Chapter 214 The time of day brings prosperity to Han Dynasty

Chapter 214 The time of day brings prosperity to Han Dynasty

Li Tai had just returned to the Blackwater Defense City, and Zhu Meng, who had stayed behind to serve as the defense chief, strode forward to greet him, holding a book in his hand and looking happy.

"Mr. Lang, during this month's defense, we have recruited more than 300 warriors from the countryside, all of whom can serve as formations. We have also built two new garrisons. Please review them, Mang Jun!"

Zhu Meng came forward and handed over the registration book. Li Tai looked through it briefly and nodded with satisfaction.

Even if the isolated city is not defended and the Yellow River natural danger is as steep as Tongguan, forts must be set up around the city to separate key points and support each other. No matter how solidly Blackwater City is built, it still needs to divide its surroundings to form a complete and thorough defense line, thus effectively deterring thieves in the surrounding area from committing any minor offenses.

Although the county and county organizations in this area have been abandoned for a long time, they are not completely deserted. There are still a lot of small wall settlements such as the one where Commander Lu Chuan lived in seclusion in his early years. If they can be effectively integrated, they will also be an important basis for establishing regional defense.

There are usually not many people in these docks, and the places they guard are desolate and hidden places. It is difficult to make a living. Once they are discovered by the wandering Jihu tribe, it will be a disaster.

Last year, Li Tai wandered in this area for many days and rescued many Hanhu slaves from the Jihu tribe. At that time, the limited strength could not effectively integrate these people, so they could only be left in the wilderness and make a living independently.

This year Li Tai came back to establish a defense zone and farmland in this area. The villagers who were rescued before became a good local personnel foundation, and they came back one after another and brought many other villagers with them.

These people can struggle to survive in the harsh barren environment, and they are also very brave and courageous. With a little integration and training, and being issued with bows, swords and armor, they can become excellent defensive soldiers.

"The food must be sufficient, the land must be provided quickly, the muscles and bones must be nourished, and the people's hearts must be supported! If the people you are guarding are not up to par, please ask Luochuan for help!"

Li Tai also warned that it is easy to annex a population, but difficult to unite people's hearts. Without trust, there will be no establishment. These villagers responded to the call and recruited. It is not easy for them who have been in trouble for a long time and are used to seeing turmoil. The cost of trust is If you are too high, you will pay the price of your life at every turn. If you can't quickly consolidate this power, it will be difficult to calmly gain a foothold.

After Zhu Meng heard this, he nodded: "Everything is according to Lang Jun's plan. When he joins the army, he will be given fields, when he is naturalized, he will be given farm tools and grains, and when he sows, he will be given bow and knife training. Be diligent in preparing for war, in case of autumn and winter."

Li Tai stayed in Heishui Fangcheng for another two days to inspect the farming and land reclamation conditions here. The two farming models have created nearly a thousand hectares of cultivated land. Although they are both lightly cultivated and extensively cultivated, the area is vast and the harvest this autumn is expected to be considerable.

Here we have to talk about the relationship between climate and the general trend of the world. In 538 AD, which was the fourth year of the reign of the Western Wei Dynasty, and the second year after the Battle of Shayuan, elephants were discovered in the Henan area of ​​the Eastern Wei Dynasty, so the Eastern Wei Dynasty changed its name to Yuan Xiang.

The discovery of elephants in Henan means that the Little Ice Age that began at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty has officially ended, and agricultural production has once again entered a period of rapid development. It also means that agricultural civilization will surely rise again.

Changes in the meteorological environment have allowed farming civilization to obtain more stable and sufficient supplements, and the efficiency is far behind the nomads.

Although the Western and Eastern Wei Dynasties were all born from the Beizhen Legion of Erzhu Rongba Mansion, they had to make concessions to varying degrees to the Han people who mastered farming technology in order to stabilize their hegemony and gain the qualification to dominate the world.

The national discourse power, which has been out of order since the Wuhu chaos in China, has also changed in different ways in the post-Three Kingdoms era. No matter what kind of heroes they are, anyone who goes against this trend will suffer failure in success or failure in life. The dead are destroyed.

Although Li Tai does not personally work in the fields, he can quite concretely feel the changes brought about by climate change on agricultural production. For example, in the lower reaches of Luoshui today, this year is just over halfway through, and the signs of various harvests and the benefits they bring are already obvious.

After some rectification, most of the hydraulic facilities on Luoshuang River were controlled by Li Tai. With the arrival of the flood season, various processing profits also increased with the river flow.

The daily chemical and food industry such as soap fragrances, which he doesn't like very much, has seen profits rising steadily this year, and prices have soared one notch compared to last year.

For ordinary households with equal land, they can barely make ends meet, and those wealthy local tycoons have become willing to spend as their incomes increase. Grain is cheap and labor is expensive, which is about to become a common social phenomenon.

It should be noted that in the third year of Datong, Guanzhong also encountered a severe famine, so that Yuwentai had to lead his troops to rob the Hengnong granary, which triggered the Battle of Shayuan. Now in the eleventh year of the unification, food is no longer the primary issue plaguing the situation in Guanzhong.

According to this situation, in fact, even without the huge defeat in the Battle of Mangshan in the ninth year of the Great Unification, Yuwentai Bafu must still pay attention to the increasingly powerful Guanlong powerhouses with local capital and carry out effective integration and win-over. .

