Chapter 163 Palace
After one year and four months of renovation, some areas of Guangchengze have begun to look somewhat different.
The one with the fastest progress is Guangcheng Palace, located on Kongtong Mountain - south of Linru Town in later Ruzhou and north of Jianshankou Reservoir.
This mountain is rumored to be the place where Guangchengzi cultivated immortality. According to historical records, the Yellow Emperor once asked Guangchengzi in Kongtong Mountain.
The mountain is not high, more than 100 meters, and it is not big. After the logging and leveling, it is only enough to build a medium-sized palace on the mountain.
Shao Xun looked at the bottom of the mountain. This palace was not much bigger than an ordinary manor, with only dozens of rooms.
But the cost is not small!
Gain is surrounded by vast swamps, grasslands, and dense forests. It is not easy to transport materials, and it is even more difficult to transport materials to the mountains.
He looked at the surrounding scenery again.
At the foot of Kongtong Mountain, farmland is scattered here and there. It has only been roughly sorted out, but has not been sown.
Between the farmland, you can see rippling blue lakes everywhere - I don't know who God is, but also paved a road into the lake, and at the end of the road is a viewing pavilion.
Your grandma, what I want to build is a military fortress, can you give me a whole resort?
But - forget it, after all, it’s not your own money, so what can you do?
In addition, he was very emotional.
In later generations, this area was already a relatively densely populated area, but who would have thought that at this time it was a watery land?
At the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Guangchengze has been degraded and silted up, and part of the land has been "spit out", but there are still swamps everywhere - in every Little Ice Age, swamps have actually been degraded and slowly silted up into land. This was the case in Guangchengze, Liaoze in the northeast, and even the Binhai Road (Liaoxi Corridor) leading out of Youzhou was formed during the Little Ice Age in the late Tang and Five Dynasties.
With continued siltation and human activities, by the 21st century, the last relic of Guangchengze will probably be the Jianshankou Reservoir.
Thousands and seven hundred years of vicissitudes of life, the changes are indeed too great.
"Have all the palace rooms been completed?" Shao Xun put away his emotion, pointed to Kongtong Mountain in the distance, and asked.
"Sixty-eight large and small palaces have been completed." Cheng Lekuan of Nanyang County, who was busy around Kongtong Mountain, was not very impatient at first, but when he saw the more than two thousand soldiers brought by Shao Xun When he was riding, he immediately changed his attitude and said, "General, do you want to go up the mountain and have a look?"
"Let's go." Shao Xun took the lead and left.
Tang Jian quickly led the Shao soldiers, which had been expanded to two teams (113 people), to surround them tightly, and sent more than 20 people to clear the way first.
After arriving at Guangcheng Palace, they were assigned to various places to guard.
Le Kuan watched silently, feeling a little funny.
He is just a talented official and general, and he is not a clan king with all the power in the world. Why is he doing such a big show? Are you so afraid of death?
Shao Xun didn't know what Le Kuan was thinking, he just kept looking at the palace.
The materials used are very solid, with a mixed structure of civil wood and wood, and even a few bricks and strips of stone were used - before, there were many places under the mountain with thick smoke billowing, but it turned out that bricks were being fired.
The national project is really a big deal.
“Add a Cangcheng.” Shao Xun said.
“Cangcheng?” Lekuan was a little surprised.
It's just a palace. Whatever you need can be transported up from the mountain. Why build a warehouse?
“It doesn’t need to be big. It can store food and rice for thousands of people for half a year.” Shao Xun said.
“No.” Le Kuan sighed and agreed.
Guangcheng Garden conscripted nearly 60,000 concubines from five counties and kingdoms, which was really disturbing the people.
That’s it for the first year, everyone can tolerate it.
This is the second year, and there are already complaints within the county.
He couldn’t imagine what would happen next year. Will someone riot?
"After the Guangcheng Palace is completely completed, there will be no need to build palaces." Shao Xun added: "Level more fields, dig more ponds, and dredge more rivers. The river embankments can be unnecessary. Reinforce it now. A wooden fence will be built around the pasture, and several earthen cities and warehouses will be built as places for garrisoning troops and weapons."
Lekuan hesitated after hearing this.
This is not the way to the palace, it is more like a military camp.
"This is the place where the emperor teaches martial arts hunting. You can't be careless." Shao Xun glanced at him and said.
Le Kuan cupped his hand and said, "No."
Shao Xun's reason was terrible, but it made sense.
Once the emperor really comes here with the imperial army to teach martial arts, he will really need a military city and a fortress, as well as a warehouse to store supplies.
Seeing that he was silent, Shao Xun nodded and went down the mountain.
Guangchengze is too big to be enclosed, and in fact there is no need to do so.
Based on the geographical environment here, it is not suitable for cavalry operations. When Gain is riding and walking, he will find a river, a stream, a water pool, or a muddy land. If the Huns cavalry came here, Shao Xun would not mind blocking them again, confining them to a small piece of isolated land, surrounded by rivers and lakes, making them unable to run even if they wanted to, and finally calmly mobilizing the infantry, which was completely one-sided. massacre.
Of course, if the Huns mobilized a large number of infantry here, it would be another matter.
However, this is not possible in a short time. They may not even be able to win Luoyang now.
