Han officials

Chapter 97 God Feeds Meals [33]

If you want to fight, you must first farm.

This is Wei Zhe's most profound understanding since coming to this world.

Therefore, whether in Daifang County or Lelang County, he always practiced this sentence.

But even though Wei Zhe thought he was concerned enough about farming, he still had some oversights.

The root cause was that he had never actually farmed since he came to the Han Dynasty!

Although he reclaimed wasteland and cultivated land in Lelang, developed water conservancy projects, and encouraged people to engage in agriculture and sericulture, he never personally farmed.

From this perspective, he still doesn't pay enough attention to farming.

Fortunately, the predicament in Liaodong County this time forced Wei Zhe to try every possible means, which allowed him to discover the areas that he had neglected!

……

When talking about agricultural books in the Han Dynasty, we have to mention "Fan Shengzhi's Book" and "Monthly Orders for the Four People".

Although farming requires adapting to local conditions, these two books are still very valuable for reference.

Especially the "Monthly Ordinances for the Four Classes of People", which has the highest reference value for Liaodong!
Why do I say that? Mainly because the author of this book, Cui Shi, is quite special!
Cui Shi, courtesy name Yuanshi, was a native of Anping, Zhuo Commandery, and the son of the famous scholar Cui Yuan.

By the way, this Cui is not the Cui of Qinghe, but the Cui of Boling.

In fact, during the Han Dynasty, when the Cui family was mentioned, the gentry in various places generally tacitly referred to it as the Cui family of Zhuo County. As for the Cui family of Qinghe, no one knew about it at all. Later, when Anping County was incorporated into Boling County, the Cui family of Zhuo County became the Cui family of Boling.

Unlike the Qinghe Cui family which remained unknown for more than 400 years, the Boling Cui family was very prosperous during the Han Dynasty.

Since the Western Han Dynasty, many of the Bo Ling Cui family's sons and daughters have served as officials of the rank of "two thousand stones", and this is still the case in this dynasty.

Cui Shi's father was once the prime minister of Jibei. Cui Shi, who came from a prominent family, served as the Sima of General Liang Ji at a young age. He wrote in the Dongguan with Bian Shao, Yan Du and others, and met with Confucian scholars to jointly edit the Five Classics.

Although he was imprisoned as a former official after Liang Ji was executed, he was reinstated several years later.

Cui Shi served as the governor of Wuyuan and Liaodong successively. The Four People's Monthly Orders was an agricultural book written by Cui Shi when he was the governor of Liaodong.

Cui Shi once mentioned in his Political Theory:
"Today, the plows in Liaodong have shafts four feet long, turning wide and interfering with each other. Two oxen are used, and two people pull them. One plows, one sows, and two pull the shafts. With two oxen and six people, you can only plant 25 mu in a day!"

What he was talking about was actually an old-fashioned farming method of "two oxen pulling a pole", which was very common in the Western Han Dynasty.

But the reason why Cui Shi could sigh that "I only planted 25 acres a day" was naturally because there were better farming techniques at that time.

At that time, in the counties and prefectures of the Central Plains, especially in Yanzhou and Yuzhou, the technology of using an ox to pull a plow had already matured.

In fact, the development of agricultural technology during the Han Dynasty gradually became more efficient.

It evolved from two cows and three people at the beginning to two cows and two people, two cows and one person, and finally to one cow and one person.

The farming efficiency reflected here is more than doubled!

Because backward farming technology can only lead to backward productivity.

Now, it has been almost fifteen years since Cui Shi passed away, and the farming techniques in Liaodong are still the same.

Even though he tried to promote new technologies when he was the governor of Liaodong, it obviously had little effect.

At its core, it may not just be a technical issue.

When Wei Zhe realized this problem, he asked an old farmer in Pingguo County.

What’s interesting is that this old man had actually met Cui Shi and remembered the past events.

When Wei Zhe asked about this, the old man told the truth.

"Lord Cui is kindhearted, and I and the villagers all know this, but our family cannot afford to buy an iron plow!"

When he said this, the old man's wrinkled face was full of helplessness.

It's not that the farmers are too stubborn, nor are they too stupid.

It's just that they don't have the conditions, so they continue to use the old method.

Because two oxen and three people evolved into one ox and one person, not only the people and animals changed, but also the agricultural tools.

If a single ox were used to pull the plow, the original wooden plow would inevitably break because it could not bear the weight.

Only the powerful can afford to rebuild an iron plow that can be pulled by an ox.

It was precisely because Cui Shi knew the key point here that he did not promote it blindly.

After all, there are hundreds of thousands of farmers in Liaodong, and it would be impossible to implement local iron officials.

After all, it’s actually due to backward farming technology.

The lack of sufficient food means Liaodong cannot support more people without working.

