Lord of the House

Vol 11 Chapter 61: On Agriculture

Yu Wencheng only greeted him at the boundary of the house, but would not guard him all the way. Just as Tang Xitai was ordered to go to Yuzhang to see Lin Fu passing by Pengze, Tang Xitai went with Yue Lengqiu, and Yu Wencheng transferred another team of stalwarts to **** them.

Tang Xitai is one of the Thirty Boys in Chongzhou, almost a disciple of Lin Fu. He used to be the Luzhou Prefecture Secretary of Agriculture before joining the army, and his status in Huaidong does not seem to be high, but in fact it is not low.

I believe that Huaidong will not give up Tang Xitai's life and arrange for Yue Lengqiu to be robbed and killed by the Kou soldiers on the way. Talents such as Deng Yu and Yue Zhi are more at ease watching Yue Lengqiu leave.

Going southwest from Pengze and boarding a boat across Poyang Lake in Duchang is a shortcut to Yuzhang.

The three counties of Pengze, Hukou, and Duchang along the way are located on the east bank of Poyang Lake and the Yangtze River waterway. The She family, led by Tian Chang, stationed heavy troops to defend Chizhou, so the civil resistance movement was suppressed.

After the Shangrao defense line was penetrated, the luxury family fled across the Jiangbei hastily and decisively, and it was too late to carry out large-scale destruction in this area.

Although the counties in Jiangzhou have been exploited by the luxury family in the past year, this year's agricultural affairs have not been greatly affected, and there has been no major chaos in the countryside. This is a rare treasure for the broken Jiangxi.

From Pengze to the west, through Hukou to the south to Duchang, the wheat ears along the road are golden, and it is the harvest season.

Yue Lengqiu and Tang Xitai traveled in two carriages, one behind the other.

Yue Lengqiu took a car with his family Yue An and Yue Zhou. As the saying goes, you will be at ease when you come, and you will not be particularly anxious when you look at the scenery along the road.

"It's rare that Jiangxi likes to eat noodles, but I didn't expect Jiangzhou to grow wheat so widely?" Yue Zhou sat in front of the carriage and looked at the wheat fields along the road, quite surprised.

"Maizuo has been introduced into the Central Plains from the northwest for thousands of years. There is a process of moving from west to east and from north to south, but after reaching the south of the Yangtze River, it is first Jianghuai and Zhejiang, and then gradually spread to the west, almost to Qisheng. It's the first year. At this time, Jiangxi has been planting wheat wildly for about a hundred years. Jiangzhou and Shangrao are the most prosperous. Looking at the geography, we can see that Shangrao wheat was introduced from Zhejiang and Jiangzhou; Jiangzhou wheat was introduced from Jingchu to the south—— Instead, they went to the hinterland of Jiangxi, Fuliang, Fuzhou, Yuzhang, Ganzhou, Yuanzhou and other places, where there were few farmers who planted wheat. It is not inappropriate, but it has not arrived yet." Yue Lengqiu has experienced countless times in his life and has a wide range of knowledge. Although Yue Zhou was a slave , in fact, regarded him as a disciple. Yue Lengqiu’s children are not numerous, and Yue Lengqiu is much more loyal than outsiders. Yue Zhou is accompanied this time, and he has more time to teach his homework along the way. He explained patiently, “In the past, farming was done in spring and harvest in autumn. Then there is the problem of not being able to connect the green and yellow. After the autumn harvest or planting wheat and sap, it can make up for the lack of spring and yellow without damaging the soil, so Jiangxi should plant a lot of wheat..."

When the world's grain production is low, the annual yield of 60 to 70 catties of soybeans and wheat in the north cannot be regarded as a famine year. The rice planting in the Jianghuai paddy field is only more than 200 catties. If the paddy fields are planted with a season of wheat in winter, even if Jiangxi is seriously wet, and the wheat is not as good as the two Huaihe Rivers, but one mu of land can produce 80 to 90 catties of grain, the farmers will be smiling, so Yue Lengqiu has this conclusion.

