The most arrogant in history

Chapter 261: Nothing tastes better than dumplings.

Ma Zhao thought for a moment, frowned and said, "It's not wrong that they care about agriculture and sericulture."

"They care about themselves." Ye Kun sneered and said:

"Throughout the dynasties, the imperial power did not extend to the countryside, and it was the gentry who managed the local grassroots. The gentry were the local emperors in the countryside. Now, our factories have absorbed a lot of labor, and some agricultural population has escaped the control of the gentry, so the gentry are afraid."

Ma Zhao thought about it again and said, "Maybe what Lord Ye said makes sense."

"That makes sense." Ye Kun shrugged and said:

"As for agriculture, I also attach great importance to it. Qin Chou and Ye Qingyang have been building roads and bridges, digging canals and repairing reservoirs, promoting farming techniques, and introducing grains, vegetables and fruit trees from all over the country. These gentry and local gentry care about agriculture, but what have they done? They only know how to make the people work hard!"

Ma Zhao pondered and said, "But we have roughly calculated that the total population of Yizhou has increased by more than 50,000, including the immigrants and craftsmen brought by Lord Ye, as well as the death row prisoners captured during the suppression of bandits and rebellions. These 50,000 people all need to eat..."

Ye Kun waved his hand: "Don't worry about this. Yizhou still has millions of acres of land that can be reclaimed. If we add another million people, there will be food."

The entire Bashu land now has a total population of no more than two million.

The land can handle a quadrupling of the population.

In the parallel ridges and valleys in the west of Chongqing, there are still large tracts of land that have not been developed.

Ma Zhao smiled and said, "Yizhou is a large area, but it takes a lot of effort to open up wasteland. Lord Ye, have you ever opened up wasteland? Do you know how long it takes to open up one acre of land? How many years do you think it will take to turn one acre of virgin land into fertile cultivated land?"

"Master Ma, you look down on me, don't you?"

Ye Kun rolled his eyes and said, "I have a hundred thousand troops under my command. I can use half of them to open up wasteland. I guarantee that no one in Yizhou will starve to death."

Ye Kun had already thought about land reclamation.

However, such a large project can only be carried out after people's hearts are won over.

That's almost it now.

It is indeed not easy to reclaim wasteland. One has to dig up the trees and thorns on the wasteland, pick out the stones, and level the land.

In the first two years, the yield was low because the humus layer was not deep enough.

It takes several years of cultivation to turn barren land into fertile land.

But there is strength in numbers. Ye Kun has people and high-quality steel, so things will be easy.

Organize troops to carry out large-scale land reclamation. After clearing the weeds and digging out the tree roots, the rest will be left to the farmers.

In Yizhou, Ye Kun also wants to build a number of villages with 100 households and 50 households, which will be combined with the land reclamation.

Ma Zhao was delighted when he heard this and said with a smile:

"Lord Ye is willing to organize the reclamation of wasteland, and I fully support it. During this period, there are thousands of criminals imprisoned in the prison. Except for the death row prisoners, all of them can be sent to the reclamation of wasteland."

Ye Kun was a little surprised: "Why are there so many prisoners?"

After taking Chengdu, Ye Kun specifically ordered the prisons to be cleaned up in various places. Prisoners of minor crimes were released, and criminals of murder and arson were sent to the mines.

Unexpectedly, in just a few months, there were another thousand prisoners.

Ma Zhao said: "Some are small gangs of bandits, some are criminals, some are thieves, and some are smuggling salt... The one thousand people I mentioned are only in the Chengdu prison, not including other places."

Oh my god, so many criminals?

Ye Kun thought for a moment and said, "Please organize the criminal's information. I will go to your place tomorrow to take a look."

Ma Zhao nodded, clasped his hands and took his leave.

Ye Kun also called Zhuge Feng, Guan Yafu and others to discuss the matter of land reclamation.

Only through large-scale land reclamation and construction of new villages can the control and influence of the gentry be further weakened.

All the poor people under the management of the gentry were moved elsewhere, leaving the gentry alone and helpless, and then they turned around and took away the gentry’s land.

