The days when I pretended to be a cat in the Forbidden City[Comprehensive]

The beginning of autumn is approaching, and Xianyang City is very lively.

People often say that autumn harvest and winter storage are now the dividing line between autumn harvest and winter storage.For a large agricultural country, every autumn is the day they are most happy and looking forward to, especially this year.

Almost every old Qin person who appeared in the streets and alleys of Xianyang had a smile on his face, and even greeted the street pawns who were patrolling with a smile, and they were obviously in a good mood.

"What's the matter?" The young man who had just served in the military for two months couldn't figure it out. Before January, these people were still full of displeasure when they saw him. Why do they look at him now as if they were looking at someone at home? Like a silly grandson, his eyes are strange.

"You don't know yet?" the senior who patrolled the streets together said to him, "The price of food is going to drop."

"Huh? This is very surprising. Every autumn, the price of grain will drop." Autumn is the harvest season, except for the grain production that needs to be taxed. Naturally, people who are rich in their hands have to exchange grain with others. Even large grain merchants need to free up warehouse space for new grain at this time.At this time, if you don't care about the taste, it is the most cost-effective to buy old grain.

Being so inexperienced with him, the senior looked at him: "It's not about that, it's about guiding the price of food."

Guiding grain prices is a brand-new concept. It is regulated by various departments of Qin State after coordinating and investigating the domestic grain production in that year. , The price is set by the state so as not to hurt the people due to the high or low price of food.

At present, the only grain price range stipulated by the Qin State is millet, which is the main ration of the old Qin people.In addition, the price of cheaper beans, wheat and expensive rice has not been set, which is also to ensure a smooth transition of this policy.But the price reduction of corn alone can also relieve the people of Qin who have had to tighten their belts in recent years.

Before that, the Qin State had been fighting for years. Although more land could always be brought back with great victories, it was useless to have land without people.In addition, in the past few years, the state of Qin has launched water conservancy projects. Although the tax has not been increased, the family will inevitably feel powerless in terms of land property after losing strong labor.

The price of grain in Qin State was so high that even the people in Xianyang City couldn't help but start eating the cheaper barley, not to mention other areas.

But now the price of food has gradually started to drop after being controlled by the state. Although it has not yet dropped to the pre-war level, it has given the old Qin people hope.

In the eyes of ordinary people, they don't understand the international situation or national policies, but ordinary people have the wisdom of ordinary people. From the food prices and the expressions of the people around them, they can analyze the current situation of Qin.

Whether it's the steady decline in food prices, or Qin's policy to guide food prices, these are all signs that the sensitive people of Qin State are aware that the situation is turning for the better.

That's exactly what happened.

The reason for the drop in grain prices is that apart from the autumn grain harvest and the re-opening of trade routes between Qin and the six surrounding countries to purchase grain, there is another important reason - many cold fields in Qin have found a way to manage them.

And all this is thanks to a crop that has just been introduced from Shu County, called sorghum.This plant is characterized by its tolerance to drought, but most importantly it is tolerant to salt and alkali.

That's right, the biggest problem Qin had encountered before was the saline-alkali land.

The reason for Guanzhongping is due to the geographical environment. Winter and spring are dry and rainless, but the wind is strong, so that the evaporation is huge.The most critical is the lack of natural irrigation water here.Even if the farmers do everything possible, such things as lack of water can save the life for a while, and there are reports of soil halogenation turning into cold fields every year.The upper management is also anxious, but there is really nothing to do about it.

Because of the gradual halogenation of the land, there is no way to plant in these places with an extremely superior geographical environment, and the way to deal with cold fields today is to leave them vacant and let them recover naturally.Therefore, these lands are left vacant for nothing.

But five years ago, when King Qin began to dig a canal between Jinghe and Luoshui, the situation gradually changed.

The channel is not open, and the canal mud arrives first.

The soil dug out from the ground is much more fertile than the surface soil, and these soils were transported to areas with serious halogenation under the instructions of King Qin, and then the white bittern precipitated on the surface of the soil layer was scraped away, and the ditch mud was like thick cotton It is generally covered on the gray and white land.

