Liu Ze was silent, and the situation and status of the princes were declining day by day after Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, and almost all other privileges were denied except for the food on the fiefdom. The frame of the princes and kings is a bit useful to scare the common people, and it is true that even the ministers of the feudal country are not birds of the princes and kings, and they are also full of suspicion of the emperor of the current dynasty - as the closest relatives to the emperor, they themselves are an invisible threat to the emperor's status.

After a while, the King of the Plains laughed freely and freely, and said, "I had a very happy conversation with Runde today, and I really had a great life." In the future, if Runde has any difficulties, just come to find the lonely king. ”

Liu Ze responded, surrendered his hand, and the king of the plains insisted on sending him to the gate.

On the left side of the gate, Liu Ze inadvertently glanced at it, and the inconspicuous little green seedling caught his attention, and his mind moved, this is not ......

"Dare to ask the king, this is a cotton seedling?"

"Cotton?" The king of the plains was stunned, the name cotton was strange, unheard of, "this thing is a big food merchant to the king, the name is white stacks, after the autumn fruit blossoms, snow white as flowers, if the name is changed to cotton, it is worthy of the name." ”

Liu Ze was pleasantly surprised, there is no doubt that this thing is really cotton. Native to India and the valley of the Two Rivers, cotton was introduced to China very early, but it was stored not as a textile but as an ornamental flower and was extremely scarce. Liu Ze, who is accustomed to wearing modern cotton clothing, has a deep hatred for the silk and linen weaving products of the Han Dynasty, and a few years ago when he was dealing in silk, he also tried to find traces of cotton, but he did not expect to accidentally bump into it in this plain palace.

It's really hard to find a place to step on iron shoes. It didn't take much effort to get it. At that moment, Liu Ze exported to the king of the plains to ask for cottonseeds. Although the King of the Plains was very strange, Liu Ze was not interested in those gorgeous flowers and plants, but he had a soft spot for this inconspicuous white stack, but he quickly ordered someone to take some seeds.

"Is there only such a small seed on the Great King's Mansion?" Liu Ze grabbed the cottonseed in his hand and looked at it, there were only so many dozens of grains, too few, if you really want to plant them on a large scale, you have to cultivate them for many years.

"How much does Runde want to plant? If you plant a reward, thirty or fifty plants are enough. The King of the Plains was surprised.

"The more the merrier, as many as there are to the ministers." Liu Ze didn't care about being polite at all at this time.

Strange to strange, the King of the Plains still fulfilled Liu Ze's wish. He ordered the man to carry a bag of cottonseed on his back. "Fortunately, a large number of white stacks were planted in the grange outside the city the year before last. There is only such a bag of seeds, anyway, this flower is not very gorgeous, so let's give it all to Runde. ”

Liu Zeru received the treasure and even thanked him. All the way back to the county office. The smiling mouth hadn't closed yet.

It's a lot of money today. A pair of useless peacocks were exchanged for two treasures, a carrier pigeon and cotton, and this was a bargain. Zhang Fei felt inexplicable, and kept asking Liu Ze what he was laughing at. Liu Ze pretended to smile mysteriously. Sue him and you will know it in the future.

In the next few days, Liu Ze ordered Pan Feng to find someone to build a big shed and keep these five pairs of pigeons in captivity. The pigeons have the ability to know the nest, and if these pigeons are released now, it is estimated that they will fly back to the plain palace in a blink of an eye. Liu Ze raised these pigeons in captivity, but he wanted to be a breeder and train a new generation of carrier pigeons.

The big bag of cottonseed that was brought back was enough to plant five or six acres of land, but fortunately, what the government did not lack now was arable land. Liu Ze found a piece of high-quality fertile land that was easy to irrigate, turned the ground with his own hands, applied fertilizer, planted cotton seeds into the field, and hired several experienced farmers to manage the farmland at a high price.

As a result of the timely completion of the survey and measurement of the fields, the intensive renting of the fields for planting, and the distribution of spring-sown seeds to the tenants, the spring plowing and preparation work in Pingyuan County was completed smoothly before the end of the agricultural season in late spring under the auspices of Liu Ze. The disaster brought by the flooding of the Yellow River to the people of the plains has come to an end.

It is said that blessings and misfortunes come and misfortunes depend on, and when other states and counties are unable to plant in the spring drought without a drop of rain since the beginning of spring, the seedlings of the plain land irrigated by the Yellow River are gratifying, and it is foreseeable that this year will be a bumper harvest year.

After the end of spring ploughing, the official affairs of the county bureau were also on the normal track, and Liu Ze was also a little relieved, and after handing over the affairs at hand to the county lieutenant of Ding County and Master Jia Xujia, Liu Ze plunged into the pigeon loft.

Pigeons can lay eggs about eight times a year, two each time, each hatching takes about half a month, theoretically these five pairs of pigeons can breed eighty little pigeons for Liu Ze every year, but there are many restrictions on the incubation of pigeon eggs, temperature and humidity environment, etc., many eggs may not be able to hatch successfully, especially the first batch, these pigeons have just been brought from Pingyuan Mansion to this unfamiliar environment of the county office, whether these pigeons can adapt is really a problem.

