In order to encourage the people to plant trees and expand the area of the oasis, he took all the family servants in the mansion and the personal soldiers guarding the mansion, and set out with tools to carry out tree planting activities at the east end of Shule Town.

The Tulun Moraine Desert is located at the eastern end of Shule Town, nearly 80 miles away from the city, and there is a large area of the Gobi Desert. Even without sand, plants cannot grow on the Gobi Desert, which is usually made up of saline soil and bare rock. If you want to maintain and expand the oasis, you have to start from the edge of the Gobi Desert.

The advantage of leading by example is that the residents of Shule can see their determination, and I, Li Siye, are not just shouting slogans and posting notices, but we must unswervingly implement this matter. His actions led Pei Guoliang, the governor of Shule, who also rushed to the Gobi Desert with his family and servants, as well as officials at all levels of the Shule Governor's Office, the Tang army who had just finished Tuntian from Tuntian District, and many people from the fifteen prefectures of Shule.

There are two kinds of trees suitable for planting and high survival rate, both of which are common tree species near the Shule Desert, namely Saxon and Sand Willow, which are definitely the most suitable for sand fixation. The root system of the Saxon tree is well developed and can reach a depth of several tens of meters underground. It is very easy to reproduce, bury the seeds in the sand, as long as the right amount of water is irrigated, it can germinate and take root within a few hours, as long as the seedlings are not eaten by animals, they do not need to be irrigated and cared for, they can grow into low bushes.

Salix trees are also quite drought tolerant, and at the same time, the root system is also very developed, and a single sand willow tree can fix the sand soil within a radius of ten zhang. It is also very simple to reproduce, and it can survive as long as it is cutting.

The closest water source to the edge of the oasis is a water draw well thirteen miles away. Li Siye personally carried the wooden bucket to fetch water, and then rushed back to water it.

A bucket of water is like a drop of water in a hot dry pot for the vast Gobi, and it doesn't take long for it to seep and evaporate when poured on the ground, but it is enough for these two drought-tolerant plants, if there is plastic wrap covering the surface of the sandy soil to prevent evaporation, but in this case, they can only choose to quickly cover it up with floating sand.

The wind and sand on the Gobi Desert are strong, in order not to make the bun pour into the sand, Twelve Niang and Mei'er had to wrap their heads with silk cloth, one layer and two layers are not used, at least six layers are needed. In order to shield the face from tanning from the sun, the face is covered with a red veil. If you dress up in disguise like this, where is it still like a graceful Central Plains lady, but a strong Western style, if you add some decorations to your nose, it will be more similar.

Costumes are originally practical, and although some fancy dresses do not conform to aesthetics, they have a reason for their existence.

Dai Wang changed into a white robe and put a thin bronze mask on his face, which still frightened and reluctantly approached the people of Shule. Even Li Mei'er paid attention to this person with fear and curiosity without knowing why, but Twelve Niang should be used to the rivers and lakes, and she was not curious about the strange person who covered her face like this.

Dai Liulang approached Li Siye's side and muttered in a low voice: "I saw your notice at the city gate, if the trees around Shule Town are precious and scarce, and we are not allowed to cut down trees, we will not be able to produce much paper at all by relying only on wheat stalks and barley stalks in the fields." I didn't think about this at all before I came to Moxi. ”

Li Siye shook his head and smiled, pointing to a green and vigorous plant behind him, they were low but fluffy, their branches were elastic and tenacious, and under the blowing of the desert monsoon, they quickly bent down and lowered, but quickly stood up.

"This kind of tree is called Salix, I can separate dozens of acres of Salix for you as raw materials, this kind of thing is everywhere in Shule, isn't it enough for you to make paper?"

"Aren't you not allowed to cut down trees?" Dai Wang raised his hand in surprise and pinched the branches and asked, "You have just posted a notice in Shule Prefecture not to allow the destruction of tree branches, how can I take the lead in violating it, isn't this creating an obstacle to your decree?" ”

Li Siye laughed heartily when he heard this, stretched out his hand and stroked the branches of the sand willow and said: "This plant needs to keep cutting off the branches to grow, and the longer it grows, the more vigorous it becomes, so as long as you cut it above the root, it will quickly grow new branches." It's a way for it to metabolize, no, it should be eliminated. But if left unchecked, it will soon dry up and its roots will eventually die. The best way to keep it alive is to cut off the spiky parts of it without interruption, so that it can live for seventy or eighty years. ”

Dai Liulang should have been surprised, although he couldn't see anything on his face, and then he was delighted that this plant really complemented his paper mill, only pruning every few months, and using the dry sand willow branches as paper-making materials, so he didn't have to worry about raw materials at all.

