In the south of Hanshan City, in the remote suburbs, in large alfalfa fields, Li Li took the Xue sisters to stroll through it.

The first time the Xue sisters saw alfalfa field of such a large scale, as if they were in a sea of ​​purple flowers. Sister Xue Yuechang danced happily, as if they were a butterfly flying among the flowers.

My sister Xue Yue'e plays the flute to accompany her sister.

The two sisters received singing and dancing training since childhood, and their basic skills were solid. Their figures recovered well after giving birth, so Xue Yuechang's dance posture was still graceful and charming.

Xue Yue'e was playing the flute, not standing blankly, but also dancing gently to the melody. As she watched, Li Li felt in a good mood.

I looked at the purple color in front of me and gradually became impressed.

It is common sense that horses eat grass, but forage also has species and their nutritional content determines the growth rate of horses.

Horses on the grassland can live wherever they go, but they have to bear the "heavy responsibility" and have to feed them with concentrated feed.

Horses that are being employed, whether they are war horses, pack horses, or riding horses, have a lot of burdens, so eating grass can only ensure that they can't starve to death, but they cannot guarantee that they have strength.

The principle is the same as that of a person. If he drinks porridge every day, he can still work, but he cannot do heavy physical work.

Whether it is working in the fields or carrying large bags, heavy physical workers should always eat as well as possible.

The same is true for war horses. After all, they have to support two or three hundred kilograms of load-bearing (armor worn by people and people) on the battlefield, or go around on a large scale. They must be strong and powerful, and have endurance.

Then, the forage (feed) eaten by war horses, combined with concentrated feed, must be rich in nutrients to grow fat and strong.

The so-called nutrition, including protein, can grow flesh.

Protein refers to plant proteins, and the protein content of alfalfa is of a high level in forage, while alfalfa is one of the few varieties with the highest protein content in alfalfa.

This is what Li Li knew from casual conversation in his life.

When eating a pound of forage, the protein the horse consumes from alfalfa is much higher than that of ordinary weeds. Just as a person eats a bowl of rice, the effects of eating porridge and eating dry rice are completely different.

If a horse eats weeds, even if it is eaten all day, it will consume very little nutrition. Although it will not starve to death, it will be difficult to grow tall and strong.

However, if the horse is fed entirely with concentrated feed, the cost is too high and large-scale breeding cannot be afforded. Therefore, the compromise is to plant a large amount of high-quality forage grass - alfalfa to ensure that the horse eats well.

It is said that during the Han Dynasty, alfalfa was introduced to the Central Plains from Dayuan, and there were species such as yellow alfalfa and purple alfalfa. Over the past few hundred years, alfalfa was widely planted as a forage in the Central Plains.

Therefore, Li Li organized manpower and material resources to open up wastelands and introduce alfalfa as the main food for war horses.

Soybeans (beans) rich in plant protein are also being planted and used as concentrate feed.

Li Li tried his best to plant forage grass to ensure that the war horses could have sufficient protein intake. After training, they could significantly increase their strength, and their strength would naturally increase accordingly.

Feed corn again, so that the war horses can consume more carbohydrates and can quickly gain weight (fat), and their endurance will naturally increase. They can withstand the continuous battle at critical moments.

This requires a lot of money to be invested, and farming alone is impossible, and the huge profits obtained from breeding fry are also eclipsed in the face of the huge expenses of raising horses.

As he thought about it, Li Li felt a little annoyed.

Originally, this should have been something that Ma Zheng of the imperial court should have solved. Now, he is the governor of Xuzhou, who "raised funds" to plant grass instead of food. What is this called?

The nobles in the court were not concerned about Ma Zheng at all.

This is no wonder that the "big boss" in the court is not concerned about it. After all, Ma Zheng is the court's business and the emperor's business.

And the emperor...the emperor is quite normal. Li Li believes that what he has done since he succeeded to the throne is still good overall...

He neither indulged in alcohol and sex, abandoned the government, nor slaughtered ministers or literati, nor did he do anything against the law. He rarely made large-scale projects and abused people's power.

After ascending the throne, he successively quelled the rebellion and recovered lost territory. Although he failed to recover the profits, Liang had gained Mianbei and Xuzhou in Huaibei.

Although he has been using troops for many years, he is not considered a military force. Generally speaking, he does not cause much trouble to the people.

When the stormy country that Zi took over from the late emperor today, six years have passed, it can be considered a "storm".

According to traditional perspective, today I can be called the king of success.

