In the sunroom of the back house, Cheng Yun flipped through the account books with one hand and fiddled with the abacus with the other. After a moment, he frowned and relaxed, and picked up a pen to write down a line of data in the account book.
In the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign in Kangning, the people in various counties harvested 198,700 shi as staple food, purchased 27,000 shi from outside the region, and snatched 13,000 shi from the east of the Yangtze River, totaling 238,700 shi.
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The average yield per mu is six dou taels, and the raw grain is ninety-three kilograms and five taels. By rough calculation, the processed grain is about seventy kilograms.
This number means that in this land, the prefect Yang Dingrui sent a letter to the marshal's office to report his work, and he could proudly write: Chongzhen's five years, the weather is good, and Kangning has many years.
A bumper harvest, a harvest worth recording.
The carrier is even more happy from the bottom of his heart, because this year’s yield per mu does not seem to be much, but in fact there are many unexpected factors.
For example, the newly opened land under his leadership has reduced the yield per mu of Kangning Prefecture; and since last autumn, the rebellion in seven counties has also partially affected the harvest.
So many accidents can still ensure that the living conditions of the people are better than before. In Chengyun's heart, the Kangning Mansion that the second brother defeated will not be truly stable until he finishes this calculation.
Rebellion is nothing, they have institutional advantages, and food is the most important factor in stabilizing the situation.
Although in calculation, after excluding the expenses of garrison, township officials, civilian support, and inspections, the common people only have an average of ninety kilograms of grain, but this is enough.
They also have ghee produced by livestock, vegetables and fruits grown, and wild vegetables and fruits in the mountains. As long as people have hope, they can survive this difficult period.
What's more, people's lives are not difficult. The vast majority of people can proudly declare to the world that through their hard-working hands, their food rations this year have tripled that of the year before.
When Chengyun excitedly went to find Yang Dingrui with his account book, Yang Dingrui was listening to the counter-insurgency battle report sent by Cao Yao. The content of the battle report stopped Chengyun.
The style of the battle report is a bit strange: "The Marshal's Mansion inspected the archer formation and beheaded Daru Huachi, the Supreme Dharma King's soldiers surrounded Liang Xiang's residence, and the Lotus Bodhisattva stole 200 kilograms of highland barley noodles."
After hearing this, Chengyun waggled his index finger and said with a smile: "These monsters and ghosts... Sir, last year's harvest in each county has been calculated, and it was a bumper harvest."
Just as Liu Shizi expected, not long after the main force of the Marshal's Mansion was transferred north from Kangning Mansion, many nobles who had taken refuge in the mountains could not restrain their excitement and started to prepare for the restoration.
But what happens next is different.
Understand the thoughts of the nobles, when the master returns to the land that has been ruled for generations, won’t the people on the land who have been ruled for generations change their minds in an instant?
Even if some foolish people take advantage of the Han people, they can easily defeat them with the advantage of force. After all, they are composed of nobles and guards loyal to the nobles. They may not be opponents against the main force of the commander's palace, but they are good at suppressing the serfs.
But when they returned to their own territory, everyone still remembered the relationship between master and servant and did not report them. Instead, they told them stories about how their lives were getting better day by day in the absence of the noble master.
Although Liu Chengzong's southern expedition was short-lived, it profoundly changed the people's concepts.
Kangning has a vast land and sparsely populated areas, and has the soil to implement equalization of farmland. Even though the per capita farmland is only a little over an acre, wasteland and water sources can be seen everywhere.
Under the encouragement of the prefectural government and the organization of people to reclaim wasteland, most people already own their own land. Even if the land has not been reclaimed, it is still their own property.
The most critical thing is that the weather in Kangning during the five years of Chongzhen was smooth. People had more and more iron farm tools, and their labor efficiency was getting higher and higher. The planting technology from Xining gave seeds more opportunities to germinate.
Their harvest of grain is between nine and ten times that of what they grow. One acre of land can produce over a hundred kilograms of grain. If placed under the snow-capped mountains on the plateau, it will be a bountiful harvest.
People's lives are better than before, and they have better hopes. Not only are they unwilling to support the restoration of the noble lord, they even want to instigate the noble lord to farm together.
The advancement of people's concepts has brought higher requirements to the restored aristocracy. It is impossible to recruit troops by relying on the old methods of feudal aristocrats.
If they want to recruit troops, the nobles' ideas must also improve. They must also use the bureaucracy in a flawless manner, hand over more power to the serfs, and seal off all kinds of weird official positions as if they are free of money, in order to incite more serfs to rebel.
Throughout the autumn, the military information submitted to the prefecture's yamen by the seven counties was in a state of emergency, and the letters reported by township officials from various places were strange and dazzling.
The aristocratic master just picked up the official title of his ancestors and even conferred the official position of the Marshal's Mansion on his generals, making the battle report show the scene of a group of demons dancing.
The living Buddha Dharma King sat firmly in the center, with the Tubo Zanpu's domain guards on the left and right, and Genghis Khan's Daruhuachi raiding the formation for him. At the front, there were nobles who claimed to be patrolling and various Bodhisattvas fighting side by side.
