I was engaged in infrastructure construction in the Han Dynasty [Transmigration Book]

What Huo Guang originally wanted to ask was whether Liu Tan would like to pay attention to Chungeng first or to conduct the palace examination first. Of course, he didn't want Liu Tan to start working as soon as he came back. Huo Guang just wanted to ask Liu Tan's intentions so that he could make preparations.

Unexpectedly, Liu Tan gave him another answer.

So... what the hell is farming?

Liu Tan said to Huo Guang: "Father gave me a new task, to grow wheat and rice."

Huo Guang:? ? ?

For a moment, he almost suspected that Liu Tan was fooling him. After all, the northern border country...is not suitable for planting. It is not a matter of the amount of land, but the climate here is not suitable.

Huo Guang has also heard of rice as a plant. It usually grows in the south, and it may not grow in the north.

Liu Tan met Huo Guang's suspicious gaze very calmly. Well, Liu Che did leave the matter to him, but Liu Che didn't look very serious at the time.

But Liu Tan doesn't care, with more food, the big man's ability to resist risks will be stronger, and the supplies will be more abundant.

We must know that enough food means that the population will be enough.

But every prosperous age will usher in a population explosion. There are such records in the Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties. The words of the big Han...at least a little worse than the latter dynasties.

So Liu Tan planned to give it a try, and if he didn't succeed, he wouldn't succeed.

Compared with rice, wheat is easier, and it is easier to promote in places north of the Yangtze River.

Rice is more dependent on water after all.

After Liu Tan went back, he asked people to clean the greenhouse that was almost deserted before, and planned to try planting the seeds he brought.

The first step is screening, by lowering the temperature a little bit to screen for cold-resistant plants, and then improving them step by step.

This may take a long process, but it doesn't matter, Liu Tan has a lot of patience.

It happened that the current temperature is suitable for planting, so Liu Tan went to the greenhouse to have a look, thought for a while and said, "Don't plant it in the soil."

The very nervous palace people who were already on the alert:? ? ?

Where should food be planted if it is not planted in the soil?

Liu Tan originally wanted to sprinkle it directly into the soil, but he didn't know if it would germinate in the soil. What if there was no movement?

It's better to use hydroponics at the beginning, and then observe a little bit, what kind of sprouting or not sprouting, what kind of situation is it.

Liu Tan brought back a lot of seeds. Rice and wheat must be separated. Anyway, he has a lot of people, so he can let them record them in batches.

At the beginning, the seeds were soaked first. Liu talked about the fact that when he planted flowers, he also soaked the seeds, but except for those that grew in water, generally they would not soak for too long, and an hour and a half would last.

Just for observation, Liu Tan specially divided out several portions, which were soaked for an hour and a half, soaked for three hours, and soaked for a day.

Then after the soaking treatment, the seeds should be placed in a relatively humid environment. They cannot be soaked in water, but they must be sprayed with water regularly and quantitatively, so that seedlings or roots can grow.

Of course, these are Liu talking about his own experience in planting flowers, so he did not directly direct people to do this, but gave some choices to the people below, who can do this or let those people use other methods.

After all, all the people he recruited were good farmers, who were actually more experienced than him in this area.

But no matter who it is, all it can do is wait until the seeds actually germinate.

While waiting, Liu Tan ran to deal with other matters first.

The first is spring plowing. After last year's development, the area where soybeans are planted in the northern border country has increased a lot.

Ordinary people don't have trouble with anything, and they don't have trouble with money.

Then there are some other messy finances. Liu Tan took a look at the expenditure and found that the military expenditure increased a lot last year, so even if it was considered a good year, the treasury of the northern border country was still not sufficient.

Even Huo Guang couldn't help sighing and said: "I see that our treasury can't save money."

Every time there was just a little more money in the national treasury, and he just felt relieved, but in the end there was something to spend money on, and it always cost a lot of money.

As a result, there is always a little basic money left in the national treasury—the so-called basic money actually exists to resist risks. For example, some natural and man-made disasters need to be allocated for disaster relief, and they all come from here.

This was Huo Guang's bottom line. Even if he was at the end of his rope, he would not touch this part of the money if he called on the rich and the gentry to donate.

After hearing this, Liu Tan laughed and said, "Don't worry, the money is earned, not saved, and you have to spend it!"

Huo Guang shook his head slightly, this means he met Liu Tan, but if it were another person, the entire northern border country would be dragged down now.

Liu Tan asked smoothly, "How is the plan for the replacement of the army mentioned earlier?"

Originally, he planned to turn the army into an elite regiment bit by bit, but his father insisted on seeking immortality, forcing him to push back all the previous plans.

Fortunately, Huo Guang, a reliable prime minister, was still there. Huo Guang said directly: "It has been gradually replaced, and now the surrendered city has basically been replaced, but there is still a gap between those soldiers and the elite regiment."

