"Okay, sit down."

Liu Yan and Zhang Lei sat down as the guest of honor, and then Zhang Lei reported on the current preparations for spring ploughing.

At present, there are more than 483,600 mu of cultivated land in various parts of Lingshanwei, distributed in 3,000 households, of which 80 percent have been divided into the names of military households in various places, and each household has 30 to 100 mu.

Among them, more than 4,400 of the more than 9,000 officers and men of the New Army have been allocated real farmland, and all the necessary seeds, cattle, and farm tools have been distributed. The remaining 5,000 or so soldiers of the New Army chose to convert the output of 100 acres of cultivated land into silver and receive money directly every month.

In addition, the original dun army in various places has been dismantled, and there are still hundreds of people, distributed in various fire road piers and tunbao, and each dun army has also been allocated about 30 acres of cultivated land. At present, the rest of the military households in various localities can only be allocated about 30 acres of cultivated land, and when the farming is slack, Zhang Lei is ready to continue to lead people to find ways to reclaim some wasteland, but the amount will not be too much.

"My lord's spring ploughing this year, my Lingshanwei is well prepared, it is foreseeable, I see that God is beautiful this year, there is no big drought and flood insect disaster, our Lingshanwei must be a rich year!"

Zhang Lei's head is buried in the fields all day long, although he is the official of Lingshanwei's thousand-household household, but in his bones, like ordinary military households, he has a farmer's yearning heart, and when he thinks of the harvest scene, his heart is full of joy.

Liu Yan was also very happy and asked, "Then do you estimate how much harvest we can have this year?" ”

Zhang Lei said: "Now our Lingshanwei mainly grows wheat, and the yield per mu, according to the experience of previous years, the high-grade cooked land can have about 200 catties, the middle land can have about 160 or 70 catties, and the inferior raw land can only have a yield of 12 or 30 catties. ”

"According to the land tax policy formulated by the adults, military households in various localities must pay 50 catties of tax and grain per mu to Lingshanwei, and then pay 50 catties of military grain per mu. Based on the current minimum of 30 mu per military household, each military household has a surplus of more than 1,600 catties of grain a year. ”

Liu Yan calculated, so that the average monthly price of each household is 14 or 50 catties of grain, and a family of four or five people is one catty of grain per person per day, which is not counting other expenses.

So Liu Yan shook his head and said, "It's too little!" As a result, the military households and people everywhere will not be able to survive at all. This is also to blame me, without specific calculations, directly set such a high tax amount. ”

Zhang Lei naturally knew this, and said: "My subordinates have been surveying for a period of time in the area of Tiepu Mountain north of Lingshanwei, and some wasteland can also be reclaimed there, and my subordinates will continue to expand the area of cultivated land this year." ”

Liu Yan said: "Now there is less arable land available in Lingshanwei, and the yield per mu is also less, and the best cooked land is only 200 catties per mu!" ”

Liu Yan clearly remembers that it was recorded in historical materials that as early as the Western Han Dynasty, the yield per mu in Shandong had reached more than 250 catties, and in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it reached about 426 catties per mu.

But now the best cultivated land in Lingshanwei has a yield of only 200 catties per mu, which is not as high as in the Western Han Dynasty.

Zhang Lei said: "My lord, although the water conservancy facilities in various parts of our Lingshanwei have been greatly renovated, many places are still very weak, and the cultivated land has been short of water for a long time, and it is not a few days to shade it. ”

Liu Yan knew that Zhang Lei was telling the truth, but now he had to let the military families in various places have something to eat, at least not to go hungry, otherwise there would definitely be trouble under his rule.

So Liu Yan said: "This official will ask Zhao to draft an official document and send it, starting from this year, the field tax and military rations paid by each military household will be reduced, and they will be changed to 20 catties per mu per household, so that the people everywhere can take a breath first!" ”

"My lord is benevolent, my subordinates admire, my people of Lingshanwei are blessed!"

"Alas!"

Liu Yan waved his hand and sighed at this time: "How good it would be if there were those high-yield crop seeds!" ”

At this time, Liu Yan was extremely nostalgic for high-yield crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes in later generations, and missed hybrid rice, but these things were not available in this era.

Although sweet potatoes have been planted in Shaanxi and Shanxi at the end of the Ming Dynasty in history, they are not improved varieties, and the yield at this time is not high, so when the imperial court forcibly promoted planting, it was strongly resisted by the people everywhere, and even caused a popular uprising, and later had to stop promoting sweet potatoes.

By this time of Liu Yan, the sweet potato seedlings that had been promoted had long since ceased to exist, and not many people even knew about it.

Zhang Lei, who was on the side, only said that Liu Yan was lamenting the difficulties of the people, but he didn't have any good solutions, so he said something about spring ploughing, and then said goodbye and went back.

Liu Yan then sent someone to inform Zhao Min, asking him to notify all the thousands and hundreds of households as soon as possible, and immediately reduce the amount of land rent and military rations handed over by the military households.

As soon as this side was dealt with, Wang Weizhen came in a hurry.

"Your Excellency!"

Before the people entered the house, the sound was already drifting in with the wind.

Wang Weizhen strode into the main hall, clasped his fists and said, "My lord, my subordinates recommend a talent to my lord!" ”

"Oh? What kind of talent? ”

Wang Weizhen rubbed his hands in the cold, and then said with a smile: "Hehe, it is a talent who cultivates the land!" ”

"Oh!"

