In mid-July, the most important food crop is sown locally, and upland rice begins to ripen in abundance. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoCalifornia is an important upland rice growing area in North America, which is more suitable for cultivation than wheat, and the rice varieties used are all excellent varieties, and there are no twists and turns in the cultivation and growth process, so it has high hopes from the public.

The planting area of upland rice has reached as much as 30,000 mu in the entire California region, which is the highest planting area of 50,000 mu of cultivated land cultivated this year. The maturity of 30,000 acres of upland rice forced the cabinet to launch another battle to harvest the rice, mobilizing all members to start harvesting rice.

The reason why the rice harvest is so eager is because the local upland rice production is very satisfactory to the people, and they are ready to plant late rice after the harvest. Under the conditions of intensive cultivation and chemical fertilizer put into use, the yield of upland rice in California has reached 1,200 catties per mu, although there is still a gap compared with the super rice yield of 800 kilograms in later generations, but compared with the rice yield in East Asia and Southeast Asia in the same era, it has exceeded a lot.

California's hydrothermal conditions are relatively good, and it can achieve two crops a year, and 30,000 mu of rice in one season can produce 18,000 tons of grain, but it is not enough for more than 100,000 people to eat a year. Therefore, after the early rice is harvested, planting a batch of late rice will produce enough rice for Californians in a year, and there will be a large surplus.

Similarly, the high yield of rice and its fact that it is one of the staple foods of the Chinese people also make California focus on rice cultivation in the next large-scale reclamation. Millions of acres of land can still be developed around Los Angeles, and tens of millions of acres of land can be cultivated in the oily central valley if fully cultivated. In addition, the Salinas Valley near Chu City can reclaim more than one million pieces of land. At the beginning, some people said that California is the land of abundance on the west coast of North America, but it is not an exaggeration.

The arable land here is enough to feed hundreds of millions of people, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people in a few colonies now.

After the early rice harvest, almost all the staples in the canteen began to be transformed, and barrels of fragrant rice were served to everyone. What makes all the pot-bellied people who usually shout that they can't get enough to eat is that all kinds of canteens are now starting to supply extra food, and if the food within the quota is not enough, then people can spend money to buy a general meal ticket for the canteen to buy extra food.

Basically, pot-bellied men will ask for a serving of extra rice and pour it over the vegetable soup in the cafeteria, and this meal will be much more substantial.

In the summer and fall, corn, soybeans, potatoes and sweet potatoes ripen one after another, filling the granary in Los Angeles, and the large amount of grain harvested made the construction team have to build a large number of granaries to hold this year's new crop. Due to the high surplus of grain, it is also possible for grain to enter the market for circulation.

Then, in September, the first crop of California's local wheat matured. Although these wheat ears are not too much, and the overall situation can even be said to be low-yielding, after all, this is the first season of planting, and the use of wheat varieties that are completely unsuitable for the local climate and water and soil is used, it is satisfying to be able to produce a certain amount of output.

In the end, the average yield of 8,000 mu of wheat was 300 catties, and it brought more than 2,000 tons of grain output to Datang, although the quantity was relatively much less than rice, corn and potatoes, but flour is the most important staple food of the Chinese people after all, and it is also a necessary material for a variety of cooking.

This season, the Department of Agriculture organized farms to start planting winter wheat, after all, California has high heat, and spring wheat is not suitable for planting, so winter wheat is more suitable. At the same time, the rotation of corn and other crops has also begun, and the goal of the Ministry of Agriculture is to maximize the use of existing cultivated land, and strive to reclaim 200,000 mu of new cultivated land next year, and at the same time promote agricultural mechanization under the condition of the smooth development of the iron and steel industry, petrochemical industry, and automobile industry.

This year, as the first year of crossing the crowd to California, everything is in the stage of creation, and agricultural reclamation is also facing many difficulties, from site selection to the construction of farmland and water conservancy, and then to the seeds of various crops are also very scarce, so 50,000 acres of cultivated land in half a year is already the limit that can be reclaimed. In the second half of the year, late rice is sown in July, and winter wheat is planted after September, and in addition to the original farmland, plus the five commune farms that have been built in California's Central Valley, the cultivated land area of the Tang Republic can reach 80,000 mu.

Even, the ambitious Xue Yue had already shouted the slogan of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1775 to increase the newly cultivated land of Datang by 200,000 mu, although this goal is not unachievable, but it is obvious that it is necessary to continue to mobilize a large number of laborers to complete this arduous task. Liang Zhenhai, Minister of Industry, has already begun to complain about this, and the two agricultural production battles have drained the labor force of several large industrial enterprises, which has caused several important projects in his hands to be postponed to a certain extent.

