Shou Xiang and Zeng Ying walked side by side towards the city.

Shen Yan, the former Jinyi Guard, led a team of Fubiao Chinese soldiers to guard the left and right. The orderly guards all stayed on the battleship, and Lin Zhuyong was the only one by his side.

When he arrived in Qiongzhou, he naturally went to see his father-in-law. The city of Fucheng was 10 miles south of Haikou, and the order deliberately lowered the speed of the horses.

Zeng Ying is in his 60s, the old man is the most important ally in China, and he will cooperate for many years in the future, and he doesn't want him to have any accidents.

Shou Xiang persuaded: "Old gentleman, you have to focus on your body, don't work too hard, and it's better to sit in a sedan chair in the future." ”

Zeng Ying laughed, "The old man has been riding horses all his life, and he is not used to such enjoyment." Let's compete with each other to see who gets to Qiongzhou Capital City first? ”

Without waiting for an orderly answer, the old man clamped the horse's belly with his legs, waved his leather whip lightly, and took the lead.

Shou Xuan shook his head slightly, and could only whip to follow.

The Han Dynasty in Qiongzhou was incorporated into the Chinese territory, and the Han people have been developing and colonizing for nearly 2,000 years. Since the Song Dynasty, the progress of navigation and farming technology has accelerated. In the Ming Dynasty, Qiongzhou was unprecedentedly developed.

Like all Han Chinese dynasties, the Ming Dynasty was very enthusiastic about infrastructure construction. Qiongshan County, where the Qiongzhou capital is located, is the richest area in the province, and the official roads and water conservancy facilities are reasonably built. Shou Xiang and Zeng Ying were able to run the ten-mile road on horseback.

Most of Zeng Ying's own soldiers did not have horses, and only Shen Yan and Lin Chuyong could keep up.

Looking at the city of Qiongzhou from afar, there is a majestic city tower standing on the city wall facing north, when it is close, you can clearly see the plaque hanging on the city tower with three big characters of Wanghai Tower.

The strange thing is that there is a city wall in the north of the city but there is no city gate, so he flicked his horse's head lightly and turned to the east of the city with Zeng Ying.

Bypassing the corner tower on the city wall, the capital city of Qiongzhou is displayed in front of you.

The east gate of Qiongzhou is called Yongtai Gate, and like all cities, a new Chengguan town was formed on the road attached to the city gate. The pedestrians on the road here were so dense that they could no longer gallop their horses, so Zeng Yingle stopped fighting his horses and turned in a circle, waiting for the order to follow.

Shou Xiang stopped and arched his hand: "Zhongcheng is superb in equestrianism. ”

Zeng Ying glanced at Shou Xuan deeply, "It's just a horse, my old body can still bear it." ”

Shou Xuan sighed, knowing that Zeng Ying was reassuring himself in this way. The feudal dynasty was characterized by the death of people and the political rest, and the orderly alliance relationship relied on the individual ministers and generals of the Ming Dynasty, including Zeng Ying, rather than the Ming Dynasty.

After Shen Yan and Lin Chuyong caught up, the four of them divided into two rows and slowly walked towards the city gate.

Zeng Ying left the governor's guard of honor, but it didn't get in the way. The residents of Fucheng all recognized the new governor and avoided it.

Fucheng has three city gates in the east, west and south, because Qiongzhou has always been an important place for coastal defense, with complete defense facilities, and the city gate is built with a moon city. After Zeng Ying arrived, the defense of Fucheng was the first object of his rectification. At this time, there are still undismantled bamboo scaffolding on the east gate tower, the project should be nearing the end, the city tower is repaired, the number of craftsmen is not many, and what is being done is some external decoration.

The guards at the city gate were the guards of the local guards of Hainan, and they saw the governor kneeling on both sides.

After entering Moon City, the four of them kicked off their horses. The guards led the horses aside, and Zeng Ying took the lead and stepped up to the castle tower.

On the highest floor of the tower, soldiers brought sliced watermelons. I have soaked in well water, and it is cool and refreshing to take a bite.

