These officials were indeed stunned and stunned when they looked at the huge project, and at this time, these technicians began to introduce the core of the entire water conservancy project.

To tell the truth, this core project, at the beginning, was that they did not expect that the initial purpose of using Pingxi Lake was only 100 million cubic meters, which could supply 500,000 acres of watered land, but with the support of geographical advantages and materials, and other things, it has become a huge project that is almost about to reach 300 million cubic meters.

In fact, it is not bad to be able to use about 70% of the water, but even 70% of the water, plus the continuous flow of water from the Yellow River, is enough to support the entire project.

In the plan, Xiping Lake is indeed the core of the entire Lingzhou, and the 12 main canals based on it, except for 4 that are connected to the Yellow River, are mainly used for water transportation and supplemented by irrigation, and the others are all irrigation channels.

In the whole layout, about 6 miles, as a basic distance, flexible layout, spread over the huge land of at least 4,000 square kilometers in Lingzhou, it is expected to be able to reclaim more than 5 million acres of land, is the largest one among several large water conservancy systems in Lingzhou.

The reason why Xiping Lake was chosen as the core is that in addition to the huge advantage that it is suitable for excavating large lakes, there is also a geographical advantage, that is, Xiping Mansion is here.

Even if the development of Lingzhou in Western Xia has not reached a very high level, the scale of Xiping Mansion is not very small, and the cities formed by history have their roots, either close to the river, or convenient transportation, or suitable management.

After no new advantages are injected, it is almost certain that it will become the system of Lingzhou in the future.

This is a huge, unchangeable advantage, and any place that needs to be met first by the system.

It doesn't matter if it is replaced by the state and county offices in the northwest, there are only so many people in the entire northwest, and there is no need to set up such a huge water conservancy project.

However, Lingzhou in the future is different, the entire water conservancy project alone, resulting in 5 million acres of irrigated land, nearly 10 million acres of dry land, purely according to the figure of 10 acres of land granted per person, Lingzhou alone, there are more than 1.2 million potential personnel.

If you add about 100,000 to 150,000 garrisons, this is a huge state and county, even if it is only one-fifth of the population, the permanent population here will be more than 300,000, 150,000 residents, and a large number of garrisons.

A city of 300,000 people, in the entire Northern Song Dynasty, there are not many cities above him, Bianliang is counted as one, the Daimyo Mansion is counted, and the other Henan Mansion and Yingtian Mansion are difficult to surpass.

The formation of a city requires many aspects, commerce and food are important factors, commerce is not a problem in Xiping Province, as long as there are livestock, it can attract continuous caravans to come, if you add the trade with the Xixia side, even cattle and horses are traded, some minerals, medicinal materials, and even other things, what can not be traded.

These will further stimulate Lingzhou, as long as there is this transaction as a support, the future of Lingzhou's commerce and trade will be quite developed, with all the requirements to become a core city.

Population, it is easy to gather, but if you want to maintain it, it is not easy, why is the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty in Bianliang, the previous foundation is one thing, but it has not moved to Luoyang, or because of transportation.

Since the Northern Song Dynasty, the entire north, belonging to the Han and Tang dynasties, has long become barren land, even if the farmland in the north is not much different from the south, but it can no longer support the huge population of the north, and a large amount of grain needs to be transported from the south every year.

To put it bluntly, if the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is cut off, there will be problems in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it will be a big problem.

In the past, the northwest did not have the foundation to build a big city, because there was not enough food, and the simple garrison put huge pressure on the center, and the residents of the northwest were basically left to fend for themselves.

Now that there is a trade with Liao, a large number of livestock, there is a foundation for construction, as long as the food problem is solved.

The construction of farmland and water conservancy in Lingzhou is to solve the food problem, and in the plain area, except for the lack of precipitation, it is not a big problem, so the focus of the entire development is also placed here.

In the future, nearly 400 square kilometers of land will be reclaimed here, so that it is almost 6 million mu, according to a one-mile-long ditch, which can meet the irrigation of more than 1,000 mu of land, just in this surrounding ditch, it is as high as 600 li.

In fact, near Xiping Province, the density is much greater than 600 li, because of the relationship between the main canals, coupled with the fact that the water storage of Xiping Lake has exceeded the previous estimates, the natural environment and better efficiency, the total water storage has increased by almost 2.5 times, and under the premise of full storage, it can almost reach 250 million cubic meters, in this case, of course, it will be well utilized.

250 million cubic meters of water is enough to meet hundreds of thousands of acres of irrigated land, which is the foundation of Lingzhou, and on this basis, in the most suitable place, 20,000 acres of paddy fields will be planned.

