At the east gate of Juancheng the next day, Li Dian brought dozens of people to wait here early. Soon Lu Ren arrived on horseback, and the two of them took these dozens of people out of the city gate.

As soon as people hit the road, Lu Ren and Li Dian inevitably had to talk. At this time, Lu Ren learned that Li Dian was actually only sixteen years old this year, and according to the habit of the ancients, he would not be seventeen years old in a month. In history, Li Dian died of illness at the age of thirty-six, and the specific date of birth and death is unknown, but Zhang Liao's Battle of Hefei occurred in the sixteenth year of Jian'an, that is, in 211 AD, and Li Dian should have died of illness one or two years after this battle. Now counted, Li Dian should have been about thirty-three or four years old when he fought this battle, which was the prime of men in ancient times.

As he spoke, Lu Ren obviously felt that Li Dian's attitude towards him had changed a little, and it should have gradually changed from yesterday's respect to the current respect. After a little hesitation, Lu Ren understood, because Li Dian was "knowledgeable, noble and elegant, and did not compete with the generals." Respect the wise men and doctors, if you can't do it".

Yesterday, Li Dian, as Lu Ren's subordinate, naturally had to show respect, but after this night, Li Dian repeatedly thought about the information and patterns he saw in Lu Ren, and he felt more and more that Lu Ren was not simple, so in Li Dian's eyes, Lu Ren became a figure like a wise man, and his attitude would naturally change.

Thinking of this, Lu Ren smiled at Li Dian and said: "Man Cheng, you are not as good as me in this matter of clearing up wasteland and building water conservancy; But I don't know anything about commanding the army and leading the battalion, and if I were to take care of it, I would definitely not be able to manage it, so when the time comes, I will leave it to you all the things that control the men and horses and let them do what they are ordered. ”

Li Dian bowed his hand: "Li Dian received the order, and he will definitely live up to the trust of the captain!" ”

Lu Ren waved his hand and smiled, and said secretly in his heart: "This is not bad, it can be regarded as a division of labor." I'm a complete layman when it comes to leading soldiers, and I'm sure I'm going to have problems without someone to help me. The problem is small, if I miss the matter of Tuntian, Cao Cao and Xun Yu may not know how to fix me. Even if they don't blame me for anything......"

Thinking of this, Lu Ren remembered the scene he saw near Dong'e that day, his brows couldn't help frowning, and he shook his head secretly: "You can't be a person who has no heart and lungs to that point." I can't do those big things, but I can do it if I leave some correct knowledge of agriculture so that people on this plane will be less hungry, or at least a little less like that. Now there is a Li Dian to help me deal with these things that I am not good at, so I can save trouble and worry, and at the same time focus on farming. Actually, I haven't farmed before, I'm just reading from the book, so I need to concentrate more energy and pay more attention. ”

Looking up at the sky again, Lu Ren then thought, "One year and eight months have passed in a flash, that is, twenty months, and in another twenty months, Shirley will be able to take me back." In the next time, I have to take good care of the fields, first make the results for others to see, and then I can really promote them, leaving behind the correct agricultural and water conservancy technology, so that the farmers at the present point can collect more grain, and will not 'cannibalism' when something happens...... Alas, when Cao Cao sent Emperor Xian to Xuchang and really began to promote the Tuntian system, I believe the effect will be better. ”

Li Dian said on the side: "Why did Captain Lu sigh lightly? ”

"Ah, nothing, just remembering a little bit of the past." Lu Ren quickly turned around. Because he deliberately wanted to have a good relationship with Li Dian, a good helper, Lu Ren smiled and said, "Man Cheng, don't always call me as a 'captain'." I'm twenty-three years old, and I'm seven years older than you, so if you don't mind, call me 'Brother Lu'." ”

Li Dian bowed his hand to Lu Renyi: "Since Brother Meng will not give up, Dian will not be pretentious." Brother Lu! ”

Lu Ren nodded, smiling without saying a word.

Li Dian looked at the direction in which his group was going, and then asked, "Brother Lu, where are we going?" ”

Lu Ren raised his whip and pointed: "Where is Tuntian enough for only a few hundred people you bring?" Originally, I wanted to ask Xun Gong to be transferred, but Xun Gong said that I wanted to recruit myself. I had no choice but to recruit myself before the beginning of spring. A few miles ahead was the place where the hungry had lived, and we went there to see if we could summon some hungry people who were willing to go to the fields. ”

Li Dian said "oh" to show his understanding, and immediately urged the people to speed up their pace.

To be honest, Lu Ren didn't have much expectation that he would recruit the displaced people, because Lu Ren knew that Cao Cao in history used a lot of coercive measures at the beginning of the implementation of the tuntian system. At that time, Cao Cao was politically welcoming the emperor, so he had political appeal; Militarily, he defeated Lu Bu and a bunch of miscellaneous soldiers and generals, so it had a military deterrent effect. But the problem is that the current Cao Cao doesn't have these two things, so how easy is it to recruit displaced people to Tuntian? If it weren't for these concerns, where would Lu Ren find Xun Yu and ask Xun Yu to transfer someone to him directly?

