Chapter 287: The first to get the moon near the water and the tower
Author: Muzi Blue
Chapter 287: The first to get the moon near the water and the tower
The Great Wall divides Yanzhou into northern and southern parts, with a county inside and outside the Great Wall.
The spring rain is continuous.
Eighty miles south of Zhenbian Fort, Wu Huaiyu brought a battalion of Yanzhou soldiers to station in the fields, and led them to Lingying Mountain under the guidance of a guide.
"This is a must come here." Doulu Huairang didn't know which guide he heard from, that there are grottoes in Lingying Mountain. Not only are there 13 caves carved into the mountain, but the statues and murals in the cave are lifelike.
The patterns are generous and the drawings are exquisite.
Moreover, this is a temple that combines Buddhism and Taoism.
"I heard that this temple is very efficacious, so it is called Lingyingshan Temple. It was originally called Qingshan Temple, but later the cave was dug and the statues of gods and Buddhas were built, and it was very efficacious.
Those who seek medical advice will be cured of their illnesses; those who seek children will be blessed with noble sons; those who seek wealth will be rich; those who seek longevity will be ninety years old; and those who seek marriage will be married to a mandarin duck.
It is said that every year on March 3rd, people from hundreds of miles around come here to burn incense and worship Buddha. Both Han and Tibetan people come here, and the incense is strong."
Wu Huaiyu himself was a disciple of Zhongnan Yinxian, and he was even the current head of the Longmen Sect. When passing by the temple, he would definitely have to pay homage to the mountain gate.
When I came here, I found that Lingying Temple is close to the mountains and is located at a commanding height. In front of the temple is a deep and narrow ditch with gurgling water all year round. The temple is located in the west and east, about forty to fifty meters long from north to south, and about twenty to thirty meters wide from east to west. It is flattened.
, in the Wuliang Hall in the courtyard, there is a statue of Emperor Xuanwu, with two gods, a turtle on the left and a snake on the right, standing on both sides.
There are thirteen caves in the temple, each with a temple name: the Dragon King Temple in the first cave, the Empress Temple in the second cave, the Medicine King Temple in the third cave, the Ksitigarbha Temple in the fourth cave, the Baizi Guanyin Temple in the fifth cave, and the God of Wealth temple.
The statues of gods and Buddhas are very lifelike, and there are colorful murals in the cave, which are also very exquisite.
Looking at the statue and mural, it seems that time was not that long ago.
But even in such a popular temple, Master Liang took people away, leaving the mountain temple empty.
The guide told Huaiyu that legend has it that this grotto was excavated during the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it was destroyed by war and was occupied by horse thieves as a stronghold. Later, when the Great Wall was being built in the Sui Dynasty, monks raised money from salt merchants and rebuilt the temple.
The statues and murals were also created at that time.
What Huaiyu is curious about is that there is a Dragon King Temple in a relatively water-scarce and arid place like here. You said it has a Salt God, a God of Wealth, a Medicine King, a Guanyin, etc. It’s easy to understand.
"It is precisely because of the lack of water and drought that we built the Dragon King Temple so that we can pray for rain." Doulu Huairang's words made Huaiyu nod. Indeed, we should provide for whatever is lacking.
Surrounded by green mountains on all sides, there are caves carved into the mountains, but it is a pity that the incense is no longer there.
Huaiyu arranged for a team of soldiers to be temporarily stationed here, not only to protect the place, but also to build a post station next to it to serve as a beacon. After the place is restored, it will definitely still be prosperous and popular, and even temple fairs and markets will be formed.
, now arrange some people here in advance.
After offering incense sticks to various gods and Buddhas, Huaiyu returned to the camp in the north.
In the northwest, there used to be a fortress, but now there are no people there, but there are many fields there.
In fact, within the Yan Great Wall, farming is still the main occupation, and there is not a lot of cultivated land here.
"There are more than 50,000 hectares of land in Yanzhou and tens of thousands of hectares of pasture. Seventy percent of the cultivated land is within the Great Wall and 30% is outside the Great Wall."
"There are so many lands?"
Zhang Chengde said that he had consulted the past files in Ling and Yan, and the number was unmistakable.
