A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 473 Governing the Yellow River
  The royal family expanded overseas and developed the Ryukyu Islands, and a large number of nobles and powerful people also participated in it. This kind of pioneering behavior consumed a lot of the strength of the nobles and powerful people. The power of the noble people and powerful people in various places had to shrink, and it also gave the rural people a greater living space.

As the imperial court vigorously promoted immigration and development, time also passed unconsciously.

In the twelfth year of Emperor Qian Yuanfeng's reign.

On Daliuqiu Island, it was October, and the sugar cane harvest in the plantations began. At the port, ships docked one after another, and a large number of people came from the ships. On the pier, more than a dozen people shouted loudly: "Xiangbei Manor, those who come to Xiangbei Manor gather here."

"Gusu Zhao's Manor, come to Gusu Zhao's Manor!"

Under the leadership of these people, a large number of people gathered here clearly. These people are not immigrants, but come to harvest sugar cane and plant rice.

Since the imperial court opened up the Daliuqiu Island a few years ago, nobles and powerful men have begun to establish plantations on the Daliuqiu Island. In order to make up for the shortage of manpower, many nobles will spend money to invite a large number of people during the harvest every year. Come help with the harvest.

Because the plantation usually does not require many people, only when it comes to harvesting sugar cane, a lot of manpower is needed, so the nobles and powerful people have this kind of operation. They recruit a large number of people to harvest during the harvest, and then plant it by the way. Then send the person back.

In this way, they do not need to increase the manpower in the plantation, and only need to spend a small amount of money to complete the planting.

The scale of Daqian’s plantations on Ryukyu Island is constantly expanding. In the first year, due to the need to open up wasteland, the size of the plantations was only about [-] acres. Now, the size of the plantations on Daqian Island has exceeded [-] acres. mu.

A large number of people lined up to get off the ship, and then followed the stewards to the plantations. Every year, more than [-] people participated in harvesting the plantations. A large number of people came, and the sugar cane in the plantations was quickly harvested and then transported to towns on the islands for secondary processing.

When Wang Yun asked Xungui to prepare plantations for planting sugar cane, he began to build towns on the islands and established large-scale sugar pressing workshops. After the sugar cane juice is pressed, the sugar cane juice is boiled and then made into sucrose.

Due to process problems, this sucrose is not white sugar, but reddish brown.

This kind of reddish-brown sucrose is very popular in Daqian. At first, one stone of sucrose cost one and a half imperial silver coins, but with the large-scale production of sucrose, the price dropped to two hundred copper coins for one imperial silver coin.

The Ryukyu Island produces about [-] kilograms of cane sugar a year. Originally, the royal family thought that the emergence of large amounts of cane sugar would have an impact on the cane sugar market and the price of cane sugar would be significantly reduced.

The result was not what the royal family imagined. They underestimated Daqian's preference for sugar. After all, the entire Daqian now has a population of [-] to [-] million people.

Seventy or eighty million people consume [-] jin of sugar a year, and the average person consumes less than half a kilo a year. At the same time, sucrose has become another important commodity for the Daqian caravan. Sucrose is not produced in the Western Regions, and sucrose is very popular in the Western Regions, not only in the Western Regions, but also in Kushan further west.

Also because of the high profits, the island of Ryukyu has become more prosperous.

Daqian, Zhili, Daliang Mansion.

Wang Xin was inspecting the river with his queen and important officials. The Daqian court has always attached great importance to water conservancy, and allocates a special fund every year to dredge rivers, repair river embankments, and control floods. And Dahe is the most expensive.

Although the river has not yet turned into the Yellow River, floods still occur frequently. The main reason is that after the river passes through Hukou and enters the Central Plains, the water becomes gentle. After the water flow becomes gentle, a large amount of sediment will accumulate and the river will rise. If it rains heavily, the embankments will easily burst.

Since Emperor Wen, the imperial court has strictly managed the Dahe Hetao area and the Loess Plateau area. The imperial court stipulated a limit on the number of grazing animals in the Hetao area, and there was also a grazing period every year. In the Loess Plateau area, people were prohibited from entering the mountains to collect wood.

Firewood collectors in counties and counties in the Loess Plateau area can only collect dead trees or dry branches in order to preserve water and soil.

When this decree was promulgated, the entire court was opposed, saying it was too harsh, but the court persisted and passed the decree. In order to facilitate people's lives, the royal family mined a large amount of coal and sold it at low prices so that people could use the coal to make fires.

Because coal is more durable than firewood, and the briquettes and stoves introduced by the imperial court are easy to use and cheap, more than [-] years after the ban was issued, more than [-]% of the people in the counties and counties in the Loess Plateau no longer use firewood. The imperial court's policy of closing mountains and conserving soil and water was implemented very well.

At the same time, the imperial court was also looking for ways to control the population on the Loess Plateau to a lower range, and had always implemented a migration policy here.

The imperial court has used various methods to control floods in the river, and it can be said that it has been very effective. At least in recent years, there have been no major breaches of the river's banks.

There has been a lot of rain this year, the river is gushing, and floods have occurred in many places. Wang Xin has been coming to the river since July because he was worried that the river would burst its banks, and has been here for more than a month.

The person in charge of water control is his younger brother Wang Cheng. Wang Cheng is very talented in water control. He is now the water supervisor of the imperial capital and is responsible for water conservancy in the world. He has the power to mobilize surrounding troops and all resources to control floods. He has a high position and is ranked among the ninth ministers. It is also true that this position is usually held by royal children, and most of the others serve as deputies.

Controlling water is not an easy task, especially controlling large rivers. The rivers are seriously silted up and require a lot of manpower to clean them up.

Wang Xin has been patrolling the river for more than a month. The flood season is finally over, and he is ready to return to Luoyang, the capital of the gods.

At the camp, in the Chinese army's tent, Wang Xin, the queen and several sons were having a meal. During the march, the food was very simple, a bowl of corn porridge, a plate of pickles, and a few wheat cakes. Although Wang Xin is the emperor, he does not dislike the simple food.

In fact, Daqian, including the kings of the Huai Kingdom, were very frugal and liked to eat delicious food, but they could also cope with simple food. After all, every emperor would remain anonymous and go to the military camp to practice for a period of time, or go to the private sector to feel the suffering of the people.

As for the emperor who has experienced all this and grown up, he understands the suffering of the people and will not say why not mince meat.

Wang Xin's food was delicious, and the princes next to him didn't have any objections. Even if they didn't like the food, all the princes and grandchildren did not dare to waste it at all.

After finishing the meal, Wang Xin ordered the camp to return to Luoyang.

(End of this chapter)