Liu He was able to eat more than 30,000 young and strong laborers in one bite, and in the future, he would give them food, housing, settling down and various benefits, but it was not a whim, but he had already planned it.

In recent years, the workshops in Macheng have developed rapidly, and important industries such as weapons workshops, agricultural tool workshops, horse harness workshops, iron workshops, weaving workshops, and felt workshops have flourished, which have become the source of driving force for the development of handicrafts in Shanggu and Daijun, and also provided a steady stream of logistical support for Liu He's southern and northern wars.

However, after all, Macheng is only a border city, because of the geographical location, it cannot expand outward on a large scale in terms of pattern, and it is difficult to form a complete industrial chain, so as the territory controlled by Liu He becomes larger and larger, the various supports that the workshops near Macheng can provide seem to be unable to keep up with the pace of Liu He's outward expansion.

For example, the non-stop production of the armory workshop in Macheng throughout the year can only meet the support needs of 50,000 troops, and the total number of troops controlled by Liu He during the year will exceed 150,000, so there is a huge gap here.

For another example, although the new type of curved plough produced by the farm tool workshop in Macheng can greatly improve the efficiency of farmers' farming, because of the large demand for steel, it will form a conflict with the demand for raw materials in the armory workshop. Similarly, iron pots, shovels, and nails made by the ironsmith, stirrups, saddles, and horseshoes made by the harness workshop were also made of steel, so they also formed conflicts with the armory workshop and the agricultural tool workshop.

In the past, when the war was tight, ensuring the full production of the armory and harness workshop was always the first priority, so that even the merchants from the counties and other states who came to buy the new type of curved plough waited for half a year. It was also difficult to get a new type of ploughshare made by Macheng Farm Tool Workshop, so Liu Fang had to watch a lot of opportunities to make money slip away from him.

Now that the situation has eased, Liu Fang, who is in charge of the money bag, thought that he could control the iron quota of the armory workshop and the harness workshop a little, and then let the agricultural tool workshop and the ironcraft workshop that can make money work to produce, but as soon as the eldest prince came, he announced that he would expand the army this year, so his hopes were completely disappointed.

Liu He was very understanding and sympathetic to his good subordinate Liu Fang's helplessness, so he endured all kinds of nagging and complaints from Liu Fang in front of him every day, and he was not irritable and angry, but comforted him with a smile and said: "Don't be anxious." Wait until I'm busy with the expansion of the army. I'll help you figure it out right away! ”

Liu Fang waited and waited until Liu and a lion opened their mouths and swallowed all the 60,000 reserve soldiers in the two counties, and finally turned around and began to pay attention to their money bags.

On this day, everyone in the captain's mansion gathered. Except for Xu Miao, who stayed in Zhuo County. Liu He's team that stayed in Youzhou was basically present. Guo Jia, Xu Yue and others sat in the auditorium to discuss the development plan together.

Liu He asked Liu Fang: "How much of the gold, silver and jewelry that was transported back to Youzhou from Yiwu is there now?" ”

Liu Fang replied: "At the beginning, there were a total of 200 boxes of wealth transported back to Youzhou. In the past few years, through mutual trading with the Xianbei and Wuhuan people, eighty boxes of them have been used; Forty boxes of grain were used to purchase grain in the Xindu Free Trade Market; Sixty boxes were used to pay salaries to state officials and military officers, and only twenty boxes remain. ”

"What, that's all there is left?" Liu He rubbed his head with a headache.

Liu Fang explained: "We exchanged gold, silver and jewelry for their cattle, horses, sheep and felt, and then distributed the cattle to the farmers, supplemented the horses to the cavalry camp, sold the sheep to the south bank of the Yellow River, and made the felt into a marching camp tent. If it weren't for these gold, silver and jewelry, there would have been no grain harvest in Youzhou for three consecutive years, and it would have been impossible for no one to starve to death in winter, and there would have been no benevolent government to rest with the people this year. ”

Han Heng then explained: "The forty boxes of gold, silver and jewelry used to buy grain all passed through my hands, and each of them was recorded in detail, which was purchased when the price of grain was low, and then shipped to Luoyang and Jicheng in batches. ”

Liu Hui also said: "In the past few years, the expenses of the officials in the state have been taken from the accounts of the school captain's office, and the expenses for the pension and the placement of the dead and wounded soldiers are also a lot, and the sixty boxes of treasures are only used as a supplement, and the school governor's office has also spent nearly forty percent of the annual tax revenue for this purpose. ”

Forty boxes of gold, silver and jewelry were exchanged for food, and the most was sent to the Luoyang area one after another, and then fed more than 600,000 people, which Liu He knew better than anyone else. In addition, 60 boxes of gold, silver and jewelry not only had to pay salaries to officials at all levels in Youzhou, but also had to compensate the soldiers killed in battle and wounded, which was not enough at all, and could only be used temporarily for emergency relief, and then gradually consumed.

When Dong Zhuo withdrew from Luoyang to Chang'an, he looted the Luoyang area, and the wealth captured was not limited to 200 boxes of gold, silver and jewelry. Zhao Yun took away sixty percent of the wealth left by Dong Zhuo from Hewu, and now it seems that it has been used by Liu He on the blade, which can be regarded as taking it from the national thieves and using it for the people.

