Chapter 241 Water and Drought

Chapter 241 Water and Drought

Chapter 241 Water and Drought (Part )
As the saying goes, "Spring rain is as precious as oil."

Spring is a critical period for crop growth, which requires a lot of water. If there is little rainfall, the yield will inevitably be affected.

Shao Xun first came to the more than 1,300 hectares of land to check.

We planted winter wheat last fall, and now it is the time when it is jointing and heading, so we must not make any mistakes.

Fortunately, there is water in Guangchengze.

With less rain, the 6,000 soldiers of the Jizhou garrison had to work hard and had to irrigate the fields manually.

In fact, artificial irrigation is not too troublesome in places with a complete canal system. At least half of the fields in Guangchengze can be irrigated by canals, and the remaining half will be gradually improved this year.

"After the wheat harvest, 400 people will be transferred to Luyang and handed over to Wang Chan and others for command." Shao Xun said as he looked at the soldiers who were carrying water for irrigation in the fields.

"Yes." Minister of Agriculture Chu Huo, Vice Minister Chen Yougen, and Secretary Mao Bang all agreed at the same time.

The relief land is of course the responsibility of the Minister of Agriculture, but when it comes to converting prisoners into auxiliary soldiers, the Langzhongling department needs to get involved.

Simply put, this is the overlapping business of the two agencies.

In addition, this order needs to be issued by the yamen under the jurisdiction of the Dianshu Ling (eighth rank). At this time, the Dianshu Ling was not there, so the Dianshu Cheng (ninth rank) took note of it and went back to handle it.

The documents issued by the king to the country are called "orders", and the Dianshuling is responsible for drafting and issuing them.

Documents from all over the country were also received by the Dianshuling and submitted to the prime minister and the king.

Sometimes, the Dianshuling could even suggest revisions to the documents submitted, and those that did not meet the requirements would be returned for re-writing.

In addition, the Dianshu Ling was also responsible for personnel recruitment - in Luyang State, this power was in the hands of Shao Xun.

The Dianshu Ling had five assistant officials: one Dianshu Cheng (ninth rank), four Zhishu (ninth rank), and a number of subordinate clerks.

Mao Bang is Mao Er, who has a degree from Imperial College and is eighteen years old this year.

After the New Year, Shao Xun appointed him as the Secretary.

The main job of the Dianshu Cheng is to assist the Dianshu Ling in drafting and issuing orders, which are generally more important matters.

The four secretaries handled the more complicated daily affairs, such as how many farm tools were needed here, how many oxen were needed there, which garrison soldiers were to go where to weed and open up wasteland this year, etc.

The Dianshu Ling is Yang Ming, who is now going to Luoyang on official business.

From the Secretary to the four Secretaries, all of them were student soldiers from the first and second classes of Donghai and Luoyang who had degrees from the Imperial College.

In fact, they were the group of people who had followed Mao Er before. Most of them went to Yangcheng, Yangdi, Liang and Luyang counties to work as clerks for training. A few outstanding ones were granted official positions in government offices and had already widened the gap with their old classmates.

"The relief land is related to the relief of soldiers who died in battle, died of illness, or were injured and disabled, and we cannot be careless. How much millet was harvested last year?" Shao Xun asked.

"More than 278,000 hu of grain have been stored in Yong'an Warehouse." Chu Huo had just taken over the position of Minister of Agriculture for less than four months, but he had already sorted out all this. He said, "Yong'an Warehouse can store 1 million hu of grain. It was completed in July last year."

The main work of Guangchengyuan last year was the construction of Yongjia Cangcheng and its ancillary buildings.

Yongjia Granary City is very large. It took two years to build and can accommodate thousands of soldiers and store three million hu of grain - it is currently basically empty.

Yong'an Warehouse City was relatively small and was not included in the court's plan, so it was used to store private grain.

After deducting the annual pension expenses of about 30,000 hu from the output of the pension fields, most of it could be used to pay the salaries of the Silver Spear Army soldiers - when there was not enough silk, grain was often used in exchange.

The area of ​​land will increase to 1,500 hectares and then remain fixed there. It will not increase in the short term.

After looking at the fields, Shao Xun and his party crossed two wooden bridges, walked three or four miles southwest, and came to another field.

Yu Liang was already waiting by the roadside. When he saw Shao Xun, he immediately bowed and said, "Mr. Shao."

Behind him were four minor officials, who also saluted.

Shao Xun was shocked by his address.

I am only 22 years old, and I am already called "Shao Gong"?
But strictly speaking, he is now qualified to be called a duke.

Some people do not have titles, but because they are highly respected or hold a high position, others will call them "Mr. So-and-so". Shao Xun is the Duke of Luyang County, so there is nothing wrong with calling him Duke, it's just a bit strange.

"You are now in charge of official salaries and land, which concerns the welfare of government officials. You cannot make any mistakes." Shao Xun grabbed his hand and said as they walked.

The treatment given to his brother-in-law is different, and Yu Liang feels very happy about it.

In order to work for Shao Xun, he recruited two powerful sons of the Yu family from Yingchuan, and accepted two minor officials from poor families and powerful families from Hebei.

He had a total of four subordinates, all of whom were supported by him alone, and his expenses were very high.

In February, he was just appointed as the school official (eighth rank), mainly responsible for the education of the relatives of the Duke of Luyang County. But it is clear that he does not need to do this now, and managing the land is his main job.

Shao Xun climbed up a high slope, looked at the garrison troops watering the fields, and asked, "Are these the fifth and sixth battalions of the Qingzhou Garrison Army?"

"That's right." Yu Liang climbed up with a grunt and replied, "There are still more than 7,700 people left, they are the remnants of Wang Mi, most of them are from Qing, Xu and Yanzhou."

"How's the performance after a year?" Shao Xun asked.

