Wei Yan nodded solemnly: "When I traveled around before, I had seen chickens and ducks raised by herdsmen on the grassland eat locusts. ”

In fact, Wei Yan had seen and heard this in the Mongolian steppe in later generations.

At that time, every year when the grassland locusts broke out, the local people sprayed pesticides to eliminate the locusts, and the initial effect was remarkable. However, due to the continuous use of pesticides, there are also some problems that are difficult to solve, locusts begin to produce drug resistance, so that the effectiveness of pesticides is reduced, in order to ensure the effect of locust extermination, can only increase the use of pesticides, which not only increases pesticide residues, pollutes the grassland, but also kills the natural enemies of locusts, and destroys the ecological balance of the grassland. In order to alleviate the ills caused by the drug to eradicate locusts, the grassland herders introduced poultry such as chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea fowl.

Those herding chickens and ducks have the ability to prey on locusts, and a herding chicken can control locusts in five to ten acres of grassland, raising chickens to kill locusts, and in protecting the ecology and reducing the cost of locust extermination, it has significantly surpassed the spraying of airplanes and tractors to exterminate locusts.

Chickens kill locusts, do not pollute the pasture, there is no pesticide residue, and it also brings organic fertilizer to the pasture, cultivating the productivity of the grassland. Locusts are rich in high-quality protein, a variety of trace elements, rich in vitamins, is a high-quality feed for chickens, ducks and other poultry, chickens prey on locusts, the daily weight gain is significant, the economic benefits are considerable, the production of meat, eggs is high-quality green organic food, this is a good way to kill multiple birds with one stone.

Wei Yan suddenly remembered the plan of "raising poultry in pastoral areas and raising livestock in agricultural areas" that he had told Han Hao before, so he calculated an account with Han Hao: "It takes four years to raise a cow for slaughter, and a sheep produces one lamb a year, and the income is about more than 1,000 yuan." The cattle and sheep feeding cycle is long, the pressure on the pasture is high, and other cost inputs are not small. If you raise a chicken, it only takes three or four months for a chicken to hatch to be slaughtered, and a chicken can encircle and suppress locusts in five to ten acres of grassland throughout the summer, because locusts are very fat, the price of chickens that grow up eating locusts is much higher than that of ordinary chickens, and the preliminary estimate is fifty yuan each. One person can take care of a thousand chickens without destroying the grassland, and the total income after slaughter is not less than 50,000 yuan. This is not only for the herdsmen on the grassland, but also for the farmers, raising chickens can not only kill locusts, but also get rich, and we Han people can eat more chicken and enhance their physique, which is a good thing to kill multiple birds with one stone, Yuan Hei, I hope you will preside over this matter, so that the people under your rule can raise more chickens, ducks and geese to control locusts. ”

When Han Hao heard Wei Yan say this, he smiled: "My lord, my subordinates will draw up an official document to encourage people everywhere to raise chickens." ”

Wei Yan nodded: "Yes, it is encouragement, fully explain the benefits of raising chickens, ducks and geese, don't force it, just encourage it." ”

The current Wei Yan is only a Wuhou and Pingnan general in name, and it seems that in addition to leading troops to fight, other things should not be taken care of by him, in fact, all major matters under his rule must be decided by Wei Yan, so he can rest assured.

Wei Yan has a lot of worries about the future, the plague is one of them, Wei Yan has issued a health decree, forcing the people under his rule to follow the health regulations, let the students of Hua Tuo and Zhang Zhongjing Medical College go to various places to preach the health regulations, and urge the people everywhere to do a good job in preventing and controlling the plague.

Wei Yan was worried about the future, and there was also a reduction in grain production, and the reasons for the reduction in grain production were nothing more than the great drought and flood, locust plague, and military disaster; for such natural disasters as the great drought and flood that could not be resisted, Wei Yan had to strictly require the local government, the people, and the army to build water conservancy projects to cope with the great drought and flood that would come at any time.

With regard to the locust plague, Wei Yan has made careful arrangements in terms of psychological construction, prevention, radical cure, and elimination, and he believes that although this year's locust plague cannot be restrained, it will not lead to very tragic results, and the grain output should be controlled within 10 percent.

As for the military disaster, Wei Yan, as the supreme commander, sternly required the defenders on all borders to guard the passes, guard against the invasion of foreign enemies, and guard against rebellion by other local forces and families.

……

Now, he focuses on two points, one is the training of the navy and the construction of the navy warship, the purpose is to seize Jingzhou and even Yangzhou next year; The second point is that the purpose of cavalry training is to occupy the Hetao Plain and Liangzhou, so that you can have a stable rear!

In terms of the navy, Wei Yan gave full authority to Gan Ning, Ma Zhong, and Liu Ye, and he didn't know much about the navy himself, so he rarely asked; In terms of cavalry, he handed it over to Xu Huang, Tai Shici, and Zhao Yun, because he was good at it, so he added a lot of time.

