Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 316 Willfulness
"Can we be so willful just because we have food? Can we be lawless just because we have food?" Liu Pan lost his temper in Linxiang City.
Originally, they thought that as long as they retreated a little, stretched out the battle line, and kept this isolated army in Jingzhou, the General's Mansion would collapse or withdraw sooner or later, as the grain route must pass through the Wuling Mountains...
After all, before leaving, Liu Pan harvested all the young crops in Guiyang, and the manpower of various counties was overdrawn five times - in a short period of time, unless the other party carried out a more destructive overdraft, there was no way they could replenish manpower and supplies in Guiyang!
Liu Pan even dreamed that when the enemy was withdrawing, he saw through the enemy's strategy of reducing troops and increasing cooking fires, and pursued them all the way to a great victory.
However... just when Liu Pan was staring at when the other side would retreat, the General's Mansion proved with facts - I am so "fat"!
They actually continued to increase their troops in Jingnan, and while they were feeding this isolated army and supplying the people of Wuxi, they showed no sign of being unable to resist, as if it would rain food in Yangzhou...
If the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the General's Office knew what Liu Pan was thinking, they would definitely slap him in the face.
The grain in Yangzhou did not fall from the sky, but was increased bit by bit through our hard work!
If Bai Tu knew what Liu Pan was thinking, he would definitely tell him with regret that our production is still very low and needs to be improved.
This year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs began to vigorously promote Shennong Essence and Insect Repellent, and provided guidance on two-season farming and reasonable intensive farming. It is expected that the yield per mu can be increased by 30% on the current basis - that is, no less than that of the Qing Dynasty.
After a few more years, when the two-season farming is fully promoted and adapted to rational farming, it will be no problem to increase the output by another 30%, that is, to more than double the output before the Jian'an period.
After all, during the Qing Dynasty, it was only because the per capita land area continued to decrease that more intensive farming rules were summarized, and the Shennong Essence was not used, so there was definitely room for improvement.
Afterwards, with the improvement of Shennong Essence, the yield per mu entered a stage of steady growth. As for further substantial increases... we can only hope for the crop improvement results of the Ministry of Industry, or the foreign high-yield crops from Golden State.
Corn yields half a ton per mu, and sweet potatoes and potatoes yield two to three tons per mu. Even though these are not suitable as daily staple food, the third generation of hybrid rice in later generations also has a yield of one ton per mu, which is almost four times that after planting with chemical fertilizers!
But that’s a story for later.
Even now, the General's Mansion is not short of food, so Bai Tu and Chen Gong can be so willful as to open a grain route in the Wuling area...
As long as there are no major natural disasters within five years, the agricultural population in Yangzhou will naturally be greatly reduced. By then, the official settlements - that is, the general's mansions in Poyang Plain, Zhenze Plain and Huainan Plain, these large farms suitable for group farming will be enough to meet official needs, and the price of grain will be reduced to 60% to 70% of the workshop's employment price, or even half.
The General's Office also planned to achieve monetary recovery and make commodity trading no longer dependent on grain in the 12th year of Jian'an.
The commodity economy of the Eastern Han Dynasty was already very weak, and had shrunk much more than that of the Western Han Dynasty, especially after the Yellow Turban Rebellion. How could copper coins be as valuable as edible grain?
Even the General's Mansion did not care about currency in order to prevent the outflow of grain.
Although this will hinder the development of the commodity economy, but... choose the lesser of two evils.
Therefore, while other princes envied the General's Office for being able to implement the "grain-based system" and obtain grain from all over the world, the General's Office's efforts were already aimed at ending the "grain-based system" as soon as possible.
As long as production continues to increase, especially as official grain settlements become more and more convenient and costs become lower and lower, when official grain settlements alone can meet official grain consumption and can even take advantage of cost advantages to sell extra grain to fill other supplies, there will naturally be no need for "grain-based" policy anymore.
Even now, Liu Pan was surprised that the General's Mansion actually dared to extend the supply line across the Five Ridges.
Wei Yan, on the other hand, had a mocking look on his face, as if to say, "If I'm not happy, I'm going to make you mad to death, and if you hit me with my military stick, I'm going to splatter your blood."
