Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 309: Hexi Dilemma
After the summer solstice, the fields in the Helong area seemed to be dyed by golden sunlight, and the summer wheat swayed in the breeze, forming golden oceans.

The wheat waves rolled, as if the earth was covered with a flowing golden carpet, undulating with the wind, sparkling.

The air is filled with the fragrance of wheat ears, indicating that the reward for a year's hard work is about to come.

People from all counties and states walked out of their homes, holding sledgehammers, and stepped into the wheat fields.

As people moved, the wheat straw fell down and was neatly spread on the ground.

The men wielded the sledgehammers with skillful and powerful movements; the women bent over and tied the harvested wheat into sheaves.

Children ran in the fields, occasionally helping to pass water or picking up scattered ears of wheat, and their laughter echoed in the fields.

The entire Helong land is like a busy harvest painting. In the wheat fields, people's figures and golden wheat waves complement each other, forming a harmonious and vibrant pastoral scene.

Wuquan County in Lanzhou, which used to have a sparse population, has now become one of the major granaries in Longyou.

The river valley, which is more than 50 miles long from east to west, was mostly silted up wasteland when Liu Jilian arrived in the past, but now it has become a wheat field full of golden light.

More than 700,000 mu of wheat fields are being harvested by people in the county and villages. Nearly 50,000 people are divided into one county, five townships and 35 villages, scattered in this river valley that is more than 50 miles long.

I don't know when flood control dikes were built on both sides of the Yellow River, and I don't know when the northern river valley, which was once powerless to interfere with, was occupied by a township and six villages.

Looking at the clear Yellow River and the fragrant wheat on both sides, Liu Jilong, who rarely left Linzhou, also watered his horse on the south bank of the Yellow River and looked out at the wheat fields in the north and south.

"You, Dou Bin, have made great contributions to the management of Lanzhou!"

On horseback, Liu Jilian turned his horse's head and praised Dou Bin, the governor of Lanzhou, without any hesitation.

Dou Bin, who was immature in the past, is now very mature.

Facing the praise from his own commander, he smiled and bowed, saying: "This is all because of the commander's example and the rules he set in the past."

"If Marshal Jie hadn't moved in enough people, Wuquan County wouldn't have been able to develop so rapidly!"

Dou Bin was good at talking, but Liu Jilong waved his hand and said, "Any merit is a merit. If there is no reward for merit, how can we talk about clear rewards and punishments?"

After he finished speaking, he looked at Cao Mao who had followed him from Linzhou and said, "Cao Mao, for the meritorious service of Dou Bin, the governor of Lanzhou, in organizing the people to reclaim land, I will reward him with 100 strings of cash and 100 pieces of silk."

"Thank you for the reward, Marshal Jie!"

Dou Bin quickly dismounted, stepped on the ground and bowed.

Liu Jilong nodded in agreement, and then asked, "How is the current development of Guangwu after the people were relocated?"

There are two counties in Lanzhou, Guangwu and Wuquan. Guangwu developed later, but Wuquan had the foundation laid by Liu Jilong early on.

As a transit station connecting Longyou and Hexi Corridor, the development of Guangwu is undoubtedly very important.

In response, Dou Bin also jumped on his horse and introduced it in a neither humble nor arrogant manner:
"Since the temporary suspension of the migration of people from the prefecture to Liangzhou, more than 20,000 people have migrated to Guangwu."

"Including the original people, there are now more than 8,000 households and nearly 40,000 people in Guangwu."

"With Wu Ni Shui at our side, it is not difficult to reclaim wasteland. Now Guangwu has more than 324,000 mu of cultivated land and more than 156,000 mu of reclaimed land waiting to be cultivated."

"After these reclaimed fields are transformed into cultivated fields, the people of Guangwu can not only be self-sufficient, but also sell 60,000 to 70,000 shi of grain to the government."

"Including the taxes collected by the government in the local area, Guangwu can store about 200,000 dan of grain every year."

"If Wuquan County is included, Lanzhou can store 600,000 dan of grain every year, of which 400,000 dan are farmland taxes."

"If we take the price of commodities into consideration and add the price of beans and hemp, Lanzhou's current revenue is about 100,000 guan."

The so-called expenditure income is the net income after various expenditures such as "military officers and people's livelihood" in the state.

A net income of one hundred thousand strings of cash is not a small amount for the Protectorate.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong asked: "What are the total tax revenue and expenditure?"

"The total income is about 220,000 strings of cash." Dou Bin first responded to the first question, and then responded to the second question:

"The military pay for Lanzhou was over 76,000 strings of cash, and the salaries for Lanzhou officials were over 14,000 strings of cash."

