After the acceptance of military production and the drill of new weapons, at the end of February and throughout March, there was nothing to worry about in the military aspect of Huangzhou.

Continuing mass production as planned, equipping all existing musketeers with bayonets and tomahawks, and practicing tactics in a step-by-step manner, the troops will be completely completely completely completely transformed by the beginning of April.

As for the original training of pikemen and other auxiliary units, it will not contain a lake, and everything will go according to plan.

After Yan Yingyuan and Zhang Mingzhen came, Shen Shuren also assigned them some training tasks and adjusted the troop establishment.

The Shen Shu people have two guards and 7,000 troops. Huangzhou Weidu Division has always been Zuo Zixiong, and Suizhou Weiyuan was temporarily succeeded by Zhang Huangyan.

But Zhang Huangyan is a civilian official after all, even if he can fight, he should not directly lead the military generals.

This time, Zhang Mingzhen is a genuine general, and he can be directly placed in the position of Suizhou Weidu Division.

Shen Shuren's loyalty to these people is still quite assured, after all, in history, they were all naval generals under the Lu Dynasty, and in later generations, Zhang Huangyan and Zhang Mingzhen cooperated for ten years. I believe that these two people can get along very well in this life, and they don't have to worry about interpersonal relationships.

In addition, these officials dug up by Shen Shuren, no matter how much they will bring some descendants and relatives to take office together, more than 100 people, and dozens of people. The most was Zheng Chenggong's side, and he directly brought six or seven hundred people at once.

In the end, the total number of troops was replenished by about 1,000 people to the Huangzhou Army this time, so that the total number of troops increased from 7,000 to 8,000.

And the growth is still elite soldiers - the most elite soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty are the generals' personal soldiers and family members.

After having 8,000 people, Shen Shuren simply expanded each guard to 4,000 people, and each guard post was temporarily divided into two battalions, each battalion had 2,000 people, and a private garrison, which was also to build a backbone framework in advance for further expansion of the army in the future.

After all, Shen Shuren has a lot of grassroots civil and military generals this time, in addition to Zhang Mingzhen, there is also a Yang Jinjue who is also treated as a capital division, but he does not have a third guard at hand for Yang Jinjue to serve as the capital division, so he can only actually grasp the military power of the garrison level first, and wait for the victory to expand the army.

Civil officials in other jurisdictions who have not recovered for the time being and cannot officially take office can also make a cameo appearance in a little task first.

Fortunately, the treatment given by Shen Shuren is absolutely generous, and the level is also guaranteed, and the people below can also tolerate it.

……

For the time being, put aside the work of army building, and Shen Shuren will be able to spare time for the entire month of March, and then sort out the progress of civil affairs farming in Huangzhou during the period after he left.

There is nothing to say about this, after all, the cycle of agricultural production and water conservancy construction is very long. I didn't see any qualitative change in a few months.

It is nothing more than to let the idle people resume production as much as possible, renovate the terraces, and make every effort to speed up the planting and promotion of new crops.

Before the Shenshu people returned, the spring ploughing had been completed, and this year's corn had already been planted. Corn can only be planted once a year, and there is no urgency in this regard.

Shen Shuren persuaded the farmers to inspect for more than ten days, but there was nothing that could be done. However, after going deep into the people and listening to the feedback of the corn farmers under his jurisdiction, Shen Shuren realized that the farmers in Huangzhou generally did not have the experience of threshing corn, and even the farmers in Fujian were not very good at threshing during the same period, which was very time-consuming and laborious.

It took less than 30 years for corn to be introduced to the Central Plains, and the farmers of the Ming Dynasty were not so good at summarizing, and they were all casually planted before.

After learning about this situation, Shen Shuren also made a few clicks as much as he could, provided some ideas, and then drew a sketch, and asked the blacksmiths to help make a simple iron hoop spiral thresher, the kind that can be operated by hand.

Although he had never farmed in his previous life, he had seen all kinds of videos of farm work on Douyin, and he had also seen the daily life of the Huanong Brothers, a simple one-man operation machine, he could still recall the shape.

After this was done, Shen Shuren did not stop doing anything, and by the way, he made up a few small farm tools that could save farmers effort and the mechanical structure was also very simple.

For example, the "long-handled sickle with a net pocket" used by farmers in the 20th century allowed farmers to no longer have to bend down to hold the straw with one hand and wave the sickle with the other hand to harvest when harvesting. Instead, you can directly stand and sweep to cut off a large piece to avoid lumbar muscle strain.

