Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1567 Immigrants
When Gao Chongnian and others arrived in Hezhou, the craftsmen and immigrants who set out earlier than them had already arrived in Dunhuang.

There were not many people in this group, only a few hundred households, they came from Hedong, and were escorted by hundreds of warriors - when they arrived in Gaochang, they would be transferred to Anxi town soldiers on the spot.

Dunhuang is now almost a giant meat processing factory.

A head of cattle and sheep is slaughtered, and then the red meat is taken out and dried repeatedly.

This process is very long, even if it can be heated, it will still take several months.

Therefore, the jerky processed by the workers is all cattle and sheep slaughtered last year.After a long drying time, only a fraction of the weight remains.

I saw many people holding wooden sticks and beating the jerky repeatedly.

The dried meat that has been pounded is then sent to the next process for grinding.

All the grinding tools were used, such as stone mill, water mill or even manual grinding, and a large amount of finely ground jerky was obtained.

The jerky was further squeezed until it was unpressurable and became very solid. Then it was stuffed into sealed jars and transported westward by vehicles or pack animals.

High-intensity material transfer work has been going on for a year.There are not even enough jars here in Dunhuang, and now all the floss-like jerky made are stuffed into the bladders of pigs, cattle and sheep, and transported to the front line.

The consumption of the war is real, and this is also the main reason why the imperial court has been unable to immigrate to the Western Regions on a large scale.After finally reducing the number of front-line soldiers and squeezing out some resources, it was only a small taste of relocation of less than [-] people, including many literati, craftsmen, officials and their families.

And these people are not very satisfied with immigrating to Gaochang, let alone Yanqi, Tingzhou, Qiuci and other places in the west.

This is reality, brutal and cold.

On March [-]th, Zhao Wang Shao Siwu returned from the west to Dunhuang, intending to take his family to Gaochang, and meet all kinds of people who came to join him.

"Your Highness!"

"See Your Highness!"

In the courtyard of the farm outside Dunhuang, a group of people hula la came forward to salute.

Shao Siwu took a rough look, and there were about dozens of them, all of whom were invited by the people below after selection. They were of different ages, but most of them were very young.

There were also a few Tibetans, and Shao Siwu was familiar with them, so he smiled and nodded.

The Murong family of Tuyuhun in Shazhou and the Luoge family of Uighur medicine in Guazhou have been following Shao Siwu to discuss Gaochang in the past few years, so the relationship is naturally unusual.

"Everyone has traveled a long distance, and you have worked hard all the way." Shao Siwu bowed and saluted, and then said: "Let's stay in Dunhuang for a few days. After everything is settled, we will go west. From now on, we need to help each other and endure for the country. I know At this moment, everyone still has doubts in their hearts, and it is useless for me to talk about it, so I will only mention one point, if I have a bite to eat, everyone will definitely eat."

After speaking, look at everyone.

There was a moment of silence in the arena, and then someone said, "Actually, before I left, I knew that there was nothing in the Western Regions. Even with the help from the imperial court, the first days are definitely not as comfortable as at home. But I have hands and feet, and I have practiced." With ten years of martial arts, as long as His Highness still has great ambitions, this day will not be too bad."

"Your Highness, there is no need to feel embarrassed. Before leaving Guanzhong, there was even more outrageous rumors, saying that there is not enough food and people eat human flesh. Although I don't believe it, I also know that there is not enough money in the west. So I have come, so why worry Your Highness? Take us to grab it, everything will be there."

"I wanted to stay in Guanzhong, but when I thought about being a servant for the rest of my life, sweeping the courtyard, I couldn't swallow this breath. I also want to be a master, rob him of seventeen or eight women, and let the thieves sweep them for me. Horse manure. Your Highness, let us do it."

"That's right, take us to do it. Lying on the ice and eating snow is nothing, it's helpless if you can't see hope."

Rao is in his thirties and has a lot of experience, so he will not be easily moved, but after hearing what the sons said, Shao Siwu was still emotional, and said: "Good! Good! They are all good sons. My father said in the past When fighting in formation, the sergeant flees, beheads the sergeant, the deputy general flees, beheads the lieutenant general, ten generals flee, beheads ten generals, I flee, please behead me. I am the son of Shao’s family, and I will do it myself. From now on, Everyone is brothers who live together and die together, whoever dares to flee in front of the battle will be punished together."

When the crowd heard this, they cheered loudly: "The robbers! The robbers!"

In the small courtyard, the sound waves soared into the sky.

******
"Your Highness, does Fengguo have any plans?" Liu Mian asked in a low voice on the road leading to Yizhou.

"I have told my father the whole plan." Shao Siwu said.

