Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 364 Implementing the Four Policies

Wuhan, palace.

The contents of reports from various states and counties were quietly placed on the desk, and Zhuge Liang was writing on the silk with a pen.

"Stone mill?"

"It doesn't produce any wheat?"

"People in the South don't have the habit of eating wheat rice?"

“Don’t people know the techniques of wheat farming?”

Zhuge Liang self-organized the issues based on the official documents reported by the governors of various states and copied them into the document.

"Ji Chang?"

"I'm here!" Ma Liang responded.

Zhuge Liang put his pen down on the case and asked: "Ji Chang went out to inspect Jingchu counties and visited local officials and people. What are his different opinions?"

Ma Liang pondered for a while and then said: "This national policy benefits the country at the top and the people at the bottom. It is difficult to implement now, not because the wheat cannot be eaten, but because the people do not know the benefits of the wheat. With good views, I want to persuade the people to practice rice and wheat farming. Let the common people know the benefits of wheat."

"The ancients said that the bustle in the world is for profit; the bustle in the world is for profit. If there is real profit to be made, the people will be happy to farm."

Zhuge Liang nodded and smiled, and asked, "Does Ji Chang have a plan to deal with him?"

Ma Liang shook his head and said, "Shu Liang is very talented and has little knowledge, so he doesn't have a detailed understanding of it."

Zhuge Liang stood up with a fan and said: "How about changing the taxation and replacing the eight liters of rice for field rent with eight liters of wheat and rice?"

Ma Liang frowned slightly and said: "Changing rice to wheat is afraid that the government will suffer losses. The government harvests wheat to supply the sergeants. Most of the sergeants are from the south, how can they be willing to eat wheat rice?"

When soldiers eat food, how can they eat coarse grains like wheat rice?

Most of the food is rice, so as to ensure the combat effectiveness of the sergeants. Forcing the sergeants to eat wheat rice, with resentment in their hearts and low morale, how could they fight with all their heart?

For example, in the Qi-Liang War, the Liang army in the Southern Dynasties had low morale because they relied on wheat crumbs for food. Xiao Yan hurriedly mobilized rice and the morale of the army was greatly boosted, so he defeated the Qi army.

Therefore, when Ma Liang collected wheat rice as a tax, he was afraid that the soldiers would not want to eat it.

"Ha ha!"

Zhuge Liang stroked the feather fan gently and said with a smile: "Don't worry Ji Chang, Liang has a way to deal with it."

With that, Zhuge Liang handed Ma Liang the scarf on the case table and said, "Ji Chang, please copy five copies of this article and send them to Huo Du, Pang Lingjun, Liu Shangshu, Fa Hanchang, and Gu Zhizhong, and ask them to come here." , discuss promoting the method of rice-wheat rotation farming."

"promise!"

After receiving the silk, Huo Jun handed over the affairs to his subordinates and went to the meeting.

Zhuge Liang personally greeted everyone at the door. After exchanging greetings, everyone sat down one after another.

Six people sat on the ground on the left and right, flipping through difficult issues in promoting rice-wheat rotation.

Zhuge Liang cleared his throat and said: "Southern people cultivate paddy fields. They have three fields, upper, middle and lower. In terms of average yield, each mu can yield three shi of rice. This is the time for spring plowing and autumn harvest. If wheat is plowed in autumn, the spring will be better. Harvest, see with the light, work diligently, and even if you don’t have three stones of grain, you will still have two stones of wheat.”

"Two harvests in one year is better than three harvests in two years in the Central Plains. Therefore, the method of rotational cultivation of rice and wheat can be promoted in all states and counties. I dare not say how to cultivate rice and wheat in every household, but if one hundred thousand hectares of fertile land can be cultivated with wheat, , which can add at least tens of millions of kilograms of food every year,”

"A sergeant eats two stones a month and twenty-four stones a year. Tens of millions of stones are enough to feed our soldiers for nearly three years. The method of rotating rice and wheat is a great strategy for the country. If it can be successful, the national treasury will be enriched and the army will be strong." Don’t be trapped by food and grass.”

Is one hundred thousand hectares of fertile land a lot?

