April of the fourth year of Tianshun.

At this time, Shanxi Province, driven by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Shanxi Governor's Office, was already a booming business and trade, and merchants from all over the country were like chicken blood, and they invested silver to open workshops and shops, and the commercial goods from all over Shanxi were circulated to the surrounding provinces, even the southern provinces.

Moreover, at this time, Shanxi and Shandong were also connected, and the goods and merchants of the two provinces exchanged goods and helped each other, and now they are advancing and retreating together, and they are rich and noble.

With the support of the Shanxi Governor's Mansion and the Shandong Town General Military Office, the merchants of the two provinces can be said to have made great strides in development, and Shanxi and Shandong have become the provinces with the best business environment in the entire Ming Dynasty.

With such an environment, the harvest under Liu Juntao's command is also growing like a fly.

Today, Liu Juntao's income is divided into two parts, one part is the Shandong Town Governor's Mansion, and the other is the industry under the Shanxi Governor's Mansion.

Last year alone, that is, the situation of Tianshun in the third year and one year, the Shanxi Governor's Mansion and the Shandong Town Commander's Mansion received more than 8.9 million taels of silver, which is not counting the silver absorbed by the "financial industry" such as the Yushan ticket number!

It can be said that Liu Juntao at this time is already a rich country, and it can even be said that he is today's Ming Shen Wansan!

This is only one side of the money, and the situation of the Ministry of Civil Affairs is also very gratifying.

Last year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs harvested a total of 670,000 stone of grain and grass, if the Tiance Army encounters a war in the future, even if it does not get the supply of the imperial court, the soldiers of the Tiance Army can fight for a year and a half, and they can continue to fight indefinitely, after all, at this time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has reclaimed a very considerable number of farms, and the annual grain output can be said to be in the forefront of the Ming Dynasty.

In the past year or so, Liu Juntao has also rectified the soldiers and horses in Shanxi Province, and although the combat effectiveness of the garrisons in various parts of Shanxi has improved, it still cannot reach the level of the Tiance Army.

However, at this time, the combat strength of the garrisons in various parts of Shanxi Province was far stronger than before, and it can be said that it has greatly improved.

At the same time, Liu Juntao successively established two new military bureaus in Datong Town and Taiyuan Fucheng, and now they are also beginning to produce.

And because Liu Juntao had a lot of money and food in his hands at this time, and the funds and manpower invested were far better than before, the output of the Datong Military Bureau and the Taiyuan Military Bureau was more than twice as high as that of the original Yushan Military Bureau.

Seeing that various affairs had been regularized, Liu Juntao was ready to start expanding the army.

At this time, whether it was the officers and men of the Tiance Army stationed in Shanxi or the soldiers of the Tiance Army who stayed in Shandong, they were insufficient in terms of troops, so it was still necessary to expand the army.

It's just that Liu Juntao still hasn't thought clearly about whether this expansion is directly building a few new armies, or expanding the strength of the original army, so this expansion is still in the planning stage.

Military caution is needed, but economically it is necessary to move forward.

While planning to expand the army, Liu Juntao had already begun to prepare for the implementation of the large farm plan in the Monan area, north of Datong Town.

Liu Juntao planned to unite with merchants from Shanxi, Shandong and other places to set up a large area of tuntian fields in the Monan region, or to open animal husbandry farms, which would not only accumulate grain and grass for the soldiers of the Tiance Army and the soldiers of Shanxi and other nine-border areas, but also allow the merchants from all over the country to make profits, settle a large number of people, completely occupy the Monan region, and suppress the scope of activities of the Tatar department.

Of course, such a plan still needs such a powerful force as the Tiance Army as a guarantee before it can finally be realized.

Not to mention the military tun of the military department and the civil tun of the civil ministry at this time, it is the future of businessmen from all over the country to carry out business tun and immigrate tun, and all kinds of equipment required are massive, especially good equipment such as cocoon cars, water wheels, and cylinder cars, which can be said to be in short supply.

Of course, the use of these equipment requires abundant financial resources, although a large waterwheel developed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs has a daily irrigation capacity of 300 acres, but the cost of a waterwheel is as high as more than 100 taels, and idlers cannot afford to use it at all.

Even many keel waterwheels used by the people, although the daily water can be irrigated by ten to twenty acres, but the cost of a waterwheel also needs more than ten taels, and many ordinary people can't afford to build it. Generally, several households share a waterwheel. Country landlord gentry. There are often profits from renting out water wheels.

In addition, there are advanced agricultural tools such as coupling ploughs and cocoon carts, especially columbian carts, which can complete ditching, sowing, soil covering and other affairs at the same time, and also ensure that the row spacing and plant spacing are consistent, and in terms of efficiency, they can also be planted at least one hectare a day, which is still the case of using cattle.

Such an advanced seeding machine was actually invented by Su Duwei Zhao Guo as early as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but it has been used scarcely in the Central Plains dynasties, why? It's too expensive! The cost is too high.

This is one of the reasons why ancient technology was difficult to promote.

Moreover, advanced equipment often brings unemployment to some people.

Liu Juntao still remembers that in later generations, during the Industrial Revolution, there were often cases of workers destroying machines in Britain. It's a conundrum.

However, for the current Shanxi Governor's Office, Liu Juntao still chooses production efficiency.

At this time, orders for all kinds of waterwheel factories in Shanxi and Shandong soared, and the factory owners desperately recruited craftsmen, although most of the orders placed at present were the military and officials of the Shanxi Governor's Mansion and the Shandong Town General Military Office, but there were also some businessmen who were ready to engage in business ahead of their time, and were ready to order large waterwheels, columbs and other things.