"Master, do you still have the heart to pay attention to farming affairs at this time?" Yue An, his family member, sat on the carriage, listening to Yue Lengqiu's careful teaching of Yue Zhou's farming affairs, and said doubtfully.

"Looking closely at the past few years, I can tell you that I don't care enough about these common affairs!" Yue Lengqiu sighed, but he was not worried that Tang Xitai would hear it, and said to Yue Zhou, "Mai Zuo is not afraid of the cold, but it hurts him. Waterlogging; therefore, the rice-wheat double-cropping field needs summer water and winter drought, and is particularly dependent on ditches. Before Chongguo Gong entered Huaidong, the rice and wheat double-cropping field in Chongzhou County was only 200,000 to 300,000 mu, which was called the The hometown of rice and fish. However, in less than ten years, almost all the paddy fields in Chongzhou county have achieved double cropping. This political ability, I want to make people dissatisfied..."

"Yue is really familiar with the matter of Chongguo," Tang Xitai asked the driver to drive after him, and walked side by side with Yue Lengqiu. I have not seen Governor Yue’s response, so far I have regretted it, but I didn’t know that Yue had such a profound understanding of agriculture.”

The five counties of Chongzhou have been sealed by Lin Fu, Yue Lengqiu is used to the old name, and it is difficult to change his words for a while, but Tang Xitai insists on calling it Chongguo.

Yue Lengqiu's status is naturally not comparable to Tang Xitai, but Huluo Pingyang is hardly imposing, and Yue Lengqiu can't make a mark in front of Tang Xitai.

"Reduction of rent, fixed rent, and permanent tenancy, so that the tenant farmers are not harmed by repeated disturbances, and they can focus on farming, which is a great benefit. To put it simply, if two crops are planted and only one rent is charged, the tenants are naturally willing to farm two crops. Work, fertilize the fields, and participate in the improvement of ditches," Yue Lengqiu said, "Chongguo Gong wrote about this in the eleventh year of Chongguan, but at that time, Yue mistakenly thought that this was not urgent at the moment, but he did not expect it to be a big mistake... …”

Tang Xitai smiled and said: "At that time, the Jinhai grain route was still there, and the north needed to extract millions of stone from Huaidong. My family was also forced to think of ways to increase production and raise grain; it was satisfactory."

Listening to Tang Xitai's light-hearted tone, Yue Lengqiu smiled bitterly in his heart: How can it be called satisfactory?

The most misguided thing about the She family's collapse from Jiangxi was that they didn't expect Lin Buneng to stabilize Jiangning's situation so quickly, and to launch an offensive against Jiangxi so quickly.

It can quickly stabilize the situation in Jiangning. On the surface, Lin Fu borrowed five million taels of silver from Huaidong Bank twice in the name of the Ministry of Household and Jiangning Prefecture to make up for the shortfall. There are also millions of taels of gold and silver. Why didn’t the luxury family recover after retreating to Jiangxi?

Gold and silver only make up for the lack of circulation, but if there is no grain to buy at all, no amount of gold and silver is waste. Last year, only 11 counties in Huaidong sent cheap rice to Jiangnan as high as 4 million Shi, this is the fundamental reason why the situation in Jiangning quickly settled down.

Without food input, farmers are starving and can only leave their hometowns to escape the famine. Not to mention that local agricultural production is difficult to restore, it will also have an impact on other places, affecting public security and production. With sufficient food input, farmers can eat enough to concentrate on farming and resume production, and the situation will naturally stabilize.

However, a considerable part of Huaidong's own 200,000 troops depend on Huaidong for food, including western Zhejiang, eastern Fujian, and northern Zhejiang, which are all new places for Huaidong. Who would have thought of Huaidong? Only eleven counties can come up with so much surplus grain at once?

There are two ways to control hegemony: building a city and accumulating grain, Lin Fu really did the two things to the extreme.

The defeat of the extravagant family is not as good as military and strategy, but it is actually weak in politics.

Of course, Yue Lengqiu was surprised and confused by Yue Lengqiu, and Tang Xitai would not tell him all about Huaidong.

