After pondering for a while, Xu Ping said to Zhao Zhen: "Your Majesty, the Central Plains grows grain, and the fertile land only produces two or three stones per year. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoIn the first year of this year, there were only more than 100 hectares of farmland, and it was good to be able to collect 20,000 or 30,000 stone of grain and rice. ”

"Everything is difficult at the beginning, there are twenty or thirty thousand stones in the first year, and there may be hundreds of thousands of stones in the second year, take your time!"

Zhao Zhen still has this concept, how much land is there in the country, how much grain is produced, and how much tax is collected, as the emperor Zhao Zhen will roughly remember this number, otherwise he will watch so many pieces every day in vain.

Yan Shu said on the side: "What Your Majesty said is that as long as the head is opened, there will be more food soon." ”

Xu Ping breathed a sigh of relief and took the opportunity to say: "In the first year, we had to tidy up the fields, dig ditches and control ditches, recruit manpower, and there was a shortage of cattle, mules, and horses and other large animals in the fields, and everything was complicated. The minister thought about it, and Zhiji Xianyuan, the crown prince Zhongyun Wang Gongchen, was originally the champion of the eighth year of the Heavenly Sage, and since last year, he has been working in the Three Divisions Regulations Partial Cultivation Institute, with a wide range of knowledge and reliable work, and can serve as the first camp and field affairs promotion. You can take the course year by year. ”

"Wang Gongchen?" Zhao Zhen pondered for a while and nodded, "It's okay, it's just that I'm younger." ”

"Your Majesty, Wang Gongchen is only two years younger than Weichen, not too young."

Xu Ping has always been an old man, and in the impression of Zhao Zhen and the ministers of the court, they have long forgotten that he is only in his twenties, and he is only regarded as an old man who has been immersed in officialdom for many years. Xu Ping said that Wang Gongchen was only two years younger than himself, and Zhao Zhen and Yan Shu suddenly understood, but they didn't think that Wang Gongchen was not young, but that Xu Ping was so young.

Zhao Zhen said: "By the way, it's been a few years since I was the champion, why haven't I heard that Wang Gongchen got married?" ”

Xu Ping said: "I heard that there has been no suitable person. ”

Zhao Zhen was deeply touched by these words, nodded and said: "The treasure of the good wife's family must indeed be chosen carefully, not hastily." ”

Yan Shu on the side smiled: "It's a coincidence, I returned to the capital, and someone just asked me to be a matchmaker for Wang Gongchen." ”

"Which one? Is it such a coincidence? ”

Zhao Zhen and Xu Ping both felt strange and looked at Yan Shu.

"Xue Shilang, a senior scholar of the palace, has five daughters, and four of them have not yet been approved. When I returned to the capital, I was specially asked to find a suitable person. Two days ago, I saw Fan Zhongyan and talked about it, and it happened that Ouyang Xiu, the pavilion proofreader, had lost his wife and was not married, and the second daughter of the Xue family promised him. There are three daughters left, I want to think about it, only Wang Gongchen is the most suitable champion in the capital, and Xue Shilang also likes it very much, but he hasn't had time to ask him what he thinks. I just said it today, isn't it providence? ”

Xue Kui was trusted by the two emperors, and he was a veteran and important minister of the dynasty, but now he is old and has asthma, and he is basically in a state of retirement. This is a real powerful family, enough to be worthy of Wang Gongchen, the champion.

Xue Kui had a son who died young, and since then, he has been a daughter one after another, and he has no way to succeed his nephew to inherit the incense. Now that he is almost seventy years old, and his four daughters have stayed at home and have not married, he is in a hurry.

In this year, when a man marries a wife, his appearance is really secondary, as long as he has a good temper and can run a family, he is a good virtuous helper. Besides, the three ladies of the Xue family may still be good-looking, but Wang Gongchen just can't take a look at it first.

Hearing that it was Xue Kui's family, Zhao Zhen slapped his hands and smiled: "This is a good family, enough to be worthy of the champion." This is the best, Wang Gongchen served in the capital and married the daughter of Xue Shilang's family, which was his blessing. ”

Xu Ping didn't interject, his concept is still a little repulsive to this kind of arranged marriage, although he himself is also arranged by his parents, but in the end, he grew up and knows the roots, which is different from this.

The matter was decided like this, Wang Gongchen served as the first camp and field affairs promotion officer, as for the marriage with the three ladies of the Xue Kui family, it depended on Yan Shu's clever mouth with a lotus tongue. It's not the first time that Yan Shu has been a matchmaker, and with experience, he will definitely be able to do it well.

After talking about the affairs of the camp and field, Zhao Zhen changed the topic, and said to Xu Ping: "A few days ago, I heard that you planted a lot of kapok in the village this year, and I also planted a few in the back garden, let's go and have a look." ”

With the opening of the camp and field affairs, Zhao Zhen was very interested in Xu Ping's grange in Zhongmu, and specifically asked Sun Qilang what was planted on the village, how many cattle and sheep, how many chickens and ducks. Some interesting species planted on Zhuangzi were also planted in the royal garden. There are still fewer plants in the back garden, and more are planted in the Yujin Garden in the south of the city.

It's not that he has Xu Ping behind his back, but he has to talk about some national affairs with Xu Ping, this kind of thing is not easy to ask, and the other ministers around him are really unwilling. Sun Qilang, a petty official who often does chores in the palace, asked just right.

