Cross the Yellow River to Luoyang, which was an important trading hub in the north.

Most of the goods transported from Hetao, Qinghai, and the Western Regions had to pass through Tongguan to Luoyang, and then be trafficked further south.

Luoyang's population increased rapidly, its commerce was extremely developed, and what appeared in front of Li Zicheng was an incomparably wealthy giant city. Although it is certainly not as good as the early years of Chongzhen, it is only a matter of time before Chongzhen can throw the last years of Chongzhen out of the eight streets and restore and surpass the Ming Dynasty.

All the way east to Kaifeng, which is more prosperous.

Because Kaifeng not only has business travelers from Luoyang, but also some business travelers from Shanxi. Li Zicheng, who has been squatting in Hetao for several years, almost didn't get dazzled when he first came to Kaifeng.

"It's really a good time like this." Li Zicheng couldn't wait to go to Nanjing, and he heard Zhang Yunyi say that Nanjing was a hundred times richer than Kaifeng.

Zhang Yunyi said triumphantly: "Don't just look at the city, the countryside is really prosperous." Since the founding of the new dynasty, we have dredged and excavated more than 10,000 canals in Henan. In the northwest of Henan, as well as Shanxi and Shaanxi, not only canals are built, but irrigation wells are also dug. Even if there is another great drought, it will not be as empty as before. ”

The method of well irrigation began in the Ming Dynasty and was mainly prevalent in the northern provinces.

In view of the great drought during the Xiaoice period, well irrigation became more popular in the Qing Dynasty. In Shaanxi Province alone, there were 130,000 wells dedicated to irrigation during the Qianlong period. Later, Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, suddenly encountered a major drought, Zuo Zongtang encouraged the digging of wells in addition to disaster relief, and dug tens of thousands of irrigation wells in one go.

And the Datong Imperial Court, since the last drought in Shanxi, officials from both provinces have been frantically digging wells.

More than 80,000 irrigation wells were dug in Shaanxi, more than 60,000 in Shanxi, and more than 10,000 in the northwest of Henan. In the future, even if there is another major drought, it will not be as desperate as before, and its ability to resist natural disasters will be greatly improved.

Li Zicheng came to the countryside of Henan, which is indeed richer than the rural areas of Shaanxi.

He remembered that all the plugged irrigation canals had been dredged, and many of them had been newly dug. Farmers who have just had a bumper harvest happily go to the government to pay taxes, and herds of livestock can be seen in the countryside from time to time. When he ravaged Henan, he robbed all the livestock, where could he see such a scene?

Like Shaanxi, the people of Henan speak accents from southern provinces, and many of them have immigrated in the past decade.

Looking at it, Li Zicheng didn't want to look at it anymore, feeling that it was not interesting for him to toss for half his life.

Niu Jinxing bought the latest version of "Datong Collection", and according to the content of the book, and then compared what he saw and heard in the countryside, he suddenly had a deeper understanding of "Datong Collection".

Tossing and turning by boat, passing through Xuzhou.

Li Zicheng pointed to the black smoke rising from the suburbs: "What is that burning?" ”

Zhang Yunyi said: "Steam factories are more common in the south and scarce in the north. Xuzhou produces coal, and next to the cotton producing area of Shandong, there are more and more steam factories. By the way, His Majesty has ordered that the chimney of the factory must be built at least five zhang (more than 16 meters) high, so as not to damage the people with black smoke. Which factory dared to disobey and immediately dismantled the chimney and stopped working. ”

"Can you go and see it?" Li Zicheng asked.

"Absolutely." Zhang Yunyi said with a smile.

When he visited the factory, Li Zicheng found that there were many female workers here, and the boiler workers and porters were all men.

The kneaded cotton sliver was carried by the machine to run, twisted and wound overnight, and it turned into cotton yarn in minutes, which made Li Zicheng, Niu Jinxing and others stunned.

"Amazing, magical!" Bull Venus was amazed again and again.

Zhang Yunyi said with a smile: "This kind of steam engine has many functions. In the past, the imperial court had to use water conservancy to roll the silver dollar, and the silver dollar was often bent and deformed, and the workers had to hammer it flat. After switching to a steam engine, not only is the speed increased exponentially, but it is also stamped coinage, and there will be no more curved silver dollars. ”

Back on the boat, continue south.

Li Zicheng found Niu Jinxing, and said unhappily: "Emperor Zhao in Nanjing, is it really the reincarnation of an immortal?" Such machines can be built. Cotton yarn can be spun so fast, how can people in the world worry about having no clothes to wear? ”

"Yes, it's really the reincarnation of a god." Bull Venus was equally shocked.

Both of them could only see the benefits of the steam engine, and could not take into account the damage to the small peasant economy.

By the time the two passed by Yangzhou, a city second only to Nanjing, they had become a little numb, and after entering the city, they looked at everything in front of them in a daze.

More than 20 Mongolian youths, not far from them, were also looking at the Yangzhou market. These are the eldest sons of the Mongol chieftain, who are going to Nanjing to study at the university, and they are also equivalent to hostages.

On the next journey, Li Zicheng and Niu Jinxing stopped talking, they really didn't know what else to say.

The young people who accompanied him were even more excited, and their fathers were all Dashun generals. Most of their childhood was spent in the mountains, and they have been living in the Hetao since they were teenagers, and the further south they go, the more they refresh their three views. At the same time, they are also looking forward to their future more and more, dreaming of graduating from military academies and becoming officers, and then being promoted to become generals through meritorious service, and returning to the big cities in the south to enjoy happiness when they are old.

……

Nanjing, Forbidden City.

Chen Xisong, who persuaded the agricultural division, brought a young man to meet the emperor.

