Chapter 0763 filling the stomach is the most important
The cold wind blew across the earth, shaking the grass stems in the fields. The sky was gloomy, and the floating soil was flying, forming tiny tornadoes. The Bailaihao farmer raised his hand to block the biting wind, and carried his farm tools in the pits.
march.
This winter has been extremely cold, and the wrath of the Frost Goddess is getting stronger day by day. But the sky has never snowed. This is the worst situation, which means that there will be a lack of water for melting snow next spring.
The farmers put grease on their faces and hands to prevent their skin from drying out. But their exposed skin was still red from the cold. Many people's fingers got frostbite, swollen like carrots.
"Let's get to work."
When we arrived at the field, the foreman came out and divided the tasks.
"We must dig a fifty-meter ditch today, and the amount of earthwork cannot be compromised at all. By next spring, this wasteland can be irrigated with water and more food can be grown."
The farmers were wearing tattered but thick clothes, with sad faces but calm demeanors as they listened. The wasteland under their feet didn't even have ridges, it was bumpy and full of rocks.
This is not a good field. It can be seen everywhere in the Northland. Even weeds cannot grow. It takes a lot of effort to cultivate it into farmland. The first step is to dig ditches for irrigation.
"Let's get started. Let's take a sip first. It will be easier if you have the strength." The foreman took off a tin pot from his waist and poured a big sip into his mouth. The farmers also drank.
After drinking, they all screamed and sweated profusely from the poison in the tin pot. Their dark faces became rosy, and even their wrinkled foreheads relaxed a bit.
"Work, work, praise Sir Victor Hugo, we will live a good life." The foreman took the lead in shouting.
The farmers also responded one after another, and the fields resounded with shouts. People praised from the bottom of their hearts, hoping that their lord would live a long life and continue to lead them.
A heavily loaded wagon followed the farmers. On the wagon was lignite dug from the black forest, from the terrible voodoo swamp.
That damn swamp is just a big coal pool, and all kinds of terrible monsters live in it. But now Coldwind City needs coal, so swarms of coal diggers poured into the swamp.
Workers built houses, built villages, built fortresses, dug ditches and rivers for drainage, and drained swamps to facilitate the mining of open-pit lignite.
The monsters have lived in the voodoo swamp for hundreds of years, if not a thousand years. For the first time, they discovered that humans are not only not afraid of them, but also come to change the environment in which they live.
Is a swamp without water still a swamp?
Groups of monsters attacked human villages crazily. Both sides fought with teeth, claws, venom, knives and axes, crossbows, torches, and all available weapons.
Human settlers died in hundreds. But they came one after another, and they were more terrifying than the goblins in the Black Forest. They were equipped, organized, and disciplined, and they forced the monsters who had lived in the swamp for generations to move.
.
The monsters can't figure out what's going on. They only know that the water in the swamp is getting less and less, the living environment is getting worse and worse, and they will become extinct if they don't escape.
In the winter of the first year of the New Calendar in the Northland, Cold Wind City sent more than 3,000 people into the Black Forest to mine coal. Hundreds of heavy-duty carriages transported the coal out every day.
The city is considering laying wooden rails with a larger transport capacity, and humans are beginning to use a large amount of cheap coal in production and life.
The farmland to be reclaimed has been marked with white lines of lime. Farmers first laid dry firewood in the ditch, lit it, and then used shovels to shovel coal. The hard ground will be burned until it becomes soft before it can be dug.
The fire lit up and the cold wind became stronger.
The farmers only felt warm all over. They had to move quickly and with explosive power to dig out a meter wide and half a meter deep earth before the ground froze again.
This is hard work, but the farmers in Hanfeng City are rushing to do it, and they don't even need to be paid. They only need to take care of the food. Because every more acre of farmland is cultivated, one more acre of food can be harvested and eaten.
The food is more abundant.
This is something that didn't exist in the past.
In the past six months, the residents of Cold Wind City have been full of enthusiasm for work. From initial resistance, to gradual acceptance, to active demands, they have undergone great changes in their thinking.
Everything comes from this unimaginable harvest this fall.
Fuqiangling has been renovating farmland and training farmers since last winter. Due to the cold weather in the north, only one season of wheat can be grown. It was not until this autumn that people saw the fruits of their hard work.
In the gentle autumn wind, golden waves of wheat were rising one after another, as far as the eye could see. Residents in the city came out one after another to watch the spectacle and marvel at this unprecedented event. They lingered beside the wheat fields, reporting on the heavy wheat ears.
With sincere prayer.
Food, food, food, the North is short of food all year round, and has always purchased it from the South. But the food purchased by the nobles will never be given to the lower class, and there will be no charity at all.
Every winter, people starve to death in cities across the North. This is not only a tragedy faced by the poorest classes, but also by the middle class.
Except for a small number of nobles, the mortality rate for ordinary people is too high. In years of famine, some villages will suddenly and silently turn into death places.
And this year...
"Praise to Your Excellency Victor Hugo."
A farmer was waving a hoe to dig, and shouted loudly from time to time, as if he was shouting labor slogans. The other farmers listened happily, and occasionally shouted along, as if they felt full of strength after shouting.
Lord Hugo actually didn't do much. He just eradicated the aristocratic class in the past and used the originally hoarded food for reproduction. He fed the working people, opened up more farmland, and grew more food.
Feed more people.
The lord did not even divide the land, and all the land in the entire Cold Wind City belonged to him. However, he signed a formal labor agreement with the farmers. He provided farm tools, seeds, fertilizers, and farmland water conservancy in exchange for 30% of the harvest from the fields.
In the event of a famine, the tenancy rent can be reduced or reduced.
The Harmony Chamber of Commerce provides low-interest loans, allows tenants to purchase goods for production and living in advance, allows them to freely choose careers, allows them to have personal rights, and gives them and their descendants the opportunity to receive education.
It's that simple, it doesn't make much sense, and it won't work if it's too much.
In the past, most of the farmers in Cold Wind City relied on nobles at all levels. The nobles never cared about the organization and management of farmland reclamation, and only collected tax burdens like sucking the marrow out of their bones.
In contrast, the liberated farmers were determined to follow Mr. Hugo and radiated a strong enthusiasm for production.
The lord hired farmers to work, and they would bring their own dry food without even paying for it. They knew very well that every time they dug a ditch, they would benefit.
Last year, the farmers were reluctant when they were called together, but this year they were happy to work in the fields.
They went out early in the morning and braved the cold wind to the ditch construction site. They ate lunch by the pit. The hard bread was toasted softly on the fire and mixed with the stamina potion.
They work until dark in the afternoon, and the farmers go home singing songs with their hoes on their shoulders. They continue to come out at dawn tomorrow, over and over again, simple and boring, but they will not stop throughout the winter.
Last year, the Fuqiang leader gathered the refugees and reclaimed 7,000 acres of land. This year, Hanfeng City organized more than 50,000 laborers to renovate the farmland of the old nobles.
According to the Lord's plan, the area sown with spring wheat in the third year of the New Calendar will exceed 80,000 acres, basically ensuring that the nearly 300,000 people in Hanfeng City can have enough to eat.