Three Kingdoms

Fei Qian's dream of taking a good rest was delayed again. Zao Zhi and Du Yuan, who came to help, brought new problems. First of all, Du Yuan said something about Tai Shiming's workshop.

The first is the issue of bamboo paper.

There is a shortage of raw materials for making bamboo paper.

Because the entire Jizhou, Yuzhou, Qingzhou, and even Jingzhou and Yanzhou have fallen into chaos. The various princes are fighting against each other, which has led to a sharp increase in the cost of vendors who originally transported bamboo rafts...

Then there were problems with the use of bamboo paper.

Fei Qian's master, Cai Yong, liked the bamboo paper, so the papermaking workshop over there also supplied it to Cai Yong. However, Cai Yong often gave away the bamboo paper casually, and then came to the studio to ask for it, resulting in the original The production of bamboo paper has been reduced, making it even more scarce...

If this was not a big problem, then what Tai Shiming said next made Fei Qian frown.

There were many peepers near the workshop.

Because Fei Qian mobilized most of Pingyang's troops to attack Yinshan, the guard force near the workshop was relatively weakened. Therefore, some people thought that this was naturally an excellent opportunity to rely on his status as a nobleman. , there are gradually more and more people hanging around the workshop with excuses such as hiking, mountain climbing, etc...

The so-called disciples of the small noble clans in the surrounding area are not interested in the craftsmanship in the workshops of Pingyang or are interested in studying these production and living technologies, but they are here to get money. In this era, a craft can support a family, and an exclusive technology can support the inheritance of a family. The utensils that Fei Qian is constantly sending out in the workshop will naturally arouse the red eyes of some people.

"... Wen Zheng," Fei Qian thought for a while and said, "... Regarding the bamboo paper, let's reduce the amount... Cai Zhonglang, I will explain it... As for those who peek into the workshop, please inform me. Then I will transfer a hundred horses to you and Zijian, and first set up a boundary marker near the workshop... Then, if anyone dares to cross the boundary and trespass, behead him!"

Du Yuan made a slightly suspicious gesture, meaning to ask if he would be killed on the spot if caught?

Fei Qian nodded heavily. These noblemen who came to peek at the craftsmanship and technology were generally not members of any big families. They were mostly just some side branches. In this era where there is not much justice, killing a group of small people is enough. For those who hide behind, this is the simplest and most effective way to deal with it.

Du Yuan and Fei Qian had already decided, so they said nothing more and took their orders to leave. However, Fei Qian couldn't find a better solution to Zao Zhi's problem for a while...

The weather is even colder this year, and the spring rain either doesn't fall for a long time, or it rains heavily in a short period of time. This bad weather has caused many fields to be either drought or waterlogged, and some wheat seedlings have not sprouted in time. …

Although he took the time to replant some, it is estimated that this year's harvest may not be as ideal as last year. Fei Qian is really helpless about this matter.

Although Fei Qian knows the outline of greenhouse technology, and in order for the emperor to eat some vegetables in winter, the Han Dynasty also highlighted many agricultural technology highlights, resulting in two methods of heating with earth dragons and heating with stoves. Technology for producing out-of-season vegetables...

But the problem is that Feiqian is not a piece of land or an area of ​​one or two acres, but such a vast area. Even if the glazed tiles require no labor or cost, there is no way to cover it all.

The most important thing is that starting from this year, successive disputes have begun in various places, and the demand for food and grass will be expanded to the extreme. On the one hand, a large amount of farmland has been destroyed in the war, on the other hand, the princes from all over the country are constantly recruiting troops in a militant manner, and even He began to capture strong men, and at the same time, in order to undermine the opponent's strength, he even did not hesitate to carry out massacres...

This behavior that seriously damaged the agricultural economy also led to a sharp decline in the entire grain output, resulting in famine and the death of a large number of people. These large numbers of deaths of refugees resulted in the occurrence of plague, which aggravated this situation. A vicious cycle.

Therefore, starting from this year, it has become almost impossible for Feiqian to obtain grain and grass from the outside world. The princes from all walks of life cannot even supply their own, so how can they still allow the grain and grass under their jurisdiction to flow out?

Then developing its own agriculture to resist the approaching natural disasters has become another livelihood issue that needs to be solved urgently in Feiqian.

Compared with the Spring and Autumn Period, the small-scale peasant economy in the Han Dynasty had much more labor and other matters assigned to each household due to the increasingly powerful centralized feudal system. Therefore, the number of people in one household was It is correspondingly less than that in the Spring and Autumn Period. In the Han Dynasty, a household was roughly estimated based on five persons, and such a household had an average of two strong laborers. Therefore, generally speaking, under the current production technology conditions, one household There are limits to the fields that can be cultivated, beyond the limits of manpower. Even if more land is given, extensive farming will not bring good production benefits.

Therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to expand the amount of cultivated land, and on the other hand, it is also necessary to increase the agricultural population. Fortunately, the captured Yinshan land can provide Fei Qian with the best place to increase his strength. In the area of ​​​​Bingzhou North Land, There are only three pieces of land that are relatively flat and suitable for farming. One is the fertile Hetao Houyuan south of Yinshan Mountain, the other is the area from Pingyang to Hedong, and the third is the basin from Shangdang to Taiyuan.

"This matter of population..." Fei Qian said to Zao Zhi, "... we can't rush it for now, we still need to wait for the opportunity... In addition, what happened to the optimal seed test field that I told you last time?"

Zao Zhi shook his head, sighed slightly and said: "There is still a problem. Although they are the same batch of excellent seeds, there are still good and bad varieties in the field. They have been planted for two seasons, and there is not much advantage over the ordinary fields. …”

"That's it..." Fei Qian pondered for a moment, "...it's better to continue farming and screen more... If you can't tell it in one or two seasons, maybe it will be clearer after a few more seasons..."

After Zao Zhi took over Pingyang Agriculture, at Fei Qian's suggestion, he began experimental farming of selected seeds. However, this task was more difficult than Fei Qian had imagined. The genes of wheat, millet and other crops were far away from each other. It’s even more complicated than the simple biological knowledge Fei Qian mastered like “AABB” and “aabb”…

So Fei Qian can only keep going in the right direction, but he doesn't know when the ideal results will appear. It may take a long time.

So during this period of time when agricultural technology cannot be greatly improved, there is only one solution left, which is how to obtain more people to survive the upcoming national disaster?