Ten-year-old Zhuzi was so frightened by Meng Yousan's loud voice that he almost spit out the candy and said weakly: "Cousin, what I eat is the number one candy."
Meng Yousan asked sarcastically: "Where do you have the money to buy the number one candy?"
Zhu Zhu said weakly: "Daddy bought it for me!"
Meng Yousan turned to Boss Ni and said, "Ni idiot, why are you so rich now?"
Mr. Ni laughed and said, "My cousin is just telling a joke. How can you be rich after just having a full meal? Compared with the people in Fanjiazhuang City, they are not as good as you!"
Meng Yousan spat: "Can you compare with the people in Fanjiazhuang City? Those people's good life is famous far and wide. Don't you think about yourself? You used to be a tenant farmer in the Weng family, farming twenty acres of dry land, and you couldn't even eat.
You are full, and your clothes are much worse than mine. Now that you are wearing a brand-new crew neck, and your son has some sweets to eat, wouldn’t you be able to raise another child?”
Boss Ni said: "I want to raise another one!"
Meng Yousan snorted and said, "Where did you get all this money?"
Mr. Ni laughed and said: "The general gave me forty acres of dry land and cattle. Moreover, the harvest this year is good, and the general only charges 15% of the land rent! In addition to rations and various miscellaneous expenses, there is still a balance of nine shi of food.
I sold them all to the general's rice shop for silver. I got twenty taels of silver." After a pause, Boss Ni continued: "In addition to farming, when I have free time, I go to cut pig grass with my wife and sell it to the general's pig farm.
, I also made four taels of silver in one year."
Meng Yousan took a breath and said: "You actually have twenty-four taels of silver a year to spend. You are really rich! You used to be a poor tenant who was worse than me, but now you are living like a master!"
Mr. Ni laughed and said: "My cousin was joking, but now I am still a tenant."
"You, a tenant, are richer than any ordinary lord."
Mr. Ni laughed and said: "Cousin, come into the room to talk and try the new tea I bought."
"Look, we have all the tea leaves, but you still don't think you're rich?"
When Meng Yousan heard that Boss Ni had bought tea to entertain guests, his face became even more jealous, and he walked into Boss Ni's house. When he entered the room, he saw more than a dozen pieces of bacon hanging on the beams.
There is so much meat in Mr. Ni’s house. It seems that there will be meat and meat to eat at Mr. Ni’s house tonight. Since the Tatars plundered Baodi County this year, Meng Yousan spent the money from the bottom of the box to buy food.
The family finally managed to get through the hunger and satiation. He had not eaten a meat meal all year long, and it was a festival when he was full. Unexpectedly, he actually ate meat at Mr. Ni's house.
But even though Meng Yousan had meat to eat, he couldn't be happy because he was full of jealousy. This idiot was kidnapped by the Tatars, but he got a blessing in disguise. What kind of thing is this?
"Boss Ni, will your general recruit people to open new fields this year?"
"I don't know. If the general recruits people, I will go to Baodi County to tell you right away!"
"Okay!" Meng Yousan finally smiled, nodded and said: "If you are recruiting people, you must tell me early! I will also come to Fanjiazhuang to be General Li's tenant farmer!"
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Li Zhi decided to expand the number of farmers in his territory.
In troubled times, food is a very important key material. Although the 10,000 farmers he took in last year cost Li Zhi some money in the initial stage, he soon got the benefits. After all, he can get 16,000 dan per year in the future.
The above wheat land rent is worth more than 30,000 taels of silver. This is an obvious profit, and there are also potential profits. Li Zhi can also collect 40,000 to 50,000 taels of surplus grain from local farmers through the grain store, allowing Fanjiazhuang to achieve food self-sufficiency.
In troubled times, self-sufficiency in food means stability. Without food, you cannot have enough to eat, and having guns and artillery is useless. If you are hungry, everything is empty talk.
After reaping the benefits, Li Zhi decided to carry out another large-scale reclamation and add another 100,000 acres of land.
