Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 581
In the autumn evening, it was a little noisy.

Xiao Die asked someone to bring a chair, sat on it, and waited quietly.

He was born in Nanliangfang of the Xiao family, the son of Xiao, and is currently the magistrate of Fanghan County in Hezhou.

As the location of the Longyou Jiedushi, the post of Fuhan Ling was never given to outsiders, either by the descendants of the Xiao family, or former officials of the Xiao family's students.

In the third year of Dashun, Xiao Die took office, and it has been two years since then.

Fanghan County is still accepting immigrants, mainly Guanzhong households, but there are not many, just twenty or thirty households a year.

There is a group of people who have just arrived, and the miscellaneous officials from Wugong County, Jingzhao Prefecture are registering them.

"What's your name?" the little envoy asked.

"Niu Dalang."

"No name?"

"It's Niu Dalang."

The envoy was stunned for a moment, but still finished copying seriously.

"How old are you?"

"thirty."

"When Jingzhaofu sent it, it said you were 40 years old, why are you [-] years old?"

"That's forty, I don't remember exactly."

The envoy raised his head, looked at him carefully for a while, and finally wrote "35" to him.

This kind of situation is too common, and he has long been familiar with it.

The Han people are pretty good, but many Fan people have no concept of age at all, and are very ignorant.

Last time he registered one and asked him how old he was. The Qiang man said that he might be thirty or fifty.

"Don't run away, the field will be confiscated if you catch it, and distributed to the mine." The envoy warned, and went to the next household.

It is common for registered migrants to escape, and the majority are Fan people.

People of the same tribe obviously support each other, form cliques, live together as well, and flee together.If you want to inquire about a person whose whereabouts you do not know, his fellow countrymen or tribesmen can provide the most detailed information.

The main reason why the Fans fled was their refusal to perform military service.

For example, a few months ago, Longyou Jiedu envoy Xiao Yu ordered He, Wei, Lin, Min, and Lan states to enlist 5000 Tutuan villagers to Qingtang City to cooperate with the Iron Cavalry Army, Xinquan Army, Zhen Guo Army and Luo The Jiabu, Liangjiabu, and Yangjiabu fought against the Tubo rebels.

The journey is far away, blocked by Guanshan Mountain, if you go there, you may die, the key is that there is no benefit.

However, those who run are mainly bachelors, and it is difficult for those who have a family and a job.

The second most common reason for running away is unwillingness to be disciplined, or being unaccustomed to life, and there are many of them.

"What's your name?"

"Lu Rong, eight out of twenty." This is an exiled prisoner from Weizhou.

"Why didn't the family come?"

"I was taken back by my mother's family, and I don't want to come."

The little envoy noticed that this man was a soldier, so he couldn't help but take a second look.Uncle Wei Bowufu, it’s terrible, if he didn’t offend someone, he would still be eating and drinking spicy food in his hometown.

"Don't run away, if you get it back—"

"I know." Lu Rong replied impatiently.

The envoy glared at him, it seems that this guy didn't understand his situation, he was used to being a yamen soldier, right?

But he had a good heart. Although Lu Rong was ungrateful and looked self-defeating, he still said seriously: "Just stay here with peace of mind. There is no shortage of women here. The 40-year-old widower has several children after he came."

Lu Rong froze for a moment, twitched the corner of his mouth, and finally thanked him.

"What's your name?" This is a foreigner, still wearing shackles, which is relatively rare.

The other party did not know what language they were speaking, and the envoy did not understand.

A driving officer came forward, had a conversation with this person in local language, and then said: "The native soldiers from Fengxiang Town went to Xingzhou to hunt for grass thieves. Someone told him on the way that the first batch of soldiers who went there died When he was gone, he ran away. Later, he planned to be sent to Tangzhou as a surprise general, but just as the commander-in-chief ordered to prohibit criminals from being sent to the army, he was sent here."

Only then did the little envoy understand, and said: "Ten years of hard labor in the forest farm, and I still owe fifty lashes. Send it to the forest farm after finishing the beating."

Soon, several wolf-like state soldiers stepped forward and began to execute in front of everyone.

The screams of misery shook the heavens and the earth, and he was not dragged away until the fifty lashes were beaten.

Xiao Die watched for a long time, and when he saw that the time was almost up, he got up and left.

Receiving immigrants is a routine task in the Hewei states, and the household registration yellow book has to be recompiled almost every few years, and the workload is extremely heavy.

The return journey is not very far, and the scenery is pleasant.

Xiao Die is a very "fanatic" pastoral poet. Although the level of poetry is average, he just likes to appreciate the rural scenery, especially the slightly wild and unrestrained countryside like the Hewei countryside.

The flat river valleys on both sides of the Daxia River are densely covered with farmland.

