The ten-year-old pillar was startled by Meng Yousan's loud voice, almost spit out the sugar, and said weakly: "Uncle Cousin, I eat champion candy." Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

Meng Yousan asked, "Where do you have the champion candy you bought with silver?" ”

The pillar said weakly: "Daddy bought it for me!" ”

Meng Yousan turned his head and said to Boss Ni: "Ni nerd, why are you so rich now?" ”

Boss Ni laughed and said, "My cousin is joking, he just had a full meal, what kind of wealth is it?" Compared with the people in Fanjiazhuang City, it is still inferior! ”

Meng Yousan said: "Can you compare the people in Fanjiazhuang City?" Those people were known for their good days. Don't you want to think about yourself? You used to be a tenant farmer in the Weng family, and you planted 20 acres of dry land, but you couldn't eat enough, and your clothes were much more shabby than mine. Now that you are wearing a brand new round neck, and your son has candy to eat, can't you raise another child? ”

Boss Ni said: "I want to raise another one!" ”

Meng Yousan snorted and said, "Where did you get all this money?" ”

Boss Ni laughed and said: "The general gave me forty acres of dry land, and also distributed cattle, and this year's harvest is good, and the general only collects one and a half percent of the land rent!" In addition to rations and various miscellaneous expenses, there was also a surplus of nine stone grain, all of which were sold to the general's rice shop for silver. and he got twenty taels of silver. After a pause, Boss Ni said again: "In addition to farming, when I have free time, I go with my daughter-in-law to cut pigweed and sell it to the general's pig farm, and I also earn four taels of silver in a year." ”

Meng Yousan took a breath and said, "There are actually twenty-four taels of silver a year, you are really rich!" You used to be a poor tenant who was not even as good as me, but now you are living the life of a master! ”

Boss Ni laughed and said, "My cousin said that I was joking, and now I am still a tenant." ”

"You, a tenant, are richer than ordinary lords."

Boss Ni laughed and said, "Cousin, come into the house and talk, taste my newly bought tea." ”

"Look, the tea is available, and you still say it's not rich?"

When Meng Yousan heard that Boss Ni had bought tea for guests, his face was even more jealous, and he entered Boss Ni's house in a daze. When I entered the house, I saw more than a dozen pieces of bacon hanging on the beam.

There is so much meat in this old Ni family, it seems that there is meat to eat at the old Ni family tonight. Since Meng Yousan plundered the Tatars in Baodi County, he took out the silver at the bottom of the box to buy grain this year, and he was hungry and full, and the family finally survived. He hasn't eaten a meal of meat throughout the year, and it's a holiday when he's full, but he didn't expect to eat meat in Ni Lao's family.

However, although Meng Yousan had meat to eat, he couldn't be happy because he was full of jealousy. This nerd was taken away by the Tartars, but he was blessed by misfortune, what is this?

"Boss Ni, is your general still recruiting people to open Xintian this year?"

"I don't know, if the general recruits someone, I'll go to Baodi County to tell you right away!"

"Good!" Meng Yousan finally smiled, nodded and said, "If you recruit someone, you must tell me early!" I also came to Fanjiazhuang to be General Li's tenant farmer! ”

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Li Zhi decided to expand the ranks of peasants in the territory.

In troubled times, food is a very important key material. Although the 10,000 farmers who took in last year made Li Zhi spend some money in the initial stage, Li Zhi soon reaped the benefits. After calculation, in the future, you can get more than 16,000 stone of wheat land rent, worth more than 30,000 taels of silver. This is an apparent gain, but there is also a potential income -- Li Zhi can also collect 40,000 to 50,000 stone of surplus grain from local farmers through the grain store, so that Fanjiazhuang can achieve grain self-sufficiency.

In troubled times, being self-sufficient in food means stability. There is no food to eat, there is no use with guns and cannons, and everything is empty talk when hungry.

Li Zhi, who got the sweetness, decided to reclaim again and add another 100,000 acres of land.

