I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 148 The Reasons for the Good Harvest in Southern Liaoning

Chapter 147

Gao Qiqian felt that he was very lucky and met Cheng Shijie.

In just one year, Cheng Shijie first quelled the Kong Youde rebellion, and then restored Jinzhouwei and Gaizhouwei. Fuzhouwei.

Under his guidance, Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied with and trusted Cheng Shijie, a courageous and capable employee.

Of course, Cheng Shijie did not live up to his trust, and Cheng Shijie is also a man of great luck. Guan Ning's army spent tens of millions of taels of silver. very difficult.

As a result, tens of thousands of people built slaves and traveled thousands of miles to Haizhou to give away their heads.

If it is said that Cheng Shijie is capable of fighting, it is fine, but he is even more capable of farming.Now that the Ming Dynasty is full of wars and the treasury is so empty that mice can be starved to death, Cheng Shijie has produced such high-yielding crops in southern Liaoning.

Gao Qiqian also tasted the whole potato banquet, and tasted more than 40 sweet potatoes of various flavors. The taste was excellent. Under this situation, he looked up and down Cheng Shijie.

Cheng Shijie was stared at by the eunuch, making him a little nervous: "Eunuch Gao, why are you looking at Cheng like this?"

"Could it be that General Cheng has a god to help him?"

Gao Qiqian said in disbelief: "Otherwise, how could there be such a high-yield thing? This kind of sweet potato was paid tribute to the palace in the early years, but it not only grows poorly, but also the yield is not too high, and it can't be grown well. save!"

"How can there be any gods to help!"

Cheng Shijie said with a faint smile: "It's just that the right method is used. For things like sweet potatoes, you don't need to pick the ground. As long as you use the right method, even in thin fields, you can get quite high yields!"

"How did you know the right way?"

"This is……"

Cheng Shijie originally didn't want to take the credit for cultivating high-yield sweet potatoes, and even wanted to give this credit to Xu Guangqi, so as to make Xu Guangqi the god of agriculture in Ming Dynasty.

But the problem is, it's too late now, and I haven't had time to arrange it in advance.

After much deliberation, Cheng Shijie pondered: "At the time when Phoenix Mountain was defended by thousands of households, Cheng was rescued by his servants at the risk of his death, and he was going to take a boat to Shandong, but during the voyage, the boat capsized, and Cheng carried a big wooden box, Drifting with the waves, because of fate, I ended up on an uninhabited island in the south!"

"An uninhabited island?"

"Yes, it is a small island with only a few tens of acres of land. There is water on it, but the land is very small, and there is not much land that can be farmed. Cheng has eaten sea fish for more than ten days in a row. Only to find some sweet potatoes in the box!"

While thinking, Cheng Shijie transferred the content of Robinson Crusoe to himself. Cheng Shijie stayed up late for three years by himself. During these three years, he had nothing else to do, so he put The sweet potatoes were cut into countless small pieces with a small knife.

It took a few days to find that these small pieces had germinated. After planting, these sweet potatoes grew very well.

Cheng Shijie concluded: "After more than four years of exploration, Cheng discovered that this sweet potato cannot be planted in too hot a season, and the climate in southern Liaoning is just neither hot nor cold. Second, we must strictly select seedlings and breed them. , Contrary to ordinary wheat, rice, or sorghum, our traditional crops all need big, full-grained seeds, but sweet potatoes can only choose small ones!"

"Why choose the small one?"

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Cheng doesn't know either, because after raising seedlings of small sweet potatoes, the seedlings will grow well and the fruits will be big, but the big sweet potatoes will be deformed and smaller, which will affect the yield. The third The reason is that the fertilizer has to keep up..."

Speaking of this, Cheng Shijie suddenly discovered that there were actually two people behind Gao Qi who were writing furiously. After looking carefully, he realized that they were actually Chen Zilong and Fang Yizhi.

Seeing that it was Chen Zilong, Cheng Shijie asked, "What are you doing?"

"We have always wanted to breed wheat, beans and rice that are resistant to cold, drought and pests, but we have not been able to find a good way!"

