Directly under the jurisdiction of Xian County and Huai Town, Hejian Prefecture.
In April, spring comes and flowers bloom.
In the fields, rapeseed flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and white butterflies are flying, creating a cheerful scene.
"Hai Xiu!"
The Governor-General of Zhili, Mr. Jia, dressed in a simple old farmer's attire, swept away a piece of it with a stick while his entourage was not looking. He was quite pleased with himself, thinking that his skills had improved and ordinary plants were no longer his opponent.
Not long after, he threw the stick in his hand into the rapeseed bushes, picked up the hoe, put on his hat, stepped into the field again, and carefully hoeed up the weeds in the field.
The labor scene was very touching, but when I saw Mr. Jia looking up from time to time to wipe his sweat with the coarse cloth hanging around his neck, from time to time he squatted down and carefully looked at the knee-high wheat, his expression was solemn and at the same time a little relieved.
Every move shows Mr. Jia's love for farmland and respect for farmers.
This is Master Jia’s fourth day in Huai Town.
In order to set an example for the entire province's military and civilians, Mr. Jia specifically made Huai Town his base town, working together with local farmers at sunrise and resting at sunset every day.
Here he wrote his first poem to encourage farmers, titled "Farming Is Good".
Poetry:
"The cuckoos are being plowed and the forest is singing, and the auspicious prime minister is working hard in the fields.
When a girl comes to the well, she leads a boy to hug her."
This poem was published in "Da Qing Daily" half a month ago. The editor's note said: The whole poem is not deliberately lyrical. It only narrates the farmhouse scene and brings the readers into a festive spring scene. It can be called a good poem and a good one.
poetry.
It's just that why the poem was obviously written yesterday, but it appeared in the daily newspaper half a month ago. It was mainly due to some fine-tuning made by Mr. Jia in order to cooperate with the large-scale farming activities in Zhili Province.
Flaws do not cover up strengths.
Since ancient times, all officials have attached great importance to agricultural production, and Mr. Jia is no exception.
During his trip, he emphasized many times that he should focus on both industry and agriculture, and neither hand should be weak. Regarding agricultural development issues, he issued instructions many times, and even said sternly to the accompanying officials: "Whoever works in farming will
I, the Manchurian, want to kill someone’s head!”
"Qing Daily" mentioned in an article to be published in June that when Mr. Jia first took office, during his personal visit to the people, he discovered a rice plant that "stands out from the crowd" and matured two months earlier than other rice plants.
Master Jia was very happy about this, and ordered people to collect the seeds of this rice, and began to continuously test the seeds to increase the scale, hoping to promote it throughout the province in the coming year.
Since this rice was discovered and cultivated by Mr. Jia himself, it was called Jia Dao.
"Jia Dao" plans to conduct a large-scale trial planting of 50,000 acres in Baoding Prefecture, Zhili Province next year. It is expected to have a bumper harvest, with an output of 900 pounds per mu. Related celebration activities are being secretly prepared by the Governor's Yamen, the Chief Government Yamen, and the Preservation Bureau.
, just wait for the results of the trial planting to start.
This report, which was to be published two months later, was personally reviewed by Mr. Jia, and many additions and revisions were made to the article, which shows that Mr. Jia’s emphasis on agriculture has gone too far.
"Easy to advise and visit those who are suffering from time to time. Anyone who hinders agriculture in the slightest will be removed!"
"Da Qing Daily" mentioned in several issues that the new governor-general attached great importance to agricultural production, and reported that when the governor-general visited Zhengding Prefecture, he piloted the "nine-grade agricultural officer" system.
That is to say, all prefectures, states, and counties are ordered to nominate a hard-working and simple farmer who has been cultivating the land for his whole life every year and is awarded a ninth-grade top Dai. In addition to being gathered at the Governor's Office in Baoding for commendation, he also enjoys the treatment and salary that a ninth-grade top Dai deserves.
Mr. Jia hoped that through this move, he could improve the treatment of agricultural experts, and at the same time summarize the lifelong experience of these agricultural officials in writing, and then widely advertise it to farmers through "Da Qing Daily" and related units, so as to improve the agricultural development of counties in Zhili Province.
