Chapter 1874: Chapter 1719: Tranquility Within, Watching the Clouds Over Chang’an (Part 2)

"Do you know?" Jia Xu transmitted his voice to Chen Xi and asked.

"How could I not know? After all, I’m in charge of finances. Wen Ru used a large sum of money, of course I’d know," Chen Xi rolled his eyes and said.

"Do you know how the Xiliang Iron Cavalry trains?" Jia Xu transmitted his voice to Chen Xi.

"Training with real weapons, I know about this. Although I don’t really like this method of training, I understand its necessity," Chen Xi transmitted his voice to Jia Xu. "Bleeding a little during training results in fewer deaths on the battlefield, I can understand that. Out of sight, out of mind, so I didn’t intervene."

"Oh..." Jia Xu looked at Chen Xi with a meaningful glance.

Far away in Ye City, Wan Peng suddenly shivered, then looked around without finding any problems and immediately roared, "Increase the speed of the horses, is this what you call Iron Cavalry? Charge, hit them!"

"Wen Ru, what are you doing?" Lub Su asked as he looked at Li Youu, who was calculating accounts.

"Falsifying accounts," Li Youu said unashamedly.

"Where is there a deficit again?" Lub Su asked with a frown.

"There’s no deficit. The Money Exchange is running well, and Zijia’s tasks are almost completed. However, I didn’t expect some aristocratic families to immediately lower their heads. In exchange, I allowed their offspring to serve as officials locally," Li Youu said with a smile.

"With that, no wonder you acted so quickly," Lub Su said, slightly dissatisfied but eventually agreeing, thinking it was indeed unrealistic to directly disband the aristocratic family private soldiers, especially unlike the situation in the North.

"Rest assured, they are about to be relocated. While I did agree for their offspring to become local officers, the aristocratic families will soon be relocated," Li Youu said with a hint of a smile.

"This is wordplay," Lub Su said, feeling a headache coming on.

"Rest assured, just after the handover, they haven’t established their authority yet and know how to choose. The people I sent north last year have returned, and after a year of pioneering and planting, they’ve assessed the situation there," Li Youu said calmly, looking at Lub Su.

"How is it?" Lub Su asked, looking at Li Youu.

"Even better than Zichuan estimated. The soil there is already cultivated. Students trained by Hanmou differentiated it personally. The soil quality is of gray-black soil, with a humus layer one to two feet deep, equivalent to the fertilizers Hanmou studied," Li Youu said, looking at Lub Su.

"More importantly, the cost of pioneering is very low because the ground is already cultivated. It doesn’t take five years to prepare, so you just have to cut down the forest or burn the grassland, or even not do that, and you can plant directly on a chosen plot," Li Youu said regretfully.

"Really that good?" Lub Su said with disbelief.

"Better than Zichuan said; the land is so fertile it doesn’t need to rest," Li Youu sighed deeply, saying, "It feels like a pity to give it to the aristocratic families, and large-scale reclamation would be easier. After all, the biggest advantage of group efforts lies in this area."

"That place will be a granary, beyond the five major grain-producing areas of the Central Plains, even if we construct a water network, it won’t compare to there. It’s really a pity to give it to the aristocratic families," Li Youu seemed to entice Lub Su.

"You better not," Lub Su refused to take the bait. "Zichuan must have his plans. If he’s willing to give it away, he surely can take it back, so we’d better not interfere and let the flag-bearers and aristocrats dispute among themselves."

"Actually, I don’t just mean that. There is more. The fertile land there is not just five million acres, but more. Yuan Gonglu’s survey was too brief; what he discovered is surface-level. I spent over a year collecting more accurate data," Li Youu said while looking at Lub Su, who was slightly startled, then decided not to entertain Li Youu further.

In fact, on this point, Li Youu was right. Chen Xi indeed overlooked some things. The arable land area in the Northeastern Plain is approximately five million acres, while in Outer Northeast, there are at least ten to fifteen million acres of black soil suitable for farming.