It is necessary to know that when Huaidong is short of grain, millions of stone grains of rice have to be transported from Haidong every year; it is only in the past two years that the effect of defending the seawall has been fully demonstrated, which has caused the grain production in Huaidong to increase year by year. .

In the 11th or 12th year of Chongguan, Lin Futie was determined to spend millions of taels of silver to repair the seawall. How many people watched and sneered? Isn't Yue Lengqiu one of those who sneered by the sidelines?

At this time, many people in Jiangning were still apprehensive about the luxury family fleeing north and the possibility that Yanhu might soon open the western route, but this successful victory in Jiangxi made people in Huaidong full of confidence, and they were not afraid that Jinghu would give Yanhu cavalry. Break through.

Nothing more than water to earth to cover, soldiers to block.

The situation in Jiangning, Ningnan, Ningxi, and eastern Fujian has all settled down one after another, and there will be no more food shortages. The situation in western Zhejiang and northern Zhejiang has also improved one after another. No matter how broken the situation in Jiangxi is, it can be calmly dealt with, at least not. Harder than last year.

The luxury family in Jiangnan is like an enclave in northern Fujian, and Guangnan County, Yuanzhou and Tanzhou all have a tendency to be soft.

Even with the current situation, Huaidong can still support 250,000 soldiers; when the situation in the entire south has settled down, Huaidong's troops have been expanded to 300,000 or 400,000, and there is no need to worry about someone in the south of the Yangtze River. Fighting with Yan Hu on the battlefield of the Central Plains?

At present, Lin Fu is on the surface to exempt Jiangxi's taxes for the next three years to maintain his interest, but in fact, if Jiangxi is to rebuild and resume production, a large amount of salt, iron, rice, coal, tea cloth, and even mules and horses must be imported from other places— - Including Guangnan, Xiangtan and other places in the future, Lin Fu did not intend to directly take over the taxation from the beginning, but market dumping must be opened. Huaidong can rely on the matter of salt and iron, and draw a lot of money to support the army from these areas.

After the war in Jiangning, the markets of the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River opened to Huaidong. The iron materials alone will bring huge profits of nearly one million taels of silver to Huaidong in the first half of this year.

After Yanhu won Jidong, he took over the iron factory of the original Jizhen Army in Zunhua, Jidong, and moved from Liaodong to join craftsmen, becoming Yanhu's largest iron-making center in the north.

According to the information obtained by the Ministry of Military Intelligence, the Zunhua Iron Factory of Yanhu has nearly 20,000 craftsmen, and produces a total of 4 million catties of refined iron and wool iron material a year. Although the Yanhu people were born in barbarism, their king Yejier There are great talents and great strategies. In the early years, they worked in Liaodong to smelt iron and develop Liaodong. Only then did they have the foundation to capture Yanji in the south.

The scale of the Zunhua Iron Works even exceeded that of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry when the iron works were at their peak, but the number of craftsmen employed was a bit less than that of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry - one more and one less shows Yejier's strong political means and vision. of greatness.

It's a pity that Huaidong was ahead of Yanlu, not Canyue, nor was it a momentary hero like the luxury family.

In Huaidong, there are more than 30,000 craftsmen related to iron smelting, but the total annual output of iron materials is as high as 20 million catties.

In terms of iron production per capita, Huaidong is three times as much as Yanhu's iron works in Zunhua.

Thinking of this, Tang Xitai bowed to Yue Lengqiu again and said, "Listening to Yue Xiang talking about farming, does Xitai have something to ask?"

"Please speak." Yue Lengqiu said.

"Before Yanjing was not overthrown, the northern land normally required six million stones of grain from the south to be imported each year; but after the Yanjing occupied the northern land, and both Shandong and Henan were disabled, they could support 400,000 to 500,000 soldiers. Ma Liannian's battle, why is this so?" Tang Xitai asked.

Yue Lengqiu glanced at Tang Xitai and thought to himself: Tang Xitai went with him, is it Lin Fu's intentional arrangement?

