The inns in Sishui County is the Xingqing Pavilion at Xingqing Pass. There are only Mashu in the county town, but no inns. It is roughly because the county before the Tang Dynasty was in Hulao City, and the current county town was moved from the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, and the inns still maintain the old pattern.

Before dawn, Li Shen, the magistrate of Mengzhou, and Zhang Dayou, the magistrate of Sishui, brought the county officials to the Xingqing Pavilion. All the rituals were like rituals, and the entourage of Xu Ping, who followed Xu Ping from Xijing City to return, and the next journey was handed over to the people in Mengzhou.

Xu Ping ordered his entourage to set off first and wait at Mengdian Horse Shop. He took Tan Hu and other guards to check out the newly built dams and rivers with Li Shen and Zhang Dayou last year. Mengzhou was not on the list of inspections, but just passed by. He had no official duties in Sishui County. Of course, he had to take time to see the achievements of his busy years last year.

I rode my horse away from Xingqing Pass and walked not far into the mountains. Then I arrived next to the river channel led by Shakou Town, Gongxian on the bank of the Luo River. Xingqing Pass is the key location of Hulao Pass and Sishui Pass in the past. Many major wars have occurred in history because the mountains here are continuous and there are only a very narrow place south of the Yellow River to pass through. The waterways are actually the same as the road, and there are only a few small hills between the two. Many local post roads and waterways are even accompanied by each other.

Construction started last winter and was dug in the spring. There was no rainy season. At this time, there was not much water in the dam built between the hills. Even the river channel was not much water, which was far from the requirements of navigation. The new river channel must be truly open to the water, and at least it can be stored in the dam built in the rainy season after this autumn to meet the navigation conditions.

Seeing that many places on the built dam slope were cultivated and planted crops such as mahjong by nearby villagers, Xu Ping pointed to Zhang Dayou and said, "If it is damaged, the county will issue a notice that crops cannot be planted on the dam bottom slope. Otherwise, when the rain comes in summer, it will be soaked in the water and waste seeds. Moreover, the cultivation of farmland will also cause the soil on the dam slope to become loose, which is very dangerous."

Zhang Dayou bowed to the promise and smiled helplessly: "The notice has actually been posted several times, but where are there people listening? If someone can't bear to see it, someone will order be there. I can't send someone to pull the seedlings, right? I'm cursed by the people for nothing."

"That's not OK. If the dam slope cannot be protected, the water stored in the dam will become less and less. Didn't it be in vain last year? Otherwise, you divide the dam slope and the waterway into several sections, and each section is divided into villages and villages, and a dedicated person will be taken care of, and these people will be exempted from some money and food every year. But once such a thing happens again, you will be punished for heavy punishment. The same is true for waterways. No farmland can be reclaimed within five meters on both sides, and only tree soil can be planted. If something happens, the person who should be in charge will be punished."

When the land was excavated and expropriated, the land within a few feet of the waterway was expropriated. However, in spring, the villagers saw that the land was empty and no one cared about it. Even if there were diligent families sprinkling pickles beans there. These two crops did not require high soil quality and did not require careful management. They just needed some seeds, and how much they could be harvested in autumn.

The Central Plains often have half a year of drought and half a year of flooding. The rivers are open to farmland on both sides and must be strictly managed. Especially this year, the severe drought in Henan Province was entirely due to several heavy snowfalls last year. The winter wheat grew well, and the spring-sown crops were terrible. Because the newly excavated rivers had to store water, Xuping banned farmers from diverting water from the Luo River on a large scale, and replenishing rice and wheat according to the acres of arable land on both sides of the river.

In fact, even if water diversion is allowed, it cannot be watered much. There is no water pump in this year, and the water level in the river is low. How much water can be lifted out of the river with manpower? Xu Ping's main purpose is to focus on disaster relief.

In order to deal with the drought, Xu Ping had to borrow grain from Wang Gongchen's land responsibilities. He had not yet recovered his old debts and owed new debts. He could only hope that he had a bumper harvest in Cai, Ru, and Tangzhou, and had more harvests on Jingxi Road, so that he could still owed debts.

