Chapter 563: Grain production increased fivefold in five years!

The ancients were not stupid either.

From beginning to end, food is an extremely critical issue.

Without food, how can you industrialize?

Once a large group of people are separated from agricultural production, what should we do about the food problem?

It’s not that you don’t develop industry, but that your food is simply not enough to support your development of industry. If nothing else, these 200,000 laborers are going to work. These 200,000 people will never participate in agricultural production. On the contrary

Still need to continue to consume food.

Just like when an ancient army marched out, people ate and horses chewed, and the amount of food consumed was definitely not a small amount.

War can really bring down a country.

To a certain extent, the Chinese are the best at intensive farming. The yield per mu in the Han Dynasty has reached 140 to 150 kilograms. Although, looking at it now, or even from the perspective of the Ming Dynasty,

The yield per acre is nothing.

However, this inconspicuous output has allowed other regions to catch up for a thousand years. In the case of Britain, until the 12th and 3rd centuries, their output per mu only reached 97 kilograms. According to the

It is said that our ancestors should have lived very comfortably on this land.

However, the actual situation is different.

The first problem is population pressure. Before the Northern Song Dynasty, the per capita cultivated land area could still be maintained at ten acres. After the Northern Song Dynasty, the per capita cultivated land area dropped to less than solid wood. By the 19th century, it was less than three acres. However, British farmers could actually maintain

Eighteen acres of cultivated land.

The second is the issue of disasters.

Taking Henan as an example, from 1620 to 1949, during the period of 1,330 years, the number of drought years was 453, and the number of floods was 448. Nine out of ten years

disaster.

The third problem is the huge bureaucracy and the gentry class. They occupy too much land. In order to maintain the price of food, many people would rather let the land go barren than grow food.

Therefore, Zhang Haogu's new policy first started with equally dividing the land, dividing Zhu Youxiao's land, and then further expanded the scope. As long as the food supply was stabilized, Zhang Haogu could consider other things, just like now,

To support a huge industrialized system, it is simply impossible without the support of food.

With food, craftsmen can build water conservancy projects.

Just like Zuo Guangdou built the capital's water conservancy before, this is not a problem that can be solved by the imperial court spending hundreds of billions to build water conservancy. What you need to ensure is that the money can buy food. What you need is to let the food

Stable at a certain price.

If there is not enough food, we cannot carry out large-scale projects. If we cannot carry out large-scale projects, we cannot divert water to irrigate canals. If we cannot divert water to irrigate canals, we cannot achieve an increase in grain production. We cannot achieve an increase in grain production...

Well, this is a cycle with no solution.

If you dare to suffer the people, Dayuan will tell you what will happen if you suffer the people again.

Fortunately, building water conservancy projects is only a means to increase food production.

At this moment, Lu Xiangsheng also took out a piece of data and said: "Mr. Huangge, please take a look!"

"This is the grain output in the capital area. The grain that one mu of land can produce in the second year of Tianqi. An average statistics of all grain types and different types of farmland. The yield per mu is 363 kilograms. The entire capital

There are a total of 90.5126 million acres of cultivated land in the region, including 1.4565 million acres of paddy fields, 58.076 million acres of irrigated land, and 30.9801 million acres of dry land."

Huang Liji was stunned for a moment and couldn't help but said: "Can you produce so much food?"

"No!" Lu Xiangsheng directly interrupted Huang Liji's inquiry and said directly: "These more than 900,000 hectares of land were slowly identified by the court later. In fact, the area of ​​​​the capital was identified in the second year of Tianqi.

Our grain output is only more than 400,000 hectares, of which there are probably more than 500,000 hectares of land, which is hidden by the police!"

Speaking of this, Lu Xiangsheng couldn't help but glance at Zhu Youxiao.

In the beginning, it was this dog emperor who took the lead in hiding the land. If Zhang Haogu hadn't held Zhu Youxiao's head and forced him to divide the land equally, I don't know what Ming Dynasty would be like now.

Huang Liji took a deep breath and couldn't help but ask: "Then..."

Lu Xiangsheng said: "In the second year of Tianqi, the total food that can be provided by the capital area is about 145 million kilograms!"

Huang Liji couldn't help but widen his eyes: "Then it's at least 280 million kilograms now?"

"No!" Lu Xiangsheng shook his head and said slowly: "The current situation is still different. There are 740 million kilograms of grain. Now, the output of this acre of land has been greatly increased, and it has been increased to 826 kilograms!!

!”

"What?"

Huang Liji couldn't help but froze, and said with a look of disbelief: "So much grain? This, is this a five-fold increase in output?"

Lu Xiangsheng said slowly: "That's exactly it!"

Glancing at Huang Liji, Lu Xiangsheng said slowly: "There are mainly three aspects. First, at the beginning of the New Deal, Yuan Fu merged all the people's land into the farm, allowing some idle and abandoned land to be taken out

Farming, in this way, the hidden land is dug out, and the hidden population is also dug out!"

