Yu Wencheng only went to the palace to greet him, but he would not escort them all the way. It happened that Tang Xitai was ordered to go to Yuzhang to see Lin Fu passing Pengze, so Tang Xitai went with Yue Lengqiu, and Yu Wencheng sent another group of guards to escort them.
Tang Xitai was one of the thirty boys in Chongzhou, almost considered a disciple of Lin Fu. He had previously served as Sinong of Luzhou Prefecture and joined the army. His status in Huaidong did not seem to be high, but in fact it was.
Believing that Huaidong would not risk Tang Xitai's life and arrange for Yue Lengqiu to be kidnapped and killed by the bandits on the way, Deng Yu, Yue Zhi and others were more relieved to see Yue Lengqiu leave.
The shortcut to Yuzhang is to go southwest from Pengze, board a boat in Duchang and cross Poyang Lake.
The three counties of Pengze, Hukou, and Duchang along the way are located on the east bank of the Yangtze River waterway from Poyang Lake. The She family, led by Tian Chang, had stationed heavy troops here to defend Chizhou, so the civil resistance movement was suppressed.
After the Shangrao defense line was penetrated, the She family fled north across the Yangtze River in a hasty and decisive manner, and there was no time to carry out large-scale destruction in this area.
Although the counties in Jiangzhou have been severely exploited by the She family in the past year, this year's farming has not been greatly affected, and there has been no chaos in the countryside. This is rare and valuable for the broken Jiangxi.
Going west from Pengze, passing through Hukou and heading south to Duchang, the wheat ears along the road are golden and it is the harvest season.
Yue Lengqiu and Tang Xitai rode in two carriages, one behind the other.
Yue Lengqiu and his family members Yue An and Yue Zhou were riding in the same car. As the saying goes, they were at peace once they arrived, and while enjoying the scenery along the way, they did not feel particularly anxious.
"It's rare that Jiangxi likes to eat noodles. I didn't expect Jiangzhou to grow wheat so extensively?" Yue Zhou sat in front of the carriage and looked at the wheat fields along the road, quite surprised.
"It has been thousands of years since wheat crops were introduced to the Central Plains from the northwest. There was a process of spreading from west to east and from north to south. But after arriving in the south of the Yangtze River, it first spread to Jianghuai, Zhejiang and Zhejiang, and then gradually spread to the west, almost to Qisheng.
It’s the beginning of the year. At this time, wheat cultivation in Jiangxi has been intensive for about a hundred years, with Jiangzhou and Shangrao being the most prosperous. Looking at the geography, we can see that wheat cultivation in Shangrao was introduced from Zhejiang and Zhejiang, while wheat cultivation in Jiangzhou was introduced from the south of Jingchu——
On the contrary, when I went to the hinterland of Jiangxi, Fuliang, Fuzhou, Yuzhang, Ganzhou, Yuanzhou and other places, there were few farmers planting wheat. It was not unsuitable, but it was actually not there yet." Yue Lengqiu experienced countless experiences in his life and had broad knowledge. Although Yue Zhou was a slave,
, in fact, he is regarded as a disciple. The children of the Yue family are not prosperous, and Yue Lengqiu carefully cultivates his children and is much more loyal than outsiders. This time he sent Yue Zhou to accompany him, and he also had more time to teach along the way. He patiently explained, "
In the past, farming was done in spring and harvested in autumn, so there was a problem of not picking up the green and yellow crops. After the autumn harvest, you might plant wheat bean sprouts, which can make up for the shortage of spring and yellow crops without damaging the soil fertility. Jiangxi should plant wheat on a large scale..."
Grain production in the world is low at that time. The annual harvest of beans and wheat in the north cannot be regarded as a famine year, with an annual harvest of 60 to 70 kilograms. The rice planted in the Jianghuai paddy fields can only yield a harvest of more than 200 kilograms. If the paddy fields are planted with a season of wheat in winter, even if Jiangxi is seriously affected by humidity,
Growing wheat is not as good as that of Lianghuai, but if one acre of land can yield ten kilograms of grain, farmers will smile. Therefore, Yue Lengqiu made this conclusion.
"Does the master still have the heart to pay attention to farm affairs and other common affairs at this time?" Yue An, a member of the family, sat on the shaft of the carriage and listened to Yue Lengqiu carefully teaching Yue Zhou about farming, and asked doubtfully.