Chen Zilong said: "Master Cheng Jinglue opened up a new way of thinking for Chen..."

Gao Qiqian turned to look at the little eunuch beside him and said, "Have you written down what Mr. Cheng said?"

"Reporting to Godfather, my son has the ability to look beyond his eyes since he was a child, and my son has memorized what Cheng Shuai said!"

"It's good to write it down. Our family should also record this situation and compile it into a book and present it to the emperor. Now several provinces in the north are suffering from severe drought for years, natural disasters are frequent, and grain is lost. The emperor is in a hurry. If we can follow the This method produces a large number of sweet potatoes, the emperor will definitely be very happy!"

It's a pity that the Patent Law has not yet been promulgated these days, so officials of the Ming Dynasty don't have to worry about being sued for infringing on Cheng Shijie's patents, and plagiarism is a matter of course.

Chen Zilong listened to what Cheng Shijie said about choosing small sweet potatoes, and his mind suddenly became clear. When they cultivated seeds, they habitually chose the seeds with the largest particles and the best appearance. What if the operation was reversed?
Since ancient times, there has been an idiom in China that people should not be judged by their appearance. In fact, as early as in the Analects of Confucius, Confucius said: "It's hard to judge people by their capacity, and they are lost!"

There are many examples of people who cannot be judged by their appearance, such as Zuo Si of Zhigui in Luoyang, and Zhong Kui, Pang Ju, and Tantai Mieming in the early Tang Dynasty.All of them are dragons and phoenixes among people.There are too many examples of gold and jade falling apart.

Thinking of this, Chen Zilong ran towards the distance like a madman, shouting as he ran, "Thank you, Master Cheng, for reminding me!"

Gao Qiqian smiled when he saw this scene.

Cheng Shijie said: "Eunuch Gao, let's not be in a hurry. There are several new crops here, which will gradually mature and start harvesting. Eunuch might as well wait a few more days. It's time for Cheng to go to Beijing to report on his work!"

Cheng Shijie chose the timing very cleverly. After the autumn harvest, Jiannu would definitely send troops south. Facing the harvest of more than 500 million mu of land in the Ning Navy, it would be strange if Huang Taiji could sit still.As long as Jiannu moves, Emperor Chongzhen will definitely not leave Cheng Shijie in the capital.

After two days and one night of harvesting, 12 mu of sweet potatoes have been harvested. Using 12 mu of sweet potatoes to calculate the average yield per mu, it still has a yield of [-] jin.

Sun Yuanhua sighed: "If the storage time is longer, it will be enough to feed a family of seven for a year!"

Sun Yuanhua pinched his chin and pondered, thinking about whether he should find an opportunity to ask Cheng Shijie for some potato seeds to take back to the area under his control for planting.

Sun Yuanhua did not dare to expect such a high output, half, no, even a third, the people under his rule would be able to eat enough!

He also wants to learn planting techniques from Cheng Shijie. It's not that no one has planted this thing before, but he has never heard of one that can produce such a good yield. There must be many skills in it, and he must learn it!

Watching Fan Yongdou buy 600 million catties from Cheng Shijie with 20 war horses, if the average price of war horses is 180 taels of silver per horse, the price of this sweet potato is equivalent to buying [-] seven and a half catties per tael of silver.

Of course, Fan Yongdou actually bought war horses with only ten taels or even eight taels of silver, so he actually made a lot of money, which is equivalent to buying more than 280 catties for every tael of silver.

This price is really not cheap. With a yield of [-] catties per mu, you can earn more than ten taels of silver per mu, which is really scary.

Gao Qiqian and all the eunuchs were delighted, Cheng Shijie is a very generous person, he will never treat himself badly if he eats meat, this time he will never come in vain.

Naturally, Cheng Shijie would not let Gao Qiqian eat for free. Many officials, including Sun Yuanhua, wanted to buy sweet potatoes and take them back to plant because they saw the high yield of sweet potatoes.

These officials, Cheng Shijie is too lazy to deal with them, eunuchs to civil officials, you bite.

"Gao Gonggong, I'm afraid these officials want to eat for free..."

