When the Xifan camp dug the first shovel into the gravel-filled fields and the first pile of cremation smoke rose, the Liangzhou flag guards in Checheng became restless.
The former is to block their retreat from the battlefield, while the latter makes this war meaningless for most soldiers... They need heads. Without heads, even if the war is won, it is meaningless.
Ding Shaoyin walked around in circles in the car city anxiously, cursing and saying: "Why are these people the same as the Donglu Tatars!"
In fact, not only the Donglu, but also the consensus of all the Ming army's opponents was to prevent the Ming army from getting their heads. It's just that different opponents have different choices for how to deal with the corpses.
The Mongols used the customary rules of repaying gratitude to make the hook, sickle, and spear riders on the battlefield become entrepreneurial pioneers; while in Liaodong, the Jurchens formulated more stringent rewards and punishments during the war.
If you can take it away, take it away; if you can't, destroy it. If that doesn't work, cut off the heads of your own fallen soldiers before the Ming army does, and take the braids home.
The trenches cast a layer of despair on the Liangzhou Guards in Checheng, and the burning of corpses shattered people's dreams of being rewarded for their meritorious service. After a moment of restlessness, the Cheying Banners destroyed everyone. Anyway, there was still a lot of baggage, and the enemy was temporarily He couldn't get in for a while, so he just waited for help.
This kind of peaceful period between battlefields made Basang feel a lot more relaxed.
He had not paid attention to the ground beneath his feet until the soldiers of Zephan's camp began to dig trenches, and he noticed that the fields here were covered with a layer of sand and gravel.
Two to three inches of pebbles and fine sand evenly covered the field ridges. These gravels appeared abrupt on the surface, obviously not natural but man-made, which made Basang interested.
Basang, who was born a slave, was once a good serf who worked stupidly before being taught archery by his housekeeper with a whip.
He knew agricultural technology very well. When the leader of a noble lord got a manor, the pioneer asked the serfs to set fire around the manor, and then used a row of serfs to hold wooden plows to plow shallowly and scatter the seeds, so that the grain would be harvested next year.
After three to five years of farming like this, nothing will grow on this land. Then we go out, burn another piece of wasteland, and continue farming. After another three to five years, the surrounding territory has been burned, and we go back to farming. The land that was abandoned the earliest can be harvested again.
This is called abandonment of farming.
Later, this kind of abandoned farming system was artificially controlled, and the leisure farming system emerged, which regularly allowed these lands to rest.
For example, this piece of land is planted for two consecutive years and rested for one year; another example is to pick out two or three pieces of land, plant one piece and rest, and plant two pieces and rest, which is similar to the three-bed system.
On top of this, due to the strong winds, coarse soil, and low soil temperature in Kham and Uzang areas, the oxidation and decomposition of the soil is slow, the potential fertility is high but the available nutrients are few, and a large amount of livestock manure is burned as domestic fuel. , so that there is no concept of fertilization.
Therefore, the people of Xifan developed a crop rotation system under objective circumstances, that is, the land will be planted with barley this year and beans next year to obtain a relatively stable harvest.
The above is all the agricultural knowledge that Basang mastered before joining the Marshal's Mansion.
However, after the establishment of the government in Kangning, Basang encountered an unprecedented cultural impact and witnessed the greatest creation of human agricultural science - ridge farming.
Like the iron plow, the imperial examination bureaucracy, or the fact that children have to be sent to social studies private schools when they grow up, these things are the deep-rooted understanding of the world among farmers in the Central Plains, and they do not seem to require any science and technology.
As long as a piece of land is called a field, it should grow like a field, a square piece of land with ridges and furrows plowed on it. This year, grain is planted on the ridges. This is called ridge farming, a system during the Warring States Period; Chapter 1 In two years, the ditches were dug, the ditches and ridges were exchanged, and work and leisure were completed on a piece of land. This was called Daitian, which was invented by Zhao Guo, the captain of the millet searcher during the period of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty.
The supporting agricultural machinery tripod columbine is also an invention of Zhao Guo. The columbine is an animal-powered seed drill. The main body is three share poles. There is a wooden bucket in front for holding seeds. The bottom of the bucket is connected to the share poles with wooden tubes, which are called seed tubes and oxen. Or a mule pulls a columbine through the land, and the iron share cuts the land and builds a gully. The lower seed tube behind the share drops the seeds, and the soil covered by the share then covers the seeds.
Three shares and one ox, controlled by one person, it integrates ditching, sowing, covering and suppressing in one.
However, in the impression of Basang and many Xifan people, the world is not like this. Iron plows, imperial examinations, and reading do not exist. The fields should be pitted and messy, and sowing must be done manually, and machinery does not exist.
In fact, it is not that the Western nobles were unaware of this production method and production equipment, but the unified dynasty spent copper as money, and there was no way to cast iron in the southwest. It was also difficult for ordinary people in the manor system to obtain forged iron farm tools.
