The convoy marched rapidly through the Henan Plain and arrived in Huguang a few days later.

Once you arrive in Huguang, it's different.

Crops are growing particularly well, and there are many livestock.

There are many sheep in Henan, and black and strong buffaloes can often be seen in Huguang.

There are several large buffaloes, which look very huge, and usually take a cool dip in the streams and rivers, and they look very leisurely eating water and grass.

There are also cows with calves, and the calves are happily playing in the water and look very lively and happy.

There were people working in the fields nearby, and the buffalo probably belonged to his family.

Li Tiezhu was very curious: "Raising so many buffaloes, isn't there enough licorice?" ”

"Licorice?" The old farmer hesitated for a moment, then smiled.

"That's grown in the north, right? Lad northerners, right? We don't grow millet, we grow rice and wheat. ”

Li Tiezhu is a native of Tianjin, of course, he is familiar with the situation of cultivation in the north, and the straw under the ears of millet after harvesting is licorice, which is a sweet licorice, and livestock love to eat it. Gan means sweet, not sun-dried, of course, licorice should also be dried.

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If there is no natural pasture, sheep and donkeys are generally raised.

Because the cattle eat too much, it is too difficult to raise cattle just by planting licorice after millet.

So when he saw so many buffaloes, he would be surprised that licorice was not enough to feed so many cattle.

The old farmer introduced to them that after entering Huguang from Henan, because of the abundance of water and grass, it is enough to drive the cattle directly to the streams, lakes and rivers, and eat fresh grass in normal times and some beans, fresh grass and hay in winter.

This hay is not millet for millet, but sun-dried forage.

In addition, in the winter of the lake, there are plenty of evergreen shrubs and meadows, so even in winter, the buffalo has something to eat.

The old man went to the field to clean up the weeds, and he didn't have time to talk to them for a while.

Li Tiezhu followed Wang Hongyu and continued to walk on the edge of the field.

I saw that the farmhouse here in Huguang is not much different from Henan, but the pigsty is not small.

The pigsty on this side of Huguang is completely separated from the farmhouse where they live, and a single building is the same size.

After a little observation, I saw that there were nearly 10 pigs inside, instead of only a few in Henan.

Li Tiezhu went to see so many pigs in other people's homes, but a sturdy peasant woman came out of the house and shouted loudly: "Which one do you like?" We sell directly. ”

Seeing how tall and strong the visitor was, with the appearance and temperament of a martial artist, the peasant woman directly saw the opportunity to do business.

This is really not wrong, Wang Hongyu arranged Zhou Yijie along the way, and Meng Biao's subordinates who came from the capital to be in charge of logistics.

But after Kaifeng met with the eldest brother's family, he was entertained by them and ate well, but he didn't pay back the money, so it's just right to buy some now.

The families in Henan have little to raise, and it is not good for them to take the initiative to buy, so as not to cause a situation of "forced buying" because of power.

There are a lot of people here, and they took the initiative to mention it, of course.

"How many heads? It's time for these pigs to be slaughtered! Seeing that Wang Hongyu was interested, the peasant woman directly selected 3 heads.

Wang Hongyu knew that there was no need to call pigs porpoises in the Ming Dynasty, and there was no need to avoid this sound because the Ming Dynasty emperor's surname was Zhu, and the Ming Dynasty emperor himself would call it that. Zhu Houzhao, the only Ming Wuzong who forbade pig breeding, also directly wrote the word "pig" in the edict.

The edict is like this, and the common people's homes are not taboo.

Except for the suppression of landlords and literati by Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, there was no so-called "literary prison" in other periods, and it was not the same thing as the literary prison of the Qing Dynasty, which killed people and burned books and banned speech.

I bought three pigs, and saw that the harvest had been completed not far away, and I was preparing to plant rice.

Huguang has a warm climate, fertile land and abundant water sources, and the harvest time of winter wheat is earlier than that of Henan and Beizhili.

At this time, the winter wheat harvest had already been completed, and now the fields were filled with water and the rice planting had already been completed.