"The daily maintenance expenses for universities, primary schools, orphanages, Huimin pharmacies, and the six departments are about 30,000 guan."

It is a surprise that a small city like Lanzhou has a tax revenue of 220,000 guan, and after maintaining the current expenditure, there is still a surplus of 100,000 guan.

You should know that more than a hundred years ago, before Helong fell to Tubo, Lanzhou's tax revenue was only more than 9,000 strings of cash.

Of course, Lanzhou had only more than 15,000 people in the past, but now it has nearly 100,000 people.

With the policy bias, Lanzhou became the most populous province after Liangzhou, followed by Hezhou with more than 90,000 people.

"It's a pity that after the imperial court abolished the nine-cent tax, the number of people moving to Longyou dropped sharply to more than a thousand. Otherwise, Lanzhou could have developed further."

Liu Jilong lamented the changes in the situation over the past month. Cao Mao smiled and said:

"General Jie, didn't you say at the beginning that when the common people pass the pressure on to the common people, the common people will still not be able to survive and will have to flee."

Li Yi abolished the nine-cent tax on the advice of Pei Xiu, which indeed reduced the burden on the people.

But Pei Xiu's method of increasing taxes on commoners was undoubtedly the method used by every dynasty to harvest the middle class on a large scale before its demise.

Once the middle class is "eliminated", all kinds of measures will still fall on the heads of the lower classes.

By that time, the dynasty would basically have collapsed.

While thinking, Liu Jilong responded to Cao Mao:

"The imperial court abolished the nine-cent tax, and the southern barbarians suffered a setback. I'm afraid the prices in Shu will gradually stabilize."

"Send someone to pass the message back to Gao Jinda and Cui Shu, and tell them to buy the goods and sell the old grain in Longyou to Guannei Road, Jingji Road, Jiannan Road, Shannan West Road, etc."

"Yes!" Cao Mao bowed in response and then sent someone to inform Gao Jinda and others.

It is true that Liu Jilong wanted to stockpile grain, but the stale grain produced by stockpiling too much grain is not as good as the new grain in terms of taste or appearance.

Today, there are tens of millions of acres of cultivated land in Longyou, which can produce tens of millions of shi of grain. Even if the bran is removed, more than 7 million shi of grain can still be produced.

The people themselves only need four or five million shi of grain. If the remaining grain has no place to go, it will inevitably lead to a drop in grain prices in Longyou.

Therefore, from now on, Liu Jilian had to deal with the surplus grain in Longyou properly during times of peace.

He bought new grain from Longyou at the price of 450 coins per dan, and then resold the old grain at the price of 800 to 1,200 coins per dan according to the market prices in various provinces.

With just a few efforts, the Protectorate earned hundreds of dollars, and this was only the profit from one stone.

The two to three million shi of grain surplus in Longyou every year can be sold to other regions through official roads, and it is normal to make a profit of tens or even millions of strings of cash.

Food still needs to be stockpiled, but it also needs to be processed.

Dealing with Shangmoyan and Hexi is one direction, and dealing with Datang is another direction.

In short, before the Tang Dynasty had time to take care of Longyou, Liu Jilian still had to keep adapting and make Longyou more and more prosperous.

Thinking of this, he also called Dou Bin to rush to Wuquan County.

A few days later, Gao Jinda of the Protectorate received the military order from Liu Jilong. After discussing with Cui Shu, he sent people to contact the merchants under the jurisdiction of the Protectorate.

The old grain in the four major government warehouses and the county government warehouses were all sold nearby.

More than twenty ivory merchants including Wang Tao, Yu Conghui, and Ren Ze were spread across most of the Tang Dynasty.

Nowadays, food prices are skyrocketing and there is a shortage of food everywhere, especially in the Gyeonggi region.

Chang'an has a permanent population of 500,000 and a floating population of 200,000 to 300,000.

With such a large population, the daily food consumption is astronomical.

Although Pei Xiu reformed the grain transport system and increased its annual transport volume to 1.2 million shi, this amount of grain was still too little for Chang'an.

The 1.37 million shi of old grain that had been piled up in the official warehouse in Longyou was quickly transported out through these people's caravans.

Yu Conghui, Ren Ze, Wang Tao and others were quite smart. They relied on water transportation and used the Yellow River to sell grain from the four states of "Shankuo, He and Lan" to Huizhou, Lingzhou and Fengzhou in the north.

In the south, the Qiang River was used as a waterway to sell old grain from six states including Taodie, Dangmin and Chengwu.

The old grain from Songzhou was sold to Yizhou by land, while the old grain from Liangzhou was sold in Hexi through the Protectorate itself.

