Du Shaoqing, who had been doing his best to manage the Chamber of Commerce, was summoned into the palace that day. He thought that the new Hu leaders were making trouble again, but he didn't expect that when he came to the Political Affairs Hall, he saw a lively scene.

Emperor Li Er led a large group of confidant officials to point fingers and discuss something on a map. There were also palace abbots next to him using abacus to calculate data.

"Your Majesty, the prince consort has arrived." The eunuch Gao whispered.

Everyone stopped and turned to see Du Shaoqing. Li Er smiled and said, "Come on, come here quickly and help. We are discussing where to build a city. The arithmetics of the Ministry of Works are too busy, so I sent someone to invite everyone to your arithmetic."

Build a city? What city should I build? Du Shaoqing is puzzled.

Wei Zheng explained: "It was the problem of building a city in the northeast. The Tang Dynasty took over the entire territory of the northeast at once, but most of the Hu people were scattered there, which was very difficult to manage. After the territory was captured, it was unable to subdue and educate the people. All dynasties have had a headache for the Hu people in the north.

Fang Xiang proposed to establish a city to win over the people and centralize management and education, which may eradicate future troubles once and for all."

Du Shaoqing turned to look at Fang Xuanling. The prime minister said modestly: "I was not the first to build a city. I have had this idea in all dynasties, but the cost of building a city is too high and taking too long, and I have not been able to achieve it for various reasons.

This led to the Central Plains' strategy for the Hu people in the north being like mowing grass, one after another, but the Hu soldiers in the north have never been extinguished for thousands of years.

My Tang Dynasty was different. In the early Tang Dynasty, it was only twenty years old and became stronger and stronger. Therefore, it is hoped that it would take thirty to fifty years to spend the best of two or three generations of people, and devote itself to building cities and educating the people in the northern grasslands.

Once the momentum becomes strong, not only will the repeated hidden dangers in the north be solved, but the entire northern land can even become the wealth of our Tang Dynasty."

Du Shaoqing nodded in agreement and thought to himself that the prime minister had made great efforts. The Qin Emperor was powerless back then, so he had to build the Great Wall to protect the country. Now the Tang Dynasty wants to win this unparalleled contribution in one fell swoop, which shows the courage of the monarch and ministers present.

Li Er said, "Little gossip. This is a population booklet from the leaders of the northern divisions. We will choose a suitable place to build a big city based on the population and resources situation and local feng shui maps.

At present, the locations of ten major cities have been set up in the three northern tribes. You can calculate how many people a city can cover based on the capacity of each city, the strength of guarding troops, etc. If it is insufficient, do you need to consider adding surrounding acropolis?”

Large-scale regional planning is a huge project. How can Du Shaoqing understand these? The so-called professionalism is specialized, and such careers are led by capable people who are deeply involved in the national laws.

The top talented people in the Tang Dynasty were in this political hall. Du Shaoqing did not show off at this time, but focused on being a junior who studied seriously. Everyone present patiently explained to him the directions and factors that needed to be considered in the planning of the site, etc.

Including population, resources, survival advantages, geography, time factors, and development in the next few decades, all of them must be taken into account.

According to the calculation method proposed by everyone, the abacus in Du Shaoqing's hands never stopped. It was not until two hours later that Du Shaoqing, who was sweating profusely, finally calculated a big city.

At this time, he was already sweating profusely, and even his face turned pale. It can be seen that the effort consumed by this project was so great that most of the calculators in the Ministry of Works were older people, and at this time, the physical strength was simply not as good as a young man like Du Shaoqing.

Originally, this budget project took several days or even months to study it slowly, but Li Er was anxious and wanted to know the outline as soon as possible. His mentality was like doing all the great achievements in his future in his generation.

Du Shaoqing breathed a sigh of relief, and Fang Xuanling next to him patted his shoulder and comforted him: "My dear nephew, thank you for your hard work. With such a large amount of calculation, I'm afraid you can only calculate it in just two hours. Our old bones are absolutely not good."

The eunuch old eunuch came over with a tray and said, "Mr. Prince Consort, you're exhausted. The food and ginseng soup have been prepared for you. Come and have some cushions."

But Du Shaoqing did not respond at all, but stared at the calculation result in his hand in a daze.

Everyone was paying attention to him, and seeing him so weird, they were puzzled.

