Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 686: Recruiting the Anbang Soldiers

In response to Feng Shuangxi's confusion, Hualei only roughly said that this kind of cultivation might increase rice yields. However, for Feng Shuangxi, he thought it was a new sowing method in Shangjing City.

Therefore, he did not dare to be careless at all regarding Hua Lei's instructions, and he followed Hua Lei's requirements step by step carefully.

After the rice was planted, the land preparation, watering and pest control were no different from other rice planting. Soon, the seeds that Hualei had bought were planted in the high-quality fields that Feng Shuangxi had specially designated.

However, Hualei did give Feng Shuangxi some advice regarding fertilization.

When the rice seedlings were growing, the rice fields were filled with fermented farmyard manure. When the government breeding farm was cleaned up earlier, a lot of fertilizer was piled up with livestock manure, which was just right for use when the time came. This way, the seedlings not only had more tillers, but also grew stronger.

When the rice is in the stage of heading, don't add too much farmyard manure. Instead, use plant ash for better results. Feng Shuangxi followed Hualei's instructions meticulously.

In this way, after being busy for nearly more than a month, the spring plowing in the city has basically been completed, and only the subsequent maintenance and management remains.

Therefore, Hualei, Rongjin, and Wan Tongpan discussed and decided to issue a notice of conscription for Xichang Prefecture this year. They began to clean up the river, dredge the canals, and build water conservancy projects.

While on the road, Hua Lei took the time to read a lot of books and regional chronicles about Xichang Prefecture, and gained a more specific impression of Xichang's general topography and climate.

Although she did not go to various provincial capitals for on-site inspections during this period, Hua Lei still went to Changlan Prefecture where the government office was located, especially some rivers and tributaries within Changlan Prefecture.

The whole Xichang Prefecture is generally high in the south and low in the north. In the Changhui, Changlan, and Changyou states in the middle of Xichang Prefecture, rainfall is still relatively heavy during the rainy season.

However, in summer, the rainfall is obviously less, so it is easy for people to die from drought or flood.

In Changjin Prefecture, south of Xichang Prefecture, there is a river called Changhong River, which was originally connected to the neighboring Changhui Prefecture.

Moreover, it winds and runs through several state capitals such as Changlan and Changtong. There are also many small tributaries branching out from Changhong Road. It can be said that Changhong Road is one of the main rivers in Xichang.

However, Xichang is very windy and the soil is desertified. When the wind blows, a lot of sand and rocks roll down to the low-lying river channel, and over time, the river channel is blocked.

Generally speaking, the river is dredged once a year and dredged once every three years. However, I don't know whether it was because the previous prefects were negligent, or because the following prefects passed the buck to each other, failed to supervise properly, and only did face-saving projects.

The Changhong River has not been thoroughly dredged, and now the entire river is severely silted up, the riverbed is getting higher and higher, and the water level is getting shallower and shallower.

Therefore, the most important thing is to dredge the entire Changhong Road river channel and connect the several state cities under Xichang Prefecture.

This conscription and labor service was not unfamiliar to Hua Lei. When she was in the Silin Bureau and Mobei, the imperial court had carried out similar conscription and labor service, so she was familiar with the process.

In addition, Magistrate Wan was familiar with the prefectures under Xichang. Therefore, he quickly issued a notice to collect corvée labor for the construction of Changhong Road throughout Xichang Prefecture. Half a month later, the first batch of corvée laborers had all arrived.

Therefore, Hua Lei asked Hao Shijie to take some people from the workshop to supervise the workshops in various state capitals below, and officially started the water conservancy project in Xichang Prefecture.

However, the process of clearing the river and digging ditches was slightly different from previous years. The large rocks and sand cleared from the river and ditches this year were not simply thrown aside as in previous years.

Instead, they found several low-lying spots along the river to pile the stones. They compacted the outer areas of the piles with large stones and piled smaller stones inside.

In this way, when there is a strong wind, these small stones will not easily roll into the river. In the future, if any family needs to build a house or lay a foundation, they can come here to get them.

The silt dug from the river was not to be wasted, so Huabud also had a lot of weeds collected and the wheat straw chopped into pieces.

Using the manure from the livestock farm, following Minister Zhang's method, they piled it up layer by layer to make fermentation bags. They piled up as much as they could, without wasting anything.

The people doing corvée labor were all young and strong middle-aged men, and clearing rivers and digging ditches were not very hard tasks for them.

Therefore, it was not a difficult task for the common people. Under the supervision of the yamen runners, there were very few people who slacked off, so the progress was quite good, and the fermented fertilizer bags piled up more and more.

While the people were cleaning the rivers in their respective areas, Hua Lei asked Hao Shijie to focus on the junctions between states and counties.

We absolutely will not allow people in a certain state or county to shirk their responsibilities in order to clear less than a few dozen feet of river, thus causing the entire river to be disconnected.

Therefore, Hao Shijie was very busy during this period. He took a few of his men to various state capitals for field inspections every day. Sometimes, he did not return to the government office for ten days or half a month.

In addition, Hualei also wanted to dig some ponds in suitable locations in several states to store rainwater. Therefore, she thought of the more than 1,500 garrison troops stationed in Xichang Prefecture.

Hua Lei later carefully looked into the relevant matters of this garrison camp named "Anbang". At the beginning, they applied for it from the prefect, so it was under the jurisdiction of the prefect.

After they arrived in Xichang Prefecture, except for the initial four months of hard work in helping to clear out bandits, the rest of the time they lived a very comfortable life.

Apart from the unnecessary training in their own camp, they didn't care about other things in the city. Salaries were distributed by a special agency in Xijiang, and food and lodging were provided by Xichang, but it became a blank area of ​​management.

Because the prefect seemed unable to control them. This was not good, Hua Lei thought, she should ask them for help. So, Hua Lei decided to ask them to help dig ponds in Changhuizhou to store water and resist the drought.

A few days ago, Hua Lei read the performance report submitted by Ding Zhizhou of Changhui Prefecture and found that several states in the southwest had experienced droughts of varying degrees in the summer for several consecutive years, resulting in poor grain harvests every year.

Therefore, Hua Lei, Rong Jinwan and Tongpan discussed it together, and after consulting with the workshop's full-time water conservancy personnel, they determined the location of the pond.

He Rongjin personally went to the garrison area and directly requisitioned the idle Anbang soldiers. These Anbang soldiers were originally sent by the prefect at the request of the imperial court, so they were also under the jurisdiction of the prefect.