When these herdsmen continued to gather in towns selected in advance and began to gradually establish permanent gathering points, Tian Meng also began to prepare for the next step of the plan.
That is the issue of infrastructure construction and path exploration.
Your Highness wants to build a road on the grassland, so this road construction requires exploration.
And connect the gathering points one by one, at least most of the gathering points.
After the early plans are implemented, there will be a large number of extra pastures on the entire grassland that no one grazes, and these pastures will gradually begin to recuperate.
After all, the pastures of these herdsmen are now strictly calculated to maximize grazing without harming the pastures. In the past, it was impossible for the Turks to have such a precise grazing range.
Therefore, after the integration, there are actually large areas of no man's land on the entire grassland of Hanhai Prefecture.
In the future, these uninhabited areas can be resettled with more herders, or various policies such as rotational grazing can be implemented.
And now, whether it's road exploration or anything else, the most important thing is to start infrastructure construction first.
The infrastructure construction on the grassland, like that of the Tang Dynasty, is still very necessary to directly repair official roads. Many people think that there is no need to build roads in the grassland. They think that the roads in the grassland are smooth and you can walk anywhere.
Just like the grasslands of Inner Mongolia in later generations, many people have the impression that there is no problem driving for five minutes with their eyes closed.
Although this is true, the current grassland of Hanhai Prefecture is actually far more lush than the grasslands of later generations.
Why do the Turks have a tribe called the Gaoche tribe? Because they are good at building high carts. The so-called Gaochats are very similar to the Mongolian Lele carts. The wheels are very tall, because the snow in the pastoral areas is knee-high in winter, and the grass is deep in summer, and there are Some swampy areas, so after the wheels are larger, it can easily walk on the grassland.
But before building roads, the most important thing is to connect all current gathering points.
Connecting these gathering points and guiding the direction on the vast grassland is also very simple, just pile Aobao!
Well, according to His Highness's plan, the infrastructure construction of the grassland will start with stacking Aobao!
Aobao, in later generations, was a symbol of sacrifice on the grassland. In a certain period, it was also a symbol for some grassland nobles to show their wealth and power. But when it first appeared, it was a symbol used on the grassland to show boundaries and guide the road.
Road construction on the grassland has not yet been completed, mainly because the food supply cannot keep up, so this year we will start with stacking obao.
These obos may guide the way for a long time to come.
In addition, some sheep heads, cow heads and other animal skulls were hung on the early obaos on the grassland, and they were even dyed black or red. The main reason was that they could be found far away when the snow covered them in winter. Traces of Aobao.
Because if stones are piled up, the grassland will be covered with heavy snow in winter, and it is impossible to distinguish Obo from a long distance away. And the leather of cattle and sheep are often important thermal insulation materials and cannot be wasted.
Cattle and sheep skulls were sometimes used for this purpose.
But in the current Tang Dynasty, since there is no shortage of cloth, these animal skulls can be directly replaced by cloth for the time being. After all, cloth can be made larger.
The early Aobao were not round, but had different shapes, used to indicate directions.
Tian Meng is preparing to launch this infrastructure construction activity on the grassland. Unlike Qinghai, the food here can only be transported as far as the Yinshan Mountains, so if you go further north, it is better to simply use salt instead.
Because salt is more expensive than food on the grasslands, in this case, the remuneration paid to the herdsmen by transporting a cart of salt will be more.
After finalizing the policy, Tian Meng directly began to promote the entire decree to the entire grassland.
All roads are first understood by the herdsmen to find the direction with flat terrain, and then Obos are piled up on some relatively high hillsides and other places. Obos will be piled up every one kilometer or so.
The stones used in Aobao are all loaded by herders on horseback looking for gravel from nearby stone mountains.
The shape of the entire Aobao will be set in different shapes. Where there are no bifurcations, they will be piled up into circles, while where there are bifurcations, they will be set into triangles or polygons, with acute angles indicating different directions.
Moreover, at every intersection, the name of the township or county seat in this direction will be engraved on the stone tablet at the acute angle.
In addition, a five-pointed star will be inlaid with stones in the north direction of each Aobao, representing the direction of the North Star.
All herdsmen who are willing to pile up Obo can get one pound of grain or half a tael of salt per day. This price was carefully calculated by Tian Meng. It is lower than the current price of grain and salt on the grassland. In addition, almost all herdsmen can do this job, regardless of age.
But now the herdsmen on the grasslands actually don't do much work every day. There is no other work except herding, and herding does not require everyone in the family to come out to herd.
At this time, we should find some work for them. As long as they can see actual benefits, these herdsmen are the same as the ordinary people of the Tang Dynasty. They can make their lives better. Who wouldn't?
Therefore, when Tian Meng began to spread the news to all the tribes in the grassland through the security army, the entire grassland was boiling.
Pile Obo so that they won't get lost on the grassland in the future and can also earn food and salt? !Isn’t this pie in the sky? This was originally for the consideration of herders like them who live on the grasslands. They should have been willing to work for nothing, but now they are actually willing to give them money?
Oh my god, can this be done to the point of His Highness going bankrupt? Political commissars and Datang officials who came to promote this policy said that Qinghai was built step by step in this way.
This good day is coming soon! Now he not only has his own cattle and sheep, but His Highness also wants to build road signs on the grassland. After the construction of the road signs is completed, will he also build a road along the road signs? With roads, food, salt, cloth, etc. from the outside world will go deep into the grassland? Can they get these for cheaper?
And you can sell useless wool to earn food?
What else is there to say? ! Dry! Just do it and it’s done!
Especially when the soldiers or officials of the Tang Dynasty who were responsible for organizing local herdsmen to build Aobao popularized some of the functions of Aobao to all herdsmen, they were all shocked.
Sure enough, the people of the Tang Dynasty were smart. Sure enough, His Highness who was able to distribute cattle and sheep to them was the incarnation of Changshengtian. This Aobao had so many functions. Why didn't they prairie people think of it after living on the grassland for so many years? Do you need experience to find the way? !
What else is there to say? ! Get started! Each herdsman left his home one after another. They took the baskets they had woven and put them on their horses. Then they loaded the gravel from the foot of the mountains and transported it to the calculated place where the oboos were stacked. Stacked.
Soon, each Aobao was like a dot of fire, starting to spread across the entire grassland.