The land in front of us is a little over 1,400 hectares in total. It was reclaimed in the autumn and winter of the year before last, and a crop of millet was planted last year. As for the harvest, let's not talk about it. Anyway, Shao Xun didn't leave a single grain of rice. All of it was taken away by the laborers who reclaimed the land - and they even lost some of it.

After the autumn harvest, the Qingzhou garrison took over and planted a crop of winter wheat. "They worked hard," said Yu Liang.

As soon as he finished speaking, a burst of crying and shouting was heard from the field.

Shao Xun looked in the direction of the sound and saw Yu's soldiers holding scabbards and smashing them on the head of a garrison soldier.

There were ten men in total. The leader was a strong man with a bow on his waist and iron armor on his body.

Behind him were two soldiers wearing leather armor, with guns in their hands and knives hanging from their waists.

The other seven men were not wearing armor, but were fully equipped with swords and spears, and two of them even carried bows.

This configuration is fine!
There is absolutely no problem with the garrison troops managing the "concentration camp" and they are much better than the group of farmhands led by my eldest nephew.

"After the summer harvest, transfer the 400 people who work the hardest and send them to Luyang to be handed over to Wang Chan and others." Shao Xun ordered, and then said: "Give each person five hu of grain as a reward, and the Silver Spear Army will lend them vehicles to transport it to their base. The same thing will be done for the 400 people in Xiutian."

"Yes." Chu Huo and others responded in unison.

Lutian will also be expanded to 1,500 hectares this year and will maintain this scale.

Of course, it was called "Lutian", but more than 49% of the land was used to produce grain for the government. After all, only a dozen officials were given out, and a total of hectares of Lutian were allocated.

"Are those leeks and cabbage?" Shao Xun asked, pointing to a field next to a woods.

"In reply to Mr. Shao——" Yu Liang replied.

"Call me Lang Jun."

"My dear, that is Prime Minister Cui's land, a total of six hectares. Five hectares were planted with wheat after the autumn harvest last year, and this year another hectare was cleared. Prime Minister Cui's family came and ordered them to plant vegetables."

In theory, officials can choose what crops to plant on their land. In fact, the government only provides land and people, and the harvest belongs to you as part of your salary.

During the Liu Song Dynasty, Tao Qian was the magistrate of Pengze and had three hectares of land as salary.

At that time, many officials were too lazy to care what to plant on their own land, so the officials arranged for them to plant "shú" (glutinous rice).

But Tao Qian's family disagreed. "My wife insisted on planting rice, so they planted 250 mu of rice on sorghum and 50 mu of rice on millet."

During the Western Jin Dynasty, Lutian was sometimes called "vegetable fields" and was not necessarily used to grow crops.

It’s up to you, whether you collect more or less, it’s all yours. Just don’t complain if you suffer a loss.

"Prime Minister Cui is a good manager." Shao Xun said with a smile.

Everyone laughed along and secretly wondered whether they should also consider how to manage Lutian.

As long as their group is not destroyed, as long as Guangchengze is not seriously damaged, and as long as they do not betray others, these lands will be theirs.

Generally speaking, even if you gain experience, you will gradually be promoted, and your salary and land will only increase, not decrease.

Growing millet and wheat is indeed not enough to make money, but growing vegetables and melons may make more money.

"Why don't I have any land?" After seeing people watering the fields, Shao Xun's nervous mood was greatly relieved, so he made a joke.

"Mingsir..." Chu Huo stepped forward and said.

"Stop, you call me Husband too." Shao Xun said helplessly.

"Okay." Chu Huo smiled shyly, and then said, "My dear, you have ten hectares of land. Queen Hui sent people to plant pasture grass. It has turned green now and is growing very well. There are forty servants taking care of it."

Shao Xun was a little surprised, he didn't know this, so he asked: "Where did the grass come from?"

Unexpectedly, Chu Huo was even more surprised and said, "Zhang Qian was an envoy to a foreign country for 18 years and brought back alfalfa. Now there is alfalfa in the fields of Xizhou (Guanxi), and it grows naturally every year. The seedlings sprout in February and can be harvested for vegetables. It can be harvested three times a year."

Shao Xun nodded.

It was originally brought back by Zhang Qian during his mission to the Western Regions. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty put a lot of effort into raising horses, even considering the forage. It's a pity that it has not been promoted throughout the north for more than 300 years. At least there is not much high-quality, high-calorie forage in Guangchengze.

Of course, pasture grass can also be grown artificially.

In fact, the yield and quality of artificially cultivated alfalfa are much higher than those of wild alfalfa, and it can be harvested three times a year. Yang Xianrong had ten hectares of alfalfa planted, apparently for the purpose of raising livestock.

This woman!
Shao Xun mentioned Duotian once, Yang Xianrong took note of it, and then worked hard to do it properly.

Shao Xun said he liked to eat meat and drink milk, and Yang Xianrong took note of it and actually planted ten hectares of pasture to raise livestock.

Shao Xun was a little touched.

He took another look at the farmland full of alfalfa, and then said to Chu Huo, "Guangchengze has seven large rivers to replenish water. Send people to monitor these rivers and find someone to record the amount of rain. I'm afraid this year's matter will not be that simple."

"My lord, are you saying there might be a severe drought?" Chu Huo asked in surprise.

"It's hard to say." Shao Xun was not sure either, so he could only sigh: "After coming here for a walk, I feel a little relieved. But if there is a severe drought, the hundreds of lakes in Guangchengze will probably not be able to hold much water, and we will have to walk a long way to irrigate the farmland. I'm afraid some water trucks will not be used. Let's keep an eye on it first. I don't know how much the production will be reduced this year, alas!"

After saying that, he led his men to the north, which was an area densely populated with fields and lakes.

(End of this chapter)