After the beginning of spring, cat winter officially ends and spring plowing begins.

The Marquis of Pingcheng County had long made military exploits, and the emperor rewarded him with fifty hectares of land near Chang'an.

Although it is fifty hectares, at least half of it is good irrigated land, which may be a lot for future generations.

But for this era and Feng Duhu's identity, this is a relatively small number.

However, there is no way around this.

When the late emperor took over the Shu territory, most of the land near Jincheng was owned by powerful people from aristocratic families.

Therefore, the imperial court did not have much land to give to meritorious officials, so it had to reward more gold, silver, grain, cloth and silk.

After the prime minister died, only fifteen hectares of land were left.

At the same time, he also intentionally or unintentionally left a tradition for future generations:

The emperor rewards his ministers with more gold, silver, grain, cloth, and less land.

Although last year during the great reward ceremony in Chang'an, the emperor increased the land property of the prime minister's house to one hundred hectares.

But this number can still only be considered normal.

He Yan, a favored minister of Wei State, had amassed more than two hundred hectares of land for himself in less than three years.

As a prime minister who had never come after the Han Dynasty - at least in the eyes of the emperor - he only received a normal amount of land as a reward.

As a latecomer, Feng Duhu naturally did not dare to surpass the Prime Minister.

So I had to cut it in half and get fifty hectares.

From the fifty hectares of land, Feng Duhu specially selected thirty acres of land next to Baqiao and planned to let people grow cotton.

The beginning of spring is not the time to plant cotton, so you have to wait for more than a month.

But now the fields can be sorted and prepared.

"Brother, why don't you plant more?"

Zhao Zhongjianjun, who was not on duty today and followed Feng Duhu to the Ba Bridge for an outing, looked at the farmers who were tidying up their fields and couldn't help but ask curiously.

As for cotton, it is indeed a good thing.

Four or five years ago, when my brother was in charge of Liangzhou, Sister Hua brought some seeds back from the south.

My brother asked people to try planting in Liangzhou. In recent years, within the Xinghan Association, several brothers have had some extra quilts at their homes, which are very comfortable to cover in winter.

There is still some cotton yarn in the army. I heard it is also made of cotton and is used to stop bleeding and wrap injured soldiers. The effect is also very good.

In Zhao Guang's view, good things like this should be promoted as early as possible.

But my brother didn't know what he thought, and he never mentioned this matter officially.

Even in Liangzhou, it is only grown on the farm of Xinghanhui and cannot be seen anywhere else.

Originally, Zhao Guang thought that his brother was looking for money for his brothers in the guild, but now it seems that it is not the same thing at all.

Thirty acres?

Enough to do?

Zhao Guang said with some regret:

"Brother, this is a huge source of wealth. Why was it given to the wealthy families in Bingzhou and Hedong? Can't it be left to our own brothers?"

"You know nothing!"

Even if Zhao Guang was promoted to General Zhengnan, he might be able to show off his authority in front of others, but in front of Feng Duhu, he was still a little brother who scolded him whenever he asked.

"Now the main focus of the meeting is on mining coal and iron in Yanmen and Jiuyuan, how can we take care of this?"

Isn’t it easier to make money from selling coal and iron than growing cotton?

Be it Jiuyuan or Yanmen Frontier Fortress, the winter there is very cold. Coupled with the climate blessing of Xiaoglacier, the local garrison consumes an unknown amount of coal in winter.

After all, you can't let the garrison imitate the barbarians and pick up dried dung and burn it to keep warm all year round, right?

More importantly, iron smelting requires a large amount of manpower, material and financial resources to be invested in the first stage.

I don’t know when the cotton will be planted in the east.

Who can wait?

"We can also plant it in Liangzhou, Guanzhong!"

Zhao Guang said a little unconvinced, "Although the land my brothers have in Guanzhong is not too much, if you think about it, you can plant tens of thousands of acres."

"Let alone Liangzhou..."

Before he finished speaking, he was rudely interrupted by Feng Duhu: "So I said, you know nothing!"

