Ang Lee came in a hurry and did not bring too much food. At this moment, he asked the officials of the palace to be responsible for breeding rabbits. This naturally caused some complaints. However, considering the difficult journey, Ang Lee had already invested money to buy food in Central Sichuan. It would be transported in more than a month. They were relieved. Even if Ang Lee's approach was nonsense, they could accompany him.
However, Ang Lee's goal was not only to breed rabbits. It was obviously not a long-term solution. It was imperative to plant food as soon as possible. The premise of planting food was to build water conservancy and eliminate the threat to the crops. Then, they could farm with peace of mind. The flood could cause such a great loss because the previous water conservancy facilities were too simple and crude. The ability to resist disasters was too weak. If they wanted to change this situation, they must replan the water conservancy facilities and build some water conservancy facilities that could resist disasters.
Since they wanted to build water conservancy facilities, it was best to have dual use. That was to say, it could resist both floods and droughts. Such water conservancy facilities were the best. After all, no one could be sure whether they would encounter floods or droughts in the future. A water conservancy facility with a single function was obviously too narrow in applicability. A standard of dual use was the best.
In the palace, Ang Lee naturally easily obtained the topographic map around Guichang City and conducted in-depth research on these topographic maps. If he wanted to find a way to control it, he must first study the topographic map. Then, he must go to the site to investigate and finally design a reasonable water conservancy facility.
"Zhao Yaofu, relying on the imperial court's assistance alone is not a long-term solution. The road to Central Sichuan can't be built in a year and a half. Large-scale food transportation for many years is too costly. It's better to restore the production here as soon as possible."
Ang Lee looked at the topographic map nearby and said.
Zhao Yaofu nodded and said, "That's right. However, there have been heavy rains recently. The disaster is far from over. Let's plant food after the disaster is over!"
Ang Lee shook his head and said, "This won't work. If the disaster continues, won't we stop planting food? We have to find a way to overcome the difficulties. Since we can't rely on nature, we have to find a way to change nature. "
Zhao Yaofu asked doubtfully, "Then what should we do?"
Ang Lee said seriously, "We must build water conservancy. Only by building water conservancy can we avoid heavy losses of crops in the fields when there is a disaster. As long as we build water conservancy according to my requirements, no matter if there is a flood or a drought in the future, the crops will not suffer too much loss."
"Really? What should we do now? "
Zhao Yaofu asked seriously.
Ang Lee asked, "There are many terraced fields around the capital. At this moment, the crops in these terraced fields are almost all destroyed. The drainage openings of your existing terraced fields are too small, and the positions are even more chaotic. Once there is a continuous downpour, the rainwater in the terraced fields will not be able to be drained in time. The crops will definitely drown if they are soaked in water for a long time."
Because the terraced fields were too high, continuous rain was relatively rare. Usually, it would rain after a period of time so that the terraced fields could always be kept moist. However, these terraced fields could only be used as dry fields. Naturally, the dry fields could not be used to grow rice. Otherwise, irrigation would become a big problem. Continuous heavy rain this year was a very rare situation. For the people of Dongnu Province, it was a catastrophe. The heavy rain caused the crops in the dry fields to suffer. Almost all of the crops were drowned. Some people climbed up the terraced fields in the rain and wanted to drain the water in their own farmlands. However, these terraced fields did not have a reasonable drainage plan, and the heavy rain kept pouring down. Therefore, these people were helpless. Even if they dug the drainage openings under their terraced fields, the water in the terraced fields still continued to pour into their fields, turning the soil in the fields into silt. The roots of the crops were soaked in such silt for a long time and soon rotted.
In short, this was the result of the previous lack of planning. The reason why there was no reasonable drainage plan was because the weather had always been good here. It was rare for there to be no rain for a long time or for it to rain for a long time. It was the abnormal weather here that gave the people of Dongnu Province a heavy blow. Or rather, because the weather had always been good, the people here did not have the motivation to plan a unified drainage system. It was like a village without thieves. The people did not close their doors at night, but once a thief suddenly appeared, all the people in the village would suffer.
