Lu Ming

Mi Shuo is a fat man with round face, round ears and round eyes.This remarkable feature earned him the nickname "Mickey Mouse" at the beginning of his journey.

Wearing a bamboo hat and a canvas overalls, Mi Shuo is sitting at the head of the field waiting for dinner.An electric tricycle was parked on the side of the road, and three helpers were busy making lunch.

As a result, after seeing the Harley motorcycle from afar, Mi Shuo, who was sitting on a tree stump with a smile on his face, looked a little unnatural now.

The motorcycle quickly rushed to the front along the dirt road.

"Hehe, as expected of a leader going to the countryside, look at how skilled this waiter is!" Before Huo Xiong got out of the car, the sarcastic remarks had already flowed over.

No wonder he said that, the behavior of some people is really outrageous: log bonfires, steel grills, sizzling deer legs, oysters the size of a child's head, sprinkled with garlic... oh By the way, there is also self-brewed beer in exquisite small wooden barrels.

"Brother Mickey, you went to the countryside like this, and you were photographed on the Internet by the masses. Didn't you lose your official title every minute?" Huo Xiong teased, while honestly coming over and sitting next to Mi Shuo.

Mi Shuo, who has long been immune to these people calling him "Mickey", shook his head when he heard the words: "When the masses can access the Internet, I will even have my ashes melted, who cares so much."

After reaching out to pour Huo Xiong a glass of beer, Mi Shuo didn't wait for the other party to look for trouble, and took the initiative to pick up the topic: "Look at you, you are a busy person, and you are dragging my office director, you must have been looking for me for a long time, right?"

"You're ashamed to say, I've been looking for you for a few days, and I've been hiding from me." After squinting at Mi Shuo, Huo Xiong picked up a piece of oyster and started to eat, looking very angry.

"Hey." Mi Shuo laughed dryly: "Isn't this spring planting soon? The production task is heavy. I have to go to the field every day to inspect the field. What are you doing?"

"Pull it down, Tainan farming is divided into spring, summer, autumn and winter?" Huo Xiong mercilessly exposed someone's lie: "Old Mi, you can't hide from it. Today you have to give me a straight line, what is [-] acres of grassland?" When will it start?"

"Oh, that's what I knew." Mi Shuo shook his head when he heard the words: "Brother, let me tell you the truth, up to ten thousand mu."

Huo Xiong turned his head and opened his mouth in disbelief. After blinking, he stretched out his palm and began to count with his fingers: "Soybean meal, rye, sweet sorghum, alfalfa, elephant grass, emperor bamboo grass, corn... Lao Mi, you Do you think [-] mu is enough for so many types of feed?"

Mi Shuo also snapped his fingers: "First, soybean meal, straw, and wheat bran are not counted in it, these are directly provided by field crops."

"Second, according to calculations, [-] mu is enough for you to use. This feed is not banknotes, and there will be interest if you save it. Why do you want so much?"

Huo Xiong heard a smirk here, and fought back: "Old Mi, this is the first, I'm afraid you don't know that our embryo transfer experiment is successful. Regarding this point, I had a phone call with Xia Shoufu yesterday. He has already agreed to increase the import of livestock from the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, in the future, our large livestock inventory will roll upwards."

"That doesn't include the chickens, ducks, geese, and bamboo rats all over the place. By the way, I will start the small-tailed Han sheep and merino sheep projects after the new year, which require a lot of feed."

When Huo Xiong said this, he raised his second finger: "You got a sentence right just now. Although feed is not banknotes, it is very necessary to save it."

"Our current industrial level can't improve, even the supply of baking soda is intermittent, and the feed processing capacity is very poor." Huo Xiong began to smile at this moment: "So I need to store a large amount of silage feed."

"Don't talk about it, I understand this, the fermented feed can kill bacteria and insect eggs." Mi Shuo had a headache: "You really succeeded in embryo transfer?"

