After one year and four months of renovation, some areas of Guangchengze have begun to look somewhat different.
The one with the fastest progress is Guangcheng Palace, located on Kongtong Mountain - south of Linru Town in later Ruzhou and north of Jianshankou Reservoir.
This mountain is said to be the place where Guangchengzi cultivated immortality. According to historical records, the Yellow Emperor once asked Guangchengzi in Kongtong Mountain.
The mountain is not high, at over a hundred meters, and it is not very big. After the trees are cut and leveled, it will only be enough to build a medium-sized palace on the mountain.
Shao Xun looked at the bottom of the mountain. This palace was not much bigger than an ordinary manor, with only dozens of rooms.
But the cost is not small!
Gein is surrounded by vast swamps, grasslands, and dense forests. It is not easy to transport materials, and it is even more difficult to transport them to the mountains.
He looked at the surrounding scenery again.
At the foot of Kongtong Mountain, farmland is scattered here and there. It has only been roughly sorted out, but has not been sown.
Between the farmland, you can see lakes and ponds with rippling blue waves everywhere - who knows who the hell, even paved a road into the lake, and at the end of the road is a viewing pavilion.
Your grandma, what I want to build is a military fortress, can you give me a whole resort?
But - forget it, after all, it’s not your own money, so what can you do?
In addition, he was very emotional.
In later generations, this area was already a relatively densely populated area, but who would have thought that at this time it was a watery land?
At the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Guangchengze had degraded, silted up, and "vomited" part of the land, but there were still swamps everywhere - every Little Ice Age was actually a period of swamp degradation and slowly silting up into land. Guangchengze
This is true for Liaoze in the northeast, and even the Binhai Road (Liaoxi Corridor) leading out of Youzhou was formed in the late Tang Dynasty and the Little Ice Age of the Five Dynasties.
With continued siltation and human activities, by the 21st century, the last relic of Guangchengze will probably be the Jianshankou Reservoir.
One thousand and seven hundred years of vicissitudes of life, the changes are indeed great.
"Have all the palace rooms been completed?" Shao Xun put away his emotion, pointed to Kongtong Mountain in the distance, and asked.
"Sixty-eight large and small palaces have been completed." Cheng Lekuan of Nanyang County, who was busy around Kongtong Mountain, was not very impatient at first, but when he saw the more than 2,000 soldiers and horses brought by Shao Xun, he suddenly changed.
Attitude, he said: "General, would you like to go up the mountain and have a look?"
"Let's go." Shao Xun took the lead and left.
Tang Jian quickly led the Shao soldiers, which had been expanded to two teams (113 people), to surround them tightly, and sent more than 20 people to clear the way first.
After arriving at Guangcheng Palace, they were assigned to various places to guard.
Le Kuan watched silently, feeling a little funny.
He's just a talented official and general, not a clan king with all the power in the world. Why do you have such a big show? Are you so afraid of death?
Shao Xun didn't know what Le Kuan was thinking, he just kept looking at the palace room.
The materials used are very solid, the structure is a mixture of civil and wood, and even a few bricks and strips of stone are used - before, there were thick smoke billowing in several places under the mountain, but it turned out that bricks were being fired.
The national project is really a big deal.
"Add a Cangcheng." Shao Xun said.
"Cangcheng?" Lekuan was a little surprised.
It's just a palace. Whatever you need can be brought up from the mountain. Why build a warehouse?
"It doesn't need to be big. It can store food and rice for thousands of people for half a year." Shao Xun said.
"No." Le Kuan sighed and agreed.
Guangcheng Garden conscripted nearly 60,000 concubines from five counties, which really disturbed the people.
That’s it for the first year, everyone can tolerate it.
This is the second year, and there are already complaints within the county.
He couldn't imagine what would happen next year. Would someone riot?
"After the Guangcheng Palace is completely completed, there is no need to build palaces." Shao Xun said again: "Level more fields, dig more ponds, and dredge more rivers. The river embankments do not need to be reinforced now. Around the pasture.
, surround it with a wooden fence, and build several earthen cities and warehouses as a place to garrison troops and weapons."
Lekuan hesitated to speak after hearing this.
This is not the way to the palace, but more like a military camp.
"This is the place where the emperor teaches martial arts hunting. You can't be careless." Shao Xun glanced at him and said.
Le Kuan cupped his hands and said, "No."
Shao Xun's reason is terrible, but it makes sense.
Once the emperor really comes here with the imperial army to teach martial arts, he will really need a military city and a fortification, as well as a warehouse to store supplies.
Seeing that he was silent, Shao Xun nodded and went down the mountain.
Guangchengze is too big to be enclosed, and in fact there is no need to do so.
The geographical environment here is not suitable for cavalry operations. There is a river, stream, or a pool, or a muddy land within a walking distance of Gein. If the Huns cavalry come here, Shao Xun will not mind blocking them again.
Once, it was confined to a small piece of isolated land, surrounded by rivers and lakes, making it impossible to run away. In the end, the infantry was calmly mobilized, which was a complete one-sided massacre.
Of course, if the Huns mobilized a large number of infantry here, it would be another matter.
However, this is not possible in a short time. They may not even be able to win Luoyang now.
After returning to the foot of the mountain, Shao Xun patrolled around again.
