Guangling is the Yangzhou area in later generations. Its aboriginal people were called Han Yue, a branch of the Baiyue.
When the Wu Kingdom was strong, it dug an artificial canal between the Huai River and the Yangtze River. This was later part of the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty, the Han Canal.
The Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty was not built in one go, but was a connection of the ancient canals that our ancestors had dug since the Spring and Autumn Period. The waterway was very tortuous. The straight Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal of later times was rebuilt in the Yuan Dynasty.
In the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou relied on the Grand Canal and became the famous Yangzhou City of fireworks in March. Although Guangling has been developed now, its prosperity is far less than that of later generations.
According to the original history, after Chunshen Jun was granted the title of Lord of Jiangdong, he would further develop Suzhou (Wucheng), Yangzhou (Jinling) and other places.
Now this heavy burden fell on the hands of Qin and Zhu Xiang's shoulders.
Due to years of disrepair, the Han Canal has become dilapidated. Not only can it no longer be used for navigation and irrigation, but it also often causes floods.
However, the upper reaches of the Hang Canal were on the territory of the Chu State. Zhu Xiang had no way to repair it now and could only build another canal to divert the water when the Chu State wanted to attack with water, so as to prevent the city and farmland from being flooded and all the hard work of half a year in farming from being in vain.
After Zhu Xiang decided to go to Guangling, Li Mu sighed and said, "Okay, I won't persuade you, but you have to promise me that if the Chu people come to attack Guangling, you will leave the city. Whether Guangling City defends or surrenders is none of your business."
Zhu Xiang immediately said, "I promise! Do you think I look like someone who can lead troops? I will definitely not cause any trouble to the soldiers guarding the city."
Li Mu knew that Zhu Xiang did not like fighting and was very self-aware, so he agreed to let Zhu Xiang go to Guangling City.
Moreover, the State of Chu is in such chaos now, and the State of Qin has the advantage of its navy. The King of Chu should not be foolish enough to attack Guangling City and waste the lives of the Chu soldiers.
As for Zhu Xiang farming in Guangling, if the Chu army came to attack, the food might be robbed by the Chu army. Li Mu, thinking from a military strategist's perspective, would rather the Chu army robbed the food.
A piece of grain is nothing. Now Southern Qin is not short of grain, but it is still short of people.
Changping Jun of Qin State came to the north bank of the Yangtze River to farm, and the people of Chu State came to rob and burn all the food that Changping Jun had planted for the common people. Wu County was able to welcome many refugees again.
When he leads the Qin cavalry to officially set foot on the land of Chu, the resistance of the Chu people will be much smaller.
Zhu Xiang couldn't sit still, he came to Southern Qin to do things. Li Mu would not stop Zhu Xiang from making achievements just because of a little danger.
In fact, if Zhu Xiang went to the north bank of the Yangtze River alone, Li Mu would still worry that Zhu Xiang might suddenly get excited and do something irrational.
Zhu Xiang went with Xue Ji. Li Mu knew how important Xue Ji was to Zhu Xiang, and Zhu Xiang would not take Xue Ji with him into the adventure.
Ying Xiaozheng winked at Li Mu until his eyelids twitched, and Li Mu agreed directly.
Ying Xiaozheng was so angry that his hair stood up.
He once again felt how useless the identity of the Crown Prince of Qin was. No one could give orders to him. He wanted to overthrow his father and ascend the throne as king!
But he suddenly realized that he could not rule the country himself even if he ascended the throne, and that his uncle, who was assisting in the administration, would definitely put pressure on him, so he gave up the idea.
"Why don't you care? Take care of your aunt's safety!" Ying Xiaozheng said angrily, "You always like to run to dangerous places. How can you still have the face to scold your father?"
Zhu Xiang pulled the soft flesh of Ying Xiaozheng's cheek and said, "Okay, okay, uncle and aunt will return safely."
Ying Xiaozheng snorted coldly, did not struggle, and let his uncle pinch his face.
Li Mu said, "Mr. Lian has brought a group of craftsmen from Korea to give to you. I think they are good after using them. You can take them with you."
Li Mu knew that Zhu Xiang would definitely build irrigation and water conservancy projects after he went to Guangling, and he had already thought of a candidate to match Zhu Xiang.
Zhu Xiang let go of Ying Xiaozheng's face: "Okay."
Ying Xiaozheng rubbed his face and said, "You can take Li Si and Han Fei with you."
Zhu Xiang smiled and said, "You keep it. Wujun has more things to do than Guangling. I can take Fuqiu with me."
Ying Xiaozheng said: "Take him there. Or take me there."
Zhu Xiang said, "I don't bring any of them. I am your uncle, and you are not yet an adult, so you have to listen to your uncle."
Ying Xiaozheng was so angry that he wanted to usurp the throne of King Qin again.
Li Mu said, "Take Meng Tian with you. I will give Meng Wu another thousand soldiers to command. You can dig trenches, fight, and provide guards."
Zhu Xiang agreed neatly: "This is great! I'll take it!"
Ying Xiaozheng got angry again. You accepted the gift from the teacher, but you look down on the gift from me!
When I become the King of Qin, I will send you, my uncle, 100,000 prisoners. You can build whatever you want. Humph!
Zhu Xiang stretched out his finger and scratched the bridge of Ying Xiaozheng's nose, and said unhappily: "Why are you so angry again? If you get angry too much, you will get sick. If you get sick from anger, won't you be laughed at by your uncle for the rest of your life? Oh, that Xiaozheng is so petty that he actually got himself sick from anger."
