My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 238: Spring is here, Chen Deng is seriously ill, and Sun Ce is ready to take action
Faced with the big picture painted by Zhuge Jin, Hua Tuo of course chose to accept it all.

If Hua Tuo was slow to treat one or two cases occasionally, his reputation would be limited. But if he could add a lot of content to his life-long medical works, it would go down in history.

Hua Tuo knew very well what was more important.

So, the next day, the Guangling Prefecture's Mansion announced to the public: Mr. Chen was seriously ill and needed long-term bed rest for treatment.

In order to facilitate his medical treatment, Chen Deng gave Hua Tuo a large house on the street where the prefectural government was located. The house was several steps deep, with the back being used as a residence and the front being converted into a pharmacy or clinic.

In this way, when Chen Deng didn't need him to see a doctor, Hua Tuo could also take time to see others. As for the expenses of the clinic and the pharmacy other than the medicinal materials, of course, they were all taken care of by the mysterious sponsor.

Hua Tuo was not a money-lover, but he would still accept gifts from others if they pleased him. In particular, Hua Tuo really liked many of the things Zhuge Jin gave him:

The decoration of the clinic was very clean at first glance, with the walls all painted with fine lime slurry. The cloth and curtains were also very clean, and the linen gauze used for bandaging could be used as desired. There was even a full set of new scalpels made of high-quality cast steel and the latest quenching technology, and various celadon sterilizing utensils.

Even though Hua Tuo was a person who was very indifferent to fame and fortune, he could not refuse such a good thing that could make his work more efficient.

However, despite the fanfare of this clinic, in fact, there was only one apprentice of Hua Tuo who took turns to see patients every day, and only when they encountered extremely difficult and complicated cases would they ask their master for help.

The remaining disciple, as well as Hua Tuo himself, were busy studying "Qu Lue Lun" and observing the fermentation microorganism experiments.

Zhuge Liang's "Qu Jue Lun" has more than 20,000 words in total. It would take Hua Tuo at least ten days and a half a month to read through the words and get a preliminary understanding. Combined with experimental observation, it would be good if he could basically understand it in one or two months.

In the past month or two, Zhuge Jin has also instructed the porcelain kiln craftsmen from Yuzhang to build another kiln for firing colored glass and to test the addition formula. After Hua Tuo has finished studying the previous things, this is the right place to connect to the subsequent experiments that require glass flasks.

If there is an unexpected delay, then just drag it out. By then, Hua Tuo has already invested so much sunk cost and will not give up easily. It will be more than enough to drag it out until the Yidaizhao breaks out and Sun Ce responds to Cao Cao.

Outsiders did not know what Hua Tuo was busy with during this period. Seeing that he had lived in Guangling for a long time and had little time to see patients in person every day, they thought that Chen Deng was really too ill and could not leave his side for a moment.

Within ten days, the news of Chen Deng's serious illness was no longer a secret in Guangling. It even spread to the other side of the Yangtze River and even Sun Ce and Zhou Yu knew about it.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were worried about a trap at first, so they sent spies across the river to investigate. After repeated confirmation, they were relieved.

Moreover, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu discovered an unexpected surprise: because Chen Deng was seriously ill, it seemed that the frequency of Liu Bei's navy patrolling the river in Guangling County had also decreased, and everything had entered a state of inactivity.

In contrast, in the area of Wuhu County, Danyang Prefecture, which is also on the south bank of the Yangtze River, Guan Yu's navy has been on increasingly strict alert recently, patrolling back and forth on the Yangtze River in a bluffing manner to make their presence felt.

Zhou Yu saw all this, and although he could not understand it for the time being, it gave him a preconceived impression.

……

It took several days to deal with Hua Tuo and his team, and also to arrange the repair of the glass kiln and the arrangement of the "Pasteur Bacteria Experiment".

Zhuge Jin could finally return to his original work rhythm and continue his inspection trip in Guangling.

It was already the second day of the second lunar month, the day when the dragon raises its head. It was almost the day when everything came back to life and spring ploughing was about to begin.

