Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 716 Spring Arrival in Yingzhou
Spring comes and spring goes, flowers fall in a hurry, and it is early April in a blink of an eye.

The Great Song Dynasty changed the year name to Xihe, implying the meaning of family reunion, looking forward to recovering Yunzhou, so that all the sixteen states of Youyun will return to the Great Song Dynasty.

Yunzhou is the Datong Prefecture, and the Liao State was changed to Xijing, which is an important town in the west of the Liao State. In fact, the Liao State did not give up the idea of ​​Xijing.

Although the Liao State was short of finances and had difficulty in recruiting troops, the Liao State recruited 2 troops from the mature women of Huanzhou, Zhengzhou, Luzhou, Dingzhou, and Xuanzhou in Dongdong Province by force, and placed them in Datong Prefecture to increase the number of troops. The defense of Datong Prefecture increased the strength of the Liao army in Datong Prefecture from 5 to [-].

This morning, a cavalry troop galloped along the edge of a forest. The cavalry team consisted of about 50 people. It was a typical scout team of the Song Army. There were as many as 40 horses, and basically more than half of the soldiers were equipped with horses. Although many soldiers were not cavalry, the mobility of the army increased rapidly after being equipped with horses.

For example, it took only ten days for the [-] Western Army to be transferred from Shaanxi Road to Hebei Road, and the [-] soldiers were equipped with war horses.

At present, the Song Army has deployed [-] troops in Yingzhou, south of Datong Mansion, led by veteran Yang Wenguang. These fifty cavalry scouts set off from Yingzhou and went north to Datong Mansion to investigate the enemy's intelligence.

There are two types of scouts in the Song army. One is undercover scouts, who sneak into the city and use various identities to cover up information, and the other is peripheral scouts. These fifty cavalry are peripheral scouts.

In fact, Song Army's undercover scouts had already infiltrated Datong City, and they kept sending in information, but according to the intelligence system, some information still needed to be confirmed by peripheral scouts, such as the enemy's equipment and so on.

All the way north from Yingzhou is in the Datong Basin. The terrain is flat and the climate is relatively dry. I don’t know when and through what channels, the corn of the Song Dynasty was introduced into the Liao Kingdom, and it is especially widely planted in Datong Prefecture. It is very suitable for Datong Prefecture. The soil quality and climate, coupled with the high yield per mu, have spread rapidly. The wheat fields of previous years have disappeared, and there are endless corn fields everywhere.

"Marshal Lu, that's right there!"

A soldier pointed to several houses in the distance, which looked like peasant houses, but they found that the people living inside were not the nearby farmland, but seven or eight soldiers from the Liao army. According to the experience of the Song Army, the soldiers of the Liao Army will also change into the clothes of local farmers when farming, but these soldiers are still wearing military uniforms, and they should have just arrived not long ago.

The brigade commander observed for a while, and with a wave of his hand, fifty cavalry surrounded him from all directions.

A soldier of the Liao army suddenly realized something was wrong, turned around and fled, shouting and running, an arrow shot through his neck from behind, and the soldier fell to the ground.

But his yelling had already alarmed the other soldiers in the room, and they rushed out with their knives. Song Jun's arrows shot from all sides, and shot down three more people in an instant.

"Other catch alive!"

The brigade commander shouted, and the soldiers of the Song Army stopped shooting arrows, and rushed forward with short wooden sticks and big nets.

In just a moment, the remaining three soldiers of the Liao army were firmly covered by the large net of the Song army, unable to move, and their weapons were also taken away.

Soldiers of the Song Army tied them up like rice dumplings, put them on three horses and took them away.

The prefecture of Yingzhou is called Jincheng County, which is today's Yingxian County. As the southern gate of Datong Prefecture, Yingxian County was built extraordinarily tall and strong, surrounded by a moat. Although Yingxian County is a strong defensive city, Loufanguan In World War I, there were only 2 Liao troops left in Datong Mansion, which was not enough to divide troops to defend the city. The Liao Army had to abandon Yingzhou and retreat northward to defend Datong Mansion.

Jincheng County has a circumference of more than [-] li, and there are more than [-] residents in the city. Because of the outbreak of war, people outside the city have moved into the city one after another. People accounted for less than half.

In addition to Jincheng County, Yingzhou also has Hunyuan County and Heyin County, each with a population of more than [-], but the rich and powerful families in the three counties have all fled to Datong Prefecture, and the rest of the people are poor people who make a living from farming or do business. Small businessmen, unable to flee north, could only accept the rule of the Song Dynasty.

Before October last year, Yingzhou was under military control, and Yang Ying, the governor, took over as magistrate of the prefecture. However, in late October, Su Zhe, the civilian magistrate appointed by Fan Ning, arrived in Yingzhou, and Ying County was officially changed to civilian governance.

Su Zhe has been in Yingzhou for half a year. The wind, sand and fatigue made him dark and thin. He kept in mind what Fan Ning told him. Yingzhou's governance has become a model, which will become his strongest political foundation, just like Kun State means to Fanning.

