Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 5050 Hexi Cotton Field
The value of cotton is now known to the world, but many people cannot understand why two armies of Sixteen Guards were used to reclaim wasteland and grow cotton in Hexi.

Why is cotton so important?
Therefore, including Li Chengqian, most people believed that this was Fang Jun's retaliation against Cheng Yaojin. As Cheng Yaojin's most loyal subordinate and partner, it was reasonable for Niu Jinda to be implicated.

If we just keep these two people in Hexi and make them farm for a few years, they will probably be useless and will no longer pose a threat to Fang Jun...

……

"Duke Lu has no complaints?"

Li Junxian's mouth twitched, and he said, "Of course there are some, but he didn't express any dissatisfaction with Your Majesty. Instead, he was extremely angry with the Prince of Hejian, the Duke of Ying, and the Duke of Yue. He cursed them when he drank, blaming them for exiling him to the land west of the Yellow River. He also said that there were treacherous people around Your Majesty, and he would lead the army back to the capital to protect the emperor."

Li Chengqian: "..."

If someone else had said such words, he would have been furious, but since it came from Cheng Yaojin's mouth, he couldn't even get angry at all.

Although Cheng Yaojin was hesitant and vacillating during the Zhangsun Wuji rebellion, his stance was extremely unsteady, and he tried to play both sides by watching the fire from the other side, he never really attached himself to the rebels, so Li Chengqian could tolerate it.

Now the only person who can solve his predicament is the Zhenguan meritorious officials under Emperor Taizong. Among the Zhenguan meritorious officials who are gradually dying out, the most capable and trustworthy one is only Cheng Yaojin.

After taking a sip of tea, Li Chengqian asked, "You said Fang Jun and the Sino-Agricultural Ministry are promoting cotton planting in Hexi with great fanfare. Is cotton really that important? Moreover, the soil in Hexi is fertile and the river water is abundant. It has been a remote place since the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and there have been few wars. The situation is relatively stable. Where did they get so much land for reclamation?"

Hexi has always been a battleground for military strategists and its strategic location is extremely important.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Hexi Corridor was the front line for defending against Hun invasions. Heavy military accumulation and constant warfare basically exhausted the local people's livelihood. Hexi has always been a symbol of poverty and barrenness.

However, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Hexi was far away from the Central Plains and avoided the war. During the "Five Liang" period, the situation was relatively stable. The place that was conquered during the Qin and Han Dynasties suddenly turned into a safe haven for refugees from the Central Plains.

The influx of talent and money made Hexi very prosperous.

Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although there have been repeated invasions by the Hu people, the damage was generally not great, so Hexi was once regarded as a "paradise"...

A prosperous and stable social environment often means class stability; and class stability means wealth stability.

What is wealth?

At present, it is nothing more than money, silk, land and population.

The land and population in Hexi were all controlled by local powerful families. Even though Cheng Yaojin and Niu Jinda had an army of nearly 100,000 under their command, where could they go to reclaim the wasteland?

Are you really going to flatten the hill to grow cotton?
At the beginning, Fang Jun believed that the climatic conditions in Hexi were very suitable for growing cotton, and advocated large-scale planting there. Except for the support of the Sino-Agricultural Temple, almost everyone in the government and the public was opposed to it.

From Li Chengqian's perspective, shouldn't the biggest opponent be Cheng Yaojin, who is only thinking about returning to Chang'an and is most impatient with farming?
But why is Cheng Yaojin now going to farm obediently?

Li Junxian hesitated for a moment and said cautiously, "Your Majesty, I know nothing about farming. I can't even tell which is cotton and which is rice seedling in the field... But since last winter, children of aristocratic families have been going to Hexi one after another, either to buy or rent land, and it's very frequent."

Li Chengqian frowned: "With such a thing, why didn't you report it earlier?"

"It's just that the Hundred Cavalry Division accidentally found out when they were monitoring the aristocratic families. We don't know how much land they bought or rented in Hexi, let alone what they are planning. After all, since the Anxi Army guarded the Western Regions and defeated the remnants of the Turks and the Arab army one after another, Hexi has become the throat connecting the Western Regions and has become more prosperous than before. Most of the aristocratic families in the world have some industries in Liangzhou and other places."

Li Junxian felt a little aggrieved. He was the "Emperor's eyes and ears" but not the "world's eyes and ears". How could he ask about and take care of everything?
Not only do I not have the power, I also don’t have the ability!

Li Chengqian also realized that he was too harsh, so Emperor Taizong took the initiative to reduce the responsibility of the minister who made the mistake. What's more, Li Junxian was not wrong in this matter.

Then he said gently, "These guys won't stop for a day, it's hard for you, dear minister. You must pay close attention to the movements in Hexi. I want to know what they are doing!"

"Here!"

*****
Compared with the hot and humid Guanzhong, Guzang City is drier and hotter!

Cheng Yaojin wore a big bamboo hat and stood by the rushing river with his hands on his waist, looking at the no less than 300,000 acres of land that had been reclaimed at the intersection of the desert and the mountains. The green cotton seedlings covered the ground as far as the eye could see.

The Macheng River originates from the Great Snow Mountain in the eastern section of the Qilian Mountains. The melted snow on the top of the snow mountain meanders downward to form several streams, from high to low, from south to north, spanning dozens of miles and including the entire Liangzhou territory. Then it converges on the north side of Guzang City, rushing northward and pouring into the Baiting Sea.