Originally, according to Cao Yao's idea, the regular army of Kangning Prefecture should go on the defensive while ensuring the harvest of grain. Wait for the nobles who want to rebel and the unscrupulous common people to jump out, and then wipe them all out when they begin to take shape.
Unexpectedly, the rebels actually used the official title of the Marshal's Mansion. It may be a matter of misunderstanding. Some Dharma Kings and Bodhisattvas claim to be county magistrates.
This is great. The official county officials of Kangning Prefecture are very angry. If they rebel, they will rebel. Why do you replace my official position?
Even the old monk Ga Ma, who was always easy to get along with, was angry. He was originally the real King Nangqian. He was appointed by Liu Chengzong as the magistrate of Ma Kang County and he recognized it with pinched noses. Now there are actually rebels who want to replace him as magistrate.
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In anger, the magistrate of Gama County directly set up a recruiting flag in front of the county government office, summoned the people of the county, inspected each township, and personally led the peasant soldiers wielding hoes and sickles to destroy the bandits. He vowed to use Buddhism to defeat Buddhism and declared the Supreme Good Dharma King.
It's a monster.
For a time, shovel-dancing peasants were fighting against gods and Buddhas all over the sky. The battle reports that came to the prefecture's yamen throughout the winter were like a list of gods. At first, they killed Daru Huachi and the Tubo general, but later they turned into defeating the Arhats and capturing the Bodhisattva alive.
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There was no need for Cao Yao to take action during the whole process. Even Luo Rucai and Li Laoji only occasionally sent troops to help. Gama and other magistrates led rural soldiers to fight against the rebels.
The magistrate's office analyzed that this situation is entirely due to the fact that the magistrate of Gama has too many positive bonuses.
The younger brother of the previous King Nangqian, the real heir to Nangqian, is more orthodox than the restored nobles; the head of Genbeng Temple is also a religious leader, more proficient in Buddhism than the rebellious Dharma King Bodhisattva; he is also the magistrate of the Marshal's Mansion, and his official position is as high as this
.
When the restoration aristocrats fight against Gaima, first of all, their confidence is already three points weaker.
Therefore, Yang Dingrui, Liu Chengyun, Cao Yao and others who are now in charge of Kangning Mansion are unable to take this rebellion seriously. This group of nobles is far less far-sighted than the farmers in northern Shaanxi. They used temples as their stronghold in the mountains and did not know how to use their familiarity.
Advantages of terrain for mobile operations.
No matter how solid the temple is, it requires no soldiers, no food, no guns, no cannons, no cannons. Is it possible that it can be easier to defend and harder to attack than the Nangsuo Qianmo Palace built on the snow-capped mountains?
Cao Yaole saw that the rebels had established a stronghold, and strictly ordered Ga Ma, Bai Cang and others to only encircle and suppress the rebels on the periphery, pushing them towards the temple in the mountain. Finally, Luo Rucai and Li Laojiu led the regular army to destroy the nest in a battle.
Until now, all the gods and Buddhas who have escaped can only do things like highway robbers, being chased and intercepted by patrols from all over the country, and beaten to pieces.
"A good harvest." Yang Dingrui's report on the transportation was as expected. Looking at the data of just over a hundred kilograms of grain per capita, he nodded and said: "Continue to recruit immigrants to open up fields. In five years, Kangning Mansion will catch up with Ningzhou in terms of acres before the drought.
I will be content with my own land.”
Although Ningzhou is small, with only one state, and Kangning Prefecture is very large, with seven counties, reaching Ningzhou's pre-drought living standards is not a simple goal.
To be precise, Ningzhou had more than one million acres of farmland before the drought.
In Kangning Prefecture today, the cultivated land for growing grains in the seven counties is only 330,000 acres, and even including fruit fields and vegetable fields, it is just less than 500,000 acres.
It is not an easy task to cultivate half a million acres of land in five years.
However, this does not mean that Kangning Prefecture is necessarily poorer than Ningzhou. Even before the drought, Ningzhou only had a population of 20,000, while Kangning Prefecture had 200,000 people and more than 80 million acres of pasture land.
There are many sheep, cattle, and horses raised in this place. It is mainly a pastoral area. The purpose of finding available places to cultivate and grow grain is to make the people live a better life.
After all, ordinary herdsmen cannot eat meat at all. Even if their animals die, they have to exchange meat for food.
Therefore, if there are one million acres of land, Kangning Mansion will be very powerful. The people's annual consumption of finished grains is expected to exceed 200 kilograms. Not to mention how high this living standard is, at least compared with myself, it can be called a world-change.
However, in order to achieve this goal, a prerequisite is needed.
Yang Dingrui handed the report letter on the table to Chengyun and said: "I have been thinking about the taxes that Corning will pay to Xining in the future."
They haven't started collecting taxes yet. The current food tax they want to set is 30%. This is the food tax Liu Chengzong asked Chengyun to negotiate with Yang Dingrui before, which is between 30% and 50%.
