Vol 2 Chapter 2560: 250 million acres of cultivated land, heavy rains prevent Huo

Chapter 2560: 250 million acres of cultivated land, heavy rains prevent Huo

Chapter 2556: 250 million acres of cultivated land, heavy rains prevent Huo

Lu Bu was originally staying well in Luoyang. When he was not practicing martial arts, he was either teasing his young son or teaching his daughter. He was asked to point out his ineffective disciple Sun Ce. However, due to the civil war between the Yuan and Qing Dynasties, he was suddenly transferred to Bingzhou.

 Lü Bu did not participate in the second Guanzhong War, but this time it was against Yuanmeng. As a native of Bingzhou, he really had no reason to refuse.

 The generals who were not part of the Bingzhou military system but were transferred to Bingzhou were naturally not only Lu Bu, but also Gao Shun and Zhang He.

Zhang He went north from Jingzhou and arrived in Luoyang. Before they could react, the cavalry and cavalry battalions stationed in Bingzhou were transferred to Yanmen Pass by the resolute Zhang Liao.

Except for Zhang He, the generals who sent the Bingzhou Army this time were basically all from Bingzhou, and they basically knew each other, so it quickly became a gathering of old friends, and the conversation was lively.

Zhang He was the only one who looked at the unfamiliar generals with a confused expression. Although he wanted to make friends with them, he couldn't get a word in, and he didn't know what to talk to these people.

At this time, Zhang He was completely confused. He really couldn't understand why he, who had been fighting in Shangyong not long ago, was suddenly transferred to Bingzhou to participate in the war without any warning.

Could it be that his performance in the Battle of Shangyong attracted His Majesty's attention, so he was specially transferred to Bingzhou to give himself a chance to make contributions?

 But this shouldn’t be the case.

Although his performance in Shangyongzhan was not bad, it was only average. It was far less dazzling than Deputy Governor Han Xin's performance. How did His Majesty notice him?

Ying Hao would suddenly transfer Zhang He to Zhang Liao's command, naturally to inspire the five good generals to use the "Five Sons of One Heart" combo, but no one except him knew this.

Hence, it is not surprising that Zhang He would have random thoughts. After all, Ying Hao's behavior of suddenly transferring generals from other states to merge states is indeed a bit unpredictable.

Not only Zhang He himself was puzzled, but also Han Xin, the deputy governor of Jingzhou, and Ying Hao had no intention of explaining. They did not dare to ask, so they could only obey orders.

Zhang Liao didn't quite understand why his majesty transferred Zhang He, an old rival, to his command.

In the Hebei War, Zhang Liao was the vanguard of the Qin army. After leading the army to attack Jizhou, he fought with Zhang He's Euphorbia warriors many times.

Although Zhang Liao won in the end, it was not easy to win, so he also admired Zhang He's old rival very much, so he took the initiative to talk to him.

 Zhang He was a little flattered when he saw this. Although he was now a senior general of Da Qin, he was obviously not on the same level as Zhang Liao, the governor of Bingzhou, in terms of status and status, so he was naturally a little cautious.

Zhang Liao did not hesitate to see this. After encouraging Zhang He, he went to chat with Lu Bu, Gao Shun and others.

 A few days later, Xiao He had solved the morale problem of the army, but still did not receive Bai Qi's order to send troops, and the generals in the army began to become a little anxious.

"Brother Gongming, what do you think this general thinks? Sixty thousand cavalry gathered at the border, but they just stayed like this without going out to fight. What this man eats is money." Yang Yanding asked in confusion.

"I don't know... maybe the general has other considerations." Xu Huang said with some uncertainty.

At this moment, Zhang Dingbian broke into the tent and said excitedly to Zhang Liao: "Grand Governor, the general's expedition order has been issued."

"good."

 Zhang Liao stood up and ordered in a deep voice: "Send the order to the whole army to go out immediately and send troops to the grassland."

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　)

 All the generals responded in unison.

With Zhang Liao's order, the 20,000 Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry were ready to go, and they were quickly ready to go north from Yanmen Pass to attack the grassland.

After Yanmen closed, Xiao He, the governor of Yanmen County, looked at the cavalry leaving in an orderly manner and couldn't help but sigh: "One general has made thousands of bones dry, but I don't know if any of the soldiers will return safely."

