Autumn is crisp and clear, with no clouds in the sky.

At this time, Qingji, accompanied by Fan Li, Boyu, Lu Ban, Gan Jiang and other ministers as well as Su Wei, took a military chariot and patrolled the fields outside Xianyang City.

It is the autumn harvest season, and farmers are holding sickles in the fields to cut grains.

Rice, millet, millet, wheat, and beans are the staple food of people. Therefore, whenever the harvest season comes, every household can always take out the extra grain to worship the god of grains.

Several members of the family are busy working.

The adults were responsible for harvesting the ears of millet, while the children smashed the grains and dropped the ears. After getting a bag of millet, they put the rice bag aside with a smile on their faces.

"Your Majesty."

"Meet the king!"

After seeing Qingji's figure, Li Shu, who was still busy, quickly knelt down and bowed to Qingji.

"You don't have to pay attention to me, just go about your business."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

That being said, but with Qing Ji by their side, how could they not want to admire Tianyan?

After a while, a large group of people sat under the old locust tree, surrounding Qingji.

Qing Ji has always been like a virtuous king from ancient times and is approachable. Whenever he goes out on patrol, he always cordially expresses condolences to Li Shu and understands the sentiments of the people. This time is no exception.

"Old man, how will the harvest be this year?"

"Thanks to your Majesty's great blessing and God's good will, this year's harvest is very good. After paying the land tax and various taxes, the surplus of grain and rice in the family should be no less than three hundred shi."

The old man replied with a smile on his face.

Logically speaking, an adult's ration is three dan per month and thirty-six dan per year.

For a family of five, the annual income is 180 dan.

However, the elderly, weak, women and children do not eat so much, so this data is greatly discounted.

"How many people are in your family?"

"Reporting to your Majesty, the common people have a wife, a son, three grandsons, and a granddaughter."

That's a family of seven.

According to the laws of the State of Wu, men must get married when they reach the appropriate age, and women must get married when they reach the marriageable age, otherwise they will be fined.

Moreover, after a man gets married, he usually has to "divide households", leaving only one son responsible for supporting the elderly.

Basically, every household in Wu State now has many newborns.

For a family of seven, the annual grain harvest is 300 shi.

Almost 250 kilograms of grain are eaten in a year.

It looks like there isn't much left, and there isn't much leftover food!

This made Qingji a little unexpected.

After all, the Guanzhong Plain is so fertile, and it is a bumper year with abundant crops. How could there be only fifty dan of surplus grain left in a year?

Qingji frowned and asked again: "Old man, how many acres of land does your family have?"

"Reporting to your Majesty, the peasant family owns 202 acres of cultivated land."

Two hundred and two acres of arable land is quite a lot.

The state of Wu had a light corvee and low tax, with a tax of one per fifteen, plus calculated tax and additional tax. If a farmer's family had 202 acres of land, they should not only produce so much grain.

"How much does one acre of land produce?"

"A good field can produce more than three stones, but an ordinary field can only produce more than one stone, but less than two stones."

"Why? From the perspective of a few people, the fertile fields in Guanzhong are thousands of miles away, and the land is very fertile."

"Your Majesty, you don't know something. Although it is a good harvest year and the weather has been kind, and there have been several heavy rains this year, there are times when there is little water in the farmland and the canals are not properly irrigated."

The old man sighed and said: "If this happened in the past, people from two villages might fight over the water source for irrigating farmland. Fortunately, Wu's laws are strict and private fights are prohibited. In addition, the officials are wise and often urge farmers to build canals." After irrigation, water sources should be distributed properly."

"If not, the harvest may be even smaller."

After understanding this situation, Qingji stood up again and looked around.

Is it a problem of irrigation?

You know, the Guanzhong Plain has not yet been well developed at this time.

In the past, under the rule of the Qin State, most of Guanzhong was still pasture, with abundant water and grass, but there was not much arable land, and three-fifths of the arable land had not been cultivated.

Even if the land is reclaimed, the grain harvest will still be poor without enough water for irrigation.

Zheng Guoqu!

Qingji thought of that great project in history.

At that time, South Korea was afraid of Qin, so it sent the hydraulic engineer Zheng Guo to Qin to offer suggestions to build canals, thereby consuming Qin's manpower and resources and weakening Qin.

This move backfired and made Qin stronger.

Historical records record: When the canal was formed, water was injected to fill the silt, and more than 40,000 hectares (approximately 1.1 million acres) of land were harvested. As a result, Guanzhong became a fertile field. Wealthy and strong, he merged with the princes and was named "Zheng Guo Canal"...

"Bohu, bring me the map."

"promise!"

Qingji took a sheepskin map and sat on the ground with his ministers.

"Two or three sons, I want to build a large irrigation canal in Guanzhong."

"The Jing River is diverted from the west and injected into the Luo River from the east, which is more than 300 miles long."

Qingji told the officials his thoughts.

The Jinghe River breaks out from the mountains in the northern part of Chang'an County, flows to Liquan, and then enters the Guanzhong Plain.

The plain stretches hundreds of miles from east to west and tens of miles from north to south.

The plain terrain is characterized by being slightly higher in the northwest and slightly lower in the southeast.

The State of Wu could make full use of this favorable terrain and began to build a main canal at the mouth of the valley in the northeast of Liquan County, so that the main canal would extend eastward along the foot of the mountain in the north, naturally distributing the main canal in the highest area of ​​the irrigation area.

In this way, not only the irrigation area is controlled to the maximum extent, but also a complete gravity irrigation system is formed, which can irrigate more than 40,000 hectares of fields...

"Great King Shengming!"

All the ministers complimented him.

"Luban."

"I'm here!"

"The construction of the Guanzhong Aqueduct is your sole responsibility. We can recruit 300,000 Kunlun slaves to dig the aqueduct, and let the common people in their spare time do the repairs. You don't have to think too much. The manpower, material and financial resources can be satisfied one by one."

"promise!"

Lu Ban agreed immediately.

It is conceivable that once this large-scale irrigation canal is completed, it will be a good thing that will benefit the present and the future.

…

In Zide Hall.

At this time, Qingji was sitting on the throne, receiving one of his favorite sons——

Young Master Wu You!

Gongziyou was the eighth son of Qingji and his wife Zhu Ji. He was a concubine, but he was quite talented.

Gongziyou's talent is not in the military and political fields like the other brothers, but in research and development.

Gongziyou inherited Qingji's "love of invention" gene. As a result of his nature, he has always studied with gun masters and other weapon masters. He is also good at taking risks and likes to travel mountains and rivers.

This time, Gongziyou returned from traveling across the ocean from various islands in Southeast Asia.

"My son, Wu You, comes to see my father! My father will live forever!"

Young Master You bowed respectfully to Qingji.

"Wu You, there's no need to be polite."

Qingji stepped down from the throne, helped Young Master You up, and said with deep emotion: "You are now black and your body is much stronger. You have suffered a lot in the past two years, right?"

"Hey, father, I can't speak of suffering. Anyway, it's impossible not to get tanned by the wind and sun on the ship and on the island."

The young master said with a worried smile.

"Have you met your mother-in-law?"

"not yet."

"Your mother-in-law misses you very much. Remember to go see her later."

"promise."

The young master responded worriedly, and then added: "Father, this time I have benefited a lot from my return from a long journey across the ocean. I have captured a total of seven people from Japanese islands, Malay Islands, Java Islands and other islands.

More than 5,000 Kunlun slaves."
Chapter completed!