Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 373
Xiang Zhuang rode a black horse and walked slowly on the Kaixuan Avenue. He was surprised and happy. When he set off more than three months ago, this place was just an ordinary road. Why did he go to Qidi and Huainan and come back? , so there is such a brilliant avenue that is more than a hundred steps wide, magnificent, like the emperor's avenue?
Behind Xiangzhuang, there are Jinxiang and Huyan, who are as strong as iron towers. Well, there will be assassins sent by various countries. Although the king is highly skilled in martial arts, it is easy to hide open spears and difficult to guard against hidden arrows. Be careful.

Behind Jinxiang and Huyan are the generals Bailixian, Youyuan, and Bailimao. Yingzhen is also among them, but Yingzhen is in a very unhappy mood because she wants to go forward with Xiangzhuang. She accepted the cheers from the people on both sides of the avenue, but Xiang Zhuang rejected her without hesitation. Obviously, Xiang Zhuang didn't think she was qualified.

The cheers on both sides of the Triumph Avenue became higher and higher, and Xiang Zhuang's emotions were also aroused. He suddenly felt that building such an avenue was actually a good idea. Through the almost military parade parade on the avenue, not only It can maximize the prestige of the monarch, and it can also stimulate the national pride and sense of belonging.

Looking at the excited subjects, Xiang Zhuang suddenly felt that it seemed necessary to build a large-scale entertainment facility for Ziling. With the development of industry and commerce in Chu, the income of the people was getting higher and higher, and their lives became more and more affluent. The vast majority of the people have escaped poverty, and families with men serving as soldiers have even lived a superior life. The taverns, chess houses, piano workshops, prostitution and other facilities in Ziling City have become increasingly unable to meet their needs. demanded.

The arena, yes, it is the arena, it is time to build a large arena.

Before crossing, Xiang Zhuang once watched an American drama called "Spartacus Blood and Sand". The bloody scenes in it didn't touch him very much. As a veteran, it was more cruel, more real, and more bloody. He has seen all the scenes before, but the excitement shown by the Romans in front of the blood makes him a little touched.

Undoubtedly, performances in the arena can greatly enhance citizens' sense of belonging to the country, and more importantly, can greatly stimulate the blood of citizens, making them aggressive and bloodthirsty. Why did Rome in the West grow from a small The small city-state eventually expanded into a huge empire that dominated the entire Mediterranean and lasted for thousands of years?

For no other reason than the Romans were aggressive, bloodthirsty, and aggressive!
Xiang Zhuang has changed history, so he does not want the Huaxia people to go back to the old way and become a gentle, humble, tolerant and introverted nation. Xiang Zhuang hopes that the Huaxia people will become a aggressive, bloodthirsty, and expansive nation. Therefore, It is necessary to introduce bloody entertainment such as arenas and arenas, so that the Confucian doctrine of moderation and benevolence and righteousness will lose the soil for survival.

After parading along the Kaixuan Avenue, he received the tsunami-like cheers from the citizens of Ziling, and then Xiang Zhuang delivered an impromptu speech on the Wuwei Gate, which caused another burst of cheers from the soldiers of the Chu army, ministers, and common people. Of course, most of them just booed along, and only a small part heard Xiang Zhuang's speech.

In the end, the Valiant Cavalry Army was disbanded, and the nobles with titles of no more or higher got a super-long vacation to go home and reunite with their families, while the soldiers with titles of no more or less were scattered back to the barracks to continue receiving the cruelest training!After Xiang Zhuang returned to the palace, it was inevitable that he would share family happiness with many concubines, princes and princesses.

But only the next day, Xiang Ta dragged Xiang Zhuang to Ziling Taicang.

Xiang Zhuang was surprised to find that the originally empty cellars and grain stores in Taicang were all filled. Not only that, a large number of additional cellars and grain stores were built on the open space in the northwest corner, that is to say, Now the food hoarded in Ziling Taicang is far more than 100 million shi!

"Ziji." Xiang Zhuang said, "How much food is there?"

Xiang He stretched out two fingers, slightly proudly said: "Two million stones!"

"Two million shi?!" Xiang Zhuang said in disbelief, "Where do you get so much grain?" Xiang Zhuang couldn't help but be surprised, even though Mrs. Qin, a red-capped businessman, was buying grain at high prices for the imperial court, it must be clear It is only necessary to have such a surplus of food. We must know that when the political reform first started more than ten years ago, there was not enough food in Chudi.

Xiang Ta smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, you and I will find out if you go and have a look."

Now Xiang He led the way and brought Xiang Zhuang and many civil and military ministers to a village on the outskirts of Ziling.

This is just a small village, and about several hundred mu (now the city mu) of paddy fields have been set up on the wilderness by the river at the foot of the mountain. The rice in the paddy fields has been harvested, but it is covered with a kind of green plant. Xiang Zhuang knows this Plants can be eaten as vegetables when they are young, and they can be harvested as high-quality livestock feed when they grow up.

What caught Xiang Zhuang especially's eyes were the waterwheels built by the river.

Obviously, these water trucks are used to draw water from the river to irrigate the hundreds of acres of paddy fields. As a traveler, Xiang Zhuang certainly knows the water trucks, but he can swear that he has never mentioned the water trucks to anyone. He focused more on the improvement of ordnance, wine making, and papermaking, and paid less attention to agricultural machinery.

