Lin Zexu arrived in Shusuo Ili in October of the twenty-second year of Daoguang (1842). During the Opium War, he banned the war against the British and resolutely resisted foreign aggression, but he was attacked by the capitulationists and sent to Xinjiang. Innocent and severely condemned, Lin Zexu's mood was very sad and indignant, but his patriotic will was not depressed. Soon after arriving in Shu, he began to study the historical geography of Xinjiang, paying close attention to the Shubian cause in Xi'an, and paying special attention to the activities of Tuntian and preparing for the border.
According to huang mian, an old genus who was with him in the local area, when the two met, they talked about "all the things that are royal ... and plugged into the TunTian water conservancy, Chinese and foreign terrain, the victory of water and soil in the north and south, often until the night equinox to disperse." His hand-compiled book "Miscellaneous Records of Ya Zhai" provides a detailed excerpt of the completed materials of the Qing Dynasty, especially the Daoguang years, on the operation of Tuntian in Xinjiang, for his reference when he was engaged in Tuntian reclamation. In the twenty-fourth year of Daoguang (1844), Bu Yantai asked for the reclamation of the wasteland of Aqi Wusu Banner tun in the east of Ili Huiyuan City, and Lin Zexu actively assisted in the planning, and personally commissioned the most arduous longkou first section of the water conservancy project. All this provided him with important historical reference and practical experience for his later exploration of southern Xinjiang and the promotion of reclamation.
Nevertheless, for Lin Zexu, the trip to southern Xinjiang is not an easy task. At that time, he was over the age of a flower armour, his illness was weak, and the reclamation was "both heavy and the road was long" In particular, this "Zhou Calendar Resume Survey" is not used informally, as a dispatcher, he has neither the corresponding title nor the right to do things, the so-called "courtiers are not divided", "the title is laughed at by others", the difficulties and pressures he faces can be imagined. Even the Ili general Buyantai was worried about this. The reason why he recommended that the Qarasar Minister of Affairs Quan Qing and Lin Zexuhui do this was to consider that "the Huizi people and other eyes and ears are shallow, and although Lin Zexu was a former senior official, he still has no rank at present, and the current minister of affairs must perform the survey together and consciously echo the spirit." But Lin Zexu himself did not flinch, and he bravely accepted this mission with the determination of "embroidering thousands of acres in the period and daring to be afraid of the eight cities of the car".
In November of the twenty-fourth year of Daoguang (1844), Lin Zexu set off from Ili and took urumqi to southern Xinjiang, where he met Quanqing in Qarashar in February of the following year. The two worked together to begin a six-month survey. According to the principle of reclamation by the nearest road, the first stop of the survey is Kucha, and then gradually westward, to Ush, Aksu, Hewen, Yarkand, Kashgar, and finally turn east to survey Karashar.
In order to do a good job in investigation and investigation and earnestly promote local agricultural reclamation, which is conducive to the national economy and the people's livelihood, Lin Zexu and Quanqing seriously analyzed the situation of reclamation and held that there are three central issues in the reclamation: "Whether this wasteland can be opened, whether there are any private households that can be reclaimed, and whether there are any irregularities in recruiting and returning to the households." To sum up, there are no more than two basic links, one is from the perspective of production, the mountains and rivers are water conservancy, and the land reported by each city is strictly checked to ensure the implementation of reclamation; the second is to deal with newly reclaimed land from the perspective of operation, seeking truth from facts, and adopting appropriate forms of electricity. "I don't dare to be a little prejudiced, and I will never whitewash and cater to it." The two links are interrelated, reclamation is the premise of electricity, and a reasonable way of electricity is a long-term and lasting guarantee for reclamation and production. Based on the above understanding, they have always grasped these two links and made every effort to solve them.
Clearing the acres of land is the first step in verifying the reclamation. Most of the wasteland is far from the city, and some are two hundred miles away, and the round trip takes three or four days. Lin Zexu was always not afraid of hard work, went deep into the field, and personally watched the survey. The results of the measurement section by section confirmed that the reclaimed land not only had no loss in the original number of acres, but also had surpluses in many of them. For example, Kucha, "there is no win or no outside the 68,000 mu of nuclear and original music, the soil veins are moist, and it is easy to occur"; Aksu "more than 119,000 mu of newly reclaimed wasteland, except for Shagang and other places that cannot be cultivated, the number of 100,000 mu of nuclear and raw wheat is still more than 2,000 mu"; the original music of Ush is 83,400 mu, "I hereby estimate according to four to the whole disk", deducting the sand moraine alkali land, "there are still more than 13,000 mu", thus implementing and expanding the reclaimable area.