But things were really unexpected by Lu Ren. When they arrived at the ground, when they first said that they would recruit hungry refugees to go to Tuntian, many of the displaced people were indeed skeptical, and few dared to come over to apply. But when Lu Ren showed up the official official document and his name was revealed, as soon as everyone heard that it was Lu Ren who went to Xuzhou to buy grain with his own money, and also used music to "buy" grain from the Mi family to help the hungry, they immediately surrounded the homeless people in circles and circles.

In this regard, Lu Ren also understood it for a long time, why Xun Yu would say "don't look down on yourself" at that time, feeling that he has some popularity and appeal among these hungry homeless, at least at least, these homeless people also have a kind of "follow Lu Ren will have food". With these things as a foundation, it is really not difficult for Lu Ren to summon a few thousand people to farm, after all, the previous war and this year's locust drought have made everyone hungry.

You must know that the tax in the Han Dynasty was generally one-fifteenth, and even one-thirtieth at the least, but when Cao Cao was in Tuntian, he collected fifty percent or even sixty percent, but there were still people who were willing to do it, not because they were hungry and afraid, but because of what?

After only going to a few places with Li Dian, the number of people who were willing to follow Lu Ren to Tuntian had nearly exceeded 2,000, making Lu Ren dare not recruit anymore. It's not that Lu Ren doesn't want to summon more, but Xun Yu has given Lu Ren the bottom, and there is not much initial food that can be transferred to Lu Ren in the early stage of the trial, after all, Cao Cao still has to fight with Lu Bu here, and the food that has been plundered from Chen Di mainly has to be used as Cao Cao's military food.

Lu Ren calculated it, if the grain that Xun Yu transferred to him was calculated according to the basic rations, it would only be enough for 3,000 people to eat until the beginning of July next year, and Lu Ren himself was just reading from the script, and to put it mildly, he was planting on paper, so Lu Ren's own heart was very uncertain about whether he could plant well. In this case, for the sake of safety, Lu Ren locked the number of people in the trial tun at 2,000, plus the 500 guards led by Li Dian, that is, 2,500 people. In this way, the rations can be more or less relaxed, so that they will not be so tight.

After turning around and returning to Juancheng, Lu Ren invited Li Dian to his house for a light meal. After eating, sitting down in the study and drinking tea, Li Dian asked, "Brother Lu, what is your intention in arranging for the recruited displaced people to gather in the north of the city in three days today?" ”

Lu Ren took the pattern and unfolded: "What else can you do?" Of course, it was to rush to the time to try to dig a trench in the ground of the tun. ”

Li Dianqi said: "But it's still the middle of winter, and the ground is full of winter rain and snow. ”

Lu Ren explained: "It is precisely because there will be rain and snow everywhere that I have to make some preparations in advance at this time. Actually, I don't want to do this, but you also know that there has been a drought for a long time, and many fields have long been barren, so it may be too late to reopen the fields when we go back in the spring. In addition, it is also common sense to seize the time to build water conservancy in the autumn and winter, and we should take advantage of the fact that the snow has not yet melted this winter to quickly dig down some reservoirs for water storage, which will be of great benefit to the trial of the tun. ”

Li Dian nodded yes with an "oh", but Lu Ren secretly said in his heart: "You know a fart!" At most, I'm only halfway there. The information I got from the hungry people was fake, huh? Now the Central Plains has not been able to take rice as the main food crop, in addition to too unrestrained planting, the care of rice is far from enough, the biggest reason is the dry cultivation of rice! If people don't have enough water, they will become zombies, and rice that lacks water is called zombie rice. What can grow if it wilts? The main purpose of my current opening is to turn the dry fields into watery fields suitable for growing rice. ”

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Three days later, at the north gate of Juancheng, more than 2,000 hungry people had gathered. In these three days, in order to make these hungry people feel at ease, Lu Ren also asked Xun Yu to pull out the corresponding rations for these hungry people to eat, and at the same time asked Li Dian to bring the 500 guards to start controlling these hungry people accordingly.

Speaking of which, the number of people is certainly enough, but Lu Ren still has a headache, because the number of young and strong men among the more than 2,000 hungry people is not much, in other words, the main labor force is somewhat insufficient.

But Lu Ren knew that this was a helpless thing. Up to now, the world has been in turmoil and strife for many years, and it is not uncommon for many young and strong men from all over the country to be forcibly conscripted into the army. And the previous two disasters broke out, and when the young and strong fled the famine, they had to flee farther than the others, so of course the only ones left to beg for food were some crooked melons and bad dates.

In addition, Cao Cao is preparing to raise troops to attack Lü Bu again, and the young and strong soldiers in Juancheng, Fanxian, and Dong'e are basically transferred, and the rest must also guard the city and cannot be easily transferred. The peasants who have their own land, or those who are the landlords' families, can't be mobilized, and that's all Lu Ren can recruit.

However, looking at the five hundred guards led by Li Dian, Lu Renzhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Anyway, this is also 500 young people, and when necessary, you can put your hand on these 500 young people. Maybe Cao Cao and Xun Yu will arrange for Li Dian to bring these five hundred people, which itself has this meaning in it, right?

Thinking of this, Lu Ren's depressed mood when he saw his two thousand Tuntian people who were not like words was also swept away, and the person pretended to be 13 on the horse and pointed at the whip, and shouted: "Everyone listen to the order, go!" ”