"Crazy robbery?! Huanqing, you're joking. Without roads, how can fertilizer be transported in on dirt roads alone? Do you know how much it costs to manpower? Three cents of silver per kilometer per ton. Fertilizer from Shanghai is transported to villages on the banks of the river and outside the railway, and it is thankful that the price of fertilizer is not doubled. Take a look at the Hanyang Iron Works, because the coke has to be transported from Pingxiang, which is still a railway and waterway, and the price of coke to the factory has tripled. Fifty or twenty-one tons, leaving the river and railway, can walk up to 300 kilometers, and further down, the cost will be more expensive than the increased grain. What's the point of spending more money on fertilizer than money to increase food? Yang Rui said.

Unexpectedly, there were traffic restrictions, Tao Chengzhang fully understood the significance of transportation facilitation at this time, but he still didn't give up, and said at the moment: "In addition to railways and water transportation, there are always carts, wheelbarrows or something, right?" It's not that it's all about manpower. ”

"A big car needs a big road, and the cost of a big car is one-third of what a man can carry, you can't drive a big car anywhere, right?" Yang Rui took out the previous report of the Ministry of Transportation from Wen Jiàn, and said, "If there is no money for the river railway?" Do you know how much it costs to transport supplies across the country every year now? Eight hundred million taels. After the construction of the transportation network, the cost of the same transportation volume will only be one-third, which can save 500 million taels, and the logistics time is shorter, which can reduce the interest on the goods by more than one month [Note 1]. Your ammonium sulfate fertilizer is too inefficient, which makes it very expensive to transport. Let me ask you, what about urea, why don't you use it, and that fertilizer effect is good? ”

"Urea is good, I've wanted to use it for a long time. Its nitrogen content is more than twice that of ammonium sulfate, and one pound can increase the income of seven pounds of grain, and one acre of land can go down to twenty pounds. Then do a good job in the management of water and fertilizer officials, and increase the income of grain per mu by more than 150 catties. But. This urea is not easy to produce, and the price is higher than the sky. Production is also insufficient. The engineer of the fertilizer plant said that the balance of the reaction could not be grasped, the conversion rate was low, and the energy consumption was high; There is also a saying that the production of urea equipment is very corroded, and it is not good to use stainless steel, anyway, I think he means that within ten or twenty years, this urea still don't think about it. Tao Chengzhang said.

I can't imagine that urea, which is common in later generations, is so difficult to deliver? Yang Rui meditated in his heart, and he suddenly remembered that there was a novel, which said that there was a big deal of chemical fertilizer after the change. Does this mean that urea will not be used until decades later?

Thinking about this, Tao Chengzhang said again: "Isn't this transportation department clamoring to build a highway, when will their highway be completed?" ”

"It's early. The total investment of the highway is 1.8 billion taels of silver, and you Tao Huanqing will give the money? Yang Rui gave him an angry look. I was worried that the Ministry of Transportation would grab funds, but now I know the benefits of the Ministry of Transportation. "Revitalizing agriculture is a systematic project, not that it would be nice to have chemical fertilizers. How do you get fertilizer in? How to use chemical fertilizers correctly and reduce the pollution of water resources to the environment? With chemical fertilizer, how to store and transport grain production to ensure that farmers increase production and income? With chemical fertilizer, how to fit in with the world grain market, a variety of money-making goods, and a less-than-money-losing goods? With fertilizers, how to adapt to the global climate. Avoiding the world's catastrophic weather – Huanqing, do you really think it's crazy for me to have people measure the water temperature in the ocean in Ecuador and Peru? ”

Although the Ministry of Agriculture is also in charge of fishing, there is a group of people who are far away in South America, and those people are not going to fish. Rather, it is to measure the temperature of the water. Tao Chengzhang couldn't understand what he was doing at first, and he didn't have a result when he asked Yang Rui, but he didn't want Yang Rui to say so now. He couldn't help but speculate: "Does this mean that the water temperature will be a sign of natural disasters?" ”

"Pretty much. The warm and cold currents of the South Pacific can alter the traditional equatorial currents and southeast trade winds. The global climate is abnormal, and our country is among them. Yang Rui said indifferently about the El Niño phenomenon. Back then, he made some money selling fruits. Of course, he only paid attention to El Niño at that time to judge whether it was a warm winter or a cold winter: in warm winters, people go to the supermarket more often and eat more fruit, while in cold winters people eat less; The second year of the warm winter will definitely be a warm spring, and the fruit is not resistant to storage, has a high rot rate, and is likely to change its flavor; The cold winter is the next year is the cold spring, and the general room temperature storage can be shipped safely in Qingming, which is combined with the output of the production area, the market volume, and the stock in the hand, so when it should be shipped is very clear.

