Across the Yellow River to Luoyang, this is an important trade hub in the north.
Most of the goods shipped from Hetao, Qinghai, and the Western Regions pass through Tongguan and arrive in Luoyang, and then are trafficked further south.
Luoyang's population increased rapidly and its commerce was extremely developed. What appeared in front of Li Zicheng was an extremely wealthy city. Although it was certainly not as good as the early years of Chongzhen, it could surpass the last years of Chongzhen by eight streets. It was only a matter of time before the Ming Dynasty was restored and surpassed.
question.
Travel all the way east to Kaifeng, where it becomes even more prosperous.
Because there are not only business travelers from Luoyang in Kaifeng, but also some from Shanxi. Li Zicheng, who has been squatting in Hetao for several years, was almost dazzled when he first came to Kaifeng.
"It's such a good life like this." Li Zicheng couldn't wait to go to Nanjing. He heard Zhang Yunyi say that Nanjing is a hundred times richer than Kaifeng.
Zhang Yunyi said proudly: "Don't just look at the city, the countryside is really prosperous. Since the founding of the new Datong Dynasty, we have dredged and dug more than 10,000 canals in Henan. In the northwest of Henan, as well as Shanxi and Shaanxi,
Not only are we building canals, but we are also digging irrigation wells. Even if there is another severe drought, we will not be as helpless as before."
The method of well irrigation began in the Ming Dynasty and was mainly popular in several northern provinces.
In view of the severe drought during the Little Ice Age, well irrigation became more popular in the Qing Dynasty. In Shaanxi Province alone, by the Qianlong period, there were 130,000 wells specially used for irrigation. Later, Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, encountered a severe drought.
While providing disaster relief, Zongtang encouraged well drilling and dug tens of thousands of irrigation wells in one go.
As for the Datong court, since the last severe drought in Shanxi and Shaanxi, officials from both provinces have been frantically digging wells.
The town mayor and village chief took the lead in organizing, and farmers helped each other dig. More than 80,000 new irrigation wells were dug in Shaanxi, more than 60,000 new irrigation wells were dug in Shanxi, and more than 10,000 new irrigation wells were dug in the northwest of Henan. Even if there is another severe drought in the future
, you will not be as desperate as before, and your ability to fight against natural disasters has been greatly improved.
When Li Zicheng came to the countryside of Henan, it was indeed richer than the countryside of Shaanxi.
In his mind, all the blocked irrigation canals have been dredged, and many more have been dug. The farmers who had just had a bumper harvest happily went to the government to pay taxes, and herds of livestock could be seen in the countryside from time to time. When he was wreaking havoc in Henan, he destroyed all the livestock.
It’s all gone. Where can you see such a scene?
Like Shaanxi, the people in Henan speak with accents from southern provinces, and many of them immigrated in the past ten years.
After looking at it, Li Zicheng didn't want to look at it anymore. He felt that there was no point in spending half his life.
But Niu Jinxing bought the latest edition of "Datong Collection". Based on the content in the book and comparing it with what he saw in the countryside, he suddenly had a deeper understanding of "Datong Collection".
I took a boat ride and passed by Xuzhou.
Li Zicheng pointed to the black smoke rising from the suburbs: "What is that burning?"
Zhang Yunyi said: "Steam factories are common in the south but rare in the north. Xuzhou produces coal and is close to the cotton production area of Shandong, so there are more and more steam factories. By the way, His Majesty has ordered that the chimneys of factories must be at least five feet tall.
(More than 16 meters) high to prevent the black smoke from harming the people. If any factory dares to disobey, the chimneys will be demolished and work will be stopped immediately."
"Can we go see it?" Li Zicheng asked.
"Of course." Zhang Yunyi smiled.
Visiting the interior of the factory, Li Zicheng found that there were many female workers here, while the boiler workers and porters were all men.
The rolled cotton sliver was moved by the machine, twisting and winding in one go, and turned into cotton yarn in minutes. Li Zicheng, Niu Jinxing and others were stunned to see it.
Zhang Yunyi said with a smile: "This kind of steam engine has many functions. In the past, when the imperial court made silver coins, it had to be rolled with water. The resulting silver coins were often bent and deformed, requiring workers to hammer them flat. After switching to a steam engine, not only the speed
It has been improved exponentially, and it is stamped and minted, so there will be no more bent silver coins."
Get back on the boat and continue south.
Li Zicheng found Niu Jinxing and said without vomiting: "Is that Emperor Zhao of Nanjing really the reincarnation of a god? Such a machine can be built. If cotton yarn can be spun so fast, how can people in the world worry about not having enough clothes to wear?"
"Yes, it's really the reincarnation of a god." Niu Jinxing was also shocked.
Both of them could only see the benefits of the steam engine, and could not consider the damage to the small farmer economy.
By the time the two of them passed by Yangzhou, a city second only to Nanjing, they had become a little numb. After entering the city, they stared blankly at everything in front of them.
More than twenty Mongolian youths, not far from them, were also looking at the streets of Yangzhou in trance. These were the eldest sons of the Mongolian leaders, who were going to Nanjing to study at university, and they were also equivalent to hostages.
During the rest of the journey, Li Zicheng and Niu Jinxing stopped talking. They really didn't know what else to say.
The young people accompanying them were even more excited. Their fathers were both Dashun generals. They spent most of their childhood in Shanshan and Shanxi, and lived in Hetao during their teenage years. The further south they went, the more their outlook on life was refreshed. At the same time, they also
I am looking forward to my future more and more, dreaming of graduating from the military academy and becoming an officer, then being promoted to a general through meritorious service, and returning to the big cities in the south to enjoy life when I grow old.
…
Nanjing, Forbidden City.
Chen Xisong from the Agriculture Department brought a young man to see the emperor.
