A large number of castor seeds were sprinkled in the tidal flats and wastelands in the area controlled by the Nanyue Army, and they did not need to be cared for according to the standards of serious crops, and carefully carried out field management activities such as weeding, fertilizing, irrigation, and insect control, and allowed them to grow on their own.

After a few months, the harvest can be carried out. The cost of input is low, but the fruits of the harvest are abundant. Listen to me one by one.

In addition to the fruit of the Eight Classics, castor beans can be used to extract oil, there are many derivative products. Castor oil is a good ink raw material, which has silently made great contributions to the printing industry, culture and education of the Southern Guangdong Army, so that the printing quality continues to rise, and the printing cost has dropped again and again. In addition to being used in the printing industry, castor oil is also a good lubricant. All kinds of machinery and equipment in various workshops in Nanzhong and Guangdong, large and small civilian vehicles, all kinds of baggage trucks, artillery trucks, sanitary vehicles, large and small axles, wheels, and the lubricating oil required by the sea have gone to sea.

In addition to the above two uses, the gentlemen of Hejing Chemical, Maple Ridge Laboratory and Nanzhong University conducted joint experiments and were pleasantly surprised to discover two other small uses of castor oil.

"Can be used on the pancreas! In this way, the pancreas, which was originally a clear color, has a vaguely transparent form, which increases the selling point! (Clear soap!) ）

"You can use the medicine to moisten the intestines and laxative. Sailors and seagoing boats, often the crew can't untie their big hands once for a few days, which is really painful! With this thing, it can be relieved by one or two! ”

And the huge leaves of the castor beans during the growth process also have its uses.

When Xu Xiake traveled to Beitianzhu, he discovered that there was a local silkworm baby that fed on castor leaves. After Zheng Zhibao took office as the General Administration of Reclamation, Xu Xiake accidentally mentioned this thing when he talked about various overseas experiences, rare birds and animals, and customs and customs at a social occasion.

The speaker has no intention and the listener has the intention.

When Xu Xiake said that after eating castor leaves, he spit silk and cocooned with mulberry silkworms, and the castor silk spit out is a textile fiber with excellent performance, and the product made of it is light and soft, luster and beautiful, good hygroscopicity, comfortable to wear, and can be blended with any other textile raw materials, so that the silk fiber can be combined with the characteristics of other fibers, and can give full play to the characteristics of various fibers and many other advantages, Zheng Zhibao's eyes are red.

However, when he learned about the breeding characteristics of castor silkworms, he felt like he had drifted to Xianshan Treasure Island after a sea wreck!

"This kind of castor silkworm breeding technology?" Xu Xiake had a drink with Zheng Zhibao, and a smile appeared on his face, "From the perspective of students, it can't be said to be simple, there is simply no technology!" ”

Because castor silkworms are one of the wild-bred silkworm species, their disease resistance is also much stronger than that of domestic silkworms. Even simpler than the silkworm, which is also a wild stocking silkworm species, the silkworm also needs someone to help bombard the birds, this kind of castor silkworm, because of the smell of castor, no birds and beasts are willing to provoke them. At the same time, in most places, castor silkworms can be raised for three or four generations every year from late spring to late autumn. Compared with harvesting castor seeds for oil extraction, the cultivation of castor cocoons is a short, flat and fast project.

"Castor silkworms are dozens of times easier to raise than mulberry silkworms, and the cost is low, so it can be said that you can just throw the castor silkworms into the castor field, and you can just collect the cocoons after 20 days. Moreover, with the climate of our Nanyue Army region, it is not a problem to receive it four or five times a year! ”

Sure enough, knowledge is power, and it is money! Xu Xiake's words made it possible for Nakano School, of which he was the principal, to receive a generous academic research grant from the General Administration of Reclamation in the autumn of that year. The number has reached one million dollars.

This kind of castor silk made the General Bureau of Reclamation from a state in need of financial support to a self-sufficient department with a slight surplus.

The reason is naturally the various uses of castor silk.

The comparison between castor silk and mulberry silk has no other shortcomings except for the ugly appearance and dark luster

Castor silk has good quality, large elasticity, excellent wear resistance, uniform fiber, less silk and silk knots and white spots, and clear silk surface. However, the color brightness of castor silk is worse than that of mulberry silk, the fabric luster is darker, and the feel is thicker.