"Is there still a fake?" Huo Xiong said triumphantly, "You start plowing the fields and planting seeds now, and when the cattle come out of my side a year later, it just so happens that the fodder has been stored and can be eaten."

"No, no, [-] mu is still too much." Mi Shuo would shake his head like a rattle: "Brother Comrade, this kind of land is not a circle. In terms of machinery, water conservancy, seeds, and manpower, apart from rich manpower, other conditions Everything has to be calculated, don't talk to the lion."

"How about this, I will open [-] mu of special-purpose fodder fields here after the new year, and you can plant whatever you want. In addition, I will discuss with Lao Liang later and transfer a batch of soybean meal and straw to you. Is it enough now?"

"It still feels a bit precarious." Huo Xiong has already started eating deer legs and drinking beer: "The newly opened fields generally don't grow well. You have to guarantee my supply for the second half of next year."

Mi Shuo was helpless: "Okay, don't be too big and small. If there is a day when there is a shortage of feed, I will allocate soybeans and polished rice to feed your ancestors at any time! Is it possible?"

"That's what you said!" Huo Xiong nodded Mi Shuo with his finger.

"I said it, but the big planning meeting at the end of the year is coming soon. Regarding the production of agricultural machinery, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers, you have to cooperate with us in making resources. Well, I will also help you with a few words about the breeding stock."

"It's easy to say, isn't it just being a gunner? I'm good at this." Huo Xiong patted his chest: "Our big agriculture is going to be tied together and work hard. What kind of shit army artillery ship, two days ago, they even advocated building a phonograph to go to Ming Dynasty Those who cheat money... are really playing with things. If we don't do our best to turn the tide, I think it will be a pill to break the country!"

... After all, things have come to this point in the end: when internal resources are unevenly distributed, the best way is to go to war with the outside world, grab unplanned resources, and transfer conflicts.

So the two discussed and discussed, and finally decided to solve the problem from the "root": compress the unnecessary industrial categories of others, and concentrate resources to build up the empire's primary industry first.

The big planning meeting at the end of the year is the most important meeting of the year: the three-day meeting will determine the approximate proportion of resources allocated by various departments next year, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a battle of life and death.

So Huo Xiong and Mi Shuo, the two independent hilltops under the big agriculture, quickly reached an agreement under pressure, and a series of conspiracies followed... Figure it out.

After a venison beer barbecue feast, the two of them had almost reached an agreement.Huo Xiong, who was a little bit drunk, was in a good mood: he finally solved the problem of worrying about his heart, and it feels really uncomfortable to talk about things behind his back... Now he understands Huang Xu's mood yesterday.

Patting Mi Shuo's thick shoulder, Huo Xiong turned around and rode on Harley, waved his hand and left in a hurry, bringing an earth dragon along the way.

Seeing Huo Xiong's back hidden in the dust, Mi Shuo also sighed helplessly: People these days are not easy to be fooled, because everyone is full of energy, before time-traveling everyone was a dick, after time-traveling everyone strives to be a model worker.

It has to be said that option incentives are the greatest invention of human beings—once you confirm that you will be able to get a share of the big pie in the future, especially when the big pie is as big as the world's top 500, it will really make you dedicate yourself and sacrifice your life Forget it...

After sighing, Mi Shuo also wants to withdraw his troops and leave.With an order, several oil-mouthed subordinates, including the office director who suddenly came to eat, moved all the things to the tricycle, and then everyone climbed onto the wooden car. The wheels are made by DIY, except for the key transmission system, everything else is self-produced in the kiln area.

All the way back to the Chikan District government compound, Mi Shuo parked the car in the courtyard, and went out through the back door of the government. There is a special passenger terminal here, and there are traffic boats on duty at any time.

After quickly crossing the Taijiang River in a traffic boat, Mi Shuo went ashore on Dayuan Island, and then hitchhiked from the Port Authority Building into the Imperial City.