"Looking closely at these years, the bottom line is that we don't care enough about these general affairs!" Yue Lengqiu sighed lightly, but he was not worried that Tang Xitai behind him would hear it, and said to Yue Zhou, "Mai Zuo is not afraid of the cold, but it is harmful to the cold.
Therefore, the double-cropped fields of rice and wheat need water in summer and drought in winter, and are particularly dependent on ditches. Before Chong Guogong entered Huaidong, the upper-mature fields of double-cropped rice and wheat in Chongzhou County were only 200,000 to 300,000 acres, so they were called
The land of rice and fish. However, in less than ten years, almost all the paddy fields in Chongzhou County have achieved double cropping. This political ability is hard to convince people..."
"Relative Yue is really familiar with matters in Chongguo." Tang Xitai asked the driver to drive after him, and drove alongside Yue Lengqiu. He bowed and smiled and said, "When my lord first came to power in Chongguo, he wrote a letter saying that he would live as a tenant and reduce the rent.
, I haven’t seen Governor Yue’s response, and I still regret it so far. I really didn’t know that Governor Yue had such a deep understanding of farming.”
The five counties of Chongzhou have been entrusted to Lin Fu. Yue Lengqiu was accustomed to the old name and found it difficult to change his name. Tang Xitai insisted on calling it Chongguo.
Yue Lengqiu's status is naturally not comparable to that of Tang Xitai, but it is difficult for a tiger to fall on the plains to gain prestige, and Yue Lengqiu cannot stand out in front of Tang Xitai.
"Reducing the rent, fixing the rent, and always renting, so that the tenants will not be harmed by repeated fluctuations and can focus on farming, is really a big benefit. To put it simply, if you plant two crops and only receive one crop of rent, the tenants will naturally be happy to farm both crops.
He was doing work, fertilizing the fields, and participating in ditch improvement," Yue Lengqiu said. "Dong Chongguo wrote about this matter in the eleventh year of Chongguan. However, at that time, Yue mistakenly thought that this was not an urgent matter at the moment, and he did not expect it to be a big mistake...
…”
Tang Xitai smiled and said: "At that time, the Tianjin-Hai grain road was still there, and the north needed to pump millions of stones from Huaidong. My family was also forced to think about increasing production and raising grain; it was quite satisfactory."
Listening to Tang Xitai's calm tone, Yue Lengqiu smiled bitterly in his heart: How can it be called satisfactory?
The biggest mistake of the She family's collapse in Jiangxi was that they did not expect Lin Fu to be able to stabilize the situation in Jiangning so quickly and launch an offensive against Jiangxi so quickly.
The situation in Jiangning was stabilized, ostensibly because Lin Fu borrowed five million taels of silver from Huaidong Bank twice in the name of the Ministry of Household Affairs and Jiangning Mansion to make up for the shortfall. However, the She family once captured Jiangning and launched a massive plunder. The plundered gold
The amount of silver was millions of taels, so why couldn't the She family recover after retreating to Jiangxi?
Gold and silver only make up for the lack of circulation, but if the people have no food to purchase at all, no matter how much gold and silver they have, they are still waste. In the past year, only eleven counties in Huaidong transported as much as 4 million affordable rice grains to Jiangnan.
Shi, this is the fundamental reason why the situation in Jiangning quickly stabilized.
Without food input, farmers are starving and have no choice but to leave their hometowns to escape famine. Not to mention that it is difficult to restore local agricultural production, it will also have an impact on other places, affecting public security and production. With sufficient food input, farmers can eat enough.
If you can concentrate on farming and resume production, the situation will naturally stabilize.
However, a considerable part of Huaidong's 200,000 soldiers and horses depend on Huaidong for food. Western Zhejiang, Eastern Fujian, and Northern Zhejiang are all new lands for Huaidong. Who would have thought that Huaidong
Can only eleven counties produce so much surplus grain at once?
There are two ways to achieve hegemony: building cities and accumulating grain. Lin Fu really did these two things to the extreme.
The defeat of the She family was due to non-military and strategic reasons. It was actually due to political weakness.
Of course, even if Yue Lengqiu was surprised and confused, Tang Xitai would not tell him all the details about Huaidong.
