When he woke up the next day, Tang Zheng stretched his waist, his body crackled, fortunately, this body was still growing, otherwise he would be semi-crippled with his current height. After breakfast, Tang Zheng took Cheng Ying out again, and prepared to take a look at the wasteland today.

Coming to the small hillside where Tang Zheng often stays by the river, there is a lush weed around, fortunately, there are no big trees are some bushes, if it is reclaimed, it is estimated that there are seventy or eighty acres, Tang Zheng found that ancient people rarely planted crops in the soil, they were all planted in the fields, just like a lot of soil here is barren and no one comes to open up the wasteland. Tang Zheng also asked Cheng Grandpa, and his old man's answer was that it was not easy to plant in the soil and irrigate, and the harvest was not as good as in the field. Tang Zheng looked at Grandpa Cheng speechlessly, what is the harvest is not better than in the field, Tang Zheng remembered that in later generations, wheat was generally planted in the soil, and there was a danger of flooding when planted in the field. Tang Zheng walked around and watered here, it shouldn't be difficult to water, how convenient it is to directly carry water from the river to irrigate, Tang Zheng wrote down this place, and walked towards other places. was busy until noon, and Tang Zheng took Cheng Ying home.

When I returned home, I found that the yard was very lively today, and there were many people discussing something. Grandpa Cheng saw Tang Zheng coming back and hurriedly called him to the hall, and when Tang Zheng arrived in the hall, he saw that there were still a few old people inside. Tang Zheng stepped forward and saluted Grandpa Cheng, and then gave a junior salute to everyone. At this time, Grandpa Cheng pointed to one of the old men who was fifty-seven or eighteen years old and introduced to Tang Zheng: "This is the old man's third brother Cheng Zijun, your name is the third grandfather." Then he pointed to an old man who was fifty-two or thirteen years old; This is the old man's fourth brother Cheng Shuhao, your name is the fourth grandfather. He pointed to the chubby old man among them and said, "This is Han Tong, your name is Grandpa Han." Pointing to a tall and thin man, "This is Wang Tong, your name is Grandpa Wang." Then he pointed to Tang Zheng and said to everyone: "This is what the old man told you that the young man who was rescued by my grandson is named Tang Zheng." The head was injured and I forgot what happened before, and now I have adopted him as a godgrandson, and Demou is a sworn brother. ”。 Tang Zheng saluted everyone again, then turned to Grandpa Cheng and asked, "Did something happen to Grandpa?" Why is everyone at home today? "Usually, few people from the Cheng family come, even Grandpa Cheng's two brothers rarely come and go, so Tang Zheng asked.

"The imperial court has raised the summer tax again this year, and if this tax continues to rise every year, how will the people below live." Grandpa Cheng said. "Yes, this tax is rising every year, and in the past few years, the sky has not been beautiful, and the harvest is low every year by drought, and if this continues, everyone will have no way to live." Among them, the chubby Han said to Grandpa Han. "Doesn't the imperial court care about the lives and deaths of the people below?" Tang Zheng asked. "Tube? How? Now who cares about the life and death of our people in the entire imperial court, even the saint is openly selling his official beard in Xiyuan, and Zhang Rang and others rely on the emperor's favor to let their cronies fish and meat in the township. Boy, who cares about the life and death of our people? Grandpa Wang Tong said angrily. So what can you do? You can't do this in a hurry. "Isn't this a meeting for everyone to come together and discuss?" "Do you have any ideas for that?" "What can be done, only to collect the summer tax first." "That's all it can be." Everyone, you and I said it word by word. "Why don't you listen to the kid first?" At this time, Tang Zheng opened his mouth and said, and everyone turned their eyes to Tang Zheng in unison, glanced at Tang Zheng in puzzlement, and then looked at Grandpa Cheng. "Since he is already a member of our village, of course he is also qualified to ask about the affairs of the village." Grandpa Cheng opened his mouth and said, of course, he also wanted to see what Tang Zheng would say.

"The kid is thinking that since the imperial court is raising taxes every year, and the harvest in the fields is getting less and less, why don't we reclaim more wasteland, at least we can harvest more, and then find some ways to increase the harvest in the fields." "Boy, it's easy for you to say, these fields have been cultivated for thousands of years, and they are already at the same level, how to increase the yield, besides, there are only so many people in our village, and the existing ones can't be taken care of, so how can we reclaim more wasteland with extra manpower?" Han Tong glared at Tang Zheng and said. "That's what the kid thinks, since the land in the field has been cultivated for thousands of years and is already barren, why don't we think of ways to improve the fertility of the field and increase the yield of food, and since we don't have enough manpower in our village, why don't we recruit some displaced people to farm for us?" "So what do you mean by improving the fertility of the field? As for the recruitment of displaced people, we will talk about it later. "According to the boy's observation, the grass grows more luxuriantly in those places where there is livestock manure than in other places, I wonder if you have noticed?" Since the manure of livestock can make the grass grow luxuriantly, why don't we gather them and apply them to the field, so that the farmers can also grow luxuriantly, and thus increase the grain production. "In the previous life, when Tang Zheng was young, his family was in the countryside, and at that time there were very few chemical fertilizers, and people rarely used chemical fertilizers, basically using livestock manure to fertilize the fields. So in this era when there is no chemical fertilizer, Tang Zheng's first thought is to use livestock manure to fertilize the field, by the way, this chemical fertilizer has another name called organic fertilizer. "Food is grown for people to eat, how can you use those dirty things to grow food for people to eat." Wang Tong opened his mouth and interrupted Tang Zheng's words. "Grandpa Wang, you can't say that, all things are born to follow the principle of a causal cycle, just like insects eat grass, and then birds eat insects, and birds are eaten by something, or they die and turn into feces, or the corpses fall on the ground, and finally grow grass and are eaten by insects, and insects are eaten by birds, and so on, which is actually the same as the fact that we use livestock manure to irrigate food." "There is some truth to this, but no one has ever planted something important like this, which affects the output of food, and I don't know how many people will go hungry." At this time, Han Tong Han said to Grandpa Han. "The road is made by people, and if you don't try it, how do you know that it is not feasible. If it succeeds, how many people's stomach problems can be solved. Tang Zheng said to everyone. A good road is walked by people, people who are dozens of years old and no teenager can see it, how will you know the result if you don't try, and expect the grain to bear on its own. ”

