Because the farming and production techniques of Chinese farmers have been inherited by their ancestors for thousands of years, the powerful lazy surname is not something that can be changed, and it is difficult for them to accept the new production technology in a short period of time, and many people even scoff at it.

Therefore, not only is no one learning and applying the new agricultural production technology, but no one believes at all.

The new agricultural technology presided over by Feng Rui and Zhao Chengxia could not be promoted at all, which made Feng Rui very helpless, and even very decadent for a time.

However, Zhao Chengxia didn't care much, Zhao Chengxia had already learned about this situation, his father was an absolute "diehard", even including his uncle Zhao Pilian.

When Zhao Chengxia returned to China and wanted to use new agricultural techniques in his own fields, he was severely scolded by his father. Therefore, Zhao Chengxia suggested that farmers should not be anxious about the reluctance to use new agricultural production techniques, and that this matter should be done slowly. We can first reclaim a large amount of wasteland under the administration of the Northern Frontier Governor's Office, and the Committee of Agriculture will set up a series of new-style farms and make extensive use of new-style agricultural technology on the farms.

Zhao Chengxia's suggestion is in line with Song Zhewu's mind.

Although Shanxi's grain production is self-sufficient, it is not much more, but there is no problem in supplying the current population. However, in Song Zhewu's plan, he wanted to vigorously gather refugees to settle in the four provinces under his control, especially in Northern Mongolia. This can not only save the people from fire and water, save countless lives, but also ensure the source of his soldiers. And more importantly, this can also achieve a purpose that Song Zhewu can't say clearly, that is, the real edge.

It was not difficult to summon refugees, and during the Republic of China, there were many disasters, and according to statistics, a total of 200 million people starved to death during the Republic of China.

From the ninth year of the Republic of China to the tenth year of the Republic of China, there was a great famine in the four provinces of North China, with 10 million people dying of starvation and 3,000-50 million victims; From the 17th year of the Republic of China to the 19th year of the Republic of China, there was a great famine in the eight northern provinces, and 13 million people died of starvation, and the number of people fleeing the famine cannot be counted; From the 20th year of the Republic of China to the 38th year of the Republic of China, there were 11 floods on the Yangtze River, of which in the 20th year of the Republic of China, more than 100 million people were affected by the floods on the Yangtze River; In the 23rd year of the Republic of China, there was a great drought across the country, and 6 million people starved to death; From the 25th to the 26th year of the Republic of China, there was a great famine in Sichuan and Gansu, and countless people died, and the population of Wanxian County in Sichuan alone plummeted by one-third......

Whenever he saw these numbers, Song Zhewu's heart felt like it was dripping blood. Don't say 200 million people, even if there are 100 million people who survive and enrich Shanxi and Northern Mongolia, then his population base is enough to compete with the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union.

Therefore, after Song Zhewu settled down in Shanxi, he has been thinking about how to feed more people. One of the ways to reclaim a large amount of wasteland and build farms is to reclaim a large amount of wasteland.

In Shanxi, because of the early development, the wasteland to be reclaimed is very limited, and the existing barren mountains and wasteland are only about 2.3 million mu. However, if we count Suiyuan, North and South Mongolia, there will be hundreds of millions of acres of wasteland that can be reclaimed, not to mention feeding 200 million people, even one billion is not necessarily impossible.

It's just that the concept of soil and water conservation has been deeply rooted in the heart of Song Zhewu, a traverser, and he will not be desperate to cut down and open up wasteland for farming. You know, decades later, raging sandstorms often visit Hebei, and its birthplace is the Beimeng Plateau.

Fortunately, because Song Zhewu will adopt a large number of new agricultural technologies, the yield per mu will be much higher than that of the land cultivated by the current farmers, and according to Song Zhewu's estimates, a maximum of 100 million mu of land can meet his needs.

Therefore, Song Zhewu demanded that Feng Rui's agricultural committee must reclaim 150 million mu of wasteland and plant 200 million mu of trees within five years.

For this almost fantastical plan, not only Feng Rui and Zhao Chengxia felt embarrassed, but even Jia Jingde and Zhao Pilian also thought it was impossible.

The reason why they think it is impossible is not that they do not think that there is not enough wasteland to be cultivated, although they have not been to Northern Mongolia, but there are more than 1.5 million square kilometers of land, and there is absolutely no problem in cultivating more than 100 million acres of land, and the only reason is that they think there is not so much manpower. At present, the construction of many factories and railways and highways has basically absorbed the refugees who came to the Taiyuan Administration, and the reclamation of 150 million mu of land is absolutely impossible without millions of strong laborers.

Moreover, under the administration of the Northern Frontier Governor's Office, the population is limited and does not need so much food. Instead of spending huge sums of money to reclaim the famine, it is better to invest the limited funds in industrial construction, which is now very tight.

Regarding the doubts of these people, Song Zhewu can't help but give an explanation. However, it was impossible for him to tell them about his uncertain prophet, in that case, a "god stick" label Song Zhewu would not be able to hide.

