Spring comes and goes, flowers fall in a hurry, and in a blink of an eye, it is early April.

The Great Song Dynasty changed the name of the year to Xihe, implying the meaning of family reunion, looking forward to recovering Yunzhou and returning all the sixteen states of Youyun to the Great Song Dynasty.

Yunzhou is Datong Mansion, Liao changed to Xijing, is an important town in the west of Liao, in fact, Liao did not give up the idea of Xijing.

Despite the shortage of finances and the difficulty of recruiting troops, the Liao State still recruited 30,000 troops from the mature women of Huanzhou, Zhengzhou, Luzhou, Dingzhou and Xuanzhou in Tokyo Province in a coercive manner, and placed them in Datong Mansion to increase the defense of Datong Mansion and increase the strength of the Liao army in Datong Province from 20,000 to 50,000.

This morning, a cavalry galloped along the edge of a forest, the cavalry team of about 50 people, is a typical Song army scout, after several years of war, the Song army's war horses have greatly increased, the whole army has been equipped with as many as 400,000 horses, basically more than half of the soldiers are equipped with war horses, although many soldiers are not cavalry, but equipped with war horses, the army's mobility will be rapidly enhanced.

For example, the 100,000 Western Army was transferred from Shaanxi Road to Hebei Road, and it took only ten days, that is, 100,000 soldiers were equipped with war horses.

At present, the Song army deployed 85,000 troops in Yingzhou, south of Datong Mansion, led by the veteran general Yang Wenguang, and these 50 cavalry scouts set out from Yingzhou and went all the way north to Datong Mansion to investigate the enemy's intelligence.

There are two kinds of scouts in the Song army, one is the undercover scout, who sneaks into the city and uses various identities to cover to probe for intelligence, and the other is the peripheral scouts, and these fifty cavalrymen are the peripheral scouts.

In fact, there have long been undercover scouts of the Song army infiltrating Datong City, and they continue to send intelligence, but according to the intelligence system, some information still needs to be corroborated by peripheral scouts, such as the enemy's equipment and so on.

All the way north from Yingzhou is in the Datong Basin, the terrain is flat, the climate is relatively dry, I don't know when, with what channel, the corn of the Great Song Dynasty was introduced into the Liao State, especially widely planted in Datong Province, it is very suitable for the soil quality and climate of Datong Province, plus the yield per mu is high, so it is popularized very quickly, the wheat fields of previous years have been invisible, and there are endless corn fields everywhere.

"Brigade Marshal, this is there!"

A soldier pointed to a few houses in the distance, which looked like peasant houses, but they found that they were not living in the nearby farmland, but seven or eight Liao soldiers, these Liao soldiers came to farm, according to the experience of the Song army, the Liao soldiers would also change their clothes to local farmers when farming, but these soldiers were still wearing military uniforms, and they should have just arrived.

The brigade commander observed for a moment, and with a wave of his hand, fifty cavalry surrounded him from all directions.

A Liao soldier suddenly realized that something was wrong, turned and fled, shouting and running, when an arrow whizzed and pierced his neck from behind, and the soldier fell to the ground.

But his shouts had already alarmed the other soldiers in the room, and they rushed out with their swords, and the arrows of the Song army came from all sides, knocking down three more in an instant.

"Other live catches!"

The brigade commander shouted, and the Song soldiers stopped shooting arrows and rushed forward with short sticks and large nets.

In just a moment, the remaining three Liao soldiers were firmly covered by the Song army's big net, unable to move, and their weapons were also taken away.

The Song soldiers tied them up like rice dumplings and took them away on three horses.

........

Yingzhou Prefecture is called Jincheng County, that is, today's Ying County, Ying County as the south gate of Datong Mansion, built exceptionally tall and strong, surrounded by a moat, although Ying County is a strong defensive city, but Lou Fu Pass battle, the Liao army of Datong Mansion only has 20,000 people, not enough to divide troops to defend the city, the Liao army had to give up Yingzhou, retreat north to defend Datong Mansion.

The circumference of the county seat of Jincheng County is more than 20 miles, and there are more than 50,000 residents in the city, because of the outbreak of war, the people outside the city have moved into the city, the Han and Khitan people each account for more than 40 percent, and the rest of the Qiang people, Xi people and Bohai people account for less than 1 percent and a half.

In addition to Jincheng County, Yingzhou also has Hunyuan County and Heyin County, each with a population of more than 10,000, but the wealthy families of the three counties have fled to Datong Mansion, and the remaining people are poor people who farm for a living or businessmen who do small business, unable to flee north, and can only accept the rule of the Song Dynasty.

Before October last year, Yingzhou was under military control, and Yang Ying, the commander, was appointed as the governor on his behalf, but in late October, Su Zhe, a civilian official appointed by Fanning, arrived in Yingzhou, and Yingxian was officially changed to civilian governance.

Su Zhe has been in Yingzhou for half a year, the wind and sand and fatigue have made him dark and thin, he remembers what Fan Ning said to him, Yingzhou governance is a model, will become his most solid political foundation, just like the meaning of Kunzhou to Fan Ning.

