Chapter 843 Great Harvest

Different from Liaodong in spring, Liaodong in autumn is much more beautiful.

From Suizhong to the north, there are fields on both sides of the road. When the wind blows, the ears of millet are blown by the wind. There are also large fields of wheat, which resemble waves of wheat blown by the wind.

People were working in the fields, and men were the main workers. Some had sickles, and some used the army's long knives if they didn't have sickles. The young women, eight out of ten with big bellies, were also doing binding work and other tasks within their power. The children followed behind, dragging bamboo baskets and picking up the grain scattered on the ground. From time to time, they would drive away the birds that had also had a good harvest.

If there are older children, the father of the family may be a soldier, an archer or a logistics soldier, and he will make slingshots for the children after getting scrap bow strings. The child was also capable. He picked up pebbles from the ground, closed one eye, and took a few breaths. But as soon as he let go, an unlucky bird in the distance flipped over and could no longer fly.

Immediately afterwards, the children hurriedly ran over to pick them up. With so many people gathered, several children, with the envious eyes of other children, ran to the river to pluck and wash them, and then picked up some firewood and roasted the meat. Everyone's mouth was full of black food, so they went back to work and continued to look for opportunities to hunt birds for meat.

No one paid attention to them. It was good to find meat to eat by themselves. There was no animal protection law, otherwise the first person to die would be the general. These children are still young, the older ones are only five or six years old. They can work, but they are not very old. It doesn't matter if they pick up some scattered millet, hunt a bird and eat a few bites of meat, as long as they don't cause trouble.

The older ones, the seven, eight or nine-year-old children are different. They are all gritting their teeth and working. Almost everyone has a full workload...

A convoy of tens of thousands of people and thousands of carriages slowly went north, passed Linyu, passed Suizhong, and headed straight for Tuhe City.

The curtain of a carriage in the middle of the queue opened, revealing a cute little girl with big, watery eyes and an endearing appearance. She was lying on the car window, her big eyes full of novelty.

The journey north took several months and passed through several states. The farmers on the roadside looked at them carefully, and some even hid far away, not daring to approach them at all.

But it was different here. It was suppressed all the way. The soldiers dressed as ordinary soldiers were chatting happily. It seemed that some of them knew the people on the roadside and shouted hello. There were even children who were not afraid of people at all and ran over to follow the team asking questions. Of course, there are only a few people on the roadside, and most of them are working hard in the fields farther away. They only glance at it from a distance and continue working as if they haven't seen it.

And the biggest difference is that most people in other places have good food, but the people here are more energetic at first glance, and they must eat much better.

She knew that all this was done by a man named Wang Yan. He was born in Guizhou Province and entered the Yellow Turban Rebellion. He gathered the remnants of Beitu in Zhuo County and began to develop and grow in Anci. After that, he swept through the people of Yuyang, Youbeiping and Liaoxi counties, killing officials and powerful people, and plundering grain, grass and treasures. , heading north to Liaodong. In the Battle of Changli, 20,000 Wuhuan troops were defeated, and in the Battle of Dingding in Liaodong, they were fought thousands of miles away and defeated more than 50,000 Wuhan Allied Forces in Liaodong.

He was proficient in making things, and his white glaze was sought after by wealthy families. He also improved Caihou paper, overcoming the shortcomings of Caihou paper, making it easier to run calligraphy and replacing bamboo slips. He also had the so-called printing technique, which was to print words on white paper and compile them into books. . The text contained in one book is ten times that of bamboo slips.

She even heard that he had great ambitions and wanted to take advantage of white paper printing to develop culture and education. Therefore, the Zhen family was sent to Wu to look for Cai Yong, hoping to welcome Cai Yong to the north and take Cai Yong's daughter. However, Cai Yong's daughter was married to the Wei family. The visitor was very polite, but said that the general had orders and anyone who was in the way could be killed.

He was kicked out by Cai Yong, but the visitor did not use force. He came again for the second time, and still told Wang Yan's ambition to build a library, worship Cai Yong as his leader, teach and educate people, and develop literature and education. However, Cai Yong also refused, saying that he would not serve as an official with the Han thieves.

When he came again three times, Zhen Sheng, the wife of Zhen, came in person with a letter. Cai Yong was overjoyed when he saw it. Zhen Sheng also talked about Wang Yan's ambition, saying that he was far-sighted and ambitious, and also talked about the shortcomings of the Han Dynasty, and even said, "China." , is China of the vast majority of the people, the Han Dynasty’s immorality has failed the people, and the people have the final say.” This is actually a saying that has caused misfortune for thousands of years. Although Cai Yong was pleased with the new book, he thought about it for a long time and still didn't want to go.

