Chapter 1 Civil Affairs Council

On the way back to Lianhuazhai in Yangcheng, looking at the scene in the devastated control area, Xiao Tianjian couldn't help sighing at the cruelty of the war. Whenever there is a war, it is the people who suffer the most. With the retreat of the officers and soldiers, a large number of people hiding in the mountains are also in the country. Under the organization, they gradually returned to their original village, but what was left to them after the war was basically a ruin.

For such a situation, even Xiao Tianjian has a sense of powerlessness that he can't help. He can only pass on the order, so that the local security chiefs can lead the villagers as much as possible to restore their homes as soon as possible, and immediately devote themselves to spring ploughing.

In March, the temperature in Shanxi has begun to gradually warm up. If you miss this spring ploughing season, it is expected that there will be a large-scale famine within the jurisdiction of Xing Tianjun without waiting for the autumn harvest.

For this reason, after Xiao Tianjian returned to Yangcheng, he immediately summoned Fu Deming and other people in charge of civil affairs to discuss how to deal with this disaster year.

For this fierce drought, Fu Deming and some of his men had a hunchance a few years ago. When Xiao Tianjian asked about this question, Fu Deming stood up and said to Xiao Tianjian, "General Qi, we have already planned at this time. Now the spring ploughing season has arrived, so it's impossible to sit and wait! Fortunately, the officers and soldiers have retreated, and spring ploughing in various places should be carried out as soon as possible.

As for the problem of spring drought, Beizhi and others have also discussed it. At present, although it is also under the scope of drought within our jurisdiction, Qinshui, Yangcheng, Yuanqu and other places are mostly mountainous. There are still many rivers in the territory, and the water is not very scarce!

The most critical thing is the irrigation channel problem. Many of the original ditches have been silted and filled after so many years of disrepair. If these channels are still there, even in such a great drought, as long as there is canal irrigation, it will basically not be a disaster.

Therefore, at present, we think that if we want to survive this drought this year, we need to organize villagers to dredge the original abandoned channels as soon as possible, and introduce the water sources of rivers everywhere into the channels to irrigate farmland. In addition, we need to build a large number of water trucks and dig deep in some places where there are no streams and rivers pass through. Only in this way can we cope with the current drought!"

After hearing this, Xiao Tianjian nodded. For what Fu Deming said, he now also has a relatively clear understanding. Although it is often said in history that Chongzhen is an unlucky emperor and took over a big mess, he not only caught up with the rebellion of the real slaves in Liaodong, but also encountered a rare drought in the north, but in fact it is waiting. After Xiao Tianjian came to this era, he found that although the real drought existed, it was not only a natural disaster, but also caused by man-made disasters.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, after more than 200 years of large-scale land annexation of the privileged class, nearly half of the farmland of ordinary people was merged into the hands of the privileged class, and government officials were even more greedy. Many farmland water conservancy construction survived in name only, and no one paid attention to this kind of thing at all, but actually mastered it. Those rich landlords on a large amount of land are independent. No one will consider the overall irrigation problem. They just take care of the water conservancy facilities in their fields, so the original farmland irrigation facilities are gradually abandoned.

Under the general situation, if God opens his eyes and the people look at the few mu of thin fields, they can still cope with it. However, once they encounter such a year of drought, the people will be completely blind. Even if some places have water, it is because of the ditch. The canal is blocked, and the water cannot be introduced into the field for irrigation.

But even so, because of the war in Liaodong, the court has increased the pay for years, resulting in the tightness of local finance, and local governments in various places are even more unable to consider the construction of water conservancy. On the contrary, they have intensified the allocation of this kind of pay to ordinary people, forcing the people to farm for a year, not only have no surplus. On the contrary, it has to be reversed. Such a vicious circle will lead to the formation of a large number of exiles in various places. As soon as someone raised their arms and shouted, they immediately rebelled like clouds, and finally overturned the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Xiao Tianjian now understands that the demise of the Ming Dynasty is not only the cause of natural disasters and bad luck, but also the whole social structure has problems. Even without the rise of slaves, the Ming Dynasty will never last long.

After listening to Fu Deming's words, Xiao Tianjian rubbed his forehead to deal with Deming and said, "Mr. Fu's words are reasonable. Although the drought is a forgone conclusion now, we can't wait for God to give us rain. We must organize the people in our jurisdiction to save themselves as soon as possible, otherwise, even with our food reserves, even if It is to rob all the soldiers, and it is estimated that it is difficult to solve the food problem of hundreds of thousands of people in our jurisdiction.

I don't hesitate to dredge the channel. Mr. Fu will immediately arrange it so that the local security officers can organize people to do it, so that important fields can be effectively irrigated as soon as possible.

