With the arrival of the tenth year of Yixi, Jiankang City hangs lanterns and colors to celebrate the New Year.
In the past year, Yongzheng destroyed Qin, Song Gong regained Yizhou, and Qiuchi, Xiqin, Linyi and other countries claimed vassal status one after another. The imperial court issued a series of edicts to grant amnesty to the world, promote the elimination of soil, select poor people, and lighten the corvee. Working hard and living with the people show signs of resurgence.
Xiangyang City is becoming more and more lively, and the West Market is even more overcrowded. Goulan City is crowded with people, and the sky is filled with excitement.
Yang Anxuan took his wife and children to visit the market two days ago. In the cold weather, he actually broke out in sweat. Then he hid in the lobby under the pretext of handling official business.
They wanted to hide away for a while, but unexpectedly, when the officials learned that their lord was working in the lobby, they came to see him one by one on official business grounds, saying auspicious words and wishing him good luck in the New Year.
Yang Anxuan secretly smiled bitterly, it was Chinese New Year, I didn't know whether to praise them for their diligence or complain that they didn't let him have a rest for a while.
When he saw Shen Shi, Yang Anxuan and Yin Huizhen agreed to go to Baizhang Village with Yang Qiu's family today. Yang Anxuan saw Ding Quan already looking around outside the hall.
After speeding up the official business, Yang Anxuan was about to get up when Huang Fu and Ding Quan's greetings came from outside the hall. Yang Anxuan motioned to Yu Fei to call them both in.
The officials at the Department of Commercial Affairs were all smiles, and Yang Anxuan was secretly amused. They were afraid that they were just laughing but not smiling, and were fighting a lawsuit.
Huang Fu came back from Chang'an City a few years ago and brought back the latest situation in Chang'an. Wang Zhen'e was giving porridge to disaster relief in Beiyong Prefecture, and even the people of the tribe could come to receive it. Although it is freezing cold, the government has still arranged a lot of work, so hardworking people should not be hungry.
In the past few years under the rule, reclamation was encouraged and Yang Jiali was fully deployed. This time the Qin State was annihilated and hundreds of thousands of cattle and horses were obtained. Livestock farming on cultivated land should no longer be a restriction. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war were captured from the Qin State and added to the army. The army can be doubled next year.
At present, we have to support Beiyongzhou, Liangzhou, Beiyizhou and other places, and there is not much food surplus. But when the food is put into the warehouse next year, the price of food will drop a lot. I need to mention it to Xin He in the future to prevent the grain from being cheap. To hurt farmers, the government must set a minimum purchase price.
"Huang Fu, if you have anything to say, please tell me. You still have something to worry about." Yang Anxuan said with a smile.
Ding Quan glanced at Huang Fu, stood aside silently, and expressed with practical actions that the master will have something to do with his servant later, and it is not your responsibility.
Huang Fu, who was promoted to the title of Wufang County Prince, consciously overshadowed Ding Quan and showed his generosity from time to time in his conversations with Ding Quan, which made Ding Quan angry. Taking out a spy report from his sleeve, Huang Fu said: "Lord, this is a spy report from the north."
The intelligence is about the Xia Kingdom. Among all the enemies, Yang Anxuan hates the Xia Kingdom the most. If he wants to pick an opponent to destroy first, the Xia Kingdom is far ahead of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Liu Yu, and Anding County is the thorn in the back of Yang Anxuan. To be removed.
Years ago, Lu Gui had been ordered to lead 8,000 troops to Chencang. When the weather got warmer, Yang Anxuan was ready to send Meng Longfu as commander, lead Kuaien and Lu Gui to seize Anding County, drive the Daxia army back to Wuding, Hebei, and then return to the division. Seize the land of Qiuchi, completely control the Western Regions and the roads from Zhuliang to Wei and Jin, and prohibit the export of saltpeter from the Western Regions.
"...The news has been spread that the Wei army is openly attacking Puban City and secretly attacking Daxia. The troops are being gathered at the royal tent of Daxia."
Yang Anxuan nodded and said: "That's very good. The King of Western Qin promised to send troops together at that time. Even if Helian Bobo sends troops to aid An Ding, he will not be afraid of him."
Huang Fu said with a smile: "My lord, this trick is very clever."
Yang Anxuan secretly laughed in his heart. After all, Huang Fu was born a fisherman. It would be good if the word "transferring flowers and wood" comes from him. There is no need to be critical whether it is used accurately or not.
