Although he is far inferior to Yang Jingchen in terms of qualifications, Fan Jingwen is obviously better than the former in terms of personal ability. Since the Warring States Period, the Qin State, which was far away from the Central Plains, destroyed the Six Kingdoms and unified the world with the strategy of cultivation and warfare offered by Shang Ying, the foundation of agriculture as the country has become the consensus of the dynasties and elites of the Central Plains, of course, the strange dynasty of Mengyuan is an exception.

The study of agricultural techniques is the only miscellaneous study that is not considered to be a non-professional profession. Of course, with Fan Jingwen's agricultural knowledge reserves, if he wants to surpass his predecessors, he is still a little worse. Not to mention, there is now a real expert in agriculture in the DPRK and China, Xu Guangqi.

However, Fan Jingwen was obviously very clever not to turn the Ministry of Agriculture under his management into another agricultural technology research institute, he humbly consulted the Academy of Agricultural Sciences presided over by Wei Liangqing, and by the way, he also contacted Chen Zilong, who was in charge of the branch of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Shanghai, and obtained a large amount of agricultural information from the two of them.

With these materials and data, he really made a more overall development plan for the agricultural development of Daming.

“… According to the above information and data provided by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, it is extremely feasible to divide the Ming Dynasty into two agricultural cultivation areas and implement different crop rotation systems with the Qinling-Huaihe River as the boundary.

For example, taking the eight prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River as an example, the cultivated land area in the south of the Yangtze River is about 45 million mu, and after removing nearly 5 million mu of mulberry orchards, the rest is basically cultivated land.

The Jiangnan area is high in the east and low in the west, and the high ones are called high fields, and the low ones are called paddy fields. Most of the fields have been implemented twice a year, but the lowland paddy fields are still basically once a year.

The former accounts for about 40% of the cultivated area, which means that nearly 60% of the land in Jiangnan wastes a season of harvest every year. If half of this land can be used, then the annual harvest in Jiangnan can increase by at least a quarter. The land output in the Jiangnan area is now about 90 million taels, and a quarter is more than 22 million taels.

The two-cropping rate in the south of the Yangtze River is the highest, most of the southern provinces are one cropping system a year, and the income of the south of the Yangtze River accounts for half of the total income of the southern provinces, and other provinces in the south also implement the two-cropping system a year, and the income from increasing production will not be less than 20 million taels.

In this way, the implementation of the two-cropping system in the southern region alone can increase the income of nearly 40 million taels for my Ming Dynasty. Whether it is the consequent increase in tax revenue, or the increase in grain production to make up for the reduction in grain production in the north, it can greatly alleviate the current predicament of our Ming Dynasty.

In recent years, the weather changes in the northern region have caused frequent disasters in many areas in the north, and agriculture often has no harvest. Therefore, the minister believes that the region north of the Yellow River and Shaanxi should consider promoting new crops imported from overseas.

Compared with the wheat, barley, sorghum, and millet planted by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Gyeonggi, Shanxi, Hanzhong, Gansu, and other regions last year, the yield is higher, and it is more resistant to barrenness.

However, if you want to promote the two-cropping system in the south or promote new crops in the north, I am afraid that you will not get any effect by relying on the current local county government to do it.

Therefore, the minister hoped that the peasant associations could be set up in each county in the form of Gyeonggi and Shanghai Agricultural Science Branches, so as to ensure that the new crop planting methods and new crop rotation methods could be accurately communicated to the local farmers, and that the problems that arose in farming could be solved in a timely manner. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought about it and replied briskly: "But, you go back and make a plan for the organizational design of the peasant association and submit it to the cabinet for review, what else do you have to say, if not, retreat." ”

Fan Jingwen hurriedly said: "There is another matter that the minister needs to report to His Majesty, in addition to promoting new crops and crop rotation system, the most important thing to increase agricultural production is water conservancy irrigation and the use of fertilizers.

Originally, my Ming Dynasty sent officials to the six prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River to be responsible for water control, but since Wanli, the six prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River have not carried out water control for more than 40 years.

The people in the south of the Yangtze River have clouds: the white mao tide and sand are accumulated, the shape is like Qiu Fu, the Wusong River is like a ditch, the lower stream is strong, the upper stream Xi returns to the boat and the field is not governed. The water administration has been abandoned to such an extent, I am afraid that in the future, floods and droughts will be intertwined, and nine famines will appear in the south of the Yangtze River.

In addition, the gentry of the people in the south of the Yangtze River know that the lake is fertile, so the river port is often encroached upon, the Taihu Lake was originally misty like the sea, and now under the invasion of the sun and the moon, the area of the Taihu Lake has been greatly reduced, and the minister is worried that if there is a rainstorm in the season, the lake water is high, and the people along the lake are afraid that they will suffer from floods.

His Majesty was asked to send officials to the Jiangnan region to control the water in order to improve the irrigation of the farmland in the Jiangnan region. In addition, the minister heard from the officials of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences that there is a kind of struvite fertilizer, which can be worth four or five catties of cake fertilizer, and the minister hopes to be able to mine a large number of them and use them for farmland in the south of the Yangtze River. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and smiled bitterly and said: "If this struvite is mined, I will naturally send someone to mine it, but now that a new mining point has not been found, it may be difficult to supply all the farmland in the Jiangnan region.

