Chapter 166: The Harvest Season

No matter how the outside world changes, Chen Cheng has made up his mind to "calm down".

With the gradual development of the silver mines, there was finally a sum of money in the treasury. Gold and silver are natural currencies, and everyone is happy to see those heavy silver nuggets. Chen Yuanjun has always been generous, meritorious work will be rewarded, this year's summer harvest went smoothly, a good start, are you still afraid that there will be no reward?

Sure enough, it didn't take long for officials at all levels to receive the silver coins that had just been minted. The least was only one, the most was a dozen, dozens of pieces, and the one who took the most was Yan Zhong, which had a hundred silver coins. These coins are beautifully crafted and weighty, and instead of the square or round holes that are common on coins of this era, they are solid pieces.

According to the exchange ratio launched by the Bank of Liangzhou, which has just been listed in Yinchuan, one silver coin can be exchanged for 2,000 copper coins, that is, two pieces. Although Liangzhou Bank is named a bank, it now has few staff and even fewer businesses, and it is just a place for Chen Cheng to let primary school students practice for the time being.

After cooperating with the abacus, elementary school students are also very useful, as long as they are not some kind of 10,000-year-old elementary school students.

As the time progressed from summer to autumn, the damage caused by the war seemed to be far away, and the roads were lined with neat crops, and the rice, sweet potatoes, and corn in the fields made people feel happy to look at. In this era, the people of the lower class have very low requirements, they can eat a full stomach, or they usually only need to be full for seven minutes, and they don't want to be hungry most of the time.

Although the autumn harvest has not yet begun, it is already certain that this year is a bumper harvest year, and the land of Liangzhou began to sing songs such as "Chen Zhijun, fighting the bow and arrow, breaking the Huns, and the people are safe".

At this time of the year, the north will begin to prepare for autumn, mainly to prevent the Huns from the north coming to rob. But now the Huns have been defeated, only some dead remnants are in Yunzhong and Shangjun and other places to survive, and the government does not need to levy many people to prepare for war, so it can put all its manpower into the autumn harvest.

In addition, most of the molten iron flowing out of the blast furnace near Helan Mountain was turned into sickles, shovels, iron plows and other agricultural tools. Although it may not seem like an exaggeration, it is equivalent to a lot of labor out of thin air, and there is not so much food to eat.

In the past, the ideal state of a family of five was to have 100 acres of land, half of which was resting in rotation and half ploughing, and according to the best year, it could collect 200 stone of grain, and after deducting the loss and taxes, as well as the tools used, making new clothes, and other expenses, it could leave a ration of 70 stones, and then remove the grain for the livestock, then there would be 50 or 60 stones, and after feeding the family of five, there would still be some surplus of these grains.

If you can have such a good harvest every year, and save for five or six years, you can marry a daughter-in-law to a child in the family, or marry a daughter-in-law to a good family. But when it comes to happy events, this savings will soon be wiped out, and you will return to abject poverty overnight.

Besides, where can there really be such a high harvest? Natural disasters, man-made disasters, soldiers, bandits, officials, gentry, all these things are pressed on the heads of the people, making them breathless.

But, but! This year, I can finally have enough to eat!

After harvesting the grain in the fields, including wheat and other miscellaneous grains, many farmers wept with joy and bowed down in the direction of Yinchuan. Even the Qiang people, who were half-farming and half-pastoral, were similar to these farmers. The promotion of silage technology can not only make livestock grow faster, but also greatly reduce the loss of livestock in winter.

The Qiang people's own culture is very backward, and they prefer to believe in things that are chaotic with ghosts and gods. Soon, the saying that "Lord Chen is a god descended into the world" spread from the naturalized Huns, and spread in Beidi County, Anding County, Wuwei County and other places, and spread to other places in Liangzhou, and even further expanded outward, and even many places in Guanzhong and Bingzhou began to have worshipping people.

Chen Cheng, who didn't know that he already had many believers, sat firmly in Diaoyutai and gave various orders to Shangshu, who was gradually filling up his hands.

"Just like last time, the household department is the leading unit of the autumn harvest," Chen Cheng said to Xu Chao: "You have the heaviest burden on you, not only to manage the autumn harvest, but also to manage some things in the labor department, but I can't relax the requirements for your household department because of this." ”

"Yes!"

"First count the taxes of Yinchuan, Pingluo and Yongning, then Lingzhou, and then count the rest of the entire north."

"Yes!"

Chen Cheng was very satisfied with Xu Chao's ability, and said warmly: "I know that Xu Qing has been doing everything by himself these days, and he is very tired, and after the tax statistics of the three counties on the west bank of the Yellow River are completed, Qing will just sit in the household department, and the money and grain in other places will be counted by the people below." ”

Xu Chao was the best person he had at this time, even better than Yan Zhong. If it weren't for the help of this powerful man in the North, he might still have to think about how to feed so many soldiers under his command, and it would be impossible for him to pounce on the construction site for a few months, just to solve the unqualified molten iron smelted in the blast furnace.

