Chastity Layman

  Chapter 327 Trouble is coming

  After autumn, the number of slaves sent back by Qin Qiong from Lingwu gradually increased.

  Many were Tiele people, and some even copied entire small tribes and sold them to Datang as slaves.

  Qin Lang was harvesting cotton in the back garden of Changlepo villa. This cotton was specially brought back from Gaochang when someone went to the Western Regions for trade. Qin Lang purposely planted two lands in the back garden of Changlepo villa.

  Chengqian, Li Tai, and Li Ke brothers came to Qin Lang to play, but Qin Lang directly caught coolies, and picked cotton with Pei Xingjian, Li Cunxiao, Li Cunyi, Luo Tong, and Qin Li brothers.

  The cotton field seems to be covered with a thin layer of snow, and the cotton bolls seem to be grinning when they approach.

   "Teacher, why do you plant so many white cascades, and why do you want to pick them off?"

   Chengqian was a little puzzled. In the imperial garden of the royal court, there is actually a kind of cotton, called white fold flower, but there is no need to pick it. The white cotton looks pretty good, but it is not easy to pick it, and if you are not careful, your hand will be pricked.

"This is a good thing. After the white flowers are picked, they are much warmer than silk cotton after the seeds are removed. They can be used to make cotton-padded jackets. They are no worse than fur in winter. They can also be spun into cotton cloth, which is very expensive in Chang'an. Baidiebu!" In the Tang Dynasty, cotton was called Baidiehua, and it was grown in Gaochang in the Western Regions, and the cotton produced was called Baidiebu.

  The people of Tang Dynasty didn’t have the word “cotton” yet, so they usually refer to silk cotton.

  Before there was no cotton, it still had a great impact on the lives of the people. For example, in winter, the people would have no cotton-padded quilts and jackets, and winter days would be very sad. Either stuff the quilt cover with straw or wheat straw, or collect reed flowers and other fillings to keep warm, but the effect is definitely not as good as that of cotton quilts.

   Without a padded jacket, the clothes can only be made into thick interlayers.

  For rich people, it has little effect, because they have fur and can wear fur in winter.

  Cotton is planted quite a lot in Gaochang country in the western region, but the seed-removing spinning technology of Gaochang cotton is not good, resulting in high cost of cotton cloth and low output, so it has become a rare commodity that is more expensive than silk.

  In fact, cotton can be grown in both the north and the south, and of course the arid areas in the north are more suitable for planting.

Just like in later generations, growing mulberry, raising silkworms and weaving silk were also concentrated in the southern region, but before the Song Dynasty, growing mulberry, raising silkworm and weaving silk were concentrated in the northern region. The so-called men farming and women weaving, mulberry and silk cloth are important family economies and an integral part of the national economy.

  Qin Lang felt that Datang should grow cotton, making cotton an important item after mulberry and hemp, so as to improve people's livelihood.

  The two points of land are his experimental fields. He will experiment here first and expand the planting area next year.

Of course, in order to promote cotton planting and production, the most important thing is to improve the technology of cotton weaving and weaving. If related technologies such as seed removal and weaving cannot be improved, the low efficiency benefits will be rejected by the people. Even if Qin Lang grows it himself, it is not worthwhile. .

Therefore, Qin Lang invested a lot of money in the cotton experimental field around the Qin family's two-part field, and bought a batch of Gaochang slaves, among whom were many cotton weaving cotton cloth. Qin Lang used these people as technology Guidance, and invited some craftsmen and others to offer rewards for research and improvement of textile technology.

   There is not much progress yet, and a lot of money has been invested.

  Autumn Tiger is still very powerful, sweating from the midday sun.

Chengqian was not bad, he was sweating profusely and didn't complain, he was still picking cotton earnestly, and at the same time asked Qin Lang for the purpose of planting so much cotton, he was familiar with Qin Lang, and knew that the teacher was not the kind to do things without purpose people. Qin Lang didn't hide anything, and directly explained the important use of this cotton.

   Chengqian is dubious.

  Yan Wang Li You didn't believe it at all, he was half-hearted, and after picking it for a while, he ran to rest under the shade of a tree under the excuse that his hand was injured and bleeding. Li Tai and Li Ke still persisted, but their movements were much slower.

Cunxiao Cunyi and others are working very hard. Although they are the adopted sons of the Duke's Mansion now, the two of them never take the rich clothes and food for granted. They usually work hard in studying and practicing martial arts. Know that this life is not easy.

   Ah Huang came over and told Qin Lang that Qin Qiong sent another group of slaves from Lingwu, 800 of them.

"so much?"

   "They are all young and strong."

"Why don't you stay in Lingwu to cultivate fields and commercial villages?" Qin Lang said, the Qin family in Qinrenfang and the Boling Cui family, etc., now take advantage of Qin Lang's presiding over Lingwu, and now Hetao has developed a large number of fields. The commercial village was set up, and the grain produced from the cultivation was directly transported to the Lingwu frontier army in exchange for salt, and then went to Qingbaiyanchi to exchange for green salt, and then transported and sold in Guanzhong, Chang'an, Luoyang and other places, and part of it would be transported to Dingyuan border city , in exchange for slave furs, etc., this is a very profitable business.

  Nowadays the Hetao is very busy, a large number of aristocratic families have run to do business and colonize land.

  This has also led to a sharp increase in the demand for slaves in Hetao, and even increased the price of slaves by several percent in half a year, but the supply is still in short supply.

  Why did Qin Qiong send so many slaves over now?

   "It is said that this year, Saibei frost early."

