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

Xia Anran immediately understood the meaning of Dou Wan's words, and he would come to tell him that this was just a reminder that Da Sinong may not have noticed the situation among the people for a while, but the situation of hoarding food like this is easy to cause trouble. Affecting ordinary farmers in the lean and yellow season.

Originally, the price of food was high at this time, and the merchants were still unwilling to sell it and planned to increase the price. Isn't this tossing people?

There's really no stopping...

Xia Anran's eyes were lowered. On the surface, this matter was done by a businessman, but he didn't think it was that simple.Merchants are sensitive and profit-seeking, and now he is simply a sweet bun in the eyes of the merchants.

The little king's gentle attitude towards merchants and various policies of attracting investment have attracted many merchants to settle here in the past six months.

Foreign merchants will naturally impact local merchants, but under the control of the government's "official guidance price", the prices of these shops and their goods are controlled in a stable range, which will have an impact on local goods, but overall the impact is not It's too big.Moreover, business is not enough if it loses its competitiveness completely. It is basically a monopoly, and a monopoly industry is not a good thing.

What Xia Anran did was to let a wolf into the sheep.

The wolf's appetite is actually very limited. Only one wolf can't eat much of the market, but it can force the lambs to run, and in order to be able to run past the wolf, they will eat grass desperately and exercise their physique.

Moreover, the lazy sheep began to unite and try to form an alliance.At this time, do you want to say that these businessmen will offend Xia Anran?He doesn't believe it.

Xia Anran pondered for a moment, drawing random lines on the table with his fingertips, while brainstorming in his mind.

who is it?

Is it Xungui?

Is it hairpin tassels?

Or... an outside merchant?

Of course, the possibility of a businessman who is really short-sighted to that extent cannot be ruled out.

Seeing his eyes flicker, obviously thinking intensely, Dou Wan stopped talking, and he reached out to pour a cup of tea for him and pushed him over.Xia Anran didn't pay attention, he took a few sips from the teacup, then held it in his hand and continued to think about how to solve this problem.

Dou Wan picked up his book, lowered his eyes and continued to read his book, but the corners of his lips slightly raised, and neither of them spoke for a while.

It's easy to lower the price of grain. The amount of grain stored in Zhongshan's granary is still considerable, but the people behind it... are a bit troublesome.

Cheng Wu, who had waited for no one's attention for a long time, turned his head angrily. Seeing the two sitting there with each other drinking tea, he was furious, and he stood up abruptly, "Your Highness, Dou Wan, do you still practice martial arts?"

Xia Anran took advantage of the situation to look over, her almond eyes immediately widened: "A Wu, what's wrong with your eye circles?"

Cheng Wu's young man blushed, and shouted shyly, "I, I can't do it if I hit the gun!"

... ok.

===

After learning that there was an accident in the grain storage, Xia Anran did not immediately intervene in this matter.He had confidence in the performance of his subordinates, and sure enough, in less than two days, Shao Fu and Da Sinong came to plead guilty.

After some tidying up, the granaries under Shaofu and Dasinong were all plagued by insects. About [-]% of the grain and grass were affected, and [-]% were completely eaten up. However, are there any other insect eggs hidden in the rice husk? Inside is really unknown.

In fact, this matter cannot be blamed on these two people.

The granary in Zhongshan was built hastily when the country was founded last year.Lunu itself is just an ordinary county, and the purpose of its grain depot from the beginning of its construction is only to deal with short-term and small-scale local grain storage. Now it suddenly needs to accept the autumn grain of the season, so it is naturally too late to renovate.

The craftsmen themselves have been very careful and sprinkled several layers of lime powder that absorbs moisture and repels insects. However, due to the frequent activities in Zhongshan in the recent period, the treasury of the Shaofu is frequently opened and closed, and the food is often taken. The natural introduction of insect eggs and other situations overlapped one after another, which led to this minor disaster.

But no matter what the reason is, if the two of them are more careful, the current predicament is not inevitable.

And now that the unrest among the people has spread to the ears of the two of them, both of them are very guilty of causing great trouble to His Highness because of their failure to investigate.

