The bustling city of Beijing is something that is out of reach for the people in Liaodong.
Shenyang Mansion, Shalingbao.
That day, taking advantage of the good weather, Wu Xin led a mule and two young officers and left Shaling Fort.
The mule was loaded with luggage, food, and more importantly, seeds.
Although the mule was lame, Wu Xin always cherished it and asked his two subordinates to help feed it from time to time and even help carry some luggage.
Cao Xi and Li Shizhen looked at the mules eating coarse grains and felt a little envious for a moment.
"Head of the township, please slow down. We have been walking for two hours. If you don't care about us, you must also care about the mule." Cao Xi held his waist and carried his luggage and shouted,
"You two boys are no match for your legs and feet."
Wu Xin turned around, dissatisfaction written on his rough face. He glanced at the panting mule and then said: "That's it, let's take a rest for now!"
After saying that, Wu Xin found a wide area near the river and scanned the surrounding areas vigilantly before he breathed a sigh of relief.
Cao Xi and Li Shizhen unloaded the iron pot from the mule, then took out a bag of military rations - fried rice noodles, grabbed four large handfuls, filled them with water, dug a hole and added firewood, and started cooking.
After a while, Wu Xin found a few more wild vegetables, put them directly into the pot, and muttered: "I'm tired of eating this stuff, I need to add some vegetables."
Liaodong implemented a military control policy. Due to the massive loss of population, 80% of the army's food and grass were imported from Beijing, and stir-fried rice noodles became the mainstream food.
Cao Xi and the other two swallowed their saliva, extremely greedy.
The bubbling fried noodles contain not only bean cakes, but also oil, salt, and even shredded pork. For these two sinners, it is the most delicious food.
The so-called "waiting for return" refers to the captured Han Eight Banners, Mongolian Eight Banners, and Manchu Eight Banners who surrendered. Although these people only numbered more than 10,000, they were valuable to the vast and sparsely populated Liaodong.
Therefore, this group of people are all called waiting to return. They must perform well within three years to become normal people.
It’s not like no one wanted to kill them all, but they were stopped and the number of prisoners killed is unknown.
On the surface, the two of them worked in the Shalingbao Township Government Office, but in fact they were treated like servants, with food and drink provided, but no pay.
These two people are educated and perform well, while the others work in the mines or cut trees in the lumberyard, which is much harder than them.
In this way, tens of thousands of free laborers have contributed greatly to the development of Liaodong, and there is no fear that they will escape and rebel, and they will be free when the time comes.
"There's still a year and a half—"
The two looked at each other, their eyes filled with desire for freedom.
Wu Xin took the rice spoon and filled each of them a large bowl of paste.
Seeing them happily eating like pigs, I couldn't help but smile a little.
"This trip will be very beneficial to you."
There was only half of the pot left, Wu Xin fed the mule, and then Shi Shiran sat down and said leisurely: "Although you will become a household as soon as the return period is up, how can ordinary people be happy?
"
As he spoke, he gave Li Shizhen a knife and Cao Xi a late bow, and then continued: "When the time comes, leaving aside the mines and Linshan, you two are educated people and can stay in the countryside."
"If you do well, you can still be admitted to the county government. This is much better than other jobs."
"Thank you, mayor, for the heads up -" The two of them knelt down quickly and thanked them from the bottom of their hearts.
From a prisoner of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty to a petty official, this step is a huge difference.
"Let's go and work hard."
Leading the mules, the group set out on the road again and arrived at a village in the forest of Shalingbao Mountain.
It has a population of two hundred, but there are only about twenty strong men. The devastation of the war is evident.
It is precisely because of this that there is a shortage of strong labor, resulting in not much farmland in the village. Women and children go to the fields, while men go to the mountains to hunt to supplement the family income.
Because Liaodong has a small population and cannot supply livestock to the Central Plains on a large scale, the army can only purchase animal meat from the private sector to maintain the army's meat supply.
Generally speaking, hunting can feed the family better than farming, which encourages more people to go to the mountains and forests, which also leads to slow food growth.
"Chief, what can I do for you?"
The village chief bent over and was helped to come over, raised his head and asked.
"You don't have enough farmland."
Wu Xin looked at the land outside the village and couldn't help but frown.
"There is no way, there are few plowing cattle, and there are also few strong men. Even if both young and old go to the fields, they can't fill the gap!"
The village chief sighed.
During the war that lasted for many years, almost all the young workers in the village were forced to join the army. Only one out of ten returned, and most of them were disabled. This was a fatal blow to precision agriculture.
There is nothing Wu Xin can do about it.
He couldn't grow so many men, nor could he bring out cattle or sheep, so he could only unload a bag of grain from the mule, about thirty kilograms.
Open it carefully and let them see.
The village chief looked up and saw dark yellow seeds with square edges and corners, which were completely different from the oval wheat seeds: "This is it?"
"A fine seed handed down by the imperial court."
Wu Xin was also a little unsure, but still insisted: "Its name is Corn..."
After pausing for a while, he had to take out the note from his arms and muttered: "It's just like sorghum, but the grain is wrapped in its buds, and the yield is extremely high. One acre of land can yield three to four hundred kilograms, and we don't choose the land.
It doesn’t matter whether you are fat or thin…”
After reading it in one breath, he explained it in layman's terms again, and then said seriously:
"This kind of seed was brought from Beijing. I heard that it was rewarded by God during the time when the emperor offered sacrifices to heaven. Amidst the lightning and thunder, after planting, three to four hundred kilograms per acre of land is a small amount. Seven or eight kilograms is not a big deal -
—”
"You should plant this bag as seeds and do it well. If something goes wrong, I'm afraid your whole village will suffer."
Seeing that the latter still couldn't believe it, he continued to emphasize: "By the way, starting from next year, you can also pay taxes when corn is ground into flour, just like wheat."
After saying this, Wu Xin left with all his gratitude.
"Head of the township, our township only has about 100 kilograms of grain, so you just gave them 30 kilograms?"
Cao Xi said in surprise.
You must know that the entire Shalingbao Township only weighs about a hundred kilograms.
Wu Xin shook his head and said with a smile: "There are not many kinds of grain in the first place. There are more than 20 villages in the township and there is no way to distribute it. It is better to distribute it to the poorest villages as much as possible."
"When the corn is harvested and there are more seeds, other villages will definitely want the seeds and we will distribute them to them."
"If we divide it equally, each village will not have many seeds, and not many people will pay attention to it."
"The township chief means that only the poorer the village will believe in this corn and do it seriously."