Chen Cheng felt that among the Wenchen generals under his command now, there was Yan Zhong who strategized, Xu Chao who raised grain and grass, and Zhao Yun, Xu Rong, Lu Fang, Yang Qiu, etc., who led troops to fight.

Xu Chao said in a deep voice: "These are the duties of ministers, why are you tired?" Please rest assured that the minister will definitely handle the autumn harvest properly! ”

Chen Cheng stepped forward and patted Xu Chao's shoulder, and said with a smile: "You do things, I don't worry!" ”

He really didn't interfere too much in the autumn harvest, but just randomly checked a few places, and saw that things were doing well, so he didn't care too much about this matter. Agricultural production in the Northland is mainly based on the manor economy, which is the edge of the civilized world, and before Chen Cheng's arrival, wildness and chaos were the mainstream here.

The Hu invasions that occur every few years, as well as the expropriation and expropriation of the government, make it impossible for the small-scale peasant economy, which is dominated by yeoman farmers, to work here. Those who survived could only voluntarily or involuntarily sell themselves to join the bunkers and manors of the powerful and sell their labor in exchange for a chance to survive and some food to wrap their stomachs.

Here, if you don't report to the group, you can't survive, it was originally like this, and it has always been like this.

After Chen Cheng defeated the army of the Huns, he divided a lot of land near Lian County, which was then called Lian County, to his soldiers equally. These soldiers built new villages according to the organization, then bulldozed the wreckage of the ruins, reclaimed the land together, built the walls of the guards together, cultivated together, and harvested together. Now, a year later, they are firmly tied to Chen Cheng.

It doesn't matter if they were Han or Qiang before, or even the Huns, or whether they were still the powerful troops of Western Liang before, or the soldiers under the command of the Liangzhou princes, now that they have their own land, their own houses and food, they will never be able to go back to the past, unless they are willing to hand over everything they have now.

Spit out the fat you've already eaten, and it will be even more uncomfortable than never getting it. They had swords and guns in their hands, and there were armor and bows in the guards, so even Chen Cheng couldn't take everything from them casually.

When the fields were allocated, it was not that no one jumped out to oppose it, but the Haoqiang around Lian County were hit hard by the invasion of the Huns, many villages and Wubao were turned into ruins, and even some Haoqiang were killed by the Huns. Their strength has been greatly weakened, and there is no future in armed confrontation. After receiving Chen Cheng's assurance that he would not move the interests of the powerful in other places, the resistance of the local powerful soon disappeared.

After the local Haoqiang failed in the attempt, he turned to Chen Cheng's sect. It is not surprising that it is common human nature to worship the strong. The logical chain is also very clear, the Huns they can't beat were hammered by Chen Cheng with a small number of soldiers and horses, so how can they play? If you can't beat it, then join, this is the philosophy of human survival.

Besides, Chen Cheng has always been generous to his subordinates, isn't he?

It's not that no one sees Chen Cheng's intention to do this, and he also knows that after he stabilizes his position, it is very likely that he will take back all the rights that have been distributed. But so what? In the long run, people will die, maybe Chen Cheng will choke to death after eating tomorrow? People always have to think about the good.

The golden autumn of September is always pleasant, no matter what kind of person you are, no matter what kind of position you hold, after the warehouse is full of grain, the mood will become happy.

The summer harvest stabilized the morale of the army, and the autumn harvest made the vast majority of the local people, including Haoqiang and the low-class civilians, fall to Chen Cheng's side. Chen Cheng was also very happy that after the silver mine was on the right track, he found two small copper mines on the edge of Helan Mountain.

Soon, with more shovels and other tools, the two mines could also be mined, so that the governor's office could issue its own copper coins. Luoyang is getting more and more excessive, and the "big money" has developed from "when 1,000" to "when 2,000", and now it has developed to an amazing "when 5,000", that is, a "big money" cast in copper and iron can be used as five money envoys, which is also too exaggerated.

After Chen Cheng heard about this kind of thing, he felt very incredible, even if he didn't have common sense in economics, he couldn't do it so brutally! He had seen He Jin, although the general who killed pigs was not intellectually superior, but he was not a fool either!

But that's what happened, Chen Cheng took the inferiorly inferior "When 5,000" and shook his head: "What is this called?" ”

Opposite him, Wang Yue said: "There is another thing, the news that came back from Luoyang said that the general He Jin sent troops to surround the mansion of the guard captain Dong Chong, and Dong Chong killed himself. At about the same time, Liu Xie, the king of Bohai, and the empress dowager also died mysteriously. After that, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, Chun Yuqiong and others all left Luoyang. ”

Chen Cheng's movements in his hand stopped, he thought for a while, and asked, "Does the princess know about the violent death of Dong Hou?" ”

Wang Yue said: "I shouldn't know for the time being." ”