"It's a pity that although there is a lot of land, there is a lack of drought and very little irrigated land. Eighty percent of the land depends on the sky and rainfall. There are no canals to divert water for irrigation. In the past, millet, millet, and buckwheat were mainly grown here. Almost all the land was grown here.
No wheat is grown,”
Zhang Chengde pointed to the place in front of them, "This place was called Qingshan Township in the former dynasty. According to official records, there are 100,000 acres of cultivated land and 21 ground ditches and springs, but only less than 20,000 acres of irrigated land.
There are more than 50,000 hectares of pasture and more than 30,000 hectares of woodland."
Drought and little rain, sandy and windy conditions, long winters and short summers, late spring and early autumn.
In most fields, the yield per mu is only a few dozen kilograms.
The place chosen for the military camp is called Yuequan because there is a spring lake like a crescent moon, and there are about 20,000 acres of land in the surrounding area, of which several thousand acres along ditch springs can be used for irrigation.
In the past, this place was relatively prosperous, but it was also ruined during the war, and the remaining people were forcibly moved away by Master Liang, leaving those places behind.
Some fields have even been plowed, and some have even been sown with seeds.
But the fortress was set on fire.
Huaiyu stationed a regiment here.
Two hundred people, 20,000 acres of land, and even thousands of acres of irrigated land, there was too much land for them to cultivate.
Doulu Huairang's suggestion was to allocate 10,000 acres of land to the Qingshan Regiment of the Yanzhou Town Border Army, which was equivalent to fifty acres of farmland for each soldier.
The remaining more than 10,000 acres could not be cultivated by the town soldiers, so they collected it as official land, part of which was converted into public farmland, vocational farmland, school farmland, etc., and the rest was put out for rent to merchants or sold directly.
Although these lands originally had owners, many of the original owners lost their families during the war, and the rest were moved away by Liang Shi, so in theory these lands are now ownerless.
As a land within the Great Wall, it still has some value.
Doulu Huairang was very rude to these lands. There were more than 50,000 hectares of land in Yanzhou, and even though most of it was dry land with very low yields, it could still produce food.
There is salt in Yanzhou, and there will be troops stationed in the future, so the need for food is huge. The food produced here can be sold directly to Yanchi, and there is a great prospect for building a commercial settlement.
This guy plans to sell a large amount of land, which is actually a disguised form of taking advantage of the land.
They can completely 'sell' the good land and irrigated land. There are few people here, so they can buy it at a lower price.
After buying it, set up a trading village, hire people to plant it, or keep slaves to plant it, and give the output to the nearby salt pond, and then trade it for salt and horses to sell it, which will definitely make a lot of profit.
One regiment of soldiers and 10,000 acres of farmland seemed like a lot.
However, the land here is dry and rainless, and the yield per mu is only about half a stone. If there is no disaster, the harvest from fifty acres will actually be only twenty-five stone, and the seeds have not been removed.
A frontier soldier has a yearly ration of twelve stones and seven pieces of spring and winter clothing.
This ration actually means money to support the family. In the military camp, the daily ration is usually two liters, which is only seven stones and two per year. The frontier army is quite hard on guard duty, so the government soldiers who originally have no food and salary will only be able to pay for it in a year.
There are twelve stone rations.
One person has fifty acres, so there is no need to worry about not being able to cultivate it. After all, it is not the intensive farming of Jiangnan, and the conditions here cannot be intensive farming. It is just broad planting and thin farming, very extensive farming, and may even require rotational cultivation.
If a regiment of 200 soldiers is allocated 10,000 acres of land for the military garrison, the frontier army can be completely self-sufficient and even have reserves. Even the officers' fields and the regiment's ministerial money are enough to cover expenses.
"I have no interest in selling part of the land," Wu Huaiyu knew Doulu Huairang's Xiao Jiujiu, but now he couldn't just think about poaching and taking advantage.
He is the chief historian of Lingfu and the governor of Yanzhou, so he must first consider the development here.
"The land can be sold, but there is a condition. After the land is purchased, it must be cultivated and cannot be left idle. Moreover, I require that each acre of land must be sold to the government for one dou of grain every year and be purchased at a fair price."