In particular, the production of Eagle Mountain Iron and Steel has entered a critical period, all the plant equipment has been installed and commissioned, the blast furnace has been erected, and the first furnace of steel will be completed in the near future, so that a series of industrial manufactured products will enter the production stage. The first oil well drilled by Datang Petrochemical Company has been producing oil for a long time, and now Datang Petrochemical Company is waiting for Yingshan Iron and Steel to build its own distillation equipment to refine asphalt, diesel and gasoline.

The two major ministries of industry and agriculture have evolved into a situation of biting each other, and the phenomenon of competition for labor is gradually escalating.

"I didn't expect that we had a population of 130,000, and we later recruited a lot of Indian labor in California, but there was a labor shortage so soon." Zhao Daling took out the tea jar and found that there were not many tea leaves, so he poured it into the tea jar a little, and felt that it was too much, so he reluctantly poured it back a little.

Bai Nan made tea for Zhao Daling, put down the kettle, and said: "Everyone has their own division of labor, some industries are still relatively easy, but such as the Ministry of Agriculture, it is determined to make California a land of fish and rice, and the Ministry of Industry wants to go to that after this, what steel, petroleum, chemical, machinery, automobiles, none of them want to put down, and naturally the demand for labor has risen to a certain level." ”

Zhao Daling smiled bitterly: "But Xue Yue and Liang Zhenhai are not wrong, we have a bumper grain yield, we can feed more people, and we don't have to worry about food shortages anymore; Only after the completion of a series of industries such as iron and steel can we really become an industrial power and be invincible in the face of Western powers. ”

"No agriculture is unstable, no work is not strong, no business is not rich. This sentence can be regarded as a wise saying, none of our three fulcrums can lack legs. In fact, if the primary and secondary industries develop rapidly, then we will soon find that the consumption power within Datang is simply not enough to digest hundreds of thousands of tons of grain and various industrial manufactured products, so we have to open up our own markets like the Western powers in the era of the industrial revolution. Bai Nan expressed his opinion.

Zhao Daling sighed and said: "Spain is estimated that there will be no reply to us within the year, and our border negotiations with Spain are still a protracted war." Moreover, colonial governors like Baccarelli, with their strong protectionism, will definitely restrict our products from entering their colonies. And what other options do we have? The Thirteen Colonies to the East are preparing for independence, and the British and Dutch don't seem to have the capacity to help us with the surplus. ”

With a smile, Bai Nan picked up the globe on Zhao Daling's desk, turned around, and then designated a place, saying, "This is our way out." ”

Zhao Daling saw that Bai Nan was referring to the location of China.

Bai Nan continued: "Our lack of labor can be transported from the Qing Dynasty to a large number of laborers, in the nineteenth century, a large number of Chinese went to Nanyang to seek a living, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese came to North America to work, laundry, and repair railroads. For most Chinese, the relocation of the land is a serious defect in the development of living space for the farming people in the mainland, but the Hakka people are constantly expanding outward. They moved from the north to the south thousands of years ago, and later expanded to the whole world, and if we can provide good conditions, I believe that we can attract a large number of Hakka people to live in Datang. ”

Zhao Daling glanced at Bai Nan and said with a smile: "Do you still think that although Qingguo is a small peasant economy, after all, it has a population of 300 million, and there is a certain demand for all kinds of products we produce, which can provide a sufficient market for our own goods." ”

Bai Nan smiled and nodded admittedly: "Exactly." ”

"So, have you ever thought that we are not facing the open-minded China of the Tang and Song dynasties, but the corrupt, conservative and xenophobic Qing Dynasty? The emigration of the Chinese and the marketing of foreign goods in China are true, but it all happened after the doors of China were opened, and the Western powers humiliated the rulers of the money rat tail with their strong ships and cannons, and then allowed their merchant ships to dock in Chinese ports and sell their goods in China. Then the current Qing State is still in a relatively strong national strength, and do we really want to be like the British, bombard Humen, and then fight an opium war, and become the invaders of our motherland? ”

Bai Nan touched his nose a little embarrassed and said, "If necessary, a war against the Qing State is not impossible to fight." ”

Zhao Daling wiped his forehead and said, "You really plan to fight with the Qing Dynasty, why don't you want us, a population of 130,000 and 3,000 soldiers, to directly overthrow the Qing Dynasty?" ”

Bai Nan said again: "Maybe it can really be done." ”

Zhao Daling looked at Bai Nan's serious appearance and said, "Aren't you really crazy, kid." ”

Bai Nan raised his hand and said, "First, we have weapons that are hundreds of years more advanced than the Qing army, and we also have relevant information about the Qing army's guards; Second, the backward organizational form and temperament of the Qing Dynasty made it impossible for us to overthrow it in one go, but only to slowly encroach on it, and continue to nourish ourselves first; Third, we are Han Chinese, and this article alone is already very important. ”