Lu Ming

Soybean is one of the most productive soybeans. It is native to China and is called "shu" in ancient Chinese.This crop is not only rich in vegetable protein, but also produces soybean oil, which is one of the most important social crops.

Soybeans are extremely versatile. First of all, glycerin used to make mine explosives can be extracted from soybean oil.In addition, the paint made by mixing soybean oil and tung oil is exactly what the current kiln area can produce.

Soybeans are not only used to make food, various soy products, and soy sauce; its protein is also extracted to make various foods...such as some synthetic steaks, crab sticks, etc. are mixed with soybean protein, anyway, dicks I can't eat it either.

The bean cake that has been squeezed out of soybean oil is a high-quality protein feed, and livestock are very fond of it.In addition, bean cakes can also be used to fertilize the fields, but this usage was replaced by chemical fertilizers in later generations.As the officials here are too poor, all the bean cakes are used to feed the livestock, and there is no surplus as fertilizer.

In later generations, soybeans originated in China have become one of the most productive crops in the world.Relying on the vast plains, those countries in the Americas have become soybean exporters... China imports 3 million tons of soybeans every year for feed and oil extraction.This has also become one of the country's weaknesses: once the trade war started, feed and meat prices immediately began to fluctuate.

This is unavoidable: regardless of industry or agriculture, the wealth that the plains can generate far exceeds that of the mountains, but the cost is far lower than that of the mountains.

……

After confirming that all the newly reclaimed cultivated land will be launched into the soybean project, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo returned to the electric tricycle and continued to drive east.

Not far ahead is the regular field crop area.On the endless plain, there are large potato fields, sweet potato fields and corn fields.Ant-like farm workers are working in the fields, and tractors the size of black spots can be seen moving slowly in the distance.

These three are the staple food crops that are finally selected by grain companies after screening.

The Tainan Plain is warm and humid all year round. The average temperature in July and August is around 33°C. Even in January and February, the coldest months in winter, the average temperature is around 16°C.

In addition, the local water source is abundant, so except for some tropical plants, most of the crops can be sown and grown in the Tainan Plain... It is nothing more than a question of yield.In fact, many northern crops grow better in warmer Tainan.

In the Tainan Plain of later generations, the main crops were rice and sugar cane.These two kinds of "high-end goods" don't have much market for the big officials right now, or in other words, the time-traveling crowd can't afford to serve the two big bosses in a short time.

Both rice and sugarcane are crops that require a lot of fertilizer and careful management in the field, and this is where the current shortcoming of Chuozhong lies.

Economic crops like sugarcane, without enough fertilizers, will have low yields... Although everyone knows that sugar was a hard currency in the 17th century, it is difficult for a smart woman to live without rice, so it is better to consider filling one's stomach first.

The same goes for rice.Paddy fields that need water storage not only easily attract terrible mosquito corps, but also require fertilizers, sophisticated irrigation systems, and field management. In short, rice is delicious and difficult to grow.

Therefore, the sown area of ​​these two crops in Tainan is not large at present.

What really jumped on the stage were potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn.

The Age of Discovery was the era when the East and the West began to communicate closely, and many plant seeds were spread in this era.Among them, potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn were basically introduced into Ming Dynasty during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.

The three American crops that have sprung up suddenly are the real "gospel for rulers", "the killer of dynasty stability", and "the crops that are most resistant to climate anomalies in the Little Ice Age".

It's a pity that brother Chongzhen was one step too late, one step...tears, Chinese actors have collectively supplemented their calcium.

As people who are well versed in history, they will naturally not let go of these three big killers.Therefore, in the existing more than 15 mu of mature fields under rotation, most of these three crops are planted.

In later generations, the yield of improved potatoes can reach 3000-7000 jins per mu.Yes, this is not launching satellites, and it is not uncommon for some places to produce tens of thousands of catties per mu.

On the other hand, due to the poor conditions in various aspects, the yield of potatoes per mu is usually around 1500-1800 jin.Of course, as far as the existing conditions are concerned, this output is satisfactory enough, and we cannot ask for more.

The yield per mu of sweet potatoes is about the same as that of potatoes.These two crops can not only be eaten now, but also provide raw material starch for food factories to make various foods that are easy to store.

As for corn... In later generations, Taiwan's corn industry took another path: fruit corn.

Fruit corn is a type of super sweet corn.The skin is thin, juicy, and can be eaten raw. The thin skin breaks when bitten, and the juice overflows, just like a fruit.

Naturally, the cross-country would not grow such petty bourgeois things - ordinary corn suitable for field cultivation is their food.

