Chapter 703 Great Harvest

Chapter 703 Great Harvest

Chapter 703 Great Harvest
The wind picked up, rustling through the trees.

The withered yellow leaves fluttered and fell on the long embankment by the lake.

There was a little child running under the embankment, holding a ripe melon in his arms, with a happy look on his face.

The old man stood barefoot in the shallow water by the lake, picking water plants and duckweed, intending to go back and feed the pigs.

A small boat floated on the lake and greeted the old man with a smile.

There were several wooden barrels on the boat, with several fish struggling desperately inside.

On this side of the long dike, neatly arranged farmland stretches as far as the eye can see. Now it is all dyed golden, and the harvest is imminent.

Rows of mulberry trees stand between each piece of farmland, like natural dividing lines, and are very eye-catching.

Under the mulberry tree, children shouted and climbed up.

It's August now, and there are not many mulberries left. The ones in the low places have already been picked and eaten, leaving only a few in the high places.

There was a young boy who was very agile. He climbed to the highest point and ate more than ten mulberries, but he refused to come down. His companions were so anxious that they scratched their heads and urged him to come down.

The boy looked into the distance.

The sky is blue, the clouds are light, and golden color becomes the theme color of the earth.

A group of knights in bright clothes and on fine horses walked slowly along the path, pointing and talking from time to time.

They were in high spirits and their voices were very loud.

The leader was wearing a blue robe and was surrounded by people like the moon surrounded by stars. I don’t know what happy things he said, but his hearty laughter even came with the autumn wind.

Wherever he passed, farmers in the fields all bowed down.

He seemed very friendly. After getting off his horse, he pulled the farmer up and talked with him for a long time. Before leaving, his personal attendant gave the farmer a piece of cloth.

The boy suddenly felt that picking mulberries to eat was quite boring.

He climbed down the tree and gave his seat to others, his face full of worry.

The group of knights had slowly walked to the other side of the lake.

"When we were reclaiming the land, the grain harvest was so disappointing." The leader dismounted again, squatted beside the field, and watched carefully.

The ears of millet are full, golden, and hanging down to the ground, and they look really good.

"Can I harvest three hu and five dou from one acre of land?" he asked.

"Mr. Ming, for the two manors in the north and south of Caiguan, three hu and five dou of fertilizer should be enough." Pei Jin, who is in charge of managing the manor, said.

"Mengsun, you just came from Bianliang. How's the situation over there?" Shao Xun stood up, looked at Zhang Bin and asked.

"No different." Zhang Bin said, "This year the crops are plentiful, and the harvest should be very good."

"That's what I told you. How can we suffer disasters every year?" Shao Xun said with a smile.

He was already troubled by the climate of this Little Ice Age.

Since the severe drought nine years ago, Henan has suffered two major disasters, one medium disaster, and a small local disaster, which we will not discuss here.

So many disasters are really hard to deal with.

It is said that if you cultivate for three years, you will have a surplus of grain for one year. This frequency of disasters is enough to drain the surplus grain of the common people. In fact, it is even more serious, because the distribution of grain is uneven. It is destined that some areas can barely survive, while some counties are cannibalistic.

There is also the impact of war.

If the two-year three-harvest system had not been implemented, Henan would have collapsed even more severely, with even fewer people surviving, and Guangchengze would have also been greatly impacted. How could there be the peaceful and tranquil rural scene we have today?
"The autumn harvest is coming soon. Collect carefully, dry well, and store in warehouses." Shao Xun got on his horse again, looked at the endless fields, and said, "We will need troops again next year."

Zhang Bin looked at the autumn fields silently.

In the past, I had only heard of Guangcheng Lake, which was almost half the size of a county. There were almost no civilians here at the beginning, and all the strong captives were cultivating the land. Even in the year of severe drought, they still harvested a season of winter wheat in May.

Without that season's grain, Lord Liang would probably have been in a difficult situation.

