“…… Alas, this drought and locust plague came one after another. General Pen, Fun, and Pavilion www.biquge.info we discussed on the civil affairs network that it is okay to fight drought, just repair more waterwheels and dig more wells. Slowly raise manpower and material resources, and then restore the water conservancy in each city, but when it comes to controlling locusts, it is not something that can be effective overnight.

Zhang Gui, the ambassador of the Department of Civil Affairs, looked a little tired, obviously because he was anxious about the civil affairs for a while.

Yes, the control of locusts is not an overnight thing, in fact, after thousands of years of development in ancient China, how to control locusts, has a set of effective means. It is nothing more than the construction of water conservancy, large-scale reclamation and planting, afforestation, improvement of cultivation technology, control of locusts, and so on.

The above points are good to say that improving cultivation technology and controlling locusts can be said, and the remaining points require long-term operation. Moreover, Wang Dou only controls one place on the eastern road, and no matter how good his rule is, locusts can still fly from outside the country, so he must be prepared for a protracted war.

For farming, to be honest, when it comes to actual operation, Wang Niu is not as good as any official in this era. Although he has a long-term view, this view should be in line with the current actual situation, the strategy of fighting drought and locusts, and Wang Dou approved several plans in the report of the Department of Civil Affairs.

"The victims who entered the East Road were placed in a shelter as soon as possible, and monitored by medical officers to prevent them

The plague is coming.

Since last year, tens of thousands of victims have entered the East Road, and according to the plan of the Department of Civil Affairs, these victims will be sent to a land full of children in the future, and they will graze in the fields for resettlement. ”

"However, there are many people affected by the disaster, and the people are resettled, but money and food are tight."

In the face of Zhang Gui's complaints, Wang Dou rubbed his forehead, and the food problem always entangled him.

At present, there are many disasters in the big tomorrow, even if Wang Dou has a lot of silver in his hands, it is becoming more and more difficult to buy grain abroad. In recent years, the price of grain in Daming has risen terribly, a few taels, ten jl two taels of silver and a stone of grain is normal, and there is often no price in the market, no one is willing to sell, Wang Dou's hands have a lot of silver, there is a danger of becoming a waste stone.

From last winter to this year, the more than 200,000 people rescued by Wang Dou have finally been resettled, and there are dozens of beryllium Datun. The fields on the east road could not be resettled by these people, and all the barren fields in the territory were reclaimed. Wang Dou looked at the rest of Xuanfu Town.

After the construction of several neighboring sub-guard generals, as well as the coordination of Ji Shiwei, tens of thousands of people were resettled in the town to guard the South Road and the North Road. The household registration of these military households, how to distribute the harvest of the fields in the future, etc., is a good thing to do.

After settling these people, it cost Wang Dou a lot of money. Not to mention the silver, Wang Dou is not stingy with spending, but it is becoming more and more difficult to buy grain abroad, so he has to use the grain and rice in stock. He originally had 400,000 stone of grain and rice in his storehouse, but by this year, he had less than half of it.

So far, only the land with income is called by the security guards, and from the ninth year of Chongzuo to the present, there are about 400,000 mu of military land in the whole state. 60,000 or 70,000 stone of grain can be levied every year, and the Civil Affairs Department also buys some surplus grain from them every year.

Compared to the expenditure of the entire East Road, these revenues are a drop in the bucket.

From last year to this year, the new military households resettled in Baoan Acropolis, Huailaiwei, Yanqing, Yongning and other places can be regarded as reclaiming more than 1 million mu of land. However, compared with Wang Dou's future plan to divide the fields into households, each household will divide the fields into 50 mu, and the number of acres of land is still nearly one million mu.

However, the resettlement of these new military households was finally completed, which also made Wang Dou and others breathe a sigh of relief.

Now tens of thousands of victims have arrived...... The reputation of not starving to death on the East Road has become a paradise in the minds of people everywhere, and the endless stream of victims is still rushing to squeeze in......

The conscience of heaven and earth has settled more than 200,000 people, and Wang Douji has spent a lot of money.

Due to the impact of drought and locust plagues, the newly cultivated fields have only a few buckets per mu this year, barely allowing each cantonment to be self-sufficient.

Even in Baoan Prefecture, the general harvest of various fields is only a few buckets to one stone, that is, the level of 100 catties to 180 catties. If the yield of the field can be increased to five to two stones, more people can be fed.

In Wang Dou's view, this goal is still possible.

In the past few months, the Department of Civil Affairs has collected a number of agricultural books, including Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", and instructed each tun on how to farm. In addition, the stability of the East Road and the large-scale construction of water conservancy and infrastructure by the government will take various measures. In the end, the military households divided their fields into households, and there were technical guidelines, and doubling the yield per mu was not empty talk. ,

Even so, the yield of these two or three hundred catties per mu is still far from the yield of thousands of catties in later generations.

The difficulty of feeding the army and civilians under his rule made Wang Dou miss the high-yield crops of later generations. Of course, this can only be imagined, without good varieties suitable for temperature, the yield of corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and other crops at this time is not even as good as wheat.

For example, in the early years of the Republic of China, the highest yield of corn per mu in Northeast China was only 70 kilograms, and if it was early frost, the grains would not be harvested. Hong Chengchou once forcibly promoted sweet potatoes in Shaanxi and other places, and as a result, there was a popular uprising. In history, it was not until the Qianlong period a hundred years later that sweet potatoes were cultivated suitable seeds and promoted on a large scale.

