Chapter 154, the regret of old man Wang, the disappearing Litian
June, the fourth year of Zhongping (187).
This year's winter wheat in Mayi has reached the mature season again. Xu Wei naturally cannot miss such an important day for Mayi. After he ended his western expedition against the Xianbei people, Xu Wei left most of them with only 500 cavalry and galloped forward.
I rushed back to Mayi before buying wheat!
When he returned to Mayi, the entire Mayi was already immersed in a joyful atmosphere. Today's grain harvest was another bumper harvest, and the general yield per mu reached 3 dan, which is already the yield per mu of the best fields, and now
It actually appeared in the raw land that had only been cultivated for two years, which naturally made the farmers in Mayi overjoyed.
At this time, there were very few tribesmen in Mayi using sickles, and most of the tribesmen began to use plunderers to purchase wheat! This is much more efficient than the sickle, and it is not tiring compared to the sickle.
So now a unique scene has formed in the fields of Mayi. A harvesting tribe is arranged every one foot in the field, and this tribe is like cutting weeds, constantly using plunder to buy the wheat around them, and then
The wheat is piled into a line, somewhat like a human-powered combine harvester.
Every fifth harvesting farmer in the back arranged for one person to tie the wheat into a bunch with wheat straw, and then the people packed it and put it on the ox cart beside the field. When the wheat on the ox cart piled up into a hill, the farmers whipped it.
The old cow makes it move towards the threshing field and puts the wheat next to the pedal tractor. Then the threshing farmer keeps stepping on the pedal to thresh the wheat. The threshed wheat will be placed in the drying field to be exposed to the sun to remove the moisture. Finally, the wheat
It will enter the wind mill and be ground into flour. It is completely an assembly line-style harvest!
In this way, the efficiency of harvesting has been increased hundreds of times. In addition, the Hu people from Taiyuan County and the grasslands are now coming to Mayi to work as wheat customers. The labor shortage situation in Mayi has finally been improved. Now Mayi finally no longer has to harvest wheat.
At that time, all factories were shut down!
Xu Wei came to the fields with 500 cavalry, and was soon discovered by Old Man Wang, who was actually harvesting the fields. He asked others to take over the loot in his hands, and ran to Xu Wei and said in surprise: "Victory?"
Xu Wei nodded and said: "We have won a great victory. From now on, the Xianbei people will never dare to disturb us again! The four counties of Shuofang have been completely occupied by us! Everyone can live their lives with peace of mind."
Old Man Wang breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, he had already known the news through Tan Ma, but he still had to listen to Xu Wei for confirmation before he felt relieved.
Then he pointed at the bumper harvest of wheat and said with a smile: "This year's wheat harvest has been great. The average yield per mu is three stones. I can't believe it. Such a bumper harvest has only been seen in the most fertile land in Jizhou, and now it actually appears."
In this land of ours, this is simply a miracle!”
"This summer's wheat harvest is 5 million acres, which means we can harvest 1,500 shi of grain, which is enough to feed our current population in Mayi for three years! With the grain here, the old man finally feels at ease!"
Although Xu Wei did not lead many troops in this battle, he did not consume as much food and grass as in the previous two battles. Compared with the previous two battles, this expedition could be described as an external battle, and there were no rail carriages to support logistics.
Therefore, although only 30,000 troops were sent, there were tens of thousands of people helping the army transport food and grass.
Moreover, the Xianbei people who joined later also increased his army to 80,000 people, which brought greater logistical pressure. Almost 100,000 people helped them with transportation logistics. If there was not a Yellow River to increase the transportation volume, there would be thousands of transportation ships.
Follow Xu Wei to transport grain and grass. Xu Wei's 2,000-mile expedition may require 300,000 civilians to help transport grain and grass.
Therefore, the food and grass consumed by Xu Wei in this expedition was no less than the previous two times. Before the summer harvest, the food and grass in the entire Mayi was less than 2 million shi. This was the time when Xu Wei and the others had the least food in Mayi. During that time
Old Man Wang is worried every day, fearing that the summer harvest will be reduced this year and the tribesmen in Mayi will be deprived of food and grass!