The harvested crop straw bales can also fall directly on the net pocket, save more than a dozen catties and pour them aside at one time, avoiding that farmers can only rely on their hands to grasp the straw, and they have to turn around and throw the crops once if they can't cut three or five knives.

Of course, this new long-handled net scythe also has limitations, that is, it cannot harvest crops that are easy to lodging, and those who encounter lodging have to bend down and hold on to harvest them. Especially when harvesting leeks, who makes leeks like to lie flat, farmers have to bend down to help the leeks up and then cut them.

Ancient crop varieties have not been improved, and the lodging resistance effect is not as good as that of modern varieties. Only the richer peasants would buy the new scythe, and the poor peasants, who were so poor that they could only have one scythe, continued to use the old tools.

In addition, there are some small tools for farmers to determine the spacing of the next seed, similar to the wooden handle compass that ties a rope between the two legs of the boxer Kamiyagami-an, and a small bag with leaky seeds on it, so that the two-step operation of digging holes and planting is completed together, saving half of the workload and not bending over.

There are a total of three or five kinds of gadgets like this, and the specific details don't need to be repeated, anyway, they are all simple goods that can be seen casually on Douyin in later generations.

These things, in just a few days, in the process of Shen Shuren personally going to the counties to persuade the peasants, he could do whatever he wanted, and the efficiency was called superb, and the civil officials and small officials who followed him to inspect were stunned, and the old gentry of the townships were also dumbfounded.

The small officials in the household calculated that this series of operations by the adults of Futai can at least save the farmers two or three percent of the workload in the harvesting process, and can also save a lot of effort in the planting process. Although it is not possible to increase production, it can increase the area of land by one or two per unit of labor.

This is not said to be Shennong's work, at least it is also a moral policy.

……

After a month of inspection to persuade the peasants to rectify, the time soon came to the end of March.

The corn planted in the spring is growing well, but the potatoes planted before the Shen Shuren left last winter are now ready for harvest.

Potatoes can be planted twice a year, and the harvest begins halfway through March, and the second crop is planted in early April and summer.

The reproduction rate and seed-to-harvest ratio of potatoes are higher than those of corn, so with the harvest of potatoes this season, the new yield is enough to cover the entire territory of Huangzhou and the land suitable for growing potatoes has been planted, and even more than half.

The seed multiplication of new crops is geometrically progressive, increasing at least a dozen times every season, and last winter there was only enough potatoes to grow in two counties, but now it is not allowed to expand to two or three prefectures.

After enough seeds, the Sinking Tree finally issued a ban.

It is a change from the previous policy that "all corn and potato harvests must be left and only a very small part can be eaten on a test basis". It was changed to "allow about 20% of the potato harvest to be taken out and directly consumed by the people".

As soon as the ban was lifted, the poor people in Huangzhou finally had the opportunity to taste the agricultural products they had been growing for more than a year, so that they would not be stared at and not eaten.

At the same time, Shen Shuren checked the breeding effect of the animal products he organized, and found that the Indian big-breasted chicken (the paternal line of the white-feathered chicken), tilapia, and pangasius industries have also bred very well, to the extent that they can be slaughtered in batches for everyone to eat.

These new species, which have a fast breeding cycle and can reproduce a generation in three or four months, have also been released from the ban list this time.

At the same time, as an aside, in fact, as early as the beginning of March, Shen Shuren's "Breeding of New Livestock Products" plan added a major pillar -

At that time, Zheng Chenggong had just come to Huangzhou, and the Zheng family was also very grateful to Shen Shuren for taking care of their eldest son. Shen Shuren had told Zheng Chenggong nearly two years ago that he wanted to get a lot of overseas excellent species. Now, after two years of searching, the Zheng family has come back with a blockbuster product: a pig similar to the York white pig produced by the cross between British and Southeast Asian pig breeds in the future.

The Zheng family did not get it from Britain this time, but it was also painstaking, and it is estimated that they placed orders with Western merchants with a lot of money, and Western merchants tried their best to collect them when they came to China to trade this time, and it may have been accidentally crossed and originated in the Middle East or the eastern Mediterranean coast.

All in all, under the guidance of Shen Shuren, a kind of big white pig that barely grows faster than a black pig and produces more meat can be regarded as being introduced into China since then. Specific follow-up breeding, we must slowly do experiments, crossbreeds for genetic selection, maybe we can get better improved varieties.

……

After more than a month of busy persuasion, at the beginning of April, the whole of Huangzhou entered a joy after a bumper harvest and the busyness of cultivating the second season of potatoes.

