Caravans, caravanserais. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Now for the sake of food, Yanbei is willing to sell everything.

After entering the Liaodong County Government, everything was simple, and the county government office, which was in chaos last year due to the Erzhang Rebellion, did not do a lot of renovations, but simply asked the carpenters to rest the wooden pillars that seeped into the blood for a while, and then put them into the political affairs of Liaodong.

In the past few days, no one in Liaodong has been easy, and he has visited the families of the Haoqiang clan in the surrounding counties and appeased them...... Although Yanbei has not really touched anyone's interests in the past six months, he has successively exterminated the Xiangping Gongsun and the Tian clan of Wenxian County, and these two things alone can make those big clans worried, and even want to move to Lelang County.

After all, no one wants to have such a sharp blade as Yanbei hanging above their heads.

Therefore, it is particularly important to appease the wealthy and powerful families in various places, and only after appeaseing them can the work of re-measuring the land be done. Only after measuring the land can we calculate the land tax to be paid by every household in the townships in each county after the grain harvest in September and October this year.

"General, it's just June, and we only have more than 40,000 stone left in our hoarding of grain...... Even if the troops are released and eaten in the wilderness, the county government still needs to deliver 2,000 stone of grain to the two captains Gao and Koji every month. The righteousness of the Xiangping camp cost more than 6,000 stones. Four months, so that it can only last for four months before you run out of food. In the middle of the month, it's up to you to figure it out. ”

He took Yanbei to review the land measurement slips of the two counties that Liaodong County has sent so far, and said to Yanbei: "This year's agricultural work has been delayed, and the land in the whole territory of Liaodong has been reclaimed 47,688 hectares in the year before last, but the land in Xiangping and Xinchang counties has been abandoned by sixty percent, and the rest of the counties will not be much better." This year's field tax may only yield about 170,000 stones. Alas, this is not enough to consume in the coming year. ”

He is experienced in governing the country, but the foundation of Liaodong is too poor. More than half of the county is uncultivated mountains and hills, and there are barren mountains and woodlands. The common people are not good at farming and practice fishing and hunting, and it is already overstretched to support 80,000 households with more than 40,000 hectares of land, and the accumulated cases in the county government office are always indispensable for the people to starve to death hundreds or thousands a year, which is shocking to watch.

In the past, when the county order was in Handan, the situation there was much better than that of Liaodong, the land in Jizhou was abundant, and there were 30,000 hectares of land in Handan alone, so there was no need to worry about food, but the situation in Liaodong was different.

"Don't worry about the current affairs of this year, I will do my best to make the soldiers hold out until October to collect taxes." Yan Bei's face was also a little sad, but he still encouraged him and said, "What you need to do is to come up with a way to encourage the people of the whole county to reclaim the land!" This year, Yan can try his best to get through it, but what about next year? If it does not affect the agricultural time, how much can the field tax be collected? ”

After calculating the rest with his eyebrows lowered, he said: "If it does not affect the agricultural time, the entire territory of Liaodong should be able to collect 450,000 to 500,000 stone grain and grass in October of the next year, which can be used for 14,000 soldiers for a year. ”

A young man has to eat three stones of grain in a month, and four or five hundred thousand stones of grain and grass sounds like a lot, but compared to the consumption of thousands of people, it is only enough.

"Not enough, not enough...... It is enough to raise soldiers on land taxes alone, but what about horses? Even if you eat a batch and sell a batch, the remaining war horses can't afford to rely on field taxes alone. Yan Bei tapped a few cases lightly with his fingers, raised his head and asked Fu Zhu: "If you want to reclaim wasteland, can you add another 20,000 hectares of land in the coming year?" ”

If the 200,000 Ishida tax is overcharged, the problem of soldiers and horses will not be so stretched.

"Alas, General...... It is not difficult to reclaim the land, but the people are not able to reclaim it, first, there is no ploughing cattle, and second, there is no family wealth to buy farm tools, only the big clan has the ability to reclaim the land, but they may not obey the orders of the county government to reclaim. "Even if the imperial court wants to reclaim wasteland, it usually drives prisoners, soldiers, and homeless people to do such things...... Eh, my lord, I wanted to give you advice earlier, but because of the delay of the war, why didn't Liaodong use soldiers to reclaim land and follow the law of the sages to practice Tuntian? ”

"The law of Tuntian? How so? When Yanbei came to the spirit, he listened to the frustration and said: "Zhao Chongguo, the Marquis of Pingping, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, once practiced the method of tuntian in the Western Regions, and cultivated the wasteland with field pawns, so as to reduce the huge consumption of grain and grass transported from the Central Plains to the Western Regions...... And now the soldiers and horses in Liaodong are all the main public soldiers and private soldiers, why not use the soldiers and horses to do the things of the field soldiers, demarcate the area and reclaim the barren land, the field soldiers can be cultivated and warn, not only to solve the pain of money and grain in the county, but also to create a large field. ”

It's just that Yan Bei was not as optimistic as Frustrated, shook his head and said: "It's not good to do, let these fighting Han attack the city, they have a lot to do." Do you think that these people can bow down and plough the fields? However, you can also give it a try. It was just a matter of taking this opportunity to sand the soldiers and move those who were disabled and old to the fields, and they had the responsibility of guarding the county and cultivating the fields; The most elite subordinates were stationed in the Xiangping camp, leaving a number of 3,000 to prevent external troubles. ”

Yanbei didn't think this was a good idea at first, but after thinking about it carefully, as Fu Zhu said, dividing the field soldiers into various places according to the captain's department and the qu department to form defense areas, and making them half-plough and half-fight, can not only solve the problems of grain and wasteland, but also garrison various places in case of accidents. The streamlined professional samurai can be trained with greater intensity and more elite armor and equipment.