In the Han Dynasty, one hectare of land was fifty acres, and one hundred thousand hectares of land was about five million acres.

How many fields could a county have in the Han Dynasty?

Taking Donghai County in Xuzhou as an example, there are more than 500,000 hectares of mature farmland. In other words, if one-fifth of Donghai County is planted with wheat, Zhuge Liang's goal can basically be achieved.

How much labor is needed to plant five million acres of land?

Assuming that each household cultivates fifty acres of land, it would require 100,000 households. In other words, at least 100,000 households must be mobilized to collectively plant wheat and implement a plan to greatly increase grain production.

What Zhuge Liang said was known to everyone present.

Zhuge Liang pointed to the silk and said: "However, the people in the south don't like the things that contain wheat, and they don't need to cultivate them. Now if we want the people in the south to cultivate, we have to offer incentives. Liang is willing to exchange rice and wheat, and the land rent is eighty-eight Sheng, the people can pay rice or wheat. What do you think?"

"Rice and wheat swap?"

Pang Tong pondered for a while and said: "The people of Wu and Chu are very happy with rice, but the people of Wu and Chu are not happy with the wheat. Now that the rice is left to feed themselves, the people will be willing to plant the wheat, and the wheat will be used to pay taxes."

Zhuge Liang tried to use the government's collection of wheat as an administrative means to stimulate the people to widely plant winter wheat in autumn and winter. When it matures in spring, it will be kept until summer and autumn to pay taxes to the government.

In this way, the people can keep the rice they paid for land rent for their own use. In this way, planting permanent wheat will be profitable, which will definitely stimulate people to plant winter wheat.

After a pause, Pang Tong asked the same question as Ma Liang and said: "If the government collects wheat for sleeping, why not let our soldiers eat and sleep on wheat?"

"Kong Ming!"

Pang Tong looked at Zhuge Liang and said seriously: "Kong Ming wants to promote Sumai. Tongduo can understand it, but now the priority is the sergeants. From a general perspective, rice and wheat swaps are feasible, but due to restrictions on each household turning in Sumai, Pang Tong looked at Zhuge Liang and said seriously: Amount to ensure normal supply for sergeants.”

Zhuge Liang did not answer, but asked Fazheng, "Xiaozhi comes from Guanzhong and eats and sleeps a lot. What do you think?"

Fazheng stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Wheat rice is difficult to eat. If it can be ground into powder and made into flour cakes, the soldiers can carry it and eat it. Put it in boiling water and cook it, which is similar to today's steamed rice."

Steamed rice is one of the ways to eat rice. It can be dried in the sun, carried when traveling far away, boiled with hot water, and then eaten. It is similar to the self-heating rice of later generations, so the southerners often use it as military rations in battles.

Hu cake, made from wheat. It can also be eaten when traveling far away. If the cake is too hard, just soak it in some water and eat it.

"Exactly!"

Zhuge Liang stroked his feather fan gently and said: "When my lord was on the campaign in the Central Plains, his sergeants often ate Hu cakes. During the time of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, he liked to eat Hu cakes, and many people in the capital followed him. Huo Du has been marching for many years, and I don't know if there are any. What’s your opinion?”

Huo Jun thought for a long time and said: "It may not be feasible to replace steamed rice with Hu cakes. However, in Jun's opinion, we can replace Hu cakes with rice rice step by step to observe the changes in the sergeant's speech. Even if steamed rice cannot be replaced, the sergeant can rest You can also eat biscuits from time to time."

After a pause, Huo Jun reminded: "To make wheat cakes, stone mills are indispensable. When the government collects wheat, they should set up stone mills to grind wheat. From Jun's point of view, it can be used in places with rapid water flow in various counties. Using water to drive away stones is used to grind wheat." It may be difficult for future generations to understand why stone grinding can be mentioned repeatedly.

Without it, without stone grinding, it would be difficult to make bread from wheat.

At the same time, the craftsmanship of stone grinding is not low, and it contains craftsman skills. If the grinding is not done well, the taste will be seriously affected.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, in the Central Plains, mastering stone mills was a necessity for nobles and powerful men. It is hard to imagine that the famous Princess Taiping of the Tang Dynasty was so rich that she would snatch stone mills from temples.

