Jiuhua Temple has replaced more than 60,000 acres of tuntian near the left, and more than 3,000 tenants are attached. Based on the calculation of ten households and one mile, more than 3,000 tenant farmers can be divided into more than 30 miles.

In fact, Chongzhou County has a large population, and there are as many as 40,000 Dingkou households registered in the county, which is more than 400 li according to the strict calculation of 100 households and 1 mile. If you count the hidden dingkou, there are about six or seven hundred li. It is inappropriate to use the county as a county, at least in Chongzhou County, and with a small number of people in the county, it is not possible to form an effective rule over the vast and prosperous county.

After a period of investigation, Lin Jian had reason to believe that the hidden population of Chongzhou was between 120,000 and 150,000, that is, the total population of Chongzhou County was more than 350,000.

Only on the basis of such a population base can Lin Jian have the confidence to organize 100,000 young people from the county to carry out a number of large-scale projects such as the construction of new cities and the dredging and excavation of rivers in the autumn and winter farming seasons.

In the same way as hiding the fields to avoid grain payment, the original purpose of hiding Dingkou was to avoid forced labor and taxes. Even if they can rent a small amount of land from the local area to cultivate, as a customer from a foreign country, they are also subjected to extremely heavy land rent, and their income can only barely make ends meet, and they are not willing to bear the burden of Ding tax and forced labor because of the Ding Kou Inventory.

The first big move that Lin Jian really implemented in Chongzhou County was to exempt the levy, the Ding tax, and all kinds of apportionments on the people's heads, and this alone wiped out the increased taxes from the inventory of Terata and Jitian. It is also the basis for the increase in taxes in the early stage that the tax and capitation can be exempted, otherwise it is impossible for the county secretary to accept the fact that Chongzhou's taxes have been greatly reduced.

As a result, the Jiangdong Left Army had to bear a loss of nearly 10,000 taels of silver every year, which Yue Lengqiu and others were happy to see, but all members were exempted from forced labor, Ding tax, and various capitation assessments, benefiting all strata of Chongzhou County, and also removing the obstacles to the county's Dingkou census.

In fact, before the official implementation of the county's census, more than 70,000 stranded displaced people were registered in several centralized disaster relief camps, such as Jiuhua Temple, Zilang Mountain, Hecheng Division, and Xishan Hekou.

The flood season finally ended in late August, and the waterlogging in various parts of the county is slowly receding. Lin Jian first asked Cao Ziang and Liu Zhenzhi to organize 10,000 young people in Jiuhua Temple to excavate the river channel that runs through the Xishan River and the Yunyan River.

This river only needs to be excavated for three miles, about 700,000 square meters of soil needs to be excavated, and it takes about one to one and a half months to organize 10,000 young people, but the significance of connecting the Xishan River and the Yunyan River is very important.

In addition to increasing the drainage capacity of the northwest area of Chongzhou County, a function that has been reflected, Liu Zhenzhi excavated a ditch only ten steps wide in the northern section of the Xishan River, which greatly reduced the waterlogging disaster in the Jiuhuasi area. At present, it is necessary to widen this small ditch tenfold on the basis of and dig it too deep, so that the waterway of the Yangtze River will be completely connected through the Xishan River and the Yunyan River and the Beiguan River, so that ships east of Jiyang County in Pingjiang Prefecture and in the south of Chongzhou will be able to travel more than 200 miles to the north of the main channel of Caoyun, and this will also mean that the warships of the Jinghai Battalion can go north at the fastest speed and enter Gaoyou Lake, Hongzepu, Qingjiangpu, and Huaihe waterway.

The significance is not only agricultural, but also commercial, but also geo-strategic.

Originally, Lin Jian planned to organize people to dig the Xishan River through the river after the autumn grain harvest, but the heavy flood in mid to early August enabled Lin Jian to gather a large number of displaced people and young and strong laborers in advance through disaster relief, and the plan was naturally advanced.

Compared with the Xishan River running through the river, the comprehensive dredging and widening of the Chongzhou section of the Yunyan River is a real big project for the world.

Yunyan River crosses Chongzhou County, the northern section of Hecheng grassland, directly leads to Hecheng Fishing Port, a hundred years of disrepair, serious siltation, heavy rain is waterlogged, the average of two hundred steps wide river, 100 stone boats may pass through shallow. The river channel that Lin Jian plans to dredge and widen is more than 140 miles long, and the amount of work is 40 or 50 times that of the Xishan River. In other words, it would take the whole winter to organize 60,000 or 70,000 young men to go up the embankment, which can be said to completely exceed the current organizational capacity and financial resources of the Jiangdong Left Army.

