Ten days later, Huanggang County.

The Huangzhou Mansion, which was under Liu Xiyao's command more than a month ago and was killed and plundered, has now initially restored order.

Although it is not yet prosperous, at least the streets are orderly, and the chickens and dogs in the township smell each other. The people are also busy with production, and have only recently entered the farm.

Potatoes from the Americas can be planted in two seasons a year, one of which is planted in winter and harvested in early summer of the following year; Then plant it and harvest it in late autumn.

Peas in beans, as well as some large-leaf vegetables, can also be planted in early winter. Beans can also fix nitrogen, and the harvest of other crops can be higher when planted in winter and ploughed in the spring of the following year.

When Shen Shuren first took office in Huangzhou in May, he planted all the seeds he had brought from Fujian, but because the quantity was insufficient, he could only cover about two townships of cultivated land.

After the harvest in late autumn, all the seeds are reserved for the next season, and the sown area can be expanded by more than ten times or even twenty or thirty times, that is, thirty or forty townships.

Considering that not all the farmland in one county can be planted with potatoes and corn, and at least one-third of the farmland needs to be set aside for rice, the seeds of these new crops can cover the arable land of at least three counties.

Crops such as potatoes also have the advantage of not being too picky on the ground and fertilizer.

Huangzhou is located in the Dabie Mountains, both mountainous and southern, the temperature and humidity are not suitable for growing wheat in dry land, and the low-lying wetlands needed for rice are not enough.

With corn and potatoes as a supplement, many of the original fields and high-lying hillside fields can be barely used, and the actual effective cultivation area has been expanded by two or three percent at once.

Wait one more season next year and let the seeds expand geometrically, and these new crops will cover a few provinces – all of which will need to be replanted, not eaten, of course.

In this process, it is necessary for the local officials to come up with a large amount of silver subsidies to organize the transportation of grain from the land of fish and rice in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Fortunately, the magistrate of this Huangzhou is Shen Shuren, and he has already pasted hundreds of thousands of taels of silver into it, and he has put money into it to become an official, so that the base area has been built so solidly, and the people's hearts are towards him.

After these new crop seeds can cover several provinces, he has to allow the people to take out at least half of the harvest for food, otherwise he will not be able to subsidize the exponential expansion of the cost.

……

Early this morning, Shen Shuren personally went to the countryside to inspect and persuade farmers as usual, and inspected the germination of potatoes in Huanggang townships in early winter after planting.

Although potatoes are hardy, the buds on the tubers must be above zero before they are officially budded. The Ming Dynasty did not have greenhouses, nor could they be covered with mulch, so it was possible to freeze if you were not careful.

Once frozen, other crops that rely on seeds to propagate can still keep the seeds dormant, and it is a big deal to grow them later. Potatoes are cut directly into pieces and planted, and if they do not germinate after freezing, the tubers will rot.

Fortunately, although there was a Xiaoice period at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the absolute average temperature was actually less than two degrees lower than that of later generations, and the Yangtze River basin should not freeze at the beginning of the month.

After a round of inspection, the potatoes in the three townships I ran to today have sprouted smoothly.

"Well done, so that one season can be harvested in winter, and the seed dispersal cycle can be shortened by another six months. It seems that this transaction Chongzhen has been a pure loss for 13 and 14 years, and he has to keep sticking money and buying rations from the outside.

By the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, it should be possible to ensure a balance of income and expenditure, self-sufficiency, and allocate a small half of the harvest as tax grain and expand planting in a circular manner. After 16 years of getting Chongzhen, it is pure earning. This kind of buying and selling investment cycle is long, alas, ordinary people can't bear it without a little money. ”

The last township on today's inspection is called Pinghu Township, and when he came up from the field, Shen Shuren was relieved to fetch water and wash his feet by the well in his hometown, and by the way, he was ready to have a light meal before returning to the city.

While washing his feet, he casually chatted with Zhang Huangyan who followed him and counted the accounts, full of pragmatic details, without half a literati tone.

While chatting, we also summed up the experience, talking about which township has a high potato germination rate and which township has a low germination rate. He also asked his entourage to open the record book and find out what day the sowing day of the previous month was in these townships.

After some comparison, it is easy to conclude that "when planting potatoes around the Yangtze River, the latest planting time in early winter should not be later than a few days in November, otherwise there is a risk of freezing and rotting tubers".

Shen Shuren casually asked people to sort out these empirical data into a manuscript he carried, and the name of the manuscript was "Addendum to the Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", which was the last copy of the original "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" by Xu Guangqi and Xu Gelao.

Each of these records is a critical point data that is tested with a certain amount of crop seed loss, which is very valuable. It is worth documenting and promoting in detail, so that others do not have to make mistakes and make detours.

……

After washing his feet and personally reading and checking the conclusion of the book's notes, Shen Shuren was relieved, and put on straw sandals barefoot to prepare for dinner.

The person in charge of serving him lunch today was a villager from Pinghu Township, a middle-aged man in his forties, surnamed Hu.

Lao Hu was forcibly pulled by Liu Xiyao last year, forcibly conscripted hundreds of young people in his hometown, and gave him the position of head of the thief army.

