Chapter Seventy-Five: Overseas Harvest News

Now that May has passed, it is the windy season, for the sake of safety, the three distant ships come to beg less often, almost once a month in the past, but now they only come back and forth for more than two months, and they do not dare to transport people in large quantities, mainly to send some tools and necessities that Liuqiu cannot make now, such as salt. Fresh water flows into the sea next to the fresh water, so it is not a suitable salt farm, and although Zhao and Ju taught the method of drying salt (Note 1) to a few young scholars, they are still useless.

Duncan swore and swore down the road, driving several natives into the air.

Because he is familiar with the construction of the city, he is now Fang Youcai's right-hand man, but the people of Tamsui do not look down on him. Whether it is a righteous boy or a craftsman from the Red Jacket Army who moved in, he is regarded as a clown with seven points and a craftsman with three points. It was these natives, although he dared to drink and scold them, but he couldn't help them.

Once, he kicked and beat a native, and although the natives did not resist, the result was that Fang Youcai ignored his pleas and had him lashed ten lashes. The taste of this whip made of bamboo roots made Duncan tremble when he thought about it.

What saddened him the most was that the ten lashes he had had been whipped in public after gathering all the people in Tamsui and taking off his clothes in public.

"O God, these pagans and unbelievers, what barbarisms they are...... But there were benefits after that time. ”

He thought so in his heart, the reason was very simple, after being stripped naked and beaten that time, there were several native women who flattered him when they saw him, that is, the native woman in his own house who was named "Huimei" by Fang Youcai, and she did her best when serving him.

He didn't have to do his own work, he could drive others in everything, and he had more food and clothing than a prince - Duncan felt that even if he went back to Europe and got an earl to exchange with him, he would not hesitate to refuse.

With joy in his heart, he scolded the natives even more fiercely.

Carts of bricks and stones were carried by the natives to the northeast of Tamsui, where construction was underway to build the largest building in Tamsui out of bricks and what Fang Youcai called "cement." This will be the granary of Tamsui Town, and all future harvests will be sent here.

Since the craftsmen of the Red Jacket Army were sent, except for some of the urgently needed old businesses, the rest of the people were all grouped to open up the wasteland without exception, plus a few native tribes who came to invest nearby, and now there are more than 1,500 middle-aged laborers in Tamsui, more than 500 semi-laborers (teenagers in Tamsui Yixue), plus more than 50 cattle and more than 300 horses sent by the Sanyuan boat, and the fields are very fast. Fang Youcai stood under the mountainside behind Tamsui, and when he looked down, he couldn't help but have a smile on his face.

30,000 acres of paddy fields, 4,000 acres of dry fields!

If this is placed in Liangzhejiang Road, it is also a great rich man, among them, there will be a thousand acres of wealth for him, and with the pride of Dalang, seeing that he has such an achievement, he will only be rewarded more!

More than 10,000 acres of the 30,000 acres of paddy fields have been planted with rice, and although Zhao Heju has no way to make high-quality hybrid rice in later generations, he can pass on some of the experience of intensive cultivation in later generations to Yixue teenagers. Under the guidance of the young Yixue, the selection, seedling raising, and throwing of seedlings not only saved a lot of labor, but also the rice grew far better than those who planted seedlings by hand.

Fang Youcai looked at the nearest field in Tamsui Town, which was an acre of land planted by the villagers according to the old farming method, compared with the field planted according to the method of learning from the youth, the rice was not only shorter, but also had fewer ears, and even the color was lighter. Zhao En is very experienced, and often nagged in his ear, saying that the righteous boy really got the true inheritance of Dalang, looking at this appearance, the rice in the field planted with this new method is one percent more than the old method. (Note 2)

Although 10,000 acres of paddy fields can produce less grain than ripe fields because they are raw fields, it is estimated that at least 30,000 stone of grain can be obtained at the time of harvest, which is enough for 5,000 people to eat for a year.

Three-distance ships no longer have to carry food by land, which means that the number of trips to the river can be reduced during the windy summer months, and the chance of encountering storms can be reduced.

However, the bumper harvest also brought a nerve-wracking thing to Fang Youcai, that is, grain storage. The original warehouse was obviously not enough, and it happened that the young Yixue who came with the ship last time brought cement making methods, and they found a few potters, and asked which mountain had limestone from Amao, and built a vertical kiln that burned cement at the bottom of the mountain. The raw materials of cement were limestone and clay, both of which were not lacking in fresh water, and there was also an abundance of firewood in the kilns, and they soon produced cement in a ratio of three to one. With this cement, the warehouse project began quickly, and some housebuilders and carpenters quickly mastered the technique of building houses with red bricks and cement.

