Gu Heng then said to Liu Fang: "Afang, you are going to Shandong to establish the "Daotian" business point, but this time at the business point in Shandong, you need to prepare more taro, mung beans, peas and other things that locusts won't eat for land reclamation and planting.

Crops are used as food preparation rations during locust plagues, which can help Shandong people reduce the possibility of starvation when encountering locust plagues."

"In addition, places where locusts breed are generally "dry marsh" areas, which must be transformed into farmland, and the eggs must be killed through various methods during the reclamation process."

When Gu Heng said this, Gu Yanwu couldn't help but said: "Hengbo, how do you know so much?"

"First of all, when I asked the "Daotian" Medical Center to come to the north to treat plague patients, they discovered the problem of locust plague. I asked the people from the "Daotian" Medical Center to observe how the government and the people faced the locust plague when it occurred.

Record down all the good methods they have to deal with the locust plague."

"Secondly, I read a lot of books to look for solutions to the locust plague, and I found several methods. For example, this method of planting taro, mung beans, peas and other crops and killing insect eggs is what I learned from Master Xu Guangqi.

I saw it in "The Encyclopedia of Agricultural Affairs." Gu Heng replied.

"I see, it's just a pity that Xu Guangqi, my dynasty, is no longer alive, otherwise he would have made more contributions to the revitalization of the Ming Dynasty!" Gu Yanwu said with emotion.

"It's okay, as long as those of us who come after us pay attention to his "Agricultural Policy Complete Book", we can still revitalize the Ming Dynasty!" Gu Heng said.

"Hengbo, you are right, we can pay attention to his books and find ways to revitalize the Ming Dynasty from his books." Gu Yanwu's eyes lit up and he said excitedly.

Seeing that Gu Yanwu was confident again, Gu Heng stopped talking about this matter and continued to ask Liu Fang: "Afang, in places where there are frequent locust plagues, the "Daotian" business point needs to be transported from other places.

There are a lot of chickens and ducks, as well as a lot of oil, salt, garlic, etc.”

Hearing this, Liu Fang frowned her beautiful eyebrows and said: "Mei'er, why are you raising chickens and ducks in Shandong? Raising chickens and ducks is very dirty! You have to do business in a business place!"

"Both chickens and ducks can eat locusts. When the locust plague comes, they can both help. As for the business point, you can build a chicken and duck breeding place farther away from the business point, and then let the local people take the chicken seedlings.

Take the chickens and ducks home and raise them free-range. When the chickens and ducks grow up, local people can exchange the chickens and ducks for money, and our business outlets will purchase these chickens and ducks."

As soon as Gu Heng finished speaking, Liu Fang immediately asked: "Why do we need so many chickens and ducks?"

"We can make delicious food locally, or we can transport it to other places to make a lot of delicious food. In this way, we will not only avoid losing money, but also make money!" Gu Heng replied.

"This is a good method, but if we can shorten the distance, we can save transportation costs even more!" Liu Fang said.

"We can use the sea route to transport to the coastal areas. If you can use the water route in other areas, try to use the water route. The land route will gradually shorten the distance in the future!" Gu Heng replied.

"What are the oil, salt, garlic, etc. used for?" Gu Yanwu couldn't help but express his doubts.

"Use it to make delicious fried locusts, and then sell them to rich people in areas where there are no locusts nearby. They will like to eat them very much!" Gu Heng explained.

Liu Fang also added: "Mei'er is right, many rich people in the north can still accept fried locusts!"

Seeing that the matter was almost settled, Gu Heng stopped talking about it and continued to ask Liu Fang: "Afang, how is the situation in Shanxi?"

"Because Shanxi is mountainous and the land is barren, the annual grain output is not much, and it is mainly corn. However, Shanxi is rich in grapes. In addition, Shanxi people use the small openings in the "fire wells" to suffice for daily cooking.

Also in Shanxi, the use of coal has become very common. Not only are coal lumps large, they are also easy to burn and have long-lasting firepower.

"Firstly, the grapes can be used to make wine, which will be popular! Secondly, the coal can also be transported to other places in autumn and winter, even to other countries at sea, and a lot of money will be made!" Gu Heng said in Liu Fang's mind

After introducing the situation, he suggested.

The reason why Gu Heng said this was because Gu Heng suddenly thought that the coal in Europe was not as good as the coal in Shanxi at this time.

"Wine is a good wine. As long as we make our own wine, it's good as long as it tastes good. In addition, if we transport the coal overseas to sell it, it will probably cost a lot of money," Liu Fang analyzed.

After Gu Yanwu listened carefully for a period of time, he also said: "As the capital of our Ming Dynasty, Beijing is not as grand as Nanjing, and the area is not as big as Nanjing, but it has a large population, and there are mostly officials and soldiers."

"In addition, Beijing does not ride in sedan chairs like those in the south, because our Ming Dynasty has regulations that only officials of third rank and above are eligible to ride in sedan chairs in the capital, and the rest of the officials can only ride horses. Therefore, most court officials in the north have to ride horses."

"It's just that many civil servants are not good at riding, and they must have followers on both sides to prevent them from falling off their horses. But it is very cold in Beijing in winter, and those officials who ride horses need warm hand stoves and good charcoal or briquettes. Also

Every official's house in Beijing usually has a heated kang, and a heated kang also requires a large amount of coal or carbon."

"So, I think we can not only transport coal to overseas and other provinces, but also transport it in large quantities to Beijing. In addition, some northern provinces have a lot of trees, and we can also burn a lot of good smokeless charcoal and general charcoal

come over."

After hearing this, Gu Heng knew that Gu Yanwu was right. According to what Gu Heng had read in historical materials, the weather in Beijing was indeed cold, much colder than in Europe at the same latitude.

But in the Ming Dynasty, unlike modern times where you can use air conditioners or electric stoves for heating, you can only rely on charcoal for heating. In the Ming Dynasty, Beijing had a population of millions, and heating in winter became the biggest concern for the people, so fuel

That's a big problem.

Gu Hengzheng thought this, and Liu Fang spoke up and said: "Brother Gu's idea is good. As the saying goes: "The seven things you need to open a door are firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea," and the word "firewood" comes first. Without it, nothing can be mentioned.

"

"As far as I know, the annual charcoal consumption of the imperial palace in Beijing alone has reached 20 million kilograms, not to mention the former emperor Jiajing who cultivated immortality. With his decades of alchemy work, he spent dozens of dollars just burning wood every year.

Ten thousand taels of silver, not to mention the huge low-level heating system of the Forbidden City, the cost is astronomical."

"So in order to ensure the cost of charcoal for the palace, the officials chose the area with more trees in the north of the Taihang Mountains to open a "mountain factory". They sent people to burn wood to get charcoal. At the beginning, they only opened a "mountain factory" in Yizhou, Hebei.

But during the Zhengde period, all the nearby trees were cut down, so many mountain factories were opened."
Chapter completed!