At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 244: The poor man and the lack of talents
Cao Sheng thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, I have an idea that I don't know whether I should say something or not?"

Xu Fan said: "Tell me."

Cao Sheng said: "I want to recruit some civilian men in Cao County."

"Yeah!" Xu Fan's expression became solemn.

Cao Sheng immediately said: "It's not the kind of corvee that violent Qin Dynasty did. I asked the people to build water channels and roads for their own use in their hometown. The people will not object. With the water channels, their food can reach three stones. They will also benefit, and this is something that benefits the country and the people.”

Xu Fan said seriously: "I know your idea is good, but Qin's law was not strict at the beginning. Shang Yang is also a genius. He has thought of everything he can think of. What can't be cultivated in spring and harvested in autumn? The conscription of civilian labor will not exceed one month per year, and there is even compensation. But after hundreds of years of increasing the number of people, the good law has turned into a tyranny that we cannot accept. "

"Now you say that people should do corvee service in their hometowns, and soon someone will ask people not to leave the county to do corvee service. This can also be understood in the hometown, but if you extend it further, they will go to the border to do corvée service, leaving those who create figurines without heirs. Under such layers of pressure, we big guys will become violent guys sooner or later.”

Many things look good at the beginning, but once the people who implement them have selfish motives, no matter how good things are, they will be changed beyond recognition. This was the case with Wang Anshi's reform in later generations. Xu Fan was worried that the Han officials under him would use chicken feathers as arrows to seek their own interests. After experiencing the Internet era, Xu Fan simply could not believe the moral character of the Han officials.

Xu Fan said: "We big men's 30% tax already covers the corvee tax. We can't collect the tax and then make the people do corvee service. This is extremely unfair to the people. So the corvée service should be given up. I, the big man, can't keep his word."

Then Xu Fan said in order not to attack Cao Sheng: "You have only been a county magistrate for a few months, and you still have a long time to do things for the people of Hu County. Don't be anxious when doing things. As long as you are anxious, you will definitely make mistakes."

Cao Sheng could only nod in disappointment.

Xu Fan was relieved in his heart. He had been worried that Shitou's relatives would be absent, causing this determined man to collapse. Fortunately, God did not want to create too much wealth after all.

Shitou replied excitedly: "Fortunately, after the Han Palace captured Xianyang City, my eldest brother was released not long after. Now the two brothers of us farm 100 acres of land each and take care of our mother together."

“Why is there so much winter wheat here?”

Xu Fan said nonchalantly: "It's the same whether you call me Your Majesty or King of Han."

Xu Fan pulled the person to laugh and said, "It turns out to be a stone."

Xu Fan's huge team also aroused the vigilance of the farmers in the fields. Stone stood up and saw a little nervousness in the huge cavalry team, but when he saw that the leader was Xu Fan.

Xu Fan smiled and said: "Okay, okay, as long as your relatives are still here."

Then Xu Fan asked with concern: "How is your mother in your hometown?"

Xu Fan pulled them away and smiled: "How is life back home?"

Then Xu Fan pointed at these wheat seedlings and said, "Why do you plant so much winter wheat in your village?"

"Your Majesty!" At this time, several veterans of the Qin Army also followed. They saw Xu Fan and saluted excitedly.

"But why should we rebel against the First Emperor? Because these things should have taken dozens or hundreds of years to complete, but the First Emperor used less than ten years to treat one person as ten people. Let alone people, cow horses We couldn’t bear it, so we started an uprising, and the people all over the world responded, because cows and horses are not made by humans, and if the people don’t rebel, they will be exhausted.”

The veteran replied: "With the reward from the King of Han, we have built a new house, married a wife, and divided the fields. How can we still have bad days?"

"During the ten years that the First Emperor unified the world, in addition to building palaces, whether it was building the Great Wall, building roads, straight roads, or canals, they were all things that were beneficial to the people and the country. They are beneficial to the present and will last forever."

Different from the newly planted millet seedlings in other places, most of the fields planted in Taohuali are wheat, and they are already growing lush and green, with ears of wheat already forming. There are several farmers weeding in the fields. Xu Fan can learn from them. The joy of the upcoming harvest can be felt on his face.

Then, under the leadership of Cao Sheng, Xu Fan came to Taohuali.