Song Zhewu's explanation for this is that although China has a vast land area, it has a large population, and every natural disaster will cause a large number of victims, especially the frequent floods near the Yangtze River, which is prone to major disasters.

According to his research of historical sources, the years without lunar eclipses occur twice in 11 and 18 years every 18 years, and the vast majority of such years have floods, and 31 officially such years......

Song Zhewu really wanted to tell these people about the El Niro phenomenon, but in the end he couldn't help but say it.

However, these people have already understood what Song Zhewu meant, that is, Song Zhewu believes that there will be a major flood in China in 31 years!

This kind of unbelievable statement of the prophet would be dismissed by others if it were said by others. But from the mouth of Song Zhewu, a person who was worshiped as a god by the experts of the research institute, they didn't dare not believe it.

150 million mu is 150 million mu, anyway, more grain is not a bad thing. Of course, this premise is that there must be a lot of labor. At present, the Taiyuan Administration and Suiyuan can only organize tens of thousands of laborers to participate in the reclamation of wasteland, and the vast majority of the strong laborers are participating in the construction of the Taiku Railway, so they have to reclaim the wasteland in the Taiyuan Administration and the Suiyuan Hetao area first.

In order to ensure harvest in agricultural production during droughts and floods, it is necessary to have a sound water conservancy system. In the central and northwest areas of Jinzhong, where the Taihang Administration is located, the water conservancy system near Taiyuan is relatively developed, especially the Tianyi Canal built by Jia Jiying and Xu Yiqing, Ma Jizhen and Yan Zhecheng of Yuci in the early years, which irrigated more than 100,000 acres of land around Taiyuan.

However, the water conservancy facilities in the northwest of Shanxi Province are much worse, and many places are definitely "relying on the sky for food".

It is necessary to build water conservancy facilities on existing farmland, and of course, the agricultural water conservancy committees of these local water conservancy facilities only need to come up with a plan and send people to supervise the implementation. The specific project arrangements and migrant workers' organizations are all built by the villagers organized by each county, after all, this is to solve their own problems.

The most troublesome thing is the construction of water conservancy facilities on the banks of the Yellow River.

There are nearly one million acres of tidal flat saline-alkali land on the banks of the Yellow River, and in order to improve the saline-alkali land, it is necessary to have complete water conservancy and irrigation facilities. A very important way to improve saline-alkali land is to dig drainage ditches to lower the groundwater level and stop the soil from rejecting salt.

In addition, some supporting measures should be taken: such as desalination and salt leaching, that is, irrigation with a large amount of fresh water to reduce the salt content of crop soil root zone; mulching, selecting appropriate mulching to inhibit water evaporation and salt return; Biological measures, the creation of shelterbelts, intercropping with Tsubaki cotton, etc.

Speaking of biological measures, Song Zhewu had heard before the crossing that the use of earthworm manure in Shaanxi was surprisingly good at improving saline-alkali land. He now has a lot of earthworm manure fertilizer.

This is because not only has he started to carry out large-scale earthworm chicken farming in Laiyuan, but also the rural construction campaign carried out in Dingxian County at the beginning of Yan Yang, and the method of earthworm chicken raising provided by Song Zhewu has also been introduced, and there is a large amount of earthworm manure in the two places.

Among the above measures, the others are easy to do, but the most difficult is water diversion and irrigation.

It stands to reason that there should not be much of a problem in the drainage and irrigation of the tidal flats on the banks of the Yellow River, but the more than 400 miles of river banks from the meanders to the willow forests, because of the berms for many years, most of the embankments are higher than the tidal flats on the banks. The only way to do this is to pump water for irrigation.

The pumps needed to pump water are not a problem, and now the factory in Taiyuan can make them. It's just that the water pump needs electricity to pump water, and now the Taiyuan Administration is the most short of electricity.

Because Song Zhewu is now building a large number of factories, the demand for electricity is very strong, especially the ten electric furnaces are large power consumers, and now there is a fixed time limit in Taiyuan City. It will take time to build several new high-power power plants. Moreover, even when a new power plant is built, it will not immediately meet the demand for electricity on the banks of the Yellow River.

This is because power plants alone are not enough, and the transmission of electricity must have power transmission lines to deliver to the places where they are needed. Now Song Zhewu is most lacking copper, large-scale transmission of electricity, the capacity of the wire must be large enough, copper wire can meet the needs of drainage and irrigation. The transmission power of aluminum is much smaller, about one-fifth of that of copper.

Although there is no shortage of aluminum in Shanxi, the aluminum wire must be made thick enough, so that the weight will inevitably increase. Especially now Taiyuan has not been able to do high-voltage transmission, and the loss is huge.

Song Zhewu had a headache about this problem, but what didn't make him arrive first was that this problem was easily solved by Cao Ruizhi, a water conservancy expert who graduated from the University of Wisconsin in the United States from the Council of Agriculture.

(To be continued)