Chapter 676: Canal Theory
"General, as expected, civil strife has begun in Jianye. Both the Huaisi faction and the local faction are now beginning to feel insecure, and the political centripetal force of Jiangdong is about to collapse."
Deng Ai sent the intelligence of Jiangdong to Ma Su, and he seemed to be in a good mood.
Before this, the internal factions of Jiangdong had been very stable under the control of Sun Quan. The officials of the Huaisi faction and the local faction had always maintained a delicate balance in the internal confrontation, thereby maintaining the only political centripetal force of Jiangdong.
But because of Zhuge Ke's sudden mutiny, the contradiction between the Huaisi faction and the local faction suddenly intensified. The local faction was worried that the Huaisi faction would collude with the enemy in advance, and the Huaisi faction was afraid of being implicated. The whole Jiangdong was already in danger.
On this basis, the Lianghuai front had received several letters of surrender from the big families of Dongwu. Among them, there were both Huaisi factions and local factions. Sun Quan's decades of hard work in balancing and controlling was in vain.
"Select the officials from Huai and Si, and throw away the rest."
Although the situation of attacking Wu improved a lot due to coincidence. But Ma Su still chose to select the surrendered factions very calmly, so as to prepare for the post-war settlement.
The hatred between Ji Han and Dong Wu was much greater than that with Cao Wei. Not only did the former emperor die because of Dong Wu, but the young generation of Ji Han at that time was basically destroyed in the Yiling fire.
Such a blood feud naturally cannot be settled in a few words. So even if Ma Su didn't say it, there were many people in the court who were trying their best to settle the accounts.
Deng Ai also knew about the mess between the Han Dynasty and Dong Wu. So he tacitly shut up on this matter and honestly began to select the surrenderers according to Ma Su's instructions.
However, although Ma Su was willing to accept the surrender of some Jiangdong factions, he did not trust them. While identifying the surrender of Huai and Si, Ma Su still kept in touch with the Shanyue in Jiangdong.
Next, Ma Su's plan was to honestly settle and cultivate in Lianghuai. After all, Zhuge Liang had spoken personally, and if Ma Su deliberately started a war to consume the forces of Guandong, he would really be beaten.
The cultivation in Lianghuai was also stabilized again under Ma Su and began to get on the right track.
The cultivation in Lianghuai was mainly limited by the local water conservancy and the severely damaged roads. Especially the broken roads, even now there are only a few main roads that can be used, which seriously hindered the cultivation in Lianghuai.
Based on this situation, Ma Su began to recruit the people of Huaibei to repair the infrastructure in Huainan during the slack season.
To build infrastructure, it is natural to use the corvée assigned by the court, and order the people to come to work for free. This is also a big burden on the lives of the people, so the entire Ji Han strictly restricted the time and scale of corvée assignment.
In non-war situations, corvée assignment during farming is not allowed. Moreover, even if corvée labor was imposed, large-scale conscription was not allowed, so as to reduce the pressure on the people as much as possible.
But what Ma Su did not expect was that within two days after he sent out the document to conscript the people, a large number of good families came to apply for the conscription. In just a few days, the number of people who came to apply for the conscription in Lianghuai far exceeded the expected number.
There was no way, the infrastructure in Lianghuai was indeed too dilapidated by the two families of Wei and Wu. These local people suffered greatly because of this and were almost unable to bear it.
If Ma Su did not pay attention to this matter, I am afraid that many clans in Lianghuai would have to pay for the road construction themselves...
Seeing that the number of people who came to apply for the conscription in just half a month was more than twice as much as expected, Ma Su suddenly felt a little amused.
It seems that his worry about corvée labor was indeed overblown.
Canals and roads are one of the two most important infrastructures in ancient feudal dynasties. The former can increase the output and fertility of cultivated land, and the latter reduces the loss of grain and fodder.
Of course, there are more than just these two infrastructures. In order to facilitate the transportation of grain and fodder, the court will also build granaries at various transportation nodes to store grain and fodder, so as to reduce the loss of grain and fodder.
These have been done countless times by the Central Plains dynasty since the unification of the Qin and Han dynasties, and most people have long been familiar with the process. So even without the government's call after the conscription, the people knew what to do.
From Shouchun to Hefei, tens of thousands of people in Lianghuai repaired the roads on a large scale under the mobilization of the government. The Lianghuai roads, which were originally difficult to support the demand, were soon repaired to a certain extent.
"It seems that I still underestimated the work efficiency and diligence of the Han people..." When the repair project was in progress, Ma Su also personally inspected it. Looking at many people who worked enthusiastically without being called, Ma Su couldn't help but smacked his lips.
"This is normal, after all, this is their home." Deng Ai was not surprised by this, and even disliked the work being too slow.
"Many people have lived here for generations, and the damage to the road has a great impact on their lives. Moreover, the court will provide food for those who are conscripted for corvée, and most good families are very willing to do corvée."
"It's a pity that even if all the roads in Lianghuai are restored to the scale of the Later Han Dynasty, there is a limit to the transportation loss that can be reduced." Ma Su shook his head gently, looking at the map with a frown.
The entire Central Plains water system is connected to the Lianghuai water system, but the water power in the middle is very weak. If you want to transport food and fodder from Shouchun to the central government, you still have to travel a long distance by land, and the loss is very large.
So, seeing that the infrastructure construction speed of the two conscripted families was so fast, Ma Su had another new idea.
If there is a chance to dig a canal from Lianghuai to Jiangdong to Luoyang, it will obviously be very beneficial to the operation of the court. And it can also smoothly strike the self-defense forces in Jiangdong and strengthen the court's control in the southeast.
This is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal repaired during the Sui Dynasty in history. A canal from Hangzhou to Luoyang is of great help to the unification of the north and the south.
But his shortcomings are obviously also great, that is, it is too labor-intensive and costly. Such a huge project even requires the mobilization of the people of the entire Guandong to participate in it, and it will take several years to succeed.
So, after thinking for a long time, Ma Su still shook his head and pressed the year down.
Although he wanted to weaken the power of Guandong, he still couldn't force everyone in Guandong to exhaust everything to do such a large-scale spectacle. What's more, the Central Plains has experienced decades of chaos, and the grassroots people are exhausted.
After the chaos, it is still mainly about recuperation.
"Forget it, I'll just work out the theory for digging the canal. As for when to dig the canal, let's wait for future generations to do it." Ma Su shook his head slightly, and finally made a decision after thinking for a long time.
The canal can be dug or not, but the theoretical support for digging must be worked out in advance.