Two days later, Yang Anxuan Yinuo let He Lianhuang, Wang Maide and dozens of others go.
Seeing He Lianhuang and others fleeing northward in a hurry on horseback, Shen Qingzhi asked in confusion: "My lord, Helianhuang is the crown prince of Xia, why did you let him go so easily?"
Yang Anxuan was very patient with his brother-in-law and explained: "The Xia people are full of wolf nature. He Lianhuang lost his troops and lost his generals. It is difficult for him to improve again. The warriors of those tribes will not follow him anymore. Moreover, if he helps Yu capture Quaigu City, he will not I dare not let Helian Bobo know, so I don’t dare to go to the Xia army camp outside Anding City, I guess he will flee to the Xia king’s tent.”
Shen Qingzhi asked: "My lord said that it would be difficult for him to do anything if he was defeated. What can he do even if he returns to the Xia court?"
Yang A He Lian Bo Bo, then the Xia Kingdom will soon fall apart."
Shen Qingzhi somewhat understood Yang Anxuan's intention and said with a smile: "My lord asked Helianhuan to return to the royal court because he wanted him to take advantage of Helianbobo's defeat and establish himself as the crown prince."
"Yes, Wang Maide is full of tricks. He has been tied to a rope with He Lianhuang, so he will naturally try his best to help Helianhuang. With his help, Helianhuang should be able to win over some people." Yang Anxuan said: " He Lian Bobo's sons are not easy to use. Once He Lian Bobo dies, I'm afraid they will fight for men and territory on their own, and the Xia Kingdom will be in chaos."
After getting married to Yang Qiu, Yang Anxuan asked him to read more books. Yang Qiu specially asked a storyteller to tell the history of Shen Qingzhi in the check column. Shen Qingzhi was not very literate but was very smart. He immediately smiled and said: "Master, what do you want?" Just like how Emperor Wu of Wei dealt with Yuan Shao, after Yuan Shao's death his sons fought with each other, and the Yuan family's power soon perished."
Yang Anxuan glared at Shen Qingzhi, and Shen Qingzhi realized that his mother-in-law was a descendant of the Yuan family. What he said would hurt her heart.
"If Helian Bobo is not dead, his foolish heart will not be at ease." Yang Anxuan looked towards the direction of Anding City and murmured. …
Yang Anxuan was away on an expedition, and affairs under his rule were still carried out in an orderly manner. The tense atmosphere of the Northern Yongzhou War could not be felt in Xiangyang City.
The plan for the year begins in spring, and the biggest task after the year is to supervise farming. An official document from the Yonggong Mansion was sent to all states, counties, and counties as early as the 10th day of the first lunar month. Encourage sowing, sericulture, linen, and cotton to do their best." The government lent grain seeds, farm tools, and cattle to farmers in need.
Under Yonggong's rule, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the farmers could recuperate and recuperate. Last year, Yonggong acquired northern Jizhou and Qinzhou, and the agricultural work in these two states became the focus of Xin He's supervision.
Fortunately, it has already been established, and spring plowing matters are busy and not chaotic. In August last year, at the suggestion of Yang Anxuan, the Yonggong Mansion added an agricultural department office. All states and counties have set up this official office specifically in charge of agriculture, and are responsible for promoting farmland. Techniques for cultivation, fertilization, management, collection and storage, as well as mediation and settlement of agricultural disputes. qδ.net
Half of the officials in the Department of Agriculture are veteran farmers. These veteran farmers are awarded the title of ninth-grade agricultural masters and specialize in guiding farmers in various places to farm. On the 15th day of the first lunar month, Xin He took officials from the Department of Agriculture to attend a farming meeting spontaneously held by farmers in Xiangyang. At the meeting, farmers shared their experience and techniques with each other, agreed to help and communicate with each other, and the atmosphere was friendly and harmonious.
Xin He sat in the main seat, watching the heated scene, admiring Yang Anxuan in his heart. He was strategizing and winning thousands of miles away. He was talking about his lord.
On the first day of February, various villages outside Xiangyang City spontaneously organized temple fairs and markets to eat "spring cakes" and "sugar flowers". People in the city came to the farm with great interest to celebrate the Spring Plowing Festival, feel the strong spring plowing atmosphere, and buy things by the way. .
After the Spring Plowing Festival, farming work really gets put on the agenda. Impatient farmers start working in the fields as early as the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The farmland on both sides of the official road is full of farmers plowing the ground. After occupying Qin, a large number of cattle were obtained. With the promotion of Yangjiali, the number of cultivated fields increased, and farmers' income at least doubled compared to before.