He knew very well that the Yiyang generation, which was encircled in the mountains like before, could not practice the cavalry tactics as strong as the Mongolian cavalry, and had to go to the steppe outside the Saiwai, so he decided to send troops frequently to attack and harass the Xianbei people outside the Saiwai, which did not contradict his original truce, as long as the battlefield was placed on the enemy's territory and did not cause damage to the grain production of his own territory.

Wei Yan left 50,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry to defend the important city passes, and the remaining 80,000 cavalry, eighty percent of which were newly formed cavalry, first trained in the grassland of Bingzhou, while training, while fighting, sweeping away those unruly Qianghu tribes.

But after sweeping and sweeping, he went out of the boundary of the state and came to the Hetao area.

Hetao, east of Helan Mountain, west of Luliang Mountain, south of Yinshan Mountain, north of the Great Wall, including Yinchuan Plain and Ordos Plateau, part of the Loess Plateau, the Yellow River here first along Helan Mountain to the north, and then because of the Yinshan block to the east, and then along the Luliang Mountain to the south, forming a "several" shape, so it is called "Hetao".

Hetao west, north and east are surrounded by the Yellow River on three sides, Yinshan traverses the north of the Yellow River, its valley is mostly an important passage of the north and south of the ancient desert, Helan Mountain towers in the west of the Yellow River, Luya Mountain barrier is in the east of the Yellow River, the south is adjacent to the northern Shaanxi Plateau, the river is blocked by the mountain, the situation is dangerous, the Taoli is the Ordos Plateau, the surface is undulating, the middle is high, the surrounding is low. The Yellow River in the territory has a stable water flow, fertile land on both sides, and can be cultivated and pastured, so there is a saying that "the Yellow River is harmful, but only one set of riches".

Before the Zhou Dynasty, it was occupied by the Huns who belonged to the Di people. During the Spring and Autumn Period, King Wuling of Zhao extended his territory to the Yinshan Mountains and established Yunzhong County, which is located in the eastern part of the Tumochuan Plain. After the Qin Dynasty unified the Central Plains, Pai Mengtian led an army of 100,000 to drive the Xiongnu out of the Hetao, migrated 30,000 households to the border there, and set up two counties of Yunzhong and Jiuyuan, and the immigrants at the end of the Qin Dynasty returned to the Central Plains.

During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Wei Qing out of the clouds to defeat the two kings of Lou Fu and Baiyang of the Xiongnu and occupy the Hetao. The minister's father, Yan Shangshu, suggested that a city be built in Hetao to raise fields and horses as a base for defense and attack on the Xiongnu. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty accepted this suggestion, and placed Shuofang County and Wuyuan County that year, and later Xihe County, and the Hetao area also included the former Yunzhong County and Dingxiang County, as well as the northern part of Beidi and Shangjun. At that time, people diverted the Yellow River for irrigation, and the local agriculture developed rapidly and the economy prospered.

However, the good times did not last long, and the Xiongnu who belonged to the Eastern Han Dynasty were placed in the Hetao, where they grazed, and then there was no place for the Han people to stand.

Now there are many Xiongnu tribes in the southeast of Hetao, many Qianghu tribes in the northwest, and several Xianbei tribes in the north, all of them grazing here, the great fertile fields are grown with barren grass, and the great Yellow River flows in vain.

Wei Yan thought of the stuffed Jiangnan in the future, and couldn't help but sigh, he could no longer put such a good fertile soil without cultivating it.

The surrounding area of the Hetao, in addition to the mother river Yellow River, which flows slowly here, also includes the Huangshui Basin, the Taoshui Basin, the Luoshui Basin, the Weishui Basin, the Fenshui Basin, the Sangqian River Basin, the Luoshui Basin, the Zhangshui Basin, and the Hutuo River Basin, they surround the Hetao area, just like the stars holding the moon, this area has just been developed in the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, and there is no salinization and desertification in later generations, as long as more ditches are built, the Hetao area should be able to reclaim 30 or 40 million mu of fertile land, and it will not be a problem to accommodate three or four million people at that time.

Wei Yan noticed the problem, the previous Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty noticed, he set up counties after recapturing the Hetao area, built cities, relocated people to reclaim, carried out large-scale military tuntian, properly resettled and attached to the Xiongnu, built water conservancy, to the end of the Western Han Dynasty, the Hetao area has nearly a million people, but also developed more than 500,000 acres of fertile land, how can Wang Mang usurp the country, the Central Plains civil war, the Huns reoccupied the Hetao, the Han people fled back to the inland in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty Liu Xiu adopted a policy of contraction, and the western and northern counties were mostly abandoned.

In the last years of Liu Xiu, the Xiongnu had internal strife, Nandan was annexed, and the Eastern Han Dynasty restarted the operation of the Hetao. Therefore, the people of Yunzhong, Wuyuan, Shuofang, Beidi, Dingxiang, Yanmen, Shanggu, and Daibai returned to the mainland. The Eastern Han Dynasty's governance of the Hetao ended in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty due to civil strife, and the Xiongnu who had been resettled in the Hetao area revolted, and the Han people fled again.

