"The rice cost more than 2,160 dan, which is more than we estimated."
On September 22, as the autumn harvest in Jilin City came to an end, Zhu Gaoxu sat in a newly built courtyard study and lamented the grain yield per mu in the grain book in his hand.
Sitting next to him was Yi Shiha who was making tea.
There is no doubt that this is the residence of Yi Shiha, and Zhu Gaoxu's Bohai Palace has been demolished in half and is under construction.
"This rice slave has tried it. One stone of rice can produce seven and a half buckets, which is higher than we expected. The grains are full and the taste is good."
Yi Shiha poured tea for Zhu Gaoxu and talked about the advantages of Jilin rice.
After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu nodded in agreement. After all, the black soil is famous. As long as there are supporting agricultural facilities, the taste of the cultivated grain will not be much worse even if the yield per mu is not high.
"Have you asked someone to do it? I want to eat the rice from Jilin City."
He urged Yishiha with a smile, and Yishiha responded with a smile: "Don't worry, Your Highness, the chef has already taken care of it."
"Okay..." Zhu Gaoxu smiled and lowered his head and continued to look through the grain book. Sure enough, he found that Jilin City's grain production had basically increased, regardless of variety.
The yield of millet, which once produced more than 70 kilograms per mu, is now more than 80 kilograms. The yield of wheat, beans, and corn has also basically increased by about 10% per mu.
Although the increased output is only seven or eight kilograms, after processing, five or six kilograms of finished grain can be obtained, which is enough for one person to eat for three days.
Although this did not reach the 30% that Zhu Gaoxu expected, he couldn't help but feel a lot happy when he thought that many of these fields had only been cultivated for the second year and next year would be the third year.
The importance of water conservancy to crops is most vividly reflected at this harvest moment.
"This year, 220,000 acres of river floodplain land have been reclaimed, which is more than we thought."
Zhu Gaoxu looked at the number of cultivated fields on the grain book, and felt a little excited.
In response, Yi Shiha said helplessly: "It's a pity that many of these places have only excavated gullies, and the drainage is not as good as cement ditches."
"It's okay. I just stock up on some cement in winter. The weather will get a little warmer after March, so I can repair the ditch before April. The cement dries quickly enough, if nothing else."
"That's true..." Yishi laughed and agreed, and at the same time said to Zhu Gaoxu:
"According to this year's arrangement, the nearly 40,000 acres of old fields should be planted with rice next year, one-third of the 220,000 acres of new fields will be planted with beans, and the rest will be planted with wheat. Is this correct, Your Highness?"
"Yeah" Zhu Gaoxu responded, flipping through the grain book in his hand, no matter how satisfied he looked.
In less than two years of operation, the population of Jilin City, which once had only a few thousand people, has increased nearly ten times, and the cultivated land has increased nearly thirty times.
The difficulty of this can only be understood by those who have been along the way.
"The grain harvested this year, including Laotian's corn and wheat, has reached about 120 kilograms. After processing, we can get close to 90 kilograms of finished grain."
"The yield of the new fields that were reclaimed last year and cultivated this year is about 85 kilograms, and nearly 60 kilograms of grain can be obtained."
"My servant has calculated that among the grain harvested this year, excluding the 4,000 shi of bean feed used as horse feed, the remaining 25,400 shi of grain can be harvested into more than 19,000 shi of grain, which can at least solve the problem. More than 3,200 dings of food."
Yishiha said happily, and Zhu Gaoxu also lamented: "The road to making Jilin City self-sufficient is really long and arduous..."
"Haha..." Yishi laughed and said, "If you recruit fewer savages, we can move faster."
Yi Shiha's words made Zhu Gaoxu chuckle and shake his head. In the past few days during the harvest, many small tribes of savages from the east came to invest.
They came to vote mainly because there was not enough food to eat, and secondly because they disliked Fu Daha from the Ministry of Truth.
It has to be said that Fudaha is about to become Zhu Gaoxu's propaganda committee among the savage Jurchens. Whenever a Jurchen suffers a disaster, he will send people to find the local leaders. After communicating with them, he recommends them to go forward. Come to Jilin City.
Of course, Fudaha is not a good man who does not ask for anything in return.
He introduced some savage tribes to Jilin City and received some cattle and sheep in return. At the same time, he could also receive food rewards ranging from dozens to hundreds of dan in Jilin City.