Under the premise that the production technology and production environment remain unchanged, if we insist on adopting the production system of ridge farming instead of farmland, the speed of the serfs using wooden farm tools to dig the land is too slow, and in the end it is not as practical as planting more land.
From then on, Basang knew that for his slave brothers in Kangning and even Uzang, the nobles' preference for silk and satin from the Central Plains was of no value to them, but everything that the people of the Central Plains took for granted was that they could defy the odds. A life-changing treasure.
While the Xifan camp was busy digging trenches, Basang summoned the Han firearms officers in the camp and pointed to the pebbles and fine sand on the ground to ask about the purpose of doing so.
Most of the firearms officers were veterans who had followed Liu Chengzong to Kangning. No locals in Lanzhou could tell him the significance of doing so, but people pointed out a clear path for Basang.
Zhuang Langwei's commander, Zongjing Xiaoliu, has been stationed here for a long time. He also has Zhuang Langwei's banner army under his command. He should know the significance of covering the fields with gravel.
The bearded Han soldiers from the Xifan camp immediately entered the city and saw Jing Xiaoliu in the bombarded gate tower of the North City.
The windows of the city gate tower were holed by shells, and the afternoon sunlight shined through the holes into pillars of light indoors, shining on the broken tiles everywhere. Countless dust sparkled and danced in the pillars of light.
Jing Xiaoliu was sitting there, leaning over a long table with cannonballs embedded in it, writing long letters by the light that penetrated the room.
"General Jing, I am here with Liao Huzhu, the commander-in-chief of Xifan Camp, who is named Brigade Commander Ba. I want to ask the general why Zhuanglang's fields are covered with sand and gravel."
Originally, Jing Xiaoliu didn't intend to raise his head when he heard the news about the arrival of Xifanying's General Manager, but when he heard the man's strange Liaodong accent, he still raised his head and glanced at it with an extraordinarily calm tone: "Shuai Ba wants to ask about Sha Tian, are you Are you from Liaodong?"
"Yes, I am from the Liao Dynasty. Outside the Guangning Pass, the Qianhu Station in the Central Guards did not accept the troops at night. I was ordered by Master Yuan to enter the Pass with the guerrilla General Cao."
Liao Huzi was a bit familiar, with a smile on his face as he babbled: "I first worked as a pond rider for the handsome man. I entered Kangning and fought a few battles with General Dai. I was picked up and sent to the Xifan camp. The brigade commander came to rescue you when he saw the beacon fire. Don’t dare to delay for a moment.”
Liao Huzhu said a lot of nice things, but Jing Xiaoliu's face still had a coldness that could repel people thousands of miles away, he just raised his palms and said nothing.
For a moment, Liao Huzi was embarrassed to stand in the city gate tower. He didn't know if he raised his palm to show his understanding, or to tell him to stop talking. He could only curse in his heart that this old boss was really weird.
Jing Xiaoliu did know Sha Tian.
This is a dry land planting method that originated near Lanzhou in the northwest in the mid-Ming Dynasty.
The precipitation here is low, the evaporation is high, the soil is sticky, and the wind blows violently. If the season is not good, it will become a quagmire if it rains a lot. The sun is poisonous and it will be hardened by the sun, and the evaporation is high. It is also more likely to cause salinity.
Therefore, people collected large sand and small stones from the old Yellow River bed. There were rotting plants in the old river bed, which contained a lot of nutrients. They covered it on the moist farmland with manure added to protect it from the scorching sun, retain water, provide some fertilizer, and reduce evaporation. , the salinity problem is naturally solved.
On this basis, crops cultivated under the sand and gravel surface can effectively retain water. The roots are deeply rooted in the soil layer and arch out from the cracks in the stones to grow vigorously. This allows places with low precipitation to retain water. Even in previous years when it was considered a drought, as long as there was a little rain, the sand fields could still have a good harvest.
A paved sand field can last for sixty years on dry land, but after five to ten years the fertility drops significantly, and it needs to be covered with sand again.
It’s just that this method is very labor-intensive. One acre of land requires more than 50,000 kilograms of sand and gravel, which requires a basket and a truck to transport it. Of course, the effect is also very obvious. The yield of Shatian is one to three times higher than that of Tutian, even if Even when the fields are harvested, the yield of eighty kilograms of wheat per mu can still be guaranteed.
But firstly, he was not in the mood to talk to Basang about this, and secondly, he didn't want to see Liao Huzi, a former Liaodong soldier, smiling playfully in front of him.
Therefore, he paused for a long time before waving his hand and saying: "I want to write a letter to the Marshal. You can ask about Sha Tian in the city. Many people know about it."
Liao Huzi originally wanted to argue a few words, but he thought to himself, why are you so awesome as a country soldier, so disrespectful to your brigade commander? But he took a sneak peek at the long letter Jing Xiaoliu was writing. The letter was full of names and causes of death.
At this moment, a famous general manager came in, glanced at Liao Huzi, and didn't pay attention. He just reported in a low voice: "General, Feng Laosan died, and Xiao Wu hit himself against the wall and knocked himself blind."