You must know that when Huaidong was short of food, millions of tons of rice grains had to be transported from Haidong every year. It was also the effect of defending the seawall in the past two years that was more fully demonstrated, causing Huaidong's grain output to increase year by year.
.
In the 11th or 12th year of Chongguan, Lin Fu was determined to spend millions of taels of silver at a time to repair the sea wall. How many people watched and sneered? Wasn't Yue Lengqiu one of the sneers?
At this time, many people in Jiangning were still fleeing north for the She family, and Yanhu was worried that Yanhu might soon open the western route. However, the successful capture of Jiangxi made everyone in Huaidong confident, and they were not afraid that Jinghu would give Yanhu cavalry
Puncture.
It's nothing more than water coming to cover it, and soldiers coming to stop it.
The situation in Jiangning, Ningnan, Ningxi and eastern Fujian has gradually stabilized, and there will no longer be a special shortage of food. The situation in western Zhejiang and northern Zhejiang has also improved one after another. No matter how dilapidated the situation in Jiangxi is, it can be dealt with calmly, at least not
It's harder than last year.
The She family in the south of the Yangtze River is like an enclave in northern Fujian. Guangnan County, Yuanzhou, and Tanzhou all have the tendency to surrender.
Even under the current situation, Huaidong can still support 250,000 soldiers; when the situation in the entire south stabilizes, Huaidong's soldiers and horses expand to 300,000 or 400,000, and there is no need to worry about anyone in the south of the Yangtze River restraining them.
Fight head-on with Yan Hu on the battlefield of the Central Plains?
At present, Lin Fu ostensibly exempts Jiangxi from taxes for the next three years to support himself, but in fact, if Jiangxi wants to rebuild and resume production, it will have to import a large amount of salt, iron, rice, coal, tea, cloth, and even mules and horses from other places -
-Including Guangnan, Xiangtan and other places in the future, Lin Fu has no intention of directly taking over taxation from the beginning, but market dumping must be opened. Huaidong can rely on the salt and iron business to absorb a large amount of military resources from these areas
.
After the Jiangning War, the market in Qifu in the south of the Yangtze River was opened to Huaidong. Iron materials alone will bring huge profits of nearly one million taels of silver to Huaidong in the first half of this year.
After Yanhu captured Jidong, he took over the former Jizhen Army's iron factory in Zunhua, Jidong, and moved craftsmen from Liaodong, making it Yanhu's largest ironmaking center in the north.
According to the information obtained by the Military Intelligence Department, Yanhu's Zunhua Iron Works has nearly 20,000 craftsmen, producing a total of four million kilograms of fine iron and rough iron a year. Although the Yanhu people were born in the barbarism, their king Ye Jier
Only with great talent and great strategy, he made great efforts to smelt iron in Liaodong in his early years and develop Liaodong, can he have the foundation to seize Yanji from the south.
The scale of the Zunhua Iron Works even exceeded that of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry when the iron industry was at its peak, and the number of craftsmen employed was slightly less than that of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry. One more and one less shows Ye Jier's strong political skills and vision.
So far-reaching.
It's a pity that the one standing in front of Yanlu is Huaidong, not Canyue, nor a temporary tycoon like the She family.
In Huaidong, there are about 30,000 craftsmen related to iron smelting, but the total annual output of iron materials is as high as 20 million kilograms.
In terms of per capita iron production, Huaidong is three times that of Yanhu's Zunhua Iron Works.
Thinking of this, Tang Xitai bowed to Yue Lengqiu again and said, "After listening to Yue Xiang talk about farming, Xitai has something to ask me?"
"Please speak." Yue Lengqiu said.
"When Yanjing was not overthrown, the Northern Territory normally needed to import six million shi of grain from the south every year; but after the Yan captives occupied the Northern Territory, Shandong and Henan were left in ruins, so they could support four to five million shi.
Why is it that horses have been exhausted in successive battles?" Tang Xitai asked.
Yue Lengqiu glanced at Tang Xitai and thought to himself: Could it be that Lin Fu deliberately arranged for Tang Xitai to go with him?