Zhu Gaoxu did the math. This year alone, Fudaha got nearly two thousand stones of grain from him, which could basically feed more than a thousand people in the tribe. After all, the wild Jurchens did not have high requirements for grain.
While he was thinking this, a soldier came in from outside the house carrying a wooden tray.
Seeing this, Yi Shiha cleared the table himself and put the food on the wooden plate on the table.
A bucket of five or six kilograms of rice, a plate of fried cabbage, a plate of fried mutton and chicken, this is the meal Yishiha entertained the prince Zhu Gaoxu.
It's true that it's shabby, but outside the customs where winter is about to begin, it's already a very nourishing day to be able to eat these meats and vegetables.
Zhu Gaoxu didn't take it too seriously. After all, he basically had three meals a day in Bohai Palace, with each meal consisting of two meat dishes, one vegetable and one soup.
Even if Guo Yan later married, it was only upgraded to the standard of three meat dishes, two dishes and one soup.
In his opinion, eating five dishes and one soup for two people is extremely luxurious.
If calculated according to the prices in the pass, he and Guo Yan would spend between 150 and 200 yuan on food every day. They would spend 50 or 60 yuan on food alone every year, which is equivalent to the income of ordinary people in the pass in three to four years. .
Zhu Gaoxu is very picky about his food, but he does not pursue extravagance and waste.
If he was allowed to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on food every year like the Prince of Jingjiang, he would rather use the extra money and food to raise soldiers.
But when it came to raising soldiers, Zhu Gaoxu also asked Yi Shiha: "How many brothers don't have weapons or armor right now?"
Lao Zhu gave Zhu Gaoxu two thousand military households with families and two thousand single military households, but these four thousand people did not have armor and weapons, and Zhu Gaoxu had to prepare everything himself.
Zhu Gaoxu handed over the responsibility for the three events to Meng Zhang, but Meng Zhang usually reported the matter to Yishuha, who then reported it to Zhu Gaoxu.
Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's inquiry, Yi Shiha also said: "The armor and weapons of the Hu soldiers that were previously captured were smelted to forge the armor. Currently, among the six thousand soldiers, there are less than three thousand equipped with one set of light armor and one set of dark armor. Everything.”
Mingjia means pierced armor, weighing forty-five kilograms.
Dark armor is cloth-faced armor, weighing 18 to 26 kilograms. The Bohai Navy basically uses dark armor of 26 kilograms.
In the case of one person with double armor, to raise a soldier without armor requires no less than 65 kilograms of iron, and if weapons are included, it will be about 70 kilograms.
This does not include weapons such as bows and arrows, so Yishiha first talked about what was available, and then what was missing: "There are still 3,216 people who lack armor. After smelting Hu Bing's weapons in the treasury, We have obtained 64,000 jins of iron and have more than 101,000 jins in stock. We are still short of 60,000 jins of iron."
"In addition, the dark armor needs cotton, and the cotton in the treasury is only enough to make two thousand sets."
"If you really think about it, I'm afraid it won't be until next April when new cotton arrives from Liaodong Dusi that all 6,000 people will be able to get double armor before July."
Yi Shiha calculated the time, and Zhu Gaoxu was not in a hurry.
They will not send troops in winter, and the demand for dark armor is not high. Although he plans to send troops to the Sanjiang Plain next year, he will not send troops until after spring plowing.
By the time they return, the six thousand men of the Bohai Navy should be fully armored.
"Six thousand people..." Zhu Gaoxu murmured this number in his heart, but he still felt that it was too few.
Although Lao Zhu gave him two thousand single military households, he never increased the limit of his bodyguards, which made him a little difficult to handle.
If he remembered correctly, nothing major would happen in the Northeast in the next two years, and Wu Liangha was disabled again this time. If nothing else happens, he would not be able to cause chaos in three to five years.
As a result, he didn't even have the chance to increase the number of soldiers and horses.
"Can we only raise troops privately..." Zhu Gaoxu subconsciously thought of Hu Lawen, who was far away in the sky.
That place, relying on the Songhua River and Jilin City, could transport Jilin City's grain to the local area with almost zero loss. Whether it was casting cannons or raising troops privately, it was an excellent place.
As for the source of troops for training and raising troops, judging from the current situation, the only way to train troops is to use the savage Jurchens in the Beishan area.
