Late Tang

On the Waking of Insects Festival, when the sound of thunder is heard, the dormant overwintering insects will be awakened.

The light rain brings new flowers, and it begins with a thunderstorm.The field family was free for a few days, and farming began from then on.Not long into February, the first thunder in the East China Sea finally sounded, the weather was getting warmer, and the rain began to increase.Many of the newly planted peach trees on Salmon Island have begun to bloom with pink peach blossoms.

The continuous spring rain kept falling, and the workers who built the city worked harder to build the new city during the day.After work, the people on the island had to go home and dredge the water diversion ditches around the huts in the camp outside the city to prevent water from entering the huts.

Spring thunder sounds, everything grows.The earth is getting warmer, and the people on the island are all happy. They have finally passed the difficult year of disaster, and many people are full of expectations for the new year.Li Jing and the officials in the town were also busy. Li Jing also held a special spring meeting of Shamen Town, assigning officials to be responsible for the next tasks.There are too many busy things, neither can stop the training of troops, let alone slow down the progress of building the city, and the artisans are also rushing to make ordnance around the clock.

In addition to the three most important tasks of training troops, building cities, and building weapons, Zhang Hong is also in charge of several profitable new workshops, such as liquor workshops, rock sugar workshops, and perfumes. The workshops have started work one after another, but there is a severe shortage of manpower, and the daily output cannot be increased.Li Huier and the others' quilt uniforms are now the largest workshop on the island, larger than the armory workshop, with more than a thousand workers, but faced with the military and civilian orders that Li Jing keeps giving them, He was still busy every day, and finally he had to accept Li Jing's suggestion and set up the workshop as two shifts, day and night.

"I still need manpower. There are already more than 5000 workers on the city construction site, but it is not enough. If the construction is completed before the end of June according to the general's request, I need at least three to [-] people to catch up with the progress." Now he is fully responsible for the city construction The soldier Cao Zuo Han Zhongwu, holding the densely written scroll in his hand, stood up tiredly and begged Li Jing loudly.

Li Jing tapped on the table: "Bing Cao Zuo, I remember that I have given you the full power of building the city before. I have said it beforehand. If you want money and food, go directly to Zhang Bingcao. But if you want someone, I will give you money. Food, this is up to you to figure out a way. There are not enough people, so you can recruit young and strong people to work for me. With the money and food we are offering now, there are plenty of people who are willing to come. There are not enough people in Salmonella Island. Just go to a few nearby islands, and there are no more nearby islands, then you can take a boat to Dengzhou, go to Huangxian County and go to Muping to recruit. I am not here to listen to your complaints, what I want to hear is that the progress of building the city must be Make sure to keep up. When the end of June comes, if you can’t finish the work on time, it will be dereliction of duty. I don’t ask other people, but you, understand?”

Han Zhongwu nodded cruelly with red eyes, "I understand!"

After Li Jing's stern opening, everyone below who wanted to complain shrank back.Li Jing glanced at the crowd, and asked Cui Zhiyuan: "Cui Lushi, you are in charge of the ordnance workshop now. How is our army's ordnance production going? Can we get the equipment of more than [-] people in the army this month?" Equipped?"

"Returning to the general, the armory shop is now working in two shifts day and night, and is working hard to make it. The most important Mo Dao has successfully trial-made two of them yesterday. It will be complete within a month. Other ordnance is enough for the time being. Now the Ordnance Workshop is making every effort to manufacture individual crossbows, Fuyuan heavy crossbows, and catapults. The technical quality is strictly supervised. Every weapon manufactured is as required by the general. The name of the craftsman team and the inspector who built it is engraved on the weapon, so you don’t worry about quality problems.”

Speaking of this, he paused, and said with a bit of embarrassment on his face: "However, both the crossbow machine and the catapult require a lot of beef tendon and crossbow strings. We don't have enough materials in the warehouse now, although we paid more than twice the market price. I went to buy them, but these things are clearly prohibited by the imperial court, and the purchase effect is not good. Now the stock in the warehouse can supply the production of the workshop for about ten days at most."

"In addition, General Lin Wu came to me yesterday and said that the cavalry's use of horizontal knives was not effective. He and the master craftsman researched and designed a new type of weapon, which is specially used for cavalry combat. This new weapon called saber has been made A few trial products are slightly more curved than ordinary horizontal knives, and the handle is also slightly curved towards the blade. According to the trial, the effect is indeed better than that of horizontal knives. However, there are still many horizontal knives in our warehouse. I think it’s a waste to make a saber, but I also need to make a saber, so I ask the general to make a decision on this matter.”

