Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 791
The bustling city of Beijing is something that is out of reach for the people in Liaodong.

Shenyang Mansion, Shaling Fort.

On this day, when the weather was fine, Wu Xin led a mule and two young officers and left Shaling Fort.

The mule is full of luggage, food, and more importantly, seeds.

Although the mule was a little lame, Wu Xin cherished it all the time. From time to time, he asked two of his subordinates to help feed it and even help with some luggage.

Cao Xi and Li Shizhen, looking at the mules eating coarse grains, felt a little envious for a while.

"Major, please slow down. You have been walking for two hours. If you don't spare us, you have to cherish the mule." Cao Xi supported his waist and carried his luggage, and shouted,
"You two boys, your legs and feet are no match."

Wu Xin turned his head, dissatisfaction was written on his rough face, he glanced at the panting mule, and then said: "Forget it, let's rest for now!"

After saying that, Wu Xin found a wide area facing the river, and vigilantly swept across the fields before he heaved a sigh of relief.

Cao Xi and Li Shizhen unloaded the iron pot from the mule, then took out a bag of military rations—fried noodles, grabbed four handfuls, filled them with water, dug a hole to add firewood, and started cooking.

After a while, Wu Xin searched for a few more wild vegetables, put them directly into the pot, and muttered, "I'm tired of eating this stuff, I have to add some more vegetables."

Liaodong implements a military management policy. Due to the large loss of population, [-]% of the army's food and grass are imported from Beijing, and fried noodles have become the mainstream food.

The two of Cao Xi swallowed their saliva, they were so greedy.

In the bubbling fried noodles, there are not only bean cakes, but also oil, salt, and even shredded pork. For the two criminals, it is the most delicious food.

The so-called waiting to return refers to the Han Eight Banners, Mongolia Eight Banners, and Man Eight Banners who surrendered. Although the number of these people is only more than [-], they are of great value to the sparsely populated Liaodong.

Therefore, for this group of people, they are all called "waiting home", and they can only become normal people if they perform well within three years.

It's not that no one wanted to slaughter them all, but they were stopped, and the killing was unknown.

On the surface, the two of them worked in the Shalingbao Township Yamen, but in fact they were treated like servants, provided with food and drink, but without pay.

It was because the two were educated and performed well, while the others were working in the mines or felling trees in the lumber yard, which was much harder than them.

In this way, tens of thousands of free laborers have contributed greatly to the development of Liaodong, and they are not afraid that they will flee and rebel, and they will be free when the time comes.

"There's still a year and a half—"

The two looked at each other, their eyes full of desire for freedom.

Wu Xin grabbed the rice spoon and filled a big bowl of mush for each of them.

Seeing them eating like pigs eating happily, I couldn't help showing a little smile.

"It's very good for you to come out this time."

There was less than half of the pot left, and Wu Xin fed the mule, then sat down Shi Shiran, and said leisurely: "Although you will become private households as soon as the time limit for returning home is up, how can you be happy, ordinary people? "

After speaking, he gave Li Shizhen a knife and Cao Xi a late bow, and then he continued: "When the time comes, regardless of the mines and forests, you two are educated, but you can stay in the village."

"If you do a good job, you can still enter the county government office. This is much better than other people waiting to return home."

"Thanks for the township chief's point—" The two quickly knelt down, thanking them from the bottom of their hearts.

From a prisoner of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty to a small official, this step is like a cloud and mud.

"Let's go and work hard."

Leading the mule, they started on the road again and came to a village in the forest of Shalingbao.

There are 200 people in it, but there are only about [-] strong men, which shows the devastation of the war.

It is precisely because of this that there is a lack of strong labor, which leads to the lack of plowing fields in the village. Women and children go to the fields, and men go up to the mountains to hunt to fill their households.

Because the population of Liaodong is not large, it is impossible to supply livestock on such a large scale as the Central Plains, so the army can only purchase animal meat from the people to maintain the army's meat supply.

In general, hunting can support the family better than farming, which drives more people to the mountains and forests, which also leads to slow food growth.

"Major, what's the matter with you?"

The village chief walked over bent over and was supported, raised his head and asked.

"You have too little cultivated land."

Looking at the land outside the village, Wu Xin couldn't help frowning.

"There is no way, there are few cattle and strong men, even if the old and the young go to the field, they can't make up for it!"

The mayor sighed.

After years of war, almost all the young and strong laborers in the village were forced to join the army, and only one out of ten returned, and most of them were disabled. This was a fatal blow to the delicate agriculture.

For Wuxin, there is nothing he can do about it.

He couldn't grow so many young men, and he couldn't produce cattle and sheep. He could only unload a bag of grain seeds from the mule, about thirty catties.

Open it carefully and let it watch.

The village head looked up and saw the dark yellow seeds, square and angular, completely different from the oval wheat seeds: "This is it?"

"A fine seed from the imperial court."

Wu Xin was also a little unconfident, but he still insisted: "His name is Corn..."

After stopping halfway, he had to take out a note from his pocket, muttering: "It's just like sorghum, except that the grain is wrapped in its buds, and the yield is extremely high. One mu of land can harvest three to four hundred catties. You can be fat or thin..."

After reading it in one breath, he explained it in a simple way again, and then said seriously:
"This kind of seed was brought from the city of Beijing. It is said that it was rewarded by the gods during the lightning flash and thunder when the emperor offered sacrifices to the heavens. After planting, it will cost less than three or four hundred catties per mu of land, and seven or eight catties is not a big deal— —”

"You plant this bag as a seed, and do it well. If something goes wrong, the whole village will suffer."

Seeing that the latter was still unbelievable, he continued to emphasize: "By the way, starting next year, corn can be ground into flour to pay taxes, just like wheat."

After saying that, Wu Xin left amidst his gratitude.

"The head of the township, the grain seeds in our township are only about a hundred catties, so you gave them thirty catties like this?"

Cao Xi was surprised.

You should know that the entire Shalingbao Township is not too much.

Wu Xin shook his head, and said with a smile: "This kind of grain is not much in the first place, and there are more than [-] villages in the township. It is impossible to distribute it. It is better to distribute it to the poorest few villages as much as possible."

"When the corn is harvested and there are more seeds, other villages will definitely ask for seeds, and then distribute them to them."

"If it is spread out equally, there are not many seeds in each village, and not many people pay attention to it."

"The mayor means that the poorer the village, the more likely it is to believe in this corn and earnestly do it."

Li Shizhen agreed.

"That's right, that's what it means."

Wu Xin showed a smile, a child can be taught.

(End of this chapter)