Yang Rui recalled the previous fruit business experience and was slightly distracted, here although he said that he was the prime minister of a country, he always felt that it was not as interesting as selling fruit at the beginning. The most important thing is that all the money earned from selling fruits is his own, with the sorrows and joys of little people; But now, no matter how well this country is built, it is not his private property, and the most important thing is that he not only can't find anyone to share his joy and loss, but also has to be a great man in front of everyone.

Yang Rui was reminiscing about the past, and Tao Chengzhang was recalling the report of the Climate Prediction Department of the Disaster Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Then, then, how much money can the Ministry of Agriculture allocate next year?" Tao Chengzhang asked with a little weakness.

"Let's take disaster prevention and mitigation first. The budget of the Ministry of Soil has already been taken out, and with the planting of trees, it is about 120 million. The Ministry of Industry is trying to find a way to suppress cement prices, with the goal of reducing them to 2 Chinese yuan per barrel, which will reduce the cost of dam repair, water conservancy and dam construction. Don't worry if there is a famine in the past few years, isn't the Ministry of Transport going to build roads, you also have to build water conservancy, and the Ministry of Soil wants to plant trees, and these victims can use work for relief to further reduce the cost of road repair. Yang Rui said.

"As for the walk-behind tractor, it is possible to implement agricultural machinery subsidies, but the price can only be pressed to about 100 taels, otherwise how to supply diesel, as well as mechanics, drivers, these have to wait for technical school graduates to operate, ordinary farmers who understand this? Therefore, the walk-behind tractor can go to the countryside first, but the main purpose is only for display, not to replace the supplementary cattle. If you want a cheap tractor, you can go to the two diesel engine factories, especially the one in Taiyuan, they are new factories, they have the experience of Tonghua plant, their cost is lower, and they are the counterpart of the country. You go and talk to the engineers there about how much this walk-behind tractor can ultimately be reduced, they always know better than I do.

Pumps can be customized according to your requirements 100,000 sets in case of drought, but remember to pay attention to management and not to increase the existing saline-alkali land area. If you count other improved varieties for research or something, you can give 100 million taels to the Ministry of Agriculture first. ”

100 million plus the previous 12,000 taels. That's 220 million, which is 20 million less than the walk-behind tractor. Tao Chengzhang, who felt at a loss, said: "As for the construction of the fertilizer plant, even if the road is not repaired, many places cannot use chemical fertilizer, but now the synthetic ammonia plant is only enough for 200 tons of fertilizer, which is too little, and the annual output in recent years has been at least 5 million tons." ”

"Five million tons?" Yang Rui was a little confused about whether this was more or less, but he knew that last year's total grain output was more than 14,000 tons [Note 2], and the 5 million tons of ammonium sulfate multiplied by the fertilizer efficiency of 3.13 would increase the grain output by 15 million tons, or 10 percent of the national output, which is not very much. Immediately, he said: "Then how much will it cost you to build another 3 million tons of fertilizer plant?" ”

"Instead of building another 3 million tons of fertilizer plants, it is a 5 million tons of fertilizer plants, and now we only have 500,000 tons of synthetic ammonia plants, and there is no sulfuric acid plant that can 1.4 million tons of ammonium sulfate as a supporting plant. The 3 million tons of fertilizer plant must be built in its entirety, and the other 2 million tons of fertilizer must be supplemented by 1.4 million tons of sulfuric acid plant. Tao Chengzhang said, "The budget of the Ministry of Labor of the 100,000-ton fertilizer plant is 1.5 million taels, and 3 million tons will cost 45 million taels; Another 1.4 million tons of sulfuric acid plants will cost about 15 million. That adds up to 60 million taels. [note 3:]

"Sixty million taels?" Yang Rui didn't feel expensive about this, but after thinking about it, he said: "Sixty million taels can be given to you, but." In the future, there will be no more such money, and in the future, if you want to build a fertilizer plant of 50 million tons, it will only be through the operating income of the existing fertilizer company. Or it can be built through social donations, and it no longer has anything to do with the government. ”