The management team of Zhongshan Kingdom is young, so it is inevitable that they will act improperly. If this matter is encountered by experienced elders, they will definitely not let everyone know about the opening of the grain depot.

Grain is the foundation of the country, and what the people are most afraid of is not having enough to eat. They are extremely sensitive about rice and grain. Therefore, after learning that there is a problem with the grain storage in the county, even if no one maliciously acts, there will be a large-scale purchase of grain. Some farmers even choose to hoard the grain after harvesting it to avoid disadvantages.

In this way, even after the autumn harvest grain depot is plentiful, the grain on the market may form a vicious circle like this.

Things could get worse then.

The two are very guilty now. After hearing the reasons and analysis of the two, Xia Anran pondered for a moment and then asked suddenly: "How many people in Zhongshan have not served this year?"

This question is not under the control of these two people, but they are all in the same office, and the two of them have heard it more or less, so they respectfully replied: "His Royal Highness, there are about ten thousand people who have not yet served this year."

That's enough, he took out the map on the table and asked the waiter to pass it on to the two of them. In the due west of Lunu County in the Zhongshan Kingdom, the little king drew a circle with a Chinese ink brush: "Here, build a cellar. How do you feel?"

"The cellar?" The two courtiers frowned in unison. Does this mean that they want to hide the grain underground?Wouldn't that mean digging a big hole in the ground?But the ground is damp, wouldn't all rice grains be moldy if placed in the ground?

Moreover, the volume of such a project is too large.

Xia Anran opened her mouth a little bit after hearing the courtier's tactful objection, wait, you guys don't dig cellars?

Da Sinong and Shaofu Qiqi said, no, we don't know what it is.

Xia Anran was stunned for a moment, and he knew why after thinking about it. Iron agricultural tools have just begun to be popularized. It is not easy to use non-iron agricultural tools to dig up the ground to form a large cellar for storage. It can be done, not to mention all kinds of hard stones that will inevitably be encountered in the process of digging the cellar and must be broken and removed. If it does not rely on iron farm tools, the difficulty will be too high.

After he and the two bureaucrats in charge of Zhongshan's agricultural affairs looked at each other for a while, they fell silent for a while.

The next day, a notice was posted at the gates of the major cities, and the news that the little king was going to dig a new granary before the busy farming season started spread to every village along with the officials enlisting civil service.

The villagers talked a lot, and everyone couldn't understand what the little king was thinking. Didn't it mean that all the grain in the granary had been eaten?Why are you still serving?

Can we have enough to eat?Will you be hungry?

Many villagers talked about it.

The question of who goes and who doesn't suddenly becomes a hot topic.

Zhongshan National Service is mainly based on voluntary registration. Of course, each village will have a certain target amount, based on the total population of the village.It is said that everyone has to serve in the military every year, but it is still difficult to implement it in terms of management. Most of them need to draw one-third or one-fourth of the strong labor force in each village, depending on the busy and slack seasons. And the number of strong laborers in the village.

In general, the main criterion is that the service does not affect the mass production of the masses.

In other words, for some strong men, they can also earn some income by serving others, which is irrelevant.

When they arrive at the service place, they are also transferred and supervised by each other based on the village as a unit. Except for those who are particularly outstanding, their names will not be remembered by anyone.

——Of course, important projects such as building the city wall do not count.When building the city wall, the responsibility should be implemented on the people.

Due to the relationship of this system, the villagers will naturally choose the type of service when conditions permit.

For example, this time the main task is to dig a hole, which is an easy job and does not pay much attention to physical fitness, so some middle-aged men whose physical strength has begun to decline will sign up.

Because there were not many people needed, each village had to use some means to grab the quota. For a while, the rumors were rampant, and when it reached the ears of the unaware little king, he felt inexplicable.

Why did digging a warehouse become an act of slapping a swollen face to pretend to be fat?Are you affirming that I am not guilty of "defamation" and "violation of personal reputation" by ruining my reputation like this?

Be careful, I will add one to Zhongshan.

Of course, he doesn't have time to deal with legal affairs now.