There will be major floods after a severe drought. This spring drought will become like this, and there may be floods in autumn. The harm to the embankment between drought and flood is particularly great. During drought, cracks will appear in the embankment. The longer the drought, the deeper the cracks will be. If it rains heavily and the rain flows down the cracks, the dam will be soaked in a short time. In addition, the mountain torrents accumulated in the dam will be severely tested. If the newly built dam is washed down in less than a year, this joke will be great. Xu Ping, who is in charge of this matter, will be under tremendous pressure, and the entire project will die.

As the drought deepened, Xu Ping was very concerned about this matter. Both sides of the Luo River in Henan Prefecture have been cleared. Not only are crops not allowed, but even vegetables and flowers are not allowed. All of them are planted and trees are left to plant grass. Some of the Xiang troops were sent out to patrol the river and water these plants from the Luo River every day. The purpose of this is to prevent the plants from lacking water, and the main reason is to fear that the newly built dam will cause deep cracks and leave hidden dangers.

The drought is mainly in Henan Prefecture. It has rained a few light rains here in Zhang Dayou, so the requirements are not so strict. However, this practice of clearing land and farming on the embankment will not be allowed in any case, and I will regret it if something happens.

The dam between Gongxian and Sishui is not the same, but a large bunch of hills. Like grapes, a large number of hills are rolled in. The accumulated mountain torrents here are the main water source for newly dug waterways. The sand mouth of the Luo River only plays a supplementary role. The main purpose is navigation. Don’t underestimate the mountain torrents here. From the Yellow River section between Luo River and Sishui, it stretches south to the huge fan-shaped shape of Songshan Mountain. The mountains stretch, and the amount of water collected is quite large.

It is said that it is to lead Luo to Bian. In fact, the water source of the newly opened waterway does not come from the Luo River, but mainly comes from the Sishui River. This large series of dams intercepts the tributaries of Sishui, which causes most of the water in Sishui River. Seriously speaking, this project actually uses water from the tributaries of the southern bank of the Yellow River to replace the original direct water diversion from the Yellow River, thereby avoiding the damage of silt and sand in the Yellow River.

After walking around the dam for a while, Zhang Dayou said: "The rainfall this spring is less than in previous years. The water in the dam is not much, and it looks a bit shabby. When it comes to the rainy season in the autumn, it is probably more water."

"Of course, there will be major floods after a severe drought. There will be many locust plagues after a severe drought. 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 good, so from now on, Henan Prefecture and Mengzhou need to prepare more grain, and don't wait until the famine is really caused by the famine. Now that spring is not over, the people still don't feel that the year is bad, so we can't be so slow for officials. Fortunately, the other prefectures on the West Jing Road are considered good weather, and the food is allocated, so there is no need to make trouble in the court. But if the preparations are not good now and the relief is not enough, it will be difficult to deal with."

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

"Fucai Supervision has been built, and Dengzhou Xixia County has also transported a lot of copper to mint coins next month. Then you can allocate some copper coins to Mengzhou. There is no money shop there, so you are short of money."

After hearing Xu Ping's words, Li Shen remained silent. Li Di was not optimistic about Xu Ping's reforms, thought it was useless and he was messing around, and all the new policies in Mengzhou were not implemented. Now, because of the construction of a money shop, Henan Prefecture has many copper coins, but it cannot be transferred to Mengzhou. It was embarrassing that Li Shen was stuck in the middle. Allocation of newly cast copper coins from Fucai Supervision was considered a compromise for Xu Ping.

(Note: In history, Henan Prefecture was severely drought this year, and it did not rain for most half a year. The government suffered famine due to insufficient preparations and insufficient grain transfer. Although there is a Luo River in Henan Prefecture, there are basically no water canals for diversion, because the main grain-producing areas are also around the imperial tombs. The protagonist stayed in the countryside for a long time in his previous life, and should have some understanding of the weather laws in the north and prepare in advance.)
Chapter completed!