On that day, two hundred Yellow Turbans entered Cai Yong's temporary residence, tied up his family and left the city. After three days, Cai Yong's huge collection of books was also transported out of the city by horse-drawn carriage, and the team gathered together and headed north.

Why does she know so well? Because she is Cai Yan!

She watched as the army pretending to be a rioter entered the house in an orderly manner. Without saying a word, they directly tied up her father and then asked her, her sister and a group of female relatives to get into the car. My father only took the Jiaowei Qin with him and nothing else. Later, the soldiers searched their house from inside to outside and took away everything they could, so they had to come to Liaodong.

Looking at the scene outside the carriage, Cai Yan couldn't help but wonder what kind of person she would be...

In this day and age, women have no choice. Even if Cai Yong had no children and had to give his daughter a little more care, he would always marry someone who should marry. Now it is Wang Yan, a big warlord who controls one side, shamelessly sending 3,000 soldiers south. He has no choice but to agree. So although Cai Yan must be very resistant in her heart, it is useless. Unless she commits suicide, she cannot decide her own choice.

She wouldn't even dare to commit suicide. No matter whether she has the courage or not, she must always think about Cai Yong. If she commits suicide and offends Wang Yan, then Cai Yong will definitely not survive.

So she had no choice but to expect Wang Yan to be a perfect husband that suited her heart. What else could she do...

No one cared about the little girl's thoughts. The convoy did not stop, and went straight to Tuhe. In the process, the refugees and the defeated soldiers of the Yellow Turban who followed them were also taken over by the civil officials and the marching Sima. They were already very familiar with this and had a very mature standard process, each doing their own job.

Until they arrived at Tuhe, the number of people in the team became fewer and fewer, and finally only the soldiers who served as drivers and Zhen Sheng and his group were left. This time Zhen Sheng went to do it himself, so he naturally had to come along. If the work was done well, the leader had to know...

At the gate of Tuhe, Cai Yan was called off the carriage, holding her sister, followed by a group of female relatives, and walked forward with her father. She finally saw the man who had tied their family here forcefully.

From a distance, he smiled and gave people a gentle and generous feeling. He was wearing a loose dark blue silk gown, a white jade hairpin in his hair, and he didn't even have a sword. He just stood there naturally, giving people a lazy and casual feeling of intimacy.

He was not tall, nor strong, and had no military might. It was easy to doubt whether this man was the fierce general who once defeated three people under the siege of Lingzhi City. But the strange thing was that he just stood there, and he had a kind of unshakable confidence.

His deep eyes seemed to see through the world. Even though he had grown a short beard, he was still young and out of character. It felt strange to look at him, and there was a sense of separation. Strong and weak, calm and frivolous, what a strange person.

Ah, Cai Yan, who was blinking her big eyes and peeking, saw Wang Yan's eyes sweeping over her, and quickly lowered her head, her heart pounding...

With a smile, Wang Yan took two steps in a pretentious manner, bowed his hands, and said: "Wang Yan greets Lord Cai. Lord Cai has great righteousness in his heart. He came to the bitter cold land of Liaodong in the north. I am very grateful. You have come from a long way and are tired from the journey. I have prepared a separate courtyard. You should have a good rest today and will welcome you with a grand banquet tomorrow."

"I dare not accept the courtesy of the Marquis of Liao. I have no great righteousness. You came here by force, why do you have to pretend to be so?" Old Cai blew his beard and glared, expressing his strong dissatisfaction.

Cai Yong is fifty-two years old this year. Although he has white hair, he still wears a crown on his head. He is meticulous from head to toe, maintaining the demeanor of a scholar-official. He is a little fat, but his hair is old, and he has a bit of grace. And his appearance is different from ordinary people. It is not ugly or handsome, but it is very memorable. With his current temper, it is still a bit funny.

Wang Yan smiled and waved his hand, suppressing the words that Zhen Sheng wanted to say.

Although everyone knows it in their hearts, it is still very important to make an appearance, which shows the attitude. So the normal process at this time should be that Zhen Sheng apologizes and says that he privately used force to tie up Cai Yong's family and bring them to Liaodong. Wang Yan, the leader, criticized a few words in a formal manner, saying that he didn't know, and then pretended to apologize to Cai Yong, apologize, and say good things, and fooled away.