It is rare for the people to live after a catastrophe that has lasted for more than ten years, to the extent that everyone can barely eat enough to eat, and the yeoman farmers can occasionally eat a few tilapia.

Although such a paradise scene can only be realized within the scope of Huangzhou, it can only be seen in this base area deep in the Dabie Mountains.

At the same time as the harvest, the people of Shenshu also waited for two good news: in late March, the imperial court finally came to the envoy and announced some news.

First of all, it was to tell the local officials in Huguang that the imperial court had officially passed the excerpt of "Please open the pilot project of the three provinces of southern thieves and thieves" played by Shen Tingyang, the head of the household department, and from now on, the gold will be levied in Huguang, Nanzhili, and Fujian, and the silver received will be at the disposal of the local government.

The imperial court will not take this silver, but after the start of the levy, the military salary of the imperial court to the thief armies in these three provinces will also be reduced, so that the imperial court can use the saved silver to plug the holes elsewhere.

It is equivalent to the salary of the army of thieves in the Huguang area, and a considerable part of it depends on Huguang's money to raise itself, and the same is true for Nanzhili.

After months of waiting, the Sinking Tree Man finally landed his last boot.

At the same time, in the edict given by the imperial court to Shen Shuren, he also described his previous achievements, and commended him for the improvement of the Lijin policy.

When he heard this will, Shen Shuren also felt a little ironic in his heart, he originally thought that he could get the appointment of promotion and preparation more than a month earlier.

After making trouble for a long time, it turned out that Chongzhen was worried that he would not be rewarded for doing more things in the future, so he suppressed the rhythm for a while, and waited for the official announcement of this Lijin pilot before he was promoted to the position at one time.

"Congratulations, Lord Futai! Oh no, it's time to call the Lord! After the envoy left, the local civil and military forces in Huangzhou praised and praised Shen Shuren.

Shen Shuren was very modest: "Eh, what kind of Dao platform is the Soldier Preparation Dao, and not all Dao Daoists are worthy of the Dao platform, don't overdo it." ”

All the subordinates insisted on saying in unison: "Daotai is both humanistic and military, and understands financial management, and can also persuade farmers to be compassionate to the people, so that the poor people under his rule can eat enough, this kind of moral politics, what is there to do!" ”

Shen Shuren couldn't resist everyone, so he had to reluctantly allow everyone to call him so, and then, he held a banquet in the prefect's yamen for three days to officially celebrate his promotion, and by the way, he thanked the emperor for his grace.

The tilapia and chicken harvested from the harvest were further used as rewards for feasting, and were no longer limited to officials.

Unexpectedly, and unsurprisingly, these new species will certainly proliferate as the Sinking Tree People allow them to eat potatoes and tilapia openly.

Around mid-April, that is, only ten days after Shen Shuren was promoted, the above-mentioned species naturally spread to the county towns next door in Suizhou Capital that were still controlled by the thief He Jin-

The people have no malice at all, but those poor and homeless people who are wandering between the counties have heard that there are potatoes sold in Xiaogan County, which are not only edible but also very productive. So there must be homeless people or squires who come and try to get a little bit of it, and when they get it back, they will secretly look at it themselves.

When Anlu County, the closest to Xiaogan County, and other places knew about the widespread existence of potatoes, the news soon reached the ears of He Jin, the "King of Zuojin".

He Jin stepped up to send scouts to infiltrate and investigate, and soon heard that there was a kind of potato, several kinds of high-yielding fish, and a high-yielding chicken here in Shenshuren, Huangzhou, all of which could be opened for the people to eat, indicating that the scale of seeds was enough to multiply and sow an entire prefecture.

After further investigation, I heard that the ordinary people in the whole territory of Huangzhou and Xiaogan County in Suizhou can barely eat enough now, which makes the thieves who are still in a state of semi-starvation even more tempted.

Fortunately, He Jin is not a fool, he knows how Liu Xiyao died last year, and his strength is not much stronger than Liu Xiyao.

Therefore, He Jin did not act rashly, but immediately revealed the information to He Yilong, the "Geli Eye", and Lin Yangsheng, trying to gather the strength of the three battalions to discuss how to eat this piece of fat together.

"What? Shen Shuren is so good at governing the place? This has already helped us plant the entire Huangzhou fields so well? Shall we just go and eat? When He Yilong and Lin Chengcheng heard about it, they couldn't help but flash with surprise.

——

PS: The farming transition chapter, a bit of a running account, is also to quickly change the map and introduce new enemies.