Zhongshan had never dug a cellar before, so naturally they would not dig such a sunken grain cellar. Xia Anran, who originally thought that if he moved his mouth, his head would break his legs, had to wear a reed hat and went to the scene with him.

The little king is dressed in bunts, not to mention how unusual he is wearing a sun hat.At the beginning, the people who came to serve did not notice him, until the child was respectfully invited out by the Dasinong and the Shaofu, and everyone realized—ah!His Royal Highness has joined us again!

Then the little king brought out a few little beans by the way, and the villagers have gotten used to it this time!They probably already had an impression that Zhongshan Wang's family was very weird, and this impression could not be erased for a while.

But the good thing is that King Zhongshan and his family have become a rare family close to the people in the Han royal family.

Civil satisfaction is very high.

Of course, Xia Anran didn't come alone this time. Of course, the civil service, which is laborious and costly, must bring the children with her. Otherwise, how can she teach them to live a simple and hard life?

Of course, as a bad-hearted adult, for this trip, he made three more agreements with Little Douding Liu Zhi, the first thing is not to bring ducklings.

There will be many servitors traveling with them this time. In the eyes of these servitors, a few tender ducks are simply representatives of gourmet food. Xia Anran does not want to see Liu Xiaoyu become a classic villain in future history books. One of the reasons It was—his friend was brutally murdered by farmers and left with nothing.

It is really hard work to protect ducks among thousands of people, and there is no need for this.

Of course, to be fair, Duoduo Duck was not brought.

Liu Zhi thought about it all night, and then agreed to him the next day. Before leaving, he made a lot of diapers with his own hands and handed them to the animal officer in charge of taking care of the ducks.

Not to mention how pitiful the gesture of saying goodbye.

But when he got to the ground and put on a bunt that was easy to move, and picked up a special small hoe, Liu Zhi immediately forgot the sadness of parting, and he had fun all over the mountains and fields.

This place belongs to the outer suburbs of Lunu County, adjacent to Quyang County in Changshan County next door.Compared with Lunu County, the terrain here is slightly higher, with a certain inclination angle but not obvious, and there are some small slopes, which will not cause too much trouble in terms of transportation, but the underground situation is very serious. difference.

In areas with high terrain, the groundwater level is relatively lower. There is a river in the north and south of Lunu County, and this area is in the middle of the river. If you want to say that the underground conditions in Lunu may be relatively dry, it is only here. .

In summer, the sun is hot and the physical exertion is serious. For this start, Xia Anran specially brought a considerable amount of salt and mint.In addition, he told the villagers to look out for each other. Although they would avoid the noon when the sun is at its peak, the power of direct sunlight is still not small.

The reason why we chose to start construction at this time is also to deal with the autumn grain entering the warehouse.

And civil engineering is easier to do in midsummer.This time, he used the compound soil as the base, and mixed a lot of lime powder and plant ash to dehumidify.What is even more distressing is that he donated all his peppercorns and mixed them in the plaster, which will then be used to smear the granary to repel insects.

Zanthoxylum bungeanum is smeared on the wall and will emit a unique plant fragrance after drying. Although this smell was later used by humans to season food, for plants, this smell is actually used to drive away insects.

This kind of unconventional "pepper house" should be quite effective in repelling insects, and the maintenance cost is not high. It only needs to be painted every few years.

It was the first time to build a granary. Considering the amount of grain stored in Zhongshan, Xia Anran didn't make too much of it. He just built two granaries, one for Shaofu and the other for Da Si Nong.In order to avoid confusion, different brick colors are used on the ground to show the difference. The bricks of Dasinong are green bricks, while the bricks of Shaofu are red bricks.

Da Si Nong was very moved by the little king's ration of more expensive blue bricks, but in fact, for Zhongshan Kingdom, the difference between firing this kind of blue bricks and red bricks is only the difference in cooling time. The cost is the same.

Now the main product of the kilns in Zhongshan is refractory bricks. The high refractoriness of Zhongshan bricks has become a star product. Relying on the multinational logistics industry and the demand for the construction of kangs by brothers (taking care of the younger brother’s business), they are exported to foreign countries.

