Chapter 163 Palace

Chapter 163 Palace

Chapter 163 Palace
After one year and four months of renovation, some areas of Guangchengze have begun to take shape.

The fastest-progressing palace was Guangcheng Palace, located on Kongtong Mountain - south of Linru Town in Ruzhou and north of Jianshankou Reservoir in later generations.

It is said that this mountain is the place where Guangchengzi practiced Taoism. According to historical records, Emperor Huangdi once asked Guangchengzi for advice on Kongtong Mountain.

The mountain is not high, only about a hundred meters, and not very big either. After felling the trees and leveling the ground, there is only enough space to build a medium-sized palace on the mountain.

Shao Xun looked around at the foot of the mountain and found that the palace was not much bigger than an ordinary manor, with only dozens of rooms.

But it costs a lot!

This is because the surrounding area is full of vast swamps, grasslands, and dense forests, making it difficult to transport materials, and even more difficult to transport them up the mountain.

He looked at the surrounding scenery again.

At the foot of Kongtong Mountain, farmlands were scattered here and there, and had only been roughly tidied up but not yet sown.

Between the farmlands, you can see lakes with rippling blue waves everywhere - I don’t know who the hell paved a road into the lake, and at the end of the road is a viewing pavilion.

Damn it, I want to build a military fortress, but you want to build a resort for me, right?
But - forget it, after all, it’s not my own money, so what?
In addition, he was very emotional.

In later generations, this area has become a relatively densely populated area, but who would have imagined that it was a water town at this time?

By the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Guangchengze had already degraded and silted up, "spitting out" some land, but swamps were still everywhere - every Little Ice Age was actually a period when the swamps degraded and slowly silted up into land, as was the case with Guangchengze and the Liaoze in the northeast. Even the coastal road (Liaoxi Corridor) leading out of Youzhou was formed during the Little Ice Age in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

The siltation continued like this, and coupled with human activities, by the 21st century, the only relic of Guangchengze left was probably the Jianshankou Reservoir.

In the past 1,700 years, the world has changed dramatically.

"Have all the palaces and rooms been completed?" Shao Xun put away his sigh, pointed to Kongtong Mountain in the distance and asked.

"Sixty-eight halls and rooms, large and small, have been completed." Nanyang County Magistrate Le Kuan, who was busy around Kongtong Mountain, was not very impatient at first, but when he saw the more than 2,000 soldiers and horses brought by Shao Xun, he immediately changed his attitude and said, "General, do you want to go up the mountain to take a look?"

"Let's go." Shao Xun took the lead.

Tang Jian quickly led Shao's personal soldiers, who had expanded to two teams (113 people), to surround the area tightly and sent out more than people to clear the way.

After arriving at Guangcheng Palace, they were divided into various places for guard.

Le Kuan watched silently and found it a little funny.

He is just a general, not a powerful prince. Why is he making such a big show? Are he so afraid of death?
Shao Xun didn't know what Le Kuan was thinking, he just kept looking at the palace room.

The materials used are very solid, with a mixed structure of civil and wood, and even a small number of bricks and stone slabs were used. I had seen thick smoke billowing from several places at the foot of the mountain before, and it turned out that they were burning bricks.

This national project is indeed a grand undertaking.

"Let's add a Cangcheng." Shao Xun said.

"Cangcheng?" Le Kuan was a little surprised.

It’s just a temporary palace. Anything needed can be transported up from the foot of the mountain. Why build a warehouse city?

“It doesn’t need to be big. It will be enough to store food for thousands of people for half a year,” Shao Xun said.

"Yes." Le Kuan sighed and agreed.

Guangchengyuan conscripted nearly 60,000 teachers from five counties and kingdoms, which really disturbed the people.

The first year was fine, everyone could still tolerate it.

This is the second year, and resentment has already begun to grow within the county.

He didn't dare to imagine what would happen next year. Would there be a riot?

"After Guangcheng Palace is completely completed, there is no need to build halls and rooms." Shao Xun added: "Level more fields, dig more ponds, dredge more rivers, and the river embankment does not need to be reinforced now. Build a circle of wooden fences around the pasture, and build a few earthen cities and warehouse cities as places to station troops and weapons."

After hearing this, Le Kuan hesitated to speak.

This is not the way to the palace, it looks more like a military camp.

"This is where the emperor lectures on military affairs and hunts, so we can't be careless." Shao Xun glanced at him and said.

Le Kuan cupped his hands and said, "Yes."

Shao Xun's reason is poor, but it makes sense.

Once the emperor really brings the imperial guards here to discuss military affairs, he will indeed need a military city and camp, as well as a warehouse city to store supplies.

Seeing that he stopped talking, Shao Xun nodded and went down the mountain on his own.

Guangchengze is too big to be completely enclosed, and in fact there is no need to do so.

The geographical environment here is not suitable for cavalry operations, because if you ride a horse, you will see a river, a stream, a lake, or a muddy field. If the Xiongnu cavalry came here, Shao Xun would not mind blocking them again and confining them to a small piece of isolated land surrounded by rivers and lakes, so they can't run away. Finally, he would calmly mobilize the infantry and slaughter them one-sidedly.

Of course, if the Huns mobilized a large number of infantry here, it would be a different story.

However, this is not possible in the short term, as they may not even be able to take Luoyang now.

