Men are the masters outside and women are the masters at home. This is the rule of this era.
Although Sun Shangxiang is the little princess of Jiangdong, from the moment she gets married, she needs to take on the domestic affairs of her husband's family.
No matter whether she manages it well or not, at least you have to give her this trust.
Although Sun Shangxiang is also worried now, he will still shoulder the responsibilities he should bear.
As for Zhang Xi, all he needs to do is work outside to make money.
But Zhang Xi is also busy at this moment.
Liu Bei came to Jiangxia not only for two weddings, but also for the autumn harvest.
In this era, spring planting and autumn harvest are both very, very important matters, and after the autumn harvest is related to tax collection, it is even more important to be careless.
All the money and food for the war have to come from here.
The Lianghu area was not fully developed until the Ming Dynasty. It has two grain-producing areas, one is the Hanjiang Plain and the other is the Dongting Lake Plain. Therefore, there is a saying that "Huguang is ripe and the world is rich".
During the Han Dynasty, the grain-producing areas in the Hanjiang Plain were increasingly developed, but the Dongting Lake Plain had just begun to be developed.
After all, it is not that easy to develop this place, Yunmengze.
The main grain-producing areas in the Hanjiang Plain are in Nanjun and western Jiangxia. As for the Dongting Lake Plain, the current farming area is basically concentrated in the Jiangdong sphere of influence, and only some areas to be developed are in Changsha County and Wuling County.
This is also the reason why Jiang Dongfei wants to infiltrate Changsha County and Wuling County.
Although Liu Bei now controls five counties, none of the key grain-producing areas is completely in his hands.
Jingnan is mountainous and has little arable land. Wuling County and Changsha County are intertwined with Jiangdong forces. Now is the alliance period, and it is difficult to fall out. Therefore, most of Jingnan can only be self-sufficient and it is difficult to expand the scale of production.
The only thing that can be counted on is that the food in the Jianghan Plain in the western part of Jiangxia can provide enough money and food for Liu Bei's development.
However, according to records from the late Han Dynasty, Jiangxia County is also mountainous, and the arable area only accounts for 30% of the county's area. The rest is hilly and mountainous. It is also difficult for Liu Bei.
It would be great if we had the grain-producing land of Nanjun.
But it is a pity that Nanjun is now in the hands of Zhou Yu, and Jiangdong will obviously not give up such an important place. Therefore, it is better to guard one-third of an acre of land first, rely on the accumulation in the plain area in the west of Jiangxia, and then Let’s seek development again.
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang basically had this idea, but Zhang Xi felt that they couldn't just sit back and wait for death.
"Lord, military advisor!" Zhang Xi handed over his hand first, and then made his own suggestion, "Why not try to increase grain production to cope with today's events?!"
Liu Bei could only smile bitterly and said, "What Yuan Chang said is true. It's just that after decades of operation in Jingzhou, the cultivated land has long been mature, and most of it is in Nanjun, Nanyang and other places. Jingnan has many mountains and little land. What can be done about such a situation?" ?!”
What Liu Bei means is that in Jingzhou, after more than 400 years of development in the Han Dynasty, the usable arable land has long been developed, and the rest are places that really cannot be developed.
Such as mountains and forests, such as most of the swamps and tidal flats in Yunmeng Ze.
These maturely developed places are basically concentrated in Nanyang and Nanjun, that is, on the Hanjiang Plain. Jingnan has a hilly terrain and is surrounded by barbarians, which is really not suitable for farming.
Zhuge Liang, as the great steward, naturally knew all about these things, so he had no choice but to comfort Liu Bei and said, "My lord, don't worry. Liang has ordered people to build water conservancy projects and ordered local officials to strictly supervise farming. I think there may be changes to Xianquyuanli next year.”
But in fact, Zhuge Liang also knew that no matter how much he changed, there wouldn't be much more food.
