Chapter 82 Post-War Reorganization
The slender crescent moon in the sky makes the stars even more brilliant.

Inside the thatched hut, the inner wall is covered with a layer of yellow mud, and the outer layer of grass bundles exudes a unique fragrance.

Two people who stick together are inseparable.

Zhen Mi complained in a low voice. Although the ground in the thatched cottage was hardened, it was also covered with mats.

But the thatched hut itself is very suitable for insects to hide and live in, and she is tired of dealing with all kinds of small insects.

Listening to her chattering, Black Bear's eyelids, which were not very sleepy to begin with, became heavier.

I fell asleep without realizing it.

Zhen Mi pushed but saw no response. Perhaps talking to him also allowed her to vent all her stress.

I was so exhausted that I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

As the sky gradually brightened, Zhen Mi woke up first. Seeing that the black bear was sleeping soundly, she couldn't bear to disturb him, so she got up and knelt beside the water bucket to wash herself.

Then a ball of rolled mugwort incense was lit in an earthenware bowl, and the smell of mugwort incense began to fill the thatched cottage.

Zhen Mi took out three new sets of clothes and chose and matched them.

At this time, the black bear was awakened by the incense of mugwort. He stood up, stretched out his arms, clenched his fists, tensed his muscles, moved his limbs and torso slightly, and then lay down lazily again.

Zhen Mi came to the bedside with the selected clothes in her arms and said, "My dear, Master Liu is leaving in the morning. Aren't you going to see him off?"

"My relationship with him doesn't need to be like this."

"This man is naive. When Cai Mao sent someone to deliver a letter to redeem Lü Chang, he actually believed it. I don't know whether Cai Mao believed it when the messenger returned."

Will Cai Mao help redeem Lu Chang?
How could someone who was willing to rescue Lu Chang possibly ask Cai Mao for help?

Black Bear closed his eyes and refused to accept any information from the outside world. His mind suddenly felt much more relaxed and comfortable. "When we came to Xi County a month ago, we had 700 to 800 people. Later, Gan Ning brought more than 500 people to surrender. Do you know how many people we have now?"

"How can I know? My dear husband has been through hardships in battle and has been sleeping in the wilderness."

"I deserve to endure these hardships. Fighting with Liu Bei, I have come to understand my own abilities. Although I am not as good as Liu Bei and Guan Yu in making decisions on the battlefield, I am better than ordinary generals."

Black Bear kept his eyes closed as he calculated for her: "Last night Liu Ye gave me a rough report. Currently, Xi County has more than 2,300 officials and soldiers, 1,100 prisoners, and more than 500 households, including more than 70 households of craftsmen. If nothing unexpected happens, when the Han River and Xi River rise in August, Huang Zu will have to send me about 4,000 young and strong men."

Zhen Mi recalled the prices when she last visited the Xiangyang market. In the Xiangyang talent market, a strong slave was worth about 20,000 coins.

By August, the more than 7,000 episodes had a value of over 100 million yuan.

Before she could speak, Black Bear continued, "The larger the population, the more we have to rely on others and depend on Liu Biao and Yi Ji for food."

It is impossible to reclaim wasteland and cultivate crops this year. From now until the summer harvest next year, we will have to eat Liu Biao's food.

Assuming that an average person consumes one stone and five dou of grain per month, a total of 120,000 stones of grain would be needed per month for food and munching for horses.

When calculating grain statistics, small stones are often used as the standard.

The per-acre grain yield varies greatly from place to place. In addition to the different types of fields, it may be because different standards are used, such as large acres with large stones, small acres with small stones, and shamelessly large acres with small stones.

Zhen Mi had learned industrial management since she was young. After a quick calculation, she was surprised and asked, "How much will it cost?"

"It's more than that. Taking into account the transportation cost, it should be 1.7 million shi."

The number of people and horses is equivalent to ten thousand mouths to feed.

There are few old, weak and children in the team, so they are all strong laborers who can do a lot of work and eat a lot.

Given the current situation, money is secondary. Food supply must be met.

Only when there is food to eat and people's hearts are stable can we talk about various developments.

Nanyang is so small that we can’t get much food from it.

If we want to solve this problem, we can only find Liu Biao or Huang Zu.

If he dared to rob, Liu Biao would support Liu Bei to fight against him.

The huge demand for 1.7 million dan of grain in the future left Zhen Mi speechless: "Why is there such a shortage?"

In her impression, seven or eight dou of food per month were enough for the few servants in the family, so why would they need to eat one and a half dou of food per month?
Only elite soldiers and warriors had a monthly food ration of one stone and five dou or one stone and eight dou.

"I don't want them to starve. What can a group of hungry people do?"

Black Bear opened his eyes and looked sideways at Zhen Mi: "It's a waste for Liu Biao to store so much food. I'll help him eat it, which is more useful than him raising 10,000 people."

