As the saying goes, the plan for a year begins in spring.
People mislead the land for a while, and the land misleads the people for a year.
On the land of Hehuang, from west to east, from south to north, people are rushing to cultivate and plant.
The two sons were fighting in the front, and the old father Liu Xiangyu was behind to make arrangements for the people, leading the Xining students to collect land and plan for the new year's grain farming.
In fact, there is no point in posting the list. The people who can understand the list are highly overlapped with the people who fled east. Those who did not run east don't care what is written even if they can understand the list.
It's just a matter of changing the landowner. The people think that I don't even have the money to escape, so who can I farm for?
But the situation is really different from what they thought.
As soon as the army of the Marshal's Mansion moved eastward, there were rural officials from Xining stationed behind them. These rural officials took office very crudely, with no official robes, no seals, and only a letter of appointment.
Usually there are three people from each village.
A veteran with a northern Shaanxi accent served as a rural official holding a commission, a Spanish young man who could speak Chinese served as an attendant, and a Tatar who could only understand but couldn't speak Chinese served as an errand boy.
Ask how many household registrations and acres there are in the local area. For every 200 people, recruit a breadwinner from the poor young people in the local area who can't make ends meet, and then start work to inventory the acres, population, and complete statistics.
Nominally, the township officials are all students sent by the Xining government office, but the local people look left and right and feel that these students are not serious... Let's say they can read, they can read; let's say they can count, they can count; but They just don't have much culture, and they don't have the nobility of officials. They are more like farmers than workers, and like soldiers than farmers.
How could there be so many serious students in Xining? Not to mention the scholars, all the scholars had to be teachers in Xining. Most of the people who stayed with Liu Xiangyu were children.
The people stationed there are the most capable graduates of Zhuantianmao Academy in the Marshal's Mansion.
Among them, those with outstanding achievements are highly educated talents who entered Xining Prefecture School for two years as Yuziying Baizong in the early years.
These people really didn't have much education. What they could speak, read and write were all common vocabulary. They basically only dabbled in professional things such as drawing calculations, camp calculations, military laws and regulations, weapons deployment, and baggage management.
But they all have the same experience. They were born in poverty in Yan'an Prefecture, and Liu Shizi was the only life-saving straw in the drought that swept the world.
With their weak bodies, they challenged the officers and soldiers who were armed to the butthole. After experiencing hardships and sacrifices, they survived, received life-saving food and the opportunity to read and read, and became outstanding peasant army officers.
Everyone has experience in managing twelve, sixty or more soldiers. Some have suffered irreparable injuries on the battlefield, and some are in their forties and no longer fit to go to the battlefield.
In the end, with Master Liu's entrustment, they stood on another battlefield without gunpowder smoke with full enthusiasm and infinite loyalty, holding letters of appointment, and fought to return to their homeland in their lifetime.
Liu Chengyun rushed back from Nangqian day and night. Because the road was blocked by heavy snow and his journey was delayed, he had no time to rest in Xining, so he went straight to his new job.
He ran all the way to Machang City, where the battle had just ended. After the chieftain army's obstruction completely failed, this place became Liu Chengzong's main baggage camp. Here, Liu Xiangyu allocated supplies to the front line and managed the newly received land.
Mr. Liu was overjoyed at the news that the shipment had returned.
Everyone is good at different things. Liu Xiangyu is very good at managing people, but his background as an official makes it difficult for him to put himself in the shoes of the common people and think about problems from the perspective of the common people. It is very easy for him to take over the land, but he can change the land according to his second son's ideas. production methods, it is somewhat difficult to start.
Therefore, Liu Xiangyu's choice was to pave the road first and send township officials from the Marshal's Office to various places to find out the population of the fields and the intricate interpersonal relationships in various places, so as to ensure that the order could be conveyed to every village unimpeded in the Erbaili Valley.
It happened to be shipped over at this time. This was a talented person in the family who was meticulous in managing things. Liu Xiangyu happened to be free to send a group of old, weak, women, children and good students to Xining.
These old and weak women and children were the mother, wife and children of Lintao Commander-in-Chief Wang Chengen, the family members of Gansu General Chai Shihua, and the Shaanxi Dusi Tian Yinglong, etc. They were all sent to Xining and were carefully looked after and taken care of by the police.
