Winter turns to spring, and the four years of Guanghe have passed like this. The spring of the fifth year of Guanghe has arrived, and there are still two years left before the sixty-year Jiazi year.
But Zhang Chong knows that if we follow the actual time of the Taiping Dao Uprising in history, there will only be one year left. Therefore, Zhang Chong’s five-year plan for Guanghe is to produce large-scale production. Zhang Chong wants to return to his own business and cultivate hard.
The land is gone. If we don't stock up on food now, we'll have to trade our lives for food when the swordsmen and soldiers come from behind.
So as soon as spring began, Zhang Chong began to preside over the surrounding mountain gatherings and spring plowing on the dock walls. On the other hand, Zhang Chong also used the relationship between Hu's mother's class and asked Hu's mother's family to buy millet for him. Zhang Chong wanted to use the gold in the treasury to buy millet for him.
All the silver and copper coins were exchanged for millet and stored up. As for the cloth, they continued to be kept. Later, they would make summer clothes for the troops.
Hu Mu Ban has already gone back. After sending 30,000 stones of millet, Zhang Chong sent Hu Mu Ban out. But I don’t know what Hu Mu Ban was thinking. When Zhang Chong wanted to find a way to buy millet in Xuzhou, then
Hu's mother actually volunteered and said that her family could do the work for her.
In this way, Zhang Chong gave Hu Muban 300,000 yuan and asked him to go to Xuzhou in the south to buy millet. Then Hu Muban relied on his social circle of celebrities to transport three grains of millet for him at the price of one stone of millet and eighty yuan.
Qianshisu. The first cooperation was very successful. Zhang Chong increased the cooperation this time, asking for three million yuan, a hundred catties of gold, and asked Hu Muban to continue to buy Suliang rice and Shumai on the Xuzhou market. In short, there are
Which ones to buy.
Why has Hu Mu Ban changed so much? Cai Yong, who was at his house at the time, once asked this question. What did Hu Mu Ban say?
"Although I am a minister of the Han Dynasty and cannot help the thieves, I still have to help Zhang Chong in order to plan the prosperity and decline of the family."
Cai Yong choked and thought to himself, it's your mother Hu who understands politics.
At the same time, because Zhang Chong was quick to give money, needed enough goods, and most importantly, the profit was large enough, many powerful people in Taishan County were attracted by Hu Muban, and they worked together to raise surplus grain on the market for Zhang Chong.
You want to say that those powerful people do not doubt their motives for buying grain. How is that possible? But there is a comparison. As long as you make enough profit and let them earn enough, even if you let them sell the hemp rope that binds them, they will be willing to sell it.
In this way, Zhang Chong, as a buyer, and Taishan powerful people as buyers, began to buy grain in several major markets in Yanzhou and Xuzhou. Even the Mi family of Donghai joined them and became Zhang Chong's big buyers.
Throughout last winter, Zhang Chong spent all the gold and silver in his treasury in exchange for 400,000 shi of millet, millet, and wheat grains of various colors. These were Zhang Chong's biggest gains this winter.
In the spring of the fifth year of Guanghe's reign, Zhang Chong began to organize large-scale production. There were mainly two areas. One was the valleys between Mount Tai and Lu, where there was irrigation by streams and the land was fertile. There were also Shanliao farming here.
But because they could not resist the plundering of the bandits, they were gradually abandoned.
Now Zhang Chong has almost conquered and annihilated the bandits in Mount Tai and Lu, and his power has extended to Yimeng Mountain, establishing a preliminary order. At this moment, these mountain lairs, under the leadership of Zhang Chong's officials, began to reorganize these gangs.
Valley.
Moreover, Zhang Chong also selected those who were good at farming from the powerful disciples who were originally living in the surrounding villages, and commissioned them to be transported to the surrounding valleys of Mount Tai as agricultural officials to guide the villagers in farming.
Don't think that the mountain lairs don't know how to farm. If they didn't, they would have starved to death. But their farming skills are indeed not as good as those of the powerful disciples.