The four counties of Jiangxia and Jingnan have not suffered many wars, and Liu Biao is not a master who does nothing. Therefore, the water conservancy facilities in Jingzhou are in disrepair at best, and they are not inoperable.
Therefore, even if water conservancy facilities are maintained, the effect of increasing grain production is estimated to be limited.
This is how farming is done these days, either to expand the cultivated land area or to increase grain production.
Most of the ways to increase grain production are to build water conservancy projects, improve farming techniques, and increase government supervision.
Zhang Xi could not do better than Zhuge Liang in this regard, because Zhuge Liang was familiar with the government operations of this era and had enough farming experience.
But on the other hand, Zhang Xi really has a way to increase the area of cultivated land.
"There are two ways to use a stream. It can turn swamps, tidal flats, and mountains and forests into cultivated land. Although the yield per mu is not as good as the upper-class fields, it can still be comparable to the lower-class fields." Zhang Xi smiled and was about to start showing off.
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang's eyes lit up, and both of them could sense the other's shock.
Turn swamps, tidal flats and mountains into fertile farmland. Could it be that Yuan Chang knows magic? !
Really, it doesn’t require the output of inferior fields. As long as food can be grown, with the distribution of Jingnan’s swamps and mountains, can Liu Bei still be short of food? !
"Yuan Chang, tell me quickly." Liu Bei asked Zhang Xi eagerly.
Then Zhang Xi started talking, and he talked a lot in a casual manner.
Building terraces on hills, building fields around lakes, and upgrading water conservancy facilities. Although Zhang Xi has not understood these things in depth, he has read some information and watched some documentaries in his previous life, so he can still tell a few things.
The more Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei listened, the more excited they became, and the more they listened, the more feasible it became. The three of them chatted from day to night. In the end, Zhang Xi could only ask someone to go to his mansion to bring a message, saying that he had been at the government office for the past few days. Fell asleep.
The idea of reclaiming land from lakes and transforming hilly terrain to create terraces may be just a concept in Zhang Xi's eyes, but Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei, who understood this concept, obviously wanted to put it into practice.
Once this was put into practice, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei discovered that Zhang Xi's method was good, but it also had a big drawback - it was too expensive.
Liu Bei really has no money.
Although Liu Bei's territory is now larger, Liu Bei has more people to support, and his army has also expanded more than ten times. The fault tolerance rate is still too low.
Moreover, these are troubled times. After all, Liu Bei is also a warlord, but he is just a warlord who treats the people relatively well.
When a warlord has some money and food in his hands, the first thing he thinks of is to expand his army and improve the combat effectiveness of his army, and other things must be put aside later.
There is no way, in troubled times, if you don't have enough soldiers, you can't defend even the empty territory. In the end, it will be someone else who gets the advantage.
The two methods of increasing cultivated land proposed by Zhang Xi not only cost money, but also consume a lot of manpower.
Converting swamps into fertile farmland requires organizing a large amount of manpower to dig and fill swamps and small lakes. It is also necessary to build supporting water conservancy facilities to prevent lake water from flowing back, and to build flood control facilities to prevent production losses caused by floods. This amount The expenses are simply astronomical.
Transforming hilly terraces is also a huge amount of work.
In these days, there is not just a piece of grass on the hills, it is covered with trees and vines. Some trees have even grown for hundreds of years. How can we grow food without cutting down the trees and vines? !
Just cutting down trees is enough to consume manpower and material resources, not to mention that building terraces not only requires manpower and material resources during reclamation, but also requires a lot of manpower and material resources for subsequent maintenance.
Moreover, if rice or wheat is to be grown on hills, the requirements for water conservancy facilities will be higher than on swamps, which is another considerable investment.
Regarding this, Zhang Xi couldn't help it. There are no potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and the like these days. If rice and wheat are not grown on the terraces, what else can be grown.
The three people discussed these two methods of land creation for several days. Zhuge Liang finally produced an estimate report, roughly calculating how much food would be needed to transform the swamps and mountains in Jingnan. Liu Bei had a toothache after reading it.