However, General Wang dared to act and take responsibility, and disdained this kind of face-saving work of knowing it well and still talking nonsense. He would definitely not mention this matter when he greeted him before. If Old Cai didn't say it, he would be angry, and it would be over. Now that Old Cai has made it clear, he must not do useless things, and there is no need.

The general laughed and said, "Mr. Cai thinks I am a thief. He has repeatedly begged me to do nothing, so I have no choice but to resort to this last resort. Meng Guang should tell you my ambitions and show you the new book. If you say nothing, what can you do? If not, how can you come here?"

"Your actions are not what a hero would do. I have heard of your name along the way, but now that I have seen you, you are exaggerating."

The reputation that Cai Yong mentioned was actually operated by the Zhen family. Otherwise, with the transportation and communication conditions at that time, who would know who you are ten miles away. Besides, who cares about Wang Yan except those top people. How powerful Wang Yan is, what does it have to do with others?

This set of operations to make a name for oneself is the specialty of the wealthy family. If not, the previous Yellow Turbans would have run to the ravines to become bandits. How could they know who Wang Yan is?

Zhen traveled around and told people about the King of Liaodong. He told people that he had a man fight three peerless generals in a city, treated the people kindly, had superb medical skills, and made white glass. If it was not true, he would just say it. If it was true, he would exaggerate it. The wider and more amazing it was, the better.

"People who are burdened by fame, no matter how loud the name of heroes is, are just mediocre. The one who laughs last is the winner. If you die early, your ambitions will not be fulfilled. Even if you are a hero, what's the use? Lord Cai, I don't know what I will do after death. What does my reputation have to do with me? Now I only know that Liaodong needs your help. Lord, you have to come."

The words that bully people are said in a righteous and awe-inspiring way, so shameless...

Cai Yong laughed in anger: "I came here because you kidnapped me. My four daughters have been promised to Wei Shi in Hedong. How could you do such a thing? All Relying on the strength of the army. I am really powerless to resist, so I have to come here. Don't think that I will serve you! "

"Mr. Cai, don't say angry words. Now that you are here, how can you decide what to do?"

Wang Yan laughed, "You have a great reputation and are a great scholar of the time. Tomorrow, Meng Guang will tell Mr. Cai to settle in Liaodong. Scholars from all over the world will come here to study with you. Will you not preach? Moreover, I want to promote culture and education, open up the people's wisdom, and teach children enlightenment. Only you can do it. Such a big thing, how can you make a mistake in promoting culture and education to open up the people's wisdom because of your own grudge?"

"How can you deceive me to this extent?"

"Mr. Cai is wrong. I am not deceiving you. It is the expectation of the people. God has taught you to take on this important task."

While speaking, Wang Yan smiled and spread his hands and placed them at his side. The guards behind him lightly handed over a long object. After receiving it, Wang Yan opened the fan and showed it to Cai Yong, "Mr. Cai, look, this fan is made of bamboo and paper. It can be used to fan the wind and can also be used by scholars. I made it by chance in the summer and it was completed recently. This fan is the first folding fan in the world.

I have always heard that Mr. Cai is proficient in calligraphy. This fan is plain white, just right for Mr. Cai to embellish it. This fan will surely go down in history. Now I will give you this fan as a gift for meeting you. I hope you will accept it with a smile."

"Hmph." Old Cai snorted coldly, took the fan, fiddled with it and walked towards the city, with a bit of arrogance.

Wang Yan was not annoyed. It was indeed too much to force someone to come here and expect him to have a good face. Besides, he not only abducted her, but also forced her to marry Cai Yan, which made Cai Yong lose his loyalty to the Wei family and ruined the reputation of the old Cai family. It would be strange if he could be happy. No matter how powerful General Wang was, he had to give his father-in-law a good face.

He looked at Cai Yan with a smile: "You are now eleven years old. You can get married when you are eighteen under my rule. Wait for seven years. From now on, you can come to me if you need anything."

"What about me?" The nine-year-old Cai Li seemed to be more active, but also seemed to be a little ignorant.

Wang Yan laughed and rubbed her head: "You wait for nine years."

After that, he raised his eyebrows at Cai Yan, and then waved his hand to invite everyone to enter the city.

It is a bit wrong to wink at a minor. No matter how beautiful Cai Yan is, she is just a beautiful little kid. Although the situation is different at this time, the development status is always not much different.

It's just teasing for fun.