Because the latter's farming is more large-scale and professional, and they can grasp the various seasons more accurately, because this is what they eat, and the powerful don't raise people who can't farm.
Now these disciples who are good at farming have become Zhang Chong's starting point for promoting advanced farming. For example, if someone like Jin Bing who knows how to farm only cultivates his own land well, it would be a waste. He must be able to teach ten people, one person and one person.
If a hundred mountain villages are planted with good land, the effect will be more than a hundred times greater.
Then the other land to be cultivated is the land in Wenyang that was discussed with Hu Muban before. That land is indeed as Cai Yong mentioned. The land near the Wen River has been divided up by the surrounding powerful people, and only a little
The surrounding land is still wild. But what Zhang Chong wants is this white land, and some of his attempts at farming will be conducted here.
He wants to try to establish collective farms here and use the three-field system to increase production capacity.
Zhang Chong did not intend to end the distribution of farmland to each household. For small farmers, it is too difficult to cultivate a large area of land. There is a lack of cattle, a lack of plows, and a lack of manpower. This is why small farmers often cannot harvest even after a year of hard work.
How many reasons.
So Zhang Chong wanted to implement a mutual-aid farm, with his Shi Jiajun taking the lead, providing the farm with production tools such as oxen and plows, and uniformly plowing the land for each household, and then every year the farmers would hand over 20% of their harvest as tax. This sounds like something more than
The Han family's 15-year tax is much higher, but it actually eliminates the need for exploitation by the powerful middlemen. In fact, farmers have to pay much less than in the past. Of course, Zhang Chong will not know until Zhang Chong implements the specific method.
Then there is the implementation of the three-field cropping system. This land rotation system was probably implemented in Western Europe during the Middle Ages and was of great help to agricultural output. In theory, it found a balance between fallow and continuous farming.
Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, because iron farm tools were not popular, the soil was shallowly plowed, and only the thin upper layer of land could be used. In that case, agricultural production basically required fallowing, that is, after two years of planting, the land would be left fallow for one year to cultivate.
land.
Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, iron farm tools have become popular and can plow deeper. At this time, continuous planting is basically done on the same piece of land without interruption. For example, Zhang Chong’s grandfather secretly learned the ridge method from Zhang Hong’s family.
A kind of continuous planting, although it seems that two pieces of ridge soil and furrow are used for crop rotation, in fact, the consumption of land fertility is continuous.
Therefore, the ridge method can only rotate low-yielding crops such as grass and beetroot, which means it will not damage the land as much as possible.
The three-bed system divides the land into three pieces, one for spring sowing of barley, one for autumn sowing of wheat, and one for fallow. The land will then be rotated in sequence the next year, so that the utilization rate of the land can reach two-thirds, and two areas can be cultivated and cultivated.
Correct.
Of course, all this needs to be confirmed through experiments in Wenyang.
Zhang Chong does not think that he naturally grasps the truth just because he is a later generation. He thinks that the agricultural technology he promotes is advanced. Agricultural innovation is no better than others, and he must take every step steadily.
If the farmers work hard for a year according to your instructions and then harvest nothing, the trust established by Zhang Chong will collapse instantly, and more importantly, the farmers will have no food to eat this year. This is
Really dangerous.
Therefore, even if Zhang Chong has successful experience in later generations, he will plant a test field in Wenyang and let people practice this technology from scratch. After all, the gap between the two is too deep, from knowing to doing it.
Today is the day when Zhang Chong and everyone are enclosing land in Wenyang to determine the farming area.
At this moment, Zhang Chong, who was also wearing calf-nose trousers, was leading Jin Bing and a group of old farmers to look at the condition of the land.
Jin Bing squatted on the ground and grabbed a handful of dirt, then smelled it and praised:
"Hey, this land is not nice."