Zhuge Jin adjusted the order of work and spent seven or eight days personally inspecting the results of the renovation of polder fields and dredging of Sheyang Lake in Guangling County last winter. He also personally supervised the spring ploughing and agricultural persuasion work and asked all counties to pay special attention to the spring ploughing of the newly arrived refugees.

The population of Guangling County was only over 400,000 the year before last, but when Yuan Shu was destroyed last year, more than 100,000 refugees from the upper reaches of the Huai River flowed in.

Later, when Cao Cao defeated Lu Bu, more than 200,000 people left from Pengcheng, Langya counties, and the five counties of Donghai County west of Yishui. Among them, Xia Pi and Donghai took more than half, but Guangling also took on nearly 100,000.

So now the population of Guangling County has expanded to nearly 700,000, which is 50% more than two years ago!

The rapid increase in population naturally created a huge demand for arable land. Guangling County was located in the later Subei Plain, so there was certainly no shortage of flat land suitable for farming. The key was that there were too many flood-prone swamps. Therefore, even though the winter farming off-season was used to organize labor-for-relief to repair polder fields and dredge irrigation facilities, it still could not keep up with the influx of population.

Zhuge Jin estimated that this kind of high-intensity labor without rest throughout the year would continue for several more years. Especially since last year, Guangling and Donghai counties have also been building salt fields and windmills in coastal areas to increase sea salt production and grind flour.

However, considering that the current tax rate under Liu Bei's rule is not high, and the fishing and salt industries are also very developed, although the people are working hard, at least they can have enough food to eat, so they can tolerate working more.

With Zhuge Jin personally on the front line, officials at all levels did not dare to be lazy or slack.

In addition, with the leadership of Chen Qun, a practical person in internal affairs, Jiang Ji and Hu Zhi were in charge of the agricultural promotion affairs of Guangling and Donghai counties respectively and managed impartially. Everything progressed in an orderly manner and there is no need to elaborate.

……

Time passed quickly and it was already mid-February. Counting the days, Dong Cheng and Lu Bu in Xu Du had actually been out of action for ten days.

However, due to the speed of information transmission and Cao Cao's deliberate blockade, even Liu Bei in Jiangxia did not know about the death of Dong Cheng and Lu Bu, and Zhuge Jin in Guangling was even less aware of it.

After Zhuge Jin finished his other daily inspection work, he only had one last acceptance task left in Guangling County - to ask Mi Zhu and Taishi Ci about the progress of the Liaodong route development work that started in late autumn last year.

See how many war horses Mi Zhu bought from Liaodong by sea, how other goods used to trade for war horses are selling, and whether it is necessary to develop new bargaining chips for barter.

The reason why this inspection was placed last was because it was necessary to make a special trip to Quxian and Haixi, two coastal port counties.

Zhuge Jin finished his inspection in Guangling and Huaiyin before sailing down the Huai River and entering the sea from Haixi County. Chen Deng did not accompany him, only Mi Zhu and Taishi Ci accompanied him.

In Zhuge Jin's impression, he seemed to have had a lot of interactions with Mi Zhu only when he first surrendered to Liu Bei three and a half years ago when Huaiyin City was in danger.

At that time, the two of them were escorted by Zhang Fei to Haixi County to organize backup forces, helping Liu Bei overcome the difficulties of counterattacking Guangling and solving the deadlock of being attacked by Ji Ling and Liu Xun. However, since then, Mi Zhu lost the opportunity to become the first civil official around Liu Bei because of the change in history and Liu Bei no longer needed his money ability to survive.

Even though his sister Mi Zhen became Liu Bei's concubine two years later, her status was much lower than that of the same period in history. After all, it was not a timely help.

Zhuge Jin and Mi Zhu had little contact in the next two years, fearing that his status would obviously surpass Mi Zhu and embarrass him. Until last year, the Zhuge brothers' status had become so high that no one could shake it, and Mi Zhu also found his new position, and their relationship became harmonious and natural again.

