Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-First Reclamation to Plant Cotton
With the lessons learned from escorting the caravan, the enthusiasm of the captured military households in Congling to cultivate land was unprecedentedly high. Even their women from ethnic minorities also took up the task of reclaiming land along the banks of the Yiduo River.
The twenty people who participated in the task of escorting the caravan had already received two thousand coins, which were real two-string Kaiyuan Tongbao. When their wives took the money home, they hung it on their shoulders and made a crisp sound, which made the guard
The rest of the people in the city are eager to catch him.
Captain Shi and Captain Song could only watch helplessly as their secret alliance of lazy men was dismembered. Those soldiers who actively trained in the early morning and those who worked hard in the afternoon plowed the fields. Yesterday they swore that they would never follow the enemy.
Make it easy for him to move.
But now they are working hard to cultivate the land, but their faces are cheerful. As long as they dig out an acre of land with their heads, they can receive fifty heavy copper coins from the guardian. What could be more comfortable than this?
After painstaking thinking and analysis, the two came to the conclusion that no matter how strong the alliance was, it could not withstand the corruption of money. Even the two women who were taking care of them ran to the Udo River to open up wasteland with their farm tools.
Li Siye stood on the top of the city, looking at the enthusiasm of land reclamation and farming in the distance, and felt proud in his heart. No matter where he went, land reclamation and farming was indispensable. In the future, he would have to accumulate grain widely and build high walls, so as to turn the green hills into green hills.
It cannot be reached into Nanniwan.
…
Yu Gou, the boss, became increasingly busy, and Li Siye put him in charge of inspecting the completion quality of land reclamation and the payment of wages.
In the evening, the soldiers carrying farm tools returned from the Qiduo River. After completing their workload, they took the initiative to go to Master Yu to collect their wages.
Everyone lined up in a scattered queue, and Yu Gou knelt down behind the table, put a check mark behind the name on the paper, and then called out the name: "Lu Xiaoshan, one and a half acres of wasteland, a total of seven
Fifteen dollars!”
The soldier smiled and wiped the dirt on his hands on his lower clothes, then held it with both hands to receive the money. Unexpectedly, Yu Zhubo glanced at him and asked: "Oh, by the way, you still owe the guard a cap and two guards."
Arm, a total of two thousand two hundred dollars, when will you pay it back?"
The soldier blushed slightly, scratched his head in embarrassment and asked: "I will save enough for this in the future, can I do it all at once?"
Yu Gou shook his head selflessly: "That won't work. I have to follow your method of saving. When will you be able to save enough? In this way, I will deduct thirty money from you first and write it down for you here. I will pay you a little each time.
It will all be paid off one day.”
He pointed at the soldiers lined up and shouted: "You are all the same! Each person will deduct a part. Until you pay it back, I will clearly remember the deducted amount for you in the account book, and you can also use hemp rope to tie the knot."
Keep it in mind!"
The soldiers were immediately discouraged. No wonder Li Shou was so confident when he captured the envoys and kept accounts, as if he was not afraid that you would not pay them back. It turned out that they were waiting for them here. This conspiracy was really deep.
The so-called conspiracy is not a conspiracy in Li Siye's case, it is just a little trick.
From today on, all the soldiers guarding the captives in Congling, like Yu Gou, use fine hemp ropes to keep accounts. Although pen and ink paper has become very popular in the Tang Dynasty, the price is still not very close to the people, and in the Tang army, every ten
Nine-half of the individuals are completely illiterate and cannot even write their own names, so knotting is the best way for them to keep accounts.
The knotting method of accounting is simple and easy to learn. For example, if Zhang San owes Li Siye 3,600 yuan for his armor, then he will tie three knots immediately at the beginning of a section of rope, and then tie six knots in the distance.
Then leave two equal distances and tie them together, which is equivalent to two zeros.
But what to do if there are changes in the accounts? It's quite simple. For example, Zhang San deducted 30 yuan from his salary today. He didn't know how to calculate it because the boss Bo told him that he still owed Shou Shi 3,570 yuan.
, he only had to untie one knot in the second section of the rope and tie seven knots in the third section.
Tie-knot accounting is suitable for all illiterate people, but there is a problem. Soldiers who cannot calculate can easily be fooled by the master bookkeeper.
Li Siye looked down from the roof of the thatched hall. He could pretend to be confused about this kind of thing, but he must know in his heart that if a person is pure, there will be no fish. He actually thinks that Yu Gou can be a little greedy in his own accounts, but not
To exploit ordinary soldiers.
If he is smart enough, he can continue to be the chief clerk. If he is not smart enough, sooner or later he will cause public anger, and he can kill him to appease the public anger.
Therefore, all principles are to ensure the absolute authority of his guard.
Within a few days, the military households guarding the area in Congling cultivated more than 500 acres of land on both sides of the Yiduo River. This number of acres was in line with the scope of his first trial planting. If the number of acres was too much, it would be unbearable.
.
According to what he later learned, the land in Anxi is very suitable for cotton growth. Even the alpine Pamir Plateau has considerable cotton planting fields, so his cotton planting plan started here.
There are cotton seeds in the markets of the four towns in Anxi, and there are also many small-scale cotton fields near Kangju and Qiuci. The people who grew these cottons were all Persians who fled to Anxi after the country was subjugated. Not only did they have early cotton
With processing skills, wool and cotton can also be used to make carpets. This technical specialty is popular all over the world. However, during this period, the biggest customers of Persian carpets were the Tang people. Every wealthy household in Chang'an had such a geometric hanging in their home.
Beautiful carpet.
Cotton cloth had appeared very early on, but the scale was small and the textile technology was immature, which made it expensive. The spinning wheel and loom that Huang Daopo improved had some impressions in his mind.
It is April now, and it is already the time to plant cotton. If you delay, you will have to wait until next year.
Taking advantage of the fine weather, he deliberately modified himself and dressed up like a Sogdian, wearing a pointed felt hat, and returned to Kucha City with Fujimu.
The purpose of dressing up like this is to avoid being recognized under the eyes of Anxi Governor.
The market in Qiuci is also similar to Chang'an. It usually opens in the afternoon and sells a variety of items with strong characteristics of the Western Regions.
Li Siye led the horse and walked among the crowded crowd. From time to time, a woman wearing a curtain hat and a veil covering her face would appear in front of her. Then there would be a woman with long black braids and a narrow-sleeved and thin-waisted corset.
The Hu girl wearing a long skirt blocked his view. She wore a silver collar around her neck and a jingling bell on her white ankle.
Fujimaki was looking at the bearded girl longingly, and then another Tianzhu girl with a copper basin on her head caught his attention. This Tianzhu girl had wheat-colored skin and a copper ring on her nose. She was bold and fierce. She faced Fujimaki.
Instead of being ashamed and angry, the voyeur twisted his waist and turned around, giving a flirtatious look in return.
Just as he was about to catch up and take a look, a group of big diners leading camels pushed him to the side of the road. Li Siye reached out to pull him and hit him hard on the head: "You can only see Hua Gu."
Liang? Why did I bring you out here? You won’t change your ways."
Teng Mu rubbed his aching head, knowing that what Li Siye said was not a good thing, so he just shook his head angrily and watched these black-clothed merchants ride away on camels in a crowd of people.