Without enough people leaving their jobs, there will not be enough blacksmiths, miners, and woodcutters.

As a result, the output of iron officials cannot be increased.

Thus, an unsolvable vicious circle was formed.

And as the situation of the Han Dynasty deteriorates, this deadlock will become more difficult to untie.

Pray for wood to make a hoe, and rub wood to make a plow.

This is probably why the agricultural tools invented by Shennong are still in use today.

"Matters concerning people's livelihood cannot be taken lightly!"

The next day, afternoon.

When Xi Zhicai finished all his affairs and returned to the prefectural government, Wei Zhe couldn't help but express such emotion.

Xi Zhicai wasn't surprised to hear this. Instead, he nodded in agreement, "Agriculture is the foundation of a country, so we must be extremely careful!"

You should know that "Monthly Ordinances for the Four Classes of People" and "Fan Sheng's Book" are not Confucian classics worth thousands of gold. If the governors are interested, they can basically get a copy.

But in fact, very few people actually follow the agricultural books.

In addition to willingness or not, the lack of ability to promote is also a very important reason.

In fact, Xi Zhicai has been thinking about how to solve this problem during this period.

However, he still couldn't find a perfect solution, so he could only helplessly suggest: "Ming Gong, how about letting Dongming County postpone the immigration? First..."

However, before he could finish his words, Wei Zhe interrupted him without hesitation.

Wei Zhe said sternly, "Don't mention this matter again!"

After all, the Three Kingdoms of Han had just been destroyed, and the Han army's deterrence was at its peak. Now was the best time to assimilate them.

Whether it was admiration or fear, the Three Han states were definitely the weakest and most submissive at this time.

If we don't assimilate them now, it will take a hundred times more effort once they recover.

Wei Zhe would rather endure the emperor's dissatisfaction than give up all his previous efforts to satisfy his selfish desires.

Seeing Wei Zhe so decisive, Xi Zhicai sighed and didn't mention the matter again.

However, Wei Zhe had a general idea.

"If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools." Wei Zhe's eyes were piercing as he spoke. "Let's not talk about the population issue for now. If we can improve farming efficiency, it will also be of great benefit to Liaodong."

As he said this, Wei Zhe smiled and placed a few coins on the table.

When Xi Zhicai saw those square iron coins, his eyes widened.

"Isn't this... scrap metal?"

"Hahaha~ There's no such thing as useless, it's just that we haven't found the right way to use it!"

Looking at this thing, Wei Zhe was also filled with emotion.

Knowing how difficult materials science is, Wei Zhe actually gave up on these scrap metals very early on.

However, this time when Wei Zhe was studying how to improve farming efficiency, he suddenly discovered that this thing was useful.

It is true that the iron smelted from coal contains a high sulfur content, which makes the pig iron hot and brittle, making it unable to withstand forging. It will often shatter into pieces after a few hammer blows. It seems that no matter how much iron is smelted, it is just a pile of waste.

After all, nowadays, whether it is swords, armor, kitchen knives or scissors, they are all forged.

But there are exceptions to everything. For example, large items such as tripods, bells and statues are all cast.

The most important thing is that the current all-iron plows are also made by casting.

Of course, due to the different financial resources of farmers, there are also a large number of iron-clad wood, and even wooden and stone plows.

But this is not important. The key is that Wei Zhe finally found a way to turn waste into treasure.

At the same time, Xi Zhicai quickly realized the key.

If the iron smelted from coal can be used to cast iron plows, then this dead end settlement is opened.

First of all, compared to charcoal, coal saves a lot of manpower.

Secondly, casting is faster than forging by hammer and saves more labor.

In this way, the output of Liaodong iron plows will inevitably soar.

Thinking of this, Xi Zhicai was delighted but also felt guilty, saying, "It's all my fault for not knowing how to farm. I mistook a precious gem for a piece of stone. Alas, learning never ends!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhe shook his head and sighed, "It's alright, I just realized today how difficult farming is!"

……

Let’s not talk about how Wei Zhe and Xi Zhicai felt.

Once you discover a new use for "scrap iron", the next step becomes easy.

Putting aside the deeper Benxi iron mine, the Anshan iron mine alone is enough to meet the needs of Liaodong.

You should know that although most of the Liaodong iron mines are poor-grade ores, Anshan iron mine is an exception.

The iron ore here is of excellent quality, some even have an iron content of up to 70%, and is not buried very deep. Many deposits are suitable for open-pit mining, and the distribution of the deposits is relatively concentrated.

It can be said that this is a benefit that God has sent to your door.

The most important thing is that most of the territory of Anshan City in later generations is located in today's Xiangping County.

Tsk tsk~ God has fed the food to his mouth, so Wei Zhe naturally cannot refuse to eat it!

(End of this chapter)