Lord of the House

By the end of April, Jiangning’s side will stop for a while. Salt, silver, and taxes are all under the Ministry of Households. Taxes are also controlled by the Lijin Bureau directly under the Privy Council. …

Lin Fu didn't need to stay in the center, and left Jiangning in late April to inspect the defense. The first stop was to go east along the river, first to the five counties of Chongzhou, and then to the north along the seawall.

Chen Huazhang also fulfilled the promise made in Jiangning's farewell. When Lin Fu arrived in Chongzhou, he crossed the river and offered to serve for his subordinates.

Chen Huazhang traveled all over the world when he was a teenager. He lived in Haiyu after middle age and rarely went out. Chen Huazhang naturally heard about the changes in Huaidong over the years, but he never saw it with his own eyes.

The two Huaihan seawalls are far more magnificent than imagined - in fact, at the beginning of the construction of the seawalls, mud was piled up to build the embankment, but later every year, a large amount of money and grain were drawn from the villages in the embankment for reinforcement and maintenance, and a large section has been formed. A large section of the mixed embankment with outer stone and inner soil, in the section with turbulent waves and dangerous waves, outside the embankment, the wave and curved embankment is also eliminated.

The East China Sea Post Road, centered on defending the sea wall, has also been built. Every tens of miles, there is a large market town that is no less lively than a small county. Such prosperity was created by Lin Bie in just a few years.

Haiyu is close to the sea, and Chen Huazhang feels the danger of the tide very deeply - to say that the floods are flowing, and the fertility of the land can be increased. Usually, wheat and cotton can be harvested after the floods; When it is poured in, the whole field will become salty soil, and no grass will grow.

The beach is so vast, and the tide is not always encountered every year, but these salty soils grow rice and wheat, and they can have seven or eight buckets of harvest a year, thank God. Generally speaking, in the depths of dozens of miles or even hundreds of miles offshore, if there is no sea wall to seal the tide, as long as the tide is irrigated once, the soil quality will become extremely poor, and it can be improved by fertilizing in a short time.

The suffering of the seaside people is unimaginable.

Even after walking for dozens of miles, the growth of the wheat fields in the embankment was very gratifying. Chen Huazhang couldn't help going down the embankment and grabbed a handful of soil and licked it with his tongue. It was astringent, but not too salty. Do you want to ask the lord?"

"Let's hear it." Seeing Chen Huazhang go down the embankment to taste the soil, Lin Fu smiled and asked him to speak.

Song Fu stood by with his arms folded. During this inspection, Song Fu accompanied him among the advisors, and Gao Zongting stayed in Jiangning to dispose of the military aircraft.

"It may not be difficult to build the levee, but it is not easy to change the soil inside the levee," Chen Huazhang asked. "The levee is only a few years old, and the growth of the wheat fields shouldn't be so gratifying..."

"It's not a secret, every summer flood season, the villages will do something," Lin Fu said, "they will open the inner river embankment to flood the flood and control the flood from the salty soil. There are two ways to do this. Advantages: one is to scour the soil, and the other is to accumulate silt. Zhu Ai, who joined the army with Huawen westward to Luzhou Renfu, this method was advocated by him, and it is indeed effective. It's very obvious that now this embankment field can almost be called familiar land."

Song Fu sighed in his heart: For ten years of Chongguan, Lin Fu just won the victory of Huai Si, and he also controlled the Jinhai grain road. If someone else, he would have recruited troops and bought horses to expand his territory, but Lin Fu was able to hold back not expanding his troops. The more than one million taels of silver obtained from the Jinhai Grain Road were used for the construction of the sea-defense embankment and the construction of water conservancy projects.

The five counties in Chongzhou are not counted. From the Yunyan River mouth to the north to Qingjiangpu in Yandu, the seawall is 200 li long. In addition to the repairs on both sides of Qingjiangpu, the newly added grain fields will be 2 million. Mu or so. More importantly, the three counties of Jianling, Gaocheng and Yandu, which have always been salty and bitter places, have millions of mu of inferior fields, and the farming conditions have been greatly improved, and grain production has increased significantly.

Lin Fu implemented a new policy in Huaidong, re-measured the amount of land, checked the grain fields occupied by local forces, re-classified the grain fields, and reviewed new taxes, which greatly increased the revenue of Huai'an and Hailing.

Lin Bie was also able to restrain himself, and left a large amount of the newly added taxes to the local governments for water conservancy, roads and other affairs, which actually further increased the tax potential of the two prefectures.

If it weren't for this, even if Huaidong could buy nearly one million stone grains from Haidong, Nanyang and other places every year, the food shortage in the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River would not be so easy to overcome...

The most food shortage is in Jiangning. The price of food in other places in Jiangnan is high, but the gap is not large. A total of millions of stone grains can be imported, which can be greatly alleviated. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of refugees in Jiangning, only 160,000 urban households in Jiangning City need to import 300,000 stone grains every month, and it is possible to keep the price of food down.