Jing Xiaoliu's face still didn't have much expression. He just opened his mouth as if he wanted to ask something, but in the end he didn't say anything. He took a deep breath and said: "Watch Shi Cong, don't let him do stupid things. Tell him, his mother is still waiting." Take him home."
The Feng brothers were rural soldiers recruited by him personally, and they knew everything about them.
Mr. Feng was a short-lived scholar. He gave birth to six children before his death. He originally had some land and his family was well off, but after his death, all the land belonged to others and the family went from bad to worse.
Mrs. Feng was also a beautiful lady when she was young. She raised her children by working as a boudoir tutor, but it was extremely difficult to support her. She did not buy any land. When they grew up, their children all read some books and knew some words, but they were far away. Without the financial resources to take the imperial examination, he had no choice but to work as a pawn.
It was not until the end of the Hehuang War that the fields were divided from house to house, and Jing Xiaoliu went to the countryside to recruit soldiers. The Feng family boss, who was getting married in his thirties, did not borrow his official robe, so he took off his military attaché robe on the spot.
Mrs. Feng and her four sons heard that Jing Xiaoliu was recruiting troops and handed them over to three general marshals. They were all of the same generation, named Shuang, Lin, and Cong.
At the beginning of the war, the second eldest son of the Feng family volunteered to monitor the enemy in the city in order to allow his two younger brothers to hide on a safe horse trail, but was hit by a cannonball and died.
Later, the third child and the fifth child guarded the wall together. The moment the fierce fire from below hit the city, he pushed his younger brother aside, but he was burned half to death.
The man was still alive when he was rescued, but Jing Xiaoliu was mentally prepared that he would not survive after being burned to that point.
President Bai retreated, and Jing Xiaoliu looked at Liao Huzi with an expressionless expression. His eyes made Liao Huzi feel frightened: "Tell me, how do you tell an old lady that she has lost two sons?"
Liao Huzi was speechless, and then he saw Jing Xiaoliu pointing to the door.
He knew that he had come at the wrong time, so he clasped his fists and retreated, going to the city to find other country soldiers to ask about the matter.
As soon as he walked out of the city gate building, he heard someone hammering the table inside.
For Jing Xiaoliu, this war belonging to Dongguan Minzhuang has ended since Basang led the Xifan Brigade to the battlefield.
Before the war began, his entire headquarters had 634 people, including grooms and veterinarians, 600 of whom came from 20 rural security guards in Dongguan Town, Hehuang, and were selected during recruitment.
One hundred and twenty soldiers were recruited by him personally, and more were recruited by other generals. He had not worked with him for a long time, but he knew that everyone was in good health, mentally sound, had no criminal record, and had no prostitution or gambling. Wait for bad habits, and all of them are sons of good families who have been assigned land.
But at that time, they didn't know the price of keeping this land was too high.
At this moment, there are 384 people alive in his headquarters. Twenty-six of them, like Feng Laosan, will die in the next few days, and seventeen more have lost their limbs. Will be sent home later.
And three lunatics who are running around on the streets of Zhuanglang City.
The carefree Jing Xiaoliu was not afraid of risking his life or death, but this letter filled with the list of disabled soldiers killed in battle was much scarier than death to him.
It is difficult to lead troops, and it is even more difficult to recruit troops than to lead them.
Suddenly, the defenders of the southern city wall came and reported: "General, Marshal, Marshal is coming from the south."
This news made Jing Xiaoliu immediately energetic. He wanted to tell Liu Chengzong what happened here, and at least win a little more silver reward for the family members of the fallen soldiers.
Although he knew in his heart that the Marshal's Office had regulations on pensions for fallen soldiers, and such a request might not be approved, success or failure was not the original intention of doing things.
Jing Xiaoliu led two of his subordinates who were still able to move out of the city to greet him in the south. From a distance, he saw the Tangqi and the meandering army on the 24th, as well as the general-in-chief's look that used to belong to the Ningxia Generalissimo. Soldiers' ceremonial flags.
But before they even got close to the army, a Tangqi man holding a yellow command flag came running towards him and said, "The commander-in-chief only summons the commander-in-chief of Dongguanjing. Please retreat to the side of the road and wait for a few officers."
Jing Xiaoliu was suspicious: What's going on? The commander thinks I didn't defend the battle well?
When he walked to the formation in a daze, he suddenly discovered that the man on the horse under the Chinese army's banner was not Liu Chengzong, but Liu Chengyun, who was wearing armor and smiling and waving to him.
"Three, three generals?" Jing Xiaoliu looked around. He didn't even see the guards around Liu Chengzong, but he saw a few people who had returned from victory. He couldn't help but salute and asked: "General?"
"Shh, don't tell anyone. Just let the defenders think that the generalissimo is coming. The city will welcome me as usual, and the guards will support me into the city. This is a letter from my brother to you."
Chengyun smiled and took out the letter and handed it to Jing Xiaoliu, saying: "My brother has already set off for Jiayuguan!"
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
good afternoon! I wish you all a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
7017k