But this summer's bumper harvest really made Mr. Wang feel at ease, and he no longer had to worry about the food crisis!
Xu Wei said with a smile: "Now we have occupied three more counties. Although we don't know how many people there are, it is estimated that the population occupied by our Tengjia Army has exceeded one million. These 15 million stones of food are only enough to feed one person."
Years, plus the autumn harvest will be enough for us to eat for two years!"
Old Wang's algorithm is that as long as people don't starve to death, it's okay, so in his opinion, the food will be enough for them to feed them for three years, while Xu Wei's algorithm is to ensure that the Mayi tribe can eat three meals a day.
Old man Wang was cheerful but did not refute Xu Wei's words, but smiled and said: "Thanks to God's blessing, we have such a bumper harvest!"
Xu Wei said firmly: "This is not a miracle given by God, but the result of our hard work!"
Xu Wei pointed to the elevated water channel not far away: "We worked hard to build water channels, plow the land deeply, pile up fertilizers, select excellent seeds, and practice reasonable farming. All of this has created our bumper harvest today!"
If Xu Wei had a game system, his farming level must be at the master level. Although he has no hands-on ability, he can guide farmers in this world on how to increase production.
Just knowing how to compost and spread chemical fertilizers is enough to kill more than 90% of the world's farmers instantly, and knowing that plant ash is potassium fertilizer, struvite is phosphate fertilizer, and soybeans is nitrogen fertilizer is enough to kill the entire world.
It was Xu Wei who guided the farmers in Mayi to continuously fertilize their fields that enabled today's bumper harvest. Otherwise, according to the laws of this world, even the most fertile land would have to remain fallow for one year after two years of planting! This is especially true for raw land like Mayi.
You have to plant one year and rest one year! However, Xu Wei can do three types of crops every two years by using reasonable interplanting, which can also ensure the fertility of the land.
Xu Wei felt that he had wasted his talent in farming. If he studied farming every day, it would not be a problem for him to produce more than 4 dan per mu this year. However, he had too many things to do and it was impossible for him to stay in the fields every day.
But he soon thought that he could not often lead the fields, but he could teach a few students and give these students all the farming knowledge he knew, so that they could find ways to continue to increase the yield of the fields and teach them.
The farmers in Mayi can't do this. They can just use hundreds of acres of land as experimental fields.
So Xu Wei told Old Man Wang his thoughts!
Old man Wang said happily: "How come this old man didn't think of this method? The imperial court had Li Tian here to help us people increase production. Qu Shuai's farming skills should have been passed down long ago, so that the old man would find a few clever boys to come over."
, Qu Shuai, please pass on your farming skills to them, and let them lead us in Mayi to continue to have a good harvest. The old man also wants to see what wheat with a yield of 5-6 shi per mu looks like!"
"Litian?" Xu Wei also learned for the first time that the Han Dynasty actually had official positions to guide farmers to increase production. He had always thought that agricultural experts were modern products!
Old man Wang sighed and explained to Xu Wei: "This happened many years ago. At that time, the old man was still a child and heard from the elders in the village that if anyone in the village had a very high farming output, he would be recruited by the imperial court to become an official to help
We increase grain production, and if Litian does well, he can even become a high official with a salary of 2,000 shi.
At that time, the old man also hoped that he could be favored by the court to become an official because of his good farming skills. However, the old man had been farming all his life. Although he became a good farmer, he did not wait until the court recruited the old man to become an official. Later, he even
You can’t even get enough to eat after a year of farming. I’ve only heard of this but never seen it!”
Seeing the lost old man Xu Wei felt very sympathetic. Although this was the first time he had heard of the official position of Litian, he could guess that Litian should be an official position that appeared during the Warring States Period. After all, at that time, various countries were competing for hegemony and fighting for years.
Food is the most important strategic material, and all countries are building water conservancy projects to increase food production.
For example, Wu State has Hangou, Wei State has Chaoguan, and Qin State has Dujiangyan and Zhengguo Canal, which are famous water conservancy projects throughout the ages. Even Ye Gong, who is said to be fond of dragons in the idiom, also built fields around the lake in Yunmengze, Chu State, which shows that all the countries at that time
Pay attention to food.