I didn't expect Yang Rui to kick things away like this. When Tao Chengzhang was thinking about whether he should ask for more money, Yang Rui said again: "There is more." Fertilizer factories are also under the jurisdiction of the State-owned Enterprise Committee under the Inspectorate of Doubts, and are state-owned enterprises that are responsible for their own profits and losses and independently accounting, and the Ministry of Agriculture is at most a shareholder, not a higher-level department, and cannot replace market decision-making with administrative orders. ”

There is a large number of committees under the Inspectorate of Doubts, and although those members are illiterate, the service department of the Inspectorate can provide all kinds of paperwork to serve them, and the strong and talented of these people have become the chairmen of various committees, and they can be regarded as real masters for a while. Among them, the state-owned enterprise committee is the most powerful committee, chairman Xiong Chengji was born in the new army, joined the revival association in his early years, and is considered an old member, in response to the uprising in Hangzhou, he also wanted to lead the uprising, but the secrecy was not strict, and he had to flee after failure.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was elected as a member of the Inspector's Yuan, and last year he became the chairman of the state-owned enterprise committee at the behest of Yang Rui. He is a military attaché, capable and decisive, as soon as he came to power, he cracked down on corruption within state-owned enterprises and pulled out a lot of rats; And he was not from the big faction of the Revival Society, and he was not merciful to those rats, and all of them were sent to the Inspectorate. If the Ministry of Agriculture builds a fertilizer plant, then according to the rules, it has no control over the company, and he has to go through the state-owned enterprise committee to adjust the strategy of the fertilizer company.

"Okay, 60 million is 60 million." Tao Chengzhang said, and after finishing speaking, he smiled again, "This adds up to 280 million, and you become a brother, you can make up the total, count 300 million taels." ”

"The budget can be initially set at 300 million taels, but you have to give me a detailed and feasible report. Also, in the future, the fertilizer factory will be the rich man of your Ministry of Agriculture, and if you want money, ask the fertilizer factory, don't come to ask me. Yang Rui said.

"This ...... How does this work? Tao Chengzhang was a little flustered, who wouldn't do things, but when it came to getting money, there was only the one in the prime minister's chair. The Ministry of Agriculture is in charge of more than 300 million peasants, and there is no need for money for anything, and the fertilizer factory can not feed it.

"I'm kidding." Yang Rui said with a smile. At the moment, he said: "Have you done it, how many catties of fertilizer can be used per mu?" ”

"How many pounds?" Tao Chengzhang understood what Yang Rui wanted to ask, and recalled: "The highest yield per mu of the horticultural farm is more than 1,000 catties, but this cannot be promoted to farmers." It's not that those farmers don't know how to increase production, they know it, but they just don't have the money. Why is there no money? Some natural and man-made disasters have no money, some are due to arrears over the years, and some are renting tenants' fields and have no money to pay rent. Rent reduction is indeed useful, but rent reduction cannot make farmers rich to buy fertilizer, change farm tools, and buy cattle. ”

"What does Huanqing mean, is it not a technical problem that the yield per mu is too low?" Yang Rui asked.

"It's never a technical issue. If the farmers have money, the average yield per mu can increase by at least 30%. But how rich are they? If there is no money, there is no fertilizer, no cattle, no seeds, and the land cannot be deeply ploughed. If you don't put enough fat, where can you get a high yield. Those who don't have money can only sow a handful of seeds. Hoeing hard, and then relying on the sky to eat, how can this mu yield be high? Tao Chengzhang said hatefully, "In fact, in the final analysis, it is just one word, that is, poverty!" The poorer you are, the less money you have, and the poorer you are. ”

"What if you don't have to pay rent? How much better is the situation for farmers? Yang Rui asked Li Zilong outside to change Tao Chengzhang with a cup of tea, wanting to knock on some land reform matters.

"Don't pay rent?" Tao Chengzhang was slightly surprised, and then said, "How can you not pay the rent?" Isn't it always a rent cut? ”

"In the end, reducing the rent is equivalent to not paying the rent." Yang Rui disguised. "What happens if farmers don't pay rent? Will they have the money to buy fertilizer and cattle? ”

"At least you can buy more fertilizer, but as I just said, fertilizer has a lot to do with transportation, and it is not good to exceed how many kilometers is ammonium sulfate. The reason why most of the soybean cakes in the Northeast are imported into Japan is not only that Japanese farmers can afford to buy them, but also because the price of soybean cakes is low after they are shipped into Japan. Tao Chengzhang said. But it is still too slow not to pay the rent, and if each household can borrow them thirty taels of silver, the money will be invested in the fields, and the rent should not be paid. This yield will soon come up. ”

"Thirty taels? Two taels per acre of land, 2.5 billion in the country? Yang Rui averaged it and came up with an unbelievable total amount.

