Spring on the grassland came much earlier than in the Great Wall. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Just in the first month, the ice and snow in Shunde have melted, and the grassland has regained vitality.

At this time in previous years, the tribes near Shunde must have been preparing for migration.

Because they must hurry up and go to the distant pastures to rush to the spring pasture feast.

The timing has to be just right.

If you can't go too early, the grass will not grow, and the livestock and people will have to go hungry.

You can't go too late, because if it's too late, the grass will be eaten up by other people's livestock.

But this year, the people near Shunde are much calmer.

This past winter, the army of the Han Dynasty expelled and executed almost all the nobles within a radius of 300 miles near the city of Shunde.

Seeing that in the past, the big people who were high up and had some difficulty even looking up were sent to the guillotine by the Han Dynasty, and their pastures, livestock and wealth were all evenly distributed among the big guys by the Han Dynasty officials.

Who isn't happy?

Of course, for the Han family, this deal is not a loss.

The livestock of the surrounding departments are not their own.

It's too cost-effective to take other people's things and buy people's hearts for yourself.

The only problem is that now, the herdsmen and herdsmen of the various ministries have been emancipated according to Chang'an's wishes, and their pastures and livestock have been distributed.

But the question is how to manage these people? How to guide them?

This becomes a big problem.

There is no choice but to go to the policy of military control.

All herders, unified by the military.

Imitate the establishment of the Tunken Regiment and organize it, and the Han army is already very proficient in this matter, so it didn't take much effort to establish dozens of township pavilions around Shunde.

There are more than 1,000 people, and there are hundreds of people.

At the same time, by the way, a census was also conducted on the Zhuhu tribes around Shunde, and the final results were shocking!

With Shunde as the core, there are more than 43,000 people on the grassland within a radius of hundreds of miles.

Considering this place, it has always been the forbidden territory of the Huns, and after the defeat of the Huns, their headquarters fled to the north of the Maku, leaving behind only the old, weak, sick and miscellaneous slave tribes.

As a result, the actual population may have been much larger.

And this Shunde is just a corner of the grassland, not the main pasture of the people of the bow since ancient times.

Therefore, the population size of this entire grassland is likely to exceed the Han family's estimates and assumptions.

This made the merchants very excited.

Industries and businesses that are waiting to be fed are now short of cheap labor that can be supplied in large quantities.

Especially in the smelting, mining and logging industries.

Shortage of labor!

With Han people, it is too expensive, and it is too easy to arouse public opinion.

If you use a little more, Confucianism and Legalism will spray them on 'hurting the capital and pursuing profits', and also 'hurting nature and reason' and 'disregarding human life'.

It's better to be a slave laborer, there are no human rights, if you die, you die, and no one will pay attention.

As soon as the merchants were happy, the speed of transportation of military supplies suddenly increased.

Within a few days after the ice and snow melted and the roads were reopened, thousands of truckloads of supplies were transported to Shunde City.

Their efficiency is at least twice as high even that of the people mobilized by the state!

There was no way, the merchants waved five baht coins and smashed down a lot of bounty money, and the coachmen and people who transported the materials immediately worked up in a hurry.

In order to earn an extra five baht, some people are willing to work overtime.

Businessmen, naturally, are not profitable.

This war is a feast in itself!

Judging from past examples, after the Han army pacified the Makunan and firmly ruled, the state would inevitably place countless orders to prepare for the development of the Makunan region.

And these orders, of course, will be handed over to the righteous businessmen who are 'diligent in the king's affairs, loyal to the monarch and patriotic'.

In addition, the merchants can also buy the captures and prisoners captured in the course of the war.

And you can use the donated materials to offset the payment!

This is already a lucrative deal!

Not to mention, Zhidu also promised them that he could let them participate in this war, so that they could share some military merits.

In the current Han family, money can buy almost everything - except for the title.

Since the first year of Yuande, the imperial court has tightened the relevant regulations on the donation of millet to the lord, and after the battle of Mayi, the system of donating the millet was completely stopped.

In the current world, the only title that can be bought with money is the people's lordship.

But these tradable knights can only support up to the public ride, and if they want to rise, the titles that come from trading or buying and selling cannot be superimposed.

Only military merits can continue to improve without restrictions.

