Today's world can't be called peaceful, but it is much better than the time when the Yellow Turban Uprising and warlords were raging everywhere.
Even though life is difficult for people far away from war zones, they can still manage to survive.
The people in Jingyi are better off than elsewhere.
Although the people of Jingzhou were fighting in the New Year, the decree to reduce taxes and reduce corvee in the new year had been officially issued by Zhuge Liang and passed on.
Zhijiang County, which made outstanding contributions to this war, even received preferential policies of year-round tax exemption and no corvee.
The conditions of the people in Yizhou are generally better.
As for the people in the shanty town...the wine for the festival is all ready.
The Spring Festival at this time is the first day of the lunar calendar, which is called Yuanri, Zhengri, etc.
In the homes of dignitaries, the younger generation should offer pepper wine to their elders.
Zanthoxylum bungeanum refers to Zanthoxylum bungeanum. At this time, people believed that Zanthoxylum bungeanum, which was warm in nature, had many benefits. It was somewhat like a certain magic medicine that could cure all diseases in later generations.
However, the output of this product is not high and the price is expensive. At this time, ordinary people cannot afford it. Even people in shantytowns are reluctant to bear such luxury.
Big families compete to show off their wealth. In addition to competing with horses and houses, they also build pepper-flavored houses and paint the walls with peppercorns when building houses to prove that they have plenty of money...
This has really not changed for thousands of years. It has just become a competition for cars, houses, secretaries, and luxury goods. The form has changed, but the essence remains the same.
Ordinary people, who are in better condition, use cypress leaves to soak in wine, and those who are not able to do so, break some peach branches and leaves to cook "peach soup" to drink, and they also have their own way of celebrating.
Eat gum glutinous rice (maltose), five-spice plate, and a chicken for each person.
This is basically the Yuanri diet of common people.
Naturally, Lao Liu, who was never stingy, would not just prepare these. The palace cooked sheep and slaughtered cattle, prepared fine wine and delicacies, and gave a banquet to Chengdu officials and generals.
For a time, the palace was full of honors and distinctions, and there were rules and regulations.
There is also indispensable elegant music such as sheng, chime, zither and zither, as well as dancing.
Of course, this time because Mrs. Wu and other female relatives were present, we couldn't enjoy the exciting show.
Liu Chan also specially ordered people to bring in the elephant that was a little wilted due to the cold weather.
The young southerner who was good at taming elephants commanded the elephants to entertain everyone, which was a bit like a circus performance.
Seeing this, everyone exclaimed and cheered.
Afterwards, the central government will also give rewards to various local officials according to their levels, which is common practice.
To celebrate the festival, of course Lao Liu would have to make himself a new costume.
Shu brocade is now popular all over the country and is very popular among dignitaries.
Living in Chengdu, Liu, who likes famous horses and Chinese clothes, has naturally become a pioneer in leading fashion trends...
Manager Zhao also personally took people to collect the quarterly Shu Brocade assigned to Liu Chan.
The amount was a bit larger than Lao Liu expected, but Lao Liu, who had been attracted by Liu Chan to a favor of more than 90%, did not care about such a trivial matter.
Although the food and salary issued by the Red Star Army have been transferred to the public account, Liu Chan has not stopped his efforts to amass wealth.
Espionage is also a costly job. If you want to buy informants or pay bribes, you can't give them away with a few hundred copper coins.
Of course, this money seems to be spent a lot, and it can't buy anything substantial.
But in fact, the people who died less because of this and the battles they won were worth ten times or a hundred times more than they could exchange for.
In Liu Chan's opinion, this is truly spending a small amount of money to do big things.
The three brothers Liu, Guan, and Zhang spent a day together after a long absence, and then separated again.
Guan Yu, Guan Ping and his son returned to Jingzhou to exchange Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun. This time, in addition to Guan Yinping, they also kept Guan Xing.
It was said that he planned to let him get along with Liu Chan more, and by the way, he could receive the teachings of Zhuge Military Advisor together.
Liu Chan would naturally not object to this. He would be happy to have more people help him before it was too late. What's more, as he is the son of his second uncle, he naturally has a good rapport with him, so there is no need to worry about loyalty issues.
Mr. Zhang still had to return to Langzhong. After visiting the shanty town, after the first day, he also visited Liu Chan's suburban military camp alone several times.
After once again seeing the Red Star Army's daily drills, military appearance and morale, and most importantly, the extremely high loyalty to Liu Chan, the Third Master still had a sullen face and said nothing.
But before leaving, he sighed and said specifically to Liu Chan: "Adou, you are right."
Hearing these words from his third uncle, Liu Chan's original worries about him were mostly gone.
As winter turned to spring, Zhuge Liang, who was busy rebuilding Jiangling and restoring Jingzhou's post-war economy and people's livelihood, was transferred back to Chengdu.
"Kong Ming! You are finally back and you want to kill me!"
It was not Lao Liu who said this, and certainly not Liu Chan, who had always treated Zhuge Liang as his uncle and his teacher.
But it was Shangshu who ordered Fa Zheng...
Everyone who welcomed Kong Ming was very happy, but Fa Zheng was particularly excited this time.
If Zhuge Liang comes back later, there will only be two results.
Either Fazheng cuts off his own hair, or he cuts off Liu Ba’s hair...
Without him, the two men surnamed Liu are really capable of creating and tormenting.
Just expanding the Red Star Army's expenses and equipment rations created a lot of things for him out of thin air.
The year's plan starts in spring, and there are many overall plans to be done. I didn't think it was anything special when I had Kong Ming working with me.
