It was the end of September when I started, and it was the end of October when I came back, and the leaves of the woods were still green, and some of the trees had already begun to lose their yellow leaves.

On the way to the march, Li Chengzhou felt a little cold, and he realized that he had to make some thick clothes, otherwise it would be difficult to survive this winter.

But the most important thing is to find a way to repair the road that the chief said is good.

The Tang army returned to Huoniucheng, and the council hall in the center of Huoniucheng has been renovated and has become much grander than before, and Li Chengzhou used it as a place to summon civil and military officials.

On the first day of the court, Li Chengzhou sat on a high place, and below him were sparse civil and military officials.

Officials reported on the recent situation, and Chen Jiao in Fire Bull City reported the most.

From the beginning of the takeover, all the way to the current situation.

After listening to Chen Jiao's report, Li Chengzhou suddenly felt that he had no need to arrange anything more.

Under Chen Jiao's arrangement, the walls of Huoniucheng have been strengthened and are now seven meters high and four meters thick.

The grain fields around Bull City have also been planted with grain, and people go to the fields every day to plow.

The schools, public halls and other facilities in the city of Fire Bull have also begun to play a role.

Recently, Chen Jiao happened to be thinking about how to continue to open up the wasteland and how to distribute these lands to the people in the city.

Li Chengzhou really has nothing to say, after all, people are doing well enough.

"How's the winter clothes going?"

"He found a large number of hemp crops, jute, flax and other wild crops in the forest, and he had already begun to weave burlap, which had been going on for some time. We will definitely be able to distribute enough clothing to the people to help them survive this winter. ”

"As long as there is enough burlap, I will let the weavers continue to refine and weave finer fabrics."

"Do you know about other cities?"

"There was a communication before, saying that in the vicinity of those cities, more or less hemp plants have been found, and they have begun to weave cloth."

Li Chengzhou didn't know how to speak for a while, and the court fell into an embarrassment of silence.

Chen Jiao continued to speak to ease the awkward atmosphere.

"When the minister was patrolling the surrounding forests recently, he found an object, which was as light as snow, but the minister found that this thing was extremely warm, I wonder if Your Majesty has ever heard of it?"

When Li Chengzhou listened to his description, he knew that the thing he was talking about was cotton.

"Bring it in."

"There are soldiers outside the hall holding this object waiting to be summoned, and I ask Your Majesty to bring him in."

"Bring it in."

The soldiers guarding the temple brought in the soldiers who had been waiting outside.

The soldier was holding a snow-white object in his hand, and Li Chengzhou was very excited to see it, if it was really cotton, then winter would not be difficult for the common people.

He walked down quickly, came to the soldier, picked up the snow-white object and looked at it several times, and finally determined that it was cotton.

"How much is this?"

"Like clouds and mist, vast and immense; As far as the eye can see, straight to the sky. ”

"Where?"

"Eight kilometers east of the city, a lot."

Li Chengzhou was patiently excited.

"Let's go, let's go!"

Li Chengzhou pulled Chen Jiao to see it, and a group of officials followed.

Everyone walked through the city and wanted to go out of the west gate, and Chen Jiao pointed out to Li Chengzhou to see the large number of weavers who were weaving cloth in the workshop.

The walls of the Bull City are guarded by soldiers, and there are also soldiers standing guard by the majestic gates, and there are all kinds of defensive weapons on the walls.

Out of the city, Li Chengzhou saw the grain fields that Chen Jiao said, and there were a large number of grain fields around Huoniucheng, and the grain fields were crops that were thriving, as well as farmers who were working.

After walking three kilometers further, Chen Jiao pointed out to Li Chengzhou that there were a large number of hemp plants in the forest, and that a large number of people were also harvesting these plants, loaded on a baggage truck, and when one was full, it would be pulled to the workshop for the weavers to continue production.

Chen Jiao suddenly discovered that there was another group of people in the forest who were also harvesting the hemp.

They stepped forward to inquire, and it turned out that this wave of people was from Ironwood City, and they searched for hemp all the way, until they reached Fire Bull City.

In the face of Chen Jiao's inquiry, they were also helpless.

"Your Excellency thinks we are willing, but if we have this thing near Ironwood City, we won't go to the vicinity of Fire Bull City to harvest this, it will take two days to come and go!"

"Come on."

The crowd left the harvesters who had sneaked in.

"Why don't you get rid of them? What if they finish harvesting the hemp. ”

His Majesty laughed, there is so much hemp there, how can it be finished. Besides, the reason why Ironwood City is called Ironwood City is because the wood of the forest around the city is hard, and when we built the castle building before, we also secretly went to them to cut down trees, and they found out and did not drive away the people I sent. ”

"Gifts are still exchanged, how can I get rid of them."

"Then why don't you swap with each other?"

"When we needed wood, they didn't need hemp, and now when they need hemp, we don't need wood, so it's hard to change."

Chen Jiao's words caused Li Chengzhou to think, and he remembered what Fang Changge said before about minting currency, if they could mint currency, the transaction between them would be easier, just buy it with money.

Everyone walked eight kilometers and came to the cotton field in Chen Jiao's mouth, which leads to the sky and the earth.

Li Chengzhou was very excited when he saw the cotton field, which could completely solve the problem of keeping warm.

"Is there still a cotton field like this around?"

"It seems to be gone."

"Is there this thing around the other cities?"

"I haven't heard of it."

"Do you collect a lot?"

"It's not much, just a little, the lower officials don't understand what it is, and they don't dare to pick too much."

"Chen Jiao County Order, I suggest that you collect more of this thing, and collect as much as you can. I can tell you now that this thing is called cotton, and if this thing can be stuffed into clothes and sewn up, it can keep warm, and the people can easily survive the winter. This is much better than linen. ”

"But we can't just collect enough from Fire Bull City, what are we doing with so much collection?"

"Gather more, and the other cities will send people to exchange your cotton, for their specialty, or for coins."

"But there are no coins now."

"There will be in the future, Chen Jiao County Order."

Chen Jiao immediately understood that this was the prelude to the issuance of currency!

"Thank you, Your Majesty! Xia Guan understands! ”

The crowd returned to Bull Fire.

"Chen Jiao County Order, now send people to each city with cotton, let them look for this thing around the city to spend the winter, and tell them the effect, we must let the people of each city survive this winter!"

"Xiaguan will arrange it!"