In Cheng Yun's eyes, things in Hehuang are actually much simpler than those in Kangning Mansion. At least the people here can understand what he is saying, and he can also understand what others are saying.
In Machang City, I saw the population of the land handed over by each township, and immediately rushed to the mouth of the river to meet Liu Shizi.
Liu Chengzong had stayed in Hezui Pozhuang for half a month. Along the way, he saw villages surrounded by checkpoints, as well as temporary soldiers living in the villages.
He learned from Liu Xiangyu that there was a smallpox outbreak in the east, and he also knew that Yang Yao, the commander of the cavalry of the Marshal's Mansion, was going to serve as a pox doctor at the mouth of the river.
However, when he approached the mouth of the river, what he saw did not look like he was trying to vaccinate the people with variola. On the contrary, the entire mouth of the river seemed to have become a huge construction site.
The beach surrounded by the Huangshui River is more than ten miles long, but the width is only between four and six miles. However, tens of thousands of Mongolian soldiers transported earth and rocks, dug trenches, and even built two hundred-foot-square bridges at the head of the river bend. The foundation of the earthen fort.
Chengyun looked at this posture, scratched his head, and thought to himself, is the second brother planning to build a fortress at the mouth of the river?
Then he met Yang Yao who was walking the monkey.
I was really walking a monkey. I don’t know where I got a macaque, and I was walking on a leash on the northern mountain platform. When I saw Chengyun from a distance, I raised my arms to say hello. I pointed to the mountain platform and said from a distance: "Chengyun, the commander is here." On the mountain platform, you will see it when you go up."
Liu Chengyun suppressed his doubts and led his horse onto the platform. Not long after, he saw Liu Chengzong on the edge of the platform with a telescope overlooking the entire mouth of the river. He hurriedly notified the surrounding guards.
Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong didn't let him get close at all. He just said from a distance: "Don't come over. I have an acne. Go to the tent over there to talk."
On the hillside not far away, there were two adjacent military tents standing alone. Liu Chengzong entered the east one, and the guards led Chengyun into the west one. There were two layers of tents between the two of them. Chengyun said anxiously: "Brother, why do you have acne?" Already?"
Liu Chengzong's muffled voice came from the other side of the military tent: "It's okay. Your brother is stronger than a tiger and a lion. He was vaccinated twice. Don't worry, it won't affect anything."
Chengyun felt relieved when he heard that the vaccine was caused by vaccination. The vaccine was much less toxic than Tianxing's vaccination. There was no need to worry about Liu Chengzong's safety. However, he became worried about the situation of the battle again and asked: "Brother, what are you doing?" If you’ve been vaccinated against acne, how can you go east to fight it?”
Liu Shizi sighed at the pity on the other side, and then said to Chengyun: "We can't defeat it. Before the Eastern Expedition, we calculated everything, but we didn't count the smallpox in the east. More than 20,000 of my 30,000 troops were not vaccinated, especially the regular ones." Army, the cost of continuing the Eastern Expedition is too high."
Cheng Yun asked: "Regular army?"
"It's Basang, Erhu and Ahai Daiqing. Ahai Daiqing is Chuoketu's subordinate general. The soldiers rushed into the place with smallpox. One by one, they all got sick."
Liu Chengzong believed that in terms of natural resistance to smallpox, the Han people were the strongest, followed by the Mongols and the Western Fans.
This is not a good thing, just because the Central Plains is densely populated and has always been a place plagued by plagues. Generations of ancestors have been victors in fighting various plagues. Only the best genes can be passed down, so there is a little bit of it. Resistance.
Mongolians and Westerners have never seen this disease, and those who have seen it are gone. They are either separated by the yin and yang of fools like Xiao Lazun, or they are tormented by complications on the plateau.
So these people don't have any antibodies against smallpox.
Liu Chengzong said: "Now the imperial court has stationed a large army in Lanzhou and south of the Yellow River. There is a smallpox-infested Gansu camp in the north of the Yellow River. We only have eldest brother and Yang Yao's more than 7,000 soldiers. It is easy to deal with the Gansu soldiers, but it is impossible to stand up after defeating them. Stop."
Liu Shishi sent troops for two purposes. The first goal was to solve the shortage of food and grass caused by the influx of people into Xining Prefecture last year; the second was to fully seize the Hehuang Valley.