This place has been cultivated for more than ten years, with thousands of hectares of fertile fields, numerous lakes, mulberry orchards and fruit trees everywhere, and large pastures between hills and valleys. Although Liang Gong now controls most of the north, the grain, fruit, vegetable, meat and milk harvests in Guangchengze and Liang County are still not to be underestimated.

After the canal to the Ru River was dug, grain could be transported eastward by boat to Xiangcheng, and then connected to the Ying River to reach Xuchang.

After arriving in Xuchang, it can be transported by water to Suiyang Canal and then head north to Bianliang.

If you go directly north from Guangchengze, you can reach the vicinity of Yique, and then walk a few dozen miles by land to reach Luoyang.

Going south, you can reach the northern end of Wanye, and then transport it by land for a short distance, and then transport it to Fangcheng via Shahe - of course, Nanyang does not need the grain from Guangchengze.

Shi Le's defeat may have been due to his inability to farm.

******
"Sit on the ground." Shao Xun put down his fishing rod and said.

Hui Wan shook her head and refused.

“If it was a talisman, it would have been sitting on the ground.” Shao Xun said regretfully.

Hui Wan was a little curious about this sister. Wouldn't she be scolded for doing this?

The dull sound of horse hooves could be heard in the distance.

Shao Xun had someone bring two cushions, and sat side by side with his daughter, looking towards the other side of the lake.

Soon, water splashed in the shallow swamp, and countless galloping horses emerged from behind the sparse woods, moving forward.

A few hundred steps away, there was another group of horses eating grass. Seeing this, a majestic stallion stood out from the crowd and rushed out.

"Ah!" Hui Wan was stunned and the wild flowers in her hands fell to the ground inadvertently.

"The horses are going to fight." Shao Xun laughed. "Horses can also fight?" Hui Wan asked in surprise.

"You've lived in Suyu Palace for so long, and you've never seen horses fighting?" Shao Xun asked in disbelief.

Hui Wan shook her head.

Shao Xun understood a little bit. It was normal for him to have never seen such a strict mother. The family guards of the princess's mansion probably received strict orders not to allow Hui Wan to go too far away from Su Yu Palace.

"I didn't know horses would fight." Pei Lingyan came over and asked curiously, "Why are they fighting?"

"Fighting for a woman." Shao Xun looked at Pei Lingyan and Sima Xiuwei who were walking towards them with ill intent.

Sima Xiuwei looked at him with a frosty face and still refused to talk to him.

She was already in her forties, and gradually fading in beauty. But Shao Xun suddenly became interested and insisted on reliving the old dream last night. After being kicked several times, he finally climbed up.

Sima Xiuwei didn't dare to get pregnant again, so in the end, it was naturally other things that took all the brunt of it.

After she came to her senses, she felt it was a great humiliation.

The daughter of Emperor Wu, the most noble princess of the Jin Dynasty, is your face being humiliated like this?

"Horses are like people." Pei Lingyan chuckled and looked at Shao Xun and said, "People are like horses."

Shao Xun couldn't hold it in any longer and awkwardly changed the subject: "Guangchengze Ranch currently has dozens of large horse herds and countless small horse herds, totaling more than 20,000 horses. It seems that they are not divided up enough and they fight all the time."

"You've laughed a lot these days." After saying that, Shao Xun looked at Pei Lingyan and said with relief.

"You've used all your skills to coax women." Pei Lingyan rolled her eyes at him, stood beside him, and asked, "Didn't you want to breed new horses before? Did you get any results?"

"You remember all this?" Shao Xun was a little surprised: "How can it be that easy to breed new horses? It depends on luck. Maybe there will be no results in decades."

He pointed to the herd of horses on the other side of the pond and said, "Do you see those strong stallions? They have been carefully selected and raised for more than ten years. They are tall and strong, run fast, and can carry heavy objects. The mares around the stallions are also special, and have also been selected for many years. In short, stallions can't just mate with mares casually, everything has rules."

A major core of horse policy is that horses cannot be allowed to mate at will, otherwise it will be the end of them.