After returning to the foot of the mountain, Shao Xun patrolled around again.
He even saw several docks, and his face became darker.
Fortunately, there are acres of farmland near the dock. I asked someone and found that from the winter of last year to the spring of this year, more than a thousand hectares of old fields of "Guansu Mai" in the Han Dynasty were cleared. Because it had not been cultivated for a hundred years, weeds and shrubs grew very luxuriantly, and it took a lot of effort to clean it up.
In addition, during the construction process, they also transformed more than 300 hectares of farmland on their own, mainly from deforestation and merging swamps. When digging deep reservoirs, they will fill in some swamps with silt, forming New land. Shao Xun didn't have much hope for these "new lands" at all.
Is farmland obtained by clearing forests called fields? Maybe there are still many tree roots left underground. Such "farmland" will not produce any output without a few years of transformation.
But the newly created lakeside farmland made of river bottom silt can now be planted. The yield in the first two seasons will definitely not be high, but with more care and maintenance, it will gradually turn into a fertile and high-yielding irrigated land.
The transformation of nature by the people of the Central Plains is actually done step by step, commonly known as "opening up wasteland".
Shao Xun spent three full days in Guangchengze, seeing every place carefully, and then he felt a little relieved.
On March 16, he climbed to the top of Guangcheng Palace again and overlooked the magnificent scenery around him.
In the pasture that has long turned green, horses are galloping.
The leading stallion was in high spirits, wading through the shallow stream and moving forward without hesitation.
Hundreds of horses followed, making a big splash of water.
The eight thousand horses in the pasture are now divided into many groups, each led by a leader, living freely in the vast pasture. Sometimes they gallop and neigh in joy.
Occasionally stop and chew the fresh and juicy grass by the river.
What a joyful life!
Among the horses, you will occasionally see a few knights, managing these horses extensively.
On the surrounding hillsides, many cabins were built, housing some Long Sword Army warriors and hundreds of men recruited from Yushanwu.
Shao Xun has decided to send a group of Yamen troops to garrison here and replace those strong men.
The horses were one of the two largest fortunes he had ever made.
It is true that horses will age, get injured, and get sick, and they will become consumables after going to the battlefield, but they are still a lot of money...
"How many mares are there now?" Shao Xun turned around and asked.
"Less than fifty, it is not easy to find." Tang Jian replied: "I found about two hundred female donkeys."
The offspring of a male donkey mating with a female donkey are called donkeys and mules. , the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse is called a mule.
Donkeys and mules are more like donkeys, and horses and mules are more like horses.
Horses and mules are slightly larger in size, have a big temper, are very curious, and eat a lot, but they are resistant to rough feeding. It is stronger than a horse, has greater endurance and load-bearing capacity, and is more resistant to disease, but it is slower than a horse and cannot have children.
Donkeys and mules are smaller in size and slightly less powerful than horses and mules, but they are more docile and live about ten years longer. Female donkeys and mules can occasionally give birth to male horses or male donkeys.
In general, horses and mules are better than donkeys and mules. After all, there is not much difference between the life span of twenty years and thirty years. If they join the army, they may not even survive for ten years.
"Take your time." Shao Xun said: "Luoyang Horse Market sometimes sells mares, just collect them slowly."
He looked at the rivers, lakes and swamps again.
Waterbirds such as mandarin ducks, gulls, plovers, corvettes, and herons inhabit it, hunting and playing.
There are wild geese flying in the sky.
On the water surface, there are occasional fish jumping.
According to the Changjian Army officers stationed here, Guangcheng Ze is rich in fish such as bream, sturgeon, bream, carp, catfish (yellow spicy ding), shark (a small fish that blows sand), etc., for many years No one hunts them, they are huge and numerous.
What a primitive and wild scene.
"How many people are there in Guangcheng Ze?" Shao Xun asked again.
Tang Jian shook his head, expressing his ignorance.
Shao Xun was silent. He really lacked capable civil servants around him. Such ordinary people from a noble family rarely came to seek refuge with him.
The military and political group he founded is a bit deformed.
"However, I heard that there is a large settlement and several small villages on the southern edge of Guangcheng Ze, with about a few hundred households. Some are local people and some are refugees from the south." Tang Jian added: "I can't be sure, I just heard it."
"Send people to investigate. If there is a settlement, occupy it." Shao Xun said expressionlessly: "The people of the settlement will be assigned to the long sword army. The soldiers are subordinates. If you don't want to, just drive them away."
"Promise." Tang Jian replied that he would inform Chen Yougen about this matter.
"That's it, Guang Chengze still needs time." Shao Xun got on his horse and said, "Go home."
He left as soon as he said it, without any hesitation.
Guang Chengze doesn’t have much to do for the time being.
In the summer, he might try to recruit a group of refugees to grow grains here for a season and get a feel for the land here.
Next year, more fields will be sorted out, and the planting area can be expanded. After harvesting one crop, it will be ready to be distributed to the soldiers.
The Long Sword Army is still recruiting people. They must carefully assess various skills before they can be recruited. It is relatively strict. The current number is close to nine hundred.
After they divide it, the financial burden will be greatly reduced.
Semi-off-the-job soldiers like the Silver Spear Army can slowly try to be completely off-the-job. Everything is ultimately linked to economic strength.
(End of this chapter)