Start with the humble bridegroom

Chapter 372 The Locust Plague and the Slave Exchange Order
Knowing that the emperor was seriously ill, the courtiers naturally wanted to invite An Zhezi.

But as soon as Gao Deshu brought Zhang Zhe's invitation to An Zhezi to Qinguan, he saw that the inside and outside of Qinguan had turned white.

On the first day of May, at night, the Dazheng Mountain Mausoleum collapsed.

The No.30 emperor of Dazheng, Yang Yuanzu died at the age of 71.

Before the emperor's death, he left an imperial edict to inherit the crown prince Yang Zonghan.

On the fourth day of May, the prince Yang Zonghan ascended the throne in Longhua Hall, changed Yuanlongde, made the prince concubine Xue Shi the queen, made the eldest son Yang Shangmo the prince, and the second son Yang Shangchuan the king Ji.

Zhang Zhe got the news from the Gao Deshu sent back on the ninth day of May, so he had to send another condolence and congratulatory form to Qinguan at the same time, and asked Gao Deshu to take it to Chang'an. Then ordered the whole county to wear filial piety.

He didn't mention what he did in Yunshang County to the court, nor did he show credit.He felt that the days in Yunshang County were quiet and carefree. The so-called mountains were high and the emperor was far away. He wanted to live here peacefully with his wife and daughter for the rest of his life, and not bother about Dazheng's messy things anymore.

Potatoes that have been polluted by entropy, when they arrive in this world, mature one after another in early May.

Zhang Wuliu told Zhang Zhe pleasantly that the mountainous soil here in Yunshang County is very suitable for the growth of potatoes, and the potatoes are not small in size.

And when several potatoes the size of small watermelons were placed on Zhang Zhe's case, he realized what Zhang Wuliu meant by "not small".

A potato can weigh seven or eight catties!

The yield of potatoes in modern times is generally around 1 to [-] jin per mu. It is said that the most powerful varieties have even reached more than [-] jin per mu after the most scientific breeding.

In addition to leaving a thousand cavalry in Yunshang County for vigilance, the whole county came to the gentle slope outside Nancheng to collect potatoes.

Twelve miles wide and three or four miles deep, the hillside is full of busy people.

There is an endless stream of vehicles carrying potatoes, cattle and horses.

The work of harvesting potatoes has been busy until May [-]th, and the people in Yunshang County have not even passed the Dragon Boat Festival.

All the potatoes on the [-] mu of sloping land had been harvested, and the calculated yield per mu was as high as [-] catties.

"After deducting the [-] catties needed for the next season per mu, the actual harvest per mu is more than [-] catties!" Uncle Fifth and Sixth's abacus was flying, and his face was full of wrinkled smiles, "Hey, I am It’s not a mistake, why can’t it be calculated?”

This is Zhang Zhe's study in the inner house, where only Zhang Zhe and his wife and Zhang Wuliu and his son are there.

"Uncle Fifth and Sixth, don't forget, the actual collection is about one trillion and sixty-five million catties [over 500 tons]!"

Fifth and sixth uncles were stunned for a while, and finally heaved a sigh of relief and said a word.

"nice!"

"The second season of potatoes is about to start planting, and the slopes in the southeast will also speed up."

Zhang Wuliu nodded.

"Don't worry, Mr. Chen, the southeast sloping land has not stopped working in the past few months, and it already has 3000 mu. Now that there is enough food, more people can be mobilized. Mr. Chen has promised to transfer [-] people from the city to me. By the end of June, the [-] mu of sloping land will be planted in rotation. The second round of potato planting will not be delayed."

Potatoes polluted by entropy can be planted for two seasons, but the timing is a bit special. The second season is planted in early July, and it takes three months to mature.

Lei Hu was carrying two bags of potatoes, his woman was struggling to carry a small bag, and even his son was walking towards his home carrying a big potato.

Lei Hu, who was carrying potatoes, was happier than he was rewarded with gold last time. He was so dull that he never stopped smiling today.

Thanks to the prefect's kindness, the potatoes in Yunshang County have been harvested to the sea this time, and I don't know how many people fell to the ground from exhaustion and refused to stop for a while.

