After reaching an agreement with Hedan Bater, Huang Yi ordered Wang Baishan, Huang Dazhi, He Jiye, Huang Dayong, etc. to march into the mountains with men, horses and supplies.
The foothold was chosen together with them, and this will be the base for great development in the future!
Wang Baishan was very excited at the time. He felt that it was easy to defend but difficult to attack and it was relatively hidden.
He Jiye and others deliberately dug through the snow to look at the grassland, and concluded that the soil in that basin was particularly fertile.
They believed that once the land there was cultivated, it would be enough to feed tens of thousands of people.
Huang Yi did not make a fuss. In later generations, there were a lot of paddy fields and dry land in the counties north of Zhangjiakou. The combined area of cultivated land was hundreds of millions of acres, and the population definitely exceeded one million.
Not only has food been self-sufficient, but commercial grain has also been exported in large quantities.
The cultivated land area of Inner Mongolia exceeds 100 million acres, and the grain exported is tens of millions of tons.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if Mongolia during the Ming Dynasty had a thousand acres of cultivated land?
This year's plan has been made. The weather is freezing and the base area is not considering building housing for the time being. We still choose to build yurts in places where the sun is rising and the wind is leeward.
However, all manpower must be concentrated on felling wood and building stones, building a blacksmithing workshop at the abandoned military fort as quickly as possible, and starting to make farm tools immediately.
Next, we need to build a large room as a classroom. The bigger the better, so that hundreds of people can come here to hold meetings and study. Women can also come here to spin, knit, and do needlework.
When everyone gets together to work, study, and listen to stories, it can better reflect the fun of collective life, increase the sense of identity, and naturally enhance cohesion.
Unity is strength, and this strength can certainly be converted into combat effectiveness when defending our homeland.
The reason why we chose that place is because the foundation of the original Ming Dynasty Fort is still there and it is convenient to get water. A small castle can be built there in the future.
When the ice and snow melt, land must be reclaimed, and of course it cannot be done entirely by manpower.
Huang Yi thought of horse farming in Europe.
It was only after Huang Yi watched the Academy Award-winning movie "War Horse" that he learned that war horses can still plow fields, and specifically checked the relevant information about horse plowing.
Finally, we understood why the Han people abandoned horse farming, which was once widely used in the north of the Han Dynasty, and chose ox farming.
That's because the Han people were too smart to prevent the imperial court from recruiting horses for war and deliberately did not raise horses.
Huang Yi now has more than 90 war horses and pack horses, and more than 40 cattle. This number can be greatly increased by plundering other tribes.
Of course, there will be many Han slaves rescued, and the population will definitely continue to increase.
It is certain that next spring, Huang Yi will still have more horses than oxen. Of course, he will need both horses and oxen to reclaim wasteland.
The plows plowed by horses are different from those plowed by oxen. Huang Yi knew it, but he only knew it and didn't know how to do it.
Therefore, after he made his requirements clear, the question of what kind of plow to pull was decided by Wang Baishan, Lan Jinkui, Qi Dashan, and He Jiye.
None of the cattle Huang Yi owns are farm cattle, and he doesn't know how to tame a few farm cattle.
It doesn't matter if he doesn't understand. There are at least ten people like Liu Shifu and He Jiye who understand.
Anyway, there is no stipulation on how much land will be cultivated next spring, just try our best.
It doesn't matter if the food produced may not be enough for oneself to eat.
Go to Zhangjiakou to buy again!
Anyway, they will annex small tribes with the Hedanbaatar tribe next. Although the heads of the Tatars are not as valuable as the heads of the slaves, they can still be exchanged for food.
Moreover, no matter which tribe there are, there will be many chiefs and superior people who occupy many resources, and they can always plunder gold and silver treasures.
Huang Yi's only request was that Wang Baishan record the good methods of reclaiming wasteland and farming that had been proven effective in practice.
When the conditions are ripe, he compiles a "New Book of Farming Records" and strives to become an agricultural teaching material.
Writing books and establishing theories was the ideal of Ming literati.
For this reason, too many literati worked hard to write books and spent their own money to publish and publish them.
Of course Wang Baishan also had the idea of writing a book.
The "New Book of Farming Records" may also become an agricultural textbook. This temptation is strong enough, and Wang Baishan will of course redouble his efforts.
Han people have a special liking for land. When Huang Yi announced his plan to settle down and open up wasteland for farming, Zhang, Du Cuilan, Liu Shifu and more than 80% of the Han people were excited.
Less than 20% of the remaining people are children and are not yet sensible.
The attitudes of teenagers and adults made Huang Yi more confident.
I believe that all people will cherish the land they have worked so hard to cultivate and will definitely defend their homeland to the death.
However, if there is no castle to defend and is attacked by the superior Mongolian cavalry or the Eight Banners Army, it is really possible for them all to die in battle.
The construction of the castle cannot be done overnight. It must be ensured that the base area will not be attacked by the enemy within one or two years.
Therefore, it is imperative to eliminate the other tribes outside the mountain and make the Hedanbaat'er tribe the largest and strongest tribe within a radius of three hundred miles.
Huang Yi had no doubts about employing people, and he did not go to the base area.
The construction there was completely left to Wang Baishan, Huang Dazhi, Huang Dayong, Qi Dashan, Lan Jinkui and so on.
He took Huang Dapeng, Zhang Dong, Zuo Guanghu, Yue Mufei and Hu Xiaochuan brothers, Cha Lahe, Exun Zhaqin, and Du Mbu to the east for reconnaissance.
Eson Zhaqin and Du Mbu had just recovered from their injuries. They were grateful for Huang Yi's life-saving grace and took the initiative to arrange things.
When you go to settle in a mountain basin, you have to be prepared to be robbed by mountain people, horse thieves, bandits, and mountain kings.
Zhi, Yong, Shuang, Quan, Gerda, Yamoboli, etc., plus the more than a hundred Han people who have been training in formation for a month, are enough to deal with it.
The better Hedanbaatar develops outside the mountains, the more Huang Yi's big family can settle down and produce in large quantities.
Therefore, Huang Yi must spare no effort to strengthen Hedanbaat'er's tribe and bring the two most capable brothers Hu Xiaochuan and Cha Lahe with him.
When Exun Zhaqin and Du Mbu Mao recommended themselves, they both boasted that they were skilled in bow and horse and were willing to die for Huang Yi.
Huang Yi did not doubt their riding and shooting skills, and did not want them to die easily. He equipped them with two pairs of leather armors that had been repaired as new, and promised that once they performed meritorious services, the leather armors would be a reward and would not be taken back.
Esonzhaqin and Dumbu originally had leather armors, and adding a pair of them would definitely enhance their defense. Besides, the weather is getting colder, so wearing more armor will make them more cold-resistant.
They immediately knelt down and said in blunt Chinese: "Thank you, Master, for the reward, little one!"
At the beginning, Huang Yi wanted to change, at least to abolish the etiquette of kneeling down and kowtowing at every turn.
Later I found out that I couldn't do this.
Feudal society was highly hierarchical and emphasized order of superiority and inferiority.
If the people at the bottom are not allowed to salute and kowtow, those people will be at a loss what to do.
Therefore, Huang Yi has long accepted the obeisance of his subordinates calmly.
Seeing Eson Zhaqin and Du Mbu thanking each other in Chinese, Huang Yi encouraged: "Very good, very good. In the future, you will learn to speak Chinese more carefully. If I have the opportunity, I will take you to visit the pass."
