Chapter 688: Chapter 309: Increasing Income and Reducing Expenditure

Winter is gradually approaching, and the year-end festival is soon to come.

With the weather getting colder and colder, the land of Jiangnan gradually became covered in a layer of ice and snow.

The thick snow froze everything, freeing the busy people of Chu State from their work for a year and enjoying a moment of peace.

However, while the people below have become idle, the officials in the court have become busier.

At the end of the year, according to customary practices, the court will have to summarize this year’s affairs, count the annual incomes and outcomes, assess the gains and losses of various projects, and then evaluate the officials’ performance and reward or punish them based on their achievements…

There are countless things to do.

Above is only the central court affairs. At the same time, in the local counties and prefecture-level governments, officials have to send project officials to the capital to pay tribute to the Dynasty and report on the local work achievements.

As a result, there is an influx of project officials from the local governments into Baling city at the end of the year. It not only makes the court busier but also adds to the prosperity of Baling.

Under this background, even if Lu Yuan had already left the affairs of the state, he could not help but get involved.

Fortunately, his main job is not to do the statistical evaluation but to review the reports and listen to Minister Cui Changqing’s reports while giving guidance on major national affairs.

After a large number of trivial matters had been dealt with by Cui Changqing and others, his workload was not too heavy.

Just by sparing a couple of hours every day, he could manage it all.

However, as the end-of-year evaluations are gradually being completed, Lu Yuan has to personally take charge of the strategic planning for the coming year and beyond. He can no longer fully delegate these important matters.

So after the winter solstice ceremony and receiving local officials and the court’s officials, Lu Yuan summoned Cui Changqing and other ministers to discuss the strategic planning for the next year and beyond.

In the side hall of Taiji Palace,

Cui Changqing and several heads of the six ministries gathered together, with Lu Yuan sitting beside them, and gave orders to the ministers.

Since the fourth year of Shenwu, I have led the campaign against the southwestern Yi people and established Qianzhong County. It has been two years now.

When Qianzhong County was established, I decided on the strategy of immigrant settlement and Southwest development.

However, in the past two years, despite the continuous relocation of refugees, recruitment of landless and small land farmers, the exile of criminals, the establishment of military barracks, and various other policies, only over 400,000 people have been moving into Qianzhong.

In Qianzhong, the Yi people still account for the majority.

This is not acceptable.

Lu Yuan looked at the ministers and said seriously: “In the southwest, Great Chu has three vassal states, Kunhai, Chilih, and Jianchuan. They serve as barriers for our Chu State and are also instruments to control the southwest. And Qianzhong County is the tool for controlling these states.”

In order to deter these vassal states and continue to operate in the southwest, Qianzhong County needs to be further developed.

We need more people here to cultivate more fertile fields and produce more grains to serve as a logistics base, providing constant support for our efforts in the southwest.

For the next few years, Great Chu will not wage any war, which is a rare opportunity to recuperate.

Therefore, I want you to relocate at least 150,000 people to Qianzhong County within the next three years.

With over 600,000 Chu people in Qianzhong County, we can barely assimilate the local Yi people and initially develop this county to become an important place in the southwest.

There is also the matter of Xichuan.

Xichuan County, which originally included Xichuan and Hanzhong, has vast land with few people. Some prefectures and counties have only tens of thousands of people, and some have only thousands, even less than a county and a village in Dongting.

With such a scarcity of households, how can we properly govern and develop Xichuan?

The Xichuan plain is fertile and no less abundant than Dongting and Jianghan plains, hence deserving the title of “Land of Abundance.”

Originally, Xichuan County depended on this plain to support a population of three to four million people.

However, now in the newly expanded seven prefectures of Xichuan County, there are only 600,000 people. Even if we include the original three prefectures of Chu State, there are only about 1.5 million people, only one-third of the population at the peak of Xichuan County.

So, to develop the Xichuan Plain and make it another major money and grain producing area for Great Chu after Jianghan and Dongting Plains, it is necessary to relocate people to it, especially to the prefectures and counties located on the Xichuan Plain.

Xichuan County’s Yuzhong, Linjiang, and Wushan prefectures are densely populated, and in recent years, there has been a large number of landless and small land farmers facing difficulties.

There are also such people in Xiangyang and Dongting prefectures.

Cooperate with the local governments and do a good job of statistics. From these three prefectures and two counties, at least 500,000 people should be recruited and resettled to the newly expanded seven prefectures of Xichuan County to develop Xichuan.

This migration must also be completed within three years’ deadline.

With the relocation of people to Xichuan and Qianzhong counties, this will be the top priority for our Great Chu in the next three years.

Do you all understand?”

Lu Yuan asked, as his gaze swept over Cui Changqing and the others.

Everyone nodded their heads and echoed together, “We understand.”

The matter of migration has always been carried out by the court, and it has long been a national policy.

Now that Lu Yuan has put it forward, it is only a reiteration and official establishment as a national policy.

Cui Changqing and the others are well aware of its importance and will not have any objections to it.