In a small office on the left on the first floor, he met his partner, cabinet member, Minister of Agriculture Liang Letian.

Chapter 318 Land Policy

"how is the situation?"

Seeing Mi Shuo enter the door, with a square face and big ears, Liang Letian, who was leaning on a desk full of documents, asked with a smile.

"There are joys and sorrows!" Mi Shuo sat down on the chair: "The seedlings are in good condition, but Huo Xiong caught him and promised 2 mu of feed fields."

Liang Letian laughed when he heard the words: "Sooner or later, wouldn't it be fine if you promised him earlier?"

"The problem is that in this way, the pressure on the 30 mu of new land we originally planned will be much greater."

"Yeah, there's a lot of pressure." Since Liang Letian became a cabinet minister, he has lost a lot of his time.

He leaned back in the chair, rubbed the center of his brows with his fingers, and said in a helpless tone, "In the morning meeting, I specifically talked to Zou Guoqing. The problem now is not only the tractor, but another accident happened in the chemical plant two days ago , Six sulfuric acid production lines died in one breath, the scene was... ugly, and now the entire line is shut down for maintenance.”

"Damn it..." Mi Shuo, who has always been generous, couldn't help scolding his mother after hearing the news: "It's raining all night when the house leaks!"

Sulfuric acid is the raw material for the production of quick-acting phosphate fertilizers. Struvite needs to react with sulfuric acid to change from slow-release fertilizers to normal phosphate fertilizers that are easily absorbed by plants.

Among the three major fertilizers of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, nitrogen and potassium, which are difficult to collect raw materials, need not be mentioned. The process of synthesizing sulfuric acid from Taipei volcano sulfur + island guano to synthesize phosphate fertilizer was originally the only stable fertilizer in the kiln area. Supply routes - although this poor phosphate fertilizer production is less than 1 tons.

It's good now, the sulfuric acid production line has stopped, and Mi Shuo immediately realized that the phosphate fertilizer will also be finished.

After cursing, Mi Shuo asked again: "What about the tractor?"

"It is said that the combustion chamber pressure research team failed...I don't quite understand, anyway, the delivery of the promised 10 tractors will be delayed."

... When Mi Shuo heard this, he was already powerless to complain.

In later generations, a large tractor pulling an 8-meter-long folding plow can plow 180 mu of land in one hour.In other words, three acres of land can be cultivated every minute.However, the gas tractors made by Transit can only plow 50 mu of land per hour, and the efficiency is not even a fraction of that of others.

This kind of scene of tractor plowing the land cannot be seen in most parts of the country in later generations.Still the same sentence: Only cattle can be used in mountainous areas.A small number of large plains like the Northeast also involve issues of land rights—unless the land of an entire village or township is contracted, and then small private plots are combined to form a large field, no one will buy a tractor to plow the field.

The current situation faced by the time-traversing people is exactly the opposite of that of the later generations: there is too much land, a large area of ​​wasteland, and far from enough tractors.As for private owners, there is simply no... Here again, the issue of land policy is involved.

Theoretically speaking, all the arable land in the Tainan Plain now has land rights allocated by the government to the Grain Corporation.Therefore, as the legal person of the head office, Mi Shuo is the number one landowner in Tianzi in name: Tainan has a total area of ​​more than 4000 square kilometers, which translates to 600 million mu of arable land.

Of course, one day in the future, the Grain Corporation will definitely divide the family property... Well, in a capitalist society, if you don't share the family property with the cross-travelers, what do you guys start with?

So even now, the crossing regime has not rejected private individuals to buy land: the ultimate goal of the crossing people is to divide the plains into private farms similar to North America, so as long as someone comes to buy, the general landowners are welcome.Otherwise, the gentlemen will plow those millions of acres of land by themselves?

Yes, anyone can buy land from the grain company and become a landlord—as long as they meet the requirements.

what request?The first is of course rich.

