Urea is the first synthetic organic compound in human history.
It can be said that it has an important position that cannot be ignored in the history of human chemistry.
And it has the highest nitrogen content among solid nitrogen fertilizers.
Therefore, it has had an indelible impact on human farming methods since it was synthesized artificially.
Before the large-scale use of urea in later generations, farmers needed to cultivate their fields intensively, store and ferment large amounts of human excrement and animal urine, and make farmyard manure to serve their crops.
This method is quite reasonable, as it will not affect the soil fertility of the fields and allow the crops to grow well.
The problem is, this requires a lot of manpower.
In particular, human excrement and animal urine are far from enough for the fields.
Many times, crops depend on the weather, and excessive precision consumes a lot of manpower, which results in huge losses in the event of drought or flood.
With the advent of chemical fertilizers, people only need to plow the fields before the beginning of spring, and then sow, fertilize, and weed. The manpower used has been reduced several times.
Especially after the advent of herbicides, farming became easier.
Many people get together to play mahjong during their off-farm days, all thanks to the blessings of technological substances such as chemical fertilizers.
Of course, the most important thing with the emergence of chemical fertilizers is to increase crop yields.
There is almost a huge difference in yield between fields with chemical fertilizers and fields without chemical fertilizers.
Let's put it this way, in a field where no urea is applied and only a little farmyard manure is applied, even if high-yield hybrid seeds are used, the maximum rice yield per mu will not exceed 600 kilograms.
In fields where urea is applied, the rice yield per mu will increase to more than 1,000 kilograms.
The preparation of urea is very simple.
Carbon dioxide and ammonia synthesize ammonium carbamate under high temperature and high pressure. After decomposition, absorption and conversion, crystallization, separation, and drying, urea is finally obtained.
In fact, if volatility is not considered, the by-product ammonia in the three-acid-two-alkali workshop can also be used directly as fertilizer.
However, ammonia water will volatilize ammonia gas, leading to a decrease in fertility, which makes it less cost-effective.
Of course, the preparation of urea is said to be simple. It can be easily prepared by any small chemical factory in towns and villages in later generations. However, in this era, it is still quite difficult.
The main problem is the high pressure. It doesn't matter if it's not enough. It's really difficult to handle a fertilizer plant with an annual output of 100,000 tons. But the newly built fertilizer plant in the dock area is just a small workshop with an annual output of 1,000 tons.
.
Therefore, Fang Xiaoyue wasted some time and built the high-pressure reaction tank by herself, so there was no problem of deflation.
Because the things he made with his own hands have a metallic effect!
Not to mention being discouraged, even if a big explosion occurs inside, it can still withstand a few seconds.
However, it took Fang Xiaoyue fifteen days to build such a reaction tank.
The daily output of this high-pressure reaction tank is only three or four tons of urea, which is only about a thousand tons a year.
But this is enough for the time being.
After that, it took another half a month to prepare and equip the reaction chamber for subsequent decomposition, crystallization, separation, drying, etc.
By this time, nearly twenty days had passed since spring plowing.
But it doesn't matter. As this small-scale fertilizer workshop begins to operate, three or four tons of urea are prepared every day, put into canvas bags, loaded into trucks, and sent directly to major farms.
Many naturalized farmers are a little confused about this pungent-smelling fertilizer. Doesn’t their own feces and urine smell good? Do they have to use this kind of fertilizer?
But what they never expected was that after this fertilizer was applied to the ground, the crops that had grown normally due to insufficient farm fertilizer would become full of vitality in just a few days, as if they had been injected with chicken blood.
generally.
Of course, the real verification of this fertilizer will have to wait until harvest time.
By the way, while Fang Xiaoyue was busy in the fertilizer workshop, Sun Xuebin of the military team was in charge of the communications team, using the PHS mass messaging system to monitor the military operation known as moving defense and actually seizing the territory.
Three groups and four groups are easy to say.
The third regiment was the real movement of defense. The entire regiment went to the line between Changjiang and Shilu Iron Mines to strengthen the defense capabilities of this ore lifeline and prevent an accidental attack by the Ming army.
After all, as of now, there are still two guarding Qianhu Stations whose movements are unknown nearby.
The fourth regiment is reorganizing, trying to absorb as many Ming army prisoners and pirate prisoners as possible and convert them into naturalized soldiers, and further control the boundaries around the Hongji Coal Mine to avoid raids by the Zheng family's regime in Cochin, thus affecting the
Production behavior in coal mines.
The 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment had actually completed the task of moving defense at this time.
The three companies entered Qiongshan County directly along the official road two hours ago. After that, the Seventh Company of the Third Battalion was stationed to control the county town, while the Eighth Company and the Ninth Company of the Third Battalion were stationed in the east and north directions of the county town respectively.
Market towns are horns to each other.
As for the three battalions of the Second Regiment, they were advancing along the official road at this time, heading to Lingao, Chengmai and Anding counties respectively.
Their task was the most arduous. In addition to controlling the county seats of Lingao, Chengmai, and Anding counties, they also needed to directly capture the three nearby Thousand Households.
Although previous military actions have dealt a heavy blow to these three thousand households, it is difficult to say that these three thousand households will not be without back-ups.
It can be said that the previous two battles have improved the reputation of the dock area, letting most of the South China Sea Island know that the so-called Kun Thief is still very powerful.
But this battle is actually about expanding the control area.
If we can win this battle, the future development of the dock area will be smoother.
After all, after winning these three places, it will not only increase the jurisdiction of thousands of square kilometers and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, but also an enhancement of the final strength.
Population, land and mineral deposits, sales market.
And this will further expand the prestige of the dock area on the South China Sea Island, making the power of the dock area more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Anxiously waiting.
Not only Sun Xuebin and others of the military team are waiting anxiously, but also a group of bigwigs from the Provisional Management Committee are also waiting anxiously.
The next morning, when the good news that Laigao, Chengmai, Anding and other places were captured came through the PHS one after another, the entire communication team's studio cheered.
This was the first active military victory in the dock area!
In the afternoon, when news came that several thousand-household offices had also been taken down, the big bosses of the interim management committee gathered together and began to discuss the issue of appointing local managers.
After all, including Qiongshan, the dock area captured a total of four counties this time.
The combined population of these four counties exceeds 100,000.
You know, at this time, the total population of the entire South China Sea Island was only 250,000.
The area captured by the dock area can be said to be the most prosperous area in the entire South China Sea Island, with a population accounting for more than one-third of the South China Sea Island.