However, growing grain is still far behind compared to growing cotton. Last year, 20,000 acres of cotton fields had a good harvest. In addition to returning the farmland to the public, another 10,000 acres were distributed to farmers for planting. More than a dozen of the farmers recruited from the Liang Kingdom became agriculturists of the Department of Agriculture, specializing in guiding farmers to plant crops.
cotton. Under the guidance of farmers, cotton farmers are all enjoying a bumper harvest, and their income has increased more than five times compared to growing grain.
Take Wu Chen as an example. Last year, she planted 40 acres of cotton fields and harvested about 220 kilograms of cotton per mu. She harvested nearly 9,000 kilograms of cotton. She paid the government a tax of 20 kilograms per mu, and she also kept it for herself. More than eight thousand kilograms. Four thousand kilograms of grain were purchased by the government at the price of five kilograms per kilogram (about thirty-five yuan). Wu Chen decided to make the remaining four thousand kilograms into cotton-padded clothes and sell them.
Sun-dried cotton is made into cotton-padded clothes. Each set of cotton-padded clothes weighs about two kilograms and sells for 500 yuan. As soon as it was brought to the market, someone came to buy it. The price of dried cotton per catty was about 50 yuan.
Wu Chen discovered that the merchants who came to purchase were powerful, and there were many people selling cotton-padded clothes with her. There were at least a hundred cotton-padded clothes on the market, and they were all bought at once. She looked at the piles of cotton-padded clothes. A big car costs at least 100,000 yuan.
Mrs. Wu Chen was very happy at first. She and her sister-in-law rushed to work and invited her sister-in-law Wu Wang and the women from the neighboring women's union to come over. They could make more than 20 pieces of clothing in one day. When the clothes were brought to the market, there were dedicated people waiting to buy them. Gradually more and more merchants came to buy them, and they increased their prices. Within two days, the price rose to 580 yuan.
This made Wu Chen feel a little strange, so she stuffed 50 yuan with the steward who bought the clothes to secretly inquire about the reason. Finally, she learned from the steward that most of these cotton-padded clothes would be taken apart after they were bought, and only the cotton in the clothes would be taken out and reused for weaving. Wu Chen was shocked when she learned the price of cotton cloth from the steward.
A piece of spun white cotton cloth can be sold for 8,000 yuan in the market. Wu Chen calculated that one piece of cloth consumes about 25 kilograms of cotton, which means that each kilogram of cotton spun into cloth can be converted into more than 300 yuan, excluding The labor cost for weaving can be calculated as at least two hundred dollars. This is much more cost-effective than the 50 yuan spent simply selling cotton and the 150 yuan spent on making cotton-padded clothes.
After hearing the news, Mrs. Wu Chen regretted it. She sold 228 pieces of her cotton-padded clothes, using almost 500 kilograms of cotton, and made a loss of 7,000 yuan. I quickly returned home and told my sister-in-law Wu Mei and others that I would not sew the remaining cotton-padded clothes.
Wu Mei drove out two cotton-padded clothes today. Her sister-in-law gave others twenty yuan for each piece and secretly promised herself fifty yuan. If she stopped sewing cotton-padded clothes, she would make at least a hundred yuan less every day.
Originally, Wu Mei planned to sew at least 180 cotton-padded clothes and earn 4,000 to 5,000 yuan from her sister-in-law. With the gifts from her sister-in-law, she had saved more than 20,000 yuan. With this private money, she married into her husband's family. There is no need to look at my mother-in-law’s face.
Mrs. Wu Chen paid off her wages for the day, politely sent the woman next door away, and closed the door. Only her sister-in-law and her sisters-in-law told the news they had learned from the steward.
When they heard that the price of woven cloth could double again, both Wu Wang and Wu Mei were dazzled. They still had more than 3,000 kilograms of cotton. If it were woven into cloth, there would be at least a hundred pieces of cloth (a piece of cloth is 40 feet long, which is equivalent to 100 pieces of cotton). It weighs twenty kilograms, and each horse is calculated as five kilograms of loss). If you sell it directly to a merchant, you can get at least 7,000 yuan, which is 700,000 yuan. Excluding costs and expenses, the net profit will not be less than 400,000 yuan.
Wu Wang's heart, which was originally full of sour water, was filled with jealousy. She hated her man for being useless. Why didn't he plant ten acres when the cotton was divided at the beginning of the year? How can my mother work for her sister-in-law and earn such hard-earned money?
700,000 yuan, which she would never earn in her lifetime, Wu Wang gritted her teeth and promised to get half of the money from the cotton cultivation next year.
