A population of 376 is the foundation of the struggle for hegemony

(Today's chapter is presented, yesterday's subscription broke thousand, to fulfill the promise, today's addition, this is the first chapter to be presented, and there will be a change in the evening!) ）

This official stood up and scolded, which startled Zhang Laohan a lot, and he almost knelt down with his head bowed.

Li Zixiao frowned, glared at the person who came out to scold Zhang Laohan, his face was gloomy as water.

Qiu Guangming saw that Li Zixiao's face was not good, and he knew that his reckless subordinate was not long-sighted, and at this time he stood up and scolded this old farmer, wouldn't it be a shame to refute Li Zixiao's face!

Although to be honest, Qiu Guangming didn't believe much in what this old farmer said in his heart, but he wouldn't stand up and scold him like this.

So, Qiu Guangming immediately coughed lightly, and shouted to the subordinate official: "Presumptuous, don't give me a retreat!" ”

The short-tempered official was scolded by Qiu Guangming like this, and he also realized that he had said the wrong thing, and hurriedly apologized to Li Zixiao.

Then, he stepped aside, but his eyes were still slowly disdainful.

Qian Guangyuan knew more about the inside story, and at this time, he stood up and asked Zhang Laohan: "Could it be that Uncle Zhang said that the yield per mu is a thousand catties."

Is it the one that the general asked you to try planting in White Snake Village last year, which the general called 'sweet potato' and 'corn'? ”

Zhang Laohan was scolded by the impatient official just now, and was taken aback, fortunately Li Zixiao was there, otherwise he would have knelt and kowtowed.

Now seeing Qian Guangyuan come forward to ask him, Zhang Laohan hurriedly bowed down and nodded again and again: "Exactly, exactly!" The crop with a yield of 1,000 catties per mu is what the general called 'sweet potato'.

Xiao Lao'er really didn't dare to talk nonsense, last year, Xiao Lao'er was ordered by the general to open up a piece of land, and brought some people to serve these two things.

The thing called 'corn', the yield is average, the yield of one mu is about two or three stones, but it is still much stronger than sorghum, and the yield is okay.

But you don't believe it, this sweet potato is really amazing.

Last year, according to the general's idea, Xiao Lao'er bred a batch of seedlings in batches, and then planted them in batches, planting a total of ten acres of land.

Last autumn, Xiao Lao'er actually dug out more than 2,000 catties of sweet potatoes on a piece of land!

Don't say that you adults don't believe it, even Xiao Lao'er didn't dare to believe it at the beginning, and almost thought that he was mistaken, and people went through the scales several times before they believed that they were not wrong.

Xiao Lao'er swears by the lives of the twenty-five members of my Zhang family, and I will never dare to deceive you adults and generals.

If there is a little falsehood, the general can cut off the heads of Xiao Lao'er's entire family, and Xiao Lao'er will never complain. ”

Everyone present was taken aback after hearing Zhang Laohan's last gambling curse and oath.

This is a guarantee for the lives of the whole family! I'm afraid it's not true, no one dares to do that.

Maybe this old man Zhang really didn't lie to them, there are really crops in this world, and if you plant it, you can produce thousands of catties of grain for one acre of land!

Let's look at Li Zixiao sitting in his seat at this time, looking calm, drinking tea, not in a hurry, quietly listening to Uncle Zhang.

Qiu Guangming is also a smart person, and he has long understood Li Zixiao's methods and shrewdness, he doesn't believe that Li Zixiao will be deceived by an old farmer.

That is to say, in fact, before them, Li Zixiao already knew and confirmed that this kind of crop with a yield of 1,000 catties per mu was true.

Otherwise, he would not have mobilized the crowd today and recruited most of the civil officials in Xuzhou.

Not only Qiu Guangming, but also the other officials in the hall at this time, some of them may be greedy and some are sexual, but most of them are not fools who can achieve their position.

Of course, they could guess this, and the men immediately looked ecstatic, and began to talk in whispers.

If this is true, as long as this kind of sweet potato is popularized and planted on a large scale, the grain produced by one acre of land can feed several more people in a year.

Now in the whole of Xuzhou, the person who is really in charge of the house, a discerning person can naturally see who it is.

In other words, as long as Li Zixiao is willing, the whole of Xuzhou can be planted with that kind of crop, so are you afraid that you will have no food to eat in the future?

So after hearing the news, everyone felt a lot more relaxed and laughed heartily.