Liu He frowned and pondered for a moment, then said, "Now we still have twenty boxes of gold, silver and jewelry on hand, you can find someone to estimate the accurate value, and then formulate an investment plan to draw it out." My idea was to build a workshop town in the gentle area to the southwest of Jicheng next to the water, and in the future, it would be used as a handicraft center in Youju, mainly for processing between semi-flat and finished products. A large number of iron-making furnaces were built in the areas of Panxian, Xialuo and Zhuolu to specialize in smelting pig iron; Leather and felt processing workshops were set up in Juyong and Quang Ninh districts to purchase and rough process animal hides and wool; Set up meat processing workshops in Ningxian and Fuyang, specializing in curing all kinds of meat ......"

Liu He spoke eloquently, carefully depicting the development blueprint that had been brewing in his chest for a long time to the staff.

After listening to Liu He's idea, everyone carefully observed the Youzhou topographic sand table placed in the center of the hall, pondering the big pattern that Liu He put out this time.

Everyone has been following Liu He for several years, and they know that Liu He is not the kind of person who is rigid and self-serving, and can listen to and adopt different opinions, so they all think together in the attitude of checking and filling in the gaps for Liu He, and there are no other superfluous ideas.

Liu Hui first raised his own question: "Childe, if this is the layout, it can be expected that a large number of handicraft workshops in Youzhou will emerge in the next few years, and then there will definitely be recruits and hired workers everywhere." If the peasants in various places feel that the income from farming is not as good as working in the workshops, they may abandon the peasants and work in the workshops, which will not only affect our plan to reclaim the land outside the Saiwai, but in serious cases, it will even affect the grain production of the entire Youzhou! ”

Liu Hui's concern is not unreasonable, and it directly grasps the core issue of agricultural civilization, that is, the problem of food security.

Han added: "In addition to food security concerns, there is also a question about the lowly position. Nowadays, the production capacity of the workshops in Macheng is naturally unable to meet the needs of the entire Youzhou and even Jizhou, but if the Jicheng handicraft industry urban area is built, a large number of primary processing workshops will be set up in the relevant counties. The output of the entire handicraft commodity would increase fivefold or even tenfold. At that time, if we cannot open up the sales channels of all kinds of commercial goods, it is easy to have a large-scale loss. ”

Liu Fang, Wei You, Xu Yue and others nodded in unison, agreeing with the doubts raised by Liu Hui and Han Heng.

Liu He was very satisfied with everyone's reaction, if he came up with an idea. The crowd would just nod their heads in agreement. There was no opposition or skepticism at all. Then the point of brainstorming is lost. He didn't want to be an arbitrary husband, after all, a person's wisdom is limited, even if he has some experience and insight in later generations. That must also be in line with the reality of this era.

"Mr. Zihui and Zipei's concerns are very reasonable, and I also have some thoughts on the food security of Youzhou and the marketing of handicraft goods," Liu said. Today, taking advantage of the crowd, I will say some immature thoughts in my heart, and I will regard it as a brick throw. Personally, I believe that the conditions that are crucial to the long-term development of the country mainly involve five aspects, namely: agriculture, animal husbandry, fishery and hunting, army building, handicraft manufacturing, culture, education, science and technology, and commercial circulation. ”

"The territory of our Han Dynasty is vast, the Central Plains and the Jiangnan region are suitable for large-scale farming, the north has large grasslands and fields suitable for animal husbandry, the long coastline along the east coast and the inland rivers and lakes are suitable for fishing, and the mountainous areas within the states are suitable for hunting.

"There are three main reasons why there is always a shortage of food in various places today. The first is the continued turmoil in the states, which greatly disrupts the original order of production, resulting in a large number of fields being barren, and then the more food is scarce, more people will rise up to rebel, and as a result, even more destruction will be caused, and thus a vicious circle will be entered, and more and more people will starve to death and die. ”

"The second cause of food shortages is man-made. Land annexation in various parts of the Han Dynasty has become more and more intense, and the wealthy families in various localities, who account for less than 10 percent of the total population, control more than 80 percent of the country's land, but have not organized effective agricultural production, which has greatly dampened the peasants' enthusiasm for growing grain, so that the grain output per mu of land has been declining year by year, and now it is even less than one-fifth of that at the beginning of the founding of the country! ”

"The third reason for the lack of grain is that the settled farming technology, water conservancy facilities and agricultural tools limit the grain output per acre of land. The best paddy fields in the Han Dynasty can produce more than 400 catties of grain a year at most, while ordinary fields can only produce more than 100 catties of grain a year. In a year of drought, flooding, locust plague and other famines, there will be a large-scale reduction in production or even a total harvest failure! ”

"I think how industrious and simple my Han people are, every day at sunrise and sunset, but year after year of hard work, even the stomach can not be filled, once a disaster occurs, the people of the whole village and the whole township flee in all directions, every year there are people who do not know how much to die on the way to escape the famine, and there are rumors of cannibalism from time to time at that time, which makes people sound creepy. What a tragedy! What a pain! ”

When Liu He said this, his eyes were slightly red, and he felt that his nose was a little sour.

In the last life, Liu He came from the countryside, helped his parents do farm work since he was a child, heard the story of a large number of starving people who died during the three years of natural disasters, and also saw the records of countless dynasties in the history books because the people could not eat and uncovered, and also witnessed the enthusiasm of the farmers to grow grain after the package production was delivered to the household, so he had a very deep understanding of the land and food problems. (To be continued......)