While the merchants were transporting the old grain, Gao Jinda and Cui Shu were also actively purchasing old and new grain on the market, keeping the price of grain in Longyou stable at 450 coins per dan.

As Longyou began to sell grain, grain prices in counties and cities near Longyou began to drop one after another.

The grain price in Shuofang Town dropped from one guan per dan to eight hundred coins, while the grain price in Tiande Town dropped from one guan and two per dan to nine hundred coins. In Tianxiong Town, Fengxiang Town, Jingyuan Town and other towns close to Longyou, the grain prices basically dropped back to nine hundred or even eight hundred coins.

Not to mention Shannan West Road and Jiannan Road, because of the selling of grain by Wang Tao and others, the price of grain dropped from 800 yuan per stone to more than 600 yuan.

Food is hard currency in troubled times. In just one month, Longyou earned 800,000 strings of cash, and this was when the merchants got 30% of the profit.

After receiving 800,000 strings of cash, Gao Jinda purchased the excess summer grain in Longyou and stored it in his warehouse, instead of reselling the grain in Longyou for profit.

After all these measures, the grain price in Longyou did not change, and the grain prices in the surrounding areas fell briefly. However, after purchasing summer grain and storing it in warehouses, the Protectorate actually accumulated more than 100,000 strings of money.

When the problem of old grain had been solved in Longyou, a team of more than 100 light cavalrymen headed westward along the oasis south of the Tianshan Mountains.

After galloping for a few days, a vast oasis gradually emerged at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains in the distance.

"Drive! Drive..."

The environment in the Western Regions at this time was slightly better than in later generations.

The post stations along the official road are basically next to streams or lakes, and looking south for dozens of miles, it is basically grassland.

There are herds of cattle and sheep on the grassland, moving in groups like white clouds.

As the light cavalry continued westward, the grassland ahead began to transform into woods and farmland, and a city gradually emerged in the distance.

As they got closer, the city gradually emerged. Its walls were mainly built with rammed earth. They were tall and solid, with intricate patterns carved on the surface.

Among these decorations, there are both geometric designs unique to the Western Regions and auspicious clouds and beasts in the style of the Central Plains, which shows the cultural prosperity of the past.

"Ganzhou, urgent!"

The leader of the light cavalry brigade shouted loudly while holding up the silk book in his hand.

The soldiers at the city gate lifted the barricades, and each of them wore a smock to avoid the heat from the direct sunlight on their armor.

It is indeed true that the environment changes people. At least the Hexi Guiyi Army, who had been wearing armor unscrupulously in Hexi, had basically wrapped themselves and their armor like "dumplings" at this time.

It was very hot, but there was no other way because the armor had to be worn, and Xizhou was not peaceful at that time.

Light cavalry poured into the city and hurried forward along the main road. On both sides of the road were civilians wearing futou, but they did not speak the same language.

The people of Gaochang and Hexi could still communicate in Tibetan, but the fugitives from Jiannan Road who were migrated from Longyou could only communicate in Mandarin.

In Hexi and the Western Regions, there were undoubtedly very few people who understood Mandarin, so they simply stayed with their fellow migrants and tried not to communicate with the people of Gaochang and Hexi.

The light cavalry just glanced at them and then hurried towards the yamen.

Soon, a palace appeared before them.

This is the Xizhou government office, and it was also the former palace of the Gaochang Kingdom.

The palace is about a li in circumference, and the outer wall is two zhang high and about zhang thick...

The palace gate is tall and wide, with exquisitely carved stone lions from the Western Regions standing on both sides, symbolizing the majesty and sacredness of the royal power.

Entering the palace gate, you will see a wide square in front of you. The ground has been compacted and there is a dry canal in the middle. Water is flowing in the canal, which is obviously running water.

The main buildings of the palace are tall palaces with a depth of six rafters. The brackets on the capitals and beams are simple in shape. The central bracket has a dragon head at the big bracket mouth, and elephant trunks on both sides. The brackets between the two side brackets have dragon heads at the bracket mouth. The roof is a gabled style, not much different from the Tang Dynasty style.

"Liu Jilong wants to sell the old grain from Liangzhou?"

"Yes, I heard that they are going to sell 170,000 dan of old grain, and one dan of grain will be sold for five dan of high-quality saltpeter."

Inside the three-meter-deep palace, Zhang Huaishen, who sat high on the throne of the former King of Gaochang, spoke with a hint of surprise.

Standing in front of him was Li En, who now served as the Chief Clerk of the Anxi Protectorate.