Therefore, farmers who can increase grain production were naturally considered talents during the Warring States Period (and also helped everyone find a way to become officials. In the Warring States Period traveled back to time, you don’t need to memorize poems and songs, and you can still become the number one in the hearts of the princes by working hard in farming.
Waiting for talents!).
Then the official position of Litian should be inherited by the Western Han Dynasty. After all, before Emperor Wu, the Western Han government had never stopped fighting, and Emperor Wu was also a pragmatist, and he faithfully implemented "the Han family's own system, which was based on the rule of overlord".
of the emperor.
But I am afraid that Litian declined after Emperor Wu. After all, Confucianism began to occupy a dominant position in the Han Dynasty at that time, and it was naturally impossible for them to let mud-legged people occupy official positions in the court.
Therefore, Old Man Wang could only hear about it from the elderly, and by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were not many people who knew about this official position. After all, the Eastern Han Dynasty government had become a thoroughly aristocratic government, and most of the officials were from aristocratic families.
Disciple, they even push out the poorest families, so how can they let a mud-legged man become an official?
The Litian system should have declined during this incident. After that, all the subsequent dynasties were dominated by Confucianism, and it was even more impossible to pick up this system. At least Xu Wei had not heard of it. Some of the imperial courts after the Eastern Han Dynasty were good at farming.
Become an official.
So Litian disappeared from history. At least Xu Wei had never heard of it in modern times. It had been several years since he came to this world, and he didn't know that the Han Dynasty had such a thing as farming to become an official.
Xu Wei looked at the lost old man Wang and smiled and said: "This is a good thing left by our ancestors. Since the court doesn't want it, we can just pick it up ourselves. Old man, you can observe who is good at farming in Mayi.
Just reward him, give him a big horse, bring him red flowers, and accept the cheers and worship of the entire Mayi tribe. We might as well start selecting the people with the highest grain production in Mayi this year, and then celebrate their achievements. We want everyone in the world to
We all know that people who are good at farming are also talented people and can be officials!
Isn't this a mutant model worker? Xu Wei couldn't help but slap his forehead. As a successor, he didn't think of using such a method to improve everyone's labor enthusiasm.
And he has been troubled by the shortage of talents in Mayi, especially now that he has occupied three more counties, there are even more gaps in talents. But isn't this the solution now? Who said that talents who have read the Six Classics
It is a talent, but if I am good at farming, it cannot be considered a talent? Farmers in Mayi are not only literate (most of them only know a few hundred words) but also know how to increase grain production. Can such a talent not be able to manage a county?
On the other hand, those scholars who have read the Six Classics thoroughly have no other skills besides literacy. For today's Mayi, these scholars are just mediocre.
Xu Wei suddenly understood that the talent was beside him, he just had to find a way to find it!
After the idea came to his mind, Xu Wei said excitedly: "This summer harvest festival is going to be a big one. We want the entire Mayi tribe to envy those good farmers. We happen to occupy dozens of counties and train these good farmers.
Let them serve as county magistrates and township heads for a period of time.
Old Man Wang was naturally happy to hear Xu Wei's words, but he was still worried: "They are all farmers. I'm afraid they don't know how to manage one party, and it will be bad if they cause trouble!"
Xu Wei disagreed and said: "Whoever is born to manage a country needs to learn more. Moreover, in the counties and counties we govern, the first thing officials know is how to farm and how to increase grain production. This is not their strength. They are not afraid of making mistakes.
As long as we learn from our mistakes, everyone will become a qualified official sooner or later!"
"Just like old man, you were a farmer in the past and now you can manage millions of tribesmen in Mayi. And under your leadership, the entire Mayi has achieved a bumper harvest of 3 shi per mu. Is this something that a scholar can do?
It’s not all thanks to you, old man, so don’t look down on those who farm!”
