Sima Qing is Sima Kao's cousin, and this is the third time he has seen Zhao Jiaren, and it is also the second time he has been to Guangzhou.

From the perspective of the Gusu people, in October of the Song calendar (about December in the Western calendar), it is still hot here. However, Sima Qing did not complain in the slightest, and when facing Zhao Jiaren, he listened attentively to the speech of the Guangzhou governor.

"All of you here today are volunteering to grow sisal. Again, I ask if any of you were forced to come here, and if any of you were tricked into getting here. If so, then just say, I will never be angry. ”

Zhao Jiaren's words caused laughter in the crowd. Sima Qing just bared his teeth politely, he didn't think there was anything funny about this, but he felt Zhao Jiaren's unwavering determination from these words.

"Since no one has been abducted, why don't we go on. I will rent 200 acres of contiguous hillside land to each of your households, because each governor of the state is working for three years, so no rent will be charged for these three years. You plant sisal in these fields, and in the first year the sisal does not grow, and you cannot cut the leaves. You can cut some from the second year, and you can really start cutting from the third year. We harvest all the leaves, as long as it is cut fresh leaves, we harvest as many as we want. Zhao Jiaren introduced his requirements to the sisal growers.

Sima Qing listened and looked at the contract given to them before the meeting. The content of the contract is exactly the same as what Zhao Jiaren said, to the effect that the nautical guild now needs people to grow sisal, so the guild provides land and collects sisal leaves.

As the chief scoop of the Navigation Guild, as the ambassador of the pacification system of the East and West Road of Guangnan, and the envoy of the coastal system of Guangzhou, Zhao Jiaren naturally has a voice that no one can compare with in Lingnan, a place where birds don't.

After Zhao Jiaren finished speaking, Sima Qing asked, "What about after the third year?" "Zhao Jiaren can work in Lingnan for three years, and after three years, he pats his ass and leaves, what will be the result of land and industry?

Zhao Jiaren said with a smile: "It depends on whether you are serious or not." If you are really serious, the lease of those lands will be extended. And I can guarantee that as long as sisal is still grown, the Nautical Guild will always buy it. ”

As soon as these words fell, some of the attendees shouted, "We can trust the principal." ”

Sima Qing knew that it was Zhao Jiaren's cronies who said this. Although Zhao Jiaren was young, he also served as the principal of the Navigation Guild Cadre School. The cadre schools of the Navigation Guild had a large number of majors, none of which were related to the imperial examination. Perhaps because of this, the officials of the Great Song Dynasty did not comment on it. Agriculture occupies a very important position in the Navigation Guild, and the first thing Zhao Jiaren did when he arrived in Guangzhou was probably to enter his official residence, and the second thing was to announce the establishment of the Guangzhou Agricultural School at the trade base that the Navigation Guild had already established.

If it were changed to Gusu, just Zhao Jiaren's outrageous request, Sima Qing would not choose to participate in such a suspicious transaction. However, his cousin Sima Kao is now the representative of the cotton industry in Gusu, and the Sima family has also decided to cooperate with Zhao Jiaren. Other tribes either went into the seafaring trade or contacted suppliers of silk and embroidery. After the reform of public land, the land of the Sima family was confiscated, and Sima Qing, who preferred to farm, was sent to Lingnan to participate in the plantation industry newly developed by Zhao Jiaren.

Even if he was unhappy in his heart, Sima Qing didn't show it on his face. Most of the families who can enter and exit the scholars are not small families, and the same is true for the Sima family. I have seen so many ups and downs, and the family always has a family motto. As a member of the family, Sima Kao, who had studied this, knew that the world never shifted by personal will. At different times, you have to choose different things, which is why the family has to continue to explore. Thirty years in the east of the river and thirty years in the west of the river, the east side does not light the west side.

The Jinshi family is not only prominent in the local area, but also very appealing. The last time they resisted the southern invasion of Mongolia, Jin Shi Ma Guangzu and Xiang Shibi spent money to gather thousands of local people to join the war. Although the Sima family is not so good in Gusu, it is not a problem to gather people who are willing to go to Lingnan on the 20th.

Lingnan is considered a miasma-ridden penal colony, but even so, the Pearl River Delta is still a land of rich fish and rice. Foshan near Guangzhou originally had a good iron smelting industry, and under the development of Zhao Jiaren, it entered the trade mode of the Republic of China in advance, that is to say, those merchants who traded in the South China Sea used iron pots and other iron products as ballast goods, and the goods were mainly various daily necessities. This trade easily made the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty hugely profitable, and it is still today.

Sima Qing thought that he was going to be sent to this area to open a plantation, but he didn't expect that Zhao Jiaren did not give them land first, but taught them lessons first. According to the young teacher in the class, this sisal is very good, extremely good. Although Sima Qing listened carefully to the class, he was not interested in such propaganda in his heart. He felt that this kind of propaganda was unreliable no matter how he looked at it.

