Chapter 5050 Hexi Cotton Field
The value of cotton is now known to the whole world, but many people cannot understand that two armies of the Sixteenth Guards were used to reclaim wasteland and cultivate cotton in the land of Hexi.
Why is cotton so important?
Therefore, most people, including Li Chengqian, believe that this is Fang Jun's revenge on Cheng Yaojin. As Cheng Yaojin's most loyal subordinate and partner, it is reasonable for Niu Jinda to be implicated.
As long as these two people are forced to farm in Hexi for a few years, they will probably be useless and no longer pose a threat to Fang Jun...
……
"Duke Lu has no complaints?"
Li Junxian's mouth twitched and said: "Of course there is, but the words did not express any dissatisfaction with His Majesty, but he was extremely angry with the Hejian County Prince, the British Duke, and the Yue Duke. While drinking, He often yelled and cursed, blaming these people for banishing him to the land of Hexi. He also said that there were traitors around His Majesty, and he should lead his army back to Beijing with a sword to protect him. "
Li Chengqian: "..."
If someone else said such words, he would be furious, but when it came from Cheng Yaojin's mouth, he couldn't even be angry at all.
Although Cheng Yaojin was hesitant and bipolar during the Changsun Wuji rebellion, and his position was extremely unstable, trying to watch from the sidelines and try to make ends meet, but after all, he never really attached himself to the rebels, so Li Chengqian was not intolerable.
Now the only person who can solve his predicament is the Zhenguan ministers under Emperor Taizong, and among the declining Zhenguan ministers, the most useful and trustworthy one is Cheng Yaojin.
Taking a sip of tea, Li Chengqian asked: "You said that Fang Jun and Sinong Temple promoted cotton cultivation in Hexi with great fanfare. Is cotton really that important? Besides, the land in Hexi has fertile soil and abundant river water. It has been in a corner since the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. There is a war and the situation is relatively stable. Where can we get so much land for reclamation? ”
Hexi has always been a battleground for military strategists, and its strategic location is extremely important.
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Hexi Corridor was the front line to prevent the Huns from invading. The heavy accumulation of troops and constant wars basically depleted the local people's livelihood. Hexi has always been a symbol of poverty and barrenness.
However, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Hexi was far away from the Central Plains and avoided the war. During the "Five Liang" period, the situation was relatively stable. The place of conquest during the Qin and Han Dynasties actually transformed into a safe haven for refugees from the Central Plains.
The influx of talents, money and silk made Hexi very prosperous.
Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although the Hu people invaded repeatedly, the damage was generally not serious, making Hexi once regarded as a "paradise"...
A prosperous and stable social environment often means the stability of class; and the stability of class means the stability of wealth.
What is wealth?
At present, it is nothing more than money, silk, land, and population.
The land and population in Hexi are controlled by the local wealthy families. Even if Cheng Yaojin and Niu Jinda have nearly 100,000 troops under their command, where can they go to reclaim the wasteland?
Is it really possible to flatten the mountain to grow cotton?
At first, Fang Jun believed that the climatic conditions in Hexi were very conducive to the growth of cotton and proposed large-scale planting there. Except for the support of Sinong Temple, there was almost unanimous opposition from both the government and the public.
In Li Chengqian's view, shouldn't the biggest opponent be Cheng Yaojin, who wanted to return to Chang'an and was most impatient with farming?
But why is Cheng Yaojin going to farm now?
Li Junxian hesitated for a moment and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, I know nothing about farming. I can't even tell which cotton is growing in the field and which is seedlings... But since last winter, I have been working on land." One after another, descendants of aristocratic families went to Hexi, either to buy or rent land, very frequently. ”
Li Chengqian frowned: "If there is such a thing, why don't you report it as soon as possible?"
"It's just that Baiqisi accidentally learned about it when he was monitoring the family members. He didn't know how much land he bought or rented in Hexi, let alone what his plans were. After all, since the Anxi Army guarded the Western Region, one after another After defeating the remnants of the Turks and the food army, Hexi became the choke point connecting the Western Regions and became more prosperous than before. Most of the famous families in the world had some properties in Liangzhou and other places."
Li Junxian felt a little aggrieved. He was the "Emperor's Eyes and Ears", but he was not the "Ear and Eyes of the World". How could he ask questions and take care of everything?
Not only do I not have the power, I also don’t have the ability!
Li Chengqian also realized that he was too harsh, so Emperor Taizong took the initiative to relieve the erring ministers of their responsibilities. What's more, Li Junxian was not wrong in this matter?
Then Wen Yan comforted him: "These guys won't stop for a day. It's embarrassing for you. We need to pay close attention to the trends in Hexi. I want to know what they are doing!"
"Here!"
*****
Compared with the sweltering heat and humidity in Guanzhong, Guzang City is drier and hotter!
Cheng Yaojin was wearing a big bamboo hat, holding his waist and standing by the rolling river. He looked at no less than 300,000 acres of fields that had been reclaimed at the intersection of the desert and the mountains. Green cotton seedlings covered the ground as far as the eye could see. .
The Macheng River originates from the Daxue Mountains in the eastern section of the Qilian Mountains. The melted snow water on the top of the snow mountains winds down to form several water flows, from high to low, from south to north, spanning dozens of miles and encompassing the entire territory of Liangzhou. , and then gathered at a place on the north side of Guzang City, flowing mightily to the north and into the Baiting Sea.
There is naturally no shortage of water in Liangzhou, with big rivers flowing and irrigating the fields. Most of the land in Hexi is deep and fertile, with abundant water sources. However, there is little rain in Liangzhou. The wind blowing from the far north is so cold in winter that the dripping water turns into ice. In midsummer, it is extremely cold. Dry and unbearably hot.