After sorting everything out, Zhu Gaoxu asked while eating: "At the shipyard, how many ships can be launched next spring?"
"The five ships are all made of thousands of materials according to your request, Your Highness." Yi Shiha did not hesitate, and Zhu Gaoxu also nodded after hearing this.
These five horse ships, plus the previous two war ships and three horse ships, can transport almost 3,000 soldiers and horses and 20,000 shi of food.
If we only transport grain, one horse ship can transport 3,000 shi of grain, and eight ships can transport 28,000 shi. Together with the warships, we can transport 30,000 shi of grain to Khulawen City at one time.
"After the spring begins, I will conquer Ataiwailan in Hulawen City. You can send someone to inquire about the news and see how long it will take to reach Hulawen City by boating from Jilin City down the river."
"Yes..." Yi Shiha nodded in agreement and kept picking up dishes for Zhu Gaoxu.
The two of them were full of wine and food, and after a while, Zhu Gaoxu returned to his palace, which was being demolished.
He has recently been learning Jurchen and Mongolian as a hobby during his break.
But while he was waiting for this winter when he could rest, his old father who had returned south was busy and exhausted.
The population of Beiping is 1.98 million, but most of them are Mongolians and Semu people who never fled back to the north, as well as Mongolians who were defeated and surrendered and went south.
It can be said that the number of Mongolians on the Mongolian Plateau is not as large as that of Beiping Province.
Such a large number of Mongols naturally led to frequent rebellions in Peiping, which required the Ming army to frequently suppress rebellions.
No accident occurred. After the time entered the late autumn, another rebellion broke out among the Tatar officials in Peiping. This time the reason was that they felt that the southerners in the guard were targeting and discriminating against them.
Thousands of Mongolians rebelled in Baoding and Hejian. However, within ten days of the rebellion, they were put down by Zhu Di and the three Yanshan guards. The evil leader was killed and his accomplices were pardoned.
After returning from the rebellion, Zhu Di was still in high spirits.
In the Peking Palace, after Desheng returned, he walked to the Cunxin Hall. When he was about to enter the palace, he saw Mrs. Xu holding a letter and sitting quietly reading it.
"Sister Xu, I'm back..."
Zhu Di walked into the hall cautiously. After hearing his voice, Mrs. Xu put down the letter in her hand and turned back with a smile: "Have you eaten?"
"Didn't eat." Zhu Di walked to sit next to her and glanced at the letter in her hand.
The letter was written by Zhu Gaoxu, but the person who sent the letter was arranged by Zhu Di.
He still has more than twenty letters like this in the military camp...
"Have the people made arrangements for this rebellion?"
Xu asked about Zhu Di with a friendly smile. Zhu Di, who was still thinking about the twenty-odd letters, came to his senses and nodded:
"It's been arranged, but they all have some grievances and it's difficult to resolve them."
"That's true..." Ms. Xu frowned and said with a worried look on her face: "The people on both sides don't understand each other, so it's easy for them to have conflicts. In addition, we are all military households, so they will inevitably feel that we are bullying others."
The "us" in Xu's mouth clearly refers to the Han people who immigrated from the south to the border.
As an important ruling area in the BC Yuan Dynasty, Beiping gathered a large number of Mongolians, Semu people, and Han nobles. In addition, more than 600,000 Mongolian and Korean captives migrated from Liaodong and Monan. Various inward migration methods made Beiping Together with Gansu, they became the two regions with the most serious ethnic conflicts in the Ming Dynasty.
In comparison, places like Liaodong, which were originally populated by Mongols, Jurchens, and Koryos, have become ethnically united because only Han people remain.
The complexity of Peking gave Zhu Di a headache. Fortunately, he had a bold personality, and many Mongolian, Jurchen, Semu, and Han people believed in him.
Because of this, this rebellion was easily resolved without expanding its scope.
"I don't know how Gao Xu solves these things..."
Xu suddenly spoke out of curiosity and said doubtfully: "It stands to reason that there should be more Jurchens and fewer Han people in Gao Xu, but there seems to be no rebellion in Gao Xu."
"Well..." Zhu Di hesitated. Having been to Jilin City, he naturally knew what his second son did, but he might not be able to do what he could do.