After returning to the foot of the mountain, Shao Xun inspected the area again.

He even saw several docks, his face darkened.

Fortunately, there are large tracts of farmland near the pier. After asking someone, I learned that from the winter of the year before last to the spring of this year, more than a thousand hectares of old fields of "Guansu Mai" from the Han Dynasty had been cleared. Since they had not been cultivated for a hundred years, weeds and shrubs grew very lushly, so it took a lot of effort to clean them up.

In addition, during the construction process, they also transformed more than 300 hectares of farmland by themselves, mainly from deforestation and merging swamps - when digging deep reservoirs, they would fill part of the swamp with silt to form new land. Shao Xun did not have much hope for these "new lands".

Is farmland obtained by cutting down forests really called farmland? There may still be many tree roots left underground. Such "farmland" will not produce anything without a few years of transformation.

However, the newly created lakeside farmland made from riverbed mud can now be used for planting. The yield in the first two seasons will certainly not be high, but with more care, it will gradually become fertile and high-yield irrigated land.

The transformation of nature by the people of the Central Plains was actually carried out step by step, commonly known as "land reclamation."

Shao Xun spent three full days in Guangchengze, carefully examining every place, and only then did he feel relieved.

On March 16, he climbed to the top of Guangcheng Palace again and overlooked the magnificent scenery around him.

The horses were galloping across the green pasture.

The leading stallion was in high spirits and waded across the shallow stream, moving forward.

Hundreds of horses followed closely behind, splashing huge amounts of water.

The 8,000 horses on the ranch were now divided into many groups, each led by a leader, living freely in the vast grassland, sometimes galloping and neighing in joy.

Occasionally they would stop to chew the fresh and juicy grass along the river.

What a pleasant life!

Occasionally, one can see a few knights among the herd, managing the horses in a rough manner.

Many small wooden houses were built on the surrounding hillsides, where some Long Sword Army warriors and hundreds of young men recruited from Yushanwu were stationed.

Shao Xun has decided to send a group of Yamen troops to garrison here and replace those young men.

These horses were one of the two largest fortunes he had ever acquired.

Granted, horses can age, get injured, and become sick, and are even more consumables on the battlefield, but it’s still a lot of money…

"How many mares are there now?" Shao Xun turned his head and asked.

"Less than fifty, it's not easy to find them all." Tang Jian replied, "We found about two hundred female donkeys."

The offspring of a male horse and a female donkey is called a donkey mule, and the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse is called a horse mule.

A donkey mule looks more like a donkey, and a horse mule looks more like a horse.

Mules are slightly larger in size, have bad tempers, are more curious, eat more, but tolerate roughage. They are stronger than horses, have greater endurance and load-bearing capacity, and are more resistant to disease, but are slower than horses and cannot reproduce.

Donkey mules are smaller and slightly less powerful than horse mules, but they are more docile and can live about ten years longer. Female donkey mules can occasionally reproduce with stallions or male donkeys.

In general, horse mules are better than donkey mules. After all, there is not much difference between a lifespan of 20 years and 30 years. If they join the army, it is estimated that they will not even live for 10 years.

"Take your time." Shao Xun said, "Sometimes mares are sold at the Luoyang Horse Market, so you can slowly collect them."

He looked at the rivers, lakes and swamps again.

Mandarin ducks, gulls, crows, cormorants, herons and other water birds live there, hunting and playing.

There are also wild geese flying in the sky.

Occasionally, fish jump out of the water.

According to the soldiers of the Changjian Army stationed here, Guangcheng Lake is rich in fish such as bream, sturgeon, bream, carp, catfish (yellow croaker), and shark (a small sand-blowing fish). No one has caught them for many years, so they are huge in size and numerous in number.

It was a wild and primitive sight.

"How many people are there in Guangchengze?" Shao Xun asked again.

Tang Jian shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.

Shao Xun was silent. He really lacked capable civil servants around him. Those who came from noble families rarely came to join him.

The military-political group he founded is a bit deformed.

"However, I heard that there is a large settlement on the southern edge of Guangcheng Lake, with several small villages and probably a few hundred households, some of which are local people and some are refugees who migrated south." Tang Jian added: "I can't be sure, I just heard it."

"Send someone to investigate. If there is a settlement, occupy it." Shao Xun said expressionlessly, "The people in the settlement will be assigned to the Long Sword Army as soldiers. If they don't want to, drive them away."

"Yes." Tang Jian replied. He would inform Chen Yougen about this matter.

"That's it. Guangchengze still needs time." Shao Xun jumped on his horse and said, "Go home."

He left as soon as he said he would, without any hesitation.

Guangchengze doesn’t have much to do for the time being.

In the summer, he might try to gather a group of refugees and have them grow some grains here to get a feel for the land and see what it is like.

Next year, more fields will be cleared, and the planting area can be expanded. After the harvest, they can be prepared to be distributed to the soldiers.

The Long Sword Army is still recruiting. Only those who have been carefully assessed on their skills can be admitted. The rule is quite strict. Currently, the number of people is close to 900.

After they share it, the financial burden will be greatly reduced.

Part-time soldiers like the Silver Spear Army can slowly try to become fully full-time soldiers, but everything is ultimately linked to economic strength.

(End of this chapter)