Hearing this, Gao Qiqian frowned slightly, and his lips curled up: "Let's see who dares!"

Cheng Shijie smiled wryly: "The first rank of the official rank crushes people to death!"

"General Cheng, in southern Liaoning, you are the biggest, they Denglai governor...!"

Gao Qiqian smiled and said: "Let's go back and talk to Lord Wan, and give Governor Denglai the jurisdiction over Liaodong. Don't you have the right to do things cheaply?"

"Gao Gonggong, you are the supervisor of the Ninghai Navy. If they want to take advantage of Liaonan, they must pass you first!"

Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Elder-in-law, Cheng will let you know the truth. The price of the fine seeds that shopkeeper Fan Da bought from here is one tael of silver and one hundred and eighty-seven catties. Of course, what is the relationship between shopkeeper Fan Da and Cheng?" Can it be compared to the relationship between the father-in-law and Cheng? How about I can buy 240 catties of sweet potatoes for a tael of silver?"

Gao Qiqian's subordinates are capable, so he immediately calculated the profits, and repeatedly gave Gao Qiqian winks, signaling that he could do this job.

"As for how much my father-in-law sells...that's all my father-in-law's!"

Gao Qiqian smiled slightly: "How much are you going to sell?"

"Twenty-four million catties, how about 400 taels of silver?"

"Too little!"

"Then 3000 million catties?"

"Thirty-six million catties!"

Gao Qiqian silently calculated, this is a business of 15 taels of silver, without his capital, if he sells it, he will earn a part of it.

After initially reaching a cooperation agreement with Cheng Shijie, the eunuch under Gao Qiqian's first step was not to contact officials in southern Liaoning, but wrote many letters to the eunuch in charge of Huangzhuang.Then there are Shandong officials in southern Liaoning, officials from various prefectures in Northern Zhili, and finally merchants.

Cheng Shijie still underestimated Gao Qiqian's shamelessness, and also underestimated the financial resources of these officials.

In just half a month, Gao Qiqian sold more than 38 million catties of sweet potatoes, earning a total of more than [-] taels of silver. ,
In just half a month, I made a net profit of more than 15 taels of silver.

Cheng Shijie didn't envy Gao Qiqian's ability to make money, because the merchants were actually Gao Qiqian's own resources, and Cheng Shijie couldn't get in touch with those Huangzhuang managers. If Cheng Shijie went to them, they probably wouldn't bother him.

Of course, the little manager of Huangzhuang can't afford to offend Gao Qiqian, even if Gao Qiqian sells them a pile of shit, they will buy it.

It's not that it's not a business, but that it's a matter of worldliness.

Many merchants and officials have purchased sweet potatoes. Of course, the quantity purchased by these officials is very problematic.

For example, Gao Jidi, the magistrate of Le'an County, and Han Shuncheng, the magistrate of Boxing County, only bought [-] catties of sweet potatoes from Cheng Shijie. Two thousand acres of land can be planted.

A county only purchases [-] mu of seeds, which is too little.

Don't look at the number of 150 catties of sweet potatoes is not much, but the problem is that you can't stand up and concentrate on black, a tael of silver is 100 catties, whether you like it or not.The price of sweet potatoes purchased by some merchants has reached a tael of silver, [-] to [-] catties...

As the harvesting of sweet potatoes in Zhenhai City came to an end, all the towns and cities of Jinzhouwei began to harvest sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat, corn, tomatoes, peppers, sorghum, and soybeans.

Cheng Shijie, in order to grab the crops, many factories also took the opportunity to launch some new farm tools, such as the multi-functional animal-powered rocker-arm wheat harvester, which is driven by two horses, and uses the wheels in front of the harvester to drive the chain and drive the combined knives at the back. , You can harvest wheat or soybeans along with you.

Two people, two horses, or two cows can harvest more than 20 mu of land a day, which is much faster than manual harvesting.Even a vigorous and strong man can only harvest two or three acres of land a day at most, and it's just cutting it off.