Of course, there was no shortage of women. Although there was no daughter of a wealthy family to marry, the Zhen family, who had already been engaged, sent women. According to his rules, there were dozens of beautiful girls aged 18. Except for two who were left to take care of his daily life, the rest of the women were promised to his soldiers.

This kind of thing is the same in ancient and modern times. When the strength is in place, there are people who send them to him...

Cai Yong brought a lot of things on this trip, of course, the most important thing is books. Old Cai has a lot of books. It is somewhat insulting to describe Old Cai's knowledge as "rich in learning", because he has hundreds of carts of books alone. There are also many messy antique toys, dozens of carts.

Wang Yan didn't like the toys. Most of them were things from two hundred years ago, that is, before Emperor Wu, until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. They were brought up by tomb robbers to exchange for money. They couldn't live on the ground, so they naturally ate underground.

Tomb robbing was not the original creation of Cao. What he created was large-scale, organized, and highly professional large-scale tomb robbing activities, which could not be considered tomb robbing. After all, he was an official to a certain extent, but unlike modern times, Lao Cao did not verify it, but just dug it out to exchange for money for military expenses.

As for Cai Yong's collection of books, Wang Yan took a fancy to it and directly pulled it to the vicinity of the library to store it. Since the preparation for the construction of the library, the library has not been expanded. Just wait to slowly reprint the books, and when the library is completed, fill it up.

Anyway, Cai Yong is the librarian of the library, so it doesn't matter where the books are placed.

And the house he prepared for Cai Yong's family is also very good, which is almost equivalent to a three-entry courtyard. The house is all floor heating, all large floor-to-ceiling windows, and all the necessities of life are already complete, which is not much different from what Wang Yan uses himself, which can be called the highest courtesy.

As he said to Cai Yong, with the addition of Lao Cai, he doesn't need to do anything at all. As long as they know that Lao Cai is here, naturally a large number of scholars will come to the south. Moreover, he wanted to build a library, and even ordered Zhen Sheng to contact the ten constant servants to empty the Han Dynasty's collection of books, and also collected books from the wealthy families. It can almost be said that it encompassed all the books in the world.

Such an open library is no exaggeration to say that it is an ocean of knowledge in this era. It is very attractive to those who are obsessed with learning in this era.

With more cultural people coming, there will naturally be cultural exchanges, and there will naturally be academic debates, school disputes, and literary disputes. This is another huge attraction for scholars from other places.

On the other hand, the art of papermaking and printing is not so easy to crack. Although the time will definitely be greatly shortened if you specialize in a goal, it will not be accomplished in a short time. Even if it is accomplished, it cannot be compared with Wang Yan in terms of quality.

So for a long time, if Wang Yan did not make the art of papermaking and printing public, then he would have mastered the lifeblood of culture, that is, publishing and distribution.

When the Liaodong academic struggle began, the advancement of culture began. Everyone likes fame. Who doesn't want their own ideas, doctrines, and thoughts to be widely spread and passed down to future generations? And the only one who can do this is Liaodong, which is to grasp the cultural field of the Han Dynasty. How great this benefit is, it is self-evident.

And so many cultural people came to Liaodong, you don't think they can leave, right?

At the beginning of the struggle for hegemony at the end of the Han Dynasty, it was difficult to have peace anywhere. Liaodong was a paradise, and there was a cultural atmosphere. Would they be willing to leave? It can be imagined that many people would even bring their families here to seek peace in troubled times.

Even if they still want to leave, there is still General Wang who will brainwash them and fool them about the righteousness of the family and the country. Most of them will stay to work together for great things.

If they still want to leave, then Wang Yan must not stop them. It doesn't matter if so many people leave. They must not be killed. At this time, they have to have some reputation. Otherwise, it would be very bad if no one comes to surrender in the future, and they can't always kidnap people.

And when these intellectuals were engaged in learning in Liaodong, it would definitely cost money. Celebrities are definitely not short of money, but how many are famous and how many are from wealthy families, and the majority are poor and poor families who cannot afford the expenses. After all, Wang Yan does not have wealthy families or wealthy households here to invest in advance. of trading.

Therefore, these people are the best teachers. It is most suitable for them to enlighten children and teach advanced knowledge. All he paid was a little money, food, and the treasures of his study.

Another point is that ancient cultural people paid attention to general knowledge. Being able to wield a sword and be able to fight in a duel are the most basic qualities. In addition, quite a few of them know medical skills, understand celestial phenomena, understand Yi Xue, know geography, and the art of creation, etc., and they all have more or less unique skills. This is a tradition that has been passed down by hundreds of schools of thought.

