Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 652 With water resources, abundance is assured.

The military battle is over, but the political battle continues, and in some ways, it has only just begun.

The most important thing right now is the upcoming spring planting season.

Although there is theoretically still some time to spare, it doesn't seem to be in a particularly urgent situation.

But don't forget, spring plowing isn't just about finding any piece of land and scattering some seeds.

Spring plowing requires a large number of able-bodied young people to work, as well as the support of water conservancy facilities, and ideally, oxen and farm tools.

The most important thing is to allocate people to the land.

That is, granting land.

This task may seem easy, but in practice, you'll encounter all sorts of problems.

This war brought many new territories under our rule. With the rapid expansion, the reserves of officials were already very tight. Even though some clerks were promoted from the army to serve as county magistrates and registrars, the land allocation was still handled in a mess.

Officials colluded with local powerful clans, and the seizure of land was a common occurrence. Wei Jiao had killed many people in recent days, but still could not stop this evil trend.

That's fine, but the key point is that, in addition to ordinary poor people, the majority of those who were granted land were meritorious soldiers.

However, most of these meritorious soldiers came from Shandong East Road. They had parents, wives, children, and even clans in their hometowns, cultivated the farmland that had been granted to them, and had oxen, horses, and mules at home. They lived a very comfortable life.

For these people, no matter how prosperous Jinan or Xuzhou were, they were not a place to settle down. Even if they exchanged the same land, it would be a losing proposition to be far from their hometown.

In response, Liu Huai could only set up garrisons in the newly established counties of Nazhou as quickly as possible and have his military staff read out the policies, in order to establish a stable rule in the several prefectures of Shandong West Circuit as quickly as possible.

The key lies in the reorganization of the Taiping Army.

This leads to the second problem.

The Taiping Army's garrison reform.

Geng Jing had done something similar before, which was to distribute the land of Dongping Prefecture to the soldiers.

However, the work was done extremely sloppily. Often, a plot of land was simply designated, and the hundreds of people divided it among themselves without any registration or supervision.

This led some officers to expand their empires recklessly, turning the people of villages and towns into their tenants. Some unfortunate soldiers were suppressed by local powerful families, and their land was taken back by local tycoons in conjunction with the government after only a short time of cultivation.

Especially after Geng Jing relied heavily on local powerful figures, and many Taiping Army officers joined forces with these local powerful figures, the latter situation became increasingly common.

But in either case, the ones who suffer the most are the ordinary soldiers at the bottom of the ranks, who are forced to work as tenants for officers or for powerful local tyrants.

The influx of refugees from the vicinity of Dongping Prefecture to Shandong East Road last autumn was caused by this.

For example, even that junior officer named Jin Dabao couldn't save the land during the autumn harvest, so you can imagine what kind of life ordinary soldiers and civilians were living.

Liu Huai naturally wanted to set things right, but the key point was that some Taiping Army officers had also made great contributions in this battle.

For example, Geng Xing, Geng Jing's cousin, and Zhang Anguo, Geng Jing's confidant, were the kind of military men most commonly seen between the Song and Jin dynasties. They were extremely greedy and despicable, yet also very brave and fierce.

Although they have all pledged allegiance to Liu Huai, how to deal with them is also a troublesome matter. If not handled carefully, the entire Taiping Army may become disloyal.

Of course, troublesome situations are opportunities for others to stand out.

Dang Huaiying, a clerk in the army, volunteered to go to Tianping Army to preside over the land allocation, hoping to use this opportunity to rise to prominence.

Dang Huaiying's solution was simple: he made an example of a key figure while relocating the main Taiping generals back to Jinan Prefecture, easily quelling the grievances of the Taiping high-ranking generals.

Geng Jing started his uprising in Jinan Prefecture. Xin Qiji, Li Tieqiang and others were also from Jinan Prefecture. As the saying goes, "It is like wearing fine clothes at night to not return to one's hometown when one is rich and powerful." They would be willing to return to their hometown, even if it was only half of the land granted in Dongping Prefecture.

For people like Jia Rui, who came from the Central Plains of Hebei, Dang Huaiying's handling of the situation took on a different meaning.

Once the Han army has fought its way back to the Central Plains and Hebei, wouldn't they be able to return home in glory?
After appeasing the high-ranking officers of the Taiping Army and offering concessions to the lower-ranking soldiers and civilians, the rest was easy.

Under Xin Qiji's leadership, land surveys and grants were carried out in several prefectures of Shandong West Circuit. The powerful local families who originally wanted to bargain had the precedent of Dongping Prefecture, Xuzhou, and Suzhou, and could only let the Han army do as they pleased.

The third matter is neither important nor unimportant, because it involves many people in the Han army, including Wei Sheng and Liu Huai.

That was the Song Kingdom's reaction. On the seventeenth day of the first month, after finishing matters on the southern front, Liu Huai ordered Wang Xiong Yi to lead his troops to garrison Suzhou, while he himself hurried back to Jinan Prefecture.

As the wartime command center of the Han army, Jinan Prefecture was freed from its previous status as a large military fortress and began to prosper again.

