Outside the male lead, the female lead is inside, this is the norm of this era.

Although Sun Shangxiang is the little princess of Jiangdong, from the moment she gets married, she needs to take on the affairs of her husband's family.

Whether she's in charge or not, at least you have to put that trust in her.

Although Sun Shangxiang is also worried now, he will still bear the responsibility well.

As for Zhang Xi, as long as he does a good job of working outside to earn money, he can do it.

And Zhang Xi is also busy at this time.

Liu Bei arrived in Jiangxia, not only for the two weddings, but also for the autumn harvest.

In this era, spring planting and autumn harvest are very, very important things, and after the autumn harvest is related to tax collection, it is even more sloppy.

All the money and food for the war have to come from this.

The two lakes area was not fully developed until the Ming Dynasty, with two grain-producing areas, one is the Hanjiang River Plain and the other is the Dongting Lake Plain, so there is a saying that "the lake is wide and ripe, and the world is full".

In the Han Dynasty, the grain-producing areas of the Hanjiang River Plain were increasingly developed, but the Dongting Lake Plain was just beginning to develop.

After all, it is really not so easy to develop this place of Yunmengze.

The main grain producing areas of the Hanjiang Plain are in Nanjun and the western part of Jiangxia, while the current cultivated areas of the Dongting Lake Plain are basically concentrated in the sphere of influence of Jiangdong, and only part of the areas to be developed are in Changsha County and Wuling County.

This is also the reason why Jiangdongfei wants to infiltrate Changsha County and Wuling County.

Although Liu Bei is now in control of five counties, none of the key grain-producing areas are completely in his hands.

Jingnan is mountainous, its own cultivated land area is small, Wuling County and Changsha County are intertwined with Jiangdong forces, and now it is the period of the alliance, and it is not easy to turn the face, so most of Jingnan can only be self-sufficient, and it is difficult to expand the scale of production.

The only thing that can be counted on is the grain of the Jianghan Plain, a part of the western part of Jiangxia, which can provide enough money and grain for Liu Bei's development.

However, according to the records of the late Han Dynasty, Jiangxia County also has many mountainous areas, and the arable area only accounts for 30% of the county's area, and the rest is hilly and mountainous. Liu Bei is also difficult.

It would be nice to have the grain-producing area of Nanjun in hand.

But it's a pity that the current Nanjun is in the hands of Zhou Yu, and Jiangdong obviously won't give up such an important place, so it's better to guard your own one-acre and three-point land first, rely on the plain area in the west of Jiangxia to accumulate well, and then seek development.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang basically think like this, but Zhang Xi feels that they can't sit still like this.

"Lord, military advisor!" Zhang Xi gave up his hand first, and then put forward his own suggestion, "Why don't you try to increase grain production to meet today's events?!" ”

Liu Bei could only smile bitterly and said, "What the Yuan Chang said is very true, it's just that Jingzhou has been operating for decades, and the cultivated land has already matured, and most of them are in Nanjun, Nanyang and other places, and Jingnan has many mountains and little land. ”

Liu Bei meant that after more than four hundred years of development in Jingzhou, the cultivated land that could be used had already been developed, and the rest were places that could not be developed.

For example, mountains and forests, such as most of the swamps and tidal flats in Yunmengze.

And these developed and mature places are basically concentrated in Nanyang and Nanjun, that is, on the Hanjiang Plain, Jingnan is a hilly terrain, and there are many barbarians around, which is really not suitable for farming.

Zhuge Liang, as the chief steward, was naturally clear about these things, so he had no choice but to comfort Liu Bei and said, "Don't worry, the lord has already ordered people to build water conservancy and ordered local officials to strictly supervise farming, plus the Quyuan plough offered by the Yuan Chang may change next year." ”

But in fact, Zhuge Liang also knows that no matter how much change there is, there will not be much more food.

Jiangxia and the four counties of Jingnan have not suffered much war, and Liu Biao is not the master of personnel, so in Jingzhou, the water conservancy facilities are at most in disrepair, and it is not that they cannot work.

Therefore, even if the water conservancy facilities are maintained, it is estimated that the effect of increasing grain production will be limited.

This was the case with cultivation in those years, either to expand the area of arable land or to increase food production.

Most of the ways to increase grain output are to build water conservancy, improve farming techniques, and increase the supervision and control of the government.

In this regard, Zhang Xi could not do better than Zhuge Liang, because Zhuge Liang was familiar with the official operation of this era and had enough farming experience.

But on the other hand, to increase the area of cultivated land, this Zhang Xi really has a way.

"There are two ways to make swamps, tidal flats, mountains and forests are cultivated land, although the yield per mu is not as good as that of the superior fields, but it can also be comparable to the inferior fields." Zhang Xi smiled and was about to start pretending to show off.

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, their eyes lit up, and both of them could sense each other's shock.

Let the swamps, tidal flats and mountain forests become fertile fields. Isn't it the Yuan Changhui Immortal Technique?!

Really, it is not required to be the yield of inferior fields, as long as grain can be planted, with the distribution of marshes and mountains in Jingnan, he Liu Bei can still lack grain? !

"Yuan Chang, come on." Liu Bei asked Zhang Xi eagerly.

Then Zhang Xi said it, and said a lot of it.

Terraced fields on hills, fields around lakes, and water conservancy facilities. Although Zhang Xi has not had an in-depth understanding of these things, he has read some materials and documentaries in his previous life, and he can still say something.

The more Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei listened, the more they felt energetic, and the more they listened, the more they felt that it was feasible, and the three of them chatted from day to night, and in the end, Zhang Xi could only let people go to his mansion to bring a message, saying that they had slept in the mansion for the past few days.