The starting price for selling farms here is 500 mu, while the grain company's warm recommendation starts at 2000 mu.So, 99.99% of the poor immigrants who come to Dayuan cannot afford a farm.

However, a small number of rich locals and merchants with silver dare not buy them.

Different from the land in Tu Lao Cai's concept, the farms in Chuan Zhong are not for Lao Cai to recruit and rent.On the land here, not to mention that tenants could not be hired at all, even if they were hired, Lao Cai's family would have to beg for food after the end of a grain season.

Yes, a certain government's tax rate for private farms is set according to one farmer + several temporary workers.

That is to say, the farmer’s family hires a tractor to plow the land, buys pesticides and fertilizers, and then uses mechanized harvesting... After paying all the costs and taxes for the harvest of 2000 mu of land, it is just a rich farmer, or a middle-class family.

This situation is very common in the United States in later generations: rednecks who own private ranches or farms are all millionaires, but their assets are real estate, and liquidity is very scarce.

Most of the farmers are owed loans from the banks. In the event of natural or man-made disasters, these wealthy people will also lose their ancestral family property.

And the few laocai who went to Dayuan are now facing this situation: under the land policy designed by the crossing crowd, the inefficient tenant + hoe model of laocai will go bankrupt in the first year after buying the land.

So after studying the land policy, all the enthusiastic Lao Cai knelt down—they couldn't understand this strange land policy, and most people thought it was a trick of the local government to cheat money.

You know, a family of high-efficiency farmers, enjoying the harvest of 2000 mu of land to themselves live so tensely, and the old rich continue to mess with the tenants, that is certain death.

In fact, besides a little money in his pocket, Lao Cai is also an ordinary family with no power or power. Fame and fame in the Ming Dynasty are not available to high officials, and he does evil, let alone think about running rampant in the countryside.

So now the situation is twisted.

The grain company can't wait to sell all the open fields to private farmers, and they are only responsible for providing technical support.However, apart from the poor ghosts here, there are old fortunes full of old ideas, and there is no new type of farmer with knowledge, skills, and financial resources that the traversers expect...

So the land has never been sold.

This is why Mi Shuo and the others have a headache: the whole society is too new and immature, lacking a qualified middle class.In this way, those who have resources can't concentrate on upgrading their technology, and can only bury their heads in plowing and opening up wasteland. This is actually a waste of time travellers.

……

After hearing the two bad news, Mi Shuo had a headache and was already thinking about the way out: "Oh, if this is the case, then we can only reduce the number of acres for land reclamation."

However, Liang Letian sat up from the chair at this time instead: "No, not only can't it be reduced, but the land reclamation area must be expanded!"

"Loss outside the embankment is repaired within the embankment!" Liang Letian stood up and walked around the room with his hands behind his back when he said this: "If the fertilizer can't keep up, the planting area should be expanded. If you do a good job in field management, no matter what you say, it will be better than that in the Ming Dynasty." Those arable lands are highly productive."

Having said this, Liang Letian raised his hand to look at his watch: "Today is too late, I have a lot of things to do here, let's go down and have a look around tomorrow."

Mi Shuo nodded and went out the door.After Liang Letian took a short break, he was immersed in endless paperwork and meetings.

Originally, according to his temperament, it was just right to take a field trip as soon as he said it.But not now: by the end of 1628, the number of permanent residents under the control of the Chuanzhong had soared to 40, and the number of floating population was also more than 5.

Even in later generations, 45 people is the population of a standard county.And to manage these populations, it is necessary to have some off-duty cadres who sit in the office...for example, the cabinet ministers, for example, some supporting clerks.

This is not bureaucracy.When the scale of a power reaches a certain level, there will inevitably be full-time civil servants.Liang Letian can no longer be the same as before, wandering in the fields, with a few subordinates behind him to work on the spot.

Early the next morning, the two set off from the Chikan District Government, still sitting on a three-wheeler, with the office director.