The old battlefield ten years ago has no clue at all, and the common people live scattered in it, using their hard-working hands to strictly implement the brand-new farming method.In the past ten years, the soil has been greatly improved by livestock manure, burning plant ash, and repeated planting of leguminous crops, and there is hardly any so-called barren land—during the expedition to Lanzhou, Shao Shude sent troops to secretly cross Xia Chuan defeated Tubo and beheaded more than [-] people. This was the most critical battle to pacify Hezhou.

Hezhou governs the three counties of Fanghan, Fenglin, and Daxia. In the fourth year of Dashun, the number of households was very close to [-], with more than [-] households, exceeding the household registration in Tianbao years.

It's just that culture and education are not as strong as that!Xiao Die sighed. Among the more than [-] people, there are too many Qiang and Hu species, which can even be said to exceed the number of Han people.After nearly ten years of enlightenment, the results can only be said to be passable, and we must continue to work hard.

A melodious bell rang in the distance.

Xiao Diexun, who was riding on a horse, looked at the reputation, and among the green forests, a Buddhist temple built against the mountain could be seen faintly.

The name of this temple is "Kaiyuan", that is, the Kaiyuan that Emperor Xuanzong ordered all states in the world to build Kaiyuan Temple.After Hezhou fell to Tibet, the Tubo people did not do much to this temple, because they were also more fanatical about Buddha, but Kaiyuan Temple in Hezhou was gradually dilapidated and abandoned. The main reason was that a large number of people died or fled, and the temple was difficult to maintain.

After Xiao Yu left the town of Hezhou, he allocated funds to rebuild the temple, and invited a master from Chang'an to open an altar to teach the Dharma and recruit disciples.

It has to be said that Kaiyuan Temple still has a considerable role in stabilizing society in this area of ​​Fanghan County.Regardless of the Han people, they all like to come to this temple to pray for blessings, and there will be a market here when there are important festivals.

There are many monk fields in Kaiyuan Temple, which are leased to the migrated Qiang people for cultivation.

The Qiang people are half-cultivating and half-grazing, and their farming skills are very rough.

Xiao Die once heard from his clan uncle Xiao Yu that when Guangqi left the town of Longyou at the end of the third year (887), the Tibetans just stared at a piece of land and planted highland barley or wheat hard, year after year, until the land was completely exhausted. Then the land was thrown away, left unused for five or six years, and weeds slowly grew, and so on.

What is it called?This is called nomadic farming, which is different from nomadic farming, but not too big.

In fact, although the Han land does not cultivate, it still focuses on a piece of land. Although there are some measures to fertilize the land, it is still not very good after all. The yield per mu has not been improved.

After the implementation of the three-crop crop rotation system in Longyou Town, the situation has greatly improved, and it is not the same as Lingzhou.One mu of land over there, plant alfalfa field this year, soybean field in the second year, and wheat in the third year. Here, we have alfalfa for two consecutive years, soybeans for two consecutive years, and wheat for two consecutive years. It is more worry-free and the yield is similar—— When Xia Wang first proposed this farming system, he probably didn't expect that the common people would improve it by themselves.

But only for two consecutive years.Planting corn and wheat for a long time will make the field overgrown with weeds.If you don't take the effort to pull the weeds, then the corn and wheat can't grow them at all, which will undoubtedly cost a lot of manpower.

If the family has little land, weeding can be tolerated. For example, the average household in the Jiangnan area is a few mu to more than ten mu. The people put a lot of energy into intensive cultivation and carefully cared for the farmland to obtain relatively high yields.

However, in the Helong area, each family owns about [-] mu of land, and they have to take care of livestock. It is impossible to cultivate intensively, so crop rotation is very important.

Another variation is within four years: spring wheat-winter turnip-spring sowing soybeans-short-growing period miscellaneous grains (such as mung beans)-Dawan alfalfa-winter wheat-variety crop rotation of miscellaneous grains, which seems to be more efficient.

There are so many tricks created by the common people, which is amazing.You only need to tell them the secrets of alfalfa and soybean fertilization, and then use a lot of livestock manure, and they will naturally know how to arrange the planting of crops.

The blue and black city walls of Fanghan County can be seen clearly, and the nearby villages and populations are gradually becoming denser.

Peasants and peasant women are in the fields, cutting down the neat wheat and putting it on the field ridges, and the children are responsible for binding.

In the alfalfa field separated by a ridge, the sheep grew fat and strong, almost comparable to smaller guinea pigs.

Xiao Die deliberately stopped to look.

Part of this year's autumn tax will be offset by sheep.According to the order of the Longyou shogunate, Fanghan County had to select [-] sheep and send them to Huizhou.