Old Man Wang has been cultivating the land for decades. He naturally knows that this year's harvest has little to do with him. The elevated water channel will occupy half of it, and soil and chemical fertilizers will occupy the other half. However, there are many places where he still doesn't understand why some small stones (
Struvite) can also be used as fertilizer. But he also had to admit that today's grain production generally increased by 1 stone, and that kind of small stone should account for a lot of the credit!
Old Man Wang thought for a while and said: "Old man, I will ask the merchants in Youzhou to sell us some more struvite! This year's bumper harvest of struvite is the real contributor!"
Although Xu Wei did not occupy Youzhou, there were many merchants from Youzhou in Mayi. Xu Wei asked them to dig up struvite stones on the islands of Youzhou and gave them 20 yuan for each stone. However, these big merchants from Youzhou did not like this.
I'm not interested in small business. After all, even if you dig out 10,000 stones, you will only make 200,000 yuan. This little money is not as much as you can make by selling a set of iron armor in Mayi!
But for small businessmen, this is a business opportunity. Although they are baffled by Xu Wei's behavior, it is not shabby to make money!
When they arrived at these islands, they found that the struvite stones Xu Wei mentioned were everywhere. All they had to do was find someone to dig them up. When someone actually brought thousands of struvite stones to Mayi and sold them for 20,000 yuan, these
The businessman went crazy, digging rocks here and there, just picking up money!
And this kind of industry is especially suitable for small businessmen in Youzhou. They can find a boat to dig struvite on a small island near the sea, and then go upstream along the Sanggan River to Mayi, and they can make money.
You don’t even need capital, there are better entrepreneurial projects in the world than this!
Although big businessmen look down on these tens of thousands of dollars, for small businessmen without much capital, this is a risk-free business, and it is very suitable for them, small businessmen with little capital!
So small businessmen from Youzhou gathered in groups to find some small boats to go to sea. When they found the island, they dug up a boatload of struvite and sold it to Mayi. In this year alone, they used this ant moving method to bring 20 million to Mayi.
Thousands of stones of struvite brought Mayi’s current harvest!
Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "We can give some reputable Youzhou traders a loan to buy a transport ship, so that they can increase the import of struvite to Mayi!"
Old man Wang worriedly said: "Old man, I am afraid that they will never come back. After all, a good transport ship costs tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it takes them more than ten trips to sell struvite to get their money back. The old man can only
Worried that someone will be greedy!”
Xu Wei smiled and said: "Don't be afraid of losing money. As long as they can increase their import of struvite to Mayi, we will make money! We can afford to lose a few transport ships. Just look at this year because of the struvite, which will allow us to increase production."
With millions of stones of food, this loss is nothing!"
Xu Wei knows that the wheat yield of three stones is far from the limit of wheat yield. Even if the seeds in this world are not good enough, as long as there are enough chemical fertilizers, the yield of 5-6 stones should be achievable!
But now the ability to purchase 200,000 stones of struvite a year is obviously not enough for Mayi. Now Xu Wei's territory has expanded several times, and the land in Yanmen County of Dingxiangjia alone exceeds 10 million acres. If these lands are
If we apply 10 kilograms of struvite per mu, we need 100 million kilograms of struvite, which requires close to one million rocks of struvite. If we add the three counties that Xu Wei newly acquired, I am afraid that tens of millions of struvite rocks will not be enough.
use.
Therefore, it is urgent to improve the transportation tools of small merchants in Youzhou. It is obviously difficult for the small boats of small merchants in Youzhou to transport hundreds of stones at a time to meet the requirements of Mayi. Xu Wei plans to help these struvite merchants in Youzhou.
Build a large ship specially designed to transport struvite, so that you can transport 2,000 to 5,000 stones of struvite at a time, so that one ship can surpass dozens of previous ships!
Speaking of struvite, Xu Wei thought of cow dung. The fertilizer used in Mayi is not much worse than struvite. It can even be said that the first fertilizer used in Mayi was cow dung. The environment here in Mayi
It is a unique blessing. After all, there are millions of cattle and sheep here, and there are tens of millions of cattle and sheep around Mayi. Of course, the number of cattle and sheep is limited after all, and the fertilizer they ferment is still not as large as that of struvite, and the collection
It is troublesome to get up after all.