"I'll get you a few acres of dry sandy land, and use it all to grow this, so you don't have to worry about running out of it."

Pei Guoliang came to him with a shovel and said curiously: "It is said that the Shule Kingdom had a tradition of planting trees before the Han Dynasty, and it was only after the Shule Kingdom was occupied by the Qiuzi people that the provisions on planting trees were abolished. To this day, people no longer continue the habits of their ancestors. I didn't expect General Li to know this, but this is a revival of the old ceremony, which really touched me. ”

Li Siye just smiled, didn't he bump into it, but he didn't want to express any opinions.

"By the way," he suddenly thought of it, turned his head and asked Pei Guoliang: "How did the various prefectures in Shule deal with prisoners in the past?" ”

"Nothing more than decapitation and hanging."

"What about those whose sins do not lead to death?"

"Of course, it is to drive them to the green ridge west of Qingling to graze sheep in the ice and snow."

"What a waste of resources!" Li Siye said with regret: "From today onwards, all the prisoners who have committed crimes that do not deserve death will rush to the edge of the Tulun Moraine Desert to plant trees. ”

"Of course you can, it's just a matter of words. It's just that those who rush to the Green Ridge have a length of sentence according to the severity of the crime, and the Green Ridge Guard City and the Post Station will not take them in. But planting trees in the desert is afraid that these prisoners will be lazy and not work. There are too many guards and food is wasted. Pei Guoliang raised his head and pondered.

"This is simple, according to the severity of the crime, the prisoner can be demarcated to plant the area, the number of plants, and so on. If the crime is lighter, then all the two acres of land will be greened, and if the crime is serious, the five-mile circle will be all greened, when will it become green, when will they be free, how? ”

"This is good!" Pei Guoliang praised sincerely: "This not only expands the oasis, but also improves nature, and also achieves the purpose of punishment. ”

When night falls, the Gobi has already planted branches, and although they are fragile in the wind, they can thrive and grow as long as they stretch out their roots towards the ground.

General Li returned to Shule City with a huge crowd, hoping to turn the tree planting in April every year into a custom, so that after a thousand years, the oasis where Shule was located could gradually expand to the Tulun Moraine Desert for hundreds or thousands of miles.

The team that transported salt and other materials to Shule Town also arrived in Shule Town before dark, and the captain in charge of escorting the materials personally handed him a Kaiyuan Mansion report.

"Gao Du Hu asked me to give this thing to you."

"Okay, get some rest early."

He comforted the lieutenant and the others to stay in the city pavilion, and he hurried back to the study in the inner courtyard of the mansion, personally lit the oil lamp with a fire fold, and unfolded the newspaper under the lamp. This kind of excitement is like buying a smartphone for the first time, and I am in tears when I think about it too much. The reading materials he can read in his hands are nothing more than "The Art of War", "Clan Chronicles" and a few basic Confucian books. Sometimes the information you get in a whole month is not as much as the information you get from turning on your phone for an hour.

Let's just say that the Kaiyuan Mansion newspaper, which he regards as a relative, is only a thousand words in total, and there is not much content in it that interests him, for example, Henan Yin Pei Fudun defeated a pirate named Wu Lingguang, He Zhizhang died violently at home, and Wang Zhongsi made military exploits. There is also a striking information that appeared in his sight, Fan Yang Jiedu made An Lushan replace Pei Kuan as the Pinglu Jiedu envoy.

This is the entire land of Youyan has fallen into the hands of An Lushan, Li Siye instantly felt a sense of urgency, this sense of urgency is like the college entrance examination There are still two weeks, but mathematics, physics and chemistry have not been reviewed so breathlessly, the other party is already the envoy of the two towns, but he is still engaged in the so-called small construction in a corner of Anxi.

Time waits for no one, and when will it wait if you don't catch up?