Chapter 30: A 100,000 cavalry chants of Tang Poems

Hexi, which has a relatively abundant precipitation, has experienced heavy snow. The snow outside Liangzhou City is full of feet, making it difficult to travel. However, under the heavy snow, there is vitality. The agriculture in Liangzhou will probably have a good harvest next year.

In the past two years, Zheng Wei reformed the tax system internally to encourage farmers and suburbans. Since he could gain benefits from the Silk Road, he reduced the direct tax collection for farmers. The operation of a relatively independent judicial system has led to a rare fairness and justice in Hexi. Not to mention barbarians like the Khitan, even the Central Plains were far less likely to come as well as Hexi due to corruption, so various social forces tilted to the northwest. Guanzhong, Hanzhong, and Shu all had poor people stolen the border and came here to live. Some visionary merchants would not leave after they arrived here. In addition, those who entered the plains, those who returned to the Han Dynasty, and those who returned to the temple monks were also continuing to increase. The various reasons combined have led to the increase of households in the two states of Liang this autumn, and the number of farmers in Lanzhou increased by 30% compared with the same period last year, among which the number of agricultural population increased by 40% compared with the number of farmers in the past five years.

In the past two years, the Tiance regime has been effectively controlling prices. Grain in Hexi has been maintaining a higher price, attracting various social forces to continuously invest. In addition to the irrigated farmland distributed by the government, military and commercial villages have become important sources of surplus grain. The abandoned water conservancy system has been rebuilt one by one, and the area of ​​wheat fields has doubled within one year. Gansu, Liang and Lanzhou are under a layer of snow, and what is buried is the grain reserves for the coming year.

"The weather in Beiting and Yizhou seems to be warm winter, and it is also affected by war. The great desert will be confirmed in the coming year," Zhang Zhongmou wrote in his summary of the agricultural situation forecast for Zheng Wei: "There is no big difference between Gaochang and Shule. After the population of Shazhou gradually moved out, some semi-arid farmland will be returned to grass and forests, and the land yield may be slightly reduced in the coming year. Only Gan, Liang and Lanzhou may have a bumper harvest."

A bumper harvest is a good thing, but Zhang Zhongmou believes that if the bumper harvest can appear in Gaochang, Kucha, because in the coming year, no matter what the victory or defeat of Beiting, it is afraid that the army will be difficult to withdraw to the eastern part of Hexi immediately for food. If there is still a need to continue to use troops in the next year, and the surplus grain from Gaochang, Kucha and other places cannot be afforded, then the grain will have to be adjusted from the eastern part of Hexi, which will result in a considerable amount of transportation expenses.

In addition to the development of agriculture, some of Hexi's animal husbandry are also transforming. There are large areas of grassland in Anlong, and in areas where irrigation farmland and grassland are intersecting, there are a large number of land suitable for agriculture and animal husbandry. In the past two years, Zhang Mai encouraged Shangtun to vigorously promote new agriculture, allowing those farmers who build farms to introduce excellent old farmers and herdsmen, introduce new grass seeds and carry out refined farming and pastoral management, so that the unit meat production of these pastures will greatly increase. Especially in places closer to cities such as Liangzhou, Jincheng, Ganzhou, and Suzhou, the proportion of refined agricultural and animal husbandry production is becoming larger and larger. Zhang Mai and other senior management have taken the lead in eating milk, making dairy products popular, and used meat, fruits and vegetables to improve the people's dietary structure. Now the rich food in Hexi has gradually caught up with Luoyang and Yangzhou.

When the war in Beiting was in full swing, the market in Longxi happened to be very peaceful.

The army of the Tiance Army headed to the northwest, while the Later Tang Dynasty focused on the northeast. Both sides tried their best to maintain the stability of the Guanlong area, which made the border area between the Tiance Army and the Later Tang Dynasty the most stable large rear.

Before this cold winter came, the news of the opening of Jiesu Trading Road made merchants troubled by the Saman section of the Silk Road regained their confidence. The opening of Tianzhu trade road made some people even more excited. Those who were originally going west to continue traveling west, and merchants who should buy goods in Jincheng continued to buy goods. The recession shown in the middle of the year in the second year was swept away in the autumn and winter. After a brief sluggish period of about a month, the market continued to rise. Even Lingnan and Dali had already arrived, and even the Changbai Mountain ginseng and Haidongzhu in the northeast began to appear in the market in Liangzhou - this kind of bead was produced from the Northeast Plain and the North Sea coast, and was under the control of the Khitans. Khitans and the Later Tang Dynasty and Tiance were both enemy countries, but commercial forces could break through the political barriers and travel far to this point.