The plan is to start harvesting this year, but the government office has some grain stored in it. In the autumn, people collected grain and sold it to the government in exchange for copper coins. In addition to their own use, each county also transported some grain to the government office.
Chengyun took the letter and read it carefully. In the letter, Yang Dingrui stated in detail the difficulties of transporting grain. From Nangqian to Xining, there are 22 stations along the way. It takes one car, one man and two mules to transport grain, which takes more than 30 days.
During these more than thirty days, two mules used sixteen kilograms of food every day, the driver used two kilograms of grain, and one cart transported more than six hundred kilograms of grain. This grain was only enough for one cart to reach Xining.
In case of any accident along the way, there may not be enough food to reach Xining, and you will need to change cars and animals at the inn along the way, because there is a station along the way where it is difficult for vehicles to move.
Unless the nomadic method is used to transport animals once a year, like Liu Shizi's expedition to the south and north, the animals are not required to do heavy work, and they can still survive by eating grass along the way.
The two provinces of Xikang are too far apart and too desolate along the way, which brings too much trouble to transporting food.
Yang Dingrui mentioned in the letter that his idea was to treat part of the grain as losses and supply it to Kangning Prefecture to deliver physical goods, such as precious metals, corundum, gems, armor, gunpowder, livestock, salt and other materials to Xining Prefecture, as taxes for Kangning Prefecture.
Pay.
Cheng Yu thought about it and found that this is indeed the case in the two governments. It is more cost-effective to consume grain to transport high-value materials. To transport grain to the north, even if it is made into dry food, I am afraid that one truck will not reach fifty kilograms, and the gain outweighs the loss.<
/p>
But in response to Yang Dingrui's proposal to transport supplies, Chengyun shook his head and said with a smile: "Sir, there is no need for this salt. There is no shortage of salt in the north."
Chengyun thought again and again, took out his account book and wrote: "Corning produces sulfur, gold, silver and copper are necessary. Iron can be made into weapons and armor directly from the Corning Ordnance Bureau. There is no shortage of livestock in Xining. It is consumed on the road."
There is too much food, why not recruit more people... Yutong pickled cabbage, yes!"
He said excitedly: "It is better to transport pickles than to transport food. The soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion are indispensable for this. If more land is opened this year and there is more food, we can probably collect 60,000 dan, which is not a small amount in terms of supplies." Yang Dingrui nodded, but he was still not relaxed, and said to Chengyun: "But now the Marshal's Mansion is short of food, and there is a letter from the North Station. The Marshal wants to recruit you back."
"Eh... How can the Marshal's Mansion be short of food?" Cheng Yun was confused: "When did it happen?"
"The letter just arrived today. Your letter is on the table. The commander-in-chief wrote to me that the population of Xining has increased by 80,000 people and that the grain reserves are not enough. He will go to war with the east to capture Hehuang."
Only then did Chengyun see a letter addressed to him on the table, and he quickly opened it. His expression was solemn at first, but became more and more relaxed as he read it, and even showed eagerness to try. Finally, he pushed the letter to Yang Dingrui and said, "Sir, look at me.
My brother said this, it’s very interesting that the fields are owned by one commune and each has four stewards to collect grain and build the commune to study social medicine.”
"Huh?"
Yang Dingrui took the letter and looked at it carefully. After reading it for a long time, with a mixture of shock and a smile on his face, he pointed at the letter and said to Chengyun: "This, isn't this the Fan clan's land!"
Yang Jinshi had goosebumps on his neck, but his shock did not come from this plan, but from Liu Chengzong's leaping thinking. He raised his hand and slapped it on the table and said: "Chengyun, do you know the Fan clan field?" p>
"I know, my family has it. I have eaten clan rice when I was a child." Chengyun said happily: "If you don't tell me, sir, I really can't remember it. It does look similar, but it's different."
"Yes, the Fan family has been prosperous for a long time because of the clan's farmland and the poor members of the clan can stop running around for food and clothing and can study and understand. Successive generations of Jinshi have been prosperous and prosperous in turn."
The hairs on Yang Dingrui's body stood up one by one: "This is a country, regarded as a clan. In the past, the whole clan joined forces to fight against the outside world. Once this order is successfully implemented, the whole country will join forces to fight against the outside world!"
After injecting himself with chicken blood, Yang Dingrui woke up in a blink of an eye, raised his hand and said to Chengyun with great caution: "Since you know the clan farmland, you must also know that the Fan clan farmland does not allow clan members to be tenant farmers... Only when tenant farmers work hard can they have children and grandchildren.
Running around for hunger and cold."
Yang Dingrui's next words hit the nail on the head. He raised his hand and tapped the table and said: "The Marshal's country land has the protection of the family land and the labor of the tenant farmers. When you go back, you have to tell the Marshal how much the civil society will collect."
Be extremely cautious about food needs."
"This is directly related to whether this government treats a country as a clan, or whether all people in the world are tenant farmers."