Zhang Han replied: "Exactly." ”

Kong Minxing was a little moved in his heart, knowing that today's trip was deliberately arranged by Zhang Han, in order to make himself feel at ease enough, of course, he also had to intuitively feel how many acres of land could be cultivated and how big the territory he occupied!

And now the territory occupied by Heyusheng is not only east-west, but also nearly 200 miles from north to south, only Xinghebao in the east and Xiaohebao in the west are still considered war zones, according to the combat readiness level of Yusheng is now the second-level combat readiness, only if it is lowered below the fourth level, it can be classified as a reclamation area, at present, it is still very early.

Even the current area is large enough, just today, riding a horse and driving, forty or fifty miles down, all plains, one hundred and fifty miles to the south, dozens of miles to the north, just this place, millions of acres of fertile land is almost the same.

Kong Minxing said again: "The paddy fields near are grain fields, and the rest are cotton fields? ”

"Exactly." Zhang Han Zhengse said: "Someone vaguely mentioned to me that it is necessary to reclaim millions of acres of grain fields on the grassland, which will be used to grant meritorious soldiers and make the grassland into something 'plugged into the south of the Yangtze River'. ”

Kong Minxing was a little puzzled and said, "Wen Lan, didn't you always say that food is the top priority?" ”

"yes, but cotton matters, too." Zhang Han said with a smile: "The hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the area of Lizhuang are all grain fields, and there are at least hundreds of thousands of acres of paddy fields near the water on the grassland as grain fields. ”

"That's just as well." Kong Minxing remembered Li Zhuang's situation, and nodded slightly.

The grain trucks in Lizhuang are not cut off all year round, as far as Kaifeng and Huaiqing Mansion, west to the Fugu area, east to Zhangjiakou, and Yusheng's grain is how much to harvest.

In the past, Kong Minxing thought that Zhang Han collected these grains in order to trade with the North and the East and earn their silver, the trade has shrunk a lot in the past six months, but there is still how much grain is collected, and the small and medium-sized grain merchants around the country know that Li Zhuang has been collecting grain here, and the price is also very fair, so from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, there are people to send grain, and Yusheng's own mule and horse shop has branches everywhere, and also collects grain by the way, and every other time is a large convoy with a full convoy of grain back, Li Zhuang, Tianchengwei, Xinpingbao, These three places have built large warehouses to store grain, and now if you talk about grain storage, in addition to Tongzhou, there is a lot of grain in the whole world, I am afraid that there will be the most grain reserves in Heyusheng.

"Wenlan, many things about you are like an unpredictable prophet." Kong Minxing said with a thoughtful expression: "Looking at your current behavior, it seems that you have calculated that the natural disasters over the years will not only not stop, but will become more and more intense. ”

Zhang Han said: "In fact, everything is prepared according to the bad, and even if it happens, it will not be caught off guard." I've heard John Tong say that one of the theories of the Tessie people is that if everything is likely to develop in a bad or good way, then it will most likely develop in a bad way. The natural disasters of my Ming Dynasty have lasted for more than ten years, and the second year of the apocalypse is more powerful than in the previous Wanli years. He hasn't reached the age of seventeen yet, the first assistant and the second assistant are all members of the Donglin Party, and the court and the middle are all so-called Zhongzheng Ying Dynasty, what is going on with this natural disaster? According to my idea, it is not bad to prepare more, maybe in another ten years, natural disasters will continue. ”

"Well, I don't know what's going on." Kong Minxing said with a puzzled face: "In the past 20 years, natural disasters have continued, especially in the north, cold death in winter, heavy snowfall one after another, drought after spring and summer, no rain falls, production is reduced or harvest is absent everywhere, and the life of the people in the north is getting more and more difficult year by year." ”

"We have no way to control God, the only thing we can do is to try to conform to God, do our part under the conditions given by God, change the environment we are in, and try to obtain greater benefits." Zhang Han pondered: "With my current status, what I have to do is to make He Yusheng stronger, with a higher income, so that the people who follow me can live more comfortably, and there will be greater development in the future." A variety of cotton fields are for this purpose, people will starve to death if they don't eat food, people will freeze to death if they don't have clothes to wear, grain, cloth, these two things are the most important things, even more important than iron tools and medicinal materials. ”

Kong Minxing was moved when he heard this: "Wen Lan's heart is really not something I can speculate about, I thought you were moved because of the big cloth." ”

Zhang Han laughed and said: "It's also a fact that the cloth is profitable, our smuggling business is mainly for Dongyu, what Donglu has in hand is silver and cotton cloth is short, and Songjiang cloth with a capital of five yuan is now sold for at least four taels in Liaodong, and one or two or five yuan is sold for eight taels or ten taels." It may be higher, if you don't earn this silver, can you earn it for others? There must be seventy or eighty million people in the whole north, all of whom use Dongchang cloth and Jiangnan cloth, of course, more people buy cotton and spin their own homespun cloth to wear, but cotton is also in Jiangnan and Dongchang, and the place where they can grow cotton on the ground in the north is gone. With such a big market, wouldn't it be a waste not to grab it! ”

At this time, Li Shenming, Sun Jingting and others all gathered around, and after listening to Zhang Han's words, everyone nodded their heads.

