Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 166 Ma Zheng and Conditions

After the army rushed to Xiazhou, it did not stay, but transferred to Yinzhou, where Shao Dashuai is now.

Shao Shude has been in Yinzhou for several days.As one of the two important grain production bases of the Dingnan Army, Yinzhou has just finished the autumn harvest.

It is difficult to know the specific data. After all, there are not so many people to make statistics, and the people may not tell you the truth, for fear that you will collect more taxes.However, including military farms, there are 60 hectares in total.Although the quality of the [-] hectares is unknown due to the conquest of Lingzhou, Song Le said with confidence that the annual harvest of [-] dendrobium of millet and wheat is not a problem, which is a huge increase from last year. After all, a large number of nests When the people were distributed to the land, many small tribes of the Dangxiang were also organized into households, and the population and fields had explosive growth.

However, the yield per mu is less than one stone, or even nine buckets. This result is still very uncomfortable.In Lingzhou, the yield per mu is not a problem at all. Yinzhou's achievements, alas, it seems that the war has still affected agricultural production!

After the autumn harvest, the common people planted another wave of miscellaneous grains with a short growth period, hoping to have a good harvest this time.Before Lingzhou came to the top, Suizhou and Yinzhou were their own granaries.

As for the granary, Sui and Yinzhou will build a granary city this winter, which can store 15 hu of grain, although it is not yet known where the grain comes from.If the piles are not full, it will be too ugly.

"Song Governor, there is no need to develop the land of Yinzhou." In the Yinchuan Ranch, Shao Shude threw the reins to the soldiers, and said to Song Le: "There are so many households, and there are not many people, but they are only in the early [-]s. It’s boring. I know that Yinzhou still has a lot of idle land, so I’ll sell it to the common people slowly in the future. There are [-] to [-] households, and there are usually one person in Dingkou, one person in Zhongkou, and one or two people in Xiaokou. How much land can be cultivated? The burden on the people of the state is the heaviest among the six prefectures in Dingnan. From now on, the focus will be on Lingzhou, and most of the newcomers will be resettled in the six counties and two cities of Lingzhou. Mr. Song, you can take a rest, these Years of hard work."

Shao Shude recently added the title of Deputy Jiedu to Song Le, not to let him be his staff, but to pay him a salary.

The annual salary of the deputy envoy of Jiedu is 1800 yuan, plus the salary of 720 yuan for the governor of Yinzhou, it is more than 500 yuan a year.Of course, it is impossible for Song Le to put all this money in his bag. In fact, he is still a supporter and an aide, and his expenses are not small, but generally speaking, wealth is not a problem.

Mr. Song developed Suizhou for himself, and then presided over the reclamation of Yinzhou. He has made great achievements and must be rewarded generously.

"I'm afraid I can't rest. Since the commander-in-chief is interested in Ma Zheng, I have to settle this matter before I can rest." Song Le said.

Shao Shude had thought about the matter of Ma Zheng for a long time.

He comes from later generations, of course he knows that there are many excellent horse breeds in this world.And good horses can be bred.In fact, the Central Plains Dynasty has been trying to breed good horse breeds, probably since the Han Dynasty, but it has not been very successful.

Shao Shude has a vision for a 30-year horse administration, inspired by later generations of Japan

Japan's native Zalai horse was first introduced to Japan from North Korea. In fact, it is the most common horse on the grasslands in the north of the mainland.However, after long-term breeding on the Japanese archipelago, they adapted to the local environment and evolved into Japanese horses.

The height of the Japanese horse is only 135 cm at the withers.The military horses of the great powers in the same period generally had a shoulder height of 157-162 cm, which was too much.

Moreover, not only the height difference is more than 20 centimeters, but the military horses of the great powers are also 70 kg heavier than the Japanese military horses.The running speed is 28 kilometers per hour for military horses of great powers, and 18 kilometers for Japanese horses.There is also a big gap in traction capacity. For a cannon of the same tonnage, six Russian horses can easily pull it away, while eight Japanese horses are very difficult.

Moreover, European and American military horses are gentle and obedient, while Japanese horses are more tempered, violent and noisy, frequently kicking the carriages or grooms.If there is no castration, they will chase fillies wildly and disrupt the formation during the battle, and are criticized as "disobedient beasts".