"If this thing can really be grown at will, why haven't I promoted it in recent years?"

Feng Duhu glanced at this guy with disdain and pointed at the thirty acres of land in front of him:

"Cotton is indeed a good thing, but it is not easy to grow it well."

"Not to mention Guanzhong, I won't let anyone plant it in Liangzhou, or at least in Longyou."

"Even in the Kanto region in the future, no one can just plant what they want. If they want to plant, they have to be like opening a workshop. They need to pay for the qualifications in advance."

When Zhao Guang heard this, he was startled:

"Brother, why is this? Since it is a good thing and can replace both hemp and catkins, why not let it be used in more varieties?"

“Because it’s difficult to grow, it costs water, fertilizer, and people, so most people can’t afford it.”

The quality of cotton at this time is not very good, the yield is not high, and it does not have very good insect control capabilities.

This is the conclusion Feng Duhu came to after comparing the results with later generations after trial planting at Xinghanhui Farm in Liangzhou.

Especially this thing, it will also occupy farmland.

If the Han Dynasty's current grain output had not increased by leaps and bounds, especially after taking Guanzhong and sitting on two kingdoms of abundance, there would have been worries about low grain prices and hurting farmers.

I'm afraid Feng Duhu will have to suppress the cotton issue for a few more years, maybe even ten or dozens of years.

But no matter what, Shu, Guanzhong, and Longyou, the three main grain-producing areas of the Han Dynasty, will never be allowed to grow a large amount of cotton.

At worst, let Liangzhou do it.

However, since the local wealthy families in Liangzhou had the wool textile industry, they naturally lacked the motivation to develop the cotton textile industry.

Of course, if someone from Guanzhong or even Guandong wanted to go to Liangzhou to develop the cotton textile industry, the imperial court would welcome it and regard it as enriching the frontier.

Because the more stable Liangzhou is, the more stable Longyou is, the barrier to the west of Guanzhong.

As for some people in Guandong who want to grow cotton... Feng Duhu wants them to die!

Let them taste some sweetness first, and then we will see how he kills these powerful Guandong families.

Just like weaving wool with wool, it seems that the barbarians can also benefit from it, but Feng Duhu's real purpose is not for the sake of the barbarians.

Although he agreed to teach the aristocratic families in Bingzhou and Hedong how to grow cotton, Feng Duhu did not teach them how to use cotton.

It doesn't matter if they use cotton to weave cloth.

But if you want to further add value to cotton, you have to ask Xinghanhui first.

And even if it's just weaving, can it be as efficient as the Xinghan Hui?

No matter how simple a joint workshop is, it is much better than a sporadic family workshop.

If someone wants to regret it at that time, it doesn't matter. Anyway, the money and food paid to buy the cotton cultivation qualification will not be refunded.

How about you go to Jiuyuan to open up wasteland and cultivate land?

You can be given double the land there, you can enclose the land at will, and you will be given a workshop qualification.

Besides, even if you are selling cotton, it doesn't mean that you won't be allowed to make money. Just cooperate with the court and sell cotton at the set price, and don't go up in price.

Do you really think that the exchange’s pricing power comes in vain?

All bulk materials or strategic materials will be based on the price set by the exchange in the future.

Grain, wool, brown sugar, silk, livestock, salt, iron...

Cotton will be no exception in the future.

If you want to challenge the exchange's pricing power, you must first clear out the Xinghanhui and the imperial court's treasury reserves.

From the current point of view, even if the two countries Wei and Wu use the strength of the whole country, there is no hope of succeeding in the challenge.

Not to mention the entire territory of the Han Dynasty, but at least in the core areas of Han rule, the government must have this control.

Of course, this is a long-term goal, and for this goal, the Han Dynasty will continue to strengthen the laying of official roads.

At least we should be able to spread official road and post pavilions all the way to the Western Regions like the former Han Dynasty.

This goal is very long-term and will take ten or even decades to achieve.

But Feng Duhu has this confidence.

After all, in the past, digging mountains and paving roads could only be done slowly.
To be continued...