Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 56

From morning to afternoon, after passing through townships and villages, we soon entered the territory of Kelan Prefecture.
Along the way, Huang Laifu was impressed by the rich forest resources in Kelan, and there were many natural pastures available. On the side of the road, Huang Laifu saw many cashmere goats running around in some pastures, eating grass leisurely.

Seeing this situation, Huang Laifu couldn't help thinking about whether he could cooperate with Master Liu Jingchun, the commander of Xiwei in Kelanzhou Town, to jointly develop the rich pastures and cashmere resources in Kelan.

In addition, Huang Laifu also noticed that the farmland in Kelan seems to have a large area and deep soil, which may be a good place to build a large farm.

However, compared with Wuzhai Fort, there is a disadvantage here. After all, this place has been established as a prefecture and county for many years, and there are many private households, so there is not much wasteland for reclamation.If you want to build a large farm, you may be suspected of competing with the people for land.In the Ming Dynasty, when military households competed with civilian households for land, the military households often lost. Although these civilian households’ fields, under the influence of the catastrophe, the annual grain output was only two or three chickens, but they were deeply rooted. The concept of land still keeps them from giving up easily.

After thinking about it, it's too troublesome to run a large farm here, so let's run a ranch and raise more cashmere sheep.In fact, Master Liu Jingchun, the commander of Zhenxiwei, is surrounded by Zhizhou Zhizhu, and there is an adult who is in charge of military preparations. In addition, Zhenxiwei's households can't support themselves, and the food and fodder must be provided by Lanzhou. The faces of the local civil servants, how can I live comfortably in Wuzhaibao Tiangao Emperor?
However, in Liu Jingchun's heart at that time, Wuzhai Fort was a place of bitter cold, and it would be similar to exile if he was sent to a thousand households there.It's just that I didn't expect Wuzhaibao to change so much today.

When Huang Laifu fell into deep thought, Gu Yunniang looked at Huang Laifu thinking there from time to time with fascinated eyes. She liked to see Huang Laifu's appearance at this time, because Huang Laifu looked very deep at this time.

"Has this arrived in Kelan State?"

Huang Lingbin, who had been sitting in the carriage at the back, shouted from behind, this man is thin and thin, even Gu Yunniang can ride a horse, but he can't. After leaving Wuzhai Fort, he has been hiding in the carriage like a big girl Reading a book, it was like waking up from a dream at this time, realizing that I had arrived in the territory of Kelan Prefecture.

Everyone laughed, and Gu Yunniang shouted: "I've been in Kelan State for a long time, brother Lingbin, you really don't listen to anything outside the window, and you only read sage books."

Huang Lingbin touched his head in embarrassment, and smiled resentfully.Huang Laifu rode up to his side, smiled at him and said, "Second Brother, you are tired, come on, when you get to Kelanzhou City, you can have a good rest."

Glancing at Huang Lingbin's hand, he said, "What book are you reading?" Huang Lingbin quickly withdrew his hand, but Huang Laifu snatched the book away: "Oh, Journey to the West?" This dude is not reading sage books along the way.

Seeing the uneasy and ashamed expression on Huang Lingbin's face, he secretly looked at Gu Yunniang, Gu Qianhu and others in front of him, afraid that they would know.Of course Huang Laifu understood his thoughtfulness, and said with a soft smile, "It's okay to read extracurricular books, but remember not to forget the serious homework, you know?" Huang Lingbin always respected his eldest brother, and immediately nodded vigorously.

Huang Laifu returned the book to him, and said with a smile: "Look, during the time of enrollment, I just want to have a good time reading it, and I'm afraid I won't have the chance to read it after I go to Wei school." Huang Lingbin was touched and said: "Brother, you are so kind to me. Huang Laifu smiled and said: "Fool, you and I are younger brothers, if I am not good to you, who is good to me?"

Huang Lingbin touched his head lightly and smiled sheepishly.

Huang Laifu rode his horse back to the front and saw Gu Qianhu looking at the fields on both sides with a serious expression. The closer the city of Kelanzhou was, the denser the fields became, but without exception, the drought was severe everywhere. Wells run dry.

Except for some fields close to a local river called Beichuan River, the situation will be better. I am afraid that most of the fields will have a greatly reduced harvest this year, and some will even have no harvest.The result of this is that after autumn, the number of refugees in Kelan Prefecture may increase again.

Gu Qianhu sighed: "This year's situation is really getting worse and worse. I thought that Kelan is a big state, and the situation should be better. Only now did I find that compared with the various farms in Wuzhai Fort, Wuzhai Fort is very poor. It’s truly heaven.”

