I am Da Song

Chapter 615
The key to the idyllic life on the northern ice sheet is to settle the nomads in the north so that they cannot come and harass them.

Militaryly stationed troops in Mobei to suppress the aliens in this area.

In terms of diplomacy, fences were set up in the west. The cultural barriers of the Qin Kingdom, Xiliao, and Dongliao prevented other nomads from taking advantage of the gap and wandering from the west to the east.

The nomadic peoples in the north have become a disaster in the past. The main reason is that the Central Plains people cannot take root in the local area.

Although people in the Central Plains used to herd horses and herd sheep, they are still very different from nomads.

That is, in addition to horse herding and sheep herding, people in the Central Plains are engaged in a wide range of production activities, from fishing and hunting, to logging, to ore mining, and even vegetable farming.

If the nomadic people are carnivores, then the Central Plains people are more like omnivores.

Zhao Huan said to Zhang Jun: "In fact, the situation in the extreme north is very similar to that of Heishui Dufu. How is the situation of Liaobei North Road and Heishui Dufu?"

Liaodong South Road, Liaodong North Road, and Heishui Duhufu are the three new administrative divisions established after the Song Dynasty destroyed the Jin Dynasty.

Among them, Liaodong South Road basically covers the traditional Han land in the east of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which is near the Liaodong vassal state in the Han Dynasty, and Gongsun Yuan, a prince at the end of the Han Dynasty, was entrenched in this area.

North Liaodong Road is a black soil area. Although the climate here is a bit colder, the land is absolutely fertile. There are mountains and rivers all around to resist the cold air in the north, and the middle is densely covered with water. It can be regarded as a land of fish and rice, a land of abundance.

The Heishui Dufu Mansion extends from Heishui to the ice ocean outside, which is outside Zhuxia's traditional sphere of influence.

Although there are only three administrative divisions here, the land area is very vast, about one-third of the territory of the entire Central Plains.

Zhang Jun immediately said: "Since the official conquests, the destruction of the Jin Kingdom, and the pacification of the Jurchens, the population here is about 400 million. Now it has been established for 21 years, and the local household registration has grown to more than 1000 and more than two million."

Zhao Huan was speechless and exclaimed, "The population is growing so fast?"

It took nearly 800 years for the Holy Roman Empire in the west to grow from 1000 million to 200 to [-] million.

However, it only took 400 years for the population of Song Dynasty to increase from 1000 million to 20 million and more than [-] million.

This speed is faster than under the rule of the Kingdom of Jin. It took nearly a hundred years for them to grow from a few million to 5000 million, and they occupied a large amount of territory in the Central Plains.

Zhang Jun said: "The main reason is that the population of Northeast Liao Road grew very fast. At the beginning, it was spread in the imperial camp to beat roe deer with sticks and scoop fish with ladles. It attracted countless people to venture into the Northeast."

Zhao Huan said: "Even so, there shouldn't be such a rapid growth, right?"

Regarding beating roe deer with sticks and scooping fish with ladles, Zhao Huan did a vivid experiment. A group of female officials carried their skirts to hunt with big sticks in the snow field, and they were not much weaker than civilian and military generals, which left a deep impression on everyone. .

But even so, according to Zhao Huan's estimation, it would be good to attract 200 million people from all directions.

Even the imperial court planned to absorb the Jurchens from the backcountry and let them go out of the mountains to fish and hunt on the plains.

Zhao Huan asked: "Could it be the effect of Jurchen and other Hu people being included in the registered household?"

Zhang Jun shook his head with a smile, and said, "That's not the case. It's because the world underestimated the prosperity of North Liaodong Road."

"All the ministers are here, and the old man recommends a dish from North Liaodong Road to the ministers. It's called pig-killing dish."

A group of officials had obviously never heard of this local dish.

Su Chi asked, "What's so special about this dish?"

This moment exposed everyone's foodie nature.

The Great Song Dynasty is in the prosperous age of the dynasty, and the princes of the Great Song Dynasty can enjoy the leisurely years.

So after Zhang Jun proposed a new dish, the topic of the court discussion immediately deviated, and a group of people enthusiastically discussed the famous dishes of Northeast places.

Zhang Jun said: "This dish is a northern dish that has only recently emerged. In winter, the north of Liaobei Road is very cold, and the people basically stop their farm work and stay at home to enjoy the years."

"So during the Spring Festival, they will slaughter a fat pig and use a large piece of pork as the main ingredient, with corn, noodle melon, sweet potato, green beans, soybean oil, and soy sauce to stew in an iron pot full of stew."

When the other officials were still thinking about whether the dish was delicious, Zhao Huan's eyes flashed.

This prime minister is known as half-Zhuge, and he never shoots aimlessly.

He suddenly proposed this dish at the court meeting, the purpose of which was to attract the attention of all ministers to the details.

Sure enough, after a while, Li Gang, the envoy of the third division, was the first to react, with a look of surprise on his face.

Then the Minister of the Household Department, Zuo Du Yushi, Zuo Xiang, Shang Shuling and others all thought about it.

No one who can sit here is a dead man.

Only Su Dai, who was doing research in the ivory tower, only cared about academics and didn't know much about people's livelihood, and seeing everyone's suddenly enlightened expressions, she turned her head to Zhao Huan and asked, "Officials, what happened to these ministers? Is this dish different? We also eat it at night?"

Zhao Huan smiled and said, "Okay, let's try it at night."

At this time, Zhang Jun who was on the side opened his mouth and concluded to the ministers: "Everyone has obviously discovered how many factors that affect the livelihood of the world are contained in this dish."

"The local people can stew large pieces of pork one after another, which shows that the local animal husbandry is very developed, and every household has six livestock."

"In the past, people didn't have enough food. How could there be surplus food to feed livestock? The key lies in corn."

"Corn is known as the king of feed. As far as I know, on Liaobei Road, the corn is very abundant. There are strings of golden corn hanging on the walls of every family's courtyard."

The yield of corn is simply unmatched by common wheat.Planted in the black soil, it is easy to break through the yield per mu, which is ten stones per mu.

The local people's homes have vast arable land, unlike the Central Plains, where there are only ten acres of Susukida.

But even if you only plant ten acres of land, you will still be able to harvest a hundred stones of grain.

You must know that a train can only carry two thousand shi of grain, and it can supply food for four thousand soldiers according to the standards of the field army.

So Zhang Jun said: "Do you think this yellow corn hanging at home is enough for a family of five to survive several years of famine?"

Su Chi was the most straightforward, and said with emotion: "Du Fu's poem said that the people's granaries in the prosperous Kaiyuan period were full, and I was already quite yearning for it. The granaries in the people's homes in my dynasty can't be filled, so they have to be hung on the courtyard wall. It's really unprecedented. Recalling In the past, the people were so bitter and cold that they ate each other, how dare you imagine that there is enough food in a year to survive several years of famine."

Zhang Jun stroked the tiger whiskers on his chin, Zuo Xiang is an honest man who can cooperate.He said with a smile: "Mr. Su, you are wrong. These corns are for livestock, not for people!"

(End of this chapter)