Wei Yanxian said to Han Hao: "Our intention to develop the Hetao area and grow grain is good, but if every inch of land is cultivated as fertile land, it will not only be unrealistic, but will cause great disasters."

Although we will build canals to divert water from the Yellow River for irrigation, there are many places that are too far away from the rivers and it is too labor-intensive to build canals.

Every time before reclaiming wasteland, it is necessary to see how thick the soil is, and if it is too thin, plant pasture grass for grazing, or plant fruit trees, and do not reclaim the field where the soil is very thin and a gust of wind can blow the soil away.

In addition, we should plant as much grass and trees as possible in the fields to stabilize the soil and water, and do not let any piece of land be exposed, so that every wind and rain cannot blow away our soil.

On those slopes, soil slopes, after reclamation into fields, once the rainstorm comes, the soft soil is easy to be carried away by rainwater, which is not conducive to soil and water conservation, so try not to reclaim those slopes into fields. If you have to reclaim the land, you should also do a good job of reinforcing the land, and make it into terraces, terraces, horizontal ditches, fish scale pits and other sloping fields.

The grasslands lack rain and are prone to drought, so the officials you have sent to various counties and counties should also teach and urge the people in various localities to take a break from the ditches such as silt dams, sand dams, grain mills, and ditch head protection, and organize the people in various places to build pools, water cellars, and small drainage and irrigation facilities. ”

Han Hao, Shi Tao and other officials in charge of agriculture all bowed down to receive it.

Wei Yan had been to the Mongolian steppe before crossing, the herdsmen of the hot weapon era and the herdsmen of the cold weapon era seemed to have no blood inheritance, hospitable, auspicious three treasures, Wei Yan completely forgot that the wolf totem written by a bastard was to praise these nomads, and also completely forgot how much the so-called ethnic integration of those nomads who were active in this steppe caused to the Han nation. Now, of course, with the wind of 197 blowing, all those painful memories come back to my mind.

Those post-modern herdsmen, in order to pursue economic interests after the reform and opening up, began to overgraze the grassland for 30 years, causing a series of tragic consequences, and began to try to make up for it.

Wei Yan felt that some of the postmodern herdsmen's reparative practices for the environment were worthy of reference for the herdsmen in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, so he said to Tian Chou and other officials in charge of animal husbandry: "I repeat that sheep are restricted from free-range, but not from captivity.

You can choose some grasses that are especially good for horses and sheep, for example, alfalfa is the best grass for horses, and herders can grow large patches of alfalfa on the grassland and then harvest it to feed the horses, and the same can be said for sheep, so that the sheep will not have a chance to uproot the grass again.

For horse breeding, the ranch we originally built has been relatively successful, so I won't repeat it, I'll talk about how to keep sheep in captivity.

Most of the fields and orchards that are not suitable for grazing can be planted with grass, and then the grass can be harvested to feed horses and sheep, and at the same time, wheat, millet and other crop straw can be used to feed horses and sheep.

Captive sheep are conducive to accumulating farm fertilizer, and the contents of sheep manure are conducive to improving the soil and increasing the yield of grain per mu.

After raising sheep in captivity, go out with a sickle and come back with a bundle of grass, which can make full use of idle labor and raise sheep in every household, so that not only herdsmen can raise sheep, but farmers can also raise sheep.

Captivity is to raise sheep in a concentrated manner, which can minimize the spread of disease in the flock, when the plague comes again, there will be no phenomenon of tens of thousands of dead sheep, raising goats on the grassland, the most common problem is summer fat, autumn strong, winter thin, spring death such a bad phenomenon that changes with the season, once captive, this situation will not exist.

In addition, we have been implementing the plan of a cup of milk for one person to enhance the physique of our Han people, in addition to milk, is goat milk, in fact, goat milk is more beneficial to the human body than milk, but limited to the shape of the sheep and the milking period, goat milk production is very small, after captive sheep, it can be convenient to concentrate on milk production, which can greatly improve the concentration and yield of milk production. ”

Since then, not only few people in the Hetao grassland under Wei Yan's control have raised goats on the grassland, but even the herdsmen on the Mobei grassland have gradually learned to raise goats in captivity, but this has not reduced the number of goats, but because the people in many states and counties in the Central Plains have learned to raise goats in captivity to increase their income, the number of goats has doubled compared with before, goat milk, wool, and cashmereThe supply of mutton and sheepskin was also guaranteed, but it did not pose a threat to the water and soil of the grassland, because after getting used to captivity, everyone was too lazy to go to the stocking.

