Kai Fu Han

Chapter 578 Harvest
The autumn harvest is over.

It’s another quiet and peaceful harvest season.

Several countries around the Xinghan League seemed to have reformed, no longer causing trouble and no longer thinking about invasion and plunder.

The comfort of more than half a year has made the field troops stationed at the border somewhat relaxed.

In late June, Liu Xinqi conducted a rotation of the army.

The [-]th and [-]th brigades moved north from Penglai to replace the [-]th and [-]th brigades, and the [-]th and [-]th brigades returned to Haicang Town for rest.

The Ninth Brigade moved westward from Haicang Town to replace the Tenth Brigade in Damingfu, and the Tenth Brigade returned to Haicang Town to rest.

Liu Xinjun's second brigade and Sun Li's third brigade continued to stay in Yizhou. The two brigades made their own arrangements and rested in place.

If there were two to three extra brigades now, Liu Xinqi would choose to continue marching westward after the autumn harvest, regain the state capital that is still occupied by the remaining forces of the puppet Qi, and bring all the land north of the Yellow River under the rule of the Xinghan League.

However, reality did not allow it. The five brigades on the border had not rested and recuperated for a long time. If they did not rest, there would probably be trouble. Liu Xinqi had to stop thinking about continuing to mobilize troops and let the field brigades take turns to rest and recuperate.

The field army of the Xinghan League was different from any army in other countries in this era. The construction cost of the field army was very high. From recruitment to training, an ordinary musketeer, equipped with all weapons and equipment, would cost more than 50 Two pieces of silver.The subsequent maintenance costs are not low, at least five taels per month.

If troops are sent to fight and new equipment is replaced, the cost will double.

This is just the cost of soldiers, artillery, ammunition, supplies, logistics troops, etc., what doesn't cost money?

It’s true: once the cannon goes off, there’s ten thousand taels of gold!

The current economy of the Xinghan League is no longer sufficient to support another expansion of troops.

Liu Xinqi could only wait for the existing field army to be rested before he could continue to launch military strategies.

.......
On September [-], Liu Xinqi reviewed documents in the League Office.

Luo Cheng, Zhang You, Wu Liang and Jiang Xue came over to report on their work.

"All sit down."

After receiving the report from Jiang Xue, Liu Xinqi asked everyone to sit down and talk.

Turning to the first page of the report, it outlines the total amount of grain harvested by Xinghan League this year, as well as the scale of autumn tax collection. They are all estimated values. However, according to the experience of previous years, this estimated value will not be different from the final result. More than [-]%.

"The Xinghan League currently has jurisdiction over the four roads of Jingdong East Road, Jingdong East Road, Hebei East Road, and Damingfu Road that originally belonged to Zhao State, and the three roads of Zhongdu Road, Beijing Road, and Tokyo Road that originally belonged to Jin State, a total of seven roads. Land." Liu Xinqi read the report while Jiang Xue introduced it orally.

“After the reclamation of Jingdong East Road and Jingdong West Road in the past two years, and the rectification and restoration of Xinwu Road this year, preliminary statistics of the cultivated land area during this year’s autumn harvest have reached 7000 million acres, of which 500 million acres are taxable arable land."

In other words, 500 million acres are newly cultivated and are in the tax holiday.

"This year's yield per mu, Jingdong Road is higher than Zhongdu Road, Beijing Road and Tokyo Road 210, Jinguo [-]rd Road is higher than Hebei East Road and Damingfu Road. The average yield per mu across the league is [-] kilograms."

The yield of autumn grain is much lower than that of summer grain. The yield per mu is the average yield per mu calculated on both dry land and irrigated land.

"Based on the calculation that 500 million acres of the 400 million acres are public land, it is estimated that the grain tax collected can reach 790 million shi." Liu Xinqi can see from the report that the amount of cultivated land in Jingdong and East Roads is 3000 million acres account for half of the cultivated land in the Seven Roads. The yield of these 3000 million acres is also the highest, reaching an average of 320 kilograms, indicating that the other five roads are seriously lagging behind.

But on the other hand, the other five lanes still have a lot of potential that can be tapped.

"What about buying grain?" Liu Xinqi asked.

"In terms of grain purchase, the scale of grain purchase for the two Jingdong routes is estimated to reach 2000 million shi, while the other five routes are expected to be very small." Jiang Xue replied.

Liu Xinqi understood that the people there had just ended the war and experienced a locust plague. If they did not save some food for their families, they would not feel at ease, so he would not sell the excess food to the Xinghan League.

The people on Jingdong Road and Dong Road are different. They leave at most one or two years of food rations for their families, and the rest of the food will be sold to the Grain Reserve Department.In the past few years, the stable grain prices in Xinghan League's official grain stores have built up strong confidence in the hearts of the people in these two areas.

They believed: "Even if there is a disaster, the alliance will not let them go hungry."

This kind of self-confidence is rare in later generations. Fortunately, the Han League has now achieved it on a partial scale.

"I have food in my hand, so I don't feel panic. With these 4000 million stones of food, I will no longer have to worry about not having enough food before next summer's harvest." A burden in Liu Xinqi's heart finally fell.

After the locust plague, the Xinghan League provided work-for-relief, and the league's food reserves dropped steadily. In the past two months, Wu Liang came to see him almost every three to five days to report on the remaining food reserves. .

Nangou, which originally had high hopes, had to go back and forth once a month at most due to the typhoon season, transporting hundreds of thousands of grains back, which was a drop in the bucket.

Seeing that the grain reserves were about to bottom out, luckily God had a good eye and finally got the autumn grain by luck.

Autumn grains are all coarse grains, with beans (beans) accounting for the majority, but some are better than nothing.The porridge cooked with rice bought from the south is not suitable to the taste of northerners, but it is still full and nutritious.

"The alliance leader is right. I have been worried to death for the past two months. From now on, I have to save enough food to satisfy the entire alliance for two years. If this goal is not achieved, I will not stop buying food. I am afraid Already." Wu Liang answered, with lingering fear.

According to the routine recorded in history, when the country is out of food, the emperor will usually behead the officials who manage the grain reserves to apologize to the world, and let the officials who manage the grain reserves take the blame.

Wu Liang sometimes dreams recently that there is not enough food to eat, and the league beheads him, saying that he secretly sold the food, and he often wakes up in the middle of the night.

"Don't worry, this autumn's improved seeds have been fully rolled out on Jingdong East Road. If the weather goes well, next summer's harvest will definitely be a bumper harvest. By then, you may have to worry about not having enough granaries." Zhang You joked.

"Hahahaha..." Everyone was amused.

The food crisis was completely resolved, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, will this year's 4000 million shi of grain be enough for the grain storage department's granary?" Liu Xinqi asked.

"Don't worry, with the current cement production in Mengli, we can build a granary to store 4000 million stones of grain within half a month. The storage capacity will definitely be no problem."

Granaries have been under construction in the past few years. Wherever government-operated grain stores are opened, granaries are built.

In the past few months, through work-for-relief, various counties and townships have established official reserve granaries. They are large-scale and can be completed in one step. The granaries are built according to the grain reserves that the people of the county can eat for three years. Most of these granaries are now empty.

"What are you doing here today?" After continuing to chat for a while, Liu Xinqi asked the four of them after reading the report in his hand.

(End of this chapter)