Chapter 218 Confidence
Chapter 218 Confidence
In the golden autumn of August, the sweet-scented osmanthus fills the air.
Within a total of 1362 hectares of protected farmland, more than soldiers from the first and second battalions of the Jizhou Military Farm Army waved their sickles and began to harvest corn.
The millet in the field is sparse, so the yield is destined not to be very high.
Some people even hit the remaining stones while harvesting, damaging the blades.
When someone was harvesting, they saw that half of the tree roots had rotted away, so they marked them and dug them up after the autumn harvest.
The weeds were inevitably cut down together. The soldiers sighed in their hearts that if one more weed grew, one less millet would be harvested. There were still many weed seeds accumulated in the fields over the years.
Fortunately, the situation is improving little by little.
Compared with last year, the yield per mu this year is about two hu.
According to the rules set by the Le family, everyone can eat more and feel fuller.
The one hundred people with the highest output will be rewarded with two pieces of silk and transferred to civilian households in advance - this will exempt them from the four-year "sentence", so who wouldn't work hard?
Across the river from Xiutian is a large lush forest.
The forest, front, back, left, right, and even center, was covered with bald patches, like a bald man's head.
Building a palace requires not only the burning of bricks and tiles, and the mining of stones from mountains, but also a large amount of wood.
Most of the wood used now is imported from other places, but a large amount of bamboo and wood are also cut down in Guangcheng Garden, dried in the shade and kept for later use. This has been done since the first year.
As a result, forests and bamboo forests disappeared one by one.
Of course, with a population of tens of thousands, the impact on the forest is not that great at all.
Guangchengze is more than half the size of a county. If the surrounding mountains, forests and grasslands are included, it is far larger than an entire county.
After three years of development, only a small part has been rectified.
The land cleared after the trees were cut down was converted into farmland.
Because a lot of soil was taken away when the tree roots were dug out, the quality of these farmlands was not very good. Even though a lot of silt and ash were transported to fertilize the fields, the yield was still pitifully small.
Shao Xun saw this as soon as he walked into the fields.
But he didn't waste any words. Instead, he waved his sickle and harvested the crops with the laborers from Yingchuan County.
The Silver Spear Army also temporarily ended its training, and more than 3,000 people from six groups took turns to harvest corn.
"It's about time to start harvesting in Luyang, right?" Shao Xun said as he bent over and cut millet quickly.
Yu Liang followed reluctantly, working clumsily, and replied: "It's a little earlier than here. In a few days, it will be finished."
To be honest, he really didn't want to do such rough work.
But when Shao Xun's face turned stern, he became a little scared, so he followed reluctantly.
He resigned from the post of Dongge Jijiu of the shogunate and now follows Shao Xun without any position, living like a servant.
Shao Xun was walking in the mud, and he wanted to follow.
Shao Xun went to the fields to harvest, and he wanted to follow.
Shao Xun was fishing on a boat, and he wanted to follow.
Shao Xun went to the ranch to see the horses, and he wanted to follow him.
And so on.
"The newly opened land this year totals more than 1409 hectares. If I give it to you to manage next year, can you do a good job?" Shao Xun harvested quickly. The swing of the sickle was not large, but his efficiency was extremely high. After a while, he had left Yu Liang several steps behind.
When Yu Liang heard this, he was greatly encouraged and immediately said, "Don't worry, my lord. My family also has farmhands in Yanling, and they will definitely be able to do a good job."
"It's not that simple." Shao Xun smiled and said, "The Qingzhou garrison troops have 8,000 surrendered soldiers. They are not easy to control."
Upon hearing this, Yu Liang also smiled and said, "I will ask the clan to send twenty accountants and managers, and another three or four hundred soldiers from the Qu family. It won't be a problem."
"Okay." Shao Xun didn't waste any words and the matter was settled.
As for Xiutian, the Yamen Army will sooner or later have to resign from their guarding duties, after all, it has interfered too much with training.
Starting from next year, it will be completely handed over to Nanyang Leshi for management.
They can mobilize thousands of soldiers from the Qu family, and sending three to five hundred people over is not a big deal at all, and it can relieve their pressure.
The 1400-odd hectares of land before us were leveled after last year's autumn harvest. This year, they are being cultivated by the fifth and sixth battalions of the Qingzhou Garrison Army (still with nearly people). Next year, they will be completely sold off, freeing up Yamen troops to participate in any war that may break out.
After the autumn harvest this year, some fields will continue to be leveled, and the labor force for farming has not yet been found. It is likely that the farmers who will be handed over to the three gardens in Luoyang next year will now have grown to more than 2500 households, which can be regarded as their own private property.
If nothing unexpected happens, it will be handed over to my third brother Shao Fan and my eldest nephew Shao Shen to manage together.
The third brother studied under Concubine Pei's accountants for several years and made considerable progress, but he could barely manage the manor with the assistance of Pei Jin and others.
Shao Shen was surrounded by a group of "evil young men" who rode horses and shot arrows, and wielded swords and guns all day long. In his spare time, he would also lead the farmhands in training, so he was quite familiar with them.