Who in this life has seen so much food! ?

The Jun decree of the prefect's mansion: Adult men in the city will be given three hundred catties of potatoes a year, adult women and half-children will be given two hundred catties a year, girls between the ages of 14 and 12 will be given 150 catties a year, and children under the age of 12 will be given [-] catties a year. It is always one hundred catties.

Lei Hu's family should share [-] catties of potatoes!In addition, he is now a cavalry commander, and he has added another six hundred catties!The husband and wife have come and gone several times before, and this is the last trip.

The sun in May was already a little hot, and Rema, who returned home, didn't care about rest, and hurriedly poured out the potatoes to dry them in the sun.

"Father, there is too much food, what should I do? I heard that these potatoes can only be stored for two months."

Lei Hu didn't help the lady, but sat with a smile and watched her help. This is a woman's hobby, and a man can't easily interfere.

"Women in the prefect's mansion are preaching all over the street. Do you want to make vermicelli? That thing can be stored for a few years. You rest and go to the prefect's mansion to get alum later. Let's try to make it according to the prescription .”

"Eh!"

Their child chose the smallest one at this time, and lifted it up with difficulty.

"Daddy, bake!"

"Success!" Lei Hu grabbed the potatoes, picked up the child, and went to the back of the house to light a fire and bake the potatoes.

"There is not enough alum to make vermicelli!"

Chen Jiong's face is covered with sweat. He finally harvested so many potatoes, and there are still [-] mu of mountain sweet potatoes to be harvested next month. If they can't be made into vermicelli, the food will be wasted.

"The subordinates are guilty. The county collected before, plus the alum brought by Zhang Guanshi (five or six) and his wife, there is still a gap of [-]% for processing potatoes!"

Zhang Zhe didn't blame Chen Jiong, in fact, he was negligent and didn't plan well in advance.

"I heard that there are a lot of alum mines in Jieshan County, a hundred miles east of Qin Guandong. Why doesn't my husband send someone to collect them? It will take up to [-] or [-] days to collect them. How can there be delays?"

After all, Meng Xiaowan is a really talented woman, Zheng Guo geography is in her heart, and she can solve his big trouble with one sentence.For this matter, Zhang Zhe sent Zhang Sanqi to take part of the gold and silver looted from the Mulet and Zhalan tribes to Jieshan County to collect gold, and also sent four hundred cavalry to accompany him.

In order to avoid any other moths on the fourth part of the wasteland on the way back.

After such a busy day in June, Zhang Sanqi came back with a large number of alumni, which made Chen Jiong finally dare to order to start harvesting sweet potatoes.

Modern sweet potatoes are ripe from July to September, but here it is around mid-June.

There are more than 2 county residents, except for the [-] cavalry who are on duty in turn, these two months have been extremely busy.

Open new slope fields, dig potatoes, make vermicelli, build warehouses, dig sweet potatoes, make vermicelli, build warehouses, and then it is the end of summer.

In Yunshang County, blue clover occupies a larger area on the grassland.

Marquard has proven that this stuff is a good stuff for livestock, better than the average alfalfa.But the thousands of horses, hundreds of cows, and hundreds of sheep in Yunshang County couldn't keep up with the growth of blue clover.

If the county residents were not too tired, Chen Jiong would have mobilized the people to harvest the blue clover as well.

The Zhang family's mother rode a horse and gave birth to sixteen foals in Xiushan, but two of them died on the way to the northwest.Now that she has given birth to eleven colts and three fillies, she is seven months old and taller than an average yearling.

These foals are quite fierce, and ordinary adult war horses are not willing to provoke them.They occupy a large blue clover field by themselves, eating, drinking and having fun every day.

Except for Lao Leitou, Zhang Zhe and Mi Jieer who have been raising them all the time, these foals even ignore Ma Kua, who claims that there is no horse that does not love him.

At the end of June, Gao Deshu returned to Yunshang County from Chang'an.

Zhang Zhe met him alone, and the first question he asked was about the funeral of the kings, which Zhang Zhe and his wife were most concerned about.