And Xia Anran still has a little naughty heart in her heart, cough, her private treasury is naturally going to be booming!

But what he didn't expect was that this color matching became inexplicably a "hidden rule" after being learned by his uncles and brothers. The blue bricks were even boasted by the students later as the meaning of incorruptibility and evergreen, expressing His Majesty's respect for the national granary. So-and-so opinions and expectations.

This was unexpected by Xia Anran.

In the future, Liu Xiaoyu, who copied his brother's experience and caused this ending, is now standing behind the fence to watch the digging. In order to prevent accidents, he still has a safety rope tied with thick hemp rope hanging on his body. In the hands of the servant of King Jiaodong.

The little king was jumping all over the floor, but the sweat on his future servant's back was dripping down layer after layer, for fear that he would fall off if he made an omission!

The conscripts who came to serve this time used farm tools issued by the Zhongshan Kingdom. Xia Anran asked the blacksmith to make a batch of shovels specially for breaking the soil, and the effect of piercing the ground looks very good now.

Their site selection was excellent. The workers had already dug four to five meters below the ground and there was no water yet. The soil layer was relatively dry, and there were basically no insects in the soil layer, let alone earthworms.

This is good news.

"Earthworms like water very much." Xia Anran explained to several children, "If you don't see earthworms after digging a foot or two in the field, it can basically prove that the place is very dry and lacks groundwater. In theory, the near There will be no rivers and lakes in the distance."

"Then what shall we do?"

Han Yan looked up at the Zhongshan King who knew a lot. The little king smiled at him, and he took the little Doudings to do an experiment.

Dig a small pit, and put the leaves picked in the early morning. On top, he covered the wax paper with better light transmission and waterproof. In order to ensure the seal, the wax paper was fixed around the soil layer, and then the last step, " In the middle of the waxed paper, just put a small stone on top of the small bowl."

This arduous and difficult task was entrusted to the youngest, Ah Qing Santou Shen.

"Then, what then?" Liu Zhi was in a hurry. He looked up and down but didn't see the secret, so he couldn't help but ask first.

"Then." Xia Anran smiled mysteriously, "When the weather is the hottest, the water will come out!"

"Wow!?" A few little bean dings were dubious about this statement. They stared at this weird hanging device for a long time, and didn't even listen to them being asked to eat. They just squatted here for a long time with their jobs.It wasn't until the sun slanted westward that several children's skin turned red from the sun, that Xia Anran revealed the answer to the mystery for them.

When the paraffin paper was lifted off, everyone saw that the dry paper was covered with a layer of water droplets. Following the movements of the little king, water droplets dripped down. The children couldn't wait, and immediately Just looked at the bowl in the center of the small pit, and then they screamed in excitement and horror.

There is no doubt that there is water in it, and there is a lot of it, but now there are many small insects floating in the water.

Zhang Qian immediately retracted his head, took a few deep breaths, and looked over again after gathering his mind.

No!

There are, the ones with many legs!

gross! !

Although he was born in the north and is a strong man in the future, Zhang Qian said that he really can't adapt to the rare insects in the north.

Especially the densely packed worms are simply too disgusting to bear!

Among the children, Liu Zhi and Ah Qing are the most adaptable. The two little Douding are masters who can hold earthworms and feed ducks. Now they see this kind of little bugs naturally without any problems.

Xia Anran asked people to bring the bowls to the children, Liu Zhi observed and judged: "It's only half a pot of water."

"The servant drinks about four pots of water every day..." Not enough!

The child frowned, "Should we dig more? Or should we put more leaves?"

"Then what if people eat the leaves directly?"

"What happens if you don't drink enough water?"

Several children immediately turned into "one hundred thousand whys" and asked Xia Anran around. Just when the little king's patience was gradually exhausted, someone finally came to rescue him.

Dou Wan, who was slipped away by Han Yingti, who also came to watch the production of the grain depot, is now released. As soon as he came, he heard a few little Doudings walking around Xia Anran asking questions, and saw that the smile on the little king's face had already begun to turn. Unable to hold on any longer, Dou Wan, who knew the character of the little king, immediately stepped forward to answer the children's questions: "Not all the leaves are edible, some are very bitter, and soldiers can hardly swallow them. Even for survival, there are some Soldiers don't want to eat that or only eat a small portion of it."

