284 Corn, sweet potato, scribe

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When the old man heard this, he felt a sense of pride, and said to Li Zixiao: "Yes, the three generations of my ancestors were tenants of the original landlord in our village, and they have planted land for them all their lives.

Little Lao'er never thought that before I died, I would still be able to see our family have their own fields, all because of the appearance of General Li's White Dragon Army!

Xiao Lao'er has been farming with the old man since he was a child, and it has been at least 50 years now! ”

"Then dare to be kind, then the old man told me that in our place, after the beginning of spring, what should we plant in general, so that the harvest can be good?"

Li Zixiao suddenly came to his senses.

As soon as the old man heard this, he opened the conversation, the old man has been farming all his life, it can be said that he really doesn't know anything except farming, and he also has the most say in farming.

The old man said to Li Zixiao: "If you want to ask this, it can be regarded as the right person."

We have to say that we have everything to plant here, mainly to plant a little more sorghum, we have been in drought every day here these years, and many times we can't water it, and we rely on the harvest of the sky.

Sorghum is drought-tolerant, so planting sorghum will ensure a better harvest!

In some fine fields, rich families will grow some millet, and it is delicious to grind millet into millet, but the yield of this thing is too low to feed too many people!

So we poor people grow more wheat, but we don't dare to grow more grain!

This wheat is still the winter wheat planted before winter, and the yield is larger, and if the year is good, one acre of land in a good plot can produce two or three hundred catties of grain.

But no one dared to eat it before, and before that, it was all used to be rented by the landlords, and they could only leave some sorghum rice to live.

At present, Mr. Qian has led us to reclaim a lot of wasteland, and in some good plots, we must plant spring wheat in the spring.

However, my old man still has an idea, that is, I can set aside some land, and when it comes to the beginning of spring, I will plant some buckwheat.

This is a good thing, buckwheat grows fast, ripens quickly, ripens in April, and when it is ripe, the spring famine will be solved, and it will last until the summer spring wheat and sorghum are ripe.

Then the plot will be freed up, and autumn grains, such as soybeans, will be planted, and then there will be a lot fewer people starving to death in the spring......"

The old man told Li Zixiao about farming.

After Li Zixiao heard this, his heart suddenly brightened.

In this era, these ordinary peasants just want to be able to fill their stomachs and live, and they don't care much about whether the food is good or not.

Therefore, they will try to grow some high-yield and drought-tolerant crops, such as sorghum, wheat, buckwheat, etc.

It is a pity that China has lacked particularly high-yield crops since ancient times, and there are many people in China, otherwise countless people would not have starved to death in the year of great drought and disaster.

In fact, before he asked the old man, Li Zixiao already had some ideas, that is, corn and sweet potatoes, the three most common high-yield crops in later generations.

Since Li Zixiao came to Daming, he has seen too many homeless people and too many frozen bones in the past two years, but he has also become even more helpless.

He has the heart to save more people, but he also has the heart to be powerless, after all, he doesn't have much to eat.

Sometimes, Li Zixiao thinks that if the three high-yield crops of corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes can be planted on a large scale in the hands of Daming farmers at this time, many people will definitely be starved to death.

But these three high-yield crops were not produced in China, but came from overseas, and it is said that the time when they arrived in China was in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

That is to say, at this time in the late Ming Dynasty, these three crops have appeared in China, but I don't know where they are.

According to normal historical development, it will take several decades for them to be gradually recognized and gradually popularized.

Li Zixiao also thought about sending people to find these three crops, but with his strength at this time, it was tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack, and he was powerless.

But sometimes, if you want to sleep, someone comes and delivers a pillow.

The matter also started when he went to Yangzhou this time, during the period when Li Zixiao mobilized Li Tianba's 'Tiger Camp' to exterminate the Japanese in Yangzhou.

In a raid led by Li Tianba, when a group of would-be robbers were looting villages and towns, in that battle, the Tiger Ben battalion made a surprise attack, and under the battle, the gang of would-be robbers was defeated in one fell swoop.

And Li Tianba seized a batch of grain that was stolen by the gang.

And later, when counting the loot, Zhao Teng unexpectedly found two things that he had never seen before.

Because Li Zixiao has a strict order, he must not miss a trace of food, and Zhao Teng is worthy of these things that he has never seen, and after he can eat them, he does not throw them away, and puts them away as food.

There were bags of corn and some sweet potatoes, and it is unknown where they got them.

In short, after Li Zixiao saw these things, he immediately regarded them as treasures, but fortunately Zhao Teng didn't throw them away, otherwise Li Zixiao would have cried blindly.

