"Freshly cut spring white wool, 30 text per catty, 25 text apiece, 20 text apiece."

"One collar of fur, 400 texts on the top, 350 texts on the top, 300 texts on the bottom."

"The purple and ripe silk is one foot, with 66 texts straight on top, 65 texts at the same time, 64 texts at the same time."

There is a poem that says, "In May, the mountains are snowy, and there are no flowers and only cold." This is true in May, let alone April.

But in Yinzhou, Nanlu, Tianshan Mountain, flowers have already bloomed in spring, and the first wave of grain has been harvested into the warehouse. In fact, the climate in the entire Xinjiang is diverse and cannot be generalized. During the Lantern Festival, there are many snowstorms in the northern border, and Turpan and Hami can already sow in spring.

Yinzhou is Hami, and it is also located in an independent geographical unit: Hami Basin.

In a sense, this is an individual version of the Turpan Basin.

It is also in a terrain with high north and low south, and there is also a central depression of Shaer Lake, where wells and canals are built to irrigate farmland.

But since ancient times, Hami has had a smaller population than Turpan, and the reasons are very complicated. It is related to both terrain and climate, as well as politics and history, so it is difficult to explain clearly—

In the fourth year of Qianlong in history, after vigorously immigrating, there were only 9,600 people, which was not as good as the Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties.

By the 26th year of Qianlong's reign, it increased to more than 12,000 people.

In the middle of the Daoguang period, nearly 20,000 people were present.

At the beginning of Xuantong, it fell back to 13,000.

Of course, the eastern and northern Xinjiang are still good, and the southern Xinjiang is even more helpless. Because the Qing court implemented the strict "Hanhui isolation" policy and prohibited the mainland from moving to southern Xinjiang, the local area was full of "Uighurs", which also planted the cause and effect of the later Agubo Rebellion.

...

On the first day of April, Zhao Zaiqing came to Yinzhou.

He has not celebrated the New Year at home this year and is very "career-minded". At the end of the first lunar month, he gathered the masters he hired in Dunhuang, brought more than 2,000 camels, and pulled a large number of military equipment toward Gaochang.

The reason behind such a desperate effort is heartwarming: Zhao Zaiqing is anxious to find the saint to congratulate him (contract) and congratulate him (account).

"Poor place." The old caravan was fine. When the newly joined, he looked at the dilapidated earthen city and the narrow streets full of sheep dung smell, he immediately became disgusted and teased: "I'm afraid it's not much different from the earthen city on the grassland."

"Why are there so many strange things?" An old man slapped him in the ear, and then said mysteriously: "There are prostitutes who are half-closed to sell next to the sheep pen, full of smell. Do you go?"

The newcomer's eyes lit up and said, "Go! Why don't you go! All you want is this scent! Hu Ji, I haven't played with it yet."

"That's right." The old man smiled and said, "It's just a place to rest and have fun in the middle, so why is that so particular?"

The caravan stayed here for two days, and Zhao Zaiqing gave people a day off to let them have fun on their own. He went to the governor's house to visit and brought many goods to his son-in-law Zhao Feng that he could only buy in Luoyang and Chang'an.

"The saint probably won't leave for Yinzhou next month." Zhao Feng cooked a pot of tea with his own hands, took a few sips, and his face was full of intoxication. After a moment, he opened his eyes and said.

"Why do you need next month?" Zhao Zaiqing asked.

"You shouldn't ask this, but it's okay to tell you." Zhao Feng said: "It's very simple. Wait until the snow in Tianshan melts, summon the generals of Beiting to deploy combat missions. They will not return to the east after the event. Even, he may stay in Gaochang for a while to see if the grass-fighting is going smoothly this year."

"So that's it." Zhao Zaiqing murmured.

"Why? There is not enough money? Haven't you given a batch of goods?" Zhao Feng asked.

He should be referring to the saint who gave a batch of Yunnan goods to the four great men of Zhao, Kang, Tuoba and Zhuge at a low price, which was considered a disguised subsidy.

"That batch of goods made a lot." Zhao Zaiqing smiled bitterly and said, "But the family has a big business and a lot of expenses. Not to mention anything else, my family has warehouses in Ling, Liang, Gan, Su, Gua, Sha, Yin, and the eight western prefectures to transport grain, grass, equipment, and military funds. They hire more than a few thousand people? Although the court gives freight, how can that little money be enough?"

"It's boring to say that." Zhao Feng smiled and said, "Every time you go to a place, you sell goods in a lot, right? Just say that the purple-ripe cotton silk that costs more than 60 yuan in the city is what you sell? There are also Fengshu cotton silk, Yizhou half-arm section, Feigao cloth shirt section, etc. Oh, by the way, you probably won't be empty when you return, right? You have been here for thousands of miles, and you will not bring some Western Regions goods? It's transported to the Central Plains, but it's a sky-high price."