Excellent genes such as shoulder height, weight, speed, endurance, temperament, etc. must be purified by some means, and this cannot be achieved through random mating.

Guangchengze only maintains a small number of stallions all year round.

Stallions that were not good enough were castrated and sent to the battlefield in batches to serve as consumables.

The stallions that stay have large harems, which is great, but they cannot choose mares to mate at will. The mating partners are all provided to them by the ranch in order to further breed better horses.

But when it comes to breeding, luck is a very important factor.

Sometimes we even take a detour and go backwards. For example, if we discover that a stallion that was previously considered excellent has defects, we have to eliminate it. However, its defective gene may have already spread widely, making it unacceptable.

But this is how horse breeds are bred all over the world. It is hard work, requires a lot of investment, and may not yield any results, but it must be done. Because it is impossible for excellent horse breeds to appear in nature, the excellent horse breeds used in wars in later generations were all artificially bred to purify their bloodlines, which are much higher than those of naturally mated horses.

"You are the only one who has spent more than ten years doing this." Pei Lingyan sighed: "Actually, there is no shortage of horses now, right?"

"We are not short of horses, but we are short of good horses." Shao Xun said, "However, Hua Nu, you are not wrong. We don't need good horses to fight the Xiongnu, and their horses are not very good. This is a gift I leave for my descendants, I hope it will bear fruit."

After saying that, he stood up, swung his fishing rod, and said, "Instead of fishing, I might as well use a walking bow to shoot fish."

Pei Lingyan smiled and covered her mouth. She straightened Shao Xun's robe and said, "This year, the grain harvest is good, the horses are so strong, and there are a lot of equipment stored. Shouldn't you feel relieved?"

"Reassured." Shao Xun said, "Next year we will attack Pingyang and take back Liu Cong's queen."

Pei Lingyan gave him a reproachful look.

This man has been accompanying her to travel around to relax recently, which has touched her heart. She feels that her impulse back then was right. Now he is deliberately talking nonsense, and she really doesn't know what to say.

"Actually, this is not what I'm most relieved about." Shao Xun took her hand and climbed up a high slope. He pointed to the endless fields and villages below and said, "Since entering Xiangcheng and Luonan, I've seen one thing that makes me very happy."

"What's the matter?"

"Children are running everywhere." Shao Xun said, "Whenever I go to a village, there are children everywhere, many of them are three or four years old, and most are five or six years old. When peasant women carry hoes, they often carry babies on their backs. Having more children means that people can make a living, so how can I not be happy?"

See Weizhi book.

The winemaking industry has emerged in the countryside, and there are more children. A lot can be seen from these details.

Officials' reports may be misleading, but these details cannot.

"You now look like a heroic leader." Pei Lingyan hugged him lightly and said.

Suddenly, there were noisy shouts from the bottom of the mountain.

The two looked in the direction of the sound and saw many farmhands coming out of their houses, looking very excited and running around to tell others the news.

"What happened to them?"

Shao Xun laughed loudly, hugged Pei Lingyan tightly, and said, "I am rich and powerful now, and I have a beautiful woman in my arms. How can I forget my old friends? The lands of the two villages in the north and south of Caiguan will be distributed to the villagers and registered as common people. From now on, they will have a family business that will be passed down to their descendants."

The cheers from the mountainside became louder and louder.

Pei Lingyan stared at it in a daze, and even Sima Xiuwei was attracted.

In August of the second year of the Shengui reign (318), Henan had a bumper harvest.

The people were delighted and completed the harvest and drying quickly.

In September, the Yongjia Granary, located in the middle of Guangcheng Lake, was almost full of food, so 500,000 bushels of millet and wheat were transferred to the Taicang at Dongyang Gate in Luoyang for storage.

On September 15th, Shao Xun ended his inspection here and headed to his last destination: Yi Yang.

General Huwei Shao Shen personally led the Zhongwu Army to Gancheng to welcome them.

(End of this chapter)