The use of cement soon expanded, at this time it was not yet the rice harvest season, in order to facilitate the drying of rice, Fang Youcai first used cement in the open land in Tamsui Town to build a large drying field of about one acre. It soon became clear that the concrete floor was cleaner and easier to walk on than the dirt road, and that it was the free time before the farming season, and the cement kiln was smoking day and night, and the sound of pickaxes could be heard on the limestone quarries. Truckloads of cement were pushed out and quickly turned into roads, and the wharf was also built with cement, and people with bright brains even used it to build their own houses.

This is the case with Fang Youcai's residence, he is even the first person to use cement in his residence, the summer of freshwater is very hot, and walking barefoot on the concrete floor makes him feel much more comfortable.

In early June, the heavy rice finally turned yellow, asked the patriarch of the Turen, and learned that the next few days may be sunny, after sacrificing to the god of grains, Fang Youcai ordered the sickle, and the men, women and children of the whole island without exception, all insisted on the sickle to go into battle, Duncan wanted to be lazy, but was kicked back by Fang Youcai.

The natives also grow rice, but they grow it very extensively, so when they see the Song people's large area of golden rice, they are extremely envious. Because of the abundance of goods, they lived by fishing, hunting, gathering, and extensive farming, and weaving linen for clothing, which was also considered to be worry-free. Therefore, although they envied the large rice fields of the Song people, they did not come to loot or destroy them, after all, until now, the Song people had brought them silk, porcelain and delicacies, and what they got was just some surplus land in their eyes.

When the paddy is cut down and poured into the field, the foot-operated thresher comes in handy. The structure of this thing is very simple, but because there is no precision machine tool, the roller and bearing are easily damaged. Fortunately, Zhao and Ju had already prepared for this, and the blacksmith in the Red Jacket Army did not come, so he recruited a group of more than 30 people from Lianghuai, most of whom were apprentices who had never been apprenticed.

Since Ou Laogen persuaded Ou Bama to participate in the imperial examination but failed, he understood that his family and Zhao and Ju had been tied together, although he had not signed a contract, but now he couldn't control the eldest son and second son to run to Yuzhang Villa. When Zhao and Ju sent Ou Daniu to Tamsui, they also consulted him, but he was just silent, and then accepted this fact. He knew that Fang Youcai was also in Tamsui and specially asked Ou Bama to write a letter and ask Fang Youcai to take care of Ou Da Niu.

In addition to building and repairing foot-operated strippers, they also had an important task, which was to find coal mines.

In Zhao Youju's memory, there was coal near Taipei and Keelung, but it was not suitable for mining at this time, and the proximity of fresh water to the North Pole and the convenience of inland river transportation meant that he did not even need to send people to mine it, as long as he looked for coal mines and exchanged them with silk, silk, porcelain and lacquerware (Note 3).

Ah Mao can now speak Song dialect, and the matter of exploring coal mines is very important, so Fang Youcai asked him to be a guide and led Ou Daniu and others up the river. Because I heard Ah Mao say that the natives in the flat land are more kind, and the natives in the mountains are fierce, so there are more than 20 veterans of the Red Jacket Army who put down their swords and are craftsmen, but they can pick up swords and are experienced warriors. Several other native boys who had contact with the Song people very early with Ah Mao could basically communicate with the Song people, but the Song people could not speak much of the native language, but Duncan, because the same native girl was good, could speak the native language quite fluently, so Fang Youcai handed over all the matters to him that he negotiated with the native people.

"Be careful, these paddies are our rations, and we can't waste a single grain!" Originally, Zhao Heju sent more than 1,000 sacks to be loaded with grain, but obviously these sacks were far from enough, Fang Youcai was both happy and worried, standing on the drying field all day long, looking at the dried rice, and leading the children of Tamsui Yixue to drive away the birds that came to peck greedily.

"Steward Fang, it's time for these children to go to school." Seeing that it was about to be school time, Chen Ren came to urge.

"Let's give them a holiday today and tomorrow, sunny days are rare, and now this food is the most important." There is a way to make money.

"How's that going to be!" Chen Ren's face tightened: "Steward Fang, the matter of righteousness is the top priority, Da Lang has repeatedly explained, we can't make our own decisions!" ”

"Although the matter of righteousness is the top priority, it is not the most urgent thing, they are two days late in class, they can't miss Dalang's plan, if this grain can't be harvested, but it will miss Dalang's plan!" Fang Youcai has always been extremely obedient to the righteous boy, but this time he is extremely stubborn.