Huang Liji was stunned, and then heard Lu Xiangsheng continue: "The second is the large-scale planting of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn. Nowadays, the yield of these crops is extremely high in the north, and the planting area is also very extensive.

!!”

Wei Guangwei on the other side couldn't help but said: "Then, these craftsmen should not be rewarded. If we want to reward them, we must also reward these common people and farmers. After all, they are the ones who plow the fields!"

Lu Xiangsheng glanced at Wei Guangwei, and then slowly said: "The third is fertilization. In addition to human and animal manure, green manure, impregnated waste, river mud dust, there are also various agricultural processing by-products such as distiller's grains.

, high-quality fertilizers made from sugar residue, bean residue, oil residue, etc. are also widely used.”

"besides!"

Lu Xiangsheng glanced at Wei Guangwei, and then slowly said: "It is the use of new chemical fertilizers. This was researched by a craftsman named Wang Lichen. The chemical fertilizers can increase grain production on a large scale. Nowadays, our wheat

The yield per mu can be close to more than 400 kilograms!"

This Wang Lichen is one of Xu Guangqi's assistants. Of course, Zhang Haogu gave the formula for soil-made fertilizer, and Wang Lichen made further improvements. In addition, under the auspices of Zhang Haogu, the

Research a factory that can mass-produce fertilizers!

This is a high-efficiency "dung pill" mixed with inorganic and organic fertilizers. Its effectiveness is also extremely amazing. Song Yingxing, Xu Guangqi, and Wang Lichen are all studying it. Although neither Song Yingxing nor Wang Lichen has an official status,

However, Zhu Youxiao still sent them all to the Hanlin Academy.

In terms of fertilization technology, modern agriculture naturally uses chemical fertilizers. Although Zhang Haogu cannot instantly increase the current wheat yield per hectare to the standards of later generations, at least if it reaches half of the standards of later generations, it will not be a big problem.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at Huang Liji and Wei Guangwei, and then slowly said: "In addition, the five major reservoirs in the capital have been basically successfully constructed this year. In the future, water storage and release will not be a big problem. All major farms are building canals, and the capital area will be irrigated in the future.

It’s not a problem anymore. In one year, the output of one acre of land can reach 900, or even 1,000!”

"Nine hundred, or even a thousand?" Both Huang Liji and Wei Guangwei couldn't help but swallow their saliva.

That’s more than 800 million kilograms of grain? Or even 900 million or one billion?

Huang Liji and Wei Guangwei were both shocked by this number.

However, for now, the Ming Dynasty's grain output has exploded, mainly sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn. The wheat yield per mu was only 363 kilograms before, but now it has reached 467 kilograms. The increase

It weighed more than 100 kilograms, but it is these high-yielding crops that really increase the average yield per mu.

The first is that farms have opened up a lot of land, and the second is the large-scale explosion of these high-yielding grains.

In addition, there is another most important reason. The people recognize the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. They are willing to sell their grain to the court. Even if they want to buy more grain, the price will be a little more expensive, but the credibility of the currency is still there.

.

Grain exploded on a large scale. With grain as the foundation, Zhang Haogu naturally dared to carry out industrialization in a big way.

However, Zhang Haogu also knew that his time was still very tight.

The current population of the Ming Dynasty is roughly around 70 million people. Once the production of these grains increases, the population will expand rapidly. It is not a problem to directly reach 150 million, or even more.

Because of the concept of having many children and bringing blessings, as long as there is an extra piece of idle land on the land of China, then an extra mouth will immediately be born to swallow up this piece of idle land.

This is the population trap. Malthus published the book "On Population". He proposed that food growth and supply can never keep up with the growth of population, and only disaster can stop growth.

However, 200 years have passed since Malthus proposed this concept. The total population of the earth has increased to 6 billion, but the catastrophe predicted by Malthus has not broken out. The development of science and technology has increased the available resources in a certain historical period, that is, the environmental geology

The carrying capacity increases, thus carrying more people.

The population trap is absolute, but it is controllable. Technological progress will greatly promote the possibility of food production and general production, and family planning will appropriately curb the possibility of population expansion.

But forget about family planning.

Now, this is the Ming Dynasty, not the low-birth society of later generations.

The more prosperous the population is, the better.

Moreover, as a time traveler, Zhang Haogu feels that the more people the Ming Dynasty has at this stage, the better. If it is not large, how can it occupy other lands, such as Australia and the Americas? It is not a problem to take over these rich lands to accommodate billions of people.

.

Let technology explode again.

As for one day in the future, the earth will really be unable to bear such a large population, and we will slowly find ways to reduce the large-scale growth of the population.

He had to give Ming Dynasty the ability to sail long distances before the population increased, and he had to start to develop Ming Dynasty's overseas lands quickly and on a large scale in batches.

The existence of the population trap is the fundamental reason why per capita income in developing countries has stagnated.

In order to solve the problem of stagnant per capita income, developing countries must do everything possible to jump out of the trap. To this end, large-scale investment is necessary to bring the total income to a higher level and increase the level of per capita income.
To be continued...