"Farmland takes water conservancy as the first priority". The cities of southern Xinjiang are located in oases on the edge of the desert, where rain is scarce, and artificial irrigation is an indispensable prerequisite for land reclamation. Whenever Lin Zexu went to a place, he listed water conservancy conditions as the focus of his investigation, and in his diary, records of "first surveying the water potential" and "first observing the situation of the canal" abounded. Not only that, he also used his rich experience in water control to help cities solve difficulties and improve water conservancy facilities. Yeerqiang's newly reclaimed land and Erhan are "anointed with the earth", but they are separated from the northwest and southeast canals by five large and small sand beams, "there is a risk of preventing leakage". Lin Zexu pointed out after inspecting some of the channels where the local trial excavation was carried out, and the canal here was of sandy soil texture, "the dam work must be stronger, and the pickers should be wider and deeper", and "the protective stones should be built where the sand beams are rushed, and the nails and piles should be dug, so that the sand soil will not collapse into the canal, and the channel will become deeper and deeper, and the fertile land will be fully funded for irrigation" (35). The water of the Releptquk River, cited in the Kashgar Reclamation Land, has a long history and abundant water, "but the water is turbid, and it will not stop silting for a long time." Lin Zexu was keenly aware of this and reminded the customs officers that "all the canal dam seats, which still need to be repaired, can be used forever." Chang Qing, the former acting minister of the Kalashar Canal Construction Department, found through investigation that one of the branch canals in Korla was "leaking without estimation", so he helped to re-plan the project, and the project was "slightly flexible, and its large canals were dug straight and straight, that is, the branch canals were dug with the work of the province", which improved the channel network system and greatly reduced the cost of labor.
In order to base on a long time, Lin Zexu has strict requirements for the quality of canal workers, and cannot tolerate any scruples and coincidences. He found that "there was no foot in the distance" at the Garage Inspection Institute, and immediately "instructed the officials and Burke to pick more at the same speed, so that the order was more accommodating, so as to facilitate indoctrination." Aksuran Halik channel after investigation, "the number of nuclear and original li is short, there are still many trees", he did not tolerate mercy, supervised the rushi repair, and a deadline of one year to plan all the trees in the field. Water conservancy measures that draw on the effective experience of the local people are enthusiastically supported and promoted. For example, in the reclamation of land in Khotan, in addition to the construction of the Dawak Canal to divert the water from the Yu river to irrigate, "more than 50 spring sources were found in the area from Yangarik to Dawak, and then introduced into the canal", so that groundwater could be used to replenish the water source when the river water in winter and spring was reduced. Lin Zexu believes that this is a good way to make the reclaimed land "infused all year round", and praises it very much, and affirms that "this wasteland can actually be reclaimed, and there is no obstacle." Due to the appropriate measures, these water conservancy facilities have been playing a role in the reclamation of southern Xinjiang for a long time thereafter, until the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the large canals and branch canals of Khotan and other canal workers still existed.
On the basis of the implementation of the reclamation plan, Lin Zexu and Quanqing used their main strength to study and formulate a distribution plan for the newly reclaimed land. From the previous edicts, Lin Zexu, who had been serving as a governor for a long time, had already understood the personal intentions of the Daoguang Emperor. However, with the attitude of "the Ming Dynasty is planning for the sake of justice," he is determined to proceed from the concrete reality of southern Xinjiang and the actual results of reclamation. In his view, in the past, in order to isolate the exchanges and ties between different nationalities, it was certainly undesirable to try to obstruct the people in the interior from entering and returning to Xinjiang, but it was equally biased and inappropriate to only emphasize the recruitment of people in the interior to revitalize and reclaim the land, while completely ignoring the ability and needs of the local people to cultivate seeds. The correct attitude is: "According to local conditions, there is no prejudice, but it should be given to those who return to the household, and it is still impossible to forcibly recruit people." As long as it is beneficial to local production and people's livelihood, whether it is a people's tun or a return tun, it is an appropriate form.
