The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 196 Seeking Profits
Yongchang Mansion, Leping County (now Lismore City in eastern Australia).

In August and a half, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, every family gathers together to enjoy the bright moon.

Whether it is the royal nobles in Chang'an City, or the private traders, whether it is a married couple, or a close friend who has shared the beauty of the moon thousands of miles apart, everyone is looking forward to a kind of perfection on this day.

In Qin, a country with inconvenient transportation, it is very difficult for a family living in different parts of the world to reunite.

In Qi, a country with extensive railways and developed maritime transportation, the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion is nothing more than spending more money and time on the road.

If New Year's Eve is a grand gathering for the whole family under the traditional etiquette system, then the Mid-Autumn Festival is a truly tender family banquet.

On this day, in the houses of urban residents, the owners will place peanuts, apples, watermelons, longans, plums and other fruits in their yards. After the moon rises above the willow trees, the neighbor's half-grown boy will break into the yard late at night and grab some red dates and other fruits. The owner of the house will ignore it and laugh.

In rural areas, children will go to the fields to pick pumpkins when it gets dark, use ink to draw children's images on the melons, smear the melons with mud, insert branches into them, and deliver them to other people's homes. .

Not only is the host not angry, he will also warmly entertain these naughty children and give them snacks such as peanuts and melon seeds.

According to Chinese legends, during the Mid-Autumn Festival when the moon is full, the fairies in the moon palace descend to the earth and sprinkle nectar all over the world. The fruits and vegetables among the people are dipped in nectar, which has the effect of prolonging life and bringing good fortune.

Leping County is a "new county" established less than 30 years ago in the northeastern coast of Yongchang Prefecture, Handong Province. It has a population of more than 45,000. It is a river port in a prosperous agricultural area and is an important producer of dairy products, meat, sugar cane, and bananas. Distribution center. The area has a nearly subtropical climate and is only more than 30 kilometers away from the sea. The conditions for agriculture and animal husbandry are relatively favorable.

At the east end of Xiwan Village on the banks of the Peach Blossom River (now the Richmond River), Ke Tugen and several villagers were sitting on an earthen dam, smoking a pipe and talking about spring sowing. Suddenly, I heard my grandson playing nearby shouting loudly that someone was sneaking into the vegetable garden to pick fruits and vegetables.

"What's wrong? Didn't we talk about it a while ago? Why are you still asking?" Zhang Xiancheng, the president of the Xiwan Village Cooperative, said in a low voice: "Growing food has not made any money in the past few years. What is worth growing? It's exhausting. If you live for a year, you won’t have a lot of money in your pocket, and you will worry about the next natural disaster or flood all day long.”

"What's the point of panic?" Zhang Xiancheng said nonchalantly: "Look at the grains sold on the market now. All the rice is shipped from Nanyang plantations, and the wheat is all from Kunzhou (now southwest Australia). Brought here by train. You don’t know that the grain plantations over there in Nanyang are all labored by free native coolies. Each one covers thousands of acres, and can grow three crops of rice a year. How can we grow food better than them! If we encounter a natural disaster or flood, we can only drink from the northwest wind and get some government relief."

"Lao Zhang, are we really not going to plant wheat this year?" Ke Tugen knocked his pipe on the ground, then turned around and asked.

"Isn't the soil unable to support this kind of two-crop sugar cane?"

For example, in mainland China, people follow the solar terms and sow and harvest on time. Unless they encounter a very extreme climate environment, the agricultural environment has always been extremely superior.

“But don’t you also have to worry about natural disasters when growing sugar cane?”

"Grandpa, someone came to steal the edamame in our garden!"

"..." When Zhang Xiancheng heard this, his expression suddenly froze, and then he rolled his eyes at Ke Tugen, "What do you know! I already asked in the county, growing sugar cane is much more cost-effective than growing wheat. At least, one day An acre of land can be charged an extra seventy or eighty cents, or even one or two yuan! You probably don’t know yet, but we can only plant wheat for one season. Even if the year is good, after deducting the various expenses, more than thirty acres of land The most you can get is ten or twenty yuan. But sugarcane is different. The county agricultural commissioner said that our climate here is warm and we can grow two seasons of sugarcane in a year. Plant it in spring and autumn, and it will grow in a few months. We can each collect one crop. Think about it, how much more money you can earn by the end of the year? I guess you can collect more than twice as much money!"

"If the ground cannot support it, then buy some guano mineral fertilizer and apply more fertilizer to the land. At that time, we can directly contact the agricultural input cooperative in the county and ask them to bring a boat of guano mineral fertilizer and everyone can share it. points to ensure that the soil recovers quickly.”