Even Lingnan and Changbai Mountain have goods transported to the Central Plains, Bashu and Jiangnan. The books in Jiangnan and Shu have already become popular in Hexi, especially the sales of well-printed books have become particularly prosperous. The current situation of the Tiance regime is war and peace inside. Although the main theme of the Tiance Army is war at present, there is already a literary style in the hinterland.

For example, Fan Zhi, as the envoy of the Later Tang Dynasty to Liangzhou, his life changed greatly.

Although Li Congke gained benefits from trading with Hexi and sent spies, his work could not be so meticulous after all. He sent Fan Zhi out, but he did not consider how much subsidies and funds he would give him. In fact, the more ancient this issue, the less he considered. How much funds did Su Wu, who was on the Huns, bring? How much funds did Zhang Qian, who was on the Western Regions, bring?

In that era, many things had to be relied on individuals, not on states. Sometimes what the state could give these heroes was a kind of prestige and call.

But in Fan Zhi, he faced this problem. Corresponding to him, the Tiance regime had some funds for sending envoys. Zheng Wei, the civil servant group, had far less considerations about these things than Li Congke. Since the trust he got from Zhang Mai was far better than that of Feng Dao from Li Congke, he did better than Feng Dao. As for Han Zhaoyin, Liu Yanlang and others, it was incomparable.

Fan Zhi's duties were under the jurisdiction of the Privy Councilor and the Privy Councilor, Han and Liu, who were lacking in consideration of how Fan Zhi lived and communicated in Liangzhou, so after Fan Zhi arrived in Liangzhou, many problems had to be solved by himself.

Fortunately, the Tiance Army helped him somehow in agreeing to send clauses to the resident envoys with the Later Tang court. For example, when Zheng Wei agreed on this matter, he considered to ask the Later Tang court to ensure that the resident envoys of the Tiance Army could live in, and how much food, money and firewood would receive subsidies for each month. The Tiance Army would also give Fan Zhi the same treatment. It was this clause that allowed Fan Zhi to obtain basic living needs, but what about socializing?

Regarding this famous scholar, Jinshi and talented man from the Central Plains, Zhang Mai instructed him to give him a relatively relaxed environment. Therefore, while Lu Jialing was secretly surveillance, he only allowed him to carry out some social activities, but if he wanted to have activities, he had to have money. For example, when he went to a banquet, he had to prepare cars, horses and clothes. If he wanted to hold a banquet, he would have to pay even more. This is the most basic thing. In short, socializing in a civilized society requires money. In order to maintain a decent life as a representative of the Later Tang Dynasty, he also had to spend some money. The Deputy Envoy of the Privy Councilor of Luoyang did not consider this amount of money. What should he do?

Fan Zhi faced this problem shortly after he arrived this year, but after a few days of difficulty, someone sent money to his door. In Hexi, the biggest celebrity was Zhang Yi and others. The literati who read and literate in Lingxi already had a sense of a country bumpkin in front of Zhang Yi. However, Zhang Yi was one level worse than Fan Zhi's name. Fan Zhi was a talented man with a national literary name, and his background was comparable to local literati like Zhang Yi. After he gave several poems in Liangzhou, he became famous immediately after Hexi, Ganzhou Wujia, Liangzhou Sunjia, Majia, Liangzhou Caojia, Shazhou Songjia and others came to ask for inscriptions or to write epitaphs. These families with cultural backgrounds were led by the nouveau riche who made profits from the Silk Road followed suit and elegance. Inscriptions and writing writing naturally had a smooth pen. This alone was already a considerable income.

Although Fan Zhi had the ethics of a literati, at first he thought that he was now stationed in Liangzhou and applying for funds from the court far away in Luoyang. It would be better to rely on his own efforts to solve the problem. So he used this as a reason in his heart to make money. After earning money, in addition to office work, he also solved some personal problems, such as improving his diet, buying good wine and tea to prepare for guests, improving his clothes, changing into new clothes to show decentness, and improving his servants, and asking a few more servants to clean the house.

Two months later, a book merchant named Wen from Shu saw that Lianglan had something to do in the cultural market. The books he brought had been used up, so he simply rented a few houses in Liangzhou and started a bookstore. Because he opened a bookstore, he thought of asking a famous scholar to make a signboard. The first one was Fan Zhi.