In the face of the sudden disaster, the first thing the people here thought of was how unlucky they were. How could they encounter such abnormal weather? Was there someone in the country who did evil and offended God, so everyone was punished? Some people wanted to leave here and live in a more stable place. Of course, there were also people who wanted to fight against the bad weather. However, there were too few such warriors. They could not form a climate at all. Improving the environment of the terraced fields was not something that could be solved by three or five hot-blooded young people. Many people must be involved. It would be best if the government was responsible for the design and coordination. Only in this way could the problem be really solved.
At this time, the effect of telling the people here in advance of the transformation plan might not be very good. However, as long as they set an example and let everyone see the real effect, it would not be too difficult to promote it.
"Yaofu, the terraced fields in Guichang Mountain outside the west gate are very good. Let's go there and have a look!"
Ang Lee said.
"Okay, I'll arrange it first."
Zhao Yaofu said.
Ang Lee said, "Let's go directly. There's no need to arrange anything. Don't waste time. Let's go now."
Time was very important. Ang Lee wanted to restore the crops near Guichang City as soon as possible. The sooner the terraced fields here could produce food, the sooner the food shortage crisis here could be solved.
"An, there were nearly ten thousand bandits and rebels in Guichang Mountain a few days ago. Although most of them have evacuated, there must be some remaining. It's not safe for us to go there like this. We need to take more people with us."
Zhao Yaofu said. Although time was very precious, life was more important. If he lost his life, then everything would be gone.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "What are you afraid of? I'll protect you. What's there to worry about? It's inconvenient to have too many people and it will slow down the journey."
"Then let's have three hundred guards with us! It can't be less. "
Zhao Yaofu said.
Ang Lee nodded in agreement. He and Zhao Yaofu each led more than a hundred soldiers and horses, accompanied by many officials. Their goal was the terraced fields of Guichang Mountain outside the west gate. The scale of the terraced fields there was very large and it was also the largest grain and vegetable base around Yunwu City. In good weather, it provided at least one-third of the vegetables and one-fifth of the staple grain for Guichang City. It was a very important grain production area. The terraced fields here had a relatively small slope and were very high-quality terraced fields. At the bottom, there were even some high-quality paddy fields that could grow aquatic plants. After all, it was close to the river and irrigation was more convenient. Many of these paddy fields were preserved during the flood, but because the flood was too big, some of the rice was directly washed away by the roots. Only one-third of the rice was left. The loss was also relatively great.
A group of hundreds of people soon arrived at Guichang Mountain outside the west gate. What appeared in front of them was the famous terraced fields of Guichang Mountain. After arriving at the scene, what he saw shocked Ang Lee. There were almost no crops in such a large terraced field. It was full of aquatic weeds and some annoying insects.
"The situation here is worse than I thought. The continuous heavy rain has destroyed these terraced fields!"
Ang Lee saw the scene in front of him and sighed.
Zhao Yaofu nodded and said, "It's raining too much. We haven't encountered such a situation for decades. We haven't even encountered such a situation for hundreds of years. I don't know why we encountered it all at once."
Zhao Daiwen and the others also lowered their heads and sighed. They were unlucky enough to encounter a disaster that they hadn't encountered for hundreds of years. This disaster was so fierce that they were helpless.
Ang Lee looked at the terraced fields soaked in water and said, "As I expected, the drainage here is too messy. The water from the upper layer has to fill the lower layer of terraced fields first. Then it can go from an inconspicuous drainage hole to the lower layer. Such a slow drainage is really too slow. Usually, it's fine if it's drizzling. On the contrary, we can make full use of the rainwater. But in the case of continuous heavy rain, it's a huge disaster."
"In that case, what should we do?"