Li Zixiao raised his hand, stopped the ecstasy of Qian Guangyuan and the others, and said with a smile: "Don't be too happy, although this kind of sweet potato yield is very high."

But it is also under the careful care of Uncle Zhang that the yield is so high.

If it weren't for his intensive cultivation and careful care, it would not be easy to achieve a yield of more than 2,000 catties per mu!

But I estimate that as long as the water and fertilizer keep up, under normal circumstances, sweet potatoes can yield 1,800 catties per mu, and there is no problem.

What's even more valuable is that after this thing is planted, it is relatively drought tolerant and does not use too much water for irrigation, which allows us to worry about too little rain.

And sweet potatoes are useful all over the body, whether it is stems or leaves, any livestock can eat, it is the best disaster relief food we have at the moment!

But there is another problem, this kind of sweet potato is not too many roots at present, and we only harvested less than 10,000 catties of roots last year.

It's impossible to plant everywhere at once, but as long as it is planted this year, we can spread out and plant it in our territory after next year, and then we will really not be short of food!

Of course, we can't forget about corn, which is also relatively drought tolerant, does not pick soil, and the yield is not high at present.

But at least it is much higher than the yield of sorghum and corn.

At present, we have stored more than 1,000 catties of seeds, and we will plant them together this year, and we also know that we are vigorously promoting. ”

The crowd nodded their heads, but some had never heard of or seen such a thing as sweet potatoes or corn.

So he asked Li Zixiao what these two things looked like, and if he could let them see them.

Li Zixiao had already thought of this, and had already asked people to prepare it below, and specially steamed a few plates of sweet potatoes for them and sent them to the hall for everyone to taste.

Everyone scrambled to pick up the steamed, hot sweet potatoes, and broke them in their mouths.

After chewing for a while, someone immediately exclaimed, "It's delicious, this thing actually tastes sweet." ”

Other people are not used to this taste, but fortunately, this sweet potato does not have a strange taste, but it can be basically accepted.

In a year like this, being able to eat a full meal is already the greatest enjoyment, and as for the taste, people really don't have much pursuit.

"General, with this sweet potato, it will benefit the people of the world, and the general's merits are immeasurable." Qiu Guangming also took a bite of sweet potatoes at this time, and slapped Li Zixiao on the back.

After Li Zixiao heard this, he just smiled, was he really so kind?

The answer is no, he wants to promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes and corn, indeed to feed more people, but it is only limited to the people on his territory.

Because after the sweet potato is popularized, he will restrict the outflow of sweet potatoes, especially in Henan and other places, and will never let it fall into Li Zicheng's hands.

When the time comes, sweet potatoes will become a killer weapon for him, and it will be a killer weapon against Li Zicheng and other rebellious troops.

From beginning to end, Li Zixiao's fear of Li Zicheng and other rebels far exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty, because he knew that this was a group of hungry wolves, and they would soon grow like a snowball.

And sweet potatoes were prepared by Li Zixiao in order to deal with famine and rebellion.

Of course, Qiu Guangming's sycophant is indeed right, if the sweet potato is really planted on a large scale, it can definitely feed many people.

This is really a great blessing for the displaced people who have suffered famine almost every year, and a large number of displaced people have left their homes every year.

At the same time, standing in Qiu Guangming's position, he saw further, and he believed that Li Zixiao had a great plan to take out the sweet potato at this time.

You must know that it has become more and more chaotic over the years, Qiu Guangming has long seen the weakness of the Ming Dynasty, internal and external troubles, strong enemies outside, and chaos in the army, which is a sign of the destruction of the country.

It can be said that the pill of the Ming Dynasty has been more than 200 years, and it may be an era of changing dynasties.

And in such troubled times, if you want to compete in the Central Plains, the most important thing is to have people, guns, and territory, so that you have the opportunity to dominate the world.

There is a gun, in fact, it is the army, there is a territory, of course, there is a base area, Li Zixiao seems to have both at this time.

The White Dragon Army, although the number of people is small at this time, but the Northern Expedition can already see its potential, as long as the territory, their own Xuzhou is now not someone else's territory!

And more importantly, it is the population, and the size of the population is the key to determining the hegemony of the world.

Looking at the playground during the Three Kingdoms period, with the advantage of the population under his hands, he was able to keep pressing Shu Wu, and finally the Sima family sought to win the world, which was also completed under the strong foundation of the Wei State.