Lin Lian also saw the tremendous benefits of the completion of the dredging and widening project of the Yunyan River, which would not only enable large warships of the Jiyun class to freely enter and leave the hinterland of Chongzhou County, but also turn the large areas of low-lying land, river flats, and waterlogged and inferior fields on both sides of the Yunyan River that were susceptible to waterlogging disasters into high-yielding and high-yield fertile fields, thus solving the waterlogging disasters in the north of Chongzhou more thoroughly.

After all, Wu Meijiu is the magistrate of Chongzhou, and he has no consciousness of taking the lead and asking for his life for the people, but after the cool weather and sunny weather in autumn, he doesn't mind going to the township for a walk.

After all, Wu Meijiu is the official of Chongzhou County, he went to the countryside, Li Shuyi, Hu Zhicheng, Chen Lei and other major officials in the county are all accompanied, he heard that Jiuhua Temple is quite a big move, and he rushed to Jiuhua Temple during this time, Wu Meijiu naturally rushed over to meet Lin Lian, thinking of expressing his position in front of Lin Lian, showing that he also cares about the people's livelihood.

Lin Jian invited Wu Meijiu to Yunyan River and his party; Looking at the Yunyan River, where the flood had almost receded and there were serious traces of waterlogging on both banks, Wu Meijiu's jaw almost dropped when he heard Lin Lian's idea of dredging and widening the Yunyan River.

"How is that possible?" Wu Meijiu's head shook like a drum, "Mobilize sixty or seventy thousand young people, don't you say that there are so many young people in Chongzhou County that can be requisitioned, and the consumption of money and grain alone will cost hundreds of thousands." If the Lin family can get this money, I might as well continue to turn a blind eye, but if I want to do this with the accumulation of Chongzhou County, it is impossible to do it without the accumulation of fifty or sixty years of tightening my belt...... In addition, building the city is still the urgent task of Chongzhou at the moment, Hailing Mansion is staring, the county secretary is staring, the rainy season has passed, and there should be actual action on the matter of building the city, and Lord Lin can't embezzle all the money used to build the city. ”

Li Shuyi, Hu Zhicheng, Chen Lei and other historians stood aside in obedience and did not interject without talking.

"I dare to embezzle that money, and don't the special envoy of consolation want to hand the impeachment excerpt directly to the Metropolitan Procuratorate?" Lin Jian said with a smile, "I heard Li Shuyi say that the more than 8,000 young men needed to build the city will be recruited immediately, and it should not be wrong for Lord Wu." ”

"What the envoy said is right," Li Shuyi interjected at this time, "I haven't had time to show the strip to Lord Wu yet......"

"You just think it's appropriate," Wu Meijiu waved his hand, he knew that he could see it in vain, it was Lin Tie who was doing the work, and the silver was in Lin Tie's hand, as long as the construction period was not delayed, Wu Meijiu didn't care about him, but this autumn and winter to start dredging and transporting the salt river at the same time, a much larger project than building a city, Wu Meijiu couldn't sit still, "Building a new city is also a thousand difficulties, and finally there is a hope, Lord Lin really thinks that it can be done to dredging and transporting the salt river?" ”

"Compared with the construction of the city, the dredging of the salt river is much more difficult," Lin Jian said, "because of the difficulty, if it is done, Lord Wu will not need to stay in Chongzhou to suffer, and the prefect of Hailing is afraid that it is also in Lord Wu's pocket." ”

In addition to that bit of political reputation, Wu Meijiu also knew that staying in Chongzhou would not get any benefits. He is over forty years old, there is no one above, although he was born as a jinshi, but he has long served as a middle and low-level adjutant of the teaching, county cheng, and secretary of the army.

The dredging and transportation of the salt river can eliminate the waterlogging disaster in the northern counties of Chongzhou County in one fell swoop, so that hundreds of thousands of acres of wasteland can be turned into fertile land.

However, Wu Meijiu is not the kind of official who is used to whimsy, although Lin Lian said it beautifully, he just squinted at Lin Lian and said: "It is a great merit to dredge and transport the salt river, and I also know that it can turn hundreds of thousands of acres of waterlogged land on both sides of the river into fertile land, but how can Lord Lin do this?" ”

"There are a lot of hidden households in Chongzhou, I persuade Lord Wu to exempt the tax in Chongzhou, in fact, to clear the obstacles for the investigation of hidden households, in addition to the young and strong in Chongzhou County, Gaocheng, Xinghua and other neighboring counties will also come, and it is not difficult to recruit 100,000 young people during the agricultural slack," Lin Jian said, "The key is the silver ......"

