Chapter 68 The Envoy Arrives
One million stones!
This is really an encouraging number, especially when there was a locust plague that almost made people think that there would be a reduction in grain production.
Fortunately, the efforts made in patrolling all night to catch locusts and carefully tending to these 60,000 acres of mountain fields have undoubtedly paid off!
As soon as Zhang Niujiao's voice, which could hardly contain his excitement, uttered these words, the people around him burst into cheers of extreme joy for the harvest one after another.
When planting this patch of yam, Qiao Yan told them that this was reserve grain for Leping County, just like the 30,000 shi of grain she brought at the beginning. If there was no disaster, it would be Leping's storage inventory, but if there was a drought or famine, it would be a life-saving thing.
First, the bandits were naturalized, then cheap mulberry bark cold-proof clothing was provided, and then the locust plague was controlled.
With her gradually accumulated prestige, Qiao Yan was even able to gain the support of these county residents through word of mouth when she returned to Leping. How could they doubt what she said?
This means that Leping will have the capital to survive next year!
Who wouldn’t be excited about this!
Even Qiao Yan——
Even though she had already estimated the output of yam when Qin Yu reported the number of fields to her, when the conservative estimate of 900,000 shi turned into the actual 1 million shi that appeared before her, she couldn't help but feel her heart pounding with the sounds that came one after another in front of her.
This is life-saving food...
She took a deep breath and calmed herself down a little.
However, she couldn't be too relaxed at this moment, because although these one million stones sounded amazing, not all of them could be eaten directly.
Part of them will be used as a reserve of yam tubers for planting yam next year and will be stored in the same way as when the yam was picked from the mountains last autumn, with one layer of yam on top of another, that is, one layer of sand.
In fact, the yam grown this year is far more suitable for cultivation as tuber segments than those obtained in the mountains last year. Because the quality has been improved through various operations of fertilization and care, the survival rate of seedlings will inevitably increase next year.
"Your Majesty, would you like to consider planting more crops next year?" Qin Yu couldn't help but ask when he saw Qiao Yan standing in front of the sand table model that had completely turned into a schematic representation of Leping's agricultural distribution and thinking for a long time.
“No, no expansion.”
Faced with such an amazing yield, Qiao Yan tried hard to restrain his thoughts on increasing the planting of yam. "Let's do as we said originally. Use the other half of the land reserved before to plant yam. This year, we will plant beans instead of yam for maintenance. You take people to separate the yam for seed and store it in a separate warehouse."
You can't bite off more than you can chew. In addition, bean sprouts have to be planted on the fields that were originally not suitable for the next round of planting. In fact, some management staff are needed. Leping cannot take on more fields with its manpower.
In addition, the harvest of yam was entirely based on the premise that the Black Mountain Bandits had no farmland of their own and that these nearly 10,000 people were operating entirely as a mobile team.
If all county residents were asked to plant the seeds, it would only backfire.
"Let Chu Yan come to see me." Qiao Yan said again when Qin Yu left.
She had only brought Dian Wei back to Leping before. Chu Yan also rushed back after settling the followers. When she heard that Qiao Yan had something to tell her, she came quite quickly.
For him, there was no such thing as being too tired. He just felt that this was a manifestation of Qiao Yan's entrusting him with an important task.
After hearing what Qiao Yan said, Chu Yan couldn't help but be excited.
"I want you to take 300,000 dan of yam to the Central Plains. You can decide how many people you need to bring with you. Sell it to pharmacies as medicinal herbs and to locust-infested areas as food along the way. Take the money back to Bingzhou and go to Taiyuan, Shangdang and other counties to buy rice. I will let Xu Fu go with you to avoid miscalculations in the transaction. You two must help each other and make sure this matter is done for me."
Although yam has a large yield, it cannot be stored for years like corn. Even if the ventilation problem is solved and the extended winter makes storage easier, it can only be stored for more than half a year at best. Therefore, Qiao Yan cannot let these yams rot here.
A portion will be distributed directly to the Black Mountain bandits as food reserves, a portion will be exchanged directly with the county residents, and when there is spare manpower in the winter, a batch of yam flour can be produced and sold to other places in Bingzhou, but these are not enough!
There will still be a considerable amount left over.
One appropriate way to deal with it is to consider that Bingzhou is less affected by the locust plague and there is still surplus food in various places. The yam can be used to exchange with other counties. However, since it is not urgently needed, the rice exchanged will inevitably be lost. It is better to choose a slightly more troublesome method.
Only when food is in urgent need can yam be completely transformed from a medicinal material to a relief food, and the benefits obtained can be higher.