Cotton has a wide range of adaptability, and Xu Ping also knows the value, but the textile tools have not been cleaned up, so he has not promoted it on a large scale. Sun Qilang's mother-in-law said that she could weave cotton cloth, but the tools she used were very primitive, and she was not competitive at all when used as a bulk commodity. Xu Ping's cotton weaving in his previous life was in a large factory, he had never seen it, and he didn't know what the ancient handmade textile tools that had become extinct at that time looked like.

There was no way, so I had to combine the original tools used by Sun Qilang's wife, plus the current tools for weaving linen and silk, and with my own knowledge of machinery, I almost made a completely new set of cotton weaving tools.

Now it has roughly taken shape, and one of the newly opened farms is specialized in textiles, and in order to provide experimental raw materials, his Zhuangzi has only begun to grow cotton on a large scale. If all goes well, it will be rolled out next year.

The wasteland in the south of Jingxi Road is an important cotton producing area in China, and when the cotton industry rises, you can go there to set up field work. With the help of cotton as a textile, the rapid take-off of the agricultural-industrial and commercial complex is truly realized.

Such a large industry is not something that one or a few can eat, and with the help of the power of the three divisions to build the industry, Xu Ping's Zhuangzi can also drink soup and eat meat. If you just want to make your Zhuangzi make this money, the industry will not be able to get up.

The industry should be done first to form an agglomeration effect, and then the competition behind it will be meaningful. The industry has not developed, so he thinks that he monopolizes the benefits, and can only make the industry to death, which Xu Ping is still very sober.

When he arrived at a sunny place, looking at the cotton field that was about half an acre small, and the cotton seedlings in the field looked a little thin, Zhao Zhen frowned and said, "This is kapok?" I don't look like it. I have heard that the kapok trees in the south are extremely tall, and the flowers bloom brightly and brilliantly, looking like the sea. This little seedling is delicate and timid, and it is not always like a big tree. ”

Xu Ping stepped forward and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, the people of Kapok Guangnan are called Jibei, and there are many kinds. Some are as tall as trees, but there are also such small ones, although they seem to be different, they are actually one of the kind. When it comes to spinning cloth, the thread of this kind of kapok is much longer, so it is not easy to break when spinning, and it is much stronger than that kind of tall kapok tree. Therefore, when it comes to spinning fabrics, it is all this kind of planting. ”

Regardless of the kapok tree, the cotton that later generations said in this era is also called kapok, and it can also grow into a tall tree in Liangguang, and the Jibeibu produced in Qiongya is used in this kind. But the varieties in Xu Pingzhuang are from Xu Ping's previous life, and the quality is excellent, far from being comparable to the kapok trees of this era. Fearing the degradation of the variety, Xu Ping also brought some cotton seeds back from Lingnan and carried out various hybridizations in the village, hoping to select better varieties.

Like many things in the world, generations of farmers are thinking about choosing the best of the best and leaving the best quality seeds. Thousands of years later, it was found that the improved species had encountered a bottleneck, and the hybrid with the original species would have a better effect, but when I turned around, I found that the original species had almost disappeared. In this era, primitive species are abundant, and Xu Ping doesn't want to waste them.

Listening to Xu Ping's introduction, Zhao Zhen looked at the cotton seedlings in the field and said: "I don't know how much cloth can be produced per mu of kapok every year, and there are also places in the palace to pay tribute to the kapok cloth every year, which is said to be more precious than silk." But with all due respect, it seems to me that kapok is much inferior to silk. ”

"Naturally, cotton cloth is now just a scarce thing, in fact, it is far inferior to silk. Judging from the situation planted in my village, cotton produces much more cloth than silk than hemp, and if it is planted well, there is a lot to be done. ”

Yan Shu said: "Xu waiting, since cotton has so many benefits, and there are seeds in your farm, why don't you scatter more for the surrounding people?" As long as there is more cloth than hemp, there will be infinite benefits when planted. ”

"It is difficult to spin and weave, compared with silk and linen, cotton yarn is not long enough, and the existing looms cannot be used. The spinning tools and weaving tools used by the Qiongya natives are extremely difficult to manipulate, not to mention, and they are easy to break, and it is not easy to form a horse. I have recruited craftsmen and are improving the spinning and weaving tools in the newly opened field, and I have already begun to see the beginning. As long as the spinning and weaving tools are made, cotton can be planted in large quantities. ”

Yan Shu and Zhao Zhen nodded and didn't say anything more. Because they didn't understand at all, they didn't even know what Xu Ping meant, and they couldn't ask at all. Anyway, I know that there are still some difficulties in cotton weaving, and at present, I can only grow it in the ground, but I can't use it on a large scale.

Xu Ping continued: "In life, what we pay attention to is food, clothing, housing and transportation, the national economy and people's livelihood, and the most important thing is nothing more than these four things. Camp the fields to grow rice and wheat, so that the people of the capital can eat and drink. If cotton can be spun smoothly into cloth, cotton will be planted on a large scale, and the people will have clothing. There is no need to worry about food and clothing, and the court will be able to sleep peacefully. ”

As for living and traveling, that is a matter of the future, to ensure that you can eat and dress, in order to have a higher pursuit. The huge interests of the scale must also come from food and clothing, and this era is not yet the time to engage in the real estate and vehicle industry.

From the opening business, to the opening of the shop, to the opening of the field, Xu Ping slowly created an economic chain including agriculture and industry under the three divisions. At first, he didn't have this idea, but as things went on step by step, he unconsciously reached this point. That's the way it is, as long as you keep doing it, there will always be miracles. (To be continued.) )