In Suizhou in August, heavy rains were coming at any time. Shao Shude and a group of people found a village to take shelter temporarily.
The arrival of a large group of warriors made the people in the village a little nervous. However, after seeing that they were just looking for shelter from the rain and not looting, people finally relaxed. A few brave teenagers even watched from a distance.
The armor on the soldier's body and the bow in his hand were beyond words to express his envy.
"Water conservancy is the lifeblood of agriculture." Shao Shude sat on a horse and looked at the heavy rain outside the house, feeling a little pity. It won't take long for this water to flow away, leak, and evaporate, and it will not be used for agricultural production.
utilized.
"The state has always attached great importance to water conservancy." Song Le said at the side: "There are doctors of the Ministry of Water and foreign ministers of the Ministry of Water, who are in charge of the government orders of rivers and lakes all over the world, so as to guide the ditches and weirs to break the canals. In mid-spring, they ordered the ditches to be cleared and embankments to be built.
, It will be finished in the winter. If the rain in autumn or summer causes overflow and damage, then repair it without waiting for the time."
"Unfortunately, over the past few decades, vassal towns have invaded each other, military struggles have been fierce, and the people's power has gradually been exhausted. As a result, Pichi has not been repaired, and rivers and rivers have become blocked." Shao Shude felt that Song Le had a tendency to turn into an angry youth. Guanzhong was really depleted of water conservancy, but
Xia Sui had never built any water conservancy facilities in the first place. The Yanhua Canal was opened in the Zhenyuan period, which was the first time in the history of the country. If you want to criticize it, it will also be criticized in the next hundred years. Xia Sui did not want to make progress and did not make persistent efforts.
But there is actually no reason for this. Xia Sui is an important military town and has never been a rear area. In the past hundred years, they have spent most of their time fighting against Tubo, and occasionally suppressed the Dangxiang tribes within their jurisdiction. When the Tiande army in the north was in trouble, they also
Going north to help them resist the Uighurs is almost a war machine. It is really difficult for them to let those military leaders, large and small, engage in production. When Xiazhou opened the Yanhua Canal, it was the imperial government's move, and sent
Professional bureaucrats came to help.
"I was very moved when I read Bai Letian's "Qiantang Lake Stone Story" last night. Farewell to the Song Dynasty, where there is a will, there is a way. Xia Sui still needs your help for such a great undertaking." Shao Shude said.
When Song Le heard that he said "Xia Sui" instead of "Suizhou", he smiled softly and said: "I don't understand the matter of killing. For other matters, Song has no shirk."
"This is more important than fighting and killing." Shao Shude sat up straight and said: "A few days ago, I went to the bell tower and watched the night view of Suizhou. Although it is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the lights in the city are sparse. It can be seen that the people's lives are not rich and their families are poor.
If there is no food left, even if it is a festival, we cannot celebrate it properly. This is not the Suizhou I want."
Song Le also sighed and said nothing.
When the heavy rain stopped, it was already evening. Fan He asked the sergeants to heat dry food, while Shao Shude carefully observed the farm life.
I just learned through inquiry that there are 34 households in this village, cultivating farmland along a stream leading to Wuding River. Millet and wheat are planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn. Life is barely passable. But these are normal years. If
In the event of a severe drought, the creeks will dry up and the farmland will not be irrigated, so there will be no harvest.
The family taking shelter from the rain has about 40 acres of land. There are 19 other families in the village who are in the same situation as them. The number of cultivated fields is generally between 20 and 50 acres. The other six families are better than them, but they are less than 100 acres.
, everyone’s family members are serving as soldiers in Zhoucheng. There are only two families in the village with an area of more than 100 acres, and their ancestors are all from the Zhoucheng Military Academy.
In addition, there are still 6 families with less than 20 acres of cultivated land, and their lives should not be very good. At least, when Shao Shude came in from outside the village just now, he saw that some families did not have large livestock.
How to farm without cattle and horses?
The saying "When a strong ox plows ten acres of land a day, when a man is free, he often sweeps a piece of land" is no joke.
Zhang Tinggui also said: "The king relies on the people, the people rely on food, the food is cultivated, and the cultivated resources are cattle. If the cattle are used up, the plowing will be wasted, and if the plowing is wasted, the food will be eaten. If the food is taken away, the people will perish, and the people will perish.
Why do you rely on being a king?"
A cow consumes ten kilograms of roughage a day, which is usually made from a mixture of crop stalks, leaves, soybean husks, grains (the shriveled grains of immature corn) and pasture. When Shao Shude was in Hedong, he heard from his sergeant that his family probably needed
Only 40 acres of land can sustain the consumption of cattle. But that is Henan and Hebei. If we are in Xia Sui, because there are large hills and grasslands that are not suitable for farming, the conditions may be lower, and it is estimated that 20-30 acres of land
Families can also afford to raise cattle, which is consistent with what he just observed.
Xia Sui, a place where animal husbandry is so developed, logically should not be short of cattle! I still remember that during the Yonglong period of this dynasty, 180,000 cattle and horses died in Guangxia Prefecture due to epidemics. Today, in parts of Yin Prefecture,
The water and grass are abundant, and the imperial court established Yinchuan Ranch (Yinzhou was Yinchuan County at the time of Tianbao), and donated an average of 7,000 to 10,000 military horses every year.