Xue Ji covered her mouth and laughed: "If you don't want Zheng'er to get sick, just say less."
Ying Xiaozheng nodded vigorously. That's right, isn't it your fault that I'm angry
Li Si and Han Fei beside them looked towards Fuqiu together, their eyes full of suspicion.
Fuqiu went to assist Duke Zhu Xiang? Could he do it
Fuqiu was originally very nervous, fearing that he would not be able to assist Duke Zhu Xiang well, and was about to decline.
What do the eyes and expressions of these two Confucian traitors mean? Are they looking down on me
He must fight for this dignity, he must not back down, and he must not lose to the traitor of Confucianism!
Fuqiu straightened his chest and gave Li Si and Han Fei a look that said "I'm great".
There was even more suspicion in Li Si and Han Fei's eyes.
They both felt that Fuqiu's expression was not very smart. Could he really do it? It seemed that none of the Confucian disciples were good at worldly affairs, so he might not be able to do it.
Fortunately, the two were only communicating with their eyes, and Fuqiu couldn't hear what they were saying. If he had heard it, the superficial harmony would have been gone.
After Li Mu selected his soldiers and generals, he sent Zhu Xiang to Guangling City and then continued to move south.
Zhu Xiang couldn't sit still, and he couldn't sit still either.
After the truce with Chu, Wang Jian was able to calm down and do business and train the Qin army. Li Mu learned from his father and grandfather how to train soldiers, which was to directly take a team of cavalry to the grassland to fight in actual combat. He couldn't be as quiet as Wang Jian.
Therefore, Li Mu would lead his navy to wander south from time to time to train with the barbarians of Nanyue and the pirates of South China Sea.
Occasionally he would lead his cavalry across the mountains to look for trouble with bandits in the mountains in order to maintain the cavalry's combat capability.
The maritime trade was enough for Li Mu to squander. Otherwise, if he asked the King of Qin for support directly, King Zichu of Qin would scold Li Mu to death.
His uncle and aunt abandoned Ying Xiaozheng and crossed the Yangtze River to Guangling City. Ying Xiaozheng did not lament for long and devoted himself to his work.
Ying Xiaozheng has been a workaholic since he was young, and he would twiddle his abacus when he walked. Now that his uncle who supervised him has left, he is like a mouse seeing a rice jar, and he plunges into the rice jar (work) and doesn't want to come out at all.
Zhu Xiang guessed that Ying Xiaozheng would do this, so he left someone to supervise him and urged him to go to bed on time. If Ying Xiaozheng refused to sleep, he would record the matter and deal with it when he and Xue Ji came back.
Ying Xiaozheng cursed and said that his uncle had actually taken up the power to supervise the prince's every word and action, which was an usurpation of power and he was a treacherous minister.
Han Fei asked, "Then, will the prince take a rest?"
Ying Xiaozheng dropped his pen and went to take a nap angrily.
Although he said that he didn't want to sleep, his biological clock had already become accustomed to making him fall asleep as soon as he touched the pillow.
With no worries about food and sleep, it's no wonder that Ying Xiaozheng grows so fast and is much taller than other noblemen of the same age.
Han Fei said to Li Si, "Why is the Crown Prince always angry when he comes back this time? Is this what Duke Zhu Xiang said, the rebellious period?"
Li Si covered Han Fei's mouth and said, "Shut up! You are not Duke Xiang of Zhu. How dare you say that the prince is not good?"
Han Fei was helpless. Didn't he say this after the prince fell asleep
This was the first time Li Mu assigned a separate mission to Meng Tian. The young general Meng Tian was very excited. When he saw Zhu Xiang, he actually put on full armor, which was laughed at by Zhu Xiang.
The soldiers were managed by Meng Tian, and Zhu Xiang only looked at the list of accompanying craftsmen.
There weren't many craftsmen with names, most of them had casual names like commoners. Zhu Xiang glanced at the list and his eyes stopped on a name.
"Zheng State?" Zhu Xiang's voice trembled.
Xue Ji asked, "What's wrong with this person?"
Zhu Xiang grinned: "No problem, no problem at all."
Oh my good Lord Lian, you are really good at arresting people! The famous craftsmen in Zheng State all belong to the royal family of Han! Where did you arrest them from
He did not see Lord Lian this time when he returned. Lord Lian regarded the military camp as his home and did not miss Zhu Xiang at all, and did not find an excuse to visit Zhu Xiang.
In the end, Mr. Lian still missed me.
Zhu Xiang groped for the two words "Zheng State" with his fingers and smiled with his eyes curved, which was very similar to when Ying Xiaozheng laughed sincerely.
Zheng Guo is here, so how far can the Zhengguo Canal be? After he had Zheng Guo build the Zhengguo Canal in Guangling, he recommended Zheng Guo to Xia Tong and asked Zheng Guo to go to Guanzhong to build the Zhengguo Canal!
However, the Zhengguo Canal is more than 300 miles long, and many civilians and prisoners who worked on its construction would probably have died.
Zhu Xiang sighed inwardly and suppressed his discomfort.
After the Zhengguo Canal was completed, it would cover more than 40,000 hectares of land in Guanzhong. The number of people who would survive would be more than the number of people who would die while building the canal, so a choice had to be made. Like the Dujiangyan Canal, it had to be built.
When Guangling Zhengguo Canal was put into use, he recommended Zhengguo to Xia Tong. With the current financial resources of Qin, it should be easier to build Zhengguo Canal than during the reign of Qin Wangzheng in history.
Zhu Xiang ordered his servants, "Call Zheng Guo here so I can talk to him about building the canal."
(End of this chapter)