After walking for more than two hours along the south bank of the Wei River, after crossing a high hill, Old Man Zhang pointed to the field in front of him and said, "The field in front of us is Qianbeitun."

Cao Liang immediately stood on the high hill, built a pergola with his hands, and looked eastward. The field in front of him was endless and extremely flat. However, there was no trace of crops on the field, only the long and short weeds.

, shivering in the bleak cold wind, probably because this land is fertile. The weeds here grow quite vigorously. Although they have withered and turned yellow, you can still imagine what it was like here in summer and autumn.

of lushness.

If Old Man Zhang hadn't deliberately reminded him, Cao Liang would never have regarded this barren land overgrown with weeds as a former farmland.

Perhaps only the crisscrossing roads can prove that this field was once a farmland rich in grain. In the past ten years, the farmland here has made indelible contributions in resisting the attack of the Shu Kingdom. It is precisely because of the farmland in the Wei River Basin

The grain produced nourished the soldiers guarding the Yongliang front line, giving them enough confidence to deal with the Shu army.

The defeat of the Shu army was due to logistical difficulties due to the lack of food and grass, and with these farms, the Wei army had no worries at all.

Food and grass are the life of an army, and farming is the cradle of life. It was precisely because the Wei army vigorously developed farming that the Wei army was in an invincible position in the battle for Yongliang.

But now, these farms that once made great contributions to the Wei State have turned into a barren land, with weeds spreading wildly and no one inhabiting within dozens of miles. What is the reason for this situation?

"Uncle Zhang, when did you leave Qian Beitun?" Cao Liang asked.

When Old Man Zhang revisited his hometown, he couldn't help but feel filled with emotion and said: "I was one of the last batch to leave Qianbeitun. The winter before last, that is, after harvesting the last batch of crops."

"Did someone force you to leave?"

"That's not true, but cultivating the fields can no longer support the family. Staying on this land will only mean starving to death. No one is willing to stay, so the people in the villages are gradually lost, and in the end there will be no more here.

Without human habitation, the land will be completely barren."

"Why was it that farming and farming was no problem in the past, but then it became unsustainable?"

Old man Zhang gave a wry smile and said: "Young master, you don't know something. When we first started farming, the government stipulated that those who used official cattle would be divided into six officials and four civilians. Those who used private cattle would have their harvest divided in half. With this distribution, the villagers could still keep food and clothing.

The people are actively farming. However, in recent years, the government has continuously recruited villagers to build palaces and water conservancy projects, and also mobilized strong villagers to enlist in the army. There is already a shortage of manpower, and so many corvee military services have taken away a lot of strong labor.

, resulting in many settlements being deserted and uncultivated. The government also stipulated that if the land allocated to each settlement was abandoned, the original taxes would still be paid. As a result, the settlement residents were overwhelmed and fled one after another, preferring to be refugees.

I don’t want to guard this land anymore.”

Cao Liang also knew that the farming system did contribute to the rise of Cao Wei. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the world was in turmoil, Cao Cao listened to Zao Zhi's advice and took the lead in implementing farming among the princes. This kind of farming and fighting, military

The method of uniting the people as one truly made great contributions to Cao Cao's struggle for world hegemony.

In the first year of the implementation of the farming system, Cao Cao obtained millions of dendrobium grains, which solved Cao Cao's military food problem in one fell swoop and laid a solid foundation for Cao Cao to dominate the world.

Having tasted the benefits, Cao Cao quickly extended the farming system to all parts of the country, and implemented a method of developing both military and civilian villages. The harvest was huge, and the farming system continued until the founding of the Wei State.

After the founding of the Wei State, although it did not continue to develop farmland on a large scale, it still paid close attention to the construction of farmland in Yongliang and Huainan, which bordered Wu and Shu. The grain and grass produced here fully supplied the frontline troops.

, the grain and grass on the front line did not need to be transported, and the consumption was very small, which laid a good material foundation for repelling the multiple attacks of Shu and Wu.

However, everything is subject to change, and the prosperity will inevitably decline. The government's exploitation of the farmers is getting worse and worse. Cao Cao originally stipulated that all farmers should only work in the fields and not be responsible for military service. This way, it can be ensured that the farmers can focus on production and have nothing to worry about.

However, later on, the imperial court assigned corvees to the farmers and selected strong laborers to join the army, which seriously dampened the enthusiasm of the farmers, causing a large number of farmers to go into exile and give up farming.

Coupled with the fact that aristocratic families coveted the land around Chang'an, after these fields became deserted, these scholar families could purchase these deserted lands through the government at very low prices, and turned their farmland into private land.

The decline of farming has indeed had an extraordinary impact on the national treasury. The originally full grain depot has become empty of grain. Cao Liang can't help but frown. Now it seems that the task of collecting grain has become an almost impossible task.

task.

Cao Liang asked Old Man Zhang a lot about farming in detail. Old Man Zhang took two pieces of gold from Cao Liang and cooperated with Cao Liang very much. As long as he knew, he told them one by one. Cao Liang learned from Old Man Zhang

Here, we still have a lot of first-hand information.

Farming has always been the foundation of Cao Wei's country. Now, due to the annexation by powerful forces, the farming system has ceased to exist in name only. Cao Liang has reason to believe that most of these occupied farms have gone to people who are closely related to Guo Huai.

In the hands of wealthy people.

They even invaded the farmland completely purposefully, using heavy taxes and exorbitant taxes to drive these farmers off the land, leaving a large number of high-quality fields to become barren. You know, one acre of high-quality paddy fields and one acre of barren land

The price can vary hundreds of times.

These wealthy families used this method to take possession of the farmland that originally belonged to the government, and they did not spend a few dollars to acquire the wasteland. The price for acquiring the wasteland was simply cabbage price.

The entire Yongliang officialdom was probably completely corrupt.

However, with Cao Liang's authority, it seems that he can't take care of this. What he cares about is only the 500,000 grains and grass needed by the army to conquer the west. Even if he can't count on the farming side, he must find another way.

Just fine.

The task of providing five hundred thousand dendrobium of grain and fodder forced Cao Liang to cheer up and try his best to complete it.

"Brother-in-law, what should we do?" Yang Hu also realized the seriousness of the situation. These farms were abandoned, so where would they collect the military rations they needed?
Chapter completed!