Hand over the jade seal first [Infrastructure]

Of course Xiao Zirong would not refuse. After asking Wei Yun to put away the map, they left the household department and continued to ride forward. When passing by the school, Xiao Xuexing heard the sound of reading aloud inside. Children, with the voices of some young men and young ladies in the voice-changing period.

Xiao Xuexing then asked, "So many people are studying?"

Xiao Zirong said: "Yes, all children under the age of 15 must come to study."

Xiao Xuexing smiled slightly after hearing this, Xiao Zirong was only seventeen this year, yet he was called someone else's child, it sounded a little happy.

"Can these people afford to study?" he asked.

We must know that most people can't afford to read even if they are healthy. Could it be that the small Taoyuan City is so rich?

The reason why Xiao Xuexing didn't have too many doubts was that the granary in Taoyuan City gave him a lot of shock just now. The granary was actually not big, and it was far worse than the granary set up by the imperial court.

But even if the granaries of the imperial court can be filled that much, there may be various natural disasters when the land area is large, and disaster relief is needed at this time. If the local granaries are not enough, they must be transferred from other places.

Xiao Xuexing just took a tour on behalf of the Son of Heaven, and the fact that the granaries in many places are free from rats is considered pretty good.

The granary in Taoyuan City is not big, but in terms of quantity, it can make people feel at ease, so he subconsciously thinks that everyone has money to send their children to school.

In the end, he heard Xiao Zirong laughing and saying, "No need, nine years of compulsory education is free!"

Xiao Xuexing thought he heard it wrong, so he asked in an extremely rare way: "What?"

Xiao Zirong glanced at the direction of the school and said: "These gentlemen's repairs are all paid by the treasury. Students only need to pay some textbook fees and tuition and miscellaneous fees. Well, there may be school uniform fees in the future, but they are not much. Most people can still afford it, if they really can’t afford it, they also have student loans, and it’s good to pay it back in the future.”

Xiao Xuexing listened as if he was listening to the Arabian Nights, frowned and said, "Why?"

Although he asked nonsensically, Xiao Zirong understood why Xiao Xuexing asked why he did this.

Xiao Zirong was very calm: "Because it's convenient, you see, everything in the city lord's mansion is written and pasted on the notice board, and everyone can see what happened and what notices there is by looking at the notice board. If you don’t know how to read, you have to send someone to preach, it may be too late in case of an emergency, and it’s too much trouble.”

After hearing this, Xiao Xuexing didn't know what to do to make a good face, and it was too late for trouble... In fact, in Xiao Xuexing's eyes, there was nothing that would make ordinary people too late to react.

And just because of these two reasons, Xiao Zirong came up with free education, which is very impactful to him or to the current scholar-bureaucrat class.

Xiao Xuexing subconsciously felt that this was not good, but the deeper reason was that once the wisdom of the people was enlightened, it would be difficult to govern.

Moreover, the nobles and aristocratic families have held knowledge for so many years, and it is impossible to let it go easily. If the officials in the court know about this matter, they will definitely find a way to attack him.

Xiao Xuexing asked seriously: "Do you know what you are doing?"

This is putting yourself in a very dangerous place, and what Xiao Xuexing is most worried about is that Xiao Zirong will do something wrong in a ignorant way, or it may not be a wrong thing, but... if this thing breaks out, even if Even Xiao Xuexing may not be able to completely suppress it.

He and the emperor may not be able to do it, let alone the emperor will definitely not agree.

If the person who did this had nothing to do with Xiao Xuexing, he would definitely hit him hard without hesitation, but this is Xiao Zirong...he could only find a way to protect him.

Xiao Zirong hesitated for a moment, jumping back and forth between finding an excuse and telling the truth.

It's just that Xiao Xuexing could tell his thoughts at a glance, patted his forehead and said: "You will be punished for lying."

After hearing this, Xiao Zirong was not afraid at all. Did he lie to Xiao Xuexing less?I didn't see Xiao Xuexing doing anything to him either.

However, thinking about it this way, he was really embarrassed to lie to Xiao Xuexing, so he could only whisper: "This...it's just that Taoyuan City is like this, and it can't form an impact on the outside. I did this to train helpers. I can't manage so many people alone. Come."

After hearing this, Xiao Xuexing thought about it and thought it was true. According to Xiao Zirong's original style, he probably didn't want to have too much contact with the outside world. At most, he had surplus grain to sell, and then he made a fixed-time transaction with Yuan Jia. Others Things, Taoyuan City can gradually become self-sufficient.

And whether everyone in Taoyuan City can read and write has nothing to do with the outside world. Even if one or two of them are ambitious and want to go out, Xiao Zirong probably won't let them leave easily.

Xiao Xuexing glanced at the academy and said, "Let's go."

He is actually quite interested in this place, but it is obviously not as useful as the water system around the city. If the issue of education is handled well, it is indeed useful, but it is not as useful as irrigation.

A group of people went straight out of the city and went straight to the source of the canal. Xiao Zirong was going to take Xiao Xuexing to see the rice fields all the way. Although the journey was long, there were no special stops along the way, so it was okay.

The source was just a tributary of the Yangtze River, and Xiao Xuexing hadn't noticed this tributary at all before, so naturally he didn't know that Xiao Zirong led someone to dig a canal here.

At the beginning, he was still thinking that the Yangtze River also flooded during the previous flood, submerging countless rice fields on both sides, how come Taoyuan City is fine?

This canal is also connected to the Yangtze River, so it will not be unaffected.