On one side, Liulang Yang Yanzhao, the general guarding Yanmen Pass, said with a smile: "Don't worry, Grand Administrator, our army will unite with Maodun to fight against Kublai Khan in this battle. The combined strength of the two families is still higher than that of Yuanmeng, and they will definitely win easily."

"makes sense."

　　——————

 Hezhou, Yinshan County, Zhenbeiguan.

After receiving Bai Qi's order, Huo Qubing was responsible for mobilizing troops and generals, while the governor Wen Tianxiang was responsible for raising grain and supplies.

 Hezhou was established to develop the Hetao. On the basis of the original six counties, Shuofang County and Beidi County of Liangzhou were merged into the jurisdiction of Hezhou.

 So, today’s Hezhou is qualified as a state-level administrative unit in terms of area, population, and economy.

Hetao Plain was originally the granary of Daqin. After years of reclamation by Daqin, it now has 40 million acres of arable land. It is also the state with the most arable land and the largest grain production in Daqin.

Although Emperor Huan of the Han Dynasty was not a wise emperor, during his reign, the total amount of cultivated land in the Han Dynasty reached its peak, with approximately 800 million acres of cultivated land, a population of approximately 48 million, and an average of approximately 15 acres of cultivated land per capita.

 Now, the per capita cultivated land in Hezhou has reached 20 acres per capita, surpassing that of Emperor Huan's period.

 This is not a land annexation, but a real per capita increase.

Except for Hezhou, Sili Prefecture, which has the largest amount of cultivated land in the Qin Dynasty, has only exceeded 34 million acres of cultivated land.

 The reason why the gap is so large is because the positioning of the two states is different.

 In addition to developing agriculture, industry, commerce, breeding, mining and other industries are also developing in Sili. About 60% of Sili's population is engaged in agriculture, and the other 40% are engaged in other industries.

Hezhou is completely different. 90% of the population is only engaged in agricultural labor, and the remaining 10% of the population develops nomadism. The rate of agricultural development is naturally faster than that of other states.

For example, if agriculture, industry and commerce are compared to the piebald pattern of morality, intelligence, physical education, art and labor, then Sili is a comprehensive development of morality, intelligence, physical education, art and labor, while Hezhou is completely a partial student. Except for agriculture, he is excellent in other subjects. They are just barely passing.

However, as a newly established state, Hezhou has only been established for a short period of time. It is already very rare to have one subject that leads the country. What is more important is bicycles. As for other states, the merging of states is limited by the terrain. The three states of Jing, Qing, and Liang have not yet been completely unified, and the development time of Youji and Hebei is still short, so the agriculture is not as good as that of Hezhou and Sili.

Even so, the per capita cultivated land in these states is more than 15 acres.

Today, the Qin Dynasty, which has not yet been unified, has about 250 million acres of cultivated land in the country, which is barely one-third of what it was during the Huan Emperor's period. However, due to the promotion of various high-yielding grain varieties, the total grain output of the Qin Dynasty is actually less than that during the Huan Emperor's period. 1.3 times.

In other words, even if Da Qin does not continue to cultivate land and agriculture remains at the current standard, the annual grain output can still feed a population of 60 million, while Da Qin's total population is only nearly 40 million.

 The 40 million people of the Qin Dynasty enjoyed the food of 60 million people?

This is enough to show that Da Qin has eliminated hunger and made it possible for everyone to have food and enough to eat.

To achieve this goal, only two years have passed since Ying Hao became emperor.

 At present, Hezhou is still the first granary of Great Qin, but its status is not consolidated.

 Eight major granaries in the world: Sichuan-Sichuan, Jiangdong, Jingxiang, Jianghuai, Hetao, Shandong, Heluo, and Liaodong.

 The Qin Dynasty exclusively owned the three major granaries of Hetao, Heluo and Liaodong, as well as half of the Shandong granary and half of the Jingxiang granary.

 Sili, who owned the Heluo Granary, obtained the Guanzhong Plain after the unification, and the total acres of cultivated land increased greatly.

 Youzhou, which owns the granaries of Liaodong, and Jizhou, which owns most of the granaries of Shandong. Under the governance of Wei Yang and Zhuge Liang, agriculture developed rapidly, with millions of acres of new farmland dug out every year.

 If Hezhou's agriculture stagnates, it may be surpassed in a few years.

 In this regard, Wen Tianxiang, the governor of Hezhou, also felt the pressure.