The young man's name is Xu Jin, who is not yet thirty years old. He is the director of the Jiangnan Office of the Agricultural Adviser.
Xu Jin seemed not to be good at words. After meeting the emperor, he remained silent and only handed over an experimental report.
Agricultural researchers from the Jiangnan Institute of the Department of Agriculture have been observing and summarizing in Jiangnan for ten years and finally produced this summary report.
There are no empty words. The whole article uses data to speak and summarizes the effectiveness of cotton and rice rotation in preventing and controlling pests and diseases.
The method of cotton and rice rotation had already appeared in Jiangnan in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
Although they did not understand the principle, farmers still found that it was most suitable to plant cotton in two years and rice in one year.
To use the original words of "The Complete Book of Agricultural Affairs", it is: If you look up to the fields and have cotton or rice, if you plant cotton for two years and plow rice for one year, the grass roots will fester, the soil will become rich, and insects and borers will not grow, no more than three years.
When the year passes, insects will appear.
Translated into vernacular: two years of cotton and one year of rice can accumulate soil fertility and prevent pests and diseases.
However, with the famine in the south of the Yangtze River in the late Ming Dynasty and the development of prevention and control technology, this rice crop rotation has gone out of control. After the famine, many people switched to rice. And textile merchants frantically tempted farmers to keep growing cotton.
There are also some states and counties that are not aware of the benefits of cotton-rice rotation.
I have to admit that ancient Chinese agricultural technology was really advanced. Even hundreds of years later, agricultural experts used scientific methods to experiment and found out after a long time that the ancient "two cotton and one rice" was still the best (without the use of pesticides)
.
Let’s look at a set of modern scientific test data:
In the first year of cotton planting, the incidence rate of Verticillium wilt is 1.3%-3.8%.
In the second year of cotton planting, the incidence rate of Verticillium wilt was 3.9%.
In the third year of cotton planting, the incidence of verticillium wilt increased to 38.8%-70.1%.
If cotton is not planted in the third year and rice is planted for one year, the incidence of verticillium wilt will drop back when cotton is continued.
Not only Verticillium wilt, but also other diseases and insect pests can be controlled by cotton-rice rotation.
The scientific explanation is: Cotton-rice rotation is a kind of flood-drought rotation, which effectively inhibits the breeding and reproduction of insects and pathogens by changing the natural environment. At the same time, it can also regulate the soil and maintain soil fertility.
Xu Jin held up his hands and said: "Your Majesty, these data are the results of long-term observations and summaries in more than ten states and counties in Jiangnan in the past ten years. There is absolutely no error. Today, the cotton planting in Jiangnan has been greatly improved due to the development of textile machines.
The method has become increasingly confusing. Many people do not believe in evil and continue to plant cotton after two years in order to make more money. This is completely trying their luck. There are also some states and counties that blindly convert farmland into cotton fields, which is basically a waste of money.
I didn’t know there was a cotton-rice rotation method. And…”
"If there is anything else, just say it." Zhao Han said.
Xu Jin lowered his head and said: "The imperial court imposed heavy taxes on cotton fields, which also disrupted the cotton-rice planting rotation."
Well, this is purely an accident. Who told the high officials in the DPRK not to know how to grow cotton?
Instead of being angry, Zhao Han admired this person even more and asked: "Which school did you graduate from?"
Xu Jin replied: "Your Majesty, I did not study in school. I used to go to a private school and later studied primary school and middle school courses by myself. When your Majesty regained Jiangnan, I also followed the county sergeant in the uprising and did not go to the county to serve as an official.
He was not a member of the Communist Party of China, but chose to join the Agricultural Encouragement Office at that time."
Zhao Han said: "You will immediately resign from your post as director of the Jiangnan Office of the Department of Agriculture. You will be promoted to Yuanwai Lang of the Department of Agriculture. You will first go to Jiangnan as the agriculture envoy. I will let the Ministry of Household Affairs and the local government cooperate. From now on, whether it is Shandong or Jiangnan,
Cotton fields must abide by the cotton-rice rotation method. In addition, in order to regulate grain production, it must be strictly restricted to each town. In the farmland of a town, the cotton-rice rotation time must be staggered. Everyone cannot grow cotton in the past two years.
Then they planted rice together in the third year, resulting in severe food shortages in the first two years, but in the third year the grain prices were low and the farmers were hurt."
This involves government intervention, which requires people who are proficient in mathematics to rationally arrange the cotton and rice planting area in each town.
As long as the arrangements are made in the first few years, there is no need to interfere in the future. Farmers can just plant them by themselves according to the rule of "two cotton and one rice".
In this way, we can not only ensure the red line of grain production in cotton-producing areas, but also scientifically increase cotton output and achieve a double harvest of cotton and rice.
In addition, the heavy taxes on cotton fields can also be slightly reduced, so as not to interfere with the regular rotation of cotton and rice.
Everything must be scientific, not only the development of industry, but also the development of agriculture.
Zhao Han continued to say to Xu Jin: "Please polish this report. I will ask the Ministry of Rites to print it into a book, print thousands of copies, and ask the Ministry of Personnel to send people to distribute it. Officials at all levels in the cotton-producing areas must be familiar with it."
read."
"According to the order!"
Xu Jin was overjoyed. After ten years of hard work, he finally bore fruit. Not only did he get promoted, but he also benefited thousands of people.
Zhao Han asked Chen Xisong again: "You have been studying farming for more than ten years, and you have been promoted to the Department of Agriculture. It is time to be promoted to a political officer. I will promote you to the right minister of the Ministry of Husbandry. After you return, you will report to the Ministry of Personnel.
Bar."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Chen Xisong also became happy.
The two bowed and left, and Zhao Han said, "Let Li Zicheng come in. I also want to see what he looks like."