After the conclusion of the second phase of the campaign of the Beishang Plan, the main task of the Beishang Group Army was to send a large number of troops to the Hetao area, Tumochuan and other large areas of the Monan grassland, with the cooperation of airship troops, to begin to sweep away the remnants of the defeated Mongol troops in the Monan grassland, as well as to gather the small and medium-sized tribes scattered in various places.

Hu Wei and some of the company's support employees have not been able to come to the Hetao area in the near future, and the company's work to receive displaced people this year is very arduous, and he needs to preside over it. Li Ming could only convene Ma Qing, Zhou Lin and others in Guihua City to study and deploy preparations for the establishment of the Hetao base area.

At present, the company has basically controlled the large plain area of the Bayannur Plain between Bayangol and Xishanzui, which is often referred to as the "Houtao", and the "Qiantao" of the Tumochuan Plain between Baotou, Guihua City and Lamawan.

The "Xitao" area of the Yinchuan Plain east of Helan Mountain is currently controlled by the town of Ningxia that changed from the Ming Dynasty. The strategic position of Ningxia Town in the Ming Dynasty was even more important. After the Ming Dynasty abandoned the Hetao Plain and retreated to Ningxia, it lost its defensive buffer zone. Ningxia Town, especially the Yanchi and Lingwu areas east of the Yellow River, bear the brunt. At that time, it was called "the shield of Guanzhong, and the throat of Helong".

Historically, the Hetao area has been inhabited by many ethnic groups since ancient times. If the Central Plains Dynasty gets the Hetao region, the cavalry will be very powerful, and it will even be able to sweep across the desert. Once the Hetao region was lost, the horse farms in other parts of the Central Plains Dynasty could not withstand the large number of cavalry needs, and the number of cavalry would be significantly reduced and weakened.

Now that the Far Eastern Company occupies this area and is ready to vigorously develop the Hetao area, it is of great strategic importance for the company. However, at present, the company is facing a grim situation, and the Hetao base area is still unable to get strong support from the company, and it has to carry forward the spirit of self-reliance and hard work. Establish the Hetao base area.

The most important task in developing the Hetao base area is to develop the agricultural resources of the Hetao area. Zhou Lin is the only expert in agriculture and forestry in the Hetao base area, and of course he has to preside over this work. At this meeting, he also gave a detailed explanation of the historical reclamation situation in the Hetao area.

"The Hetao is fertile for thousands of miles, and the water and grass are abundant. The land is rich and has been one of the traditional places of relocation of the working people in the north since ancient times. Migration from the interior to the Hetao began during the Warring States period. King Wuling of Zhao's power expanded to the Yinshan Hetao. In order to consolidate and develop this territory, Zhao State placed Jiuyuan County here, and organized its own people to move here to reclaim, which opened the prelude to "immigration to the real border".

The Hetao Plain is a temperate arid region, where there is abundant sunshine, abundant heat resources in the growing season, and a large temperature difference between day and night, which is conducive to the growth and development of crops. Drought and lack of rainfall are the main constraints on agricultural development in the Hetao area. Located in the arid Northwest Plateau, it has little rainfall and high evaporation, and is an area where there is no agriculture without irrigation.

However, the Hetao Plain is blessed with a Yellow River with less flooding and abundant water, with an average annual transit water volume of 30 billion cubic meters, and the sediment contained in it can be used to fertilize the fields and press alkali. The fertile plain formed by the alluvium of the Yellow River has a flat terrain and appropriate slope drop, which is very favorable for the development of artesian irrigation.

The land in the Loop depends on canal water as its lifeblood. Wherever the canals are opened, the cultivated land can be cultivated. Therefore, with the continuous excavation of the Hetao channel, a large amount of wasteland was developed and became fertile farmland. To develop the foundation of agricultural resources in the Hetao Plain, it is necessary to establish a complete large-scale irrigation area in the Hetao area.

For example, the large irrigation area in the middle reaches of the Yellow River in modern society is the largest irrigation area designed for irrigation in China. The Hetao irrigation area is located in the alluvial plain on the north bank of the Inner Mongolia section of the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River. With an area of 17.43 million mu, it is the largest irrigation area in Asia and one of the three extra-large irrigation areas in the country, as well as an important commercial grain and oil production base in the country and autonomous regions. ”

After listening to Zhou Lin's explanation, everyone also roughly understood the main work of the Hetao base area in the near future, that is, digging ditches for drinking water. Count on God to rain down. That's not to think about. It seems that the Hetao base area is even more difficult than the Luliang Mountain base area.

Li Ming thought for a moment, and then said with a smile: "What Zhou Lin said, everyone should know it." Hehe...... It seems that everyone should be mentally prepared, we have finished digging caves in Luliang Mountain, and we are going to dig a canal in the Hetao area again. ”

Everyone laughed when they heard Li Ming's words.

Zhou Lin shook his head and said: "Don't be nervous, the construction of this large-scale irrigation area I am talking about is not a construction period that can be completed in three or five years. At the beginning of the construction of the base areas, we were able to gather the displaced people in the Shanxi area and carry out reclamation on both sides of the Yellow River. In the early stage, simple inlet and drainage ditches could be built, and steam-powered pumps could be used to divert water from the Yellow River to irrigate the newly cultivated land.

While we were reclaiming wasteland, we mobilized a large number of displaced people to dig ditches on the north bank of the Yellow River during the slack period. Because of the lack of modern mechanical engineering equipment, it is difficult to build the scale of the modern Hetao irrigation area with only a large number of manpower to dig the canal. However, we can refer to the scale of the ancient irrigation area of the Hetao to establish the irrigation area, which is what we often call the eight major canals of the Houtao.

The eight major canals in the back set are bordered by the Yellow River in the south, the Wujia River in the north, and the Yongji Canal, Gangmu Canal, Fengji Canal, Shahe Canal, Yihe Canal, Tongji Canal, Changji Canal and Tabu Canal from west to east. At different times, the canal system is often adjusted, and each canal diverts water from the Yellow River and retreats to the Wujia River.

These eight channels irrigate a total of 5,651 hectares, and the total irrigation area of the whole Hetao irrigation area is more than 9,000 hectares. These channels are dug by private organizations, and each canal has been excavated for more than 10 years, or even decades, mainly based on the experience of technical personnel, lack of scientific measurement and planning, lack of control of imports, the amount of water diversion is determined by the elevation of the Yellow River water level and the direction of the main stream, the channel ratio is too slow, and the amount of dredging work is very large.

Before I decided to come to the Loop, I had already made a complete plan for the construction of the irrigation area according to the various materials consulted by the company's information center. Of course, this is still my talk on paper. In the future, I will work with the experts and technicians of the company's water conservancy department to conduct on-site surveys in the Hetao area, and finally formulate a scientific and rigorous Hetao irrigation area plan. ”

Li Ming nodded and said, "You can just let it go, the development of the Hetao irrigation area is very important for our Far East Company to develop the agricultural resources in the northwest region." The company has decided to make great efforts to develop power machinery in the next few years, and strive to popularize the construction machinery, automobiles and tractor industries based on steam power and supplemented by internal combustion engine power in the next few years.

I believe that by that time, we will be fully capable of developing and constructing a large-scale irrigation project like the Hetao Irrigation Area in modern society, and build the Hetao area into a real "plugging up the Yangtze River". Let Hetao become another big granary of our Far East Company after the Northeast and the Outer Northeast. (To be continued.) )