Author | Rogge Foreword Your glory is your own decline, your own prosperity and demise, and it is an ordinary day in May of the 22nd year of Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty (JOE, AD 734). In the royal garden, the imperial emperor Li Longji personally led the princes and ministers to harvest the winter wheat they planted last year. He said to his sons, "These wheat will be used to worship the ancestral temple in the future, so I dare not harvest it myself. I want you to know the hardships of planting crops. These wheat were given to the emperor's courtiers because the emperor felt that it was difficult to get the truth by sending people to the people's fields to observe the quality of crops, so he cultivated himself and observed the quality of the harvest. " (History as a Mirror Volume 2 14) Actually, he was wrong. The ancestors of his ancestors did not win the world with sufficient wheat as rations. To some extent, his grandfather (Li Zhi)' s grandfather (Li Yuan)' s grandfather (Li Hu) was able to compete with his comrades-in-arms because of the lack of wheat. The world belongs to those who plow with their left hands and knife with their right hands. Time can be traced back to about 200 years ago. The second day of October in the third year of the Western Wei Dynasty (AD 537). Yu Wentai will always remember the danger of this day. In the summer of this year, the winter wheat in the Eastern Wei Dynasty got a bumper harvest, but Guanzhong under Yu Wentai was facing a serious drought, and even the rations could not be supplied. Leap in September, Gao Huan led two hundred thousand troops across the Yellow River, pointing to Chang 'an, while there were less than ten thousand people in Yu Wentai, setting an ambush in Qu Wei, ten miles east of Shayuan. After World War I, Gao Huan lost 80,000 soldiers and abandoned the battle of armour180,000 (the son Tongzhi Liang Jianji XIII). In spite of this, Yu Wentai still felt cold in his back. Gao Huan has most Xianbei nobles, while the Kanto, Xuzhou, Jizhou, Dingzhou, Yanzhou, Yongzhou and other places occupied by Gao Huan are expanding on cultivated land, but shrinking under Yu Wentai. Without food and soldiers, Yu Wentai knew that the battle of Shayuan was just a fluke. However, it is often the chess pieces outside the bureau that determine which side the balance will tilt. At the moment, in the land of Guanzhong under the rule of Yu Wentai, the Han people are still planting a variety of millet, sticking to the farming season of "plowing 100 mu in spring, sowing autumn harvest in summer and eating 100 mu in winter". Every February and September, he can also let the rural soldiers put down their farm tools and fight with swords-he only promised: "The food is yours." "He said to people. Guan Longhao's village soldiers and commanders have since returned to Yuwen. At this time in Guandong, the Han people who planted winter wheat will hoe the ground again and again from February of the first year. The sowing time lasts from August to September, and then they expect bumper harvests again and again. With the pride of Xianbei nobles, Gao Huan, who is riding a horse, can only say to the people standing in the wheat field like this: "Xianbei is your guest, you produce grain and silk, and we fight to protect the environment and people." ("Liang Ji Nineteen" Volume 163) It is precisely because of the different leisure time of farmers that the Western Wei Dynasty and the Eastern Wei Dynasty began to differ in military training and reading and sightseeing. Referring to the ruling practice of later generations, the Northern Zhou Dynasty (Western Wei Dynasty) military patrols appeared in April, May, October, November and December (Zhou Shu's "Wu Di Ji"); On the other hand, in the Northern Qi Dynasty (Eastern Wei Dynasty), it was basically concentrated in October (Wen Xiangji, Book of Northern Qi Dynasty). The fighting capacity of the two armies of the Western Wei Warrior Figurines began to divide. In the 12th year of Datong (546), Wei Xiaokuan, commander of Chang 'an Town, led an army of less than 10,000 men at Yubi City, and an army of1.5000 was born in Gao Huan. 52-year-old Gao Huan stormed for more than 50 days, leaving 70,000 corpses. Before he died, he finally knew that even if more wheat could be produced on the Kanto land under his rule, the Xianbei soldiers under his command could not fight again; The unity of the army and the people in Guanzhong can fight a new army that can dismount and plow, and it will never be defeated again. In the sixteen years of "Great Unification", all the talented people were officers and men. "(The Book of the Later Wei Dynasty) formed the Western Wei Dynasty with eight pillars, twelve generals and twenty-four officials. The names of these paoze and the families they represent will last for more than 200 years: Yang Zhong, the father of Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty, Li Bi, the great-grandfather of Li Mi, and Li Yuan's grandfather. Chang 'an loves Hu cakes, and Princess Taiping also comes to rob the stone mill. If Li Longji stands at the head of the imperial capital Chang 'an, whether overlooking the noisy Chang 'an or the vast land of Guanzhong, what he sees must be different from his previous emperors. During the Zhenguan period, * * * taxed millet, and only places that did not produce millet were allowed to pay rice and wheat; The salary that princes and ministers in Chang 'an can receive from the emperor is still millet. When there is not enough millet, they make up with salt. Although Guanzhong is known as fertile land, the millet produced is not enough for the capital to guard against floods and droughts. Therefore, during the reign of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong, Chang 'an also needed to supplement the millet in the southeast through grain transportation, which was about "200,000 mangokus" every year (Book of the New Tang Dynasty, Record of Food Goods III). In Li Longji's own view, Chang 'an and Dongxicheng have many shops and exotic parties in all directions. People have moved from their distant hometown to Chang 'an to make a living, with a population of nearly one million, including * * * people, Persians and Sogdians. Hu cake and noodles have also become people's favorite staple food besides millet and wheat rice. Surprisingly, in medical books before the Tang Dynasty, the word "wheat poison" was recorded: wheat has heat poison, which will make you sick and even die. And this "wheat poison" is even worse in flour. If you eat rice cooked with whole grains, the "wheat poison" in it will