As merchants from various countries began to exert their efforts, truckloads of grain were continuously transported from the border to Zhao. No matter how strict the checkpoints in various countries were, these people always found a way to get the grain out, which is admirable.
After arriving in Zhao State, there is no need to worry. Zhao Kuo has already issued an order that as long as the grain transport convoy enters Zhao State, it is not allowed to block it, and the city entry tax is directly exempted.
After the first batch of grain arrived, Zhao Kuo immediately started building water conservancy projects across the country, dredging ditches, building city walls, and digging wells, telling the people that as long as they worked, they would have money and food to eat.
He had long wanted to work for relief, but there was no food.
Why did famines in ancient times provide direct disaster relief instead of providing work-for-relief? It’s not that they didn’t know the method of work-for-relief, but ordinary disaster relief only required giving the victims a bowl of gruel every day to keep the victims from starving to death.
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The purpose of the work-for-work relief program is to ensure that the victims have enough to eat, otherwise they will not have the strength to work.
This also resulted in the food consumption for work-for-work relief being three to four times that of ordinary disaster relief.
Most of the time, once a famine occurs in a certain place, the whole country will not be much better. The court can naturally save a little food, but who will consume several times more food to provide relief through work?
Moreover, both the monarch and the officials responsible for disaster relief knew that the victims were prone to make troubles when they were full, and they would not make troubles when they were hungry and had no strength. With the idea that doing more is worse than doing less, they naturally would not choose to work for relief.
Therefore, even though Fan Zhongyan initiated work-for-relief in the Song Dynasty, when famines occurred in the Ming and Qing dynasties, direct disaster relief was still provided instead of work-for-relief.
This was true even when the yield per mu was already very high during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, let alone the Warring States Period when productivity is now low.
Without the "help" of merchants to transport food from various countries to Zhao, even if Zhao Kuo wanted to provide work for relief, there was nothing he could do.
Agriculture has been fundamental since ancient times, especially in periods when productivity was not particularly high. Therefore, Shang Yang chose to focus on agriculture and suppress commerce, tying more people to the land.
However, as a time traveler, Zhao Kuo naturally knows the importance of business. Moreover, Zhao Kuo's current business prosperity is far from reaching the point where restrictions are needed.
In order to improve productivity, other methods can only be chosen.
After lunch, Zhao Kuo took Ben and his guards to the workshop in the north of the city.
I have to mention here that after several days of research, Zhao Kuo now understands that his personal guard army is not a real army soul army at all, but can only be regarded as a pseudo army soul army.
Because only when he is there is the military soul legion, and when he is not there, it is the ordinary super elite. In other words, the military soul of the Guards is not himself, but Zhao Kuo!
However, this is in line with the definition of personal guards. After all, the personal guards are born to protect the monarch. If the monarch is absent, the personal guards will lose their meaning.
As for whether Zhao Kuo's newly awakened talent: God's Gift can increase the probability of Zhao Guo's talents being born, to be honest, Zhao Kuo is not sure at all. He can only sense that the talent does exist.
As for the specific effects, I am afraid it will take at least ten to twenty years to see them.
The official in charge of the workshop was called Zhao Zhu, a member of the family whom Zhao Kuo had never seen before.
The workshop is under the jurisdiction of the Shaofu, which is the private purse of the monarch, so most of the people within the clan are responsible for it. After all, it has always been a traditional Chinese virtue to not avoid relatives in favor of the virtuous.
Hearing that the monarch was coming, Zhao Zhu quickly stood at the door with more than a thousand people in the workshop to greet him.
Everyone knows that as an emperor and a court official, his official position was appointed by Zhao Wangdan. If Zhao Kuo is slightly unhappy, he may be fired or even punished.
"Get up."
Zhao Kuo said that he was not going to target such a humble official like Zhao Zhu, and after saluting, he let them get up.
After everyone stood up, they all looked at Zhao Kuo curiously. Everyone knew that Zhao Kuo was an unparalleled genius in Zhao State. He led Zhao State to defeat Qin State, and then besieged Handan and became the king of Zhao State. Unexpectedly, he actually turned out to be the king of Zhao State.
Just as young and handsome.
"Okay, everyone, just do whatever you have to do. If you have any questions, I will call you." Zhao Kuo waved his hand and said.
He knows that once something is started in the workshop, it cannot be stopped, and once it is stopped, it will be useless.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." The craftsmen saluted again, then turned and returned to their work place.
Zhao Kuo followed the craftsmen and inspected the area. He found that the environment in the workshop was very harsh. Even though the temperature outside was still around zero degrees, the temperature inside still reached over 30 degrees.
Zhao Kuo saw the craftsmen wielding hammers and repeatedly beating the iron tires to shape the pieces of iron tires into the shape of heavy swords. Their bodies were almost completely wet with sweat.
You know, it's only the end of winter and the beginning of spring. If you wait until summer, you can imagine what the situation will be like in the workshop.
"Why is the workshop built here? It would be much better if it was built next to Zhangshui River." Zhao Kuo asked.
Most workshops are built near water, because the workshops themselves require a lot of water resources, and being built next to the river is more conducive to cooling and sewage treatment.
If a city like Zhao's was built inside a city, it would not only be difficult to obtain water, affecting production, but the environment would also be worse, affecting the health of craftsmen.
Sewage can only be transported outside the city manually, which greatly increases costs.
"Your Majesty, originally the workshop was built by the Zhang River. But your Majesty also knows that the other side of the Zhang River is the State of Wei. As long as the army of the Wei State crosses the Zhang River, it can easily reach Handan, let alone those outside the city.
Almost every time there was a war between Zhao and Wei, some of the craftsmen would be kidnapped. In the end, there was no choice but to move into the city and build it in the north of the city." Zhao Zhu said helplessly.
Although the relationship between Zhao and Wei is very good now, in fact, they have been fighting each other for life and death before. In fact, even if they were good friends before, they could wear a pair of trousers.
This is how it is between countries. There are no permanent enemies and no permanent friends.
"Now that Yecheng is in the hands of Zhao Guo, the workshop will be able to move back to Zhangshui soon." Zhao Kuo patted Zhao Zhu on the shoulder and said with relief.
Zhao Zhu was immediately flattered and didn't know what to say.
"Are all the craftsmen in the workshop here?" Zhao Kuo asked again.
"Your Majesty, everything is here." Zhao Zhu calmed down.
"How many people can make farm tools?" Zhao Kuo asked.
"Including apprentices, all craftsmen can make farm tools." Zhao Zhu said proudly.
Agricultural tools are the easiest to make compared to weapons, so when every craftsman first learns to make them, they build agricultural tools. Only after he becomes proficient and the quality improves, will he start to learn to make weapons, chariots, and armors.
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After all, even if there is a problem with farm equipment, at most one or two households will be delayed from farming.
If there is a problem with a weapon, a human life may be lost, and it may even affect a war.
In any country, the creation of weapons is the most stringent.