This has been the case since time immemorial.
Nowadays, as many students from Zhenguan Academy have come to Hexi to practice what is said to be the "reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles" activity, only then did they learn from the students that the culprit of such a natural environment is actually The tall and generous Qilian Mountains towering into the sky.
It was also from these students that he learned that it was such a unique climate that made Hexi the most suitable for the growth of some crops, such as fruits and cotton.
Sufficient sunshine, hot climate, sufficient irrigation, and fertile soil... According to those students, Hexi is an ideal place for growing cotton.
Compared with the stiff and rigid officials of Sinong Temple, Cheng Yaojin still felt that the students were more trustworthy. They were young, energetic and energetic, and had the courage to explore without being bound by the experience of the ancients. This was also what the entire Tang Dynasty had already formed. social atmosphere.
How can we do it if we always stick to the same old ways as our ancestors and don’t want to make progress and don’t know how to adapt?
If the things of our ancestors are really useful, they will not cause dynasties to change endlessly and the people to be in dire straits...
There is no mistake in every song, one post, one content, one 6 one, one book, one book, take a look!
How do you say that sentence that students often talk about?
"Now is a new era. We must keep pace with the times and renew ourselves"...
Although Cheng Yaojin didn't understand why the "new era" suddenly appeared, it did not prevent him from accepting these new things.
By the river, several subordinates whose faces were tanned by the scorching sun were working hard to turn the winch. The fine steel chains were slowly stirring to pull the sluice weighing hundreds of kilograms up from the gate. The river water in the river gushed out from the gap below the sluice. Entering the canal, the rushing river water flows along the cement-built canal. Dozens of sluices release water at the same time to fully irrigate the hundreds of thousands of acres of cotton fields.
A small boat came swaying from the upper reaches of the Macheng River. When it got close, the white sail on the boat was lowered. The boat slowly docked. An old man with white hair and a childlike face, wearing a ge robe and strong skills, abandoned the boat and landed, carrying his hands behind his back. When he arrived in front of Cheng Yaojin, he lowered his head and looked at the rolling river water in the canal, and nodded with satisfaction: "The design of this sluice is much safer than the previous method of digging up river embankments, but it is too expensive."
The land in Hexi does not produce cement, so it needs to be transported thousands of miles from Guanzhong. The freight alone is an astronomical figure. In addition, more than 10,000 soldiers and thousands of civilians are used. In addition to horse chews, everyone has to be fed. For a wage, the cost of building these canals is naturally prohibitively high.
Cheng Yaojin was puzzled: "Brother Shi Wen, why did you come to Hexi when you were not living in the water town of Jiangnan? Although the Lanling Xiao family bought many emperors in Hexi and have cultivated them, you can just send any of your children here. Why do you have to come in person?”
Xiao Yu stroked his beard with a smile and said teasingly: "Why, my dear brother, are you laughing at me for being so obsessed with money that you still come to this land west of Hexi for some cotton at an early age?"
Cheng Yaojin pointed to the endless cotton fields without beating around the bush: "You Jiangnan nobles have invested more than tens of millions of dollars here? I don't believe that such a huge wealth can be earned back just from cotton. What's more, Brother Shi Wen, you are now How can a man who is a high-ranking official and want to live in his old age travel thousands of miles just for the sake of a mere copper odor? To put it bluntly, why would he bury his bones here if he makes a mistake? ”
Recruiting the army and hiring civilian workers not only paid the bills, but also took care of the meals. In case of casualties, pensions were also paid. Reclaiming wasteland, constructing water conservancy projects, building agricultural tools, purchasing cotton seeds... one by one, money and silk are spent like water.
This is cotton farming, not gold farming. How can we make money?
However, the Jiangnan noble clans sent their children one after another to negotiate cooperation with Zuo Wuwei. Xiao Yu, a highly respected person, even went to Hexi to supervise the work in person...
How could it be just to make money?
Xiao Yu stood on the river embankment, looking at the cotton fields with his hands behind his hands, where the leaves were swaying like waves in the breeze, and said slowly: "Since ancient times, why have the people been so miserable and miserable? Without him, one would be hungry and the other cold. , one is a disease, that’s all. Such as natural disasters and military disasters are not worth mentioning.”
Cheng Yaojin nodded in agreement. How many people died in the battle?
After a military disaster, the number of dead people is recorded in books, and there is always a number. However, the number of people who died in the world due to hunger, cold, and illness is as countless as the number of sands in the Ganges River.
"In the past, cotton was called 'Baidiezi' by people in Hexi. Because it was not good at removing seeds, it was never taken seriously. Only wealthy families spared no effort to weave cotton into cotton cloth. It became a precious commodity that only the rich could enjoy, and even became a tribute. .Now there is stripping Seed machines and textile machines can not only spin cotton into threads and weave cloth, but also make cotton clothes, which are extremely effective in keeping out the cold. How can we use our family resources to plant thousands of acres of cotton fields and alleviate the suffering of all people in the world. Not for it?”
Listening to Xiao Yu's compassionate and merciful words, Cheng Yaojin wanted to spit. Isn't the reason why the people are hungry and suffering from cold and cold because they are exploited endlessly by your aristocratic family and have no way to survive?
Nowadays, aristocratic families say that they have to spend huge sums of money just to give the common people a piece of clothing... It is no different from a weasel giving a chicken a New Year greeting.
Cheng Yaojin was impatient: "Who wants to hear such empty words? Tell the truth, why did you come to Hexi to grow cotton?" Xiao Yu sighed, helpless: "Why don't you be given to me by that good son-in-law of our Xiao family? Forced? ”