However, going to a famine-stricken area would certainly involve dangers, and dealing with these people would require sufficient toughness, so after weighing the pros and cons, Qiao Yan felt that this kind of matter could only be left to Chu Yan.
"I want to ask Lord Qiao two things." Being entrusted with such an important matter did not make the quick-witted Black Mountain leader lose his composure, and he spoke immediately.
"you say."
"First, Lord Qiao entrusted me with 300,000 dan of yam. Are you really not afraid that I will take it away and never come back?" Chu Yan asked seriously.
"Since you have chosen to come to me and recommend yourself, you are probably not such a short-sighted person. Why should I doubt you?" Qiao Yan replied calmly.
Of course Chu Yan would not be so short-sighted.
This year, even though we are completely new and learning the ropes, we can still harvest this amount. What about next year?
Moreover, he had followed Qiao Yan to Jinyang and witnessed with his own eyes the scene where she raised her hand and shot an arrow to hold the prefect hostage. He had already formed a very high opinion of Qiao Yan's decisiveness and knew that she was a man who could accomplish great things. He did not think that it was a wise decision for Qiao Yan to leave with the grain.
It's hard to say whether it's because he was able to get a job under Marquis Leping, which involved going through a rather difficult question-and-answer process, that made him cherish his current position even more.
What Qiao Yan said was right, he really would not choose to leave at this time.
He opened his mouth again and said, "My second question is, Lord Qiao, if you pass through a famine-stricken area after a locust plague, and encounter refugees who can be taken in, what should you do with them?"
Qiao Yan smiled and said, "Isn't this one of the reasons why I asked you to go to these places?"
Of course, under such circumstances, the refugees gathered were unable to settle down in Leping.
Their situation is different from that of the Black Mountain Bandits.
There are traces of where the Black Mountain bandits came from, and Qiao Yan doesn't care about letting people around her know that she captured the Black Mountain bandits. It was precisely because of this information that she was able to obtain some "start-up capital" from the prefect of Changshan County.
However, Qiao Yan had no intention of spreading the news that the yam harvest reached one million shi. Even when she told the governor Guo, who was familiar with her and supported her a lot, she only harvested 400,000 to 500,000 shi. So there was no need to tell everyone about shipping the excess grain out to exchange for money and recruiting some refugees back.
Therefore, these people can only temporarily exist as the hidden population under the command of Marquis Leping.
Only when the time is right will they have the possibility to become people with formal household registration.
But for some people, even staying alive seems a luxury, so how can they care about such things?
This really can't be considered as Qiao Yan making money from the people's misfortune.
She was just seeking more benefits for herself within a reasonable range.
With Qiao Yan's attitude, Chu Yan knew what he should do.
He immediately prepared to go out to find Xu Fu, and the two discussed how many people they should bring with them. But just as he was about to step out of the door, he suddenly heard Qiao Yan say, "You might as well go out and hide first."
Chu Yan paused, his expression slightly changed until it was gradually replaced by his original calm look, and then he resumed his original action.
Although he did not make any promises at this time, he had already made a decision in his heart. No matter what, he must get things done for Lord Qiao!
With this part of external transactions, the work of dealing with county residents will be much less stressful.
The output of 500,000 mu of farmland in Leping County is only about one million dan. Due to the damage caused by the locust plague, there is indeed a slight reduction in production, but not much. The irrigation of the dragon bone overturning cart can even make up for this part of the loss.
So replacing yam with corn in order to store the county's grain reserves for a longer period of time is not something that Leping County cannot do.
After weighing whether the yam would cause a disease reaction and how much yam they could store for the winter, each household came to the county government to exchange ideas.
Thanks to the locust plague that had occurred before, in the process of exchanging locust seeds for food, the Leping County officials led by Cheng Li had already formed a complete system of reception, transaction, and registration. There would be no panic at this time, but only an additional warehousing process was needed.
Seeing that the yam was exchanged for rice at a slight loss as a more stable food reserve, Qiao Yan couldn't help but feel relieved.
Unfortunately, this part of the transaction cannot be too heavy. Although yam can make you feel full, its calorie content is not as high as corn. Under high-intensity labor conditions, it is not as effective as rice or flour.
Now we are stuck at this appropriate boundary.
Once the exchange is settled, it will be time to deal with the settlement of the Montenegrin Army.
It was not difficult to complete the transfer of population from Changshan to Leping during the population registration period.
Qiao Yan had mentioned this matter before in a letter to the prefect of Changshan County. The other party hoped that these refugees and bandits would not be in his territory, so how could he refuse Qiao Yan's suggestion?
The only problem is that for the Montenegrin Army of nearly 10,000 people, only 3,000 people can be settled based on their merits in the past year, which is really too few.