In addition, in addition to large fields of corn, on Kinmen Island, where the water and soil are suitable, the grain company also arranged for sorghum and corn fields to be reclaimed. Later generations of Kinmen sorghum wine are well-known, and it does not hurt your head after drinking it. It is a very good Taiwanese specialty.

……

The above three crops are the confidence to travel through the crowd and immigrate from the Ming Dynasty.These high-yield and fast-growing crops, coupled with the rice purchased from Hangzhou and South Asia, have resisted the population that has inflated like a balloon.

The reason why the Golden Dragon Empire, which lived in a remote corner, was able to develop rapidly was rooted in this endless farmland.

Liang Letian walked through the fields for a long time along the dirt road before reaching the hilly area close to the central mountain range.

The scenery along the way is very monotonous: except for the newly opened soybean fields, which are the staple grain fields that are thriving, the rest are bare and abandoned fields.

Due to the lack of fertilizer here, the arable land is usually left unused for a year or two to restore the soil after one or two seasons of planting.This method is also often used in large farms of later generations. Whether it is a hardened field with too much chemical fertilizer or an ordinary field with insufficient soil fertility, the soil fertility can be restored by abandoning it.

…From the Chikan District Government to the east, about 40 kilometers away is the hilly area.And here is not far from the Central Mountain Range.

Below the soil layer in the mountainous area is a gravel layer, so the cultivated land area in the hilly area is zero.In other words, no one will come here to farm until the millions of acres of land suitable for farming in the middle of the plain are developed.

So if this is the case, what are Liang Letian and the others doing here?

There are water conservancy projects in the hilly area.

The central mountain range is the birthplace of all the streams and rivers in Tainan.The lake reconstruction project in the hilly area near the central mountain range is a key project of the Ministry of Agriculture this year.

The importance of water conservancy projects to agriculture cannot be overstated.The agricultural sector and the infrastructure sector, including the previous large office, have also invested considerable resources in water conservancy.

With regard to water conservancy, this is not just an issue of the agricultural sector.The traversers had suffered a great loss in water conservancy - just a few months ago, Chen Youguang, the first traverser who died abnormally, died in a summer storm.

After that incident, the water conservancy construction, which was originally steady and steady, suddenly increased by a gear.Travelers who experienced the power of the original storm in the 17th century quickly mobilized a large number of manpower and equipment to start repairing water conservancy.

The main canals of the farmland that have been repaired before are all widened, and the creeks and rivers that were only dredged and rectified before are all widened and deepened. For mainstream streams like Xingang Creek, the Infrastructure Corporation even transferred a small Haidilao to start dredging and widening.

While a series of agricultural canals and river water conservancy projects were being excavated aggressively, the Central Mountain Range series of reservoir projects to completely solve Tainan's water conservancy problems were also put on the agenda.You know, because too many resources needed to be used before, the original big office planned to build the upstream reservoir in two years.

What Liang Letian and the others came to inspect today was the prelude to a series of reservoir projects: the lake reconstruction project in the hilly area.

Chapter 320 Water Conservancy

In terms of recognition alone, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo, the two traversers, are probably the most familiar people to immigrants.

Because most people from the Ming Dynasty are illiterate + farmers, these people are often kicked to work in agriculture or infrastructure industries at the beginning, so they can often see the two in the fields.

So when the electric tricycle drove over from a distance, there was a message on the busy construction site: "The blue-headed mule is coming!"

Soon, the foreman who got the news ran out of the simple work shed.

The foreman's surname is Zhang, in his forties, he is a rare craftsman in the Ming Dynasty who knows mathematics, so he became a foreman soon after he came to Dayuan... and he usually takes junior high school geometry as a tutor.

This position is already regarded as a middle-level cadre of the Construction Corporation, so he must know Liang Letian and Mi Shuo.Seeing the two bosses getting off the blue-headed iron mule, Foreman Zhang hastily stepped forward to say hello: "Master Liang, Mr. Mi, you two are here! Please, please."

After Liang Letian snorted, he looked ahead and asked, "Is the boss there?"

At the bottom of the vast green hills, several mirror-like lakes are dotted between the sky and the earth.A large number of construction workers are busy on the depressions between the lakes, and the chug of gas forklifts are the main force for transforming nature. Every time a shovel is shoveled, a rickshaw will be filled with soil.

Looking at the busy scene in front of him, Liang Letian couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "The reservoir is really troublesome!"

……

The Tainan Plain is rich in water, and there are many permanent and seasonal puddles and lakes, especially in the hilly areas near the mountains, where wetlands, swamps and lakes are everywhere.