Fang Xuanling's heart broke out and thought to himself that this Du Fuma Du has always liked to win by surprise and had a unique vision. Could it be that my plan is omitted?

Li Er urged: "Boy, I'm calling you for dinner. We all have eaten. You just calculated the focus and didn't want to interrupt you. Come and eat something first."

Du Shaoqing came to his senses, looked at Fang Xuanling with strange eyes, then smiled reluctantly, handed the calculation result to the other party, and prepared to turn around and have dinner.

Fang Xuanling took the result but did not go to see it. Instead, he reached out and grabbed Du Shaoqing, "Nephew, look at your desire to speak but stopping, have you seen something wrong? You don't need to hide it here. I'm not that stingy, your uncle.

This is a matter of planning for the country and you should speak freely. It is said that one person is planning to have two goals. If you can find a loophole to help you make up for it, it is too late to thank you for your uncle, so as not to suffer from our plans and omissions for a while," he said.

After hearing Fang Xuanling's words, Du Shaoqing was solemn and straightened his clothes and saluted Fang Xuanling respectfully and said, "Uncle Fang's mind, my nephew admires it!

I dare not say I found the loophole, but I was actually a little worried."

"Oh? Tell me quickly, your eyes have always been superhuman, and what can make you worry is definitely unusual." Fang Xuanling urged.

Du Shaoqing nodded and was about to speak, but suddenly felt that his eyes turned black and almost fell down. He was hugged by Fang Xuanling.

"Imperial Doctor, hurry up..." Before Li Er finished calling, Du Shaoqing woke up, "No, I'm so hungry, just let me eat something."

"Hurry, eat, get what you eat!"

Everyone burst into laughter. It was really not easy to starve the richest man in the Tang Dynasty.

Asked Lao Gao to put the things directly on the ground next to the hanging map, Du Shaoqing sat on the ground without any image and feasted.

After a while, his face recovered a little. Looking back at everyone, Du Shaoqing was embarrassed to eat directly and let others look at him, so he asked Lao Gao to take a wooden stick for his fingers, and sat on the ground and pointed at the map to start eating and talking.

"According to the existing plan, let the Hu people in the Northeast imitate the strategy of building cities and developing cities and gathering people, developing trade, and developing farming.

Although the Northeast has winter climate for half a year, it is still not enough. After all, changing from grazing to farming is not a simple process of teaching people to farming in a short period of time. Just to say, geographically, the grassland wasteland has become arable land and fertile land, which also takes time to explore and transform.

And there are too many uncertainties in this transformation process, which is not the most important thing."

Du Shaoqing told the story, and many people nodded in favor while listening. Fang Xuanling said in surprise: "I have considered all these. It takes almost three years to turn from wasteland to cultivate land, and no more than five years at most. As long as you have survived the first few years, it will be easier to do.

This model has been fully formed in the Central Plains. Although the Northeast is mostly cold, it is not a problem to plant it once a year. When it is cold, use the kang you invented in order to get the people out of nomadic ways and settle down.

After all, they are nomadic just to survive and can live in a happy land with no worries about food and clothing, and no one wants to be displaced."

Although Du Shaoqing nodded in agreement with this view, he still had his own opinion. "My concern is that such a large-scale land reclamation and farming will turn the grassland into arable land, which will have an impact on the livestock of the Central Plains. After all, the livestock power in the Central Plains is still in short supply and needs large-scale transportation from the north.

The second is that when over-reclaiming land, land desertification will be caused in the next few decades or hundreds of years..."

"Desertification? What is land desertification?" A huge question mark appeared on everyone's foreheads. What word does this mean? Is it in ancient books? Who knows?

Seeing everyone's suspicion, Du Shaoqing explained: "Simply put, after hundreds of years, due to farming, the local land will slowly turn into a desert, which is the situation where there are a few places in the Western Regions full of yellow sand."

(ps: The Western Regions were very prosperous during the Tang Dynasty, unlike the giant deserts in later generations, otherwise it would not have been possible to reproduce the civilizations of the thirty-six countries of the Western Regions. Geographically, the local deserts were still small in size.)

"This is impossible, I can't agree with your statement.

First, no one knows what will happen a hundred years later. Second, even if it is a prediction, the Central Plains has been cultivated by our ancestors for thousands of years and have never seen it turn into a desert, so your statement is wrong!” Wei Zheng stood up with a reasonable and well-founded standpoint and retorted.

