The golden wheat ears swayed in the wind, and the harvesting people were in full swing. After the war, we could see such golden wheat ears again. Whether it was Chu Huan, the governor or the people who harvested food in the fields, we were indescribable excitement.

Old Master Su is over 70 years old and is in a state of great age, but he still seems energetic at this time and raises his hand and points on the ridges of the fields.

"This year, God has opened his eyes and can be called a good weather." Old Master Su smiled at the corner of his mouth, "Duke Chu, if it weren't for you, Xiguan wouldn't have seen these golden ears of wheat."

Chu Huan laughed and said, "Old Master, you can't say this. I didn't do anything. You Xiguan gentry and the people of Xiguan work together to produce these foods. If you are in terms of credit, the old master is the most important thing."

The old man laughed and immediately said: "The harvest of each company is good this year. In addition to repaying the debts to the customs, there are still some left... But next year, we will also need food rations, and we also need to prepare grain for food, so I am afraid that there will still be a lot of food shortage."

Gongsun Chu, the governor of Yuezhou, also came with him, saying: "Sir, after the promulgation of the equal land order, the local area is very active, and the inspection and the inspection of the population are nearing the end. The orders collected from various places have been transferred to the Ministry of Revenue Department. The subordinates carefully checked in the Ministry of Revenue Department. After the implementation of the equal land order, a large area of ​​wasteland has been distributed to the people. The original land plus newly reclaimed land, according to current statistics, there are nearly 20 million mu of acres. The total population of Xiguan Road, currently counting is about 3 million people, and more than two million people are engaged in production, which means that the per capita can produce about ten mu of land."

Chu Huan said: "If 20 million mu of land are to be cultivated, how much grain is needed for one mu of land?"

"Normally, ten kilograms of grain are still needed." Gongsun Chu said: "If all the cultivated land needs to be sown, at least two million stones of grain is needed!"

"Two million stones?" Chu Huan was shocked, then frowned and asked, "Then how much grain can the prefectures and counties in Xiguan Road produce together this year?"

"Before Xiguan, there was a chaotic situation, and there was no land to cultivate, so I wanted to cultivate without grain." Gongsun Chu said solemnly: "Fortunately, the old man and the gentry of Xiguan borrowed grain from everywhere, and nearly 500,000 acres of land to plant grain..."

Chu Huan was a little surprised. The arable land area on Xiguan Road reached nearly 20 million mu, but the seeds were sown, which was less than 500,000 mu, which was almost a small fraction. It can also be seen how chaotic the situation on Xiguan Road was before.

This is no wonder that the people are displaced and a large number of refugees starve to death.

"Du Chu also knew that the northwest was mostly sandy land, which was different from the fertile land in the pass. Even in previous years, the northwest often had to transport grain from the fertile land to supplement it." Gongsun Chu explained: "The situation in Jiazhou and Yuezhou is better. The best fertile land can produce more than 800 kilograms of grain per mu. This is still a good weather this year, with a little worse, only 500 kilograms of grain... The situation in Hezhou and Jinzhou is much worse. The sandy land there is very serious. Some land can barely make do with farming, but the yield is very small. The best fertile land is less than 500 kilograms per mu, and the difference is a little, and two or three hundred kilograms are not without...!"

Mr. Su nodded and said, "Duke Chu, this is the case. The northwest is not a land of water and rice. The grain production of grain cannot be compared with that of the inner city. In comparison, the climate in the northwest is much worse than that in the inner city. This year's climate is rare in the northwest. It would be good to have such a climate in ten years. Even with such a good weather, our highest yield per mu of land can only produce 800 kilograms of grain, which is already the highest yield in the inner city... In Hebei Road, the yield per mu of fertile land can exceed 1,000 kilograms. On average, the yield per mu is more than 800 kilograms, while the yield per mu of our northwest is only about 600 kilograms, which is quite a small difference."

Gongsun Chu said: "Fortunately, most of the land sowing seeds this year can be counted as two days in the northwest. On average, the yield per mu is about 700 kilograms, and nearly 500,000 mu of land. This year, the grain harvest of all land on Xiguan Road this year should be less than three million stones..."

"Not less than three million stones?" Chu Huan frowned and said, "You just said that the grain planting in the next year alone will take two million stones. If these two million stones are removed, wouldn't the entire Xiguan Road only have one million stones of food?"

Gongsun Chu nodded and sighed: "It's true that there are three million mouths on the Xiguan. Normally, if you want to eat enough, on average, one person needs a pound of grain every day, that is, it will cost nearly 30,000 stones a day. In a year, if you want to eat enough at Xiguan, you will need 10 million stones... Even if you tighten your belts and supply food that can survive, you will be able to halve the food, and you will be able to overcome this hurdle without 5 million stones a year...!"

