ps: Thanks to Brother Tieren and Brother Qishan for the reward, and also to the brothers for their monthly tickets. Thank you.
In September of the first year of Tianyou (904), after four consecutive years of large-scale development, the Liaonan Plain finally ushered in the harvest season. In the vast plains under the jurisdiction of Xincheng, Liaocheng, and Jian'an, four hundred fertile
The tens of thousands of acres of cultivated land brought great joy to the hundreds of thousands of people who moved here.
The main crops such as millet, wheat, and beans have left the warehouses in the entire Yingzhou underutilized. The official roads from Liucheng to Pingzhou, Jizhou, and then to Youzhou are busy with traffic. Massive amounts of grain are transported to Pingzhou, Jizhou and other places for stacking.
Then because of the good harvests in these prefectures and counties, they had to continue westward and transport them to Youzhou.
Guo Bingcheng, the observation envoy to Youzhou and his companion, had to mobilize manpower, recruit merchant workshops, and build a large-scale Datong warehouse in Lu County, east of Youzhou, so that he could store the abundant grain.
If the government had not urgently mobilized hundreds of thousands of funds to enter the market and carry out open and affordable purchases, the price of grain in Hebei would have plummeted. Perhaps this round of bumper harvest would seriously damage people's confidence in farming. Despite this, grain prices in Hebei have
It has still dropped by more than 30%. In terms of wheat alone, it has dropped from 800 yuan per stone three years ago to 500 yuan per stone this year.
If it weren't for the **, the past few years might have been the best season in the entire century-old history of East Asia. God opened his eyes and everything was going smoothly. In addition to the explosive growth of grain in Yingzhou, the grain production in Hebei's traditional granaries such as Pingzhou and Youzhou remained the same.
In addition, the harvests in Cangzhou, Mozhou, Yingzhou, Dezhou and other places that had been resting for two years have also returned to the level of the Qianning period, which is equivalent to 70% of the output of the Dazhong period, the most stable period of the Tang Dynasty in the past hundred years.
With the strong support of the Magistrate's Office of Jiedu Prefecture, Zhaozhou, Shenzhou, Weizhou, Jizhou and other important mulberry producing areas in Hebei have also shown gratifying results. At least in the procurement plan of the Logistics Department, this year it can finally be
The officers' armor was lined with silk.
In the noisy Jinxian shipyard deep in Li Chengzhong, surrounded by the noisy chants of craftsmen, he looked at each place and listened to Feng Fengdao talking about this year's grain storage.
"The newly built Datong Warehouse stores 2.3 million shi of grain. Youzhou Huangjintai Canglin stores 1.8 million shi of grain. Neihuang, Julu, and Wuqing each store 1.2 million shi, plus those in Liucheng and Xincheng.
900,000 shi each, and the above is Lulong Jiedu Prefecture Pingkucang, totaling 9.5 million shi, for emergency use. According to His Highness, the strategic grain reserves in Jiedu Prefecture Pingkucang are enough for Hebei to maintain ten years.
months.”
Listening to the figures reported by Feng Dao, Li Chengzhong nodded and said: "These grains are not enough, we need to continue to increase our efforts. We strive to have a one-year reserve. Remember, this is the case when the entire Hebei and Liaodong have no grain harvest.
, can last for one year, so the total amount of Pingkucang should reach 12 million stones."
Feng Dao sighed: "If this is the case, it will be even richer than during the Kaiyuan period... His Highness can be a Ming Dynasty..."
Li Chengzhong smiled: "The difference is, we only consider Hebei and Liaodong, while Emperor Xuanzong considers the whole world."
Feng Dao continued: "In addition to the flat warehouse, there are currently two million stones of millet, three million stones of wheat, and six million pounds of beans in the official warehouse. It is enough for the government to maintain daily expenses and cope with small-scale relief. Among them
Excluding military rations, seven days ago, someone has allocated the General Administration's resources for the next year. It is now being shipped. I believe that within half a month, the Logistics Department's Fanyang, Liyang, Yanci, Huaiyuan, Huairong, and Zhending military depots
I remember that we had discussed it the year before last, and at that time we were all worried about whether we could afford to support so many troops. Now it seems that we were overly worried."
In the second year of Tianfu, Li Chengzhong expanded the army and increased the number of standing sergeants to nearly 50,000. At that time, officials in the Jiedu Prefecture Magistrate's Office had argued that it was an act of aggression. In the third year of Tianfu, Li Chengzhong expanded the army again, increasing the number of standing sergeants to nearly 50,000.
One hundred thousand people, the whole of Lulong was shocked by this, and everyone dared not say anything publicly, but privately, most people thought that Li Chengzhong was crazy.
But now, not only do the 100,000 standing sergeants have no worries about food and clothing, but the General Administration of Military Staff even has sufficient spare capacity to carry out compulsory military service training. Since the first month of the third year of Tianfu, more than 500,000 people have participated in the training department and county officials.
This jointly led training lasts for no less than twenty-four days per person.
This winter is the time of leisure for farmers. This time, the Training Department has made preparations in advance. It plans to train 300,000 new people through three batches of training rotations, with each person training for 24 days. To this end, the Logistics Department has allocated funds
The Training Department has a fund of 300,000 yuan. The plan of the Training Department is to expand this number to 1 million in May and June next year, which basically covers adults between the ages of 15 and 50 in Lulong Jiedu Prefecture.
Male.
One million, this is an extremely terrifying number! In the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, there were not so many soldiers in the entire army. Of course, receiving training and becoming a sergeant are two different concepts, but... when I think about it, this is just Lu
The mobilization ability of a single area under the jurisdiction of a dragon is already daunting enough.