"But if we don't grow food here, I'll be worried!"

Although, in Hanzhou itself, due to its geographical location in the southern hemisphere, the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival happens to be the mid-spring season when all things revive and the busy farming season.

The melons and fruits stolen on the Mid-Autumn Festival cannot be taken home. Instead, they need to be eaten directly at the home of lovers or parents-in-law, or in the wild. This means that good luck will not slip away, and happiness and contentment will always be by your side.

"Little bastard, don't yell like that!" Ke Tugen just raised his eyes and glanced in the direction of the vegetable garden. Several black figures were jumping around, laughing, holding lanterns and openly "stealing vegetables", and then they showed their clear eyes. Smiling, he stopped his grandson from making loud noises so as not to "disturbed" the thief.

If the children are ignorant and shout loudly at a young age, wouldn't they "shock" the happiness and good luck of the women away?
Furthermore, a woman who can go to her own vegetable garden to "steal" fruits must be the future wife of the family's favorite, and she must not ruin other people's happy events.

Across the world, some places with high agricultural productivity not only have rainy seasons, but also have similar climate conditions every year, and severe droughts or floods rarely occur. Farmers can cultivate and sow seeds according to seasonal patterns every year, and crops grow and mature under the irrigation of rainwater.

It is the spring plowing season, and the villagers have just inspected the land a few days ago and are about to sow new crops.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, usually after dark, the girls in the village will start to take action. They would team up with each other to pick fruits from their lovers' gardens. If the pumpkins and winter melons picked by one family are fat and plump, or the edamame beans are round, it means that the children of that family will be healthy and strong in the future. Then, everyone carried the stolen fruits to the host's house and asked for a cup of tea to drink. They thanked each other for the fruits and received sincere blessings.

However, the genes of Chinese civilization engraved in the bones make tens of millions of people across the country still willing to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, which symbolizes reunion, during this season.

There are also those women who are not pregnant, accompanied by their sisters-in-law, going to the melon sheds and bean sheds in the fields to explore in the dark of night. If you touch white lentils, it symbolizes growing old together with your husband, loving each other for a lifetime, and the child will be a daughter. If you touch a pumpkin, it means that your precious son is coming, and it is even more auspicious.

As for the climate conditions of Hanzhou Continent, well, how should I put it, it is unpredictable and has no rules at all.

If you arrange crop production according to the usual farming season and the climate conditions of the previous year, you will encounter great difficulties. The rainfall in most areas cannot be measured at all. The amount of rainfall in ten years fluctuates between high and low, and the changes are even greater every ten years. This creates extremely unfavorable conditions for the agricultural development of Hanzhou.

In later generations, this climate environment was called the Enso phenomenon, and it was definitely one of the greatest misfortunes God had bestowed on this continent. In other words, the weather in Hanzhou itself is more fickle, more extreme, and more random than anywhere else.

It is simply impossible to summarize the seasonal and climatic patterns of farming.

Even if it is summarized, it does not seem to be of much help to crop production in the coming year.

When the early immigrants from Qi State first came to the east of Hanzhou, they saw the endless forests and thought that this was a blessed land given by God. It seemed that the soil was fertile, the precipitation was abundant, and the temperature was suitable.

But this is just an illusion. They may have happened to have a good year, sow the seeds and get a good harvest.

However, when drought periods come, they often lose their crops and find it difficult to maintain their livelihood. They can only look for areas with stable river irrigation.

The only area in the Han continent that is not affected by the Enso phenomenon is the southwest region, which has a stable agricultural planting climate and environment and is also the most important grain-producing area in Qi.

However, if we rely on the talent of the Chinese people to change the world and build more water conservancy, we can cope with this unpredictable climate environment. In addition, we have always endured hardships and stood hard work, and we can dig some food from the soil and have enough food. Belly is no problem.

However, it has been more than 90 years since the founding of Qi. As the economy continues to develop rapidly, food and clothing are no longer the basic pursuit of farmers.

Workers in the city can earn from seven to eight yuan to more than ten yuan a month. Over the course of the year, they can save twenty or thirty yuan no matter what. If they are more frugal, it is not impossible to save forty or fifty yuan.

If you have money, you will naturally have more pursuits in life. Buy a house in the city, have a few more children, and then go to school. Maybe after you have enough knowledge, you will get a great opportunity and achieve a leap in class.

In the vast rural areas, in order to meet the basic needs of food and clothing, do they need to replace the former adobe houses with beautiful brick houses? Now that we have a brick house, should we build a two- or three-story building?
If you have a lot of children at home, do you have to work hard to support one or two to study and make progress, so that they can leave the countryside and settle down in a bustling city to enjoy a good life?

