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"This baked egg tastes really good today, Dashuai, you should try these three ripe, really, it's much better than the seven ripe ones you eat. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

Su Dingfang finished eating the fourth baked egg and patted his stomach with satisfaction.

Li Chao just smiled and ate his bean noodles leisurely. Beanie noodles, like grilled eggs, are one of the specialties of this shop. Bean noodles are actually ordinary hand-rolled noodles, but what makes this kind of noodles special is the Turpan white beans in the soup.

Turpan is now the state of Gaochang under the control of the Western Turks.

The shape of white beans is somewhat like lentils and a bit like soybeans, which is a specialty of Gaochang. The noodles are cooked soft and smooth like cold powder, and the noodles do not need to be chewed, but the white beans are chewy and flavorful.

Bean noodles with white beans on one side are a must-pay delicacy when you come to this shop.

After eating kebabs, grilled eggs and other foods with heavy oil and meat, I ate a bowl of fragrant, soft in the mouth, refreshing in taste, and mouth-watering, which is not only refreshing, but also a healthy way to dissolve greasy.

Of course, Li Chao also likes to have a glass of wine or a cup of hot tea after eating baked eggs or raisin pilaf, kebabs, naan buns, grilled buns, and bean noodles.

Putting down the bowl and drying his mouth, Li Chao touched his stomach very satisfied. The food of this Huren store is always so sincere, a bowl of bean noodles is not a bowl, but a clay pot, and a bowl of noodles with noodles and soup must have two catties. A kebab has at least half a catty of meat.

The big pot chicken is really a whole few pounds of chicken.

A grilled bun, which is stuffed with a small half catty of meat, is called a Big Mac baked bun.

It's just that the tea is a little inferior, and the taste of the wine is average, not as good as that produced in Lijiagou. But what is sold is not ordinarily expensive, much more expensive than raisin pilaf, kebabs, grilled buns, baked eggs, etc.

The wine was transported from Gaochang and traveled thousands of miles. Tea was transported by merchants in Guanzhong, and it was a relatively valuable commodity anyway.

On the contrary, it is beef, mutton, eggs, chicken noodles, etc., Lingzhou, as an agricultural and pastoral area, is not lacking in these.

Tea foam is in Lingzhou, and it is actually sold at a price like gold, which is really a cheat. Blowing the foam on the tea bowl and taking a sip of hot tea, although the taste is light, there is still the fragrance of tea leaves.

The tea in this shop is a big bowl of tea for a penny, but here, it sells more expensive than a baked bun.

"Dingfang, you really don't stay?"

"I was born to fight, and it really embarrassed me for me to stay for the marshal to manage the affairs in this yamen. I am still willing to follow the marshal to Ningyuan, after all, I am still the marshal's commander, and I have to take these five thousand tooth soldiers for you. ”

"Dingfang, you are a good hand at fighting, but if you want to go further, you still have to learn more about general management."

"I don't want to be that civil official, I'd better be a general." Su Dingfang was a little unambitious.

"I only want to be a general, but I can't be a prime minister, and I can't enter the center." Li Chao said with a smile.

Su Dingfang picked up the big tea bowl and took a big sip, not afraid of being hot.

"To be the prime minister? That's a teacher, you have the ability, I can be a good general, it's enough. The biggest dream in this life is that one day I can be the envoy of a town and defend a frontier for the country. ”

"Hey, I originally wanted you to preside over the construction of the Tang Canal for me, but now let me find someone for a while?"

Li Chao came to Lingzhou this time, and all the generals he brought with him were military generals, many of whom were seconded from other positions. For example, Su Dingfang, who was the governor of Taozhou, is now coming to Shuofang to be the head of the march, and he may definitely have to return to Taozhou after the war.

Guo Xiaoke, that is the marching chief of the Longyou Dao Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, Xue Wanche, the marching Sima of the Longyou Dao Dadu Governor's Mansion.

