At the end of August, Ren Hong and Zheng Ji stood together on the banks of the babbling Cherchen River.Throughout the summer, the sparkling waters, the fish and birds chirping, the reeds and cattails swaying the branches and leaves, and in late autumn, the white reed flowers bloom one after another, and the bushes are dotted with brown-red cattails.Zheng Ji, a short Huiji, had practiced throwing swords and was very good at playing water drifting, but when he raised his hand, a stone floated on the water more than ten times in a row, and he almost jumped to the other side of the river before sinking into the water.Ren Hong was a little worse, and the stone chips thrown out didn't work after three or five clicks on the water.Zheng Ji whistled proudly, and asked Ren Hongdao: "Ren Shilang, I don't understand, this river and the North River are not the same at all, why is it still the virtuous river god who is sacrificed." ”Ren Hongdao: "The people of Loulan believe that all rivers will flow into the Puchang Sea, and when they are connected, they are the embodiment of the virtuous river god. ”Therefore, the Loulan people who migrated from the lower reaches still called this river also called the "virtuous river god" and worshiped in the same way.It is it that nurtures the vast oasis of Shanshan and creates a heavenly kingdom on earth in the yellow sand and Gobi."
There's some truth to that."
Zheng Ji nodded and said to Ren Hong: "I heard that the historians of Chang'an thought that the water in the east of Khotan flowed eastward into the Puchang Sea, and the Puchang Sea was vast for three hundred miles. ”The turbid river is the Yellow River, the big river has broken several times in recent years, although the upstream has been paid off, but the downstream has long been yellow.Ren Hong couldn't cry or laugh when he heard this, and said secretly: "So the Yellow River is also a virtuous river god, and it is the mother river shared by Loulan and the Han people?"
”This is obviously inconsistent with the facts, but Ren Hong is not good at letting Sima Qian, who first advocated this, come out and be beaten.On the contrary, I pondered that this statement may be able to be used well in the future.But today they still have something to do, Zheng Ji is on the order of Fu Jiezi to replace Ren Hong as the "mud Sima", it seems that the old Fu intends to abide by the agreement this time, and no longer let Ren Hong take over.Ren Hong can't pat his ass and walk away, he has to take Zheng Ji for a month to get familiar with Shanshan's situation.After all, everything is completely different from the Central Plains, and if you use Han thinking to do things, you will definitely get twice the result with half the effort.What Ren Hong wants to talk to Zheng Ji about today is the land situation in Shanshan."
Ziqian, farming near Chang'an, what does the final harvest of the noble family depend on?"
Zheng Ji didn't hesitate: "Of course, it depends on the amount of land. ”Ren Hong shook his head: "But in Shanshan, the amount of harvest has nothing to do with the land, only with water. ”As they walked along the embankment of a large ditch by the river, Ren Hong told Zheng Ji: "Like Loulan City, the land here is a desert, there is little rainfall, and the crops are wholly owned by water conservancy, and the amount of sowing is subject to the breadth and narrowness of the irrigation. ”Different from the Central Plains, which is narrow and populous, Shanshan is not short of land, after all, the land area is as large as the two Jiangsu provinces in later generations.In terms of oases alone, the clay oasis is about the same size as the Dunhuang oasis, but the population is only two or three thousand, and the per capita cultivated land is still very large.However, the swamps that are too close to the river cannot grow food, so the people of Loulan have gradually dug ditches with rudimentary tools for hundreds of years, and diverted the river water to the distant farmland to organize people to open canals and manage the irrigation of the canals, which is the foundation of the power of the king of Loulan.Ren Hong pointed to the many branch canals of the big ditch and showed Zheng Ji, each of which connected a large area of farmland, but was jammed with clods of earth, and the servants sent by the king of Shanshan and the nobles watched it."
In the vicinity of the mud city, there are several big ditches along the river, which belong to the king of Shanshan, and the branch canals of the big ditch are dug by the seven or eight nobles in the mud city.""
King Shanshan would send water sacrifices every month to supervise the release of water for irrigation, and if the nobles did not pay the water bill, they could not release water into the dividing canal.""
In the same way, if the farmer does not pay the water bill to the nobleman, the water from the canal will not irrigate his field."
Therefore, there are no landlords in Shanshanguo, and fighting local tyrants and dividing the land will only hit the air.There is only a "canal master".Ren Hong can often see that the farmer irrigated three or twice for this month, and fought with the slaves of the aristocratic family to blush and have a thick neck, and he had to kill people, which shows the preciousness of water.But the land is worthless, and at least two-thirds of the vast canal-side fields are abandoned.Following Ren Hong's fingers, Zheng Ji could see that the fields where millet and spring wheat were planted had been harvested, leaving only a stubble of wheat stalks.There was a burst of fire and smoke in the distance, and it was the Loulan people who were burning the wasteland, burning the long-abandoned land by the ditch to remove weeds so that they could plant winter wheat.The Loulan people in the field do not use oxen to plow, but use primitive ploughs and even stone knives and axes to cut the ground."
Slash-and-burn."
Ren Hong is very helpless, this is the agricultural level of the Loulan people, after sowing, there is no cultivation, fertilization, hoeing measures, just drive birds and beasts, every month waiting for the nobles to show mercy, open a canal to irrigate two or three times, if it rains, irrigation is also exempt."
This kind of land, planted for a year, is naturally exhausted, so it is simply abandoned and idle, and then used the same method of burning the wasteland to open up another land to the periphery, after all, the oasis is vast, open up at will."
