While Jiuyuan County and the northwest region are still covered in snow, the Central Plains has lost its snow and ice, the trees have sprouted new branches, and the cold is fading away.
The spring of the year has begun.
Most of the common people with sallow faces and skinny muscles walked out of their houses that could not be said to be very warm, and started a new round of sowing with the seeds left behind by frugality.
The children who are five, six or seven years old are already somewhat sensible and have begun to help their parents with some farm work that they can do on their own, while those who have not yet reached the age of being sensible are playing innocently and happily.
This is the happiest time in their lives, and it is also the most carefree time in their lives. They only need to play and sleep every day. The only shortcoming is that they don't have enough to eat.
Compared with the civilians in other places in the Central Plains, the civilians in the Zhili area are already living a very good life. After all, they have disaster relief food from the court.
If it weren't for the food provided by the imperial court for disaster relief, they would have starved to death in this cold winter.
Civilians in other areas are not as lucky as they are, because the forces they belong to only care about their own people. They can't even provide for the families of their soldiers, so there is no extra food to supply them.
Those civilians.
Only by feeding and clothing the families of their soldiers can they win the support of the soldiers. As for the civilians, they don't care so much.
After all, they only have so much food in their hands, so how about more food to save those civilians?
Zhou Hangjie was walking on a path in the suburbs, followed by dozens of young people in gorgeous clothes, all of whom were descendants of aristocratic families in the imperial capital.
They have enough food and clothing as soon as they are born. They don't need to worry about food or their own future.
All they need to do is to gain more knowledge or live a happier life.
These young people studied under Zhou Hangjie, who was now a popular figure in their Daqian dynasty.
Especially after His Majesty went to the Chaos World to take charge there, most of the affairs in the Imperial Capital are now handled by the Prime Minister, Zhou Hangjie.
Zhou Hangjie didn't have the high expectations of the Kung Fu Emperor. He handled matters in the imperial capital in an orderly manner, and basically there were no major problems.
In other words, this link is more experienced in handling issues than the emperor. In the past, because the emperor was dictating from the side, some things were not handled very well.
But now that the emperor has granted him privileges, he is better able to deal with the problem.
Walking on the criss-crossing paths, Zhou Hangjie looked at the sallow and skinny commoners. Six or seven years ago, these people's families were very wealthy. However, in these short six or seven years, due to the chaos in the world, various taxes were imposed on them.
on these civilians.
Their families' wealth has been almost wiped out, and the heavy taxes and levies have made these common people unable to stand up straight.
This was still in the Zhili area. If it were in other areas, he didn't know how these civilians would survive.
Maybe this is the reason for the chaos in the world? Since the farmers can no longer afford food, why not follow those people to rebel? To grab food?
But what can the court do? The entire Central Plains fell into chaos because of the war.
Without military pay and food, how could the imperial court mobilize a large army to suppress the rebels?
If those rebels cannot be suppressed, the world will become even more chaotic.
This is a very bad cycle, and it continues to cycle until one day, a powerful force breaks this cycle.
For example, the armies of princes from all over the world are currently trying to break this cycle, as well as Xiliang, which is eyeing the northwest.
Those sect forces were not taken seriously by Zhou Hangjie. In his eyes, those sect forces were nothing to be afraid of. At most, they were just occupying one side to support a local force.
Are the real hegemons in the world still dominated by princes and heroes from one side? For example, Li Zhen, who is now in charge of the Great Qianbei Army? Li Xiang, who holds a heavy army and is eyeing the northwest land.
The White Lotus Sect in the southwest? The rebels in the southeast who want to cause a bigger riot.
These people are the root cause of the world's turmoil? They are the source of the world's turmoil.
Only by suppressing these people can the entire Eastern world calm down.
But how difficult is it to suppress all these forces? How about the prince? It is a bit difficult to suppress the local forces.
Especially Xiliang Li Xiang in the northwest region.
Doesn't Prime Minister Li know that he has now become a thorn in the side of the Daqian Dynasty? The two sides were originally allies. Due to the rapid growth of Xiliang's power, the emperor felt the strong threat from the Western Alliance and began to carry out attacks on Xiliang. sanctions.
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, there is a small pavilion in front. We are going to move inside and sit there." A very handsome young man stood behind Zhou Hangjie and said softly: "I just happen to be a student, and I also want to ask a few questions!"
Zhou Hangjie glanced at the small pavilion in front and nodded: "Everyone, let's go to the front and take a rest. We are all tired after walking all morning."
The group of people came to the small pavilion, and the young man who spoke said loudly: "According to the records of the agricultural officials, one acre of land can produce about two stones of grain. How can the Xiliang area produce six stones per mu? Can it also be planted in the coldest months of winter?
According to the information we have so far, there are at least 10 million acres of land in Xiliang. The amount of rice harvested in one harvest is about 60 million shi of grain. They can harvest four times a year, which means there are 240 million shi of grain.
An adult man needs to eat about three dan of grain a year. The population of the northwest region should be about 50 million, so the food they eat is only 150 million dan.
This is only their grain production. In addition to grain production, they also have a large amount of animal husbandry, so the amount of grain they consume should be less than this.
But why do they still charge a large amount of food from the people? The food produced by their official fields is enough for their soldiers, even if it is raised in captivity, the 50 million civilians will not be a problem."
After the rise of Xiliang, various forces have explored Xiliang in more detail. They have clearly explored Xiliang's farmland in the northwest.
Farmland is related to the food of a force. By exploring the number of farmland of the other party, you can roughly understand the food output of the other party.
Xiliang also has a particularly magical crop, cold rice, which can be planted all year round and harvested every two months. This means that there will be no food problems in Xiliang.
