Chapter 279 (1/2)

Compared with linbian County, Linshui County town is much bigger and more prosperous.

the city wall of Linshui county is more than six meters high, and there is a moat nearly ten meters wide under the city wall, and there are mountains behind and on the left and right. If you want to break through the city, you can only attack from the front, so it is a good development base.

After a high-level meeting, song Yan assigned soldiers and horses to three counties, leaving only 8000 people and horses in the county.

But soon, after checking the finance of Linshui County, song Yan got upset.

Today, the Qi State has more than 26000 soldiers, about 10000 auxiliary soldiers, and thousands of civilian men. The total number of soldiers and horses has exceeded 40000.

All these soldiers and horses need to eat with their mouths open and pay for their troops.

But the tax revenue in this era is very single. Apart from the agricultural tax, there are only a few miscellaneous small taxes. It can be said that the fiscal revenue of the county is very weak, and it can't afford to raise 40000 army horses at all. In recent decades, the war has been incessant, the civilian life is very hard, even the agricultural tax can't be collected, let alone those miscellaneous taxes.

If we take in the 30000 people brought by Gu min, we will have to rely on a County near the water to support nearly 100000 people, even if the tax revenue can not be doubled.

Therefore, we must find a way to generate income as soon as possible. Otherwise, the soldiers will rebel without waiting for the soldiers from other countries to attack.

For a moment, song Yan thought of two ways to increase income.

First, develop commerce.

Second, war.

The development of commerce is not something that can be done for a while. Moreover, in this era, it is difficult for ordinary people to feed themselves and buy so-called goods with free money. Therefore, to develop commerce, it is necessary for ordinary people to feed themselves and earn money.

As for the second road, a lot of materials can be plundered through war. However, this is also a way to cure the symptoms and not the root cause. With the expansion of the territory, the consumption will be greater.

Think of here, song Yan heart move, it is better to do so, this siege to grab materials, do not occupy the territory.

With a plan in mind, song Yan recruited song Xiu.

”How is papermaking and typography going?” Song Yan asked.

”General Hui, according to the paper-making process you provided, there should be three or five days left, but the movable type printing has been completed.” Song Xiu replied truthfully.

”Very good. Report to me as soon as the paper is made.” Song Yan nodded. He wrote paper making and movable type printing in great detail. He gave it to anyone who could make it step by step.

The raw materials for papermaking are very simple. Since it only takes a few days to make paper, we should prepare the raw materials as soon as possible.

After Song Xiu retired, song Yan called for Shen Du.

”How is the census and cultivated land survey going?” Song Yan asked directly.

Shendu said: ”back to the great general, at present, there are 100000 households and more than 325600 people in Linshui county.”

”So little?” Song Yan's eyebrows are wrinkled. There are only more than 300000 people in a county. It seems like the real world. There are more people in an ordinary county.

However, considering the backward science and technology, the backward health conditions, and the continuous wars, more than 300000 people in a county are good.

”How many mu of arable land? How about production? ” Song Yan continued to ask.

”Back to your excellency general, Linshui county has a total of 100000 mu of arable land. The crops planted by civilians are mainly corn, wheat and soybeans. The yield of corn per mu is about 200 liters, the yield of wheat is about 220 liters, and the yield of soybeans is 80 liters per year.”

One liter is equal to 1.25 Jin. In other words, the yield per mu of these three crops is very low, which is weak compared with the yield of thousands of Jin per mu in the real world.

And the agricultural tax revenue is 50%.

Moreover, 50% of them can only be collected when the weather is favorable. Once there is a natural disaster, they cannot be collected at all.