With Leping's household registration, they can follow the new regulations proposed by Qiao Hou. They can either cultivate enough land on the mountain to support themselves, or continue to cultivate the current yam fields, but half of the harvest from the fields will belong to them. Both options are good.
In July of this year, that is, before Qiao Yan broke into the provincial capital, she extended the one-year exemption of head tax and mu tax that was temporarily implemented last year for another year. Under such circumstances, the treatment in Leping was better than other places. Who would not want to settle here?
It’s a pity that there are only three thousand people.
This requires strict adherence to the rules for screening, otherwise those who are not selected will be very dissatisfied.
Xi Zhicai, who was the first to obtain Leping's household registration, simply became the person in charge of judging and registration, and also arrested Cai Yan and Yang Xiu to assist him.
When Qiao Yan saw Zhang Niujiao walking towards him carrying a scroll recording his workload, he couldn't help laughing because he was as big as the three responsible persons combined, but he looked like an elementary school student handing in homework to the teacher.
The scene was indescribably funny.
Zhang Niujiao didn't notice Qiao Yan's performance.
For him, having obtained the household registration, this was an important step in the career plan set for him by Chu Yan. He was so excited that he could not pay attention to anything else.
So what's next?
Yes, it’s recognizing words!
I heard that Lord Qiao intends to expand the production of mulberry paper this winter in addition to continuing his mulberry clothing business, apparently in order to increase the number of literate people.
But literacy is a bit difficult for him...
Zhang Niujiao thought in a laissez-faire manner that learning to read was a matter of time anyway, so it would always be a good idea to prepare the paper first. If learning to read was a headache for him, he might as well go and cut some more paper mulberry trees.
He discussed with his brother who had also obtained this household registration by working in the fields, and found that those who were doing well with him all had the same idea, so he immediately gathered a group of people and headed towards the mountains.
"If I hadn't seen this guy's expression just now, which was no different from holding the household registration and the marriage certificate, I would have thought he was planning to become a bandit again." Qiao Yan couldn't help but complain to the system, "This behavior has a very appropriate saying in modern times - poor students have more stationery."
[……] The system fell silent.
It wanted to ask Qiao Yan if this way of recruiting people was inconsistent with her position as a counselor, but then it heard her say: "Fortunately, planting yam is not just a physical job. Women with delicate minds are more outstanding in fine management. Women accounted for the majority of the early preparations and the merits of the mulberry fur clothing. More than half of these 3,000 people are women. If they had the opportunity to learn to read, would they be able to do more instead of just being vassals who followed the Black Mountain Army into the mountains before?"
The hopeful look in Qiao Yan's eyes made the system completely forget what it wanted to say before.
As a qualified atmosphere group, it immediately responded: [Host, don't worry, it will definitely work! 】
Qiao Yan was satisfied.
This is not entirely to fool the system, it is indeed her vision for the future.
But before that, she had to solve another problem.
When the autumn harvest and settlement were almost over, she received an urgent report from her men guarding Chenguanxing that the imperial envoys were entering Bingzhou.
Qiao Yan immediately set off and returned to Jinyang.
When Cui Liexing arrived at the provincial capital, he saw the young county magistrate in black robes and a red hat. His every move and gesture showed the demeanor of a gentleman in this corrupt world. Although he said, "Welcome, Your Majesty," he actually had a calm aura that far exceeded his age.
Even though Cui Lie had guessed that this daring prince would not do anything like going barefoot with his hair loose or asking for forgiveness with a thorn stick on his back when receiving the envoy, he was still shocked by her welcoming manner as a host.
Before leaving the capital, Liu Hong specifically told him to teach Qiao Yan well, and at least use his status as a famous scholar to suppress her arrogance a little.
But Cui Lie felt that——
He can't suppress it!
Compared with Qiao Yan's calm demeanor, the performance of Governor Zhang Yi was really disappointing.
Although he was imprisoned by Qiao Yan, Qiao Yan did not deprive him of food and even made him a little fatter.
Now this fair and plump-looking fellow grabbed Cui Lie's hand and cried and complained that he was treated so rudely by Marquis Leping. He hoped that Envoy Cui, as the emperor's envoy, would report the situation here truthfully. No matter how he looked at it, he felt that he was indeed very different from Qiao Yan.
"Zitai..." Cui Lie replied with a tangled look in his eyes: "The title of envoy can be called the emperor's envoy or the governor of a prefecture or county. I am really sorry for you. I am the latter."
Cui Lie continued in a low voice, despite Zhang Yi's sudden pause: "I am the new governor of Bingzhou appointed by His Majesty."
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