Chapter 922 , the troubles of the Liaodong chapter of Daming's autumn harvest
Chen Xin and Hu Benhui led several official servants, each in plain clothes, to a wheat field being harvested.
This wheat field is very lively, with dozens of people busy harvesting wheat in the wheat field.
"This little brother~"
Chen Xin shouted to others with a smile.
"Sir, are you calling me?"
Dong Er stood up and looked at Chen Xin, Hu Benhui and others, and asked with some confusion.
He looked at Chen Xin, Hu Benhui and others, although they were wearing plain clothes, but he knew at a glance that they were not ordinary people, so he also called Chen Xin sir.
"Is the wheat harvest okay this year?"
Chen Xin nodded slightly, pulled off an ear of wheat, looked at it carefully and asked.
"The harvest is very good. The land in Liaodong is all black soil and very fertile. This acre of land can harvest almost two stones of wheat."
Dong Er nodded and replied.
"The yield of two stones?"
When Chen Xin heard this, he nodded slightly. It was similar to the experiment he had done before. One acre of land could harvest two stones of wheat.
"This yield is quite good. As far as I know, in Guan Nei, it is difficult to achieve the yield of two stones per acre."
Chen Xin thought for a while and said again.
"No, I'm from Shandong. I immigrated from Shandong. Here in Shandong, even the best fields can hardly achieve a yield of two stones, but in Liaodong, anything is possible."
Dong Er nodded solemnly.
"How many fields does my brother's family cultivate?"
Chen Xin nodded slightly, then stood up and looked at the huge wheat field in front of him and asked.
"Not much, my family only cultivates less than 400 acres of wheat fields."
"Not only is there enough food to eat, but the food harvested this year is enough to last for many years."
Dong Er pointed at the wheat fields in front of him and said.
"Four hundred acres of wheat field is not much, right?"
"Can your family be busy enough to come here?"
When Hu Benhui next to him heard this, he immediately said in shock that four hundred acres of land was not much. When he was an official here in Henan, he was considered a landlord if he had four hundred acres of land.
"Not much, not much. In Liaodong, whose family doesn't have hundreds of acres of land?"
"This year I have a new baby in my family, and my wife has no way to do anything. I am really too busy to do it alone, so I only cultivate 400 acres of land. Every other household has more than mine."
Dong Er smiled and shook his head, then added: "Although it is only 400 acres of land, I am really too busy to handle it alone. No, I have hired dozens of Koreans to help me harvest wheat. Although the price is
It’s a bit more expensive, but the good thing is that you can harvest the wheat in time.”
"Listening to what you said, every household has hundreds of acres of wheat fields. Wouldn't it be difficult to finish harvesting before winter?"
After hearing this, Chen Xin thought about it carefully, and soon realized a problem, and immediately asked.
"Isn't that right? Everyone is in a hurry now."
"Every household has hundreds of acres of land, and they can't harvest it even if they work hard all day long."
"I gritted my teeth and spent a lot of money to hire these Koreans. If one person worked for a day, I would have to pay 120 kilograms of wheat and take care of three meals a day."
"But even so, these North Koreans are too busy, and there are many people who want to hire them."
"Although the price is expensive, if the wheat cannot be harvested on time, it will rot in the ground."
Dong Er nodded and said.
Speaking of this matter, Dong Er couldn't help but sigh.
When spring farming began at the beginning of this year, everyone was afraid of suffering a loss. If you cultivated 100 acres, I would cultivate 150 acres. Every household was working hard to cultivate the fields.
Now it's better, the fields have been cultivated, and hundreds of acres of fields have been planted at once. I was dumbfounded when I harvested wheat. I was so exhausted that I couldn't finish harvesting in the fields.
"Such good wheat, wouldn't it be a pity if it rotted in the ground?"
Chen Xin looked at the wheat ears in his hands. The wheat grains on them were full. The wheat ears were very heavy and the wheat was very good.
"That's right, but if you can't collect it all, there's nothing you can do if it rots in the ground."
Dong Er also nodded and said: "I heard that there are hundreds of thousands of Koreans who come to our Liaodong to harvest wheat and work part-time. They have made a lot of money this year. After harvesting wheat for a day, they bring back more than a hundred kilograms of wheat. They work in our Liaodong.
I was able to bring back several thousand kilograms of wheat last month."
"But it's their turn to make money. There's nothing we can do about it. We have planted too much land. It would be a pity if the wheat doesn't get harvested and it rots in the ground. If we let them make money, we can still collect all the wheat."
After hearing Dong Er's words, Chen Xin, Hu Benhui and others looked at the dozens of busy people in the field again. After a careful look, they found that these people were indeed somewhat different from the people of Ming Dynasty. The clothes they wore had obvious Korean style.
