The next day, Wang Junlin began to inspect various places in the salt field. The first thing he looked at was the good land that had been cultivated. There was still time to cultivate some grain. Wang Junlin asked Qian Zhengkuo to plant some before the season passed.
Lian Zhongtao selected 6,000 salt workers from more than 30,000 salt workers and salt slaves. These people were responsible for boiling salt. The shipyard also selected more than 1,000 salt workers, another 3,000 salt cubes, and the remaining two
More than 10,000 people are farmers, and their main job is farming.
Wang Junlin brought Chen Danying, Xiang Xiang, Luo Shixin and Li Xuanba to the field in casual clothes without disturbing any farmers. He was accompanied by Qian Zhengkuo and another newly appointed salt farm agricultural officer.
On the approximately ten acres of fertile land in front of him, there was a family of five saltworkers-turned-farmers. Their family was given an ox and a hard plow designed by Nie Xiaoyu himself. At this time, the family brought the hard plow over.
Ready to hang on the cow.
According to what Qian Zhengkuo said, the agricultural officer he recommended was quite proficient in farming, so Wang Junlin was interested in teaching him and casually asked about the use of a hard plow.
The agricultural officer's name was Liu Xingyuan. He was in his forties and had dark and rough skin. He said confidently: "Reporting to your lord, when these fields were cultivated, they had already been plowed and manure was spread after spring. Now,
Large-scale plowing has been possible and fertilizers are evenly distributed. Now adults buy one cow for each family in the salt farm. In fact, the three families can work together. Three cows can be used to pull a large plow for deep plowing, or two cows can plow deeply in front and one cow can plow behind.
"
Wang Junlin looked surprised, like a student, and asked: "What is the difference between three oxen and two oxen?"
"Three oxen are deeper. A firm plow can plow the land to a depth of one foot. It also saves one person compared to the latter method."
“What happens after we finish plowing?”
Liu Xingyuan said: "There is wet soil in the ditch, and the soil fertility is better. The seeds must be sown in the ditch. If we are planting wheat, we can start in March, but there will only be one crop this year. Let's put it bluntly, it is better to plant ripe wheat."
Once you plant radish, you can harvest it in April. You can plant garlic again in April. You can harvest another plant in May. After planting, you can plant radish. After harvesting in September, you can plant this year's winter wheat. In this way, you can plant this year's winter wheat.
How ripe it is. This must be notified to every household as soon as possible. Otherwise, ordinary farmers only know about wheat and do not know the method of crop rotation and interplanting."
Wang Junlin heard that it was all vegetables.
How could it be done with staple food? He hesitated and said, "This means there will be no wheat harvest this year. This is the staple food. Is there any other way?"
Liu Xingyuan shook his head and said: "This is the best way. In this way, the land will not be idle. Otherwise, we will only harvest one season of wheat this year, and the land will not be fertilized."
Wang Junlin had never farmed in his previous life. When he heard that Liu Xingyuan was so professional, he said: "Qian Zhengkuo, Liu Xingyuan, please further verify what Liu Xingyuan just said. If there is no problem, just sow according to this method."
Unexpectedly, someone next to me suddenly said: "Sir, what Mr. Liu said is wrong."
"Oh?" Wang Junlin turned around and saw that it was Xiangnan who had followed hundreds of scholars in Zhuoxian County to protest at the post house where he lived. At that time, four of their scholars risked their lives to go in to meet Wang Junlin, among whom
One was a sword god who disguised himself as a sword god and assassinated Wang Junlin. The other three were Xiang Nan, Mou Xuhong, and Zhao Shuren. They were subdued by Wang Junlin with thunderous means and sent to Du Ruhui for training.
In the past few months, the three scholars have made great progress. They are no longer just scholars who only talk. Moreover, the three of them are from poor families, and their families are tenant farmers. Therefore, when Wang Junlin came to the salt field this time, he specially brought Xiang Nan with him.
around.
Seeing that it was Xiang Nan who had been silent speaking, Wang Junlin couldn't help but become interested: "Xiang Nan, why do you say he is wrong?"
Xiang Nan said: "Sir, what Mr. Liu just said is the method of rotation and continuous cropping. However, the land in the salt field has just been reclaimed. The soil is insufficient and it is difficult to make up for it with manure alone. No matter how you farm this year, you will not get a good harvest.
, so the most important thing this year is to fertilize the land, not to force it to be ripe. If we go by what Mr. Liu said, we only use the soil in the ditch, and the harvest will not be enough, and we will not be able to fertilize the field."
Wang Junlin couldn't help but his eyes lit up when he heard what he said was serious, and asked him: "Then how do you want to plant it? It's best to do a demonstration."
Liu Xingyuan, the agricultural officer selected and promoted by Qian Zhengkuo, watched Xiang Nan talk and was dissatisfied. However, seeing that he was someone close to the prefect, he did not dare to refute, so he waited for the other party to continue talking.
Being watched by so many people, Xiang Nan blushed a little, so he simply brought tools with a farmer, lowered his head and skillfully dug a shallow ditch with a hoe, and piled the excavated soil on the edge of the ditch to form a ridge.
Then he said: "Sir, I think it is best to use the method of intercropping this year. In this way, the land on the ridges can also be used. Grain and beans are intercropped. Wheat is planted in the ditch. Beans are planted on the ridges until the wheat is mature.
At that time, the beans are ripe, which is also a good material. But it is best to plant mung beans and harvest them, which is the best green manure."
At this point, he dug the ridges into furrows and piled the soil on top of the original furrows to form ridges. He continued: "After plowing the green manure, plow the ridges into furrows and the furrows into ridges, and then add manure and fertilizer evenly."
After that, when the soil is fertile, this is the Shirota method. If you plant winter wheat at this time, next year's wheat harvest will be greater than this year's."
The demonstration was very clear and the explanation was very clear. Wang Junlin turned to look at Liu Xingyuan, who quickly said with a look of shame on his face: "My lord, you are right. I am not considerate of my humble position. Please punish me."
Wang Junlin said: "I won't be punished, but since you are the agricultural officer of the salt farm, you must be pragmatic when making decisions in the future, and you must not take it for granted."
Wang Junlin said it very lightly, but what was his identity? Liu Xingyuan was already sweating profusely. Qian Zhengkuo, who was next to him as the recommender, also had sweat on his forehead. He also complained about Liu Xingyuan in his heart. This guy claimed to be proficient in farming. Today he still
He was specially brought here so that he could perform well in front of the prefect and gain his trust. This meant that he had a direct descendant of his own in the salt field. Unexpectedly, he was retorted by a young scholar next to the prefect.
He was speechless. Although the prefect did not say that he was Qian Zhengkuo, the latter understood that he also had the responsibility of recommending people.
Wang Junlin ignored the two of them and said to Xiang Nan: "Xiang Nan, I know that your family is from a background of tenant farmers, but I think what you just said is not just farming experience, but you have done special research in this area."
Xiang Nan hurriedly said: "Reporting to your lord, Beizhi was originally a tenant farmer of the Lu family. Every year after the family handed over grain to the Lu family, there was not much left, so we had to try to collect more food from the ground. Beizhi happened to have read two agricultural books...
…”
Wang Junlin's eyes lit up and he asked: "What agricultural book?"
Xiang Nan answered honestly: "I have also read through "Wang Zhen's Book of Agriculture" and "Essential Art of Qi Min", and others such as "Pan Sheng's Book". Before coming to the salt field, I deliberately looked through the farming teaching materials prepared by the adults for Fanyang College.