"Where's the cow?" Tian Chou asked, "Do you want to keep cattle in captivity?" ”

Wei Yan thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Large livestock such as cattle and horses can be combined with captivity and stocking, and I will not repeat the specific breeding techniques, and the professionals of your Taifu Temple will study them carefully, and my request is that on the basis of maintaining the current grassland water and soil, you can appropriately raise more cattle." First, we are now developing the Hetao, and there is an urgent shortage of cattle; Second, if you want to achieve the plan of one cup of milk a day per person, the number of cows should also be increased; Thirdly, we need a large amount of cowhide to make leather armor, because for these three reasons, the number of cattle may as well be increased by half, half in captivity, and half in free-range. ”

Wei Yan thought of the tragic lesson of the wind and sand that filled the imperial capital in later generations, and thought that nearly one-third of the prairie was desertified, and he couldn't help but shudder. It is not enough to reduce the grazing of goats, more critical actions must be taken to conserve soil and water and prevent desertification in the savannah.

Wei Yan proposed a "double contract system for grass and livestock" for the more than 300,000 Xiongnu herdsmen, which was a measure learned from the Mongolian Autonomous Region in later generations, and Wei Yan made some changes according to the actual situation in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Specifically, this system means that all the pastures in the Hetao area are owned by the Wei army, and then each herdsman is equally distributed to 100 acres of pasture for them to graze, if there are eight people in this herdsman's household, there will be 800 acres of pasture, once this pasture is demarcated, it will always belong to the herdsman's family, and the herdsman can no longer move by water and grass, and the herdsman must pay a cow or a horse or five sheep to the government every year as a tax to contract this pasture, and the herdsman will no longer move by water and grass. In order to resist the disaster weather, we must start learning captivity and learning to grow pasture.

Wei Yan promulgated such a system, not only to protect the water and soil to prevent the desertification of the grassland, but also to control the herdsmen, if they are allowed to move freely, it will only cheapen those Xianbei people and Ding Ling people on the Mobei grassland.

This system has a mandatory requirement, that is, every herdsman must plant pasture on the pasture, can no longer rely on the sky to give grass, can no longer watch the grass being eaten by livestock, and the herdsmen must learn to plant grass, especially for those degraded grasslands, but also use agricultural measures such as loosening soil, light harrowing, shallow tillage, and replanting to promote the restoration of degraded grassland.

Only by forcing herdsmen to plant grass, improve the production capacity of artificial forage, and enhance the material basis of livestock production, can it be possible to improve the individual production performance of livestock, speed up the turnover of livestock, and realize the return of grazing to grassland to recuperate, and promote the transformation of grassland animal husbandry from traditional extensive management to intensive and semi-intensive management. According to the experience of later generations, replanting L. chinensis on the degraded L. chinensis grassland can make its productivity reach the same as the natural restoration of L. chinensis grassland within two or three years, which is a powerful measure to achieve rapid recovery, and one acre of artificial grassland can make rational use of ten acres of natural grassland, so that one hundred acres of desertification and degraded grassland can be restored and rebuilt.

Wei Yan also proposed a good strategy to promote soil and water conservation in the grassland and increase the income of herdsmen, which is also a major strategy that Wei Yan plans to implement in the future, "poultry to the north and livestock to the south", "poultry in pastoral areas and livestock in agricultural areas".

To put it simply, poultry is raised in the grasslands and livestock in the interior.

Wei Yan's proposal was really an unheard of proposal, so much so that after Wei Yan put it forward, Tian Chou and other officials of the Taifu Temple were stunned on the spot, and they didn't understand what Wei Yan meant at all, because they couldn't think of the benefits of raising poultry on the grassland.