It turned out that when he got there, he discovered that the way the canal diverted water was different from what he thought.

Generally, the canals are directly connected to the tributaries, but Xiao Zirong did not expect to do so, but used water trucks to bring water to the canals, and even built relatively high dams between the canals and the tributaries of the Yangtze River. This side is in an inclined state, and the water is sprinkled from the waterwheel, and flows into the ditch along that slope.

In this way, as long as the water in the tributaries of the Yangtze River does not flood the dams, no matter how much water there is, at most it will make the waterwheels turn faster, and there will be more water in the canals, but it will not be uncontrollable.

When Xiao Xuexing saw the waterwheel, he felt that Xiao Zirong really had the guts to think about it, well, no one else in Taoyuan City seemed to think of such a solution except him.

After reading this, go all the way along the canal to the rice fields.

In the middle, I saw the place where the canal was connected to the moat. Xiao Zirong pointed to the place where it was connected and said: "If there is free time in the future, a dam will be built here, so that even if there is a flood in the future, it will not affect the moat. Taoyuan City is flooded, and the water can flow directly into the sea along the canal."

Xiao Xuexing compared the map just now while riding the horse forward. Anyway, his memory is quite special, and he can call up that picture from his mind at any time after just one glance.

The more you compare, the more surprised you are. That map is almost a perfect copy of the terrain around here, there is almost no big difference, and that little difference will not affect anything at all.

When he arrived at the field along the canal, the crops in the field had been harvested, but there was still water in it. The first thing he saw was the strange device placed beside the field ridge. ?”

Xiao Zirong glanced at it and said, "Oh, that, the keel waterwheel, can pump water from the net below."

Xiao Zirong wanted to get off the horse as soon as he said that, Xiao Xuexing held him down and asked, "What are you doing?"

Xiao Zirong said: "It's too troublesome to explain, so I might as well show you."

Xiao Xuexing turned his head and glanced behind him, and immediately someone got off his horse and stood beside the keel waterwheel waiting for instructions.

Xiao Zirong: ...

All right, he had to command from a distance. Fortunately, this thing is not difficult to operate, and Xiao Xuexing's subordinates are not stupid, almost as soon as Xiao Zirong said it, they would understand how to do it.

After trying it, Xiao Xuexing discovered the benefits of this thing almost immediately - it saved a lot of manpower and material resources.

At this time, he also understood why Xiao Zirong asked people to open terraced fields. With this thing and the irrigation water system at the bottom of the mountain, as long as the terraced fields are not opened to the top of the mountain, there is no need to worry that it will be too late to irrigate or physically unable to support so much land. irrigation.

Xiao Xuexing's brows and eyes stretched, among other things, with this keel waterwheel, he didn't worry that Xiao Zirong would have a bad life in the future.

Sometimes the so-called merit does not only look at military merit, it can almost be said to change people's livelihood like this, and sometimes the merit is greater than military merit.

Xiao Xuexing patted Xiao Zirong's head and said, "Run'er is really smart."

Xiao Zirong was confused by him, and turned to look at him suspiciously.

Xiao Xuexing asked again: "I took a look just now, there are so many lands, did your people come here?"

These lands were originally owned by Wen's family, and they were supposed to support hundreds of people, which was enough for Xiao Zirong and the others, but Xiao Zirong asked people to open many terraced fields, which made Xiao Xuexing a little strange .

Xiao Zirong said: "In the beginning, there were not so many lands. Many of them are newly planted and wait for next year's planting. Of course, it is a bit too much for the current population, but it doesn't matter, there is Quyuanli."

Xiao Xuexing was probably used to the strange nouns coming out of Xiao Zirong's mouth one after another, so he asked very calmly, "Quyuanli? What kind of plow is that?"

Xiao Zirong said simply: "Go back and show you, Qu Yuanli can save a lot of energy."

Xiao Xuexing nodded, took another look and asked, "How did you dig out such a huge water system?"

He could almost conclude that Xiao Zirong must have used some extraordinary means, if it was manually excavated... Xiao Xuexing had also dealt with floods before, although the form was different, but the principle was the same, it was almost impossible to do it so quickly with manpower.

Xiao Zirong said, "Well, do you still remember those explosions you heard outside?"

Xiao Xuexing was slightly taken aback: "What's wrong with that?"

Xiao Zirong said: "That is a gunpowder bamboo tube, which can explode things. Well, it seems that I didn't bring it here, but it doesn't matter. I will find one or two for you to experiment with and you will know."

Xiao Xuexing nodded thoughtfully, but he still couldn't imagine anything that could have the functions of killing enemies and digging canals at the same time.

After looking at the fields and water system, Xiao Zirong saw that it was still early and asked, "Do you want to see the salt factory?"

Xiao Xuexing asked back: "Can I see it?"

Xiao Zirong immediately said: "You can, if you trust these people, you can, but others can't, this formula must be kept secret."

Xiao Xuexing immediately said: "Then I won't go."

Xiao Zirong immediately waved his hand: "It's okay, it's okay if you know, anyway, I won't make too big here, it would be great if you can drive a bigger one."

However, Xiao Xuexing doesn't seem to be short of money.

Xiao Xuexing moved slightly, then patted his head again and said, "Okay."

After finishing speaking, he was about to turn the horse's head, Xiao Zirong said quickly: "Wait a minute, let people go to the field to catch two fish first, the biggest field is mine, and there are delicious fish in it. Let them catch it and send it back, and I will cook fish for you tonight, okay?"