Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 296 Ambition breeds
"kill!!"

In July in Xichuan, the war is still going on.

Xiahou Zi dispatched 5,000 new soldiers from Chengdu to rush to Qingxi Pass to try to reverse the declining situation on the southern front.

However, most of these new recruits were farm boys who had never seen battle, and they seemed unable to cope with the fierce attacks of the barbarians.

On the battlefield at Qingxi Pass, the Tang army's flags fell and stood up again and again, and blood dyed every inch of land under the pass wall red.

At the same time, in Rongzhou of Dongchuan, the confrontation between Gao Pian and Duan Zongbang also entered a white-hot stage.

The two sides fought back and forth, and the battle was stalemate, with neither side able to gain an absolute advantage.

The war in the southwest had a wide impact. Food prices in Huainan, Jiangnan and other places on both sides of the Yangtze River soared, and many people fell into starvation.

The situation in the Tang Dynasty is sliding towards an uncontrollable direction.

Compared with the turmoil in the Central Plains, Longyou seemed unusually calm.

In troubled times, only by becoming strong can one be invincible. The future of Longyou does not lie in the sharpness of swords and knives, but in the solidity of people's hearts.

"Blacksmith need its own hardware."

Holding the document sent by the Protectorate, Liu Jilong glanced over it.

Gao Jinda and Cui Shu stood in front of him, the former bowed first and said:

"Three hundred thousand Silk Road goods have been sold, in exchange for more than 820,000 strings of spices."

"It seems that there are more things, which has caused the price to drop slightly this time."

"Many spice merchants in Chang'an have urged us several times. As long as the spices are delivered, they can be exchanged for money."

"It's only 82 strings of cash. It's not easy to transport it back to Longyou. Should we exchange some of it for gold?"

Facing Gao Jinda's question, Liu Jilong hesitated for a moment before saying, "Just exchange as much as you can. It's really hard to transport so much money."

"If we really can't exchange much, we can think of other ways to transport it back to Longyou."

One string of coins weighs six or seven kilograms, and more than 820,000 strings weigh nearly five million kilograms. Even if horse-drawn carriages are used, it will take seven or eight thousand to transport it to Longyou.

But if it is exchanged for gold, at the current gold price, it can be exchanged for at most 100,000 taels, and a dozen horse-drawn carriages can transport it to Longyou.

But let’s not talk about whether Chang’an has so much gold. Even if there is, there probably won’t be so many people willing to exchange it for gold.

The situation has changed now, and many dignitaries are collecting gold.

If something happens, gold is much easier to take away than copper coins.

Before, these more than 800,000 strings of money could be exchanged for gold and silver, then transported to Bashu and exchanged for money, or used directly to buy grain.

But now that we have money, it has become inconvenient to exchange it, not to mention the problem of grain prices in Bashu.

"How much grain is left in the government warehouse?"

Liu Jilong flipped through a few pages but didn't find what he wanted to read, so he immediately asked Gao Jinda.

Upon hearing this, Gao Jinda immediately reminded: "Page 72, more than 1,986,000 stones."

Seeing this, Liu Jilong turned to page 72, only then did he realize that this document covered so much content.

Another half year has passed. During this period, although the number of people fleeing to Longyou is not as high as last year, it still maintains a scale of four to five thousand people per month.

It takes money and food to settle these people. Now the number of people participating in the public land in Longyou is as high as 480,000, and 240,000 shi of food are consumed every month.

Although the cost is high, the rewards are not low.

Four hundred thousand people can reclaim more than 100,000 mu of arable land every month, which amounts to nearly two million mu a year.

The cultivated fields in Longyou amounted to more than 7.2 million acres, and the number of soldiers and civilians reached 670,000.

According to the current growth rate, the number of people fleeing to Longyou is around 50,000 to 60,000 each year. In seven years at most, the population of Longyou will exceed one million.

If the population of Hexi is included, the population of the Helong area has barely recovered to the level of the Xinmang period.

That was Helong’s highlight moment, and it was no longer the same after that.

Given the current Helong environment, as long as there is enough food and population to reclaim land, its land resources can fully support tens of millions of people.

The fourteen states controlled by Liu Jilian alone could feed six or seven million people.

But food has to be eaten bite by bite, and people have to move in little by little.

The population of the late Tang Dynasty was only 50 to 60 million. If he wanted to move in 6 to 7 million people, he would have to empty Jiannan Road, Shannan West Road, and Guannei Road.