Li Zhi sent officials to survey and map rivers in Jinghai County, plan new fields, and select the location of 100,000 acres of new fields. These 100,000 acres of unclaimed wasteland are located on both sides of the Crescent River and the Guang River. As long as there are water trucks to raise water, they can
irrigation.
Li Zhi found Ye Xiancai, the guard of Jinghai County, and bought the 100,000 acres of wasteland for ten cents per acre, spending one thousand taels of silver.
Although it was less than half the two thousand taels of silver he originally said, Ye Xiancai was still beaming with joy and asked all the officials in the garrison office to take action and work overtime to make the land deed for Li Zhi. He also patted his chest and promised to build a canal for Li Zhi to occupy the riverside.
We communicated with the farmers and persuaded local landowners to accept subsidies and make way for water canals.
In fact, these wastelands cannot be said to belong to the guard system. Unlike those near Fanjiazhuang, the guard military fields in Jinghai County and the civilian fields in prefectures and counties are intertwined, and the ownership is very complicated. These wastelands in Jinghai County can be said to belong to the guards, or they can be said to belong to the guards.
It belongs to the prefecture and county. But if Hezhou and county purchase wasteland and turn these wastelands into civilian fields, they will be under the jurisdiction of the magistrate and county, which is inconvenient for Li Zhi's management. So Li Zhi arbitrarily bought wasteland from the garrison and turned these wastelands into
It has become a military field.
With Li Zhi's current majesty as General Dragon and Tiger, the county magistrate did not dare to trouble Li Zhi for these unclaimed wastelands, so he could only hold his nose and endure it.
After buying the wasteland, Li Zhi sent people to the prefectures and counties near Fanjiazhuang to find two thousand masons to build houses for the farmers. Li Zhi planned to let the farmers who opened up the wasteland live in a room for two people to squeeze in.
In the future, when these farmers make money by planting plum trees in their dry fields, they can build big houses.
It is already winter, and the cold weather reduces outdoor work efficiency. Two thousand masons first need to build large shacks for themselves to live in, and then build five thousand brick houses. It is estimated that the houses will not be completed until February.
Li Zhi plans to go to various states and counties to hire farmers after the wheat harvest next year, and hire another 5,000 men and strong women. The first batch of farmers in Fanjiazhuang have a high income and have set a good example. It is estimated that hiring new farmers will be very difficult.
It went well. These new farmers immediately started building canals after moving to Jinghai County. If there is not enough manpower, Li Zhi can also hire nearby idle farmers to build canals. After the wheat harvest, farmers have nothing to do, and local manpower will be very cheap.
After the canal is built, winter wheat can be planted directly, and the grain can be harvested the following spring.
Recruiting new farmers to farm is easier than resettling refugees. The recruited farmers will bring farm tools with them when they move, so Li Zhi will not have to provide them with everything. Li Zhi only needs to lend them some cattle, so they are expected to have nothing.
However, these things cannot be confirmed until new farmers are hired next spring.
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While he was busy opening new fields, Li Zhi sent people to collect high-yielding crops.
At the end of October, Li Zhi sent five servants to the south to collect sweet potato seedlings in the Jiangnan area and find a few farmers who could grow sweet potatoes to bring back to Fanjiazhuang.
Sweet potatoes are native to Central and South America. They were discovered by Portuguese colonists and brought back to the Old World. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, they had spread to the Ming Dynasty. Sweet potatoes are an extremely high-yield crop. With appropriate application of farmyard fertilizer, the yield per acre can exceed 1,000 kilograms. Summer sweet potatoes can
It is very economical to plant crops for one season on the land where winter wheat has been harvested and rotate crops.
If sweet potatoes are planted in Fanjiazhuang, the yield of food can be greatly increased. Sweet potatoes can be eaten by humans. Although it will be difficult to swallow if eaten every day, they are still very useful as backup food. Of course, the biggest use of sweet potatoes is to feed pigs. Such high-yielding sweet potatoes
The price is very cheap, which can greatly reduce the cost of raising pigs.
Li Zhi was looking forward to the return trip of these five servants and hoped that they would bring sweet potatoes back as soon as possible.
