The construction of the Yamen of the Beiyang Military Government is no exception, and the imperial court specially sent the engineering department to supervise this matter, and Zhao Shizhen was in charge of the construction of the warehouse together, and cooperated with the tacit understanding.

Since Yin Zhengmao entered Beijing and Fu Yuan left Tianjin to go to Japan, Chen Mu did not bother with other things, except for practicing martial arts with Juniper and others every day and studying ancient books, the main energy was on design and drawing.

The mapping of the Beiyang Yamen has long been perfected, and his map is the area outside the Beiyang Yamen in the area around Tianjin, in order to develop intensive handicraft and simple industries according to local conditions.

But if you want to make this picture, you can't do it without field visits.

"Let Mr. Xu watch the construction site, and Chang Ji will go out with me."

Entering May, the weather was already hot, Chen Mu didn't want to run away but had no choice, so he planned to call Zhao Shizhen to suffer with him, and walked to the planning place of the Yamen of the Beiyang Military Government.

These unprocessed timbers are fine if they are built into temporary camps, but they cannot be used for construction, so they can only be stored here for later.

Zhao Shizhen is idle, after the design plan is agreed, there is basically no business for him in the back, not to mention that Xu Wei's cold is cured, Xu Maniac, who intercepted books from the Xiyi ship and taught himself geometry, is obviously more suitable than him to guide the work of craftsmen, and there is not much land for Secretary Zhao to be used on the construction site.

He pretended to bring some tea out from the Yamen of the hundred households in Dagukou all day long, and made a big bowl of tea in the small room at the construction site, leaving the Taoist of the Ministry of Industry to chat.

Two days ago, Chen Mu also heard that there was an engineering department that admired Zhao Shizhen's talent and wanted to recruit him as a son-in-law.

Chen Mu's trip to the construction site this time was no exception, Zhao Shizhen sat in the house and chatted with people again, and was so happy that Chen Mu called him out, packed up and rode his pony and followed Chen Mu out, asking as he walked: "Where are you going, the students can't be idle, this is going hunting?" ”

"Hunting?" Chen Mu looked back and saw that his entourage, including Juniper, was fully armed, and immediately had bird guns and handcuffs, and smiled at Zhao Shizhen: "If you don't hunt, you have to walk a long way, and if you are worried about encountering wild beasts, go around the surrounding counties and plan the industrial construction around the military yamen in the future." ”

"The surroundings are good, then the handsome man will call my father-in-law, uh, the engineering department will be given to Xu Gong in the matter."

Zhao Shizhen hadn't seen someone's daughter yet, and he had already called his father-in-law on his lips, and Chen Mu blushed when he saw it, and explained: "Duke Xu once inspected the surrounding areas of Gyeonggi for the construction of northern water conservancy, he has experience, and the handsome man often says that experience is very important!" ”

Seeing that Chen Mu didn't think so, he still looked at him with a narrow and ridiculous gaze, Zhao Shizhen said at a very fast speed: "Xu Gong is really talented, he used to play the Beijing division in the north last year, and the soldiers' grain and grass should be taken directly from the suburbs of Beijing, but now they all rely on the southeast, the grain is the grain, the soldiers are the squad army, and it is also said that the ancient wealth of the northwest, can't it enrich the granary and train the soldiers?" ”

"It is advocated to dig old canals and waste weirs in Henan, Shaanxi, dredge Shandong springs, and dredge 15 tributaries in the areas of Shuntian and Zhenbao, where water disasters are often suffered, and divert water to irrigate farmland...... He said that the flood disaster in the north is precisely because of the lack of water conservancy, and the construction of water conservancy and water disaster will eliminate itself, which I think is very insightful! ”

Chen Mudou, who was playing a horse, turned the horse's head and said to Zhao Shizhen with a different face: "I really have insight, go and call Xu Gong of the Ministry of Industry and go for a walk together!" ”

Water conservancy in the north has always been a big problem, and a single breach of the Yellow River will displace millions of people and further deepen the desertification of the land, but the more it bursts, the more unwilling it will be to spend a lot of money to deal with it, and the problem will only get bigger and bigger.