Oh, by the way, several of the boys in the family are getting married, and a large sum of money will be given to their future in-laws as gifts. Should we save more and save more?

If you want to achieve these goals, in addition to starting more side jobs, raising a few cows, and herding dozens of sheep, you have to find ways to work harder in the fields and try to create more income.

It is very discouraging to say that there is really no shortage of anything in our country of Qi. Not only are various industrial products continuously supplied to the market, but even agricultural products are extremely abundant and civilized (today's Java Island) Rice from Kunzhou, wheat from Kunzhou, sugarcane from Northeast China and Xuanhua (today’s Timor Island), rubber, cocoa, and coffee from Southeast Asia...Both the planting area and the scale of production are extremely amazing.

If there are too many of these things, the price will naturally become cheaper, making it impossible for ordinary farmers in Qi to increase their income effectively.

Fifty or sixty years ago, when Qi State had not yet truly controlled the Nanyang region, as the domestic population surged and consumption power also increased, the prices of various agricultural products had always been relatively stable and growing slightly. At that time, the income of most farmers was quite considerable. They grew some fruits and vegetables and raised some cattle and sheep at home, and their daily lives were no worse than those in the city.

Sometimes, when a certain region suffers a major natural disaster, the price of agricultural products will surge, and food will also have good sales.

However, as Qi controlled more and more Nanyang territories, various plantations grew rapidly, causing the prices of various agricultural products to drop again and again, causing widespread complaints among farmers. There are even many voices calling for a boycott of the import of grain and other crops from overseas territories to protect the interests of local farmers.

There are many natural disasters in Hanzhou. If in an era when only local agricultural products are in circulation, rising grain prices will certainly not be a problem for grain growers. They can follow the market and make up for the loss of crop yields with rising prices.

However, a large amount of cheap rice and grains from overseas territories poured into the Hanzhou mainland, which prevented local food prices from rising. Moreover, due to the impact of climate disasters, grain production decreased, which caused heavy losses to the interests of the local farmers in Hanzhou. Growing food is not so cost-effective.

In this case, one can only switch to higher value cash crops such as sugar cane to increase farmers' income.

A little calculation shows that it is usually most suitable to plant about 400-500 sugarcane seedlings in one acre of land. At present, the price of a sugarcane seedling on the market is about 0.2 cents. With some shipping costs, the cost of the seedlings is about 0.8-1 yuan. In addition, there are also field management costs that need to be taken into account. Sugarcane is a crop that requires a lot of water and fertilizer. It needs to be fertilized many times a year and irrigated frequently. One acre of sugarcane requires about 1.5 yuan of guano mineral fertilizer. The total cost per mu of land is between 2.3-2.5 yuan.

甘蔗的产量很高，亩产量在5-7吨左右，制糖厂每吨收购价在0.7-1元之间，一亩地的经济收入就是3.5-5元。

In the end, the profit per mu of land should be more than 1.2 yuan. If there are two seasons a year, that is 2.4 yuan. If each farmer owns 30 acres of land, that’s 72 yuan!
In comparison, the profits from growing sugarcane are much higher than those from growing corn, rice, wheat, and even fruits and vegetables!
More importantly, the typhoon disaster that sugarcane cultivation is most worried about rarely occurs in the southeastern coastal areas of Hanzhou (most typhoons are formed in the northern hemisphere, while the atmospheric circulation in the southern hemisphere is weak, making it difficult to form typhoons), so sugarcane will not be like the Southeast Asian typhoon. Like other areas, it will be blown down by strong typhoons and become worthless.

The rise of coffee, cocoa, and mead (sugar cane wine, also known as rum) also led to strong demand for cane sugar consumption. Coupled with the impact of the Qi-British War a few years ago, sugar cane exports from Brazil and the Caribbean were significantly reduced, resulting in a blowout of sugar cane sales in Hanzhou and Nanyang territories to Europe, which also indirectly triggered a new round of sugar cane sales. Planting boom.

Human beings are as addicted to sweet taste as they are to salt.

During this period, ordinary people in various countries, including Qi State, could not drink milk or eat hot rice during their daily work. Sucrose became an essential condiment for their three meals a day, even replacing fresh meat and milk. , butter, cheese and vegetables, so that his tired body can recover as quickly as possible so that he can cope with more than ten hours of factory work every day.

Relatively speaking, sucrose is the most efficient form of heat production. One acre of sugar cane can provide 130 million units of heat, which is 4 times that of potatoes and 10 times that of wheat.

Cheap and abundant calories are another kind of fuel in the era of industrial revolution and are indispensable!

(End of this chapter)