The first legitimate son of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 217 Accompanying the capital in Luoyang, sweet potatoes and cereals
"Is the matter not over yet?" Li An looked at the Cheng family in surprise and asked, "Who is this Meng Ziqian?"

"Well!" Cheng Yaojin took a sip of wine, looked at Li An slightly and said: "If you want to know about Meng Ziqian, you must first understand Meng Ziqian's family, the Meng family in Luoyang. Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, is the most prosperous place. But little did they know that Luoyang was also another companion capital of the Tang Dynasty.

What's even better than Chang'an is that Luoyang has unparalleled water transportation. This is one of the reasons why Luoyang is very important. Luoyang has three officially established markets, all of which are conveniently located for water transportation.

The North City is just north of Luoshui. The South City and Luoshui are separated by two squares, but they are connected to each other by canals. The West City in the southwest of the city is located on the Tongji Canal. This canal is part of the Grand Canal connecting the Yellow River and the Huaihe River.

There is also a close connection between Luoyang and wealthy merchants in the south, and the two are connected by the Grand Canal.

The Meng family in Luoyang relies on water transportation to transport food to Chang'an, and has connections with several major families in the south. Your Majesty wanted to get rid of it at first, but getting rid of it would shake the country's foundation, and the Meng family agreed to send their legitimate son to Chang'an. In this way, Your Majesty He didn't take action, so Meng Ziqian was the connection between Chang'an and Luoyang.

Meng Ziqian cannot die, at least he cannot die inexplicably, nor can he be sentenced to death by the court.

This is the capital of Meng Ziqian's arrogance, and there are rumors outside that this Meng Ziqian will not be alive for a few days. This Meng Ziqian was sent to Chang'an as a hostage and is about to die again, so he becomes more and more wanton and reckless. "

Through what Cheng Yaojin said, Li An finally understood the reason for Meng Ziqian's arrogance. He never thought that if he met such a mangy dog, he would be better off visiting Chang'an less in the future.

"Hey, but, there's no need to pester him!" Cheng Yaojin took another sip of wine and said, "Meng Ziqian is just a mad dog, Duo Duo is now His Royal Highness Yong'an Princess, so I'm going to use my name as a gift for him." Duoduo rectifies her name. From now on, Duoduo will be the princess of my Cheng family.

In this way, you are Duoduo's father and the son of my Cheng family. What happened today should not have happened, but it is difficult to guard against hidden attacks, so you must be careful. "

"Thank you, foster father." Li An bowed to Cheng Yaojin.

Cheng Yaojin waved his hand with a smile and said: "As a family, we don't talk about two families. By the way. How is your Yuye wine? When I treat guests, you should try your best to send some Yuye wine. This way I have face."

"Of course, please rest assured father, Yuye wine will be delivered that day." Li An smiled.

Everyone smiled. They ate a meal happily. However, when they went back to rest, Li An also silently began to analyze the Meng family in Luoyang. Li An could know from Cheng Yaojin's words that this The reason why the Meng family in Luoyang was able to restrain the imperial court was because of Luoyang's waterway, which should also be the grain road of Chang'an.

If the imperial court wants to take action against the Meng family, the Meng family is likely to cut off the waterway's grain road.

You must know that everything in Chang'an City is good, but the food road is too fragile. As we all know, from Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty to Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties temporarily moved the capital to Luoyang more than ten times due to lack of food, and even created the "food east capital" "This historical term.

Although in people's imagination, Chang'an City, as the center of the Tang Dynasty, should be prosperous and prosperous, showing its prosperity.But it is precisely this prosperity that makes food shortage the "Sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of the people of Chang'an.

Chang'an has a population of more than one million. The concentration of the population not only brings prosperity, but also brings massive demand for food.According to estimates by some scholars, Chang'an's annual grain requirement is at least 860 million shi.However, in contrast to the increasing demand for food, the arable land in the Guanzhong area is getting less and less.

At that time, due to serious soil erosion, land salinization, loss of fertility and other reasons, the irrigated farmland in the Guanzhong area did not increase but decreased compared with the Western Han Dynasty.During the Dali period, only 0.62 hectares were left, less than one-fifth of the 4.45 hectares during the heyday of the Western Han Dynasty.