Zeng Ying waved her horsewhip and pointed around, "I have been in Qiongzhou for March, and I have already run through Leizhou and the prefectures and counties of Qiongbei. Qiongshan County is the richest in western Guangdong, and its output is no less than that of a county in the south of the Yangtze River. Can be ...... elsewhere"

Zeng Ying shook his head and continued, "Only Ding'an and Wenchang counties can be compared with Qiongshan, followed by Lingao Chengmai, and Danzhou will be the same again. The rest of the states and counties are embarrassed and useful. ”

Sho Cho opened the binoculars, and the city was surrounded by rice paddies, green seedlings growing happily, and a forest of waterwheels showing that the degree of development here is close to that of the developed areas of the mainland. There is the Meishe River at the south gate of Fucheng, which is about 20 kilometers long and runs through the Nandu River a few kilometers away. The sails on the Nandu River and the Meishe River are like forests, and the flow of people is endless. Fucheng has a population of nearly 100,000, and most of its logistics and transportation rely on these two gentle inland rivers. Because of the relationship between river transportation, the south gate with a water wharf is the main gate of Qiongzhou, and most of the material merchants enter the city from the south gate.

Shen Yan opened the map of Qiongzhou Mansion, and couldn't help but smile when he saw it.

The map itself is common, but the markings on it have a strong Federation flavor.

The three counties of Qiongshan, Wenchang and Ding'an are drawn on the grid, Chengmai and Lingao are diagonal lines, Danzhou is a horizontal bar, Changhua, Thanksgiving, Yazhou, Lingshui and Wanzhou are vertical lines, and the Wuzhishan area in the center of the island is a blank.

This is Zeng Ying's map of the Qiongzhou reclamation index marked in the style of a federal map.

Zeng Ying's current grasp of the amount of cultivated land in Qiongzhou is the statistics of the 43rd year of Wanli, and Hainan has 3.83 million mu and 5 points of cultivated land. In fact, there will definitely be omissions in the data of the imperial court, and it is impossible to count the land of Liyuan located in the center of the island, which is about 4.2 million mu of land in Hainan based on Zeng Ying's many years of experience as an official.

Shou Xuan nodded secretly, Zeng Ying's estimate should be close to the real number of this era. During the Republic of China, Chen Mingshu counted that there were 7.3 million mu of cultivated land on Hainan Island, which was certainly not possible in the feudal dynasty era. During the Manchu Dynasty, the cultivated land in Hainan never exceeded the number of Wanli years, and it was always a cultivated land of more than 3 million plus tens of thousands of acres of betel nut, rubber and other economic plantations.

Although there is a lot of arable land, the soil conditions in Qiongzhou are not good, and the current farming technology is also far behind that of the mainland. Only in the three counties of Qiongshan, Ding'an, and Wenchang where the water conservancy facilities are perfect, the soil quality is better, and the rainfall is more, the rice planting area is larger.

Before the Ming Dynasty, Qiongzhou had been unable to achieve grain self-sufficiency, and relied on buying grain from Lei Lian on the mainland. During the Republic of China, Hainan had a population of 2.4 million and consumed more than 10 million stone of grain every year, while Hainan Island only produced 8.5 million and needed to purchase 2 million. At that time, it was because Hainan planted a lot of cash crops on the one hand, and the planting area of staple grains was insufficient, and on the other hand, Hainan's yield per mu was relatively low.

Hainan's high-grade fields produce 3 stone of grain a year, medium grain of 2 stone, and inferior grain of 1 stone. Compared with Taiwan, the yield per mu of land in Hainan is inferior. Hainan has the largest number of 1 stone fields, and although it is theoretically possible to grow 3 times a year, in the era when there are no chemical fertilizers and pesticides, 3 years a year is an extremely rare example. In Qiongzhou, close to the mountain springs and inland rivers, the fields that get sufficient irrigation are called Omijiang fields, which can be harvested twice a year, and the fields that are far away from the drought and flood of inland rivers are called Yuanjiang fields, which are only one cropping a year.

There are sandy soil plains in the northern Qiongbei Plateau and Changhua, Thanksgiving and Yazhou in Qiongxi, and the rest of the area also has many brick red soil and brick red soil red soil, which is not conducive to rice cultivation and climate.

At this time, the staple food of Hainan is not rice, and the largest planting area is sweet potato. After the introduction of sweet potatoes in the Americas, Hainan soon completed the substitution of staple food and became the first area in the country to popularize sweet potatoes. Relying on this high-yielding crop with low soil requirements, Hainan barely achieved grain self-sufficiency in the late Ming Dynasty.

