A few days later, Jiang Wei took Yang Yi Beigong Yan and a hundred elite cavalry to the Western Regions.

Although there were not many cavalrymen, they were the elite selected by Liu Chan personally from the army, and their loyalty and four-dimensional were systematically tested.

First of all, in terms of loyalty, these people are loyal to Liu Chan and the Han Dynasty, and in terms of ability, they are either brave and brave, or they know the art of strategy and war, and there are a few people who are both civil and military.

These people were carried out individually, and in the army, they served as military marquis in charge of hundreds of people, Sima Na was more than enough, and he was both civil and military, even if he was in charge of thousands of people, it was not a problem.

In fact, the land of the Western Regions does not need to send many soldiers and horses to garrison, and whether the Western Regions can be stable or not is related to the strength of the Central Plains.

As long as the Central Plains is strong, it will give the countries of the Western Regions a hundred courages, and they will not dare to rebel, but if the Central Plains is weak, it will not be of much use to arrange 100,000 troops in the Western Regions.

Historically, the Tang Dynasty established the four towns of Anxi in the Western Regions, garrisoning tens of thousands of troops, but with the weakening of the strength of the Central Plains, the role of the four towns of Anxi was not large, and later it was lost in the Western Regions.

Judging from the current situation, pacifying the Western Regions and guarding the Western Regions does not depend on the number of soldiers and horses, but on wisdom.

At that time, Ban Chao pacified the Western Regions, there were only more than 30 people, and even the weakest countries in the Western Regions had more than 30 soldiers and horses.

At that time, the Xiongnu ruled the Western Regions, and they were tyrannical, some to the Han and some to the Xiongnu, so Ban Chao adopted the strategy of combining vertical and horizontal, pulling over and dividing, and pacified the Western Regions with the troops of the Western Regions.

Although the situation in the Western Regions is different from the Banchao period, it is generally not much different, the countries in the Western Regions are not monolithic, the strength of the big countries is not towards the Han, and the strength of the small countries is weak and hopes to be protected by the Han Dynasty, so Jiang Wei can also adopt the strategy of combining vertical and horizontal, winning over and dividing, and borrowing the soldiers and horses of the Western Regions to pacify the Western Regions.

On Liu Chan's side, he only needs to stabilize Liangzhou as soon as possible, develop Yongliang into strength, sweep Cao Wei as soon as possible, become Jiang Wei's solid backing, and deter the countries of the Western Regions, the effect is far better than sending a large army to garrison the Western Regions.

At this moment, it is close to the beginning of March.

In winter, officials from all over Liangzhou were also replaced, and most of the newly appointed officials were recommended by Xu Miao, or alternate officials of the Han court.

These people were all young and enterprising officials.

Approaching March, spring is blooming, and the migration of the Qiang people has officially begun.

After the Qiang leaders returned to the tribe, they sent the commoners in the tribe to Liangzhou, and the nobles in the tribe stayed, and of course, some Qiang nobles wanted to change their living environment and move to Liangzhou.

On the side of Liangzhou, these years of war and turmoil, a lot of land has been barren, it can be said that the land is vast and sparsely populated, Liu Chan distributed the land according to the population of the Qiang family, and arranged them in the counties of Liangzhou to enrich the population of Liangzhou.

Fields, farm tools, ploughing cattle, building materials, these things have been prepared in the winter months, and the relocation and resettlement work has been discussed I don't know how many times, and everything is going on in an orderly manner.

On the Qiang side, in winter, the 20,000 soldiers and horses of the Han Dynasty did not rest, and many kilns were established in various parts of Jincheng and Longxi for firing cement.

Soldiers and horses, craftsmen rushed to the grassland, led by Ma Chao himself, on the grassland with cement, established a number of cities, and sent officials to divide the pastures within the city, manage the pastures, and cultivate horses, cattle and sheep.

Of course, many Qiang people are also unwilling and unwilling, but with Ma Chao personally leading the troops to sit in the town, these Qiang people dare not have any complaints.

Liu Chan also gave some preferential policies to the Qiang people within the scope of affordability, such as some titles, tax exemption policies, etc., to calm down the opposition of the Qiang people.

By mid-April, Yongliang began to plant corn and sweet potatoes on a large scale.

On this day, Xu Miao found Liu Chan and reported: "Your Majesty, many of the sweet potato seeds that were shipped not long ago are rotten, can you let Hanzhong transport some more." ”

Because Liangzhou is far away from Hanzhong Road, sweet potatoes are not easy to preserve, and after being transported to Liangzhou, many of them rot when it comes to the planting season.

Liu Chan shook his head and said: "Now that the land of Hanzhong has been planted with sweet potatoes, the seeds reserved by the people are reserved according to the amount of land, and those that are transported to Liangzhou are still vacated. ”

Xu Miao sighed and said: "In this way, there are only many kinds of corn, and sweet potatoes can only allow the people of Liangzhou to slowly accumulate seeds for planting." ”

Liu Chan smiled and said: "There is no need to be like this, corn and sweet potatoes can all be planted in places with sufficient water sources, and in other areas, plant others, especially the kind of sunny places, and leave them for me." ”

Xu Miao was puzzled: "Spring wheat is grown in these places? But didn't you say last time, Your Majesty, that places with insufficient water sources and dry land are prone to locust plagues? Although spring wheat is drought-resistant, if it is planted in those arid places, I am afraid that it will attract locusts. ”

"It's not spring wheat." Liu Chan shook his head and said, "I have a new thing, called cotton, and cotton will be planted in these places when the time comes." ”

"Cotton?" Xu Miao listened to Liu Chan's words and was suddenly stunned, planting flowers? Are you sure you're not kidding? Can you eat it? Does it work?

"You can't eat it, but you can use it." Liu Chan saw Xu Miao's thoughts, and said with a smile: "Cotton is not the kind of flower you think, this cotton grows fruit, and cotton wool grows in the fruit, which can be used to weave cloth and clothes and quilts. ”

Cotton was only introduced to China during the Ming Dynasty, and before that, the general quilt and winter coat were filled with flocculents, reeds, straw, or dogs, chickens and ducks.

As for the wealthy, they use wool, mink and other expensive animal hair.

In the case of clothing, ordinary people use hemp, while wealthy people use silk made of silkworms.

Silk, animal hair cold effect is good, but such as flocculent, reed, hay and other fillers, can not play much cold effect, in winter, many people hide at home dare not go out, frozen to death do not know how many.

Liangzhou is actually not the most suitable area for planting cotton, but it can also be planted, this time Liu Chan won Yongliang, harvested a lot of points, then exchanged cotton seeds, planted in Liangzhou. The seeds exchanged by Liu Chan were suitable for planting in the Liangzhou area in later generations, and they were relatively drought resistant.

Xu Miao was surprised when he heard this: "There is such a thing? ”

Liu Chan said with a smile: "This thing is used to make clothes and quilts, much better than flocculent and reed flowers, not worse than wool, now many people still use hay to stuff into the quilt to keep out the cold, freezing to death happens from time to time, when the time comes to plant cotton on a large scale, the people have cotton clothes and quilts in winter, so they don't have to worry about freezing." ”