As the largest granary in the Qin Dynasty, Hetao has a huge amount of grain storage. Not to mention providing food for a mere 20,000 cavalry, even 200,000 can be fully afforded.

Therefore, there is no need to worry about the food and grass used by the Hezhou Army to go out of the fortress. What really needs to be worried about is the military supplies.

As mentioned above, compared with other states, Hezhou is severely partial in subjects. Except for its excellent agriculture, other industries can only barely pass, while steelmaking, forging and metallurgy all fail.

The ordnance and supplies accumulated by Hezhou can only barely be enough for the 70,000 Hezhou army.

Although there are only 20,000 troops leaving the fortress, the consumption of materials is huge, including 20,000 bows and crossbows, 20,000 sets of armor, and as many as one million crossbow arrows.

It is not impossible to get this batch of supplies from Loop, but if Wen Tianxiang sends all of them to the Sui army, there will be a serious gap in the ordnance of the local garrison.

Wen Tianxiang thought about it and felt that he could not resist this matter by himself. He had to learn from Qin Ji, cry to the court about his poverty, and ask his brothers in the surrounding states to support him. Qin Ji also did the same when he was relieving Liangzhou.

After the Luoyang court received Wen Tianxiang's letter, Ying Hao also felt that Wen Tianxiang's words were reasonable. After all, Hezhou's family could not be emptied just to leave the fortress, so he asked Wen Tianxiang to first allocate supplies to the fortress army, and then ordered the soldiers from Yongliang II The state transports supplies to the Loop.

After Ying Hao's imperial edict was transmitted back to Hezhou, Wen Tianxiang had prepared everything, and he knew that the court would definitely agree.

The governors of Yongliang and Yongzhou couldn't help but curse Wen Tianxiang in their hearts for being shameless after learning that the imperial court asked them to bear the armaments used in Hezhou's fortress.

You are leaving Hezhou and you are asking me, Yongliang, to provide supplies. What kind of logic is this?

 Complaints are complaints, but the materials that should be provided are still obtained. After all, the departure from the fortress is not a matter for Hezhou alone, but for the entire Daqin.

Wen Tianxiang collected weapons and supplies for Huo Qubing, but Bai Qi's expedition order was not issued for a long time, which made Huo Qubing a little anxious.

"Master Governor, I've been observing the weather and weather conditions recently. If we don't go out on an expedition, there will probably be heavy rain." Huo Qubing said anxiously.

Wen Tianxiang knew that Huo Qubing was not telling lies. After all, he had served in Hetao for many years and single-handedly built the Hetao Plain, which was nothing, into the largest granary of the Qin Dynasty with a population of more than 4 million in eight counties. Naturally, he was familiar with the climate in Hezhou. Know everything.

Wen Tianxiang also knew that if he didn't set off, there would be heavy rain in the Yinshan area, and it would be impossible for the army to fight in the heavy rain, right?

But Bai Qi's expedition order has not yet been issued. If he sets off without authorization, disobeying the order will be a trivial matter. Wen Tianxiang will ruin Bai Qi's plan.

"No, we can't leave now. We must wait for the general's order." Wen Tianxiang said.

Huo Qubing couldn't help but sigh when he saw this. Although he wanted to lead his army to attack in advance without authorization, he also knew that the general's delay in giving orders must have other plans, so he could only hold back.

 A few days later, Bai Qi's expedition order had not yet been sent, but heavy rain fell in the northern area of ​​Yinshan County, which happened to cover Huo Qubing's route out of the fortress.

 The next day, Bai Qi's order finally came, but Huo Qubing could no longer leave.

 In this regard, Huo Qubing could be said to be on the verge of tears. Now there are only two choices before him, one is to wait, and the other is to take a detour.

 Hetao's heavy rains sometimes last for a month. If we really wait for a month, even the day lilies may be cold.

So, Huo Qubing chose to take a detour and bypass the heavy rain area, which unintentionally led to a lot of mistakes.

Before setting off, Wen Tianxiang advised Huo Qubing: "Captain Huo, are you really not going to wait any longer? Maybe this rain will only fall for a week?"

Huo Qubing pointed to the still thick dark clouds in the distance, and said with a depressed look: "It's been three days, and there is no change at all. How can it look like it will only be the next week?

 If we continue to wait, there will probably be no results, and how can I be a resigned person? "

 (End of this chapter)