Dress to be a celebrity

Lord Yang stayed outside the city for a night, washed off the dust and soot all over his body, changed into an official robe the next day, set up a guard of honor, and went to the city to meet the King of Zhou.

King Zhou's mansion has now been completely remodeled, the front hall at the main entrance has been built according to the regulations, the powder and lacquer that should be painted, animal heads, flower windows, and flower bricks have also been installed, and the scale of the palace has been seen.

Under the strong request of King Zhou, the rear sleeping hall has not been changed much, but the interior decoration is also in place like the front hall: a layer of refractory bricks is built inside the wall, quick-drying high-temperature cement mixed with dolomite powder is applied, and dolomite is painted on the wall. mortar instead of ordinary lime mortar; windows are inlaid with double glazing, with a layer of insulating air in between; an empty layer is built on the ground to allow smoke to pass through, and the flue leads to a separate stove at the back of the hall. Can pass through the floor heating.

The ground heating layer is covered with wooden keels and wooden floors, and a layer of air insulation is formed between the floor and the ground fire layer. When you step on the ground, you feel warm and will not be scalded by high-temperature smoke.

Although the floor is only made of the most common oak boards, it has been painted, waxed, and polished to be as smooth as a mirror, and has an elegance that is not inferior to ordinary floor tiles.Another Tianshui silk carpet with gold and silver interlacing is pressed, and the room is still full of wealth, worthy of the status of a prince with golden branches and jade leaves.

The painting and lacquer carving of the front hall is a big project, and it has not yet been completed. The king of Zhou summoned Master Yang and Huan Qianxian in the simplified version of the sleeping hall, and discussed with him about the forced conscription of the people into the army by the frontier generals.

He had previously sent a letter to ask the generals to be accountable for this matter, and he is waiting for Master Yang to come and discuss it together.

Master Yang entered the palace to see the ceremony, and met with Huan Ling, who was waiting here earlier, and then talked about what the king of Zhou asked: "I have been patrolling around Yulin Pass recently, and indeed I visited some generals as His Highness said in the letter. It’s like forcing the people to recruit people, but it’s not for the defense, but for the settlement. This is also a helpless move because the frontier army is short of people.”

The Dazheng Dynasty has implemented the military system since the founding of the country by the Taizu. Seventy-eight out of ten of the army's food can be provided by the local army itself.However, in the more than one hundred and forty years since the establishment of the dynasty, there have been few battles at the border, and the military settlements have long been slack and decayed:

According to Taizu's system, there should be three or seven points between the soldiers defending the city and the reclamation soldiers, and more land should be cultivated to support the defenders.However, over the years, the fields in the army have been invaded step by step, and the food and grass in the army are insufficient, so the treasury needs to invest more food and salaries to supplement it.However, most of the generals guarding the frontier had empty pay, and there were fewer soldiers in the army, and the army guarding the city was indispensable, and the military settlements gradually became wasted.

During the Xingzong period of the former dynasty, the proportion of soldiers guarding the city and farming fields was close to [-]-[-]%. In recent years, due to successive invasions by Dalu, many soldiers died in battle or fled. Soldiers have also become servants of their private savings, and the military base is almost abolished.Although the imperial court sent generals and troops, they were all warriors, and they could not take care of farming at the same time. They could only conscript Dingkou from the local people to do the farming.

Now that it's so easy to change generals at the border, and the land that was originally occupied by others for private use is returned to the army, wouldn't it be a waste if it can't be cultivated well?What's more, once the army can support itself, there is no need to requisition food and grass from the people, and the people can live more comfortably.

Lord Yang attached great importance to the military settlements, and sighed: "The strategy of the military settlements in the early days of the country was well implemented, and the local reclamation alone could support the army. If the old military settlements can be reproduced, the food and grass are abundant, and the frontier troops will not be able to' When the salary comes, we will gather, and when the salary goes, we will disperse', without the appearance of soldiers."

