The first year of Yongjia, June.
A hearty heavy rain finally fell, but it came too late. Many crops in fields that were inconvenient for manual irrigation had already died of drought. Only a small number of crop fields near rivers and lakes survived.
Although several consecutive rains have alleviated the drought, the season for replanting has passed. Farmers can only replant some beans in the fields to recover some losses.
However, the yield of beans cannot be compared with that of wheat. Once the people finish all the grain in their hands, winter will be extremely difficult, and many people will starve to death.
For this reason, Liu Yu gathered another fleet of a thousand people, thinking of going to the Baekje people's territory to search for surplus grain. However, the Baekje people reacted quickly this time, and they all ran to hide in the mountains and forests, and Baekje was also attacked. When the drought hit, more than a thousand Donglai troops wandered along the Han River with water for half a month, and only returned with a few hundred lives. Not only did they not seize much food, but they also had more mouths to eat.
Originally, the Dongnae Army wanted to continue along the coast to take a look at Jinhan and Benhan, but the hurricane season on the East China Sea had arrived, so they had to return all the way to Dongnae County.
Liu Yu also sent merchant ships across the Bohai Sea, hoping to trade with the Xianbei people there. He planned to exchange the salt in his hands for grain or livestock with them, but the result was far from what he expected. Duanbu Xianbei who occupied western Liaoning was completely Youzhou The thugs raised by the governor Wang Jun did not need to worry about food at all. Instead, they wanted to devour the salt and other goods of Donglai merchants because of their wealth.
As for Murong and other Xianbei tribes east of the Liao River, they were very interested in these merchants in Donglai County. However, in addition to sufficient furs, medicinal materials and other goods, Murong Xianbei himself was also in short supply of food and livestock that were in short supply in Donglai County.
According to the description given to Liu Yu by the merchants who returned, the Murong Xianbei tribe in Liaodong was not the nomadic group he had always thought. Although they also had a large number of cavalry, they were better at fishing, hunting and farming, and relied heavily on storing grain to survive the colder weather. In winter, it is impossible to exchange large amounts of grain for salt.
Finally, it was the sun-salting method that provided a large amount of stored grain.
Compared with meat, fish was difficult to preserve and transport in ancient times. It was easier to eat live fish in ports or riverside cities, but it was difficult to eat fresh fish more than a day's journey away.
The reason is that it is difficult to survive without living water, and it will decay very quickly after death. This is especially true for sea fish, so in order to preserve it for a long time, sea fish can only be made into salted fish to death. Making salted fish requires a lot of salt, which makes the cost high. In the end, it is not possible for ordinary people to make a salted fish. It's easy to afford it.
Fortunately, Liu Yu came up with the sun-dried salt method invented more than a thousand years later. With a large amount of cheap salt, he could preserve the caught marine fish until the winter when food was scarce.
After Liu Yu mobilized all the county's labor force to fish at the beach, the entire Donglai County's marine fishing industry reached a new level.
At this time another method of preserving the catch emerged.
To make simple fish floss, you boil the fish meat and add salt and stir-fry it. The taste of the fried and dried fish meat is far better than that of salted fish floss. In this way, the processed fish floss can be stored for a long time and placed in a cool place. The shelf life can last for several months, and it can even replace food. It is a better food source than dried salted fish.
After all, if it is used as a food ration to satisfy hunger, salted fish with salt grains precipitating on its surface is not something that ordinary people can tolerate.
But to be honest, after Liu tasted them for a while, he felt that these two shelf-stable foods would become difficult to swallow after eating them a few times. If they were eaten continuously for a month, his blood pressure would probably rise.
But after all, this can greatly alleviate the food shortage, and as long as there are enough fishing boats and tools to catch the sea, Donglai County is equivalent to turning the sea into farmland.
And it is more stable than farming and grazing on land.
Because farmland requires people to plant it, irrigate it during droughts, and drain it during floods. In many cases, people work hard for half a year but cannot withstand a major disaster. They just depend on the weather.
And if it is grazing, the cattle and sheep eating grass also depend on the weather.
But there is no need to worry about this when fishing.
During the Western Jin Dynasty, the amount of fish caught in the sea was far more abundant than that of later generations.
As long as fishermen have enough fishing boats and tools to catch the fish, the harvest will be guaranteed regardless of drought or flood.
After temporarily finding ways to make up for the food gap.
Liu Yu drew manpower from his precious craftsmen and began to modify and trial-produce heavy hammer stamping machines.
Finally, at great cost, two types were made, one was a light wind-powered stamping machine, and the other was a heavy-duty hydraulic stamping machine.
Liu Yu planned to use the lightweight wind-powered stamping machine to make type molds first.
Because after the introduction of lead type, as long as it was made into clay ink, movable type printing was born magnificently.
In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, an era when noble families monopolized knowledge, a handwritten book was a treasure that every family treasured. The large number of cheap books produced by movable type printing was the best weapon to break the monopoly of knowledge.
At that time, all scholars in the world will become Liu Yu's beneficiaries, including those from noble families.
Another type of heavy-duty hydraulic press is even more useful. It can be used to beat harder steel. It can replace the manual beating of blacksmiths and reduce the cost of expensive so-called hardened iron weapons by at least double. Once the right materials are available, the ultimate armor that can be pressed into shape is no longer just a matter of imagination.
Time soon arrived in early winter, and just when Liu Yu was busy working on various projects in Donglai County, making amazing tools one after another, a storm struck again.
In the past year, Gou Xi, who had defeated the rebels Gongshifan, Jisang, and Shile one after another, and was regarded by the Western Jin Dynasty as a white man, was transferred to Qingzhou.
Gou Xi came to Qingzhou with the title of General of Zhengdong, Kaifu Yitong Sansi, Shizhong, Jiejie, Commander-in-Chief of all military affairs in Qingzhou, Qingzhou governor, and Duke of Dongping County.
But Gou Xi also came with murderous intent, and the first unlucky one was Liu Yu.
[In June 2020, the new book "Mountains and Rivers of the Song Dynasty 1161" seeks support, the Song and Jin Dynasties are at war, and Xin Qiji will fight against the Jurchens side by side! 】