Based on this principle, Lin Zexu conducted an in-depth investigation of the situation in various cities, and the places he experienced "not only never arrived before the courtiers, that is, the wuchen bianshuai also rarely had any witnesses who had personally studied the zhou." On the basis of the full facts at hand, the three ideas of "giving all the land reclaimed to the people", "taking into account the people's returns" and "recruiting all the people" were put forward.
First, "all returned", that is, allocated to local Uyghur farmers for reclamation, mainly Kuqa, Ush, Aksu, and Khotanese cities. In his submission, Lin Zexu analyzed their respective household composition in detail.
With regard to Kuqa, he pointed out: "The return to Xinjiang is far from the hinterland, and Kuqqa is especially small, not than Ili, Urumqi, and other places, and is an area with a large number of people outside the border, that is, it is thousands of miles away than Karashar. Although there are people in the interior who have a small base for a living, they can only come here alone, traffic back and forth, and live in impermanence. ...... It was originally profitable to give land to the land allocated to the mainland, but the seeds of cattle and all the artificial capital could not be set up, and if the peasants were transferred to the interior, there would be no real cost... It is yi and others who dare not accept the seeds, and it is difficult to transfer them."
Aksu is a large city in southern Xinjiang, and "there are more people in the interior than in other cities, but none of them can carry their families." There are three kinds of people in the Covenant: one of them is to send prisoners, and there are now more than sixty of them, and it is no exaggeration to say that these felonies should have been given to Burke as slaves; and the first line of servants could recruit about a hundred people to find short-term work, that is, to give acres of land, and there was no resource for farming, and it was not useless to flee in fear of grain. The first group of traders and merchants, who were not familiar with agricultural affairs, could no longer go two hundred miles away to take care of farming.
Ush and Khotan are in the middle of southern Xinjiang, Ush must be entered from Aksu, and Khotan is entered by Yarkand, the road is inconvenient, the people are sparse, "even if you try to recruit, I am afraid it will be difficult to force." Moreover, it is as wide as Khotanese silkworm cotton, and there are many people who take textiles as the industry, and it is difficult for those who have permanent production to return to work at the same time, "but those who are closer to the new land and those who have no fields and few fields are happy to try to plant."
The people in the southern Xinjiang region are sparsely populated, and there are geographical restrictions, and there are more policy reasons. But this situation cannot be changed for a while. Lin Zexu believes that since it is not possible to recruit people to reclaim at present, "if you do not give it to the local Huizi, the geographical advantage will inevitably be abandoned", "the original song please give the Huizi to inherit the seeds, it is for the sake of local conditions", and it should be allowed.
Second, "taking into account the people's return to the people", that is, the reclamation of land is given to the private households and the returning households to cultivate, mainly Kashgar and Yarkand.
Kashgar and Yarkand were both places where Daoguang had recruited households in the early years, and a certain number of people had settled here. This time, the land reclaimed by Kashgar was divided into two places, The East and West of the River, and the officials of the city initially agreed to recruit all the households to undertake the planting.
After inspecting it, Lin Zexu felt that "in addition to the 67,000 mu of hedong and Huizhuang everywhere adjacent to each other, and there are not many private households to recruit", "the more than 16,000 mu in the west of hexi still has a boundary with Huizhuang, and if the land in this place tries to recruit people, there may not be any place where it cannot be at peace." Therefore, it was decided to dispose of them separately, and to "divide the land in Hedong to the hui households to undertake the seeds" and to recruit the private households in the hexi land, and "to persuade the people's households in the huancheng area to undertake the cultivation of official fields, so that they could call on their friends to introduce the class, and Shu could gradually attract them."
The newly reclaimed land of Yerkand is Heerhan, seventy miles west of the city, and Balchuk is the old mintun. Lin Zexu analyzed the situation in the two places and pointed out that Balchuk's key traffic roads in Yarkand and Kashgar are "full of water springs." Since Daoguang established Mintun in the twelfth year, it has successively recruited households, "but there are many unplanned lands, and there is no return to the village", and should continue to develop, "If there are people to recruit at present, it seems that Balchuk should first be resettled to become a huge town and a fence." As for the He'erhan land, "it is located in a remote corner, and it is mixed with the Huizhuang, and it is not convenient to recruit people to recognize the seeds, but if it is transferred to the Hui household, the transfer can be peaceful."