Therefore, in the past six months, Su Zhe spent most of his time in various exchanges with the people of all ethnic groups, verifying the land deeds, developing business, solving the difficulties of the lonely and widowed elderly, guiding the peasants to return to their homes, and going door-to-door to preach the five-year tax exemption policy and the ethnic equality policy formulated by the imperial court.

When spring came, Su Zhe mobilized soldiers to help farmers plant corn, and at the same time introduced pumpkins to Yingzhou, and every house was full of pumpkins in front of and behind the house.

His hard work was not in vain, and many Khitans and Xi people who were preparing to flee gave up their migration and stayed in Yingzhou with peace of mind, and were registered in Yingzhou.

In the afternoon of this day, Su Zhe returned to Yingzhou from Heyin County, in addition to a few entourages, there were two hundred cavalry to follow the escort, Yang Wenguang knew very well that Fan Ning was focusing on cultivating Su Zhe, although Yingzhou did not have the main force of the Liao army, but he was afraid of encountering the Liao army spies.

Su Zhe rode on a horse, pointed to the Sanggan River and said with great interest: "Have you seen it, the water volume of the Sanggan River is not small, but there is not a single waterwheel on the Sanggan River, which shows that the peasants' use of the Sanggan River is still too low, and they basically rely on the sky for food. ”

"Envoy, it's good to grow corn now, and it doesn't seem to need much water!" One of the attendants laughed.

Su Zhe glared at him, "Who said that you don't need water to grow corn, corn in the south of the Yangtze River generally bears two ears, one mu of land can produce three thousand catties, and corn in the north is only seventeen or eight hundred catties, and we have similar here, a stalk only bears one ear, and the stalk simply does not produce ears, and there is a big reason for the lack of water." ”

At this time, a few old farmers in front of him were standing in front of a corn field and discussing something, Su Zhe urged the horse to rush over, and the entourage and soldiers behind hurriedly followed.

Several old farmers knew Su Zhe, and hurriedly bowed and saluted, "See the big officials!" ”

Su Zhe turned over and dismounted and asked, "Is there a problem with this corn field?" ”

One of the old farmers said: "Qiyu big official, this field is a villain, last year's yield per mu was only 500 catties, more than half of the stalks did not bear ears, I don't know what the reason is, so please a few villagers come and see." ”

Su Zhe looked at the corn seedlings, they were all one foot tall, green, no different from other corn fields.

He asked the other farmers, "Are your fields normal?" ”

Several old farmers nodded together, "We are all normal, each stalk bears one ear." ”

In fact, Su Zhe has found the reason for not setting ears, it is not entirely due to the lack of water, these farmers have to carry water from the river every day for irrigation, which should have nothing to do with the amount of water.

Su Zhe looked at the surrounding environment again, there was bare yellow earth all around, there were no trees, no green grass, and it was also leeward, the reason should be the same as that of Heyin.

Su Zhe smiled and said: "Corn is the same as planting fruit trees, it needs bees and butterflies to pollinate, or rely on wind pollination, it will produce ears, if there is no pollination, then it will only bloom and not bear fruit, there is no grass and trees around your land, and it happens to be a leeward place, pollen cannot spread, of course it cannot bear ears." ”

Several farmers suddenly realized that they didn't know the reason, and Su Zhe explained the reason at once.

The old farmer suddenly became anxious, "Then what should I do?" ”

"There are two ways, there are two special beekeepers in Lishu Village thirty miles away, and when the corn blooms, you go and ask a box of bees to be placed on the edge of the field, and there is also a simple way, you collect pollen yourself and carefully sprinkle it on the corn whiskers, this is okay, Jiangnan does this, but the timing must be grasped accurately, and experience is required, but I still recommend renting a box of bees, that is, more than ten dollars, if there is difficulty, the government can come forward."

The other peasants asked, "Official, can we do this?" ”

"It's okay, it's usually the wind to spread pollen, but you can help with manual pollen, and the effect may be good."

Everyone was overjoyed, and another person asked: "Daguan, what should I do if the corn yield is too large and I can't eat it?" ”

Su Zhe smiled, "I also told the farmers about this yesterday in Heyin, there are two ways to solve the excess corn, one is to raise pigs, the other is to make wine, if it is troublesome, then the government can also concentrate on the purchase, there is a large wine-making workshop in Taiyuan, you can sell it to it, the government does not make everyone money, you can charge as much as you sell, and the cost of transportation is borne by the government." ”

After thinking about it, it is better to make your own wine and raise pigs, and the sake lees can also be used as fertilizer.

"Thank you for your advice!"

Su Zhe got on the horse and said with a smile: "If you have any difficulties, you can go to the state government to find me, I will try my best to solve it for everyone, I will go first." ”

"Slow down!"

When everyone saw Su Zhe leaving, they all praised: "It's also our luck in Yingzhou, a good official came, if it is a corrupt official or a mediocre official, everyone will suffer." ”