After the war, the price of food in Jiangning once soared to 100 yuan per liter. With the later price limit and Huaidong's release of the food ban on Jiangnan, not only did the price of food in Jiangning drop to the level before the war, but also in Pingjiang, which is close to Chongzhou. In the government, the price of food has dropped to a low level of twelve cents per liter.

In just three months, the rice grains exported to Jiangnan from Chongzhou, Hailing, Huai'an and other places every month were in the scale of one million stone.

Although the grain ban has been lifted and the grain price in Huaidong has been pushed up, they are all within the controllable range. Furthermore, a moderate increase in grain price will also benefit the businessmen and residents of Huaidong. Private grain storage and sufficient transportation capacity.

After more than a year of recuperation, production in the Xuzhou area has resumed; Hangzhou, Huzhou, and Kuaiji are separated from the war zone, and the East Fujian area will be further stabilized. The direct taxes paid may not be as good as before, as long as the people have If the surplus grain is exchanged for other production materials and daily necessities, a large amount of grain can enter the official storage or flow into other grain-deficient areas for adjustment.

In fact, grain has been imported to East Fujian since the beginning of the year on Yizhou Island.

As long as the spring drought is overcome, the situation will be further alleviated when the wheat is harvested and put into the warehouse. Perhaps by then, the plan to completely Jingping the chaos in Fujian and Jiangxi and the Northern Expedition can be formally formulated.

Right now, it's not enough. All aspects are focused on rectifying and guarding the defense line.

Chen Huazhang didn't expect that Song Fu might be very emotional when he first set foot in the core area of ​​Huaidong. Hearing Lin Fu mention Zhu Ai, he remembered seeing Zhu Ai once.

Zhu Ai was born in a cattle herd, and he sold his robbers to Chongzhou for road investment and hired him. He accumulated merit and joined the army. However, he was ugly in appearance, and he was not a talkative person. Chen Huazhang was not impressed by him, but he knew that Lin Fu sent Zhu Ai. When Ai went to Luzhou, it was not as simple as any Cao joining the army under the government.

This period was also a period when Huaidong made large-scale adjustments to the generals and officials of various ministries. It was not easy to digest the seven prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River and Luzhou. It took almost six or seven years for Lin Fu to rise from running Chongzhou to laying a foundation in Huaidong.

It was getting late, and I had to go to Jianling to meet Liu Shidu, but I didn’t talk about Luzhou in detail. I heard that the method of silting was advocated by Zhu Ai, and it could really change the salty soil into good land within three or five years. Hua Zhang also paid attention to Zhu Ai, thinking: I will ask for more details when I encounter it later.

*************

Lin Fu inspected the defense area, and the first stop went north along the defending seawall, and then joined Liu Shidu in Jianling. In fact, it was still for the salt business.

The controversy over the salt issue in Jiangning has also subsided, but the rectification of the salt issue is far from over.

There are more than 100,000 salt households in Lianghuai, including 20,000 people who protect salt and nearly 100,000 people who cook salt.

Smuggling salt, in addition to salt merchants, there are also many people who dared to violate the ban in Lianghuai Dingpu. Of course, more of them are the poor salt farmers who cannot struggle in this land because of the system of salt farmers.

What does the Lianghuai Salt Farm need to raise 20,000 salt soldiers for?

In addition to part of the army, which is responsible for the transportation of salt, almost half of the salt soldiers can be cut off; the salt field is in charge of defending the pirates, and the water camps and warships cruising in the East China Sea are responsible for the profits from the official salt industry. After returning to the locality, Lin Fu intentionally incorporated the responsibility for the investigation of smuggled salt into the local security forces.

The key is the problem of the salt households - the Lianghuai salt farms maintain so many salt soldiers, and the salt households live in extreme poverty and frequent riots are also an important factor.

In the evening, Lin Fu rushed to Jianling County. Liu Shidu had been waiting by the post road for a long time. Standing with Liu Shidu, there was also Wang Chengfu, the former magistrate of Dongyu County.

In the early years of Yongxing, Yudong Gongzhuang was removed from the county and merged into Huaidong. Now it has been classified as a private fief of Linfu with the other four years of Chongzhou. Wang Chengfu has served as magistrate of Yudong County for three years - Yudong originally It was also a pasture, but changed to a palace, thinking that the concubines and concubines of the inner court were used for dressing and grooming. In the early years, the grain field was only more than 100,000 mu; it was officially allocated to Empress Liang’s private business during the Delong years. Miao Shuo managed it for more than ten years, making Yu Yu The grain fields in the east increased to more than 400,000 mu.

In fact, just like the Hecheng grassland, Yudong has a lot of land resources that can be reclaimed.