At this time, there was still fifty miles of land in the Hehuang Valley, but more than half of the food and grass problems were solved with the war.
Chengyun answered: "So I plan to build a fort here and confront the Lanzhou army?"
"Let's not talk about confrontation, let's defend and counterattack. I heard that Lanzhou has gathered commanders from five towns. Although I don't know who from the five towns is leading the army, no one of them dares to stand still and bear the responsibility for losing ground because of smallpox. This battle is inevitable."
"First, let the Mongolian soldiers build the fortifications, and let General Yang Shen vaccinate the Fan soldiers. After the Fan soldiers are vaccinated, they will be given to the Mongolian soldiers. Tens of thousands of pox vaccines will be raised, and all the people of Hehuang will be vaccinated this year."
Liu Chengzong's reaction to the acne was very weak. It neither affected his activities nor his thinking. He even had very few acnes on his body. He had been thinking about the situation these days. Although he knew in his heart that this battle was inevitable under normal circumstances, Damn... To be honest, it is difficult to figure it out with normal thinking.
So he had to be prepared whether he would come or not.
When they come, they will rely on the location of the fortress to block them for a while with cannons, cannons and rivers, until they relax, and then use the vaccinated army to attack them. If they dare not come, they can use this time to build siege equipment and wait for the vaccination to end. Then he went over and captured Lanzhou.
Liu Chengzong has not yet received exact information on how many border troops there are in the five towns of the imperial court, but what he is sure of is that the imperial court cannot afford to delay them.
This has happened many times before, and he was urged to send troops because of food and grass problems before he was ready. Liu Chengzong believed that this time was no exception. This army should attack soon.
Chengyun listened and suddenly answered with a smile: "I just met General Yang Shen at the foot of the mountain. He led a monkey. It was quite fun."
"Well, macaques were caught by Li Wanqing who was fighting in the mountains in the north. I asked him to try planting smallpox on cattle. He was quite able to draw inferences about other cases. He gave it to rabbits, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, sheep... Here, try planting anything that can move."
Chengyun listened to what his second brother said, and could even imagine Liu Chengzong shaking his head on the other side of the tent: "Some succeed and some fail. No, Li Wanqing caught a monkey and a lynx for me to play with. He If you see one, you're about to get vaccinated. If you like it, ask Li Wanqing to catch another one for you, or Yang Yao to give it to you after the vaccination."
Liu Chengzong said from the other side of the tent: "Hey, not to mention how smart he is, have you calculated the people and land in Hehuang?"
When Chengyun heard this, he knew that the brothers' chat was over. Even though Liu Chengzong couldn't see it, he sat upright in the military tent and took out the small notebook he had prepared in advance.
Before setting off for Kangning Mansion and at Liu Xiangyu's meeting in Racecourse City, he had considered what his second brother would ask him when he saw him. He memorized the details in his notebook and relied on this to confidently say: "I have roughly calculated it now, but I haven't reported the details to my second uncle yet." That."
"There are more than 23,000 households, more than 120,000 people in the Huangshui River Valley to the east of Xining, and 720,000 acres of land. It is expected to be organized into 200 protections and 20 township protections."
720,000 acres of farmland.
Liu Chengzong took a deep breath and was very satisfied with this number.
The Hehuang Valley is good land for growing wheat. From west to east, the terrain becomes lower as you go east. Based on this figure, it will be determined by the battle between the generals and the army. If the entire Hehuang is captured, the fields in the valley alone can be Add one million acres.
The millions of acres of fields that have not been affected by the drought are different from the fields in Kangning Prefecture. No matter how many fields there are in Kangning Prefecture, it will not be of much help if there is no man's land in the middle. However, Hehuang only has only 1 million acres of land in Gansu and Longxi. The Yellow River is a natural danger. If you say you can rush over it, you can rush over it.
At this moment, Chengyun turned over his notebook and said: "Brother, I took a look when I came here. Along the 200 miles from Xining to Binggou, there are forty-seven longitudinal valleys from north to south. The valley area is less than the population of Hehuang and the farmland. The maximum is The people and the land are on the mountain.”
Chengyun said: "If we can take all the mountainous land, I estimate that the farmland will be at least 30,000 hectares, and the population should be around 400,000."
