While organizing spring ploughing, Marin did not stop transporting troops to Newcastle. The Danish pirates were already employed by Marin to launch raids on the southeast coast of England and attract the attention of the English navy. Marin's ships also began to quietly circle the North Sea, and then transport soldiers to Newcastle.

In fact, Marin could have temporarily put the 20,000 troops that were going to be shipped to England into the spring ploughing. After all, these warriors are all children of peasants, and they all work on the land.

However, the operation to seize England was of great importance. Therefore, Marin resisted this temptation and insisted on transporting the 20,000 troops to Newcastle in batches.

Because, in Ma Lin's view, there is so much food in his hands that he can't eat it now, and it is difficult to sell it, so he is forced to make wine and sell it. Therefore, the problem of spring plowing in the three newly arrived provinces is not so urgent. It's a big deal, collect less grain.

And, because the three provinces had just arrived at the end of last year, Marin had not even had time to set up large-scale fertilizer processing plants in the three new provinces of West Friesland, Bremen and Jutland. Without enough fertilizer, even if spring ploughing ploughs all the newly acquired land, the yield will not be high.

Therefore, it is not necessary to give up this year's spring ploughing for the time being and build a fertilizer processing plant first. After all, there's plenty of time right now.

The key to the fertilizer processing plant is the uniform collection and treatment of the manure – it takes several months for the smell of the manure to dissipate and make a small smell of fertilizer cake. It was then crushed and then added with phosphate rock powder from Western Sahara and potash from the Harz Mountains...... In this way, a mixed fertilizer consisting of three main fertilizers: nitrogen fertilizer (manure), phosphate fertilizer (phosphate rock powder) and potassium fertilizer (potash salt) was born......

The use of a mixture of these three main fertilizers can increase the yield of rye to four or five hundred pounds per acre, which is completely European primitive farming.

Moreover, the spring ploughing presided over by Marin is not so simple. The traditional Germanic spring ploughing consists of a light plough or a heavy Saxon plough pulled by several horses, ploughing the land, loosening the soil and then sprinkling rye seeds...... After that, pour some water and you're good to go......

If you are watering the land with good water by the big river, you may be able to irrigate it with a waterwheel (the technology of the European waterwheel is quite advanced). But if it's far from the river, then you have to rely on the sky for food...... At most, on the day of sowing rye seeds, the serfs picked up water and sprinkled it. Next, leave it alone......

Fortunately, rye's vitality is as tenacious as weeds, and it can survive like a small strong. If the wheat needs a lot of water, it is impossible to grow it far from the river.

So, in the current German region, rye is the mainstream. And wheat, even in the warmest south, is mainly grown in the valleys of large rivers and watered fields. Because, the waterwheel can provide enough water for irrigation......

But how precious and scarce is the water by the river? As a result, wheat cultivation in Germany is very small. In terms of price, it is also 5 times that of rye. In southern Italy, due to the introduction of the Arabs' ditch irrigation technology, wheat cultivation is more abundant. A well-developed irrigation system and fertile volcanic ash soils make southern Italy a prime region for Europeans. Sicily, on the other hand, is known as the "Golden Basin" by Europeans because of its abundance of durum wheat, which is used exclusively for pasta......

Marin has to farm on the land of the three newly acquired provinces, which is not so simple. In addition to the use of a mixture of three major fertilizers, Marin also needs to dig a large number of ditches and ditches in the fields to divert water for irrigation.

The ditch is the main road for water diversion, and the ditch is the key to flood irrigation of wheat fields. In a wheat field, every few meters, there is a shallow ditch. When irrigating, the water flows into the ditch, and because the ditch is only a few meters apart between each ridge, the irrigation water introduced into the ditch can penetrate into the root system of the wheat and make it full of water. Of course, the most important thing for irrigation is when the wheat is first planted, when the water demand is at its greatest. Only when the humidity is high enough can the wheat germinate and grow better......

Although rye is not as delicate as wheat, it does not require much water. However, if there is enough irrigation water, it can also promote higher yields.

However, although this irrigation technology is today, it is a pity that a large number of ditches and ditches need to be excavated, and the workload is very large. As a result, even if Marin had enough labor to develop the three new provinces, it would not be too late to dig ditches and ditches.

On the contrary, with this year's time buffer, in the months between the end of spring ploughing and the autumn harvest, Marin can organize the idle prime-aged labor force in the old provinces to dig ditches and ditches in the three new provinces. By next spring, the new ditches and ditches will be ready for use. In addition, fertilizer processing plants can also provide a large number of mixed fertilizers, and if you don't increase production, you will be ghosted......

In his previous life, Ma Lin's father told Ma Lin that in the era when there were no excavators, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state organized farmers many times to take advantage of the slack season (mainly winter) to concentrate on agricultural "general warfare", and specially took advantage of this time to dig ditches and ditches to facilitate irrigation. This kind of "battle" of digging ditches and ditches, in Ma Lin's hometown, is also called "picking up great diligence", which is an extremely labor-intensive activity, and generally only men are recruited. The reason why it is called "picking Daqin" is because when digging the river, the soil is placed in baskets and let the men carry it and climb the embankment. Therefore, it is called "picking" Daqin. As for the word diligence, it means attendance. Because, in those days, it was a work division system, and attendance was calculated as a work point. Digging the river is a big thing, so it's called Daqin. The soil is all picked up by manpower on the embankment, so it is also called "picking Daqin......

In the era when there were no excavators and muck trucks, all irrigation rivers were basically dug out by "picking up big work". In the Jianghuai area, where Ma Lin lived in his previous life, because of the double cropping a year and the rotation of rice and wheat, only in winter can it be regarded as a very idle farm. And "picking big diligence" is also generally organized in winter. It is said that "picking up big diligence" is particularly hard. In the cold climate like the cold winter wax moon, because the labor intensity is too great, many people sweat all over, and many people take off their cotton clothes and only wear single clothes to pick up soil. Moreover, at this time, the men are especially able to eat, and it is normal for one person to eat several large bowls of rice. Because, they are also very expensive. Coupled with the lack of meat and oil and water at that time, there were not a few bowls of brown rice at the bottom, and it couldn't last at all......

If Marin wants to make good use of the land of the Grand Duchy of Beihai, he can't do without this model of "picking up big diligence". Why? Because only this kind of "picking and diligentness" that organizes a large number of laborers can we dig ditches and open ditches. In normal times, which farmer has nothing to do to dig a river? Not even a manor. Therefore, such a major event as digging and irrigating rivers can only be done by official organizations. Of course, it is not very difficult to dig irrigation ditches and ditches, and each manor can do it by organizing its own labor.

Of course, to organize the "pick-and-work" digging of irrigation rivers, it is necessary to provide enough food for the laborers, much more than usual. Otherwise, the young man will not be able to stand it. Why did Emperor Yang of Sui dig the Grand Canal and die so many people? It's not that I didn't give food, but that the amount given is less. When digging the canal, the amount of food eaten by the laborers was several times that of the usual amount, and if only the amount of food that was usually given to stay at home, the energy would be exhausted in half a day.

Then the overseers didn't understand and thought the farmer was lazy - in fact they were running out of energy, and it was useless for you to whip it......

The lack of double the food, coupled with the persecution of the overseers, led to the excavation of the Grand Canal to kill so many people. Or maybe it's a layman's mistake. After all, no one wants to die so many people while digging a river. Ma Lin estimated that it was because of which ignorant civilian officials had allocated less food and not enough to consume, so many people died...... After all, the excavation of the Grand Canal is really a temperate zone, and it is not as harsh as the excavation of the Panama Canal......