November 11, 1647, West Lake Town.

The endless green wheat seedlings on the plain west of Yazi Lake were so delighted by the sight of a group of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture led by Zheng Bin that Zheng Bin, who was driving on a four-wheeled carriage on a gravel road in the countryside, even stopped the car and insisted on walking from the fields to the next village despite the dissuasion of his entourage.

Wang Xinyuan, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture who had been designated as the first county magistrate of Xihu County, also stepped out of the car, looking at the county village that would become under his rule on January 1 next year with curious eyes, while closely following Minister Zheng Bin and Zheng Da. The gravel road they walked on was not wide, at most three or four meters, and the sand and gravel on the road surface had become potholes because it had been squeezed by the truck for a long time on rainy days - in fact, this was also the reason why Zheng Bin got out of the car.

On the north side of the east-west gravel road, a canal about one meter wide is built, which is covered with a cover plate to prevent evaporation. The weeds on the slopes on both sides of the canal were gone, replaced by taro planted by farmers, and the tiny sprouts had just emerged from the soil, looking very pleasant.

Further north of the canal is a large area of farmland. At this time, it is the mid-spring season, and the wheat seedlings that have crossed the winter are green, and it is comfortable to look at. There were already many farmers in the field, and Zheng Bin looked fixedly, these people were fertilizing. The fertilizer is whalebone meal from the upper hair, which is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, easy to absorb and quick to act, and is an excellent fertilizer, but unfortunately the yield is too small. Only this small quota is sold in each village. It's really not enough.

The farmland in Xihu Town is an area where the three-crop rotation system is strictly enforced. Among the 5,000 or so adult agricultural population in this township, the per capita cultivated land has reached the upper limit of 30 mu set by the state. That is to say, the average household (male and female laborers) has 60 acres of cultivated land, that is, the number of cattle is less, only 5 per capita, and the annual manure produced is only enough to fertilize more than half of the cultivated land, which is completely insufficient for agricultural needs.

However, there was no urgency, and the expeditionary force of La Plata on the East Bank had already obtained more than 70,000 cattle from the Spaniards - more than a million yuan at market prices - which were essential for the completion of the "modernization" of agriculture on the East Bank. At least in traditional agricultural areas. As a result of the war, farmers on the East Coast saw their per capita cattle ownership soar from 0.8 to 2.4, and the development of agriculture and animal husbandry on the East Coast was almost entirely due to this.

What a man who has no windfall and is not rich! Thinking of this, Zheng Bin shook his head and sighed with emotion. After more than a year of fighting, the people of the east coast have recovered from La Plata, among other things, more than 70,000 cattle (and many more are still in transit), more than 20,000 sheep, 2,000 horses, and some other livestock, in addition to 7,800,000 tons of wheat, more than 10,000 logs, 30,000 pieces of leather, and various gold and silver coins of more than 1,200,000 yuan, which if all these things are converted into cash, is almost more than 3.2 million yuan, which is almost 1.6 times the annual revenue of the government in 46 years.

From here, it can be seen that the East Coast people have been fighting for more than a year. At least from the economic level, it did not lose money, on the contrary, it made a lot of money. However, these so-called "incomes" were based on the plundering of the wealth accumulated by the Spaniards in the region of La Plata over the centuries. To put it bluntly, these are one-time incomes, and they don't come every year. If we want to get rich and sustain the country to continue the costly war, we still have to rely on the solid development of production, and agriculture is obviously the most important of them.

On behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Zheng Bin inspected Xihu County, which accounts for 57% of the country's cultivated land, and was obviously extremely concerned about the grain output of the summer harvest of '48. Because there are many towns and villages below that are now reacting, the damage to agricultural production caused by the war is really too great, because more than 90 percent of the militia comes from the countryside, which is already five or six thousand strong laborers. That's not all, there are still a considerable number of strong men who have been transferred to various docks, stations, and even front-line military stations to transport supplies to the army, and the labor force in rural areas has been greatly lost, and many farmland, water conservancy, highway and housing construction projects are extremely short of manpower.

After holding a number of closed-door meetings, the Ministry of Agriculture is worried about whether there will be a considerable decline in the output of next year's summer grain harvest. This is a very serious problem, because from the beginning of next year until the middle of the year, a large number of migrants will arrive at the ports on the east coast almost every month, and the number will probably be between 20,000 and 25,000, and the problem of feeding these people will definitely be a big problem. If nothing else, they were raised almost for nothing in the first year, which required at least five or six thousand tons of wheat, which is almost equivalent to the total amount of grain stored in the warehouses of various countries and counties today; And that's not all, generally speaking, they still can't achieve food self-sufficiency in the second year, and those new settlements still need national blood transfusions, and it won't be until the third year that they can just reach equilibrium, and the food pressure is not ordinarily great.