The young man's name is Xu Jin, who is not yet thirty years old, and he is the one who persuades the Jiangnan Institute of Agricultural Affairs.

Xu Jin didn't seem to be good at words, and after meeting the emperor, he kept silent and only handed in an experimental report.

The agricultural researcher of the Jiangnan Institute of the Department of Persuasion Agriculture has been observing and summarizing in Jiangnan for ten years, and finally came up with this summary report.

There is no empty head, and the whole article is talking with data, summarizing the effect of cotton and rice rotation on pest control.

The method of cotton and rice rotation has appeared in the south of the Yangtze River in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Although they couldn't understand the principle, the farmers still found that two years of cotton and one year of rice were the most suitable for planting in rotation.

In the original words of the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", it is: those who can plant cotton and rice for two years and turn over rice for one year, that is, the grass roots are festering, the soil is thick, and the insect borer does not grow, and it will not take more than three years, and then there will be insects.

Translated into the vernacular, it is: two years of cotton, one year of rice, can store soil fertility, but also can control pests and diseases.

However, with the famine in the south of the Yangtze River at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the development of prevention and control technology, this kind of rice rotation has been chaotic. After the famine, rice was planted one after another. And the textile merchants, in turn, frantically tempted the peasants to grow cotton all the time.

There are also some states and counties that do not know the benefits of cotton-rice rotation.

I have to admit that ancient Chinese agricultural technology was really developed. Even hundreds of years later, agricultural experts used scientific methods to experiment, and after tossing for a long time, they found that the ancient "two cotton and one rice" was the best (without the use of pesticides).

Let's look at a set of modern scientific experiment data:

In the first year of cotton planting, the incidence of Verticillium wilt was 1.3%-3.8%.

In the second year of cotton planting, the incidence of Verticillium wilt was 3.9%.

In the third year of cotton planting, the incidence of Verticillium wilt surged to 38.8%-70.1%.

If you don't plant cotton in the third year, you plant rice for one year, and when you continue to grow cotton, the incidence of Verticillium wilt decreases again.

Not only Verticillium wilt, but also other pests and diseases can be controlled by cotton and rice rotation.

The scientific explanation is that cotton-rice rotation is a kind of water-drought rotation, which effectively inhibits the breeding and reproduction of insects and germs by changing the natural environment. At the same time, it can also regulate the soil and maintain the fertility of the soil.

Xu Jin arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, these data are the results of long-term observation and summary of more than 10 prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River in the past ten years, and there will be absolutely no mistakes. Nowadays, cotton planting in Jiangnan has become more and more chaotic because of the development of textile machinery. Many people do not believe in evil, and in order to make more money, they continue to plant cotton for two years, which is completely trying their luck with courage. There are also some prefectures and counties that blindly convert farmland into cotton fields, and they don't know that there is a method of cotton and rice rotation. And ......"

"What else, just say it." Zhao Han said.

Xu Jin bowed his head and said: "The imperial court blindly imposed heavy taxes on cotton fields, which also disrupted the rotation of cotton and rice. ”

Eh, this is purely an accident, who made the senior members of the DPRK and the Central Committee not know how to grow cotton?

Instead of getting angry, Zhao Han appreciated this person even more and asked, "Which school did you graduate from?" ”

Xu Jin replied: "Your Majesty, the minister did not study in school, he used to study in a private school, and then he studied elementary and middle school courses by himself. When His Majesty recovered Jiangnan, the minister also followed the county sergeant to revolt, and did not go to the county to be a clerk, but chose to enter the agricultural office at that time. ”

Zhao Han said: "You immediately resign from the post of director of the Jiangnan Institute of the Department of Persuading Agriculture, promote you to the foreign minister of the Department of Persuasion of Agriculture, and first go to Jiangnan to serve as the envoy of persuasion of agriculture." I will ask the household department and the local government to cooperate, and in the future, whether it is Shandong or Jiangnan, cotton fields must abide by the law of cotton and rice rotation. In addition, in order to regulate food production, it must be strictly restricted to each town. In a town's farmland, the time of cotton and rice rotation must be staggered. It is not possible for everyone to plant cotton in the past two years, and then to plant rice together in the third year, so that the first two years are in short supply, and the third year is cheap and the peasants are harmed. ”

This involves government intervention, and it is necessary to let people who are proficient in mathematics rationally arrange the cotton and rice planting area in each town.

As long as the first few years are arranged, there is no need to interfere in the future, and the peasants can grow their own crops according to the law of "two cotton and one rice".

In this way, we can not only ensure the red line of grain production in cotton-producing areas, but also scientifically increase cotton output and achieve a bumper harvest of cotton and rice.

In addition, the heavy tax on cotton fields can also be slightly reduced, so as not to interfere with the law of cotton and rice rotation.

Everything must be scientific, not only in the development of industry, but also in the development of agriculture.

Zhao Han continued to say to Xu Jin: "You polish this report again. I asked the Ministry of Rites to print a booklet, print thousands of copies of it, and let the Ministry send people to distribute it, and the officials at all levels in the cotton-producing areas must read it by heart. ”

"Yes!"

Xu Jin was overjoyed, he was busy for ten years, and finally came to fruition. Not only can he be promoted, but he can also benefit thousands of people.

Zhao Han asked Chen Xisong again: "You have studied agriculture for more than ten years, and you have been persuading the agricultural department to be promoted, and it is time to be promoted to be a political official." Promote you to the right attendant of the household department, and report to the official department when you go back. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Chen Xisong was also happy.

The two bowed and retreated, and Zhao Han said, "Let Li Zicheng come in, I also want to see what he looks like." ”

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