He rode a black horse, and his wife and children sat in a carriage.

The convoy is very long, stretching out for several miles.In addition to his family, there were also some members of the Hexi clan, such as the Li family, the Yin family, the Suo family, the Zhang family, the Cao family, etc. There were still hundreds of people.

He even invited his acquaintances and friends from Chang'an and Luoyang to travel west together.After the feudal state is established in the future, there will be indispensable supporters. The shortage of supporting officials needed from the Sixth Central Department to local prefectures and counties alone is enough to give him a headache-it is always good to have one more person to follow.

"What did the saint say?" Liu Mian asked.

"The saint supports everything I do." Shao Siwu lowered his head and said with emotion.

In this world, the only ones who can truly be for you are your parents.

Liu Mian pondered silently for a moment, and then said: "Actually, it depends on how this year's war will go. If it goes well, there will be no worries. If not, things will be very difficult."

"In mid-February, Taichangcheng Li Shouxin left Gaochang and went to Shule. He accompanied hundreds of people, mighty and mighty." Shao Siwu smiled and said: "This is a dead end, and it is difficult for uncles and nephews to deal with. .”

Since the Uighur envoy Altai arrived in Gaochang in November last year, he has been urging the imperial court to send people to Shule for consultation.The sage delayed until the beginning of February on the grounds that the end of the year was approaching. Then he agreed to the matter and sent people to Shule for "investigation".

Such procrastination is also to buy time for myself.

Fighting in the Western Regions is like fighting with someone with a serious illness. After a while, you will be out of breath and need to take a break.After recovering, proceed to the next step.

What's more, now there is a good opportunity to divide and disintegrate the enemy, so it is natural to make full use of it.So he procrastinated for a while to give the Uyghur internal fermentation time, and at the same time he seized the time to hoard supplies, reorganize his troops, and prepare for the battle.

After Li Shouxin arrived in Shule, he, who was on a mission, would naturally make troubles and make troubles, further intensifying the internal contradictions of the Uyghurs. We will have to wait and see what will happen then.

"Some games are really difficult to solve." Liu Mian said with a smile: "His Royal Highness's first priority is to cooperate with the saints to fight this battle well. If possible, talk to the warriors, win them over as much as possible, and let as many people as possible." People stay."

The "warrior" mentioned in Liu Mian's words, of course, refers to the tens of thousands of people handed over by the sage.

The army is handed over to you, but whether they are willing to stay is another matter. After all, not everyone is willing to eat sand in the Western Regions.

"This is indeed the top priority." Shao Siwu sighed.

The sage now allows him to take charge of the army, and even encourages him to cultivate a private army, but this is not an easy matter.

Veterans want it, rookies want it, and the children of the big families who came over also want it. How to knead these people into a whole is a test of his level.Moreover, it will take time, it will not happen overnight.

"It takes half a century to travel a hundred miles. This is the end of the matter, and there is no turning back." Liu Mian said: "Win people's hearts, cultivate party members, make more military exploits, and increase prestige, Your Highness will remember."

Shao Siwu nodded.

"Sage, you must go more often and say hello. You are a son, and it is only natural for a son to be filial to his father. When a saint is old, he attaches great importance to family affection. Walking around more will only be beneficial, and will not be a bad thing." Liu Mian said again exhorted.

"With Mr.'s help, great things will come to an end." Shao Siwu turned around on horseback and saluted respectfully.

Liu Mian turned sideways and sighed slightly.

Zhao Wang's behavior reminded him of Zhu Youyu back then.The world is impermanent, the sea is changing, this time he can't fail again...

******
Outside the city of Gaochang, the craftsmen who arrived first had already set up the stove, clanging together.

"Northern History" mentioned that Gaochang has magnets, so the quality of the iron knives made is high.

Regardless of the relationship between iron knives and magnets, it is also a fact that Gaochang's iron smelting industry is relatively prosperous.After the first batch of Central Plains craftsmen arrived, they were given land immediately, and all of them were good land close to wells and canals—Gaochang never lacked land, only water, and land irrigated by wells and canals was always valuable.

Later, the imperial court conscripted laborers to build houses for them, set up stoves, and began to forge all kinds of ironware.

The fuel needed for iron smelting is still charcoal for the time being, the same as the local blacksmiths in Gaochang.

Considering the arid natural environment here, logging needs to go to the mountains in the north, the journey is relatively long and the cost is high.If there is an opportunity in the future, it will still be replaced by coal.