With people like them, as long as Wang Yan shows that he pays attention to these things, gives institutional support, and ties these things to national plans and personal futures, these people will naturally pay attention to them, and they will naturally specialize and start to summarize, and then start to summarize. Realize the self-change and cultural innovation that Wang Yan would like to see without his interference. Along the existing lines, a different set of things has been developed.

All the above are the benefits brought by Cai Yong, a great scholar in this world. Although it could have been accomplished without Cai Yong, more time was wasted.

It was a good thing that only Lao Cai was unhappy and everyone else was happy...

Cai Yong's family has finally settled down here. Zhen Sheng is not yet in operation, and winter is coming again. If any scholars want to come south, it will have to be next year.

So Cai Yong and his family were all idle. Lao Cai continued to be as usual, occasionally playing the piano, writing large characters on the paper sent by Wang Yan, or reading unread bamboo slips taken from the library. From time to time, he traveled around the city and outside, and even took the sergeant to other counties to see the real situation under Wang Yan's rule.

Cai Yan, on the other hand, took his younger sister Cai Li, playing around in the fields and in the fields, or reading freely. She was a gifted girl, very talented. She occasionally came to the library to pick up books, met Wang Yan, and would discuss knowledge, music, etc. with Wang Yan, so she was safe.

Lao Cai didn't want to see Wang Yan. Every time he saw him, he put on a stinky face, blew his beard and glared. Wang Yan is quite willing to tease Lao Cai, just for fun, but now he has no time to deal with Cai Yong, the future father-in-law and mascot, because it is the autumn harvest at this time.

This is a great autumn harvest.

Of course, with the current food production, it is definitely impossible to feed the people for a year. But compared with the situation last winter, when people had to eat two meals of porridge a day to survive, under the rule this year, people can eat thicker. The regular army is fully fed, relying on self-produced food supplies.

In addition, the breeding situation has also improved. The number of chickens, ducks, goose, cattle and sheep in several large farms has increased. Of course, it is still not enough to eat, or even inedible. Only Wang Yan has achieved the freedom to eat all kinds of meat. A few Supply the army with fuel and water.

Even the egg production is not very high. If we want to benefit the people, we still have to wait two years. At that time, chickens, ducks and geese will be sold to the people so that they can raise them at home.

But no matter what, Liaodong can be considered self-sufficient from today on.

Moreover, Wang Yan still did not stop the transaction of collecting grain from wealthy families, storing grain and filling it into the granary.

His salt field in Pingguo Nong has already produced output, and most of it is coarse salt. Only a small amount of fine salt is sold to wealthy families in exchange for grain and coarse salt. In general, he used fine salt to supplement the salt used in Liaodong, so that the leeks no longer needed to be cut off by the wealthy families.

And the most important cotton has also been harvested. However, the output was not large. He only made two sets of cotton-padded jackets, trousers, cotton shoes and quilts for himself, and two sets of cotton-padded jackets, trousers, shoes and quilts for Lao Cai and his two daughters.

The rest were all made into cotton-padded clothes and shoes, and provided from top to bottom to the middle and high-level leadership of Liao Huaxiao Cavalry Guard. There would be no more.

However, more seeds were harvested this year, and there will definitely be more next year. In two or three years, we will basically be able to arm more than 30,000 regular soldiers, and the future is promising.

The economic activities under the open rule that Wang Yan was previously worried about also started to be implemented with the autumn harvest.

The land tax for the people under his rule was one out of ten. He produced banknotes and calculated and issued currency based on the statistics of total grain output and grain prices. Then according to the grain price he set, he used money to purchase grain from the people and stored it in the granary.

However, although the common people trusted the general, the fear of poverty and hunger was a lingering shadow, so few people sold food. But Wang Yan didn't care. The money was printed first, and it was the same for him to do business with wealthy families. Anyway, he has an exclusive deal here, so he doesn't have to worry about them not recognizing the money.

As for the people's food, it will definitely be sold next autumn. Let them hold the food in their hands to reassure them that they won't eat it. It was said that they were dead, just a little thicker than last year, and the rest were hoarded in the hope that if something big happened, they would be able to survive for a longer time.

This is a normal thing. It will be fine when the food is completely harvested.

The search for shipbuilders that Zhen Sheng was given earlier had already been brought over, and the design of the large ship going to sea had already begun. After the construction is completed and there are no problems with the inspection, it will probably take more than ten years to go out to sea to find improved seeds and return them.

The problem is not big, everything is going well, everything is prosperous, and the future is bright...

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