Clothes are not better than ironware, ironware is used to save points, a shovel can be used for several years, iron plows and iron pots and other things can also be used for many years, especially the quality of Heyusheng's ironware is much better than before, and it has increased the use time.

Zhang Han knew that the sale of ironware had grown from growth to decline, and eventually stabilized at a level close to the elimination rate of ironware, and unless new markets were developed, such as the southern and southwestern markets, the decline in ironware profits would be inevitable.

Clothes and fabrics are different, no matter how frugal they are, a summer cloth clothes are also worn for one or two seasons at most, and then worn and destroyed, not the poor people will choose to make new clothes, and the poor will sew and mend them, but they also have to make one or two new clothes every year for the New Year, cloth cotton, the annual sales volume is very stable, and there is a new big market with silver and no clothes, and the future profit point is very considerable.

"The only problem seems to be on me right now?" All the people looked at Kong Minxing with burning eyes, and Kong Minxing spread his hands and said quietly: "Is this dependent on me?" ”

"If you don't rely on you, who are you looking for?" Li Shenming smiled cruelly and said, "Who told you to get on the thief ship?" ”

Sun Jingting also smiled: "We want to do this, after all, it is very important for me and Yusheng's future development, in addition to the northern market, cloth can also go to sea for trade in large quantities according to the grade, and the sales volume is also very large, but we are far inferior to Brother Zhi in this kind of thing, so we can only work hard." ”

Kong Minxing is not modest, he has a hunch from Li Zhuang hurrying here, Zhang Han called him to come will never be as simple as just surveying Tuntian, and now it really gave him a great problem.

Kong Minxing thought about it again and again, and finally said: "Growing cotton on the grassland, no one really thinks about such a thing. There are also trial cotton planting in the rest of the north, but the scale is always not large, because the north is cold early, and it is just right to pick cotton in October in the south of the Yangtze River, and the snow has fallen in the north, and the cotton has frozen to death. Everyone said that cotton is only planted in Dongchang Mansion and Jiangnan, but in fact, it is not right, from Dongchang Mansion to the south, there are also many people in the Lianghuai area who plant cotton, and there are also planted in Jiangxi, Hubei and other places. There are indeed few in the north, just because the weather is very cold, it is not suitable for planting. ”

Sun Jingting said with some worry: "The grassland, which was originally a Tatar territory, is cold in winter, and it is not suitable for planting, so they will graze. Cotton planting, I've only heard that this thing doesn't like too much rain, likes drought, but I didn't think that we have early snow here. ”

Zhang Han said with a smile: "With a talent like Brother Zhizhi, these are nothing. ”

Kong Minxing scolded with a smile: "You treat me as a dancing god......"

Everyone laughed when they heard this, but looking at Kong Minxing's eyes, they were still full of expectations.

This year, there is no second person in the world who is suitable to preside over the cotton field here.

Kong Minxing was not modest, and said directly: "No matter what, since it is imperative, we must first cultivate some experimental acres, and then let me send people to Shandong and even as far as Lianghu to select more cotton varieties, and then try to plant hybrids to find the most suitable seeds." ”

Li Shenming said: "What is the most suitable? ”

Zhang Han and Kong Minxing glanced at each other and said together: "Early planting and early maturity, this is the most suitable!" ”

"I see!"

Li Shenming suddenly realized and said: "Since the snow falls early, it is better to choose early-maturing varieties." ”

"You're that simple?" Kong Minxing rolled his eyes and said: "It is best to pick it once, the growth cycle should be at least half a month shorter than that of ordinary cotton seeds, once the frost or snow is over, if you give me ten or eight years, take it slowly, the problem is not very big, but do you have the patience?" ”

Li Shenming smiled and said, "I wish you would succeed in the trial next year." ”

"Definitely not next year, and besides, the new fields that have been reclaimed will have to be interplanted with alfalfa and beans for at least two years to fertilize the fields and weed."

Everyone feels a little disappointed, so it seems that cotton from the trial to large-scale planting, at least three years, or even longer to large-scale planting of suitable seeds, if you have not been able to find the right one, I am afraid that the success of the trial is far away, after all, before that, not to mention in the grassland, even the entire northern cotton value of the area is very few.

"You don't have to be disappointed." Kong Minxing smiled and said, "Give you a boost, I know that growing cotton on the grassland has the same benefits." ”

Zhang Han was also in good spirits, and said with a smile: "Brother Zhi doesn't have to sell Guanzi, let's talk about it directly." ”