If the north can repair the water conservancy and increase the tuntian, it will be a good thing for the imperial court.

So how to get started was last year, but there is no movement at all this year?

Xu Zhen will be in the prime of life when he is in his forties, and when he saw Chen Mu summoned him as a guide, he happily followed and introduced the surrounding industries to Chen Mu, but when Chen Mu asked why his handbook was not approved by the imperial court, he did not answer, but smiled bitterly, shook his head with his beard and said nothing.

But later in the introduction on the road, Chen Mu probably understood the bitterness revealed by Xu Zhenming when he shook his head, which made Chen Mu want to go to the wilderness but found that there was nowhere to put his feet.

From Dagukou to Tianjin Wei, through the official road all the way to the Great Wall root underground Zunhua, the road is more than 400 miles not far, the land route is more than 500 miles, if you take a boat to take the river is closer, Chen Mu decided to ride a horse by land for more understanding.

Who knows that it is better to walk the river, I didn't look at anything along the way, just listened to Xu Zhenming explain one by one, this is Huangzhuang, that is Gongzhuang, that is the clan Zhuangtian, that is the military field, and that is Huangzhuang...... Of course, the fields belonging to the common people are not small, but they are not as dense and coherent as the official fields.

"There are only three or four points of grain planting in the private fields, and eight or nine points of the official fields are divided into mulberry seedlings, and there is not much grain to grow, and compared with the paddy fields, the irrigation is saved, and the people are more labor-saving." Xu Zhenming counted the benefits of mulberry fields one by one, and said: "Its leaves can be fed to silkworms, wood can be used to make utensils, branches can be woven into baskets, mulberry bark can be used to make paper, mulberries can be used for food and wine, and leaves, fruits and root bark can be used for medicine." ”

"Planting this is more profitable than growing wheat, and the people and tenant farmers are also more labor-saving than planting paddy fields." Xu Zhenming's equestrian skills are not skilled enough, and he is a little trembling on horseback, but he is still smiling when he talks about planting wheat and mulberry seedlings, although Chen Mu doesn't know what he is laughing at, so he listened to him continue: "What's more, these fields used to be mostly military fields, civilian fields, and idle fields, and their current owners, where can we afford to provoke them from the Ministry of Industry?" ”

In the era of Ming Taizu, the people found that the wild land could be reclaimed by themselves, and the government did not add it, and those fields were called idle fields, but now the land annexation is becoming more and more intense, and the land is enclosed everywhere, and there are fewer and fewer yeoman farmers among the people, and the land is in the hands of a few.

There is no need for sheep to eat people at all, and the enclosure movement of the Ming Dynasty has long been completed.

Why did so many people in the Ming Dynasty do jobs other than yeoman farming, because most people simply did not have land for them to become yeoman farmers.

Chen Mu suddenly got off his horse, a head taller than Xu Zhenming, who was riding on a horse in the mainland, and asked, "Do you know that building water conservancy will provoke people?" ”

Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents.

He thought that the Ministry of Works didn't know about it.

"Lieutenants, gentry, nobles?"

"I'm not afraid!" Xu Zhenming was still smiling, this time Chen Mu seemed to know what he was laughing at, "The ministry refuted my handbook, firstly because of the change of mulberry to paddy field to tired people, and secondly, because of the lack of preparation for the sudden playbook, I am compiling a book, called "Lushui Ke Talk", I know that my proposal must be implemented." ”

"As long as it is perfected and implemented, there will be no shortage of food in the north, which is a good thing for the benefit of the country and the people, five or eight years." Xu Zhenming's smile was restrained, not impassioned or loud, and even his tone was as solemn and suspicious as his expression, and he said softly: "I can afford to wait." ”

Chen Mu's horse chirped softly, and he nodded.

"Good! When you finish making up the book, you must show it to me first, and if I think it is good, I will definitely support you! ”