Traveling through Du He, Li Chengqian's rebellion begins

On the other side, Li Shimin also brought Li Chengqian, Du He and four others to the Liangyi Hall.

As soon as they sat down, Li Shimin went straight to the point.

"I called you here to teach every citizen of the Tang Dynasty how to make a new plow!"

"In addition, the construction supervisor must also focus on making curved plows and produce a batch of them!"

When the five people present heard about the next two things to do, there was no expression on their faces. It was obvious that they had already guessed it on the way to Liangyi Palace.

The curved plow is so effective in tilling the land. It would be strange if Your Majesty did not promote it immediately.

Li Shimin then turned his gaze to Li Chengqian and gave him orders with gentle eyes.

"Prince, you will be in charge of promoting the method of making curved plows to the people of the Tang Dynasty and supervising the production of curved plows."

"Hou Junji and Du He will serve as your assistants and fully cooperate with you."

Hearing that his father had given him full responsibility for this matter, Li Chengqian was delighted and a faint smile of joy appeared on his face.

Li Chengqian, Hou Junji, Du He and Qiu Xingyan all saluted to Li Shimin with their fists clasped.

"As ordered!"

Although promoting the curved plow may seem like a small thing, it is not an easy task to do it well.

In the past, when the imperial court issued a decree, it would often take more than half a year for it to be conveyed to more than half of the people of the Tang Dynasty.

Nowadays, promoting the production of curved plows is much more difficult than issuing a decree, so it requires a lot of manpower and material resources.

Then Li Shimin turned his gaze to Du He and said to him with a smile.

"Du He, do you still remember what we talked about yesterday in the royal fields of Beiyuan?"

Du He nodded quickly and said, "Your Majesty, I remember it clearly."

Li Shimin didn't say much to him yesterday. Although he couldn't repeat it completely, he still remembered the general content clearly.

Li Shimin frowned and said, "You said yesterday that different craftsmen made plows of different sizes and shapes, and the final results were also different."

"The common people's craftsmanship is certainly not as good as that of the officials in the Ministry of Works. How can you ensure that the new plows made by the common people will not be too bad?"

If the new plows made by the people are not as good as those made by the Ministry of Works, the efficiency of turning the soil will definitely be greatly reduced.

At that time, people would think that the curved plow was not easy to use, and would abandon it and use the straight plow again.

Hearing this question raised by Li Shimin, the other people in the hall turned their eyes to Du He, wanting to see how he would explain.

Du He thought for a moment and then spoke softly.

"Your Majesty, the plowshare and the chan are the core parts of turning the soil and are the most difficult to forge. These two parts can be made by the court and sold to the people."

"The court also needs to issue orders to the provincial governors of the 360 states to send craftsmen to Chang'an to learn how to make new plows, and then have them teach the craftsmen in the county offices of the prefectures and counties."

"In addition, a standard curved plow made by the imperial court will be placed outside each county government office for the common people to use as a reference."

The plow blade is a soil-breaking part made of iron. It is difficult for common people to forge this part, but common people can basically imitate and make the other parts made of wood.

In addition to farming, people these days are also half-carpenters, and they repair broken farm tools themselves.

Hearing Du Heti's conventional method, Li Shimin nodded slightly.

The price of a complete curved plow was not affordable for ordinary people, so they could only make it themselves during the slack season.

The imperial court also passed the knowledge down through the ranks, until eventually tens of millions of people mastered the making of the curved plow.

Although this method is slowly being promoted, it is also a good and effective method.

Du He continued, "Your Majesty, this is just my initial idea. It will be further improved after the Crown Prince and You Pushe convene for discussion."

In fact, Du He had another idea in mind, which was to let the scholars recruited by the Chongwenguan of the Eastern Palace learn to make curved plows, and then let them go to various prefectures and counties to teach.

In this way, these scholars who usually only read books of sages can also come into contact with the people by teaching them the curved plow and slowly accumulate experience.

After they have done their job well and accumulated a certain amount of achievements and reputation, they will use the power of the Eastern Palace to recommend them as basic officials in the prefectures and counties.

Li Shimin nodded slightly and said, "After you go back, discuss it carefully. When you have decided on the final implementation method, bring it to me for a look."

Everyone stood up and saluted.

"I'm waiting to retire."

When walking out of the Liangyi Palace, Du He couldn't help but complain in his heart.

It was clearly just some simple arrangements that could be made in the Taiji Hall, but Li Shimin insisted on calling them to the Liangyi Hall.

Fortunately, the meeting was quite efficient and was over in less than a cup of tea.

After the few people walked out of the Liangyi Hall, Li Chengqian, who was riding on the sedan chair, waved to Du He, Hou Junji and the other two and said.

"My Lords, please go back and take care of government affairs first, and then think carefully for two days."

"I will send someone to invite you to the East Palace in two days to have a chat."

After the daily court meeting, the heads of various departments would assign tasks to the officials below them, of course with the exception of Du He, the Minister of Works.

Now Du He has left all the specific work in the Ministry of Industry to his deputy Yu Chang, so he has a lot of free time every day.

Du He, Hou Junji and Qiu Xingyan clasped their fists towards Li Chengqian in response.

"promise!"

...

As soon as Du He stepped into the gate of the Ministry of Works, he found a large group of officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Revenue coming out.

"Meetings, Mr. Du."

When they saw Du He coming in, they stopped and saluted him, their eyes full of passion as they looked at him.

Du He knew that they came to the Ministry of Works with rewards, so he waved at them with a smile on his face.

"No need to be polite."

Then Du He put his hands behind his back and walked slowly into the gate of the Ministry of Industry with square steps.

In the middle of the spacious lobby.

Several large boxes painted vermilion were placed in the middle, and more than a dozen bulging sacks were piled around them.

The hundred or so officials from the Ministry of Works were all standing around, staring at the pile of things in the middle with burning eyes.

If Yu Chang hadn't been there, they would definitely not have been able to help but rush over.

When Du He walked to the side of Yu Chang, the officials of the Ministry of Works finally realized what was happening and bowed to him.

"Meetings, Mr. Du."

Yu Chang then said, "Minister Du, these are the rewards sent by the court. Six large boxes contain 300 strings of cash, and the other 10 sacks contain 300 dou of refined salt."

"Because it will take some time to mobilize 300 shi of grain, they estimate that they will bring the grain here in the afternoon."

Although 300 dan of grain may not sound like a lot, it is actually 3 jin when converted into kilograms, which is enough to store the entire lobby of the Ministry of Works.

Du He nodded to Yu Chang and said, "Minister Yu, please come with me to my office and we will discuss how to divide this batch of rewards."