Liangzhou is naturally not short of water. The big rivers flow and irrigate the fields. The land west of the river is mostly deep and fertile with abundant water resources. However, Liangzhou has little rain. The cold wind blowing from the far north is so cold in winter that water freezes into ice. In midsummer, it is extremely dry and unbearably hot.

This has been the case since time immemorial.

Nowadays, as many students from Zhenguan Academy come to Hexi to practice what is said to be an "read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles" activity, they learned from the students that the culprit for such a natural environment is actually the tall and wide Qilian Mountains that tower into the sky.

It was also from these students that he learned that it was this unique climate that made the Hexi area most suitable for the growth of certain crops, such as fruits and cotton.

Plenty of sunshine, hot climate, adequate irrigation, fertile soil... According to those students, Hexi is simply an ideal place to grow cotton.

Compared with those dull, stiff and conservative officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Cheng Yaojin still felt that the students were more trustworthy. They were young, energetic and full of vigor. They were not bound by the experience of the ancients and were brave enough to explore. This was also the social atmosphere that had long been formed in the entire Tang Dynasty.

How can we get by if we always stick to the ways of our ancestors and refuse to make progress or adapt?

If the things left by our ancestors were really useful, there wouldn’t be endless changes of dynasties and suffering of the people…

What's the phrase that students often say?

"Now is a new era, we must keep pace with the times and make innovations"...

Although Cheng Yaojin didn't understand why it suddenly became a "new era", it did not prevent him from accepting these new things.

By the river, several clerks with faces tanned by the scorching sun were working hard to turn the capstan. The fine steel chain slowly stirred and pulled up the sluice gate weighing hundreds of pounds from the gate. The river water in the river channel poured into the canal from the gap under the sluice gate. For a while, the rushing river water flowed along the cement canal, and dozens of sluice gates released water at the same time, fully irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres of cotton fields.

A small boat came slowly from the upper reaches of the Macheng River. When it got close, the white sail on the boat was lowered and the boat slowly approached the shore. An old man with white hair and a youthful face, wearing a hemp robe, nimbly abandoned the boat and landed. He came to Cheng Yaojin with his hands behind his back, looked down at the rolling river water in the canal, and nodded with satisfaction: "The design of this sluice is much safer than the previous method of digging up the river bank, but it is too expensive."

There is no cement produced in Hexi, so it needs to be transported from Guanzhong over a long distance. The freight alone is an astronomical figure. In addition, more than 10,000 soldiers and thousands of laborers have to be mobilized. In addition to the food and fodder for the horses, each person has to be paid a salary. Naturally, the cost of building these canals is frighteningly high.

Cheng Yaojin was puzzled: "Brother Shiwen, why don't you live out your days in the Jiangnan water town? Why did you come to Hexi? Although the Lanling Xiao family has bought many emperors in Hexi and reclaimed it, they can just send one of their sons here. Why do you have to come here in person?"

Xiao Yu stroked his beard with a smile and said teasingly, "Why, my dear brother, are you laughing at me for being so obsessed with money that I would come to this place west of the Yellow River for a few pieces of cotton at my age?"

Cheng Yaojin didn't beat around the bush and pointed at the endless cotton fields: "You Jiangnan nobles have invested more than tens of millions of taels here? I don't believe that such a huge fortune can be earned back just from cotton. Moreover, Brother Shi Wen, you have retired and are enjoying your retirement. How can you travel thousands of miles to come here for a mere copper? To put it bluntly, if you make a mistake, you will be buried here. Why bother?"

Recruiting soldiers and hiring civilians, not only paying them but also providing them with food, and paying pensions for casualties. Reclaiming wasteland, building water conservancy projects, making farm tools, buying cotton seeds... one thing after another, money was spent like water.

This is planting cotton, not gold, how can you make money?
However, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River sent their sons to contact the Zuo Wuwei one after another to discuss cooperation. Xiao Yu, a man of high moral character and high prestige, even came to Hexi in person to supervise the work...

How can it be just for making money?

Xiao Yu stood on the riverbank, with his hands behind his back, looking at the cotton fields where the leaves swayed like waves in the breeze, and said slowly: "Since ancient times, why have the people been so miserable and their lives were worthless? There is no other reason, one is hunger, one is cold, and one is sick, that's all. Natural disasters and wars are actually not worth mentioning."

Cheng Yaojin nodded in agreement. How many people died in the war?
After a war, the number of dead people recorded in books is always a certain number, but the number of people who died from hunger, cold, and disease in the world is as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges.

"In the past, cotton was called 'white folds' by people in Hexi. Because it was not easy to remove the seeds, it was not valued. Only the rich and powerful could weave it into cotton cloth. It became a precious item that only the powerful could enjoy, and even became a tribute. Now we have deseeding machines and textile machines. Not only can we spin cotton into thread and weave it into cloth, but we can also make cotton clothes, which are very effective in keeping out the cold. With our family wealth, we can plant thousands of acres of cotton fields to relieve the suffering of the people in the world. Why not do it?"

Listening to Xiao Yu's compassionate and benevolent words, Cheng Yaojin wanted to spit. The reason why the people are hungry and suffering from cold is not because you aristocratic families are constantly exploiting them and have no means to sustain themselves, right?
Now the aristocratic families say they are willing to spend huge amounts of money just to give the common people a piece of clothing...which is no different from a weasel paying a New Year's greeting to a chicken.

Cheng Yaojin was impatient: "Who wants to hear such empty words? Just tell me the truth. Why did you come to Hexi to grow cotton?"

Xiao Yu sighed, helpless: "Isn't it because of our good son-in-law of the Xiao family that you are forced to do this?"