After the Lantern Festival, the reports of the students of Yenching University who went to Shanxi and Henan to investigate began to be transmitted back to the capital one after another, and the students who went to Shaanxi have not yet reported what they have seen and heard to the capital because of the distance.

However, just the news of the students in Shanxi and Henan has begun to slowly turn the grain control policy, which was originally in an unfavorable situation in the public opinion of the government and the opposition.

Although these students did not say good things about Jinyiwei for the implementation of the food control policy because of their prejudices, it can be vaguely seen from their articles that whether it is the Shaanxi disaster victims or the local poor people that the two places are now accommodating, if it were not for the imperial court's food control policy last year, I am afraid that at least half of them would not have been able to survive the winter of the first year of Chongzhen.

Because of the railway construction plan, Shanxi is now vigorously expanding logging, coal mining, and mining, which require a large amount of labor, so Shanxi people are still more welcome to the young and strong labor force among the victims in Shaanxi.

Considering this, although the Shanxi gentry were disgusted with the grain control policy of the imperial court, they still pinched their noses and accepted this policy of the imperial court.

The situation in Henan is more severe, although Henan has always been a large grain-producing province, but it is also a densely populated province. Even in normal years, there is a large surplus labor force in the province.

In addition, in addition to agriculture, Henan's commerce and industry are not developed, and even the only few coal mines can only be supplied to some cities in the province because of inconvenient road transportation, so the scale is not large.

Therefore, although the price of grain in Henan is lower than that in Shanxi, the relocation of the disaster victims from Shaanxi has not brought any benefits to Henan, but has brought many public security problems to several counties in the northwest of Henan, so the opinions of the people in Henan are very great.

However, the opinions of these people were not directed at the imperial court's food control, but entirely on the issue of the inflow of refugees from Shaanxi. After all, the most important thing in this era is the concept of vernacularity, and if other parts of the province are affected by disasters, the people of these counties can probably tolerate the inconvenience caused by the victims.

But if the victims are from other provinces, they are a little dissatisfied. The counties in the northwest of Henan Province are relatively poor mountainous areas, and although these victims were relocated under the organization of the imperial court, it is inevitable that they will cut down trees for heating during the migration. Many of these trees belong to owners, and it is normal for the owners who have suffered losses to be dissatisfied with the relocation of the victims to Shaanxi.

However, the imperial court's grain control policy also brought some benefits to the poor people in Henan, and fixed the grain price from the winter to the New Year in previous years. As a result, they have been able to pay less interest on their loans this winter.

The students who entered Henan were very worried, and the counties in Henan, Ruzhou, and Huaiqing, as well as several counties to the west of Kaifeng Province, had now poured into 70,000 or 80,000 Shaanxi victims, and this is what they are seeing at the moment. God knows if there will be victims in Shaanxi who will continue to go to Henan after the beginning of spring.

Although so many victims survived the winter in Henan, if there was no land to cultivate after the beginning of spring, they became displaced people in Henan. If such a large army of displaced people is not able to accommodate them, I am afraid that Henan will be eroded.

A few of the more radical students even wrote a book suggesting that the food control policy should be extended for another year and that food collection should be strengthened.

The sights and stories of these students were published in the Daming Times one by one, and the people of Beijing, who were sympathetic to those Henan scholars who went to Beijing to complain a few years ago, were suddenly changed their attitudes by these published stories.

How sympathetic they were to Henan scholars before, so how much they despise these scholars now, especially when the Daming Times published these observations, it also published several copies of the evil deeds of these Shangjing scholars in the local area from time to time.

Public opinion about the Henan incident, which was dull a few years ago, soon fermented again. However, this time public opinion no longer has a sympathetic attitude towards the Henan gentry, but with ridicule and contempt.

Obviously, between the scholars of Henan and the college students in the capital, the people of the capital are more inclined to believe the students of Yenching University, who are their own people. Such a situation is obviously unfavorable to the Henan gentry.

Even Yuan Keli, a scholar who has always been deeply respected by Shilin, began to gradually add bad comments to public opinion. It has been discussed by some people in private, and it has become a hypocrite who is embarrassed by the bad gentry in the fish and meat country.

The Henan scholars, who were settled in the capital by the emperor and spent the New Year peacefully, suddenly found that they had become the object of discussion among the people in the capital, and suddenly began to become uneasy. Although they have the heart to defend themselves, it is clear that their individual voices cannot compete with the organized public opinion system.

What's more, these articles were not only published in the Daming Times, but also repeatedly promoted by storytellers all over the teahouses in the capital every day, and soon these Henan scholars gave up their defenses. They either closed their doors one after another, or gathered at the mansions of Yuan Keli and other Henan officials, wanting to ask for an idea.

When public opinion in the capital was still paying attention to Henan's affairs, a secret bidding meeting was also concluded in the stock exchange of the Ten Princes' Mansion.

