In the suburbs, Zheng Pu and Liu Yin, with more than ten retinues, hurried to Pingyi County.
There has been continuous light snow recently, turning the still green mountains and forests into white spots. The blend of white and green is really beautiful.
Along the way, we met some streams, flowing happily. In the light mist, they played the music of the earth, guarding the vicissitudes of time here.
Or perhaps, I am weeping for those who are homeless and have no power to mourn, and how difficult the world is.
As the city approached, more and more people were fleeing along the way.
Most of them are in ragged clothes, which is really pitiful.
Moreover, everyone has unkempt hair, dull eyes, stiff and numb faces, and no trace of life. Whenever the cold wind blows in early spring, there is a solemnity that seems to be "sorrow is greater than death" and spreads wantonly.
When Zheng Pu and Liu Yin walked past, the sound of the swords and armor of the retinues clashing as they moved quickly made many children burst into tears.
This situation also added a lot of gloom to Zheng Pu's heart.
The people are as afraid of soldiers as tigers, can they be appeased?
When I was young, I arrived at the city gate and entered the temporary governor's mansion, which was formerly the county office.
Without waiting for a warning, he was ushered in by the soldiers on duty and saw Ma Zhong, who was bowing his head on the case and writing dots and strokes.
Perhaps because he had traveled all the way to Nanzhong, Ma Zhong's voice and appearance were quite haggard, except for his bright eyes.
Likewise, adhering to a capable and decisive style.
After Zheng Pu and Liu Yin bowed and took their seats, he asked in detail about the garrison and the siege, the traitor Zhu Bao before and after his retreat, and the current situation in surrounding areas such as Guangtan County and Fan County.
After asking some questions, he pondered for a while, and then acted vigorously and resolutely.
He directly sent Liu Yin, who had just traveled to Pingyi, to garrison the siege and bring troops. "I am here with only more than ten retinues. It is difficult to maintain the order of the hungry people in the county. You have nearly a hundred soldiers under your command, and
Bring all the troops to level the area, protect and settle the hungry people, and guard the siege and defense. Just pay filial piety. There is no need to worry. Within three to five days, grain and fodder will be transferred to Nanchang County. You are good to protect the leader. If someone bullies the weak with malicious intent,
Anyone who causes trouble or robs food will be killed according to the law, and there is no need to report it to me."
"No! I accept your orders!"
Immediately, Liu Yin accepted the order with a bang, bowed, turned around and strode away.
He also made Ma Zhong look at his back, stroked his beard, nodded slightly, and said to Zheng Pu with a smile, "Xiuran is quite decisive, and Zijin is also regarded as a talented person in the national examination."
After saying that, before Zheng Pu could speak humbly, he lowered his head and rubbed the root of his nose with one hand. His voice was tired and said, "The imperial edict must have been issued for a few days. Everyone should know their responsibilities in advance. I don't know if Zijin can care for the people."
Do you think so?"
"Go back to the prefect, Pu Yousi."
First, he bowed his hands and bowed. Zheng Pu talked about his repeated patrols in the mountains and fields in the past few days, and then said softly, "Pu secretly believes that people will be safe if they have permanent property. Therefore, the first thing he thinks about is to open up acres of land."
"Build a field?"
Hearing this, Ma Zhong looked sideways and made a sound in surprise.
Seeing Zheng Pu's solemn nod, he had a strange look on his face, lowered his head and thought wildly.
Don't blame him for being surprised.
Xangqi County has long been famous for its mountains and flat land that can be used to open up acres of land. There is less than one tenth of the flat land in the county. It has also been occupied by the powerful barbarian tribes of the county's surnames for a long time. How can they find suitable soil to open up acres of land?
?Furthermore, there are more than a thousand hungry people here, and most of them are old, weak, women and children. Even if Zheng Pu can find some open land, it will not help.
Could it be that Zijin wanted to find the famous surnames or barbarian tribesmen in the county, accuse them of false crimes, and seize their acres to feed the hungry people?
Following his thoughts, a hint of understanding appeared in Ma Zhong's eyes.
