Qin Official

The war was fought not only on the front lines, but also on the home front, on the soil.

In early July, standing on the Ba Bridge, watching another batch of ships loaded with grain heading east along the Weishui River, Xiao He and Zhang Cang, the two officials guarding the court, breathed a heavy sigh of relief, looked at each other, and said happily:

"Thanks to the regent's order last year that all public and private fields in Guanzhong were planted with wheat, but now it's a life-saver!"

After the beginning of spring, when Heifudong left Hangu, the anti-king heroes in Guandong only relied on the old grains in Qincang, but did not engage in production. Many places were affected by wars and the fields were abandoned. Therefore, Guanzhong, known as the "Land of Abundance", He was responsible for the main supply of military rations, and hundreds of thousands of grains of grain went east every month, so that after midsummer, Xianyang warehouses became increasingly empty.

Seeing that the millet is not yet ripe, the warehousemen are inevitably getting angry. Fortunately, in May and June, the vast wheat fields in Zhengguoqu and Shanglin are already golden...

Wheat has been cultivated by people in the Central Plains for a long time. However, at the beginning, the cultivation season of wheat was the same as that of the original crops such as millet and broomcorn millet, that is, it was planted in spring and harvested in autumn.

But gradually, Zhou farmers who were good at growing crops discovered that wheat had better cold resistance than millet but not as much drought tolerance. The most suitable time for wheat sowing and growth was not spring but autumn. So, when an unknown Zhou farmer tried to save a handful of wheat seeds for planting in early autumn, winter wheat, also known as "Su Mai", came into being.

Since most of the food crops in the north are planted in spring and harvested in autumn, there is often a shortage of crops every summer, causing a food crisis. However, the emergence of Sumai has given the Central Plains region of dry land agriculture a solution other than hoarding old grain, planting soybeans, and fishing, hunting and gathering. : It is harvested just in the summer, so it can continue to dry up and alleviate food shortages. Once there is a disaster year and the harvest fails in autumn, the wheat can be replanted immediately to prevent the spread of the disaster.

In addition, for the same acre of land, the yield of wheat per acre is far greater than that of millet, so Sumai has been taken seriously and has successfully become one of the five grains.

At least in the Zhou Dynasty, wheat was included in the five grains and was used to worship ancestors: "In the fourth year of the Wei Dynasty in Mengxia, Wang Chu prayed in the ancestral temple and tasted wheat to Taizu."

Tasting new wheat in June has also become a grand day. It was on the day when Jin Jinggong tasted wheat that he went to the toilet with abdominal distension and fell in and drowned...

But even with so many benefits, Sumai is just a backup for millet. The eating habits are the most stubborn. The people of Zhongxia still eat mainly grains, and they regard this as the difference between themselves and the barbarian Rongdi. .

Shimai is also wheat rice, but when it is steamed, the rice tastes very bad. As the saying goes, "wheat rice, bean soup, etc. are all eaten by savages and farmers," they are eaten as a last resort.

After entering Guanzhong last year, Xiao He reported this situation to Heifu:

"In Guandong, wheat rice is a mourning food when parents are buried. Some officials eat wheat rice without paying new rice, and they are called honest officials."

"What's more, in the Chu region where rice is the staple food, wheat rice is not even as good as the broken rice used to feed pigs and dogs. Chu people are used to eating rice all year round. They hate wheat rice and think it is coarse, so they refuse to eat it. He eats it, but refuses to sow it. Since his grandfather did not sow it, his descendants will not know it.”

Even though mills and rollers were introduced later, the situation did not improve much.

Ten years ago, Neishiteng listened to Heifu's advice and used wheat flour to feed the captives moving to the Kanto region. Although pasta is delicious, not many people can accept it. To put it bluntly, the sudden introduction of pasta in the common grain food is a typical evil way, which is the same as "the collapse of rituals and the destruction of music".

Because there have always been rumors that "wheat is poisonous", the hundreds of thousands of households who moved to the east of the Kanto region thought that the Qin people were going to poison them and almost rebelled. Later, although they reluctantly ate it, they still felt that they were not going to die soon. Some people even shed tears while chewing crispy wheat cakes...