The same was true for the other stewards.

Especially this time, there are very few civilian staff, and even fewer can serve at the level of assassination history and long history. This has led to the fact that after Li Chao quickly recovered Shuofang, the follow-up civil affairs of various states are understaffed and cannot keep up.

Originally, Li Chaodu had already drawn up a new development plan for the Xitao Plain, that is, to dig a new canal on the west bank of the Yellow River.

At present, the main diversion canal of the Xitao Plain is still mainly on the east bank, and there is only one Han canal on the west bank. There is still a large area of land that can be developed, and the key is to build another main canal, and then build a branch canal, and then a large area of new irrigation can be developed.

This new trunk canal, Li Chao has already set the name, it is called Tang Canal, the mouth of the canal is open next to the Qingtong Gorge, all the way to the north, to Dingyuan termination, the total length of the plan is 700 miles, more than 500 branch canals. After completion, it will be able to irrigate at least one million acres.

This channel is not unique to Li Chao, but was built in history during the reign of Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty, and was later renovated by various generations. It can be said that this is one of the more important of the more than a dozen main canals in the history of the Xitao Plain.

Li Chao almost took this channel in history directly.

The 700-mile-long and 10-zhang wide main canal on the west bank of the West Bank can irrigate most of the land on the west bank of the Xitao Plain, and can add another million mu of grain fields to the Xitao Plain, and it is irrigated with water.

Once this trunk canal is completed, plus the supporting branch canals, this is equivalent to turning over the cultivated land in Lingzhou directly. Once such a large project is completed, it can really be regarded as a merit in the present and a benefit in the future.

But for such a large project, there is no suitable manager now. Li Chao himself can only be a planner, he doesn't have much time to take care of specific affairs, and such a big project can't be managed by one person, and too many people are needed.

Even if it is now a preliminary plan, it is also very burdensome to explore the route.

"Dashuai, are you really looking into this Tang Qu?" Su Dingfang asked in surprise. In his opinion, now is of course the most important thing to concentrate on fighting the Turks, as for things such as building canals and water conservancy, these should be handed over to the following assassins and county orders.

"If this channel is repaired, can it increase one million acres of grain land, or water the land, do you think it is not necessary? One million acres of irrigated land, even if you produce four stone of grain a year, you can increase the output by four million stone this year. Do you know what it means to have so much food? It means that Shuofang Town will be completely self-sufficient in food in the future, and even have surplus grain to be transported to Longyou and Hexi, and if Chang'an needs it, it can also transport some grain to Chang'an. ”

"In the future, Chang'an not only does not need to transport grain to Shuofang, but also can reduce the military grain transported to Longyou and Hexi, and even Chang'an can get the input of Shuofang grain. Isn't it important, you say? ”

Lingzhou already has one million acres of land, and the addition of one million acres means that Lingzhou will have two million acres of land. 20,000 hectares is not as good as the number of grain fields in Guanzhong, but the population of Guanzhong is dozens of times that of Lingzhou.

There are few people in Lingzhou, and it has the benefits of animal husbandry. Two million acres of grain fields, in a normal year, if there is a bumper harvest, it can produce seven or eight million stone grain, Lingzhou is now only about 100,000 people, even if it is doubled by two or three times, it is only two or three hundred thousand people, even if one person is calculated according to the high standard of eighteen stones, it is only required five or six hundred thousand stone grain, which means that Lingzhou can become the most important granary in the entire northwest region.

For the Tang Dynasty, this is of far-reaching significance, and it is more important than collecting hundreds of thousands of yuan in taxes a year, after all, grain is the cornerstone of stability. If the Tang Dynasty wants to control Shuofang, Hexi, and Longyou, to ensure the safety of the capital, to strengthen the control of several places in the northwest periphery, and even to expand outward in the future, then grain will always be the bottleneck of constraints.

