My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 434 There are many ways, don't make a fuss

Liu Bei fully realized the difficulty of Zhuge Jin's journey to the north, and therefore gave Zhuge Jin absolute and full authorization.

As the group arrived in Shouchun, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang gave a few final words of advice to take care, and then said goodbye to Zhuge Jin and the others.

Zhuge Jin, Zhao Yun and Mi Zhu continued to move north and arrived in Langya within a few days.

Lu Su had received the news long ago and arrived at Ju County in advance to greet and greet Zhuge Jin, and took him back to Zhu County to settle down.

When everyone meets, it is inevitable that they will reminisce about the past.

The county seat of Langya Commandery was originally in Kaiyang County, but now that it is Zhuge Jin's turn to be in charge, it is understandable to temporarily move the seat to Zhu County, since this is his fiefdom after all.

Zhu County is located in the northeast corner of Langya County, which was originally relatively remote. But now Zhuge Jin needs to communicate and coordinate with Yuan Tan's affairs, and also take care of the northern jurisdiction. It is just right to move to the northernmost part of Langya, so that the transmission and response of information can be faster.

"Brother, how long can you stay in these counties now that you have come to the north? Are you in a hurry to go north to You and Ji?" Lu Su was very attentive at the welcoming banquet and the first thing he asked was about Zhuge Jin's itinerary.

Zhuge Jin agreed casually: "I will stay here for a while, and then go north after the summer harvest. Zilong and Zizhong will have to work hard, and you must hurry over as soon as possible to take over various parts of Youzhou and sort out the handover work. When everything is settled, I will go and take a look. Now it's a mess, and there is no place for me to use my skills."

Along the way, Mi Zhu and others also felt that Zhuge Jin might stay in Langya. The first phase of civil affairs planning would have to rely on him alone, and they felt a little nervous.

Before they parted, Mi Zhu sincerely asked Zhuge Jin for advice: "It is difficult to raise food for Youzhou. I wonder if you can teach me something? You and your brothers are all very talented in encouraging agriculture. I wonder if there are any suitable new methods to encourage agriculture in Youzhou and Jizhou, such as the rice-wheat rotation in Huainan and the early rice in Linyi in Jiangnan, to increase the yield of the fields?"

Zhuge Jin couldn't help but smile, and gently patted Mi Zhu's shoulder: "Zi Zhong thinks too highly of me. The rice seedlings were planted in staggered growth periods, rice-wheat rotation was achieved, and Linyi rice was introduced. These are all the achievements of Shennong. In the world, Shennong's achievements can never be seen again.

In the bitter cold land of You and Ji, there is really no way to grow new and better grains. All we can do is to strengthen agricultural persuasion, management, and trade under the existing species conditions. Zi Zhong must keep a calm mind and don't expect things that don't exist. "

Zhuge Jin knew very well that in this era, cold-resistant rice in Hokkaido would not be found for several years, so it was unrealistic to grow rice in the Northeast.

Even if you can find cold-resistant rice from Hokkaido in the future, it will be grown in the Liaohe Plain, not in the interior. You have to conquer Liaodong County, which is still in Gongsun Du's hands, before you can use the cold-resistant rice from Hokkaido, and you have to improve the varieties generation after generation, which is too far away.

There were rice plants grown in the interior of the country in later generations, such as the Xiaozhan rice in Tianjin, but that was also a variety slowly cultivated during the period of the Beiyang warlord Xu Shuzheng in the early Republic of China, and it also required repeated screening and breeding. It was unknown whether it could be done, and even if it was done, it would not quench thirst. After it was done, Zhou Yu would plant it near the mouth of the Haihe River and the Zhangshui River in the future.

Zhuge Jin knew very well that to solve Youzhou's self-sufficiency problem, he could not rely on new crops, but could only rely on management, coordination, trade, and optimizing production from other aspects.

Mi Zhu was a little depressed after hearing Zhuge Jin's unquestionable denial. He sighed and asked Zhao Yun, "Zilong has been in Youzhou and Jizhou for a long time. Do you know what other agricultural practices are practiced in Youzhou besides growing winter wheat?"

Zhao Yun had no right to join in the conversation, as such topics were for the civil officials. He just quietly cut the barbecue with a dagger. When asked, he wiped the oil and responded casually:
"In addition to winter wheat, we also grow some corn, but not much. Youzhou is bitterly cold, and corn can only be grown on the north bank of the Yishui River.

Further north, deep into the Yanshan Mountains, only sorghum can be planted sporadically. The yield is less than that of corn, and it is not sticky. It tastes loose like mud and sand, and is mostly the food of the poor. "

During the Han Dynasty, sorghum was not grown in the south, especially along the coast. Mi Zhu was born into a wealthy family and lived on the coast of the East China Sea for generations, but he had never eaten sorghum. After listening to Zhao Yun's explanation, he realized that such bitter cold existed in the world.

Mi Zhu could only sigh: "Then what should we do? Without new products, we can't rely on the original ones. Please give us some advice."

Seeing how anxious he was, Zhuge Jin had no choice but to come up with some ideas to comfort him: "Originally, before the summer harvest, there is nothing for you to do, just take over and keep the people safe.

Since Zi Zhong is so enthusiastic, I will give you a few ideas to put your mind at ease - but how and when to use it should be adapted to local conditions. Don't force it to be promoted just because I said it casually. I haven't been to Youzhou either, so my words can only be used as a reference. "

Zhuge Jin paused as he spoke, letting the other party adjust his attitude. Zhuge Jin had not dared to speak nonsense before, because he was afraid that his reputation for intelligence would be too strong, so that the people below would blindly follow him. And he had not conducted a factual investigation, and if he spoke nonsense and ended up hurting people, wouldn't that be counterproductive?

