Dong Ce's idea was to find a substitute, and that was sweet potatoes. The high yield of sweet potatoes is known all over the world.

And sweet potatoes are different from other crops, with very high starch content and sugar, and can be eaten as a staple dry food. Dong Ce's mother's generation, when they were young, basically ate the nest head of dried sweet potato, at that time, most people ate the nest head of dried sweet potato, and the more particular thing was to eat stick noodles, that is, cornmeal.

Dong Ce also ate dried sweet potatoes a few times when he was a child, and the first meal was so sweet that it could greasy to death, and it was fragrant, soft and sweet in one mouth, and it felt like eating a mouthful of sugar. It's just one meal, and the second one is hard enough to kill people.

But these are not important, people in this era, being able to eat a bite of dried sweet potato is definitely the greatest happiness in life.

In Dong Ce's impression, sweet potatoes and corn should have been introduced to China before the Chongzhen Dynasty, but they should not have been widely promoted.

In his previous life, he even saw such a statement on the Internet - if sweet potatoes could be promoted twenty years earlier, the Ming Dynasty might not die.

Not to mention this, but the population of the whip dynasty after the Ming Dynasty was able to increase from about 50 or 60 million in the early years of Kangxi to more than 300 million in the last years of Qianlong more than a hundred years later.

So as soon as Dong Ce opened his mouth, he immediately asked about this crop with hope. In his opinion, the yield of sweet potatoes at this time is definitely not as high as those high-quality varieties that have been hybridized many times in later generations, but two or three thousand catties should be there, right?

Unexpectedly, after he finished speaking, several people looked at each other, and none of them spoke.

"Why, don't you know or don't dare to say?" Dong Ce smiled slightly: "But it's okay to say it, it's okay to say it, this official has a reward." ”

A few men looked at it, and an older man, who looked to be in his forties, kowtowed, and said respectfully: "What the old man said is a sweet potato?" ”

"Yes, it should be called sweet potatoes at this time!" Dong Ce high-fived: "Do you know?" ”

"I know, I used to plant it." The man glanced at Dong Ce, his expression was very strange, and he hesitated: "But that thing, the yield is very low, and the tuber at the bottom is the size of a child's fist." ”

Dong Ce only felt his heart sink and asked, "Very low?" How low can it be? ”

A thousand pounds? Five hundred pounds? It can't be any lower! That's one-thirtieth of what the future generations produced.

The old farmer saw that Dong Ce's face was not good-looking, and he was suddenly frightened, and after saying these words, he seemed to suddenly realize how bold the words he had just said were at this moment, and he was so frightened that he kowtowed again and again, and his head made a noise on the bluestone ground.

"Speak quickly!" He was in a hurry to get on fire here, but he didn't say anything over there, and the angry Dong Ce slapped the armrest fiercely and shouted angrily.

The old farmer shouted with a crying voice: "The old man spares his life, the old man spares his life, and the yield is less than one stone per acre......

"Not even a stone?"

Dong Ce is almost petrified, and in later generations, he can produce 10,000 catties of sweet potatoes per mu, but at this time, he can only produce 100 catties per acre? What is the rationale for this?

On the other hand, Wang Tong lowered his voice and said: "Xu is not accustomed to water and soil, and it is highly productive in other places, but it may not be suitable for us." According to the old people, in the Wanli year, sweet potatoes were also promoted in Shanxi, but unfortunately the yield was extremely low, and the government forcibly apportioned them, and the people suffered heavy losses, almost causing a civil uprising. ”

Bai Zhongqi, the scribe who moved a table on Dong Ce's left hand side and sat in the back as a meeting record, also interjected: "If you are born in Huainan, you will be orange, and if you are born in Huaibei, you will be orange." ”

Dong Ce glared at him angrily.

He thought about it now

He only knew that the yield of sweet potatoes was extremely high and fed countless people all over the world, but he ignored two points - variety and water and soil.

The variety is poor, cold and dry without light, it is strange that it can produce high in such an environment, and it is good if it does not rot in the ground!

"This damn Xiaoice era!" Dong Ce scolded fiercely in his heart.

He decided to put the sweet potato matter aside for the time being, but when the temperature rises next year, the sweet potato must be planted, anyway, relying on the two rivers, at least irrigation can be guaranteed.

"Where's the corn?"