In addition to animal-powered harvesters, there are also animal-powered and hydraulic threshers. This kind of thresher uses artificial dams to increase the water pressure, uses pipes to release water, and the water flows to drive the water wheel. After being accelerated by the gear set, it can harvest wheat, soybeans, and even grains. Threshing of corn.

"How is the wheat yield?"

"Between three stones and two buckets to three stones and five buckets!"

Sun Yuanhua was speechless.

Wheat has been planted in the north for thousands of years. During the Warring States period, the wheat yield per mu was the highest at 330 catties. Qin and Han Dynasties were the period of agricultural progress, with a level of 346 catties.In the Tang Dynasty, it was 410 seven catties, and in the Song Dynasty it was lower, at about [-] catties.The Ming Dynasty was the period with the highest grain production in ancient China. The average yield per mu was about [-] jin, but the Ming jin was heavier, about [-] jin.

But the problem is, even if the output is 410 catties, it is far from reaching three stones.

However, the yield of wheat per mu in southern Liaoning is as high as three stones and two heads to three stones and five buckets, and that of soybeans is between 330 and 360 kilograms.

"how did you do that?"

"We will do whatever our commander tells us to do, and then...then, that's it!"

Chen Zilong was covered in dirt, sitting in the field, looking at a simple and honest military household in the field, and said: "Marshal Cheng, what did you ask you to do?"

"Dig river mud!"

"Any more?"

"Scatter grass ash!"

"When the land is dry, water it..."

"The point is, it's a different place from your farming!"

"Have it?"

Chen Zilong was about to go berserk: "I'm asking you..."

"Really!"

"Bone meal is sprinkled on the ground!"

"What bone meal?"

"This, Caomin is not very clear, but..."

"But what?"

"The grass people have heard some rumors that the commander said that he would leave the fertile land for the Jiannu who dared to come to southern Liaoning, but the grass people don't know if the Jian slaves can really fertilize the land. The grass people did get two carts of bone meal, so they scattered In the field!"

Chen Zilong rubbed his head, wondering if he should write this record down.

"Marshal Cheng established slaves in the Azig tribe in the first battle last December. In February of the fifth year of Chongzhen, he established slaves in Haizhou in the second war. He beheaded thousands of people. The heads were sent to the capital, but the corpses... Could it be said that they were all killed? Cheng Shuai sprinkled it on the ground?"

"The corpse can be fertilized, how is this possible?"

Chen Zilong smiled wryly, "Isn't this absurd?"

"Is this really possible?"

Song Yingxing thought for a while and said, "Ms. Song once heard from those experienced writers that as long as the corpse is buried in a certain place, the grass or crops in a certain place will be more lush than other places!"

"He really didn't grind the bones of these [-] corpses into powder and sprinkle them on the ground?"

"Why don't you ask Cheng Shuai?"

Cheng Shijie is annoyed to death by Gu Shizhang every day. In desperation, Cheng Shijie dispatches a big weapon, Zheng Qi is in charge of business negotiations. , obtained the right to sell 60 shi of potatoes from Cheng Shijie.

And the price is per stone potato, which is 120 catties and five cents. This price is almost the wholesale price Cheng Shijie gave Gao Qiqian. sales task.

Cheng Shijie did not hesitate, and handed over the task of external sales to Gao Qiqian. For this kind of trump card sales, Cheng Shijie gave Gao Qiqian two carriages as rewards for the trump card sales.

Gu Shizhang bought the right to sell 120 million shi potatoes at a price of five renminbi per shi. His arrogance of spending a lot of money made Cheng Shijie see the strength of Huizhou merchants.

Huizhou merchants transported 30 shi of rice from Jiangnan, and more than 130 million taels of silver, and stored these helpless and silver winter melons in the Bank of Liaodong, which relieved the bank's silver shortage during this period of time.

Because potatoes and sweet potatoes need to be stored in cellars, the military and martyrs of the Ninghai Navy who own private land can only dig cellars in order to store and harvest potatoes and sweet potatoes.

But the problem is that the cellars of each household are too small, and they don’t have the urgent time to dig them by themselves, so they can only hire people to dig them. Moreover, some military family members saw the huge profits from processing potatoes and sweet potatoes into flour, so they began to borrow money one after another. Sweet potato and potato processing factory, this factory requires at least 500 taels of silver to invest.