As for dispatching special water control officials to the south of the Yangtze River, what is the Ministry of Water Resources' plan for water control this year? Jiang Shilang, come up and talk about it. ”

After the Ministry of Industry was proposed to be divided into three years ago, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Transportation and Construction, and the Ministry of Water Resources, Jiang Dejing, who was originally in charge of water conservancy construction, took charge of the Ministry of Water Resources smoothly.

Hearing Chongzhen's question, he suddenly walked out and said, "The plan of the Ministry of Water Resources is still in accordance with the plan formulated last year, and there is not much change.

This year's water control projects are mainly aimed at harnessing the Haihe River, guiding the Shu River and rectifying the Yi, Hanshui, and Jingjiang rivers, and secondary to the Pearl River, Taihu Lake, and Qiantang River to protect the sea and stone ponds; in addition, local projects are river improvement and reservoir construction in Shanxi and Shaanxi, and the renovation of the Yellow River irrigation channels in Ningxia and the repair of river embankments in the upper reaches of the Huai River.

As for the water control in the Taihu Lake area, it is mainly the construction of the lakeshore in some areas, and there is no large-scale improvement plan. If the Taihu Lake is to be comprehensively remediated, it is necessary not only to channel the downstream rivers, but also to rectify the blockages of the upstream rivers, otherwise the effect of water control is not great. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought silently for a while, and then said: "The water control in Jiangnan is not about water control, the important thing is to control people. After you go back to Fan Shilang, you will discuss and draw up a plan for water control in the Taihu Lake Basin, and then I will discuss it with the cabinet. Let the Ministry of Transport and Construction come up and talk about this year's work plan. ”

Fan Jingwen wanted to say something, but Jiang Dejing carefully blocked him in front of him, suggesting that he didn't have to say any more. Under Jiang Dejing's obstruction, Fan Jingwen finally swallowed back the words that came to his lips and silently walked back to his class.

After Li Jingbai, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, heard Chongzhen's call, he immediately hurriedly walked a few steps, walked out of the class order, and introduced the work plan of the Ministry of Transportation and Construction to the emperor this year.

Li Jingbai can be regarded as picking up an opportunity to be the head of an independent department, with his age and resume, if he wants to become the official of the Sixth Department, it is estimated that he can only have a chance if he is transferred to the Sixth Department in Nanjing. However, because Huang Liji was jealous of the rapidly expanding power of the Ministry of Industry presided over by Wu Chunfu, after persuading the emperor to split the Ministry of Industry, he easily picked up the hat of the chief officer of the Ministry of Transportation and Construction.

In Chongzhen's mind, the Ministry of Transportation and Construction is naturally not more important than the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Conservancy, and he also knows more about road construction and civil construction than the officials of the Ministry of Transportation and Construction, so he only needs an obedient bureaucrat who can effectively carry out his own plans for this department.

Obviously, Li Jingbai is a bureaucrat who is very in line with Chongzhen's requirements, and he is not enterprising, but he does not discount his obedience to the emperor's instructions. This also made Chongzhen, who originally planned to temporarily put him in charge of this department, feel that there is no need to change people.

What's more, although Li Jingbai is an official from Henan, he is different from Yuan Keli, he has firmly stood on Chongzhen's side from the beginning, even if the gentry in his hometown turned against him, he did not hesitate.

This wise choice made Chongzhen look down on him even more, and he had no intention of replacing the new chief of the transportation construction department. And Li Jingbai is also unwilling to lose his current position, with his original resume, it is impossible for him to enter the cabinet, but with his current position, he has the possibility of entering the cabinet.

As an official, whether or not he can enter the cabinet during his tenure is a complete difference between heaven and earth for himself and his family. In order to be able to get the opportunity to enter the cabinet, what is there to worry about with those gentry in his hometown, how can ordinary squires retire from the same cabinet as old ministers in the eyes of the magistrates.

Besides, as the chief official of the Ministry of Transportation and Construction, he was in charge of the railway construction affairs that would crisscross the territory of Henan, and as long as he could preside over the construction of these two railways, he did not have to worry that the Henan gentry would continue to follow Yuan Keli to confront the imperial court.

The construction of railways can not only bring prosperity and benefits to the areas they pass through, but also make people bankrupt, and it only depends on how the person in charge operates it.

Although Li Jingbai did not know how to build a railway, he was obviously confident in how to repair the disobedient local gentry with the help of road construction.

In front of Chongzhen, Li Jingbai naturally did not show such thoughts, and he recited this year's railway construction plan in accordance with Chongzhen's plan in a decent manner.

In addition to the railway construction plan, the Ministry of Transport and Construction has also identified five national standards for rural roads, county-level roads, inter-provincial roads, national trunk roads and urban roads. and formulated a plan for the construction of national trunk roads in the northern provinces, which made Zhu Youzhen also praise him.