Daily Intelligence System: Don't Kill Me, Honey!

With the protection work of Chen Jie’s vast powers completed, the local people now have enough strength to recuperate and live in peace.

Besides this, Chen Jie initiated major construction within his territory, reclaiming land for cultivation. Just last year, under his leadership, six directly administered state mansions reclaimed over 300,000 mu of land, allotted to those locals who performed well.

The people, having received land, were all smiles and more supportive of Chen Jie’s rule.

This was the solid foundation of Chen Jie’s base.

Then, Chen Jie built large irrigation reservoirs in each natural village, a remarkable feat.

Previously, without reservoirs, these villages had no storage for water, resulting in flood disasters during the rainy season in summer.

In times of no rain, it became a drought year, wasting a lot of water resources.

So, Chen Jie initiated a village water storage project, building a large reservoir in each village. This way, abundant rainwater could be stored during the rainy season, to be used for irrigation in drought years.

This greatly solved the rainwater issue, significantly impacting grain production and leading to bumper harvests year after year within Chen Jie’s territory.

The people had more grain than they could consume, and since Chen Jie set low taxes for them, they had surplus grain, which Chen Jie bought under the banner of the government.

Part of this grain was used as military provisions, while another part was stored as reserve grain.

Having sold the grain, the people had extra money, which increased their purchasing power, thus boosting consumption.

This directly revitalized commerce in the six state jurisdictions under Chen Jie.

It should be noted that most of the money for Chen Jie’s reservoir construction came from commercial earnings, specifically, profit generated by Shen Wansan over the years.

Shen Wansan, with his brilliant business acumen, made the economy of the entire Huangzhou Prefecture flourish, with abundant goods, especially in the cotton manufacturing industry, salt, and refined sugar—all products refined using modern techniques by Chen Jie—sold like hotcakes outside.

The profits were enough to arm Chen Jie’s troop, with surplus left over.

Chen Jie understood deeply that silver hoarded is like scrap iron, so he used it to build a reputation, thus invigorating the local economy.

The construction of reservoirs greatly increased grain production, while also enabling diversified operations, such as fish farming in the reservoirs and poultry farming around them—official businesses. The fish, chicken, and ducks could be sold to the people.

This alone brought Chen Jie considerable revenue, enough to compensate for the reduced tax collected by Chen Jie.

More importantly, these fish, chicken, and ducks were high-quality protein, improving the physical condition of people and laying a solid foundation for Chen Jie’s future military personnel reserves.

Because of this, when you enter the domain of Chen Jie’s Huangzhou Prefecture, you can clearly see that the physical condition of the people is significantly better than that of other places. Their eyes are exceptionally bright, and they look full of spirit, which is part of Chen Jie’s wealth-building program.

The lives of the people have improved, not only with surplus grain but also the ability to eat meat, hence they are extremely satisfied with their current life.

This gratitude extends to their leader, Chen Jiusi, Mr. Chen, with some families even setting up domestic shrines for Chen Jie, worshipping him like an immortal.

Chen Jie was aware of this but did not stop it. Instead, he organized training classes among the people, with the Huangzhou Prefecture Government specially sending people to teach the local village chiefs and village heads politics, emphasizing that without Chen Jiusi, they couldn’t live such a good life.

He also made these village chiefs and village heads account for the expenses, telling them how much Chen Jiusi spent to build reservoirs and roads for their village. Sometimes, these common folks who read books each year don’t understand much of the big principles, but they do understand accounts.

With these accounts presented to village chiefs and village heads, they could see the contributions Chen Jie made to the locale, fostering an unspoken feeling of indebtedness.

And such gossip cannot be hidden; it will spread among the villagers, enhancing one’s reputation, won’t it?

At the time of irrigation and autumn harvests, seeing that the people outside Chen Jie’s territory suffered with seedlings unable to be irrigated due to lack of reservoirs, the locals would express gratitude, saying, ”Thanks to Lord Chen, if it weren’t for him spending money to build us reservoirs, our land would have been like the neighboring villages, without water for irrigation.”

The people would surely wonder, ”Why such a difference when it’s just one village away?”

With this in mind, they’d understand that the neighboring village belongs to Suizhou Prefecture, which isn’t under Mr. Chen’s jurisdiction, hence no funds for reservoir construction, resulting in no water for irrigation. Having water was due to the boundless benevolence of Mr. Chen!

The people would also remember the statistics brought back by the village head, ”Mr. Chen spent thousands of taels of silver to build us reservoirs.”

”That’s not all; there’s also the road. In this holiday, at least two to three thousand taels of silver were spent on us.”

”Isn’t that so? When they built the reservoirs for us, they even paid us for helping, and now the ones benefitting are us. How could there be such a good person in the world?!”