Yue Lengqiu thought that Tang Xitai wanted to test each other. Although he couldn't guess why he was like this, he didn't take it seriously. He said calmly: "In the past, grains from the south to the north were needed to make up for the shortcomings of Yanjing, and they could only barely maintain it; but now
The food supply in the south was cut off and the north was half-impaired. How could the Yan captives occupy the north and raise four to five million soldiers and horses? Many people were surprised. But Lord Tang should be aware of this..."
Tang Xitai smiled awkwardly, thinking that Yue Lengqiu was really an old fox, and the temptation was a bit obvious, but he bit the bullet and waited for Yue Lengqiu to continue.
"..." Yue Lengqiu asked Yue Zhou, who was sitting in front of the chariot's shaft, to listen carefully and said, "Although the north is far less prosperous than the south of the Yangtze River, there are nearly 100 million acres of fertile land in the Yanji Plain, and Jiliao, Xuanfu, and Datong are three
The largest military settlements on the border totaled 17 million acres. As long as they are managed well, why worry about not being able to support 4.5 million soldiers and horses?"
Tang Xitai's eyes were distant and distant, and he knew that what Yue Lengqiu said was true. Seeing that Yue Lengqiu had grasped these numbers easily and understood them clearly, he was also convinced that Yue Lengqiu's position as Deputy Prime Minister was not in vain.
Datong Town is not an independent city. Datong Town is one of the three sides of the Northland. With Datong City as the core, there are more than 500 military garrison fortresses, forming a defense line of nearly 600 miles wide. When the military garrison was at its peak, the garrison fields were
Reaching seven million acres.
"The system of military households in military villages has been abolished, which has made it difficult to recover from many things." Yue Lengqiu was filled with emotion after carefully calculating all the shortcomings in the past. He used to make profits through speculation, but it does not mean that he does not understand the relationship between them.
Moreover, Tang Xitai may have tested it on behalf of Lin Fu. He talked eloquently, "The military villages were occupied by the generals, and the soldiers in the villages were worked by the generals, resulting in a large number of military households in the later period. By the time of Su Hu, the Marquis of Jingbian,
, the frontier army generals either recruit or recruit half and half, and the central government allocates half of the money, food, and crops for self-sufficiency. We can no longer completely rely on the military villages. If this is the only problem, it is not serious. The frontier army can recruit soldiers to make up for the shortage.
However, in the later period, almost all of the Jingying Army recruited soldiers. The number of soldiers in the Jingying Army in the later period was 130,000, and a total of 500,000 dependents lived in the prefecture, all of which needed to be supported by central finance and taxation. In addition, before the fall of Yanjing, including the grain supply,
The taxes paid by palaces and various places to the central government (or the Ministry of Household Affairs, or the Ministry of Internal Affairs), in addition to the money and food for the Beijing camp and frontier armies, are also used for two aspects: one is the official salary and salary, and the other is the support of the clan's inner court
Yanjing has a population of one million people, half of which are the army and their family members in the capital, and the remaining 500,000 people, including officials, some distinguished, and some poor and lowly who are dependent on officials. Officials may live in salary, or may be corrupt, and may receive salary.
As well as corruption to support their families and servants, wouldn’t it mean that more than a million people in Yanjing are actually eating from the central government’s wealth? The central government wants to support border troops and more than a million people in Yanjing, so it only takes taxes and grain from Yanji.
How can it be possible?”
It was not a random decision that Emperor Taizong of Yue moved his capital to Yanjing.
Even without the border military settlements, the Yanji Plain is actually one of the four major plains in the Central Plains, alongside the Lianghu Plain, the Jianghuai Plain, and the Hehuai Plain. The Yanji Plain extends to the Yellow River in the south, Yanshan Mountain in the north, Taihang Mountain in the west, and Bohai Sea in the east.
, the arable land reaches hundreds of millions of acres. The imperial family is in Gyeonggi, and the imperial estate surrounded by Yan Ji is as much as three to four million acres.
In addition to the Yellow River, there are many water systems originating from the Taihang Mountains and flowing into the Bohai Sea, which bring extremely convenient irrigation conditions to Yanji and support a population of nearly ten million at most.
Tens of millions of people and hundreds of millions of acres of land were not enough to support an imperial capital. It was no longer a question of whether the northern land was short of food, but that the Yue Dynasty was so heavy that it was difficult to return in the later stages.