Therefore, in the past six months, Su Zhe spent most of his time in various exchanges with people of various ethnic groups, verifying land deeds, developing businesses, solving the difficulties of lonely elderly people, guiding farmers to return to their homes, and preaching from door to door about the five-year tax exemption policy formulated by the imperial court. Ethnic equality policy, whether it is Khitan or Xi people, as long as they are willing to live and work in peace and live in harmony, they are all citizens of the Song Dynasty. Su Zhe even learned the Khitan language.

When spring came, Su Zhe mobilized soldiers to help farmers plant corn, and at the same time introduced pumpkins to Yingzhou, and every house was full of pumpkins.

His hard work was not in vain. Many Khitan and Xi people who were about to flee gave up their migration, stayed in Yingzhou with peace of mind, and were incorporated into the household registration of Yingzhou.

That afternoon, Su Zhe returned to Yingzhou from Heyin County. Apart from a few entourages, there were two hundred cavalry escorting him. Yang Wenguang knew that Fan Ning was focusing on training Su Zhe. Met Liao army spies.

Su Zhe was riding on a horse, pointing to the Sanggan River and said excitedly: "Did you see that the amount of water in the Sanggan River is not small, but there is no waterwheel on the Sanggan River, which shows how much the farmers use the Sanggan River?" It’s still too low, basically relying on the sky for food, that’s not enough, agricultural irrigation must be implemented, as long as there is water, agriculture can develop.”

"My lord, growing corn is very good now, and I don't seem to need much water!" A follower laughed.

Su Zhe glared at him, "Who said that corn does not need water? The corn in the south of the Yangtze River generally bears two ears, and an acre of land can produce three thousand catties, while the northern corn only has seventeen or eight hundred catties. It is similar here. If the roots and stalks only produce one ear, and some stalks don’t produce ears at all, there is a big reason for the lack of water.”

At this time, there were several old farmers standing in front of a cornfield and discussing something. Su Zhe rushed over with his horse, and the followers and soldiers behind quickly followed.

Several old farmers knew Su Zhe, so they hurriedly bowed and saluted, "Meet the officials!"

Su Zhe got off his horse and asked, "Is there something wrong with this cornfield?"

One of the old farmers said: "I want to tell you, this field belongs to a small man. Last year, the yield per mu was only [-] catties, and more than half of the stalks had no ears. I don't know why, so I invite a few folks come and see."

Su Zhe looked at the corn seedlings, and they were all a foot high, and they were all green, just like other corn fields.

He then asked several other old farmers, "Are your fields normal?"

Several old farmers nodded together, "We are all normal, and each stalk produces an ear."

In fact, Su Zhe has already found out the reason for the lack of earing. It is not entirely because of insufficient water. These farmers have to carry water from the river to irrigate every day, so it should have nothing to do with the amount of water.

Su Zhe looked at the surrounding environment again. There was bare yellow land all around, no trees, no green grass, and it was leeward. The reason should be the same as that of Heyin.

Su Zhe laughed and said, "Corn is like a fruit tree. It needs bees and butterflies to pollinate, or the wind to pollinate, so that it can produce ears. If there is no pollination, it will only bloom but not bear fruit. There is no grass and grass around your land. Trees, and it happens to be in the lee, the pollen cannot spread, and of course they cannot produce ears."

Several farmers suddenly realized that they didn't know the reason, so Su Zhe explained the reason at once.

The old farmer suddenly became anxious, "Then what should I do?"

"There are two ways. There are two beekeepers in Lishu Village [-] miles away. When the corn blooms, you can ask a box of bees to put on the side of the field. There is also a simple way, you collect them yourself. Sprinkle the pollen carefully on the corn silk. It’s okay. People in the south of the Yangtze River do it like this, but the timing needs to be right and experience is needed. However, I still recommend renting a box of bees, which is about ten yuan. If you have difficulties, The government can come forward."

Other peasants asked in a hurry: "Senior officials, can we do this?"

"It's okay. Generally, the pollen is spread by the wind, but it can be assisted by artificial pollen, and the effect may be good."

Everyone was overjoyed, and another person asked: "Your Majesty, the corn production is too large, what should I do if I can't finish it?"

Su Zhe chuckled, "I told the farmers about this in Heyin yesterday. There are two ways to deal with the surplus corn. One is to raise pigs, and the other is to make wine. If it's troublesome, the government can also buy it in a centralized manner. There is a large winemaking workshop in Taiyuan, which can be sold to them, and the government does not make money from everyone, and charges whatever price it sells, and the transportation costs are all borne by the government.”

Everyone thought about it, and it is better to make wine and raise pigs by themselves, and the distiller's grains can also be used as fertilizer.

"Thank you for your guidance!"

Su Zhe got on the horse and said with a smile: "If you have any difficulties, you can go to the state government to find me. I will try my best to solve it for everyone. I will go first."

"Leader, go slowly!"

Everyone watched Su Zhe leave, and they all praised: "We in Yingzhou are also lucky to have a good official. If there is a corrupt or mediocre official, everyone will suffer."

(End of this chapter)