Chapter 490: Dry-Raising Rice Seedlings
Zhao Yulin shook his head and said: "Of course it doesn't matter for ordinary civilians, but it's different for them when they go out to do things, so we must be highly alert. We also need to increase the number of guards in the yard. They have lived here for a while, and the hidden enemies must know that they will continue to live here, so we must strengthen the vigilance to prevent any accidents."
He called Ke Zhenxie over and instructed him to double the number of guards in the courtyard and that the two ladies were not allowed to attend Commoner's night talk while he was away.
Ke Zhenxie did as he was told immediately.
Hu Lan was unhappy, she pouted and asked him what he was doing, was he putting them under house arrest?
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that he dared not restrict their feet. They could walk around freely during the day and do official business in the yard at night. This was not a restriction.
When A Qian saw Hu Lan acting cute and coquettish, she chuckled and said that she had things to do and said goodbye.
Zhao Yulin criticized Hu Lan. It was unacceptable for him to have such a low level of vigilance. They were outside the city and thieves could attack from all directions. How could they be so careless?
The girl had already sat in his arms, her two little hands around his neck and she was smiling. Before Zhao Yulin could finish his words, her little mouth was covered with his.
The couple quickly moved from the chair to the big flower bed. After half an hour of intense exercise, the girl lay on him, gasping for breath, and refused to get down.
He stroked Hu Lan's back and said: We have to go back to the city, there are a lot of things to do.
The little girl made some "hmm" sounds and continued to pretend to be asleep.
Zhao Yulin was still instructing her, but she actually started snoring sweetly and fell asleep.
The next day, Zhao Yulin said goodbye to Hulan and A Qian and returned to Jinguan City to do his business.
Before he entered the city, a messenger came running to tell him to hurry back to the Central Council for a meeting. He went straight to the meeting room and saw that everyone was drinking tea.
Mr. Fan said expressionlessly: Lin'an, oh no, it should be called Hangzhou Prefecture. Mr. Shi from Hangzhou is coming soon, the king asks you to discuss how to deal with it.
Then he pointed to the documents on the table.
He picked it up and started flipping through it while saying that they had discussed it before and decided to let Mr. Shi go to Taijiantang and the others would go to Caotang Academy for training.
Hua Yue said disdainfully that these people were just last-minute speculators who surrendered just because they saw that Liangzhe had become a genius. They were all complete fence-sitters.
Minister of Revenue Du Fan thought that after the recovery of Liangzhe, the remaining areas would be Shandong and Hebei. Seeing the victory of the Shenwei Army, the Han army commanders in these areas would definitely re-evaluate their positions. If we are lenient, many generals and leaders who were loyal to the Northern Barbarians in the past may switch to our New Song, which can reduce the killing and reduce the resistance to our recovery of the land, which is not a bad thing.
Fan Zhong nodded in agreement, believing that if we give appropriate preferential treatment to these rebels, the cost would be far less than a war between the two armies.
When Zhao Yulin saw Zhao Feiyan's face full of approval, he understood that this was the unanimous opinion of the king and his ministers.
He said: There is no objection to Mr. Shi entering Taijian Hall. We can select upright people from this group of officials entering Sichuan and appoint them immediately. The rest should be temporarily enrolled in Caotang Academy for training and study.
Zhao Feiyan immediately decided to let the Ministry of Personnel handle the matter with full authority. At the same time, she asked the Ministry of Rites to organize a special task force to incite rebellion in Shandong, vigorously publicize the New Song's idea that all people in the world are brothers, and urge all prefectures and counties in Shandong to recognize the situation and return to the embrace of the New Song as soon as possible.
Fan Zhong said confidently that not only should propaganda in Shandong be intensified, but Luoyang and Kaifeng should also launch a call to Hebei, and vigorously carry out unification affairs, no matter how much money is spent.
Damn, old man Fan also put the united front affairs advocated by Zhao Yulin on the agenda.
Haha, this is because they saw that the tough bone of Liangzhe was quickly disintegrated under the encirclement of the Shenwei Army from all sides, and they felt the huge benefits of defeating the enemy without fighting, so they brought out the appeasement policy of the previous emperor again.
Zhao Yulin first expressed his agreement, but opposed using silver to bribe those Han army generals.
He said: We can give these people a chance to recognize the situation and reform themselves, and we can also guarantee the safety of their families and their corresponding social status. We must never bribe them with money, otherwise it will discourage the soldiers of our New Song Dynasty who are dedicated to fighting for the world and damage the powerful combat effectiveness of the New Song Dynasty army.
After the meeting, Zhao Yulin came to Feiyan's office and sat down to order tea. The maid immediately brought Emei Snow Bud. He took a sip and praised Zhao Feiyan for her thoughtfulness, even thinking of recovering Shandong.
Feiyan looked at him with disdain and told Shunzhidi not to leave. They were family, so why should they avoid each other?
Zhidi smiled and sat next to Zhao Yulin and said: Feiyan had discussed this matter with Mr. Fan and Mr. Du in advance, and the gentlemen in Taijiantang also had this idea.
Zhao Yulin understood that this woman kept Shunzhidi to speak for her, and she had sought opinions widely before taking action.
He said: From now on, such matters do not need to be discussed, the ruler can make his own decision.
Feiyan was stunned for a moment, thinking that Zhao Yulin was unhappy and was speaking sarcastically, and the two beauties on both sides remained silent.