This planting method was thought up by Lu An. At that time, several inferior fields of the Lu family had increased their harvest every year due to the replanting of rice, so this situation was reported to the case of King Qin.Ying Ji, who was eager to solve the situation, didn't announce anyone, and went directly to Lu Buwei's office to find someone.

Unfortunately, this method cannot be applied in the Guanzhong Plain.

At least not yet. The reason for the salinization of the Guanzhong Plain is the lack of water. If there is water to grow rice, the salinization will not be there.Maybe there will be conditions here after the channel is repaired, but not yet.

But Yingji was really in a hurry. Since the 51st year of King Qin, it has not been a peaceful scene. At that time, these princes knew that Qin was trapped in two major projects, and they were just paper tigers, so they started crazy explorations, even the Qin State had already been defeated by Qin. Quan Rong, who was lying on the ground in Guoda, stretched out his paws cautiously.

Although the king of Qin acted resolutely, he immediately sent Qin Dajun, who was very unhappy digging the mud at that time, to chop his hands. Qin Jun did run away and sent a flying kick to everyone around him, winning the victory, but Ying Ji always had a bad feeling.

Let's take it as King Qin's sixth sense. The main reason is that the reaction of the princes was too strange. Later facts also proved that his premonition was correct.

Han Han, who was beaten dizzily at that time, offered an apology, and said respectfully, "We are too unfriendly. After all, we are old neighbors. How can we take advantage of the fire? Don't dare again in the future. Go back and continue digging." Let’s go.” Yun Yun.

The Qin general who led the army was particularly inexplicable, but all the gifts were delivered to him, so he didn't want to waste it, and he still accepted the local map.

This time Qin Jin and Han retreated, Qin State took the two lands of Yangcheng and Negative Millet in South Korea.These two places are located in the hinterland of South Korea and are extremely rich. The king of Han gave them to him so easily, which made Yingji feel a little guilty.

Is the neighbor here to send warmth?Hehe, he will believe that there are ghosts.However, the warmth sent to the door should not be in vain. Yingji thought twice, and was ready to swallow this bait to see the situation. While sending people to take over Ercheng, he asked people to keep an eye on the movements there.

Half a month later, the Qin State got the news that the eastern vassal states were ready to attack Qin State quietly.

But if they wanted to attack Qin, they had to go through South Korea and the Western Zhou Dynasty. Now they are in the stage of discussion, and somehow, the news leaked out.

The Western Zhou Kingdom here refers to the vassal states.Since the Zhou royal family moved eastward, the power of Zhou Tianzi has gradually declined.But even if it was too poor, King Zhou Kao at that time distributed part of his fief to his younger brother, so Zhou State split into Western Zhou State.

Later, due to historical factors, Zhou State was divided into Eastern Zhou State and Western Zhou State, and they were governed separately. The current King of Zhou moved his capital to Western Zhou State.But the Western Zhou Kingdom also had another ruler, the Duke of the Western Zhou Dynasty named Ji Jiu, who was a capable general beside the Emperor of Zhou.

The Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty have long been living among the great powers, but now the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Qin State are still allies, but after seeing the hand of friendship extended by the princes, they held it without hesitation. ——They betrayed their ally Qin.

The reason is actually very simple, because after Qin State took South Korea's Yangcheng and Negative Millet, the distance between its territory and the Western Zhou Dynasty was further shortened. Wild King City in the north of the King City, does the Qin Congress want to swallow Zhou State and further expand its territory?

And if Qin State used this as a springboard to attack Zhou State, the latter would have no time to react, and the other vassal states would not have any chance to help.

Although he formed an alliance with Qin, it was clear that Zhou Tianzi was also wary of Qin, so he turned his back on it without hesitation after discovering that Qin was very likely to annex Zhou in one fell swoop.This move made Yingji very annoyed.

The capital of Zhou State was in Luoyang, and there was almost a straight line between Luoyang and Xianyang, and there was still a road for horses and horses to gallop. If there was an attack, Xianyang could be attacked directly in three or four days.

Generally speaking, except for the unreasonable "borrowing" like Qin, other vassal states have to communicate with Zhou and South Korea for a period of time before they can pass through the natural pass of Yique, which can give Qin State dispatched troops to defend and left enough time.