After being discovered by Liu Pan, he scolded: "Wei Yan! It was you who delayed the battle before, and I haven't said anything to you...you...what crime should you be punished for?"
"General Liu, when have I ever missed an opportunity to fight?" Wei Yan argued unconvinced.
"You still dare to quibble? Let me ask you... How much more difficult is it for the general's mansion to transport grain from the rear through the Wuling Mountains than for you? In the end, how much grain did you transport and how much grain did the general's mansion transport?" Liu Pan forced the blame.
Wei Yan: ...
So you have little food and I have to transport it all?
"You have nothing to say? Come here, beat him with fifty military sticks!" Liu Pan said with a wave of his hand.
Huang Zhong sighed inwardly at this time, but still stood up and said: "General, Wen Chang is indeed wrong, but now the military situation is urgent, why not allow him to make up for his crime and make meritorious service."
"I didn't..." Wei Yan was about to retort, but Huang Zhong turned his head and glared back at him.
Huang Zhong was skilled in archery, and when he stared closely, the gleam in his eyes was particularly intimidating.
"Hmph... then remember the fifty military sticks this time. If there are any mistakes in the future, we will deal with them together!" Liu Pan said.
Liu Pan also knew that he was unreasonable, so it was okay for him to get angry.
However, Wei Yan also had the same hot temper and would not respond to tough measures. It could be said that he was in conflict with Liu Pan.
Huang Zhong later brought Wei Yan to the Rongling garrison - Rongling was the front defense line in the south of Changsha, adjacent to Zhang Liao's garrison.
However, in the past two months, Zhang Liao was not in a hurry to attack, but instead assisted the people of Guiyang to resume production. With the climate in southern Jing, it was still possible to catch up with summer planting, and at least one crop of grain could be harvested this year.
We don't expect to be able to subsidize military expenses, but if we harvest one crop, at least the people won't have to rely on relief.
Although the officials of the Ministry of Civil Affairs could not follow up immediately and could not provide too much guidance, and Shennong Essence and Insect Repelling Powder could not be used, from the perspective of grain transportation consumption, one stone of grain produced in Guiyang was worth three and a half stones of grain in Jiangdong...
Bai Tu planned to gradually increase the number of troops in southern Jing by 20,000. Together with the hired people from Wuxi, the annual consumption of grain and grass would be about 700,000 shi. Taking into account the transportation costs, the amount would increase to 2.5 million shi, which is equivalent to the per-acre yield of 2 million mu, or 40,000 hectares according to the Han system.
It sounds like a lot, but according to the plan of the General's Office, the two major plains of Poyang, Zhenze and Jiangdong can be reclaimed into official settlements of 1.5 million hectares. Although the water conservancy has not been fully developed, the wasteland has not been completely reclaimed, and the replacement of some owned fields has not been completed, the official settlements in Huainan are still in the preparation stage...
But... there are still 500,000 hectares of official settlements. Excluding corvee labor, wear and tear of oxen and farm tools, and the costs of transporting and storing grain, the grain consumption in southern Jing accounts for one-eighth of the grain stored in the official settlements.
As for the grain tax, it has been reduced to five-to-one, and some areas in the recovery period are exempt from tax. The grain tax revenue of the millions of households under the jurisdiction of the General's Office is only about the same as the grain tax paid by the official settlements. Moreover, the collection and consumption of grain tax is much greater than that of the official settlements, and only 60% to 70% of it is finally deposited into the warehouse.
Taking into account the grain and grass "absorbed" to Yangzhou by salt permits and other items, the grain collected by government-run settlements accounted for exactly half of the grain and grass stored in the general's mansion. In other words, the military operations in Jingnan alone consumed 7% of the total grain collection.
Five taxes and one tax, partial tax exemption, 7%...
If Liu Pan knew this number, he would probably beat Wei Yan with 500 military sticks and ask him why the amount of grain transported to southern Jing could not be increased (Wei Yan:???).
However, the maximum cannot exceed 10%. Bai Tu is now deploying troops on three fronts, and there are also expenses such as training new soldiers and recruiting Shanyue. Once the people in Jingnan also need relief, three and a half times the consumption is no joke!
