Zhao Yingong said with a smile: "If you have this intention, sir, students can help."
Sun Yuanhua twisted his beard and remained silent. Zhao Yingong mentioned "farming" just now, and he already vaguely understood what the other party meant. It is true that the land price for farming in Dengzhou is indeed very cheap, but there are many things to deal with and a lot of investment is needed to handle land reclamation.
The person in charge must be able to endure hardships and be shrewd and capable enough. It is not an easy thing to make a fortune. This person gave up Hangzhou and the good life in Guangdong and came here to start reclamation. What is his intention?
Zhao Yingong's purpose couldn't help but make him suspicious.
If Zhao Yingong hadn't been highly recommended by the Hangzhou Church and the Jesuits, he would have made false promises and served tea to see the guests away. But since this person was recommended by the Jesuits and trusted by the Hangzhou Church, it means that this person
It is "reliable" - especially the attitude of the Jesuits. Although the Jesuits are "not of my kind", they at least have nothing to do with the terrible factional strife within the imperial court. What Sun Yuanhua is most afraid of: they are neither overseas aliens nor the Tatars of the Later Jin Dynasty.
Son, it’s the princes who are in charge of the court and the palace.
He asked tentatively: "There is no fertile wilderness in the Denglaiqing area, and the land is very saline. I wonder if you have any tips for clearing up wasteland?"
Zhao Yingong knew that his settlement proposal was a bit abrupt - things without benefits will always arouse suspicion. He was prepared for this and immediately ordered Jiying to deliver a box.
Sun Yuanhua opened the box. Inside was a handful of crop seeds, some dried stems and a gray dried vegetable. Sun Yuanhua had some research on agronomy. He immediately recognized that the crop seeds were common reed millet in the south of the Yangtze River. On the riverside
, villages by the sea occasionally grow sorghum, which is actually a type of sorghum.
Sorghum is a common crop in the north, and Sun Yuanhua is no stranger to it. Although reed millet has many advantages in being independent of land and climate, and is very adaptable to the barren land of Dongsan Prefecture, the best yield per mu is only 300
It only weighs a kilogram. Compared with the millet and soybeans commonly grown here, it has no advantages. Moreover, it is eaten rough and is not popular as a food crop.
"This is reed and sorghum." Sun Yuanhua didn't take it seriously, "What's the beauty of it?"
Zhao Yingong thought that Lao Sun was worthy of being the disciple and son-in-law of an agriculturist. He actually recognized it as reed millet, and he was indeed not an indiscriminate person. He said: "Since you know this is reed millet, you always know the wonders of the stalks of reed millet."
Where?"
"When the crops are young, the straw is very sweet, and children in the countryside often think of it as candy."
"Yes, this straw has a sweet taste and can be boiled into sugar to make wine..."
"Boil sugar to make wine?" Sun Yuanhua was surprised. Wine can be made from grains or fruits. I have never heard that wine can be made from straw - what would it taste like? As for using straw to boil sugar, it is even more incredible. Sun Yuanhua knew
Millet, sorghum and other grains can be used to boil "glucose" - which is actually maltose. Straw is used as feed for cattle, sheep and horses, and is used as fertilizer for fields. Now someone told him that it can be used
He came to boil sugar to make wine. Of course he found it unbelievable. He shook his head, but he couldn't believe it.
"Where did the students get this secret technique from the Australians?" Zhao Yiggong said in a low voice, "You always know that Australians, agricultural workers, and workers have secret techniques that can often make people rich?"
Sun Yuanhua nodded. He had heard of such a statement before - it was said that the Australians sold Guoshi Wushuang in Guangzhou. He once sent people to buy a lot of them as favors. At that time, he was not interested in such outrageously expensive products.
After some research on the wine, I came to the conclusion that the so-called Guoshi Wushuang is just a specially distilled shochu.
Although it was just shochu, he did not think he had the ability to make a sophisticated cauldron to make such a drink. It would not be enough if the Australians really had a way to make sugar and wine out of reed stalks.
Strange.
He was doubtful, then picked up the dried vegetables and looked at them. He saw that they were gray-black in color and there was nothing unusual about them. There were some traces of salt and frost on the vegetable leaves.
"This is Haiying cuisine." Zhao Yingong introduced, "It can tolerate salt-alkali and drought, and can survive countless people in famine years."
Sun Yuanhua nodded with admiration. Natural disasters were frequent in the late Ming Dynasty, and agriculturists paid great attention to the study of famine relief. One of the things they often did was to find and try various edible wild vegetables. In addition to many similar
"Wild Vegetables" is a book that specifically introduces the appearance, origin, and eating methods of wild vegetables.
"This thing is beneficial to the country and the people." Sun Yuanhua said, "Maybe it is also produced in Australia."
Zhao Yingong said: "This species is plentiful on the Nanzhi seaside and grows everywhere, but few people know about it. Only the salt people and fishermen on the seaside eat it. Students think that it can also be introduced on the seaside of Dongsanfu and there is no need to cultivate it.
Although it is not of great use, it can save a temporary emergency."
This speech greatly moved Sun Yuanhua. It also aroused his interest in the land reclamation business. At that time, they also had a discussion on local agriculture. The first three prefectures in the East are mountainous and hilly, and the second is many coastal tidal flats and saline-alkali land.
.Even contemporary agriculturists like Sun Yuanhua have a headache on how to do agriculture well.