In addition, the public purchase of grain is also to ensure that these lands will not be bought by the powerful and powerful for reselling or hoarding.
What Wu Huaiyu wants is that these lands can be cultivated and produced and produce food.
It doesn't matter who owns the land. As long as it is bought and sold through normal procedures, even if it is cheaper, it won't be a problem. However, the land cannot be hoarded without being planted, it must be productive.
Nowadays, Yanzhou has land and no one, so land must be cheap.
Whether you are setting up a commercial village or running your own business, you need to cultivate. Whether you are renting or buying and selling, you must cultivate and produce food.
If you want to take advantage of the opportunity to buy land at a low price and then sell it at a higher price later, this behavior is not allowed. Unless you can cultivate it immediately after buying it, then it doesn’t matter whether you sell Wu Huaiyu in the future, but no matter who buys it, this land cannot be left vacant.
With.
Otherwise, the government has the power to impose penalties or even take it back.
Doulu Huairang did not expect Wu Huaiyu to have such conditions. As a result, the cost of acquiring land would be high. There is no shortage of land here, but there is a shortage of people.
The public purchase of one dou of grain per mu is required. Although it is purchased at market price, if it is compulsory public purchase, the impact will still be considerable.
"Another point is that Yanzhou will set up charity warehouses to provide reserves for disaster relief, and levy two liters per acre for every farmland."
This amount of grain for the free warehouse is not a regular rent, and is not levied by ding, but by acres. You have to pay as much as you have acres of land. Wu Huaiyu even said that no matter the princes or officials and gentry, they all levied the land according to the situation, and they were not exempted from this
One word.
Because this is not a tax collection, but a free warehouse of grain, which is reserved for everyone.
Of course, this Yicang grain was not invented by Wu Huaiyu. In the Sui Dynasty, there had already been Yicang Shecang, and it was also followed in the mainland of the Tang Dynasty.
It's just that there wasn't one here before, and Huaiyu planned to have one in the future.
If there are not enough people, then we should invite merchants to build merchant villages. In the name of a business, we can recruit people from the mainland to farm the land or buy slaves to farm the land. In the future, the salt from the salt pond can be exchanged for grain first.
In this way, there are many advantages for a business to establish a commercial village.
Of course, aristocratic officials are powerful and wealthy, and they are encouraged to buy land. As long as they can recruit people or buy slaves to farm the land, they are warmly welcomed.
As long as you are willing to sign a commitment letter promising to farm and fully pay for the public grain purchases, there is no problem in selling the land at a low price. You can even choose the land in Yanzhou, and you can try to ensure the continuity of the land.
Now the priority is to set aside some land for the town army and state soldiers to use as military camps, and then leave some public farmland, job farmland, etc. for the yamen and officials, and the rest can be sold.
Whoever buys first gets priority.
Seeing Wu Huaiyu's serious look, Doulu Huairang laughed after thinking about it, "Shouyang Gong's method is quite good. There are tens of thousands of hectares of land in Yanzhou. By then, if one mu of land buys one bushel, there will be enough land."
Food is stored."
Although Wu Huaiyu set the conditions for buying the land, Doulu Huairang still felt that the opportunity was rare and did not want to miss it.
Huaiyu did not hesitate. Seeing that he wanted to buy, he immediately called Wuyuan County Magistrate Zhang Chengde, Governor Shi Weisiren, Liu Xu, etc., and asked them to discuss it in detail with Doulu Huairang.
In addition to the fields allocated to the army and government in Yanzhou, the rest of the land in Yanzhou was given priority to Lu Huairang. He could sell him as much as he wanted, and the price was negotiable, as long as he could sign and guarantee that all the land would be planted by then, and
Each acre must be purchased by the government at least one bushel at a fair price.
"I'll buy 10,000 acres first," Doulu Huairang said. He had a lot of money and a big appetite. He calculated in his mind that it was not easy to recruit people to farm in the mainland, but he could directly cultivate slaves. One slave could farm fifty acres.
Calculating, then 10,000 acres would only require 200 slaves, and he could also buy some pasture to graze cattle and sheep.
The advantage of this is that when the farming is busy, the ranchers can go and help. When the farming is slack, the slaves can also help with grazing. Even the Doulu family will open a salt farm in the salt pond, which also requires a lot of manpower.