The Yinchuan Ranch is the backup of the Hexi Ranch in the early years of the Kingdom of China. The horse breed is a localized breed of Qinghai Cong (Hequ horse). It is taller, heavier and of better quality than the horse used by Li Ke in Hedong, but the overall difference is not the same. Big, maybe even tiny.

What Shao Shude meant was to breed and improve.As a martial artist, he is still a little obsessed with high-headed war horses with strong impact.When fighting against enemy cavalry, it would be perfect to ride a horse that is stronger in shoulder height, weight, speed, explosive power, and impact than the enemy, and usually ride a local horse that is resistant to rough feeding.

The Japanese relied on 26 purebred Arabian horses donated by Napoleon III, and began to crossbreed with a large number of local horses in 1906 for breed improvement. This process lasted 18 years.Later, they selected horses from these horses that could adapt to the local climate of Japan and have good durability for breeding. This process lasted another 12 years.

After 30 years of horse breed improvement and breeding, the result was a great success. The shoulder height of the army horse reached 160 cm, and it can adapt to the local climate.During the war of aggression against China, Japan invested 24 of these "Oriental horses" in the Chinese battlefield, which were very useful. After our party captured them, all ministries would fight for them.

Shao Shude remembered that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty did not hesitate to go on an expedition to the Western Regions in order to obtain the bloody BMW.But this kind of horse has disappeared in Datang, and there may be various reasons.If possible, Shao Shude still wants to get Arabian horses, after all, there are examples of successful horse management in Japan.I just don't know if any Hu merchants are willing to bring this kind of horse over if they pay a lot of money.

Not much, more than ten horses are enough!
Before that, you can only select and breed by yourself.From generation to generation, horses with outstanding shoulder height, speed, and endurance are selected, and the tall ones are found among the short ones.

"Song Inspector, Yinchuan ranch has a vegetarian meal for human corpses. I will give you full authority to register the genealogy of horses." Shao Shude confessed: "The current horse records are too crude, only remembering the age, teeth and coat color. What's the use of that? You have to register the family tree like a human being, so that people can know which two horses gave birth to a horse. As the saying goes, good horses will naturally breed good horses, and bad horses can only breed bad horses.”

"Marshal, this matter..." Song Le said with a wry smile, "I will do my best, and I need to increase my manpower."

"It's natural. If there is a shortage of people, it's enough to recruit, and there is no exception."

Like martial arts, Ma Zheng is also a long-term plan, and Shao Shude is not sure whether he will see the results in his lifetime.But as long as you persevere and invest continuously, you will always succeed.Big deal, as a gift for my son.

It is rare for me to come to the late Tang Dynasty for a walk, and I always want to leave something for this nation.Martial arts and horse politics have already started or are about to start, and the rest will be done slowly. I don't have enough human and financial resources.

"Marshal, there is an urgent message from the Xiazhou Watching Department." While chatting with Song Le about the number of farm cattle, Feng Yin, the tenth personal soldier, suddenly came over and reported.

Shao Shude took the urgent mail, carefully looked at the seal first, and then opened it for reading.

"Inspector Song, you should also take a look at this one. Wang Chongrong felt the pressure and asked about our intention." Shao Shude handed the secret letter to Song Le and said.

There are two confidential letters.One was sent back by Hezhong Ma Xing, which mentioned the thing about Hedong.Li Keyong couldn't swallow his breath after being swayed by Zhu Wen. He was selecting elite soldiers, "gathering all the barbarians", and preparing to attack Zhu Wen.

Speaking of the towns in the north, there are two people who like to "gather together all the barbarians" when fighting. One is Li Keyong, and the other is naturally Shao.Li Keyong often recruited Shatuo and the five Hu people from the north to go south, and there were a lot of Dangxiang Qiang soldiers in Shao's volunteer army.One Hu, one Qiang, I don't know who is better.

Why does Li Keyong like to use Huren?In fact, the reason is very simple, low cost.As long as you promise them that they can plunder at will, you don't even need to give rewards, or you can only pay very little.Although the Hedong Yajun has a good combat power, but the arrogant soldiers still ask for money, and the maintenance cost is too high.

The other one is the news from Wang Si's own inquiry.Faced with Tian Lingzi's pressure, Wang Chongrong asked Li Keyong for help, but Li Keyong was not very willing for the time being, and still wanted to fuck Zhu Wen first.Ren Yuji wrote at the end that Wang Chongrong is likely to send envoys to Xiazhou, or offer conditions to cite him for help.