Yue Lengqiu thought that Tang Xitai deliberately tested each other, although he couldn't guess why he did so, but he didn't take it seriously, and said indifferently: "In the past years, it was necessary to transport grain from the south to the north to make up for the shortage of Yanjing, and it could only be maintained; but now The southern land is cut off and the northern land is half-ruined, why the Yan captives used the northern land to raise 40,000 to 500,000 soldiers and horses, there are many people who are emotional and surprised. But Master Tang should know this by heart..."

Tang Xitai smiled awkwardly, thinking that Yue Lengqiu was really an old fox, and the temptation was a little obvious, but he also bit the bullet and waited for Yue Lengqiu to continue.

"..." Yue Zhou, who was about to sit in front of the chariot in Yue Lengqiu, also listened carefully and said, "Although the north is far less prosperous than the south of the Yangtze River, the Yanji Plain also has nearly 100 million mu of fertile land, while Jiliao, Xuanfu, and Datong are the three At the time, the size of the military colonies on the side of the border reached 17 million mu, as long as they were managed well, why would they not be able to support 400,000 or 500,000 troops and horses?"

Tang Xitai's eyes were distant, and he knew that what Yue Lengqiu had said was true. Seeing that Yue Lengqiu had taken these numbers at his fingertips, he knew it in his heart, and he was convinced that Yue Lengqiu had once been the deputy prime minister, and it was not a false name.

Datong Town is not a single city. Datong Town, as one of the three sides of the north, with Datong City as the core, has more than 500 military fortresses, forming a defense line nearly 600 miles wide. up to seven million acres.

"The system of military colonies and military households has been abolished, and many things have been accumulated and difficult to return," Yue Lengqiu said after reckoning with the various drawbacks since Yuyue, and he was also full of emotion. Guan Qiao, and Tang Xitai may represent Lin Fu as a test, he said eloquently, "The military colony was occupied by the generals and officials, and the soldiers in the colony were labored by the generals and officials, resulting in a large number of military households in the later period. At that time, half of the frontier troops were recruited or recruited, and the central government allocated half of the money and grain and self-sufficiency of the colonies, so it was no longer possible to completely rely on the military colonies. If the problem is only this, it is not serious. The frontier army can recruit colonies to make up for the shortage. However, in the later period of the Jingying Army, almost all soldiers were recruited. The number of soldiers in the Jingying Army in the later period was 130,000, and a total of 500,000 dependents lived in the country, all of which needed to be supported by central finance and taxes. In addition, when Yanjing was not over, including grain In addition to the money and grain of the Jingying army and the frontier army, the taxes and taxes handed over to the central government (or the Ministry of Households, or the Ministry of Internal Affairs) in the palaces and villages and other places are also used for two aspects, one is the meritorious salaries of officials, and the other is the imperial court. Support. There are millions of people in Yanjing, half of the army and family members in Beijing, and the remaining 500,000 people. There are officials, honorable people, and the poor and lowly dependent on officials and nobles. And * to support family members and servants, isn’t it true that the more than one million people in Yanjing are actually eating the central wealth? were able?"

Yue Taizong moved the capital to Yanjing, but it was not a random decision.

Even if you don't count the military colonies in the border areas, the Yanji Plain is actually one of the four major plains in the Central Plains, alongside the Lianghu Plain, the Jianghuai Plain, and the Hehuai Plain. Yanji Plain stretches to the Yellow River in the south, Yanshan Mountain in the north, Taihang Mountain in the west, and Bohai Sea in the east. The arable land is over 100 million mu. The Huangzhuang surrounded by the imperial family in Gyeonggi and Yanji is as many as three or four million mu.

In addition to the Yellow River, there are many water systems originating from the Taihang Mountains and entering the Bohai Sea, bringing extremely convenient irrigation conditions to Yanji, and at most, it can support nearly 10 million people.

It is not enough to support an imperial capital with tens of millions of people and 100 million acres of land. It is no longer a problem of lack of food in the northern land, but it is difficult to return to the later period of the dynasty.

In addition to the frontier army, even the more than one million people in the imperial capital need support from the outside world, which is beyond the scope of Yanji Plain.

