As for things like improving plows, making manual tillers, etc., he would not do them.
After all, in this world, not only agricultural technology is backward, but also the ideology is conservative and outdated. It's okay to pray for rain, but if you want to improve the technology, it will definitely cause big trouble.
You know, in the eyes of the imperial court, improving farm tools is just the work of craftsmen.
How would it be appropriate for you, a local official, to steal the work of craftsmen?
Not to mention, the key point of poverty in Qianshui County is not farm tools.
Those people just go to the fields when they have nothing to do, and there are no recreational activities. If the agricultural tools are too advanced and they have nothing to do, something may happen.
Of course, as a county magistrate, Fang Xiaoyue does not have nothing to do.
After finishing the spring plowing performance, he wrote to the county government and asked the county governor to help him buy some cattle.
If you want to improve the level of agriculture, in addition to improving farm tools, buying cattle is the way to improve in this world.
Luyuan Province is located in the northwest, bordering the two barbarian tribes of Beiji and Xiwan.
The two major barbarian tribes, Beiji and Xiwan, live on nomadic life and are rich in cattle, horses and sheep.
Although some small tribes among these two barbarian tribes often invade and plunder in winter, the overall relationship between Daze Kingdom and these two countries is still at a peaceful stage. In addition, Daze Kingdom does not have large pastures, so it needs the cattle and horses of the two barbarian tribes.
sheep.
Due to their limited productivity levels, the two major barbarian tribes need tea, salt, iron and even ceramics and other commodities produced in Daze Country.
Under such circumstances, Daze Kingdom signed a border trade agreement with the two barbarian tribes a hundred and thirty years ago.
At the border with the two major barbarian tribes, two major border cities were set up respectively for trade and tax collection between countries.
It is precisely because of this that a large number of cattle, horses and sheep are continuously imported, which greatly alleviates Daze Country's urgently lacking energy.
In fact, there were some cattle purchased from barbarians in Qiongshui County.
It's just that in this plague, all the cattle were not spared. Under the cholera, they were turned into cattle corpses due to vomiting and diarrhea.
And no one dared to eat this kind of cow carcasses. After the plague was eliminated, all the cow carcasses were sent outside the city, dug deep pits, and buried with lime.
As a result, this has also had a great impact on spring plowing in Qiongshui County.
After all, there is a huge gap between humans and cattle when it comes to farming.
A person can only plow one acre of land in one day, while an ox can plow five acres in one day, saving a lot of manpower and time.
That's why Fang Xiaoyue asked to buy cattle.
Chitu County quickly responded with approval, agreeing to Qiongshui County's purchase of cattle. However, due to the impact of the plague, Chitu County had no silver in its treasury, so Qiongshui County had to raise funds on its own.
Of course, the only advantage of this is that when Qiongshui County goes to Jie City to buy cattle, there is no need to pay taxes.
Fang Xiaoyue went to the county treasury specifically for this purpose.
The result disappointed him.
In addition to the 500 shi of relief grain left over from the autumn harvest, the county treasury only had 100 spare sets of leather armor and 100 long knives.
In addition, there are only fifty-two taels of silver.
According to the information Fang Xiaoyue learned, although the cattle sold by barbarians in the border market are much cheaper than those in the interior, you can buy a bullock for only six taels of silver.
But 52 taels of silver could only buy ten oxen.
Qiongshui County currently lacks more than a hundred livestock.
In desperation, Fang Xiaoyue could only make up the money from her own pocket, and sent Zhang Wangshui, the catcher, to lead ten government servants and more than thirty servants to the boundary market to buy cattle.
As for the purchased cattle, it is naturally impossible to distribute them directly to the people, but to rent them.
When people have money, it is also feasible to switch from renting to buying.
But half a month later, when Zhang Wangshui came back with his people and cattle, he had a look of panic and uneasiness on his face.
“Is it because I didn’t buy enough cows?”
Fang Xiaoyue was a little surprised.
Zhang Wangshui shook his head: "I bought a hundred bullocks, and with the remaining money I bought more than 20 cows and more than ten horses."
Isn't this a good thing?
The price of cattle has become cheaper, and I bought more than 20 more cows.
In this way, Qiongshui County can also breed some calves on its own.
But what Zhang Wangshui said next made Fang Xiaoyue's face cast into a dark cloud.
It turned out that this time Zhang Wangshui went to the border market and found that when the barbarians were selling cattle, they were unwilling to accept money, and were more willing to accept things in exchange.
To say this, this is not surprising, because the barbarians live on the wilderness grasslands and lead a nomadic life, so they are not interested in equivalent exchanges such as silver.
If they didn't need silver to trade with Daze country merchants in the border market, they wouldn't use silver at all.
