minions live

Chapter 745 Cotton

The king and his minister discussed in detail the various construction matters of Misty County.

Ren Jie answered questions fluently and put forward his own opinions and suggestions one by one.

Ren Ning was quite satisfied with this.

After the report, Ren Jie glanced at Guan Yi beside him.

"Your Majesty, I happened to meet Minister Guan when I entered the palace. It seems that the Minister has something important to report. If Your Majesty has no other instructions, I will take my leave first."

"Okay." Ren Ning nodded with a smile, then turned his gaze towards the direction of the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

"I heard that the old lady's birthday is in a few days?"

"Your Majesty, my mother's sixtieth birthday will be in three days," Ren Jie replied respectfully.

Ren Ning understood and turned to look at Little Leo beside him.

"Little Li, the Grand Tutor's Mansion is the cornerstone of Yunchui and has made great contributions to the prosperity and stability of the empire over the years. Now that the old lady's birthday is approaching, please prepare a generous gift for me and send it to the Grand Tutor's Mansion tomorrow."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Little Lizi responded quickly, "I will do it right away."

Ren Ning nodded slightly, looked at Ren Jie again, and spoke in a gentle tone.

"Mr. Ren, you have been an official in foreign countries for many years, and you have been apart from the old lady for a long time. Now that you can rarely return to the capital, you should spend more time with the old lady. There is no need to rush back to Misty County."

Ren Jie was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately bowed to express his gratitude: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace."

"If you have nothing else to do, please leave first."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Ren Jie retreated respectfully, and Guan Yi watched him leave with a complicated look in his eyes.

Ren Jie returned to Beijing this time, ostensibly to report on his work and visit his mother.

However, among the thirty counties of Yunchui, the "top three counties" include Su Lan, Xingluo and Xingji City.

Unless one had made great contributions and needed to go to the capital to receive an award, or had committed a serious mistake and was impeached by the censor and needed to go to the capital to be punished, there were very few opportunities to leave the county, let alone go to the capital.

Usually they only submit county reports at the beginning or end of the year or when major events occur.

The reasons for this are, firstly, that the distances between the counties are long and the transportation is inconvenient, and most of the county governors are civil servants and cannot bear the long journey;

Second, as the highest local administrative chief, the county magistrate is in charge of the affairs of the county. If he leaves his post without authorization or for a long time, the county's affairs will be left unattended and will inevitably fall into chaos.

This is the case even for upper-class counties, and the governors of lower-class counties rarely have the opportunity to come to Beijing.

Now Ren Jie has returned to Beijing in the name of visiting his mother. Once the news spreads, even though the place where he works is remote, I am afraid no one in Xingji City will dare to underestimate him.

"Minister Guan," Ren Ning didn't know what Guan Yi was thinking, and said half seriously and half teasingly, "Didn't we just meet at the morning court? What's the important matter now?"

Guan Yi came to his senses, quickly took out a thick memorial from his arms and presented it respectfully.

"I deserve death for disturbing your majesty's rest. However, the Ministry of War has just received an urgent report from the fast horse of Yanchi Fortress. The matter is of great importance, so I have no choice but to enter the palace again to disturb your majesty."

Ren Ning frowned slightly when he heard this.

Rocky fortress, or express mail?

Nowadays, windmill communication systems have been built not only in the Yanchui Fortress, but also in the depths of the Xiliang Grassland.

Although there are not enough windmills to cover the entire territory, the transmission of information is unimpeded in most areas.

However, although windmill messaging is fast, it has an obvious flaw: the content transmitted is limited to text and the length is limited, otherwise it is very easy to make mistakes.

Little Li quickly presented the memorial in Guan Yi's hand to Ren Ning.

I reached out and pressed it, and found something soft inside the package. I didn't know what it was.

When he opened it, Ren Ning's eyes suddenly lit up.

In addition to a document, the package also contained a large bag of white flocs.

It is, cotton.

"Your Majesty, the Kailun tribe successfully tried to grow cotton. They thought Your Majesty might like it, so they sent samples to the Yanchui Fortress as soon as the harvest happened." Guan Yi explained.

Haha.

Upon hearing this, Ren Ning couldn't help but slap the table and laugh.

