It wasn't until the next day that they went to the wilderness to the east to learn about the situation, led by Quli Town.

Li Zhen heard that they wanted to open up a large area here, and it was strong support: "That relationship is good!" If there was labor to open up the land here, it would be very cost-effective. The imperial court has always attached great importance to the reclamation of the wasteland, and the policy of reclamation is much more generous than that of other places. Elsewhere there is no tax for three years, but here we do not collect taxes for five years. After the wasteland in other places matures, it has to be bought for one tael of silver per mu before it can become its own private ownership. We don't need it here, you only need to pay a few hundred pennies to the government to get the title deed back. ”

Hearing him say this, Xiaohu interjected in puzzlement and asked, "Since your reclamation policy here is so generous, why haven't you seen how much land come out?" ”

Li Zhen listened to Xiaohu's question, and shook his head helplessly: "It's really that the land here is too bad, you can only plant one crop a year, and the harvest is very small." There are always wild things that are in trouble, and after a long year of hard work, in the end nothing can be left behind, and those who are lazy think that it is better not to toss. ”

As soon as Erya heard this, she had some thoughts in her heart, so she turned around and asked Lizhen: "Uncle Qu!" If you pay them and ask them to come and help with the work, do you think they would be happy? ”

"Do you want to earn money? They just don't want to work in vain, but it's not really that they are lazy. It's just that this wasteland can't get a corresponding return, so they are discouraged and lazy, and they are not lazy by nature. Li Zhen wiped a cold sweat in his heart, if the family of this prefect thought that their people here were lazy, they would be ashamed to die. Ay! It seems that you have to pay attention to what you want to talk about in the future.

Er Ya smiled and nodded twice. "As long as you are willing to work, we will need quite a few people on our side, and they will be paid. Life will be better, it's better than relying on the sky to eat. ”

"Hey! Ay! Then I'll take care of you! Li Zhen thought the same thing. They are far away from the county seat and the capital city, and it is impossible for them to have the opportunity to go out and do odd jobs to earn money. There are several old people who have never been out of this col in their lives, and young people don't have the courage to go out, they are all nesting at home and guarding a few acres of land to rely on the harvest of the sky. As long as they don't starve to death, they will be able to keep it until they are old, and they will continue to do so from generation to generation. Now there is an opportunity to earn a salary. It really brings new life to the people of Qujiaao.

They walked in the northeast direction for a long time, and Erya saw a large area of pressed woods, and exclaimed in surprise: "Oh my God! How is there such a large forest here? But who planted it? ”

The town of Quli riding on a donkey. was talking to Xiaohu who was riding a horse and walking side by side with him, when he heard Erya's exclamation, he hurriedly turned his head and said loudly to Erya: "This forest is more than 20 years ago. A sericulture master from Damin Mansion opened the mountain and planted a squeezed tree. After two years, these crushed trees have grown. He brought some silkworm paper from his hometown and began to raise silkworms. It's just that I don't know what the reason is, he raised it once and died once, and he didn't raise it for three years in a row, and I heard that he lost a lot of silver. Ay! Fortunately, his family has a big business, otherwise it would have cost the life of the family!

Ahh The man took the family and left, and the forest was left here all the time, and no one cared about it. But. I don't know why, but I always feel that this forest is getting bigger and bigger. ”

The woods did not move it for a long time. Expanding outwards is a normal thing, and getting smaller and smaller is often the reason for artificially overharvesting.

It's just that it's not easy to do this forest if it is owner, "Then do they have a land deed for this forest?" ”

Quli Town thought for a while, then nodded and replied: "The title deed is really done, at that time, I was also in charge of the town here, or I personally did the errands." ”

That's it! Erya was thinking about whether she was going to send someone over to find that person to buy this forest, and then invite a few masters who raised silkworms to come over and study it? But! Erya remembered that Xiaolong is now an official, and he casually buys other people's woods, if he is framed by his political enemies in the future, saying that his own brother will force him to buy other people's forests with his younger brother as an official and not be unjustly panicked? Thinking of this, Erya shook her head, let's put it down! I didn't buy it, but such a large piece of squeezing trees was wasted in vain, but it made her feel uneasy.

Think of a way to make this forest squeeze useful, but it can't affect Xiaolong to be an official, and his own family will also benefit. Well, this one! You have to use your brain to figure it out!

Xiaohu Erya and his entourage rode horses, but unfortunately Quli Town rode on donkeys, and this speed was pulled down. Even if there are some low places or similar places that should be brushed over, but now I have to follow the little donkey to kick slowly.

Of course, Erya won't just walk, she is still thinking about it. There are actually several inland rivers here, and it is not a place of severe water shortage. It's just that these small rivers are in very low depressions, and the flat land that can be cultivated is on high slopes. This requires water from the lower places to be diverted from the higher places, and it is not easy to use it for irrigation here. The key to this is that the soil quality here is different, and I don't know if I can dig a ditch and build a ditch like I did in my hometown, and directly bring water from the lower places to the top, and then flow through the ditch to everywhere. She was afraid that this small ditch would not be carried into a big deep ditch by the water flow in the end, and it would destroy the original terrain and cause more mudslides.

