Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 286 Lingzhou on the Return Journey

In Huile County, Lingzhou, Cheng Rui and Han Jian were transcribing materials in the stalls.Well, their educational level is limited, so of course they copied it by handwriting.

Cheng Rui has already abandoned the pseudonym Guo Yu. After all, he changed it when he committed the crime, and now it has reached Lingxia. No one can hold him accountable, so why not restore his real name?

Appreciated by the king of Lingwu County, Cheng Rui was appointed governor of Yanzhou to preside over the land reclamation affairs of Yanzhou, intending to develop this "inland" state and county, which had been neglected for many years, into a money and grain base with a certain grain production capacity.

The king of Lingwu County has already said that Yanzhou has a mediocre foundation and does not need to be developed very well. Just finish what needs to be done and stop leaving a large area of ​​waste like it is now.The agricultural management method is parallel farming and animal husbandry, but there is no way to solve the source of beef cattle for them, because they are all sent to Lingzhou, and they have to find a way.

Cheng Rui has been in office for more than four months. He traveled all over large and small villages and pastures in Yanzhou to learn more about the local people's conditions.Although it was the first time he had heard of the method of farming and animal husbandry proposed by the marshal, after thinking about it carefully, it was very suitable for the people in the northwest.

The land is vast and sparsely populated, with a lot of land and a small population, as it should be.

In fact, intensive farming is very difficult to achieve, otherwise the average yield per mu would not be only one dendrobium.Unless your family only has a few acres or a dozen acres of land, and you can spend a lot of energy on tending the crops, otherwise you don't have the energy at all, and you can only manage extensively, planting extensively and harvesting little.

In the early years of the Guo Dynasty, Ding Nan granted [-] mu of land, of which [-] mu was Yongye land, which was given to you by the imperial court and could be bought and sold freely.There are another [-] mu of land, which will be taken back by the government after death and granted to others.One hundred acres of land, can you tell me how to cultivate it intensively?Even in the Tianbao period, the household registration increased greatly, but as far as the north is concerned, it is common for men to have [-] to [-] mu of land, and it is still impossible to cultivate intensively.

Also in the south of the Yangtze River, such as western Zhejiang (Southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang), the average household in the Yuanhe period was [-] mu of land, which made it possible to cultivate intensively and harvest two crops a year, one crop of rice and one crop of wheat. There are only five or six dendrobium per mu.However, it consumes too much manpower, and it is unrealistic to rely on intensive cultivation to increase production.

But completely extensive management is not enough, then the yield per mu can be reduced to a few buckets for you, and it is troublesome to harvest, and you can't be busy at all.

Therefore, there is a balance point between intensive farming and rough management, which is the best profit point, which is about [-] mu per household.Harvesting [-] to [-] dendrobiums of millet and wheat and more than [-] dendrobiums of miscellaneous grains a year is similar to the income of more than [-] mu of farmland under intensive cultivation, but it is easy for people, and at the same time, it is much higher than the rough management of extensive planting and thin harvest.

"Han Shijun, how is the wheat harvest of the [-] households in Lingzhou this year?" Cheng Rui sat at the table with a pot of brewed tea on it, looking very leisurely.

"According to what Li Pushe said, two bushels and three buckets of wheat were harvested per mu, and nearly fifty bushels were harvested in a twenty-mu wheat field," Han Jian said.

Two consecutive years of high production have proved that this model is feasible.On [-] mu of land, [-] mu of wheat is planted, and [-] dendrobium is harvested. After the autumn harvest, some miscellaneous grains can be planted, and about [-] dendrobium can be harvested; [-] mu of beans, harvested twice, yields more than [-] dendrobiums; Mu Dawan raises cattle with alfalfa, and the annual milk production is not small. The farm produces a lot of cheese, which can be sold for profit after eating by the family.Not to mention, the cow itself is a resource, and slaughtering a cow is a big gain in terms of family income.

There is a large surplus of agricultural products, which can support the people in the city who are not directly engaged in agricultural labor, which is the pre-foundation for the development of industry and commerce.

"In the counties of Huile, Baojing, and Huaiyuan, [-] households have implemented this method of crop rotation this year?" Cheng Rui asked again.

"Yes. According to the officials of the shogunate, there are actually more than [-] households. The extra ones are sergeants, military academies, and officials' families who have more money, and they buy cattle directly from various ministries on the grassland." Han Jian sighed: "If the land is not close to the grassland, How can there be as many cows?"

Cheng Rui nodded yes.He was captured by Li Kan in Jingnan and was supposed to be beheaded, but the Lingwu County King asked him by name, so the whole family was sent here.In the land of Jingnan, rice and wheat are rotated, and a family is exhausted, and it is enough to manage [-] mu of land, and the annual harvest of rice and wheat is more than [-] dendrobium, which is equivalent to the harvest of the [-] farmers.But they still get a lot of milk a year, slaughter two more cows every year, and get a lot of meat. The horns, tendons, and hides can also be sold for money, but the income is more than that of Jiangnan.