It can be said that the ending of the Three Kingdoms was decided from the beginning, and the final winner must be the Wei State, which is determined by the background.

It's just that the descendants of the Cao family failed to produce another Cao Cao, so that they were finally made into a wedding dress.

The war in the era of cold weapons is compared to the population, and the larger the population, the more teams can be pulled up, the battle of Chibi, Cao Cao's alleged million army was defeated.

But in the end, Cao Cao was still able to make a comeback easily, and his territory basically did not lose much, because of what it was, that is, the population on his territory was large.

The population is large, so he can stand the toss and quickly get back into a team.

If this is replaced by Eastern Wu, if the Battle of Chibi is lost, it is estimated that the country will be destroyed directly.

Even in the era of hot weapons in World War II, the two world wars fought for the same population, but the performance of weapons accounted for a larger proportion.

Think about the most glorious battle of the Celestial Empire in later generations, millet plus rifles, and defeated the United Nations and army dominated by the strongest US imperialist at that time, but in fact, it was not piled up with human flesh.

Population is the foundation of the struggle for hegemony!

Why Li Zixiao's White Dragon Army, the 10,000 people who have been limited by him at this time, on the one hand, is because the White Dragon Army has too much expenses.

After all, the White Dragon Army is not like the chaotic army there, as long as they are given a mouthful of food, they will work for it.

Li Zixiao wants to pay his subordinates military salaries, meritorious service and rewards, and pay pensions for the dead, all of which require money.

It can be said that money is the main reason for restricting the expansion of the White Dragon Army.

At the same time, Li Zixiao's subordinates only had one county territory before, and it was actually crazy to be able to pull out nearly 10,000 such elite White Dragon soldiers.

After all, in Yongcheng County, all young people can't go to be soldiers, so who will farm and open mines!

To put it bluntly, it is because the population under his command is small, if the population is large, the taxes will be more, the money will come, and the soldiers will also come.

Therefore, Li Zixiao was preparing to promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes at this time, the first purpose was to attract the population, the second purpose was to increase taxes, the third was to better the source of soldiers, and finally to balance Li Zicheng and other rebellious troops.

If everyone could have enough to eat, who would go to join the rebellion and play with their lives, I really thought that rebellion was so easy, and it wasn't necessary to fill it with my life!

In fact, everyone understands these truths, but it is one thing to understand, and it is another thing to be able to solve them.

In a disaster-ridden year like the end of the Ming Dynasty, a large population became a burden, because if you want to feed a larger population, you have to have enough food.

If you want a population, you have to have food, but where to get food, there is really no food.

Heaven does not let people live, it does not rain every year, the crops in the field are dried up, and there is no food in the field, who can have a way, this is an unsolvable problem.

However, now Li Zixiao has solved this problem that plagues the whole Ming people, and the answer is this sweet potato.

At this time, Qiu Guangming felt more and more that he had made the right decision to serve Li Zixiao before.

Even, Qiu Guangming was impatient and wanted to promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes in Xuzhou, but when he thought of one thing, the smile on his face disappeared.

"General, this sweet potato is a good thing, but because some people don't know, if the people of Xuzhou rashly give up the wheat and corn in the past and plant sweet potatoes, most of them will not agree."

Qiu Guangming said worriedly to Li Zixiao.

"Hmph, it's not up to them to say yes or no." After listening to Qiu Guangming's words, Li Zixiao snorted coldly and said.

Of course, Li Zixiao understood the meaning of Qiu Guangming's words, and what Qiu Guangming was worried about was not the peasants, but the landlords and squires who controlled most of the land in Xuzhou.

If these guys don't agree, promoting the cultivation of sweet potatoes is simply a joke.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty was established for more than 200 years, which is a long time, and the land annexation in various places has already been very serious.

The vast majority of fertile land is in the hands of large landlords, while a small part of the barren land is distributed among the peasants.

Like Xuzhou at this time, the cultivated land registered in the entire state capital is about 12,000 mu, of which nearly 70% is controlled by the local landlord Lao Cai.

As a result, most of the peasants in Xuzhou are landless, and they can only work as tenants for the landlord's old wealth, and bear as much as 50 or 60 percent of the harsh land rent.

And the landlords and gentry who control most of the land in Xuzhou, if they don't agree to promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes, then it will be really difficult to promote sweet potatoes.

This is also what Qiu Guangming is most worried about, but at this time, when he heard Li Zixiao's murderous tone, he was directly startled.