Like the Huaidong coastal area, Yudong has a relatively low proportion of mature fields and low overall yield due to the great impact of tide recharge. After Yudong was established as a county, Lin Fu appointed Wang Chengfu to govern Yudong. One was to relocate people to the field, one was to build embankments to protect the sea, and the other was to cultivate grain and cotton. Three years have achieved great results. Today, Yudong has a population of 200,000 people. Although it cannot be compared with large counties such as Chongzhou, Pingjiang, and Danyang, it is an absolute large county in the central and western regions.

No matter what, it is the most difficult to open up wasteland. Everything in Yudong County is organized and has rules and regulations, and other officials can also be competent. Lin Fu recruited Wang Chengfu and planned to entrust another important task.

Lin Fu got off his horse, handed the reins to the accompanying guards, and asked Liu Shidu, "I heard that Lord Jiang and Lord Liu have already gone to Yanchi with their clothes to see, so I can save me another trip. How do you feel?"

"The method of digging ponds for drying salt has been handed down for more than a hundred years. The salt fields in Dengzhou and Jimo have occasionally tried it, but it has not been implemented, and the results seem to be not obvious. Looking at its appearance," Liu Shidu said, "but looking at the Salt Pond in Hecheng, it really opened my eyes: a shallow pool of hundreds of acres, several miles away from the sea. When the tide recedes, it will be exposed to the sun for more than ten days, and it will become salt brine. To say that this is also boiled salt, it should have the spirit of using heaven and earth as the furnace..."

Song Fu and Chen Huazhang didn't know about the Yanchi. They defended the seawall from Hecheng, and did not go to the southeast coast. However, seeing Liu Shidu talking about the method of digging the pond and drying the salt, they can also know that the salt pond in Hecheng is real. Liu Shidu was shocked.

Lin Bie shook his head and smiled bitterly: "On the Huainan salt field, I also hoped that Mao Wenjing could switch from boiling salt to drying salt, hoping to reduce the pressure on Hecheng's grass supply, and even pay him 20,000 taels of silver every year. Who knows him Accepting money is not a good thing, and the method of drying salt is only done in three or five areas, fooling me! In the end, I was forced to dig a pond in the south of Crane City to try the method of drying salt, which is considered a success.”

Chen Huazhang thought to himself: No wonder Mao Wenjing ended up like this? Mao Wenjing and Huaidong can also be considered to have a friendship with the East China Sea bandits and win the battle of the East China Sea. If Mao Wenjing can be a little more restrained, Huaidong will not use him to sacrifice the salt.

Liu Shidu said: "If the method of drying salt can be implemented in the salt field, half of the salt households can be transferred to planting crops, and the pasture previously prepared for salt cooking can be converted into arable land..."

"For the time being, the cooking method and the drying method are still used together. First, we must ensure that the production does not decrease. The price of salt cannot withstand the ups and downs," Lin Fu said. "Master Liu, how do you think Chengfu can be your assistant?"

"Master Wang has great talent ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ enough to win the Huainan Yanlin Envoy." Liu Shidu said.

Lin Bie nodded and said: "Master Liu thinks it is feasible, then I will propose a discount tomorrow - the private farmland confiscated in the salt field will be directly set up in villages, and the cut salt soldiers will be compiled as village households. In addition, the subsidized allocation is dedicated, and the consumption saved by the abolition of salt soldiers should be used to subsidize the salt households first. Speaking of which, what is the difference between the village households and the salt households? Who is covered with patches? , You can tell who has a yellow face and a thin skin. In addition, the labor camp will recruit some people from the salt farms to relieve the pressure on the salt field. When I go back this time, I will definitely get rid of the cheap membership system..."

Boiled salt consumes a lot of forage. Therefore, the Lianghuai Salt Field has encircled a large area of ​​land around the salt-boiled field for grass cultivation.

The salt households paid salt to the Salt and Iron Division for only ten dollars per pound. However, in the early years, there was a flood of private salt and secret contacts with the salt merchants. The price of the salt households could be slightly higher. With the spread of the war, the sales area of ​​Lianghuai salt has been greatly reduced. Huaidong itself has used the real estate salt such as islands, and naturally strictly controlled the inflow of private salt, resulting in a great decrease in the sales of the entire Lianghuai salt, and the life of the salt households has naturally improved. It was difficult - after the construction of the Hanhai dike, Huaidong moved to the inner side of the Hanhai **** and moved into a large number of village households, almost living together with the Yan households. In the past three to five years, I have only heard that some Yan households have married off their daughters, but I have never heard of any sons of Yan households who can marry a daughter-in-law. There have been frequent cases of salt households starving to death and freezing to death, and it has reached the point where it cannot be relieved.

Not only can the manpower be greatly reduced by changing the method of boiling salt to drying, the more important thing is to save a lot of land resources to resettle the salt households.

The 20,000 salt workers and the 100,000 salt households are mainly concentrated in the Huainan salt field. Only a competent person can quickly sort out many things. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter