national surname chiming

Chapter 78

Ten days later, Huanggang County.

This Huangzhou government, which was still under Liu Xiyao's command more than a month ago and was killed and looted, has now initially restored order.

Although it is not yet prosperous, at least the streets are orderly, and the village is full of chickens and dogs.The common people are also busy in production, and they have just entered the slack period recently.

Potatoes from the Americas can be planted twice a year, one of which is planted in winter and harvested in early summer the next year; and then planted for harvest in late autumn.

Beans, peas, and some large leafy vegetables can also be planted in early winter.Beans can also fix nitrogen, and the harvest of other crops in the spring after planting in winter can be higher.

When Shen Shuren first took office in Huangzhou in May, he planted all the seeds he got from Fujian. At that time, due to insufficient quantity, it could only cover the cultivated land of about two townships.

After harvesting in late autumn, all of them are reserved for the next season's seeds, and the sowing area can be expanded by ten or even twenty or thirty times, that is, thirty or forty townships.

Considering that potatoes and corn cannot be planted entirely in a county's farmland, at least one-third must be reserved for rice, so the seeds of these new crops can cover the cultivated land of at least three counties.

Another advantage of crops such as potatoes is that they are not too picky about soil fertility and fertilizers.

Huangzhou is located in the Dabie Mountains, with both mountains and the south. The temperature and humidity are not suitable for growing wheat in dry land, and the low-lying wetlands needed for rice are not enough.

With the addition of corn and potatoes, many of the original lower fields and hillside fields with higher terrain can be barely used, and the actual effective cultivation area has expanded by [-] to [-] percent at once.

Wait another season next year to let the seeds expand exponentially, and these new crops can cover several provinces—all this, of course, to ensure that the vast majority of the harvest is replanted rather than eaten.

In this process, local officials need to provide a large amount of silver subsidies to organize the transportation of grain from the land of fish and rice in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Fortunately, Shen Shuren is the magistrate of Huangzhou. He has put in several 10 taels of silver, and he has been an official with the money, which is why he has built such a solid base, and people's hearts are on him.

After these new crop seeds can cover several provinces, he will have to allow the people to spend at least half of the harvest for food, otherwise he will not be able to subsidize the cost exponentially.

……

Early this morning, as usual, Shen Shuren went to the countryside to inspect and persuade the farmers to check the germination of potatoes in Huanggang townships after they were planted in early winter.

Although potatoes are hardy, but before the bud eyes on the tubers officially germinate, it is still necessary to ensure that the temperature is above zero.There were no greenhouses in the Ming Dynasty, and they could not be covered with plastic film. If you are not careful, it may still be damaged by frost.

Once frozen, other crops that rely on seeds to reproduce can at least keep their seeds dormant, and at worst they will grow again later.Potatoes are directly cut into pieces and planted. After being frozen, they will not germinate for a long time, and the tubers will rot.

Fortunately, although there was a Little Ice Age at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the absolute average temperature was actually less than two degrees lower than that of later generations, and the Yangtze River Basin should not be frozen at the beginning of the twelfth lunar month.

After a round of inspections, the potatoes in the three townships I went to today all germinated smoothly.

"Good job, so that we can harvest one season in winter, and the cycle of spreading and popularizing seeds can be shortened by another half a year. It seems that this business will be a net loss in the 13th and 14th years of Chongzhen, and we have to keep paying money to buy rations from outside. .

By the 15th year of Chongzhen, it should be possible to ensure a balance of payments and self-sufficiency, allocate a small half of the harvest as tax and food, and expand planting in a circular manner.After 16 years of obtaining Chongzhen, it is pure profit.This kind of buying and selling investment cycle is long, alas, ordinary people can't afford it without some money. "

The last township we inspected today is called Pinghu Township. Coming up from the fields, Shen Shuren fetched water to wash his feet at the well in his hometown, and prepared to have a light meal before returning to the city.

While washing his feet, he chatted casually with Zhang Huangyan, who was following him, and settled the accounts. It was full of practical details, without any literati tone.

While chatting, they also summed up their experience, talking about which township has a high germination rate of potatoes and which township has a low germination rate.He also asked the entourage to open the record book to find out what the harvesting days of these townships were last month.

After some comparison, it is easy to conclude that "to plant potatoes around the Yangtze River, the latest time for sowing in early winter should not be later than a few days in November, otherwise there is a risk of freezing the rotten tubers."

These empirical data, Shen Shuren had someone organize them into a manuscript he carried. The name of the manuscript was "Supplement to the Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", which was the remnant of the original "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" written by Xu Guangqi and Xu Ge.

Each of these records uses a certain amount of crop seed loss to test the critical point data, which is very precious.It is worth recording and promoting in detail, so that others don't have to try and make detours again.

……

After washing his feet, he checked the secretary's conclusions by himself, Shen Shuren was relieved, put on straw sandals on his bare feet and prepared to eat.

The person in charge of entertaining him for lunch today is a villager from Pinghu Township, a middle-aged man in his forties, surnamed Hu.

Lao Hu was forcibly recruited by Liu Xiyao last year. Hundreds of young people from his hometown were forcibly conscripted into the army, and he was given the position of head of the bandit army.

After Shen Shuren recruited Liu Xiyao and defeated the army this time, he rectified Shatai and sent these old people in their 40s who were physically weak back to the countryside to work in agriculture.Only those in their 30s and [-]s with good physical and moral discipline were left, and they continued to be incorporated into the army.

It is impossible for those who are sent back to the countryside to work in agriculture to be managed like free people. After all, they have been thieves and have not made meritorious service for the country.

So these people have to be incorporated into the farms directly under the government, similar to the military settlements of the guards, and bear stricter tax rates and corvee labor. Basically, half of the food they grow has to be handed over at a [-]-[-] split, and the government has to decide what crops to grow. The final decision.

Shen Shuren gave them priority in planting corn and potatoes, and in the future they will spread them to ordinary people.

Lao Hu originally had some resentment towards his hundreds of fellow villagers who have since been reduced to military settlements and severely exploited.

Fortunately, after Liu Xiyao made a fuss before, a lot of rich local landlords in Huanggang were robbed and killed, and most of the land now belongs to self-cultivating farmers, or it is considered unowned land.

Shen Shuren is also very strong with an iron fist and is very responsible. He took out the scale book of the state capital and checked the population.

It means that if a tenant farmer can prove that his previous landlord has been exterminated by thieves, he can come to the government to register and pay a little food, and the government can re-recognize the unowned land as tenant farmers.

In this way, although the government collects heavy taxes, at least there is no middleman, the landlord, to make the difference, and life can go on.

Recently, seeing Mr. Tongzhi being so diligent in administration and personally going around to persuade the farmers from all over the country, these new gentry have calmed down and started to be completely convinced.

This old Hu had also read a little bit of private school, and he could recognize a few words. When serving Shen Shuren, he couldn't help feeling:

"Your Excellency is so diligent in persuading farmers. I have never seen this old man live to be 50 or [-] years old. Before that, Huangzhou had successively served as magistrates, but if there was one who could be like Your Excellency, the local people would not have followed Liu Xiyao to make trouble, alas."

The few civil servants next to him couldn't help but brag:

"Yes, yes, just now I saw my lord come back from the field to wash his feet. His legs were endless, and his shin did not grow hair. Although Dayu worked hard to control the water, he didn't suffer from it. Now this kind of food is the food of the scorpion, the soup of the gooseberry and the husk. , adults can eat it with relish, it can be said that it is Yao's obedience and support, and it is not worth it."

Shen Shuren was getting more and more confused when he heard these guys flattering, Tang Yao and Dayu all appeared, he quickly signaled to stop, and concentrated on finishing the polenta in the bowl.

In the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty, corn porridge, a coarse grain, is not "the food of rice cakes, the soup of quinoa and husk".

After finishing the porridge, we talked for a while to understand the people's sentiments, and suddenly there was a sound of horseshoes outside, and Shen Shuren and Zhang Huangyan also got up immediately and went out to check.

The person who came was Shen Lian, the old servant of the Shen family and a hundred households.Shen Shuren immediately guessed that he might be looking for something important, so he asked directly: "But the governor or the governor's yamen have official documents?"

Shen Lian got off his horse and hurriedly relayed: "It was the capital's decree that it was sent directly to Huanggang. It should be for the young master's promotion. And the messenger who sent the master's family letter has also arrived with the imperial envoy. Hurry back to the city."

"Congratulations, Master Tongzhi, for being promoted! This is really a blessing for the soldiers and civilians of Huangzhou!"

"I'm afraid that Mr. Tongzhi will be promoted too fast, and if he leaves Huangzhou, what will the common people do?"

The squires and petty officials congratulated him one after another, and some wanted to keep him from the bottom of their hearts.

Shen Shuren got on his horse gracefully: "Don't worry, the imperial court probably won't let me go, I'm probably promoted on the spot."

He hurried back to the county seat on horseback, and many officials had already arrived in the government office, and they were all there to accompany the envoy who conveyed the imperial order.

Seeing Shen Shuren's dusty appearance, everyone admired him even more.This kind of official who can share weal and woe with the common people can also make great achievements, and has quite a few ideas for building places. It is really not an exaggeration to be promoted.

Shen Shuren saluted the court envoy respectfully, and after some red tape, he officially announced his promotion to Huangzhou magistrate.

The original positions of Huangzhou Tongzhi and Tuanlian deputy envoys will be automatically withdrawn after the handover.The magistrate already has the responsibility of guarding the land, and the regiment training guard in Huangzhou also needs to be converted into a regular military guard, and the regiment training position no longer exists.

As a supporting package, there were several other promotions in the imperial order, and Zuo Zixiong was officially promoted to Huangzhou Weidusi.

Zhang Huangyan was also rewarded for his military exploits, and was given the post of general judge, who theoretically was in charge of taxes and persuading farmers and water conservancy.In fact, it was just to give him a rank of [-]th grade, and Shen Shuren had the final say on what to do, and he could adapt accordingly.

The rest of the middle-level military officers also have quotas for promotion, and Shen Shuren can report to Yang Sichang directly instead of going through the court.

At the end of the ceremony, everyone gathered around Shen Shuren to congratulate: "Your Majesty Futai is really young and promising, you can be ranked fifth rank at the age of 21, it can be called a grand event in this dynasty!"

(End of this chapter)