"yes. Two and a half billion taels. With these two and five hundred thousand taels, the road will be repaired. Then the yield per mu can increase rapidly, and then the whole agriculture enters a virtuous circle. Tao Chengzhang said, "The 400 million acres of tenant land." A lot of the yield per mu is below the average yield per mu, and now pay 20% of the rent. That is, more than 30 catties per mu, worth five or six dollars of silver. No rent is paid now. That would only allow the peasants to eat a few more bowls of rice and buy a few feet of cloth, especially the lazy and wooden tenants, who would not think of saving up their money and investing it in the fields. There are also those semi-tenant farmers, who are poor whether they pay rent or not, and these people are not much less than tenant farmers. ”

Yang Rui never thought that Tao Chengzhang thought that there was always a reason why tenants became tenants. He was silent for a moment and then said, "Have you all heard that the European war can make a lot of money?" Why is it that the first opening to ask for money is 20000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 ”

"It's... It's something that doesn't happen at all. Tao Chengzhang was a little embarrassed, and then took a sip of tea and said: "Then please ask Brother Cheng to give the Ministry of Agriculture an approval of 300 million taels first." There's still something going on in my department, so I'll leave first. ”

Tao Chengzhang didn't ask for a lot of money, and when he got a little bit, Yang Rui smiled when he saw this: "Okay." It's gone in the morning, and you can go back. Eh......, by the way, didn't you say that there is a locust plague in Anhui Province, go to the Air Force Headquarters, they may have some solutions. ”

"Air Force Command?" Tao Chengzhang was puzzled, could the plane kill the locusts.

"If you are told to go, it will always have some effect." Yang Rui glanced at him, and then served tea to the guests.

Seeing this, Tao Chengzhang got up and said goodbye, but he didn't understand what was going on when he went outside, and the waiters Chen Zhenxian and Kang Youheng, who were waiting with him, saw that he was so distracted, and asked eagerly: "Huanqing, the prime minister didn't agree to that amount?" ”

"Ahh No, no, no, only agreed to 300 million taels. Tao Chengzhang's words were a little confused, and he said the number under his tongue.

"Ahh Three hundred million taels! Chen Zhenxian was overjoyed. This doctorate in agriculture, who graduated from the University of California in the early years, felt that the Ministry of Agriculture had to spend money everywhere, but there was no money anywhere, and now it suddenly had 300 million taels, and he was suddenly happy, and said with a smile: "When will this money be allocated?" ”

"Ah, this money, I didn't ask about it." Tao Chengzhang said: "I don't have such a draft, and I still asked for 500 million, if it weren't for the friendship in the early years, I would have been blasted out by the prime minister." You're going to give me bad ideas. ”

500 million taels is just a mouthful, I don't want to go to 300 million taels now, the two people who came up with the idea are happy, Kang Youheng said: "Brother Huanqing, if you don't open your mouth now, then when the money for the European war is finished by other ministries, then it's too late for us to cry, there are many students in the school department, and there are many roads in the transportation department, which one is not a bottomless pit." ”

"Alright, alright, don't talk about it. Let's go to the Air Force Command first, the prime minister said that maybe the Air Force will have a way to deal with the locust plague in Anhui. Tao Chengzhang said, and he turned to the coachman, "Go to the Air Force Command." ”

"It's ....... This is...... What are you going to do? "The two doctors of agriculture were a little dumbfounded when they heard that they were going to the Air Force Command, could it be that they were going to send airplanes and airships to fight autumn locusts?

The two were puzzled. But he had to rush to the Air Force Headquarters with Tao Chengzhang. When the group arrived at the entrance of the Air Force Headquarters, they just said that they were from the Ministry of Agriculture. The guards let the carriage in. Before they got off the carriage, Air Force Commander Pan Shizhong and Political Commissar Shan Yunian came out, and after the two saluted, Pan Shizhong said: "Lord Tao, the prime minister has issued an order, as long as the local officials and agricultural technicians can point out the locust dense area and the moment of excavation, our department can spray pesticides to wipe them all!" ”

Pan Shizhong is simply fighting. In fact, this aircraft is not a new topic to exterminate locusts, and when they were secretly training in Yanzhou earlier, they targeted the locust plague in Yanzhou. Some staff officers proposed to use aircraft spraying to exterminate locusts. The General Staff thought that this was not a proper business, but the prime minister thought it was feasible and specially explored a set of methods. This aircraft is especially suitable for torpedo bomber pilots, because the aircraft spraying locusts must fly low, generally at a height of three to five meters, and at this altitude, you must be careful of trees, houses and other obstacles. Torpedo planes are already low-flying, and it is necessary to pay special attention to the firepower of enemy ships and choose the correct angle of entry, which is the most suitable for them to do.