Liu Chengzong knew this, and he said: "In the mountains, there are either chieftains or fans. I plan to move the chieftains to the west, and then the remaining native people and fans will also be organized into households. However, this is not a temporary achievement. Focus on the river valley first." Bar."
In fact, Liu Chengzong couldn't care about anything at the moment. The annexation of the valley was a swallow-up similar to the southern expedition to Kangning.
He cannot avoid the shortcomings of rapid expansion and insufficient accumulation of various separatist regimes in the past. Professional talents are always insufficient, and there are not enough when fighting in Kangning. Forcibly changing sergeants to rural officials is just trying to survive.
Now swallowing the Huang River is still not enough, but the imperial court has stationed heavy troops on the other side of the Yellow River, which makes it impossible for him to deploy sergeants to do other things, so that he subconsciously does not want to swallow the land in the mountainous areas north and south of the Huang River.
"Brother, I know what you are worried about, but I have a different view on this matter."
It's not that Chengyun has different opinions, he has too many opinions. He feels sorry for the land in the mountains.
What he does in Kangning Mansion is to cultivate land, working hard to cultivate the best land. The output of two acres of land is probably about the same as the mountain fields in Hehuang.
From Cheng Yun's point of view, the forty-seven valleys running from north to south in Hehuang have a population and farmland that far exceeds that of the Huangshui River Valley. Even though it is not the best land here, it must not be given up.
He said: "In a short period of time, there are not enough people who can write and calculate, the terrain of the valley is complicated and support is unfavorable, the local natives live in a mixed manner, and there is not a large number of manpower. I am afraid that the civil society where the second brother divides grain and buys taxes will not be able to run in the valley, but this is exactly the reason. It’s an opportunity.”
Liu Chengzong asked: "What opportunity?"
"Leave a way out, brother. This is the first time we have done this matter of unified grain cultivation and unified purchase of grain in the civil society. It consumes manpower and material resources. I don't know whether it can be done. If it is done, the people in each township will have enough grain." We don’t have enough food, and we don’t know whether the commander’s military rations are enough.”
"So I feel that the people and the land in the mountains must be held in my hands, at least let them know that He Huang has changed his surname."
Chengyun said: "From Xining to Binggou, there is one post station for forty miles, five in total. Based on these five stations, five additional towns will be built, with 500 troops stationed in each town. If there are not enough troops in the north, they will be transferred from the south. Set up every ten miles. Urgent delivery."
In ancient times, a town was not entirely an administrative unit. Since the Northern Wei Dynasty, it mainly referred to the name of a garrison where the military and military relatives were stationed, and it had the meaning of guarding.
"I think." Cheng Yun said: "Hehuang is a river valley. We organize Baojia, set up folk societies, and divide the fields. The government will provide planting, unified grain planting, and unified purchase of harvests. The local people in Forty-seven ditches in the mountains also have to Organize households and integrate the people, regardless of their cultivation, but they must pay grain to the government."
"In this way, even if the harvest of Minshe is not satisfactory, there will still be 47 ditches of taxed grain. At the same time, the 2,500 sergeants in the five towns can be mobilized at any time to intimidate the tribes and quickly quell the chaos when necessary. "
After Cheng Yun finished speaking, his tone became relaxed and he asked: "Brother, did your idea of government management of people's cultivation also come from Emperor Taizu?"
Liu Chengzong was happy to hear this. His idea had nothing to do with Emperor Taizu, but Zhu Yuanzhang did care about what the people grew, but he didn't control it as harshly as he did.
Zhu Yuanzhang's farmland was between five and ten acres, and he planted half an acres of mulberry, hemp, cotton, and twice that amount for ten acres or more.
Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "Almost, but it's the other way around. Ninety percent of the land in each commune is owned by the communes, and one percent is reserved for the communes themselves. They can grow vegetables, cotton, mulberry, and hemp. Ninety percent of the land must be grown in grain, but what kind of grain is up to you. Each township must recommend doctors who are proficient in farming and adapt measures to local conditions."
After that, Liu Chengzong warned: "I'll leave the affairs of Hehuang Field to you... When the war here subsides, Yang Shen will make a safer vaccine, and you can inoculate it to avoid smallpox in the future. "