Although the two had some unpleasantness in their early years, these were eliminated after Li En helped Zhang Huaishen solve the Suo problem.

At this moment, the two were discussing the sale of grain in Longyou. After Li En's explanation, Zhang Huaishen nodded and said:
"We are indeed short of food, but we can't afford that much saltpeter."

Although the states of Xizhou, Yizhou, Guasha and others were rich in saltpeter, it was still difficult to mine and transport saltpeter by manpower.

Because of this, although the saltpeter reserves in Hexi are large, the output is not large.

"Liu Jilong said that if there is not enough saltpeter, spices can be used as an exchange."

Li En explained and persuaded: "Although I don't know why Liu Jilong needs so much saltpeter, there are still more than 100,000 stones of saltpeter in various prefectures. It's better to take this opportunity to deal with it."

"In addition, there is money in the treasury, and Longyou has already handed over the commercial goods to our Hexi Ya merchants, and they will be transported to Shazhou and Xizhou soon."

"At worst, if we don't make any profit this time, we can just buy all the commercial goods as spices and give them to them."

"If we can obtain these 170,000 shi of grain, Xizhou will not be short of food for at least three years."

"Yeah." Li En's words aroused Zhang Huaishen's approval. Although Hexi had been developed for many years, its development speed had always been slow due to its small population.

In recent years, nearly 20,000 Hankou troops have been obtained from Longyou, but this is still too little for the vast Hexi.

Let alone anything else, the situation in Xizhou alone is not optimistic.

There were only 14,000 people in Xizhou, of whom 2,000 or so were people who had migrated to Gaochang from Longyou half a month ago.

Although Liu Jilong said that this group of people had committed crimes, Zhang Huaishen didn't care.

He could also learn about the situation in the Tang Dynasty from the letters from his uncle and father.

Even if he is a criminal or even a disabled person, as long as he can have children, he is a treasure in Zhang Huaishen's eyes.

Among the more than 12,000 native residents of Gaochang, more than 7,000 were Gaochang people, both men and women, and the remaining more than 5,000 were captured Uighur women.

After experiencing so many wars, there are basically more women than men in Hexi, especially many widows.

Therefore, it was impossible for Zhang Huaishen to allow his soldiers to expand and spread out in the local area. After all, they still had their original families and it was impossible for them to take root here.

Compared with the soldiers from Hexi, the people of Jiannan Road who migrated from Longyou had no problems.

In Xizhou, the Han people have always been a small tribe. If the Anxi Protectorate is defeated, then those who have benefited from it will inevitably be liquidated.

Because of this, they will become supporters of Anxi Protectorate's establishment in Xizhou.

"Have the marriages of the more than 2,000 Jiannan Dao immigrants been arranged?"

Zhang Huaishen asked about Li En, and Li En smiled and bowed back, "Everything has been arranged. You can marry a wife or even a concubine."

"Each household was given 15 mu of land, and every three households shared one cow. In addition, one dan of rice was given every month."

"Okay!" Zhang Huaishen nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "We are short of food, but we are even more short of people."

"Liu Jilong is wary of these criminals, but I am not."

"If possible, I would like him to move more criminals here."

"This group of people are quite brave and valiant. Although their past behavior is despicable, if they are used well, they can also defend the land of Xizhou for our Han family."

Facing Zhang Huaishen's words, Li En also nodded in agreement and said:

"Should we try to contact Liu Jilong? Otherwise, with the population of Xizhou, we can only maintain 3,000 troops at most."

"When our army withdraws to Shazhou, Xizhou will inevitably be invaded by Pugujun, Pangteler and others."

Zhang Huaishen nodded, but said with a headache:
"I have talked to him several times, but the people under his rule are not enough. I am afraid that not many people will migrate to us."

"Why not migrate the population from the inner pass?" Li En suddenly said:

"Zhang Zhifang is currently the leader of Shuofang Town. He is a profit-seeking person, and I think you know this."

"In the past, Hexi was short of money, so there was no money to bribe officials and relocate people."

"Now that the Silk Road has been reopened, Longyou is exporting goods, and we are providing manpower, accumulating more than 200,000 strings of cash every year."

"Although half of it has to be paid as military pay, there are still tens of thousands of strings of cash left. I think we can bribe Zhang Zhifang to move some of the money to Hankou for us."

"This..." Zhang Huaishen frowned and hesitated, but he had not forgotten how arrogant Zhang Zhifang was in the past.

"I'll write another letter and send it to Linzhou. I think Liu Jilong will think of a solution."

He didn't want to have anything to do with the officials of the Tang Dynasty, so he wrote a new copy and asked Li En to send it to Linzhou.

(End of this chapter)