"Among all the kings, only the father and son of Zhaoyang County came to Chang'an together. Therefore, His Majesty gave him considerable preferential treatment, and there were several palace banquets alone. I contacted Cao Lingwen, who is now with the county king, and learned that the father and son of the county king I plan to rush back to Zhaoyang County at the end of July when the weather is cooler, Your Majesty will agree!"

"So, the other county kings will be kept by His Majesty?"

Gao Deshu nodded: "Go home, except for the king of Hai'an County, Zongzheng Temple requires all the princes to go to Beijing to study. It also said that the Zhaoyang prince was born in the second-class Jinshi, so he is the only one who doesn't need to go to school. I'm afraid it will require all families to study in Beijing. Your Majesty will let the county kings leave the capital only when the son arrives in Beijing."

"If there's any news, let's hear it together."

"Yes, Patriarch. There is also a gossip about the imperial concubine. The servant said that when the first emperor left, he left two edicts. One is the edict to establish the emperor, and the other is to seal The imperial concubine is the edict issued by the former emperor and empress. Some people say that the imperial concubine did not obey the edict, while others say that the palace suppressed this edict on purpose. Now the imperial concubine is consecrated by His Majesty as a concubine, and it is said that she will go to Jiangling to cultivate in autumn .”

"What else?"

"The King of Hedong County sent a general to enter Yanbei Road, intending to bypass Hengshan County and approach Shangyao County of Daiguo, but was intercepted by the prince of Linsi County. His Majesty was furious, and the king of Linsi County lost his dignity and was banned for a month. Penalty for one year. The Southwest War broke out, and Xilu's army and Banan County King's army met in the mountains. After the scuffle, Xilu's army and horses had already invaded Banan County. The Xijiang water battle also had results, and Master Yan Yun won a big victory. Complete victory, the entire army of the Xilu Navy was wiped out."

Zhang Zhe smiled slightly: "But all the big ships in the south of the Yangtze River are going upstream?"

"Exactly, Lord Yan deliberately showed the enemy to be weak, and set up a camp near the river to lure the Xilu water army to come out. Just when the Xilu water army attacked the riverside camp, our large ships rushed out from the downstream, and [-]% of the Xilu water army was killed by a group of soldiers." Fight and perish.”

"In this way, without the involvement of the Xilu navy, our Taowan will be at peace."

"Just as the Patriarch expected!" Gao Deshu made a pun, and took out an official document and presented it, "Sure enough, the new emperor restored more than half of your position, and returned it to the Patriarch through the decree from the Shizhong Temple and the experience of the Zongzheng Temple. A defense envoy of Yunshang County."

Zhang Zhe shook his head. Restoring a few positions is just for the benefit of reputation. He is in the northwest and not in Chang'an. Those two titles are meaningless.On the contrary, the defense envoy of Yunshang County is very interesting. It seems that the new emperor actually doesn't like him very much.

Most of Wuxiang and Zhaoding counties are now in the hands of various ministries in Yunnan.If he was just a prefect, it would be fine if he was not as strong as a man, so he could just guard the county city, but with the title of defense envoy, he has the responsibility to recover the lost ground.

"It doesn't matter," Zhang Zhe didn't take this to heart, "Anyway, the envoys of the imperial court can't cross the sea of ​​sand anyway."

The summer in Yunshang County is full and leisurely. People seem to have forgotten the two night raids during the Chinese New Year last year.

In fact, in this world, large-scale wars are still going on.

For example, the borders of the three northern countries have all been breached by Xingkong Khan's cavalry; another example is that the Waqiang people's 50 cavalry led more than [-] herdsmen to the Ammu kingdoms in the southwest to eat; the Wunu people's western expedition army has been slaughtered Twelve small countries in the Western Regions.

Probably in order to punish this inhuman killing, a huge natural disaster hit the entire northern prairie again.

Since mid-May, the northern prairie has entered the rainy season that has not happened in ten years.

