Chapter 189: Fighting Drought and Protecting Moisture, Qianlong Spitting Water
In the seventh year of Chongzhen, late June.
The area north of the Yangtze River should have entered the rainy season long ago. It has already received many heavy rains, nourishing the crops in the fields.
But not this year.
Drought has broken out in all five provinces: Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Shandong.
Especially in Henan, the land was cracked, rivers dried up, vegetation was scorched, and people even saw the blood-red sun, causing countless panics.
A reporter from the Oriental Times in Xujiazhuang went to Henan to photograph the drought and presented it to countless readers in the form of high-definition pictures, allowing them to witness the seriousness of the problem.
Many places in the Ming Dynasty fell into panic, and then there was a crazy rush to buy and hoard food.
Such as grain, oil, rice and noodles.
Like dry vermicelli noodles.
Various beans, sorghum, corn and other coarse grains.
Even the more expensive canned meat and canned fish produced in Xujiazhuang were sold out.
It not only triggered a wave of food hoarding, but also triggered a wave of food price increases, which generally increased three times, five times or even ten times. Although the "Oriental Times" called not to panic hoard food, the Ming Dynasty's food production will be reduced this year, but not
This means that production will be significantly reduced. With the efforts of Xujiazhuang, Nanzhili can ensure a bumper harvest, because the drought in the Jiangnan region is relatively mild. With the addition of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, water pumps and other sharp tools, more than half of the grain production in the Ming Dynasty can be guaranteed.
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As for the total grain production in other areas of the Ming Dynasty, even if the production is reduced by half, the actual production reduction is only 25%. Xujiazhuang will cooperate with the Zheng family in Fujian and try to purchase grain from overseas countries such as Vietnam, Siam, Luzon, etc., which will definitely make up for the food gap.
, guaranteed not to starve to death.
But it has no effect.
Prices of all types of food are still rising.
The food in Xujiazhuang was cheap and the wholesale price was even lower, which caused many profiteers to flock to Xujiazhuang Harbor City and buy food like crazy, hoping to hoard it and make a fortune. Fortunately, their purpose failed, and Xujiazhuang immediately banned the export of food.
Only poor people who are really short of food can enjoy the quota of buying up to five kilograms of food per person per day, but the price has also increased a bit and will not be too cheap.
It is foreseeable that this wave of rising food prices will not improve significantly before the arrival of the food harvest season in July and August. For those families who are short of food and money, they will have a very difficult time.
…
Yangzhou Prefecture, Haimen County, 101 Collective Estate.
Recently, Yuan Ying has been so busy every day that she has no time to accompany her newlywed wife, Xiang Sirer.
He couldn't even go home at night and had to spend the night outside. When he finally got home once, he fell asleep and snored loudly, which made Xiang Sirer feel distressed.
This situation has lasted for more than two months.
It has even become busier in recent days, because the crops in the fields have reached the critical jointing stage and grain-filling stage, but the drought has worsened. We must fight the drought and conserve moisture! Win this battle to protect the grain harvest.
Actually.
The Jiangnan area is humid and rainy, with many rivers and lakes scattered around. Even if there is less rain this year, as long as irrigation measures can keep up, it will be difficult to achieve a bumper harvest. The most feared thing is floods.
The reason why Yuan Ying is so busy recently is not because she is busy with things in her own manor (the irrigation facilities of the 101 Collective Manor have long been completed), but because she is following a large number of Xujiazhuang's capable staff to build an irrigation system covering almost the entire southern Zhili.
The network was used to complete this extremely large project.
The goal we want to achieve is to deliver abundant water resources to the fields of a large number of farmers who have cooperative relationships with Xujiazhuang, solve irrigation problems, and increase production and income.
Therefore, Xujiazhuang first planned a main water transmission network with three vertical and eight horizontal lines. The average width is fifteen meters, the average water depth is five meters, and the total length reaches 5870 kilometers. It can not only be used for drought relief, but also for inland navigation, killing two birds with one stone.