However, it is better than the quantity.

After learning that such a huge source of silk products appeared on his territory, Li Shouhan ordered that all the artillery of the army and navy of the Nanyue Army should use castor silk as a firing package! Mulberry silk wrapped in gunpowder plug cannon barrel to knock it out is really too tyrannical!

Just kidding! Castor silk is produced on Lao Tzu's own territory, what is the production cost, what is the purchase price? And mulberry silk, most of it comes from the mainland Jiangnan, what is the purchase price and what cost? I have cheap, casual products of my own, so why should I spend a lot of money to buy other people's? Didn't Lao Tzu enter the Yoneda Gong with his brain, and he didn't want to get kickbacks, was he crazy? On Lao Tzu's territory, from south to north and from east to west, tens of thousands of miles of coastline, hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of tidal flats, how many castor silk can be produced? !

With this alone, Zheng Zhibao's General Bureau of Reclamation recovered the cost of castor cultivation and made a lot of profits.

More income is still castor silk satin.

Although the color and luster of castor silk are not as good as mulberry silk, the feel is not as good as mulberry silk. However, it can't stand the mature and developed printing and dyeing industry of the Nanyue Army! As soon as the best pigment décor is applied, the defects of color and gloss are immediately covered. Just like a good makeup artist can dress up Grandma Liu, who is in her sixties, into an innocent girl in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and Xu Lover, the president of CCB, can be called the goddess of frozen age, the credit of makeup artists cannot be buried.

In addition to these means, it is to give full play to the characteristics of castor silk and other textiles that can be tacitly matched. Cotton, ramie, mulberry silk and so on, a large number of castor silk products are endless. The market targets those who want to wear silk clothes in Tianzhu, Tianfang, and Europa, but cannot afford to wear good mulberry silk products, and are worried that silk clothes will soon be damaged. Castor silk products, which are bright in color and colorful, and strong and durable, have soon become the fist products of export.

In addition to castor silk products, there is also a product that makes people hate it.

Castor bean, in the final analysis, is also a type of hemp. Like ramie, jute, flax, sisal, abaca and other hemp plants, they can be used as raw materials for textiles such as linen.

However, the disadvantages, like castor silk, are rough and unsightly.

However, the textile industry and printing and dyeing industry in Nanzhong cannot be cleverly used. Cotton from the arid areas of Tianzhu and Burma is combined with castor fibers and spun into castor cloth, which is then carefully bleached and dyed.

For more than 90% of the 17th-century Chinese fart people in the Central Plains who were unclothed, it would be nice to have fucking clothes to wear, and Nima was too rough? These cloths are hot selling products in the market in the south of the Yangtze River, in the Central Plains, in the Northwest, in North China, and even in Wusizang, in Banggela, in Tianzhu, in the Wa Kingdom, and in Liaodong.

The reason is also very simple. Two benefits, cheap and durable.

The unkind author just said, how many castor beans have to come out of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of seaside tidal flats? How much castor cloth do you have to weave? These textiles, because the raw material production cost is almost zero, so the natural production cost is ridiculously low.

(So much land is sown casually, and within a few months, a large pile of castor beans will come out, so just use it directly to weave cloth to make clothes, how much does it cost?) Compared with the traditional linen production in our country that is admired by countless authors, the cost of castor cloth can simply be ignored! Unbelief? The unscrupulous author will tell you about the planting of flax: because the seedlings of flax (flax) are very tender, all the land must be leveled and crushed before they can be sown, otherwise it will basically fail to germinate. The amount of labor that leveled and crushed the land made up for the requirements of the land. Think about it, when you can't meet the needs of the industrial population in grain production, you take out a large amount of grain fields to do this, what is it that you are not looking for death?

Ramie hemp or something is a little stronger, no need to level and crush the land, you can basically level it casually, you can sow it, but the field care is very bad, watering, fertilizing, pesticide, field management, etc., all of which occupy a large amount of labor. ）

The blended cloth of castor and cotton is sold at less than half the price of ordinary ramie cloth, and the castor silk is sold at the price of 30% of the silk silk in the south of the Yangtze River. These two products alone have a feeling that makes them proud of Zheng Zhibao's General Bureau of Reclamation. What's more, after the castor is harvested, the residue of the stems and leaves after the fiber is fermented can also fertilize the field, which is also a great promotion for the planting and production of tea, tung oil, camellia, cypress, cotton and other crops promoted by the General Bureau of Reclamation.