Yingji felt that he was not too old to be able to lift a knife, so he sent general Xing to attack the Western Zhou Kingdom as soon as he heard the news.The soldiers of the Qin State were brave, and the generals even captured the King of Western Zhou and the Emperor of Zhou and returned them to Xianyang. The two announced their surrender and entrusted the city and all the subjects of the Western Zhou State to submit to Qin.

The king of Qin was overjoyed and bestowed the surname of the state of Qin on the general of Qin who had made great contributions.

That year, the king of Western Zhou died, and the next year, the emperor of Zhou died.

After the death of Emperor Zhou, Yingji unexpectedly did not help the puppet ascend to the throne of the emperor. He personally cut off the last thread that tied the kingdoms in the Warring States Period.

In the 51st year of King Qin, the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed.

However, although the extermination of the Zhou Dynasty was a joy, the follow-up brought a lot of troubles. The first point is that Qin is now surrounded by enemies, and almost every country can use the name of Zhou Guofu to poke Qin's nerves a few times .

What's more, there is still a bloodline in the Zhou royal family, and that is the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

Although Qin State secretly sent a large number of lobbyists to try to reconnect, but at this time it must also prepare for war.

Since it is necessary to prepare for war, food reserves are indispensable.

Under such a demand, Lu An could only propose this method to try.Using canal mud as the base to cover the barren land, this method is plainly deceiving crops.

The fertile topsoil helps the plants to take root and survive initially, and then when it is strong enough and gradually elongates the roots, it is too late to find that the land is not very good, so it can only grit its teeth and desperately absorb the nutrients in the soil.

In later generations, this planting method was also used to treat land desertification.

At the beginning, [-] acres of experimental fields were allocated, and several kinds of grains were cultivated at the same time, but in the end the best results were the sorghum seeds sent by Li Bing, the prefect of Shu County.This crop from the south took root in this barren land with difficulty due to its salt-alkali resistance, and it had a harvest in the autumn of that year, and its performance was good enough in the second and third years thereafter.

Another four years have passed since the farmland was rebuilt, and Qin has entered the fifth year of shifting from external expansion to internal development.

The most gratifying progress is that the first phase of the two water conservancy projects have been successfully completed.It took Li Bing five years to manually dig a hole on the long ridge of Yulei Mountain extending to the Minjiang River, and he is still continuing to repair it to achieve the best effect of water control.

However, the appearance of this orifice has enabled the water from the Minjiang River to flow into the eastern area, alleviating the local drought, and also reduced the water volume in the western area to a certain extent.After the verification of this summer rainy season, the effect of this project is completely positive.

The next step is for Li Bing to find a way to control the sand and stones washed down by the Minjiang River.

Unlike the water conservancy projects in Guanxian County in the south, which have no value at all and have to be discarded in a way, the sediment in the northern canals is a good thing.

To be precise, the mud inside is a good thing.Unlike the modern Yellow River, the pre-Qin rain belt was still in the Yellow River Basin. Although the Loess Plateau was easily washed away due to soil quality problems, it has not yet entered the stage of desertification. Therefore, the sediment in the Yellow River water is actually [-]% mud and [-]% sand.

And these yellow muds have been soaked in water for a long time, and most of them have become silt with extremely high nutritional content.

In the process of water diversion, Zheng Guo had already taken these silt into consideration. In fact, one of the main purposes of his diversion of Jing River water was the Yellow River silt.

Now the [-]-acre field used as the test site has been drained.Although the canals are still under construction, only when the crops are growing most critically will the canals be shut down to divert water, but the actual effect is enough to surprise the local farmers.

Whether using canal mud or Jing River water with sediment for irrigation, the feasibility of saline-alkali land improvement has been proved.Being able to cultivate the barren land into fields to grow food, the income from this is enough to make Qin's granary a few percent richer.

"So, things must be done! Only when you do it will you know that some things are not as difficult as you think." The young man who is in the rapid growth period and therefore a little skinny is lying on his stomach in the pool at this time, and he is doing pull-ups in the water He said this to the little boy who was treading water beside him.

"Brother is right." The little boy couldn't help being a little bit aggrieved when he thought of the toss and turns in the past few years, and the disputes between the court and court in the past few days. They are the ones who want to profit from it.”

