Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 582 Forest Farm
At the foot of Daxue Mountain (Hath Mountain), a wooden raft has just been bundled into place.

Daxue Mountain, as you can tell by its name, has a different climate from the surrounding areas.

Helan Mountain is very similar to it.

There are many streams and water ponds originating from the mountains in the west foot of the mountain. The water and grass are abundant, and it has always been the place where Marshal Shao's confidant tribes can graze.

A little further away, it will be drier, and the quality of the grassland will gradually decline. The herdsmen are suffering, and they will rob if they can't survive. This has created the bad reputation of Hexi Dangxiang.

There is not much precipitation at the eastern foot of Helan Mountain, but the Yellow River flows through it. Since the Northern Dynasties, ditches have been dug and ponds have been built.After Shao Shude took over, after another ten years of construction, it is already a place densely covered with farmland, pastures and orchards.

There is no precipitation at the east and west foot, but Helan Mountain has a lot of precipitation, forming a unique green island climate.There are dense vegetation on the mountain, and there are leopards and other ferocious beasts. When Shao Shude lived in Lingzhou, he often hunted in Helan Mountain—otherwise, where did the tiger skin come from?

Daxue Mountain is a replica of Helan Mountain. The top of the mountain is covered with snow all the year round, and the microclimate in the surrounding area is relatively humid, with dense forests and a wide stretch.In fact, in the Guo Dynasty, the vegetation coverage rate of the entire Helong was astonishingly high, and towering giant trees that had grown for an unknown number of years abounded everywhere.

So that in the later Ming Dynasty, the forests around Gansu provided the wood needs of the folk, government and royal families in most parts of the north.Large tracts of forest are continuously cut down.In the Qing Dynasty, the situation continued, and wood from Qinghai supplied most of the markets in Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei.

The convenience of water transportation on the Yellow River makes it possible for these trees to be bundled into wooden rafts after being felled, and they can be bundled into wooden rafts and flow down the river to several northern provinces at a very low cost.

Daxue Mountain has been felled for many years because Shao Shude did not want people to destroy the forests of Helan Mountain and Yin Mountain.However, as Lingzhou is the ruling center, both government and private parties have a huge demand for timber consumption, so they can only cut down the Daxue Mountain in Huizhou.

Although new trees are replanted, they cannot keep up with the speed of felling.Leaving aside the survival rate of the newly planted saplings, the light coverage rate cannot keep up with the cutting speed, not to mention that they have not grown up at this time.

But in any case, these measures are still useful, at least slowing down the rate of forest loss.Decades later, when the newly planted saplings grow up, the current ugly "alopecia areata" will be covered up a lot.

Wang Quan led a team to arrive at the forest farm with a batch of supplies.

Corvée is hard for everyone to escape.In comparison, the corvée served by Wang Quan, who is known for his bravery, is relatively easy: Isn’t it easier than digging a river to escort a batch of living materials from the warehouse of Huining Pass to the Daxueshan Forest Farm?

"These are all high-quality Chinese fir trees, straight and strong. If the junior middle school releases this business and let me do it, even the county magistrate will not change it." Wang Quan jumped off the horse lightly, and said in a loud voice .

This horse is very good. It was originally the mount of Xu Hao, the tour commander of the Iron Forest Army. He rode like lightning, galloping from the Tiandu Mountain Ranch to the Daxue Mountain Forest Farm in one day. It was very enjoyable.

The Tiandu Mountain Ranch has lush vegetation and is shared by Huizhou and Yuanzhou, but in fact, these two states have no control over it. For many years, it has been under the jurisdiction of the Shuofang shogunate's stable and herdsman. It has raised a large herd of cattle, sheep, horses and camels, mainly sheep. .

The news that the imperial court had promoted Shao Shude to the title had spread to Huizhou, and the government at the prefecture and county levels sent a large number of riders to all townships, villages, and tribes to spread the news.I don't know how the local wording is, but people with some social status in the three counties of Huizhou now know such a thing: the sixty counties of the fifteen prefectures in Guanbei are the kingdom of Xia, and the king is Shao Shude.