As he spoke, he turned around and brought in two new-style sabers from the door, and presented them. Li Jing carefully observed the sabers, which were slightly similar to the scimitars used by people on the prairie. As far as Hengdao is concerned, it is indeed more conducive to fighting immediately.However, it is still much different from the several sabers of later generations, but this one was figured out by Lin Wu and craftsmen, which shows that it is still very practical.

After thinking about it, Li Jing made some adjustments to the new saber according to the style of the Damascus scimitar and the Western cavalry sword of later generations.

"If a worker wants to benefit from his work, he must first sharpen his weapon. The cavalry is our treasure. It takes more than a dozen pieces to eat a horse for a month. No matter how expensive a saber is, it is only a few dollars. The money is still It's worth the money, study the craftsmanship again, and then build [-] saber equipment first, and store the excess in the warehouse first."

There are several new faces attending this meeting today, and three of them are Li Jing's three brothers-in-law.None of the three are very capable, but now that the brother-in-law has become a town general, they naturally follow closely.Li Jing couldn't express any feelings for these three brothers-in-law. After all, when he came to Datang, the three elder sisters were married early, and the eldest sister was five or six years older than him, and married earlier, and now they all have several children.However, although these brothers-in-laws in my memory were not from wealthy families, they were still good to my sisters and the Li family. They never lost their etiquette during festivals, and they also gave away things.

The eldest brother-in-law Han Jin was originally a small military officer of Dong Mou Shouzhuo. He said that he was an officer, but in fact his family's ancestors basically went to Dong Mou Shouzhuo's military academy for generations.However, when his grandfather arrived, he did not officially serve in the army, but began to do business abroad while holding an official position in the army.This was basically a common phenomenon from the mid-Tang to the late Tang. The imperial court was no longer responsible for the money and food in many armies, and most of them had to be raised by the armies themselves.So those local generals either recruited some traders to serve in the army, and then they continued to do business, and the money they earned was shared with the army in proportion.There are more ways to make money in the army, and businessmen can avoid many taxes and miscellaneous labors when they have a backer.Later, the army simply sent soldiers to do business by themselves, even waiving the merchant's share, and earning by themselves.It was at that time that Han Zhong's grandfather started to do business while holding a military post.

The eldest brother-in-law's business is not big, but he borrowed the name of the army to save a lot of taxes and miscellaneous expenses, and his life is not bad.The second brother-in-law, Zhang Dejiang, is a small landlord not far from Wanglizhuang, and his family has more than [-] mu of land, and his life is not bad.The third brother-in-law is a small official in Chishan Port, and he is barely okay.However, after Li Jing was promoted to the town general, when the three sisters and brother-in-law came back to attend Li's mother's birthday, they saw that their brothers had so many officials to support them, so they immediately persuaded the three brothers-in-law to come directly to Shamen Township.

The three of them are not very capable, and they are not the kind of people who can join the army. In the end, Li Jing arranged for the three of them in the logistics camp. Now that the family business is starting to grow, Li Jing needs more and more people. .Then I also tried to promote some relatives, clansmen, etc. to some unimportant positions.

The three brother-in-laws have also been promoted to one level recently. Now Han Jin is in charge of managing the [-] mu of land that has not yet been divided, while the second brother-in-law Zhang Dejiang is responsible for raising pigs and sheep, and supplying meat on the island. The third brother-in-law is in charge of raising chickens Ducks and geese are raised to supply poultry meat and eggs on the island.

There is a large population in Shamen Town, not only the number of resident people has already exceeded [-], but also the number of people who come to work every day to participate in the construction of the city, carry jobs at the pier, etc., but have not yet obtained the permanent residence qualification on the island has already exceeded [-].The food consumed every day is huge, and the food is okay, but the supply of vegetables is very troublesome.Not only do you have to go to Dengzhou every day to purchase, it takes time to come and go, and the price is not cheap, and it is not fresh and convenient.