It can be said that a castor seed has derived a complete industrial chain.

However, this industrial chain has now become a noose that strangles the necks of the Jiangnan gentry.

Castor blended cloth, castor silk and satin products, in all parts of the south of the Yangtze River, in the export link, with a huge price advantage (castor blended cloth less than half the price of Jiangnan ramie cloth, Liuyang summer cloth, and castor silk products are less than three percent of the price of mulberry silk, the industrial scale advantage of the Nanyue Army, the technical advantages of related industries are combined, highlighting the terrible power. The machine room and even the family are the production units, relying on the mulberry sericulture industry in the south of the Yangtze River as the basis, and the Songjiang cloth industry and the silk industry in the south of the Yangtze River have no room to fight back.

My product is not as good as yours, but I am cheap and durable.

My weaver is not as skilled as yours, but I have a good loom, and any skilled hand can weave fine cotton, blended fabric, and satin.

My blended fabrics and castor silk satin have inherent disadvantages, but I have good pigments and good printing and dyeing techniques, which are enough to attract attention in color and color.

Those Jiangnan computer rooms (or sweatshops?) that are still in the embryonic state of the so-called bourgeoisie? How can it withstand such a massive pre-industrial combined attack?

Not to mention the seventeenth and forties of the seventeenth century in which Chongzhen, Hongguang and Shunzhi lived, in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century, the so-called golden age, Shanghai's national textile industry was no match for the Neiwai cotton factory set up in Shanghai by the Japanese Neiwai Cotton Co., Ltd. The reason is also very simple, this enterprise started as a cotton, and can purchase Indian cotton and American cotton by itself. Naturally, the cost of production is much lower. The huge cost advantage of cotton procurement has made Shenxin and other national textile enterprises have only the ability to parry. By the way, Mr. Xia Yan's "Contractor" is about this enterprise. In addition, in 1925, the Chinese working class launched the "May Three" movement against imperialism, which was also triggered by the shooting of Gu Zhenghong, a Chinese workers' representative and Communist Party member, in cotton yarn factories at home and abroad.

As early as after Li Shouhan was canonized as Ning Yuanbo, and then had the first head-to-head confrontation with the Donglin Party and the Jiangnan Group in Nanjing, Li Shouhan and Li Peiting formulated a strategic plan to carry out pipe art in various parts of Jiangnan.

Boatloads of fine japonica rice were transported to the wharves everywhere, and boatloads of silver dollars were transported to the silk, raw silk, and tea merchants of the various foreign estates.

"As long as there is goods, we will eat them all!" This is the spoken word that Nanzhong merchants usually talk about to the Jiangnan silk tea merchants.

On the one hand, there are huge profits that can be obtained from exporting silk, raw silk, and tea, and on the other hand, there are low prices for daily necessities such as rice, edible oil, cotton, cotton cloth, and fine salt. The Jiangnan gentry made a wise choice. No more food! A stone of good japonica rice is only a few silver dollars, and it is still the retail price sold by the group of black-hearted guys in the rice number next door! In Lao Tzu's mulberry leaf garden, a load of mulberry leaves is more than the price of a load of rice!

As a result, large areas of rice fields were converted into mulberry orchards, and mulberry trees were planted instead of rice. A large number of farmers changed careers, no longer tending to rice, but to serve mulberry trees and take care of silkworm babies. In front of the house and behind the house, where mulberry trees can be planted in the open space, they are all planted with needles to obtain as many mulberry leaves as possible to feed as many silkworm babies as possible.

The original Suhu Lake was cooked to the fullest, and it became the porridge that even the farmers themselves ate for breakfast, which was made from Nanzhong japonica rice bought from the rice number.

"Buying one stone of rice is enough to eat for a long time, and with that kung fu, I can earn a lot of copper by doing any kind of work, and it is enough to buy rice to eat, buy wine, and eat a family. Why do you want to go farming? It's not that you can't buy rice! ”

"That's it! There is too much rice in Nanban, and it is too cheap! ”

In towns, farmers often say something similar when they drink tea after work.

