Qin Official

In mid-August, after traveling around the three counties at the eastern foot of Helan Mountain, Li Ling felt that he had gained a lot of experience.

Heifu's "mass production" movement not only allowed the five thousand left-behind civilians to participate in the work, but also mobilized all the soldiers. At the same time, he thought of many interesting ways to encourage the soldiers to open up wasteland and cultivate land.

He regarded the land reclamation and plowing in early spring as a competition, allowing all soldiers and civilians to participate. One of the most powerful soldiers achieved a good result of clearing 3 acres of land in one day in the first land reclamation competition, and was personally received by Hei Fu. He drank six wines.

Throughout the spring, more than 10,000 people in the army cultivated a total of 200,000 acres of land. Together with the 50,000 acres of wheat planted last year, there was already a large area of ​​​​cultivable land! There is just enough to distribute to five thousand single people. Half of this year's harvest goes to the people and half to the army.

In addition to opening up wasteland, they also had to take care of side jobs. Because there was a shortage of women in the northern part of the country, soldiers had to mend their own torn clothes. And because the supply of clothes from the mainland was not timely, they even had to learn to make simple shoes.

Guan Ying, a small merchant from Suiyang City, knitted ten pairs of cloth shoes in one day. After Hei Fu heard about it, he also received him and wanted Guan Ying to be a minor official in charge of clothing for soldiers and civilians.

Unexpectedly, Guan Ying blushed and said that since he was left at the frontier, he didn't want to end up in the same fate as his hometown, he wanted to make meritorious deeds! Guan Ying said in his own words that in the past year, he learned to ride horses from the soldiers of Ohara. Now his riding skills are already good. He would rather give up the land in the hope of becoming a cavalry servant!

The bold words of this small businessman naturally aroused laughter from the soldiers, but Heifu saw that he was very serious, so he gave Guan Ying a chance to perform riding skills in public, and he turned out to be quite good at it. He could already do it without stopping. After dismounting, shoot the bow and arrow on the spot. So Heifu regarded Guan Ying as a typical civilian husband, and asked him to keep the land and hire people to farm it for him, while he went out of his way and started as an ordinary cavalry attendant.

In addition to agriculture, there is also animal husbandry. Heifu fulfilled his promise, and Ohara Rong was the first batch of immigrants to move here. In midsummer, their entire family moved away from the crowded Northern Plains and established pastures around various farming areas at the eastern foot of Helan Mountain to serve as security guards.

The five tribes of Dayuan were placed in three counties and two barriers respectively. The military girls in their tribes have also become the most actively pursued targets of local field soldiers and single folk husbands. Most of them are interested in the Aries and Lou Fanhu who will be distributed by the government next year. Women are somewhat repulsive.

In short, after more than half a year of hard work, the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain, which had been deserted and swarmed with wild wolves due to the Huns fleeing north, had become plentiful with abundant crops and herds of cattle and sheep by the time autumn arrived. Except for the fact that it is difficult to grow hemp in the north and there is not enough wool to cut, so they still need to rely on the mainland, the entire army has achieved self-sufficiency for food.

On August 15th, the field magistrates of the three counties sent the accounting books to Heifu's case. Heifu showed it to Li Ling: "In the summer, Sumai harvested 100,000 shi. These days, three There are 80,000 acres of government-owned millet fields in this county, and more than 300,000 shi of millet have been harvested!"

Li Ling couldn't help but be surprised: "There are so many! The yield per mu has reached that of Shuzhong!"

Hei Fu was not surprised: "The Huns in Helan Mountain have been herding here for several generations. The manure of tens of thousands of cattle and sheep has made the land very fertile. Over time, it has been released in the Qin people's intensive cultivation. Therefore, in the first year, the land is very fertile. The production is comparable to that of Shu!"

This bumper harvest will make it easy for soldiers and civilians to have food next year. Without deducting army rations and war horse feed, at least 50,000 shi of food can be stored in reserve...

"In this way, plus the food shipped from the mainland, it can accumulate to more than 100,000 dan..."

This did not include the wheat that would be planted soon. Li Qing felt that the pressure on his shoulders was greatly reduced: "In this case, the new people who will move here next year will not have to worry about food for the time being before the summer harvest."

Even taking into account environmental protection and sustainable development, the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain are enough to support a population of more than 100,000. Therefore, Qin Shihuang in Xianyang finalized the immigration plan for the next year as early as the beginning of the year: to relocate 30,000 households of Guanzhong Qin people , entered Henan and Beijie, and 20,000 of them went to Jiuyuan and Shuofang. Ten thousand households went to Helan and established small towns in villages around the fortresses and in places with abundant water and grass.

But Heifu did not feel relaxed. Under the advice of the young master Fusu, these immigrants were not forced to relocate from Guandong, but were recruited from Guanzhong. Each family is given fifty acres of land, tax-free for three years, and the government is responsible for building houses, supplying necessary farm tools, seeds, and providing doctors, wizards, etc. in each settlement.