Zhao Yingong showed off what he had heard from old time and space and what he had witnessed in Nanhai Farm on weekdays. Although it was all trivial, many of the concepts and ideas in it were very novel, especially for Dongsanfu.
Some opinions on the development of mountains and hills made Sun Yuanhua feel like he had met a close friend.
Zhao Yingong also proposed that he wanted to recruit refugees from all over Shandong to reclaim wasteland in Denglai area, hoping to give them a name to avoid being criticized by the local officials.
"When recruiting refugees, you should first report to the governor's yamen in the East Three Prefectures. I will give each prefecture and county a letter to allow you to do it easily. It's just that the West Three Prefectures are difficult to deal with." Sun Yuanhua expressed embarrassment. The West Three Prefectures are under the jurisdiction of the Shandong Governor.
, I can't interfere.
"However, refugees have feet——"
"Students understand." Zhao Yingong said quickly.
"As long as you understand." Sun Yuanhua said with a smile. The two of them talked about the current situation from the flood in Yizhou, and gradually talked about the plight of the court. He suddenly asked Zhao Yingong: "Mr. Zhao, according to you, the court is now
Where is your first priority?”
Zhao Yingong was startled. This was a bit of a question about what he meant. He was neither Sun's staff nor Sun's subordinate, so it seemed strange to suddenly ask about such a big policy.
He figured out what Sun Yuanhua meant, and said calmly: "The first priority of the imperial court is neither to suppress bandits nor to protect prisoners, but to raise wages."
"Raising wages?" Sun Yuanhua said, "Mr. Zhao's experience is indeed different." He nodded slightly as he spoke, "It makes sense. Whether the court is training troops, suppressing bandits or guarding captives, the only important thing is paying!"
"What your Excellency said is absolutely true. Pay is the source of the army. As long as the pay is sufficient, why worry about recruiting good soldiers and brave generals? Why worry about not being able to defeat the enemy?" Zhao Yingong's words were completely based on the thinking of people at the time. But these words are not counted.
Wrong: The entire situation in the late Ming Dynasty was almost entirely caused by the poor financial policies of the Ming court.
Sun Yuanhua, Zhang Tao and others were training troops in Shandong and planning coastal defense. The biggest difficulty was the lack of food and pay. The intermittent supply of food and pay made the army unstable, and mutinies over pay frequently occurred. Such an army could only maintain stability.
It is already exhausting mentally and physically, so why bother going out to fight.
Just a few months ago, Dongjiang Town had the Pidao Mutiny due to the issue of military pay. Although the matter was later resolved, the matter provoked a fierce attack on Sun Yuanhua from the DPRK and China. If it weren't for Xu Guangqi and Zhou Yanru,
It was very difficult for him to pass this level.
"However, the salary source is scarce. It is difficult to reduce expenditures and increase revenue." Sun Yuanhua sighed.
Zhao Yingong said: "In fact, the salary was barely enough, but the losses were too much..." As he said this, he slightly paid attention to Sun Yuanhua's expression.
Of course Sun Yuanhua understood what he meant: food and pay were insufficient to begin with, and civilians and military generals at all levels were exploiting them at all levels. It would be good if 30 to 40 percent of the 10 percent could reach the hands of soldiers - the Pidao mutiny was also related to the general's deduction of military pay.
But the matter was too big and complicated, and it was not appropriate to discuss it in depth with such a new acquaintance. He asked again: "Sir, where can this source of wealth be found?"
This was Zhao Yiggong's strong point. He immediately cheered up and began to demonstrate the contribution of industrial and commercial taxation and overseas trade to finance. Of course, he used his beloved Song Dynasty as an example. He talked about how "the Southern Song Dynasty was able to succeed successively with only half of the country."
Mongolia's resistance to gold for more than 150 years has relied on income from industrial and commercial taxes and overseas trade." It incorporates a large number of papers and data specially obtained from large libraries. It actually makes perfect sense.
"Sir, you have a great talk." After listening to his eloquent talk, Sun Yuanhua nodded slightly and said noncommittally.
Zhao Yingong suddenly became alarmed. When he met Sun Yuanhua for the first time, he spoke so eloquently that no matter whether he was right or not, it would always make people feel that he was superficial and arrogant. He immediately felt regretful and stopped going into the details. He only said:
"The student is lying."
Sun Yuanhua said with a smile: "What nonsense? I will take advantage of your great talent in the future." He said, "For your affairs, go to the Yamen in a few days and submit a notice, and I will arrange it."
"Yes!" Zhao Yingong lowered his head and replied, "I always ask you to cultivate me."
"Easy to say, easy to say!" He said as he picked up the tea bowl.
Zhao Yingong stood up in a hurry when he saw it, and Sun Yuanhua sent him out. He asked him to stay in front of the hall, but the master refused. He waited until the door of the flower hall and stopped him again and again, and then Sun Yuanhua turned around and left.
When Zhao Yingong left the governor's office, he had already obtained most of the things he wanted. The most important thing was a famous post from Sun Yuanhua. With this thing, although it was not unobstructed in Dongsan Mansion, it could at least ensure that everything was safe.
Safe. Of course, Sun Yuanhua also reminded Zhao Yingong that there were frequent army mobilizations near Dengzhou, and guest armies often passed through the border. Most of the guest armies were lawless, and theft and robbery occurred from time to time, so he was asked to avoid it as much as possible. If he wanted to open up wasteland, he must build a stronghold. As for the
Sun Yuanhua also expressed support for his proposal to open a boat shop, saying that he would take care of people to issue license plates to ensure smooth navigation on the sea.