For the insecure businessmen, who always feel that they may have to be used by the magistrate as a political achievement, the only way for them to protect themselves is to improve their titles.

As long as you are promoted to the fifth doctor, you have privileges.

Promoted to the left chief and above, then have the power of initial self-preservation, according to the system of the left chief and above belong to the qing, their status is comparable to a thousand stones, the magistrate has been difficult to decide their life and death, their fate is in the hands of more senior officials.

At least, a county order can't take over someone who has the lord of the left chief or above.

And among today's businessmen, there are a few who have the title of Zuo Shu Chang.

As for the feudal monarchs, there are only two.

In order to obtain a higher status, greater autonomy, and for the prosperity of the family, the merchants are really desperate now.

Money, as if it wasn't money, was thrown out.

Within two months, they had bought up almost all the surplus grain in the hands of the peasants in Longyou County, Beidi County, and Taiyuan County.

In front of the gates of the Wolf Storm and the Cloud Plug, there were piles of grain and caravans eager to get out.

Countless people were stupefied by the power of these merchants.

With the power of businessmen, it can actually support a war of medium intensity or above!

This is indeed a bit unbelievable!

It is an unprecedented thing, before today, no one would have thought that businessmen, a group at the bottom of society and discriminated against by the world, could have such power!

Zhi Du was already dumbfounded.

However, thinking about it carefully, Zhi Du felt that this was also reasonable.

Back then, Emperor Taizong ascended the throne at the beginning of the year, and in the years after the Xiongnu forces were completely expelled from the Great Wall, the defenders of the Great Wall were often hungry, so that there were examples of the defenders of Fengsui Towers being starved to death.

However, when Chao Cuo proposed the policy of donating corn, the situation was completely reversed within two years.

Merchants and landlords from all over the world, enthusiastically with their retainers and slaves, drove ox carts and horse-drawn carts to the Great Wall for thousands of miles, and delivered cartloads of corn to the border of the Great Wall.

Soon, the grain in the official warehouses in various places was full.

The history of starvation of the defenders of the Great Wall is gone forever.

No one can count how many people transported food to the defenders of the Great Wall at that time? I don't know how much food they sent.

But one thing is certain, the grain and grass they transported must have exceeded two million stones, or maybe even more.

The wealth, strength, and resources of today's Han merchants are dozens of times that of those years.

It should not be surprising that they can create such miracles.

Inexplicably, Zhi thought of a proverb that circulated in the Chang'an market: Those who win business win the world!

"Should the power of businessmen be taken seriously?" Zhi Du thought to himself, but then, he shook his head.

For the Legalists, hatred and hostility to businessmen are their foundation, their Taoism, and the path guided by countless sages.

Businessmen can use and cooperate, but if the power of businessmen is allowed to participate in or even dominate the thinking of Legalists, what is the difference between that and deceiving teachers and destroying ancestors?

In the future, after the death of himself and others, under Jiuquan, what face will he have to see Li Kui, Shang Jun, Han Feizi and many other sages and ancestors?

However, it is the power of a hundred labors that can be appropriately introduced.

Industry and commerce, industry and commerce, there are workers and businesses.

Without workshops, without workshops, without workers, what can merchants do with their trade?

It just so happens that now, Nanyang County under Zhang Tang has countless workshops and countless blast furnaces.

In the future, Legalists may be able to start from this aspect and establish and build their own workshop ideas.

It is best to dress up the Legalist as the spokesperson of the workshop owner, especially the majority of small and medium-sized workshop owners.

In this way, even if the future is really the world of industry and commerce, the world of machinery and workshops, then Legalism can still survive and continue to lead the times.

Thinking like this, Zhi Du picked up the pen, wrote a letter, and then handed it to one of his close confidants, and asked: "You personally send this letter to Nanyang County for me, and face the county guard Zhang Gong!" ”

"No!" The cronie received the order and went out.

Now, the personal letters of the high-ranking nobles and high-ranking civil officials of the Han family have begun to be delivered by their own close confidants.

This is to prevent being seen by the spies of the embroidered guard.

Zhi Du was not afraid that the content of this letter would be known by the Son of Heaven, he was afraid that it would be known by Confucian people.

The ghost knows that there are any Confucian people in the embroidered clothes?

