By June 20th, the wheat harvest had been completed and the wheat stubble had been cleared. Farmers began to prepare the land for the next round of sowing.

Guan Yu, who led the troops outside, conquered all directions. After seven battles, he finally cleared away all the remaining Yellow Turban soldiers in twenty-one counties, including one Zhuo County.

In addition to the more than 12,000 refugees he had already recruited, Guan Yu brought back more than 7,000 refugees.

Two plus one plus 20,000 people.

At that time, the Yellow Turban Army, Deng Maocheng's Yuanzhi Division, had only 30,000 to 50,000 troops.

This means that on that day, half of Deng Maocheng's Yuanzhi troops joined the rebel army.

The rest either died in the war, died of starvation, disease or wild beasts, or were surrounded and suppressed by local warriors, or they had escaped beyond the boundaries of Zhuojun and were beyond the reach of the whip.

More than 20,000 people have to be accommodated in Zhang Fei's manor. There are too many people, and the houses are definitely not enough. They can only use wooden sticks, wheat straw branches and the like to build a lot of straw sheds first.

Surprisingly, wherever there is room for building, there are continuous straw huts. If there is a fire, the whole camp will be burned down.

For this reason, Li Mengxi ordered that fires be banned and anyone among the refugees who dared to light a fire would be beaten.

Anyway, the refugees eat in groups. Groups are separated and have one meal each in the morning and evening. There are special fire-headed soldiers who are responsible for dividing the meals.

The Yellow Turban refugees had been resettled, and there was no shortage of food for the time being. Li Mengxi had no idea how much food there was.

He asked Liu Bei specifically, how long could these twenty thousand people last with the thousands of dan of grain they had taken from the powerful, plus the newly harvested wheat?

Twenty thousand people is not a small number, it is twenty thousand mouths waiting for food. If there is no food, these refugees will turn around and eat people.

At that time, Liu Bei was silent for a long time and said, "Together, I and Yide can only support us until next year, January or February."

It is now June, and it will be January or February next year. Is the current grain storage enough to last for seven or eight months? More than half of the grain storage was deceived by the powerful people in the county, plus Zhang Fei's family assets, can it last for such a long time?

However, Zhang Fei's family's farm output alone cannot support more than 20,000 people, so what should we do?

Li Mengxi began to worry about the food and grass problem in a few months.

This worry was quickly forgotten by Li Mengxi.

Didn't the wheat just fall? The big households have food again. If it doesn't work, go and rob the big households. If you don't accept it, you can come and beat them.

Twenty thousand refugees, equivalent to at least five thousand young men, are here to fight.

Also, the issue of food and grass is just about increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. The first is to save, and the second is to increase revenue.

Saving money is not feasible. The food rations given to the refugees are not much in the first place. A meal of gruel in the morning and evening will not starve to death, but it is just barely enough to survive.

If the food supply is further reduced, so many children among the refugees will become even more sallow and thin, which is unbearable to look at.

Stealing the food from the powerful can be done in one go, or you can even continue to do so. Be more aggressive and seize the land from the powerful, which is also a way to do it.

But it is obviously not possible to rely entirely on this for the source of food and grass.

The cunning rabbit still has three holes, so we should take a multi-pronged approach.

On this day, Li Mengxi was lying on the stone table under the stone pavilion and watching the children playing in the barn. Liu Guan and Zhang were also there.

The tending is over, the wheat is harvested, and it's time to relax.

"Xuan De Gong, I have an idea of ​​how to resettle the refugees." Li Mengxi prepared to tell Liu Bei the idea he had thought about all night.

Liu Bei looked over, and Guan Zhang also looked over.

"Xi'er, if you have any good ideas, tell me quickly!" Upon hearing this, Liu Bei's eyes lit up and he couldn't wait to urge him.

Liu Bei has been very worried recently about appeasing the refugees.

"I dare to ask you three, how many unowned lands such as rivers, beaches, ravines, and wilderness can be found in Zhuojun's territory? How many acres of land are there?"

Li Mengxi asked.

Guan Yu brushed his beard and thought deeply, "There are thousands of acres, it's hard to count."

Li Mengxi has the answer to the first question.

Within the land of Zhuojun, some places that are difficult to cultivate are still in an undeveloped state.

Although it is difficult to develop, there are 20,000 refugees, and the manpower is left alone. No matter how difficult the land is to cultivate, it is not a problem at all with 20,000 free manpower.

When the first problem was solved, Li Mengxi asked again, "Someone has a method of farming. They organize refugees and manage them with sergeants. They can be divided into groups of dozens or hundreds. Then, they can search for ownerless land such as riverbanks and wilderness.

, how about clearing up wasteland and planting seeds next year to relieve our army's food shortage?"

When Li Mengxi mentioned the method of farming, Liu Bei thought about it for a moment, and then his eyes lit up.

If this method is used to resettle refugees, it is indeed feasible.

Liu Bei looked at Li Mengxi with a smile on his face, full of approval and admiration, "Mengxi is a great talent, with this strategy of farming, the refugee issue will be worry-free!"

Cao Cao's farming method in the late Han Dynasty has now become Li Mengxi's.

The essence of tuntian lies in the word "tun".

What is Tun? Tun means gathering.

The key is to confine the loosely organized refugees to a specific area to engage in reclamation work.

Otherwise, even if the Yellow Turbans are not locals, they will not come here unless they are desperate. If they are not restrained, these people may all run away as soon as they settle down.

So we need martial law.

Since the Farming Law has been unanimously approved by Liu, Guan, and Zhang, it is time to make preparations without further delay.

Li Mengxi only proposed a simple idea. When Liu Bei asked for details, Li Mengxi shook his head and said, "I don't know what kind of difficulties we will encounter before we start farming.

I think how about starting to cultivate the land first, and then add, modify, and improve the method?"

Li Mengxi said.

Li Mengxi really didn't know what kind of work there was to do in the field, so he took it step by step.

Starting from Zhuozhou, the next day, June 21, Liu, Guan, and Zhang took Li Mengxi, and Li Mengxi also took his younger brother to the first place that could be cultivated.

It's Zhuozhou County, Dongsanli, which is the river ditch where the refugees were taken to bathe.

"That's right here." Zhang Fei was at the river beach, pointing to a large open space slightly far away from the river beach.

Looking from a high position on his horse, Zhang Fei waved his whip and pointed from the south river bend to the small woods in the north, "This is at least three to four hundred acres of farmland. This is close to the water. Although it is sandy land, the soil is thin and it is not possible to grow wheat. We must plant it."

You can also order some sorghum and soybeans."

"I, Lao Zhang, have long wanted to put off land reclamation, but I was worried about not having enough manpower. Now we have someone!"

The land obtained by clearing wasteland can naturally be regarded as Zhang Fei's land, which means Zhang Fei has more farmland. Zhang Fei naturally likes the method of farming.

When it comes to who in the army supports farming the most, Zhang Fei is the one who is most vocal.

Li Mengxi was on his horse, looking at the endless river beach, "Third General, how do we open up wasteland?"

Liu, Guan, and Zhang all laughed when they heard this, and Zhang Fei chuckled, "Take a hoe, a plow, loosen the soil, apply more water and fertilizer to increase the fertility of the soil, and after a year or two of nurturing the land, you can harvest crops.

"

Does the land still need to be cultivated? Li Mengxi thought. It should be that the unplanted wasteland has little fertility. It needs to be fertilized with manure and planted with leguminous plants to fix nitrogen. Then the land can grow crops.
Chapter completed!