Fan Zhi was about to buy a four-horse cart for travel at that time. He had to get a carriage for a carriage, and it had to spend money on the carriage. Moreover, he came to Liangzhou before but he didn't expect that the situation would be today, so he came here empty-handedly and didn't bring his wife and children. Although he had two assistants, he was both doing business and some personal matters were not easy to ask them to help him, so he needed to raise one or two book children, which cost money. So when the bookshop found him, the two agreed after discussing the conditions.

Soon a book of "Three Hundred Tang Poems" signed by Fan Zhi was put into print. Wen Shushang was very smart. He saw that the Tiance Army was very hard-working in education of Tang poetry. Even soldiers would recite a few poems, so he went to this market. He divided the 300 Tang poetry into two types: the simple version. The simple version was cheap and was sold well in Hexi not long after it was released. In a few months, it sold more than 100,000 copies. The hard version was much more expensive because it contained Fan Zhi's ink paste.

You should know that Zhang Mai had already "invented" movable type printing technology when he was Shule. Zhang Mai didn't take this invention much seriously, but it used it very quickly among the people. It formed a flow process in some private workshops and created many movable type signs. Wenshu merchants bought a row of movable type signs, and soon the simple-covered books were released. The hardcover books were much slower, so they needed to be engraved. The simple-covered version was rough and even a bit rough, and it was really not up to the table. Fan Zhi regretted that he lost his value after reading it, but this was also the one who really made money. Those hardcover versions cost a lot, had a long cycle, and there were not many people who could afford it, but Wenshu merchants insisted on doing it in order to "set up a brand".

After making this money, the Wenshuo Zhiwei, and the Wenshu merchant used Fan Zhi's name to ask Fan Zhi to edit and write articles, and then he would run it. One of them borrowed names and the other borrowed profits. The business path became wider and wider, and the product sales scope became larger and larger. Some of them even resold to the Later Tang and Bashu.

With the share of the pen and the bookseller, Fan Zhi's life became more and more generous. As soon as he turned around, he bought a four-horse cart and hired a young man to be a coachman, but he could not find a good book boy and secretary in Liangzhou. You must know that Anlong places lack literary talent, and the young man who had literary talent among Fan Zhi's eyes had long been snatched by Zheng Wei to be a bureaucratic reserve. Where would he be a book boy?

After thinking about it, he wrote a letter to the scholar-official friends in the Central Plains for help, and arranged to buy a few book children over there. The money problem was not a problem. He also wrote a letter to young disciples who had taught in the past and had not yet become officials, and asked them to come to Liangzhou to "study". As for their livelihood after they arrived, there was no need to worry. Fan Zhi saw that after his disciples came, there was a big market for whether they were in Buddhism, politics or business. As for the entry problem, someone helped them solve it with the acquiesce of Lu Jialing.

There is no comparison between Guanlong and Yunguan. It can pass through as long as there is no heavy wind and snow in winter. During this blizzard, Fan Zhi had more than 30 disciples coming to rely on him. After entering Liang, they all lived in the wing room of Tianning Temple. At first, they received letters from the teacher. Some of them came generously, thinking that the teacher had something to do with great things. After arriving, they realized that it was not the same thing at all. Mr. Fan lived in the market in Liangzhou. Although he also learned from Du Fu that he was worried about the country and the people, his actual life was rich, sufficient and generous.

The relationship between Longxi and the Central Plains is getting closer and closer. Although there is still a gap in politics and military affairs, civil society is becoming more and more harmonious - because these two sectors are originally one, just like water and milk. Once they touch each other, no one can stop them.

Thanks to Lu Jialing's tacit approval, Fan Zhi and the Piaotian literary circles of the Central Plains literati gradually formed.

Luoyang.

On this day, Feng Dao gathered his disciples to give lectures, and his in-law Liu Bing also came to support him. When he found that Feng Dao had two proud disciples, he asked where he went. A naughty disciple smiled and said, "Why should the Han flute blame the willows? The spring breeze is over the Yumen Pass."

Feng Dao was stunned and asked, "What do you mean?"

The disciple smiled but did not dare to answer, Feng Dao said lightly: "I'm leaving here."

Liu Feng was even more surprised: "There is a profit? Where can I go if the prime minister is not alone?"

Feng Dao said lightly: "The Central Plains has been in war for a long time. All the governors are military men, and all the scholars are despised. How can they be as good as Hexi? Although their customs are very wild, they still know how to respect literature. The civil servants can get on horseback, and the military generals can respect literature. One hundred thousand cavalry chant Tang poetry, hehe, where can I find such a scene in the Central Plains?"
Chapter completed!