Last year, Zhuge Jin carried out many industrial and commercial construction projects in Donghai and Guangling counties.
New salt pans were built along the hundreds of miles of beaches on both sides of the Huai River estuary;
A large number of new windmills were built as government-run flour mills;

Zhuge Liang's experiments with qujue also brought new progress to the wine-making and vinegar-making technologies in Guangling and Donghai counties.

Mi Zhu paid a high contract fee and started a lot of wine, vinegar, flour and salt businesses in an official capacity. He continued to use the money to support the expansion of the shipbuilding industry and help strengthen the navy, and his business was thriving.

In just two years, Mi Zhu's family business doubled. It turns out that business that is supported by technological productivity is easier to do.

There was no "patent law" in this era, and theoretically there was no need to pay for learning other people's technology, but Mi Zhu was still sensible. He knew that for any business that used the Zhuge brothers' technology, at least 30% of the net profit would be given to the Zhuge brothers as dividends. The specific amount would depend on the difficulty of the technology used.

It was impossible for Zhuge Jin to check Mi Zhu's accounts. Everything was a gentleman's agreement.

The two had a harmonious relationship, and the inspection went smoothly.

After arriving in Haixi County, Mi Zhu took Zhuge Jin to inspect his newly built horse farm.

There is a large area of wasteland close to the coast, where crops cannot be grown due to the salinity and only salt-tolerant weeds can grow.

Mi Zhu said: "Originally there were only weeds and shrubs here. Last year, when I was preparing to cross the sea to buy horses, I asked people to select some grass seeds suitable for horses in advance, burned the original weeds in the autumn dryness, and sowed new grass seeds.

There is no need for manual labor to take care of the grass, just let it grow on its own. The growth is not good enough now, and in the summer, the Liaodong war horses we bought can be put out to pasture without having to feed them with cut fodder.

It took Ziyi two months to open up the waterway last year. So far, we have only had time to make two trips and have just bought nearly a thousand Liaodong horses, of which only more than 600 are qualified war horses, and the others can only be used as draft horses and pack horses after screening.

But the key is that once the route is opened, we can continue to trade and buy thousands of horses every year. As long as we can get enough goods that Gongsun Du wants, we don't have to worry about the shipping capacity. The large ships I have accumulated in the past few years are enough to maintain the Liaodong trade."

Zhuge Jin looked at the newly built pasture, which was full of green grass, and felt that it was a bit insufficient. How could the war horses only eat green grass?

However, the main horse feed in later generations, such as alfalfa, does not seem to be able to be grown in coastal saline-alkali land, and those are all produced in the north. It is indeed difficult for the south to raise horses, cattle and sheep on a large scale.

Zhuge Jin casually searched for materials about the UP hosts of the later generations, and vaguely remembered that in the programs of Huanong Brothers and Director Ao, there were several episodes talking about the feed for raising herbivorous livestock in the south. One of them was from Shu and the other was from southern Jiangxi. Their methods should be quite suitable for the south.

Zhuge Jin thought to himself, "I remember that Director Ao seemed to have inspected an alfalfa substitute from the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It is a variety improved from plantain or banana. It doesn't produce many bananas, but the biomass content of the stems is relatively high, and cattle and horses can easily absorb it.

Judging from the weight of the banana stem, it can be called a herb and grow as thick as a tree. If the "trunk" can be digested by cattle and horses, it must be full of nutrients. Unfortunately, the starch cellulose content in the stems of today's natural banana varieties may not be high.

Two years later, I went to the southern tropics to look for wild banana species to introduce and improve, or to do experiments. If the stems are nutritious, I would raise cattle and horses. If horses don't eat them, I would raise cattle. If they produce bananas, I would give them to people to eat. Anyway, it's not a waste.