The plains are planted with a large number of mulberry trees, while the mountainous areas are the world of tea trees. In the same way, all places suitable for the cultivation and growth of tea trees have been planted. From the precious tea before the Ming Dynasty to the last batch of large leaves before winter, there are merchants who buy them.

In the same way, a large number of farmers also become tea pickers during the busy season of tea picking. Travel between the tea plantations and the town.

The grain, oil, salt and other agricultural products in Nanzhong were sold to the hinterland of Jiangnan through the Yangtze River and the canal, and then, while importing grain, oil and salt, while purchasing silk tea in Jiangnan, Li Shouhan and Li Peiting and others built this business chain, so that all parts of Jiangnan became as prosperous and rich as flowers and brocade cooking oil.

This commercial chain spread along the Yangtze River, Qiantang River, canals and other water systems has made people related to it earn a lot of money. From the gangs of the two gangs of Yancao to the incense masters, helmsmen and hall masters at all levels; The leaders of the various wharves, the wealthy and well-connected Jiangnan gentry, as well as the nobles in Nanjing, the eunuchs and weaving eunuchs from all over the country, the small teahouses and restaurants, and the casinos and brothels are generous. The middle one rebuilt a house, built a new house, and married his aunt's wife. The big ones built villas and villas, resettled foreign houses everywhere, collected Qin bricks, Han tiles, Zhou Ding, Shang and Yi celebrity calligraphy and paintings, and did many elegant things such as repairing gardens, raising opera troupes, compiling new opera books, and so on. It was a weaving eunuch in Suzhou, and he also married seven or eight aunts, from Silla maids, Japanese women, to Tianzhu orchids.

Of the many state capitals in the south of the Yangtze River, which one is not densely populated, with more than 100,000 people, and as few as tens of thousands of people, how much grain and rice do these people consume every day? How much oil and salt do you need? In this kind of year when even the Susongtai and Hangjiahu areas could cause famine, they had grain sales channels in their hands, that is, they had countless silver coins, not to mention the sales of refined salt and edible oil, and the sales of cotton cloth. At the same time, the export of silk tea and the joint defense of rivers and seas have made their farts oil their crotch.

However, looking at the yellow calendar in the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, the good days are over!

Who would have thought that a collection of arrears of money and grain, as well as a cool official like Cha Baidi, could make Jiangnan change the sky in an instant?

Not only silk, tea, and raw silk, which can be sold at a good price casually, are actually discounted by people and bought only with favors; You must know that these goods were originally able to be used as bills in the tea ticket village and the silk ticket village. What's more, the price of the grain contract has also increased.

On the one hand, they can't sell their own goods, and on the other hand, the price of other people's goods has risen. And in the distance, those hateful tax collectors smirked and pasted paperwork on their doors to collect the money and grain they owed!

Helpless. In the past, the arrogant old men could only make friends with the shopkeepers and deacons in the firm in a low voice, and look at their faces, in order to be able to turn the goods in their hands into silver dollars and contracts as soon as possible so that they could block the door, so as not to check the white impermanence of these bulls and horses!

With the Yangtze River, Qiantang River, and canals, a large amount of silver rolled in turned into silver dollars and grain contracts in the trumpets of Nanzhong merchants in an instant, and was cherished and held tightly by the gentry and sent to the Yamen of Fuzhou County.

"Your Majesty's fifty million silver dollars have all been received."

"The fifty million silver dollars that hung on the accounts of the cabinet were also counted. We don't need to pay interest anymore! ”

"Actually, we don't have to pay interest for a long time. On that day, His Majesty's account was opened, and several eunuchs close to His Majesty brought people to deposit. They are all big families in various parts of Nanjing, in order to obtain nothing more than insurance, and then they are greedy for the high interest rate of His Majesty's account. ”

Several deacons of the Nanzhong Guanyin reported to Li Shouhan and Li Peiting on the income and expenditure.

A large amount of silver was sent to the ship of fortune and went east along the Yangtze River to the sea.

"My lord, we have almost collected our silver. More than 10,000,000 silver dollars have arrived, counting the money from selling grain and rice contracts, this hand, we will get no less than 20,000 silver dollars! And that's not even counting the silver credited to His Majesty and the Cabinet! ”

"Very good! It's not in vain our efforts in the past few years! ”

Guan Zhong's methods once again proved that they are still very useful!