Xiang Zhuang vaguely remembered that the waterwheel seemed to be called the Kongming Wheel, which did not appear until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but now, Chu State used the waterwheel 400 years earlier. Who invented this waterwheel?

At that moment Xiang Zhuang asked Xiang Ta, "Zi Yi, who invented this water wheel?"

Looking in the direction of Xiang Zhuang's finger, Xiang He said with a smile: "Your Majesty said that this water wheel was made by a student of Taixue. After more than two years of machine learning, I tinkered with this water wheel, and it is said that it was for him, Aunt, to save a lot of water."

Xiang Zhuang felt a little emotional. It seems that his reforms really had a profound impact on all aspects of Chu, not to mention the military and cultural impacts. Now even agriculture has been greatly affected. Not only the production tools It has been greatly improved, and the production technology has also developed by leaps and bounds, as evidenced by the waterwheel in front of us.

"Now the water wheels have spread all over Jiangdong." Xiang Ta smiled slightly, and said, "Your Majesty, this way."

Right now, Xiang he led Xiang Zhuang and a group of civil and military ministers to move forward, and built dozens of thatched huts on an open space in the middle of hundreds of acres of paddy fields. Several big yellow dogs rushed out of the village and barked in this direction. Dozens of hens were frightened and flew around.

The barking of the dog immediately alarmed the villagers in the village, and Li Zheng from the small village rushed out to welcome him.

I have seen the world here. Although Xiang Zhuang's ruler and ministers were all wearing casual clothes, Li Zheng could tell at a glance that the people who came were a group of big shots who were either rich or expensive. He immediately welcomed Xiang Zhuang and his party into his yard, and took Serving the guests with the white wine and braised pork head just bought from the market town, while arranging for the grandmother to kill chickens and ducks.

Xiang Zhuang was a little dazed, the white wine and braised pork head meat did not seem to be specially prepared, but rather bought for his own enjoyment in this small town, it seems that the small life here is going well.

"Old man, how is the harvest this year?" Xiang Zhuang sat down on the stone bench and asked casually.

Li Zheng hurriedly said: "This year's harvest is not bad. I have harvested more than 50 shi millet, which can almost grind [-] shi of polished rice."

Xiang Zhuang was a little surprised. Thirty stones of polished rice would be [-] catties (Qin Jin), which would be nearly [-] catties when converted into later generations. Just now, when I looked at the population of Lizheng's family, it seemed that there were only an old couple and a son. The daughter-in-law and one and a half older children can only eat seven to eight hundred catties a year at most, which is a huge surplus.

Looking back at Xiang Ta, Xiang Zhuang said again: "Every family is similar?"

Lizheng scratched his head, and replied: "The Datou family has more, and they collected nearly a hundred stones of millet, which is almost the same as other houses."

Xiang Zhuang groaned, and said again: "Old man, why don't you see your son?"

"Being a soldier." Speaking of his son, Li Zheng immediately revealed a look of pride on his face, and said, "My son has just been selected as a military soldier, and he is currently training in the Danyang Camp. The enemy, maybe I will earn a title for me, hehe, our old Niu's family will be a nobleman by then."

Xiang Zhuang just smiled, being a soldier is still the first choice of Chu people.

After having a meal at Lizheng's house, Xiangzhuang went around the village again, and found that Lizheng hadn't lied. Every household's food storage was full, and they also raised a lot of chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs. Since it was the slack season, several farmers cast nets in the river, and caught a few fish, and the breath of abundance was overwhelming.

On the way back to the city, Xiang Zhuang couldn't help but asked Xiang Ta: "Zi Yi, you must have deliberately arranged this, right?"

Hearing this, Xiang Ta smiled, shook his head and said with a smile: "If Your Majesty doesn't believe it, why don't you find out if you go out for a walk some other day?"

In fact, Xiang Zhuang just said that, on such a big matter related to major political policies, Xiang He would not deliberately whitewash the peace to claim credit for himself, and then asked: "But it's not right, since every family in Chu has such a Surplus food, where did their surplus food go in the past few years?"

"Basically, the surplus grain from the previous years was sold to the distillery to make baijiu." Xiang he said after a meal, "However, the harvest of the previous years can't be compared with the present, let's say three years ago, It was a good year with good weather, and there were several wind disasters this year, but the harvest was still better than three years ago."

"Why?" Before Xiang Zhuang could ask, Wu She couldn't help but ask first.

Xiang He said: "The main reason is that the yield per mu has increased a lot. With the accumulation of the previous few years, almost every household now has cattle or pack horses, as well as iron plows and rakes, which can plow the ground deeper and finer. , Shuigulu is a good thing, as long as there is no severe drought, the harvest will basically not be affected too much."

Xiang Zhuang understood a little bit, this is called solid accumulation and ten-year reform. In the first seven or eight years, he completed accumulation in humanities, science and technology, agriculture, military and other aspects. In the last two or three years, the results of the reform began to show. , In terms of agriculture, the yield per unit area has been greatly improved. In terms of science and technology, various inventions have emerged one after another.

(End of this chapter)