It is true to spread rumors with falsehoods!
Tiandushan Ranch has a large piece of land in Jingyuan Town, which is now under the "Xia Kingdom" and is under the jurisdiction of Xia Wangfu's Qi Cao Shen military - Qi Cao Shen military, in charge of stables, horses, cultural relics, equipment and other things.

The Shuofang shogunate's stable pastor seems to be able to manage it, but most of the people in this organization have now transferred to Qicao Shangzhi, and there will be fewer and fewer places where the name of the shogunate stable pastor will be used in the future.

Wang Quan took the Tutuan villagers to escort the supplies, and they returned to the household Cao Guan—the household Cao participated in the military, and was in charge of household registration, accounting, roads, reverse travel, fields, six animals, passing houses, talismans, miscellaneous corvettes, etc.

Of course, you have to deal with Cang Cao when extracting supplies.Cang Cao participates in the military, and is in charge of the affairs of the public house, measurement, kitchen, warehouse, rent and tax, expropriation, gardens, and shops.

Among the seven cao, there are:
Gong Cao participated in the military, and was in charge of official examinations, appointments, elections, sacrifices, auspiciousness, Taoism, schools, memorials, books, medicine, and furnishings.

Bing Cao participated in the military, in charge of the election of military officers, armored weapons and battles, door management keys, and the affairs of the beacon and post.

The law Cao participated in the military, in charge of laws, orders, styles, and styles, fixed sentences in prisons, supervised the arrest of thieves, and investigated adultery and wrongdoing, so as to investigate their sentiments and hypocrisy, and control their grammar.

Shi Cao participated in the military, and was in charge of Jinliang, boats, houses, houses, and all kinds of crafts.

The Seven Caos were all under the jurisdiction of King Xia, and they were almost a miniature government agency, covering all aspects of civil affairs.

As for the army, it is still managed by the shogunate. Among them, the Ya army belongs to the capital Yu Housi and the capital coach envoy, and the Fan soldiers are managed by the capital guard.

The Du Yu Marquis Division is responsible for commanding and mobilizing troops, while the Du Yu Division is responsible for recruiting and training troops. This remains the same as before.

The military envoy Si Yamen was abolished, and the food and material envoy in the army will directly connect with Qicao, and the power of logistics will be included in the Xia Palace.

The assessment and promotion of the military officer were also separated from the Duyu Housi, and also belonged to the Xia Palace.

Qicao's participation in the military is a post in the royal family. In each state, there are corresponding officials such as judiciary joining the army and Sihu joining the army. At the county level, there are Sihu Zuo and Judiciary Zuo.

In short, the governing body of the fifteen prefectures in Guanbei gradually changed from Jiedushi shogunate to Xiawangfu.

Perhaps this is why some people interpret the fifteen states and sixty counties as "countries".

The imperial court only conferred a false title, but someone made it real.

"The cedar trees are going to be sent to Lingzhou to exchange for money. Your Majesty is in urgent need of money for his campaigns." Sihu Zuo, who is resident in the forest farm, looked at Wang Quan, a famous warrior in Huizhou, and said politely: "The commander of the king's capital is rare. How about staying for dinner?"

The Daxueshan Forest Farm belongs to Huining County. There are three Sihuzuo, five Shi, and one Zhangshi in the county. Today, one Sihuzuo and two Shi are permanent residents here, which shows the importance attached to this forest farm.

"So many people have left Lingzhou, why do we need so much wood?" Wang Quan asked his men to unload the goods, and Si Hu Zuo asked a subordinate (Si Hu Shi) to do the docking.

"A lot of people have left, but there are still a lot of people buying wood." Sihu Zuo said, "It's mainly used to build houses. But it's really less. Our work here is much easier, and now we have mutated trees."

People in forest farms, except for prisoners, are generally recruited to take care of food.For them, planting trees is indeed relatively easy work.

"I heard that people in Lingzhou like to build brick houses now, so what do they need so much wood for?" Wang Quan sat down in front of Sihuzuo, casually glanced at the workers who were peeling their skins, and said.