The recruitment of 20 units in southern and northern Jiangsu and 2 million acres of land for 30 years was completed at this bidding meeting.

The result of this bidding meeting was far better than Chongzhen expected. The Xungui of the capital took 6 units, the two princes of Fuwang, Ruiwang and Shandong, the king of Zhou and the clan of Kaifeng, each voted for 1 unit, the Sihai Commercial Bank and the Inner Government each occupied two units, the local merchants of Shandong occupied one unit, and the other three units were divided by the merchants of Shanxi, Huizhou and Jiangnan.

Before the bidding meeting, the 30 bidders had deposited 100,000 yuan each in the accounts opened by the central bank, and the 10 unsuccessful bidders returned their deposits, and the 100,000 yuan deposited by the 20 winning bidders were directly converted into land rent.

Although each unit has been stipulated as a rent of 300,000 yuan and a deposit of 500,000 yuan. However, there were no regulations on the investment in canals and road construction within the land, so the subject matter of this bidding is the investment in water conservancy and road construction in each unit of land.

In the end, the number of winning bids for each unit is between 200,000 and 300,000 yuan, and these funds will be managed by the newly established Sulu Kenmu Company. In other words, 20 units minus the two units invested by the internal government, the total amount of funds harvested has reached more than 1,800 yuan.

Excluding the 100,000 yuan that has been deposited, the remaining funds will be paid to 40% within 3 months, 70% within one year, and the balance will be paid in full within 2 years.

However, with this initial investment of 2 million yuan, the first phase of the diversion project can also be started. The day after the tender meeting was completed, the steering committee was announced. According to the discussion of the Shuhe Guidance Committee, the main works of the Shushui Project include: the excavation of the Xinshu River, the construction of the Shuhe barrage dam and the overflow weir.

The first phase of the project is mainly set as the excavation of the diversion section and the embankment of the section from Shiliang River to Xiaodongguan at the end of the Xinshu River. To excavate the Xinshu River, 142 kilometers of diversion river must be excavated so that the Xinshu River can be connected to the Shahe River to the east, of which 8 kilometers must cross the Maling Fault Foothills, which is considered a difficult point in the first phase of the project.

Considering the spring ploughing in April and May, as well as weather factors, at the suggestion of Zhang Yaofang, director of the Shu Guidance Committee, it was decided to mobilize the people on both sides of the Shu River and Shahe River to start the first phase of the project in mid-February.

The Committee first solicited businessmen in the capital to bid for hoes, shovels, pickaxes, bamboo baskets, and wheelbarrow tools, and purchased 300,000 yuan of equipment based on 100,000 people. Among them, the workshops in the capital received contracts for iron tools such as hoes, shovels, and pickaxes, while the southern firms received contracts for bamboo and wood products.

Many businessmen suddenly realized that the imperial court's investment in the construction of water control or road construction projects was obviously a big business. It was obviously more profitable than the ones they knew.

Not to mention how many of these merchants began to plot and wanted to become special merchants of the imperial court. Zhang Yaofang, who presided over the project to control the water in Shu, also began to return to Shandong in a hurry, wanting to organize the people in southern and northern Jiangsu to control the water as soon as possible.

According to Chongzhen's suggestion, the first phase of the project adopted the form of semi-conscription and half-employment to mobilize local labor. In villages within 30 miles of the project, each household must contribute a laborer, and in addition to providing food, the laborer will be given a daily allowance of 2 cents, and it is agreed that the service will end by April 10.

In villages 30 miles away, there are two people for every five households, and in addition to food, a daily allowance of 6 cents is paid, and in principle, the service is completed by May, but in case of special circumstances, a number of personnel are left to extend their service. The allowance for extended service members will be increased to 1 dime per day.

According to Zhang Yaofang's estimates, food plus subsidies cost an average of about one dime a day per person, and 50,000 people were mobilized to work for 50 days, which is 250,000 yuan. Including management and other expenses, it will not exceed $300,000.

But he has now got a bill of exchange of 500,000 yuan from the central bank as the first installment of the project. Now he is only worried about whether he can mobilize enough personnel, not about the lack of funds for water control.

For the newly established Sulu Reclamation Company, the sooner the project is completed, the more beneficial it will be for them, and if so much wasteland is reclaimed one day earlier, it is obvious that the time for capital to make a profit will be shorter.

After a few days of discussion with the emperor, Zhang Yaofang was anxious to leave Beijing for Shandong before February. Although Chongzhen was very interested in transferring the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi to the construction site of Daoshu, Zhang Yaofang thought that it was too late to find time, and it would be more cost-effective to hire the winter leisure canal Caoding in the Shandong canal section.

As a result, Chongzhen still complied with Zhang Yaofang's intention and let him have full authority to decide the employment issue of the guide project.