The King of Xiliang, Li Xiang, announced the abolition of agricultural taxes a few years ago. In other words, the food grown by the common people in Xiliang will belong to the common people. The King of Xiliang will no longer charge any food tax.
.
This is very shocking news to the common people in the world, and it is deviant to the aristocratic families and the imperial court.
Grain tax, this is something that has been passed down for thousands of years, but Xiliang just abandoned it.
However, they were not very optimistic about this policy in Xiliang at first, because after the abolition of the food tax, where would Xinliang's food come from?
Without food, Xiliang may be self-defeating.
Therefore, they were very resistant to Southwest purchasing grain from other places from the beginning, and wanted to see how to solve this food crisis.
Then they saw the official fields unique to the Xiliang army, which can also be called military fields, because these fields are cultivated by personnel from the Xiliang headquarters.
The food used by Xiliang soldiers was also produced in these military fields.
The number of military fields is very large, several times more than the farmland in the hands of civilians. The food collected in the military fields is enough to feed the entire Xiliang army, and even the people in the entire northwest.
Of course, they only learned about it after further exploration, especially about cold rice seeds.
A large part of the credit for the rise of Xiliang was due to the emergence of cold rice. Unfortunately, they did not have the skills to make these grains germinate. Even if they were allowed to catalyze the growth themselves, they would only be able to catalyze a few plants.
They are unable to catalyze the germination of these seeds on a large scale like the Xiliang headquarters, which also makes them unable to touch the seeds from a distance!
Xiliang headquarters already has a lot of grain, but why do they still buy a large amount of that grain from the private sector?
This made people from all forces very curious. They couldn't find the answer from the series, so they asked people who had contact with Xiliang and knew about Xiliang.
As for the closest relationship between the imperial capital and Xiliang, the only one who has the closest relationship is Prime Minister Zhou Hangjie.
No one would have thought that one of the least famous disciples of their Prime Minister would turn out to be one of the people stirring up trouble in the world, an unknown name named Zhang Qingyun.
In this short period of six or seven years, he became one of the most influential figures in the world, although there was nothing outstanding about him, and no one even knew what kind of talent this person had.
But just because he is the most trusted subordinate of the King of Xiliang, he is called the General Manager of Xiliang. He controls almost all the politics of Xiliang, and all the officials of Xiliang are under his command.
He can be called one of the most powerful figures in Xiliang.
Because of the strong power in the southwest, Zhang Qingyun's status has also risen with the tide. After becoming famous, Zhang Qingyun's life background has also become known to people.
From then on, everyone knew that the chief steward of the King of Xiliang was actually a disciple of Prime Minister Zhou Hangjie, although the two had already severed the relationship between master and disciple due to some things.
But everyone knows that the relationship between the two of them is officially broken, but when Zhou Hangjie needs Zhang Qingyun to help him with something, Zhang Qingyun will definitely help.
Because Zhou Hangjie had the kindness to save Zhang Qingyun's life, the kindness to raise him, and the kindness to educate him. Such a lot of kindness can't be cut off easily.
Zhou Hangjie glanced at the young man and said with a smile: "How did I know this?"
"Perhaps it's just that the people in Xiliang feel that there will be a bigger war in the future and need to reserve more food, and they don't want the food to flow outside, so they buy their own food!" Zhou Hengjie said, leading the topic to
On another policy of Xiliang: "Haven't you noticed that the monetary policy over there in Xinlian has changed? They no longer apply gold and silver, but instead use banknotes like the Mercury World over there in the Chaos World. This
It is a method they have started to use before the chaotic world came out.
All the forces trading in Xiliang need to use banknotes. If there are no banknotes, you can go to the bank in Xiliang to exchange banknotes.
This policy can be said to be the most ruthless policy in Xiliang, because Xiliang King Li Xiang can use this policy to collect all the gold and silver in Jiuyuan County and the northwest region, and the civilians under him
Soldiers, most of what they got were paper money.
Paper money is said to be valuable because it can buy a large amount of goods in Jiuyuan County in the northwest region. It is said to be worthless because it is just a piece of paper, a piece of paper made of special materials.
Production may require some cost, but it is definitely not as valuable as the remaining gold and silver.
There is another point you should pay attention to, that is, if you want to buy goods from the Western world, you must use the banknotes issued by Xiliang. Currencies such as silver and gold must be matched and converted into banknotes before you can buy them."
Zhou Hangjie had noticed this policy of Xiliang a long time ago, but a long time ago, Xiliang only circulated it in a small area, and did not apply this policy to the entire Jiuyuan County and the northwest region.
But during the Chinese New Year this year, after Xiliang occupied Liangzhou, they began to implement their monetary policy.
This is a policy that can shake the rule of their Daqian Dynasty, and they must respond.
Otherwise, in the future, all the currency in the world will be circulated in Xiliang, and the production value of these banknotes will not be worth mentioning in the southwest.
They can produce as much as they want, and external forces like them have no way to contact or resist.
The students present fell silent when they heard Zhou Hangjie's words. They also knew about the news, but they didn't pay much attention to it.
Because the currency used for bulk cargo transactions in Xiliang is still silver and gold, they don't think this will affect many people.
After all, those banknotes in Xiliang can only be used in Xiliang.
But now that I think about it carefully, it seems a little different, because Xiliang has now become one of the economic centers of the world. They have not been to the Xiliang area, but they can know from the words of those businessmen that the business in Xiliang is
How prosperous the development is.
What is the biggest purpose of those merchants going to the northwest region? Isn't it just to buy goods from the Western world?