The matter of enclosing the lake to create fields and transforming the hilly terrain to make terraces may be just a concept in Zhang Xi's eyes, but Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei, who understand this concept, obviously want to put it into practice.

And as soon as this was implemented, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei found that Zhang Xi's method was good, but it also had a big drawback - it was too expensive.

Liu Bei really has no money.

Don't look at Liu Bei's territory now, but Liu Bei has more people to support, and the army has expanded more than tenfold. The fault tolerance rate is still too low.

And now is a troubled time, Liu Bei is also a warlord after all, but a warlord who treats the people relatively well.

A warlord, with some money and food in his hand, the first thing that comes to mind is to expand his army and improve the combat effectiveness of his army, and everything else has to be put aside.

There's no way, in troubled times, there are not enough soldiers, you can't hold on to empty territory, and in the end it's someone else who is cheaper.

The two ways to increase cultivated land proposed by Zhang Xi are not only a matter of costing money, but also consuming a lot of manpower.

To change the swamp into fertile land, it is necessary to organize a large number of manpower to dig and fill the swamp and small lakes, and it is also necessary to build supporting water conservancy facilities to prevent the lake from backing up, and to build flood control facilities to prevent the reduction of production caused by the arrival of the flood season. This expenditure is simply astronomical.

The transformation of hilly terraces is also a large amount of work.

There was not just a patch of grass on the hills in those days, it was full of trees and vines, some of which had grown for hundreds of years. How can you grow food without cutting down trees and vines?!

Just cutting down trees is enough to consume manpower and material resources, not to mention that building terraces is not only a matter of manpower and material resources when reclamation, but also a lot of manpower and material resources are still required for future maintenance.

Moreover, if rice or wheat is to be planted on the hills, the requirements for water conservancy facilities will be higher than those on the swamps and tidal flats, which is a considerable investment.

In this regard, Zhang Xi also has no way to plant potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes and other things these days, and if rice and wheat are not planted on the terraces, what can be planted.

The three of them discussed these two ways of cultivating land for several days, and Zhuge Liang finally issued an estimate report, roughly calculating how much grain it would take to transform these swamps and mountains and forests in Jingnan. Liu Bei had a toothache when he saw it.

Liu Bei didn't know the severity, and he also knew that these investments were worth it, after all, once the transformation was done, the return could be ten years, or even hundreds of years.

The terraces are not easy to say, there are pros and cons, and the basic disadvantages outweigh the pros, this Zhang Xi also explained to Liu Bei that it is the limit to last for about ten years.

However, the swamp tidal flats were changed into fertile fields, which was what later generations were doing from the Tang Dynasty to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and it really achieved "the lake is wide and ripe, and the world is full".

Liu Bei gritted his teeth when he thought of the large swamp in Jingnan, and then looked at the amount of money and grain in his hand.

"Let's discuss this matter later!" Liu Bei said with a sigh.

There's no way, I really can't afford to support this money. I'm afraid it's not enough to invest all the income of the past two years.

What's more, it's easy to talk about money and food, but it's not easy to solve people's problems. There weren't so many people to do things, and it was impossible for the conscription to be launched for that long, and it still couldn't be done.

So, let's take it slow for two years.

Zhang Xi also knew Liu Bei's difficulties, so his suggestion was shelved, but he was not too disappointed.

Moving on to the next suggestion.

"Lord, if it really doesn't work, let's also Tuntian!"

This suggestion is feasible now.

After all, Cao Cao and Sun Quan have already made proofs, and from south to north, Tuntian can be universal.

In troubled times, the taxes of yeoman farmers alone could not support a warlord's ambition to expand his territory.

And the solution to this matter, in fact, Cao Cao also gave it, that is, Tuntian, and now Jiangdong is also following Tuntian.

In the end, the government can collect a high enough percentage of food to deal with the war, and it can also ensure that the displaced people will not starve to death, and if necessary, they can also recruit troops from the displaced people to expand their power.

Although the displaced people have no land of their own, are bound to the official land, and can only starve to death all year round, they do not have to bear the heavy ding tax, and they can live better than farming for the family.

Yes, Tuntian is really a good strategy, especially suitable for the current troubled times, if the premise is that the Tuntian system is not infiltrated and destroyed by the family.

But Cao Cao and Sun Quan can engage in Tuntian, but Liu Bei. It doesn't seem to work.

Regarding this point, it is because of the different directions in charge, Zhang Xi lacks sufficient understanding of the official land owned by Liu Bei.

Zhang Xi was in charge of Jiangxia, and the field data he had access to was limited to Jiangxia, and he didn't know much about the field data of the four counties of Jingnan.

And Zhuge Liang is Liu Beijun's big housekeeper, and he knows the most about the amount of cultivated land directly controlled by Liu Bei. Liu Bei didn't have much official land that he actually controlled.

It's not that there aren't, it's really not much.

Unlike Cao Cao and Sun Quan, Cao Cao killed people in the north, whether it was slaughtering the city or cleaning up the family, the vacated land made Cao Cao used as official land.

Sun Quan didn't kill much, but his brother killed a lot, so they all directly controlled a large amount of "ownerless wasteland", which could be used to farm fields.

And Liu Bei, Jiangxia was left by Liu Qi, and the four counties of Jingnan were basically surrendered.

Liu Bei didn't do too much, and he didn't persecute the local family too much, so he didn't attack these people for the time being.

What's even more excessive is that after years of war in the north, the displaced people have fled to the south, and there is a lot of vacant land in the north, but there are only a very large number of displaced people in the south.

In addition, after the northern families moved south, they also bought or annexed land in the south, and divided up the few ownerless cultivated land in the south.

Liu Bei really doesn't have many "official fields" that he can directly control.

So, well

"The matter. It will need to be discussed later. ”

Liu Bei said this himself, and he was a little embarrassed.

(End of chapter)