On the Beiqing River, merchant ships come and go, and farmers are gradually returning to the fields. Several large fields of winter wheat are beginning to turn green.

Many officials walked back and forth on the canal, pointing and gesturing incessantly, opening maps and making comparisons, with several short-sleeved men bowing and scraping beside them.

"Hey!" Liu Huai reined in his horse on the official road and shouted at a middle-aged man dressed in a black official's robe, who had tucked the hem of his robe into his belt and rolled up his trousers high in the cold wind, "What are you doing?"

The minor official was pointing at a piece of paper and saying something. Hearing this, he looked up impatiently and only realized what was happening when he saw the "Jingnan" banner. He quickly ran over from the edge of the field and said, "Greetings, Mr. Liu!"

Faced with this etiquette, which was clearly learned from plays, Liu Huai was somewhat amused and exasperated, but still waved his hand and said, "No need for such formalities. What are you doing gathering people at this time?"

"Reporting to the young master, this is Chief Clerk He's order. We are to take advantage of the few days while the laborers are all back in their hometowns to quickly repair the rural water conservancy. Chief Clerk Liang (Liang Qiu) has come up with a series of plans to dig three ditches within this month, enough to irrigate tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land around Licheng."

Liu Huai took the few sheets of paper handed to him by the clerk and began to read them.

The first document contains the specific order from the government, and below it are two large seals belonging to the prefect of Jinan and the prefect of Licheng County.

The second and third pages specify the duties of this minor official, which involves gathering laborers from six villages and towns, including Zhangjiazhuang, to dig a ditch from Zhangjiazhuang to the six villages within a month. The width and depth of the ditch are specified in the detailed construction requirements.

The fourth document is a promise from the government that grain, cloth, and silver will be delivered as compensation. These goods will certainly not be enough, but the canal is dug to irrigate the people's farmland, so the officials will need to allocate the water to motivate the people to continue building the canal.

The fifth map is a complete but simple water conservancy map. It shows that Liang Qiu wanted to draw three tributaries from the Beiqing River, connect them with the Xiaoqing River, and extend them southward to irrigate the water-scarce southern part of Licheng, thus turning this vast land into excellent paddy fields.

Liu Huai handed the document back to the clerk: "What's your name?"

The clerk was a little excited: "My name is Peng Dahai, and I'm the head of the Licheng County garrison."

Liu Huai nodded: "Since you are a local and an official, you should know some inside information. Tell me, this project doesn't seem difficult. It can be completed in a month by gathering laborers. Why hasn't anyone done it before?"

Peng Dahai hadn't expected Liu Huai to ask such a tricky question right off the bat. He chuckled awkwardly and, seeing no one around, said, "So that you may know, Commander-in-Chief, this isn't exactly a secret. Back in the Song Dynasty, a high-ranking official wanted to undertake similar water conservancy projects, even envisioning a canal to facilitate shipping between Licheng and Beiqinghe, and even..."

As he spoke, Peng Dahai shook the last simple construction drawing: "This drawing has been circulating among the people for a long time. I remember seeing it when I was a child. Many state and county officials wanted to achieve some political achievements, but they were always unable to start construction."

Liu Huai suddenly realized and pointed in the direction of Beiqing River: "So, someone is blocking us?"

Peng Dahai sighed: "No one is more wise than Commander-in-Chief."

Peng Dahai pointed to a location in the northwest of Licheng on the simple map, then stood on tiptoe and pointed north: "If we want to divert the ditch, we need to build a dam there to store water, which will flood more than 200 mu of paddy fields, raise the Beiqing River channel, and flood 100 mu of farmland along the way."

These paddy fields weren't the property of ordinary wealthy families. There were the Lin family, the Fang family, and the Shi family—all top-tier powerful clans. Not to mention ordinary commoners like us, even the prefects and magistrates couldn't afford to offend them. So, this matter had to be dropped.”

At this point, Peng Dahai bowed and said, "It was thanks to Lord Wei and Young Master Wei that this matter was accomplished. I thank Young Master Wei for his help."

Although, in the most basic arithmetic terms, tens of thousands of acres of fertile land are far more important than a few hundred acres of paddy fields, when faced with the choice of "I really have a cow," these wealthy households simply cannot bear to part with their wealth.

Moreover, these families are not without influence in officialdom; to expect them to make concessions for a bunch of peasants is really wishful thinking.

This is a classic example of how the landlord class hinders the development of productive forces.

But the Han army doesn't care about that.

In particular, the fact that the powerful local magnates in Jinan had previously put up armed resistance gave He Boqiu an excuse to deal with them.

Like the Lin family and other large families, they were forced to split up and divide the land within the clan according to the records of the government's land register and the specific household registrations.

The main branch of the family was directly relocated to another location.

In the future, if your clan wants to hold ancestral worship or even establish common clan property again, the government will not interfere, but don't expect that all the land will belong to one clan again.

"Peng Dahai, do a good job." Liu Huai nodded, bent down and patted Peng Dahai on the shoulder, saying, "Give it your all, and you'll have a bright future sooner or later."

Upon hearing this, Peng Dahai immediately felt a sense of relief.

(End of this chapter)