The number of households in Jiangning City was as high as 156,000 to 60,000. In addition to the wealthy officials and gentry gathered in Jiangning, there were also a large number of poor people who depended on them.

This deformed urban population structure is constantly sucking blood on the surrounding Jianghuai Plain, and a lot of resources are wasted in Jiangning City.

Therefore, after the war in Jiangning, Lin Fu, on the one hand, transported the households in Jiangning city to workshops, industrial and mining industries, and on the other hand, he relocated the urban poor to Fujian and Yizhou. In fact, the excessive occupation of Jianghuai Plain resources by Jiangning City must be reduced, so that more resources can be used to support the army to compete with Yanhu.

"Before, it was difficult to get back, but when Yanlu broke through the border, Yannan and Lubei were crippled, and after the Yellow River broke its embankment and the Caodao was destroyed, the situation in the north was already on the verge of collapse," Yue Lengqiu said. " I have to say that Duke Chongguo is really smart, and the Jinhai grain road has risen. At this time, the population of Yanjing has dropped sharply due to the shortage of food, and the total amount of Nancao has actually dropped to less than 3 million stone, which is barely enough. Keep it up. It's a pity that Yan's captives have been in power for a long time, and the late emperor lacked enough patience in western Liaoning..."

Tang Xitai thought to himself: Was Yue Lengqiu Zhuge Liang after the fact, or did he see that the battle of Western Liaoning would be defeated in a hurry?

If it's the latter, Yue Lengqiu's scheming is really ruthless, should Huaidong tolerate him? But thinking about it, if Yue Lengqiu had seen through everything earlier, he wouldn't have told him frankly at this time.

Yue Lengqiu didn't seem to see what Tang Xitai was thinking. Following the sound of the rut, he continued: "When the north collapsed~www.wuxiaspot.com~Yanjing's population has dropped sharply to 500,000. , less than half of what it was before Chongguan eight years ago. Yanjing occupied Yanjing, and the Jingying army collapsed except for about 30,000 soldiers who stayed behind with Zhang Xie and surrendered to the enemy. Before the collapse of the northern land, the imperial court had to bear more than 100 yuan in Yanjing. Ten thousand people eat, but by the time Yanjing stole Yanjing, most of these pressures have actually been resolved..."

"In the past few years, the Yan prisoners have encircled the fields in Datong, Liaoji, Xuanfu, Jidong, Yannan and other places, and re-established the system of military households. In this way, the Yan prisoners raised 40,000 to 500,000 soldiers, which is the capital of Beijing. In addition to food and sustenance, the battalion no longer needs to pay extra for soldiers. Even if there are soldiers, it is plundering..."

"...Although there are countless subordinates, and they are shameless to receive the salary of Yan's captives, but from the captive king and below, the captives and thieves are still frugal, and the subordination dare not fail. In fact, the consumption has been greatly reduced. There are more than a thousand slaves. At this time, there are less than a hundred family members. When the imperial court was at its peak in Yanjing, the inner court supported nearly 60,000 eunuchs, while the number of Yan’s prisoners was only 2,000. If this is more or less, it can be called Yan. The captives will raise more than 100,000 soldiers and horses. At this time, the actual population of Yanjing City, plus the garrison, is more than 200,000..."

On the surface, it seems that the salaries of Yanlu to the subordinate ministers are not reduced, but in fact, whether they are clean or not, there is a huge difference.

Zhang Xie raised more than a thousand slaves. In addition to the salary, a considerable part depended on the owner, which actually consumed the central finance. Officials and subordinate ministers can be clean and honest, and the central financial consumption is much less.

"All of the above made the previous imperial court in Yanjing have insufficient support for Yanji, and had to draw grain from Henan, Shandong, and Jianghuai; while Yan's captives went south and occupied Yanji, although Henan, Shandong and other places were all leftover, However, people's livelihood in Jinzhong and Yanji has been restored, and the two Liaoning and Yanxi lands have been acquired, so the Yan captives can support 400,000 to 500,000 soldiers and go to war again and again." My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter

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