Third, "all recruit people", and only one place in Karashar is the only one that is fully recruited to bear the seeds.
Among the eight cities in southern Xinjiang, Qarasar's geographical location is the most eastern, it is a passage connecting the north road, and it is closer to Guannei and Urumqi in northern Xinjiang than other cities, and there are more people coming and going. During the Jiaqing period, it was the only place in the eight cities that attracted the people's electricity reclamation. After Quanqing arrived in the twenty-third year of Daoguang (1843), all the acres of land and the reclaimed wasteland were changed to recruit households for cultivation, and more than 600 households were obtained. To this end, Lin Zexu and Quanqing agreed that for the more than 10,000 mu of wasteland surveyed in the twenty-fourth year (1844) and subsequent lines, they would continue to recruit people and develop Hutun as usual, and "Zhang Jing Changshou of the Zha Committee would go to Urumqi and other places to seriously recruit."
The plan drawn up by Lin Zexu and others has fully considered the actual situation in the southern Xinjiang region and has been adapted to local conditions, which is beneficial to production and people's livelihood, and can also save the state's financial expenditure on reclamation. However, the above opinion did not immediately receive the support that the imperial court deserved.
The Kucha Dimu Folding Draft is the first folded draft issued by Lin Zexu, and it has a very thorough analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of "giving back to the people." However, the military aircraft department and the household department's reconsideration was that "although it has been allowed to return to farming, the meaning is very reluctant" and "the criticism and blame are various." Moreover, the grain endowment was set to be divided equally among the mu, and at the end of the period, the cave was formed, and it was also considered that all the places donated to the reclamation of the Lepai were tired and tired, and they were not allowed to accommodate, but still ordered the people to be recruited one after another", in fact, it expressed objections to them. Soon after, the Daoguang Emperor ordered that the Aksu chancellor Ji Rui be "dismissed and punished" on the grounds that "he did not investigate the work first, and improvised the work, so that the cities in Xinjiang returned to the province to follow suit.".
In the face of pressure from the imperial court, Lin Zexu did not waver, and he firmly stated that all the folded manuscripts were "played by Yijiang Quanxing before the fifth day of the first month of June, and it is difficult to change the situation at this time." In order for the reasonable opinions to be adopted, instead of changing, another article must be written, "Analyze and answer, and ask for a repeat." Because he did not shy away from suspecting the force of the land for Chen's request, he finally allowed this plan to be implemented, and the section of "returning" the land mu was also more appropriately formulated, and the original court-discussed equal division of officials was changed to five liters of mu levy, which reduced the burden on the undertakers.
The complete success of Lin Zexu's survey activities eliminated the main obstacle on the road to reclamation, and an unprecedented grand situation of all-round reclamation soon appeared in the southern Xinjiang region. By the 30th year of Daoguang (1850), not only lin Zexu and other surveyed acres of land were reclaimed, but also tens of thousands of acres of wasteland were opened up for continued exploration, and after trial planting and halving expropriation, they entered the formal cultivation stage of the whole bank. According to rough statistics, the cities of southern Xinjiang have reclaimed a total of more than 632,500 mu of land this time, of which 132,393 mu are Kucha, Khotan is 100,000 mu, Yarkand is 98,000 mu, Kashgar is 83,298 mu, Ush is more than 13,000 mu, Aksu is 12,300 mu, and Qarasar is 13,500 mu, which has effectively promoted local agricultural production.
Reclamation achievements like this, regardless of scale, speed, and geographical scope, are unprecedented in the history of reclamation in southern Xinjiang in the Qing Dynasty, and even compared with the various places on the North Road in the same period, they can also rank first. Therefore, the Qing dynasty jin anqing once spoke highly of Lin Zexu's trip to southern Xinjiang, praising him for "dredging water sources, digging ditches, and teaching the people to cultivate", "the desert is vast and wild, the sicheng is fertile, the smokers look at each other, and the cultivation is full of ,...... For more than a hundred years into the territory of the unprecedented prosperity."