He even saw several docks, and his face turned dark again.
Fortunately, there are acres of farmland near the dock. I asked someone and found that from the winter of last year to the spring of this year, a total of more than a thousand hectares of old "Guansumai" fields in the Han Dynasty were cleared. Since they have not been cultivated for a hundred years, miscellaneous
The grass and shrubs grew very luxuriantly, and it took a lot of effort to clean them up.
In addition, during the construction process, they also transformed more than 300 hectares of farmland on their own, mainly from deforestation and merging swamps. When digging deep reservoirs, they will fill in part of the swamp with silt to form new land.
Shao Xun didn't have much hope for these "new lands" at all.
Is farmland obtained by deforestation called farmland? There may still be roots of many trees under the ground. Such "farmland" will not produce any output without a few years of transformation.
However, the lakeside farmland newly created with river bottom silt can be planted. The yield in the first two seasons will definitely not be high, but with more care and attention, it will gradually turn into a fertile and high-yielding irrigated land.
The transformation of nature by the people of the Central Plains actually happened step by step, commonly known as "opening up wasteland".
Shao Xun spent three days wandering around Guangchengze, seeing every place carefully, and then he felt a little relieved.
On March 16, he climbed to the top of Guangcheng Palace again and overlooked the magnificent scenery around him.
In the meadows that have long turned green, horses are galloping.
The leading stallion was in high spirits, wading through the shallow stream and moving forward without hesitation.
Hundreds of horses followed closely behind, making a huge splash of water.
The eight thousand horses in the pasture are now divided into many groups, each led by a horse. They live freely in the vast pasture. Sometimes they gallop, neigh and play happily.
Stop occasionally to chew on the fresh and juicy grass by the river.
What a joyful life!
Among the horses, you will occasionally see a few knights, managing the horses extensively.
Many cabins were built on the surrounding hillsides, where some of the Long Sword Army warriors and hundreds of men recruited from Yushanwu were stationed.
Shao Xun has decided to send a group of Yamen troops to garrison here and replace those strong men.
The horses were one of his two largest fortunes to date.
It is true that horses will age, get injured, and get sick, and they will become consumables after going to the battlefield, but they are still a lot of money...
"How many mares are there now?" Shao Xun turned around and asked.
"There are less than fifty, so it's not easy to find them." Tang Jian replied, "I found about two hundred female donkeys."
The offspring of a male horse and a female donkey are called donkeys and mules, and the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse are called horses and mules.
Donkeys and mules are more like donkeys, and horses and mules are more like horses.
Horses and mules are slightly larger in size, have a big temper, are very curious, and eat a lot, but are resistant to rough feeding. They are stronger than horses, have greater endurance and load-bearing capacity, and have stronger disease resistance, but they are slower than horses and cannot
Fertility.
Donkeys and mules are smaller than horses and mules and have slightly less strength, but they are more docile and live about ten years longer. Female donkeys and mules can occasionally give birth to male horses or male donkeys.
Generally speaking, horses and mules are better than donkeys and mules. After all, there is not much difference in the life span of twenty years and thirty years. If they join the army, they may not even live for ten years.
"Take your time." Shao Xun said: "Luoyang Horse Market sometimes sells mares, just collect them slowly."
He looked at the rivers, lakes and swamps again.
Mandarin ducks, gulls, plovers, corvettes, herons and other water birds inhabit here, hunting and playing.
There were wild geese flying across the sky.
Above the water, there are occasional fish jumping up.
According to the officers of the Changjian Army stationed here, Guangcheng Ze is rich in bream, sturgeon, bream, carp, catfish (yellow pepper), shark (a small fish that blows sand), etc. No one has caught them for many years.
Huge and numerous.
What a primitive and wild scene.
"How many people are there in Guangchengze?" Shao Xun asked again.
Tang Jian shook his head, expressing his ignorance.
Shao Xun was silent. He really lacked capable civil servants around him. Such ordinary people from a noble family rarely came to seek refuge with him.
The military-political group he founded is a bit deformed.
"However, I heard that there is a large settlement and several small villages on the southern edge of Guangcheng Ze. There are probably hundreds of households, some of which are local people and some of which are refugees from the south." Tang Jian added: "I can't be sure, but it's just
Listen."
"Send people to investigate. If there is a settlement, occupy it." Shao Xun said expressionlessly: "The people of the settlement are assigned to the Long Sword Army officers and soldiers as troops. If they are unwilling, drive them away."
"Promise." Tang Jian replied that he would inform Chen Yougen about this matter.
"That's it, Guang Chengze still needs time." Shao Xun got on his horse and said, "Go home."
He left as soon as he said he would, without any hesitation.
There isn't much to do in Guangchengze for the time being.
In the summer, he might try to recruit a group of refugees to grow crops here for a season and get a feel for the land here.
Next year, more fields will be sorted out, and the planting area can be expanded. After harvesting one crop, it will be ready to be distributed to the soldiers.
The Long Sword Army is still recruiting people, and they must carefully assess various skills before they can be recruited. It is relatively strict, and the current number is close to nine hundred.
After they are divided, the financial burden will be greatly reduced.
Semi-off-the-job soldiers like the Silver Spear Army can slowly try to be completely off-the-job. Everything is ultimately linked to economic strength.
Chapter completed!