This means that after autumn, Li Ling's main job is to continue to open up wasteland with the army and the people, and to build at least 10,000 houses for the 10,000 immigrant households. When spring comes, he will work with the immigrants to open up wasteland. Five hundred thousand acres of land...

This is an extremely arduous task, and the colonization work in Helan Mountain has just begun. "There is a long way to go……"

After personally participating in the construction of the Helan Colony, Heifu couldn't help but think of this sentence. The Qin Dynasty's first colony in the north of Saibei was really like a newborn baby, extremely fragile. It would take ten or twenty years for it to truly grow up.

This is also why he needs Li Ling.

Heifu asked Gong Ao to spread out a map of the Helan Colony and let Li Ling come and look at it.

"Nongdu Lieutenant, please look, this place is surrounded by sand on three sides."

Like later generations, the colonization area was bounded by the Mu Us Desert to the east, the Tengger Desert to the west, and the Ulan Bhe Desert to the north.

"The reason why it is so fertile and not swallowed up by quicksand is that firstly, Helan Mountain blocks the dry and sandy north wind, and secondly, it relies on the big river, which continuously brings water flow!"

The moist river makes both sides of the eastern foot of Helan lush with greenery, with forests, grasslands, and many puddles. "But even if there is such a big river, the fields that can be opened along the river's swamps are only a few hundred thousand acres. If you want more, you will need to build canals manually...

"The ancients said that those who are good at running a country must first eliminate the harm of floods and droughts. Those who are good at running a country must pay attention to water conservancy. I don't understand at all on this point. But whether the Nongdu Lieutenant can take over what Commander Li built in Shu Is water conservancy also reappearing here? Let this desolate land where jackals howl and foxes live turn into a fortress in the Central Plains!"

Li Ling said quickly: "I spent ten days, accompanied by officials, from Fuping in the south to Hunhuaizhang in the north. I found that the river has a huge flow, but it is gentle and winding. As long as it is like the great father, To control the Minjiang River, we can find a way to divert it slightly so that we can create several ditches to irrigate the fields, but this will not take a year and a half, and we are currently short of manpower, and we have to wait for the new people to arrive before we can start."

"Indeed, this matter cannot be rushed."

Heifu sighed, adding that there was a serious shortage of labor force, which was a big problem. Even though he had invited the Mohist to build many water-powered mills and water cones here, he still could not make up for the vacancy.

He could only set a small goal for Li Ling: "I only hope that Captain Nong can open the first ditch within three years. By then, several counties in Helan will not only be self-sufficient, but also have a surplus of tens of thousands of stones. It can support tens of thousands of troops to fight in the fortress..."

The cavalry army went out to fight and completely killed the Huns! This is the policy that Heifu has been adhering to for more than half a year. For this reason, he disagrees with Meng Tian, ​​who takes a defensive attitude and proposes to build the Great Wall to protect Shuofang and Helan, and to farm with peace of mind.

"Even if you want to cultivate, you have to behead Maodun!"

Heifu's attitude toward Mao Dun and his insistence on killing him was no longer a secret, but he couldn't explain the reason to anyone. Everyone only thought that Mao Dun was a ruthless wolf, but they didn't feel that he What big storms can arise in the future?

Even Li Xin, who fought side by side with Hei Fu, was very puzzled by Hei Fu's obsession. After the Qin army established an outpost in Juyanze, Li Xin tended to agree with Meng Tian's plan to defend from the north and attack from the west. First paralyze the Yuezhi, wait until the merchants have ascertained the population of the tribes on the Yuezhi's route, and persuade Wusun in the west to surrender to Qin, and then send troops together, then they can send troops from Longxi and Helan to launch a campaign to destroy the Yuezhi. war. Even though the Yuezhi King is now extremely afraid of the Qin Dynasty, he offers protons and tributes, and opens up trade routes, but he cannot avoid his fate. Who let him block the emperor's way to the Queen Mother State of the West...

Heifu's worries were confirmed in late August. On this day, when Heifu was discussing with Li Ling the planning of residential areas and farming areas for the coming year, an urgent message came from Qianghua, the Marquis of Juyansai. This made the Beidi County Lieutenant frown deeply. "The Huns have sent troops." Heifu stopped the discussion and told everyone the news.

"Ah?" Li Ling was a little surprised. Didn't the Huns just suffer heavy losses? Is this another war?

Gong Ao, Gan Chong and others were gearing up: "The Huns really have no memory, so they were almost wiped out. Now they are going to die? We will just wait for them!"

"Don't be too happy too early."

Heifu shook his head and said helplessly:

"This is news in the spring and summer. It has only now been known to Ju Yanzhan and reached Helan. Moreover, the direction of the Huns sending troops is not to the south, but to the north!"