But at this moment, Xiao Yu frowned and asked: "Liulang, 100,000 acres of land, but only 2,000 people work, so calculated, one person has to be responsible for fifty acres, how can this be managed?" ”

Xiao Yu's words got to the point, it is said that a strong laborer can only manage seven or eight acres of land at most, even if you add livestock, it will be more than ten acres, and no matter how much, you can't manage it, but the slaves in the plantation have to manage fifty acres by themselves, which is obviously unreasonable.

Cui Yu, who was also riding on a horse, said with a smile: "Lao Guogong doesn't know, this plantation is different from domestic land cultivation, because the crops planted in the plantation are single, so they are generally unified labor, and in terms of cultivation, it is not as high as the domestic requirements, and the yield per mu is not too important, coupled with the use of a lot of animal power, as well as the promotion of new furniture, so the plantation does not need too many manpower, and this is one of the reasons for the development of Taiwan's planting garden." ”

Cui Yu is right, although Taiwan's plantations are mainly sugarcane, there are also some plantations that are mainly based on other crops, such as rice, tea, etc., these crops are single, easy to manage on a large scale, can save a lot of manpower, and this is precisely to deal with the problem of Taiwan's small population.

After hearing this, Xiao Yu nodded thoughtfully and said: "I see, this plantation should be to expand the method of rough planting several times, and one person can manage more land, although it will reduce the yield per mu, but as long as there is enough land, the total yield is still quite amazing." ”

"The old man is wise, the cultivation in this plantation is indeed very sloppy, and it is a pity that the slave family has been for a long time at the beginning, for example, one mu can produce 100 catties. Now it can only produce 80 catties, less than 20 catties per mu. 100,000 acres is hundreds of thousands of catties, which can make people feel distressed to death. It was a young woman dressed in a bearded robe. She is also the only one who rides on horseback.

Hearing the humor of this woman's words, Concubine Yang and the others in the car all covered their mouths and laughed. This woman's identity is very prominent, she is the Mrs. Cui who turned Cui Yu from a gentleman into a shameful and brave young man, that is, Cheng Huailiang's own sister and Cheng Yanjin's biological daughter.

Just now, when Cui Yu and Wang Guo greeted Li Su and everyone in front of the gate, Li Su saw this Mrs. Cui at a glance, because compared to other women, this Mrs. Cui was not only dressed differently from other women. In addition, there is also an indescribable heroic aura on his body, and at a glance, he knows that it is behind the gate, which is very imaginary with the three brothers of Cheng Huailiang, and he is really worthy of Cheng Biting Jin's daughter.

Hearing this Mrs. Cui's words, Empress Xiao also smiled and said: "Zixuan is a housekeeper, Qinghe Cui's family can marry a daughter-in-law like you, it is really envious of others, fortunately you don't have any sisters, otherwise it would be just a proposal." I'm afraid it will knock down the gate of the Lu Guogong Mansion! "Zi Xuan is Madame Cui's name.

Although there was a bit of joking in Empress Xiao's words, it was also the truth, after Cui Yu married this Mrs. Cui, she immediately changed her ways. This makes many people very envious, after all, who doesn't have a loser, if he can marry such a daughter-in-law. That's really an ancestral accumulation. It's a pity that Cheng Mansion only has such a daughter, and there is nowhere to ask for it if other families want to.

Mrs. Choi has a straightforward personality. Hearing Queen Xiao's jokes, she also smiled and said a few jokes. I talked to Concubine Yang and Wen Xin very much.

While listening to the jokes of these female dependents, Li Su talked in a low voice with Cui Yu and Wang Guo next to him, and looked up at the sugarcane forests on both sides of the road from time to time. It was the time to harvest the sugarcane, and in some of the ripe sugarcane forests in the distance, there were already many shirtless slaves wielding machetes to harvest.

It was only when Li Su found that these slaves were relatively free, and they did not wear any shackles on their bodies, nor were they tied into a string with ropes, but they had slave marks on their faces, and there was also a Han overseer among every dozens of slaves. What made Li Su even more strange was that the Han overseers were among dozens of slaves with knives, but they only had a whip in their hands, and when they saw someone lazy to go up, they didn't seem to be worried about these slaves resisting at all.

The bold behavior of the overseer aroused Li Su's curiosity, and he immediately asked Wang Qian, but Wang Guo smiled after hearing it: "Your Highness doesn't know, these slaves are all natives of Nanyang, and they are the least courageous on weekdays, and they don't dare to resist the overseer at all, and there is a rule in the plantation, that is, if one person dares to resist, then the whole team of slaves must be killed, so even if some slaves dare to resist, I am afraid that other slaves in the same team will kill him without the overseer's action." ”

Li Su was also stunned when he heard this, he didn't expect that there were such regulations in the plantation, it was really poisonous enough, even if the slave wanted to resist, but he had to see if the other slaves agreed?