Shao Shude heard rumors from local people in Gaochang that some mountains were often caught on fire, and thick smoke came out of the caves. After sending people to investigate, it was confirmed that coal spontaneously ignited.

This shows that there are coal mines of a certain scale in the local area, which solves the source problem.

Of course, Xiuwu is the only place in Daxia that currently uses coal to smelt iron to make weapons, and charcoal is still used in other places to ensure quality.

Today, under Shao Shude's repeated preaching, although the craftsmen can't prove it, they have gradually believed that it is the impurities contained in the coal that affect the ironmaking.Moreover, there is not no side evidence, such as yellow smoke, etc., but there is no conclusive evidence.

On this kind of matter, Shao Shude didn't want to say more, because he didn't have any evidence.

For many years, he has been advocating a style of seeking truth from facts, asking people to look at things with a rigorous attitude and to use logical thinking as much as possible.If there is no evidence, it cannot be fully believed, even if it seems to be true.

Back then, the blacksmiths of the Wei family put forward the "hypothesis" that coal impurities affect the quality of ironware, but because they couldn't prove it, they never received the "Xia Wang Award".

But with more and more external evidence, craftsmen began to gradually recognize this hypothesis, and tried to find ways to remove impurities in coal, including but not limited to roasting, smoldering and so on.

This processed "coal" has been used in the last year.How should I put it, a batch of ironware was made, the quality of which was much better than that of smelting untreated coal, but not as good as using charcoal.

As for the reason, we have to continue to search.Maybe it's the quality of the coal itself, maybe it's the process, maybe it's a problem with the design of this "controlled experiment".

Shao Shude didn't think much when he first heard about it, but he was very happy when he learned that Wei's blacksmith shop actually spent money to conduct a controlled experiment.

Whether it will be coked or not is nothing, even a trivial matter.But this kind of logical thinking ability is the most precious.Extending to the dimension of the entire history, promoting this kind of logical thinking as much as possible, allowing more people to use logic to think about various things in daily life, will promote the progress of the entire country and nation, which is much stronger than any invention.

After learning that the craftsmen trained by the Wei family had learned superficial mathematics, Shao Shude strengthened his mind: there is nothing better than mathematics to exercise logical thinking ability.

Going back to the original topic, the arrival of the blacksmiths from the Central Plains is bound to slowly increase the production capacity of the logistics base in Gaochang.Not just weapons, but also farm tools.

On the sixth day of March, Shao Shude, who went out to inspect the city, looked at the plowshares cast in the newly opened blacksmith shop, and at the wells and ditches dug after the autumn harvest last year, and said: "Since I hit the yellow nest back then, I have been farming and fighting. I have been going around for 30 years, and I am still using this strategy. It is really a trick that is not afraid of old age, as long as it is easy to use."

"With so many blacksmiths coming over, the barbarians in Gaochang might be smiling crookedly," said Xu Hao, the deputy privy envoy who followed him closely.

"The people of Gaochang are also my children, so why should we treat them differently?" Shao Shude said, "From next month onwards, the Zhenbing family will move in one after another, and they can use these iron tools."

Xu Hao will be fully responsible for the formation of the Anxi Town Army.The sergeant is not a problem, 6000 people are basically in place, and the next job is mainly to resettle the family members.

Houses, land, and water canals, these three things are necessary, otherwise the families of the warriors will not be able to farm and survive.

Six thousand sergeants are basically six thousand households.After increasing the population by so much, the household registration of Xizhou will exceed 8 people, reaching the stage limit.

Next, the imperial court will not deliberately immigrate to Xizhou.Yizhou (Hami) may resettle a group of normal people to improve its supply and reception capacity, but the focus will be transferred to Tingzhou and Yanqi Prefecture.

The foundation of the Western Regions is weak, and the court's ability to project is limited. If these two places can be managed well, the initial goal has been achieved.

Some things, to put it simply and roughly, are actually snowballing.

Why is Liaodong immigration relatively simple?Because Hebei, which the common people pass through, is the most affluent area in Daxia. At the same time, there are survivors from Bohai Sea in Liaodong. Their cities face each other and have a household registration of millions. They can squeeze out a lot of surplus resources to help new immigrants.And when the immigrants can sustain themselves, the taxes they pay can feed back more immigrants, snowballing repeatedly, and continuous development, causing profound changes in Liaodong every year.

But the foundation of the Western Regions is too poor.What needs to be done now is to increase the base number, and only then can there be pleasing exponential changes, gradually turning into kingly soil.

Meals need to be eaten in one bite, and some things have more haste than speed.

(End of this chapter)