Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 248 Bull... Bank?
Suddenly, a large amount of raindrops fell from the sky.

Shao Shude reined in the horse, and the soldiers came to a halt, as if alone.

"Have all the beans in the field been planted?" Shao Shude got off his horse, grabbed a handful of soil, and carefully inspected the fertile soil that was full of water.

In Dingnan states, not every piece of farmland is irrigated with canals.Some need to dig wells, and some need people to carry water. If God sends more rain, the people can relax.

Fighting has been fought for several months this year, and the Han people in Ling, Yan, Hui, You, Feng and other prefectures have worked very hard.The family's land is all cultivated by the elderly, wives, and children. It is conceivable that the output will decline, and the people will be very affected.

"Marshal, it will be planted in August." Li Renfu replied.

"Can the eight counties of Lingzhou produce 160 million dendrobium grains and beans this year?" Shao Shude asked again.

No one can answer.

"Definitely not!" Shao Shude threw away the soil and said, "It would be nice to have 130 million dendrobium."

Fifty thousand soldiers went out for seven months, and even if they ate all the food, excluding meat and milk, they would only consume more than [-] dendrobium.Because the expropriation of masters affected field farming and decreased grain production, this was actually a cost, and it even exceeded the consumption of soldiers, war horses, and draft animals.

Fighting a war is not a simple matter, there are too many things to consider.

Shao Shude couldn't imagine how the people in the Kanto states lived.The wars they experienced often took place in the "homeland". The enemy fought over for a while, and fought over by themselves for a while, repeatedly seeing the saw.And the wars launched by the Dingnan Army are almost always carried out on the enemy's territory, and the destructiveness to the rear is minimized.

He remembered that Zhu Quanzhong sent Zhu Zhen to Ziqing Town to recruit soldiers.According to rumors, Zhu Quanzhong urged Zhu Zhen to come back before the wheat harvest, so as to prevent Qin Zongquan's people from robbing them of the food they depended on for survival.

War is actually about the economy!
"Commander, you don't need to be so worried. The prefectures are very different from those in Guanzhong, Guandong, and Jiangnan. They have a lot of livestock." Li Renfu said: "I still remember that a few years ago, the people were in poverty, and there were not many families. Livestock. The commander-in-chief conquered captives in the north, conquered Youzhou in the west, and then demanded Hexi party items, and obtained countless cattle and sheep, which caused the price of livestock in Xiazhou to plummet. Jieyang fell from [-] yuan a head to more than [-] yuan. At that time, people bought Sheep..."

Shao Shude understood what he meant.Hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land, but only about 100 million people, vast land and sparsely populated.

Moreover, the precipitation in this era is not bad, the environmental damage is also small, and there are many grasslands.And these grasslands are actually "pressure relief valves" for the society in the states of Dingnan. Once the harvest in the fields decreases, you can still turn to the grasslands.Grazing requires less manpower than farming, and it can keep the people from starving to death at critical times.

There are fewer people and more livestock, and there are such benefits.Shao Shude remembers that during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, Ningxia alone had a shocking population of over 130 million, and its area was similar to that of Lingzhou today.During the Qianlong period, the climate had not climbed out of the small ice river, the precipitation was not as good as it is now, and the environment was even worse. In the event of a disaster, there should be no pressure relief valve available.

The eight counties of Lingzhou under Shao Dashuai's rule only have more than [-] people, so there is still a lot of room for relief.

The agricultural model of half-pastoral and half-cultivation still has merits.

"Commander, the elders of Lingzhou have been waiting for a long time." Li Renfu reminded softly.

"Let's go."

In the fine autumn rain, the brigade slowly approached Lingzhou.

The place to meet him was near Dongcang City. Shao Shude got off his horse ahead of time, went to Li Shao, looked carefully, and said, "Li Pushe is still in such good spirits."

"The affairs of Lingzhou lie in cultivating fields, building construction, and craftsmen. These three things are all in charge of special personnel, and the old man only needs to ask and supervise from time to time. I still know how to be an official." Li Shao joked.