Not to mention that there are unrests everywhere now and countless people have suffered from the disaster. The so-called estimated population of 50 to 60 million may not be able to be reached.

The foundation of Longyou is weaker than that of Hebei, Henan, Hedong, Huainan and other regions.

If I want to go east, I must lay a solid foundation.

With a population of one million and tens of millions of acres of arable land, Longyou can barely have the foundation to move eastward.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong looked through the finances of the Protectorate.

Relying on the Silk Road and Longyou's own specialty products, it is no problem to make 1.2 to 1.3 million strings of cash every year.

The military pay and salaries for military workers and officials were about 820,000 strings of cash, and the land tax was 2.8 million shi.

However, the 2.8 million shi of land tax needs to be divided into finished grain and bran, with a ratio of about 7:3.

One shi of millet produces seven dou of rice and three dou of bran. The rice can be eaten by humans, while the bran is for livestock.

The world is in turmoil nowadays, and many people have moved to Longyou, so it is better to store the grain.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong said, "From now on, all military salaries will be converted into cash."

"Autumn and winter clothes will still be given, but food, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and cloth will no longer be issued. They will be reduced to 12 strings of cash in military pay."

Gao Jinda and Cui Shu were stunned for a moment when they heard this, but after they reacted, they quickly bowed in response.

Twelve strings of cash in military pay would be enough to make the guards riot if it were in the Tang Dynasty, but this was in Longyou.

All kinds of businesses in Longyou, such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, etc., are basically controlled by the government, and prices are very stable.

The Shen Ce Army’s thirty strings of military pay could only buy twenty dan of rice.

However, the 12 strings of coins in the Longyou Army's salary could buy 26 dan of rice. This is the difference brought about by price stability.

"General, how should the craftsmen and officials be counted?"

Gao Jinda bowed and asked, and Liu Jilong said, "It will be based on the grain price."

"This policy is only temporary. You are all aware of the situation overseas."

"It's better to store the grain in the government warehouse. Besides, it's much more convenient to move with the money than with the grain."

"If I wasn't worried about not having enough food, I would have wanted to sell the food out."

His words made Gao Jinda and Cui Shu smile, but it was indeed the truth.

When the grain prices in the surrounding areas were around 800 to 900 yuan or even over 1,000 yuan, the grain price in Longyou was stable between 450 and 500 yuan. If the grain was sold outside, it would not be impossible.

However, Liu Jilian knew very well that the Tang Dynasty would become more and more chaotic in the future, and the price of food would become higher and higher, eventually forcing people to eat each other.

The reason why people suffered from cannibalism in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period was mainly because production was disrupted and there was not enough food.

In order to survive, military leaders have no choice but to go to war. War will disrupt production. When production is disrupted, food becomes even more scarce, and people have no choice but to cannibalize each other.

This is a vicious cycle. If Guo Wei, Chai Rong, Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi had not taken over in succession, this chaos might not have been changed.

Of course, if Li Cunxu had continued to work hard to govern the country, the situation might have changed earlier.

But now that Liu Jilong has come, this chaos can only be temporary and cannot continue.

The people of Longyou could only consume more than 3 million shi of grain every year, and the remaining 2 million shi basically flowed into Liu Jilian's official granary.

The grain in the government warehouse will be used to recruit refugees and reclaim wasteland, forming a virtuous circle.

If this continues, within a few years, the amount of arable land in Longyou will increase, and the people will be able to get more and more arable land, forming a virtuous circle.

Even though the land tax rate in Longyou was still very high, with more arable land, people's lives were much better than in Jiannan and other places.

Liu Jilian would not purchase leftover grain and sell it outside, but would keep it in Longyou and share the wealth with the people.

In the future, if the Protectorate needs food, it can purchase it from the people within the territory without having to go abroad and be restricted by others.

After the autumn harvest this year, the grain in the government warehouse will be enough to feed the hungry people who have poured into Longyou for five years.

As long as there are no natural disasters, there will be more and more food in Longyou.

At the current rate, in about two years, the number of cultivated fields in Longyou will reach nearly 9 million mu, and there will be another 4 million mu of wasteland waiting to be cultivated.

Given the current situation in Longyou, he only needed to operate the Silk Road two more times and store enough food, and then he could instruct Shang Moyan to attack Xichuan.