At this time, Grandpa Cheng spoke. "That's it, Tang Boy will sort out a specific plan first, let everyone try it first, it's about to be planted in the autumn, just let everyone give it a try, if the effect is good, it will be done next year." "Grandpa Cheng can also clean up the silt in the river, and those dead fish and shrimp rot in the silt, which is also a good fertilizer for a long time." Grandpa Cheng frowned and thought for a while and said, "Okay, I'll arrange someone to clean the dredging." When the time comes, you go and point them out. "Grandpa Cheng can reclaim the barren slope by the river while everyone is still free during this time, so that there can be more arable land." "What are you doing with so much wasteland? Instead of wasting manpower, we should go to the river to clear some more silt to fertilize the fields, and it is not convenient to irrigate that place, and we don't have the extra manpower to clear the land. "Grandpa Cheng's wasteland is empty there, anyway, it's better to reclaim it and try to be more productive, the kid has some ideas in his heart that need to use some land for experiments." As for the irrigation boy, he plans to build a canal, and by the way, he will also repair the canal to other fields, so that he can save manpower to carry water, not to mention that he can't water much in a day. Tang Zheng had already planned the routes of several canals in his heart. Grandpa Cheng thought for a while before saying, "Okay, I'll let you do what you arranged, you go and make the preparations first, and then start working when the people are ready." Then Grandpa Cheng turned to the old people around him and said: "You also heard what Tang Xiaozi said just now, just do as he said, just try it, it's not a big deal if you fail, if you succeed, you think about it, everyone won't be hungry in the future." Fourth brother, let your Huzi go to the county seat tomorrow, and let him find Demou to help recruit a group of homeless people to come back. Grandpa Cheng's fourth brother nodded and agreed, and then the old people continued to discuss the details, and Tang Zheng bowed to the old people and went back to his yard.

The next day, the vigorous agricultural reform in the mountain village began, and Cheng Hu took people to the county seat early in the morning to recruit displaced people. Tang Zheng also took people to plan the route of the canal. There is no difficulty in repairing the canal to the field, as long as the route is planned and someone can dig it directly. Among them, the canal that reached the barren slope by the river was a little difficult, and the amount of work was also the largest. The main reason is that the terrain of the hillside is higher than that of the river, and the drop of this section of the river is not very large, and the river is relatively flat. If the water is diverted from the river, it can only be repaired to the bottom of the slope, so it is not convenient to carry water directly in the river. Tang Zheng mainly took people to the field survey. In this ancient world, when there was no support from various agricultural machinery, the irrigation of crops has always been carried or carried by manpower. It is time-consuming and labor-intensive, not to mention a waste of manpower, and it is a waste of manpower to trap people in the field for the rest of their lives. When Tang Zheng first came to this world, he was very helpless and always felt out of place with this world, but later the care of the Cheng family and the friendliness of the villagers made Tang Zheng slowly integrate into this big family. The reason why Tang Zheng spared no effort to find a way to increase the output of grain was just to let this group of lovely and hard-working people have a full stomach, and in the next troubled times, they would have a certain amount of self-protection and not be reduced to grass mustard.

Tang Zheng came to the slope and looked at the busy villagers around him, and smiled from the bottom of his heart. This is a group of hardworking people. Tang Zheng looked around and didn't find any good water diversion sites, although this small dirt slope was not high, but the surrounding area was very flat, and the idea of diverting water from the surroundings was also shattered. looked at the mountain on the other side of the river, it would be nice if he could build a canal from the mountain on the other side of the river, Tang Zheng was suddenly shocked by his own thoughts, why can't he build a canal from the opposite side, the river is not very deep, and the bottom of the water is basically only more than one meter, and the deepest is only two or three meters, and the river surface is not very wide, just about 5.6 zhang. Tang Zheng felt that it was feasible, and hurriedly took people to the opposite mountain to have a look.

By the time Tang Zheng arrived, more than half an hour had passed, and this side of the mountain was close to the river, so the water source in the mountain was not bad. Tang Zheng walked all the way and saw several streams. Tang Zheng looked nearby, chose a good location, and at the same time asked someone to mark it, and then went back to Grandpa Cheng to discuss whether it was feasible.