Subsequently, Li Zixiao arranged for Zhao Teng to personally take good care of these bags of corn and sweet potatoes, and strictly ordered anyone in the army not to steal these things.

Especially those bags of sweet potatoes, he sent someone to wrap them in quilts to avoid being frozen.

After Li Zixiao returned to White Snake Village, because the weather had entered winter, it was not the season to plant sweet potatoes and corn, so Li Zixiao could only store them.

The arrangers dug a special cellar for those bags of sweet potatoes to store these bags of sweet potatoes, and they had to go down and turn them every day to prevent them from going bad.

As for Li Zixiao, although he has little knowledge of agriculture, he also knows the uses of corn and sweet potatoes, and the incalculable impact they bring.

Corn and sweet potatoes, as well as potatoes and peppers and tobacco, were shipped from the American continent after Columbus discovered them, and gradually began to spread to the whole world.

And these two crops will not be in China for too long, so that in the hinterland of China, many people have never heard of or seen these two crops.

So when they were first discovered, some people didn't know them, and some of them were almost discarded, either to feed the animals, or to simply throw them away.

As a result, Zhao Teng was still curious, and strictly followed Li Zixiao's order to collect grain, since these things, the villagers told them that they could eat them, they should belong to grain.

So Zhao Teng stayed, and after arriving in Yangzhou, he took some to Li Zixiao to see, but when Li Zixiao saw it, he was shocked, and then he was ecstatic.

So, this made Zhao Teng properly preserved, if it weren't for this, these two things would probably be missed by Li Zixiao.

Corn and sweet potatoes are two crops that are relatively drought-tolerant and are very suitable for planting in northern China, especially on hilly land.

And these two crops, there is also an advantage, that is, the yield per mu is high.

When corn was in later generations, the yield per mu could reach more than 1,000 catties, and the corn at this time was not as good as the seeds of later generations, and there was no hybrid corn.

But the yield will never be lower than the various food crops often planted by the Chinese people in this era.

In particular, its drought-tolerant and soil-neutral characteristics make it very suitable for promotion and cultivation here, and it should be a very rare disaster relief food, and it tastes good.

Needless to say, sweet potatoes do not occupy an area, and they can be planted in the field to find a place, and the yield can be described as scary compared with many crops now.

The yield per mu is 10,000 catties, even if there are no good seeds and no chemical fertilizers at the moment, but there is farmhouse fertilizer, only with these sweet potatoes he has now, the yield per mu is estimated to not be underestimated.

The most conservative estimate is that there is at least a few thousand catties of yield, and the existing sweet potatoes can also be multiplied quickly, which is definitely a kind of disaster relief food with unlimited prospects.

What's more, this thing is full of treasures, and there is almost no place where it cannot be eaten, the leaves can be eaten, and the stalks can be eaten as vegetables.

Even the dried stems and leaves are still good feed, so to a certain extent, these sweet potatoes are even more valuable than the same weight of silver in Li Zixiao's eyes.

It's a pity that potatoes can't be found now, and if there are potatoes, it will be even more perfect, and these high-yielding crops will be popularized in large quantities, and the food problem will soon be solved.

After chatting with the old man for a while, Li Zixiao also found that the old man was indeed not blowing, and he had a lot of experience in farming, including farming, accumulating fertilizer, fertilizing, and irrigation.

So my heart is even more joyful, no wonder it is said that 'there must be my teacher in the threesome', everyone in this world has his strengths, as long as they make good use of it, they are all talents.

"Uncle, please talk more than ten years of study, today I am fortunate to meet the uncle, it is my luck!"

Li Zixiao sighed and said to the old man.

The old man hurriedly said modestly: "Where is it, if the adult is serious, I will also order the matter of farming, where is the adult so powerful!"

But the little old man wants to thank the adults, these cakes and jerky you gave my granddaughter, if there is nothing wrong, I dare not delay the adults, and I will retire! ”

After watching the old man leave with his granddaughter, Li Zixiao also brought people back, and he was even more determined in his heart that after the beginning of spring, it was time to find some experienced old farmers to plant corn and sweet potatoes.

It's a pity that at this time, he didn't have many corn and sweet potato seeds in his hands, and he couldn't popularize them for a while, so he first found a group of experienced old farmers to try to plant them for a year.

First, let them accumulate experience in growing corn and sweet potatoes, and then accumulate more seeds for future promotion.

And after Li Zixiao had this conversation with this old man, he had a deeper understanding of the lives of the peasants in Yongcheng County.

I have to say that Qian Guangyuan is indeed a very capable person, and in the past year, Yongcheng County has been taken care of in an orderly manner.