Ding Quan heard that his lord was planning to use troops against Anding County, and he was secretly anxious. Back then, he was in charge of the internal affairs and Huang Fu was in charge of the outside world. The lord had repeatedly used troops to attack the outside world. This Huang Fu had far more opportunities to make meritorious deeds than himself. He would not leave him far behind in the future. The Department of Commercial Affairs It's up to him.
"My lord, it's cold in the north. Drops of water turn into ice. It's hard for the soldiers to wear clothes to keep out the cold. It's best to wait until June or July to mobilize troops," Huang Fudao said. I remembered that when I was fishing on the river, I felt freezing to the bones every winter. Only after I went to Chang'an did I realize that the cold would not only penetrate my bones, but also freeze my liver and intestines.
Ding Quan did not refute Huang Fu, but also said: "My lord, I heard from Brother Meng that the North is much colder than Xiangyang. The soldiers guarding the city are shivering. I am afraid that many soldiers will suffer from frostbite when using troops at this time."
Yang Anxuan's heart sank. He would definitely spend a lot of time fighting Daxia, Northern Wei, and Zhuliang in the future. This matter of keeping out the cold must be solved as soon as possible. He laughed and cursed: "You are the kind of person who doesn't care about the life and death of soldiers."
Ordinary people mostly wear cloth made of hemp and kudzu, while the rich wear silk and satin. In winter, poor people wear reed and straw wadding in their clothes to keep warm, and the more sophisticated ones use kapok produced in the south, and of course fur.
In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, leather tanning techniques were already available. The fur coats produced by the ash removal, smoke, oil tanning, and skin tanning methods were a little hard, but the warmth retention effect was pretty good. The poor often wear furs made of dog skin, pig skin, suede skin, and rabbit skin. The Qin Dynasty returned to the Jin Kingdom, and there were many sheepskin furs in the West Market, which gave the people of Yongzhou a little more warmth this winter.
Rich people are particular about fox fur, mink fur, sixty or seventy mink skins and sewing a fur coat, and they also have to pay attention to the color of the fur. How can ordinary people afford it? There are even "furs made from armpits" According to the saying, that is probably only enjoyed by the emperor and princes.
Then Brother got a roll of tiger skin and two leopard skins from the north, and came to Xiangyang to offer them to Yang Anxuan. Yang Anxuan gave the leopard skins to Kong Miao and Yin Huizhen respectively. Yang Qiu became jealous when he saw them, and tried to get Yang Anxuan to find a leopard skin for her in the future.
As for cowhide, it was used in the army to make armor, shields and ordnance. Yang Anxuan had many soldiers under his command. No matter how much cowhide was produced, it was not enough, and there was no cowhide on the market.
The only way to solve the problem of clothing for soldiers is cotton. Yang Anxuan remembered that Zhang Qian had brought cotton when he left the fortress. During archeology, he had discovered from unearthed cultural relics and ancient books that from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, cotton had been planted in the Xiliang area and there was a cotton textile handicraft industry.
Yang Anxuan recalled in his mind that the Eastern Han tombs unearthed in Minfeng County, Xinjiang contained batik cloth, white cloth trousers, handkerchiefs and other cotton fabrics, and the Turpan tombs of the Jin and Tang dynasties contained even more cotton fabrics. It seemed that cotton must be introduced as soon as possible. Planted in the land of Yongsi.
With the advent of cotton, the textile technology had to keep up. Silk could be spun in the Qin and Han Dynasties. In the Han Dynasty, the silk reeling method was introduced and the term brocade was introduced. The textile industry in Shu was very developed, and Zhuge Wuhou relied on brocade to support his army. Spindles, weaving Machines and shuttles have appeared, but it's a pity that I don't remember Huang Daopo's weaving method, otherwise I would have solved the problem of dressing more quickly.
Not just cotton, but also vegetable oil. The oilseed species introduced by Zhang Qian during his mission to the Western Regions was named "Flax"; later Zhao Wang Shile tabooed "Hu" and changed "Flax" to "Sesame". Sesame oil has been around since the Han Dynasty, but it was not used for food, but for making fire weapons or making silk cloth.
"Three Kingdoms Wei Zhi" records that Man Chong "recruited dozens of strong men, broke pine trees into torches, poured sesame oil into them, set fire from the upper wind, and burned the thieves' attacking tools." In addition, because of the fragrance of sesame oil, some people donated it to burn everlasting lamps in front of the Buddha. Ordinary people could not afford sesame oil, and it was not until the Song Dynasty that vegetable oil was widely used for food.