Zhao Feng did not exaggerate at all.

It’s okay for ordinary people in Yinzhou. If you have a little money, you have to ask these merchants to buy things, such as those silks and satin.

After hearing this, Zhao Zaiqing's expression remained unchanged and continued to complain: "Where are there many goods in the Western Regions who were beaten to look like that? Besides, many goods came from Persia, Dashi and even India. Today, there are also Zhu goods, Persia, Dashi goods intermittently and greatly affected. The sellers of goods changed from Persians, Sogdians to Uighurs (Khasa Uighurs). If they made a lot of money, they would make a small profit."

"What you said is true." Zhao Feng nodded and said, "Don't worry, I heard that the saints got a lot of female slaves and wanted to sell a batch for you four. Don't crowd in Luoyang to sell it. Go south and take a boat to Yangzhou, Suzhou, Runzhou, and Hangzhou. There are many rich people doing business there, and they may be able to sell it at a good price."

Zhao Zaiqing was delighted, but he still looked a little frowning.

Zhao Feng glanced at him and said, "Don't hide it, tell me, what's the matter?"

"Is there any wasteland here that is convenient to use?" Zhao Zaiqing asked.

"There is definitely some, but what do you ask about this?" Zhao Fengqi said.

"Last year, the saint attacked Shule and obtained all kinds of treasures in the palace, sold them to merchants, and asked them to deliver the food to the merchants." Zhao Zaiqing said: "Some people think that long-distance transfer of grain is not cost-effective, so they gathered a group of townspeople and secretly found a place in Gumozhou, planted grain by themselves, and then transported it to Shule and sold it to the court, making great profits."

"This..." Zhao Feng was a little surprised when he heard this. Can he still play like this?

In fact, this was how many merchants did it during the Western Expedition in the Qing Dynasty.

At the beginning, they also transported grain for a long distance, but they didn't expect this.

But one day, a "little clever ghost" suddenly figured it out. All the imperial court wanted was food. I transported grain from Lanzhou thousands of miles away. People ate horses and chewed it. The cost was very high. Instead of doing this, it was better to find a place in the west and hire people to grow grain, and the result was a big profit. In fact, it was not just merchants who grew grain. Zuo Zongtang also encouraged soldiers to find places to grow grain, and the income was purchased at the market price.

Of course, this situation can only exist when the court uses real money to buy grain. If they want to have sex for free, there will be no chance.

The Qing Dynasty's Western Expedition was quite special, and the imperial court's own transportation capacity was mainly used to transport military supplies.

Because of the large number of firearms, the surge in logistics transportation tasks is far from comparable to the era of cold weapons.

During the Napoleon period in the West, 4,500 four-wheeled carriages were prepared in order to provide logistics supplies to a unit, of which 2,500 were transporting ammunition, which shows that.

But in the era of cold weapons, the consumption was much smaller. In addition to food, the largest consumable was arrow loss, but most arrow loss could be reused and carried by soldiers individually.

Gao Xianzhi was able to bring 70,000 troops to travel between Kucha and Talas, but the firearms troops were not that simple. This was also an important reason why Qianlong conquered the treasury in the west. If he still wanted to get free food from merchants, then don’t fight this battle.

"Yinzhou is not good. Although there is still wasteland, there is a master." After thinking for a while, Zhao Feng said: "If you feel it is troublesome to transport grain and want to go to the west to grow grain, I think you can go to Beiting."

"Beiting?" Zhao Zaiqing was a little surprised and asked, "They want to fight too? On the way to Yinzhou, I saw Andong and Fengzhou's soldiers all returned home."

"The soldiers of the palace have left, Fu Cunshen, Wang Yanzhang, Zhu Jin and others have not left." Zhao Feng said: "Liaodong will recruit three thousand soldiers of the palace to travel west this year, join the Beiting camp, and return to Fu Cunshen's command. After June, they will definitely make big moves."

"Then go to Beiting." Zhao Zaiqing decided and said.

Zhao Feng was thinking.

In fact, the court bought grain from merchants for a while. After capturing Gaochang and Shule, they sold the property of the robbed palace, officials and wealthy households, and then robbed the khan, and got another fortune. But the fortune was ultimately a fortune, not a steady income that flowed through time. After it was consumed, they would naturally not buy it again.

But this matter is actually very confusing!

Zhao Feng's head was running at high speed. Would it be better if the court took out some of the money and paid it to merchants in Luoyang to take all the necessary things to farm in the Western Regions?