If the army can also afford the food and pay that they ate at the Hanzhong Economic Center yesterday, the soldiers will have the strength to train every day, and they will train to the economic center. What battle is invincible?

He insisted on the army, thinking that conscription is inevitable. These days, the nearby generals of Shanxi Town and Ningxia Town wrote back to answer the king of Zhou's accountability, and they all thought that conscription was inevitable.

If you want to reorganize the army, you must conscription, but the king of Zhou also personally asked those who escaped, and he knew that the people were suffering from military service.If he didn't care about it and let the generals from all over the country conscript soldiers, there would be more forced conscripts of people into the army in the future. If the people can't live in peace, how can the border be stable?

However, if the military settlements were not reorganized, and the imperial court alone transported grain, the grain and grass transported from the major grain-producing provinces in the south for a year would be a huge expense.

The King of Zhou pondered and said: "This matter requires a two-dimensional strategy. According to Master Yang, it is necessary to garrison the land, but the people cannot be forced to conscript..."

If there is no need for sergeants to garrison fields, wouldn't it be necessary to use civilian garrison instead?

Yang Rongdao: "It's not that the villages are bad, but there are few people willing to go to the border to open up wasteland. The weather in the border town is dry and disaster-prone, and one mu of land can produce at most seven or eight buckets of grain, and rations must be intercepted. Fewer people are supplied to the army, which is not as good as the army. There is a lot of grain in the village. Besides, the local county officials can't spend so much money to encourage the people to go to cultivate wasteland..."

As he spoke, he couldn't help but glanced at Huan Ling: "Isn't the Hanzhong Industrial Park built by Master Huan and Master Song donated by wealthy businessmen? Perhaps the local prefecture and county can also raise funds from big households for the reclamation."

Huan Ling smiled wryly and said, "I have asked the local government office, and it is not easy to raise funds even in a big city like Hanzhong. Our Hanzhong Economic Center can get a lot of donations, most of which are for Mr. Song to build a school here. The parents of the students should only take it as an advance payment, and I’m afraid they won’t be able to learn from him elsewhere.”

When it came to raising funds from wealthy businessmen, he thought of Shangtun.

That is to say, merchants are asked to transport grain to the border and exchange grain for salt.Since Taizu's time, there was a method of exchanging grain for salt imports. At the beginning, grain merchants in the south of the Yangtze River transported more grain and grass to the border.It's just that many people exploited it later, the opening of the Chinese law was abolished, the treasury was changed to silver for salt, and the border merchants gradually fell into disuse.

The tea-salt method is not easy to move, but if there are some special products in Shaanxi, which can be exchanged for grain, will it still attract merchants from other provinces to transport grain or even come to cultivate them like the army station?

For example, refractory bricks, potassium permanganate, phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizers produced in their Hanzhong Economic Park?

Or what else can Shi Guaner produce that is unique to later generations?

These things are all produced by assembly line operations, and the workers are only responsible for one item they have made, so that no one else can imitate them.Especially chemical products, even the two of them made it very difficult according to the book. Others don't know the specific formula and steps, even a Taoist priest who can make elixir can't make it.

If such a "factory" is built in the army, and the rich merchants are allowed to exchange for grain for the products produced, wouldn't it be possible to attract merchants to hire people to open up wasteland and farm fields here, and regain the benefits of commercial settlements in the past?

To put it simply, the refractory bricks produced in their garden are now being ordered by many big households.If they exchanged grain for bricks, and then transported grain to the Nine Sides, they would be able to solve the military ration crisis, and there would be no need to rush to arrest people to cultivate fields.

It's just that the upper and lower expenses of this economic park can no longer be borne by the Hanzhong government, and the capital has to be asked from the imperial court.The magistrate of Hanzhong was responsible for the food transportation of the frontier army in Shaanxi, which should also be recorded in the performance appraisal.