"I remember the merit of Li Pu's shooting in my heart." Shao Shude said.

Afterwards, he met with the elders and officials in Lingzhou one by one.

He is also very annoyed by these red tapes, but in this era, they represent the "people's hearts". If you neglect them, it is cruel and perverse, anyway, the right to speak is still on the lips of these people.

After some courtesies, they finally sent them away. Shao Shude walked up to Li Shao who was chatting with Fu Cunshen, and said with a smile, "Li Pushe must know what he has been thinking about."

Li Shao laughed, took a stack of official documents from the staff, handed them to Shao Shude, and said, "I know the commander cares about this, and it's all here."

The three-crop crop rotation system was piloted by Guangqi for the first time in the first year, and this year is already the third year. The harvest was just completed last month, and the output has almost been counted.

"Sixty hectares of land, harvesting [-] and [-] hu of wheat..." Shao Shude calculated carefully, and one mu of land probably harvested more than [-] hu and [-] dou.

I also looked at the seeds used. One and a half buckets per mu, the seed-to-harvest ratio is about 1:12.Yes, this rate of return is acceptable, and it can even be said to be very good!

I still remember that in the first year of Guangqi, the seed-to-harvest ratio was only 1:8.5, which increased production by a full 40%.For two consecutive years, we have used a lot of cow dung to fertilize the fields, and used alfalfa and beans to fix nitrogen, and finally achieved this result. Congratulations!

"You can try dense planting. If you sow two buckets of seeds per mu, you can harvest two buckets of wheat and four buckets of wheat." Shao Shude slapped his thigh and said excitedly: "Maybe it will be less, but it's okay to produce more than two buckets per mu."

Two dendrobiums and four buckets, if it is wheat, converted into the weight of later generations, it is 253.44 catties; if it is corn, then it is 236 catties.

This output is too high!

In the Tang Dynasty, the yield per mu varied from high to low. In the military villages in the northwest of Beijing, the yield per mu was basically around 150 catties.Considering the extensive operation of the military village and the poor management of the field, if intensive cultivation is carried out, it should be higher.But it is also virgin land, and the fertility accumulated over the years should not be underestimated. Normally, the yield is a hundred catties, at most [-] catties.

Only the Heyuan army with black teeth often "opened more than [-] hectares of camp fields and harvested more than one million stones a year" when the army was stationed, and the yield per mu was two stones.Fuck, the land in Shanzhou is so fat?

As far as the national average is concerned, it is only one stone.

The Song Dynasty was similar.Moreover, the climate in the north began to turn cold in the eleventh century, and it was even colder in the twelfth century, and the destruction of forests and grasslands in the north became more severe.What's even more pitiful is that there are also human factors, playing with the Yellow River, and breaching several times.Therefore, even though agricultural technology has developed compared to the Tang Dynasty, the yield per mu has not increased much!

Volume [-] of "Fan Wenzheng Gong Ji" records: stealing a stone from Zhongmu, and taking millet is no more than a dendrobium.

"Song History Shihuo Zhi": "About a middle-aged mu and a stone."

This one stone is the average yield per mu of a crop of millet and wheat in the northern Song Dynasty.Of course, there are those that are more than one stone high. For example, from Weiyuan to Qinzhou Chengji, "the river is five or six hundred miles away, and a thousand hectares (shangtian) are governed, and the year is 30 dendrobium."The yield per mu of Shangtian can reach three stones, mainly in Weizhou and Qinzhou along the river.But don't forget, there are still a large number of Shimoda whose yield is less than one stone per mu!

Song Shi is slightly bigger than Tang Shi, but not much bigger. The grain output is enough.

Jin Guo's output has not improved either.In the third year of Jin Xuanzong's Xingding: "Henan's military and civilian fields total more than 190 million hectares, and there are more than 96 hectares of cultivators. You can harvest one stone and two buckets in the upper field, one stone in the middle field, and eight buckets in the lower field... 960 million stones per year."

It still yields one stone per mu.