Li Tai also caught a ride with the times and was able to develop his power in northern Shaanxi, a place that had been barren for a long time. Otherwise, the one-year or even years-long investment period will be enough to bring him down.

The saying goes, heaven and earth all help when times come, but heroes are not free when they are gone. This is probably what is being said. The fate of destiny is sometimes mysterious and vast and cannot be explained, but sometimes it is manifest and concrete and can be seen everywhere.

A single spark can start a prairie fire. Although the reclaimed area of ​​​​the Black Water Defense Area is currently less than a thousand hectares, Li Tai believes that as long as this autumn and winter can be stabilized, there will be exponential growth in the coming year.

When the remaining people of Hanhu Township here realize that they can live and work in the soil and water of this township with peace of mind, without having to worry about being invaded and plundered by thieves and bandits at any time, they will definitely flock here in droves. !

The upper reaches of the Kuli River is a canal construction site, where thousands of Jihu Zhuang soldiers captured last year worked here. Beihua Prefecture's offer was an excuse. As for the prisoners of Xia Prefecture, Li Tai exchanged it with Yu Wengui for helping Xia Prefecture transport 100,000 shi of food and supplies this year.

These funds were allocated by Bafu and Xiazhou raised them themselves, and Li Tai was only responsible for transporting them into the country. Even so, the burden is enormous. Therefore, in order to make up for the lack of troops in the three-defense city, Li Tai borrowed two thousand troops from Xiazhou to guard and supervise the border.

These two thousand men and horses were not commanded by Yuwen Guizhou Mansion, but Li Tai borrowed them from various powerful chiefs in Xiazhou through his connections with Li He's family. Although they were hired troops, Li Tai also fed them with good food and drink, hoping that the people would return and be accepted as his subordinates.

Li Dao, who was supervising the work here, also went out of the camp gate to greet him, and reported to Li Tai the progress of the canal construction: "The ponds and swamps in Luodong have been enclosed into a large pond weir of more than 500 hectares, and the rivers in Luoshui are connected." The rivers and canals have also been connected and open, and it is expected that the Kuli River will be accessible by the end of the year, and more than 10,000 hectares of land will benefit from watering!”

The progress of this project can be said to be rapid, far exceeding that of Longshou Canal, which has been repaired on and off for a year.

Li Tai was also very happy after hearing this, but he remembered another verse and asked: "How much labor was lost in building the canal?"

"Since the beginning of the year, more than 3,000 people have been damaged. The damage will inevitably be greater in the autumn. If we want to complete the project as scheduled, we still need to add more."

Hearing what Li Dao said, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh. Although the canal was built very quickly, it still cost people's lives. Although the death of these rebellious Jihu Dingzhuangs is not a pity, more than one-third of them have been killed or injured since the start of the construction, which is also very troublesome.

After pondering for a while, Li Taicai then said: "The project continues as usual. If the number of casualties increases sharply, there is no need to rush to work in autumn and winter. There may be no help this year, and there will be more work next year. You can not miss the spring plowing."

Although violence is rampant here, there are not endless weeds to kill. The large-scale raids from last year to now have been a bit exhausting. Even if there are remaining Blackwater Hu tribes, they have all fled far away and dare not enter the area again.

The Heishuihu tribe of less than 3,000 people that Li Tai rounded up before was already his biggest harvest in this period of time.

However, those escaped Hu tribes will definitely continue to gather and harass this autumn and winter. After all, their activity space has been compressed to the extreme, and the output of farming, animal husbandry and hunting will also be very limited. If they want to survive, they can only take risks.

As long as they survive this winter's wave, the Blackwater Barbarians will no longer exist in this area. A regional barbarian force that has existed for many years may really become extinct under Li Tai's oppression. Even if there are still remnants, they will seek to make a living elsewhere.

Of course, Li Tai doesn't feel any guilt about this. As long as you are good people, well-informed, and knowledgeable, come to welcome me and serve me as my master, I will not exterminate you. Last year he ran away like the dog I was chasing and ended up in this embarrassing situation. Do you really think I have no temper?

Li Tai does not intend to include the land that will be reclaimed here in the future within the scope of Fangcheng Farming, but as a base for the implementation of the Kaizhong Law. Although this regulation has not yet been implemented, it does not prevent Li Tai from encircling and hoarding land.

It is really not easy to work for Yuwentai. When this smelly black otter sent him here at the end of last year, he only paid half of the supplies needed for the two defense cities. The rest was said to be given to Xu after the new year, but next year, he He had been sending letters to demand for half a year but had received nothing. It seemed that he was afraid that he would not be able to receive this supply until the fall of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

As for the cost of building canals, it was not a matter for Ba Mansion, and Yu Wentai simply didn't mention it.

Li Tai is already well versed in the principle of having enough food and clothing by himself, so he simply erased this matter from the letter to the Bafu. If you don't mention it, then there will be no such thing! I build the canals myself and farm the land myself, so as not to cause any trouble to the boss.

At the moment, things are in hiding. When the Kaizhong Law is officially implemented, he can directly and legitimately take possession of it, and let the rich and powerful people from all over the world who covet salt and profit become his tenants, sit on the ground and collect commissions, and become the biggest tycoon in northern Shaanxi!

After marching for many days, Li Taicai returned to Luochuan Fang, which was also his base camp to connect the past and the next and communicate with other places.