The food grown in this way is of course very expensive, but it is better to transport food from Lingzhou, Liangzhou and Lanzhou stupidly? Is it too fucking cheaper, okay?

Of course, the cheapest one is military camp, but this is the case...

The second cheapest thing is to immigrate and reclaim wasteland and then collect taxes. However, in the early stage of immigration, the expenditure on grain and other materials will increase sharply.

Therefore, hiring merchants to grow grain still has made a lot of money for many years.

The more Zhao Feng thought about it, the clearer his thinking became.

It is true that martial artists are unwilling to farm. So are there any people who love money who are willing to grow grain for sale? You should know that the enthusiasm of military camps is very low and the output is not high, which is completely different from voluntary.

Now is not the time to care about expenses, because everything is lower than the cost of transporting grain for thousands of miles, and much lower.

This year is the first year of Tongguang, and the people of Helong are going to suffer for the third year. After three years, they will definitely be a little exhausted and need to slow down. If the saints still want to immigrate in large quantities, they will inevitably have new ways and new ways.

Thinking of this, Zhao Feng had decided to sort out what he thought and report to the saint, or he might be able to win the holy scroll.

*******

After Zhao Zaiqing left the prefecture yamen, he quickly left the city.

He noticed that there were many more people near the base of the city wall, and they were full of dust, but there was not yet when they entered the city.

After a while, I found out that they were new immigrants from Henan and Hebei: Zhenzhou, Weizhou, Bianzhou and Songzhou, each of them was 200 households. They were waiting for the prefecture to divide them into counties and settle down and reclaim wasteland.

He heard Zhao Feng mention that Yinzhou was sparsely populated, and just came a group of craftsmen who were craftsmen in the Central Plains, and family members of the Huainan military. The total number was only 2,300 households and more than 11,700 people. The household registration of the pre-Tang Dynasty had just been restored.

After returning to the inn, the members of the caravan who were left behind were also discussing this matter.

"The immigration scale is pitifully small, and it is not as big as Liaodong."

"To be honest, with the conditions of Yinzhou, it can only eat these hundreds of households, and it won't be enough if there are too many."

"Haha, poor place, that's it."

"Speaking of this, the saint has been fighting against Liaodong for almost twenty years, right?"

"You can't remember it if you don't say it. Is it really twenty years? Alas, I was still peeing and playing with mud twenty years ago."

Zhao Zaiqing was a little stunned when he heard this.

After spending twenty years persevering in a place, the saint is really obsessed with Liaodong.

According to Zhao Zaiqing's perception, he felt that no one in Liaodong could make a big wave.

The Khitans are not good, the Bohai people are not good, and the Jurchens are not good!

So many arrogant soldiers and generals who do not need to spend money on the court will guard it. In a few decades, they will be like the Central Plains outside the pass.

To be very disrespectful, by the end of the Xia Dynasty, there shouldn’t be any Hu people entering the pass from Liaodong. Even if there is, they should be a Han army living in a bitter and cold place and still maintaining a certain combat effectiveness - entering the pass to suppress the "rebel army".

The understanding of traditional Han land should be updated.

Since Liaodong does not need to invest a lot of money in the court, what about the Western Regions? Will it be a new generation of Liaodong?

The methods should be a little different, but judging from the saint's persistence in frontier areas, they should be essentially the same.

Some people are well-versed in the past and the present, think they are omniscient and omnipotent, and they talk about the arrangements of saints in Liaodong, and they are very disdainful and think that it is a great defeat. The wise monarchs of all dynasties will never do this - it is not that they can't do it, but they are unwilling to do it.

Their core argument is that the soldiers of the government should be under their noses, because once the control of the court drops, the majesty will be wiped out, and this is the source of chaos.

But Zhao Zaiqing felt that the saints had a bigger mind than them. Didn’t he hear that “the beauty of a gentleman was killed for five generations” and that he was in vain to study!

During the Former Tang Dynasty, there was never a proactive forced mass immigration to the Western Regions. Either the exile of sinners or the recruitment of soldiers and their families was a passive behavior.

Is it because of the lack of national strength? Of course not. The Mingtang of Luoyang, which was cultivated by the Empress of the Martial Arts, was enough to accommodate 100,000 households to go to the Western Regions.

To put it bluntly, they still don’t pay attention to it and subconsciously feel that the place can be abandoned.

On the contrary, after the Western Turks were defeated, the remaining 70,000 Khans of Husero immigrated from the Western Regions to the Central Plains. Empress Wu ordered the prefectures and counties along the way to pay for expenses...

The Western Regions should be the next Liaodong, and all kinds of transactions can still be done.
Chapter completed!