be alleviated by wheat bran. It was also in the Tang Dynasty that the National Pharmacopoeia and the newly revised Materia Medica told people that wheat was non-toxic. The population explosion has driven the demand for food, and the millet produced in Guanzhong is far from enough. On the one hand, the amount of materials transported to Beijing by water in various counties has increased rapidly. In the first year of Tianbao, more than 300 ships of Weihe River lined up in Guangyuntan, ten miles from end to end, and filed into Chang 'an; On the other hand, outside the city, people are sweating in the land, and they are more active in planting wheat with higher yield. Only in this way can we fill more people's stomachs-Guanzhong land is becoming the world of wheat. Because of the increasing demand for wheat flour, controlling the grinding of winter wheat (stone mill) has become a tool for the princes and nobles in Chang 'an to seek benefits. Even Princess Taiping, who shook the world, has to compete with the temples in Yongzhou for a big stone mill (Biography of Li Yuanwa in the New Tang Dynasty). 20 19 June, Shaanxi, mature wheat However, the emperor who was single-minded about the imperial country did not expect that something was quietly changing, from corn and rice to noodles and cakes. In fact, when my grandfather Li Zhi was in power, the planting area of winter wheat in Guanzhong had been continuously expanded, and a two-year triple cropping system adapted to wheat planting was gradually formed. The new farming method increases the time and frequency of ploughing, hoeing and hoeing. December, January and February of the lunar calendar are busy farming hours for winter wheat planting. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, it happened that the time for intensive training of officers and men was set in December: every winter, a captain Chong would lead the military and horses in the government to give lectures, train soldiers and exercise (New Tang Book Military Record). Those who hold a plow in their left hand and a knife in their right hand are faced with such a dilemma when winter comes: either be a good soldier on the school playground or be a good farmer. Which side will they choose? The collapse of government soldiers and the decline of Guanzhong broke the balance of the game: with the expansion of imperial territory, the road of government soldiers became farther and farther, and the wheat in the field needed manpower. If we don't make great strides in a year or two, the economy of small families will collapse. When they came back from the war, they found that the land that should have been awarded to them was not enough. The royal family, nobles and bureaucrats occupy more land (they even have to compete with the people for profits on the millstone, not to mention valuable means of production such as land). Old military households chose to leave their homes and find another piece of land to grow wheat. When the morale of the army is shaken, failure will follow. In the first year of Xianheng (670), 50,000 soldiers of Xue Tang Dynasty were defeated by Qinghai Dafeichuan, and in the third year of Yifeng (678), 654.38 million Tang Jun led by Li was defeated by Tubo again. In August of the first year (AD 696) of Long Live Tian Tong, the marquis of Wu, Tang Jun was defeated by the Khitan in Huangzhanggu, and was completely annihilated by the surrounding cavalry. In March of the first year (697) of the Warrior of Wuhou, Dongshixia Valley and Tang Jun were all annihilated by the Qidan Army in the chaos. The government soldiers who were once in chaos have no intention of fighting ... Even every time, the streets of Chang 'an are full of "they run with you and cry, they drag your sleeves and go up into the sky with their sad voices" (Military Vehicle Shop, Du Fu). In the 25th year of Kaiyuan (737), Li Longji ordered the towns to make our time, and according to the defense needs, recruited soldiers who volunteered to be stationed on the border for a long time. After the full amount, they stopped sending government soldiers from the mainland. Cui Qi in Longyou in The Longest Day in Chang 'an was also the first batch of soldiers on the frontier recruited by the Empire. In the eighth year of Tianbao (749), in view of the fact that the military government had no soldiers to send, it stopped folding its soldiers and rushed to write a fish book to the government. The system of officers and men, on which Guanlong nobles started, was finally abolished. The defeat of the Guanzhong Empire on the battlefield on the map today is only the beginning of the collapse. The construction of the Imperial Capital, the large increase of population in Guanzhong area, the escape of old military households and the continuous expansion of the sphere of influence of wheat eventually led to over-exploitation in Guanzhong area, the sharp disappearance of forests, the massive reduction of natural vegetation, serious soil erosion and the decline of soil fertility. The scene of Jing, Wei, Ba, Chan, Feng, Lian, Lian and Waterlogging "eight waters around Chang 'an" no longer exists, and the water flow of Jing, Wei and Ba has become smaller. Artificial channels such as Longshou and Qingming have dried up one after another. The natural environment in Guanzhong also tends to collapse. Take floods and droughts as an example. In 227, the capital of Guanzhong was established once every 7. 1 year and once every 22.7 years in Han dynasty, while in 290, it was established once every 2.37 years and once every 3.37 years in Tang dynasty. When the imperial rulers abandoned Chang 'an in the war, the Yellow River civilization was on the verge of extinction. Tail chapter: The wheat field with endless new hope is rolled up by the breeze, like flowing gold, shining in the sun. Humans domesticated it, planted it and established a brilliant civilization under its feet. Whether it is between the Tigris River and the Euphrates River, or in the Nile valley, or along the Jiuqu Yellow River. However, it is puzzling that the prosperity brought by wheat has inadvertently become the glorious peak of a period of history and the starting point of decline. Both ancient Babylon and ancient Egypt declined in that wave of golden wheat. Fortunately, there is a mother river in Chinese civilization. On the way of people's continuous migration to the east and south, there is a rice variety called Zhancheng Rice, which will help them continue the glory of their civilization in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Pearl River Delta. That will be another interesting story.