Du Shaoqing said: "The Central Plains have many people and few land, and the land that people cultivate each household has limited farming, and they have worked for many years, so they know how to fertilize the land every year.

But the Northeast cannot do it, and there can only be harvested for one season a year. If you want to feed the population, you need to double the area of ​​farming. Over time, the population will increase day by day, from a large area of ​​land and sparse population to a large area of ​​land and a large area. If the population density becomes the same as that of the Central Plains.

Such limited land, only one season of harvest a year, cannot support such people. Then the population is lost, the land is restored to wasteland from cultivated land, and no one carries the fertile fields. The original vegetation on the fields that solidify soil and water is destroyed by humans. When it comes to wind and sun, the yellow sand is everywhere over the years..."

This logic...

Everyone had to be amazed at Du Shaoqing's logical depth. Just by grasping one direction, you can push it back for decades. Although everyone seemed to be listening to stories, none of the people present were mediocre people, and no one was smart enough to keep up with Du Shaoqing's ideas.

It sounds reasonable and well-founded. Everyone has been governing the country for many years, so they can naturally understand that if this is the case, the future situation will not be too far away even if it is different from what he infers.

Just kidding, where did Du Shaoqing infer? That was his own personal experience and had seen the changes in the desertification of northern grasslands.

He knew where his advantages lies, and knew that if he was purely trying his best, he could not defeat any famous minister present, playing to his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses. Although these people are famous figures in history, due to the limitations of the times, their vision will never be seen a thousand years later.

At this time, basically no one in the Political Consultative Hall stood up and questioned, and everyone's discussions were much lower. Fang Xuanling felt sweat on his forehead. He could not imagine how he planned a great cause that would be a disaster a hundred years later? He was a little unacceptable.

But he was a prime minister after all, with a very bold mind. He also agreed with Du Shaoqing's inference, so he did not plan to achieve his political views and insisted on refuting Du Shaoqing.

It is not that it is meaningless to do this, but because insisting on a flawed plan is not about planning the country, but about committing crimes for evil.

"Your Majesty, the old minister didn't expect..." Fang Xuanling apologized to Li Er with bitterness.

Li Er waved his hand and said, "Xuanling, why do you have to do this? A wise man will make a mistake in his own mistake. What's more, we all have made this matter synopsis and argued. If we say something wrong, we are wrong here, including me."

"Your Majesty, do you include me too?" Du Shaoqing joked to ease the depressing atmosphere.

Li Er gave his son-in-law a blank look and complained: "Are you kid wrong? Because of your words, we all thought hard and had been busy all day long, and we were right to say it was wrong?"

Du Shaoqing asked Cangtian speechlessly and argued: "Uncle Gangfang said that if I could find the loophole, he would not be happy enough, so as not to suffer in the future due to the current mistakes. Now you must not refuse to admit your account."

Fang Xuanling smiled bitterly and said, "That's right, the old minister promised that Your Majesty should not make things difficult for Shaoqing. My nephew has a heart for public servants in the Red City, so please praise me!"

Li Er said unyieldingly: "I remember that Gang Xuanling seemed to be saying that if you can find loopholes and help fill in the defects, that would be a great achievement.

Now you are fine. You stabbed the hornet's nest and then ran away? Is this what a gentleman does?"

Hi, I've been making trouble for a long time, but it's because you are unwilling to give up your great achievements? Why do you think so many things are not done? Du Shaoqing was speechless.

"Your Majesty, Shaoqing has only been involved in the construction of the city today, so don't make things difficult for him. This is because the old minister is not thinking well. Now go back and re-plan and find ways to make up for the shortcomings." Fang Xuanling helped exonerate.

"Hmph, you kid, it should be your uncle Fang who protects you, so you can escape the disaster." Li Er cursed with a smile.

Du Shaoqing threw down the thing, turned over and got up, patted the dust on his body, and said arrogantly: "If you want to say this, the son-in-law really wants to bet on you with this tone.

I really have an immature idea, maybe I can check for omissions and fill in the gaps.”

"Oh? Really? Tell me!" Fang Xuanling excitedly grabbed Du Shaoqing's arm, feeling like he had just had a child, and was told that he had a terminal illness and then met a savior.

Li Er said angrily: "You boy! Why are you gambled? Do you think it's a house to play in the head of state affairs? If you don't understand construction plans, don't force yourself to stand out. If you are exposed, you will make a fool of yourself.
Chapter completed!