Today's doctor in the agriculture promotion department is called Yang Banggui.
He was ordered to arrange agricultural technicians to go to Nanpan Mansion to teach the indigenous people how to farm. After the matter was settled, Yang Banggui led another person to the Yingmin Hall to meet the emperor.
The Agricultural Affairs Bureau has an excellent tradition and always brings some local products to the emperor every time.
What I brought this time was a bunch of cassava, and it was cassava sent from Hainan Island.
Yang Banggui said happily: "Your Majesty, Honglu Temple has brought back many crops from overseas, and the Agriculture Department has been cultivating and testing them all for several years. This cassava is a good thing!"
Of course Zhao Han knew it was a good thing, he smiled and said: "Tell me about your cultivation results."
Yang Banggui elaborated: "Cassava is grown in several provinces in the north and south, but the growth is not good in the north and may even freeze to death in winter. Cassava grows well in all southern provinces, is drought-resistant, wind-resistant, and does not pick on the soil, but it is not easy to grow sweet potatoes.
In the mountainous areas, planting cassava has yielded a lot. Generally, it takes two years to harvest cassava, but the experimental field in Qiongzhou matured in less than a year, with an output of more than 18,000 kilograms of fresh potatoes per mu!"
"How much?" Zhao Han thought he heard wrongly.
"The yield per mu is more than 18,000 kilograms," Yang Banggui repeated, and continued, "And cassava is wind-resistant. When we encountered a typhoon this summer, all other crops in the experimental field were destroyed, but this cassava survived the typhoon!
"
Zhao Han repeatedly praised: "Good, good stuff!"
Before traveling through time, Zhao Han only knew that the yield per mu of cassava was very high, but he really didn't know it was so high, and he didn't know that cassava could shorten the growth cycle in Hainan Island.
Is it related to the tropical climate?
Zhao Han asked: "Take this cassava and plant it in Luzon and the southwest border. Especially in Nache County (Xishuangbanna) and Pingnan Military and Civilian Prefecture, we can experiment with planting. If it is successful, we will vigorously promote it."
go out!"
Yang Banggui said: "Your Majesty, this cassava is poisonous. I heard that it has killed many people in Africa. It must be soaked in water for six or seven days and then cooked before it can be eaten."
Zhao Han nodded and said: "This is just like the kidney beans promoted in previous years. They must be cooked before eating. People must be repeatedly warned when promoting seeds."
Kidney beans, also known as kidney beans and kidney beans, were introduced to the coast of China decades ago. Now, under the official promotion of the Datong court, they have gradually spread to all provinces across the country.
There are also snow beans, also known as green beans and vegetable peas, which are slightly different from traditional Chinese peas. After the Datong Army regained Tainan, snow beans were also brought back to the mainland and have been promoted in the southern provinces.
And the name is ridiculous. The Chinese call it "Snow Bean" and the Dutch call it "Chinese Bean". Its origin is actually in Thailand and Myanmar.
"How about trial planting of dates?" Zhao Han asked.
Yang Banggui replied: "Date palms cannot survive the winter in the north. Even if they are not frozen to death, they will be too frozen to produce dates. Even in the Yangtze River Basin, date palm planting conditions are not good. They can only be grown in Fujian, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guangdong.
, planted in Guangnan. There are also various islands in Taiwan, Luzon, Coconut City, Malacca and other places."
Zhao Han sighed: "I also plan to plant in the desert of Hetao, but it seems that it is too cold."
…
Winter Solstice Festival, the Great Court Meeting.
All civil and military officials wished the emperor a happy holiday, and the wives also entered the palace to congratulate the concubines.
After the court meeting dispersed, Zhao Han held a banquet in the palace and invited the civil and military ministers to try the cassava dumplings.
The ministers didn't care. On the two holidays of Winter Solstice and New Year's Day, the emperor would give dumplings to his ministers. This is a rule passed down from the Ming Dynasty.
After sitting at twenty or thirty tables, Zhao Han raised his chopsticks and said, "Come on, gentlemen, let's taste the difference in this year's flat food."
Fei Ruhe dipped it in vinegar and took a bite, but he didn't feel any difference. But he knew the emperor and knew that today's dumplings must be different.
