After returning to Shule, Shao Shude was not in a hurry to leave, but began his show trip.
On the fifth day of October, he personally came to the oasis on the west bank of the Yeduo River (Yarkant River), wielded a pickaxe, and dug canals.
Since the saints are like this, don’t other officers and generals have to pretend too?
But what made them despair was that the saint stayed in disguise for ten days.
Early every morning, after getting up from Montessori's belly, he would wear a pair of short-sleeved clothes and start working like an old farmer, carrying a spade and pickaxe.
Every day at sunset, he returned to Xingzai, and under the eyes of Montessori's fearful and pleading eyes, he hugged the limp woman and slept all night until dawn.
In ten days, the two long-blocked ditches were connected.
When the gurgling clear water flowed from the river into the canal, people couldn't help but burst into warm cheers.
Looting can certainly bring short-term excess returns, but it can only be used as an unexpected windfall and cannot be used as a foundation for development.
Master Wang worked hard and robbed nearly 500,000 dendrobium of grain from Bahan. So far, only more than 130,000 have been transported back to Shule and stored in the warehouse. Calculated based on the annual consumption of 20 dendrobium of grain for a family of five. , which is enough for six to seven thousand households.
Even though there are still two final batches of transportation teams on the road and have not yet returned, the food they finally bring back will be enough to accommodate the 10,000 households of town soldiers and their families who will arrive in March next year - the additional soldiers, Mainly from Hengye, Pinglu and Luoyan armies.
In Shule Town, even ten thousand soldiers are not enough. The number may continue to increase in the later period, but it mainly depends on the development of local agriculture and animal husbandry.
Anyway, in Shao Shude's view, the more farmland for sowing, the better. After next spring, including the overwintering wheat sown this fall, it would be best to have two thousand hectares of farmland full of crops, which would greatly alleviate the dilemma of food shortage. , to avoid too much stress when harvesting grass and grain.
To put it bluntly, he was still too impatient.
It is normal for the Western Regions to be restored slowly and reorganized over ten or twenty years. But he wanted to shorten this time because he was worried that future generations would not pay attention to this place.
This is not unfounded.
Did the Western Han Dynasty want to invade the Western Regions? Not at first. If they had to conquer the Xiongnu, they really wouldn’t necessarily march into the Western Regions to disintegrate the Xiongnu’s flanks and form a strategic encirclement of them.
Did the Tang Dynasty want to conquer the Western Regions? It didn’t want to at first. It was only in order to deal with the Turks that it took the initiative to intervene in the affairs of the Western Regions and control them step by step.
Did the Qing Dynasty want to conquer the Western Regions? At first, they really had no idea. But who could withstand Mongolia's repeated leaps, and Galdan wanted to compete with Kangxi for the throne of the Mongolian Khan? There was no way, and in the end they had to fight.
What situation is Daxia currently facing? There are no enemies in the grassland, and within the foreseeable decades or even a hundred years, it will be difficult to grow a grassland force that poses a greater threat. Based on this thinking, is the Western Region still so important? ?
In this matter, Shao Shude did not believe in the wisdom of future generations. He just wanted to build a stable framework during his lifetime and accumulate as many resources as possible for the Western Regions so that future generations would not be able to give up so easily.
Of course, some people may think that this is a sign of his "little wisdom", because there is no need to capture the Western Region. With so many soldiers, even if you solve the food supply problem, what about the money and silk rewards? You don't have to give them back.
Central fiscal expenditure? This is a loss-making business.
Well, Shao Shude admitted that there was a certain truth in what they said. In fact, he was not sure what he was busy with. Maybe it was just an obsession from later generations. He couldn't see this vast land leaving China, that's all.
He is the emperor who sweeps the world, the supreme khan, and he has the capital to be willful.
****
On October 13th, there was a lot of excitement outside Shule City with people playing and playing.
Platefuls of food were brought up: bags, soup cakes, dried meats, stews, fruits, wine, etc., everything you need.
Tens of thousands of soldiers sat on the ground outside the camp, carrying various kinds of food and feasting on it.
Astonishingly, he is the leader of the entire army!
Appetite is really one of the eternal pursuits of human beings. Even if these warriors live a good life and have no shortage of food and wine, every time the whole army has a big meal, it can still greatly boost morale.
Shao Shude was sitting on the high platform, accompanied by four ladies from the Meng family, the Sha family, the Shulu family, and the Adie family. He raised his wine glass high, drank it all in one gulp, and said, "I will be the matchmaker today. You can live a good life after we get married."
.Have more children, the more the better.”
Five hundred soldiers stood under the stage, their faces filled with gratitude, and they picked up their wine glasses and drank them all in one gulp.
These five hundred people are all young, generally in their late teens to early twenties, and they are still single.
After the capture of Shule, when the people were organized into households, the officials discovered a serious problem: the number of households was nearly 17,000, but the population was less than 60,000.
The reason is simple: too many men died.
Karasha was in chaos for a while, and then Satuk sent a large number of men over fifteen years old to the north, fought a decisive battle with the Xia army, and returned with a disastrous defeat. During the period, no less than 20,000 people died, and tens of thousands more fled after hearing the news.
, only a few thousand returned in the end - the imperial court pardoned their crimes and ordered them to live their lives in peace and not to cause trouble.
In other words, most of the men in Shule were killed in this battle.
Things are getting trickier. Because men are not only the source of soldiers, they are also the main force in agricultural production. Without men, food production will not increase.