It's not that Liu Bei doesn't know the importance, he also knows that the investment is worth it. After all, once the transformation is completed, the return may be ten years or even hundreds of years.
It’s hard to say that terraced fields have advantages and disadvantages, and the disadvantages basically outweigh the advantages. Zhang Xi also explained this to Liu Bei, and the limit is about ten years.
But the transformation of swampy tidal flats into fertile farmland was something that later generations were doing from the Tang Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, and it really achieved "Huguang is ripe, and the world is rich".
When Liu Bei thought of the large swampland in Jingnan, he looked at the money and food figures in his hands and gritted his teeth.
"Let's discuss this later!" Liu Bei sighed.
There is no way, I really can't afford the money and food. I'm afraid it won't be enough even if I invest all my income in the past two years.
What's more, money and food are easy to come by, but people's problems are not easy to solve. Without so many people to do things, it is impossible to mobilize the corvee for such a long time, and it still won't be done.
So, let’s take it easy for now, let’s wait for two years before we talk about it.
Zhang Xi also knew Liu Bei's difficulties, so his suggestion was shelved and he was not too disappointed.
Move on to the next suggestion.
"Lord, if it doesn't work, let's also farm!"
This suggestion is feasible now.
After all, both Cao Cao and Sun Quan had already done this, and farming could be used universally from south to north.
In troubled times, taxes from farmers alone cannot support a warlord's ambition to expand territory.
In fact, Cao Cao also gave a solution to this problem, which was to cultivate the land. Now Jiangdong is following the same example.
Farming is good. The government provides land and farming tools for the refugees to cultivate. In the end, the government can collect a high enough proportion of food to cope with the war. It can also ensure that the refugees will not starve to death. If necessary, it can recruit troops from the refugees to expand its power.
Although the refugees no longer have their own land and are tied to official farmland, they can only survive all year round without starving to death. However, they do not have to bear the heavy Dingkou tax and can live better than farming for aristocratic families. .
Yes, farming is really a good strategy, especially suitable for today's troubled times if the farming system is not destroyed by the infiltration of aristocratic families.
But Cao Cao and Sun Quan can engage in farming, but Liu Bei doesn't seem to be able to.
Regarding this point, because the directions of responsibility are different, Zhang Xi lacks sufficient understanding of the official land owned by Liu Bei.
Zhang Xi is in charge of Jiangxia, and the field data he has access to is limited to Jiangxia. He doesn't know much about the field data of the four counties in Jingnan.
Zhuge Liang is the chief steward of Liu Bei's army. He knows the most about the amount of cultivated land directly controlled by Liu Bei. Liu Bei does not have much official land under actual control.
It’s not that there aren’t any, it’s really not many.
Unlike Cao Cao and Sun Quan, Cao Cao killed many people in the north. Whether it was massacring cities or cleaning up aristocratic families, Cao Cao used the freed land as official land.
Sun Quan didn't kill many, but his brother killed a lot, so they both directly controlled a large amount of "unclaimed wasteland" that could be used for farming.
As for Liu Bei, Jiangxia was left by Liu Qi. He basically surrendered when he attacked the four counties in Jingnan.
Liu Bei didn't want to go too far, and he didn't force the local aristocratic families too much, so he didn't attack these people for the time being.
What's even more exaggerated is that due to the years of war in the north, the refugees have all fled to the south. There is a lot of open space in the north, but there are only a huge number of refugees in the south.
In addition, after the northern aristocratic families with means moved south, they also bought or annexed land in the south, carving up the few ownerless farmland in the south, and all the homeless refugees who had no means were hidden in Dingkou by the southern aristocratic families. They farm.
Liu Bei really didn't have much "official land" that he could directly control.
So
"This matter needs to be discussed later."
Liu Bei said this himself, which was a bit embarrassing.
(End of chapter)