Chen Xisong, who has been promoted to Zuo Shilang, certainly knows what this is, and the officials in the Department of Agriculture and Agriculture are all his old subordinates. But he cannot say it out for the time being. He needs the emperor to announce it, so as not to steal the emperor's limelight.
Halfway through eating the dumplings, the guards brought in two baskets of cassava.
All the ministers looked at it and guessed what kind of crop it was. Anyway, it must be edible.
Zhao Han finally said with a smile: "This product is called cassava. It is produced in America. It was introduced to Africa by the Portuguese and is now grown in our country. The dough of the flat food we eat today is mixed with cassava flour and two kilograms of wheat flour."
One pound of tapioca flour can be used to make dumplings."
Zhu Shunshui cupped his hands and said: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, we have obtained a new crop. All the people in the world will have enough food and clothing."
Zhao Han said with a smile: "This plant can be planted in the southern provinces. It is cold-resistant, wind-resistant, and can be planted in barren mountains and wild ridges without picking the land. It can also produce thousands of kilograms per mu in barren mountainous areas. If the soil is slightly fertile, the yield per mu can easily increase."
Thousands of catties. All southern provinces have a crop of one crop every two years, but Qiongzhou can have one crop a year. The experimental field in Qiongzhou even yields eighteen thousand catties per mu!"
The yield per mu is eighteen thousand catties?
The officials were in an uproar after hearing this. The yield of several kilograms of sweet potatoes per acre made them feel very outrageous.
Hundreds of years later, after cassava cultivation and the use of chemical fertilizers, the yield of 40,000 to 50,000 jins per mu was normal, and the 18,000 jins were really nothing.
"Auspicious!" everyone exclaimed.
Zhao Han laughed: "Let's eat the auspiciousness, move the chopsticks, move the chopsticks!"
Chen Xisong finally spoke: "Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guangnan provinces are all mountainous, and corn and sweet potatoes are often grown in the mountains. From now on, with cassava, the people in the mountains will no longer know that they are hungry.
!”
"Hahahaha!" Zhao Han laughed.
The officials also laughed, and the banquet was full of joy.
Like sweet potatoes, cassava will cause abdominal distension if you eat too much. If the skin of cassava is not processed properly, it will taste bitter when eaten. In the final analysis, it is still food for the poor.
But it is undeniable that these high-yield crops from the Americas will make China's population roll upward.
Qian Qianyi said: "The population of the country has probably already exceeded 100 million."
"Not just over 100 million, I'm afraid it's 120 million!" Zuo Xiaoliang said with a smile.
Ouyang Zheng said: "We'll know in two months!"
During the census every five years, each village will urge villagers to register for household registration immediately if they are not registered at the age of 12. Those who have died in the past two years must also report to the county. In the new era of Datong, there is no labor service fee, and there are no birth restrictions.
The common people do not object to this. It is often the village head who conducts statistics and submits the data to the town, who then takes it to the county government for reporting.
There are definitely some omissions, but the general data is fine.
Around the Winter Solstice Festival, provinces near Nanjing have already sent their census, along with taxes payable to the central government. As for provinces further away, they must be completed before the end of February next year.
As winter turns to spring, New Year's Day and Lantern Festival are very lively.
Officials from many provinces rushed to Beijing during the ten-day Lantern Festival holiday to escort account books and tax money to Beijing, and by the way, they could also watch the lanterns in Nanjing.
At the beginning of February, various statistics will be completed.
In the 17th year of the Republic of China, the country's annual income was 68.2 million taels of silver (including overseas territories). Much of this terrifying financial increase came from last year's customs inspections, huge fines and back taxes from a large number of foreign trade companies (which have not yet been completed).
The national population has also increased sharply from five years ago, reaching 123.64 million.
This data does not include children under the age of 12, does not include overseas territories, and does not include the newly occupied territory of the Ruan family. However, Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Qinghai, and northern Myanmar are included in the statistics. The statistics for these places are not accurate, but the data are definitely less.
many.
The population of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Sichuan provinces has exceeded 10 million.
In addition, Henan's population is growing rapidly, with the annual population growth rate approaching 3%.
The northern provinces are growing rapidly, but Hebei, Liaoning and other provinces have been receiving immigrants, and the population there does not belong to natural growth. The population of Hebei Province has reached nearly 2.5 million (excluding Beiping Prefecture), and there are many Jiangsu farmers.