Therefore, we must lay sufficient groundwork so that the people below will have the spirit of seeking truth from facts in their minds.

Zhuge Jin gave advice: "For the first few months of your trip, don't think about raising more food by farming. You can rely on trade. Cao's bandits are now resting and recuperating, and their defenses on the borders of Hejian, Zhongshan and Youzhou are not strict. If our army invades, it will certainly be blocked by Cao's army, and it will be troublesome if we get into trouble and provoke Cao's counterattack. However, if we privately send merchants to cross the border and trade privately with local officials, wealthy businessmen and powerful people of Cao's army, give benefits to the enemy and buy food at high prices, within one or two months, Yecheng and even Xudu may not be able to react.

Cao Cao had occupied Jizhou for only a year, and he was kind to Lü Kuang, Jiao Chu and others, letting them guard the old land in the north. In order to calm people's hearts, he indulged Lü Kuang and others. Taking advantage of this time, buying tens of thousands of tons of grain and storing it, wouldn't it be possible to reduce the burden on the people of Youzhou?
Anyway, we can definitely afford to transport money and silk by sea, but we can't afford to transport grain, and we don't have enough ships. So we can ask Cao Cao to buy grain to support us for two or three months, which is absolutely no problem.

When Cao Cao reacts, if he cleans up the border and closes the border to prohibit trade along the Yishui River, Zizhong, you should stop, and then you can let Zilong take over and make another fortune, and grab the weak points in Zhongshan and Hejian counties.

Zilong, don't worry. I'm not forcing you to rob ordinary people, but if you can rob the forts along the border of Hejian and the official warehouses under the control of Cao's army, that would be considered your ability. If it's dangerous and you can't do it, then forget it. Anyway, if you use this method to get a few tens of thousands of shi of grain, you can survive for another month or two. Isn't this the first year, half of it will be over?"

When Zhao Yun heard halfway, his face changed and he was about to refute, but Zhuge Jin anticipated what he was going to refute, so he took the initiative to cover it up, saying that he was not allowed to rob the people and assured him, and Zhao Yun shut up again.

Mi Zhu was relieved to hear that Zhuge Jin's random ideas helped him overcome the difficulties for a while. He quickly wrote them down one by one and prepared to implement them when the time came.

But people are always unsatisfied. After writing down everything, Mi Zhu kept asking, "Anything else? Anything else?"

Zhuge Jin was so annoyed that he could only say:
"There are also those old methods. Our army has been engaged in sea fishing in the south for many years. When we come to the north, we can also promote new drift fishing nets for sea trawling, which can alleviate some of the pressure on grain.

In addition, I will negotiate with Yuan Tan to distribute the relevant fishing gear technology to the fishermen along the northern coast of Qingzhou, so that the locals of Qingzhou can eat more fish and save some extra grain and wheat, which can then be transported from Qingzhou to Yuyang along the Bohai Sea, and it can also provide a small supplement. "

Zhuge Jin previously believed that "converting canal transportation to sea transportation" was not feasible. It was not that it was technically impossible, but that the scale of transportation capacity was unrealistic and there were still too few seagoing ships.

It is unrealistic to discuss the feasibility of any plan without considering distance and scale. For example, some people may think that even ancient Greece could transport grain by sea, so why couldn't the Han Dynasty do it? This is to discuss the feasibility without considering distance and scale.

How big is Greece? How far does it take to sail across the Aegean Sea or to Crete to transport grain? The widest part of the Aegean Sea is only 500 miles.

In contrast to the East, if the water transport that Zhuge Jin wanted was only to cross the Bohai Bay and transport goods from the northern shore of Qingzhou to the coast of Youzhou, it would definitely be possible, because the Bohai Sea is only 500 miles wide, about the same as the Aegean Sea.

What is currently impossible is long-term, large-scale transportation from the south, a distance of two or three thousand miles.

The main bottleneck restricting the transportation of grain along the Bohai Bay was that Qingzhou had a relatively small population and the land was mostly hilly, so there was not much surplus grain in Qingzhou.

But if it can be coordinated well and the people of Qingzhou can generally learn to trawle along the coast, and the food saved from eating more fish can be sold to Youzhou, it will be able to alleviate a lot of the suffering.

Therefore, the key lies in coordination and planning, as well as whether the enthusiasm of merchants for transportation can be stimulated.

If such a large-scale and long-term transportation work is left to the government, it will definitely be inefficient, with a lot of wasteful links and corruption.

However, if it can be outsourced to merchants and at the same time given enough incentives to benefit them so that they dare not slack off and there will be no interruption in transportation, then Youzhou's food problem can definitely be solved.

Zhuge Jin had so many ideas that could be used by later generations to encourage merchants to transport grain for the government, such as the Song Dynasty people issuing salt permits to merchants who transported grain to the border, as well as other policies in the toolbox of past dynasties.

Zhuge Jin felt that it was enough to take out one or two according to local conditions and time.

After Zhuge Jin enlightened Mi Zhu, he finally concluded:
"So, to solve the grain problem in the bitter cold land of Youzhou, we should not just focus on grain, as there are so many alternatives. The key is to induce some of the surplus farmers to go fishing, hunting and grazing, and then build a trade system for animal husbandry and fishing and hunting.

At the same time, in order to prevent trade from causing the fishing, hunting and animal husbandry Hu people to become stronger, it is necessary to design a set of laws to make the fishing, hunting and animal husbandry people more embedded in the trading system encouraged by the government, making it impossible for them to survive self-sufficient. In this way, they can both benefit from it and prevent the Hu people from becoming too powerful.

When you arrive in Youzhou, do what I just said. I can’t explain the rest for now. I’ll tell you when I arrive in person.”

(End of this chapter)