In addition to the border troops, even the imperial capital's population of more than one million requires support from the outside world, which is beyond the capacity of the Yanji Plain.
The number of households in Jiangning city once reached 150,000 or 60,000. In addition to the wealthy officials and gentry from Jianghuai and Jianghuai who gathered in Jiangning, there were also a large number of poor people who depended on them.
This abnormal urban population structure is constantly sucking blood from the surrounding Jianghuai Plain, and a large amount of resources are wasted in Jiangning City.
Therefore, after the Jiangning War, Lin Fu, on the one hand, transported households in Jiangning City to workshops, industries, mining and other industries, and on the other hand, he moved the urban poor to eastern Fujian and Yizhou for farming. In fact, he wanted to reduce Jiangning City's use of the resources of the Jianghuai Plain.
Only through excessive occupation can more resources be used to support the army to compete with Yanhu.
"Before, it was difficult to return, but when the Yanlu invaded the border, Yannan and Lubei were crippled, and the Yellow River burst its banks and the canals were washed away, the situation in the north was on the verge of collapse," Yue Lengqiu said, "
It has to be said that Chong Guogong was really smart, and the Tianjin-Hai Grain Road was able to rise. By this time, the population of Yanjing had dropped sharply due to the grain shortage, which actually reduced the total number of Nancao to less than 3 million shi, which was barely enough.
Maintain. It's a pity that the Yanlu have been in power for a long time, and the late emperor lacked enough patience in western Liaoning..."
Tang Xitai thought to himself: Did Yue Lengqiu think better after the fact, or did he realize at the time that the battle in Western Liaoning was too hasty and would lead to defeat?
If it was the latter, Yue Lengqiu's scheming was really ruthless, Huaidong shouldn't be able to tolerate him? But thinking about it carefully, if Yue Lengqiu had seen through everything earlier, he wouldn't have told him frankly at this time.
Yue Lengqiu seemed unable to see what Tang Xitai was thinking. He followed the sound of the wheels and continued: "When the Beidi collapsed, the population of Yanjing had dropped sharply to 500,000, which was less than eight years ago.
Half of the previous Yanlu captured Yanjing. Except for about 30,000 soldiers who stayed behind with Zhang Xie and surrendered to the enemy, all the other troops in the capital collapsed. Before the collapse of the north, the imperial court had to bear the responsibility of feeding more than a million people in Yanjing.
But when Yanlu stole Yanjing, most of these pressures had actually been resolved..."
"In the past few years, the Yan captives have encircled and divided the land in Datong, Liaoji, Xuanfu, Jidong, Yannan and other places, and reorganized the military household system. In this way, the Yan captives raised four to five million soldiers, which is the capital of Beijing.
In addition to food and supplies, the camp army no longer needs to bear additional military pay. Even if there is military pay, it is just looting..."
"...Although there are countless surrenders, and they are shameless to accept the salaries of the Yan captives, from the captive king down, the captives are still frugal, and the surrendered ministers dare not be ineffective, which actually greatly reduces the consumption. When Zhang Xie did not rebel, he supported his family.
There are more than a thousand slaves, but at this time, the number of the traitors is less than a hundred. When the imperial court was in Yanjing at its highest, the inner court supported nearly 60,000 servants, while the Yanlu palace only had 2,000 people. This more and less, it is quite enough to call Yan
The captives have more than 100,000 troops and horses. The actual population of Yanjing City at this time, including the garrison, is only more than 200,000..."
On the surface, it seems that the salary of the surrendered ministers has not been reduced by the Yanlu, but in fact, there is a huge difference between whether they are honest or not.
Zhang Xie supported his family with more than a thousand slaves. In addition to salaries, a large part of it relied on corrupt bosses, which actually consumed the central government's finances. If the officials and ministers were honest, the central government's financial consumption would be much less.
"All of the above made it insufficient for the imperial court to raise Yanjing Ji when it established its capital in Yanjing, and had to draw grain from Henan, Shandong and Jianghuai. However, the Yan captives went south and occupied Yanjing. Although Henan, Shandong and other places were all ruined,
But in the middle of Jin, people's livelihood in Yan Ji has been restored, and they have gained the land of Liang Liao and Yanxi. Therefore, the Yan captives can raise four to five million soldiers and fight continuously."