The food crisis in Ming Dynasty has been completely resolved.
Shortly after the second meeting of the General Chamber of Commerce of the Ming Dynasty, maritime merchants were mobilized to purchase rice from Champa, Siam, Myanmar and Japan and continuously import it into Jiangnan. Because it was profitable, maritime merchants were very active.
Of course, a price must be paid, and the price of rice in Jiangnan has risen to 1.5 yuan.
This is actually inevitable, because Ming Dynasty has entered the era of credit currency, and the typical symbol of the era of credit currency is inflation. Mild inflation is actually conducive to promoting economic development.
In addition to purchasing grain from overseas, Huguang, Guide, Xuzhou, and Kaifeng also ushered in bumper harvests, among which Xuzhou and Guide Prefecture had the best harvests.
Because the drought in Xuzhou and Guide Prefecture is very light.
There was a good harvest of grain, so the soldiers in Xuzhou and Guide were in a good mood.
Since the beginning of the autumn harvest, Yang Ponu's big mouth has never been closed again, and he is almost cramping from laughing.
At this moment, Yang Ponu and Wang Laoqi each pushed a chicken cart to collect grain. As soon as they walked out of the door, Widow Wang chased them out holding a baby.
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"Officer, wait a moment."
"You took down the dry food."
Widow Wang put a bag of steamed cakes on the chicken bus.
"Madam, just rest during this period and don't do any work."
Yang Ponu glanced at Widow Wang's slightly swollen belly. The first baby was less than four months old and she was pregnant with her second child. By next summer, he would have two sons.
Thinking of this, Yang Ponu became full of energy.
"How could it be so valuable?" A slight blush appeared on Widow Wang's pretty face, "Sister-in-law from the Wang family and Niu family are already ten months old, why don't they still carry heavy burdens?"
"Besides, a hospital has been built in Xuzhou now."
"Even if there is something, you can still go for surgery."
"What kind of surgery?" Yang Ponu said angrily, "Just listen to me, or wait until I come back to deal with you."
When Yang Ponu mentioned the word "clean up", Widow Wang's pretty face turned redder and redder, her big eyes almost watered, and she lowered her head and let out a low voice.
Seeing that his wife had been restrained, Yang Ponu and his uncle continued to go to the fields.
As soon as I walked to the gate of Zhaibao, I met Chen Zilong and his wife.
Although Chen Zilong, who works in agricultural science, is dark and thin, he is full of energy. It is obvious from a glance that he is very satisfied with his current work and life.
Liu Rushi, who was following Chen Zilong, no longer looked like a courtesan at all.
I saw Liu Rushu wearing a commoner dress and hairpin, with a pretty face that was completely unpainted.
If the former sisters met, they would definitely not recognize this former Qinhuai prostitute.
But to be honest, Liu Rushi really likes her current life. Mentally, Chen Zilong can sing poetry with her, and materially, she has no worries about food and clothing. More importantly, she can still do things with Chen Zilong.
Liu Rushi never imagined that one day she would be able to work for the Ming Dynasty.
Chen Zilong may have been influenced by Chongzhen, or because of the precedent of Li Xiangjun, so he did not shy away from recruiting Liu Rushi into the agricultural science department to help him.
If Chongzhen knew about this, he would probably have to say that Chen Zilong was really good at it.
This is the winner in life who is a secretary when there is something to do and a secretary when there is nothing to do.
Well, actually it was also to pay off debts. Chen Zilong owed a lot of debts in order to marry Liu Rushi.
Closer to home, Chen Zilong is still very capable, at least not inferior to his teacher Xu Guangqi in agricultural affairs, because Xu Guangqi's sweet potato cultivation is limited to theory, but Chen Zilong has already put it into practice.
Xu Guangqi's Sweet Potato Shuli said that sweet potatoes have thirteen advantages, and the first one is that they can harvest dozens of shi per acre.
But in fact, Xu Guangqi only heard about it and did not actually go to the field to investigate, so he just wrote a general figure, which is not actually such an exaggeration.
Sweet potatoes that have been improved through breeding can indeed yield dozens of kilograms per acre.
But at this time, it was impossible to harvest dozens of kilograms of sweet potatoes per mu.
Not to mention harvesting tens of dan per mu, even ten dan per mu is very difficult to achieve.
For example, Xuzhou has four million acres of land, but only a handful of them can produce ten dan per mu.
Among them was an acre of waterland owned by Yang Ponu's family. After Chen Zilong heard about it, he hurried over.
"Chen gives advice, Mrs. Chen." Seeing Chen Zilong and his wife, Yang Ponu quickly bowed in a serious manner, but Wang Laoqi stood behind Yang Ponu at a loss. Country people have never seen the world and are afraid of officials.
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Chen Zilong also bowed his head in return, stood up and asked: "Yang Ponu, your family has an acre of sweet potatoes and harvested ten shi?"
Yang Po snorted and said, "Return to Chen for advice. My family did harvest 1,500 kilograms from one acre of land, which is exactly ten shi. However, we only harvested so much from this acre. The other land only harvested seven or eight kilograms."
"Seven or eight stone is a lot. Others only have five or six stone."
Chen Zilong was even more happy when he heard this, and immediately asked: "How do you grow it at home?"
"You have to ask Brother Qi about this." Yang Ponu turned his eyes to Wang Laoqi behind him, "Brother Qi, come and tell Chen Gaijian, how do we grow our sweet potatoes?"
"Actually, it's nothing, it's just..."