The case of Princess Taiping robbing the stone mill was punished by Li Yuanhong, the then Yongzhou Sihu. Li Yuanhong was not afraid of power and sentenced the stone mill to be owned by the temple. This case was called the "Nanshan Iron Case", and Li Yuanhong later became a famous prime minister in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

Although the stone mill is small, it is an important factor in promoting wheat to become the staple food of the Han people.

The decline of the Kansai gentry, the rise of the Kanto gentry, and the southward shift of the economic center of gravity. Changes in Chinese history are often made up of small things, which ultimately make the wheel of history roll forward.

How difficult it would be to think that proposing a certain theory or innovating a certain system can single-handedly change the progress of mankind!

Zhuge Liang nodded slightly and agreed: "What Huo Du said is absolutely true. Although the stone mill is small, it is the most important thing in making cakes. Among the Qingxu nobles, anyone who can master the stone mill family is always prominent. Clan. Now I collect wheat as a gift, and when I am an official, I install a stone mill to grind wheat."

Gu Yong, who had few words to say, said: "Building stone mills requires a lot of manpower; grinding wheat also requires manpower. In Yong's view, eight liters of rice per mu can allow the people to eat a dou of wheat. Four liters of rice, Let the people pay five liters of wheat."

"This is another kind of tax increase!" Zhuge Liang said with a frown.

Gu Yong smiled and said: "According to the military commander's advice, if you harvest wheat in the spring and rice in the summer, the people's yield per mu will be greatly increased, which can at least increase the amount of tens of kilo of grain. For the people, the rent of only two liters of wheat will be increased. It’s a beneficial thing. If we don’t pay the rent with wheat, but pay the rent with rice, how can we talk about raising taxes?”

"Ok!"

Zhuge Liang stroked the feather fan gently and considered Gu Yong's suggestion.

Fazheng changed into a comfortable posture and said: "Yuan Tan's words are not unreasonable. If Sumai is promoted, where will the wheat seeds come from?"

"Only local counties lend wheat seeds to the people for cultivation. If the nobles borrow the seeds, they may get high profits, which will in turn hurt the people. Promoting wheat seeds will consume a lot of manpower and material resources, so how can it not increase the income? Land rent.”

"That's fine!"

Zhuge Liang stopped what he was doing and said: "In this case, let the king issue a new tax edict, saying that those who use wheat will pay a tax, and one liter of rice will be harvested a quarter more. If you pay four liters of rice, you will pay five liters of wheat. If you pay eight liters of rice, you will receive a tax." Pay a bushel of wheat."

"Can!"

Zhuge Liang looked around at the crowd and asked, "Is there anything wrong with planting wheat now?"

"There is a mistake!"

Liu Ba, who was sitting at the end, said: "Since Ba lived in Wuhan, he has recently discovered that the price of wheat in the market has increased. There must be merchants and nobles who have gone to the government to encourage them to grow wheat, so they want to take the opportunity to buy it so that they can sell it to the bottom at a high price. The people, profit from it.”

"Kong Ming, in order not to hurt the farmers and facilitate the promotion of Sumai, we should let local counties lend Sumai." Fa Zheng said: "If you lend Sumai, you may be able to collect the interest rate difference to increase the government treasury."

"No, if you lend Sumai, the county should let it be interest-free. How can you charge the interest difference?"

Pang Tong decisively objected and said: "Filial filial piety, officials are greedy and despicable. They only know the orders of their superiors, but they rarely care about the people. So what if the interest rate difference is collected and the officials force the people to borrow money? Doesn't it harm the reputation of the king? It undermines my original intention of benevolent government."

Huo Jun was amazed to see top politicians checking and filling in each other's gaps.

The interest rate difference for lending dormitory wheat seems to be a profit for the government, but when it is implemented at the local level and there are assessment indicators, it will inevitably become compulsory to lend dormitory wheat. For example, Wang Anshi's Qingmiao method has the same original intention. However, when they got to the local area, the officials forced the people to lend their young crops, which eventually became a bad policy.