Take the initiative to move north.
The land in the south has begun to be tense, but it is still within the tolerance range.
The Xungui family does not need to buy slaves to cultivate the land they have received. Farmers with a large family but little land are willing to rent Xungui's land.
There are also farmers who have too many sons. They leave the countryside after graduating from primary school and go to cities or towns to work as apprentices, providing sufficient labor for factory owners. In coastal areas, especially the four provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Guangxi, more and more
Many young people go to sea to make a living.
There are three modes for going to sea:
First, being a sailor and running a ship is very risky and the salary is high.
Second, big businessmen or overseas landowners recruit people to open up wasteland overseas. Luzon and Coconut City are being reclaimed wildly. When ten acres of cultivated land are opened up, the organizers are allocated four acres, and the remaining six acres are given to the people who open up the wasteland. At the same time, the people are also
The four acres of land will be farmed by the organizers.
Land reclamation is very troublesome. Organizers provide funds and force protection, while people work in groups to cut down trees, level the land, and plant. In the first one or two years, collective farming is done, which can improve the efficiency of land reclamation. After the land is cultivated, it is divided into fields.
They also concluded the rules of land reclamation, planting sugar cane in the first two or three years, and then switching to growing grain, which is the most profitable. This led to a significant increase in sugar cane production in Luzon and Coconut City, and the rapid development of the sugar industry.
After all, the large overseas landowners did not follow the path of European colonists.
Firstly, slaves are difficult to buy, and secondly, slaves are difficult to use. The output of slave plantations is far less than that of Han tenants.
The large landowners also raised their own money to build ponds and irrigation canals. Ordinary farmers and tenants had to pay water rent to the large landowners every year for irrigation.
Third, based on place of origin or clan, farmers raise funds to develop overseas. This method is very common in Taiwan, and there are many in Luzon and Yecheng. Often a village is from the same county. Or a village, although the place of origin is
Different, but all are Hakka.
It was probably the model used by the Qing Dynasty to develop Taiwan.
Historically, although the Manchu Qing Dynasty regained Taiwan, they only opened one port and were not allowed to bring their family members there.
This kind of ban is a dead letter, and people from Fujian and Guangdong provinces are heading to Taiwan frantically. However, overseas reclamation is difficult, and family members really cannot take them with them. Often there is not a single woman in sight in several villages, and they are all young and energetic young men.
They are all young and strong men, have no family members, and are surrounded by fellow villagers. What do you think will happen?
In Taiwan in another time and space, uprisings continued during the Qing Dynasty. And it was very nonsense. They all started very smoothly, beating the Manchu garrison into panic, and then the rebel army split internally. Zhangzhou people, Quanzhou people, Cantonese people, and Hakka people fought with each other.
, and were finally divided and suppressed by the army sent by the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
The name Chiayi County was the result of a fight between immigrants. Within the Heaven and Earth Society, a fight broke out over their place of origin. The local people sided with the court, and was eventually commended by the court and renamed "Chiayi".
All landowners and government officials are like scum in front of young immigrants without the ties of wives and children!
However, the officials sent to Taiwan by the Qing Dynasty often failed to change their minds. No matter how they tried to persuade them, they followed the mainland style and imposed excessive taxes and extortionate taxes in Taiwan. As soon as they imposed exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, they would explode. If they were too harsh, they would directly kill the officials and rebel!
There may be riots once every few years, and there may be major uprisings every 20 or 30 years.
Today's Datong New Dynasty has a strong sense of overseas expansion.
There are also more men than women, and they all stick together in the countryside. Even big landowners have to be polite to them. Young people who have nowhere to exert their power can easily cause trouble.
In the past two years, more and more young people have gone to sea to explore, and the overseas governors are both happy and troubled. The key is to find wives for them. As long as they have wives and children, these young men will be able to settle down. So the governors applied to the imperial court
, withholding part of the tax money to purchase young women from local chiefs.
The natives also fought among themselves, and now they fought more fiercely, robbing women and selling them to the Han governors.
Especially on the island of Java, there are several sultans at the same time. They have long been fooled. Once whoever wins, they will immediately launch troops and plunder. In addition to robbing property, they will also rob women. Transporting women to Coconut City can be exchanged for wealth.