"This. Commander Pan, there are a lot of locusts now, when will your army be ready? Tao Chengzhang heard that there was such a method, and he was eager at the moment. A locust is said to have to eat half a catty of grain in its lifetime, and Anhui is a poor place, so if those locusts are allowed to eat. Then this year's disaster relief is going to be there again.

"As long as the local airport in Anhui can be found, the airport will be ready for pesticides. That force can be dispatched today. Pan Shizhong said while accompanying Tao Chengzhang and a few people inside, because of military secrets. It is not good for him to introduce that the Air Force has a set of tactics for spraying poison gas at low altitudes, otherwise in such a short period of time, where would the troops find spraying containers.

"Really?" Tao Chengzhang looked at Pan Shizhong's epaulettes, his eyes were a little red, but the locust plague was urgent, and he didn't want to go to the headquarters to sit and talk.

"There is no joke in the army." Pan Shizhong stopped and said decisively. "As long as there is an airport for landing, someone can prepare pesticides to help load them on the plane, and then inform whether the locusts have been unearthed, and point out the dense location of the unearthed locusts, then the rest is the matter of the troops, and the extermination of locusts is not a problem!"

Hearing that Pan Shizhong was so sure, Tao Chengzhang immediately turned around and walked away, just when Pan Shizhong didn't know what he was going to do, Tao Chengzhang, who had walked a few steps, suddenly stopped and looked at Pan Shizhong deeply, and then said, "I'll arrange it immediately." By the way, what airport do you want, can the threshing floor do? ”

Unexpectedly, it was an urgent child, Pan Shizhong and Shan Yunian both smiled, and Shan Yunian said: "Just a flat grass." The length should be at least 200 meters, and 300 meters is the best. ”

"I see, I see!" Tao Chengzhang shouted twice, and as he spoke, he ran into the carriage, and only threw the stunned Chen Zhenxian and Kang Youheng at the Air Force Headquarters.

At noon, several encrypted wireless messages were sent from the Air Force Command and the General Staff to the East China Theater Command, various airfields, and the Anhui Provincial Governor's Yamen. Cheng Dequan, who was transferred from the governor of Jiangsu to the governor of Anhui, heard that the master had finished reading the telegram, but he was still confused, so he only waited for the master to cough clearly, he closed the folding fan, grabbed his head and wrinkled his face: "It's not a joke." The extermination of locusts by airplanes is simply a miracle in the world! ”

"My lord, this telegram is from the Taiwei Mansion, signed by Lieutenant General Pei Shoutong of the General Staff, and it will never be a joke." The master hadn't spoken yet, but the head of the communications section of the provincial government spoke first.

Bei Shoutong and that Xu Jingxi are Japanese evil stars, they burned the military port to lead the Japanese army into Gu, and then cut off their back roads, gathered and annihilated them, and won the key to the art of war. As soon as Cheng Dequan heard Bei Shoutong's name, he bounced up from the chair, waved a paper fan and said loudly: "Quick! Fast! Immediately follow the instructions in the telegram, and let the county orders and agricultural technicians report the disaster situation and prepare the airport. ”

He ordered so, and the chief of the communications section and the master hurried out, but when they walked to the door, Cheng Dequan shouted again, "Ah, come back, come back." I ask you, how many people are coming from this air force? ”

"Back to my lord, I said that each county will send eight planes, and if it is the disaster area, then 16 planes can be sent." The Chief of Communications replied.

"That's good, that's good." Cheng Dequan knew that there were only two people on each plane, so he breathed a sigh of relief at the moment and said: "Let the counties treat them well, and there must be no mistakes!" (To be continued......)

PS: Note 1: Cambridge History of the Republic of China, p107

Note 2: Perkins, Agricultural Development in China, p266-289, the average grain production from 1914 to 1919 was 283,300 million catties, or 141.65 million tons

Note 3: The cost and ton cost of ammonium sulfate plant refer to Zou Bingwen in "Yongli Sulfate Plant Construction Process", excluding the depreciation of currency value and the profits of the American nitrogen company, etc., and the estimated cost of ammonium sulfate plant is 1.5 million taels.