Before Wang Laoqi finished speaking, he was interrupted by Chen Zilong.
"Wait a minute." Chen Zilong interrupted Wang Laoqi, then turned back to Liu Rushi and said, "Madam, paper and pen."
Liu Rushi quickly took out a small notebook and a writing brush from the bag he carried with him, and finally took out a glass bottle of pre-ground ink.
"Okay, now you can say it."
Chen Zilong dipped his brush in ink and waved his hand.
However, Wang Laoqi was so nervous that he forgot all about his words.
In the end, Yang Ponu said with a smile: "Chen gave me advice, let's go to the ground to talk. As long as you get there, you will know everything."
"That's fine." Chen Zilong put away his paper, pen and ink after hearing this.
While following Yang Ponu to the fields, Chen Zilong asked again: "Yang Ponu, how much grain did your family harvest this year?"
Yang Ponu then raised his fingers and said: "My family has planted a total of fifteen acres of sweet potatoes, five acres of grains and five acres of potatoes. The sweet potatoes can yield about one hundred and twenty shi, potatoes about ten kilo, and the grains have eight or nine shi.
"
"The total amount is more than 140 dan, which is enough to feed our family for several years."
After talking about this for a while, Yang Ponu said again: "Chen gave me advice, the yields per mu of corn and potatoes are not that high, not even a fraction of sweet potatoes. Next year my family will not grow corn potatoes, but sweet potatoes."
"You still have to plant, but you can plant less."
Chen Zilong waved his hand and said: "You can also rotate planting with wheat."
Wang Laoqi nodded repeatedly and said: "It can indeed be rotated with wheat."
At this time, Liu Rushi suddenly asked: "There are so many sweet potatoes, will they rot if you can't eat them all?"
At least half of Xuzhou's four million acres of farmland are planted with sweet potatoes. If the harvest is six dan per mu, that's 12 million dan.
Xuzhou Town has 150,000 soldiers, and the population is only over 500,000 people including the family. It is impossible to eat all the sweet potatoes in a year.
"Oh, that's right." Yang Ponu woke up from a dream, clapped his hands and asked Chen Zilong, "Chen Geijian, we were just going to find you, how do you store these sweet potatoes? Some of the sweet potatoes that were harvested early are starting to rot.
.”
Chen Zilong said: "The teacher's sweet potato thinning book introduces storage methods. It says that you need to dig a hole in the ground in a sunny and dry place, and then seal it for storage. However, even this can only be stored for a few months. If you want to store it for a year or even longer,
It's impossible, so Nongke will step up its efforts to explore better storage methods, such as grinding sweet potato powder."
"Then you have to hurry up." Yang Ponu said.
"Otherwise it will all rot and it will be all in vain."
"I will definitely not let the food you have worked so hard to grow rot."
Chen Zilong said: "If it doesn't work out, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will come forward to acquire it."
"Will the Ministry of Internal Affairs come to buy it?" Yang Ponu's eyes lit up when he heard this.
"It depends on the situation." Chen Zilong said, "But the possibility is very high, because the Holy Spirit is currently sending troops to Liaodong, Xuzhou has also mobilized 80,000 soldiers, and the military rations consumed every day are huge numbers."
Hearing this, Yang Ponu sighed softly.
Why didn't the Holy One transfer us to Liaodong?
Aren't we better than those recruiting soldiers?
…
A few days passed and Zheng Zhilong was about to leave.
Before leaving, Zheng Zhilong came to say goodbye to Chongzhen.
As they talked, they talked about the advantages and disadvantages of suppressing troops and recruiting troops.
"I don't talk about the second generation and the third generation of suppressing soldiers, but the first generation of suppressing soldiers is really not as good as recruiting soldiers." Chongzhen said, "You can't see it when fighting against the wind, but the difference will be revealed when fighting against the wind."
Zheng Zhilong said: "The Holy One is saying that the soldiers cannot fight against the wind?"
"That's it." Chongzhen said, "Because most of these soldiers have fought against Jiannu, and the strength of Jiannu has left a deep mark on their hearts."
"There is no problem when fighting with the wind."
"But once the fight reaches a stalemate, you will even be at a disadvantage."
"The imprint left by the slaves in the hearts of the soldiers will have an effect."
"At this time, the confidence of the soldiers will be greatly shaken."
After saying this, Chongzhen continued: "The direct manifestation on the battlefield is that the ability of the town soldiers to withstand death is far inferior to that of the 270,000 newly recruited troops."
"Ability to withstand death?" Zheng Zhilong thought thoughtfully.
"Yes, it is the ability to withstand death." Chongzhen said, "The New Army may not collapse even if the casualties exceed 50% or even 80%, but the town soldiers can withstand up to 30%."
"The New Army's ability to withstand death is so high?" Zheng Zhilong was a little skeptical.
Before he finished speaking, Xu Yingwei walked in quickly and reported to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, King Ding has pacified North Korea. North Korea has torn up its covenant with Jiannu and signed a new covenant with me, the Ming Dynasty."
Chongzhen asked: "I heard that Jiannu also sent three thousand guards to escort Li Hao, the second son of Li Hao, back to Seoul?"
"Yes." Xu Yingwei said, "But the three thousand guards of Jiannu have been annihilated by our army."
"What? Three thousand new troops actually destroyed three thousand slave guards?" Zheng Zhilong was really surprised.
Because Zheng Zhilong was a naval general, he had never fought against Jiannu, but he had heard of the evil reputation of Jiannu's white-armored soldiers. These were three thousand white-armored soldiers!