Xu Fan smiled and said, "It's good to live a good life."

Shitou ran over excitedly, knelt down beside Xu Fan and shouted: "King of Han!"

Cao Sheng smiled and said: "Brother Shitou, we should call you Your Majesty now."

The officials of Qin were so promising that all the people in the world couldn't bear it anymore. Now the world needs inactive Han officials. This is not only a historical choice, but also recognized by Xu Fan.

This is the first time Xu Fan has seen such a situation where the whole village is planting winter wheat.

Shitou said: "Didn't you, King of Han, say that growing wheat in winter not only has a high grain yield, but can also be planted for one season? When we came back, there was almost no food in the village. I thought that if we could harvest the grain earlier, we would be able to solve the food crisis earlier." , so we discussed with the Pao Ze people to use the grain you gave us to organize the villagers to plant winter wheat. "

Xu Fan said: "You are not afraid of failure."

Shitou said firmly: "Don't be afraid, King Han, you didn't lie to us. You said you would take us home and take us into Guanzhong, and let us go home after entering Guanzhong. You kept your promise and said that the fields can grow winter wheat, so winter will definitely be Winter wheat can be grown.”

Xu Fan could only smile bitterly. Although he was touched by this trust, this kind of blind trust was not advisable. He would rather Shitou had experience in planting winter wheat than he said he could plant winter wheat in winter, so he planted it.

"Chen Sheng!"

"Chen is here!"

"Go and get the Book of Getting Rich, the Dictionary, and the Art of War in Queues!"

Soon Chen Sheng handed three books to Xu Fan.

Xu Fan handed it to Shitou again and said: "I remember you also learned some writing in the military camp. You can't give up on learning. You can't be illiterate in the future. Even if it's farming, a knowledgeable person can produce more than an uneducated person. Gao, this "Book of Wealth" teaches you how to farm better. If you don't understand a word, look it up in the dictionary. Don't give up on military training. If you want to live a good life, you must not only have the ability to produce wealth, but also have The ability to protect wealth, next time I hope you can tell me why planting winter wheat has higher yields, instead of just planting winter wheat when the King of Han said it.”

During Xu Fan's inspection tour, almost every village would leave such a three-piece set to improve the productivity and organizational power of the township. If in a few hundred years, someone could use the art of war to overthrow the Han, Xu Fan would only feel gratified.

Shitou excitedly took the three books and said, "I listen to the King of Han and must study hard!"

Shitou also knew that Confucius, the King of Han, was born and liked to teach students, so he regarded himself as a student.

Then Xu Fan followed Shitou and the others into the peach blossom.

There are many retired veterans in Taohua Village, which is wealthier than other villages Xu Fan has seen. There are more than a dozen obviously renovated houses that can be seen.

Xu Fan entered Shitou's house. In addition to his mother, there was also a pregnant woman. This was Shitou's wife. The two of them were weaving linen cloth using a simple loom.

Shitou excitedly held his mother's hand and said, "Mother, this is the King of Han that the child told you about. If it weren't for the King of Han, you would never see the child and eldest brother." Shitou's mother excitedly wanted to salute Xu Fan, but Xu Fan did not. Master Shitou's mother said, "You are an elder, so you don't need to salute."

Shitou's mother said excitedly: "King Han, thank you for saving my last two sons."

Xu Fan said: "Auntie, you're welcome. Shitou has also made great contributions to our Han army. If he hadn't wanted to take care of you in old age, I would definitely not have let such a hero retire."

Xu Fan's words of praise for Shi Shi made his mother very happy.

Then Xu Fan had a meal at Shitou's house and checked the situation of farm tools in Taohuali. The situation in Taohuali was relatively good in Guanzhong. There were five cattle. Villagers generally still had iron farm tools in their hands, but they were in poor condition. Why, the farmers' sickles have been ground very narrow, but they still have not been replaced. In this era, they are all made of wrought iron. Iron is soft and easy to wear. Although it is not a fast-moving consumer product, it is not very durable.

In the next few days, Xu Fan visited more than a dozen villages in Hu County. Most of the villages were in poor condition. They lacked cattle, iron tools, and water conservancy facilities. It seemed that the people in Guanzhong didn't lack anything.

After inspecting Hu County, Xu Fan returned to Chang'an City and found Qin Bo, the left commander of the Shaofu, and Chen Chui, the right commander of the Shaofu.