He sincerely proposed to the king of Zhou and the governor: "This move can solve the urgent need, if we can build more gardens like this in various places in the future, attracting more merchants to come here, there may be another commercial settlement.

"And Mr. Yang has seen the scene in the economic garden with his own eyes. Those workers must learn to obey the rules and disciplines from the very beginning. Although they don't practice guns, sticks, bows and arrows, they know how to obey orders, have strength, and dexterity. They are all good candidates for soldiers. seedling."

As for how to make them willing to serve as soldiers...

In the Dazheng army, there is a recruiting system, and the money and rations given to the soldiers a year are also quite a lot, but too much was deducted before, and the rations and salaries could not reach the soldiers below.If the food and wages are sufficient and the soldiers are well prepared, good soldiers can naturally be recruited.

He explained this plan to King Zhou and Lord Yang in detail. King Zhou was still considering it, and Lord Yang asked: "According to your intention, you want to designate all the things that can be produced in this economic park as official camps?"

It is not necessary to designate all output as government-run, but this economic park was originally built by the government, and selling things is naturally government-owned.

He intends to ask for an order to designate dolomite cement, dolomite bricks and other things as official sales.If someone outside uses lime, Guanyin soil, etc. mixed with tar to make bricks and sell them as refractory bricks, it must be caught in the fire and cause a catastrophe.

He discussed with Lord Yang for half a day in front of the King Zhou's throne, and after getting the king's approval, he resigned and wanted to go back to his temporary yamen in the side courtyard of the king's mansion to write a report.

Yang Rong, the governor, came to Hanzhong Mansion, and he was supposed to live in the Guanyi, but the hotel in the city was converted into the residence of King Zhou, and he wanted to ask Song Shi about the economic park, so he wanted to move to the Yamen of Hanzhong Mansion.

When he spoke to King Zhou, he said it straight, and King Zhou smiled lightly and persuaded him, "Master Yang, please stay in the palace for a while. Mr. Song will come to the palace after finishing his duties. It will be more convenient for us to talk face to face at that time." some."

Master Song is coming to the palace tonight?Is His Highness going to arrange for someone to call him, or did he just say that Lord Huan asked him to discuss the matter of food exchange?

His Royal Highness King Zhou really acted swiftly and resolutely. The three of them came up with a charter and asked Song Zhifu to discuss how to implement it. It is really gratifying.

Lord Yang doesn't care whether His Royal Highness King Zhou was relegated to Shaanxi or to practice for military affairs. Now that the Holy Majesty has not yet elected a new queen, nor has he given birth to a son, King Zhou is the eldest son of the emperor, and he should succeed to the throne more than his younger brothers. .Seeing that the eldest son of the emperor is so diligent in governing and caring for the people, the pure ministers feel that the country will continue, and naturally they want to praise him.

Hearing his praise, King Zhou's expression was a bit complicated, and he took the initiative to explain: "Actually, Mr. Song and we are not outsiders, and we usually come to the palace to find... to discuss matters."

We are not outsiders...

King Zhou and Huan Ling are relatives of brother-in-law and brother-in-law, and the phrase "with us" refers to the two of them.That's not an outsider, could it be that the relationship between Lord Song Shi and Huan Ling has been approved by King Zhou?

King Zhou already treated him as a relative?

King Zhou saw that he didn't seem to believe him, so he explained with a smile: "I knew about Mr. Huan and Mr. Song as early as in Beijing. Even my father also sang Mr. Huan's parrot song. Xiao Wang is also a family man. , how can we not be considerate of them and make it easier for them."

That's right, even the emperor didn't break them up, and even sent Master Song to Shaanxi to be the magistrate.It just so happens that the Hanzhong government office is so close to Zhou Wangfu...

Mr. Yang is a person who knows the prime minister after all, he didn't want to get too entangled in other people's family affairs, so he bowed his hands and thanked: "The next official will bother His Highness."