They can also mobilize each other. During the busy farming season, slaves will be mobilized to farm the land, and during the slack farming season, slaves will be mobilized to collect and sell salt.
The price of slaves here is not high. It doesn’t cost much to buy hundreds of slaves. A young and strong Tibetan slave only costs 18,000 yuan. A few thousand guan is enough. If you have some maids, you can get even more.
lesser.
Ten thousand acres of cultivated land and twenty thousand acres of pasture, Wu Huaiyu agreed on the spot.
After signing the pledge, paying the money, and writing a letter of commitment, the 30,000 acres of land will be his.
Doulu Huairang took a fancy to the land here in Yuequanbao, so there were more than 20,000 acres of land here, 10,000 acres were allocated to the Qingshan Regiment Army Station in the town of Bianbao, 10,000 acres were directly allocated to Doulu Huairang to build a manor, and the remaining bit was allocated for
Job fields, public fields, etc. were all divided directly.
"I will ask the steward to arrange for slaves to come over and replant the land immediately."
Although the ten thousand acres of land are dry land in Bianzhou, after all, the entire field and some areas where ditches and springs can be used to divert water can be directly priced at one thousand guan.
The actual price per acre is only 100 yuan.
Both parties were very satisfied with this price. Wu Huaiyu directly let the Yamen realize a large sum of money, while Doulu Huairang was also satisfied because it was cheap.
In Chang'an, even in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the fertile farmland cost several thousand yuan per acre. Even in places such as Hedong, Henan, the best farmland cost one to two thousand yuan per acre.
And everyone knows that as time goes by, land will become more expensive.
The nobles and powerful men took the opportunity to annex the land, and the longer the time passed, the more valuable the land became.
Although this is a border state, there is salt here. If you exchange grain for salt, you won't lose anything. One acre produces half a stone per year, and 10,000 acres will produce 5,000 stone. Yanzhou, which is short of grain and has salt, can make a profit no matter how you calculate it.
of.
Although he still had to invest in building a farm, buying slaves, and even buying cattle, farm tools, seeds, etc., Doulu Huairang thought it was a good deal. After all, it was not easy to come across 10,000 acres of land.
"Would you like to buy some more?" Wu Huaiyu asked with a smile.
Doulu Huairang smiled and said, "Let's buy this one first."
He wanted to buy more, but after all, one hundred hectares of land was a lot, and he wanted to wait and see which way the wind was blowing, in case the emperor or the court were not happy.
Huaiyu turned to Zhang Chengde and Liu Xu, "Do you want to buy some? The land price is very cheap."
But the two of them just shook their heads, "I would like to buy it. Land is not expensive, but we can't afford slaves to farm cattle and farm crops."
An acre of land costs only 100 yuan, but a tin slave costs at least 10,000 yuan, and a cow costs several thousand yuan. You also need to build a farm, build a house, buy a plow and a hoe.
acres of land.
After all, to build a thousand-acre village, one would have to invest hundreds of dollars in the early stage, which poor officials like them really couldn't afford.
However, Yan Governor Shi Wei Siren was quite moved. The Wei family was not short of money. Seeing Doulu Huairang buying 10,000 acres of land and 20,000 acres of pasture at one time, Wei Siren also wanted to get some, but he was the governor of Yan, so he was a little worried about the negative impact.
.
"Don't you plan to buy some?" Wei Siren asked Huaiyu. If the governor took the lead in buying, he might consider it.
"I plan to ask the saint for permission to buy five thousand acres. As long as the saint allows me to buy it, I will buy it and buy some slaves to build the village."
Wei Siren said, "Then I will also ask the saint for a decree. If possible, I will also buy fifty hectares."
Zhang Chengde, Liu Xu and the others looked at these bosses with great envy. They wanted to buy it but they really couldn't afford it. Just buying land was not enough. Someone had to have cattle to farm the land. That would be the big head. A Din slave would be considered a slave.
There are hundreds of acres of land, and one cow can be used as dozens of acres of land.
I can't afford it, I really can't afford it, I can only stare in envy.
Now they finally understand why Li Daozong was able to occupy hundreds of hectares in Lingzhou.
