"Your Majesty! The Grand Minister of Agriculture and others are outside the hall requesting an audience!"

"Summon!"

Guided by Zhang Rang, Cao Song and the others strolled into the hall and bowed to Liu Hong on the throne.

"Your Majesty, we, your humble servants, pay our respects!"

"No need for formalities!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty, what is the purpose of summoning us here?"

Cao Song has been extremely busy lately, not only having to tally the grain reserves in official granaries across the country, but also coordinating the distribution of cattle and sheep in various prefectures and counties, as well as preparations for next year's spring plowing. Under normal circumstances, Liu Hong rarely summons him.

"Grand Minister of Agriculture, please take a look at this!"

At Liu Hong's signal, Jian Shuo, who was standing to the side, came to Cao Song with a tray in his hands. On the tray were the cotton and the seeds.

"This is??"

Cao Song and several agricultural officials couldn't help but look at the ball of snow-white cotton, because they had never seen such a thing before.

"This thing is called cotton, also known as white cotton. Zhang Qian saw it when he was sent to the Western Regions!" Liu Hong explained with a smile.

Cao Song picked up the ball of cotton, squeezed it gently, and then released his hand. Soon the ball of cotton fluffed up again.

Upon seeing this, Cao Song's eyes lit up, and he excitedly said, "Your Majesty, this is a divine object! If it is stuffed into clothing and bedding, it can keep out the cold, and the soldiers and civilians in the north can be spared from the suffering of the cold!"

"Yes! That's why I summoned you all here to find a suitable place for cultivation and planting!"

Cao Song took the bag of seeds and looked at Liu Hong with a puzzled expression. "I wonder where Your Majesty thinks is suitable for planting this cotton?"

Liu Hong thought about it carefully, then said, "Let's select a piece of official land in the river basin for a trial planting! The planting time should be around April in early spring!"

"Yes! We understand!"

Cao Song and the others nodded, keeping Liu Hong's words in mind.

"I have summoned the Grand Minister of Agriculture this time to ask him another question!"

"Your Majesty, please ask!"

"Although there was a good harvest in various places this autumn, I know that many people still have little left and are barely making ends meet. Some people who are starving have become refugees and wander around."

Moreover, winter will arrive in a few months, and with the arrival of the cold winds, even more refugees will inevitably flock to the country. Who knows how many will starve or freeze to death? What does the Grand Minister of Agriculture think we should do?

"this...."

Cao Song was slightly taken aback. Just as Liu Hong had said, every winter there would be a large number of refugees, but at that time the national treasury was empty and the official granaries were full of grain, making it difficult to provide effective relief, which led to a serious loss of people from the households.

Cao Song then said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the granaries in various regions have sufficient grain reserves this year. We only need to issue an edict to instruct local officials to make preparations, and there should be enough to handle the relief efforts this year! Surely no one will starve to death!"

Liu Hong smiled, then looked at the others, "What about you? Do you think so too?"

"Your Majesty, I believe the Grand Minister of Agriculture's words are reasonable!"

"I second that proposal!"

Seeing that Cao Song and the other officials all shared this view, Liu Hong shook his head helplessly.

"Have you all considered what will happen to those refugees next year, even if they survive the winter? If they move around and miss next year's spring planting, it will once again lead to large areas of land being abandoned and left uncultivated!"

Cao Song couldn't help but ask, "Then what does Your Majesty mean?"

"Now that the borders of Liangzhou and Bingzhou are stable, I think we can gather the refugees to the Guanzhong and Guanzhong regions. This will not only allow us to develop the fertile lands there, but also greatly reduce the pressure from refugees in other areas!"

As soon as Liu Hong finished speaking, Cao Song and the others began to make their own plans.

After Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu established Luoyang as the capital, the power of the Han court gradually fell into the hands of scholars from Guandong, and most officials also came from Guandong. Therefore, the court never paid much attention to the Guanxi region.

In addition, during Wang Mang's reign, the constant rebellions by local warlords and in the northwest fragmented the Guanzhong and Guanxi regions, leaving the once prosperous Guanzhong and Guanxi areas still impoverished and desolate to this day.

Nowadays, a large number of people are concentrated in the Central Plains region, and the limited land there is not enough to support so many people. That's why Liu Hong sent those students from poor families to the Guanzhong and Guanxi regions to carry out reorganization and resettlement work.

"Your Majesty's words are indeed reasonable. In the Central Plains, land is scarce and the population is large. Most of the land is concentrated in the hands of powerful landlords. Although the trend of land annexation has been greatly alleviated, many people still face the situation of having no land to cultivate, which greatly reduces their ability to resist disasters!"

Cao Song then continued, "If Your Majesty truly develops the fertile lands of Guanzhong and Guanxi as you say, it will not only increase the people's ability to withstand disasters, but also greatly increase the national treasury's revenue!"

"only...."

At this point, Cao Song hesitated for a moment before glancing at Liu Hong.

Seeing Cao Song's expression, Liu Hong laughed and said, "Grand Minister of Agriculture, please speak frankly!"

Cao Song nodded and said, "I'm afraid the people will find it hard to leave their homeland and will not want to move there."

Moreover, although the land there is fertile, it has been abandoned for a long time. To develop it, the imperial court would not only need to provide them with tools and seeds, but also sufficient rations to ensure they can survive until the harvest. This would be extremely costly, and I fear the national treasury cannot currently afford it!

Liu Hong nodded. "The Grand Minister of Agriculture is right. This matter cannot be rushed."

Cao Song's statement is also true. Large-scale immigration is indeed not realistic at the moment, and it cannot be accomplished overnight. It can only be done gradually.

Then Liu Hong said, "How about this: let the local governments conduct a survey and screening of those refugees. Those who are willing to go can have officials from Guanzhong and Guanxi send people to receive them. Those who are unwilling to go need not be forced!"

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