.
"In that case, wouldn't there be a lot of wheat rotting in our fields in Liaodong this year?"
Chen Xin frowned. This bumper harvest was originally a good thing. When debriefing this year, he could also focus on this aspect.
But if a large amount of grain rots in the world because it was not harvested in time, the situation will be different. If the matter spreads to the capital, it will inevitably affect one's political performance.
"There must be a lot of wheat rotting in the fields. Even if a person doesn't rest all day long, he will be exhausted in the fields. He can only harvest two acres of wheat. Each household has hundreds of acres of land.
Where can I finish harvesting before winter?"
"This is why these North Koreans dare to ask for such high prices. Last year, hiring them to harvest wheat for one day only cost 50 kilograms of wheat. This year it will cost more than 100 pounds."
Dong Er nodded and replied.
"That's a pity. Isn't there any way to harvest all the wheat quickly?"
When he heard that a large amount of wheat was about to rot in the fields and there was no way to harvest it before winter, Chen Xin immediately became anxious. This was a major matter related to his political performance.
"Yes, yes, I heard that the Jingcheng Machinery Factory has produced a wheat harvesting machine called a steam harvester. This steam harvester is very powerful. It can be harvested in a day just by walking around in the field.
If we can have thousands or tens of thousands of these machines in a fifty-acre wheat field, our wheat in Liaodong can almost be harvested before winter."
"But there are very few such machines. I've only heard of them, but I've never seen them."
Dong Er thought for a while and said.
"Steam harvester?"
"I know this, it has been reported in the newspapers."
When Chen Xin heard this, he quickly remembered the story about the steam harvester reported in the Ming Dynasty Morning Post.
"Yes, yes, I heard it was in the newspaper."
"That steam harvester is said to be very powerful. When harvesting wheat, it threshes the wheat directly without having to throw the wheat."
"I heard that a steam harvester costs nearly two hundred taels of silver. It is too expensive. How can we ordinary people afford it?"
Dong Er nodded and said.
"Thank you, little brother, I'll take my leave now!"
Chen Xin smiled and said goodbye to Dong Er, then mounted his horse and said to Hu Benhui: "Send someone to the Jingcheng Machinery Factory immediately and buy steam harvesters from them. The more the better."
"Well, let's buy it in the name of our Liaodong Chief Envoy. If the money is not enough, we can discuss with them to see if we can rent it and then transport it to our Liaodong as soon as possible."
"Every household has hundreds of acres of wheat. If it is not harvested in time, we don't know how much wheat will rot in the fields."
"yes!"
When Hu Benhui heard this, he quickly said yes, and then rode quickly to do the work.
As for Chen Xin, he was riding a horse to find a steam harvester to see how magical this steam harvester was. It could actually harvest fifty acres of wheat in one day.
Riding around on horseback to inquire about steam harvesters, Chen Xin soon came to a town.
"The wheat is harvested, the wheat is harvested!"
"For one tael of silver, five stones of wheat will be collected. If you are willing to sell it, I will accept it no matter how much it is!"
As soon as he entered the town, Chen Xin heard a large number of businessmen shouting with tin trumpets. At the same time, he could also see a large number of farmers using four-wheeled carriages pulling carts of grain into the town.
sell.
There is so much food that the granaries at home cannot hold it, so many people choose to sell part of the food for money.
"One tael of silver and five stones of wheat?"
When Chen Xin heard this, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"The price of this food is too low!"
"These profiteers!"
He immediately couldn't help but get angry, got off his horse, came to a grain store, and roared: "You profiteers are so evil. Five stones of grain are sold for one tael of silver. How can there be such a low price?"
Hearing Chen Xin's roar, many farmers around him also shouted.
"Yes, yes, where can such a price exist? In the past, a kilogram of grain was sold for one or two taels of silver. During the famine of the Ten Years of Hongzhi, a pound of grain was sold for more than 100 taels of cash.
"
"That's right, that's right. You profiteers joined forces to deliberately lower food prices and bully us farmers, right?"
"It must be like this. They must have seen our great harvest of grain in Liaodong, so they deliberately pressured the price of grain. Five stones of wheat only cost one tael of silver. I might as well feed it to pigs. The price of pork has now increased to
It’s more than ten yuan per pound.”
The surrounding farmers couldn't help but yell. Everyone was hesitating whether to sell the grain because the price of the grain was too low.
Many people have been farming their entire lives, but they have never encountered such low prices. Food is actually worthless.
You must know that in the past, this food was an extremely precious thing. In the era of famine, not to mention one stone of food, just one kilogram of food, could save many lives. Sometimes even a few kilograms of food could be purchased.
I met a yellow-flowered girl.
Now, five shi of grain can only be sold for one tael of silver.