Zhang Chong nodded, this land must not be bad, you must know that this piece of Wenyang has been soaked with the corpses of countless Qilu people in history.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi and Lu fought for hegemony, and the two countries used Mount Tai as their boundary. Every time Qi had a big battle, they would leave Wenyang. Therefore, this land can be said to be quite fertile.
But it's a pity...
Jin Bing said regretfully:
"This land is nice and neat. But the disadvantage is that it is too far away from Wenshui River. We cannot grow wheat or rice. We can only grow millet, which requires water."
Jin Bing didn't know why Zhang Chong chose this field for farming. It was obviously not cost-effective.
But Zhang Chong had his own way. He wanted to dig a deep ditch here, and then divert the Wen River here, so that higher-yield wheat could be grown on this land.
As for how to lead?
It's not as exaggerated as digging a canal, which is too labor-intensive. Instead, he wants to build a water tanker to divert Wenshui water.
The principle of a waterwheel is actually to use a human-powered water diversion device to introduce water into ditches for irrigation by pedaling or hand-cranking.
Zhang Chong spent the whole winter making this with the craftsmen in the baggage camp. It has already been made over there. Just wait for Zhang Chong to confirm the farming area and dig ditches before erecting the waterwheel.
Zhang Chong estimated that this land is still quite far away from Wenshui River. If the manpower to tread water is not enough, he will probably have to use oxen.
Last year, he fought with the Dongpingling soldiers and captured hundreds of cattle. In addition to the ones distributed to various farms, there was still a batch left that could be used as the power of the waterwheel.
After that, Zhang Chong began to use lime to divide the farming area. This land can roughly be divided into 200 hectares. If the two harvests go well, about 120,000 shi of grain can be harvested, which should not be underestimated. If using traditional methods,
If you plant continuously, you may only get half of them.
But these are still Zhang Chong's expectations, and everything depends on the actual output of the land in the end. If Zhang Chong can successfully verify this method, he will not only train a group of field officials, but also establish a deeper reputation in Mount Tai.
prestige.
To the majority of people in Guizhou, a person who can double the output of the land is a saint.
And now our Zhang Shengren is wearing calf-nosed trousers and digging ditches with everyone. Regarding ditch construction, Zhang Chong consulted many people who had dug ditches for Chaotian Zhengfa. He wanted to ask how to build this ditch network more scientifically.
.
But after asking a lot, no one could give a clear answer. They all said that after the government plotted a piece of land, they just dug it and used their strength.
With no choice, Zhang Chong could only use the coordination method he learned in his previous life to start dividing ditches.
He divided the two hundred hectares of land into forty farming areas, and then allocated two oxen to each farming area, and the oxen were responsible for plowing the five hectares of land.
Oxen plowing technology has already appeared in this world, and it is quite developed. It is a two-oxen coupling plow, that is, a heavy plow pulled by two oxen. But to be honest, this technology is only used in a small area. On the one hand, the oxen
It is already scarce, but on the other hand, this kind of technology is in the hands of powerful people, so it is very precious.
This oxen plowing technique requires three people, one person leads the oxen, one person holds the plow shaft to adjust the depth of the plowed land, and one person holds the plow. The furrows plowed by this heavy plow are deep and wide, and can remove weeds in the field.
The deep roots should be plowed short so that they will not compete with the wheat seeds for nutrients.
And such a heavy plow, pulled by two oxen, can plow five hectares of land in one plowing period, which is twenty times faster than a human.
Therefore, Zhang Chong has nothing to improve on cattle farming and is very mature.
However, one thing is that the Han plow is long and straight. This has a disadvantage, that is, when the plow reaches the end and changes the ditch, the turning is not flexible enough, it takes effort to lift the soil, and the efficiency is not very high. So Zhang Chong made a careful improvement.
, which is to change the long straight one into a long curved one, which is the same principle as the tractor head of later generations, which is convenient and labor-saving.
After Zhang Chong drew a network of ditches, he and the others continued digging, and then they ate millet and rice together on the ground. In the afternoon, he had to go to another place, where there was another important matter waiting for him.