Beginning in late August, the most important day for the people of Juchao County is approaching.
Juchao County is located between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. Its location in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is actually very awkward in terms of agricultural climate. They cannot escape the cold winter, and they cannot share in the four seasons of spring in the south. There is the Huaihe River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south.
With constant floods and frequent famines, it is really not a good place.
Because of the climate, only two crops can be grown each year. One season of summer grain and one season of autumn rice. Therefore, the importance of these two seasons of grain to the livelihood of the people in Juchao County is self-evident. Especially the autumn harvest season, for
For the people of Juchao County, the proportion is very important.
From the time the rice heads and blooms, the people dare not take it lightly. They try their best to protect the rice fields every day and manage the fields carefully. Add fertilizer, increase or decrease the water level, check for pests, remove weeds, etc. These things are extremely trivial, all of them
It all requires manpower and is extremely hard work.
But these are nothing. As long as you can get a good harvest, all the hard work will be worth it.
After County Magistrate Li ordered to pull strings to fully pollinate, the people paid attention every day to see if it was effective. After entering early August, when the rice began to fill and mature, they finally discovered the difference.
Not everyone believed what Magistrate Li said, and many people did not act according to Magistrate Li's words. As a result, the difference was often very obvious in the two rice fields separated by a ditch.
In the rice fields that have been fully pollinated by the rope pulling method, the rice ears are full and there are very few grains. However, in the rice fields that have not been pollinated by the rope method, the ears of rice have many grains. This can be basically proved by the bending degree of the rice ears.
Li Hui personally led the people to make a comparison. The method was very simple. He randomly selected 20 rice ears from two acres of land and counted the rice grains one by one. He used the rope pulling method on the rice ears in the fields.
The number of full rice grains is between 80 and 100. The number of full rice grains on each rice ear is only three to five. After comprehensive calculation, the average number of full rice grains on each rice ear is 93. It is useless.
The number of rice ears in the acres pollinated by strings was calculated in the same way, and the number of full rice grains barely reached eighty.
Li Hui made a rough calculation and found that with this increase in production, the increase can reach 1.5%. This is quite an astonishing proportion. A rice ear with more than a dozen rice grains seems like nothing, but
The increase in production in Juchao County as a whole is a huge amount.
The total number of acres of rice fields sown in Juchao County this year is about 50,000 acres. The ratio of good land to poor land is about 50:50. In other words, according to the normal output of this era, the good and bad are evenly divided, and the yield of grain per acre is calculated as three shi.
That is 150,000 shi of rice. And the benefit brought by the 15% increase in production is 25,000 shi of more grain.
Is this enough? Twenty-five thousand shi of rice is equivalent to 15,000 shi of white rice. How many more people will be fed? At a critical moment, these rice can feed tens of thousands of people living in Chao County for a month.
Such an increase in production is huge and astonishing. Li Hui is deeply aware of how important the improvement of agricultural farming technology is to this era. A simple technology promotion may produce extremely huge benefits.
This is actually because the farming technology is too backward, so the benefits generated are also very obvious. Just like a person with extremely poor grades, with a little effort, he will get a pretty good score. That is because his starting point is too low.
, so it is easy to make progress. In later generations, various technologies have matured, and if you want to increase the yield per mu, even if you produce more than ten or twenty kilograms of grain, you will need major technological breakthroughs.
Of course, this prediction is only a rough prediction under ideal conditions. In fact, many people did not do what Li Hui asked. Therefore, it is impossible to fully increase production.
In addition, there are many factors that affect yield, whether there is enough fertility, drought or floods, diseases and insect pests will all cause differences in yield. For example, in the fertilization process, if the fertilizer is not enough, the seedlings will not be strong enough and the branches will not be enough, which will result in a reduction in grain production. But if the fertility is sufficient,
, each seedling will send out one more ramet, and there will be multiple ears of rice. The impact is still quite large.
As for the acres in Juchao County, many of them are cultivated and reclaimed, and the fertility is insufficient. Of course, this is also related to the hard work and laziness of the people. Some people do everything possible to find ways to collect manure, dig out compost, and some
Some people rely on natural harvests, and the natural yields will vary greatly.
But no matter what, tens of thousands of acres of rice fields successfully escaped floods this year, and after more than four long months, they finally matured. The golden rice fields in the fields, and the waves of rice rolling after the wind blew, were pleasing to the eye.
In the early morning of August 17, Li Hui presided over the opening ceremony on the high ridge under Dalianwei in the west of Juchao County.
People gathered up and down the high ridge. They held sickles, carried baskets and poles, pushed various simple carts, carried threshing wooden fences, and carried huge straw mats to stand in the autumn sun.
Li Hui stood on a high ridge and delivered a speech to the people.
"Dear fellow villagers and elders. Today, our county is hosting a sickle-opening ceremony here, which means that the autumn harvest in Chao County, where I live, is about to begin. This is a happy day. This county is very excited and emotional. Since last winter,
, I have experienced many hardships and turbulence in Chao County. You have gone through hard work and chaos, and today you can finally usher in a good harvest. How proud and proud you are. Look around you, it is your hard work and sweat.
