Traveling through history leaving a name

Chapter 11

After the taxes in Guangping County were reported, they immediately received a written commendation from the Yuyang County Magistrate, which made Li Bai and a group of young people as happy as if they had eaten honey.

"The autumn harvest is over. Next, according to what the teacher said, we should take advantage of the slack time to call on the common people to repair water conservancy and open up wasteland for composting."

"I think roads need to be built. The teacher said that if you want to get rich, you need to build roads first. Only when the roads are built can the goods flow better."

In a room in the back hall of the county government, a group of young men were discussing. They were talking very positively to each other.

"I think it's too early to build roads. We should first promote Quyuanli, and then teach the people how to increase grain yield per mu..."

"The wasteland should be opened up first. Only the more wasteland is opened up, the more grain will be produced next year."

"In addition to growing food, we also need to grow mulberry and raise silkworms. This requires a lot of land. We still have to let the people open up more wasteland."

"The teacher said that industry and commerce are the foundation of a rich country, and we have to develop industry and commerce..."

"Why don't we do both at the same time?" someone said.

"How can there be so much money? Road construction, water conservancy, land reclamation, and the promotion of Quyuan plow, which one doesn't need money?" Li Bai smiled bitterly.

The opinions put forward by the junior fellow students are all good, but a little unrealistic.

"Brother, I don't think it costs money to open up wasteland, repair water conservancy projects, and build roads." A young man named Li Kui said to Li Bai.

"Oh? How do you say it?" Li Bai asked.

"We can tell the people that reclaiming wasteland belongs to them, and the tax can be reduced by half for growing grain in new fields. I believe that the people will definitely work hard for the land."

Li Kui said: "In addition, the construction of water conservancy is also for their own sake, as long as we organize a good staff."

"As for road construction, don't we still have a lot of food? There are tens of thousands of strong men in Luping, and each household can recruit thousands of strong men. We only need to pay for the food, and we can guarantee that the traffic will be completed within two months." Go to the official roads in every village and town to build them."

"Good way." Hearing Li Kui's words, Li Bai nodded. This is indeed a way.

Li Kui didn't stop talking, just listened to him continue: "As for the promotion of Quyuanli, it needs a lot of iron, wood and manpower, all of which need to be bought with money."

"Since we are short of money, why don't we think of ways to make money? When we have money, why can't we do it?" Li Kui finally said.

"Li Kui is right, we can make money." A young man named Yang Shen said: "We have learned so much business knowledge from our teacher, which can be put to good use, and we can also encourage business, so that the landlords can keep the money at home. Invest the money and let the market prosper, so that we can receive a lot of taxes, and with taxes, we can do a lot of things."

"You are all right. As long as our seniors work together, I believe we will be able to achieve good results." Li Bai said.

"It would be great if we could invite the teacher here. The teacher said he can make steel. We have iron mines in Luping. We can make iron as long as we buy coal from Youzhou. Then we don't need to spend money to buy iron." Zheng Chenggong's boy said.

"When we have achieved results, let's see if we can invite the teacher out of the mountain. Now that we have not achieved any results, the teacher will only laugh at us when he comes." Li Bai said.

Finally, Li Bai said: "Li Kui's suggestion just now is very good, we will organize the people to open up wasteland tomorrow, repair water conservancy, and build roads..."

"Next, I will arrange the work..."

The next day, the Junping County Government issued an official document to the surrounding villages and towns. The official document was written by Li Bai himself, mainly calling on the people to develop the wasteland.

However, the common people were not very happy when they heard about the land reclamation, which was completely different from what Li Bai and the others had imagined.

Seeing the situation of ordinary people, we investigated it, and the final result was very depressing.

It turns out that opening up wasteland is a very tiring job. If you want to open up a piece of wasteland, you first need to cut down the forest, and cut down all the trees in the place where you want to open up wasteland.

This era is not like the later generations. During the Han Dynasty, even the plains, most of the areas were densely covered with forests, and trees the size of buckets were almost everywhere.

After felling the tree, the trunk, branches and leaves have to be cleaned, and finally the roots have to be dug and the soil turned over. The workload is very heavy.

Even if the wasteland is opened up, it will take several years to turn the wasteland into a mature land. If there is no fertilizer, there is no need to think about how much harvest one acre of wasteland can get.

For ordinary people, as long as the existing land can support a family, they are not willing to open up wasteland at all.

Even if it is land reclamation, ordinary people will take their time, such as opening an acre of land in a few years, etc., and they will not open up dozens of acres of land all at once.

And with such a large amount of work, even if they were exhausted, they would not be able to drive it out.

The most important thing is that in the Han Dynasty, there were no advanced agricultural tools of the later generations. If it is intensive cultivation, it is considered that a person can plant a few acres of land, and it is considered as top-notch.

"Everyone thinks what should be done next. Land reclamation seems to be impossible." Li Bai asked his juniors.

At this time, everyone lowered their heads and was very depressed. After they came out of the mountain, they were still fighting with high spirits and preparing for a big fight. They didn't expect to suffer such a heavy blow at the beginning.

"It would be great if the teacher was here. The teacher must have a solution." Someone couldn't help but say.

"Why don't we go ask the teacher, it's not far away anyway, and we'll be back in a few days." Someone suggested.

"I'll go, I'll ask the teacher for advice." Yang Shen volunteered.

"Okay, you go, you can try to see if you can invite the teacher over." After thinking for a while, Li Bai agreed to Yang Shen's request.

The next day, Yang Shen headed towards Taihang Mountain under the protection of several guards.

A few days later, Yang Shen came back again, this time, he didn't ask the teacher, but brought back more than ten brothers.

"What did the teacher say?"

After Yang Shen came back, everyone gathered together immediately.

"The teacher said, since agriculture is not feasible, let us develop industry and commerce first."

Yang Shen said: "The teacher said that the prosperity of the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit. As long as we develop industry and commerce, driven by interests, all walks of life can explode with greater energy."

"When I came back this time, the teacher gave me some invention formulas. As long as we get these things out, we are guaranteed to make a lot of money."

"By the way, didn't you talk about steelmaking last time? The teacher gave me a method of steelmaking, called the steel pouring method. Pig iron sheets are embedded between coiled wrought iron, sealed and fired, and good steel can be made. .”

Yang Shen took out a few sheets of paper from a stack of papers, handed them to Li Bai, and said, "This is the method of pouring steel written by the teacher. He said that as long as we can make steel, we can make advanced tools, whether it is to open up wasteland or build roads." Repairing water conservancy can get twice the result with half the effort."

Li Bai received the secret recipe of pouring steel, and looked at it. It recorded that pig iron sheets were embedded between coiled wrought iron bars, and the steelmaking furnace was sealed with mud for smelting, so that steel could be tapped.

"The method is good, but there is a shortage of coal. We don't have coal here, and we have to transport it from Youzhou. We have no money to buy it." Li Bai said.

"Brother, you forgot, I didn't say before that the teacher also gave us things to make money. As long as we make money, we will have money to buy coal."

"right."

(End of this chapter)