Chapter 647: Farming in Huainan

Chapter 647: Farming in Huainan

As someone who has lived in the grassroots of Huainan for many years, Deng Ai naturally knows what policies Cao Wei has implemented here. With Deng Ai's explanation, the group basically understands what is going on.

Specifically, Cao Wei's initial definition of Huainan is a line of defense against Jiangdong. The main function here is not to produce grain and taxes, but to block the enemy in the south at a low cost.

Based on this concept, Cao Wei began to organize large-scale demolitions along the Huai River. From Shouchun to the south, a large number of towns were demolished, and a large number of people were forcibly relocated to Huaibei.

Even though the land here is fertile and the water source is sufficient, it still cannot change Cao Wei's attitude. Over the years, the entire Huainan has been basically demolished, and an isolation zone has been artificially created.

In fact, this policy was also wanted to be implemented by Cao Wei in Guanxi after the first Northern Expedition of Shu Han in history. It's just that Cao Dan died early, and his successor Sima Yi chose to build, which prevented Guanxi from becoming a no-man's land.

Facts have proved that the effect of this policy is very good. This policy has played a great role in the fact that Dongwu has been stuck in Hefei for so many years.

However, this sounds like a complete abuse of nature to Ji Han's people!

"The land of Huainan is fertile and has a dense water network and convenient transportation. If the previous emperor had started his career here, he would not have died halfway..." Zhuge Liang looked at this barren land and felt a little distressed.

He was the pillar of Ji Han's government affairs in recent years, and he knew the value of fertile land. When he was in Yizhou, he even built more than 70 canals in Hanzhong in one go, just to increase the output of farmland.

The most important thing is that Ji Han's next strategy is to march south. The original plan was for the Han army to advance from Shouchun and Jiangling and attack Dongwu together.

As a result, Huainan became a no-man's land, and the impact on the Han army at that time was no less than that of Dongwu.

"Youchang, the affairs of Huainan are handed over to you." Zhuge Liang pondered for a while, turned his head and looked at Ma Su and ordered.

"Although the court has no time to attack Wu in a short time, preparations must be made in advance. We cannot let the soldiers of our Han Dynasty march south without logistical support."

"So you will be responsible for Huainan. Repair the damaged Huainan and Huaibei as soon as possible."

For Huainan, Zhuge Liang wanted to take charge of it himself. With his level, Huainan's production can be initially restored within two years.

But at present, in addition to Huainan, Zhuge Liang still has three states to manage. Such a large territory has long been beyond the capabilities of the General's Mansion.

So, Zhuge Liang finally handed the task to Ma Su.

Anyway, there are only a few powerful families left in Huainan. No matter how much Ma Su makes trouble, things will not get out of hand, and Zhuge Liang can rest assured... maybe.

"Yes!" Ma Su also nodded and immediately took on this task.

Obviously, Ma Su felt uncomfortable when he saw such a large and rich place in Huainan being thrown out as an isolation zone. In addition, the ultimate goal of all this is to attack Wu...

Ma Su had long wanted to beat Sun Quan. It was uncomfortable for Ma Su to let Sun Quan be a fake emperor in Jianye for one more day. If the national strength did not allow it, Ma Su would have planned to march south immediately.

After arranging the work, Zhuge Liang patrolled from Jiujiang to Guangling. He basically went through all of Guandong and suppressed the unrest in the Central Plains before setting off to return to Luoyang.

After Zhuge Liang left, Ma Su was temporarily free and took over the defense of Huainan. However, when Ma Su was considering how to develop military farming in Huainan, Deng Ai took the initiative to come to him.

"Envoy, I have been a military farming official in Huainan for ten years. I know the mountains and rivers here like the back of my hand. Can Ai also participate in the project?"

Ma Su immediately agreed to Deng Ai's request. After all, in history, it was Deng Ai who gave Sima Yi advice and started the military farming in Huainan.

Although this guy wanted to improve too much, which led to a bad reputation at the grassroots level. However, it must be admitted that Deng Ai had a certain understanding of the terrain and the settlement.

The only thing that gave Ma Su a headache was that Deng Ai was also the garrison commander of the six towns. If he was stationed in Huainan for a long time, the two towns of Shuofang County under Deng Ai's control would probably be unmanned.

However, Deng Ai had been prepared for this and immediately proposed that Zhang Yi take over the six towns instead of him.

In the end, Ma Su met with Deng Ai as the governor of Huainan, and was jointly responsible for the military settlement work in Huainan with Ma Su.

Ma Su's action ability was obviously very high. After taking office for half a month, he immediately took people to investigate the terrain as soon as he understood Huainan. In the next month, Ma Su basically only took Deng Ai and Ma Zhong with him every day to investigate Huainan.

During this period, Deng Ai's drawing ability also made Ma Su very satisfied. Wherever they inspected, Deng Ai would draw a map that night.

The mountains, rivers and landforms were all clearly drawn. With the help of Deng Ai's map, Ma Su had a preliminary understanding of Huainan's potential.

"Hiss... Who was the idiot who proposed to tear Huainan down like this! I must kill his whole family!" You don't know until you see it. After roughly understanding the potential of Huainan, Ma Su couldn't help but take a breath.

The fertility of the land in Huaibei and Huaibei is far beyond that of Guanzhong. Moreover, the climate here is mild, and the grain output is more than three times that of the northwest.

According to Deng Ai's preliminary exploration, Huaibei and Huaibei can now accommodate at least 50,000 troops.

There are 20,000 troops stationed in Huaibei and 30,000 troops stationed in Huainan, and they can take turns to rest at a ratio of one-fifth. According to this ratio, it can be guaranteed that there are about 40,000 troops stationed every year.

This number of troops is enough to resist the Wu army during wartime, and they can also participate in digging canals and building roads during the slack season. In this way, the productivity of Huainan will be restored like a snowball.

As long as the roots of the military settlement can be taken down and the scope of the settlement can be gradually expanded, the population of the settlement can be expanded by 100,000 in three years.

In just six years, Shouchun can accumulate 30 million hu of grain. These stored grains can feed 100,000 soldiers and civilians for five years and complete the further expansion of the battle line.

With this material foundation, the Han army can accumulate more than 100,000 troops in Lianghuai in seven years at most. By then, even if the court does not send troops, the Huainan army alone will be enough to suppress the entire Eastern Wu.

The exaggeration of this data made Ma Su a little unbelievable. If it were not from his own hands, he could not imagine that Huainan would be so rich.

Of course, there may be some gap between the actual operation and the data, but even if it is cut in half, it is extremely remarkable.