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Then farmers with drought relief needs were mobilized to build countless water diversion canals. These canals are about one meter wide and half a meter deep. As long as they can lead water into the farmland, most of these water canals already exist. Farmers
It only requires some repairs and the workload is not too big.
However, in order to build the main water transmission network with three vertical and eight horizontal lines, which can cover up to 1.5 million hectares (1 hectare = 100 acres) of irrigation area, Xujiazhuang dispatched more than 1,500 excavators, more than 500 bulldozers, and more than 2,000 vehicles.
The tractors were mobilized, mobilized and hired more than 1 million young and strong laborers, consumed countless materials, and worked from March to June. It took more than three months to move more than 350 million cubic meters of earth before finally
The completion of this major project is a miracle.
You must know that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered the digging of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, which was destroyed by the fall of the country, and the amount of earth moved did not exceed 100 million cubic meters. The main water transmission project in Xujiazhuang not only required several times more work, but also took only three months to complete.
, I don’t know how many literati and officials were shocked, because if the Ming Dynasty had done this, I am afraid they would have died several times.
So scary.
Xujiazhuang's strength is simply terrifying.
Now that the main water supply network has finally been repaired, the next most important step is to inject water into this irrigation network.
So where does a large amount of water need to be pumped from to replenish this irrigation network?
Places with lots of natural water.
Haimen County is not only close to the sea, but also next to the Yangtze River. Huguang, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang are located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Rainfall this year has been very abundant, causing the water level in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to rise sharply. The water resources can only be described as too many.
…
June 27, morning.
101 Collective Manor, in the southwest, not far away from the Yangtze River, is an empty shore area that is subject to strong winds all year round. There are twenty 50kw wind turbines standing there, making 101 and the 102 Collective Manor next to it, Xujiazhuang.
Among the many manors, a few have ample power supply.
But today's focus isn't on these wind turbines.
But further upstream, the young men dug a row of door-shaped water canals on the Yangtze River, then put a hose as thick as an adult's thigh into the water canals, and then connected it to the end of the hose.
Pour buckets of water into the nozzle above the diesel water pump at a fast speed.
Wait until the water is full.
Someone took the crank and cranked the diesel water pump at high speed. With a loud clicking sound, the red-cased water pump sprayed out a stream of black smoke and then entered normal working condition.
A thick column of white water spurted out.
But it was immediately connected to a water pipe hundreds of meters long. Through this water pipe, a large amount of Yangtze River water was injected into the main water transmission network.
"Da da da da~"
More than one pump was started.
In this area alone, there are as many as a hundred units.
If you go further upstream of the Yangtze River, you will see nine more water pumping points, and almost all of them are starting pumps at the same time, humming to pump water.
That is to say, there are hundreds of water pumps at work, forming the spectacle of "thousands of dragons spitting water".
Naturally, on today, the official day of water pumping, every water pumping point was surrounded by crowds of people, with countless people coming to watch.
Yuan Ying also had a rare day to rest and relax today. She brought her wife Xiang Sirer and many friends and colleagues to watch. In other words, most of the men, women, and children in the 101 collective estate today put down their work and came to join in the fun.
coming.
And couldn't help but sigh.
"There is too much water in this river. Even if tens of thousands of dragon kings pump it out at the same time, it's impossible to pump it all out."
"One Dragon King works all day and night, and the water it pumps out is enough to irrigate at least a thousand acres of land. With thousands of Dragon Kings working at the same time, they can irrigate a million acres of fields in one day, plus the water drawn from elsewhere.
There is so much water. No matter how dry the north of the Ming Dynasty is, it will never reach the south of the Yangtze River."
"It's stable. This year's food supply is stable, and a bumper harvest is inevitable."
"I can't care about other places, but in our Jiangnan land, no one will starve to death!"
"Hey, Xujiazhuang is too strong. I wonder when it will expand again? I have long wanted to join Xujiazhuang, but there has been no movement in the past two years. I wonder if there will be any big moves next year."