"Zichu, you can speak for yourself!" Zhuge Liangming asked Liu Ba to speak.

Liu Ba pondered for a while and said: "In order to promote the farming of wheat, wheat seeds should be lent out without interest. In this way, it will be difficult for the nobles and powerful people to make profits. However, the central treasury of Basi should have a lot of rice, but few people have wheat. .”

"Basically, we can issue an order for the exchange of rice and wheat and pay rent in the near future. Today, we plan to collect wheat from various places and keep it safe. Next spring, there will be a good harvest of wheat, which will allow the people to collect taxes in advance. By summer and autumn , clear out all the wheat stored in the treasury, and distribute it to the people everywhere without interest or rent."

After a pause, Liu Ba said: "If the market is short of wheat, merchants can buy wheat from the Central Plains for planting next year."

Nowadays, there are people who grow wheat in the south. Most of them are refugees from the north who fled south. They have experience in growing wheat and they also eat wheat. Although this scale is small, it is not difficult to collect winter wheat seeds.

Under this operation, if any merchants want to drive up wheat prices and go against the Wuhan central government, they will basically be unable to withstand it. After all, one is an official and the other is a citizen, how can they compete!

"color!"

Zhuge Liang held up his fan, clapped his hands, and said with a smile: "Zi Chu's ability to strategize is well-deserved. Now he has harvested more wheat from the people and lent it to the people at interest. I'm afraid it won't be easy to spread, so we should follow Zi Chu's words."

"Pay taxes on wheat, build a large water mill, use wheat to make cakes, and rent seeds without interest. If the above four policies are extended to the people, and rice and wheat are cultivated in rotation, the country will be prosperous."

"Kong Ming, when Emperor Xiao became the emperor of the former Han Dynasty, the emperor ordered Yilang Si Shengzhi to be an envoy to encourage farmers to teach the people in Sanfu to farm and cultivate intensively. Now if we want to make Sumai flourish in the south, we need to follow the old example and appoint envoys to encourage farmers to go down to Wu Chu, teach the people to cultivate wheat." Pang Tong suggested.

"good!"

Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said, "Is there anyone who can be selected so that Liang can write a letter to the lord?"

"Under the rule of Jun, Xuzhou did not drive Sima Zhi, whose courtesy name was Zihua, a native of Hanoi. Since the chaos in the world, he fled to Jingchu with his mother, where he farmed and studied in the countryside. Today, he has successfully reclaimed wasteland in Hefei, and dredged fertile water canals. He has made many achievements."

Huo Jun stroked his moustache and said: "Sima Zihua is a diligent man, loves the people, and is loyal to official duties. He personally experimented with the method of rotating rice and wheat in the past. Now he is appointed as an envoy to encourage farmers. In a few years, he will stay for a long time. McDonald's can prosper."

Huo Jun had previously promised Sima Zhi to dredge Feishui canals and resume production in Hefei, so Huo Jun recommended it to the central government. Now that Sima Zhi has done it, Huo Jun will naturally fulfill his promise. After all, Sima Zhi has been appointed Xuzhou Biejia for a long time, and the position of Biejia should limit Sima Zhi's performance.

Moreover, Sima Zhi was proficient in agricultural affairs, so it was very suitable for him to serve as a messenger to encourage farmers. After the work of persuading farmers is completed, Sima Zhi will either join the central government or be transferred to a wealthy county as the governor.

"it is good!"

Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "Liang Duo has heard of Zihua's name. Now that Zihua is here as an envoy to encourage farmers, how can we not succeed in rotating wheat farming?"

After speaking, Zhuge Liang said with admiration: "General Zhongmiao does not forget farming when he goes out of town, and he should be an example for generals. If rice and wheat rotation can be accomplished, the people of the south will be blessed by this for the rest of the world."

Huo Jun waved his hand to deny it and said with a smile: "Zihua did it personally. The king issued the order, and Kong Ming and the ministers implemented the policy. If it can be accomplished now, how can it be attributed to Jun alone?"

"Kong Ming is too praised!"

(End of this chapter)