Of course, Huizhou does not need sheep, but Meng and Huaizhou need sheep.Huizhou itself is a large ranch. After the local sheep are sent to Heyang via Guanzhong, they are supplemented by sheep sent from Longyou Town to maintain the number of sheep.

It's the eighth year of peace in a row, and it looks like there are still eight years left. Nearly 32 people in 50 counties of the ten prefectures of Longyou have lived a peaceful life for eight years in this troubled world, and their accumulated wealth is already very considerable.

During the prosperity of Kaiyuan, the common people could have enough surplus grain to last for a year by farming continuously for three years. Now, how many years surplus grain do the warehouses in the Hewei states have?
Such a solid foundation is the main reason why King Xia dared to act more and more fiercely in Qingtang.

The iron cavalry has [-] soldiers, [-] auxiliary soldiers, and more than [-] horses. The Longyou prefectures can still afford the expenses.Even if we go out to pull the valley in the future and go to Gansu and Su in the west of Hexi, we can fully support it.

Clan uncle Xiao Yan is about to go to King Xia's side to serve as a counselor to join the army, but most of Xiao's children will stay in Longyou, Xiao Die still wants to continue to watch the future of this land.

I just don't know who the new Longyou Jiedushi is, could it be Du Rangneng from Liangzhou?

……

After breakfast, Du Rang Neng wandered around Bieye accompanied by his entourage.

This is a place with beautiful scenery, surrounded by mountains and rivers, with bursts of Lin Tao.

It is not easy to have a dense forest in Liangzhou, so many rich and noble people favored it and built their own businesses in this enclosure.

The scenery of Liangzhou is very different from that of the mainland.

During the Tianbao period, there were more than 2 households and a population of more than [-]. It may be the richest and most prosperous state and county in the Helong area.

Of course, judging from the works of some poets who served in the Hexi shogunate, there may be many more household registrations here than in the account books.Although there may not be such an exaggeration as "[-] houses in seven miles of Liangzhou", the more than [-] houses listed on the register must be seriously small.

This is a bustling trade node, an important animal husbandry town of Guochao, and the military and political center of Hexi.

It's the annual grape picking season again.

This year is the sixth year since Liangzhou was recovered and production resumed in the second year of Wende (889), and it is also the third year that Du Rangneng served as the Hexi Jiedushi.

Thanks to God's blessing, the summer in Dashun was relatively warm in the third year, and the grapes sprouted many new buds. The autumn of that year was relatively cool, and the new buds grew well.The frost in winter and spring was not severe, and this year's summer and early autumn were very warm, which perfectly met the conditions required for grape growth.

Du Rangneng's other courtyard was bought from someone else.

He has been a prime minister for several years, but his official pocket is still very rich. It is more than enough to buy this garden with vineyards, fields, woods, and ponds located in the outskirts of Guzang County.

In the vineyard, some foreigners were hired to pick grapes. As for brewing, Jingzhao Dushi has its own professionals.God bless you, not only can you make a lot of fine wines this year, but the taste must also be very good.

The only regret is that the two older sons and his beloved daughter are not around.

One is an official in Dangxia Palace, the other is an official in Shaozhou, and his daughter is in—ah, mentioning this talented daughter, Du Rangneng wants to cover his face, his position as Jiedushi...

"Brother, the method taught by King Xia is indeed effective." After returning to the mansion, the fourth younger brother Du Yongli hurried in and said.

After Du Rangneng left town in Liangzhou, like Xiao Yu from Hezhou, he brought many relatives to take up the post. Du Yongli, the fourth younger brother who was originally a member of Zhongshushe in the imperial court, came over and became a magistrate of the shogunate. It has been two years since then. too much.

"How?" Du Rang Neng asked, sniffing the wine in front of him.

"A cow produces three times as much milk a day as it used to." Du Yongli said excitedly.

"This..." Du Rang Neng sat up straight, his eyes drifted, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

In fact, the cause of this incident came from a small talk.

Du Rangneng and Shao Shude were eating beef, and they chatted about milk, then Shao Shude seemed to suddenly think of something, and told Du Rangneng a way to go to Liangzhou to try.At the same time, Shao Shude also recruited people from Lingzhou Agricultural School and asked them to select some cows for experiments.

As for what Shao Shude suddenly thought of, it was actually an anecdote that he had learned about in later generations. He had forgotten it before, but he suddenly remembered it.

Brandy, a highly distilled wine, became popular in Europe in the early 17th century.During the production of brandy, a residue waste is produced.At that time, a lot of cattle were generally raised in the urban areas of major European cities. The urban cattle breeders in Copenhagen, Denmark first mixed this residue into feed such as hay and straw to feed the cattle, and then something magical happened.