Thinking of this, Zhu Di honestly told Mrs. Xu about the situation in Jilin City and Zhu Gaoxu's methods in Jilin City.
"These...are these done by Gao Xu?" Mrs. Xu looked in disbelief after hearing this.
Even though she was Zhu Gaoxu's mother, she couldn't believe that Zhu Gaoxu had such talent in political management and had such noble moral character.
She knows Zhu Gaoxu very well. Zhu Gaoxu is like a child who has not grown up. He always behaves wantonly and feels that no one can deal with him. Therefore, let alone treat the common people equally, he is very rude even to some military generals and ministers.
How many years has it been? Is this kid so obedient now?
Xu couldn't believe it, but she saw the answer on Zhu Di's face.
"Gao Xu...has really changed..."
Mrs. Xu looked at the letter on the table, a little afraid to admit it, but she was somewhat relieved in her tone.
Her little child has finally grown up.
After sighing, Xu also said: "Indeed, it is impossible for us to do what Gao Xu did."
Equalize farmland, divide rations, raise military pay, open health schools...
What Zhu Gaoxu did in Jilin City would be a crime of beheading elsewhere. Even the children and grandchildren of Lao Zhu would inevitably end up being imprisoned in Nanjing or Fengyang.
It is precisely because he is in Jilin City that no one cares about him.
"From the perspective of His Highness, Gao Xu, is the result of this land consolidation a good thing or a bad thing?"
Xu suddenly asked Zhu Di, but Zhu Di did not answer immediately after hearing the words. Instead, he pondered for a moment before speaking: "I was walking around inside and outside the city and found that in the military households inside and outside Jilin City, even if they were invaded by Hu soldiers, most of the men would go there." Even though we are on the battlefield, the healthy women in the rear are still actively cultivating fields.”
"In just one day, I watched them cultivate hundreds of acres of mature farmland, which is almost comparable to our two-year farmland in Peiping."
Zhu Di did not answer directly, but used stories to answer Xu's questions.
Hearing this, Mrs. Xu was also a little surprised: "A few hundred acres a day, so the fields over there in Gaoxu are probably hundreds of thousands acres now?"
"Absolutely..." Zhu Di thought of the bustling scene in Jilin City in April and suddenly felt a toothache.
"If this guy comes to help me with things, I probably won't have to worry about money and food all the time."
Zhu Di was very sorry, and Mrs. Xu on the side also sighed after hearing this: "If this is the case, Gao Xu's presence in Jilin City is also a good thing."
"If this continues, in six or seven years, Jilin City will probably have millions of acres of arable land. Even if the land is barren, it will be able to support hundreds of thousands of people."
"There are 40,000 to 50,000 people there now." Zhu Di exposed it without reservation. After hearing this, Mrs. Xu turned around in surprise: "There are so many people now? How does he make a living?"
"This..." Zhu Di thought for a while and felt very curious: "I don't know, but this guy is probably involved in the fur business."
"This is not a blessing..." Hearing what Zhu Di said, Mrs. Xu's face showed worry again, but when she thought that she, as a mother, could not help her child, it was helpless for the child to find a way out on his own.
"I don't know when Gao Chi and Gao Sui will come back."
Mrs. Xu sighed and looked outside the palace, her thoughts gradually drifting to Nanjing City.
"This kid is indeed very capable."
When Xu was worried, in the Qianqing Palace in Nanjing City, Zhu Yuanzhang read two documents about the situation in Jilin City written by Jin Yiwei.
These two documents were from the first batch of Jin Yiwei who went to Jilin City with Zhu Gaoxu, and from the Jin Yiwei hidden among the two thousand single military households.
The writing and content of the two documents are similar, but the details are vague in the former and clearer in the latter.
When the former described the current situation of Jilin City, he summed it up clearly by saying that "there are more than 50,000 Han and barbarians in the city, more than 2,000 armored soldiers, and more than 40,000 acres of cultivated land."
When the latter describes the current situation of Jilin City, it can be said that everything is detailed, saying: "The new city is not complete, but if it is complete, there will be fifty-two official and civilian buildings, which can accommodate tens of thousands of people."
"There are fields outside the city, nearly 40,000 acres of mature fields and more than 100,000 acres of raw fields, planted with millet, wheat, and experimental rice."
"There are also 6,000 soldiers, but the number of armored soldiers is less than 3,000. Their weapons are incomplete, they lack cotton and cloth, and they have enough iron materials..."