It was not until they were still alive and well several years later that the group of immigrants gradually accepted this food, and pasta even became a unique snack among their group.

But people who are speechless, as long as they have a chance, they will plant millet instead of wheat...

This was true even for the relocation of captives, not to mention the Qin people. Therefore, throughout the Qin Shihuang era, it was difficult to increase the wheat planting area in Guanzhong. Until Heifu took over, it was still "the custom in Guanzhong was not good at growing wheat."

But the world was in turmoil, so Hei Fu asked Xiao He and Zhang Cang to plan and store grain. He expected that there would be a famine the following summer, and a large amount of summer-ripened wheat would be needed to relieve the emergency.

There is no other option but to rely on mandatory administrative orders.

So Heifu asked Lu Jia to grow wheat and brought it up to the point of being on the line:

"In ancient times, there was a history written by Houji. He did not write about the grains. As for the wheat and the grain, he wrote about it. This shows that the sage attaches great importance to the five grains. Wheat and grain are the most important. Nowadays, it is not good to grow wheat in Guanzhong. The emphasis is on damaging the livelihood of the people. Now the regent has issued an edict to regulate the internal history of millet, so that the people in Guanzhong can plant wheat in a better way, and the order will not come later."

In order to encourage people to grow wheat, Heifu, who was originally a rice party member, even moved food made from wheat noodles into the official canteen of Xianyang Palace. He and the officials of Jiuqing had millet porridge for steamed buns every day, feeling sad in their hearts and stomachs, and looking sad. But he had to show his joy and praise.

The result that makes people laugh or cry is that the imperial physician Ling Xia Wuji tried his best to dissuade this, and even told Hei Fu:

"This poison is extremely poisonous. The regent tested the poison himself. Does he want to abandon the world and ignore it!?"

Heifu:? ? ?

…

Being warned like this, Heifu was a black man with a question mark face at the time.

Xia Wuqi has a plausible saying: "Sumai is planted in autumn and matures in summer. It has sufficient Qi in all four seasons, so it naturally has both cold and warm temperatures. It is appropriate for the grains to be hot and the bran to be cold. Therefore, when using Sumai soup, do not allow the skin to be mixed, and the clouds will be warm and bright. The noodles cannot relieve heat and troubles, and are even more poisonous with elixirs!"

This means that the whole wheat must be cooked with water and eaten together with the soup and water, that is, grain food, and cannot be processed into flour. Otherwise, you will be poisoned, "crazy" or even die!

This statement is obviously ridiculous. Heifu's descendants have never heard that eating steamed buns and bread will poison people.

It’s not that Lao Xia was stupid. Even a few hundred years later, in the Tang Dynasty, when people in Chang’an were eating Hu pancakes every day, Sun Simiao, the king of medicine, actually thought wheat was poisonous, scaring many people into abandoning wheat flour and millet.

Heifu had no choice but to launch an academic campaign, asking Chen Wujiu to turn his students against his teachers, and wrote many easy-to-understand articles to refute the rumors.

Because the foolish man has a deep-rooted understanding of "wheat is poisonous", he is not even allowed to spread rumors: "Eating pasta and drinking noodle soup can detoxify the mild poison."

So there was the custom of "turning the original soup into the original food"...

While fighting against long-standing customs, Heifu also distributed free seeds to poor people who did not have wheat seeds, causing farmers to vigorously study techniques to increase wheat yields per acre.

Farmers are good at farming. They thought that by soaking the seeds with soy sauce and silkworm seeds before sowing, the wheat seeds could absorb a considerable amount of moisture before sowing. The silkworm seeds would also absorb enough water and be planted together when the dew is the most. Once in the ground, the wheat seeds will get the moisture they need to germinate.

"When the freeze thaws in spring, hoe again. When the elm pods are reached, pour the rain and stop, and then hoe again when the soil turns white. If so, the harvest will be doubled."