Li Zhi sent officials to survey and map the river in Jinghai County, plan new fields, and select the location of 100,000 mu of new fields. These 100,000 acres of unowned wasteland are located on both sides of the Crescent River and the Guanghe River, and can be irrigated as long as there are waterwheels to lift water.

Li Zhi found Ye Xiancai, the garrison of Jinghai County, and bought the 100,000 mu of wasteland at the price of ten cents per mu of wasteland, spending 1,000 taels of silver.

Although it was less than half of the two thousand taels of silver originally said, Ye Xiancai was still happy and smiled, and asked the officials of the entire garrison to take action and work overtime to make the title deed for Li Zhi. He also patted his chest and said that he would communicate with the riverside fields occupied by Li Zhi's canal, and persuade the local landlords to accept the subsidy and make way for the canal.

In fact, these wastelands cannot be said to be the Weisho system, and unlike the vicinity of Fanjiazhuang, the Weisho Juntian in Jinghai County and the Mintian in Zhou County are intertwined, and the ownership is very complicated. These wastelands in Jinghai County can be said to belong to both the health office and the prefecture and county. However, if he buys wasteland from the state and county and turns it into private land, it will be under the jurisdiction of the county and will not be convenient for Li Zhi's management. So Li Zhi arrogantly bought wasteland from the garrison and turned these wastelands into military fields.

With Li Zhi's prestige as a dragon and tiger general now, the magistrate didn't dare to trouble Li Zhi for these ownerless wastelands, so he could only pinch his nose and endure it.

After buying the wasteland, Li Zhi sent people to the prefecture and county near Fanjiazhuang to find 2,000 masons and build houses for the peasants first. Li Zhi was going to let the farmers who had cleared the wasteland first squeeze in a room for two. Later, these peasants will earn money from planting plum fields and will be able to build big houses.

It was already winter, the weather was cold, and the efficiency of outdoor work was declining, so the 2,000 masons had to build their own huts and then 5,000 brick houses, and it was estimated that the houses would not be completed until February.

Li Zhi plans to go to various prefectures and counties to hire farmers after the winter wheat harvest next year, and hire another 5,000 men and strong women. The first batch of farmers in Fanjiazhuang had a high income and had already played a good role in leading the way, and it is estimated that it would be very smooth to hire new farmers. The new farmers began to build aqueducts as soon as they moved to Jinghai County. If there is not enough manpower, Li Zhi can also hire nearby farmers to build water canals together, and after the wheat harvest, the farmers have nothing to do, and the local manpower will be very cheap at all times. After the canal is built, winter wheat is planted directly, and the grain can be harvested in the spring of the following year.

It is easier to recruit new peasants to farm than to resettle displaced people -- the recruited peasants will bring their household tools with them when they move over, and they will not have to ask Li Zhi for everything. Li Zhi only needed to lend them some farming cattle, and it was expected that they would not lack anything.

But these things will not be confirmed until new farmers are hired next spring.

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While busy with the development of new fields, Li Zhi sent people to collect high-yield crops.

At the end of October, Li Zhi sent five family members to the south to collect sweet potato seedlings in the southern part of the Yangtze River, and to find a few farmers who could grow sweet potatoes to bring back to Fanjiazhuang.

Sweet potatoes are native to Central and South America, and were discovered by Portuguese colonists and brought back to the Old World, and had been transmitted to the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Sweet potatoes are extremely high-yielding crops, and the yield per mu can exceed 1,000 kilograms with proper application of farm fertilizer. Summer sweet potatoes can be planted in the land after the winter wheat harvest for one season, and the crop rotation is very economical.

If sweet potatoes are grown in Fanjiazhuang, the grain yield can be greatly improved. Sweet potatoes can be eaten by humans, and although they are difficult to swallow every day, they are still very useful as a backup food. Of course, the biggest use of sweet potatoes is to feed pigs, and the price of such a high-yield sweet potato is very cheap, which can greatly reduce the cost of raising pigs.

Li Zhi is very much looking forward to the return journey of these five family members, and hopes that they will bring sweet potatoes back soon. (To be continued.) )