Forget about other places, can Xia Sui be missing?
Well, this knowledge refreshed Shao Shude's three views. He really didn't understand it before, but now he knows how difficult people's livelihood is.
The dry food was quickly heated up, and Shao Shude ate the thick and hard biscuits. He used to think that the taste was not very good, but looking at the people's struggling livelihood, he didn't find it unpleasant at all. He thought of the envious looks of the young people in the village just now.
, what they envy may not be the majesty of the martial arts, but the improvement of their living standards, right?
The army is a violent machine, and the warriors of the late Tang Dynasty are even more fighter jets in the violent machine. It is impossible for them to eat chaffy vegetables during slack time like ordinary people. Why don't you give them locust leaf rice? I guarantee that your head will be moved in an instant.
It was only the common people who ate chaffy vegetables for half a year and worked hard. In the end, the few remaining grains were taken away by countless soldiers, and even the rations to survive were taken away. Alas, what a world! Huang Chao's group, Chu
It must have been because he couldn't survive when the incident occurred, right?
After leaving the village, Shao Shude wandered around for a few more days before returning to the city.
"Yu Niang, help me remember something." After dinner, Shao Shude sat on the specially made chair and said, "Don't be too elegant. Just write down what I say. I'm afraid I'll forget it."
Zhao Yu nodded, spread out the pen and paper after polishing the ink, and looked at Shao Shude.
"The first one is to build ponds and dig canals."
Zhao Yu wrote it down as instructed.
"Second, find someone to build a water truck."
"Third, make more farm tools and raise more cattle and horses."
"Article 4: Use troops against the Dangxiang tribe."
After writing this, Zhao Yu trembled, and looked at Shao Shude with his big talking eyes, full of worry.
"That's all, let's cross out the last one first." Shao Shude sighed and said: "Now is not a good time. If something happens next year and the rear is not peaceful, how can we go out with peace of mind."
"Mr. Lang is going on an expedition?"
Shao Shude noticed Zhao Yu's new name for him. He used to be "general", which seemed a bit strange, but now he is called "Lang Jun", which obviously means a lot of things. In a good mood, he directly put Mei Jiao Niang in his arms.
, looked into her charming eyes, and said: "I won't hide it from you until now. Huang Chao has broken through all levels of interception and left behind Gao Pian, who held a heavy army. Now he is attacking cities and territories in Henan with hundreds of thousands of people. He
If you are determined, you will definitely enter the pass and approach Chang'an. By then, the saint will probably have to tell the world again and order all the soldiers and horses to work hard for the king. The eight towns northwest of Beijing have always been the shield of the imperial court, how can they not send troops?"
"But don't worry too much. Xia Sui Town has been fighting against Tubo, Uighurs, and Dangxiang for more than a hundred years. The soldiers are elite and can get used to fighting. Marshal Zhuge has 20,000 soldiers, as well as Dangxiang and Fan troops. If
It won't be a problem to go south with 30,000 to 40,000 people in full force. It may not be possible to defeat Huang Chao head-on, but self-protection should not be a big problem." Seeing that Zhao Yu didn't speak, Shao Shude explained again.
"Lang Jun is already the lord of a state. He has elite soldiers and the generals are obedient. Can't he guard this inheritance safely?" Zhao Yu sighed quietly, as if remembering his unbearable past, and spoke in a low voice.
Living like a gnat said: "It's very good that my husband treats us mother and daughter kindly. I don't want to be kidnapped here and there."
"Having entered this situation, how can we get out of it?" Shao Shude inexplicably recalled the Tuoba Dangxiang regime that had ruled the northwest for more than three hundred years. It also digested the four prefectures of Xia Sui, Yin You and others for a long time, and then occupied the Lingzhou industry.
The grain logistics base just had the capital to become a local emperor behind closed doors.
Now I can only rule 40,000 to 50,000 people, and I can't even support the Tielin Army, so what qualifications do I have to choose? In the melee of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in Guanzhong, what about the time-travelers? Even if they are not good, they will be crushed into powder.
.
"What has Guo'er been doing lately? Every time she goes home, she avoids me."
"I'm teaching her to read and calligraphy." Zhao Yu said.
"Do you need to invite a gentleman?" Shao Shude asked.
Zhao Yu said helplessly: "Those gentlemen in Suizhou are not as knowledgeable as I am."
This incident was not unexpected by Shao Shude. Although the Tianshui Zhao family was not considered a top family in the country, it was still a middle-class family. Zhao Yu's ancestor Zhao Cijing married Li Yuan's fifth daughter, Princess Changguang, and the country had a dynasty of more than 200 years.
, dozens of officials of fifth rank or above have been produced, four of whom have been prime ministers.
Zhao Yu's father once served as an official in Taiyuan Prefecture and died in office. Now he has two closest relatives. One is his uncle named Zhao Guangfeng, who just won the Jinshi title the year before last and is currently serving as a supervisory censor in the court.
The man named Zhao Jian served as a general in Xingning. Shao Shude was shocked when he first heard about it. He had taken Zhao Yu home out of lust, but now it seemed that he had taken a lot of risks.
Being both a court official and a town general, I almost had my old habit of lust cured on the spot.
I would like to recommend a historical text to everyone. "The Great Bandits" written by Aogu Tiexin. I liked the author's last book very much, and the new book is also very good. It has a million words and is very fat. You can go and read it.