Wei Yan patiently explained: "I will tell you what are the benefits of raising poultry on the grassland, and everyone will understand why I want to implement this."

First, poultry breeding can make full use of grassland space resources. Herdsmen generally own large areas of grassland, and in many places herdsmen own hundreds of acres of grassland, but such vast grasslands have not brought much benefit to herdsmen, and the average income per mu is less than 10 yuan, which is far inferior to that of homesteaders who cultivate inland. But the vast grassland gives poultry a lot of activity space, as long as there are rivers, wells and other water sources next to it, you can use the grassland to raise poultry in a moderate concentration, relative to the four-legged sheep, horses, the destructive power of the two-legged poultry to the grassland is almost negligible, because raising poultry, only use the space on the grassland ground, only three or four months can sell poultry, there is no disturbance to the soil, will not cause disastrous consequences such as desertification, and the manure of poultry can also promote the growth of grassland pasture.

Second, although there is very little rainfall on the grassland north of the Hetao, it is concentrated from June to September, during this time, the sunshine is sufficient, the rainfall is concentrated, the temperature is suitable, the poultry can grow healthily in this season, and the fattened poultry can be sold in the season when the grass and trees are withering, so as to avoid the strange phenomenon of spring thinness, summer fattening, and winter fat loss caused by breeding cattle, sheep and horses.

Third, there are many kinds of insects, grass seeds, young leaves, shrub seeds, and tree species on the grassland, although people can't eat these things, but poultry can forage for food, raising chickens on the grassland is compared with feeding food in captivity at home, each chicken can save four or five catties of grain on average, and the food saved is completely poultry from the grassland to forage freely, those insects, seeds and young leaves. The entire Han can eat 70 or 80 million chickens a year, and if they are fed with all the grain, they will consume more than 400 million catties of grain, and if they put poultry on the grassland to graze, they can save more than 400 million catties of grain, which can feed more than one million poor people.

Fourth, raising chickens, ducks and geese in the grassland, only need to use the grass and trees to grow for three or four months, plus the time required for incubation and later sale, the herdsmen spend less than six months before and after, if the herdsmen switch to raising poultry, they can work for half a year, rest for half a year, and the traditional winter lambing, winter grazing and other hard work will be far away from the herdsmen. The most important thing is that even within half a year of labor, the labor intensity of free-range chickens is much less than that of cattle and sheep with the same economic benefits, and older herders or women can do it. A woman in a pastoral area raises 2,000 chickens and feeds them three times a day, each in less than a quarter of an hour, less than the time it takes her to milk a cow, and a herder can easily raise 5,000 poultry.

Fifth, it has greatly increased the income of herdsmen. This is the most critical of these benefits, no matter how good our idea of managing the grasslands is, if we can't bring benefits to these herdsmen, we are doomed to fail, and the result of failure is that they abandon us and defect to the Xianbei people and Ding Ling people. I can calculate an account with you, raising a chicken and selling it can make 20 yuan, and 5,000 chickens is 100,000 yuan, which is still more than raising cattle, sheep and horses, and it is much easier.

Sixth, reduce the damage to the grassland, reduce the risk of desertification of the grassland, and promote the restoration of the grassland. There is no threat of overgrazing by large livestock, and pastures that have just suffered some damage, such as those near Baichengzi, can be restored to their best time in a year or two if they are actively planted and poultry are raised.

Seventh, the grassland air is fresh, there is no epidemic disease in the Central Plains, chickens, ducks and geese are stocked in the grassland, rarely get sick, and can be raised with confidence. ”

After Wei Yan said the seven benefits of raising poultry on the grassland, Tian Chou and other officials looked at each other, Wei Yan was right, these benefits can be confirmed and known, but the general has been in the army, how can he know so many things about poultry breeding.

However, they did not dare to ask, and Wei Yan would not tell them that he had visited a large chicken farm in a Mongolian pastoral area before he crossed over.

Tian Chou thought for a while and asked a question: "The lord, chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry, from between the grass and trees to peck some insects to eat, but they eat grass seeds, young leaves, shrub seeds, tree species, will destroy the reproduction of pastures, shrubs, trees, may not be conducive to the consolidation of water and soil." ”10