From Zhao Jiaren's point of view, sisal fiber is tough, wear-resistant, salt-alkali resistant, and corrosion-resistant, and is widely used in various industries such as transportation, fishery, petroleum, metallurgy, etc., and has important economic value. White and brown rope is one of the main products of sisal, which is much stronger than ordinary hemp rope. It is also an important material for fishing nets.

In addition to fiber, sisal contains a variety of saponins, proteins, polysaccharides chemical components, its leaves have a neuro-muscle blocking pharmacological effect, and cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and other pharmacological effects. Sisal saponin is a pharmaceutical intermediate and important raw material for the synthesis of steroid hormone drugs, which is widely used in the manufacture of more than 200 drugs in three categories: adrenal cortical hormones, sex hormones and anabolic hormones.

As a psychiatrist and sailing enthusiast, Chiu is very familiar with sisal. Before he arrived in Guangzhou, he had already started looking for a suitable place to grow sisal.

Of course, the course will not do a lot of content that cannot be done, so the content related to modern technology and medicine has been deleted, and it is simply explained that Sima Qing can understand the use. As for where to plant, it is also very clear here. According to many attempts by agricultural schools in Fujian, it was found that sisal has strong adaptability, barrenness, drought resistance, and waterlogging resistance, but it has strong growth and a wide range of adaptation, and is suitable for planting in loose, well-drained, low-groundwater and fertile sandy loam soils, and is not suitable for planting in poorly drained and often wet places.

Based on this characteristic, sisal plantations are divided into land bordering mountains on the edge of the Pearl River Delta. None of the outsiders who can come here to cultivate plantations are outsiders, and the agricultural department is of course telling the truth. Not only is it desolate and remote, but it seems to be infested with natives.

The fourth year of Xianchun was 1268, 196 years ago, the fifth year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty, that is, in 1072, Zhang Dian opened up the last 'Nanban Mountain' in Hunan, Shangmei Mountain, which became the "land of the new king" of the Song Dynasty, that is, Xinhua County. At such a speed of development, it is not surprising that there are natives in the mountainous areas of Lingnan.

From the bell in the middle of the night to the passenger ship, the wealthy family on the shore of Taihu Lake suddenly became a difficult pioneer who had to fight with the natives while farming in the barren mountains and mountains. Such a huge gap made Sima Qing feel that he was about to collapse. He and Zhao Jiaren are not related, and it is completely a family request to open up here. At first, Sima Qing thought that he might die of illness, but he didn't expect that there was a possibility of death more intense than infection.

However, since it was a big family, Sima Kao had received a lot of education, and he knew that it was useless for him to be frightened and scream at this time. He began to look around, and found that the people around him only had solemn faces, and there was no fear at all. This made Sima Qing puzzled, stumped that Zhao Jiaren was so trustworthy that even the natives couldn't scare the pioneers?

After the lecture of the agricultural school, the problems that will be encountered are followed by the personnel of the armed forces. The armed men directly told Sima Qing that the armed forces would organize these pioneers for military education. It will also help them build a stockade with better defensive functions. With this, those scattered natives do not need to be afraid at all.

Sima Qing was also a person who once aspired to study and take the Jinshi examination, and when he learned that his future life would probably be the head of such an armed pioneer regiment, he couldn't help but feel sad in his heart. But he didn't opt out.

The pioneers soon went to work. Loose, well-drained, low-water-table, and fertile sandy loam soils are not very suitable for growing crops, and places like Lingnan can only meet the requirements of loose, well-drained, and low-water table. When they were developing the plantation, Zhao Jiaren provided them with iron farming tools for free.

With the help of sharp shovels and sickles, the plants that were easy to clean were dug up first, piled up in low-lying and moist places under the command of agricultural personnel and burned. The goal is to kill as many bacteria and insects as possible. Sima Qing did feel the necessity of this choice, and before the fire was lit, there were many small insects crawling back and forth on the ground. When the fire broke out, the bugs flew up in quick succession to try to escape the danger of being burned by the flames.

Throughout the labor, the old men were all dressed tightly. He wears gloves and a silk mask on his head. In addition to this, they are sprayed with a special liquid to prevent mosquito bites.

In addition to these tasks, the fly trap is also checked to see if the starved flies are piled up in the flytrap. If it's full, you have to pour out the flies inside and burn them. However, these flycatchers were so fast that there were many non-fly mosquitoes in them, and later the students of the agricultural school simply changed the mode, and as soon as the bamboo flytrap was almost full, they immediately took it and burned it whole.

Originally, Sima Qing felt that his whole body was about to collapse, and he decided to leave no matter what. Seeing this disposition of the agricultural school, he decided to hold on a little longer. The flytrap is made of bamboo, and the mesh is fine, and if the insects that are not particularly small enter and only bump into them, they will not be able to get out. Just looking at the materials and handiwork, it should be worth a little more than straw sandals.

What impressed Sima Qing was not the investment in flytraps at the agricultural school, but their efforts to make everyone as sick as possible. If it were ordinary people, even if it was a fly trap that was not very valuable, they would not burn it. It's about using bad.