Soon, a thatched hut outside Haiyang was erected, and there were more than 20 people living in the house, and there were more than 10 people. Most of them are thinly clothed, hugging each other for warmth, or covered with thick thatch. Even so, the weather at night on the seaside is very cold and damp, and almost every day people die of illness due to weakness. In this regard, including Song Youliang, they are also powerless

With the new labor force, the canal work is progressing smoothly, and before the land freezes in winter, the amount of work for the new canal has been completed eighty percent, and the water delivery can be completed in the spring of the next year. The people of Hai Duong and the displaced people are full of beautiful hopes for the coming spring.

The success of the flintlock pistol made Song Youliang very excited, but Song Youliang clearly understood that the most important thing at the moment was to solve the food problem. If there is no food, everything is not negotiable. Haiyang Thousand Households originally had 54 hectares of tuntian and 648 stone of grain. However, it was later changed to a local supply of food and wages, and the squad troops who had to take turns to defend were also abandoned, and all the men, women, and children of the institute became farmers. Dengzhou's food and wages have always been unpunctual and insufficient, and it is impossible for the entire institute and the more than 3,000 displaced people who have recently taken in them to count on 54 hectares of fields and 648 stone of grain, and besides, the harvest has not been 648 stone in the recent severe drought for many years. In recent years, the land in Haiyang has been planted less and less, the reason is that a large number of military households have fled, and secondly, the original military households are not enthusiastic about farming. Even if the wasteland is cleared, the land will be seized by the officers in various names and means. The third point is that because of the abnormal weather in recent years, drought and locust plagues, no one will open up land in such a year. Therefore, after measurement and inventory, Haiyang has only planted less than 40 hectares of land in total, and harvests less than 500 stone of grain every year, how can it feed the nearly 4,000 people at present?

Therefore, Song Youliang decided to open up the land on a large scale, and Haiyang now has the conditions for large-scale land reclamation: first of all, the scope under the jurisdiction of Haiyang is the area of today's Rushan City, which is located on the coast of the Yellow Sea, and is rich in special products in the territory, known as "Jinling Silver Beach". Located on the east and west sides of the city, the alluvial plain along the Rushan River and the Huanglei River has fertile land and is an important wheat and corn production base; secondly, because of Kong Youde's rebellion in the fifth year of Chongzhen, a large amount of land in the Rushan area was abandoned, and there was enough land for himself to open up; Third, there is an expert in canal opening like Fan Shunbao, who is not afraid of irrigation problems in the future; Fourth, the new displaced people can provide sufficient manpower; Fifth, after the adoption of the employment system, the labor enthusiasm of the tuntian workers will be greatly improved; Sixth, they have high-quality wheat seeds with short growth cycle and high yield. Based on the above six factors, Song Youliang decided to open up the wasteland in Haiyang

There are two issues to be solved, the first is the production model

For thousands of years, most of China has practiced a natural economy like intensive cultivation and self-sufficiency, and the military households of Haiyang Qianhu are certainly no exception. The main characteristics of this kind of economy are that the cultivation of grain is the mainstay, the household is the unit, the production is self-sufficient, the mode of operation is backward, the peasants repeat simple labor year after year, and the income is very small; this kind of natural economy is not only backward in terms of productive forces, but also often powerless in the face of natural disasters, and the individual strength is always small. In the event of natural or man-made disasters, people are often displaced.

In response to this situation, Song Youliang, who has seen the large-scale operation of large estates in the future, feels that the first thing to do is to change this natural economic model of small farmers with one family. Large-scale farm-style production, because of its strong strength, is easy to adopt advanced technology, use new farming methods and techniques, expand the area of cultivated land, improve fertilizers, etc., increase grain production, and form a virtuous circle. Suzhou Changshu Tan Xiao's business mode is quite typical, the township is often waterlogged due to the low terrain, the villagers mostly abandon the field for fishing, and the barren fields are tens of thousands. Tan Xiao and his brother Tan Zhao bought fields, dug ponds to raise fish, and planted grain in the polder. The higher ones are planted with fruit trees, and the lower ones are planted with water chestnut. Because of careful management, the land is profitable, and the family is getting richer, "there are tens of thousands of people who hide in the cellar". In the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553), for the invasion of the imperial widows, the county ordered Wang Ji to raise gold to build the city, and the Tan brothers were the sole manager of more than 40,000 gold to repair the city defense. At that time, it was called "Tan Bancheng".

The second problem to be solved is the relations of production

In feudal society, there was both struggle and interdependence between the landlords and the poor peasants. The land of the former can only produce economic benefits by relying on the cultivation of the latter, and the labor of the latter can only obtain food and clothing through the land of the former. There are two ways to get in touch with each other, one is to lease and the other is to hire. In addition, the practice of keeping slaves was very prevalent in the Ming Dynasty, and the use of slaves for agricultural production is common in historical records. In some areas, slaves are engaged in labor in the fields under the direct command of the landlord (like hired laborers), such as Macheng, Hubei Province, where "fresh tenants are cultivated, and large households buy servants at a high price and engage in farming", and the big landlords such as the famous "Liu, Mei, Tian, and Li Qiangzong have the right surname, and there are no less than three or four thousand domestic servants." There were also many areas where landlords' fields were rented to slaves, most notably the tenant system that prevailed in the Huizhou region. However, compared with the ordinary poor peasants, the burden of the military tenants was heavier, and they not only had to undertake the tenant farming, but also had to do all kinds of labor for the officers and tenants without compensation. These are unpaid, and sometimes they even have to bring their own food. These tenant farmers of the military households in Haiyang have no personal affiliation with the Song family in theory, and they can leave the tenants at any time. However, this offended Song Qianjin, and the military household cannot be moved casually, if you offend Xia Baihu in Haiyang, then your life will be sad, do you still want to stay in Haiyang? It is precisely because of the heavy oppression of military households and tenant farmers that the enthusiasm for labor is not high

In view of this, Song Youliang decided that first, he would change the economic model of self-sufficient small-scale peasants and concentrate on large-scale operations, and secondly, change the relations of production and transform the tenant farmers from households into agricultural workers who received wages and salaries.

On this day, Song Youliang found a few military households who farmed for their families, and they were the ones who planted the most fields for the Song family. The relationship between them and the Song family is basically the relationship between the landlord and the poor peasants, and it is also mixed with the relationship between the division and the subordinates, which is even more complicated. "Everyone~ I summoned everyone here today because there is an important matter to announce~" Song Youliang cleared his throat and said loudly, "From today onwards, the Song family will take back all the land leased to you for your current cultivation~"

As soon as these words came out, all the military households were in a commotion, and someone shouted loudly: "We have paid rent every year, but in the past few years, the sky has not been beautiful, and the Song family has taken back the fields, which is our life~~"

"Yes~~ Song Gongzi can't accept it~~"

Everyone shouted together, which made Song Youliang frown, and then glanced at Xu Erduo.