Anyway, Zhi Du knew that there were many people in the embroidered guards who were inclined, sympathetic, and even disciples of the Legalists themselves.

When they saw the letters of the Confucian giants, they would definitely open them and look at them, and then quietly reveal the contents to the Legalists.

After this was done, Zhidu refocused his attention on government affairs.

Before Chang'an's decision came, his main responsibility as a general protecting the Xiongnu was to build and establish a county system with Shunde as the core.

This matter, although he has the experience of the Reclamation Regiment, Zhi Du handled it easily, and it didn't even take much effort.

However, there are only more than 43,000 people, which is not as large as the population of the Han family.

To be reasonable, a middle-level Han civil official is enough to deal with these things.

And he Zhidu is a man who has served as a county guard and lieutenant of Henan County, a lieutenant general, and a man who holds Jinwu.

He has governed large counties with a population of millions.

This kind of thing, for him, is very easy.

But the question is whether this brand new county is different from the old counties in China.

It is the first county in the world to have animal husbandry as its foundation and pillar.

It is not the predominantly agricultural counties in Chinese mainland.

It is undoubtedly a difficult task to divide the pastures reasonably, to guide these people, and to adapt and learn the sedentary way of life.

Fortunately, in the past four years, the soldiers of the Lou Fu Army have completely learned and understood how to run a settled animal husbandry economy.

Under their hand-in-hand teaching, the herdsmen of all departments within a hundred miles of Shunde City have basically completed the construction of settlements.

Now, I am waiting for the bureaucrats of the Shaofu and the Imperial Servants to come and teach these people the seeds of alfalfa and various techniques and tools.

However, the tribes in the two hundred miles outside of Shunde do not have this condition.

Because of the severe shortage of resources and manpower, they will have to maintain a nomadic way of life, at least for this year.

And how to organize and lead these people to transition this year has become a difficult problem.

You can't let these people stay where they are, they're too lazy to do it, right?

They have to fend for themselves.

But they can't be allowed to lose control and leave the Han family's grasp.

Zhidu is having a headache about this now.

There are about 20,000 people in this group of outsiders.

Among them, about 8,000 are adult men, about 10,000 are women and children, and the remaining 2,000 are old, weak, sick and disabled.

If these people ignore them, or restrict them from being nomadic herders, then they will all starve to death.

Of course, there are many businessmen who are willing to take over.

Bring them back inland.

But Zhi knows what these scum want to do with his ass!

"Well, let these men, the men transport and keep the grain and grass for our army, and the women sew and comb the clothes?" Zhi Du thought in his heart, but then denied this idea.

Because, it is impossible for the Han army to take them with them.

"Or, do a project and let them do the work?" Zhidu's eyes shone brightly.

This idea is not bad, since the Han family has arrived on this grassland, it will naturally not be stupid to let the grassland go, of course, it will transform the geography and landform of this area, and change the direction of the river, so as to adapt the world to the Han people, instead of stupidly adapting to the world with the Huns.

Although now, the Son of Heaven has rejected the plan to reclaim the grassland.

However, the development of animal husbandry is also inseparable from the supply of water resources.

Digging channels between settlements, building reservoirs to store water, and even building dikes along flood-prone areas and planting trees in windblown and sand-blown areas are all options.

Although he has not been here for a long time, Zhidu has already built a renovation project tailored to the world around Shunde.

First of all, a large number of trees were planted in the area near Junji Mountain in the north to block and weaken the intensity of wind and sand incursion.

The matter of planting trees to prevent sand has been known to the Chinese since the Qin Dynasty.

When the Qin people ran the Hetao area, they planted more than 100,000 trees around Yulinsai, and to this day, the elm trees around Yulinsai are still the most powerful defense against the wind and sand blowing from the west of the river.

To put it bluntly, without the management of the Qin people, the sandstorming of the Hetao area may be serious now.

In addition, it seems necessary to establish a water supply channel near Shunde to satisfy the city's thirst for water in the future.

Otherwise, in the future, if Shunde has a large population and a shortage of water, it will be troublesome.

Thinking like this, Zhidu has already made a decision.

For the Legalists, it is indeed a subconscious and natural choice to be indecisive in the event of an indecision and to engage in infrastructure construction.