Zhen Mi just smiled and said, "Liu Zhennan has 10,000 soldiers. They farm during the busy farming season and repair the city and roads during the slack season. They also dredge ditches and strengthen dams and ponds occasionally. If I give it to you, you will eat it and leave. That would be a pity."

"You can't say that. If Sun Quan invades Jiangxia again, it will be like the coalition forces of various countries came to rescue Zhao at the end of the Qin Dynasty. Liu Biao's tens of thousands of reinforcements just stood there and watched, and few dared to go forward to fight. I am different from them. I dare to fight the Jiangdong soldiers."

"Unlike Liu Bei, I am destined to leave. Liu Biao is not afraid of me becoming powerful in Jingzhou."

After saying that, Black Bear stood up, picked up the fine silk lining sewn by Zhen Mi and looked at it: "It's great, I finally have clothes that are intimate to wear."

Zhen Mi was smiling brightly. Hei Xiong saw a faint trace of blood on the cuff of her inner garment and guessed that it was because her finger was pricked by a sewing needle and was bleeding.

No matter how skilled a needleworker is, there will always be times when he or she is careless and distracted.

It was suffering a lot fighting outside, but it was nothing for her to get injured while leading the women in the rear to make military uniforms.

Zhen Mi noticed the subtle change in Black Bear's expression and quickly said, "Can I get another one for you, my dear?"

"That's it."

Black Bear began to dress, first a natural silk lining, then a dark blue silk undershirt with dark green patterns, and then a wide-sleeved white robe with black edges.

When putting on the white robe, Black Bear stood with his arms spread out. Zhen Mi carefully smoothed out the subtle wrinkles and tied the five-color embroidered brocade belt around Black Bear's waist.

She knew that Black Bear didn't like wearing crowns that needed to be fastened with ties, and she also knew that he had short hair.

So they prepared a black scarf to tie the hair. After wrapping the black scarf around the head, they took out a square black gauze crown hat, and Black Bear put it on despite being uncomfortable.

Even though I wore three layers of clothing, it was breathable and I didn't feel stuffy.

The black bear stretched out his arms and turned around a few times, trying to swing his sleeves and walk in a square step, and then changed into several very arrogant walking postures.

Feeling very satisfied, he said to the beaming Zhen Mi: "When you have time, teach me how to sew clothes and I will make you one."

Zhen Mi was stunned by this. Seeing that Black Bear didn't seem to be joking, she said hurriedly, "How can this be done? If people knew, they would probably laugh at you."

"I just do what I want to do, why bother with what others do?"

"If you don't tell me and I don't tell you, who else can know?"

After thinking for a while, Black Bear said, "White clothes are easily covered with dust. You can use gray-black or blue gauze to make a double-breasted coat. This way, when I wear a gauze dress on the outside, the white clothes will look more resistant to dirt." Zhen Mi was puzzled. A double-breasted gauze coat was not something difficult to make. Black Bear carefully explained the shape of the double-breasted gauze coat he wanted. Zhen Mi immediately understood and her cheeks blushed a little.

She actually made herself a white gauze lining, which had three or four layers.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and there may be mosquitoes breaking through the mosquito net at night, so she has been wearing several layers of white gauze underwear to sleep these days.

It was hazy and was also very popular last night.

Black Bear put on his clogs and took the sword handed to him by Zhen Mi, and said, "Gan Ning is my right-hand man. Although his wife can also make clothes, I think it will be beneficial for you to make a set of clothes for him in the future."

Zhen Mi asked, "When will you need it, my dear?"

In different seasons, you need to wear different clothes, at least the color matching should be different to suit the season.

"Just make a set of summer clothes, and you can select three pieces of Shu brocade and send them to his wife privately."

Black Bear was afraid that she didn't understand, so he said, "Now that we have returned victorious, we should reward our meritorious service. Gan Ning has made the greatest contribution, so I hope to delay it for a while."

"Yes, I understand."

Zhen Mi bowed and politely escorted the black bear out of the thatched cottage.

There was a fence outside the thatched cottage, and inside the fence a big rooster and two hens were walking around looking for food, their cockscombs bright red.

This was obtained by Zhen Mi by sending people to Baiyu City. It was kept nearby so that it could eat the insects near the thatched cottage.

As Black Bear walked out of the thatched cottage, leather-armored Taoist soldiers standing on both sides of the fence gate with halberds in their hands and their hands on their hips came to lift the bamboo door.

Three Taoist soldiers, Lu Bu, Gao Shun and Yuan Shu, also came out from the thatched hut where supplies were stored nearby.

The three Taoist soldiers harnessed the Yin Gan horses to a flatbed cart, and Hei Xiong got on the cart. Yuan Shu drove the car, Lu Bu drove the horse in front, and Gao Shun and the other three Taoist soldiers walked behind.

In the city square.