Li Zixiao many times will only put forward some general ideas, at most it can only be called a skeleton, and the rest of the things to be perfected and implemented will be done by Qian Guangyuan.

Qian Guangyuan helped Li Zixiao refine the things proposed, and for many things, he played a role in picking up the missing things.

Qian Guangyuan did not disappoint Li Zixiao, since he took over the government affairs of Yongcheng County, he quickly found the door and began to get on the right track.

They completed the statistics of the local household registration and unified the registration of the county, and a large number of displaced people poured into Yongcheng County a year ago, causing the population to surge a lot.

Qian Guangyuan is a scholar in the end, don't look at it as if he can't go into battle to kill, he is familiar with civil affairs.

Coupled with the White Dragon Army's consistent rigorous style, there is no such thing as greed for ink, so everything is implemented smoothly.

The common people also willingly accepted their deployment one by one, so that Yongcheng County is now firmly in the hands of the White Dragon Army, and the people here have long since forgotten the imperial court.

During this period, Qian Guangyuan integrated the local villagers and concentrated the loose people, and recultivated and redistributed the existing arable land.

In addition, a lot of land has been vacated to provide ample vacant land for the next step of receiving and relocating displaced people.

Then, Li Zixiao arrived in Yongcheng County, and Qian Guangyuan's work was also highly praised by Li Zixiao.

For these scribes and subordinates who participated in it, Li Zixiao also gave encouragement.

At the same time, he immediately ordered that Qian Guangyuan be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver, and those scribes who followed him also received a reward of ten taels of silver each, which made these people very happy.

After all, they belong to the clerical system in the White Dragon Army, and it is not their turn to kill the enemy in battle, and if they want to be rewarded on weekdays, there are not as many opportunities as the soldiers.

And through this incident, the scribes also realized their importance, as long as they do a good job, they will still be no less than the soldiers.

This is undoubtedly a great stimulus for some local literati who have just joined the White Dragon Army, making them more motivated.

Li Zixiao also felt the lack of people under him, and among the existing personnel who can be regarded as scribes, only Qian Guangyuan has a meritorious reputation, so he is a showman.

Most of the rest of the so-called scribes can only be regarded as having read a few books and knowing words when they were children, and some of them are children, but most of them are not even children.

And the lack of literati also played a role in hindering the advancement of many things in the White Dragon Army.

They prefer to use force to solve problems, and in civil affairs, force can only be regarded as an auxiliary role.

If you rely too much on force, sometimes good things will be done badly.

Therefore, after Li Zixiao made a round of inspections, he began to have a headache about this matter again.

Now he only occupies such a small amount of territory, and the demand for scribes is not too much, but in the future, he will occupy more territory and strengthen his strength.

If there are only such a few scribes, then it will definitely be a serious obstacle to the development of their White Dragon Army in the future.

In this regard, Li Zixiao has the intention to recruit more readers to join his team, but this point is still out of reach for him at present.

After all, his White Dragon Army is still not well-known in this world, and he is still a little famous in Henan.

Scholars are not like ordinary homeless people, they will do it with you if they give them food, and the vision of readers is much longer-term.

More often than not, it depends on the size of your fame and the space for future development.

Don't expect him to shake up Li Zixiao's body, Wang Ba's anger will explode, and it will attract a lot of people to run to him and bow down.

Without strength, before he became famous, if he wanted to recruit more scribes for his use, it was basically impossible.

With the wounded soldiers of the White Dragon Army, they served as the fort chiefs of various villages and towns, which temporarily alleviated the lack of officials under Li Zixiao to a certain extent.

After all, their loyalty to Li Zixiao is higher, on the one hand, they can stabilize the morale of the army, and on the other hand, they can control the place, on the surface, they can count in one fell swoop.

But this is not a long-term solution, after all, those retired wounded soldiers of the White Dragon Army are basically rough people, and they are simply powerless in dealing with civil affairs.

In the end, Li Zixiao thought about it, he still had to use the Ming Dynasty, which was a general, and compared to cultivating his own scholars, it was the fastest to collect a group of scribes from the current Ming court.

This is also one of the reasons why Li Zixiao wanted to return to the imperial court, at this time, even if the Ming court was rotten, there were still many civil officials who were loyal to it.

Li Zixiao is under the banner of Daming, and it is easy to attract the favor of a group of civil officials, temporarily let them work for him, and when his power rises in the future, the boys in the youth camp in his hands will grow up.

If those people are willing to be loyal to him and continue to serve him, he can continue to use them, and if not, then let them bow down and make room for their loyal subordinates.

This is also the current solution set by Li Zixiao to solve the shortage of subordinates.