This Huangzhou Prefecture, which was still under Liu Xiyao's hands more than a month ago and was devastated by massacres and plunder, has now initially restored order.
Although it can't be said to be prosperous, at least the streets are in order, and chickens and dogs are heard in the countryside. The people are also busy with production, and have just entered the slack period recently.
Potatoes from the Americas can be grown twice a year, one of which is planted in winter and harvested in early summer of the following year; and then planted again in late autumn to be harvested.
Among legumes, peas and some large-leaf vegetables can also be sown in early winter. Beans can also fix nitrogen. If planted in winter, the harvest of other crops can be higher next spring.
When Shen Shuren first arrived in Huangzhou in May and took office, he planted all the seeds brought from Fujian. At that time, due to insufficient quantity, he could only cover the cultivated land of about two townships.
After harvesting in late autumn, all the seeds are reserved for the next season, and the sowing area can be expanded by more than ten times or even twenty or thirty times in one go, which is equivalent to thirty or forty townships.
Considering that all the farmland in a county cannot be planted with potatoes and corn, at least one third must be reserved for rice, so the seeds of these new crops can cover the cultivated land of at least three counties.
Another advantage of crops such as potatoes is that they are not very picky about soil fertility and fertilizers.
Huangzhou is located in the Dabie Mountains, which is both mountainous and southern. The temperature and humidity are not suitable for growing dryland wheat, and the low-lying wetlands needed for rice are not enough.
With the addition of corn and potatoes, many of the original lower fields and higher hillside fields can be used reluctantly, and the actual effective cultivated area has been expanded by 20 to 30%.
Waiting for another season next year to allow the seeds to expand exponentially, the area of these new crops can cover several provinces - of course, all this needs to ensure that most of the harvest is replanted and not eaten.
This process required local officials to provide large amounts of financial subsidies and organize the transportation of grain from the land of plenty in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Fortunately, the local official in Huangzhou is Shen Shu. He has already put in hundreds of thousands of taels of silver and paid back to serve as an official. This is how he has built the base area so solidly that people are turning to him.
After the seeds of these new crops can cover several prefectures, he will have to allow the people to use at least half of the harvest for food, otherwise he will not be able to subsidize the costs as the costs increase exponentially.
…
Early that morning, Shen Shuren went to the countryside in person as usual to inspect the farmers and check the germination status of potatoes after they were planted in early winter in various Huanggang townships. There was no pretentiousness at all about his wealth being a millionaire.
Although potatoes are cold-resistant, the temperature on the tubers must be above zero before the buds on the tubers can germinate. There was no greenhouse in the Ming Dynasty, and they could not be covered with mulch. If you are not careful, they may still freeze.
Once frozen, other crops that rely on seeds to propagate can still keep the seeds dormant, and at worst they will grow again later. Potatoes are cut into pieces and planted directly. If they are frozen, they will not germinate, and the tubers will rot.
Fortunately, although there was a Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty, the absolute average temperature was actually less than two degrees lower than in later generations, and the Yangtze River Basin should not have frozen in early twelfth lunar month.
After a round of inspection, the potatoes sprouted smoothly in the three villages I visited today.
"Well done, we can harvest one season in winter, and the seed diffusion cycle can be shortened by another half a year. It seems that this business has been a pure loss in the thirteenth, fourteenth and two years of Chongzhen. We have to keep paying, and from the outside Buy rations.
By the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, we should be able to ensure a balanced balance of payments and be self-sufficient. We should allocate a small half of the harvest as tax food and expand planting in a cycle. After the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, we will be able to make pure profits. This kind of trading and investment cycle is long-term. , Alas, ordinary people can’t afford it without some financial resources.”
The last township we visited today was called Pinghu Township. After coming up from the fields, Shen Shuren happily fetched water from the well in his hometown and washed his feet. He also prepared to have a light meal before returning to the city.
While washing his feet, he casually chatted and calculated accounts with Zhang Huangyan who was following him. They were full of pragmatic details and had no literati tone.
While chatting, they also summarized their experiences, talking about which township has a high potato germination rate and which township has a low germination rate. They also asked the accompanying entourage to open the record book and find out the sowing days of these townships last month. Number.
After some comparison, it is easy to conclude that "when planting potatoes around the Yangtze River, the latest planting time in early winter cannot be later than November, otherwise there is a risk of freezing and rotting the tubers."
These empirical data were compiled by Shen Shuren into a manuscript he carried. The name of the manuscript was "Supplement to the Complete Book of Nongzheng", which was the remnant of the original version of "The Complete Book of Nongzheng" written by Xu Guangqi and Mr. Xu Ge.
Each of these records uses a certain amount of crop seed loss to test the critical point data, which is very valuable. It is worth recording and promoting in detail, so that others do not have to make mistakes through trial and error.
…
After washing his feet and checking the secretary's conclusion himself, Shen Shuren felt relieved and put on his barefoot sandals to prepare for dinner.
The person in charge of hosting him for lunch today is a village elder from Pinghu Township, a middle-aged man in his forties, surnamed Hu.
Last year, Lao Hu was forcibly recruited by Liu Xiyao. Hundreds of young people from his hometown were forcibly recruited into the army, and he was given the position of commander-in-chief of the military department.