While thinking, Liu Jilong looked through the other contents of Duzhi.

"How many people in Longyou still have not received their share of land?"

He asked Gao Jinda, who responded without hesitation: "Most of the people who did not get land are the people who poured in over the past three years."

"There are about 170,000 people, and the government has about 2.7 million mu of uncultivated land." "After the autumn harvest this year, the more than 80,000 people who poured into Longyou three years ago can also get their land, and the amount of uncultivated land that will be turned into cultivated land this year is about 900,000 mu."

"In addition to these 80,000 people, there are 300,000 people who have already settled down but lack arable land who also participate in the public land."

"After equal distribution, each person can get about two mu of cultivated land."

"Next year we can distribute one million acres, but the population to which the land will be distributed will drop to 350,000."

"The year after next, we can divide up 800,000 mu of land, and the population to be divided up will be around 290,000."

Many people settled in Longyou early, but they did not have enough land.

In order to save food, they usually gave the cultivated land they had obtained to one or two people in the family for cultivation, while the rest continued to participate in the reclamation of public land.

Doing so can save food for the family and also open up new land while waiting for the annual equal distribution of public land.

However, the public land can only be distributed after the cultivators have cultivated the land for three years, and the land will be distributed one year after the cultivation.

Therefore, as time went on, many people would stop reclaiming wasteland after two or three land divisions and concentrate on cultivating the land in their hands.

Under rough farming conditions, one person can cultivate 15 acres of land, so dividing the field two or three times is enough.

Given the population situation in Longyou, 10 million acres of arable land is completely sufficient, but the population of Longyou is also increasing.

As long as the government provided enough food for the influx of hungry people, they could continue to reclaim wasteland, and the cycle would continue.

While thinking, Liu Jilong gradually immersed himself in the handling of government affairs, and the people were also looking forward to the land distribution movement after the autumn harvest.

Under the movement of reclaiming wasteland and dividing land, the entire Longyou was full of vitality.

Compared to the vigorous vitality of Longyou, most of the Tang Dynasty was in a state of panic...

In July in the Huanghuai region, the early autumn wind, carrying with it heat and despair, blew across the wilderness outside the county town.

The hungry people gathered under the city wall like ants, wearing tattered clothes and looking pale and thin.

The light in their eyes had long since disappeared, leaving only the desire to survive.

"My lord, please take me in! I am willing to be a slave, just for a bite of food!"

A thin woman holding a baby was kneeling beside the official road, her voice hoarse.

Beside her, an old man stretched out his hand tremblingly, trying to grab the corner of a passerby's clothes: "Sir, I am still able to work, please give me a way to live!"

"You are an old man with only three taels of flesh on your body. You won't survive even if you take you back. You'd better not delay others."

"My dear, choose me! Choose me!"

Countless refugees shouted, but the nobles who came in and out of the county town had long been accustomed to such scenes.

They would only select pretty girls and bring them back to their homes to serve as maids.

The madams of brothels and taverns followed closely behind, selecting those young boys and girls who were slightly attractive.

After the madams have made their selection, it is then the turn of the traffickers.

They sorted the remaining starving people into different categories like they were sorting out cattle.

After three rounds of selection, the hungry people who were not selected could only huddle under the city walls and wait for death to come.

"My dear, please give me some food, please!"

On the official road, a group of more than ten people came on horseback. The refugees on both sides were as thin as sticks, and they kowtowed and begged for mercy.

The man leading the team was nearly 40 years old and had a strong physique. He was Huang Chao from Yuanju County.

"My dear, should we..."

On horseback, the servant asked in a low voice, glancing at the hungry people on the roadside, a trace of pity flashing in his eyes.

Huang Chao interrupted coldly: "We can't even protect ourselves, so don't harm them."

Although his voice was cold, his heart was filled with unspeakable emotions.

These starving people, who were the same people of the Tang Dynasty as him, were now being abandoned like grass.

"Let's go back and ask Aye if we should unite with the powerful people in the city to set up a porridge restaurant."

Huang Chao pondered for a moment and finally spoke.

Upon hearing this, the servant was immediately cheered up: "Yes! My dear, you are kind-hearted and will surely save many lives!"

Huang Chao shook his head, his eyes deep: "Benevolence? In this world, how much is benevolence worth?"