"After the autumn harvest, these people have been circling around my great-grandfather. It's really annoying." Use this action to vent your anger.

These opponents are none other than the Qin clan.

Whenever there is any big movement in the Qin Kingdom, the clans that should be standing beside the King of Qin always jump out and sing the opposite tune.Zhao Zheng has been dissatisfied with these short-sighted people for a long time.

Especially in the past five years, Qin Wang Yingji's health has been a little bad, and Zhao Zheng, who was raised by his great-grandfather, is even more unhappy every time he sees these people disturbing the old man because of trivial matters.

Hearing this, Lu An thought for a while and said slowly, "Has Zheng'er thought about a possibility?"

"what?"

The young man covered his mouth with one hand, and said slowly while thinking: "Actually... what they are against is not a certain policy, but the policy proposed by Ke Qing?"

Keqing was originally a special official position, which was mainly granted to foreign officials who were officials in their own country, but now more than half of the court in Qin State are foreign officials, and now this term has become a reference to these officials whose nationality is not in Qin State.

"Brother, what you mean is..." The child's expression immediately became serious, and he lowered his voice, "Are they not used to seeing great-grandfather use a large number of officials who are not of Qin nationality??"

If this is the case, it is completely different from opposing a certain policy just for the sake of opposing it. This is a sign of the possible internal struggle between two groups in Qin State.

From a personal point of view, Zhao Zheng is completely on the side of the guests.

After entering the Qin Dynasty, these guest officials had no foundation and no help from others. If they want to climb up, they can only show their talents by constantly offering advice, and they are not afraid of offending others when they do things. Acting vigorously and resolutely makes those in power look particularly comfortable.

In contrast, the people of the old Qin Dynasty are bound to be somewhat restrained in doing practical things, thinking about things, not only considering their own interests, but also taking into account the interests of the family, and after thinking about it, they should also consider from their relatives and friends. Do not offend people.

But there is no such thing as two things in this world. The marriages between meritorious nobles and famous families have long been intertwined, and they are relatives who are twisted. If you don't offend them, you will naturally offend the ordinary people below.

King Qin is not stupid, how could he fail to see this?

What's more, although I don't want to admit it, the education level of Qin State is indeed lower than that of the five eastern countries, and even weaker than that of Chu State.In this way, it is extremely important to absorb talents from the five eastern countries.

In fact, Qin State has been gradually becoming stronger by relying on foreign talents, and all kinds of talents in the six eastern countries are also very aware of Qin State's national policy of only talents, and it has even become a talent employment trend to come to Qin State to find a job.

and……

Zhao Zheng, who had been waiting for the king of Qin for a long time to receive the orthodox emperor education, also saw very clearly that in many cases, his great-grandfather used these guest officials to suppress and smash the local forces of Qin.

My brother didn't say it before, he didn't realize it, he only thought that these clans of the Qin Dynasty were just opposing the water conservancy project and wanted to seek personal gain, but now that his brother mentioned it, he thought of many things, and found that there were indeed some clues.

Zhao Zheng gasped, and immediately turned over and got up from the pool, "I'll go and talk to my great-grandfather right away!"

"Come back!" Lu An had long arms and long legs, and pulled his brother over in two or three strokes, "What do you want to say?"

"Of course it means..." Zhao Zheng choked, and then realized that there seemed to be some difficulties in it. Do you want to tell your grandfather that our old Ying family members are not reliable?

This matter is really not easy to solve...

He glanced at his elder brother who was leisurely holding the bath stone and began to rub his back, and when he rolled his eyes, he immediately moved over to take the bath stone, and rubbed his brother's back with sex, and acted like a baby while rubbing, "Brother~ you Is there a way?"

"No." Lu An said very bluntly, "Your Majesty should have found out about this matter long ago and has a full-fledged draft. It's not something we need to worry about."

"What's more..." He turned sideways and motioned his younger brother to change his position to rub "It's inevitable that factions in the court will fight. Now it's just between the Ying family clan and Keqing. In the future, there will be the Ancestral School, Hebei and Henan Schools, and Qingliu Zhuo Genres, if you think about them one by one, you're going to blow your mind!"