Therefore, in the boundary market, many businesses in the past involved barter for goods.
In this way, this thing doesn't seem strange.
However, after Zhang Wangshui walked around the market for a few times, he discovered with the keenness of a head hunter that the barbarians were eager to get rid of their cattle, horses and sheep. The actual price of barbarians in exchange was much lower than silver, and they were more willing to exchange for iron tools.
You must know that in the market, salt was the most popular item in the past.
There is no salt produced on the grassland, and salt is a necessity for the human body.
As we all know, the consequences of not eating salt for a long time include weakness and other symptoms.
For barbarians who need to move their herds frequently, weakness is equal to death.
Zhang Wangshui was smart. After discovering this problem, he left Jie City and went to Zhenyuan City, which is closest to Jie City.
Zhenyuan City is one of the four border towns between Daze Kingdom and the barbarians. Since it is not far from the border city, it has become the last resting point for many Daze caravans before arriving at the border city.
After Zhang Wangshui arrived in Zhenyuan City, he contacted several caravans and bought the iron pots from them.
There is no doubt that the price is cheaper than the previous prices in the boundary market, but for those caravans, it is worthwhile to be able to sell the goods without entering the boundary market.
Because in the border city, taxes must be paid to both the Daze Kingdom and the barbarians.
By selling the goods in Zhenyuan City, you can save the tax on selling goods.
As for when you have money in hand, you can still buy livestock and leather goods by going to the market.
Of course, these caravans have no idea about the changes in the city.
After Zhang Wangshui returned to Jie Market with those iron pots, he exchanged them for a hundred oxen, more than 20 cows and more than a dozen horses.
After switching to oxen and horses, Zhang Wangshui hurried back.
Because of the situation in the city, he had a bad premonition.
"Do you think the northern armadillo will invade the threshing grass in the near future?"
Fang Xiaoyue touched her chin, which had no beard, and looked a bit pretentious.
No way, he is still too young. If he changes into casual clothes and walks out on the street.
The people in Qiongshui County may not be able to recognize their parents, and they are more likely to think that he is just a young man from a rich family.
Zhang Wangshui nodded, that's what he guessed.
After all, it is not uncommon for barbarians to invade threshing grass in Green Plains Province.
Several occur every year.
Regardless of whether it is Beiji or Xiwan, whenever the tribes near their border cannot afford food, they will gather together, drive their horses south, invade the Daze Kingdom, and loot, kill, and burn.
However, this kind of thing usually only happens before winter.
There are two reasons.
One is that before winter, Daze Country is in the midst of the autumn harvest, and the grain is harvested, which is convenient for the barbarians to rob.
The second is that the barbarians also need to reserve enough food before winter to prevent themselves from starving to death and freezing to death.
In the spring plowing season like this, do you send troops to invade Daze Country to thresh the grain?
Don’t those barbarians herd cattle and sheep?
You must know that after a winter, cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock have lost a lot of fat. If we can't let the cattle, horses and sheep eat a bite of fresh and tender grass during the season when the earth returns to spring and all things grow, in the next time, the cattle, horses and other animals will lose weight.
It is impossible for sheep to reproduce well.
Therefore, just like Daze Country, the barbarians would not choose to send troops in spring.
Due to the seriousness of the matter, Fang Xiaoyue immediately asked someone to bring over Qian Huishui, the chief bookkeeper.
After some exchanges, Qian Yushui shook his head: "Master Fang is still too careful."
Qian Yushui then analyzed from Fang Xiaoyue's perspective why the barbarians would not send troops to invade at this time.
This is like a worker in Hukou who supports his family, and when it is time to collect his salary at the end of the month, he goes to beat up his boss if he has nothing to do.
Are you stupid?
The cattle, horses and sheep are starving to death. What will the barbarians do next?
It must be said that Qian Yushui's eloquence was very good and he quickly convinced Zhang Wangshui.
It made Zhang Wangshui wonder if he was too worried.
But even so, just in case, Fang Xiaoyue still increased his vigilance and began to recruit manpower to repair the city walls, battlements and other city defense facilities.
Fortunately, at this time, sixteen Taoist soldiers who came under Fang Xiaoyue's orders, led by their cousin Zhang Yuanming, arrived in Qiongshui County.
It can be said that these sixteen Taoist soldiers were servants recruited by Fang Xiaoyue in Kuangluo County after she passed the exam.
After Fang Xiaoyue passed the exam, her cousin Zhang Yuanming prepared to take these Taoist soldiers to the capital.
As a result, it was delayed because Fang Xiaoyue offended the eldest princess.