After Shen Shuren incorporated Liu Xiyao's army this time, he rectified the sand and sent these old people in their forties with declining physical strength back to the township to farm. Only those who are in their twenties and thirties, who are in good health and moral discipline, continue to be incorporated into the official army.

Those who are sent back to the countryside to work as farmers cannot be completely managed like free people, after all, they have been thieves and have not made meritorious contributions to the country to atone for their crimes.

Therefore, these people have to be incorporated into the farms directly under the jurisdiction of the government, similar to the military cantonment of the guards, bear stricter tax rates and conscription, and the grain grown is basically paid half of the fifty-fifty yuan, and the government has the final say on what crops to plant.

Shen Shuren also gave priority to giving them corn and potatoes to plant, and in the future, they would popularize ordinary people.

Lao Hu was originally a little resentful of his hundreds of villagers who had been reduced to a military camp and seriously exploited.

Fortunately, after Liu Xiyao made a fuss before, a lot of local wealthy landlords in Huanggang have been robbed and killed, and most of the fields are now owned by yeoman farmers, or they can be regarded as terra nullius.

Shen Shuren is also very strong-fisted and responsible, taking out the fish scale book of the state capital and checking the population.

He said that if a tenant farmer could prove that his previous landlord had been killed by thieves, he could come to the government to register and pay a little grain, and the government could re-recognize the ownerless land as owned by the tenant farmers.

In this way, although the government collects heavy taxes, at least there is no middleman like landlords to make the difference, and life can go on.

Recently, seeing that Master Tongzhi is so diligent and personally runs around to persuade farmers, these new squires have also calmed down and begun to be completely convinced.

This old Hu had also read a little bit of private school, and he recognized a few words, and when he served food to Shen Shuren, he couldn't help but sigh:

"I have never seen an adult who is so diligent in persuading farmers that he has lived for forty or fifty years. Previously, Huangzhou served as a magistrate, but if there was one person like an adult, the local people would not have followed Liu Xiyao to make trouble, alas. ”

A few civilian officials next to him couldn't help but tout:

"Yes, yes, I just saw the adults come back from the field to wash their feet, it was really incomplete, and there was no hair on the shins. Although Dayu has worked hard to control the water, he does not suffer from this. Nowadays, this kind of food and soup of quinoa, adults can eat it with relish, which can be described as Yaozhi's nourishment, and it is not a loss of this. ”

Shen Shuren listened to these guys' sycophants becoming more and more out of tune, and Tang Yao Dayu came out, so he hurriedly signaled to stop and concentrate on drinking the polenta in the bowl.

In the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty, corn porridge, a coarse grain, is not "the food of the rice and the soup of quinoa".

After drinking the porridge and chatting a little to understand the people's situation, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves outside, and Shen Shuren and Zhang Huangyan also immediately got up and went out to check.

The person who came was the old family of the Shen family, Shen Lian, a hundred households. Shen Shuren immediately estimated that there might be something important to look for him, so he asked straightforwardly: "But does the governor or the governor's yamen have official documents?" ”

Shen Lian turned over and dismounted, and hurriedly relayed: "It is the capital that has a will to send it directly to Huanggang, and it should be for the young master to be promoted." There is also a messenger who delivered a letter to the old man's family, and he also arrived with the envoy of the imperial court, so let's go back to the city quickly. ”

"Congratulations to Master Tongzhi! This is really a blessing for the military and people of Huangzhou! ”

"I'm afraid that Lord Tongzhi will rise too fast and leave Huangzhou, what will the people do."

The squires and servants congratulated him, and some wanted to keep him from the bottom of their hearts.

Shen Shuren turned over and got on his horse in a dashing manner: "Don't worry, most of the imperial court won't let me go, it is estimated that I will be promoted on the spot." ”

He hurried back to the county seat, where many officials had already arrived, all of whom were there to accompany the messenger who conveyed the imperial decree.

Everyone saw Shen Shuren's dusty appearance, and their admiration for him was even more. This kind of official, who can share weal and woe with the people, can also establish miraculous achievements, and has quite an idea for building a place, and it is really not too much to be promoted.

Shen Shuren respectfully saluted the imperial envoy, and after some red tape, he officially announced that he was promoted to the prefect of Huangzhou.

The original position of deputy envoy of Huangzhou Tongzhi and regimental training will be automatically withdrawn after the handover. The prefect already has the responsibility of defending the territory, and the regimental training guard in Huangzhou also needs to be converted into a regular military guard station, and the regimental training post no longer exists.

As a supporting set, there were several other promotions in the imperial court's edict, and Zuo Zixiong was officially promoted to the Huangzhou Weidu Division.

Zhang Huangyan was also rewarded for his military exploits, and was given the post of general judgment, which was theoretically in charge of taxation and persuasion of agriculture and water conservancy. In fact, it was just to add him a level from the sixth grade, and it was completely up to Shen Shuren to decide what to do, and he could adapt to the situation.

The rest of the middle-level officers also have their own promotion quotas, and Shen Shuren can go directly to Yang Sichang to report, so they don't have to go through the imperial court.

At the end of the ceremony, everyone also gathered around Shen Shuren to celebrate: "Lord Futai is really young and promising, he can be ranked in the fifth grade at the age of twenty-one, which can be called a grand event in this dynasty!" ”