For this reason, merchants and military families who came to various banks to borrow money have become crowded.Especially Gu Shizhang, this guy built more than 40 water mills in one go. He calculated that the cost of processing a stone of potatoes or sweet potatoes into potato noodles was about one penny.

Special vermicelli are not only delicious, but also inexpensive, easy to store, and have a very good market prospect. For five renminbi of sweet potatoes or potatoes, one hundred catties of vermicelli or thirty catties of starch can be produced.For every stone of sweet potato or potato, excluding labor and production costs, the net profit is three renminbi.

Gu Shizhang mobilized all the manpower he could mobilize, and hired a lot of people, weighing potatoes, keeping accounts, and working in two shifts, so he was still too busy...

The potatoes in the field are still being transported back in carts, and the military households in the field are so tired that they want to cry!

But at the end of August, the temperature in southern Liaoning dropped sharply, and the weather became gloomy. According to the analysis of experienced farmers, this kind of weather will definitely drop in temperature on a large scale in the next ten days.

Cheng Shijie was also very anxious. For this reason, he asked the less important factories to temporarily suspend production and put all the workers into the autumn harvest operation.

With the establishment of the Liaodong Management Committee, the military factories of the Ninghai Navy, especially the arsenal, are now in a state of semi-shutdown. In order to save costs, only the Gun Bureau, Armor and Crossbow Bureau, Ordnance Bureau, Gunpowder Bureau and Armament Bureau have been retained. Five specialized research and development institutions, the five research and development institutions share an arsenal, which is responsible for the production of equipment for the Ning Navy.

Now the arsenal adopts a performance appraisal system, but it cannot increase production to create profits like other factories. Zhou Yandong was very happy when he learned that Cheng Shijie was going to shut down the factory and transfer all workers to the autumn harvest.

However, he was too happy.

"The arsenal must not stop!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "Even if the arsenal loses money, it must not stop!"

"But our Ning Navy's demand is limited. We now have more than 4 horizontal knives in stock, 20 long spears, more than [-] armors, and more than [-] gun barrels. The rifling mentioned by Shuai can be mass-produced at any time, and there are as many as [-] hand grenades!"

Zhou Yandong smiled wryly: "The weapons produced are useless, the more they are produced, the more they will lose!"

"Don't focus on this trivial matter. The purpose of the arsenal is to train more qualified workers. At this stage, you don't have to worry about losing money."

Cheng Shijie is not afraid of losing money, as long as more skilled workers are trained now, the money lost now will be earned back ten times and a hundred times in the future.

Since Cheng Shijie talked about this, Zhou Yandong has no reason to object. The arsenal is not always losing money. Although the weapons and armor produced by the arsenal cannot be sold, it is not that they cannot be sold, but that they are unwilling to sell. .As long as the technicians equipped with Ning Navy are willing to sell, they will not have to worry about finding a seller.

It's a pity that Cheng Shijie didn't trust the professional ethics of the generals of the Ming army. The artillery or muskets he sold could appear in Jiannu's hands later.

Therefore, he is unwilling to sell these equipments.

Although the equipment cannot be sold, the gunpowder and explosives produced by the arsenal are still very easy to sell. After all, there are many mines in southern Liaoning, such as iron ore, limestone mines, and cement fields, which have a great demand for explosives. Now the arsenal of the Liaoning Navy The explosives have been sold to various mines, and these mines are naturally owned by Cheng Shijie. As long as there are no problems with the management, there will naturally be no outflow, and the sales volume is still good.

"When the arsenal manufactures breech-loading rifles, I will place an order for [-] guns from the arsenal!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "Our arsenal will not be on the right track until the breech-loading rifle is manufactured!"

"Hey, brother, have you heard?"

"what?"

"Why do our crops in southern Liaoning have a good harvest?"

"I don't know, Marshal Cheng has gods to help him!"

"It's not the help of the gods. I heard that Cheng Shuai scattered Jiannu's bone meal in the field, so that our crops can have a good harvest!"

(End of this chapter)