After Shen Shuren recruited Liu Xiyao's defeated army this time, he rectified Shatai and sent these old people in their forties with declining physical strength back to the countryside to work in farming. Only those in their twenties and thirties with good health and moral discipline were left to continue to be incorporated. Officers and soldiers.
Those who are sent back to the countryside to work in agriculture cannot be managed completely like free citizens. After all, they have been thieves and have not made atonement for the country.
Therefore, these people had to be incorporated into farms directly under the government, similar to military camps in the garrison, and they were subject to stricter tax rates and corvee services. Basically, half of the food they grew had to be paid 50-50, and the government had to ask for any crops they planted. Have the final say.
Shenshu people gave them priority to give corn and potatoes to grow, and in the future they would spread them to ordinary people.
Lao Hu was originally a little resentful that hundreds of his fellow villagers were reduced to military camps and were severely exploited.
Fortunately, after Liu Xiyao's commotion, many local wealthy landowners in Huanggang were robbed and killed, and most of the land now belongs to the farmers, or is considered ownerless land.
Chen Shuren was very strong-minded and responsible. He took out the fish scale book of the state capital and conducted a population census.
It said that if any tenant farmers could prove that their previous landowners had been exterminated by bandits, they could come to the government to register and pay a little grain, and the government could re-recognize the ownerless land as owned by the tenant farmers.
As a result, although the government taxes are heavy, at least there are no middlemen like landlords to make the difference, and life can be lived.
Recently, seeing how hardworking Mr. Tongzhi is and personally traveling around the country to persuade farmers, these new squires have calmed down and begun to be completely convinced.
This old Hu had also attended some private schools and knew a few words. When serving food to Chen Shuren, he couldn't help but sigh:
"Your Excellency is so diligent in persuading farmers that he has lived forty or fifty years. I have never seen him live forty or fifty years. There have been many local officials in Huangzhou before. As long as there is one like you, the local people will not follow Liu Xiyao to cause chaos. Alas."
Several civil servants nearby could not help but follow in the praise:
"Yes, yes, I just saw you washing your feet after going to the fields. They were really flawless and hairless on their shins. Although Yu the Great worked hard to control the floods, he did not suffer from it. Now this kind of rice is used as food and pigweed soup is , adults can eat it with gusto, it can be said that it is Yao’s service and support, and it is worthy of this."
Chen Shuren heard that the flattery of these guys was becoming more and more out of tune, and something like Tang Yao and Dayu appeared, so he quickly signaled to stop and concentrated on finishing the corn porridge in the bowl.
In the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty, coarse grains such as corn porridge were not "the food of rice and the soup of quinoa".
After finishing the porridge and chatting for a while to understand the public sentiment, suddenly the sound of horse hoofbeats was heard outside. Shen Shuren and Zhang Huangyan immediately got up and went out to check.
The person who came was Shen Lian, an old servant of the Shen family. Shen Shuren immediately guessed that he might have something important to ask him, so he asked directly: "But there is an official document from the governor or the governor's office?"
Shen Lian stood up and dismounted, and hurriedly relayed: "There is a decree from the capital that has been sent directly to Huanggang. It should be for the promotion of the young master. The messenger who sent the master's home letter has also arrived together with the imperial envoy. Please return to the city quickly."
"Congratulations to Mr. Tongzhi on your promotion! This is truly a blessing to our army and people in Huangzhou!"
"I'm afraid that Master Tongzhi will be promoted too quickly. What will the people do if he leaves Huangzhou?"
The squires and petty officials congratulated him one after another, and some of them wanted to retain him sincerely.
Shen Shuren got on his horse coolly and said, "Don't worry, the court will probably not let me go. I will probably be promoted on the spot."
He quickly rode back to the county seat. Many officials had already arrived at the government office, accompanying the envoys who conveyed the imperial order.
Everyone admired Shen Shuren even more when they saw that he was so tired. This kind of official who could share the joys and sorrows with the people could also achieve great achievements and had many ideas for building the place. It was really hard for him to be promoted. Not an exaggeration.
Chen Shuren bowed respectfully to the imperial envoy, and after a lot of red tape, officially announced his promotion to the prefect of Huangzhou.
The original positions of Huangzhou Tongzhi and Tuanlian deputy envoy were automatically taken back after the handover. The magistrate was already responsible for guarding the territory, and the Tuanlian guard station in Huangzhou also needed to be converted into a regular military guard station, so the Tuanlian position no longer existed.
As a supporting package, there were several other promotions in the imperial decree, and Zuo Zixiong was officially promoted to Huangzhou Weidusi.
Zhang Huangyan was also promoted for his military merits and was given the post of general judge. Theoretically, he was in charge of taxation and agriculture and water conservancy. In fact, it was just to give him a rank from the sixth grade. The specific responsibility was entirely from Chenshu. You have the final say and you can adapt accordingly.
The rest of the middle-level officers also have promotion quotas, and Shen Shuren can report directly to Yang Sichang without going through the imperial court.
At the end of the ceremony, everyone gathered around Chen Shuren to celebrate: "Master Futai is really young and promising. He was able to rank in the fifth rank at the age of twenty-one. It is a great event for this dynasty!"
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