The results obtained. As the saying goes, 'I love to see the thousands of waves of rice and rice, and dare to ask the sun and moon to change the sky.' Everything in front of us shows one thing. As long as we are willing to work hard, we will definitely have a wonderful life.
In the future, we will be able to harvest what belongs to us. I feel proud and proud of all the fellow villagers and elders."
After hearing Li Hui's passionate words, all the people applauded one after another. Magistrate Li's words sounded comfortable. He did not boast or brag, but attributed everything to everyone. This is such a big heart. In fact, there is no Magistrate Li,
There is nothing like today.
"...Of course, all this is just the beginning. This autumn harvest may only allow us to have enough food, but having enough food is the beginning of having enough food and clothing. I believe that in the next few years, things will gradually get better. The county has formulated a plan
We have made several plans. Next year we will not only open up many good fields, but also plant other crops according to local conditions. Beans, lotus roots, fruits, taro, mulberry, fruit trees, whatever suits you. In short, we will use all means to increase your income and production.
Of course, these are all things for later, I am digressing from the topic, hahaha, I digressed when I got excited." Li Hui continued.
The people laughed loudly and said, "Don't digress, what you said is exactly what we want to hear."
Li Hui waved his hands and said: "We will talk about those things later. The most important thing right now is the autumn harvest. Here, the county puts forward a few requirements. First, take advantage of the fine weather to harvest and dry the grain and put it into the warehouse. As soon as the autumn rain comes, there will be
It's not good if it lasts for many days. The hard-earned grain will be in vain if it molds and sprouts. Secondly, the grains are required to be returned to the warehouse, and there must be no waste or leakage. Every grain of rice and every ear of rice is the result of hard work.
Yes, be sure to pick them up. After drying the straw, stack it and clean it up. Third, during the autumn harvest, do a good job in preventing fire and theft. The county will ask Zhou County Lieutenant to organize the county militia to assist you in patrolling. Every village and every house must also do a good job in preventing fire and theft.
Send personnel to form a joint defense. It is hard work, but it must be done. The county also warns some people who have bad intentions to cause sabotage or want to get something for nothing. Once they are caught, they will be severely punished. The county will never
If we don't tolerate it, we will kill those who deserve to be killed and those who deserve to be subjected to hard labor. It is absolutely merciless. Anyone who causes trouble at this time will destroy the jobs of the people of Juchao County and take everyone's life."
Everyone nodded and shouted: "County Magistrate Li has considered this carefully, as it should be."
Li Hui nodded and continued: "After the autumn harvest comes autumn planting. Winter wheat must be sown in time, and next year's summer grain must not be careless. In short, the next ten days or even a month will be a hard and busy time. But at this moment
I am busy in order to live a better life. Dear fellow villagers, don’t say much. I declare that the harvest is officially started."
With the sound of gongs and drums, Li Hui took a sickle wrapped in red silk and cut off a bunch of rice ears placed in front of him and placed it on a tray. The people cheered loudly, bowed their hands in salute, and then scattered to their respective fields to start harvesting.
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In the next two days, Li Hui visited Dongguan, Lugao, Ruxu River and other places to preside over the sickle-opening ceremony. Throughout Juchao County, the autumn harvest was in full swing. On the golden fields, people sweating profusely were everywhere.
The common people, men, women, old and young, went into battle together. The adults harvested and carried the crops, while the children and the elderly gleaned and picked up leaks in the fields.
The rice was transported to the open space, piled on straw mats, and manually threshed, dried, and shipped. A small team sent by the county government patrolled day and night to prevent fire and theft, and were on standby. Several blacksmith shops in the city moved the forging furnaces to Tiantou Village, and promptly
Making and repairing damaged farm tools for the common people. It was a lively scene with everyone working together.
Li Hui devoted all his attention to the autumn harvest, riding his horse around the fields, checking the progress in time, and solving problems for the people. Li Hui felt happy when he saw the rice being transported back by the load.
Ten days later, the autumn harvest is coming to an end. Nearly 50,000 acres of rice have been harvested, and a large part of it has been threshed and dried, ready to be stored in warehouses. Preliminary statistics have also come out. The average grain yield can reach about three dan. The fertility of the farmland is insufficient for re-cultivation.
Under the premise that the cultivated acres also face the same problem, reaching this level is already very good.
Based on this, Li Hui also preliminarily deduced that this year's grain production in Juchao County will be close to 150,000 shi. When converted into white rice, it is as much as 90,000 shi.
Part of this money will be used to pay the Zhuangtian clan, and part of it will be used to repay the shortfall in summer grain. Even so, the remaining 60,000 shi of white rice and various miscellaneous grains harvested in the autumn are enough for the people to survive the next six months. Even
Some families may still have a surplus that can be sold in exchange for clothing, meat, food and daily necessities.
After getting this more accurate figure, Li Hui breathed a sigh of relief. The food was in his bag, everything was settled, and he finally lived up to expectations, and he no longer had to worry about the food and clothing of the people living in Chao.