After returning to Huang's home in Yuanju County, Huang Chao immediately discussed the matter with Huang's father.

"Open a porridge shop?"

"That's right!"

Huang's father showed hesitation on his face. Although the Huang family was considered a wealthy family in Yuanju County, the court continued to increase taxes, and it was difficult for them to bear the expenses of the porridge shop alone.

"Aye, there are tens of thousands of refugees outside the city. If we don't open a porridge place, there will definitely be chaos!"

Huang Chao reminded his father, but Huang's father hesitated and said, "With our family's strength, I'm afraid we can't help so many people."

"Then unite all the families in the city!" Huang Chao said coldly:

"There is still some time before the autumn harvest. We can open a porridge shop for two months and then hire refugees from outside the city to harvest food and provide them with work instead of relief."

"When the refugees get food, they can either go home or settle down. It's better than them making a fuss."

"If we do nothing, when the autumn harvest comes, the refugees will make a fuss. Who among them will be spared?"

"You have some truth in what you said..." Father Huang stroked his beard and said thoughtfully:

“It’s doable, but you need to be careful.”

"I know the powerful families in the city well. They may not be willing to contribute money and effort."

Huang Chao was disdainful of this and said sternly: "If they don't pay, I will lead the hungry people to their doorstep and see if they can still sit still!"

"You..." Father Huang was stunned. He obviously didn't expect that his husband could come up with such a vicious plan.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little worried, and at the same time, his eyes showed some doubt:
"Tell me the truth, do you have other intentions when you provide relief to these refugees?"

Facing his father's question, Huang Chao hesitated for a moment before saying:
"You are still alive. Even if I have other ideas, I will not harm you while you are alive."

His words served as an answer, and Huang's father sighed after hearing them.

He knew that his husband's temperament had become a little strange because of the imperial examination.

But he didn't expect that his husband would actually have the idea of becoming an Internet vagrant.

"Forget it. I won't live for many more years. You will eventually become the head of this family."

"I just hope you can manage the Huang family well and not get into any big trouble..."

Father Huang sighed, and then began to arrange a banquet with the powerful families.

That night, several well-known and powerful people in Yuanju County gathered together.

Even the Jin and Jia families, two aristocratic families with hundreds of years of heritage, sent their leaders to attend the banquet.

At the banquet, Huang Chao simply expressed his idea, and the heads of the two families, Chen and Jia, also agreed to open porridge kitchens in order to ensure that there would be no problems with the autumn harvest.

As for the powerful families such as Zhang, Su, and Tian, seeing that the Chen and Jia families agreed, and with more and more refugees stealing food these days, they finally agreed to the Huang family's invitation.

Several powerful families pooled together and eventually donated more than 3,000 shi of grain.

Three days later, ten porridge stalls were set up outside the city. Upon hearing the news, the hungry people came and lined up in long queues, and there was finally a glimmer of hope in their eyes.

"I, Huang Chao, and several major families in the city have learned that you are starving. Starting today, we will open a porridge shop and provide you with two meals of porridge a day, with only one bowl of porridge each time."

"You are not allowed to rob others of their porridge outside the city. If you are caught, I will expel you from Yuanju County and see if anyone from other counties will help you!"

"Mr. Huang is so righteous!!"

"Mr. Huang, please have mercy on me, Mr. Huang, please have mercy on me..."

A high platform was built next to the porridge stall. Whenever Huang Chao said a word on the platform, more than 20 servants below the platform would shout out in unison.

Soon, the people who had gathered at the porridge stall heard everything. They knelt down and kowtowed to Huang Chao, praising his noble character.

Seeing this, Huang Chao did not act arrogantly, but continued:

"The porridge distribution will continue until the autumn harvest. After the autumn harvest begins, you can each find different tribes in the city and harvest food for them, and use the food to settle your wages."

"Those who are willing to harvest autumn crops for our Huang family will receive two kilograms of grain per day."

After Huang Chao said this, the hungry people below the stage bowed their heads in worship. This scene of thousands of people worshipping him made Huang Chao clench his fists unconsciously.

He knew very well that the famine in Henan Province was not only a natural disaster but also a man-made disaster.

If the officials of Henan Province had not done nothing, and if the court had chosen someone like him to be an official, how could the people of Henan Province have fallen into such a state?
The court is unjust, selecting mediocre people and dismissing talented people.

What’s the point of supporting such a court?
(End of this chapter)