From Chikan all the way to the east, after passing through a large number of residential areas, as the road surface material degenerated from asphalt to cinders and gravel, fields with various plants appeared on both sides of the road.

Since the Tainan Plain in this period was still very primitive, and the coastal land near the strait was all saline land and lagoons, so the land that crossing people chose to reclaim was gathered on the plain between the central mountain range and the coast—the mountains The adjacent land is also unsuitable for agricultural activities due to the underlying rock formations.

In other words, the Chikan District and a large number of residential quarters built along the Taijiang River today are all built on saline land without encroaching on farmland.

So when the crops appeared on the side of the road, the tricycle had actually driven nearly 10 kilometers eastward from the beach.

There are many varieties of crops on the roadside: rice, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sugar beets, soybeans, sugar cane, sorghum, barley... and so on.

In short, there are test fields allocated here for crops from all over the world, whether they are Ming or Western, whether they are indigenous or imported.

These experimental fields for almost all crops were started last year when Liang Letian and Mi Shuo first arrived in Dayuan.

This is a homework that must be done: there is no record in history about the climate and soil conditions of Tainan after 1627; Make adjustments above.

The Dutch who were entrenched here in the original time and space recorded some simple weather data in their diaries, but the content of this information is too simple, far from meeting the requirements of Liang Letian and Mi Shuo, who used to be agricultural technicians.

After more than a year of cultivation and planting, the food company has mastered detailed data on Tainan's soil, climate, water conservancy and other aspects.It can be said that these data are the basis for the smooth growth of various field crops in the future.

Looking at the farmland passing by along the way, smelling the fruit smell of various crops, the two travelers who were riding on the electric tricycle felt much better at the moment.

After waving his hand to signal the car to stop randomly on the side of the road, Liang Letian stood on a ridge of soybean fields full of vines, stomped his feet vigorously, then raised his head and said, "I think the old method is still reliable. All new fields are sowed for the first time, and the varieties are the same. Choose soybeans, and ignore other crops."

Chapter 319 Field Crops

Right now, there are three sources of saltpeter for the senior staff.

1: The excrement of all permanent residents, plus some finished products of stinky fish and rotten shrimp that have been nitrated.

2: Saltpeter brought by Westerners from India.

3: The saltpeter collected from Ming Dynasty.

The current situation is: except for the first channel that can produce saltpeter stably, the latter two channels are very unreliable, and the arrival of goods is intermittent, so they can only be used as unplanned materials.

So what about the use of saltpeter?

The first place is naturally the army.Whether it is black powder for troops or diatomaceous earth nitroglycerin for mines, a large amount of saltpeter is needed as raw material.

Ranked second is the kiln base itself.Industrial production needs to consume a large amount of three acids and two alkalis, among which nitric acid is essential and one of the most widely used chemicals.

After the consumption of the above two departments, if... If there is still a little saltpeter left, then the agricultural department may get a little urea for farming.

Therefore, from the very beginning, the grain company never counted on urea, a major agricultural killer.You know, the cultivated land area in Tainan is currently 30 mu, and in the next few months, Mi Shuo’s plan is to double the total cultivated land, so it doesn’t matter if the urea is available or not.

Unless one day the fleet lands in the Bay of Bengal, and then brings mining machinery and small railways to the earth king who occupies the saltpeter mine there, there will be no solution to this shortage of raw materials, and Mi Shuo and the others have long been mentally prepared.

This is why Liang Letian and the others unanimously decided to expand the soybean planting area during their inspection today.

Leguminous crops have rhizobia and have natural nitrogen-fixing ability, which is equivalent to their own nitrogen fertilizer, which circumvents the problem of urea to some extent.Therefore, in the newly reclaimed wild land, a wave of leguminous crops must be planted first to fertilize the land.

This kind of lack of fertilizer in the land will not be seen in later generations-the land compaction caused by excessive fertilization by farmers can be seen everywhere.

Therefore, the golden soybean has become the most suitable crop under the current agricultural situation in Tainan.

……