And this is only a short-term impact. In the long term, population growth will also be very problematic.
If the women of Shule are allowed to waste their golden reproductive years, they will have to pay the debt in the future. After many discussions, Shao Shude finally made the final decision: If they need men, I will give them men.
Five hundred soldiers came from the Central Plains alone and were about to start a family. Shao Shude made the decision and asked them to choose a woman of similar age in Shule City to get married, which would solve a lifelong event.
But this is far from enough.
Privy Councilor Yang Yao also suggested that the 8,000 newly attached troops retreat from Bahanna into Anxi, and they would also be alone, so that they could choose widows to start a family, so as to reassure themselves.
Shao Shude agreed.
He asked Yang Yao to take care of the matter and complete it as soon as possible. After the newly attached soldiers got married, they moved to Gumo Prefecture with their wives and children and became common people.
Gumo Prefecture was once plundered and massacred by the Rehai Turks. After the dust settled, only a thousand households and more than 6,000 people were counted. Most of them were Yangmo people, and there were also a few Uighurs, Geluolu, and Turks.
The agricultural conditions in this place (Aksu) are very good. It would be a pity to let it be abandoned and must be restored as soon as possible.
Of course, five hundred soldiers plus eight thousand new auxiliary troops cannot alleviate the "man shortage" in Shule. What's more, this time many women were snatched back from Bukhan, and some of them were given as rewards to meritorious soldiers.
Some were sold to merchants in exchange for grain, and some were planned to be taken back to Luoyang and distributed to the ministers.
There are more women than men, this is the current situation.
After thinking about it, just yesterday, Shao Shude issued an order to recruit 5,000 poor and strong men from Chen, Xu, Cai, Shen, and Guangzhou to settle in Shule.
Some people may ask, are there definitely so many men in these five states who are too poor to get married?
First of all, there must be.
Secondly, it is said to be "recruitment", but it is actually "apportionment".
The governors of these five states had to kidnap 5,000 men. In fact, the number was insufficient, so even if they released the prisoners in the prison to make up the number, he would still have to find 1,000 men.
After these five thousand people arrived in Shule, it was almost enough.
As a result, after calculation, Shule Town will have about 10,000 households and more than 39,000 people.
Gumo Town will have more than 9,500 households and more than 38,000 people.
After the formation of the Shule town army and the arrival of all family members, the Shule household registration will be further increased.
During the Western Expedition to Bukhanna, about a thousand households of various types of craftsmen were also robbed. Yanqi, Qiuci, Gumo, Shule, Tingzhou and other places will all get a share, of which Shule accounted for the majority, with about 500 households.
.
The overall number of household registrations is a bit miserable, which shows the huge damage caused by the war.
In the foreseeable future, military households will be the main supplementary source of the local population.
****
On October 15th, Shao Shude held a banquet in Shule Palace to entertain Li Shengtian, the leader of Khotan.
Adie personally poured wine for the two of them.
But it didn't take long for her to feel sick from the bottom of her heart.
Shao Shude noticed it and waved his hand to ask her to leave. As if she was being pardoned, Adeshi covered her mouth and left.
Meng stepped forward to pour wine for the two of them.
Her face was a little pale, and there was a trace of fear deep in her eyes.
As a woman in her early forties, the risk of pregnancy and childbirth was extremely high. But the saint did not pity her at all in this regard. He only cared about his own pleasure and got in directly. In fact, Montessori vaguely felt that the saint did it on purpose. He was a
Perverted, he just wants to watch the empress dowager, queen, princess and other high-status women of the enemy country give birth to children for him.
"Does Li Qing still remember the incident at Niya Oasis?" Shao Shude put down his wine glass and asked.
"Your Majesty has your orders, and I will do whatever you want." Li Shengtian immediately expressed his stance.
Compared with the previous discussion with the ministers, Li Shengtian was much more happy. He agreed directly without any hesitation. Looking at his expression again, his face was full of joy, as if he was happy.
Regardless of whether he was pretending or not, Shao Shude said directly: "I want to set up two thousand soldiers in Niya Oasis and three thousand soldiers in Khotan. Together with their families, there are about 20,000 people. The required land, houses, food,
Farm tools, maybe Li Qing can help me relieve my worries?"
"I will take care of it when I get back. This is good land, and we must not wrong the soldiers of the great country." Li Shengtian stood up and left the table, bowing in response.
"Sit down, sit down." Shao Shude said happily: "Li Qing is loyal to the court, I know it. I heard that Li Qing has been married for several years but has no children yet. Why?"
When Li Shengtian heard this, a thin layer of sweat broke out on his back and said: "The country is busy with affairs and also busy with wars, so I have no heirs."
Shao Shude nodded, said nothing more, and continued drinking.
Some things just hit the mark and don’t need to be said too much.
Everyone knows the prestige of a saint in the Western Regions. Gaochang has been destroyed, and the Uighurs only have half their lives left, which can serve as a lesson for others.
Now that Khotan has a large number of household registrations and sufficient troops and food, isn't the imperial court worried? Wouldn't it send people to monitor it? Is it even possible to have deep control over Khotan's national affairs like the former Tang Dynasty?
The saint only said half a sentence, but Li Shengtian had to think more.
He is very scared now, really. It seems that there is only one way left in front of him.
The saint is about to return to the court, and anyone with a discerning eye can see it. Before leaving, he will definitely take advantage of the general trend to solve some remaining problems as much as possible.
From now on, the Western Region will only speak with one voice. This is inevitable and irreversible.