This highlights the importance of water conservancy: If you want to turn the plain into a granary, you must do a good job in water conservancy projects.

There are several large and small reservoirs in Chiayi in later generations.The most important of these is the Wutou Mountain Reservoir series of projects designed and built by Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta in 7.

Wutoushan Reservoir is located in the Chiayi area in the north of Dayuan, in the remaining veins of the Central Mountain Range. It was the largest irrigation project in Asia at that time, and it took 7 years to complete.

The core building of this project is the "Chiayi Dam".After the completion of the entire embankment, it is 1273 meters long, 56 meters high, and has a water storage capacity of 5000 million tons.

During the construction, Hatta Yoichi not only mobilized a large number of workers, but also used a series of advanced construction machinery at that time, such as steam shovels, pressure water sprayers, and gravel transport vehicles.

After the completion of the reservoir, the 15 hectares (220 million mu) of land downstream will be turned into drought and flood protection... And this reservoir is also the ultimate project in Tainan that people have never forgotten.

In fact, from the moment the big office was established, those in power who knew that the people depended on food for the first time took a copy of Google Maps of Tainan and threw it to the construction department: "Go and investigate the conditions of these reservoirs."

The results were quickly fed back: except for a few small reservoirs, other large-scale projects like the Wutoushan Reservoir cannot be built without five years of industrial development.

This conclusion is scientific: medium and large reservoirs need to excavate a huge amount of earth and stone, as well as a huge amount of concrete, steel bars, construction machinery, and construction workers.The poor production capacity of the kiln industrial park at that time could not meet the requirements at all.

So this matter was put on hold for the time being. After all, everyone had only come here not long ago, and the kiln area hadn’t even built a cement kiln. Let alone a large reservoir, even a small reservoir was beyond its capabilities.

However, more than a year later, when the time came to July of 1628, the violent torrents and heavy rain immediately gave people from the 7st century a taste of the wildness of the 21th century.

Then it was a painful experience. After the rainy season, the big office quickly, immediately, and a little nervously ordered the construction head office to start building the reservoir.

Again, the reservoir is not so easy to repair.

The Construction Headquarters, who had accidentally received a lot of jobs, could only tell the bosses on the stage with trepidation after assessing the existing engineering and technical capabilities with a sad face: at present, we can only widen the channels and rivers, and then Then choose an opportunity to repair one or two small reservoirs to practice.

So the "1628 Tainan Comprehensive Water Conservancy Project" was launched in such a hurry.

Tired Liang Letian and the others ran dozens of kilometers today to inspect the core project of this water conservancy project: Mirror Reservoir.

Jingmian Reservoir was a small reservoir in later generations, and its water source mainly came from Zengwen River and Cailiao River.Of the seven reservoirs, the mirror is the smallest.

The original site of the Mirror Reservoir in the 17th century was composed of a series of wetlands, woods, and lakes in the hilly area.After exploration, the construction company found that the construction conditions here could barely meet the requirements, so they decided to clear and dig these lakes, connect them together, and finally build a dam to finish the job.

What Liang Letian saw now was the construction team digging deep among several small lakes.

A large force of nearly 2000 people formed more than ten groups, and each group was working around a construction machine.

Some of these groups followed the logging machine to cut down forests, and some followed the excavating machine to empty the lake and build temporary dams. Most of them were pushing small carts and waiting around the forklift to remove the earthwork.

A large number of people and machines are scattered among the mountains and rivers, like swarms of black ants - a gas engineering vehicle that uses fresh wood felled on the spot as raw materials emits thick black smoke.

……

After standing on the embankment and looking at the construction site for a while, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo turned and walked towards the headquarters.

The headquarters is a few wooden houses built with logs. There is a camphor wood sign with white stubble exposed and fragrant fragrance hanging on the door. The words "Mirror Reservoir Project Headquarters" are written in crooked ink characters.

Glancing at the casserole with gurgling meat on a small clay stove at the door, Liang Letian and Mi Shuo looked at each other, then burst into the command post with a loud laugh.

The conditions in the house are very simple: there is no electricity in this damn place, and there is no diesel generator necessary for future construction sites.The tables, chairs and benches are all newly made of camphor wood from local materials. The workmanship is rough, the smell of camphor is constantly exuding, and the top is covered with bark.

This type of disposable furniture is popular on construction sites: unseasoned wood can warp over time.But at that time, the project just happened to be completed, and together with the headquarters, they were all thrown into the gas stove as fuel.

After entering the door, Liang Letian immediately saw the dazed man lying on the chair, so he yelled, "Hey! You dare to eat casserole stew, the Safety Supervision Bureau is here!"

