The post house in Bishui County is the Xingqing Hall of the Xingqing Pass, and there is only a horse shop in the county, and there is no post station. The pen %fun %pavilion www.biquge.info is roughly because the county before the Tang Dynasty was governed in the Tiger Prison City, and the current county seat was moved over during the Tang Kaiyuan period, and the post station still maintains the old pattern.

Before dawn, Li Shen, the general judge of Mengzhou, and Zhang Dayou, the magistrate of Bishui County, took the officials of the county to welcome them to Xingqing Hall. Everything was as good as a ceremony, and the Henan Mansion entourage who followed Xu Ping from Xijing City returned, and the next journey was handed over to the people of Mengzhou.

Xu Ping instructed his entourage to set off first and wait at Mengdian Horse Shop, and he brought Tan Hu and other guards to inspect the dam and river that had been newly built last year with Li Shen and Zhang Dayou. Mengzhou is not on the list of this inspection, but it is just passing by, and there is no official business in Bishui County, of course, I have to take time to take a look at the results of last year's busy months.

Riding a horse away from Xingqingguan, a short distance into the mountains, they arrived at the river leading from Shakou Town, Gongxian County, on the bank of the Luo River. The reason why Xingqing Pass, which is the former Tiger Prison Pass and Bishui Pass, is an important place, and there have been many major wars in history, is because the mountains here are continuous, and only a very narrow place south of the Yellow River can be passed. In fact, the waterway runs in the same direction as the road, but there are only a few hills between the two, and in many places the post road and the waterway even go hand in hand.

Construction began last winter, but it was dug in the spring, and it was not the rainy season, and there was not much water in the dam built between the hills. Even in the river, the amount of water is not much, and it is far from meeting the requirements of navigation. For the new river to be truly open, at least after this autumn, the dams built during the rainy season will be able to store water in order to meet the navigable conditions.

Seeing that many places on the dam slope have been reclaimed by nearby villagers to plant crops such as hemp beans, Xu Ping pointed to Zhang Dayou and said: "If it is damaged, the county will issue a notice, and crops cannot be planted on the dam slope at the bottom of the dam." Otherwise, when the rain comes in the summer, they will all be soaked in water, and the seeds will be wasted. In addition, the reclamation of farmland will also cause the soil of the dam slope to become loose, which is very dangerous. ”

Zhang Dayou bowed down and agreed, and smiled helplessly: "The notice has actually been issued several times, but where does anyone listen to it?" One can't stand it, so someone is there to order beans, I can't send someone to pull out the seedlings, right? Pingbai was cursed by the people. ”

"That's not good, if the dam slope can't be protected, the water stored in the dam will be less and less, wasn't it in vain last year! Otherwise, you divide the dam slope and the waterway into several sections, and each section is assigned to the township and village, so that they can be taken care of by special personnel, and these people will be given some free money and food every year. But once this kind of thing happens again, it will be punished severely. The same is true for waterways, where farmland cannot be cultivated within five zhang on both sides, only trees and soil can be planted, and those who should be in charge will be punished if something happens. ”

At that time, when the land was excavated and requisitioned, it was acquired together with the land within a few zhang on both sides of the waterway, but in the spring, the villagers saw that the land was empty, and no one cared about it, but there were diligent people who sowed hemp and planted beans there. These two crops do not require much soil quality, and do not require careful management, just a little seed, and how much can be harvested in the fall.

The Central Plains is often half a year of drought and half a year of flooding, and the opening of farmland on both sides of the river is very harmful, so it must be strictly managed. In particular, this year's drought in Henan Province is due to the fact that the winter wheat has grown well due to several heavy snowfalls last year, and the crops sown in spring are miserable. Because the newly excavated river was to store water, Xu Ping forbade farmers to divert water from the Luo River on a large scale, and replenished rice and wheat according to the number of acres of cultivated land on both sides of the river.

In fact, even if water is allowed to be diverted, there is not much land, and there are no pumping machines in these years, and the water level in the river is low, how much water can be lifted out of the river by manpower? Xu Ping did this, mainly focusing on disaster relief.

In order to cope with the drought, Xu Ping had to borrow grain from Wang Gongchen's camp, and the old debts were not paid off and he owed new debts. He can only hope for a bumper harvest in the newly opened fields in Cai, Ru, and Tang Prefectures, and a little more harvest on Jingxi Road so that he can pay off his debts.

