Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 422 Five Years of Growth
When Su Ze entered Pingcheng, he thought about the time when he accompanied Li Chong to escort Princess Shouyang to her marriage, he was just a captain in the imperial guards.

Now he has become a powerful lord who owns the Guanxi area and can compete for supremacy in the world.

Climbing up the wall of Pingcheng, Su Ze pointed to the distance and said:

"Back then, I followed Li Huqi to escort Princess Shouyang to her marriage, and it was we who defeated the Rouran ambush outside Pingcheng."

The Rouran man Yujiulü Brahmin standing behind Su Ze was a little embarrassed, but he soon felt relieved. Wasn't it normal to be defeated by the Heavenly Khan?

Dugu Xin and Wei Xiaokuan stood behind Su Ze, also looking at the old capital of the Wei Dynasty.

Compared with Luoyang, a megacity that had prospered after only moving its capital for more than 20 years, Pingcheng had almost no major military expansion under the rule of several generations of emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty and remained a military fortress-style city.

This also reflects the pragmatic style of the emperors in the early days of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

"It is a pity that the descendants are not up to par with the legacy of the six generations."

Su Ze sighed, Dugu Xin and Wei Xiaokuan both understood what Su Ze meant.

The reason why the Tuoba clan of the Northern Wei Dynasty was able to stand out in the Sixteen Kingdoms and unify the north was because of several consecutive generations of high-quality emperors, which finally reached its peak during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen.

But in just over 20 years, the country was completely ruined by his descendants. In addition to expressing his emotion, Su Ze was also reminding himself that since ancient times, it has been easy to conquer a country but difficult to keep it.

I must strengthen my son's education when I return.

It was possible that Su Xian in Yongle City had no idea that because of his father's idea, he had several more courses out of nowhere.

After coming down from the city wall and sending off the grassland envoys, Dugu Xin said to Su Ze:

"Mr. Jun, the next stop is Yanmen Pass."

Su Ze nodded slightly. After conquering Hengzhou, Su Ze's forces officially bordered on Erzhu Rong's forces.

Yanmen Pass is a dangerous pass built by King Wuling of Zhao in the Great Wall of Zhao to defend against the Hu people in the north.

After Yanmen Pass was built, Li Mu guarded Yanmen and protected peace in the north for ten years.

Yanmen was also an important passage for the Han Dynasty to attack the Huns in the north. Wei Qing, Huo Qubing and Li Guang all garrisoned in Yanmen.

Yanmen can be said to be the gateway to Shanxi, and in many eras it was also the last barrier for the Central Plains dynasties to resist invaders from the north.

In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, it was here that Yang Ye, the great general of the Northern Song Dynasty, blocked the 100,000-strong Liao army with only 4,000 Song soldiers.

Unlike Xianyu Ahu's 100,000 miscellaneous troops, the one guarding Yanmen Pass was Erzhu Zhao, with a total of 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry trained by Erzhu Rong himself.

When Erzhu Rong led his troops south to Luoyang, he did not use Erzhu Zhao's troops in Yanmen. This shows how much importance Erzhu Rong attached to Yanmen Pass.

Of course Su Ze coveted Yanmen Pass, but Yanmen Pass was also really difficult to attack.

Historically, the Northern Zhou Dynasty also sent Yang Zhong with 10,000 people to form an alliance on the grassland and march south to attack Yanmen Pass.

Even with Yang Zhong's bravery and military knowledge, he still suffered a crushing defeat at Yanmen Pass. The grassland escort troops that followed him south suffered heavy losses, and Yang Zhong also brought the army back to Chang'an in one breath.

The purpose of attacking Hengzhou was to gain the initiative in the fight with Erzhu Rong.

But if there was no Yanmen Pass and only Hengzhou, Su Ze would be in a passive position and be beaten. The cavalry of the Erzhu family could go out of Yanmen Pass and attack Hengzhou at any time.

After obtaining Yanmen Pass, Su Zejin could attack Erzhu Rong's Sizhou and Bingzhou and harass his northern border.

If they retreat, they can guard Yanmen, and then attack Youzhou and Luzhou to the east.

And now is the best time to capture Yanmen Pass.

Erzhu Rong was preparing for a major battle with Ge Rong. If history had not changed, Erzhu Rong would have defeated 200,000 with only 7,000 troops, routed Ge Rong and seized the land of Hebei.

Judging from Su Ze's current intelligence, Erzhu Rong cannot defeat Ge Rong in one battle, and Ge Rong is definitely not Erzhu Rong's opponent, it just takes a little longer.

Therefore, when Erzhu Rong was concentrating on dealing with Ge Rong, he had no way to support Erzhu Zhao at Yanmen Pass. If he couldn't take it down now, there would be no hope of supporting him in the future.

Dugu Xin looked at Su Ze and said:
"My Lord, I would like to recommend someone who may be able to capture Yanmen."

"Who?"

"Murong Shaozong."

Su Ze suddenly realized that Murong Shaozong's tribe was near Yanmen Pass. He knew the terrain here best and had close relations with the local tribes.

Su Ze immediately said:

"Transfer Murong Shaozong to Pingcheng!"

When Dugu Xin finished his advice, Wei Xiaokuan came in again and said to Su Ze:

"Mr. Xianyu Ahu's rebels finally recruited 3,000 people. Here is the military register."

"What about the rest of the people?"

"According to the order of the county lord, the rest will go to Wuyuan Military Station."

