Traveling through Du He, Li Chengqian's rebellion begins

When Du He returned to the office, before he even sat down on the chair, Yu Chang, the doctors of the Fourth Division, and three deputy directors walked in from outside.

They walked to the middle of the room and saluted Du He together.

"Meetings, Mr. Du."

Du He waved his hand and said, "No need to be polite, sit down and talk."

After they sat down on the cushions on both sides, Du He saw the other three officials of the Ministry of Works for the first time.

It has to be said that the Ministry of Works is a department that does hard labor. The three officials all have tanned skin, unlike the officials of the Ministry of Personnel and the Secretariat, who stay in their offices all day long.

Du He got straight to the point and said, "Everyone, the current people use straight plows for farming, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also extremely inconvenient to operate."

"In addition to being difficult to use, the straight plow does not turn the soil very deeply, which is not conducive to the growth of crops."

"In order to improve the efficiency of people's farming, our Ministry of Industry will innovate the straight plow next!"

Nowadays, people mainly use long straight-beam plows and short straight-beam plows. The long straight-beam plow requires two oxen to pull, while the short straight-beam plow requires one ox to pull.

Because the straight plow is heavy, its steering is very inflexible and the soil-turning effect is very poor.

At present, when many villages only have one or two oxen, plowing the land becomes a huge problem because backward farming tools affect efficiency.

Many people cannot even cultivate their own fields on time, let alone spend energy to reclaim wasteland.

Yu Chang asked doubtfully: "Minister Du, for thousands of years, people have used straight plows to cultivate the land, and there is nothing wrong with it."

"I think what the people lack is oxen for farming, which has nothing to do with the plow."

"Now our Ministry of Industry is going to great lengths to innovate the straight plow. Can it really achieve any success?"

After hearing what Yu Chang said, except for Xiao Kai who remained calm, the other three officials and deputy officials all showed questioning expressions on their faces.

In particular, Feng Jian, the Langzhong of the Tuntian Division who was in charge of farming, was an expert in farming and knew the most about farming.

After waiting for so long, I didn't expect that the thing Du Shangshu thought of to achieve meritorious service was to innovate the straight plow.

Feng Jian's admiration for Du He disappeared in an instant, and he even felt a little disappointed.

Du He took in everyone's expressions, then pointed at Feng Jian, a doctor in the Tuntian Division, and said with a smile.

"Doctor Feng, you are an expert in agronomy. What do you think of what Minister Yu said?"

Well...

When Feng Jian saw that Du He actually asked him to answer, a look of astonishment appeared on his dark face.

If he sang a different tune from the young Minister Du in public, it is unclear whether this would cause Du Shangshu's dissatisfaction and eventually lead to his dismissal from his official position.

Du He saw his concerns, so he smiled and waved his hand.

"Doctor Feng, please feel free to speak. Today we are talking about official business and will not bring in personal emotions."

"If what you say makes sense, we won't spend a lot of manpower and resources to do something meaningless."

Although Du He's words were light, Feng Jian, who had spent more than ten years to climb to the position of Langzhong in the Tuntian Division, would not take them seriously.

After thinking it over again and again, he stood up and saluted Du He with his fists clasped.

"Sir, I think the straight plow reform can indeed benefit the people, but it only treats the symptoms and not the root cause."

"In recent years, when I have been in charge of farming in the prefectures and counties, I have found that the people of our Tang Dynasty are mainly short of oxen, which leads to low farming efficiency."

"The people only have short straight plows, but no oxen or horses to pull them. Therefore, I think that the innovation of the straight plow will not be of much use to the people at present."

"The above is just my humble opinion. I hope you can correct me, Lord Shangshu."

After saying this, Feng Jian clasped his fists and bowed deeply towards Du He, then sat down with a nervous look on his face.

From ancient times to the present, oxen have always been relatively scarce. In order to protect oxen from being slaughtered at will, the judicial department of the Tang Dynasty also formulated strict laws.

Anyone who slaughters cows at will is guilty of a serious crime!

Even if you kill your own cow, you will be sentenced to one year in prison.

Inmates these days are forced to do hard labor, which can easily lead to death from exhaustion.

Li Shimin even issued an edict: "Cows are used for farming and farming, but slaughtering them is very unkind."

Therefore, the people of the Tang Dynasty not only did not dare to slaughter oxen for working, but also had to take great care of them. If they died for other reasons, they had to go to the county government to explain the situation.

Of course, this law has little binding force on people from aristocratic families.

Because only tens of millions of ordinary people lack oxen for farming, while oxen for these wealthy families are not scarce, so it is no problem to slaughter a few occasionally.

Especially for Cheng Yaojin, who loved eating beef, his family would slaughter an ox for working every now and then.

Because Li Shimin doted on this lucky general, he turned a blind eye to it.

Who made Cheng Yaojin, that tough guy, so sensible that every time he slaughtered an ox, he would give half of it to honor Li Shimin.

With such a minister who is willing to share and bear the blame if something goes wrong, Li Shimin will naturally protect him.

"Doctor Feng is right."

Du He praised with appreciation.

He turned his gaze to the other people and asked softly.

"Does anyone else have a different opinion?"

"No one needs to hide anything. You can speak out any opinions and insights you have."

Feeling Du He's oppressive gaze, the other doctors and assistant doctors lowered their heads, not daring to look him in the face.

Although Xiao Kai wanted to speak up for Du He, he didn't know where to start.

Du He smiled and said, "Minister Yu and Doctor Feng are right. The most scarce thing for the people of the Tang Dynasty is oxen for farming."

"But everyone present here, please think carefully. Since the people are short of oxen for farming, can we create oxen for the people to use?"

"Since we can't solve the problem of oxen in a short time, can we increase the speed of ploughing so that people can cultivate an extra half an acre of land?"

After hearing Du He's words, everyone's expressions paused slightly, and then they frowned and began to think.

It seems that what Du He said makes some sense!

Xiao Kai even stood up and shouted loudly: "Minister Du is right. I support the reform of Zhili!"

"As long as it can promote the people's farming, our Ministry of Industry should try more instead of just sticking to the old ways."

"As for how much effect it can produce, let the people give us feedback in actual farming!"

After Xiao Kai took the lead in expressing his views, Yu Chang and the other three officials and deputy officials were not willing to lag behind. They all stood up and spoke.

"I also support the innovation of the straight plow!"

Although in their minds and consciousness, they could not imagine how much improvement the plow that Du He wanted to innovate would have compared to the straight plow.

But as long as it has some promoting effect and is beneficial to the people, their Ministry of Works has done something.

The most important point is to make Du He, the Minister of Works, happy!