Xu Fan looked at the two of them and said: "I have been touring Guanzhong during this period. The conditions of the farmers at the bottom of Guanzhong are very poor. They are living in poverty and cannot even afford food and clothing. It can only be said that they are not starving to death."

"If you want to have enough food, you need to plant more land and harvest more grain. However, farmers can't even get enough iron plows and sickles. How can we increase the production capacity of grain? Ironware cannot be transported only by Chenjun. Guanzhong must also become a Steel center, so the steel plant you built is very important to Guanzhong.”

Qin Bo smiled bitterly and said: "The Prime Minister wants us to control the scale of the steel factory, saying that Guanzhong cannot support too many craftsmen now."

The blast furnace is the crown of the handicraft industry in this era. It is a technology-intensive, labor-intensive, and capital-intensive industry.

From the initial mining of coal, iron ore, to limestone to assist melting, a large number of manpower is needed to excavate minerals. At the same time, the blast furnace is still an immature consumable. There is no such thing as a blast furnace. As long as it is built, it can be used forever. Chen Jun The maximum service life of the blast furnace is only 3 months.

Therefore, blast furnaces need to be constantly replaced, and a large amount of clay needs to be excavated and then fired into high-quality refractory bricks. This is an industrial chain that requires the participation of thousands of people. An ironmaking plant requires a large amount of industry participation and can absorb a large number of people. Labor and employment persons.

But there is a premise for all this, that is, there is enough food to feed these off-duty craftsmen, and this is not possible in Guanzhong at this time, so although Zhou Zhang understands that blast furnaces are gold mines, the steel refined in blast furnaces is more It can greatly improve Guanzhong's agricultural productivity, but he still has to go to Qinbo to control the number of off-duty craftsmen in the hands of the Shaofu and try to maintain the fragile food balance in Guanzhong.

Chen Chui also said: "The Han Dynasty has expanded too fast, and the number of craftsmen can no longer keep up. There are many craftsmen in Chen County who have been employed for less than half a year. Now His Majesty wants to speed up the construction of the steel plant, and the number of skilled craftsmen cannot keep up." On."

The last time Chen Chui recruited a large number of other scholars into the Mohist family, he was scolded by Qin Bo, because in Qin Bo's view, those scholars who defected to the Mohist family did not recognize the Mohist philosophy at all, but just wanted to use the Mohist family as a springboard to become Han officials, and In fact, this is also true. Those scholars who joined the Mohist family broke away from the Mohist family as long as they became Han officials.

Later, Qin Bo tightened the process of absorbing Mohists. Only those who have been craftsmen for more than one year and agree with the Mohist philosophy can become Mohists. However, in this way, it will be difficult for the number of Mohist disciples to increase.

Xu Fan thought for a while and said: "Qin Bo, Mozi Academy wants to expand its recruitment of students. It is not necessary for these students to become Mohists. It is also possible to learn a skill. Confucius taught three thousand disciples, but not all of these three thousand disciples are Confucianists. You can definitely select some students who recognize the Mohist philosophy among these outstanding students.”

Qin Bo nodded and said, "I understand."

Then Xu Fan went to the Prime Minister's Mansion to find Zhou Zhang, told him what he saw in the countryside, and then said with a solemn face: "The situation in Guanzhong Township is very poor, everything is lacking, but the most lacking thing is the agricultural tools used for production, planting. We can’t just use wooden farm tools and stone farm tools for food, but real iron tools, so even if we grit our teeth, the Guanzhong Iron and Steel Plant must speed up and not slow down.”

Zhou Zhang said: "Guanzhong cannot support too many craftsmen. I naturally understand the importance of iron farm tools, but they can be transported from the Central Plains. This is more suitable for the current situation than production in Guanzhong.

There are two major steel centers in Dahan. One is Chenjun. The first blast furnace in the world was built in Chenjun. Now the steel production capacity of Chenjun accounts for 3% of Dahan. The other is Wancheng. He has always been A famous city in the world, it is also the steel center in the world. Half of the craftsmen in Wancheng are blacksmiths. When Chenjun’s blast furnace technology was passed to Wancheng, in less than a year, Wancheng absorbed and digested Chenjun’s blast furnace technology and established With the construction of more than a dozen small blast furnaces, Wancheng is no worse than Chenjun in terms of talent and technology. Now Wancheng's steel accounts for % of the entire Han Dynasty all year round, and it is still increasing rapidly.