"After harvesting so much grain, we can harvest twice a year, and half of this grain will be enough for us to eat until next year, why do we need to be so nervous!" Chen Ren retorted.

"Ah Ren, in the second half of the year, Da Lang doesn't know how many people will be sent from Jin Guo and Lianghuai, if 12,000 are sent, our food will be tight." Although Fang Youcai was arguing with him, he still smiled, he looked at the righteous children around him, and pulled Chen Ren aside: "Look at this island, there are excellent fields everywhere, in the past, I was afraid that there would be miasma on the island, but after coming for a year, I have never even had a small problem with headache and brain fever, think about it, the natives want so much land is useless, since we are here, then these lands are all our Zhao family, and they are deserted here, what a pity!" I'm thinking about it, after the Zhiyuan comes, I will send a letter to Da Lang, asking Da Lang to send all the red jacket troops to us for farming! ”

Although he was a carpenter, he was still a farmer's mind, and the field was everything. With the land, it is natural to hope that there will be enough manpower, Chen Ren and they were raised by the family, he didn't dare to say, but now the children of Tamsui Yixue, in his opinion, there is no need to let them go to any Yixue, it is better to let them work in the field now, so as to open a few acres of good land.

"Old Fang, what kind of calculations do you have in your heart!" Chen Ren's eyes widened, and his title was changed to a somewhat unceremonious "old fang", he was about to be angry, but looking at the children around him, he also lowered his voice: "You have only lived a good life for a few days, and you only think about the fields, Da Lang will send these children to Yixue, it will be of great use in the future, this flow is so big, I heard the local people say that it is no less than our Great Song Dynasty, can you and I manage it?" These children, who will be in charge of Da Lang in three or five years, how can they do it without reading! ”

Fang Youcai wiped his face, and although Chen Ren was not angry, he also sprayed his saliva. Fortunately, he was not such a humiliating person, he was stunned when he heard Chen Renzhi's words, and he was speechless for a while.

He now understands why Zhao Heju wants to cultivate this righteous young man, and those who have read books to see things are to see farther than what he has eaten in the past few decades. He only thought about how to open up the land, but he never thought about how to manage the land, this flow is bigger than a big mansion in the Song Dynasty, and the climate is excellent, and it will not be a problem to feed hundreds of thousands of millions of people in the future.

"Reasonable, reasonable, Ah Ren, if you hadn't said it, although I took care of the present, I delayed the future." He nodded vigorously: "The work in the field naturally can't be stopped, and it has to be stepped up, I will write to Da Lang and ask him to send more cattle and horses, we don't have enough manpower, cattle and horses will come together!" ”

The two had a small dispute, which ended in Fang Youcai giving in, Fang Youcai was not afraid of losing face, and sent those children back to the house with a smile, and saw Duncan lazily leaning against the haystack to sleep, and kicked him in the past: "Sea fang, don't be lazy!" ”

He didn't kick it hard, so Duncan was startled, but he wasn't hurt. He looked up at the sun and muttered, "Butler, it's still early, let me sleep a little longer." ”

"Hugh is going to sleep, go to your hand-holding, and ask her to bring the women of the clan to help us watch the drying field." Fang Youcai pondered for a while: "After watching the dojo for the past two days, each person will be given a piece of jewelry." ”

The native women love beauty, and they like all kinds of ornaments very much, and they originally had silk and porcelain for them to work, but later found that Duncan actually used some ordinary small jewelry to exchange for the favor of the native women, so he began to use these worthless gadgets for wages. He also deliberately asked Meng Xi to bring a lot of vocal cords, which now came in handy.

Duncan knew the price, so he was not a little interested, and Fang Youcai kicked him again, and he left in the mud.

He left with his front foot, and Fang Youcai heard someone calling him, got up and looked, and found that it was Ah Mao. Holding a piece of black coal in his hand, he ran over to Fang Youcai with a smile: "Found it, found it!" ”

Note 1: The founder of the salt drying method is Chen Yinggong, a native of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the fifth year of the Baoskirt of Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty (1257), Xie Weixin, a native of Jian'an, Fujian, compiled the book "Preparation of Ancient and Modern Things", which has the earliest record of the salt drying method.

Note 2: According to the data collected by the authors, the yield of rice throwing alone is 10.3% higher than that of hand-transplanted rice.

Note 3: Until the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the geographer and adventurer Yu Yonghe still used this method to exchange sulfur soil from the indigenous people of Taiwan to refine sulfur, and at that time, seven feet of cloth could be exchanged for a basket of sulfur soil (2780 catties)