The elder brother's words were clearly directed, and Zhao Zheng couldn't help being slightly taken aback. He couldn't help but think of the noisy court that day, and shuddered.

"But then they will unite to deal with the king." Lu An said softly, "There must be struggles and confrontations between courts, and healthy competition can also promote progress."

"Control and control, and make use of it." The young man turned his face slightly, and poked the cheek of his brother who was stunned. "This is what a king should do, not blindly suppress."

"If you want the flock to grow fat, then let a flock of sheep grow slowly in it."

"But if you want the flock to live too leisurely, they won't like to eat or grow meat. Then you can put a wolf in it."

"With wolves watching from the sidelines, the sheep have to spread their legs. If you increase the amount of exercise, you will naturally eat more and grow faster."

"Then, brother, didn't you tell the story of "Mending a sheep after a dead sheep" to protect the sheep..." Zhao Zheng was stunned, and suddenly conspired, "Brother, did the herdsman actually dig that hole? The herdsman deliberately threatened the flock of sheep. , and then wait for the sheep to grow fat before blocking the hole? That’s too bad!!”

No, I think it's you thinking too much!Lu Xiaoan choked, but he still had an inscrutable expression on his face: "Then I don't know."

Zhao Xiaozheng was so frightened that even the bathing stone was scared away. He had the fear of being subverted in his childhood, and his whole body was a little bad. "Yes, but wouldn't the sheep still have to be eaten...?"

After a pause, he suddenly realized, "The sheep that are eaten must be the weakest sheep. The herdsmen fed the wolves with the weakest sheep, and then used the wolves to arouse the sense of crisis in the flock. Finally, they waited for the sheep to eat more and run faster. When you are strong, you will kill the wolf..."

He was silent for a while, and said, "The shepherd is really bad!"

No, I think Zhao Xiaozheng is scary if you can complete a whole story based on a beginning.Lu An silently raised the water basin, scooped up a basin of water and fell down on his head.

After washing in vain, two brothers, one big and one small, walked out of the bathhouse holding hands, and walked on the streets of Xianyang City. The destination of their trip was the Xianyang Academy located in the south of the Wei River. It was in a quiet place, and the two wanted to go there in a carriage, but because the weather was fine today, Lu An and Zhao Zheng planned to walk outside the city and then board the car, which was considered to be an experience of life.

The two brothers walked all the way, and when they arrived at the door, they heard a young man in soap clothes holding a small flag enthusiastically saying to the group of people who followed him into the city: "Masters, we have entered Xianyang City now, we will be able to do it later." See the famous Xianyang Palace and Xianyang Windmill!"

"It is said that this chariot was built by a boy of the Lu family, so it is also called Lu's chariot among our folks. It is huge in size, and it is located at the easternmost point of Xianyang Yuan. It can be seen at a glance no matter from the north, east, or south. , is one of the landmarks of Xianyang City. Going forward for a stick of incense, we will be able to reach the best viewing point on the bank of the Weihe River, and then we will have dinner there first, then take a boat through the Weihe River into the Jinghe River, and detour to From the back of Xianyang Yuan, you can see the whole picture of the waterwheel behind it.”

"It is said that this waterwheel was also built by this boy of the Lu family, so we call it the water wheel of the Lu family. It works in conjunction with the windmill to pump water from the Jing River to the top of the Xianyang Plain to irrigate the fields there.

The above fields were reclaimed five years ago by our king and his sons and grandsons. Now it is said that the royal family no longer needs to purchase food!The sorghum rice we will eat at noon was also first planted by the royal family.Everyone, keep up and don't fall behind. If you fall behind, don't panic. Please find the nearest street pawns immediately and tell them that you are part of the [Traveling the Great Qin] tour group. The pawns will take you to the nearest office to meet with us. and! "

Lu An and Zhao Zheng passed by this group of people. The young boy looked up and saw that the eyes of these people were full of excitement and curiosity. They were all wearing the same clothes, and there were armbands on their arms representing tourists. .

Zhao Zheng silently turned his head and glanced at Lu An.

Lu Xiaoan: "..."

Don't look at me, I don't know anything, I haven't done anything! ! !I don't even know why things turned out like this!