Chinese New Year

Chapter 560 Dunqiu
As the first month of the year was about to end, Shao Xun finally left Wang Jingfeng's arms and began his routine inspections.

The first stop is set in Dunqiu.

The sky is vast, the wilderness is boundless, the wind blows the grass low, and not a single figure can be seen.

This is Dongyu, there are too few people.

But Shao Xun also has to take part of the blame for the small number of people. Who was it that Le Mo took away a large number of local soldiers and civilians when he retreated?
There was the blame for the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, the blame for the Rebellion of Gong Shifan, the blame for the Jisang Rebellion, the blame for the Huns’ invasion, and the blame for the tug-of-war between Shi Le and Shao Xun. After so many incidents, only the most sturdy and least vulnerable fortresses in Dunqiu still had a certain population left - how much land could they occupy?
When Shi Le distributed land to his soldiers, he did not like to settle people in Dunqiu. The reason was that it was located on the front line and if people were settled there, no one would know who would benefit from it in the future. Puyang County on the other side of Dunqiu was also sparsely populated, the same reason.

The governor of Dongqiu was Li Shou, the uncle of Yu Liang's concubine Li.

In fact, his abilities are limited, but his greatest strength is his firm political stance, and that is enough.

"Has the land been marked out?" Shao Xun asked as he climbed onto the roof of a brick-making kiln and looked at the endless fields.

"It has been demarcated. There are a total of more than a thousand hectares of arable land, hundreds of hectares of grassland and orchards." Li Shou said.

“Is it near Baigou Water?”

"Yes. The land is mainly concentrated in Fanyang County."

"That's good." Shao Xun said, "Wei Jun Neihuang County will also allocate more than a thousand hectares of land, hundreds of hectares of orchards and grasslands to be used as land for salary, which is almost enough."

Just as the salary fields in Guangchengze provided income for the officers and officials of the Xuchang Shogunate, the salary fields located at the junction of Dongyu and Weijun would provide a considerable portion of income for the officials and officers stationed in Hebei.

If you want to win the battle, it is essential to provide land for the people.

If the government is to run smoothly, salary and land are also indispensable.

This is the meaning of farming.

Currently, there are less than 2,000 farmstead households in Lutian, Hebei, which is not enough.

No, it is not quite accurate to say that they are "common people". In fact, they are "official slaves". They are the captured officials of all ranks, the families of officers and their relatives from three clans who failed to surrender in time. When they were convicted, they were uniformly demoted to slaves and sent to Dunqiu to cultivate the land and provide benefits for Shao Xun's generals.

"That area is all peach orchards, right?" Shao Xun asked, pointing to an orchard near the earthen kiln.

"Mingsong has a good eye, it is indeed a peach garden." Li Shou said, "It is mainly large peaches, and there are also a few Xiang peaches, white peaches, Hou peaches, and Wangmu peaches, all of which are summer peaches."

The big peach is native to the Qinghai area and was brought to the Central Plains by the Qiang people. It quickly became popular in the north and replaced the original varieties.

Xiangtao, Baitao and Houtao are all new varieties cultivated by the people since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and they have gradually become popular.

The Queen Mother Peach has a long history and is highly praised by people of the time, but it is rather picky about the location.

The above peaches are all summer peaches, which are harvested in summer. The officials in charge of the land would organize people to sell them for money. If they could not be sold, they would be dried and distributed as welfare. If there was enough time, fresh peaches would also be distributed.

In addition to summer peaches, there are also autumn peaches and winter peaches.

Winter peaches are rare and are usually harvested in October (November in the Gregorian calendar).

The scholars in the dynasty were very interesting, and seemed a bit unemployed. Shu Xi once wrote "Ode to Cake": "Pedestrians lose saliva due to the wind, and the boy servants chew in vain with sidelong glances. The one holding the container bites his lips, and the standing waiter swallows dryly" - to be honest, this scene can be used as a commercial.

Fu Xuan also wrote "Ode to Peach": "There are also winter peaches, as cold as ice and frost, soothing the mind and pleasing to the taste."

As for how winter peaches taste, unfortunately, Shao Xun has never tasted them.

Princess Xiangcheng often ate winter peaches, and Shao Xun had seen them, but he was a little embarrassed to take them because she was the only woman who took the initiative to dump him and they actually broke up.

"Is there a date garden?" Shao Xun asked after he came down from the earthen kiln.

"Yes, please come this way, sir." Li Shou said.

The group soon arrived at a date orchard, and when the official slaves saw them, they all fled.

"These jujube trees were introduced from other places and they are quite old," Li Shou introduced.

Since it is "some years old", it is obvious that this orchard was originally owned by someone, but now it is gone. It is not that Shao Xun took it by force, but the owner was sunk into the river by Liu Jing of the Xiongnu, so it is naturally an ownerless land.

"Most of them are Xindu jujubes." Li Shou said, "There are also Qingzhou purple jujubes and Leshi jujubes. According to the legend, the latter was brought from Yan when Yue Yi defeated Qi. Hedong Anyi jujubes are world-famous, but they are not planted. However, a few Xiwangmu jujubes are planted in Luoyang."

"I see there are many jujube trees in Hebei. Why is that?" Shao Xun said.

"Shi Le ordered the planting of more jujube trees, with each household having at least five trees," Li Shou answered truthfully.