"How expensive a brick house is." Sihuzuo said with a smile, "It would be great if we could replace the earthen house with a wooden one."

His house is a brick house, with front and back entrances, in Huining County, just built a few years ago.But he has this economic strength, which does not mean that ordinary people also have it.Or even if you can afford it, you can't bear it.

Even in Kaiyuan and Tianbao prosperous times, most of the people in the Kingdom lived in adobe houses, and those who could have wooden houses were considered to be doing well, let alone brick houses.

The people of Lingxia wantonly purchased wood to build their houses. It is also a matter of the past two or three years. It happened before, but not so much.

After the common people have spare money, the first thing they want to change is the housing demand, not other expenses. It is surprising, but it seems reasonable at the same time.

The price of lumber has fallen steadily over the past five years, not because there has been less demand, but because there has been more output.

Daxueshan Forest Farm is just a large-scale forest farm. In fact, in Longyou Town, there are many large and small forest farms. Almost every day on the Yellow River, wooden rafts can be seen carrying goods down the river.After arriving at the ground, the goods are delivered to the merchants, and the wooden rafts are disassembled and sold. This is already a common mode of transportation and sales.

It is true that the increase in timber production is due to the increase in forest farms, but the increase in forest farms also means that more people are engaged in the forest industry.Some of them are convicts sent over, some are ordinary people who do odd jobs during slack, and many are full-time workers.

Full-time workers have been divorced from agricultural production. They do not farm and graze, do not produce food, and rely entirely on wage income to purchase food in the market to support themselves and even their families.

This is the benefit of abundant food available in the market at affordable prices.

The prices of millet, milk, and fruits and vegetables have not skyrocketed in Lingzhou counties for many years. Even in auspicious years, Huiningguan warehouses will transfer grain and beans from other states and ship them downstream to stabilize food prices.Not to mention, the grain from Longyou Town can also be transported downstream to Lingzhou.

In autumn, you can also see mighty flocks of sheep going north along the banks of the Yellow River to be slaughtered and sold in Lingzhou.

The Tibetans on the prairie also often come to sell livestock for grain, because they find that it is more cost-effective to eat grain, and their economic ties with the Han area are getting closer step by step.

In the Lingxia states, there is no need for so many people to directly farm and herd.It’s better to switch to other industries, so as not to be “rolled” to death together – the income from growing grain fell, so I planted more. As a result, the output increased greatly, the price of grain fell, and the income continued to decline, so I continued to plant more and more.

The more you plant, the lower the rate of return, and the more impulse you have to grow. This is the "volume", and it is also an important reason why later generations of Europeans manipulated the prices of colonial agricultural products and basic raw materials.

Cocoa growers in West Africa blindly expanded their planting area because of the optimistic international market conditions. As a result, the price was artificially manipulated and plummeted. The growers who borrowed money could only desperately expand their planting area, increase production, and try to recover cash. However, the price fell further to the bottom. eventually went bankrupt.At the same time, people in Europe and the United States enjoy cheap cocoa and live a happy life.

Volume, it is not necessary.

"In Dingxi County, there are quite a few wooden houses." Wang Quan suddenly thought of his eldest son who had been away for a long time. Is Dalang doing well in the Baoyi Army?Did you build a house and marry a wife there, and take root in Shanguo?
In September, the state will escort a batch of livestock to Heyang via Shanguo, maybe it's time to find someone to clear up the relationship and volunteer?
No, no one wants to do this job, and there is no need to dredge the relationship at all.

Wang Quan looked at the horse he rode just now. Da Lang was already the leader of the team, and he should have his own horse.You can also bring the epee newly made by someone else.

No, it's better not to bring the epee.Fighting with this kind of thing is certainly a gods and ghosts, but it is easy to be taken advantage of by others. It is completely a life-to-life style of fighting, so don't use it.

With a loud bang, the wooden raft was pushed down the river. After loading the goods, it slowly left the forest farm wharf and marched downward under the control of the boatman.

There is Lingzhou, the former ruling center, which is now struggling repeatedly with population loss.

(End of this chapter)