What is even more tragic is that, according to the agreement reached with the Dutch West India Company and the Genoese, more than 6,000 tons of grain will be sold to these two companies next year. If a normal year is good, as long as the local wheat harvest is normal, it will almost be able to support the past and there will be some surplus, but if the grain production falls, then things will be very troublesome, and it will be difficult to import a large amount of unpalatable sorghum from South Africa?

Alas, I don't want to worry about these annoying things, so let's first investigate the most important agricultural area in Xihu County. Zheng Bin took out his pipe from his pocket and lit it for himself, then waved his hand to Wang Xinyuan, who was walking behind him, and said to him: "Along the way, the wheat seedlings in Xihu Town are growing well, and the output should not drop sharply next year." Unlike what we have seen in the low-ground bunkers, pasture ridges and Dafeng Township, the wheat seedlings in the farmland in those areas do not look good, far worse than here. ”

"The development there is later than here, and the per capita livestock holdings are not as good as here, so this farmland has less manure, so naturally it can't be fertilized. In my opinion, the seed harvest ratio in those areas can reach 1:6 (about 100 catties per mu) to 1:7. Here in Xihu Town, I think it can reach more than 1:8.5 to 1:9, and if there are no accidents, the grain harvest will not be a problem. Wang Xinyuan leaned over, lit a pipe for himself, and after taking a puff of cigarette, he chattered like an old peasant: "It's just that in another two months, I have to call back a group of militiamen and strong men who transport heavy baggage. Relying on these people who are staying at home now, I am afraid that it is not enough, after all, if the miscellaneous items are not done well, the grain harvest will decline. ”

"I'm afraid it's a little difficult." Zheng Bin said worriedly, "This will be a stalemate on Santa Fe's side, the daily consumption of materials and food is astronomical, and Buenos Aires cannot withdraw for the time being, and they have to stay on guard, after all, the Spaniards can't copy the back road of Santa Fe's defenders." As for the wave to Chile and Peru, we don't have to count on it, those people don't know where to fight guerrillas. However, at present, there are a number of combat troops and baggage troops stationed in Qingdao Port and Shangcheng Port in rotation, and perhaps we can ask the Government Council to come forward to negotiate with the military department, and let that part of the militia or baggage troops be disbanded first, and then go home and finish the farm work. Hehe, of course, that's what I said, it's not very likely. ”

"This fucking war, when will it be fought, peace seems to be far away, it's really sad!" Wang Xinyuan knocked the pipe on the sole of his shoe, and after cleaning the ashes, he stuffed a pinch into it, lit it and took a puff, and said: "Fighting with the Spaniards is like playing cards, although we won a few small games in the first few games, but the Spanish family doesn't care, maybe when it will be a stud, do we follow or not?" ”

"Stop talking about the useless ones, follow me to the front." Zheng Bin interrupted Wang Xinyuan's chatter a little irritably, and then took the lead in walking forward.

There is also a small canal on the south side of the gravel road, which seems to have been dug by the villagers themselves, and the water in it is mainly rainwater. Next to the canal is the farmers' own land, which is generally only two or three points in size, and the things grown are not the same, but most of them are vegetables and other things. There is often a large water tank buried in the self-reserved land, which is actually a manure tank, and farmers will use a manure spoon to scoop manure water from it when watering vegetables, which is more convenient.

With the increasing variety of vegetables cultivated in the Northern Botanical Garden, farmers in the Yazihu area have also purchased some improved varieties to plant, such as cowpea and taro, which are still appearing in the vegetable markets of various towns and villages for the first time. Farmers grow a small part of the vegetables for their own use, and most of them have to be traded in the market for the goods they want, even in this era of commodity shortages, they are still accustomed to selling these things, and this has indeed greatly enriched the tables of the people of the East Coast.

After the research team of the Ministry of Agriculture led by Zheng Bin, Wang Xinyuan and others finished transferring the entire village, they worked tirelessly to step on the ridges full of broad beans on both sides and headed towards the next village.

On November 13, Zheng Bin and others immediately held a closed-door meeting after finishing their investigation of agricultural production in Xihu County. At the end of the meeting, all the participants unanimously judged that the summer wheat harvest output at the end of February and early March next year ('48) should not decline -- this is not to say that the grain yield per mu has not fallen, but that the grain sown area this year has expanded compared with last year -- but it is unlikely that the wheat summer harvest output will increase. In general, next year's grain situation is not optimistic, and it should be stable and tight. If we want to completely solve the hidden danger, I am afraid that it will be necessary to increase the quantity of sorghum, peanuts and other agricultural products sent to the central government by more than 20 percent in South Africa. (To be continued......)