It wasn't until Zhuge Liang went to Jingzhou that Fazheng realized that every day without Kong Ming was suffering.
Economy, military, water conservancy, farming, merchants, wealthy families...it seems that there are suddenly endless problems everywhere.
Although trivial matters are handled by subordinates, they cannot decide, and there are many things that need to be reported to the Chancellor's desk.
Fazheng only felt that it would be better to go back and fight the Battle of Hanzhong again...
As for his friendship with Zhuge Liang, it was before the Battle of Hanzhong.
He originally voted for Liu Bei, and once he gained power after successfully capturing Chengdu, he tried his best to repay those who had been kind to him in the past, but he also ruthlessly retaliated against those who had offended him.
When someone kills someone, it happens, and the other person is also an official.
Many people were dissatisfied with Fa Zheng's behavior, so they went to Zhuge Liang and wanted Zhuge Liang to take charge of it.
Zhuge Liang, who advocated ruling the country by law and practicing Confucian education, naturally did not agree with Fa Zheng's approach.
But this is what he said at the time: "My lord is in Gong'an. He is afraid of Duke Cao's power in the north, Sun Quan's pressure in the east, and when he is close, he is afraid that Mrs. Sun's life will change at the elbow and armpit. At this time, he will advance and retreat like a wolf, and Fa Xiao will do it. The auxiliary wings make it soar and cannot be copied. How to prohibit the righteousness of the law and make it impossible to carry out its evil intentions!"
It means that Lao Liu's life was so miserable every day, and he was afraid that his wife would harm him even when he was sleeping. The appearance of Fa Zheng was like the wings of the lord, allowing him to soar into the sky without any restrictions.
How can we put more restraints on Fa Zheng today and make him feel aggrieved?
Zhuge Liang's remarks of "openly supporting the Fa" made Fa Zheng feel comfortable in his heart. From then on, there were no major conflicts between the two factions in Dongzhou and Jingzhou.
Moreover, Fazheng also took the initiative to restrain himself a little, so as to prevent Zhuge Liang from complaining afterwards.
After the war in Hanzhong, the two worked closely together to achieve the stable development of Yizhou.
Now that he saw Kong Ming, Fazheng felt that he was finally getting rid of the hardship of heavy official duties.
It's a pity that Liu Chan's New Year's plan will bring many things... This man's wish may come true.
To develop, agriculture is the foundation of everything.
In this era, if the yield per mu cannot be increased, everything is nonsense.
Liu Chan has been observing this for many years, and with the knowledge of his past life that has recovered as his talent, he has become more and more understanding of this point.
Why should we focus on agriculture, suppress business, and restrict handicrafts? In addition to the reasons of declining morals and increasing social instability, there is also the most practical problem.
When people see that they can make a lot of money by doing business, they all run to do business. Who will cultivate the land?
Therefore, the ruling class must use various means, including strictly restricting population mobility and tying up a large number of laborers to farm land and pay for food.
But in this case, if you impose corvee labor and let the people build infrastructure, it will seriously affect people's livelihood, and giving money will not solve the problem of lack of people to farm land.
It is even more foolish to think of concentrating manpower to engage in manufacturing, and conscription must be done with caution.
If the yield per mu is not increased, all this cannot be fundamentally changed.
If the yield per mu is not increased, the Northern Expedition in the two states will become more and more difficult.
However, as Liu Chan's farming talent advanced, some of the forgotten things he had seen in his previous life or learned in school became clear.
In this rare period of development, it is necessary to promote...
Da Sima Mansion.
It was the usual time to teach the prince, but today was a bit special. Liu Chan became the main lecturer, and Zhuge Liang became the one listening.
"The prince is saying, add a rotatable plow plate to the shaft head?" He pointed at the crude prototype drawn by Liu Chan and asked enthusiastically.
Liu Chan's calligraphy is very good, but when it comes to painting... he can barely tell what it is.
But Zhuge Liang had been getting along with him for a long time, and his understanding ability was far superior to other people's, so there was no barrier to communication.
"Yes, plus changing the straight shaft to a curved shaft and changing the long frame to a short frame, the weight of the plow can be greatly reduced, and it can rotate freely to reduce the consumption of human and animal power..."
The benefits brought by the curved shaft plow are overwhelming, not only that the operation is easier and labor-saving.
The most critical point is that at this time, the straight-column plow required two oxen to lift the lever. The emergence of the curved-column plow directly became the pulling force of one oxen.
If it is popularized, how much more land can be cultivated with the saved manpower and cattle?
"Yes, if the plow wall is made into a round shape, the turned soil will be pushed to both sides, reducing forward resistance.
"This thing is installed here as a plow and this thing is a plow, so that the depth of cultivation can be adjusted..."
If it were anyone else, I would have heard smoke coming out of my head by now.
But the person in front of him is the "part-time great inventor", the hexagonal Prime Minister Zhuge Liang.
Not only did he understand it just by relying on Liu Chan's sketches and explanations, but he also immediately saw the importance and significance of this thing without waiting for Liu Chan to explain further.
"How is it? Uncle Zhuge, can this thing be made?" Liu Chan asked hopefully.
Zhuge Liang's answer did not disappoint him: "This thing is of great importance. I will ask the king to hand over all official affairs to Fa Zheng and recruit craftsmen to try their best to make this thing!"
When Liu Chan heard this, he immediately felt relieved. He could make a wood, an ox, or a horse, and Qu Yuanli should be a no-brainer.
As for Fa Zheng, let’s just suffer a little harder recently.
(End of chapter)