This situation led to the fact that the self-produced grain in Guanzhong could barely maintain the operation of the court even in good years, and it was difficult to have a surplus.Once there is a natural disaster, Chang'an will be at risk of running out of food.

Some people will definitely say that there are two types of grain roads, one is land and the other is water, which can be used both ways. In fact, Li Shimin also thought about it, but Guanzhong, where Chang'an is located, is known as the "Land of Four Fortresses". Although the terrain is steep and difficult, The advantage of being difficult to defend but also means inconvenient transportation.

Chang'an is bounded by the Qinling Mountains to the south and the Weishan Mountains to the east.Therefore, although it is close to the prosperous Sichuan Basin and the Central China Plain, with ancient transportation technology, it would be expensive and unfeasible to transport large quantities of grain across mountains and ridges.

Let’s talk about waterways, because the Yellow River has many islands and peninsula-shaped reefs in the area of ​​today’s Sanmenxia City, including God Island, Human Island, Ghost Island, Alchemy Furnace, Dressing Table, and Pillar Mountain.

These rocks cut the entire waterway into three rapids called the Ghost Gate, the Divine Gate, and the Human Gate.The idiom "mainstay" refers to the largest rock among them.Ships can easily hit rocks and capsize when passing here.

Therefore, when the grain transported to Chang'an by waterway reaches the Sanmenxia area, it must either take the land route or risk huge risks through Sanmenxia.No matter which method is chosen, it will cost a lot of money, and the financial, human, and material resources spent far exceed the price of the food itself.

In Chang'an City, the emperor's court and court officials were undoubtedly the groups that consumed the most food and produced the least directly.Therefore, in the years of famine, the emperor moved the court to Luoyang. On the one hand, it could ensure the food of the royal family and officials; on the other hand, it could avoid competing with the people for food and leave the limited food in the Guanzhong area to the people.

Because of this, Luoyang became the capital. Now the Tang Dynasty relies on the Luoyang Meng family to transport food from the Grand Canal to Chang'an. Only the Grand Canal can alleviate the high price of food. It is precisely because of this that the Luoyang Meng family becomes so important. .

This Meng Ziqian also relies on this to do whatever he wants in Chang'an City. Of course, the more important point is that Meng Ziqian is willing to degenerate. He was originally a good son and can inherit everything in the family with peace of mind, but who knows, But he was sent directly to Chang'an to be used as a hostage, and his good money was gone.

This is true and also a kind of sadness.

What's more important is that Meng Ziqian doesn't have many years left to live, and he may know it very well, so he is even more lawless.

Now that Li An wants to deal with Meng Ziqian, there is only one way, which is to directly increase grain production in Guanzhong on a large scale. As long as Chang'an has grain and can be self-sufficient, it will not be controlled by the Meng family in Luoyang.

If Li An is an ancient person, then this idea is ridiculous, but Li An is not an ancient person, Li An is a modern person, and Li An can still go back to modern times, so when Li An thinks of food, he thinks of sweet potatoes. .

The yield of sweet potatoes is so high that "tens of stones per mu is [-] times better than seed grains".In addition, it is "moist and edible, boiled or ground into powder, eaten raw like kudzu, cooked like honey, and tastes like water chestnuts." In the Qing Dynasty, due to the introduction of high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes and corn, the population grew the fastest in the history of China. period.

For example, in 1753 (the 18th year of Qianlong's reign), the population of Shandong was approximately 1200 million. However, 14 years later, in 1767, the population surged to 2563 million, doubling.You must know that the Northern Song Dynasty was the first dynasty when China's population exceeded 1.26 million, about 9000 million. In the middle, it experienced the Mongol and Yuan Dynasties, with a peak population of 1.97 million. The second one was the Ming Dynasty, with a peak population of 4 million. By the Qing Dynasty, the population jumped directly to [-] [-] million, it can be said that the introduction of exotic species such as sweet potatoes and corns played a major role!
If Li An could get sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn to Datang in advance, then many people would die less!
(End of this chapter)