This is also through the construction step by step, found that even how to use, can not use the water, at the same time, close to the Pingxi Lake, in the channel and the premise of enough water, can be used a little opener, then the water to water the ground to a higher level, that is the paddy field.

Paddy fields, in the south is somewhat ordinary, basically every place, there will be a lot of paddy fields, but high-end, do not consider the use of water at all paddy fields, not very much, in the north is even rarer, unless it is some special area of some big rivers, otherwise, there is no paddy field at all.

In the whole Chinese diet, thousands of years ago, it was still dominated by millet, which was a product of dry land, and the yield was not high, after wheat and rice replaced millet and became the main food of the Central Plains civilization, these two foods are superior.

Wheat is the main food in the north, and rice is the main food in the south, which is the mainstream, but at the top of the level, among the current staple foods, rice is still the most expensive grain, and there is no one.

Compared with wheat, it is much more expensive, according to the price of Bianliang, the price of rice is about 700 Wen, and the price of flour is not more than 400 Wen, which is almost double, not to mention other miscellaneous grains, and among the grains, rice is also positioned as a relatively high-end point.

I don't know how much effect the paddy fields in Lingzhou will have, this is just the result of the flexible use of water, but after this, it will become a good political achievement, and even for encouragement, even if the quality of these rice is slightly worse, it will be sent to the palace as tribute rice.

The large-scale cultivation of rice in the north will have a much promoting effect on the entire court, and even the emperor cannot decide the tribute by his appetite, as long as he is not bad enough to eat, he will inevitably enter the palace.

Han Qi knew this very well, and this was also after learning that some water could not be used up and some might be wasted, so he decided to do it in a suitable place, but he didn't expect that Lingzhou was blessed with a minimum of 20,000 acres and a maximum of almost 80,000 acres of paddy fields in the vicinity of Pingxi Lake.

Paddy fields are sought after in the south, the reason is that the best paddy fields can get more than 4 stones in one season, up to 7 stones in two seasons a year, and the annual income per mu of paddy fields is at least more than two or three times, even if it is rent collection, it is also a stable income, more than 10,000 acres, and you can have no worries about food and clothing.

In the north, in Lingzhou, it is impossible to do this, because of the climate, it can only be ripened once a year, but Han Qi didn't know that he actually created a new product, a kind of rice that is even better than the rice in the south in terms of taste and all aspects.

Rice in the north will not be bad, the reason is simple, the growing season is long. In later China, the most famous tribute rice was not fragrant rice originating from the south of the Yangtze River, but Wuchang rice grown in Heilongjiang.

Wuchang is located at about 45 degrees north latitude, and in later China, the northernmost point was around 52 degrees, which is already close to the border, and belongs to the absolute high latitude area.

The average temperature is only two or three degrees Celsius all year round, and after October, it is already covered with snow, and by the time the rice is harvested, the whole land is covered with thick snow, but better rice can be grown.

The rice produced in the north is better, and the geographical environment and the changes in rice varieties are one aspect, but the growing period is long, which is a bigger reason.

Plants, are dependent on the sun's irradiation, photosynthesis, gradually accumulate energy, high latitudes, although cold, sunshine for a long time, Xinjiang and Central Asia have become an important production area of cotton, is because of this.

The environment in the northwest, even if it is the Hetao Plain, cannot be like the south of the Yangtze River, two crops and three crops a year, so one season is the best choice, from March and April, the spring flowers bloom, until December heavy snow covers the mountains.

Rice in the growth period and when there is no heading, the temperature requirements are relatively high, a little low temperature, it will cause large-scale losses, but in the later stage, when the fruit is gradually replenished, there is not such a high requirement, Wuchang rice, the harvest season is in the winter in November low and early December, more than seven or eight months of growth period, has become the key to quality.

Of course, in the era of the Northern Song Dynasty, the rice from the south of the Yangtze River may not be able to withstand such a harsh environment, and it may have to go through changes, and even at the beginning, I did not realize that the rice can still grow after the snow, and the rice may be harvested around October, but from April to October, there are almost 6 months, which is much longer than the growing period of the Jiangnan double cropping in one year.

Han Qi didn't plan to make the rice here really as high-yield as Jiangnan, just like this Lingzhou project, his purpose was very simple, it was a political achievement. Although it is said that for a certain purpose, the construction of the project is somewhat despicable, but it is the best to be able to do it, and what I am afraid of is that no one will do it at all, even if Renzong knows about this, he will be rewarded.

This was Han Qi's initiative, and at the same time, it also shocked all the officials, and they found that Han Qi's appetite was so great that they could not imagine that a watered land of hundreds of thousands of acres was still whimsical, opening up paddy fields and planting rice in the barren northwest.