But the problem is that this King of Shoucheng took over a mess, the kind that was so broken that it was about to fall apart.

Only by relying on guarding can we not be able to defend. Only by reforming, removing rotten meat and cutting off rotten sores will the country recover.

The reason why it is now glamorous is entirely due to a series of military victories in recent years to prosper, but the problems left over from the late emperor were not fundamentally solved and will occur sooner or later.

This is not Li Li's random thoughts. He carefully observed the current situation and found that the problems that existed in Liang Kingdom before the Hou Jing Rebellion broke out. Most of them are still the same and have not been solved.

Just like driving, an old man over 80 years old drove a car that was malfunctioning and could be out of control at any time, driving on the steep mountain road.

The driver suddenly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and there were several sharp turns ahead. If he was not careful, he would fall off the cliff.

His son sat in the driver's seat and held the steering wheel, not knowing what to do.

Thanks to a "gold medal driver" who suddenly appeared to help drive, he barely avoided a series of "deadly bends" and entered a relatively straight section of the road.

Although the car seems to be driving steadily and can keep driving, the problem still exists and something will happen one day.

So, you have to get out of the car and repair it quickly instead of driving it down.

Now, the emperor is like a papermaker, desperately pasting the mess left by the late emperor, so that the stall looks glamorous but is actually still shabby.

Didn’t the emperor realize the problem?

Li Li felt that the emperor could see the problem that he could see, but the performance of the administration over the past few years showed that the emperor was unable to change anything.

When the late emperor founded the country, he was in his prime. At that time, he sighed that he had "held six horses" and chose to fool things. So what else can he do after his son ascended the throne?

Therefore, the son inherits his father's business and continues to vigorously worship Buddha. He can fool him every day.

There are bronze statues of Buddha, but no bronze coins to train soldiers.

The more Li Li thought about it, the more irritated he became. He knew that there was a super large copper mine in Le'an, Poyang, which was easy to mine. He had already discovered the ore veins and made many years of preparations for large-scale mining, but he was unable to implement it.

The reason is that the court is unreliable, and the emperor is devoted to being a papermaker.

If the emperor really had this large copper mine, the copper produced would only turn into various patches to paste the already broken stalls.

For example, it becomes a Buddha statue in units of tens of thousands of pounds, or becomes gold, silver and jewelry that is drunk and dreamy for wealthy families, but it may not necessarily become the pillar of the country's finances and trigger a series of changes.

Thinking of this, Li Li felt that he was disappointed.

If super large copper mines are mined, even if they are only the initial annual mining volume, they will inevitably be astonishingly large. They can be used to make money and establish national monetary credit.

He had already thought about the solution and used hydraulic machinery to "press" copper coins, that is, the copper coins were pressed and molded rather than cast.

In this way, the cost of coin making can be significantly reduced.

This type of suppressed copper coins is also a Wuzhu coins, but the copper content should be appropriately reduced to ensure that when large-scale hydraulic coins are used, the cost of making each copper coins is lower than its face value (one article), thus changing two phenomena over the past thousands of years:

First, the more money the imperial court minted, the more money it would be.

Secondly, the face value of good money (such as one thousand documents) is lower than the price when these money are sold as copper after being melted (more than one thousand documents).

The problem is the cost of coin making. Li Li feels that he has a way to turn coins into money-making behavior, at least he won’t lose money.

Then, through a series of measures, we ensure that the credit of new copper coins is accepted by the people and minimize the occurrence of "bad money driving out good money" as much as possible.

The finances have been straightened out and everything has become easier.

In short, with the imperial court having the super copper mine as a money tree, its fiscal revenue will inevitably rise sharply, and there are many things that can be done next.

However, this requires an enterprising emperor who is determined to carry out reforms and uses thunder to sweep away all obstacles.

Another sacrifice is needed, namely sacrifice.

Because reform will inevitably touch the interests of vested interests, and these people are either rich or noble, and will not lack the royal family.

Public anger is difficult to offend. In the end, the emperor or successor king will inevitably throw away the "reform pioneer" as a sacrifice to calm public anger.

Li Li didn't want to become a sacrifice, so what else could he do besides pretending to be deaf and dumb?

The emperor could only be a papermaker, so what the super copper mine brought to the country was not a transformation, but a survivor.

The laughter brought Li Li back to reality. He looked at the cheering sisters of Xue, looked at the alfalfa around him, and rubbed his temples.

What a great super large copper mine, was it just buried?
Chapter completed!