Later, the new Jin Yiwei wrote a lot of things, and Lao Zhu also read them in detail.
According to common sense, Lao Zhu should have been surprised after reading this, and then angry. After all, Zhu Gaoxu had completely restructured his guard station and concealed many things.
But after actually reading it, Lao Zhu was secretly happy. He seemed to feel that Zhu Gaoxu was worthy of being his grandson for being able to accomplish such a great feat in less than two years.
This happiness, even though he tried his best to conceal it, was still noticed by Guo Ying sitting next to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Guo Ying said nothing, but Zhu Yuanzhang handed over the document: "Look at your grandson-in-law, what he did is really good."
He said this, but before some of the palace ladies and eunuchs in the palace could react, he changed the topic: "Your granddaughter, didn't you tell you these things?"
"Never..." Guo Ying replied honestly: "I just wrote that Jilin is simple, especially the palace is the simplest, not as impressive as some Qianhufu in Nanjing."
"In addition, she also said that the King of Bohai County is a friendly person, and all foreigners and foreigners support him very much."
"Support?" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled, pointed at the two documents and said: "This guy gives people food, fields, cattle and horses. When we were still digging in the fields, you said you encountered this Do you support these people?"
Zhu Yuanzhang saw through human nature, and to put it bluntly, the people of Jilin City had been tied up by Zhu Gaoxu unknowingly with interests.
Under such circumstances, if someone wants to transfer Zhu Gaoxu away or do something bad to Zhu Gaoxu, the people of Jilin City will not obey him unless the person who replaces Zhu Gaoxu can maintain Zhu Gaoxu's policy towards the military and civilians of Jilin City. Otherwise, even if he, the emperor, gave the order, he would not be able to gain favor from the people of Jilin City.
"This boy is good at grasping people's hearts..." Thinking about these things, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but praise him, but at the same time, he felt a little worried in his heart.
Zhu Gaoxu had only been in Jilin City for two years, but he had managed Jilin City like this and tied tens of thousands of people to him.
If he is given a few more years, what will Jilin City develop into?
Thinking of these, the joy in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart gradually faded away, replaced by silence.
Guo Ying on the side seemed to have noticed something, so he slowly said: "If he can manage both Zhaozhou City and Andong City, then the imperial army can set off from Zhaozhou City in the future. Compared with leaving from Quaningwei, , the distance has been shortened by five hundred miles, and grain and grass can also be transported by water..."
His words made Zhu Yuanzhang re-examine Zhu Gaoxu's abilities.
Guo Ying's words cannot be disputed, but whether it can be implemented in detail still needs to be investigated.
"Winter is coming soon, it's too late to send a message now..."
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment, and then said: "After the beginning of spring, two thousand military households will be moved to Jilin Guard, and the Zhaozhou Office and the Andong Office will be established. The two offices will be temporarily placed under the Jilin Guard and under the control of the Bohai County Prince."
He seemed to be speaking to Guo Ying, but a eunuch who was standing in the corner of Qianqing Palace picked up a pen to record it.
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know if doing this would cause Zhu Gaoxu's strength to increase too quickly, but he thought about it carefully, but 8,000 military households couldn't do anything. Moreover, the incident of Wu Liangha's invasion did reflect the lack of soldiers and horses in Jilin City. The disadvantages are that adding two thousand households is not excessive.
But even so, Zhu Yuanzhang still looked at Guo Ying, looking at this familiar old man, and he said calmly: "Guo Si, you are starting to favor him..."
"My minister, I just made the decision from the perspective of the imperial court."
Guo Ying stood up and bowed in return. Seeing his appearance, Zhu Yuanzhang did not hesitate anymore, but waved his hand:
"That's all, sit down and play chess with me..."
"Yes..." Guo Ying sat down and played chess with Zhu Yuanzhang.
However, not long after the two played chess, Zhu Yuanzhang whispered again: "The salary of my sons is still too high. It should be reduced."
"In addition, of the cattle, sheep and horses that Lao Si captured this time, I asked him to divide half of them and hand them over to the Henan and Shandong departments."
His words made Guo Ying feel nervous, but he didn't say anything in the end.
Gradually, the only sound left in the Qianqing Palace was the sound of Go moves...
(End of chapter)
