten years, it can be completed."

Xiong Huai nodded, if it took ten years to build the canal, then it was not unacceptable, paused, and asked the ministers: "I don't know what the ministers think." ”