Zhang Hong and the others finally proposed to raise them by themselves, but Li Jing thought it was a good idea. If there is no land for food, they can't grow much, but pigs can be raised by themselves.The newly built pig and sheep farm and chicken and duck farm are doing well. The first batch of pigs and sheep are half-sized pigs and sheep bought directly. The pigs are nearly a hundred catties, and they can be slaughtered after two months of buying. The eggs laid by chickens and ducks every day greatly enrich the variety of vegetables on the island and everyone's nutrition.

"There is a folk saying that when peach blossoms bloom, swine fever comes! As the weather gets warmer, various diseases begin to increase. Owner Zhang and Owner Yang, you are now in charge of the supply of meat and eggs for most of the people on the island. But you can’t be careless. Pay more attention to the sanitation of the farm.” He turned his head to Zhang Hong, the chief steward, and said, “Zhang Bingcao, later on, you should mobilize all the residents on the island to have a thorough cleaning and rectification. Burn the garbage, and have to go to the fields on the island to kill rats. As soon as the weather warms up, the rats will come out of their holes. More than half of the spring plague is spread by rats. This time we will do a good job of rat eradication. Get rid of the mice."

"The baiting jacket is used to dig, block and irrigate, no matter what method is used, as long as everyone mobilizes, the mere mice will have nowhere to escape." Li Jing said very solemnly, although he could see from the faces of many people present that they actually thought Li Jing's request is a bit strange.But Li Jing still insisted that rats are extremely harmful, not only stealing food, but also spreading diseases.Now the construction site on the island, the workshops are constantly busy, tens of thousands of people are crowded together, and spring is already a period of high incidence of diseases. If there is another epidemic, it will be unstoppable at that time.Epidemics can only be prevented in advance, and he is unwilling to explain the spread of epidemics to these late Tang figures, but precautions are necessary. "

"Han Zuoshi, you are now in charge of our public property in Shamen Town. It's spring, what arrangements do you have?"

Han Jin is very burly, but he is not muscular and strong, but wide and fat, with a big belly. People under [-] have two mustaches, and he looks like a profiteer. demeanor.Hearing Li Jing's question, he quickly got up and replied: "My subordinates discussed with several subordinates and planned to prepare spring plowing immediately. Last winter was not too cold and there was not much snow. Many experienced elders said that this year It could be another drought. So I thought it would be better to plant a crop of sorghum and then a crop of soybeans, both of which are fairly drought-resistant.”

Li Jing shook his head: "There are very few fields on the island. All together, it is no more than a thousand mu. One mu is calculated as the highest one stone, and one year can only cost more than a thousand stone grains. There is almost no land. Let us divide the land of each family. You can leave it alone, and everyone can cultivate it as you like. However, I don’t think we should grow food in these fields. Now our food is not bad, but the vegetables are not enough, and it is troublesome to go out to buy money. Therefore, my It means that the farm you manage will be planted with vegetables this year, and the [-] acres of land will be planted with vegetables, all kinds of vegetables."

"All kinds of vegetables?"

"That's right, the vegetables grown by the tens of thousands of people on the island are not so easy to grow. If there are more than enough to eat, we can also dry vegetables, soak pickles, and kimchi. You can also recruit more people on your farm. The elderly, women, and children are all fine, and some wounded and disabled veterans who have retired from the army can also be recruited. In addition, you can also organize some young and strong people in the village, and you can go fishing in the sea in your spare time, enriching everyone's food bowl .”

Growing vegetables, raising pigs and fish, and even raising chickens and ducks are not only for enriching vegetables, but also for supplementing nutrition.Moreover, with more meat and vegetables to eat, the nutrition of the people on the island has kept up, and various diseases can be reduced.What's more, if you eat these meats and vegetables together, the oil, water and nutrition will keep up. In fact, the consumption of food will also be greatly reduced.Food is something that must be grown from the soil, and it is a precious thing, but things like fish are completely given by nature, and you can catch as much as you can.

"In short, the Spring Thunder of Waking of Insects has sounded, and the new year has already begun. Everyone must work harder. I promise in advance that if you do a good job, there will be rewards at the end of the year. The rewards may be a new house in a new city, or It may be the fields on the island, as well as money and silk rewards. But if you don’t do well, everyone will have to accept punishment at that time.”

At this moment, Duan Shan, the scouting team, hurried into the hall and reported softly to Li Wei, the head of the capital.

"General, the bandit suppression fleet in Daxie Village has set sail!"

(To be continued)