Wu Chen and Wu Mei excitedly calculated that they could weave more than two feet of cloth every day, and they could weave two pieces in a month. There were more than forty women in the village who could weave, and they all came to help with the weaving. They should be able to weave in one and a half months. Weaving cotton into cloth.
Wu Mei hesitated and said: "Sister-in-law, I heard from people in Chenjiaji that they have people weaving for, and they will pay four hundred wages for each weaving piece."
Mrs. Wu Chen calculated it and said, "We will give you five hundred yuan for a piece of cloth. If you don't believe it, you won't be able to hire anyone."
The huge profits brought by cotton cloth soon became known to everyone. Everyone was envious of the huge profits of cotton farmers and secretly looked forward to planting several acres of cotton fields in the coming year. The profits were much higher than those of growing grain.
Years ago, He gave Yang Anshen sixty taels of gold, saying that it was the proceeds from selling cotton and cotton cloth. Yang Anshen was overjoyed and lived in He's courtyard for more days, and promised that she would still be in charge of selling cotton cloth in the coming year.
He was secretly proud that this year
She earned more than two hundred taels of gold by selling cotton cloth, and because of this, she attached herself to Zhao Xuan and Zhang Lan. Who could snatch this job next year? With Yang Qiu's support behind her, even Yang Anshen couldn't do anything to her. Calculating the time, Yang Qiu was about to give birth, and He was planning what gifts to give to please her.
The Lu family secured their position, and in July their daughter Yang Lin was married to the Huan family in Qiao County. Her third uncle, Yang Anxuan, sent many gifts from the tribe to make her face shine. The Lu family would not compete with the He family for profit, and devoted themselves to raising their son Yang Hui. They planned to send Yang Hui to Xiangyang Academy when he was older.
The third uncle's sons Yang Min and Yang Yi, as well as the children of important civil servants and generals, all studied in Guangye Hall of the Academy. Although the Lu family did not go out often, she vaguely knew from the female relatives who visited her that her third uncle would have a bright future.
This Guangye Hall was not open to the public, and there was no chance for casual visitors to enter. He repeatedly begged Shen Lang to let Yang Shao enter the school, but Shen Lang refused and told her not to have such wishful thinking.
Lu decided to send Yang Hui to school when he was a little older. Although she was reluctant to give up, she was determined for Hui'er's long-term plan.
With the money, He bought a lot of jewelry, which made other concubines jealous and asked Yang Anshen for more.
Yang Anshen never tired of going to the trouble. He would cry and cry every time he yelled and scolded, making the house restless. In desperation, Yang Anshen had no choice but to promise to come and see the cotton fields. Each person would be given twenty acres of land to hire someone to plant cotton, and half of the proceeds would go to them.
Last year, 20,000 acres of cotton fields were placed in Yiyang and Runan counties. This year, Nanxiang, Xinye, Xiangcheng, Xincheng and other counties have requested cotton planting. Before Yang Anxuan led his army to leave, he discussed with Xin He that the number of cotton fields planted this year should not exceed 100,000 acres, and the planting of grain fields must be guaranteed.
How to allocate 100,000 acres gave Xin He a big headache. Yang Anshen, the governor of Yiyang, asked for 50,000 acres. The governor of Yin in Runan also wanted to expand farming to 30,000 acres. Nanxiang and other counties even counted 10,000 acres per county. , also exceeded the quota of 100,000 acres.
Yang Anxuan anticipated this situation when discussing with Xin He. The surge in the number of cotton fields would inevitably lead to a sharp drop in cotton prices and an increase in labor costs. Moreover, seeing the huge profits from cotton cultivation, the clan members would definitely plant large areas in the clan's fields. Yang Anxuan estimates that the number of cotton fields may exceed 500,000 acres.
So much cotton has to be digested by the market, and the price will definitely fall. The price of cotton clothes this year is 500 yuan, and it will be good to sell it for 300 yuan next year. Similarly, the price of cotton cloth will be cut in half at least, plus the increase in labor costs, it is estimated that compared with The cost of growing food is not much higher.
Cotton fields require careful care, a lot of water, and pest and disease control, which is far from being as easy as standing outside and looking at it. Yang Anxuan told Xin He that except for the cotton fields confirmed by the government to continue to send farmers for guidance, he would ignore those who grew cotton privately, so that those who were greedy for small profits would suffer a loss and learn a lesson.
Xin He thought to himself, when the cotton is picked this year, those who do not listen to the advice to grow cotton will know the interests of the lord.