Liu Tan didn't care too much. All the members of his elite group were selected by thousands of people. The original standard was so strict that Wei Buyi and the others doubted whether they could still be selected.

The basic physique is the best, so the training must be stricter, and Liu Tan also provides them with the best food, and the army they raise can't even compare with Liu Che's Habayashi Army.

And if it is really necessary to replace all the troops of the northern border country bit by bit, in fact, it is impossible to completely unify the standards, let alone follow the standards of the elite regiment, then at most tens of thousands of people will be selected to stand up to the sky.

It sounds like a lot of people, but the problem is that the land area of ​​the northern border country is really very large, not smaller than the whole area of ​​the Western Regions. How can tens of thousands of people be enough?

So Liu Tan set a preliminary standard at the beginning, that is, the defenders on the border must be stronger, and then train a few elite divisions at ordinary times, select according to the special standard, and lower the rest.

In fact, Liu Tan's replacement is basically because he wants to let some people who are too old, too young, and the only child in the family go back.

The development of the Northern Congress is getting better and better. When the basic people's livelihood is improved, things like medical care will start to be developed, and the average life expectancy will be mentioned.

Of course, these are long-term plans.

Now according to Huo Guang, the selection has been completed, and what is going on now is to train soldiers according to Liu Tan's set of standards, and then select the most elite batch of reorganization from these corps.

Liu Tan looked at the current progress, and after some calculations, he said: "In addition to these selected people, there should be a role model who can be played with ability."

Huo Guang looked at Liu Tan in a daze for a moment: "This...then how do we count as a standard? Do you want to engage in confrontation exercises?"

Speaking of this, Huo Guang frowned. The confrontation exercise was very costly. Liu Tan had already raised a lot of expenses by requiring that the soldiers be provided with enough food, but compared to the confrontation exercise, those were nothing.

The confrontation exercise sounds like an exercise, but the general specifications are based on regular warfare. From soldiers to logistics supplies, everything must be simulated exactly the same, otherwise the meaning of the exercise will be lost.

This is naturally very expensive.

Liu Tan smiled: "No, the exercise is not a real battlefield after all. It can only be used to familiarize them with the terrain. If there are new tactics, they can do it. It's not necessary to do it usually."

With that money, it would be better to add more meat and eggs to the soldiers.

Alas, Liu Tan originally wanted to ensure the protein supply of the soldiers. It would be better to add a little meat and eggs, but the reality hit him mercilessly—his treasury didn’t have that much money.

He had said that the palace could be subsidized, but Huo Guang ruthlessly refused, so now he feels as if he is the kind of person who guards the gold and silver mountains and lives a hard life.

Every time he mentioned the army, he had to follow Huo Guang to calculate carefully. Originally, he would conduct a drill from time to time for the elite regiment, but he didn't dare to do it in a serious army.

Huo Guang couldn't help but subconsciously glanced at Liu Tan when he heard the words of the real battlefield, and said in a low voice, "Your Highness wants to..."

Liu Tan waved his hand: "Look at the opportunity."

Huo Guang understood, he knew that Xiaoli Lake came to surprise him when he was not there, and when the big man was in crisis, it was impossible for Liu Tan to really not care about it at all, and he would take revenge sooner or later.

Huo Guang was a little worried that Liu Tan never mentioned this matter after he came back, but now...he thinks he can write a eulogy for Xiaoli Lake in advance.

He really knew Liu Tan very well. If Liu Tan had been in the northern border country before, he would have called back at that time.

If this is the case, it is a good thing for Xiaoli Lake. In that case, as long as the big man wins and can take advantage of it, and Xiaoli Lake takes the initiative to retreat, then their highness should not pursue it fiercely.

But now things have been settled for a long time, and their highness may not know how many debts have been placed on Xiaolihu, basically it can be said that they will never die.

Thinking of this, Huo Guang deeply felt that the army's expenditure should be increased.

Even if the national treasury of the northern border country is not so full now, Huo Guang still feels that he needs to take advantage of this time to get it done once and for all.

As long as Xiaoli Lake can really be killed, even if the Xiongnu cannot be destroyed, at least the opponent's vitality will be seriously injured. In 50 years, there may be no way to threaten the northern border country. At that time, the northern border country will be able to develop with peace of mind.

Otherwise, while the northern border country is developing, it still has to defend against foreign enemies, and some cities close to the border defense line will not dare to develop no matter how qualified they are, for fear that they will be used as wedding dresses if they are accidentally occupied by the Huns.

It's better to hold your breath and fight quickly. If you wait for a long time, the people and soldiers will forget how hateful the Huns were, and they will easily go wrong.

Originally, Liu Tan didn't want to tell Huo Guang about his plans, for fear that Huo Guang would try to persuade him again, but he was shocked when he saw the various budgets reported by Huo Guang.