"Drinking not enough water will cause soldiers to be dizzy, dizzy, weak, and extremely depressed. More seriously, they will die from thirst. Without water and food, soldiers will easily mutiny."

"His Royal Highness's way of getting water is only for emergency. The army is going out and using other methods of getting water." After exchanging greetings with the little Doudings, Dou Wan, who seemed to know a lot, was immediately surrounded by the children.

His father, Dou Ying, was a great general, so he naturally knew many stories about the military camp, and he soon liberated Xia Anran.

The little king cherished this hard-won tranquility very much, he moved a few feet and quietly ran away from Douding's encirclement.

However, he was quickly caught by Han Ying!

Han Ying grabbed the little king and asked several questions in a row, one of which was extremely important: "How does Your Highness get food?"

This method of directly digging a big pit to store food is really beyond the scope of everyone's understanding, especially after the little king said that the food will be poured in directly without sealing bags.

How to take it out then?How to ensure the replacement of old and new grain?Wouldn't it mean that the new food will always be on top of the old food if it is put down directly like this?

In fact, the answer to this question is very simple. Once the food is capped, it will not be opened again for a period of time.This kind of grain storage warehouse is exactly the Hanjia warehouse built in the Sui Dynasty and Tang and Song Dynasties. It is a storage method for long-term storage of grain in an environment with stable temperature and humidity in the soil.

Because the amount of grain is large enough, after being piled up, due to its own weight, the gaps are very small.The upper layer of rice grain is covered with a mat, and the top is sprinkled with bran that can keep warm and isolate air.

After the hatch was closed, the only oxygen remaining in the warehouse was quickly consumed by the fresh grains. Seeds in a low-oxygen and low-humidity environment can go dormant, but it is difficult for bugs to survive in this environment.

The grain storage part built underground is surrounded by hard composite soil, which makes it difficult for foreign insects to invade, let alone rats.

Generally speaking, as long as there are no accidents, the grain in this warehouse can be stored for more than two years.Of course, because the warehouse is not opened on weekdays, there is naturally no risk of being stolen.

"So what His Highness thinks is... After this year's autumn grain is deposited, it will not be opened anymore?"

Xia Anran nodded: "After the autumn harvest, we will build a few more warehouses, and use that as a normal circulation warehouse. At that time, several warehouses will be rotated, so that the food will not be easily spoiled. It can also reduce management costs."

"If you encounter a disaster year or an unexpected situation, it doesn't matter if you open the warehouse in advance. The warehouse that is circulating outside is to close the warehouse. And this..." Xia Anran pointed to the warehouse that was being built, and said, "It is the confidence of Zhongshan Kingdom. "

Han Ying thought for a while. He looked at where everyone was standing now, and then calculated the distance from here to Lu Nu. He felt that such a warehouse could be used as a storage.It's just that this mode of operation is really weird, and he really has no idea about digging a hole to hide the grain.

Seeing him like this, Xia Anran smiled: "Han Yushi, there is another great advantage of such a warehouse."

"Oh?" Han Ying clasped his hands together, "Your Highness, please enlighten me."

"It's nothing to teach." The fan in the little king's hand pointed to the warehouse. "When the grain is stored at the same level as the ground, it can be covered with yellow mud, and the ground can be used as an ordinary warehouse."

In other words, in case of war or looting, it is difficult for anyone to think that the food they robbed is actually only part of it, and more of it is underground.And even if someone knows that there is food in the ground, it is difficult to take away the purely bulk food quickly.

Even if you want to set it on fire, you must first dig out the yellow mud seal, and then dig out the chaff layer by layer before spreading the fire.

If there is this time... there is probably no need to burn food and grass.

After all, in ancient times, when robbing food and grass, a small team of people was sent out to attack. If the fire was not lit, it would be completely extinguished, and there would be no second chance to do it.