But as the population of the city grew, and the amount of arable land needed became more and more extensive, they began to open up new wasteland on the periphery of the oasis, cutting down and burning poplars and red willows that were not protected by the ban of the virtuous river gods, and the ditches had to be extended and forked.If you are in the Central Plains, you can't wait for as many fields as possible, but in Shanshan, this is not a good thing.Ren Hong can see the hidden danger: these ditches and the newly opened fields around them are like straws, constantly sucking out and diverting the water in the river, and I don't know how much it has evaporated under the scorching sun!
The amount of water coming from the snow-capped glaciers doesn't increase every year, and the desert doesn't expect much rainfall.Extensive farming requires more and more water for irrigation, and in the long run, less water will flow downstream.There will be no major problems in the short term, but in a few hundred years, it may lead to a downstream outage and Lop Nur will shrink.Tracing back to the roots, the reason why more land has been cultivated is naturally because of population growth.Or keep the population under control?
It's okay, you see, in order to protect the ecological environment, all the good people committed suicide together.Or is it limited to only two births per household, and those who accidentally have more than one are all dedicated to the virtuous river god?
In addition to forced migration before the population threshold is reached, the only feasible way is to introduce more advanced agricultural technology in the Central Plains.Ploughing the ground deeply, raking finely, applying manure, and substituting the field method to divide the furrow and ridge operations can increase yields and maintain soil fertility and avoid frequent fallow.This was invented by the Central Plains in order to survive in a narrow and crowded environment.I am not afraid of not knowing the goods, I am afraid of comparing the goods, and the large-scale extensive cultivation of slash-and-burn cultivation is obviously the latter with high yield and less water consumption compared with the intensive cultivation of the Central Plains people concentrated on a piece of land.Instead of letting the limited amount of water flow to ten acres of rotten land, it is better to concentrate on one acre of intensive cultivation and produce more food.This is the reason why Ren Hong hopes to promote the agricultural technology of the Central Plains in Shanshan.Zheng Ji understood: "But I heard that Shanshan people don't want to learn because they don't like the Xianshan River God?"
”"Not really."
After Ren Hong lost his temper that day, he personally learned about it, and it seemed that those Shanshan nobles said that the harvest was all up to the virtuous river god, which was indeed superstitious.But if Ren Hong pats his head and wants to fight superstition with superstition, he will be fooled.The excuses on the lips are often different from what they think in their hearts, and the reason why the nobles say this is only because they are conservative and unwilling to make any new attempts.And ordinary people, in addition to being conservative, are also because of one word: "lazy!"
”"It's about the same as Huiji."
Zheng Jile was happy and told Ren Hongdao: "Huiji County is scarce, there is neither a shortage of water nor a shortage of land, the things in the forest can not be finished at all, and the fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs in the rivers and lakes can be eaten to a greasy level, so the Yue people also like slash-and-straw water rakes, and the rice will not be sprinkled if it is sprinkled, and it will not starve to death anyway." ”"Successive Huiji Taishou want to promote the method of intensive cattle cultivation in the Central Plains, but the locals of Huiji are too lazy to learn, and it has been a hundred years, and it has not been effective.""
How can this barren oasis of Shanshan be compared to the rich land of Huiji?"
Ren Hong sighed, he originally thought that this desert oasis is not as good as the tropics, and it is impossible to rely entirely on the sky to eat, so everyone should be more diligent in order to have more food and let the children in the family eat more.But he is obviously looking at the problem with the thinking of the Central Plains people, and Shanshan people don't think so.The thousand-year-old habit is deep-rooted, and these Shanshan farmers, even if they don't have a few livestock at home, would rather sprinkle the seeds into the ground casually, and then lie on the reed mats all day long to bask in the sun.Angry, but Ren Hong understands it when he thinks about some phenomena in later generations: 996 is to pay more wages, but after weighing the pros and cons, we would rather go home and rest.For an author, three is more than two more manuscript fees, but tired, why bother."
Still not hungry!"
Ren Hong was heartbroken.What's more, the people of Loulan just listened to King Shanshan boast about how the Han land was full of grain, but they failed to see it for themselves, and it was natural for them to have doubts.Zheng Ji was curious: "What is Ren Lang going to do?"
”"There are two ways: fast and slow."
Ren Hong had already pondered: "If you are slow, you don't have to force it, just go with the flow." ”The soldiers of Dahan Tuntian are not here to help the poor, they must help the Shanshan people get rid of poverty within a year, what are they anxious about?
Ren Hongdao: "Shanshan's bazaar has gradually prospered, and the merchants of the distant missions have come here with rare and exotic objects, and the only thing Shanshan people can use to exchange with them is food.Let's let some people learn the skills, accumulate food, and get rich first, and then I am not afraid that the rest of the people will not follow suit. ”"I'm afraid it will take three or five years for this method to work, but I hope that Shanshan will have a bumper harvest in the coming year and prepare for the Han army to fully open up the southern road, so I can only use a quick method with some hidden dangers."
Speaking of this, Ren Hong looked at Zheng Ji: "Of course, the next person in the mud tuntian is Ziqian, whether it is implemented or not depends on you." ”Zheng Ji is not a patient person, and in the Battle of Loulan, his performance in the Fu Jiezi mission was not as brilliant as Ren Hong and Xi Chongguo, so his rank was inferior to the two.Now succeeding Ren Hong, he naturally hopes that he can make some achievements in the mud, of course, the sooner the better, so he gave up to Ren Hong."
Please also ask Ren Shilang to teach me!""
It's simple."
Ren Hong was a little anxious, so he stood with Zheng Ji and urinated on the edge of the ditch: "In Shanshan, water is the source of everything, and the rivers and ditches belong to King Shanshan, the eldest son of the Xianshan River God. ”He looked at his own urine that was too yellow and spilled into the ditch, and said with a smile: "As long as King Shanshan orders that if you don't learn how to plow and cultivate the master, the irrigation water will be halved in the coming year, what will happen?"
”PS: The second chapter is in the evening.