In fact, the Department of Civil Affairs also took in some sweet potatoes, corn and other seeds, but they are only half

The look of dead or alive. At least for ten years, or even decades, Wang Dou should not expect these "high-yield crops" to solve his difficulties.

Increasing the yield per mu is not an overnight thing, the East Road has no land to cultivate, how to settle the new victims, Wang Dou had to set his sights on the Mantaoer and other places outside the Saiwai. Over there, there are many fields that can be cultivated and pastures for grazing.

However, it was the territory of the Outer Mongolian Division, and he would soon have to go out to fight......

Wang Dou's final plan was to lead his own army to fight at the same time as the reclamation outside the Saiwai, so as to open up living space for these victims who flowed into the eastern network.

Of course, Wang Dou is just a sub-guard general now, and this movement must not be too big, just occupy the land first. The more than 8,000 square kilometers of land can also accommodate many people, so the relevant candidates for the remaining ones on the East Road need to be cautious......

On the second day of the first month of September, a river valley was more than ten miles northwest of Yongning City.

After Yun Wangdou went to Yongning City to serve as a general, many military factories of the Shunxiang Army continued to move to Yongning, or set up branches here. Today, there are dozens or hundreds of workshops scattered along this area, and thousands of dedicated craftsmen are busy in earnest.

At this time, Wang Dou looked at the production of the gunpowder factory, and after a few years, Li Daji's gunpowder factories had been greatly developed. Many places on the East Road have set up places to collect nitrate, and these collected nitrates can be equipped with several tons of black powder every year!

This is an amazing achievement, you know, gunpowder at this time is very expensive. According to the nitrate extraction method in the volumes of Daming's "Artifact Knowledge", "Wubei Zhi" and "Tiangong Kaiwu", many places in Daming dug up nitrate, and a large amount of gray water, gelatin, egg white, radish and other substances need to be added to adsorb and remove the impurities inside.

The cost of this egg white alone is doomed to the high cost of gunpowder at this time, which is also the reason why many military leaders are reluctant to use firearms, and they cannot afford to use them because of the quality problems.

However, for Dou, the collection of pure and excellent natural nitrate from various nitrate collection sites greatly reduces the difficulty of purification, and the output goes up quickly, but it is unique in the Ming Dynasty.

Not only that, Li Zhifen's gunpowder factory has also established many sophisticated mills and sieving mills, grinding, dissolving, filtering, and drying in one machine, which greatly improves the process. The formulas of various bird gunpowder and artillery gunpowder have also tended to be perfected.

A few months ago, Li Zhifen referred to the Ming Dynasty military books such as "Wubei Zhi" and "Ji Xiao Xinshu", and according to the above formula, after the final improvement, he set the formula of the fire gun, which is 7 other gongs, 1 sulfur, and charcoal. The maximum range reached the level of the British army's gun propellant during the Opium War, that is, 250 paces.

Li Zhifen's results made Wang Dou very pleased, and the customized paper tube medicine produced according to this formula can break through heavy armor in 100 steps, which is 20 steps more lethal than the fire gun used by the original Shunxiang army. Of course, the results have come to this point, and it is impossible to develop any smokeless gunpowder in this era, and even if it is studied, the chamber pressure generated by it is beyond the resistance of the barrel of the gun.

…… If there are other places where the Ming army strictly follows the gunpowder process in strict accordance with the military books such as the "New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness", it can almost reach the level of the Shunxiang army, and break the armor in a hundred steps. At that time, the formula of the Qi family's gun propellant was nitrate 75 nai, sulfur la, and charcoal 13, and the ship, after experiments, the range was about the same as that of the British muskets during the Opium War.

However, it is obvious that in the late Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to experiment and improve it like Wang Dou. Therefore, the range and power of the Shunxiang Army's use of firearms are currently ranked first in the Ming Dynasty.

Looking at Li Zhifen, this round ball of meat stood aside with a grin, and after a few years, he seemed to be more wealthy. He devoted himself to the gunpowder factory, and I heard that in the past few months, he has also compiled artillery firing tables with Zhao Xuan and others, and he has made great contributions. ,

Wang Dou remembered that before he came to Shunxiang Fort, his whole family suffered a disaster, and after a few years, he did not remarry

・…… Steward Li, you are single, there are many inconveniences, after so many years, you should become a family

Finish.

As soon as Wang Dou said this, everyone around him looked at Li Zhifen and snickered, Li Zhifen's round face still had a smile, but a gloomy look flashed in his eyes.

He bowed deeply to Wang Dou and said: "Don't hide it from the general, the little one has known each other since he was a child with his old wife's childhood sweetheart, and after her death, the villain swore in front of the grave that he would not marry again in this life." Disappointed in the hope of the general ● villain ■■■■■■"

Wang Dou nodded silently, as if he touched some feelings in his heart, when Li Zhifen said goodbye and left, his eyes were a little red, and his steps staggered,

When Wang Dou led everyone out of the gunpowder factory, a trembling song came from within:

…… The mountain eggs bloom and knot, and the eggs are I know', :i people. Half a bowl of beans and half a bowl of rice, serve

I remembered you when I got a job......"

The singing voice was sad and choked, but it was Li Zhifen who was singing, listening to the tune, it seemed to be Shanxi Dang

The folk song of the earth.

Although the voice was out of tune, it was full of infinite feelings, Wang Dou shook his head: "I didn't expect this big meat ball to be an infatuated ......" (to be continued, if you want to know what will happen next!)