As for the well drilling, don't delay. We can provide tools for people everywhere for them to use. At the same time, we can mobilize craftsmen to build all kinds of water trucks and send them to the fields for people to irrigate! In short, we should do everything we can to solve the problem of drought in our jurisdiction first! You people should find more ways to do this kind of thing!"

Fu Deming bowed and took the order, but then said, "But there is another troublesome thing now. Although the general has led the army to repel the officers and soldiers, it is only to expel the main force of the officers and soldiers from our jurisdiction. After a few battles, many officers and soldiers were scattered by our army and flowed to the nearby mountains. Recently, in my Many terrible evils have been committed in our jurisdiction. If these defeated soldiers are unclear, it will be difficult for us to carry out even if we want to convene people to carry out dredging channels on a large scale!

So if you want to successfully implement the channel dredging, these problems of defeated soldiers must be solved as soon as possible!

In addition, a large number of manpower is needed everywhere in the dredging channel. In addition to the remaining grain in the hands of the local people in Yangcheng County, there is almost no surplus grain in the hands of the people in the newly acquired territory of Qinshui, Yuanqu, Zezhou and other places. If they are organized to dredge channels, a large amount of grain is needed. I'm afraid that this is also the general. It should be taken into consideration!"

After hearing this, Xiao Tianjian was the first two big ones. Of course, he knew about the defeat of the officers and soldiers in this battle, but when it comes to food, he was a little big. Although the summer harvest and autumn harvest last year accumulated a lot of food, the grain has been consumed in the past few months. After that, it is only enough for Xing Tianjun to eat the summer harvest. If they all take them out and put them into dredging channels to solve the drought problem, then they will definitely fight famine in the next few months.

Xiao Tianjian has never thought that an army can be hungry and have strong combat power. In the army of this era, eating enough is the lowest need to be a soldier, especially for the rebels like them who have to rely on their own actions, let the officers and soldiers eat enough to drive. Let them go to battle, otherwise everything will be empty talk. The reason why he has been able to lead his troops to win consecutive battles in the past two years is actually a very important reason, that he can make his officers and soldiers full of food and struggle to survive in such troubled times.

If the food is put into the relief of the disaster victims at present, then the soldiers of Xing Tianjun will definitely not be able to eat enough. In this way, the combat effectiveness of Xing Tianjun will definitely be greatly weakened. Once the court recovers again and gives him another attack on such a large scale, then he will not dare not I made sure that I could be so lucky to successfully repel the officers and soldiers again.

After Xiao Tianjian coughed dryly, he nodded and said, "Don't worry about the deserters scattered in the mountains. In the past few days, I have arranged all battalions to go to various places and began to clean up these broken soldiers with the local villagers. Within ten days, the problem of the broken soldiers can basically be solved, and the people to dredge channels can be organized. It won't be too affected by the defeat of the soldiers.

What's more, the chief security chiefs all over the country are now organizing township troops. When dredging channels, they are also mainly based on young and strong labor, so that they can take weapons to act. Even if they encounter a small number of defeated soldiers, they are full of self-represervation!

As for the problem of food in dredging channels, Mr. Fu also knows that our limited grain reserves are not enough to support the problem of so many people's meals. Even if we follow the example of work-for-food at the beginning of last year, I'm afraid we can't solve the problem of so many people eating!

But I can allocate the part of the grain seized from the officers and soldiers this time for your use, and the gap will be considered later!"

After receiving such a reply from Xiao Tianjian, Fu Deming was already very satisfied. He quickly got up and thanked Xiao Tianjian, but Xiao Tianjian shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Why did Mr. Fu thank me? Isn't it for ourselves that I did this?

Fu Deming shook his head and said, "No! The reason why Fu wants to thank the general is not because the general is willing to take out the food to help the people, but because the general is really thinking about the people, not just for his own self-interest! The people knew that the general was so kind to them, how could they not be with the general? If it goes on like this, the general will one day achieve great success!"

After hearing this, Xiao Tianjian laughed and said, "Those who do great things, how can they not put the people in their hearts? Otherwise, no matter how big the noise is, it is just a rootless duckweed and a castle in the air!

Well, let's not talk about this! Regarding this year's spring ploughing, I have one more thing to tell you. This year's spring ploughing is not busy growing sorghum and wheat. Since the drought is a foregone, we might as well change something this year! There is a good thing to say to you today. I'm afraid you will be surprised after listening to it!

Well, I don't need to say anything about this time. Let Mr. Chen tell you in person! Mr. Chen, it's up to you to talk about this!"

As he spoke, Xiao Tianjian pointed his finger to a corner of the hall. At this time, he followed Fu Deming to see Xiao Tianjian's civil officials and noticed that there was also an inconspicuous old man here.