Fortunately, in the previous life, he had experience in breeding pigeons, and Liu Ze was still handy in dealing with it, and after more than half a month, the first batch of eight pigeons were successfully hatched. Liu Ze looked at these fluffy little guys and was very excited.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were puzzled, is the eldest brother swollen, since he came back from the Plains Palace, he has either planted flowers and grass, or raised birds and played with birds, so he lost his mind, wouldn't he forget the heroic hegemony?

But Liu Ze was tired of it, not only did he not explain, but he squatted in the pigeon loft for several nights and couldn't come out.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had no choice but to pull Jia Xu and prepare to persuade Liu Ze.

"Wenhe, second brother, third brother, you may not understand it now, but what is raised in this pigeon loft and planted in the field outside will be something that spans this dynasty, and it is even unceremonious to say that they will change the course of the war in the future. Now I can't explain it to you, and I don't need to explain it, all you need to do is keep your eyes open and wait and see. Liu Ze considered that even if he explained, it was not something that could be said clearly in a few words, so he simply didn't say it to see the after-effects.

"My eyes are big enough, and if I open them again, my eyeballs will probably fall out. But I watched it for a long time, aren't they just a few gray birds, and their calls are not good, and they don't eat a few taels of meat after killing. You said that big brother, you gave two so beautiful big birds to the King of the Plains, and you exchanged them for a few things, and you farted all day long, do you say that you are poisoned, or do you have a fever in your head? ”

Zhang Fei's goods, what in his eyes, there are only two things left that can be eaten and what cannot be eaten. Liu Ze smiled bitterly and said, "Don't persuade me, I have my own plans for this matter, as for what it is for, you will all understand it in the future." ”

In the blink of an eye, autumn came, the millet was fragrant, and Pingyuan County ushered in a rare harvest after the catastrophe, and the farmers were happily harvesting their crops, and joy and happiness were overflowing on everyone's faces.

This year, due to the continuous drought, the grain harvest in other prefectures and counties has failed, and the bumper grain harvest in Pingyuan County has also attracted the covetousness of the poisonous Yellow Turban Army active in eastern Hebei and Qingxi.

After the defeat of Zhang Jiao, although the momentum of the Yellow Turban in various places was greatly reduced, it never stopped, Zhang Niujiao Chu Yan was in Taihang, Ge Bo was in Runan, and Yu Poison was in eastern Hebei, always holding high the banner of the Yellow Turban in the battle. In the third year of Zhongping, there was a great drought in the world, and countless hungry people joined the Yellow Turban team of the riot, and the Yellow Turbans rose sharply, especially the Yellow Turban Army in eastern Hebei Province, which was active in the area of the Qinghe River and the Bohai Sea.

A large group of hungry Yellow Turban soldiers, like a pack of hungry wolves, waited for an opportunity to raid the township. However, the thousands of miles of Chidi in eastern Hebei were obviously not enough to feed so many Yellow Turban soldiers, and the hungry Yellow Turban soldiers set their sights on the neighboring plain country.

Lin Hai has been suffering from headaches these days, and since the beginning of October, the Yellow Turban Army has repeatedly violated the borders of the Plains, burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil, and several subordinate counties have been harassed by the Yellow Turban Army. The court has already issued an order to exterminate the Yellow Turban Army in the Plains, and according to the eunuch who issued the order, if the Yellow Turban Army in the Plains is not wiped out within the year, he may have to move his position as the Prime Minister of the Plains.

Lin Hai did not dare to take his own job lightly, and urgently summoned Governor Liu Ping and subordinate officials at all levels of the Prime Minister's Mansion to discuss the military situation. Liu Ping didn't care, thinking that the Yellow Turban soldiers raiding the plains this time were all small teams, as long as the army came out, there would be no problem at all to break them one by one. So it was agreed that Liu Ping would lead 2,000 of the 3,000 county soldiers of the Plains State to go out of the city to look for fighters, and Lin Hai would lead the remaining 1,000 county soldiers to defend the city.

After Liu Ping left Pingyuan City, he broke two Yellow Turban Army that came to plunder in Huangpo Township and Yangzhuang, and killed hundreds of enemies, and the Plains City was also jubilant, and even Lin Hai secretly breathed a sigh of relief, as if the Yellow Turban Army that invaded Pingyuan Country was about to be destroyed.

But the development of the battle situation was often unexpected, and when Liu Ping led his army to Qingliu Town, he was suddenly surrounded by tens of thousands of yellow turbans led by Yu Xuan. Liu Ping led only 2,000 county soldiers, in the face of more than ten times his own Yellow Turban Army, how can he be the enemy, after a fierce battle, the loss of troops and the wolf retreated into Qingliu Town, one side of the wall to hold onto, the other to the plain for help.

After receiving the urgent report, Lin Hai immediately collapsed. The 2,000 county soldiers led by Liu Ping are almost half of the main force of the Plains Country, and now in the Plains Country, there are only less than 1,000 defenders left, and this defender is absolutely immovable.

But if the rescue troops are not sent, Liu Ping's side will not be able to support it for long, Qingliu Town is just a market town, and there are no tall walls at all, let alone any fortifications. I heard that the Yellow Turban Army besieging Qingliu Town also had at least 30,000 or 40,000 people, at least ten times more than Liu Ping's county soldiers. (To be continued......)