At this time, the agricultural cooperatives sold things that could not be bought in other stores, such as low-cost salt, toilet paper, matches and cigarettes.

Yes, matches and cigarettes were officially listed at this time, and Zhu Youxiao specially selected this currency reform to let matches and cigarettes go on the market, which can be described as well-intentioned.

As he expected, as soon as the match came out, it quickly replaced the difficult fire sickle and became a must-have item in almost every household. And the Chinese brand cigarettes put an advertisement in the weekly newspaper: His Majesty the Emperor's favorite cigarette - Zhonghua brand cigarettes. Readers don't know what cigarettes are, but when they look at the agricultural cooperatives, they look like hookahs smoked by some people. I bought one and tasted it (a pack of cigarettes twenty twelve cents, fold a pack of cigarettes, one penny a piece), and found that the taste was much more comfortable than hookah, and many people began to give up hookah and start buying cigarettes to smoke.

Of course, for many people, this cigarette is indeed easy to smoke, but it is a little more expensive, it doesn't matter, there are no flavored Chinese brand cigarettes, the packaging is slightly different, the taste is very strong, but cheap, a pack only costs three pennies.

Because the emperor was used to advertise, and the weekly newspaper continued to advertise, pointing out that cigarettes have the effect of removing dampness and dispelling evil spirits, and can relieve tension, and even hint that it can make men more powerful. So soon cigarettes began to become popular among the population. Zhu Youxiao doesn't think that he has to worry about the harm of cigarettes now, anyway, if he doesn't get it now, others will get it soon, and the high taxes and high profits of cigarettes are too attractive. However, he asked for a sentence "no smoking for minors" printed on cigarette packs, but did not explain why minors were banned from smoking.

Wei Zhongxian took a look at the sales situation of the agricultural cooperative society, and hurriedly came to Zhu Youxiao and said: "Holy Lord, according to the current sales rate, I am afraid that matches and cigarettes will not be available soon. Do you want to let these two industries go to the private sector to manufacture? ”

The technology for the production of straw paper has been distributed to paper mills by the Patent Office. The straw paper made by the folk paper mill is only a little worse than the toilet paper of the Bao Qian Division in terms of color and softness, but it is very different from the price positioning of toilet paper, so now only wealthy families will use toilet paper, and most families use straw paper.

But matches and cigarettes can now only be produced by the Chung Hwa Match Factory and the Chung Hwa Cigarette Factory. Whether it is the formula or the manufacturing machine, the people have no way to get it, although Wei Zhongxian does not want to share this cup of soup with others, but the shortage of goods is really not something that the two factories can solve by themselves, so he came to ask if these two industries can also be opened.

Zhu Youxiao thought for a while and said, "The focus is on taxes. The tax rate on matches is only 30%, which is not much of a problem, but the tax rate on cigarettes is as high as 80%, and this tax must not be lost. Matches are a necessity and can be opened, but cigarette manufacturing is not, and we build cigarette factories in the provinces, and this industry must be in my hands at least for a while. ”

Wei Zhongxian said: "Then we must first encourage tobacco production in the provinces, and build flue-cured tobacco equipment, but this will occupy land for grain production." ”

The reason why Chinese brand cigarettes are so popular, in addition to the spices in the tobacco, the most important reason is that the current tobacco is flue-cured tobacco, not the drying tobacco used by the people now. Flue-cured tobacco requires a large number of ovens, which is more expensive than drying tobacco, and of course, compared with profits and taxes, the cost is negligible. But if you encroach on food land, the gains outweigh the losses.

Zhu Youxiao thought for a moment and said: "According to the data submitted by the household department, last year's grain output increased by 20% compared with the previous year, and this is only the output of wheat and millet, not a new crop. The city of Minh Viet in Vietnam is conducting a high-yield rice experiment, and last time the students of the institute wrote to say that the yield of their 3,000 mu experimental field was twice as high as that of the Vietnamese, reaching four stones. Of course, this is because the Vietnamese are too low, but I asked the Ministry of Household Transfer that the yield of late rice in the south can only reach two stone seven per mu, and the combined cultivation of rice and wheat is only less than four stone. And if this kind of rice is implemented in the land of Huguang, only two crops a year, the early rice is lower than the late rice, and the yield is more than seven stones. ”

Wei Zhongxian's eyes lit up and said, "Holy Lord, that means we don't have to worry about food anymore?" We can grow tobacco in large quantities. ”

Zhu Youxiao shook his head, he was still worried about the Xiaoice River. And now that the weather is indeed getting colder and colder, food reserves must be sufficient, and he doesn't want to defeat Jiannu and have to deal with endless domestic rebellions.

He said: "Although there is no problem in terms of food at present, we must not take it lightly, and let the people have at least a year's surplus food, so that we can be a little relieved." Of course, it would be best if there were two years. As for tobacco production, we can start with the cultivation in the hilly areas, which have low grain yields anyway. I think there is still a lot of room for increasing grain production in the plains, and I don't believe that the yield of wheat can be increased to three or four stones. ”

Wei Zhongxian said: "Holy Lord, most of our new crops are cultivated in hilly areas, will there be a conflict?" ”

When it comes to new crops, Zhu Youxiao feels that the food problem has been completely solved. Needless to say, more than half of Shaanxi's fields are now growing new crops such as corn, sweet potatoes and potatoes. The newly opened lands in Beizhili and Shanxi were almost all planted with new crops. The peasants were very skilled, and when they heard that the new crops planted on wasteland were exempt for ten years, and the millet and wheat crops were exempted for only three years, they naturally began to grow new crops. And last year's harvest did far outperform the traditional crops.

If these new crops are counted as grain, then the peasants in Shaanxi have actually reached the standard of having a surplus of grain for one year at home, and according to the current statistics, by the end of this year, after the grain harvest in Beizhili and Shanxi, this standard will also be reached. However, the problem is that the farmers do not regard these sweet potatoes and potatoes as food at all, and either sell them to cooperatives, or keep a little for themselves as a rare thing to eat occasionally, and millet is still the main food.

They still use corn as food, but of the three crops, corn has the lowest yield, potatoes have the highest yield, and sweet potatoes can be used as vermicelli, and they have always sold well. However, potato vermicelli is not very popular, so now Shaanxi has built several huge granaries to hold potatoes that are dried and ground into flour. The current storage capacity is calculated according to the population of Shaanxi, reaching more than 800 catties per person. But no one wants to eat potato flour? Of course, Zhu Youxiao knew that if the grain harvest failed, these potato flour would play a role, but it was not a matter if it was stored for so long, and there would be more and more.