As for temperature, the climate in some parts of Outer Northeast is more suitable for farming than Northeast, still within a monsoon climate zone, making the land relatively more fertile.

And when Li Youu sent people to investigate, there was no concept of Northeast or not Northeast. The Han Dynasty now indeed has the confidence to say "since ancient times", and with such hard confidence, the people Li Youu sent naturally measured all suitable land with their feet.

When the news came back, even Li Youu was shocked. When did fertile lands become so undervalued? Moreover, to take samples, Li Youu ordered to cut more than ten blocks of black soil, each two feet by two feet by two feet, from various regions. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

In the end, Li Youu confirmed that Chen Xi wasn’t kidding. Although there were some size issues, the difficulty of reclamation wasn’t high. Supported by Inner Qi, initiating a legionary reclamation mode to open up lands in patches could allow aristocratic families to reclaim all the lost acres in one to two years.

"How much is there?" Although Lub Su didn’t want to pay attention to Li Youu, he asked since Li Youu kept teasing.

"More than this much." Li Youu raised his index finger.

"One million acres?" Lub Su was stunned and then his eyes lit up, "That’s worth dispatching fifty thousand people to reclaim the land. I was worried about the issue of granting land before."

"No, Zichuan reported at least ten million acres less," Li Youu said smiling at Lub Su.

"What?" Lub Su stood up immediately, stunned.

"I sent a group of people to survey for more than a year, and even ten million acres is an understatement," Li Youu said calmly, looking at Lub Su, "So we can revise the land grant and opening of branch families’ accounts. Together, the number of people needed for reclamation is not a small number."

"A mere five hundred thousand young and strong for reclamation, it’s not like we’re sending them to war; letting them cultivate the land is no problem. As long as what you say is true, I can organize one million personnel for you. Handling a million-level manpower isn’t new to me." Lub Su said proudly.

"As long as there’s no issue on your side, I will draft the land grant matters while you handle the drafting matters. Regarding organizing manpower, I know you have many tasks, so I’ll handle half, and you handle the other half, okay?" Li Youu said generously. This time he truly wasn’t exploiting Lub Su since Lub Su had already been worn out with overtime recently, and Li Youu wouldn’t dare push too far.

"Agreed!" Lub Su didn’t say much, but his facial expression already betrayed his current mood. For the rulers of this era, nothing is more reassuring than fertile farmland. With it, there’s endless food, and with food, all problems cease to be problems.

"Just a heads up, although that place is excellent, some areas are only suitable for national farming, as there are five to six months of winter each year, but the land is extremely suitable for cultivation." Li Youu continued to explain to Lub Su, who just nodded.

"For the parts I’m unclear about, you can handle them. In terms of governance, you are not inferior to me at all, so I feel more at ease with you doing it," Lub Su said to Li Youu. Li Youu was silent for a while; indeed, handing it over to someone else wouldn’t put him at ease, possibly leading to more overtime for himself.

"The northern war should have come to an end by now," Li Youu said while gazing north, "With those people’s abilities, any tactics of the Northern Huns are laughable."

"Barring any accidents, it should be around these past few days," Lub Su nodded and said.

At this moment, a messenger soldier rushed in from outside, presenting an urgent secret letter, which was also sent by the Observer set by Chen Xi.

Li Youu opened the letter, a heap of hexagram statements inside, quickly translated into hexagrams, calculated Yin Yang Yao, and deduced the content. Li Youu slightly frowned.

"What’s wrong, Wen Ru?" Lub Su asked.

Li Youu waved his hand, signaling the messenger soldier could leave, then handed the letter to Lub Su, "Trouble is brewing in Chang’an, the Emperor is playing with fire."

"Whose plan is this?" Lub Su asked angrily.

"I don’t know, but the one who proposed this must have ill intent," Li Youu laughed, "But it doesn’t matter, whatever the Emperor tries, how can we stop it? Let’s just sit here in Ye City and watch the chaos in the clouds of Chang’an."