Next, Cui Yu and Wang Guo introduced some management methods for plantation slaves, such as these slaves are not from the same place and do not understand each other's words, and for example, some slaves who perform well will be rewarded and given some relative privileges, so that a 'noble' class will be established among the slaves, and even if the slaves at the bottom have hatred, most of them will only target those privileged slaves, and when the time comes, they will kill some of the privileged slaves to appease the resentment of the slaves.

Li Su was greatly appreciative when he heard this, but he didn't expect that Wang Guo and these people were really not simple, and they could even think of this method, which was simply the prototype of the policy of the Western countries in the colonies in later generations, and if he expanded outward too quickly in the future, he could use this method to rule the colonies.

After a few laps in this sugarcane forest, Li Yu and his team followed Wang Kuang and others to the juice mill in the plantation, where there are not many workers, but it is built by the river, and there are tall waterwheels standing by the river, with the help of water power, the fresh sugarcane cut down is squeezed out like oil, and then packed into special large wooden barrels, transported to the special trading houses in the city to buy, but the trading houses will also set different prices according to the color and sweetness of the sugarcane juice.

"Brother Cui, why don't you sell the sugarcane you harvested directly, but add an extra process of juicing, isn't this asking for trouble for yourself?" Li Su asked a little puzzled. Although the plantation was the method he thought of, he had never managed the specific operation inside, so he really didn't know much about the details.

Cui Yu and his wife glanced at each other after hearing this, and then explained with a smile: "Your Highness doesn't know, if you buy sugarcane directly, although it saves a lot of work, but the price is also very low, it is far less cost-effective than squeezing it into juice, and after squeezing the juice, we can not only increase the price, but also have another thing to make money." ”

Hearing Cui Yu's words, Concubine Yang couldn't help but ask with some curiosity: "This is strange, isn't there some bagasse left after juicing, can this thing also be sold for money?" ”

I saw that Mrs. Cui immediately smiled and said: "The concubine Niangniang guessed well, it is this bagasse ......"

At this time, Li Su also came to his senses and hurriedly said: "Yes, I remember, this bagasse is a good thing, it can not only be used to make paper, but also good feed, which is best for feeding livestock." ”

was robbed by Li Su, and Mrs. Cui, who had a straightforward personality, couldn't help but glance at Li Su, and then said: "Your Highness is really knowledgeable, the annual output of bagasse in our plantation is amazing, most of it is sold to make paper, and some of the rest we have opened a farm on the grassland in the south, where the cattle and sheep are all mainly eating these bagasse, the meat is very delicious, and the concubine Niangniang and Mrs. Guo will want to taste it in a while!" ”

Concubine Yang also smiled when she heard this: "There is an advantage in this overseas, that is, you can eat beef casually, if this is in Datang, it is an extremely rare thing." ”

Concubine Yang's words made everyone nod and smile, Datang is forbidden to slaughter cattle, let alone eat beef, this is mainly Xuanwei, cattle are the main livestock in the field, a cow may be more important than human life in the eyes of farmers, and in order to show support for agriculture, the royal family strictly enforces the prohibition of beef, so even if Concubine Yang is a concubine, it is difficult to eat beef.

After leaving the juicer, Wang Guo took them on a tour of the plantation's ancillary properties, such as the one just mentioned, a small winery, and even a huge lake for fish farming.

100,000 acres of land is not a small amount, Li Su and they only turned a small half after a long time, and finally everyone was hungry, Mrs. Cui immediately beckoned everyone to return to the residence at the entrance of the manor, and the wine banquet that had been prepared for a long time was also immediately put on the table, and everyone talked while eating. And Li Su also tasted the cattle and sheep raised in the plantation, as well as the self-brewed sugarcane wine, the color of this wine is light yellow, a bit like the rice wine of later generations, but the taste is sweet, and it is more mellow, not so punched as liquor, it is more suitable for women to drink, if it is distilled again, it is estimated that it will be more suitable for men to drink.

Speaking of Wang Guo and Cui Yu here is really good, there is a big mountain in the northeast of the plantation, there are a lot of prey in it, the next day Li Yu and they went up the mountain to hunt, the result is really a lot of harvest, even Concubine Yang also shot a lot of prey, after the hunt, everyone sat together to eat barbecue, there is no distinction between the identity of the monarch and the minister, but there is really a feeling of not wanting to be happy.

It's a pity that because of the limited time, Li Yu and they can't stay in the plantation for too long, after all, Concubine Yang's identity is special, and Xiao Yu still holds an important position in the court, as for Li Su, he is even more busy and can't get out, so after staying in the plantation for three days, Li Yu and they have to say goodbye to Cui Yu.

It's just that just when Li Su and they were about to go back in Tainan, suddenly Lu Qing sent an urgent military information, and along with this letter reporting the military situation, there was also something inside, and it was this thing that immediately made Li Su's originally very happy mood become extremely gloomy. (To be continued.) )