He specially called Huo Guang over and asked, "The column of military expenditure...are you making a mistake?"

Huo Guang glanced at him indifferently: "Don't dial any more now, when His Highness wants to send troops later, it may be too late."

Liu Tan suddenly laughed dryly: "When did I say I was going to send troops? Didn't you see that I have been farming recently?"

Huo Guang raised his eyebrows: "Your Highness and the minister don't need to talk about this?"

Liu Tan was silent for a while: "I don't know when it will be good now, and I'm still waiting for news. The people we placed in the Xiongnu got too vague news, so I can only look at Ah Xuan."

Speaking of this, Huo Guang also felt a little powerless, but he didn't want the intelligence system of the northern border country to rely too much on Wusun country.

The relationship between Liu Tan and Lu Xuan is a matter between the two of them. Although it is impossible for the two countries to be completely unrelated under such circumstances, the question is whether it is better not to be involved or not.

In the end, I didn't expect that Wusun Kingdom would naturally have an advantage over them in probing the information of the Huns. At most, they are currently training some people who look like the Huns, and then put them in there.

But this process will be relatively long, and it is definitely not as much as Wusun Kingdom can get now.

Huo Guang sighed and asked, "What do you think of King Wusun?"

Although he was very dissatisfied with Lu Xuan abducting their highness, Huo Guang also had to admit that in terms of fighting, all the people in the northern border country might not be as good as Lu Xuan.

Lu Xuan's talent in this area is too great, of course, no matter how great he is, in Huo Guang's heart, he can't compare to his uncle and brother.

Liu Tan raised his chin and said, "Let him speak for himself."

It happened that Lu Xuan was walking in with the Seventh Prince Liu Ku in his arms. Hearing this sentence, he glanced at Liu Tan wonderingly and asked, "What?"

Liu Tan said: "Huo Xiang plans to increase military expenditures and make preparations in advance, so I want to ask when it is more appropriate to send troops."

Lu Xuan thought for a while and said: "That depends on how you want to fight. If you want to fight effortlessly, you'd better wait a year or two. If you want a big victory, well, you have to wait until after the autumn harvest at the earliest." .”

Liu Tan's heart moved, he looked up at Lu Xuan and asked, "The child you sent can still compete with Xiaoli Lake?"

Lu Xuan smiled: "Before, Xiaolihu wanted to take the opportunity to weaken his power, but that kid is not stupid, he took the opportunity to win over some people who were suppressed by Xiaolihu, and he was able to withstand the pressure, just this time Lihu was defeated, and he even expanded his territory. Now it is difficult to say that it is difficult to fight against Lihu, but it will not take a few years if we really have to wait, we can help him."

If that child didn't have Lu Xuan's secret help, he would have been unable to survive. Now he can resist mainly because Lu Xuan gave him a lot of money.

Liu Tan asked him to put Liu Ku down and think for a while and said: "It's not interesting to wait for the Huns to destroy themselves. Who knows how long it will take? The Huns are not afraid of war, we still want to live a stable life, so we cannot give them this chance."

Lu Xuan then said: "Then just wait a bit, even if you send troops directly now, the pressure on the northern border country is still very high, and on my side... the pressure is not small."

Wusun Kingdom has been supporting wars with wars all these years, but as wars become more frequent, it is a little bit impossible to support....

The most important thing is that the population is also gradually increasing, and the looted things may not be enough for him to send troops, so it is not suitable to calculate, so it is better to stabilize first.

Liu Tan also knows this truth, he wants Lu Xuan to ignore this matter, strictly speaking, this matter is between him and Xiaoli Lake, but he also knows that even if he says so, Lu Xuan may not be able to listen .

He simply changed the subject and asked: "A large part of Wusun Kingdom's territory is now in the Gobi. Have you calculated how much land can be cultivated?"

Lu Xuan said: "Don't worry, it's not too little, and if you can't grow food, can't you grow some drought-resistant things? I also asked people to plant salt trees."

Before Liu Tan said that salt wood is good for improving water and soil, Lu Xuan remembered it, and said that even if salt wood can't improve the water and soil problems in that area, it can still produce certain economic benefits——Salt wood Cistanche can grow.

At present, part of the income of the Northern Kingdom is provided by Cistanche. Although the main body is tax, Cistanche as a single species can occupy a place in the financial annual report of the Northern Kingdom.

Of course, the reason why Lu Xuan dared to do this was because he was backed by a big man, and he could buy food from the northern border country, so he didn't have to worry about the lack of food at all, as long as they had enough money.

What's more, because it is considered a domestic transaction, the price is not subject to tariffs, which is much lower than the price of other Western Region countries.

Liu Tan also knew about this matter, so he simply said, "It happens that you are here, let's make a strategic cooperation agreement."

Lu Xuan was at a loss: What is that?