After intensive farming, by the time of wheat ripening in May and June, the public wheat fields beside Zheng Guo's canals had a good harvest. The yield was higher than the yield of middle-grade field millet, twice that of medium-grade field millet, and nearly as much as that of low-grade field millet. Four times more than beans.

Relying on the policy of forcibly purchasing surplus grain implemented by Zhi Naishi, Xianyang's warehouses, which had already bottomed out, were filled to the brim again.

A scene that made people laugh or cry appeared. The farmers in Guanzhong were reluctant to sell millet, but now they were scrambling to sell wheat to the government.

Good guy, they still prefer to eat millet instead of noodles. Heifu led by example and insisted on eating noodles for more than half a year, so it was all in vain...

The mouth and stomach are indeed the most conservative organs in the human body. Coupled with the rigid thinking, there is no way to change it in just a few years.

"The unruly people are all unruly people!" Heifu, a southerner, learned about this and had no choice but to scold him while secretly eating white rice.

But there is no other way at the moment. The wheat is either ground or crushed and loaded onto ships one after another for transportation eastward. Just like the "Battle of Boating" many years ago, it was transported to Maojin, Shaanxi County by an endless stream of grain ships. Then they went ashore and were loaded into thousands of cars owned by the Luoyang Shishi family, and transported to the east where they were waiting for food.

But this time the wheat is transported eastward, the moths are not small.

The new counselor named "Huangshi" admonished Heifu with one thing:

"In the past, when Wei and Chu were at war, the Wei army was short. King Hui of Wei ordered people to use wheat as food for the army. As a result, the soldiers were all sleepy and their morale was low. Wu Qi of Chu State quickly transferred a batch of rice and corn from the south to the camp and provided it with rice wrapped in lotus leaves. Soldiers, as a result, the Chu army's morale was greatly boosted and they attacked, but the Wei army was defeated and retreated all the way."

It is indeed fantastic that eating wheat, rice, and millet can lead to a decline in military morale and a rise in morale. Even if Heifu takes the lead in eating wheat, it will be difficult to reverse it.

In order to prevent the army from "devastating morale", the army had to continue to eat millet, while wheat was given priority to the victims.

So, more than ten years ago, the scene where the captives from Shandong said "the Qin people want to poison us with wheat" and said goodbye to their relatives in tears while biting into steamed buns and wheat cakes appeared again.

It was the devil named "hunger" who finally defeated customs and rumors.

Especially in the Yingchuan and Dangjun areas, as Zhang Liang said, Qin and Chu fought here, the people lost their jobs, and there was a great famine. In some places, every rice and stone cost five thousand, and people ate each other, and nearly half of them died.

In many places, Guanyin soil and tree bark are eaten, so who cares whether wheat is poisonous or not? As long as it is food, they happily stuff it into their mouths and then comfort themselves:

"I'd rather be a dead ghost."

And Heifu believes that after they eat the wheat cakes with tears in their eyes, the final result will definitely be: "It tastes so good!"

As 300,000 stones of wheat entered Yingchuan, a song was also sung in Han and Wei under the instructions of Hei Fu:

"Xiang Ji slaughtered my city, Xia Gong saved my people."

"Xiang Ji took away my food, and Xia Gong gave me wheat."

"Xiang Ji kills my son, Duke Xia will give him peace..."

Throughout the summer, Heifu did not rush across Han and Wei to attack Chu. Instead, he controlled the Han and Wei areas little by little, allowing the army to slowly but resolutely advance eastward.

He also worked hard on publicity, blaming all disasters, pain and chaos in the Han and Wei regions on Xiang Ji.

We must make Xiang Ji the public enemy of the Central Plains people and the murderer nailed in the history books!

This time, no one in future generations will regret his defeat, and no one will lament: "I still miss Xiang Yu!"

So, in early July, when Heifu and his army arrived in Xiangyi, Dang County, to mourn the victims of Xiang Ji's massacre here a year ago, the slogan was also spread throughout Han and Wei:

"The world has been suffering from thieves for a long time!"

…

PS: Chapter 2 is in the afternoon.