Wang Hongyu said that he looked at the farmers who had finished their hard work: "The wheat that has been harvested this year is expected to yield 300 catties per mu, right?" ”

The old farmer replied: "Thank you for your good words, this year is a good year, and the wheat is expected to produce 240 catties." ”

Sure enough, even if it is the core of Daming's grain production, without scientific exploration and technological progress, the yield per mu will not rise.

"If nothing else, this year's rice can rush 300 catties."

That's right~

Huguang is a rotation of rice and wheat.

The yield of winter wheat per mu is 240 catties, and the yield of rice per mu is 300 catties.

If we really talk about the upward trend of yield per mu, rice has the greatest potential.

Grandpa Yuan has been around for a long time, and generations of rice technology explorers have been around for generations.

In this era, hybrid rice cannot be developed, but there are also various dominant rice varieties, especially in Southeast Asia. Therefore, it is necessary to get the grain level done as soon as possible, so that we can feed more people in the industrial, mining, technological, and military fields.

The weather in July is getting hotter and hotter, and it rains every other day, and the humidity of the air increases.

The body of the eldest brother Zhou Dunji was embalmed with lime, but it gradually warmed up in the summer, and there was still a risk of corruption.

The next step is to pick up the pace.

When they arrived in Hanshui the next day, Wang Hongyu sent Zhou Dunji's eldest brother Zhou Zhaoan to protect the coffin and rushed to Yunyang by boat, and all the Hunhe troops also took a boat to protect it.

As soon as I crossed the river, another boat came from behind, and an old friend came.

Ai Youzhi.

"I chased all the way, and finally caught up in Xiangyang~"

When he saw Wang Hongyu, he immediately started talking.

At this time, Ai Youzhi had been promoted to the governor of Xiangyang Mansion, one level higher than the previous director.

He was accompanied by Ye Xianggao, the first assistant, as well as the household department and the military department received an official letter from the imperial court before Ai Youzhi took office, and Wang Hongyu's Hunhe army during his time in Yunyang was responsible for the grain and grass of Xiangyang Mansion and Yunyang Mansion.

Xiangyang produces a lot of grain, and Yunyang is in the mountains, of course, there must be an old friend of Ai Youzhi, who will be the second-in-command to fully support him.

Ai Youzhi is full of expectations for this friend who helped him in the most difficult time, not only will he handle the grain and grass, but also prepare for in-depth cooperation with Wang Hongyu.

Yunyang's mountain goods are very attractive to the upper class of Xiangyang and even the entire Huguang.

In the past, there was no unified organization, and the mountain people in Yunyang relied on baskets and flat shoulders to find it difficult to transport back the rice exchanged for mountain goods, and there were only sporadic transactions between the two places.

Friends met again to discuss the coordinated development of Xiangyang and Yunyang, especially the Hanshui shipping is very convenient for the flow of materials between the two places.

Wang Hongyu thought more, listening to Zhou Zhaoan and they said that the local population of the counties around Yunyang is not large. Over the years, displaced people from several surrounding provinces have gathered in the mountains of Yunyang far more than locals.

Because there is little arable land, grain output is limited, and there are many hidden dangers, the first thing to develop Yunyang is to eat and solve the grain problem.

The most indispensable things in the mountains are bamboo, wood, medicinal herbs, and mountain goods. As for the specific development of the field also after the field investigation in the determination of the direction of development.

The second group of Zhou family members arrived at Xiangyang Mansion in Huguang, and they also rushed over from behind. Wang Hongyu asked them to divide half of them to take a boat from the Han River upstream to chase the coffin team to Yunxian.

The other half of the people were going to follow Wang Hongyu to investigate by land, and the planned route was from Gucheng County to Junxian County via Wudang Mountain.

Most of these half people are Zhou Dunji's comrades-in-arms, and they have scattered veterans in Wudang Mountain and Yunyang, and they are all connected.

At this time, he was proud to follow Zhou Dunji's heroic brother into the mountains to investigate, and he felt that he was rejuvenated again with this young general.