"Why?"

"It is said that it can be used to resist natural disasters and can be eaten during periods of poor harvest." "That makes sense." Shao Xun nodded in praise.

There are many wastelands now, so it is reasonable to plant more jujube trees. In later generations, modern agriculture takes good care of fruit trees, but at this time, most people let them go and don't take care of them after planting, but it's not that they don't have any skills at all.

Shao Xun got a farming book titled "Planting Pears" from Concubine Pei, which detailed the pear grafting method summarized by the Pei family estate, and even included methods of storing pears for consumption in winter.

"Growing Sesame Seeds" and "Essential Techniques of Planting Mulberry Trees" were produced by the Wang family of Langya, and were secretly given to Shao Xun by Wang Huifeng.

"Inserting Pears" was copied by Concubine Pei and sent to her.

All three books are very practical and are crucial for agricultural production.

Compared with pears, people nowadays prefer to plant dates to prepare for famine.

When the harvest of farmland is poor, the date trees may or may not have a poor harvest. This offsets some of the risk and allows the people to rely on fruits, vegetables, and wild vegetables to get by when staple food is insufficient, and then invest in next year's production.

In addition, jujube wood is actually a strategic material.

Jujube, mulberry and elm were the three most common trees in people's gardens since the Han Dynasty until the Tang Dynasty. Because they could be used for military purposes, this was probably the important reason why Shi Le ordered every household to plant five jujube trees.

Da Hu is a man with a lot of ideas. There is a reason for his success in history. He is a qualified conqueror in troubled times, but he just lost the right time and it is difficult for him to turn things around.

After visiting the Zaoyuan Garden, Shao Xun pulled Li Shou aside and got to the point of the day. He asked, "If we mobilize troops this year, how much food and grass can Dunqiu provide?"

When Li Shou heard this, he felt overwhelmed.

In an instant, his mind raced, and he thought a lot. He wanted to force each family to give up their last bit of wealth for Mr. Chen's great cause, but he was worried about causing unrest, so he hesitated.

Shao Xun saw his expression and knew that there was not much profit to be made from Dunqiu. Even if other counties could provide some food and grass, it would probably be very limited.

Last year, when we attacked Shi Le, we mobilized 70,000 auxiliary troops. If we include conscripts and boatmen, there were more than 100,000 people. It was no problem to claim that there were 300,000.

This is because the goods are transported via river, which greatly reduces the number of personnel. Otherwise, more manpower and material resources would need to be mobilized.

In the case of poor harvests, this kind of large-scale war cannot be carried out too often as it would consume too much energy.

"Okay, if there's no need, then there's no need." Shao Xun consoled him, "Let's take a year off this year and let the people take a breath. We'll talk about it next year."

"Okay." Li Shou agreed quickly.

Shao Xun looked at the endless wilderness, secretly wondering when he would be able to see these wastelands filled with millet, wheat, cattle, sheep, fruit trees, and mulberry forests.

It looks like the remnant Xiongnu forces that attacked Hebei this year will have to pay back their old nest in Henan.

Last year, many fields were planted with winter wheat, which can be harvested in May, so the food pressure will be reduced. If you can't wait, you can move the stored grain in March or April. Henan people can endure some hardship and hold on until the summer grain harvest, and then they won't have to suffer.

Of course, this is not necessarily the case sometimes. If the superiors see that oil can still be squeezed out of the cracks in your bones, then you will naturally continue to suffer.

Henan people are not fools. When the shogunate finds out that you can still provide food and fodder, the original promise of not collecting grain after the summer grain harvest will probably be invalidated.

Because in troubled times, hegemons always have a strong urge to fight, fight, and fight again, and they wish they could fight and kill every day to fulfill their ambitions. If it weren't for the constraints of food, supplies, and manpower, they would probably fight all year round without stopping - I can fight for you from the first day of the first lunar month to the end of the twelfth lunar month!
Therefore, they will inevitably resist strongly, complain in every way, and make all kinds of excuses.

Because of the existence of the gentry, this resistance was still organized, unlike the atomized rural areas in the era when the gentry disappeared and were easy to manipulate.

In addition, the battlefield was in Hebei, so the Henan gentry could not empathize with the situation.

Even when the Huns came to Henan, they could still grit their teeth and hold on, selling their livers and kidneys to squeeze out supplies for you to fight.

But now they are the remnants of the forces fighting in Hebei, and their enthusiasm has been greatly reduced.

This is the drawback of indirect rule; everything has to be discussed.

I have to go back to Henan. Politics is nothing more than sharing the spoils. As a warlord with military power, you have to use coaxing and intimidation, make all kinds of promises, and cheat to get the food.

As for the directly subordinate counties such as Xiangcheng, a batch of grain had already been collected last year, and the consumption was not small. It would be better to wait until after the summer harvest this year. It was our own territory, so we couldn't just stand up and kick it, and we had to protect it carefully.

Shao Xun inspected Dongqiu for more than ten days and did not leave until mid-February.

On the 16th, he headed west to Liyang, an important river defense town.

At this time, the first batch of hundreds of farmhands transferred from Jingu Garden also arrived by boat and landed in Liyang.

He immediately made time to meet him and called over the chieftains of the Guanzhong Hu tribe who were waiting to be summoned in Yecheng.

(End of this chapter)