Cows that ate this kind of feed produced 20 liters of milk per day, while cows in rural areas that only ate hay and straw produced less than 6 liters of milk during the same period. Already, an average American cow produces 58 liters of milk a day.

The secret of the Danes could not be hidden very quickly, and was spread to England, the United Provinces, France, and Germany.The brandy dregs were fed between different breeds, and the milk production was greatly improved, so that the cows were aptly called "brandy cows".

The reason why brandy cows produce so much milk may be because brandy residue belongs to the slag-type feed.According to later generations, dross feed has high water content, more energy and protein, large volume, and good palatability. It is a good feed for regulating cattle appetite. Proper feeding can increase milk production, improve cow body condition, reduce Batch consumption.

Europeans didn't quite understand why at the time, but they inadvertently multiplied milk production, which was a huge advance in food production.

"The scenery of Hexi, Shuofang, and Longyou is very different from that of the Central Plains. There are many people who eat milk. If this method is effective, we should vigorously promote it." Du Rangneng said: "Ask Lingzhou Agricultural Science, how they tried gone?"

"Okay." Du Yongli nodded.

He is the magistrate of the camp, and all the farming in the town is under his control. If the milk production increases greatly, it will be a great achievement for him, although this method was proposed by Shao Shude.

In the Han Dynasty, there are not many people who eat milk, usually rich people.For example, Bai Juyi likes, "Melting snow to fry fragrant tea, seasoning crisp and cooking chyle", both crisp and chylus are dairy products.

But in the northwest, where Hu and Han live together, milk porridge, cheese, physalis, crisps, and milk wine have long been popular among the people.On the grasslands, milk is the main source of food for the vast majority of herdsmen. They simply can't afford meat, and they dare not kill livestock for meat. The only chance to get some meat is hunting, but this kind of thing Not very reliable, the source is extremely unstable.

"Also, keep it secret first." Du Rang Neng held Du Yongli and said seriously.

Du Yongli was taken aback for a moment, then nodded silently.

Although in terms of the three-crop crop rotation system implemented by Lingxia, [-] mu of alfalfa field can raise [-] cows, how can the grassland free-range farming model compare with them?But it's good to keep it a secret for a while longer.

"Actually, I value this thing more than milk." Du Rang Neng poured himself a glass of distilled wine and sighed, "This wine tastes amazing. It must be in great demand in a place of bitter cold."

"Brother, you mean to sell this kind of wine to the grasslands? What will the Hu people get in exchange? Livestock? We don't have too much shortage." Du Yongli asked.

"There is always a way." Du Rangneng smiled and said, "If you want to drink, you can't sell everything you can sell? Even life!"

Du Yongli laughed, and then said with emotion: "When I arrived in Liangzhou, I realized that the world is so big and full of wonders. Just staying in the Central Plains, I never imagined that there are so many people in this world living a different life. They all have merits. , Learn from each other's strengths and make up for each other's weaknesses. If three people walk together, there must be my teacher."

"This is the essence of the sage." Du Rangneng smiled and said, "I didn't have much idea about the management of Liangzhou. I only developed water conservancy and persuaded farmers to teach mulberry. Now it seems that there may be another way. .”

"Hu merchants in the Western Regions are one of them." Du Rangneng continued: "Fang City in Liangzhou has a considerable scale and can continue to do business."

"Cows, horses and livestock are the second. After King Xia got the moraine, he built Heishui City, set up pastures, and raised cattle, sheep, and horses. This is a major event."

"The milk and wine are the third ones." Du Rangneng stood up, as if thinking: "Other states and counties of milk can follow suit, I'm afraid they won't be able to sell them, and we in the three states of Hexi can only play by ourselves. But Wine can be sold to Tatar, Gamo, Uighur, Tubo, and Dangxiang tribes nearby, and even attract them to weaken the power of the grassland leaders."

"Brother, King Xia has ambitions in the Central Plains. He has frequent battles and needs a lot of money. He is probably trying to find a way to pay for the wine. This way..."

"Let's do it ourselves first, and all the goods, sheep and horses, will be put into the Liangzhou treasury. Xia Wang has newly acquired Heyang and needs a lot of livestock. I will be happy to send a batch to him at that time." Du Rangneng said confidently.

Du Yongli took a closer look at his elder brother.This attitude is a bit - flattery!Concentrated on doing meritorious service, where is the demeanor of doing things indifferently in the past?Are you really in a hurry to become a dignitary in the new dynasty?
"Liangzhou has been relocated to so many Tibetan households, and all the tribal leaders are mourning. Now it is time to attract more people. Otherwise, this household registration is very empty." Du Rangneng said: "Dingkou on the grassland If not, it would be inconvenient for this headman and that sweater to rebel even if he wanted to, so this is a way to draw salary from the bottom of the pot."

(End of this chapter)