Sesame oil triggered Yang Anxuan's idea, and he said to Ding Quan: "Send someone to tell Zhang Gang and ask him to add sesame oil to the gunpowder to test the best effect of arson."
Common vegetable oils in the past life include rapeseed oil, peanut oil, soybean oil and camellia oil. Peanut oil is a no-brainer because it has not been introduced yet. According to "Tiangong Kaiwu", it is recorded that all Brassica seeds can be pressed for oil, that is, rapeseed oil. However, Yang Anxuan was not familiar with the so-called Brassica genus, and he vaguely remembered that rapeseed was a hybrid, so it was estimated that rapeseed oil had little hope; soybean oil was available, and it would be possible to squeeze oil from soybeans when the people had enough to eat.
Camellia oil is extracted from the seeds of the Camellia oleifera tree after being sun-dried. Yang Anxuan still clearly remembers smelling the rich aroma of oil when he passed by the oil mill when he was a child. What was squeezed in the oil mill was camellia oil. "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" records: "Yuanmu is an oily food in the south." "Yuanmu" is the Camellia oleifera tree.
In the Qin Dynasty, camellia oil was called sweet mash paste soup, in the late Han Dynasty, it was called tangerine husk tea in paste soup, and in the Tang Dynasty, it was called camellia oil. Yang Anxuan was so excited that he wanted to make camellia oil right away, so he took the naming right first.
Yang Anxuan immediately told Ding Quan to search for "Yuanmu", and Huang Fu sent people to Xiliang to introduce cotton. Under the rule, the people can have enough to eat. In order to prevent the low prices of grain from hurting farmers, in addition to government purchases, it is time to encourage people to cultivate cash crops, such as cotton and soybeans.
There are specialties in the arts, but I can only remember part of "Tiangong Kaiwu". Yang Anxuan stroked his beard and thought about whether he should establish an agricultural situation department to be responsible for farming. The spontaneous production of the people must be guided so that the industry can be scaled up. This matter has been listed as the top priority this year and will be discussed with Xin He and others in detail in the future.
Outside the lobby, Shen Qingzhi stuck half of his head out to look inside. Yu Fei, who was guarding the door, didn't bother to pay attention to him and let him look around.
Shen Qingzhi felt a little embarrassed and said with a smile: "Brother Yu, why is my lord still discussing matters?"
Yu Fei glared at him and said, "You think my master is as free as you are. If you have anything to do tomorrow, let's go to the school grounds to compete."
Shen Qingzhi was a martial arts fanatic, so he immediately smiled and said: "It's okay, call Zhang Feng, and the three of us will fight together."
When Yang Anxuan heard the voices, he thought that his sister was still waiting for him to go to Baizhang Village. He probably got impatient and asked Shen Qingzhi to rush him. He immediately stood up and said: "Okay, I have something to do, let's leave."
He hurried to the door of the mansion, where several bullock carts were waiting. When Yang Qiu heard the arrival of the third brother, he raised the curtains and complained: "Third brother, why have you been waiting for so long? I have been waiting for you for almost half an hour."
Shen Sheng poked his head out from the side and called "uncle" crisply, which immediately made Yang Anxuan smile and said: "Sheng'er, be good, wait until you are in a hurry, and leave now."
Yu Fei and Ding Quan led dozens of horsemen to escort the ox cart to Baizhang Mountain. Yang Anxuan remembered that before Yin Ji left Xiangyang, he complained to himself that his family was too thin, and said that the Yin family was willing to give half of the proceeds from Bichun Tea. Giving it to Yang Yi is a way of repaying the favor of Yang Anxuan who taught him skills back then.
Yang Anxuan had no words to respond to Yin Ji's dissatisfaction. Yin Huizhen had a special status. At present, he really couldn't give Yang Yi and Yang Rui status. Yin Huizhen never mentioned it in front of him, which made Yang Anxuan feel more guilty.
Thinking of the fur making, cotton, textiles, and vegetable oils that we just discussed, these are all profitable businesses. At least I can give Yang Yi and Yang Rui countless wealth first.
Those subordinates and noble families who are loyal to them might as well give them some benefits. The more people they gather, the stronger their foundation will be. When these industries are spread, manpower is naturally indispensable, which is just used to house retired veterans or disabled soldiers. Giving them a fortune is a reward, and it also unites people's hearts.
Hearing Shen Sheng in the car asking his sister to ride horses outside, Yang Anxuan smiled. She might as well count her niece as a New Year's gift from her uncle.
Some people died, but not completely...