"Yes, many people are begging to join Xujiazhuang now and they don't accept people anymore. They only recruit workers and craftsmen who work in factories. But it's not even easy to get into the factory. The competition is too fierce. Now many people understand it.
Xujiazhuang is the most peaceful and prosperous place in the Ming Dynasty, and no other place can compare with it."
"It would be great if Xujiazhuang took over the Ming Dynasty. Those officials, gentry, and Confucians were too bad. Even the emperor didn't care about the life and death of us people. Only Xujiazhuang put us people first and put us
As water that can carry a boat and capsize it, so much manpower and material resources have been invested in helping us pump water to fight the drought. But Xujiazhuang is too hesitant and too benevolent, and he just can't do anything to punish the people and change the world." The old man was very angry.
disappointment.
"Forget it, let's be satisfied. After all, we are from Jiangnan. We have received a lot of favors from Xujiazhuang. If we were the people in Henan, we would be hungry and start eating people."
"That's right, I'm already very lucky."
…
Hear these discussions around you.
"Husband, can it be that only a few of us can get the many benefits of joining Xujiazhuang? The owner of the village is so kind, why don't you let more people join Xujiazhuang, or simply change the dynasty?" Xiang Sirer was very puzzled and proposed.
Her doubts.
"Uh~"
Yuan Ying thought for a while and said: "There are more than 200 million people in the Ming Dynasty. Even if the village owner is an immortal or a god, he cannot help so many people. He can only make a small area better and lead a few people out of the sea of suffering."
Let’s live a happy life, and when we live a good life and have extra abilities, we can help the people around us. Isn’t the water pumped by you water pumps mainly to help the people outside our manors? When we are richer again
If it is stronger, it might be able to help the entire Ming Dynasty, but it will take a process."
"The owner of the village has personally said that Jiangnan will be changed in ten years, Ming Dynasty will be changed in twenty years, and we will own the whole world in thirty years. We are so young now, we will definitely see these goals achieved, and we even have to personally participate in them.
, contribute our strength.”
"Hmm~"
Xiang Si'er nodded and felt quite expectant.
At this time, there were several lucky boats on the opposite side of the river. They did not follow the fixed channel and drove over like a rampage. After docking, a group of people wearing strange clothes came out, looking like members of foreign missions.
But they saw huge wind turbines.
I also witnessed hundreds of water pumps pumping water at the same time.
They were originally arrogant and arrogant, but each of them was dumbfounded, and then they had to kneel down to worship, and screamed as if they had seen gods.
These people are all tributary envoys from the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar. Their purpose of coming to the Ming Dynasty this time is to establish equal diplomatic relations and not to be a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty anymore. Secondly, they want to cede some land in Yunnan to Myanmar.
If you don't agree, go to war.
Because the Taungoo dynasty in Myanmar is now at its most powerful period, with more than 300,000 soldiers in the country, and the Ming Dynasty is extremely weak. If they don't agree to their request, haha.
But before arriving in the capital, and just after crossing the Yangtze River, I saw a scene that looked like the power of gods, and how dare I feel the least bit arrogant.
The original planned plan was changed on the spot, and I didn't dare to make any more careful decisions.
The interlude of this scene made friends around Yuan Ying laugh at each other:
"These foreign barbarians have never seen anything in the world." Luan Xiangdong said.
"Actually, it has nothing to do with the world. Even many people of the Ming Dynasty did not do much better when they saw these for the first time." Xu He said.
"This is the power of civilization. There is no need for a war. As long as they see something they can't imagine, they will already kneel on the ground." Xu Bao said.
"Despite this, our fists still cannot be soft, otherwise we will just be puffy and fat, and we will be the fat sheep in the eyes of these barbarians. They will immediately pounce on us greedily." A colleague said.
"That's right, no matter how brilliant a civilization is, it must have strong enough muscles." Yuan Ying nodded in agreement.
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