The frost in Saibei was early, not so early. It fell a month or two earlier than in previous years. As a result, the cattle and sheep that were eating grass seeds for autumn fat had long since run out of grass to eat. In fact, the early frost is the same terrible natural disaster as the big blizzard.

The severe early frost caused the herdsmen to be in crisis. Originally, the herdsmen would leave the valley grassland on the back of the mountain or the leeward side every year as a pasture in winter. These pastures specially set aside will allow the cattle and sheep to have winter grass. Can survive the cold winter without food.

  But now, the severe early frost has made the cattle and sheep of all tribes unable to eat enough, and the cattle and sheep have to be driven over the pastures that were originally prepared for the winter.

  Everyone knows that the disadvantage of doing this is that when winter comes, the cattle and sheep will have no grass to survive the winter.

  In order to preserve pastures for the winter, many tribes began to drive cattle and sheep to other tribes to grab grass, and conflicts broke out.

   On the grassland, there are conflicts and wars caused by grassland grabbing everywhere.

   Bleeding.

   But at this time, Yu Sheshe and Jieli Khan, who are the heads of the nobles, not only did not come forward to adjust the conflicts below, or provide solutions, but began to profit from it.

The most active of them is Yu Sheshe in Hetao. Because he called Uncle Qin Qiong, he started a border market trade with Qin Qiong. The past six months have been very prosperous, which not only took advantage of the trade, but also asked others to come. The Turkic tribes in this trade collect taxes and tolls, especially this guy even monopolizes many popular commodities of the Tang people in the border market, such as sugar, tea and wine.

   There are many good things in Tang Dynasty, but they are also very expensive.

   What the Turks can sell are cattle, sheep, horses, camels, fur and herbs. But these things are not very competitive. Now Datang has opened border markets in Bingzhou, Youzhou, Liangzhou and other places, and the Turkic people, Tuyuhun, and Khitan people there also use these things to sell goods to the Tang people.

   It is the slaves who really attract Tang people the most.

  Especially with the implementation of the policy of exchanging grain for salt in China and France, the commercial settlements in various border areas are booming, which has led to a sharp increase in the demand for farm slaves, and the price of slaves has continued to rise.

  Yu Sheshe took advantage of the early frost on the grassland and when the various ministries fought for the grassland, instead of mediating, they provoked dissension in various ways. The tribes fought in front, and Yu Sheshe's people bought slaves behind.

  So at first it was just a conflict over the grasslands, but in the end it became a slave trade.

   Killing the other tribe will not only own the grassland, but also all their cattle and sheep, and their population can be sold to Yu Sheshe in exchange for the needed salt, tea, sugar and wine.

  In the face of huge interests, no one cares about what is the same root and why it is too urgent. Besides, although the tribes on the grassland are all under the command of the Turkic Khan, they don't have any concept of a country. Everyone belongs to one tribe after another. Large and small tribes each have their own grasslands for grazing.

  No one will be polite to rob the grassland. In normal times, everyone is willing to graze with peace of mind, but once there is a crisis, no one will be merciful when robbing is the only way to survive the robbery.

   Now, under the instigation of Yu Sheshe and these people, they have gone beyond the limit of fighting for grassland, and they can also rob cattle, sheep, and people.

   When Ah Huang said this, he was very happy, as if he was superior.

  But Qin Lang frowned when he heard this.

  Right now Turks have begun to have troubles due to the early frost. It seems that the Tang Dynasty took advantage of the fishermen and opened the border market, exchanging salt, wine, tea, sugar and silk cloth for their cattle, sheep fur and even population.

  But according to normal calculations, once the chaos on the grassland escalates, the next step will inevitably be to unite and invade the south toward the grassland tribes.

   This is almost inevitable.

  Historically, there were two main reasons for the large-scale southward invasion of grasslands.

One is that they want goods from the Central Plains, but they cannot produce them themselves, and want to exchange them. However, during the unification period, the Central Plains often closed border markets unilaterally in order to suppress the grassland nomads. If you want to buy them, I will not sell them. , and can’t do without these good things from the Central Plains, so I grabbed them.

Another reason is that catastrophic disasters occurred on the grasslands, usually heavy snowstorms or severe early frosts. Cattle and sheep had no grass to eat, or cattle and sheep froze to death. The survival of the herdsmen was greatly threatened. In essence, it is to divert the crisis and tide over the difficulties.

  The current disturbances on the grassland are only on a small scale. Jieli, Yu Sheshe and others profit from it, and their status has not been affected.

  But if this chaos escalates, in order to control the situation, the Turkic leaders such as Jie Li will most likely join forces to invade the south and transfer the crisis to the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains.

   Of course, there is another serious problem. Since the early frost involves the entire Turkic grassland, it means that it is not just a Turkic matter. The northern border of the Tang Dynasty may also be affected by the early frost.

  The so-called early frost is actually a drastic change in climate, and the temperature is lowered earlier than in previous years. This kind of big change in climate has a huge impact.

  Crops on the northern border may be affected by this weather.

   What's more troublesome is that the severe early frost in the Turkic grasslands may also indicate that the cold current in the north will move southward earlier this year. The autumn harvest has not yet started, and the crops have not yet fully matured, which is a relatively critical period.

  If the weather suddenly turns cold, this year's grain production may be severely affected.

   So it's too early to laugh at the Turks.

"teacher?"

   Seeing Qin Lang standing there in a daze for a long time, Chengqian couldn't help calling him.

   "Oh! What's up?"

   "What was the teacher thinking just now?"

   "There may be serious trouble!" Qin Lang said with a serious expression.

  (end of this chapter)