Wei Yan couldn't help but think that the Tang Dynasty's internal policy towards the nomads and the Ming Dynasty's internal policy towards Mongolia all failed, these nomads were all a virtue, when the Han nation was prosperous, they wagked their tails and begged for mercy, and when the Han nation was in decline, they lit up their canine teeth and began to devour the lord.

Wei Yan had asked Fengyingwei to investigate before, there are more than 900,000 herdsmen living in the entire Hetao area, they come from dozens of different tribes of the three major races, the Xiongnu, Qianghu, and Xianbei, and it is precisely because they come from different races and different tribes that they often wage friction wars and cannot be united, otherwise the nomads in the entire Hetao area will launch a war of aggression against the Han Dynasty together, and more than 900,000 herdsmen can arm 300,000 cavalry at once, and 300,000 cavalry will definitely be able to sweep away the inland princes who are now fighting in their own wars.

Although the nomads in the Dahetao area are like a plate of loose sand, Wei Yan also has self-knowledge and will not come to lift the whole plate.

Although Wei Yan's army was strong, all the cavalry soldiers together were less than 100,000 people, and they could not strike at all the races in the Hetao area. Wei Yan thought about taking all the Hetao area, but he knew very well that in the situation of the internal strife in the Great Han, such a plan could only be put behind.

Wei Yan's current goal is to consolidate Wuyuan County and Yanmen County within the jurisdiction of the merged prefecture, and take Shuofang County, Yunzhong County, and Shang County, as for the other counties in the Hetao area, let's take them in the future.

After three or four months of rest and recuperation, the officers and men of the Wei army, no matter how badly they were injured and how tired they were, all recovered, and they were all fierce and fierce, waiting to establish greater military exploits and win more military merits.

Sweeping the Hetao area was not a difficult task for the Wei army, and the problem was how to hold it.

The worst result is that Wei Yan led the army to drive the Hu people in the Hetao area to the north of Yinshan, and when the army withdrew, the Hu people went south again, and the Hetao area was reduced to the Hu people's pasture again.

Therefore, Wei Yan considered building ten fortresses on both sides of the Yellow River to block the southward movement of the Hu people, and build a city, using the 200,000 tenant farmers to build ten cities, and before the arrival of winter, I am afraid that most of the farmers in the prefecture would be dumped, which would involve the issue of conscription.

The conscription was also somewhat implicated in taxation, because Wei Yan wanted to pay a light tax and rest with the people.

Wei Yan forgot that the light and meager endowment should be applied to the period of recovery and development after the world was pacified, not the current war period, during which it is necessary to frantically accumulate war resources, first quickly pacify the world, and then consider the issue of recuperation.

Fortunately, Wei Yan had several strategists with strategic vision, Jia Xu, Xu Shu, and Lu Su all mentioned this issue to Wei Yan, and even Sima Hui and Hu Zhao, who taught and educated people in the university hall, also came to visit Wei Yan, saying that the policy of lightly punishing and meager endowments did not apply to the present, and all the poll taxes could not be reduced at once, but should be reduced gradually.

Jia Xu said the most frankly: "Lord, you have reduced so much at once, no matter how great the kindness falls on the heads of the people below, they are only grateful to you once, if you reduce a little every few years, a little every few years, and complete the purpose of lightly giving the people rest when the world is pacified, wouldn't it be better, the people's gratitude to you continues, and the people's hearts will be stable." ”

Wei Yan deeply agreed, he understands human nature, that is, he sacrifices everything for someone with his heart and lungs, and he can only be grateful to you once, and even forget it later, if he is good to him little by little, and maintains the situation that if you are disobedient, I will not be good to you, and people's hearts will know how to be grateful, and they will always be grateful.

But the problem is that Wei Yan had already announced at a meeting of all people that he would be exempted from all poll taxes, and for Wei Yan, the change of the order would definitely damage the majesty he had accumulated with great difficulty.

Wei Yan thought about it for a while, and came up with a very ingenious method, that is, to divide the land into the mu, and convert all the previous conscription, military service, and other miscellaneous taxes into the field endowment, and convert them into one mu and two buckets, and then levy one liter less every year, halve or exempt the levy in the year of famine, and if the people deliberately do not pay it in the harvest year, it will be doubled in the following year.

In this way, the tax paid on the fields owned by yeoman farmers and clans is five buckets per acre.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, in a normal year, one acre of land in the general field is more than 120 catties of millet or wheat, according to a stone of wheat is about equal to 30 catties, this 120 catties is about equivalent to four stones, according to the weights and measures that one stone is equal to ten buckets and is equal to 100 liters, the harvest of one mu at this time is about 40 buckets, 400 liters.

In this way, Wei Yan levied a total of four buckets of grain per mu of land on yeoman farmers and landlords, which was converted into 10% according to the tax rate, which did not seem light, because the field tax in the Eastern Han Dynasty was only 30 taxes and 1, which can be said to be the lowest land tax in history.