The cooperation of the two, one civil and one military, could probably make this new manor barely run. Guangchengze, the newly opened logistics base, was basically like this in the short term: the Shao, Le, and Yu families jointly managed it, providing him with food and fodder continuously.
As for Yushanwu, it is planned to be handed over to my uncle Liu's family. His family used to be a small military officer, which is a little bit stronger than the Shao family. In troubled times, nepotism is sometimes a last resort, there is really no other way.
The three major forts in Yi Yang are managed by student leaders.
There are now nearly a thousand farmers in Green Willow Garden, which is managed by Shao's father and a group of relatives.
Luyang has Cui Gong, Liangxian has Yang Man, Xiangcheng belongs to Lu Zhi, and Zhou Mo recently took office in Yangdi where the county magistrate was killed.
After careful calculation, we now control ten counties, plus Guangchengze and several scattered manors and forts.
In the farming and warfare system, the farming part is basically "outsourced" to relatives - the wife's family is also a relative.
Shao Xun suddenly felt that his force was so similar to the Hu people in the Northern Dynasties!
He is now a "Hu person" who specializes in training soldiers and fighting wars...
Is this the inevitable development of history?
No, he still had room to struggle.
He also has a trick up his sleeve.
What is needed now is to quickly accumulate strength. Otherwise, when others have accumulated a lot of money and food, and trained a reliable army in the long-term war, and come in full force, what use will your regime be even if it is pure? It is too small.
The most important thing is to survive first.
******
After the harvest of the fields, the first thing to do is to award rewards.
One hundred labor activists were registered as civilian households and settled in Nanshan and Ruyang in the southern part of Guangchengze.
When these hundred people heard their names, they thanked him profusely and cried for joy.
Reclaiming wasteland and farming in Guangchengze is not a good job. It is not uncommon for people to die of illness, exhaustion or even being beaten to death. Being able to become a civilian now is a big leap in status.
Even if they were not given any land, they could still live a good life by working as soldiers for others.
After they left, the others were almost envious to the point of spitting fire.
However, a surprise soon fell upon them.
Shao Xun ordered the recruitment of 700 soldiers and divided them among the four generals Wang Chan, Hao Chang, Lou Bao and Lou Quan.
In this way, the four surrendered generals from Hebei each led a thousand soldiers to cultivate land in Luyang County and support themselves. Shao Xun subsidized them with a small amount of extra food so that they had enough energy for training.
To put it bluntly, these 4,000 people have now become de facto auxiliary troops.
Every time the Silver Spear Army went on an expedition, they would almost always be brought along, along with some craftsmen. They were more than capable of setting up camp, transporting food and fodder, collecting firewood, cooking, repairing equipment, and taking care of livestock.
The auxiliary soldiers also received rewards when they went to war, and with the addition of daily subsidies and their own farming, their lives were not too bad. Some of the Hebei surrendered soldiers stationed in Luyang County had even married and settled down there.
After getting rid of this group of people, only about 6,000 people from Jisang surrendered, and they were reduced to a battalion. They continued to cultivate the fields and would start planting winter wheat next month.
"Yuan Gui, the conscripts from Yingchuan are about to return home. You are a noble family in this county, so you should take charge of distributing the surplus grain." Shao Xun patted Yu Liang on the shoulder and said, "There is no need to calculate the account too much. They have worked hard for a whole year. Bringing more grain back home will also make life easier for your family. Go ahead."
"Sir, conscripting laborers to open up wasteland has always been a common practice, but never so generously. This..." Yu Liang was a little confused.
"Yuan Gui!" Shao Xun patted his shoulder even harder, causing Yu Liang to grimace.
During the Taishi period of the Qing Dynasty, a water conservancy facility was built in Ji County, which could irrigate more than 10,000 hectares of farmland.
The more than 10,000 hectares of fertile land in Ji County were all obtained by the Youzhou government's conscripted laborers to open up wasteland. When they returned home, they were not told that they could take home surplus grain - the so-called surplus grain was the grain left after the autumn harvest, minus the rations consumed by the laborers in the process of opening up wasteland.
What Shao Xun did could be considered good governance, and it also increased the enthusiasm for land reclamation.
"People should be kind and compassionate." Shao Xun said, "This opportunity to show mercy is given to you for free, please don't let me down."
"Yes." Yu Liang agreed and quickly found someone to take care of it.
Shao Xun sighed.
These kids from aristocratic families really don't treat the common people as human beings.
I thought I was already a black-hearted capitalist, but I didn't expect them to be even more cruel.
The conscripts from Nanyang and Yingchuan counties took turns to reclaim wasteland, and next year it will be the turn of the conscripts from Shunyang county.
Being nice to them can reduce the frequency of trouble and also spread your reputation.
He had ideas about Xiangcheng, Nanyang, Shunyang, Yingchuan and Runan counties near Guangchengze, and he would occupy them one by one sooner or later.
The human heart is illusory, invisible and intangible, but it shows its power at critical moments.
In the evening, he climbed a high slope and looked at the teachers and servants who were still working hard, the harvested fields, the paved roads, the completed houses, the wandering cattle, sheep and horses, and the fishing boats dotted on the lake...
A sense of satisfaction arises spontaneously.
This is the confidence he has in fighting with others.
(End of this chapter)