The locusts that began to gather on the southern continent moved forward one after another to the northwest. At the same time, in the barren fields of the countries in the Western Regions, densely packed locusts also climbed out of the ground and formed with the locusts going north. A huge black cloud with a length of [-] kilometers and a width of [-] kilometers formed, and continued to fly towards the prairie in the northeast.

The summer prairie, which has just experienced the rainy season, is very suitable for the needs of locusts to reproduce.

The grasslands of the Wunu people suffered first, then the grasslands of the Waqiang people, and then some of the territory of the Beibei people.Fortunately, farther to the east, the warm and humid climate attracted locust swarms. After sweeping everything, about 6000 billion locusts disappeared over the eastern strait.

A large number of grasslands were devastated, and then a large number of cattle and sheep were starved to death.

The news spread to the Wunu, Waqiang and Beibei armies, and they all chose to stay where they were and eat.

Summer meat is extremely difficult to preserve, so the starved cattle and sheep fill the stomachs of every shepherd and hurt the hearts of the shepherds.Everyone can foresee that the entire grassland will usher in an unprecedented famine in July.

The Wunu people sacrificed tens of thousands of captives from the Western Regions to their ancestors. The Beibei people began to force the people on the northern front of the Three Kingdoms to grow food and pay taxes for themselves, while the Waqiang people were preparing to go further south in the Ammu Kingdom.

In mid-July, when Zhang Zhe was preparing to organize people to harvest corn, he received an order from the Waqiang people.This is an "order" delivered to Yunshang County by Merdeko Khan.

Not only Zhang Zhe and Merdike Khan, but all the tribes in the Yunnan area received the same order.

The Waqiang people who were in charge of staying on the prairie were left in charge, and issued "slave exchange orders" to all tribes who were subject to the Waqiang people and within the sphere of influence of the Waqiang people.

Each tribe must exchange one hundred to five hundred slaves from the Waqiang people, thirty catties of grain for one slave!
Compared with the Unu people who directly "reduce" slaves to control food expenditures, the Waqiang people's left-handed family seems to be a little smarter.

In the "order" sent to Yunshang County, Zuo Datanghu also proposed that if Yunshang County can buy more than a thousand slaves, Wa Qiang will lift all restrictions on Yunshang County, such as possessing weapons and city walls.

Apparently this "big man" with tens of thousands of troops did not know that the Mullert and Zalan tribes had been wiped out.However, the Waqiang people didn't care. After their envoys failed to find the Mulet and Zhalan tribes, they simply sent the shares of these two tribes to Yunshang County.

"My lord," Xu Jidao was the first to come to meet Zhang Zhe after hearing the news, "Maybe we can buy more slaves from the Central Plains from the Waqiang people to alleviate our population shortage."

"Oh? The Waqiang people don't border the Central Plains, how many Central Plains slaves will there be?" Zhang Zhe was a little puzzled.

"Return to Shijun, no less than 15!"

Xu Jidao's answer surprised Zhang Zhe.

"The subordinates were plundered by Beibei people, and then sold to Waqiang, and then escaped. Several people know the inside story very well. This Beibei people is the biggest slave trader on the grassland. The plundered population was no less than 15. Most of them were resold to countries in the Western Regions or Wunu and Waqiang. When I was in Waqiang, I found that many slaves in the Central Plains had descendants. Some elders told me that only the Waqiang people Among the hundreds of tribes, the population of our Central Plains is definitely no less than [-]."

"You can buy it, but not too much!" Chen Jiong reminded Xu Jidao, "He knows that I have a lot of food, so he will attack me!"

Zhang Zhe thought for a while, and suddenly spoke to himself.

"Presumably our friend Merdeko Khan and the 21 Khans on the North Shore are both having a headache in response to the orders of the Zuo Dahu?"

Xu Jidao's eyes lit up.

"Good strategy! Maybe you can tell the ministries that we can tighten our belts and buy slaves from the Central Plains at the price of [-] catties of vermicelli per person."

Chen Jiong nodded: "It's better to be young and strong!"

"What forty catties? Up to 25 catties!" Zhang Zhe smiled, "If you give too much, they will take Joe and be suspicious. They traded for 25 catties, and I took [-] catties to stop their losses. gone."

(End of this chapter)