Later, Fang Xiaoyue was demoted to Qiongshui County, Chitu County, Luyuan Province, for refusing to marry and disrespecting the emperor's decree.
Although when Fang Xiaoyue left Beijing, she sent a letter to her cousin Zhang Yuanming, asking him to take the Taoist soldiers to Qiongshui County to meet up.
But the letters at this time were traveling too slowly on the road.
Because there is no professional post office in this world.
Letters from the military and civilians are all forwarded by the post station.
The premise for the post station to help deliver letters is that when there are court reports from the court or memorials from local officials that need to be delivered, letters from local officials and people will also be delivered.
In this way, the speed of delivery of this letter can be imagined.
The letter alone took three months on the road from the capital to Kuanglu County. After that, Zhang Yuanming left two Taoist soldiers to guard Fang Xiaoyue's parents, and set out with the remaining sixteen Taoist soldiers, also on the road.
Two months.
Of course, the road is not that easy these days.
In particular, some bandits who blocked the road and robbed them, as well as some monsters that peeked at the blood-eater, wasted a lot of time.
In one encounter with a mountain demon, two Taoist soldiers almost died.
Fortunately, the hardships along the way are worthwhile.
After the Taoist soldiers arrived in Qiongshui County, Fang Xiaoyue, who was worried about the lack of city defense strength, hurriedly pulled the Taoist soldiers out of the city and inspected them outside the city.
This inspection made Fang Xiaoyue very satisfied.
These Tao soldiers have all practiced the Heaven-shaking Sword Technique to the intermediate level!
Especially my cousin Zhang Yuanming, he even reached the level of Dacheng in cultivation!
This alone is much better than Fang Shangou who stayed with Fang Xiaoyue and didn't make much progress.
Of course, this cannot entirely be blamed on Fang Shangou's lack of effort.
The main reason is that this Sky-shattering Sword Technique advocates more actual combat, and it is easier for Taoist soldiers to improve in actual combat.
For example, when Fang Shangou follows Fang Xiaoyue, the biggest battles are to kill the pheasant spirit in the mountain temple and to kill the plague monster in the salt-alkali lake.
But in both cases, Fang Shangou played a very small role.
And those sixteen Taoist soldiers followed Zhang Yuanming all the way up mountains and waded in rivers, killing monsters, bandits, etc., they were the main force.
Every Taoist soldier has many scars left on his body.
After those bloody battles, it is not surprising that these Dao soldiers' Sky-shattering Sword Techniques have improved to a medium level.
To say that Fang Shangou was envious and jealous when he saw that the Taoist brothers were all perfect in the Heaven-shaking Sword Technique.
I am still just a little accomplished.
However, Fang Xiaoyue didn't pay attention to Fang Shangou's slight jealousy at all.
His next energy was entirely devoted to defending against possible barbarian invasions.
Of course, if we want to defend against possible barbarian invasion, we cannot only use Taoist soldiers, but must mobilize the power of the entire county.
So subsequently, Fang Xiaoyue re-established the Inspection Department.
No way, in that wave of plague, the Inspection and Inspection Department was the most affected department, no one.
An inspector from the Inspection Department died, and more than thirty county soldiers under him died.
Fang Xiaoyue used the remaining seven county soldiers plus the 17 Taoist soldiers led by Zhang Yuanming as the main ones, and recruited fifty young men to rebuild the inspection department.
This is not because Fang Xiaoyue is unwilling to recruit more county soldiers, but because this is not his responsibility at all.
Recruiting county soldiers and rebuilding the inspection department are the duties of the inspection department.
For some unknown reason, Fang Xiaoyue had already written to the Ministry of Civil Affairs twice, stating that the Qiongshui County Magistrate, the inspection team, and other officials were martyred in the plague.
But the officials sent by the Ministry of Civil Affairs were delayed in arriving.
So far, there are only three officials in the county, Fang Xiaoyue, who is the chief registrar.
Jiaoyu will not participate in the government affairs of Qiongshui County at all. It will only manage the education of Qiongshui County.
Under such circumstances, Fang Xiaoyue could only work in multiple roles.
However, in order to prevent being criticized for raising private soldiers, he controlled the number of county soldiers to less than eighty.
At the same time, in order to improve the combat effectiveness of the county soldiers, he also asked Zhang Yuanming to teach those county soldiers the Shocking Sword Technique to strengthen the military force of Qiongshui County.
Fortunately, no matter how poor Qiongshui County is, there are still a hundred long knives in stock in the county treasury.
After discussing with the chief bookkeeper Qian Yushui, although Qian Yushui still didn't believe that the barbarians would invade on a large scale, he still nodded on the matter.
After all, if the barbarians did not invade, Qiongshui County would just be wasting some food on training its troops.