Zhuge Feng and Guan Yafu both suggested that Ye Kun develop the parallel ridges and valleys on the west side of Chongqing, where six rivers flow together and the valley soil is fertile.

Between the mountains, there are many small plains and hills, which are suitable for farming.

Ye Kun shook his head and pointed to the northern part of Yizhou: "I plan to develop this place first."

Zhuge Feng frowned: "The conditions here are obviously not as good as the mountains in western Chongqing."

Ye Kun smiled slightly: "If I want to conquer the Central Plains in the north, I must develop this place, build roads and bridges to facilitate the army to leave Sichuan, and then take Hanzhong. Open up wasteland and grow crops, so that I can collect food and grass locally in the future for easy transportation."

Zhuge Feng suddenly realized and said with a smile:

"I understand. Lord Ye wants to station troops in the northern part of Yizhou to open up wasteland and prepare for war, right?"

Guan Yafu also reacted and clasped his fists and said:

"Yizhou is now stable, and we have enough money and food. We can indeed go north to Hanzhong. But in the battle of Hanzhong, we can only win, not lose!"

At this time, Ye Kun needed a war, a big victory.

Because Ye Kun occupied Yizhou and obtained the country in an illegitimate way, the people were dissatisfied.

Only by taking down Hanzhong, eliminating the threat posed by Hanzhong to Yizhou and enhancing Ye Kun's prestige can we completely conquer the hearts of the people in Yizhou!

Ye Kun was confident and said with a smile:

"Don't worry, Zhang Mi of Hanzhong is just a makeshift team. We won't lose. We will station troops to open up wasteland at the end of the year and send troops after the New Year. Before the wheat is harvested next year, we will capture Hanzhong and everyone can go to Hanzhong to eat the new wheat."

Speaking of eating new wheat, Ye Kun remembered that there were still many delicacies that he had not had time to explore.

As for noodles, Ye Kun asked the cook to figure out how to make rolled noodles, knife-cut noodles, and ramen noodles, but there was no time to make dumplings, buns, steamed buns, and fried dough sticks.

There are also various kinds of pancakes, which people from Dading Kingdom don’t know how to make.

Because there were no iron pans in the past, it was impossible to fry anything.

When they returned to Chunhui Garden in the evening, Ye Kun smiled and said to Jiang Yourong:

"Madam, I will teach you how to make dumplings, pancakes, steamed buns and stuffed buns tonight. Madam, please work harder and lead the cook to figure out how to make these things."

"What are steamed buns?"

"It's a soft, warm, snow-white thing that can be eaten..." Ye Kun grinned.

"Not serious." Jiang Yourong seemed to understand and couldn't help but smile.

Ye Kun called the cook, first explained the concepts of these foods, and then started to work together.

It is easy to make pancakes, but without yeast, you can only make unleavened pancakes.

Making yeast is also simple, just make a dough and let it rise, but you have to wait two days.

Ye Kun still followed the old rules and described the concept and general process first, and let the cook figure out the rest through repeated experiments.

We had dumplings for dinner. There were more than a dozen people, so we made several hundred dumplings, which were divided into three pots and cooked.

It was the first time for everyone to enjoy such delicious food and everyone was full of praise.

Because at this time last year, Ye Kun just made flour in Dongba County.

Before that, wheat could only be used to cook wheat kernel rice.

There is no flour to eat, so naturally there are no dumplings to eat.

Ye Kun was particularly concerned about Xie Baochan and said:

"Baochan, take your cook back to your mother's house tomorrow and ask her to learn how to make dumplings. Then let your parents and brothers have a taste."

Xie Baochan was very touched and bowed to thank him: "My husband is so busy, but he still cares about my parents. I am really grateful."

"What are you grateful for? Your father is always worried about the people of Yizhou and he is sharing my worries. So, you must take good care of his health and eat more good food."

Ye Kun looked sincere.

I scolded Xie Tong in the afternoon, and then comforted her with dumplings tomorrow. This is called using both kindness and severity, and it is true and false.

Ye Kun is now very familiar with this routine.