Li Zhi looked at the young man and asked, "Does the wheat he grows have a high yield?"
The farmer nodded and said: "The dry land planted by Brother Wang can produce one stone and five bushels of wheat per acre. In summer, he also grows mung beans. The harvest is very impressive in a year. In the past, he planted fifteen acres of dry land and paid half of the grain as land rent every year, which was able to support his family."
Three people. Now that Brother Wang and his wife have got forty acres of dry land, and the General of the field only charges 30% of the land rent, I am afraid that Brother Wang will become rich!"
Li Zhi nodded and looked at the young man on the ground again.
That young man Wang Que not only knows a lot, but also patiently guides others. He seems to be a good teacher.
Li Zhi walked up and said, "Wang Que, where did you learn these farming skills?"
Wang Que was instructing other farmers when he saw Li Zhi coming up to ask him. He didn't know who Li Zhi was, so he just looked at Li Zhi in confusion.
"I am Li Zhi, the general of Fanjiazhuang!"
Hearing this, the farmers nearby reacted. Many of them had seen Li Zhi wearing official robes before. When they met again, Li Zhi recognized him and quickly knelt on the ground. Some took the lead, and others followed suit.
, and suddenly he knelt down and huffed.
Li Zhi said to these farmers: "No courtesy!" Then he asked Wang Que: "Wang Que, where did you learn the farming skills?"
When Wang Que saw Li Zhi asking him repeatedly, he said nervously: "The common people are literate. This knowledge is learned from "Wang Zhen Nong Shu", "Qi Min Yao Shu" and "Pan Sheng Zhi Shu", and combined with his own farming skills
Actual, summarized.”
Li Zhi nodded and said: "According to your knowledge, what is the most important thing in the first year after pioneering?"
Wang Que replied: "The wasteland is barren and the soil fertility is insufficient in the first year after the wasteland is opened. The key is to fertilize the field. Not only must good fertilizer be applied, but also the soil fertility on the Longshang ditch must be used to achieve a good harvest. If planted well, the second
One stone and four bushels of winter wheat can be harvested in one year."
Hearing Wang Que's words, Li Zhi was stunned, and secretly thought that this was four bushels more than the ordinary harvest. If Wang Que was used as a manager to guide others in farming, and the 190,000 acres of dry land would be four bushels more per mu, that would be
More than 70,000 shi of grain. Just counting the land rent collected by Li Zhi, he could collect more than 20,000 shi of land rent, which is equivalent to allowing Li Zhi to earn more than 40,000 taels of silver.
Of course, Wang Que cannot guide so many people. He has no skills on his own, so it would be good if he could guide a hundred households. However, Li Zhi can match him with people to maximize the scope of Wang Que's guidance.
Li Zhi asked: "Wang Que, how much grain can you harvest from the dry land you rented before?"
"Sir, in an ordinary year, my field can harvest one stone and five buckets of grain! I can also grow mung beans for one season!"
Li Zhi turned to look at the farmers around him and asked, "Is what Wang Que said true?"
The surrounding farmers replied: "General, Wang Que is right. We used to watch the fields he cultivated in Baodi. Originally, his family rented more than ten acres of thin farmland. After planting it for him for five years,
That field is extremely fat."
"What Wang Que said is true. He and I live in the same village, and the land he cultivates is just a few bushels more than ours!"
Li Zhi nodded and said loudly: "Wang Que, I think you don't want to farm anymore. You can come to my shogunate as an instructor in the Agricultural Affairs Department, and you will be paid six taels a month. This instructor runs around in the fields every day, so I will
I don’t care about you. I’ll let you lead ten men to teach others how to farm well! Are you willing?”
Although it costs Li Zhi four hundred taels of silver a year to hire ten subordinates, this amount of money is not much compared to the income from increased agricultural production. As long as the farmers in Fanjiazhuang and Jinghai County increase their yield by one dou, Li Zhi will
This can increase the land rent income by ten thousand taels.
Li Zhi planned to let Wang Que try it out for a year first, and if it was indeed effective, he would expand the team next year. Moreover, when Wang Que guided the farmers in the first year, the farmers would not believe it, so they needed to spend more time. After the first year's harvest came out, his team would
The guidance proved to be really useful, and it was only in the second year that farmers could be truly guided on a large scale.
Therefore, Li Zhi only assigned ten people to Wang Que in the first year.
Wang Que was stunned, looking at Li Zhi in a daze, and did not react for a moment. Sixty-two taels of silver can be earned in a year. Wang Que will farm again, and his income is limited. How can he earn seventy-two taels in a year?
Two taels of silver? Li Zhi gave him such a good thing to do at once, and took care of ten people, which made him feel like he had jumped into the dragon's gate. After a long time, he said loudly: "Sir, if you are willing, I am willing!"
Li Zhi said: "Okay, I will hire ten literate and smart people for you later. As clerks in the shogunate's agricultural affairs department, they will follow your orders. This year's harvest of winter wheat in Fanjiazhuang and Jinghai County will depend on you! If you guide me,
If your farmer has a good harvest, I will give you a bonus!"
####
Li Zhi is preparing to equip the army with some useful traditional equipment.
The first is the caltrop. The caltrop is a military iron spiked spreading obstacle, usually made of pig iron. The finished product has four protruding iron thorns, several inches long. No matter how the caltrop lands, there is always one
The thorns point upward and the tips are like the herb "Tribulus", hence the name.
The thorns of the caltrops Li Zhi planned to make were two centimeters long, and they were spread on the ground like a patch of needles. After laying some caltrops on the ground, the enemy could not get close at all. If the enemy wanted to get close, they had to slowly clear the caltrops on the ground.
You can only rush into the formation after cleaning up, which gives Li Zhi more time to shoot.
After making up his mind, Li Zhi asked the blacksmiths to start. Now Li Zhi uses boring bores to make tubes. One craftsman can produce one in seven days, and five hundred craftsmen can produce more than two thousand in a month, which can fully satisfy Li Zhi's soldiers.
demand. Now, in addition to letting the soldiers have one handful, Li Zhi also has 4,000 in stock. Reproducing the inventory is already a waste. Li Zhi asked the blacksmiths to stop production in April. Now these blacksmiths can just produce caltrops.
Caltrops are very small, and blacksmiths can cast a hundred of them a day. There is a hole in the middle of each caltrop, and every five can be strung into a string for easy laying and putting away. Li Zhi planned to have a soldier carry twenty strings and go there during the war.
A bunkhouse in front of the formation turns the twenty meters in front of the formation into a hell for the enemy.
It is conceivable that the Qing army or bandits were blocked by iron caltrops in front of Li Zhi's formation, unable to advance or retreat, and kept falling down during the shooting.
In addition to the caltrops, Li Zhi also built a pole cart.
The lookout vehicle is a large chariot with a tall lookout pole, which is fifteen meters long. There is a wooden chair for the lookout on the top of the lookout pole, so that the lookout can climb up and sit on it to constantly observe the battlefield.
situation. Li Zhi equipped the lookout with a telescope so that the lookout could observe the surrounding situation.
After the car was built, Li Zhi tried it out near Fanjiazhuang and found that the lookout hand on the lookout pole could see everything within a radius of more than ten miles, which could greatly make up for the reconnaissance ability when the scout was suppressed. It was very practical.