He added: Such matters have been discussed long ago and are part of the fine-tuning of established strategies. What else can the ruler of the New Song do if he doesn't even have this little power?
Let’s not talk about these little things. Back then, if his father or Old Lady Xie in the harem wanted to kill someone, they could just throw a golden medal and be done with it. There was no need to go through so much effort.
At present, our court seems too kind and the king is too magnanimous. This is not a good thing. We need to gradually establish the authority of the court and the majesty of the king.
As long as we act in accordance with the law and are fair and upright, no one will dare to disobey.
Zhidi seemed to understand and told him that the King of Feiyan was much tougher in dealing with the affairs of the Grassland Empire delegation this year. Not only did he not meet the envoys, he also made arrangements in advance to comfort the old officials and captured ministers trapped in Mobei. He left the official seal of our New Song on all the things and only gave them 100,000 strings of new currency before sending them away.
Zhao Yulin gave Feiyan a thumbs up and said with a smile, "That's right. We can do whatever we want, without fear of anything else."
Feiyan was happy and asked the maid to refill his water.
After drinking tea, he stood up and said goodbye, jokingly saying that he would not delay the king's official duties, and turned to his own official room. The room was bright and clean, and exuded a faint orchid fragrance.
Zhao Yulin sat down very satisfied. A beautiful maid came to him and asked: What would you like to have for tea, Third Young Master?
He said he had just eaten and asked for a glass of water.
Just as he was about to read the manuscript, Du Fan came in and the two of them moved to the reception room and sat down.
Du Fan said with a smile that Commander Zhao had come up with many new things in Huaxi Village, and the officials in the Ministry of Revenue who had originally been pessimistic about him now regretted not following the Third Young Master out of the city and into the countryside.
He smiled faintly and said: Mr. Du, you are too kind. Everything is still in practice. It will take one or two years to know whether it works or not.
Du Fan nodded and said confidently that he didn't dare to draw any conclusions about other things, but the measures of straightening the roads and ditches and tidying up the fields were very effective. It was said that two hundred acres of new fields could be created.
The council held in Huaxi Village was definitely an innovation. He believed that this council solved the problem that in the past only the Dubao and the Chief Dubao had the final say and dominated the village. It was a great good and should be rolled out across the country.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that it was still in practice. The countryside is the lowest level of governance in our court, and it is indeed necessary to strengthen management , and we must plan carefully according to the size and population of the villages in each place.
Mr. Du kept nodding his head. I asked him how he came up with the idea of dry-raising and throwing seedlings. Dry-raising solved the problem of no water in the dry spring. Throwing seedlings was much easier than transplanting and would save a lot of labor. It must be an advanced planting method. How did you come up with it?
Zhao Yulin said: He had seen common people transplanting rice seedlings, and they knew that the seedlings had to be planted in a short period of time so as not to miss the farming season. That period of time was very hard, so he came up with this method to try.
Du Gong didn't believe it, thinking that he had known it a long time ago. The strategy presented to him by the young steward of the Agricultural Affairs Department was very detailed, and the steps were clear. It was impossible to just imagine it out of thin air.
Zhao Yulin said helplessly, "Really? This is the result of the joint efforts of the young deacons in Huaxi. We will know whether it works after practice."
Du Gong insisted that it was a good idea and told him that he should go and see for himself during the sowing season and that officials from the Department of Agriculture should all go and observe.
He asked Du Gong doubtfully if he was too anxious.
It is better to send some people to follow first, and then trouble you all after we gain some experience this season.
The old man shook his head like a rattle and said that time waits for no one. My brother is so concerned about farming, why shouldn’t the Ministry of Revenue’s Agricultural Affairs Department work harder?
Zhao Yulin stopped persuading him and told him that they would go together when the time came and demonstrate it to them on the spot.
The old man said goodbye happily and left.
Although Huaxi Village is small, the changes in the village have caused huge waves in the city.
Not only Du Fan's Ministry of Revenue was shocked, but Mr. Qiu from the Ministry of Works was also surprised when he learned that Zhao Yulin was going to build pig farms in rural areas to collect sewage and raise pigs, and to build biogas pools to ferment pig and chicken manure to feed fish and fertilize the fields, using an ecological planting and breeding model.
The biogas digester in the middle is a great invention. When Mr. Qiu saw the new terms such as feed inlet, discharge outlet, and gas production chamber, he was amazed. When he saw that the inside was entirely coated with earth and cement, he knew that Zhao Yulin had created another rare artifact, and he kept praising it.
At first, the old man still doubted that Zhao Yulin was just taking his concubine out of the city for fun as those officials said. But when he saw Huaxi Village began to build roads and ditches on a large scale, he realized that Zhao Yulin was definitely not joking.
When he heard that Huaxi Village gave each family a hammer to collect gravel for road construction, and asked the common people to collect the stones themselves, hammer them into pieces, and carry them on the road for payment, he was applauded. This move not only solved the problem of gravel paving the road, but also required the people to clear all the stones in the fields and around the houses.
Zhao Yulin was still busy, Shunzhidi came in and asked him if he was still not leaving?
The king wants his brother to wait for him to go home.
He then realized it was a little late.
Zhidi said with a smile that sister Yangjin wanted her to go with her, so she left first.
Zhao Yulin went over and took Feiyan's arm to go home. After getting on the carriage, the woman asked him: Mr. Shi from Hangzhou Prefecture and his party are about to arrive in Chengdu. Would you like to meet them?