She was thinking very intrigued as she followed the horse's buttocks. Suddenly, Qu Lizhen said in a loud voice: "Wang Jiaxian's nephew! Do you see the mountain to the north in front of you? ”

Xiaohu looked in the direction of Qu Lizhen's finger, nodded and replied, "I see!" What does Uncle Qu have to say? ”

"Yes! I just want to tell you that the mountain is not to be cultivated all the way down to the flat land below the mountain, and there is a big water col at the other side of the mountain, and when it rains heavily, there is a big water rushing down from the halfway up the mountain, and the mountain soil collapses several times a year. If you farm there and work hard for a year, you really won't be able to leave anything in the end! ”

When others heard this, their brows were furrowed, but Erya was overjoyed when they heard this. If the water from the water col is diverted to the crop field by means of cement pipes, it will not destroy the ground vegetation. Won't it cause sediment loss?! And you don't have to go through the hassle of finding someone to make a water wheel. It would be easier if you could dig a ditch directly to divert water into the ground.

In order to know if your idea is feasible, it is interesting to know what previous examples of success or failure in water conservancy projects have been made. She asked Qu Lizhen bluntly: "Uncle Qu!" Where do you use water for irrigation? Have any aqueducts been built? ”

Qu Lizhen replied with a bitter face: "Why haven't you repaired it?!" Even if you fix it, it's not very useful. When it rains, there will be water in the river. If it doesn't rain, the river will dry up in just a few days. At the beginning of spring, when water is needed for irrigation, there is also no water in the river, and the dry mud and sand can fly when the wind blows. If we really want to talk about it here, it's actually relying on heaven! ”

Er Ya nodded subconsciously. Their family's harvest is so low, but it makes sense, this is really a harvest from the sky, but it can only get a little bit of income. But. This situation also made her feel that it is really difficult to open up the land here, whether it is to transport water from the low places to the high places with water trucks, or to use cement pipes to send the water from the mountainside to various places, but all good methods without water are in vain.

"Then the big water col you are talking about. In the spring. But it's just as dry? Have you ever gone up there to check it out? ”

Quli Town was stunned, when there was a shortage of water in spring ploughing, they really didn't want to go to those places to see if there was water. I only thought that it would always rain on this day, so I waited for it to rain before sowing seeds.

He was stunned and replied embarrassedly: "Usually when there is a shortage of water in spring, we don't even think about going up to see if there is water. However, we went up there during the great drought that year. But it was dry at that time, and there was no water at all. ”

"Oh! I know! Thank you, uncle. "Erya is a little deflated. I thought I would have to wait until spring to go up and see for myself. It is better to have water, but without water, they can only find a way to bring water from the big river a little farther away, and they must not rely on the sky to harvest it like them. If you don't get more returns, then there is no need to waste money and waste money to open up the wasteland here.

At noon, the children who followed them hunted several hares and pheasants, and because it was inconvenient to carry an iron stove on horseback, they had to set up a fire to barbecue. Qu Lizhen picked up a pheasant and roasted it around in a fashionable manner, while looking at the novelty, watching the Wang family take out a jar of this, a jar of that from the huge backpack from time to time, and then brush on the hare and pheasant. I couldn't help but ask: "What are you plastering and sprinkling?" ”

Er Ya handed the hare, which had been sprinkled with various spices in his hand, to Xiaohu, and motioned for him to change it to Quli Town. While answering a question from Quli Town: "This is a special seasoning for barbecue, including chili powder from the south, salt mixed with peppercorn powder, cumin powder from the grassland in the north, soybean paste and hot sauce made by ourselves." With these seasonings, this barbecue tastes delicious! You'll know after you've eaten it! ”

Qu Lizhen smelled the fragrance that had been baked, and began to nod his head, and kept saying, "This is really fragrant!" It's not cooked yet, so I want to take a bite! Huh"

Xiaohu hurriedly handed a pheasant that had been roasted in his hand to Li Zhen: "Uncle eat this, this is cooked!" I'm tired of you following us for most of the day, so I can only entertain you with this, I'm really sorry! ”

"Oops! The virtuous nephew said this, but it was a foreign way! The virtuous nephew and daughter-in-law bought so much cotton and cotton cloth for the winter for every family in the col, and we were too late to be grateful, so we thought of a chance to reciprocate. I've done such a little thing, it's really not worth being a good nephew to keep talking about!

Besides, uncle, me! It's like the meat of pheasants and hares, which is not so easy to eat. It's all thanks to you, so that the uncle can eat twice in a short period of time, which is beautiful in my heart! Qu Lizhen said happily, and in order to confirm that he was telling the truth, he tore a big bite of chicken thigh meat at the chicken thigh, and then chewed it beautifully, nodded incessantly, and said vaguely: "It tastes so delicious!" It's much better than your aunt's cooking! ”

"Uncle feels good to eat, I'm happy here! Take a sip of tea and moisten your throat! Otherwise, the pepper chokes his throat! Xiaohu said that he used the boiling water that Erya had boiled in a copper bowl in advance, took a bamboo cup to brew tea leaves, and handed it to Quli Town. (To be continued.) )

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