He suddenly remembered that Prime Minister Zhuge Liang had given such instructions before leaving Chengdu.
"Dexin is very strict in his work and has a decisive attitude. I have no instructions to go here. However, now that Zheng Zijin is under your control, I will say a few words. Well, although this son has a strategy, he is quite capable.
His foresight is due to his strong temperament. His planning and advice are quite ruthless, and his virtue and trust must be weighed and weighed."
Ma Zhong naturally remembered the Prime Minister's assertion.
I couldn't help but misunderstood Zheng Puzhi's words.
After a short silence, he raised his head and said, "Zijin, please try to speak."
"promise."
Nodding slightly, Zheng Pu said, "Back to the prefect, Pu recently looked around Pingyi County and saw a lot of gentle slopes and low hills, so he thought that maybe he could drive the Li people to open terraces."
“It turned out to be terraced fields.”
Hearing this, Ma Zhong suddenly realized.
Although he is from Badi, he has also heard about Nanzhong Rice Terraces.
Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Han people who migrated to various counties in Nanzhong have already established precedents for developing terraced fields.
However, the development and maintenance of terraces consumes a lot of manpower and material resources, and the grain harvest is quite low. There are also people who do not know how to maintain the irrigation water system. The terraces are only one year old and are destroyed by heavy rains in midsummer.
The gains outweighed the losses, so few people opened up the terraces again.
Therefore, after Ma Zhong understood it, he couldn't help but urge him, "Has Zijin ever thought about the pros and cons of opening up terraces?"
"Go back to the prefect, Pu has thought about his mistakes."
Zheng Pu responded with a smile, and immediately said everything in his mind.
The hungry people here would not dare to return to their hometown if the court did not punish Zhu Bao.
Gathering people to sleep in the open, making it difficult to control their defecation and defecation, may lead to rampant epidemics. Moreover, it is the beginning of the year, and spring plowing is in sight. In terms of time, they may not be able to farm this year and have to support themselves, which is a huge burden for the court.
Therefore, Zheng Pu felt that instead of letting them spend their time here in vain, it would be better to send them to open up terraced fields in a "work-for-relief" approach. No matter how big or small the autumn harvest was, it would be considered a surplus for the court.
Furthermore, sending them to work in exchange for food rations can also create order and make management easier.
In this way, the problem of labor consumption in terraced fields cannot be discussed.
As for the difficulty of maintaining the terraces, Zheng Pu also has a solution.
He planned to develop the terraces in a way that "water is stored on the top for irrigation, the acres are stepped down in a circular manner, vertical gullies are opened on the left and right to drain the midsummer rainwater, and the terraces are solidly built." Although the intensity of development is higher, the terraces can last for ten years.
, even decades.
Finally, there is the problem of poor soil fertility.
After all, the land power stored in the soil of low hills and gentle slopes cannot be compared to acres of flat land.
If you want to have more abundant harvests from terraced fields, you must find ways to improve soil fertility.
At this point, Zheng Pu's teeth brightened, "Prefect, these are the two things I want to do to care for the people, employ them to raise hogs."
It also made Ma Zhong's expression even more strange.
Originally, when Zheng Pu talked about the method of working for relief, his brows relaxed and the tiredness on his face disappeared a lot.
The most irritating thing about supporting the people is that the people gather together and are difficult to control. For example, the common people have nowhere to exert their power, which leads to undesirable phenomena such as fighting, robbery, and lewdness.
Moreover, there is little literature and little etiquette here, and it is not easy to punish people.
Killing them too much will not be beneficial to stability.
It's tart, but it's too light to scare the crowd.
Zheng Pu's method was to expel the common people in order to satisfy their hunger, and they had no intention and no ability to cause trouble.
As for whether the terraced fields can harvest grain, it doesn't matter.
If so, that would be gratifying.
If not, then why would it be a pity if I didn’t think about it at all?
But now Zheng Pu is actually thinking about how to make the terraced fields harvestable, which involves hiring people to raise pigs.
Today, the best place for raising hogs is swamps and depressions, followed by mountains and forests.