At present, there are no banana plants, so it is better to let people plant some beans in the grassland to fix nitrogen and improve the soil. "

After sorting out his thoughts, Zhuge Jin taught Mi Zhu: "It's okay to plant grass for now, but when the horse farm expands, see if there are any areas with less salinity. Even if rice and wheat can't survive, beans are not as picky as rice and wheat. As long as they can survive by sowing coarse seeds, it's fine. It doesn't matter how many beans you harvest. At least it will fertilize the field. You can also use the beans, including the seedlings and shells, to raise horses."

Mi Zhu thought it made sense, so he wrote down Zhuge Jin's suggestion and planned to expand the trial using this method next season.

While Zhuge Jin was giving instructions, he was also not idle. He asked Taishi Ci, who was accompanying him, to help him bring a few Liaodong horses over. He rode each horse for a few laps to try the feel and experience the differences in characteristics between the Liaodong war horses and the war horses from other origins that were originally used in Liu Bei's army.

Zhuge Jin had adapted to the situation after years of running around. His horsemanship had improved greatly, and he had also practiced archery as a fitness sport, but his close combat skills were still zero. After running a few laps, he felt that the Liaodong horses might not have strong sprinting power, but they were still good for riding and shooting.

If you really want to sprint at high speed for excitement, you still have to get a Xiliang horse or a Western Region horse.

Mi Zhu, who was standing by, also took advantage of Zhuge Jin's horse riding experience to continue to introduce his business in depth:
"Although the scale of the transaction in the past two months was not large, the gains were not small. Yuan Tan of Qingzhou has always been friendly with the lord. Last autumn, Yuan Long followed the lord's wishes and secretly contacted Yuan Tan to send troops to Langya and snatched four counties of Zang Ba from Cao Cao.

Yuan Tan was grateful to us and agreed to lease Muping County (now Yantai) in Donglai County, located at the northernmost tip of Shandong Peninsula, to our army for management last December. Muping County is facing the Shamen Islands and is a good port. With this transit port, our trade supply will be smoother and we can save a lot of cabin space to carry valuable goods.

This is also thanks to Ziyi. When the waterway was first opened, he patrolled several times and hunted down and killed several groups of Shamen pirates with hundreds of people. Yuan Tan thought that handing Mouping over to us would also help to eliminate the remaining small thieves along the coast, so he went with the flow. "

Guan Cheng, the leader of the Qingzhou pirates, was killed by Zhao Yun two years ago when Zhuge Liang was on a diplomatic mission to Hebei. But Zhao Yun didn't have time to go to Shamen Island to kill all the remaining pirates, so he stayed until now.

This time, Taishi Ci wanted to ensure the safety of maritime trade, so he certainly couldn't let go of the little thieves who happened to be blocking the waterway. Those who were willing to surrender and become sailors would be reformed and sent to the army, and those who refused would be killed directly.

After hearing this, Zhuge Jin gave Taishi Ci a look of praise: "Ziyi does things very efficiently and effectively."

Taishi Ci: "General, you are too kind. It is just a small matter, not worth mentioning."

Zhuge Jin then asked Mi Zhu: "What are the main goods you used to buy horses? Did you follow the original plan and use the sea vessels to exchange war horses with Gongsun Du?"

Mi Zhu: "I am reluctant to use new-style ships. I am also afraid that if the technology of new-style ships is leaked, Gongsun Du will become too powerful and dominate the North Sea in the future, and it will be difficult to control him. So I try to trade with him with celadon, steel and other goods.

But celadon is expensive after all, and only the rich and powerful can buy it. Now that this product has just been released, it can still be sold in large quantities and people are fighting for it. After a year or so, the rich and powerful in Liaodong who should have celadon will use it, and it will be difficult to sell. I am still thinking about new popular goods. "

Zhuge Jin frowned slightly after hearing this: "Why do you worry that Gongsun Du will be difficult to control? As long as we have better ships in the future, why should we be afraid of Gongsun Du's small territory?
I asked you to trade with them using new-style ships for another reason, which was to allow limited, targeted technology leaks to induce Gongsun Du to pacify Daifang, and even the Three Han further south!"

(End of this chapter)