The fear rooted in his bones caused the person in the chair to quickly turn over and sit up.

Ma Ming, a former contractor, is currently the vice president of the construction company and the person in charge of the Mirror Reservoir project.

When the stubble-faced Ma Ming woke up, he immediately scolded Liang Letian who was laughing, "So it's you!".

"It's me, Captain Ma." After Liang Letian made a joke, he sat down and asked the real thing directly: "How is the progress of the project?"

"Cut, it's early. Didn't you see when you came here? The pit hasn't been dug yet." After Ma Ming finished speaking, he stretched and half-lyed on the chair again: "I said Master Cifu, you can go if you want. Turn around, I have to sleep again, last night two idiots chased a deer into the wetlands, tossing me half the night."

"Come on, let's talk again, the meat in the casserole will belong to me and Mi Shuo after you sleep?" Liang Letian threatened, while taking out the big nine and handing it over.

"Oh, I know it's not a good thing for you to come!" Ma Ming didn't sleep after lighting a cigarette.

"Since the pit is still being dug, when will the dam be closed?" Mi Shuo, who was sitting beside him, asked the question he was most concerned about.

"It will take half a year anyway." Ma Ming took a puff of cigarettes and hid his face, looking very mysterious: "We are half artificial and half mechanical, and the efficiency is astonishingly slow."

"In this case, what will happen in the rainy season next year?" Mi Shuo was a little worried when he heard the words.

"There is no problem in the rainy season. It is now December, and the project will definitely be completed by July next year."

"However..." Ma Ming draws the tone here: "I advise you not to pin your hopes here."

"The area of ​​this reservoir is not large, and it can't play much role in flood control at all. At best, it just releases water in advance and then intercepts a few flood peaks."

When Ma Ming said this, he straightened up, stretched out his arms and drew a big circle to the north: "In the era when we came, there were seven large and small reservoirs near Chiayi alone, not counting the ones near Kaohsiung. You count on this one, that is Fingering the fart and blowing the lamp."

"We are mentally prepared for this." Liang Letian nodded with a sullen expression: "It seems that we still need to vigorously strengthen the irrigation system."

"That's right, relying on no one is worse than relying on yourself." Ma Ming smiled and lay back on the chair again.

"What about the big reservoir? When will construction start?" Mi Shuo asked again without giving up.

"I don't know." Ma Ming shook his head like a rattle: "Our technical conditions are actually the same as those of the Japanese back then. There is not much difference between a steam excavator and a gas excavator."

"But the Japanese's ability to mobilize resources is much stronger than ours now, and our current foundation is too thin." Ma Ming said this, and snapped his fingers: "Huge amounts of concrete, steel bars, boulders, and equipment...kilometers long The dam is nothing in later generations, but now it is a great leap forward. You can probably calculate the earthwork and know that there is no way to provide raw materials.”

"Then we can only build these small reservoirs?"

"Yes!" Ma Ming did not hesitate at all: "Build a series of small reservoirs within three years, wait for the construction team to be trained, and then look at the supply of machinery and raw materials. If there is enough, we will build it. If it is not enough, we will have to wait. "

"Oh, that's the only way to go." After Liang Letian and Mi Shuo looked at each other, they both saw helplessness in each other's eyes.

"In this case, there is nothing to do today. Let's leave after dinner." Liang Letian saw that it was just noon, so he directed the contractor who was smiling apologetically to bring in the casserole outside the door. Grab some more beer.

"It's over, I feel that today is not a good day." Ma Ming will be filled with grief and indignation: "Serow meat, I have stewed it all morning!"

Chapter 321 Detoxification

After coming out of the reservoir construction site, Liang Mi and the two sitting on the electric wheel car looked not very good... If the progress of the water conservancy project is slow, it will have a great impact on the downstream agriculture.

"It seems that we can only intensify the renovation of drainage and irrigation canals." Mi Shuo said thoughtfully.

"There is also an upper limit. You can't dig the agricultural canal into a river channel." Liang Letian sighed: "In the end, it's just capillaries. If the upstream arteries can't be repaired well, the downstream will suffer disaster no matter what, but the degree is different."

After thinking about it, Mi Shuo said: "Vigorously expand the potato and sweet potato (sweet potato) fields."

"Oh, that's the only way to go, let's make up for two years." Liang Letian said helplessly.

...Since the reservoir cannot be handled properly, the torrential rain and torrents in July and August every year are hurdles that cannot be avoided.In this situation, increasing the planting area of ​​root crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes has become the only option for agriculture.