"I also know that the key is silver," Wu Meijiu said, "Lord Lin recruited young men in Jiuhua Temple to dig the Xishan River to the north, and the daily wage for each worker is three catties of rice. ”

"Lord Wu also knows that dredging and transporting the salt river can turn hundreds of thousands of acres of waterlogged land on both sides of the river into fertile land, but does Lord Wu know how much of the hundreds of thousands of acres of waterlogged land on both sides of the bank is public land?" Lin Jian squinted at Wu Meijiu.

Wu Meijiu was shocked, and secretly Dao Lin Jian was really going to be ruthless to the place.

It is said that the wasteland of the waterlogged low-lying river beach is public land as long as it is not registered in the field book, and the mulberry land and residential land approved to the Ding households, but where is there really ownerless wasteland in this world? The influx of a large number of displaced people has made Chongzhou County less land and more people, not to mention the waterlogged low-lying river beach wasteland, even the barren river islands are cultivated. Where are the big local households willing to let the homeless customers take advantage of the local area, most of these waste lands are occupied by the local township tyrants and rented to the homeless customers for farming.

At this time, Lin Jian wanted to collect these waterlogged low-lying river beach wasteland into public land, which could indeed make up for the money and grain needed to dredge and transport the salt river, but how could the local township tyrants be willing to give in easily?

Lin Lian's eyes narrowed, the light in his eyes became sharper and sharper, and said: "It is quite difficult to comprehensively check the fields in the county, in the next step, I want Hu Zhicheng to clear the fields between two thousand steps on both sides of the main rivers such as the Yunyan River, the Phoenix River, and the Tongliang River, and confiscate all the public land that has been encroached upon, plus the fields that have been concealed and escaped, and punish them as examples of bandits, and the proceeds will be used to ...... the necessary for dredging the river."

Wu Meijiu was secretly shocked in his heart, Lin Lian's fangs were too ruthless, he didn't want to make too much of a move in his heart, and said: "Even if you are punished according to the previous example, I am afraid that the income will be far from enough." ”

"The public land obtained from the inventory shall be rented to tenants who go south to Chongzhou, and each household can rent 20 acres of public land, and the fixed rent is 30%. Dredging the river, each household out of one ding, within three years to reduce the rent of one percent, young healthy women count half a ding. In addition, these tenants will directly benefit from dredging rivers, eliminating waterlogging disasters, and turning inferior land into fertile land. The county has widely publicized it, so that the tenants know the benefits and disadvantages, but how can they know that it is not feasible? Lin Jian asked.

Wu Meijiu followed Lin Jian to the Jiuhua Temple disaster relief camp to see, the villagers were basically rescued by the township, and most of the people gathered in the disaster relief camp were out-of-town displaced customers, and the number of people made Wu Meijiu feel frightened.

Lin Jian had previously turned a part of the temple field belonging to Guangjiao Temple into a military cantonment field for the Jiangdong Left Army through a complete bandit case, and Wu Meijiu vaguely knew that the amount of land obtained by the Jiangdong Left Army that time was far more than the 5,000 mu on the surface. In any case, there were tenant farmers on these fields, and Lin Jian did not drive out the original tenant farmers, but also directly reduced the land rent to 30 percent, which was nearly half of the 50 percent fixed rent that was common in Chongzhou County and even the entire Jiangdong County, so it was natural to immediately win the support of the tenant farmers on these lands.

Wu Meijiu didn't expect Lin Lian to take a bigger step this time, not only planning to lease all the confiscated public land to the southbound displaced customers, but also reducing the land rent to three percent on a large scale. Now that a large number of displaced customers are gathered in a few disaster relief camps, they will become the backbone of the resolute support of Lin Lian's inventory of the county's public land and the dredging of the Yunyan River.

Wu Meijiu is not a stupid person, he can't help but figure out Lin Lian's intentions, the strength of the Jiangdong Left Army is strong enough, and Lin Lian is still constantly buying the hearts of the people. Maybe others see that Lin Tie is constantly squeezing the interests of local forces and opposing local forces, but in fact, the local forces in Chongzhou are far from enough to resist Lin Tie, and the local forces in Chongzhou County are not worthy of Lin Tie's wooing.

Wu Meijiu didn't want to get involved too deeply, and felt that this problem should be handed over to Han Zai and Lin Jian to argue, as long as Lin Jian could pass Han Zai's pass, he would toss it in Chongzhou as he wanted.