A major drought will be followed by a major flood, and if the drought is like this this spring, there is a high probability that there will be floods in the autumn. Between drought and flood, the damage to the embankment is particularly great. During the drought, cracks will appear in the dike, and the longer the drought lasts, the deeper the cracks will become, and if it rains heavily, the rain will flow down the cracks, and the dikes will loosen in a short time. Coupled with the flash floods that accumulate in the dam, the levee will be severely tested. If the newly built dam had been washed away in less than a year, the joke would have been big, and Xu Ping, who was in charge of the matter, would have been under tremendous pressure, and it would not have been surprising that the entire project would have died abruptly.

As the drought deepened, Xu Ping kept an eye on the matter. The banks of the Luo River in Henan Province have been emptied, and not only are crops not allowed to be planted, but even vegetables and flowers are not allowed, and all trees have been planted, and open space has been set aside for grass. A part of the Xiang army was sent out to patrol the river, and every day they brought water from the Luo River to water these plants and trees. The purpose of this is to make the grass and trees not lack water and pour second, mainly because they are afraid that the newly built embankment will produce deep cracks and leave hidden dangers.

The drought is mainly in Henan Province, and Zhang Dayou still has a few light rains here, so the requirements are not so strict. However, this kind of practice of cultivating land on the levees is not allowed in any case, and it is impossible to regret it when the time comes.

The dam between Gongxian and Bishui is not one, but a large bunch, like grapes, and a large number of hills are enclosed in it. The mountain torrents accumulated here are the main source of water for the newly excavated waterways, and the sand mouth of the Luohe River only serves as a supplement, and the main purpose is to open up navigation. Don't underestimate the flash torrents here, the section of the Yellow River between the Luo River and the Bishui River, which stretches south to the huge fan shape of Songshan Mountain, stretches over the mountains, and collects a lot of water.

It is said that it is to lead Luo into Bian, but in fact, the water source of the newly opened waterway does not come from the Luo River, but mainly from the Bianshui. This large string of dams intercepts tributaries of the Bianshui, which accounts for most of the volume of the Bianshui. Seriously speaking, this project actually uses water from the tributaries of the south bank of the Yellow River instead of directly diverting water from the Yellow River, so as to avoid the damage of sediment in the Yellow River.

After walking around the dam for a while, Zhang Dayou said: "This spring's rain is less than usual, and there is not much water in the dam, which looks a little shabby. When the rainy season arrives in autumn, the amount of water will increase. ”

"Naturally, after the great drought, there will be great floods, and after the droughts and floods, there will be many locust plagues, and this year is not a good year."

Li Shen looked at the small amount of water in the dam and sighed heavily.

Xu Ping nodded: "This is a good word, so from now on, Henan Mansion and Mengzhou must prepare more grain, and don't wait until there is a famine between summer and autumn to be caught off guard." Now that spring has not passed, the people still do not feel that the year is bad, and we cannot be so dull as officials. Fortunately, the other state armies on Jingxi Road can be regarded as having a smooth wind and rain, and the rations can be allocated, so there is no need to make trouble in the court. But if you don't prepare well now, and you won't be able to provide relief at that time, it won't be easy to do. ”

Li Shen said: "Du Cao is right, but now I have food prepared, and there is no money in the state, so I am in trouble." ”

"The Fucai Supervisor has been built, and Xixia County in Dengzhou has also transported a lot of copper, and it will be possible to mint money next month. At that time, allocate some copper coins to Mengzhou, you don't have a money village there, and you are short of money. ”

After listening to Xu Ping's words, Li Shen was silent. Li Di was not optimistic about Xu Ping's reforms, thinking that they were useless, blindly tossing, and all the new policies in Mengzhou were not implemented. Now because of the construction of the money village, Henan Mansion has a lot of copper coins, but it cannot be transferred to Mengzhou, and Li Shen is very embarrassed to be caught in the middle. The allocation of newly minted copper coins from the Fu Finance Supervisor can be regarded as Xu Ping's compromise.

(Note: Historically, there was a great drought in Henan Province this year, and there was no rain for most of the year, and the government had a famine because of insufficient preparation and inability to adjust grain.) Although there is the Luo River in Henan Province, there are basically no water canals to divert water, because the main grain-producing area is also around the imperial tomb. The protagonist spent a long time in the countryside in his previous life, so he should have some understanding of the weather rules in the north and start preparing in advance. ）