Agriculture is closely related to climate, and Hainan Island can be roughly divided into four climatic zones.

The Wuzhi Mountain in the middle of the country stopped the water vapor from the southerly wind, and the rain was abundant. Although many of their tribes are still in the slash-and-burn farming stage, they can still export large quantities of rice to the Hanmin area.

Qiongbei is a traditional main grain producing area. Another difference between Qiongzhou and Taiwan is that the slopes of the plains here are too gentle, and the river flow is slow, making it difficult to achieve self-flowing irrigation, and it must rely on water lifting measures such as waterwheels and windmills. The ancestors built seawalls in Qiongshan County to shield from the tides, diverted river water to wash the saline-alkali land, and turned Qiongshan and other places into thousands of hectares of fertile land. With the help of waterwheels and dams, the ancestors even turned the valley area of Ding'an County into rice fields.

However, there are only a few places on the island that can have this level of development.

Qiongdong Lingshui, Wanzhou and Lehui are typhoon-prone areas, Hainan is hit by typhoons an average of 3 times a year, and Qiongdong Sanzhou County is the hardest hit area by typhoons. Although the geographical and climatic conditions there are acceptable, with a lot of rainfall, a humid climate, and good river navigation conditions, there are not many people who are willing to immigrate to Qiongdong to carry typhoons every year when Qiongzhou has not been fully developed.

The climate of Qiongnan and Qiongxi is about the same, with less rainfall than in the Wuzhi Mountains, and the climate is dry.

Facing the Beibu Gulf, Qiongxichang and Gan Er counties are almost not affected by typhoons, and the rainfall in Qiongxi is relatively small, with an average annual average of only 1300mm, mostly concentrated in summer, and concentrated in mountainous areas.

There are many small deserts along the coast of western Jones, and there are the largest mobile sand dunes in southern China. As a result, there are sandstorms and sandstorms in western Jones, and the proportion of people suffering from eye diseases here is close to that of northern China.

After the ancestors cut down the forest and the tall trees disappeared, sparse secondary forests, grasslands and grassy slopes appeared on Hainan Island, among which Qiongxi was the most numerous. The island is full of cattle and sheep, grazing at will, and there are no presumptuous leaders. In the Ming Dynasty, Hainan Island changed from an import place for cattle to an export place, becoming the main export place for cattle and sheep in Guangdong, and the cattle tax also became a major tax source for Hainan.

Looking at the map, there are no typhoons in Jonesy, and it is the only area in the federally controlled area where precipitation is below 2000mm. Low precipitation means low rates of malaria. At a small cost, it can be the largest and best pasture in the area around the federal territory.

There are also benefits to less precipitation due to less precipitation.

Jonesy can satisfy at least three of the needs of order.

War horse breeding. Nanyang has a high grain yield, there is no shortage of feed for horses, of course, you can circle out the pasture for raising horses, but there is always not too much pasture. Katiawama, India, is too expensive and does not ship much every year. Jonesy's dry climate allows Order's efforts to breed some horses that are not so well adapted to the hot and humid environment.

Jones is more suitable for growing sisal than Taiwan, and sisal does not care about brick red soil, and can even play a role in improving the land.

The most crucial point is that there is no better area around the Union than Jonesy for growing cotton. Some cotton seeds from the East Indies can be planted in the mainland, Houjiang and Taiwan, which can only meet the clothing needs of some people at most, and cannot meet the standards for the production of warship canvas. With Jonesy, Orderly can look forward to solving part of the canvas on his own.

Shou Xuan began to enclose land on the map, "Zeng Zhongcheng, I promise to provide you with arms every year, on the condition that the official positions of Yazhou, Changhua and Thanksgiving will be handed over to my people. ”

Yazhou and other three places are sparsely populated, and now the output of tax grain is only 7,000 stones, even if the case of additional donation is scraped together, it is only 10,000 stones. Shou Xiang can even promise Zeng Ying that he will still pay taxes at the standard of 10,000 stone per year.

Zeng Ying remained silent, "Do you have a suitable candidate?" ”

"How is my father-in-law?"

China has had the practice of being officials in different places since ancient times, but now it is the end of the dynasty, who cares about that.

When a military gate like Zeng Ying of the Longwu Dynasty left Fujing, the emperor would give an empty payment, which was a blank letter of appointment. The emperor had no money, so he relied on selling blank official photos to offset his military salary.