When the black bear came, the place was filled with smoke from cooking. Liu Ye, Gan Ning and others who had gotten up early were reading the military book reporting their achievements under the arbour.

Seeing the carriage coming, Liu Ye and Gan Ning led a dozen people out of the shed to greet it.

The more Liu Ye looked at the black bear in the car, the more he was certain that this guy was from a prominent family in Liangpei. His poor family could not afford the kind of lazy grace and comfort that one would feel when riding in a car.

Even when the vehicle was bumpy, Liu Ye noticed that the black bear was frowning unhappily.

Only those who have enjoyed better vehicles would not easily be satisfied with such a crude car.

"I've met the captain."

"Let's talk under the shed."

The black bear raised his hand across his brow and glanced to the east, where the sun was rising, still golden.

But even so, the earth still feels dry and hot.

Inside the shed, Black Bear sat in the main seat, flipping through the military book organization that Liu Ye had revised overnight.

After the Battle of Bowangpo, Hei Xiong counted and reviewed the military merits and sent them to Xi County first, asking Liu Ye to draw up a new reorganization plan.

Black Bear read the reorganization plan which seemed reasonable to Liu Ye, and saw that Liu Ye intended to reorganize more than 700 Duyang captives.

Liu Ye's reason was very legitimate. These captives were different from the Qingzhou soldiers. They were local people from Nanyang, and Cao Cao did not have any hostages.

Even the main general, Wu Meng Duwei Lü Chang, had most of his family in Bowang, and only his nephew was serving as a palace attendant in Xudu as a hostage.

What's more, after the reorganization, this force's service direction was Guanzhong, not the Central Plains.

"I have promised Liu Qi that I will not bring the Duyang captives into Guanzhong. The Chief Secretary insisted on recruiting them, and I did not object. I only recruited them as auxiliary soldiers, with a monthly ration of 1.2 dan and 3 liters of salt, and 3 pieces of cloth for summer and winter clothes in April and October. The auxiliary soldiers will mainly do civil engineering, and the reward will be calculated based on the results of the project."

Seeing some scattered bamboo slips nearby, Black Bear took a pen and drew characters on them to calculate the cost of a battalion of auxiliary soldiers.

Liu Ye turned his head to look. He didn't recognize these symbols, but he felt relieved after thinking about it.

The multiplication table was widely used among the people in those days. It was during the late reign of Emperor Ling that Liu Hong, a native of Mengyin, Taishan, the governor of Kuaiji County, improved the counting rods into counting beads, strung the beads together to make a primitive abacus, and came up with the abacus calculation formulas.

A battalion has a staff of more than 700 people, and the treatment of military officers is slightly higher, so the overall treatment is based on 800 people.

The monthly ration for a battalion of auxiliary troops is 960 dan, and the salt is 24 dan; the annual need is 2,400 pieces of cloth.

According to the current market price in Xiangyang, even without additional salary, this battalion of auxiliary soldiers needs 3.3 million coins for food per year; 250,000 coins for salt; and about 4 million coins for cloth.

This price is obviously too high. If the army can use it to cultivate land during the farming season, the food problem can be solved.

The remaining largest expense is clothing, and the price of cloth is much more expensive than food.

One dan of grain cost two to three hundred coins; a roll of fine linen cost three to six hundred coins, and a roll of silk cost about seven to one thousand coins.

In the fifth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao abolished the tax system in Yan and Yu states, and only collected land rent and household tax. The household tax replaced the two types of poll tax, head tax and calculation tax.

The Suanfu was a head tax for adults, at 120 coins per person; the Koufu was a head tax for minors, at 23 coins per person.

For a family of five, the annual head tax cap is just over 700 yuan.

Under the household contribution system, each household was required to contribute two pieces of silk and two kilograms of good silk.

From the literal meaning, you can tell that silk is different from silk. It is a silk fabric of better quality.

Silk is made of fine filaments, while satin is made of multiple silk threads in a plain weave.

According to the market prices in Xiangyang, three rolls of high-quality silk could be exchanged for two rolls of silk, which cost about 2,700 coins.

If the people wanted to pay the household tax, they had to pay a higher cost to weave silk.

Of course, we can't think too badly of Cao Cao.

The reason why silk was not taxed was because it could be made in a crude way.

A piece of cloth is two feet wide and four feet long; if the craftsmanship and materials are up to standard, the weight error will not be too outrageous.

Don't underestimate the speed of corruption at the grassroots level, even though there is the "Golden Cloth Law" that repeatedly emphasizes the length and weight specifications of qualified cloth that can be circulated.

There are still crudely made cloths among the people, with sparse and rough warp and weft and thin threads; if the amount is not enough, a layer of powder is applied on the surface of the cloth.

Silk is very difficult to fake. If the thread is too thin, it is difficult to make silk.

The household tax collection and silk collection saved the Xudu court a lot of trouble.

The pressure they don't want is naturally transferred to ordinary people.

(End of this chapter)