Chu Huan's expression became serious, "Eliminating the grain, there is only one million stone left. It takes five million stones to make all the people in Xiguan live. This... is the gap between this really too big, right?"

Mr. Su reminded him: "Duke Chu, there is no one million stones. The grain we planted before was borrowed from outside. He promised them that when there was a harvest, they would have to pay it back twice as much. This eliminated another batch of grain, and the remaining grain was less than one million stones."

Chu Huan only felt a split headache.

Gongsun Chu hesitated for a moment and finally said, "Sir, there is still one expense, you haven't counted it yet."

"What?"

"Horse!" Gongsun Chu said seriously: "Sir is expanding the Imperial Guards. It would be fine if the current situation is maintained. But once the Fengzi Camp continues to be expanded, the war horses in Fengzi Camp all need horse materials. Different people consume a lot of food every day. Moreover, the better the horse, the better the food required, and even the fine material is needed, which can be considered a huge expense."

Chu Huan said: "The expansion of Fengzi Camp is imperative. On the northwest Gobi Desert, there is a flat horse. Without a powerful cavalry army, the safety of Xiguan cannot be guaranteed. If even the safety of Xiguan cannot be guaranteed, then the so-called "living and working in peace and contentment cannot be discussed."

Gongsun Chu nodded and said, "What the lord said is," and then sighed, "The harm suffered before Xiguan is too severe. Fortunately, the court exempted us from taxes for three years, otherwise the situation would be even more optimistic... If we really want to recover completely, it would be difficult to have three or five years."

Chu Huan thoughtfully. As a governor, he now understands more clearly that it is not easy to really govern one side, let alone Xiguandao, which is in chaos after the war.

As a parent official, the first thing to do is to solve the food problem of the people. This seems simple, but it is actually the most fundamental problem. If the food problem is solved, many things will be solved easily. On the contrary, if this problem is not handled well, all problems will arise. It is certainly inevitable that the people who have no food to eat can only plunder and rebel.

Chu Huan knew very well that if there was no sufficient food guarantee, if he wanted to revitalize Xiguan and build a strong military force, it would be just a fantasy. No matter how many soldiers and the combat power were strong, the logistics could not keep up, there would inevitably be no invincible powerful legion. A powerful legion, the foundation for its establishment was to have strong logistics guarantees.

Chu Huan was actually always thinking about the issue of eating. He had thought before whether he could plant more grain on arable land, such as potatoes, pumpkins and other crops with extremely high grain production. Only after inquiring, he realized that these ordinary crops in later generations had not yet appeared in this era.

Chu Huan also understood that these crops were all transmitted from outside. It was a pity that they thought that the Western Regions had traded with the Central Plains, but those crops had not been transmitted yet.

"Mr. Gongsun, are there any other ways to solve the food problem?" Chu Huan looked grim, "The gap is too big to be filled at all."

Gongsun Chu said: "I have been thinking about this for many days. One million stones of grain is too little. Although there will be a lot of grains for many people, the current grain cannot be solved. Who can wait for the next year? Now that I am starving to death, what is the significance of the granary next year? We must understand the difficulties of the people, so... it is really not possible. We can only reduce the area of ​​cultivated land and cut off a batch from the grains for the people's food... Although this will cause a considerable loss in the next year's grain harvest, if you don't do this, you will probably starve many people to death this year, and the people will rebel...!"

"Mr. Gongsun's words are reasonable." The old man nodded slightly, "Duke Chu, plant food in fertile fields as much as possible. If the sand is too barren, we should try to plow as little as possible. If the people in the sand are allocated, we should give more relief to the food... But even so, the gap is still too big."

"When the spring of the next year, everything will revive, and wild grasses and other things can also satisfy your hunger." Gongsun Chu said: "It can use wild food for two months to make up for a considerable gap."

"Can you still transfer food from the pass?" Chu Huan was silent for a moment and asked, "In the past, the northwest was short of food, so didn't they all transfer food from the pass?"

Gongsun Chu shook his head and said, "If it were the past, the court could have helped to solve some of it, but the current situation is different from previous years. Master knows that when the people of Xiliang came, the court transported a large number of materials from the pass, from food to supplies, indeed a lot of them. If the things transported in the past two years were assisted to the northwest in the past ten years, most of these materials were transported from Xishan Road and Anyi. As far as the officials knew, these two channels were now severely damaged.

Chen Yangcang, one of the four major granaries of the empire, is now empty. Even if they have a harvest this year, they have to take care of their local people, otherwise there will be troubles on their own. In addition, the southeast Tianmen Road is still causing trouble, and the Qingtian King of Hebei is even more in trouble. Hebei Road is the empire's granary. After such trouble, Hebei will not only not be able to fill the treasury into the national treasury, but will instead transfer grain from the court to Hebei to quell the chaos. In this way, even if the court wants to aid the northwest, there is no food to adjust."
Chapter completed!