Therefore, in Zhou Zhang's opinion, it is enough for Han Dynasty to have these two steel centers. Transporting iron from the two places to Guanzhong can solve the problem of lack of agricultural tools in Guanzhong.

Xu Fan said: "The price of transporting iron farm tools from Wancheng to Chen County is too high, and the people in Guanzhong cannot afford to buy them."

Zhou Zhang smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, even if a steel factory is built in Guanzhong, the people in Guanzhong still cannot afford iron farm tools. They are so poor that they can only support themselves by relying on me, a big man, to work for relief and accumulate a little ration. Where will it come from?" The money is used to buy precious ironware. Your Majesty, this is Guanzhong, but we have been operating in Chen County for three years. "

Xu Fan was stunned. This was like a backward-looking loop. Without purchasing power, they could not buy farm tools. But without farm tools, it would be difficult for them to increase their grain production capacity. If there was insufficient food, they could not buy farm tools.

Zhou Zhang saw the stunned Xu Fan and said with relief: "Your Majesty, the people just haven't accumulated enough. As long as I, the man, don't fight for three years and the people accumulate for three years, everything will be fine."

But Xu Fan suddenly realized that the Han Dynasty still lacked a banking system. An Agricultural Bank would solve the problem by providing loans to farmers, so he told Zhou Zhang his thoughts.

Zhou Zhang said in astonishment: "Zi Yin Qian? You must not do it. The reputation of Zi Yin Qian's family is so bad that your Majesty must not taint it."

In fact, contrary to what Xu Fan thought, the financial system in this era was still very developed. The most famous thing is that Emperor Zhou borrowed a usury loan in order to fight against the Qin Dynasty, and later paid it back. He could only hide on the high platform, leaving behind an idiom of high debts.

In the next few decades, in order to quell the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, a money merchant named Wuyan, lent 5000 gold to Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty for military expenses.

When Xu Fan heard Zhou Zhang compare the Agricultural Bank of China to a loan shark, he immediately said: "This is a bank established for farmers' production. The interest rate is only 10% a year. It is not just printing money."

Zhou Zhang still shook his head and said: "Although the interest rate is low, I am afraid that the farmers will not be able to pay back the money due to accidents. What can the court do? Is it possible that the court would sell farmers into slavery to pay off their debts? It is best for the court not to do such a thing."

Xu Fan said: "Always give it a try. With this help, ordinary farmers can increase their grain production capacity, and we big men can also harvest a large amount of grain. It can be said to be a good thing that kills two birds with one stone."

Zhou Zhang said helplessly: "Your Majesty, instead of caring about the steel factory, I think you should pay more attention to the news about the farmers' experimental fields."

He held a letter and said: "Farmer master Xu Feng came to tell me that using struvite, the production capacity of rice, leeks, and radish has more than doubled. Master Xu said that struvite is one of the best fertilizers in the world." , if promoted throughout Dahan, the grain production capacity can be doubled. "

Speaking of this, Zhou Zhang was extremely excited. If he could really do this, the prosperous age of the Han Dynasty would come soon.

Of course Xu Fan knew the power of struvite. There were many wars over struvite in history.

Xu Fan said helplessly: "It's a pity that the promotion of struvite still requires farmers."

This is just like winter wheat. Although there are no technical problems, it is difficult for the people to accept it. Someone needs to promote it, and the most suitable person to promote struvite is of course the children of farmers.

Zhou Zhang smiled bitterly when he heard this and said: "There is still a shortage of talents. The larger the territory, the less talents I, a big man, have."

Today's Han Dynasty is just like Xu Fan's later generations, impoverished and lacking all kinds of talents. The only thing that was better than the later generations was that the Han Dynasty was already a beacon of known civilization. The competitive pressure of the Han Dynasty was not as great as that of the later generations, and it could cultivate talents step by step.

Xu Fan thought for a while and said: "Organize an imperial examination specifically for the Agricultural College. Scholars who pass the Agricultural College can become Han officials after passing the training of farmers."

If you want to promote any skill in Dahan, it is best to have an official position.

(End of this chapter)