Production can be taken to a new level.
In addition to issuing a series of relevant documents that emphasize agriculture, encourage farmers, and benefit farmers, Mr. Jia also pays special attention to the promotion of emerging crops.
Not long ago, Shandong Inspector Lu Yue published the book "Sweet Potato Record", which summarized the experience of sweet potato cultivation. As soon as it was published, it was discovered by Fan Wei, the prefect of Baoding, and it was immediately submitted to the Governor's Yamen.
Master Jia didn't even eat after seeing this book. He read the entire book in his hut. After that, he couldn't wait to order all provinces in Zhili to print and circulate copies. He also asked the Zhili Governor's Yamen and the Tianjin Governor's Yamen
, Rehe Dutong Yamen and other relevant units should organize dedicated personnel to promote sweet potatoes and select suitable land in various regions for large-scale trial planting.
For landowners who are trying to plant land, the governor's office can provide appropriate subsidies to increase farmers' enthusiasm for trial planting.
Mr. Jia made it clear that the sweet potatoes promoted on trial planting in various places were mainly used as livestock feed, rather than as rations for residents.
This request was recently put forward by Mr. Jia, a supporting project that will allow Zhili people to eat three meals of meat per month within three years.
This project is handled by the landlord of the Governor's Yamen.
To this end, a series of policies have been introduced, covering many aspects of agriculture and animal husbandry.
During the inspection of Daming Prefecture, Lu, the magistrate of Qingfeng County, made great contributions in promoting sweet potato cultivation. Lord Jia specially recommended him to the imperial court as the general magistrate of Daming Prefecture.
This incident was undoubtedly a bellwether, which made Zhili officials even more energetic in their instructions to promote sweet potatoes and develop the chicken, duck, pig, and sheep sideline business proposed by Mr. Jia, so that the people's faces would turn red and they would not want to eat vegetables.
Also during his inspection in Daming Mansion, Mr. Jia discovered that corn was grown in many places.
This product is commonly known as Baogu among the people. It was introduced to China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and is suitable for planting in mountainous areas.
Corn can not only be used for residents' rations, but also for livestock feeding. It can be planted beside miscellaneous fields and does not occupy the main grain fields. Therefore, Mr. Jia encouraged people to plant corn and even asked county officials across the province to plant corn on both sides of the road.
When planting corn, it is said that when it is not ripe, you can enjoy the scenery, but when it is ripe, your stomach will be full.
In order to implement the spirit of the Governor-General, the "Qing Daily" even called corn, sweet potato, soybean, peanut, cotton and mulberry as the emerging "six grains" and called on the people of the province to promote their cultivation.
During his stay in Huai Town, Mr. Jia even organized several on-site meetings with relevant units to address agricultural production issues, mainly focusing on the repair of water conservancy facilities.
During the meeting, Mr. Jia proposed that the left-second officers and the third-class and sixth-fangfang officials in each county should spend one month every year to work in each village on a household basis.
First, to change the past bureaucratic thinking and allow people to have close contact;
Secondly, it helps people who lack labor at home to harvest and plant seeds.
In order to allow his subordinates to better implement his demands, Jia Liu specially selected Widow Zhang's house in Huai Town as his base unit.
So far, he has personally helped Widow Zhang remove weeds from her five-cent plot, repaired the yard for Widow Zhang, and even used his own salary to dig a well and build a toilet for the Zhang family, allowing Widow Zhang to live with her family.
Several children bid farewell to the bad habit of open-air convenience.
"It's noon on the day of hoeing, and the sweat is dripping from the hoeing."
The sun was already high and the temperature rose sharply. Jia Liu felt that he was sweating all over, so he put down his hoe at the right time and said to the newspaper editors squatting beside the fields: "Have you all written it?"
"It's all written!"
More than a dozen newspaper editors who had been accompanying him, the rumor-mongers originally recruited by Shuan Zhu, including but not limited to authors of novels, storytelling, etc., quickly stood up and stepped forward to hand their manuscripts to the Governor for reading.