It's like an army of soldiers and recruits. In this way, the strength of the standing county soldiers in Liaodong far exceeds that of any county in the world, and the recruits also have more experience and training in battle formations than the soldiers hastily recruited in other places.

"Gonghe, can you calculate, if the remaining 11,000 people in Liaodong are left with 3,000, and the remaining 8,000 are handed over to you to divide the garrison area for them and become field pawns, how much more land do you think Liaodong can cultivate by the beginning of spring next year?"

If it is the land cultivated by the field guards, it is not only the field tax, but even the land is from Yanbei, and the grain that can be used is thirty times that of the same land to pay the field tax!

"Eight thousand field soldiers?" Fu Zhu felt that this number was a bit much, but he still lowered his head and calculated for a moment and said: "Maybe it is possible to spread 3,000 hectares of land in various counties, but if the soldiers are to plough half and fight half-war, these 8,000 field soldiers can only cultivate 1,500 hectares of land." According to the yield of three stones per mu, this 1,500 hectares of land can produce 450,000 more stones, so that Liaodong can have one million stones of grain a year...... Don't say that raising soldiers is enough to raise horses! ”

Thinking that such a method of tuntian could almost solve the food suffering that plagued them within two years, he nodded secretly, looked at the elated Yanbei, but couldn't help but say calmly: "But the general had better not be happy too early, the law of tuntian is too wide, whether it is the school department, the county government, or the county government, it will be affected, not to mention that the location of the tuntian will also affect the county garrison...... Don't scribble! ”

"What's more, even if the tuntian fields can see results, they will not be able to be cultivated until the beginning of spring next year at the earliest, and the grain harvest will not be until October of the next year. Compared to these, we will run out of food in three or four months, and at the same time we must prepare for the westward expedition to Montenegro, otherwise the army will be unstable, and I am afraid that there will be no soldiers to implement the law of tuntian. ”

Yan Beishen nodded thoughtfully, no matter how good the method of Tuntian is, if you really want to see results, it will be a year and a half later, and solving today's urgent needs is the most important thing. He said to the frustrated and reassured: "It doesn't matter, it is already good to be able to solve the difficulties of the coming year, and in recent days, we have discussed the matter of Tuntian with the county government, the county government and Gao Lan, Zhang Jaw, and Lu Yi, and it is best that we can agree on the matters of Tuntian within a month, and the sooner we urge the Tian Shu to reclaim the wasteland, the greater the results will be in the coming year." I have already arranged for this year's grain and grass affairs, and ordered Ma An to lead a hundred horsemen to various places in Youzhou to investigate the price of grain, and the results will be achieved within ten years. ”

"Although there is no food to eat in Liaodong, in the past two years, Yan has still saved some assets in his treasury, not to mention tens of millions of dollars, I want to buy grain before the counties and state capitals in Youzhou. If it is not enough, we have too many war horses, and we can sell thousands of them in exchange for food...... Now the people of Youzhou have made up their minds, no matter how cheap the war horse is, it is still possible to sell it for 10,000 yuan, and the grain has its own Yan to find a way, and you can do a good job in the government affairs of Taishou. By the way, just now you said that if there is a farmer, he can open up 3,000 hectares of land this year? ”

Knowing that Yanbei had made arrangements for food, he felt very relaxed for a while, and nodded in response: "It's not difficult to reclaim wasteland, but the difficult thing is that no one is going to cultivate it...... In the first two years of the wasteland, there was little grain production and it was difficult to cultivate, and with all due respect, the people of Liaodong had very few cattle, and they could not cultivate the wasteland at all. Even our soldiers need you to buy farming tools for them to plough their cattle, otherwise...... Another 1,500 hectares, I'm afraid I won't be able to plough them. ”

Yan Bei smiled when he heard this, and said with a smile: "What's so difficult about this?" Artisans and apprentices were recruited from among the Artesian people, and we could do it ourselves without farming tools. As for ploughing cattle, although Yan did not plough cattle, he still had 3,000 pack horses, could it be that one pack horse could not plough 100 acres of land? ”

Frustrated, the pack horse can run better than the ox, but the pack horse consumes more than the ploughing ox. After all, pack horses also need to be ** millet, and ploughing cattle only need to eat coarse material and medium millet. Horse farming is highly efficient and costly, so it is only suitable for situations where there are few people and more land...... Where there are Han people in this world, is there still a situation where there are fewer people and more land?

But this is the case in Liaodong now. Perhaps for others, war horses and pack horses are valuable war materials for the Han people; But Yanbei was suffering from the trouble of too many war horses and pack horses that were difficult to feed, if it weren't for the frustration of talking about the method of Tuntian, Yanbei would have been mentally prepared for the worst situation of killing horses and eating them.

"If it is true as the general said, as long as there are 3,000 pack horses, 8,000 field soldiers will be able to cultivate 3,000 hectares of new fields in the coming year!"

"Great goodness!" Yan Bei smiled contentedly, squinted his narrow eyes and smiled: "It would be better if we could reclaim more wasteland, take over the refugees and displaced people that the state government can't manage, send them land to let them settle down, and Yan will keep them peaceful, haha!" ”