The swamps and tidal flats are lush with aquatic plants, which are good feed for hog herds. The aquatic plants do not require planting and management, nor any investment, and are inexhaustible. The number of grazing is almost unlimited, so Sima Qian said that there are "thousands of pigs in the swamp."
Gongsun Hong, the prime minister during the reign of Emperor Wu, once studied with hogs on the tidal flats.
Raising hogs in mountain forests relies on the fruits and grass seeds of trees in the forest. The principle is roughly the same.
The land of Nanzhong has a mild climate and is full of mountains and forests, making it a good choice for raising hogs.
However, there is also a shortcoming: grazing hogs in the wild can be done in spring, summer, and autumn, but it is difficult to find pasture in winter.
Nowadays, there are no grains of Lishu left, and the county of Xianggao has always been in trouble. How can these pigs be fed in winter?
"Zi Jin had a very good idea to build terraced fields."
Therefore, Ma Zhong first nodded and affirmed the advice to open terraced fields, and then politely rejected the idea of raising pigs, "As for raising pigs, Zijin must be using pig feces to increase the soil fertility. However, although there are many mountains and forests here, it is difficult to raise pigs.
It's not difficult, but the barbarians here also forget their lives when they see profit, and they are afraid of stealing privately, causing disputes and other disharmony. Moreover, hogs are grazed in the mountains and forests, and they still need to be fed with chaff. The barbarians here have no food left. According to me
When I saw that I was hiring people to raise hogs, I gave up."
"The prefect's words are truly thought-provoking."
After complimenting him, Zheng Pu said respectfully, "As the eunuch said, raising hogs here is quite lacking in thought. However, the way I think of raising hogs is not to herd them in the mountains and forests."
After that, he was eloquent again.
The way he thinks about is to keep people in captivity.
Based on the essence of raising pigs that "a small circle is not too small, and a small circle will lead to obesity and disease", he wanted to make use of some steep mountains in Pingyi County and plant them all with milkvetch.
This grass likes a warm, humid climate and is not strict with the soil. It can not only be used as fodder for pigs, but can also be used as green manure.
If the government lends young pigs to the Li concubines to raise them, with each receiving half of the profits as a contract, there is no need for government instructions to plant pasture, and the home that borrowed the pigs will do it on their own initiative.
After explaining, he stood up and bowed to Ma Zhong.
"Pu thought that raising hogs could supplement the military, benefit the natives and barbarians, and improve the fertility of the terraced fields. There are many benefits. I also asked the prefect to fulfill Pu's sentiments."
"Why are you doing such a ritual?"
Guzuo cursed in displeasure, and Ma Zhongcai waved his hand, indicating for him to take a seat, "Since Zijin's words are true, why should I not agree? Well, you suggested these two things, so I will do it myself.
I told the rest of my staff to cooperate as much as possible. However, I hope that Zijin will be more involved so that I don’t feel ashamed of my kindness to the Prime Minister."
"Promise! Puding will live up to his mission!"
Immediately, Zheng Pu bowed and accepted the order.
Seeing that the matter has been decided, he also said goodbye and left.
Two days later, when Liu Yin returned to his command, Zheng Pu used his soldiers to restrain the hungry people, and officially implemented the work-for-relief and recruiting people to raise hogs, which also attracted many non-hungry people to eagerly seek to be one of them.
Or there are those who want to exchange their strength for some food during the slack period.
Or those who are greedy for the benefits of raising pigs.
There are also large households in the county and barbarian tribes outside the city who want to learn the method of opening new terraces.
The purpose is different, but the enthusiasm is high and in full swing.
In addition, Ma Zhong secretly made people deliberately clamor for the imperial court's favors such as feeding the hungry people, opening up fields for the people, and granting hogs to the people. For a time, the big names and powerful people in Zangqi County all paid attention to Pingyi County.
For example, privately comparing the differences between the old governor and the new governor, the amount of benefits gained from rebellion, etc.
Half a month later, Ma Zhong's two thousand troops arrived in Pingyi County, and some people could no longer hold back.
