"We just discovered it! If there are more people, the work will be faster, and the food will be consumed faster, and there will be no food to eat."
On the way to Peking, Zhu Ping chose to forget the scene of people saying goodbye, otherwise his eye circles would become red.
"The key is to build roads. The local people still eat local salt. Let's help refine it and get saltpeter by the way."
Zhu Biao then said that this time it helped the local people a lot.
The people here boil earth salt themselves in the saline-alkali land, which is small salt, salt containing nitrate and other impurities, and also brine.
Eating too much salt is bad for your health, and the people have nothing to do. It is expensive to transport salt from other places, and there are coal mines left in Datong from the previous dynasty, so the people naturally boil the salt themselves and eat it.
Now they are asked to help refine the saltpeter. When the time comes, other salts will be exchanged for the saltpeter, and the people will be able to eat salt with less impurities.
At the same time, manpower is left to take care of greenhouses and raising livestock. This place is regarded as a transit yard for feedlots.
People harvest soybeans in three months, sorghum in another two months, and immediately plow the fields to plant winter wheat.
It is a dream to expect the people to eat greenhouse vegetables and pay high prices. The people would rather not eat them because they have no property at all.
The leader smiled and said from the side: "I think many local people will get married this year, so we gave a lot of things to the people."
"Yes, they have a house." Zhu Ping laughed.
"It's worth it!" Zhu Biao nodded.
They thought that they had dug so many cave dwellings for the common people and specially reinforced them. The difficulty for the common people to find wives was that they had no place to live.
Several members of a family are crowded into a cave dwelling. If anyone wants to get married, the neighbors will help dig. It takes a long time to dig a cave dwelling.
There are always earthquakes in the local area. There are not many major earthquakes, but there are many small earthquakes. If the cave dwellings are not strong enough, there is no need to prepare coffins.
The team has many people, including craftsmen, and there are 157 people in the family. The couple has five children, four boys and one girl. The girl is waiting to get married, and the man is looking for a wife.
So they dug eight large cave dwellings for their family, the kind with two bedrooms and one living room.
The original cave dwellings were all small and uncomfortable to live in. They were kept as warehouses and the couple moved out.
For four boys to take wives, four cave dwellings are enough. When the girls get married in the future, they must have their own cave dwellings when they return to their parents' families.
The extra two allow the couple to continue having children, or for temporary accommodation when guests arrive.
The whole Datong is not like a small village. Everything is the same. When both sides take a look, do you have a new hole? My family is the same, so let’s get married!
We can still harvest soybeans and sorghum this year, so we will have no problem eating, and we will definitely have an easier time in the future.
As for the betrothal gift, just give it a symbolic amount. Everyone is poor. If you want more, don't marry. Do you want to marry outside? Get a guide a hundred miles away.
…
When Zhu Biao's team was helping the people of Datong, Yangqu County finally got the news. Officials estimated the distance and chose to give up. They stopped going and left again when they reached a local home.
As for Beiping, the wheat harvest is later than that of Datong, and it has all been harvested now. At the same time, they are helping to plant soybeans and sorghum.
Xu Da brought some people from the Prince's Mansion and Prince Qin's Mansion to sit here. When he heard that some places were always flooded and no one was willing to grow food, the people from the Prince's Mansion suggested planting rice instead.
While others were harvesting wheat, the land was plowed and seedlings were raised here. The seedlings were raised with rice from the team.
Teams generally do not bring rice and flour directly, as they have a short shelf life and are susceptible to moisture. This was the case for marches in the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties.
These rice plants are planted and seedlings are intensively cultivated, and the other fields are plowed, harrowed, ridged, fertilized, and irrigated.
When the wheat harvest is finished and soybeans and sorghum are planted, the rice seedlings can finally be used for transplanting.
At the same time, Zhu Biao's team arrived and learned that a large paddy field had been planted. He asked the chief: "Is this suitable for growing rice?"
"It has been known before that the place where rice is grown is Shunyi County, next to the big river, with three rivers in the upper reaches: Tanghe, Nanhe, Chaohe, and finally Baihe.
Then part of it enters the Triangle Lake, and part of it enters the Bohai Bay from the canal. That river is so big that it is always flooded if rice is not grown.
When there is no other way, others grow wheat and rice is grown there, so that there is a harvest. "
The head of the village introduced the local situation. Those who have taken supplementary lessons must learn before going to a place.
"In this way, Zhu Taiyi is indeed good. He is courageous, smart, and dares to make decisions." Zhu Biao was happy. He didn't go there to see it. He only heard people say that there are a lot of paddy fields planted there.
It was Zhu Taiyi who came up with the idea. He was from the Prince's Mansion. He used to hang out in Xiaqiu Village. He was smart and decisive.
"Don't we have enough food to eat?" Zhu Ping was worried about food now. When he was in Datong, he only exchanged a little food. The people had to keep the food to survive.
When we get to Peiping, we can only exchange for a little food, and ordinary places cannot afford to support an army of 100,000.
The leader looked indifferent and said: "Send people to Peiping, Hejian, Shandong and other places and tell them that there is no need to transport the summer grain. It can be left behind and we can eat it."
"That's right! If we intercept it, we can't starve to death. Oops! I forgot that they just harvested wheat, and they have to use part of it to pay the land tax.
Moreover, Shandong even harvested an extra crop of soybeans last year! No, they still have fish. The Ming navy has come here to catch fish.
We'll intercept those in Peiping first, then look at those in other places, and then we'll go through the canal? The canal doesn't transport grain, so why don't we use the water transport boats? "
When Zhu Ming heard what the chief said, he realized that after harvesting the grain, he had to hand over grain. Ordinary people paid one-thirtieth, and official fields paid much more.
Peiping was the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, and Xu Da conquered it. After the battle, there were more official fields and more grain, which was enough to support the army.
"Let's go and see the fourth brother's place." Zhu Biao wanted to see the buildings of the Yuan Dynasty before Peiping and build a palace for his fourth brother.
Just like building a palace for your second brother in Xi'an Mansion, build it slowly. Such a place is open and there is room to set up camp.
After Xu Da's people were busy with other planting, they divided their hands to transplant the rice seedlings. There were more people and the speed was faster, and they could all be planted by tomorrow night at most.
The people are all afraid of Xu Da. Xu Da once attacked and took away the place, and now he is back with a large army.
But this time is different from the last time. After the last attack, some manpower was left and left to help with the work now.
With more people and greater strength, the wheat can be harvested faster! The family also brought many animals, which were responsible for transporting the wheat fields, and also provided arable land to plant soybeans and sorghum together.
Later, I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and His Royal Highness the King of Qin were also coming, so that’s right. I would like to thank the Crown Prince and the King of Qin for sending someone to remind Du Chunhan.
Otherwise, what will we eat this year? Everyone was starving to death.
They were not mistaken. There are records in historical materials that people here, in Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and other places were hit by drought, locust plagues, and then starvation.
I didn’t mention the cold spring. It is estimated that after the drought and locust plague have passed, everyone will stop planting. So what if the cold spring doesn’t happen? I'm hungry anyway.
At noon, Zhu Biao came to the outer area where the palace was being built. Here was a group of people kneeling, a group of people who at first glance could tell were different from ordinary people.
"Hui Wu? You said you didn't say hello when you left the village." The village leader smiled and waved his hand when he saw an acquaintance.
(End of chapter)
