Author: Gongsun Wujiu

Although Zhang Yue is from the south, he has a special liking for pasta.

Nowadays, wheat is not favored by people just because of the way it is used. It should not be eaten as grains, but as powder.

Zhang Yue couldn't help but swallowed when he thought that noodles, steamed buns, pot helmets, and naan would be available next year.

Of course, Zhang Yue is planning to vigorously promote the cultivation of Sumai, but it is not all because of greed.

What's more important is that today's Han army's military rations are mainly made of cooked corn and then dried to make corn dumplings.

This thing is called qiubei, and it is now the main military ration of the Han army.

A huge disadvantage of this thing is that it is not resistant to hunger. It is fine on weekdays, but once it enters war, it is difficult to rely on it to replenish the physical strength of the soldiers.

Moreover, the storage time is not long enough, and using it as military rations puts great pressure on logistics.

When the Han army went on an expedition to Dawan, very few soldiers died in battle. Most of them died on the march because of problems with military rations.

But with a lot of wheat, this aspect will be much better, because wheat provides far more calories than corn.

In this way, the amount of food required on the front line can be greatly reduced.

Secondly, with wheat, Zhang Yue could make a stone mill and grind the wheat into powder.

With wheat flour, you can make two foods that are very suitable as dry food for the army. That is naan and pot helmet.

These two things are not only resistant to hunger, but also last longer. Before the industrial era, there was no better dry food than them.

Especially in the Western Region, which is dry and rainless, if stored properly, naan can be stored for one or two months. Even in the warm and humid south, it can be stored for about ten days.

Although the storage time of Guokui will be shorter, it can still be stored for half a month, and its taste is better than naan.

With these two kinds of dry food, it means that the Han army can even cook without making a fire for a month or two during the expedition.

This means that Han soldiers can even fight continuously for more than half a month relying only on the food carried by the soldiers themselves.

Historically, the reason why Li Guangli won first and then lost in his next few battles against the Huns was because of the problem of military rations.

With the two kinds of dry food, Nang and Guokui, Zhang Yue even had the confidence to take his soldiers to Anxi and Daxia in the future.

Now that Zhang Yue knows that there is such a good thing as Su Mai, how can he not be ecstatic?

"Cai Ting, do you still have the seeds of Sumai?" Zhang Yue asked.

"Lord, there are a lot of seeds shipped this time, but only half of them have been used now," Cai Ting said.

"Great, here's the order. Starting from tomorrow, everyone except the craftsman battalion and the cavalry will open up farmland. They must plant all these wheat seeds as quickly as possible."

"No!" Cai Ting agreed.

Zhang Yue's order quickly reached everyone's ears.

Over the past few days, everyone has been convinced of Zhang Yue, so although everyone was confused as to why Zhang Yue attached so much importance to the cultivation of Sumai, they still followed his orders to the letter.

Half a month later, the first batch of compensation finally arrived from the Kingdom of Qiuci.

Including 4,000 stones of grain and 1,200 slaves, of which there were actually as many as 800 female slaves.

In order to increase the work enthusiasm of these slaves, Zhang Yue directly based on Han laws, released these slaves sent by the Kucha people as citizens and allowed them to own their own private property.

After learning that they had obtained the status of civilians, these slaves could not believe it at first, but they finally became doubtful after the Han army tied the ropes on them!

Although Zhang Yue liberated these slaves into civilians, he would never let them leave freely.

The freed slaves also understood that even within the empire, civilians did not have the right to move freely.

Zhang Yue placed half of the freed slaves in the residential area of ​​the fortress and the other half in Tiannan City.

They all obtained necessary production and living tools and food.

However, these things were not given to them for free, but were lent to them.

They needed to work for the Han army to repay these loans.

Of course, in order to give them the ability to repay, Zhang Yue also granted land to them in accordance with the laws of the empire.

"My lord is so brilliant, none of us are as good as you!" Li Si and others originally criticized Zhang Yue's direct emancipation of slaves.

It had only been half a month, but they were in admiration for Zhang Yue.

After the slaves were liberated, the food Luntai provided to these former slaves was no longer free, and the land granted to the slaves also greatly increased the amount of land cultivated.

After repeated calculations by Li Si, the cost dropped by one-third, while the income increased by one-third.

And because Zhang Yue lifted the slave status of those female slaves, the obstacles for them to marry Han soldiers in the future were also lifted.

According to Li Si, after ten years of this situation, Luntai will be turned into a county.

"Yang You, what happened to the information I asked you to inquire about last time?" Zhang Yue asked Yang You.

Ever since he learned that the emperor had exiled relatives of criminal officials who had been involved in the political purge a few months ago to the countryside in Hexi, Zhang Yue became concerned about this matter.

He wholeheartedly wanted to build Luntai into the base of the empire in the Western Regions and turn Luntai into a real paradise for the Han family.

Zhang Yue knew very well that to achieve this, he must have a sufficient population, and there must be enough people from the Xia Dynasty, so that he can transform the surrounding Hu people into Han people through subtle teaching.

Nowadays, Luntai seems to be developing very fast, but in fact, there are great hidden dangers. Today, Luntai only relies on military conquest to control Luntai.

But military conquest alone was never enough. Not only did he see this, but Li Si also saw this.

Without a certain number of people from the Xia Dynasty, the Luntai area would eventually turn from Hu to Han instead of from Han to Hu.

This is just like the Mongols who conquered the West in later generations. Due to the lack of population of the main ethnic group, these conquerors of Central and West Asia were eventually assimilated by the local people.

The same was true for the Tang Empire. After the Anshi Rebellion, the management of the Western Regions was also destroyed. The Han people who stayed in the Western Regions were either killed or resigned to becoming barbarians.

The reasons are actually the same, they both only focus on military conquest and ignore the unification of culture.

It is conceivable that without Qin Shihuang's books, carriages, and weights and measures, would China be a unified country? It is obviously impossible.

Generally speaking, the situation should be similar to that in Europe. The entire continent is still divided.

"My lord, I have found out clearly that there are at least 20,000 relatives of criminal officials who have been sent to the Hexi area this time!"

Zhang Yue said thoughtfully: "If we can persuade the General of the Second Division to allocate one or two thousand people to Luntai, then Luntai will be stable."

Li Si was silent when he heard this!
Chapter completed!