The great hero of the Silk Road, starting from a farm farmer

Chapter 229 Can’t the serf manor be used to restore the Huangshui Valley?
"Commander, the Ningxi Acropolis has been destroyed. Are you going to stay at Haixi Fort to hold the battle, or go to Ningxi City?" On June 28, military intelligence from the front quickly brought back exciting news.The Yungu Army broke through the Ningxi Acropolis and entered the city, completing the most important combat mission after crossing the river.After Yang Shunan received the news, he quickly came to ask Song Yingkui at Linjin Ferry if he would go to the front line to review the soldiers and handle the follow-up matters.

"There is no rush to go to Ningxicheng. Your staff can go to Haixi Fort to help the former enemy headquarters handle the first and last matters. I will stay at the ferry for a few more days and wait for the management personnel sent by the Administration Department to come for the interview." The most dangerous moment has passed. At this time, rushing over in a hurry will not be of much help. It is better to seize the rare opportunity to further train the comprehensive qualities of the third uncle and others.

Strolling along the banks of the Yellow River in summer, I watched teams of transport teams leading mules and horses carefully carrying supplies across the pontoon bridge.Song Yingkui realized that it seemed necessary to build an iron-locked pontoon bridge at Linjin Ferry to connect the Huangshui Valley in the west of the river with Hezhou and other places in the east of the river.

The pontoon made of sheepskin rafts can be used, but it cannot be used for a long time.It is technically difficult to directly repair hard-faced cement bridges.Building an iron chain suspension bridge will be less difficult. According to Song Yingkui's memory, an iron chain pontoon bridge was built on the upper reaches of the Yellow River during the Ming Dynasty in real historical time. If you travel to the upper reaches of the Yellow River, you will also see the remains of the pontoon bridge.It can also be seen that the existing technology can be achieved with nothing more than a little effort.

With the permanent floating bridge, the Hehuang area can be regarded as completely connected, which is of great significance to the Yungu Army's occupation of Hehuang.

"Let the people from the Drawing Department of the Industrial School rush to the ferry to survey and map the width of the river and the foundations on both sides of the ferry. Survey and design to build a permanent iron chain pontoon at the ferry. The people from the Executive Office will fully cooperate. It is best to do it this year. It will be completed by the end of the year." Although it is the first time to build a bridge over the Yellow River, the difficulty of the chain bridge is really not that great. Therefore, Song Yingkui thinks that the bridge should be repaired before the Chinese New Year this year.

Song Yingkui has actually seen the Iron Chain Bridge. He once went to Luding Bridge and saw with his own eyes how the iron chains as big as a bowl are strung together to form a pontoon bridge.However, the Yellow River at Linjin Ferry is wider than the Dadu River. The river width and span are large, so the stress faced by the iron chain is greater.Coupled with the weight of the chain itself, the current materials may not be able to withstand it.

After much thought, it would be better to build a large cement bridge pier in the Yellow River and divide the iron chain of the floating bridge into two parts.It is troublesome to build cement bridge piers in the river, but it can be repaired, it is just that the water barrier is a little more difficult to do.

The bridge is built entirely with circular iron chains, and the gravity of the floating bridge itself is too great.Therefore, we have to find ways to design and produce steel wire ropes and build bridges by combining steel ropes and iron chains.

After arranging the preparations for bridge repair, Song Yingkui got up and rushed to Haixi Fort and Ningxi Acropolis.

After experiencing the test of Huangshui Valley, it really begins.

The geographical conditions for developing agriculture in the Huangshui Valley are as good as those in the Lintao area, but compared to places like Gongchang, the conditions are much better.

The geographical conditions are good, but there is a shortage of people, and the shortage of people is particularly severe. Except for the Xifan people who herd cattle, this area is almost a no-man's land. It is enough to be able to gather three to five thousand Zheng people who are familiar with agricultural production. Best case scenario.This amount of people is better than nothing.

The people of Xifan were not very good at farming, let alone handicrafts. Otherwise, Song Yingkui would have prepared to lead his troops to the grasslands to rob part of the population.Xifan and Beixiang often do this kind of thing, and there is no psychological pressure. The main reason why they don't do this is because of their quality.Why?In real history, time and space, there were people who caught black men and made them slaves on plantations. Isn't it easier for the people of Xifan to do this kind of work than for black men?
Building plantations in the Hehuang Valley and plundering Xifan people as laborers seemed to be a way to quickly restore the vitality of the Huangshui Valley.

Who will be the owner of the manor?It was time for the mid-level and senior officers in the army to distribute benefits to them, allocate land to them, reward slaves, and build serf manors for growing economic products such as cotton. The more I thought about it, the better it became.

After thinking about it, it seemed wrong. If serfdom was released, Yun Gujun and Xi Fan would have no room for buffering and would form a life-or-death feud.

In Xifan, the most valuable means of production was not land but population. They were a combination of tribal alliances and serf manor economies.The Qingfan grassland tribal alliance is the dominant form, while the Houfan Valley is connected by large serf manors.

Whether it is Qing Fan or Hou Fan, tribal economy or manor economy, robbing other people's population is robbing other people's lifeblood. In order to maintain the stability of the system, the Western Fan nobles will definitely fight to the death with the Yungu Army.Cutting off people's money is equivalent to killing their parents!

Although the population of Xifan is attractive, it seems that more can be gained by trading with the people of Xifan and reaping benefits through economic means.

Compared with directly robbing people and money, making Xifan a raw material and cheap labor base for Yungu is a more advanced military strategy.

"The troops from the Western Domain in the Dachuan River Valley surrendered and were incorporated into the labor team of the Road Construction Bureau. After two years of hard labor, they were discharged and became official workers of the Road Construction Bureau. The mouth of the Dachuan River, Haixi Fort, and Ningxi Acropolis were established as the city's City, anything traded in these three cities will not be taxed if it does not enter or leave the Lintao territory. This year and next, all shops in these three cities will be tax-free and rent-free! The fields in the Huangshui Valley encourage big families to set up business here. Anyone who can pay the local tax in full after three years, no matter how many fields they open, will be issued a land deed for free by the city lord's government, making it the permanent land of the household that opens the land."

After rejecting the idea of ​​plundering the Western Fan population to build serf estates in the Huangshui Valley, Song Yingkui decided to encourage businessmen and large landowners to develop the Huangshui Valley.At Linjin Ferry, he explained the main purpose to the government officials who came over and told them the major policies for managing the Huangshui Valley.

The city government is currently focusing on the development and construction of the Lintao area, but it is still somewhat stretched and it is difficult to spare a lot of effort to build the Huangshui area.Re-dividing and leveraging people's power, releasing people's vitality and allowing the valley to have a certain economic and population base as soon as possible is the relatively least-cost method.

For businessmen, the most attractive features are low taxes, security, and a large market.For landowners, the opportunity to occupy more productive land was also attractive.Of course, to attract them here, the price paid by Yungu City Lord's Mansion is not small.A large amount of business tax benefits need to be transferred and a lot of land needs to be given away for free.

Just pay what you have to do. With the population and active business environment, everything you do will be worth it.After the Huangshui Valley is restored to life, the strength of the Yungu Army will be qualitatively strengthened.Given time, we won’t just wait for Beixiang to cause trouble!
(End of this chapter)