It is a well-deserved reputation for being on the south of the Yangtze River!
King Lingwu is also patient enough.First, spend three years to try planting at the farmers of Longxing Temple.After the success, it was slowly promoted in Lingzhou and other places, but it will take the third year to bear fruit.

Really have patience!Doing things is really down-to-earth, dedicated to the people, and worthy of—er, an artifact.

******
Near the Bogulu Canal in the southeast of Lingzhou, Xie Tong looked at the farmland all over the place with complicated emotions.

After being taken back to Bianzhou, Zhu Quanzhong was very enthusiastic about him, often had banquets and rewarded him a lot.But how should I put it, there is no place for someone Xie next to King Wu Xing.The number one counselor is Jing Xiang, the second counselor is Li Zhen, and as for Xie Tong, he got an official position as an envoy of the Bozhou Regiment, but this is just an idle official.

In order to reflect his own value, Xie Tong volunteered and proposed to visit Lingxia to get a feel for the status of Lingwu County King and see what the potential of this formidable enemy is.

After Zhu Quanzhong hesitated for a while, he agreed, and selected some elites from Tabai Capital to join a caravan to go to Lingxia to spy on information.

They walked from Guanzhong, and the first stop was Yanzhou.However, there was nothing to report along the way, there were a lot of cattle and sheep, there was very little farmland, and the household registration was not abundant, which made Xie Tong feel a little relieved.

However, after entering Lingzhou, his three views were greatly challenged.

The extremely neat farmland is pleasing to the eye, but there is always "grass" planted in it.Xie Tong didn't know what kind of grass it was, only that it was for livestock to eat.

The livestock pen was built on the edge of the farmland, surrounded by low fences, and twenty cows were kept in it.

This will coincide with Shenshi, and every household opens the wooden gate of the cattle pen.Without their driving, one after another of the cows walked slowly into the "grass" field, eating and chewing.

Some even stretched while eating, eating happily and stretching happily.

Cow dung, Xie Tong still knows, it is quite valuable.The king of Wuxing County was in charge of horse administration in Henan. The horse dung produced in the ranch has always been a great income for the officials of the herdsman, so that it was ridiculed as "eating dung".But earning money is not shabby.

Xie Tong gestured, and Xie Yanzhang, who was selling goods at the intersection, understood, pulled a farmer and asked, "May I ask what is the grass in this field?"

"Dawan alfalfa." The farmer said while picking the silk: "This grass is good. It grows three times a year, and it must weigh several thousand catties. It is also strange. With so much grass, the land is not poor. Planting wheat in the next year will yield more than two dendrobium per mu."

"Two dendrobiums?" Xie Tong was a little surprised when he heard that, and asked, "Is it really possible to collect so much?"

"The farmers of Longxing Temple have harvested two dendrobiums and three or four buckets in the past two years. After harvesting the wheat and planting some miscellaneous grains, they can still harvest a lot. We plant in the first year, and we don't know how the harvest will be after three years, but it should not be bad." Farmer He said without raising his head.

"What's the reason?" Xie Tong asked a little uneasy.

"Have you seen the dung?" The farmer finally raised his head and said, "If the dung from twenty cows is piled up and put in the field, will the land not be fertile?"

Xie Tong understood somewhat, but felt that it was more than that, and there were probably other reasons.

"Which master came up with this idea?"

"Naturally, it is the king of Lingwu County." The farmer's wrinkled face finally showed some expressions, and he said: "Our farmer's family just points to the soil to eat. The king of Lingwu County is blessed by God , came up with this method, as long as it works, we can't wait to set up a shrine for him."

Granted by God, of course, is nonsense.This method was not conceived by Shao Shude, but a product of the accumulation and development during the agricultural revolution in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

With this method, the agricultural output in Western Europe has tripled in more than a hundred years. The secret is that two consecutive years of fallow and leguminous crops have fixed nitrogen from the atmosphere, adding additional nitrogen to the soil.At the same time, through the cow dung, a considerable part of the nutrients absorbed by the crops during growth is returned to the field.

Moreover, this fallow is not a fallow in the literal sense. In fact, by planting beans and alfalfa, additional harvests can be obtained, and at the same time, nitrogen elements are added to the soil, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

In addition, rotating different crops can also reduce pests and diseases and further increase production.Farmers can also reasonably adjust the planting ratio of different crops according to the prices of various agricultural products, instead of a single grain, which is a bit like market-oriented commodity agriculture.