Dong Ce asked again, corn has also been introduced to China at this time, and it has been cultivated for decades.

The answer was still extremely disappointing to Dong Ce, at this time, the yield of corn was not as good as wheat, and corn was also a moisture-loving crop.

In the end, it was concluded that the only crop that could be planted with wheat, and that it was still in time for the crop, was that wheat would be the only crop that could bear fruit before the start of summer next year. Otherwise, by the next year, when the grain is gone, the grain in the field will not be able to come down, and everyone will be hungry.

Dong Ce knows the yield of wheat, and the best watered land is only about one stone per acre, and most of them are on the left.

According to the estimates of these old farmers, Wang Tong, Wang Yu and others, with black soil and good irrigation conditions, the yield per mu should be able to reach about one stone and two buckets, but it should not exceed two hundred and thirty catties.

"Is there any way to increase production?" Dong Ce asked.

"It's nothing more than fertilizing, weeding frequently, loosening the soil, and watering frequently...... Wang Tong shook his head: "If you want to increase the yield, it's very difficult." ”

Several people also said the same, and Dong Ce gave up. There is no industrial fertilizer at this time, how can we fertilize the fields with that little human and animal manure?

Dong Ce waved his hand and let the people retreat

"One acre of grain is counted as one stone, and a soldier has to carry out high-intensity drills every day, march, and even fight, and at the end of a year, he has to consume seven stones of grain. But not only soldiers, but also their families, according to 1,000 soldiers, then it is 1,000 households. If there are five people in a household, it is the scale of 5,000 people, and 5,000 people are 20,000 stone of grain in a year. That's 20,000 acres of land! ”

"And there are also war horses, ploughing cattle and other big animals to eat, as well as pigs, donkeys, sheep, mules, chickens, ducks, geese, these must be eaten. After a year, I am afraid that it will take a lot. Shi Jin reminded on the side.

Dong Ce nodded: "We have a lot of war horses and a lot of big livestock, so let's calculate it according to three thousand stones a year." ”

"And the grains." Zhou Bodao: "According to the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty, one hectare of land has six stone grains, and one acre of land is six liters. ”

Speaking of this, I couldn't help but sigh.

"What is this?" Dong Ce smiled faintly: "Since there is no way to increase production, then let's open up the wasteland!" To expand the area of cultivated land, what is the purpose of buying ploughshares for ploughing oxen and ploughshares? What are the displaced people recruited for? Don't you have to use them a lot? ”

He turned his head to look at Wang Tong: "How many acres of land can we carve out?" ”

Wang Tong said with a smile: "Our place is as big as possible, and it is very open, I am afraid that 100,000 acres can be opened." Just around the city, at least 20,000 acres of land can be opened. ”

Dong Ce nodded when he heard this.

He is not afraid that the people will not be able to keep busy - the people of China have never been afraid of having more land, but they are afraid of no land. At the beginning of the reform of the Northern Qi Dynasty, under the system of equalizing the field, a husband was granted 80 acres of open land and 40 acres of women. Ding Niu is a 60 acres of land. The uniform land system of the Northern Zhou Dynasty even stipulated: married Ding men were granted 140 acres of land, unmarried Ding men were granted 100 acres of land, and there was another homestead land, but there was no mulberry land.

In fact, the hardest thing about farming is to carry water to irrigate the land, as long as the irrigation conditions can keep up, there is no problem at all for a household of 100 acres.

Dong Ce instructed: "First reclaim the location north of the Huanshui River and west of the Gan River, reclaim all the surrounding areas of the city and then develop outward, and then the agricultural reclamation will be your errand." ”

Wang Tong hurriedly responded, knelt down and kowtowed to receive the order.

Next, Dong Ce asked Wang Yu about the day's fishing.

is just the opposite of growing food, but the fishing side has given Dong Ce very good news.

Wang Yu said happily: "My lord, we caught five hundred catties of fish today. ”

"Oh?" Dong Ce finally heard a piece of good news and asked, "How many people have you used?" ”

"Thirty men." Wang Yu said.

"According to the current 500 catties, it will be close to 200,000 catties in a year, which can feed a large part of the people." Dong Ce seemed to be talking to himself.

"What if you were given three hundred?" Dong Ce said: "Isn't it enough to eat just by eating fish?" ”