"I like it! Of course I like it!" Cotton has a wide range of uses. In addition to the most basic warm clothing, it is also an important strategic material. It can be used to stop bleeding, make medicines, and even manufacture ammunition.

The more the better.

For the common people, food, clothing, housing and transportation are all indispensable.

Clothing comes first, which shows its importance.

Without food, people may find it difficult to survive; but without clothing, people may find it difficult to even leave their homes, let alone live.

Although clothes are important, it has always been a problem for ordinary people to have a complete set of clothes, no matter which dynasty.

Not to mention the remote areas, even outside the gates of Xingji City, there are many people who are half-naked.

Especially in the cold winter months every year, there are countless cases of people freezing to death in the wild or even in their homes due to lack of clothes.

Ren Ning was well aware of the importance of population and tried hard to solve this problem.

As the laughter died down, he picked up the memorial and read it carefully, and soon understood the whole story.

A few years ago, he and Lei Er went to the Xiliang Prairie and rescued Lao Santai and others near the Kailun tribe’s base. They even captured a dozen wolf cubs with them and prepared to train them into hunting dogs.

At that time, according to Ren Ning's suggestion, the Kailun tribe moved south to avoid being hunted down by the Benlu tribe.

After settling down, they followed the Starfall Legion's instructors to practice martial arts and deploy battle formations to defend their homes, while also organizing people to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land, trying to grow various crops.

From rice, wheat to taro, potato, corn, cotton, sugarcane, gourd...

They tried to plant all the seeds that the Starfall Legion could provide.

During this period, many crops died because they were not adapted to the climate of the grassland. Even if they survived, their yields were extremely low and difficult to promote.

However, hard work pays off, and some crops eventually have a good harvest, such as the cotton in front of us.

"We tried planting over 30 mu of crops, and the average yield per mu was 490 kilograms..."

After reading this, Ren Ning suddenly raised his head.

"Mr. Guan, I remember that Tianshui County is also rich in cotton. I wonder how much it produces per mu? Also, how many pieces of clothing can be made from one pound of cotton?"

When Guan Yi heard this, the corners of his mouth felt bitter.

He is the Minister of War, how could he possibly know about the cotton production in Tianshui County?

This question should be answered by the Ministry of Revenue.

However, recently due to the involvement in the Central Army Corps case, generals' and even royal palaces have been raided from time to time. The Ministry of Revenue has been extremely busy, and Qian Liang has not slept for several days. He did not even attend the morning court today.

But since the emperor asked, I had to answer.

Guan Yi hesitated for a moment, then had to bite the bullet and speak.

"Your Majesty, the empire is vast, the climate varies from place to place, and cotton clothes also vary in thickness."

"According to the regulations of the Ministry of War, the thickest cotton-padded jackets are usually sent to extremely cold areas such as the Northern Customs and the Yanhui Army. Each piece uses 16 taels of cotton. The cotton-padded jackets of the thousand-foot level and above are even thicker."

"As for the thin cotton-padded jackets, they are usually sent to other garrison regiments in the northern part of the empire. They come in three types: 10 taels, 8 taels, and 6 taels."

As for the cotton production in Tianshui County, he did not mention it.

Little Li was smart. He immediately ordered someone to get the Tianshui County Chronicles and quickly check the relevant data.

After a while, he perked up.

"Your Majesty, the cotton production in Tianshui County over the past ten years has been investigated. In a good year, the average yield per mu is about 380 kilograms, and a total of 26,412 mu of cotton has been planted..."

Three hundred and eighty kilograms?

When Ren Ning heard this, he stopped listening and looked at the "four hundred and ninety kilograms" on the memorial, then nodded with satisfaction.

"Pass on my order. The Kailun tribe does not need to worry about food. I will send people to transport food and other necessary materials from the east. Their mission is to do their best to reclaim wasteland and plant cotton."

"Your Majesty is wise." Guan Yi's eyes lit up.

As long as farming can allow the people to survive or even live longer, the people who depend on Kailun will gradually settle down and no longer migrate with the water and grass as they did in the past.

Once they get used to farming life, the land will become their roots, and it will be easier for Yunchui to rule.

DEEPSEEK cannot be written directly, but it is still good to use it to revise the text after writing it.