Zhao Daiwen asked seriously. Obviously, he also wanted to solve this problem as soon as possible. Looking at the people starving one by one, he was also suffering in his heart. He was a good minister who cared about the people. He sincerely cared about every person, but at the moment, he didn't have any surplus food in his hands. He really couldn't help the ordinary people who were starving. He was very helpless.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "The only way to solve this problem is to build water conservancy. Build a drainage ditch from top to bottom. This ditch should be as straight as possible. Its width and depth should be enough to satisfy the rapid drainage. At the same time, in order to prevent future droughts, we need to prepare Dragon Bone Water Wheels at the position of each layer. This way, we can get reasonable water from below to all the terraced fields little by little. In this way, there won't be a problem to change all the terraced fields here into paddy fields. I have already drawn the planning drawings. Take a look."
After that, he handed the drawings to the officials of Dongnu Province so that they could have a good look at Ang Lee's design.
The officials of Dongnu Province looked at the drawings drawn by Ang Lee one by one. After discussing for a while, they all felt that Ang Lee's idea was very good. Some of them had recently thought of similar measures, but because the situation had deteriorated and they had a lot of things to deal with, they didn't mention it. At this time, when they saw the drawings drawn by Ang Lee, they suddenly had a feeling of mutual understanding.
"Is this method really feasible?"
"I think it's possible, but the project is a bit big! We need to mobilize a lot of manpower. "
"There's too much rain now. It can rain at any time. The difficulty of building such a big project in the rain will greatly increase. It will probably require tens of thousands of laborers!"
"The people are half-starving now. How can they have the strength to work? It's too difficult to get tens of thousands of qualified laborers. "
"It seems that we can only mobilize soldiers to build it. However, if we want to build so many terraced drainage ditches in a short time, we have to mobilize all the soldiers inside and outside the city."
Everyone started to discuss.
From the discussion, it could be seen that everyone approved of the design of the drainage ditches. They felt that the drainage ditches with this structure could indeed play the dual role of drought and flood resistance. However, there were too many terraced fields in Guichang Mountain. The number of terraced drainage ditches that needed to be built was definitely not just one or two. Due to the large height and width required, the amount of work was naturally imaginable. Without enough manpower, it would be very difficult to complete in a short time. In addition, the drainage ditches weren't finished yet. They still needed to be maintained, which also required manpower.
"Assistant Minister Li, although this method is good, it requires too much manpower. I'm afraid it won't be completed in a short time. Moreover, the shortage of food is serious now. The people don't have much strength. I'm afraid it won't be easy!"
An official of Dongnu Province said.
Many officials also nodded and complained. They felt that it was difficult to organize a large number of people to work under the serious shortage of food. Everyone was so hungry that they had no strength. How could they still work?
However, Ang Lee wasn't in a hurry. This was because Ang Lee didn't say that he wanted to build a drainage system for every terraced field in Guichang Mountain. If he only built a few, then it wouldn't require much manpower and could be completed quickly.
"The conditions here are good. If we only build a few, it shouldn't take much manpower and can be completed quickly. After it's done, we can quickly plant more food. This way, there will be a harvest in autumn. We can also plant some vegetables. The vegetables can be harvested in less than a month. We don't need a lot of output. As long as it's successful, we can let the people see the results."
Ang Lee said.
Guichang Mountain was too big, and there were too many terraced fields. However, if they chose a part of it for construction, the amount of work would not be so big, and it could be completed more quickly. Anyway, the most important thing now was not to build more irrigation facilities or replant more crops, but to let everyone understand that Li An's design idea was correct. That would be enough. As long as a small area was successful, then everyone would understand that this method was very effective. They could slowly promote it in the future, and it was more realistic to implement it this way. After all, there was a lack of manpower now. The people were hungry and did not have much strength, so their efficiency was naturally not good. They did not have the realistic conditions to build irrigation facilities on a large scale, so it was best to just build a few experimental fields.
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