When it comes to fire prevention, it is better to use asbestos, but this thing... Xia Anran is a bit reluctant to mess around, asbestosis is too harmful to people, and the most terrifying thing is that there is no way to prevent and stop this kind of thing.The ancients did not have a microscope, and naturally they would not have a sense of prevention when they could not see things.

He calculated that Zhongshan Kingdom would be quite peaceful in the next few decades, and he felt that there was no need for it.

On the contrary, Han Ying was overwhelmed by this coquettish operation. He made some calculations, and went around the warehouse several times. He felt that this method of storing grain underground and then storing grain on the ground was absolutely perfect...but the disadvantage was that due to The yellow mud covers the granary below, and its load-bearing capacity should not be high, so the rice cannot be placed too much.

Hmm...how about putting some chaff in it?I heard His Highness say that rice bran also has the function of keeping heat.

Xia Anran didn't know what bad idea his auxiliary minister was thinking, so he went to find the craftsmen in charge of the construction.After getting the exact news that the granary could be completed before "Dong Zang", Xia Anran rolled her eyes, ready to do a great deed.

——Open warehouses to sell grain.

The author has something to say:

Liu Xiaozhu: Secret Observation.jpg

Liu Xiaozhu: Although I don't know why, anyway, my brother did it like this, so I just learned it.

Bureaucrat: I don't understand why! !

Bureaucrats: Forget it, let’s shoot rainbow farts! !

Xia Miao:? ? ? ?Um? ? ?No, I didn't mean that. Are you ancient people so good at making up your mind?

Farmers suffer the most from the end of spring and summer until the harvest.

At this time, last year's grain has been eaten, and the new grain has not yet come. Basically, private usury comes out at this time, especially if a family has been hit by some impact, there is absolutely no food.

However, if you borrow money, you will have no food in winter after repaying it in autumn, so you can only continue to borrow.In the end, farmers are doing nothing for the lending company.

Therefore, Wang Anshi of the Northern Song Dynasty proposed and perfected the "Young Miao Law", that is, official lending. The idea was good, but in the end it was due to lax control, corruption of local bureaucrats, and squeeze from stakeholders. Lead to failure, but hurt the farmers.

It's actually quite a pity.

How to put it, the Song Dynasty's tolerance for scholar-bureaucrats restricted its development to some extent.

Hanjiacang is a typical warehouse in the north, which is different from the situation in the south. The south basically develops in the air, while the north goes underground.

Hanjiacang itself was established in Luoyang City, and it was established by the unspeakable person in the Sui Dynasty. Because the Grand Canal was connected, it brought abundant grain storage to Luoyang.

Its essence is - dig a hole in the ground, throw grain into it, then make a sealing layer on it, and finally cover it with soil.Preserve grain by using the underground hypoxic and moisturizing environment.

The Chinese people use grains as their staple food. One of the great advantages is that grains are the seeds of plants, and they were weeds at the earliest time. The seeds of weeds are relatively not so delicate, and they will enter a dormant period when the environment is not good. , It will germinate as soon as the environment adapts to sprinkle a little water, which gives time and space for food storage.

Millet can be stored in a dry place for nine years, rice for five years, and beans for a short period of time.

Hanjiacang has been used from the Sui Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and it was abandoned only after the war at the end of the Song Dynasty, and it was no longer necessary after the Song Dynasty moved to the south.

Of course, such a warehouse must have its limitations. For example, it is not easy to take it out, and you have to take it all out once you take it.So the warehouses in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were basically similar to modern warehouses.

But the advantage is that it is not easy to handle, so it is not easy to accumulate new and old grain.

cough.If you have time to dig out part of the old grain, and then disassemble the new grain and pour it in, it would be better not to open a warehouse.

So the author guesses that it is a method of digging one tank at a time, then taking them all out and then refilling them. (I haven't seen how it is actually used, the author is just guessing!)

It is relatively easy to implement the method of Zhongshan as a small country. After all, the transportation is convenient. If it is implemented for the entire Han Dynasty, it is frankly difficult when the Grand Canal is not open.

The advantages of water transportation are much greater than that of land transportation.

If Liu Xiaozhu copied it... quack quack.