After Xu Guang's enlightenment was approved, he asked, "Yan Dudu, what is the yield per mu here?" ”

Yan Siqi thought for a while and said: "There is very little rice in the local area, and Zhou Tongjin said that it was brought from Japan by the Ainu people, and the yield per mu is about one and a half stones. As for wheat, it's probably a stone. ”

Xu Guangqi said with some regret: "It's a pity that the output is lower than ours here." ”

Yan Siqi said: "Zhou Tongjin said that because the climate of Nuergan City is cold, it is inevitably affected by frost, and sometimes the water will appear too much, so the yield is a little low. ”

Xu Guangqi said: "Although the yield is a little lower than our irrigated land here, since no one recognizes their value, it is also a good thing for us to open up wasteland, it is better than nothing." The minister thought that the city of Nuergan could be recovered, so that a large amount of land around it would be owned by our Daming, and we could arrange for more people to emigrate. ”

Bi Ziyan said: "Elder Xu Ge, although there can be output here, but now the land in the north of our country is no longer tense, and there is even some wasteland that has not been reclaimed. And even if the southerners want to emigrate, no one will want to go to this cold and freezing city of Nurgan, so what's the point of us occupying Nurgan City? ”

He was in charge of the household, and he was well aware of the land and food situation. There are now a large number of people in the north of the Ming Dynasty who have immigrated to Liaodong, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Beizhili are poor, after hearing about the imperial court's preferential immigration policies, under the instigation of local state officials, more than thirty percent of people choose to immigrate to Liaodong. The Ministry of Agriculture's Cultivators' Farmland Movement was in full swing with the help of Jinyiwei and Dongchang, which greatly improved the land annexation situation in the four provinces and one capital.

Judging from the current situation of the four northern provinces and one capital, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty has basically been able to achieve self-sufficiency in grain. The reason why I only say basically is because the south still transports about one million shicao grain to the capital every year.

You must know that during the Wanli period, the average amount of grain transported to the second warehouse of Jingtong every year was more than two million stones, which could not meet the needs of the capital and the north at all. And now that one million Shicao grain is transported to the capital every year, the storage capacity of Jingtong No. 2 Warehouse is increasing year by year. If Shaanxi's potato storage is also included, the north can solve the grain problem without the supply from the south.

Xu Guangqi said with a smile: "Elder Bige, my Ming Dynasty's food supply situation is relatively good now, but it can only guarantee a one-and-a-half-year food supply, which is far from what His Majesty said about the three-year need." And didn't the elder last time say that the population growth has accelerated in recent years? The population will increase faster and faster, and these new people will have to eat, and occupying an extra space now will lay a solid foundation for future food supply. ”

Bi Ziyan nodded and said: "This is not bad, I checked the situation of the household department, and used the data of Baoding Mansion in Beijing, the number of births in Baoding Mansion in the first year of the Apocalypse minus the number of deaths, and finally increased by 5,203 people, and in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, this number has become 26,221 people, an increase of more than five times." Daming 153 Mansions, Baoding Mansion has the highest population among them, so I can increase the number of people in Daming by more than 2 million to 3 million people a year, which is indeed a big problem. But don't we still have a lot of wasteland to cultivate? ”

Xu Guangqi said: "Yes, we still have wasteland to reclaim, but if we open one piece of wasteland, there will be one less piece, and there will always be a time when the reclamation will be completed." In addition, in the past few years, the north has become colder, and the south has this trend, and if there is a sudden disaster in a certain year, the food reserve situation at that time is very important. ”

Bi Ziyan said: "Your Majesty, the minister was persuaded by Xu Ge Lao, and he also felt that Nuergan City should be recovered. ”

Ye Xianggao looked at Xu Guangqi and Bi Ziyan singing and harmonizing, it seemed that Bi Ziyan was criticizing Xu Guangqi, but in fact, he raised the question first, so as to block the mouths of the people behind him.

But he still didn't think it was worth it. He first glanced at Fang Congzhe, and then gestured to Sun Chuanting and said: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that the yield of this Nuergan City is too low, even if it is occupied, we don't have to start large-scale cultivation now, because it can't be drawn, it's better to wait for the population to increase in the future." ”

Fang Congzhe said: "Your Majesty, since there is very little to be gained from farming now, then the gain of occupying this place is a bit more than worth the loss, it is better to throw it there first, let Zhou Tongjin hold it first, and talk about it later." ”

The meaning of the two of them is very simple, firstly, there are not enough immigrants willing to run to Nuergan City now, and secondly, the harvest is too small, it is really not worth the effort to make a lot of effort for this place, it is better to put it on hold for now, and talk about it later.

In this way, there are two factions of opinion among the civil officials, Xu Guangqi and Bi Ziyan are in favor of recovering Nuergancheng, while Fang Congzhe and Ye Xianggao are against making a big move for this, and the intentions of the others are not clear.

At this time, Zhu Youxiao coughed, and Sun Chuanting hurriedly said: "Your Majesty has instructions." ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "When I was listening to the discussion of your ministers just now, I suddenly thought of something. In a place called Peru in South America, they invented a cultivation method called Pei Gao field, and growing plants in the mountains can receive more than three times the original yield. When Yan Qing talked about the situation around Nuergan City just now, I thought I could try it. ”

Yang Lian said: "Your Majesty, it is not an easy task to triple the output. Our Ministry of Agriculture has promoted the method of accumulating fertilizer, improved water conservancy facilities, and selected improved seeds, all of which can only increase the yield per mu by more than 30 percent, and in some places only 10 percent. If this method you said works, then there will be no hunger in the world. ”

Xu Guangqi Khan, this time the emperor's cowhide has blown his head, three times the output, as long as he has normal thinking ability, he will not believe it. He hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, is it not to increase the output by three percent, not by three times." ”

Zhu Youxiao looked at Yang Lian's slightly contemptuous and obviously unbelieving look, and carefully recalled the book he had read, which seemed to be called "General History of the World", which said that more than 3,000 years ago, the Peruvian mountain farmers' cultivation method of cultivating fields could indeed triple the yield.

He turned a blind eye to the steps handed over by Xu Guangqi, gritted his teeth and said, "It's three times the output, not three percent." Here's how it works: a trench is dug in the flat ground and the earth is piled up next to it to form a field about two paces wide and of any length that is three feet deeper than the ditch. The ditch is about two feet deep, and it can be used to raise fish, as well as the manure and urine of livestock, and this method must be effective. ”