Su Ze nodded. Although Xianyu Ahu's refugee army was said to have 100,000 troops, after counting and statistics, it was probably only 50,000.

Among them, a group was killed or maimed by Su Ze, another group escaped, and another group was recruited. In the end, there were about 20,000 people left. If families are included, there are 20,000 households, or about 50,000 people.

The reason why Su Ze did not stay in the Hengzhou Legion was that he was afraid that they would cause trouble again, thus affecting his strategy.

In the end, Su Ze decided to send these 20,000 households to Wuyuan City and hand them over to Dugu Xin, the governor of Wuyuan County, to arrange their military settlement.

Su Ze then told Dugu Xin:

"Xianyu Ahu and his gang of remnants from the Six Garrisons have repeatedly rebelled. Although the ringleaders have been killed and the elites in the army have been selected, we still need to carefully place them and deal with them fairly, and never cause any trouble."

"You have to make it clear to them that Wuyuan is not a military town. The army is a punishment for them for joining Xianyu Ahu's rebellion. The term is three years. After three years, they will be granted land according to the number of people, and they can also move to other states and counties as appropriate."

Su Ze was a little dazed. After going around in circles, he found himself using a system similar to that of military settlements. The only thing he could do was to agree on a term for the military settlements to give these refugees hope and stop making trouble.

It can only be said that the military garrison system was not a completely evil law. At least when the military garrisons were first established in the Northern Wei Dynasty, this system played a positive role.

It's just that after the military garrison system became obviously outdated, the Northern Wei Dynasty still clung to the Six Garrisons, which eventually led to the current situation.

After talking about punishment, the next thing is to reward the meritorious soldiers.

Su Ze is very generous in this regard because he is really rich!

Su Ze said to Wei Xiaokuan:

"Has the reward of silk arrived?"

Wei Xiaokuan said:
"The County Duke's Mansion has already prepared the rewards, and they will arrive in Pingcheng soon."

Wei Xiaokuan also felt honored. The reason why the Duke's Mansion was able to provide so much silk was due to the Equal Field Order. Wei Xiaokuan had personally presided over the Equal Field Order and had established many Zhechou Mansions at the grassroots level.

Agricultural production requires huge initial investment and a long cycle.

Generally speaking, it takes a lot of time to reclaim wasteland.

In fact, time is not the biggest difficulty. The difficulty lies in long-term and stable human resources investment.

Take land reclamation as an example, after the land is either fenced in or reclaimed, the farmer needs to turn the land over so that it does not become compacted.

Large rocks in the ground need to be picked out and clods of soil need to be broken up.

As for composting, construction of water conservancy facilities, and weeding, these are all later investments.

These are just farmlands. If it is mulberry fields, the investment will be greater. It is also necessary to purchase mulberry seedlings, build cocoon houses in farmers' homes, make bamboo flats and racks for raising silkworms, and build silk reeling and spinning machines.

This kind of investment often takes several years. It does not mean that once the "Equal Field Order" is issued, the people will have good land at home and can pay taxes immediately.

Even in the early period of land granting, the people had no grain or silk to pay taxes, and needed tax reductions and financial support.

This requires long-term and stable investment to ultimately produce benefits.

Compared with Guanzhong, which was not severely slaughtered by the rebels, other areas were more miserable.

When war breaks out, all males will be drafted to fight on the battlefield, and women will also have to bear various corvée labor. Even in places like Hebei, those who do not join the refugee army will be robbed. People join the refugee army in order to eat, and large tracts of land are left uncultivated.

There was no food, let alone silk, which had higher technological content.

Silk was the most important currency of this era.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the unruly vassal soldiers rebelled and asked for silk as rewards.

It was not until the Song Dynasty that the commodity economy developed and copper coins began to circulate throughout the country.

The use of silver as currency was something that only came about after the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.

After Su Ze entered Guanzhong, he has been vigorously promoting the technology of mulberry planting and silkworm breeding.

After marrying Princess Chenliu, she poached all the weavers trained by her elder sister, Princess Nanyang, and taught the women in Yongle City how to weave brocade. She also promoted the silkworm breeding and silk reeling industries in the surrounding areas.

The Chang'an area of ​​Yongzhou is itself a famous silk producing area. Although Princess Nanyang's husband Xiao Baoyin was stupid, the princess was very popular. She protected the silk industry in Chang'an, promoted mulberry planting, and sheltered weavers. She was affectionately called "Weaver Girl" by the weavers in Chang'an.

After Su Ze obtained Yongzhou, he immediately protected Chang'an's sericulture and textile industry. Not only could ordinary plain silk (silk without patterns) be produced here, but also gorgeous brocade (colorful fabrics with patterns).

The above are the small peasant economies of ordinary people. The government collects grain tax through land rent, and collects silk as a poll tax through rent and taxes, and gathers the grain and silk in Su Ze's hands.

Once agriculture generates income, as long as the rulers do not mess around, the people will quickly recover and generate huge and stable income like a snowball.

Even in the world before Su Ze traveled through time, the world's famous tycoons would still purchase large amounts of land as assets for the sake of the stability of land income.

The prosperous times in history sometimes only lasted for a dozen or twenty years after the founding of a country, or even like the early Han Dynasty. As long as the government did not mess around, the people could recover on their own.

Since Su Ze entered Guanxi as the General Protector of the Qiang, he has been working in Guanxi for five years to accumulate population, and finally achieved the current result.

Officers and soldiers also believed that Duke Su was capable of delivering the rewards. This kind of political credibility is the so-called prestige.

(End of this chapter)