The difficulty lies not only in food and resource consumption, but also in the ability to organize and mobilize. Without the existence of the General Military Staff Office, which is a weird thing in the era, Lulong would definitely not have this condition. Of course, this is also a challenge to the civil service system of the Lulong Jiedu Prefecture.
It is a major test. Without the operating mechanism of the civil service system of later generations that "emphasizes power and responsibility to the people", such a project would certainly not be successful.
Simply speaking, everything is running well now. Although Feng Dao is indeed too tired to endure it, he feels extremely excited when he thinks that such a feat was born in his own hands!
"How is this oil? Is it still durable?" Li Chengzhong touched the newly painted tung oil on the side of a boat and asked a craftsman next to him. The craftsman quickly said with fear: "Your Highness, this is a tung oil made in the past three years.
, much better than the wood oil extracted from Thousand-Year Tung Tree, which can protect the bottom of a boat for eighteen months."
"Oh? Better than Millennium Tung Trees? In that case, we can just use three-year-old Tung Trees from now on. It would be a pity to cut down too many Thousand-Year-Tung Trees? They have grown for thousands of years, tsk tsk, they should be kept." Li Chengzhong became emotionally involved in environmentalism and was very worried.
He sighed sadly.
The craftsmen around him all turned red and looked at each other speechlessly. The magistrate of Jin County and others also looked strange. Li Chengzhong immediately noticed something was wrong and looked at Zhou Zhiyu, the governor of Yingzhou who came with him. Zhou Zhiyu was also confused.
That's right, Li Cheng was stunned. Qian Qian Tong is not a paulownia tree that has grown for thousands of years. It is named after its cracked fruit skin, which means longevity.
Feng Dao coughed and changed the topic: "Now that there is a mountain of food, do you still want to buy food from the south? I don't know what your highness means."
Li Chengzhong immediately turned his attention, pondered for a moment and said: "We can't stop, we still need to continue buying. However, the price of grain can be lowered. This year, Henan has had a series of wars, they can no longer receive grain from Ziqing, and Guan Nei has been burned again.
It has become a white land, coupled with the construction of the Eastern Capital... Although the weather is good this year, even if Henan has a good harvest, it cannot help but consume so much. Well, let's talk to Yuan Xiangxian and Jiang Xuanhui, and we will take as much grain as they have!"
Feng Dao couldn't help but be happy: "This year, we have purchased more than one million dan of grain from Henan. Yuan Xiang first said that their surplus has been exhausted. The Jiang family is not sure, but they are worse than the Yuan family... Now that the autumn harvest has just finished, I want to come
The Yuan family has received another large amount of grain, which is more than one million dan no matter what, so they should be able to continue selling grain to us."
"Is it easy to turn around?"
"No problem. In fact, the big grain merchants in Henan don't use money. They use Youyan United Bank's money to make agreements..."
Li Chengzhong interrupted him: "Yes, I told you a long time ago that from now on we will gradually change the name. From now on, it will no longer be called an agreement, but directly called Baochao."
"Uh... I know. According to the bank's estimate, there is at least an agreement for two million guan of money... Two million guan of money is in the hands of various merchants in Henan." Having said this, Feng Dao asked with some worry: "Yes.
Is something going wrong? All the directors of the bank are very worried. They already owe Henan merchants two million yuan, accounting for 70% of the bank's total capital. They are worried that they will not be able to pay..."
Li Chengzhong smiled: "Haha, tell them not to worry. Starting next year, I will approve them to issue another 100 to 2 million guan of treasure notes. The specific amount needs to be estimated by your magistrate's office."
Feng Dao hesitated and said: "I'm afraid the bank won't dare to issue banknotes. They are all scared..."
Li Chengzhong thought for a while and said: "Let's do this. From now on, 30% of the copper coins retained in the Treasury of the Magistrate's Office will be transferred to Youyan United Bank. They are allowed to use these coins when there is a redemption, but they need to pay interest to the Magistrate's Office.
One centimeter or two centimeters is fine."
Feng Dao asked doubtfully: "If we deposit money in a bank, we don't pay the deposit fee, but let the bank pay the interest?"
Li Chengzhong patted him on the shoulder: "Don't worry, Kedao. If you tell them about this, they will definitely be happy."
Feng Dao was puzzled, but since Li Chengzhong said so, he planned to put a little pressure on You Yan and the various bank owners to discuss the matter. In short, these money and interest rates are trivial matters, and they cannot be paid for such trivial matters.
And it goes against the wishes of King Yan, right? Besides, the wealthy families behind these proprietors have proposed to King Yan many times that they are willing to donate military resources, but His Highness has declined them all. Now His Highness King Yan has spoken, this is
If there is an opportunity, whoever doesn’t rush to offer help would be too short-sighted, wouldn’t he?
"By the way, how much is 30% in the treasury?" Li Chengzhong suddenly remembered something.
Feng Dao knew it well and immediately reported: "There is a balance of 1.14 million guan in the treasury. It is September now, and next month will be the time when the autumn tax is handed in. Compared with last year, there can be an additional 3.7 million guan."
, among which Bohae lost 400,000 guan, and Silla and Ungjin each lost 200,000 guan. The three places have complained to the magistrate's office, saying that their treasury has been exhausted and no more can be added."
Li Chengzhong said: "Forget it, this will be the norm from now on and no increase will be made within five years. However, we must agree that if there is a war in the Central Plains, we will do our best to support the pass!", (To be continued...)