If Datang added a granary with an annual output of several million stones in Lingzhou, it would mean a lot. Lingzhou is not in the southeast, although the southeast has a high grain production and a large quantity. But it was very difficult to transport from the southeast to the northwest.

"But this Tang Canal, the main canal has to be repaired for 700 miles, or a trunk canal ten zhang wide, and it is not easy to repair. What's more, according to what you said, in order to reach the goal of irrigating 1 million mu of farmland, it is necessary to build more than 500 branch canals, which is a big project. ”

"It's easier to dig thousands of miles of channels on the plains."

"But after all, it's a channel of thousands of miles, how much manpower and how much food does it take."

Li Chao doesn't think so, this project seems to be very big, but it depends on how you manage it. For example, the project can be divided into multiple sections and the segmented responsibility system can be adopted.

For another example, you can divide the land that can be irrigated in advance, and then if you want to distribute the fields, you must work and contribute, and even pay a little money first, so that a large part of the manpower and money for repairing the canal can be solved.

After all, after dividing the field, it is to dig a ditch for your own family. When the ditch is dug and the land is divided, the land is watered. If you don't dig it, it's a piece of dry land, which is working for yourself, and you must be motivated.

Just as the United States developed the West in history, let those capitalists build railroads, and wherever the railroads are built, then they will own as much land as they can on both sides of the road. As a result, the capitalists formed railway companies one after another and worked desperately to build roads.

Li Chao is now ready to do the same.

Historically, the Han Dynasty had immigrated 780,000 people to Lingzhou to develop the Xitao Plain, but now the population of Lingzhou is only about 100,000, even if the families of 20,000 soldiers move over, it will increase by about 100,000, which is far from the bottom line of the population here.

Even if Lingzhou removes another 50,000 households, there will be no problem.

One million acres of irrigated land, 50,000 households, even if one household is divided into 20 acres of land, that is not bad. After all, it is watered land, and if you divide some dry land, grassland, etc., it is definitely much stronger than the current situation of many people in Guanzhong.

After all, there are many people in Guanzhong, and there are many powerful and powerful people who occupy land, and many people do not have much land in Guanzhong.

And for the imperial court, it is also of great benefit to move 50,000 households from Guanzhong to Lingzhou. First, if 50,000 households are moved, then the fields that these people originally divided will be vacant, even if they don't have much land in their hands, but 50,000 households, even if one household is 10 acres or 20 acres, there must be hundreds of thousands of acres or millions of acres, and these lands can be re-equalized.

On the other hand, Lingzhou has added one million acres of land and granted these immigrants, and the immigrants have more land, and their lives must have changed for the better. As for the imperial court, the population pressure in Guanzhong has been reduced, and at the same time, the rental income of one million acres of land has been added, which has enriched the frontier.

No matter how you look at it, there is no harm in everything.

As for the larger project, it is different from the construction of the Great Wall. Building the Great Wall is considered hard labor, and there is no vital benefit to the people. It is not the same to repair the canal, repair the canal in sections, repair the canal for the field of their own family, and repair their own field to become watered land, this enthusiasm can not be ignored, after all, it is a matter of personal interests.

With 20,000 soldiers and their families, and 50,000 new immigrants, plus the original local people, Lingzhou will have 2 million mu of land, millions of mu of grassland, and a population of 890,000 or even 100,000 households, which is not a problem.

There are 100,000 households in Lingzhou, and it is stable.

"If you really want to fix it, I think there is someone who is quite suitable to take charge of you." Su Dingfang said with a smile.

"You mean Chu Suiliang?" As soon as Li Chao saw him smiling, he guessed which one he wanted to say.

"Dashuai, I heard that this person attacked you fiercely in the capital, and now he has been sent to Lingzhou to be a propaganda envoy, how can we miss such a good opportunity, we must let this surnamed Chu know that he is powerful. Dashuai, you don't exert power, he really doesn't know how many eyes Ma Wang Ye has! (To be continued.) )