Gu Yunniang proudly said: "Father, this is because there are waterwheels and other things made by Brother Laifu in the various farms of Wuzhaibao. With those waterwheels, even if the weather is dry, the underground water can be brought up. Of course Don't be afraid of drought."

Gu Qianhu stroked his beard and laughed straight: "My Yunniang is still right."

At this moment, everyone saw a large group of people surrounding a field by the roadside. A man who looked like an old farmer was instructing those people to install something next to an irrigation well beside the field. Huang Laifu and the others couldn't help but He stopped and looked curiously by the side of the road.

The old farmer was small and thin, but his voice was like a bell, and he said loudly: "Everyone, be careful, install this Huang Laifu large irrigation well water truck, and you can draw water. Everyone should be careful and be careful not to touch it." The people nearby echoed, busy with their hands and feet, Huang Laifu saw that the slender figure of the waterwheel was exactly the style of the well irrigation waterwheel he had in Wuzhai Fort.

Gu Qianhu said in surprise: "Nephew, I didn't expect that your water truck for filling wells would also reach Kelan Prefecture."

Huang Laifu smiled, but just looked over there, Jiang Dazhong, Yang Xiaolu and others felt a little complacent when they saw that the young master's water truck had also passed here.Gu Yunniang also looked at Huang Laifu affectionately.The servants of the Gu family were also talking about it, and they were very proud of their son-in-law.This time they came to Wuzhai Fort with Gu Yunniang and others, and everyone received a red envelope of two taels of silver from Huang Laifu, so everyone had a very good impression of Huang Laifu.

Soon, the well irrigation water truck was installed. Under the pull of a cow, the water truck turned slowly, and the well water was slowly pumped up. Everyone cheered and congratulated the old farmer.

The old farmer also laughed, with a smug expression, he said: "Now everyone knows, with this waterwheel, our fields will no longer have to worry about no water for irrigation."

One person said: "Old man Qi, this waterwheel is good, but it costs one tael or eight yuan to buy each one. Is it worthwhile for us to buy such an expensive waterwheel?"

That old man Qi seems to be a violent person. Seeing someone questioning him, he couldn't help but scold him. He is short in stature but not intimidating: "You pickled bastard, the young master Huang Laifu of Wuzhaibao is in every farm." Do you use dozens or hundreds of water trucks? Why don’t they think it’s too expensive? This water truck is so expensive that you can’t afford it. Wouldn’t it be possible for several households to buy one together? Watering those wheat seedlings will be better than your family after autumn. The old and the young are eating the northwest wind."

The man was so scolded by old man Qi that he couldn't find the door, so he had to nod repeatedly.

Everyone chattered again to ask old man Qi about buying water trucks, and old man Qi said proudly: "In Kelan Prefecture, there are some water trucks imitating Wuzhaibao, but we want to buy authentic Huang Laifu Daguan well water trucks. I still have to go to Wuzhai Fort. How about this, the old man is familiar with Liu Zongqi of Wuzhai Fort. If you want to buy more, the old man can negotiate with Liu Zongqi, and the price of each water truck is one, two, seven, five cents Buy it, do you like it?"

The people over there discussed for a while, and one of them said: "Old man Qi, I also heard about it a while ago, you went to Wuzhaibao to buy five water trucks a few days ago, isn't it one, two, six and five cents each? "

Old man Qi scolded him: "This guy, the old man is quite old, and he runs in and out, doesn't he need some hard-working money for running errands?"

The man could only nod.At the moment, everyone over there is discussing about buying a water tanker.

Here, Gu Qianhu said with a smile: "I didn't expect these peasants to be enlightened, and they are willing to spend money to buy water trucks."

Huang Laifu smiled and said, "This is also forced by the situation."

I think that these people have finally realized that it is not enough to rely on individual strength alone, and it requires the collective efforts.However, I am still not optimistic about them. Even if these people bought a water truck together, it would only ease the plight of their own fields. If they want to develop as big as their own Wuzhaibao farms, if Their single-person farming method can't change much of the situation.

Everyone talked all the way, but they were not lonely.Soon, after resting for a while at Yangjiaping Fort in Kelan Prefecture, everyone hurried on their way again, and finally arrived at Kelan Prefecture City in the evening.

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Kelanzhou City has a history of more than 2200 years since it was built in the Han Dynasty. In the seventh year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xing, the commander of Zhenxiwei, covered the whole city with bricks. There are flagpoles and crenels on the seat.The city gate is tall, and there are urns at the four gates. Outside the city, there is a moat 7 feet wide and 3 feet deep.There is a suspension bridge outside the east, west and north gates, and there are 8 passes and 12 castles outside the city.

When Huang Laifu entered Kelan City, what left a deep impression on him was the surprisingly tall city gate. This kind of city gate is probably rare in the entire Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)