The car arrived at the destination and stopped, accompanied by the roar of a steam engine, the boom extending from the front of the carriage slowly rose, and when it rose to the highest, the turntable at the junction of the carriage and the chassis began to rotate slowly, driving the whole carriage to rotate at an angle, and the pulley group under the boom rotated, and the hook slowly fell down. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info then some workers hung the accessories that had been bundled on the ground on the hook.

"It's a winch, right?" Li Sixing asked.

"It is a crane, that is, an upgraded version of the winch, powered by a steam engine, which does not need to be pulled by manpower, and can lift thousands of pounds of heavy objects." Wang Yu explained.

Li Sixing's delegation visited the shipyard, and Wang Yu took them to visit the iron and steel factory, the steam engine factory, the smelter, the chemical plant, and other heavy industrial factories, but they were not allowed to visit the gun factory, because the metal cartridge and bullet production workshop in the gun factory is still strictly secret, and the research institute for machine guns and machine guns is even more secret. All the workers and technicians working in the gun factory are isolated from the world and are not allowed to come and go at will.

The mission stayed in Shanghai for five days, visiting banks, business districts, and factories during the day, and staying at night in the most luxurious Shanghai Mansion on the banks of the Huangpu River, a twelve-story high-rise that is currently the tallest building. There were no elevators in this era, and when the building was just completed, a donkey-pulled elevator was used, and after the steam engine was put into production in large quantities, the power of the traction elevator was replaced by a steam engine. This type of elevator is equipped with a safety device, and once the traction cable of the elevator breaks, the safety gear on the elevator can jam the guide rails and prevent the elevator from crashing.

Because of its proximity to the river, the Shanghai Building has high floors and a very well-ventilated room, so even in the hot summer, the people living in it will not be hot. In the hottest season, you can also use ice cubes to cool down.

Li Sixing and his entourage stayed in Shanghai for five days before boarding a liner bound for Wuchang.

This is an inland river clipper boat, compared with the clipper sailing in the sea, this inland river clipper boat has a shallow draft and a small tonnage, but the size of the boat is not small, the width is wider than the clipper ship in the sea, and the natural speed is also slow. Because of the shallow draft, the width of the boat must be increased, otherwise it is easy to capsize.

The river clipper sailed upriver at a speed of 10 knots, and the distance from Shanghai to Wuhan on the Yangtze River route was more than 2,200 miles, and the river clipper sailed for a day and a night, first anchoring in Anqing.

"Let's visit Anqing first, although Anqing does not belong to Huguang, Anqing is also a granary." Wang Yu introduced to Li Sixing and the officials of the mission.

The area around Anqing is interlaced with hills and lakes, and there are paddy fields, dry fields and mountain forests in the farmland here. After Wang Yu adopted the farm reform system, the local large landlords and gentry packed the land and rented it out to small landlords and rich peasants who were good at managing the land, and the poor tenants who had rented the land were all quit. Small landlords and rich peasants who used new agricultural tools adapted to local conditions carried out different developments and planted different crops on different lands.

Farmers dug up low-lying land near rivers and lakes and turned it into fish ponds, where they raised fish, shrimp and turtles, as well as ducks and geese. The excavated soil was used to fill in the other part of the low-lying land, and the low-lying land that was originally overgrown with water and grass was converted into rice fields. In addition to the original rice fields, the rice planting area in Anqing has doubled, and the rice yield has increased significantly.

The higher drylands are used to grow crops such as vegetables, fruits, and legumes, as well as high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes and potatoes, as well as animals such as pigs, sheep, cows, and chickens.

The mountainous land on the hills is used to grow cotton, tea trees, mulberry trees, fruit trees, etc. Some high-lying mountain forests grow bamboo, trees, etc., which can produce bamboo shoots, timber, and mushrooms.

The development method adapted to local conditions has made the farmers here rich. As for those tenants who were dismissed, the reason why they were quit was that their skills were not high and their families were poor. These people were driven from the land, driven to the cities to become workers, or emigrated to overseas.

"The Jiujiang and Nanchang areas are actually similar to the Anqing model, which is developed according to local conditions, so that fewer people can farm and feed more people, and the people who stay in the countryside to specialize in farming have also made a fortune." After getting on the boat, Wang Yu continued to introduce to the officials of the mission.

The boat stopped at Wuchang, and Wang Yu and the officials of the mission changed to a river boat on the Xiangjiang River and sailed upriver to visit the grain-producing areas in the hinterland of Hunan.

The Huguang area is known as the granary of the world, unlike Anqing, where the rice fields are divided by hills and lakes, and most of them are large rice fields that stretch into patches, so in the Huguang area, except for a small amount of aquaculture, almost all the farmland is planted with rice, forming an endless rice field. However, there are also many hills in eastern Hunan, where high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes are grown, and pigs, cattle, sheep, and chickens are also raised.

Buffalo has been raised more, and the efficiency of farming has been greatly improved, and with the use of strong buffaloes pulling new agricultural tools, a single family can cultivate land that would otherwise require more than 10 families to plant.

"It seems that saying that the south pays attention to industry and commerce and does not pay attention to grain production, it is all some people who say it!" After visiting the operation mode of the farm in the Huguang area, the people of the mission sighed.

Wang Yu said with a smile: "The reason why there is such a statement is not that there are too many farmers who have been retired? Many peasants lost their land, became refugees, flocked to the cities, or came to the rivers in search of access to the sea. These things were seen by some civil officials, and it turned into a lack of attention to agriculture in the south, which led to the displacement of the people. If it really doesn't pay attention to food production, where will the domain get so much food to feed the whole population? It's just that everything is used to the best of their ability, and those who are not suitable for staying in the field to farm might as well simply cut off their farming path and let them seek other ways to live. ”

"The gentry of Huguang are willing to drive the tenants away?" An official asked.

At that time, the family power was very strong, in fact, many tenants and local gentry were also relatives of the same clan. If it was said that they would collect their rents and give them usury, the gentry would still be able to do it. However, the expulsion of the villagers is a bit excessive, and no matter which dynasty, there are very few things to quit the tenants.

Wang Yu sneered: "The concept is different, now the south is a capital society, in front of capital, no family affection is as important as white silver." The gentry rented the land to ordinary tenants, and the harvest was not very good. Influenced by industry and commerce, they found that renting land to farmers for cultivation did not yield much income, so they also changed their methods and simply rented the land to those who were good at managing the land, which was beneficial to both parties. ”