But Xu Wei suddenly thought that cow dung could be turned into an industry, so he asked: "Old man, how many disabled people are there in our Tengjia Army!"
Old Man Wang said sadly: "We have been fighting for these years. Although we have won all the battles, if we die, it will be the end of the world. Even if the disabled tribesmen have our help, their lives are still not as good as those in good health. I have been working hard to arrange them in
In some good positions, you can at least have a meal!"
Xu Wei just thought of a TV series he watched in modern times, which had the industry of exchanging chicken feathers for sugar, so he thought about whether cow dung could be exchanged for Mayi products. This would not only help Mayi increase the supply of organic fertilizers
The quantity can also accommodate a large number of wounded, and at the same time, it can also allow Mayi's caravan tentacles to penetrate deep into the grassland and provide some commodity markets!
So Xu Weidao said: "I have an idea. We help them buy a carriage. On the carriage, we can get some small commodities used by herdsmen, such as briquettes, briquette stoves, knives, saws and ropes to exchange for cow dung with the herdsmen.
, they collect cow dung on the grassland and transport it back to Mayi for us to recycle it at a higher price, so that our food in Mayi can be harvested, the herdsmen can get benefits, and the injured can also get a job! It can be said to kill three birds with one stone!"
Old Man Wang hesitated and said: "Is this method feasible?"
Xu Wei smiled and said: "Why not? Look, old man, if the herdsmen can exchange three cow dung for one briquette, or if 10 cow dung can be sold for 1 money, do you think the herdsmen will be happy? Our
One briquette is more resistant to burning than ten cow dung, and it has no smell.
Once the herdsmen calculated their accounts, they would find that exchanging cow dung for briquettes would not only be worth the cow dung used for burning, but they could also earn hundreds of cents more. Everyone is sensitive to wealth, as long as the cow dung can be exchanged for
With more things, the herdsmen on the grassland will not easily burn cow dung. Instead, they will dry the cow dung and pile it up, waiting for our caravans from Mayi to come and buy it. They will use the cow dung to exchange for cloth and iron tools.
What!"
Old Man Wang said: "I'm afraid that the money earned from these cow dung is not enough to provide everyone with monthly salary! As Qu Shuai said, everyone has spent a lot of time on the grassland, but they can't make much money.
I’m afraid everyone will complain about his handsomeness!”
10 pieces of cow dung can be sold for 1 penny. It is estimated that the cow dung for this carriage will not make much money. And if the price is raised, I am afraid that no one will use cow dung as fertilizer!
Xu Wei thought that the value of cow dung was too low and he might not be able to support thousands of industrial workers.
It seems that Xu Wei is well-informed, and he remembered that modern cow dung can be used to generate electricity using biogas, and biogas can also be used to burn it in Mayi. Of course, this was considered a top-notch high-tech technology in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Xu Wei wanted to come to the herdsmen and farmers in Mayi
Can't play with these.
But there is also a simple method, which is to use cow dung to breed earthworms, and then use earthworms to feed chickens and pigs. Earthworms are also high-protein crops. Can they be minced and mixed with forage to feed cattle? This will extend the industrial chain and make money.
Yes, cow dung is not profitable, but you can raise earthworms, but you can start a chicken farm or a pig farm, and then use earthworms to feed chickens and pigs. Then you can make money. Chicken farms and pig farms
The profit is not to mention feeding these thousands of people, even thousands more people are not a problem, and Mayi has the richest worker group in the world, they are enough to consume the output of chicken farms and pig farms.
Then Xu Wei continued to spread his thoughts. Pigs and cows can be fed, and people can eat them. After all, they are high in protein and nutritious. Did Xu Wei know that troubled times are coming, and millions or tens of millions will be needed?
Starving to death, what's wrong with eating some earthworms in such a desperate situation?
If you can't stand it, chop the earthworms into pieces, mix them into the flour, and add some salt as a seasoning. Who can eat such biscuits? It's also high in nutritional value and filling. It will definitely be a way to save people in troubled times.
A kind of food!
Xu Wei diverged his thinking and discovered that the cow dung industry has great potential! The earthworm industry saves the country and the people!