In the Book of Songs, National Style, and Wei Feng, there is a description of the scourge of rats to the grain: "Big rats, big rats, big rats, no food for me!" It can be seen that even if the grain is harvested, if it is not stored properly, it will become a delicious meal for rats and other pests, and the fruits of the peasants' labor will eventually be wasted.

Since Zhao Xing was plotting to purchase the surplus grain after the bumper harvest in various places, he naturally could not neglect the problem of grain storage.

As early as the beginning of the Crouching Tiger Winery began to stock up on the grain used in winemaking, Zhao Xing repeatedly asked people to compare the best way to store grain and reduce losses. After so many years of trial and error, he really discovered two important methods.

Through the test, Zhao Xing found that all kinds of grains, whether it is corn, rice, wheat, soybeans, etc., have two common taboos in their storage, one is fear of moisture, and the other is fear of stuffiness. Wheat, in particular, will become moldy and inedible in a humid environment within a few days.

In order to overcome these two problems, Zhao Xing used a lot of brains in the internal structure of the warehouse, site selection, insect and rodent prevention, etc., and finally after entering the Western Regions and completely controlling the cold northern prairie, it was finally perfectly solved.

At the beginning, Jiaohe City, which Zhao Xing asked Ma Chao to outwit, was a veritable earth-making city, how to understand this? That is to say, the temperature in this area of Jiaohe City is arid and rainless, and the soil layer is very dry, even if the city is directly excavated, there will be no collapse accident. Therefore, building a large granary in such a place can well overcome the problem of dampness.

Zhao Xing still remembers that in the archaeological documentary he saw in later generations, a female corpse from 4,000 years ago was found in the Loulan area, who was still well preserved, and was called "Princess Xiaohe", which also indirectly proved how dry the climate here is. Therefore, the first large granary that Zhao Xing chose to build secretly was near Liwei City, which was close to Jiaohe City in the Western Regions.

The selection of a large group of war-ready granaries here not only has unique natural advantages, but also has a deeper purpose. In the future, as long as you take the country of Wusun, as well as the countries of Dawan and Kangju to the west of Wusun, it will be a super granary, and the grain produced will be enough to feed half of the Han. Therefore, it is necessary to build a super granary in the fief of King Pingxi to store grain for the people of the world.

In order to prevent rodent and insect infestations, Zhao Xing not only made great efforts to fry all the soil used to build the warehouse in high temperatures, but also added materials such as quicklime, and the innermost layer of the warehouse was a tightly knit stone, even the blade as thin as a cicada's wings could not be inserted. That's not all, Zhao Xing also had quicklime to absorb water around the warehouse, and buried geothermal pipes in the ground that could be used to heat and remove moisture.

With such cumbersome and exaggerated technical processing, the storage capacity of the Liwei official warehouse can only be described as terrifying, and after the grain is stored in, even if it is moved out for consumption every few decades, the problem will not be very big.

Although the large granary of Liwei is good, it is too far away from the Central Plains, and the transportation cost is too high. Therefore, while Zhao Xing asked people to secretly build the Liwei granary, he also built a slightly smaller granary in the desert area north of Shangjun and south of Wuyuan. The so-called small is just compared with the Liwei granary, but in fact, the scale is not inferior to any granary in other states and counties of Dahan.

Tucked away in the desert of no man's land, this granary is only a few hundred miles away from the administrative office of Shangjun, but because of its dry and cold geographical conditions, it is also suitable for building a reserve granary.

After completely solving the problem of nomads on the northern steppes, Zhao Xing now does not have to worry about building a granary here to make wedding clothes for others. Because he was confident that the force had not yet been able to penetrate deep into the desert and carry all the food he had stored.

The Yan Sheng division stationed in Fengxue City and the Huang Xuan division stationed in Guzang City were not vegetarians, and they were enough to stop any small unidentified force of small size from entering the desert area adjacent to Shangjun.

Although the construction of the two granaries cost Zhao Xing a lot of wealth, he felt that it was a very meaningful thing. Once the granary is built, it can serve the Han Empire forever, which can not only effectively reduce the storage loss of grain, but also reserve sufficient means to deal with unforeseen natural disasters.

While building a granary for war readiness, Zhao Xing also chose to secretly build a cold storage that could store meat near the cold North Sea (Lake Baikal). Winter temperatures in the area around the North Sea can reach minus forty or fifty degrees Celsius, which is freezing cold. During the long and cold winters, there is no shortage of huge chunks of pure ice.

Zhao Xing sent people to travel north with tools when the spring was warm, and when the soil thawed in the summer, young and strong laborers dug holes in the upper and lower three layers of the cliff by the lake, and when autumn came, the personnel evacuated south. After years of repeating this, a hole was dug to store a huge amount of meat.

After the excavation of the burrow was completed, Zhao Xing had the upper and lower burrows stuffed with ice in the cold winter months, and in the middle burrows, some raw beef and sheep meat and fish caught from the ice in Lake Baikal were stored, and then the three-layer holes were sealed.

In the summer of the following year, when the weather warmed up, the upper and lower layers of ice slowly melted, and the ice water flowed out of the water diversion holes and into the North Sea again. But before all these ice cubes melted, the weather entered below zero again, and then Zhao Xing asked people to brave the cold to fill the cave with ice, and after several years, the raw meat and fish stored in the middle cave were all well preserved, and there was no sign of decay.

After the success of the experiment in this natural cold storage, Zhao Xing began to send people to fish and graze near the North Sea, and the fish and shrimp caught were directly sealed in the freezer, and some cattle and sheep that had not had time to migrate south were slaughtered and stored directly in the cave.

Zhao Xing believed that as long as he accumulated for a few more years, the meat and fish stored in this cave, coupled with the large amount of grain stored in the Liwei grain warehouse, would be enough to support the army under the command of King Pingxi all the way west, launch a super-large-scale conquest war across the Eurasian continent, and finally realize his grand desire to drink the Mediterranean.

The current Zhao Xing is only two conditions away from the realization of his wish, one is the population and the other is the material. And the maturity of these two conditions will take time.

Zhao Xing, who is only thirty-one years old this year, is strong and strong, and according to Hua Tuo, it is very likely that he will live to be 100 years old, so he has enough patience to wait for the day when the time and conditions are truly ripe.

Be patient, both internally and externally.