A final benefit is that mixed farming practices are more resilient in the event of disasters.

"Sixty mu of land, the harvest of grains and beans is no less than that of whole-planted corn and wheat, and there is also meat and milk output..." After the farmers left, Xie Tong muttered.

In Henan and Hebei, almost all the corn and wheat are planted in the fields, and they are planted every year without stopping.The more the land is planted, the poorer it is, and it is not easy to maintain the yield of one dendrobium per mu.In the land of Lingxia, the customs are so different!

"Xie Shijun, if this is true, can you try it in Huaixi?" Xie Yanzhang came over and asked.

"I'm afraid it won't work. You can't find a few cattle in a single village. The king of Wuxing County is still worrying about raising loans for the official cattle. It is impossible to reach Lingxia's level." Xie Tong shook his head and said.

While the two were talking, the village suddenly became lively. It turned out that a family was going to kill a cow.It is said that when it was bought from the grassland, it was an old cow, and it had reached the end of its life.

Xie Tong wanted to laugh when he heard it, but it was normal when he thought about it, people have their limits, and so do cows.

"Let's go and have a look." Xie Tong pulled Xie Yanzhang onto a dirt road and walked towards the village.

On the left side of the dirt road is a cattle pen.This family seems to be particular about cutting the alfalfa from the field to feed the cattle.While chewing and eating, the cow looked at Er Xie with innocent eyes.

There is also a family on the right, asking the neighbors if they have turnip seeds.Turnips can still grow slowly in winter, and they can be planted after harvesting miscellaneous grains, which can alleviate the dilemma of insufficient feed for cattle and sheep.

"Lingzhou farmers have made the most of their land," Xie Tong thought to himself.

The two quickly walked to the middle of the village, and only watched for about a stick of incense, when someone in the distance suddenly shouted: "The king of Lingwu County is a teacher!"

There was a gust of wind, and the children surrounding the cattle killing scene all ran towards the intersection.Some of them still held cheese in their hands, and they looked like calves, and they flocked to the intersection to see the passing army.

Xie Tong and Xie Yanzhang also turned to look.On the horizon in the distance, a group of cavalry pawns were leading the way ahead, with banners and flags everywhere behind, and swords and guns like forests.

"This is the Tianzhu Army!" said a child.

"Nonsense, this is righteousness to join the army!" said another older child.

"Aren't the Yi Congjun all party members? Why don't you get hairy?" The previous child stepped up.

"Dangxiang sergeants also have to grow their hair, you don't understand." The older child said disdainfully, and then turned his head to look at the cavalry pawns who were getting closer, his eyes focused and his expression extremely envious.

When I was a few years older, I went to recruit a government army, put on this suit, and go around the village. Why don't you marry whichever wife you want?
The army marched all the way without stopping.

Xie Yanzhang's whole body tensed up, as if he saw a natural enemy.

Teams of soldiers headed north from the post road at the entrance of the village. No one rushed into the village to loot, and no one even took a look at it.

The faces of the sergeants are often dusty, but perhaps because of the proximity to the village, they are in good spirits.There was no noise, the queue was neat, and the team leaders with flags on their backs kept reminding the sergeants of the team to pay attention to the formation. There were cavalry cruising on both sides, and there were sentry cavalry passing orders. Everything was in order, busy but not chaotic.

After riding thousands of steps, a large banner (dào) appeared in the distance.

The children cheered enthusiastically, and some even dropped the cheese in their hands.Don't panic, pick it up from the ground and continue eating.

"This group of urchins even know Qi Qi. Is Ling Xia's martial arts so strong?" Xie Tong smiled, but his mouth was bitter.

Lingxia and Huaixi are almost two worlds, with very different customs and agriculture.

A carriage decorated with elephants (lù) drove over, followed by eight knights holding axes and axes, and around them were hundreds of well-armored personal guards.

This should be the car of King Lingwu.Xie Tong and Xie Yanzhang looked at each other, then lowered their heads tacitly.They're not children, and staring at them would be considered up to no good, so don't ask for trouble.

After the car drove past, there was another endless infantry brigade.Judging by the banner, it should be the Iron Forest Army.

Now everyone knows that Shao Shude didn't set up a pro-army, but the Iron Forest Army was his de facto pro-army.The first-time troops are better equipped, and the soldiers are very convinced of their commander.If soldiers meet each other in the future, this army should pay special attention, as it may not be easy to fight.

Behind the pawns, there were carts and carts of goods, copper coins, silk, cloth, gold and silver utensils piled up in the carriages.

The children let out an exclamation almost in unison.

Every time they go out to war, a large amount of goods, cattle and sheep are brought back. Now even the children know the benefits of going to war.

Hearing the war, he was delighted, and this was probably what he was talking about.

(End of this chapter)