Even some of the gentry who had the financial resources and were ready to emigrate to the outside of Cyprus were also ready to buy these equipment.

This is a courtyard, not far from the mountain col in the southwestern suburbs of Datong Town, the hall is full of books, and Wu Shixun, an intermediate researcher, wears glasses and writes and draws on hard paper with a pencil.

The paper pattern is a kind of machinery, a bit like a cocoon car, but it is not, the original carpenter Wu Shixun has now entered the research and development department of the military department to hold important positions, and they also have a resounding title: researcher.

I heard that this name was personally set by Ning Beibo and Liu Juntao.

Wu Shixun was originally a carpenter plasterer, and of course his main research was in the direction of machinery making and urban construction.

According to what Old Man Wu said, this is really a matter of honoring the ancestors, he is about to enter the ground, but he didn't expect that there will be a day when he will become an official and have a similar title of literati.

Unconsciously, Wu Shixun has been in the military department for more than a year, and his beard and hair are completely gray, but he is still energetic and has endless energy.

At this time, Wu Shixun was also considered to be living a wealthy life, at the beginning Liu Juntao let the benefits to the people, some unimportant factories were subcontracted to the people, at that time Wu Shixun and his children opened a waterwheel factory, now the waterwheel factory business is prosperous, has become one of the famous factories in Datong Town, Shanxi.

With no worries about food and clothing, and being in an important position, with a generous salary, Wu Shixun didn't have much other thoughts, just thinking about whether he could leave a name in history one day, just like Su Duwei Zhao Guo, he invented the columbian car and became famous through the ages.

At this time, this courtyard was used by some researchers from the R&D Department of the Military Department, each of whom was tinkering with something they were interested in.

Adjacent to Wu Shixun's compound is a middle-aged fat man named Long Kun, who is also an intermediate researcher, and he has been doing some earthworms all day long.

"No, no, although the wheat can be harvested, it is scattered all over the ground, and it increases the ...... of labor."

Wu Shixun changed the pattern back and forth, but he was always dissatisfied.

What he wants to study is actually a kind of harvester, because Mo Nan is going to carry out large-scale development, and it is temporarily sparsely populated, there is no problem of machines and manual jobs, and it is necessary to produce more food in a short period of time, which has a strong demand for high-efficiency machinery.

According to Wu Shixun's idea, there are fast sowing crops in the world, and naturally there are also fast harvesting machines, and what he has been studying recently is this thing.

Although Wu Shixun is in the establishment of the R&D Department of the Ministry of War, he will also develop some things that the Ministry of Civil Affairs needs, which can be regarded as cooperation between departments.

Of course, all the R&D costs of these devices will be borne by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and will not occupy the R&D expenses of the Ministry of War.

Wu Shixun put down his glasses, paced out of his office, and came to the courtyard in front of him, some assistants and craftsmen were busy working on several wooden machines, looking at these machines, Wu Shixun frowned, and there were several problems at the moment.

First, after the wheat is cut, how to tidy it up and put it in baskets properly, otherwise it is better to operate it by hand if it is scattered all over the ground.

The second is the problem of efficiency, according to Wu Shixun's estimate, after this thing is completed, the harvesting speed is only twice as fast as that of manual labor.

If this thing is only twice as fast as artificial, it will definitely be difficult to promote, and the columbus can be planted one hectare a day, but because of the high price, the people are unwilling to use it, not to mention this thing, the harvesting speed must be improved.

Just how to improve it?

With troubles, Wu Shixun paced in the courtyard, and unconsciously paced to the nearby courtyard of Long Kun, the two of them were fine, and they would also visit the door, or chat and drink tea together.

When I arrived here, I saw Long Kun commanding his assistants, who were going to a damp and quiet place, constantly piling up cows, pigs, horses, chickens and other dung, as well as a large number of fruit peels and leaves, while muttering to himself, noting something in his notes.

“…… The earth dragon has a quiet habit and prefers humidity, and in winter, it is necessary to spread thick leaves and feces to avoid dying without food......"

He was so busy that he didn't notice Wu Shixun coming in.

This fat middle-aged man contributed to Liu Juntao the method of raising chickens in the pasture, as well as the method of hatching eggs in the earthen tank, which greatly developed the animal husbandry industry in Shanxi, and now he has also become the main personnel of the research and development department of the military department.

He is now studying the use of earthworms to feed chickens and ducks, because he found that the cost of raising earthworms is less, and the chickens and ducks fed are bigger and fatter, and the egg laying rate is much higher.

Moreover, earthworm feces can fatten the land, and medicine, also known as the earth dragon, can be used in medicine, which has the effects of clearing heat, suppressing convulsions, diuretic, and relieving asthma.

So for more than a year, he has been studying this earthworm.

He muttered to himself, although Wu Shixun came in, he was actually still worried about his own affairs, he looked at Long Kun in action, and he didn't seem to see it, but suddenly muttered: "What if the wheat is scattered all over the ground when it is cut?" ”

Long Kun replied inadvertently: "Use the basket." ”

Wu Shixun's eyes suddenly lit up: "That's right! ”

He hurriedly went out, Long Kun still continued to write down something in his notes, not realizing that Wu Shiyun came in and went out.

At this time, Shanxi is precisely because of Wu Shixun and other people like this, to accumulate a large amount of technology in a short period of time, under the effect of a large amount of silver, Shanxi and Shandong all over the commercial goods prosperous, the crown of the Ming!