"Marshal, the imperial court may order Xia soldiers to go south to seek Wang Chongrong." Song Le said.

"What conditions can the court offer?"

"What does the handsome want?"

"People and places."

"Marshal, this is difficult. After all, the imperial court is in Chang'an, so how can we sit back and watch the Dingnan army become stronger?" Song Le said with a wry smile: "It is the limit to let the Dingnan army increase the number of Ling, Yan, and Hui prefectures, and most of them will not." possible."

What Song Le said was the truth.

In the eyes of the imperial court, Wang Chongrong who withheld the salt interest is certainly hateful, but isn't the Dingnan army with tens of thousands of troops terrible?Don't say that loyal ministers are not loyal ministers.People will change. If you are a loyal minister now, will you be a loyal minister in the future?Or are you loyal to the court but not to the saint?Abandoning the emperor, the eunuchs can do this, can't the commander-in-chief not do it?
The strength of the Dingnan army is already the first in the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing.The battle of discussing Shuofang was leveled in a few months, wouldn't the imperial court be worried?Are not the towns terrified?
Shao Shude feels that he is a loyal minister, but the court thinks you are loyal and treacherous!
Strength is the original sin, unless you spit out the two states of spiritual salt, cut off half of the soldiers and horses, and give up control of the party and tribes.Otherwise, Shao is more dangerous than Li Keyong, at least in the eyes of the court.

Of course, it is impossible for the imperial court to decide what to do with the difficult army, and it is not so necessary.Most of their thinking now is to strike a balance and let the towns check each other.If anyone is too rebellious, use power to call on all towns to discuss it.

Li Keyong summoned the Dingnan Army, Xuanwu Army, Zhenwu Army, Tiande Army, Datong Army, Youzhou Army, and Chengde Army to beg him with Jieao—good guy, Li Keyong has so many enemies!

When the Dingnan army became rebellious, they called on the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing and the Hedong army to discuss it together. At that time, more than [-] elite soldiers would overwhelm them, and even Shao could not hold them back.

"Does the commander want to help Tian Lingzi or Wang Chongrong?" Song Le asked straightforwardly.

"Inspector Song, what does Lingxia need?" Shao Shude asked back.

"There is no shortage of land, but there is a shortage of Han people."

"So how do we get the Han people? Help Tian Lingzi invade the river and rob the Han people in the river? Or help Wang Chongrong conquer the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing and get the Han people in Guanzhong?"

Neither seems to be good.Song Le shook his head.

"The commander-in-chief is playing the banner of killing the people. If the people don't want to leave and forcibly looting, it will hurt their reputation." Song Le analyzed carefully: "We can only wait until the two armies are at war and the people flee one after another. Let’s collect it. Maybe we can set up an army in Danzhou, wait and see, and wait for the price to sell?”

"On the other hand, if you want to attract a large number of Han people to Lingzhou, you will need a lot of money and food for at least the first year. Marshal, where does this money and food come from?" Song Le asked again.

"Money is useless, and there is no shortage of livestock. There is no food and no farm tools!" Shao Shude said.

"Then let's see what conditions Wang Chongrong offered? If grain can be produced, it would be convenient to ship from Hezhong to Lingzhou. Wang Chongrong also has money, so he can buy all kinds of utensils in Hezhong, Hedong, and Shanguo to make up for the shortage. "Song Le said.

It is convenient to have the Yellow River water transportation.The river leads directly to Lingzhou, and it is estimated that it will take less than two months to reach it, and the cost is still very low.If Wang Chongrong can produce 30 hu grains, he can support [-] to [-] immigrant households until their first crop of grain is harvested.

30 dendrobium grains, according to Xiasui's grain price, is only 15 yuan.Wang Chongrong can afford it, and it seems that it is not expensive when he is saving his life.But Dashuai Wang has money, not necessarily food, this is a problem.

"Let's see what Wang Chongrong's idea is first." Shao Shude finally said: "We are not in a hurry. This year, more than [-] war horses, draft horses, pack horses, and riding horses have been sold. It has only been seven or eight months. Continue. Do business. Perhaps, people from the imperial court will come to the door first."

(End of this chapter)