Not to mention the Tang and Song Dynasties, even in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the average yield of wheat per mu in the north was only more than 100 catties. There was progress in agricultural technology, but there was no substantial progress. The labor intensity was greater than that in the Tang Dynasty, but the yield per mu was not fundamental. improvement.

The three-crop rotation system can increase the yield per mu to more than 200 catties, which is equivalent to turning ordinary fields into upper fields. This alone can increase grain production dramatically.

With this matter, Shao Dashuai can also fill up the prestige in the town, and no one dares to oppose him.Whoever rebels will be punished in groups.

"Li Pushe, how many cows do you need to promote the whole Lingzhou?" Shao Shude asked excitedly.

"Marshal, one mu of land needs a cow to fertilize the field. Without cattle, other large livestock can make do, but I don't know how effective it will be."

Fu Cunshen stood aside, staring fixedly at Shao Shude.

As soon as the King of Lingwu County came, he asked directly about farming and forgot about him, but he didn't feel disobedient at all, on the contrary, he was a little emotional.

Emphasis on agriculture is better than indulgence in pleasure.

He could tell that the king of Lingwu County really wanted to increase the yield per mu. This certainly has the factor of competing for world hegemony, but wouldn't the people's lives have also been improved?Why is it so clear?

What the King of Lingwu has done has far surpassed other generals in the world.To say something disrespectful, such a person is worthy of the world.

"A cow is needed for one mu, and a million cows are needed for ten thousand hectares!" Shao Shude was stunned for a moment, where did this nima find so many cows?
There must be a lot of cattle in the people's homes, but it is too far away from the figure of 100 million, not to mention that after it is fully rolled out, the demand is likely to exceed 100 million.

He knew that on the grasslands, the ratio of cattle and sheep is about 1:4 to 1:5.There are 100 million cattle, which means that there are at least 500 million sheep. With so many livestock, how much space do we need to feed them?
Anyway, he knew that in the area under the jurisdiction of the Dijinze Inspectorate, the tribes headed by the Weicai family probably had more than 100 people and more than [-] million livestock.Ordinary herdsmen only have dozens of livestock at home, but there are not many such people.Most of them are poor ghosts, grazing for the tribal chief Hao, and their status is low.Strictly speaking, a tribe can get a little more than ten livestock per person.

Buy up all the cattle in Dijinze's jurisdiction, which is more than [-] head.

There are about 10,000+ people in the Pingxia party, definitely not more than 20. According to this level, it is more than 30 million livestock, and the maximum number of cattle is [-].

The Dangxiang herdsmen in Hexi under their control only had a maximum of [-] head of cattle.

There are only 30 cattle at most in the Yinshan and Fan tribes.

Hengshan Dangxiang has only 20 head of cattle, maybe only more than [-]. After all, they don't all graze, they also farm.

That is to say, if all the tribes under his control donate all the cattle without keeping any of them, they will probably only be able to make up 100 million heads.

But it is impossible to let them hand over for nothing!In fact, this cost should not be borne by the shogunate, it can only be done through commercial exchanges.

A prairie beef cattle can be sold for three to four yuan now, which is about seven or eight hu grains.But apart from the families of sergeants, very few ordinary people can spend so much money or food at one time.

It would be great if there was a beef cattle bank that could give them a loan, which would be repaid with grain after the harvest.But the bank needs principal, and this principal will be at least 100 million head of cattle. Where will it come from?

Could it be that he's going back to his old job... robbing?

Or, recruit the chieftains and let them be shareholders of the bank?By lending bullocks, to share the benefits of the increase in agricultural production of the Han people?
Shao Dashuai asked someone to move the top chair, and sat down quietly to think.

Li Renfu held a big umbrella on it, motionless.

Fu Cunshen, Li Shao and the others silently looked at the thoughtful King Lingwu.

In the camp not far away, people from the Central Plains stood on tiptoe to see what their new commander-in-chief looked like.

In the slanting wind and drizzle, it seemed that someone was deciding their fate.

(End of this chapter)