Liu Yan said with a smile: "What's the matter today, Guan Tun official Zhang Lei just left, and you came to recommend cultivated talents again, you are all more interested in farming?" ”

Wang Weizhen said: "It turns out that Zhang Qianhu has also been here. By the way, have you ever heard of sweet potatoes? During the Apocalypse, the imperial court had been promoted and planted by the government in Shaanxi, and later there was a lot of movement! ”

Liu Yangang took a sip of a cup of hot tea, and when he heard Wang Weizhen's words, he suddenly squirted out, looked at Wang Weizhen directly, and said: "What's wrong today, what do you want!" ”33

"Your Excellency knows?"

"Of course I do!"

Liu Yan said excitedly: "Where is the talent you are talking about?" Bring it to me now! ”

Wang Weizhen said: "It's in the gatehouse, and my subordinates will go and bring him." ”

After a while, a tall, dark and thin man walked behind Wang Weizhen, Liu Yan looked at it, this person was about fifty years old, dressed in shabby cotton clothes, completely dressed as a farmer, and was already an old farmer in this era.

"Lord Qiyu, this person's name is Du Feng, a farmer from Laizhou, in the early years, he went to sea with a ship to catch the sea in the South Seas, and on a big island in the South Seas, he saw sweet potatoes!"

"You've been to the South Seas?"

Liu Yan suddenly came to his senses, asked Wang Weizhen and the old farmer named Du Feng to sit down, and asked the servant to bring hot tea and pastries, and said, "You tell me in detail." ”

At this time, Du Feng was still very nervous, after all, he was in his fifties, and it was the first time he had seen such a big official as Liu Yan, so nervous that he only took half of his butt on the chair, and he didn't dare to take a sip of the hot tea in his hand.

"Big, big, small, old is always Chongzhen Yuan, the first year is ......"

Liu Yan laughed and said, "Don't be nervous, this official is not interrogating you, but asking for you, don't worry." ”

Seeing that Liu Yan was amiable, Du Feng also relaxed a little and said: "Lord Qiyu, Xiao Lao went with the ship in the first year of Chongzhen, that is, Nanyang, and was working as a coolie on the ship at that time. ”

Later, the sea ships went to Luzon in the south, where gold was said to be abundant, so Xiao Lao and the others settled in a city called Batavia, where they lived for two years. It's been a bitter past two years, the gold hasn't been dug up, and I'm still being bullied by the Francophile there! ”

Liu Yan nodded, Luzon is the Philippines in later generations, mainly referring to Manila and its vicinity. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, Chinese merchant ships have often come here to trade. Since the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, there have been many residents of Fujian Province in China.

Since 1571, it has been occupied by Spain, which at this time was known as the Franco-Rang Kingdom.

“…… It was in the farmland outside Batavia that Xiao Lao saw sweet potatoes and ate them, which were sweet and delicious. ”

"What's the sweet potato yield over there?"

This is Liu Yan's biggest concern, the sweet potato seedlings promoted in the northwest before the Ming Dynasty were introduced in the early years, basically not cultivated, but I don't know what happened to the sweet potato seedlings in Luzon.

"The yield is high!"

Du Feng said: "In Batavia, sweet potatoes can be double-cropped a year, and the yield per mu can reach nearly 3,000 catties a year. ”

Liu Yan was suddenly overjoyed, although it could not be compared with the yield of five or six thousand catties per mu at every turn in later generations, but it was already much higher than the current wheat yield, and it could completely solve his own food problem.

So Liu Yan said: "This official, if this official prepares a sea boat for you, and then equips the boatmen and others, and another team of officers and soldiers to protect you, so that you can go to Luzon again to find high-yield sweet potato seedlings for the official, do you dare to go?" ”

Du Feng was stunned for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "My lord, the little old man is already in his fifties, and the loess is buried up to his neck. ”

Liu Yan said: "This official knows that this trip is difficult, but he will not let you go in vain." As long as you agree to look for it, not only will the official send someone to protect your safety and send you there, but you can only be a guide and go back to the same place to find something. In addition, you will be given a thousand taels of silver as a reward, as long as you agree, now the official can pay two hundred taels of silver as a deposit, how about it? ”

Du Feng was reluctant at first, but when he heard that there was a huge sum of 1,000 taels of silver to take, he immediately became entangled, and after a while, he gritted his teeth and said, "Xiao Lao has never seen a hundred taels of silver in his life, let alone a thousand taels." Good! The little old man will fight hard and help the adults find high-yield sweet potato seedlings! ”

"Good!"

Liu Yan said: "You live in the Lingshan Acropolis now, and when the official sends someone to the Wangjiazhuang Baihu Office to prepare ships and recruit people, and everything is ready, he will send someone to send you over." ”

"In addition, this time to go to sea, the official will not set a specific time limit, as long as you can complete the task, whether it is one year, five years or ten years, the official's commitment is valid."

Then Liu Yan ordered someone to take two hundred taels of silver and hand it to Du Feng, seeing so much silver, Du Feng could barely hold the tray, so excited that he burst into tears, and knelt down directly and kowtowed continuously.

Liu Yan then handed over the matter of recruiting men and preparing sea ships to Wang Weizhen, and asked Wang Weizhen to settle Du Feng well.

"Hehe, don't worry, my lord, my subordinates will definitely handle this matter beautifully."

"Well, Wang Tongzhi is doing things, and this official is very relieved."

After sending Wang Weizhen and Du Feng away, Liu Yan was in a good mood, although the search for sweet potato seedlings had not yet been made, but after all, there was hope.

Then Liu Yan pondered, his foundation is all over Wangjiazhuang, and now that Lingshanwei is on the right track, should he also go back to Wangjiazhuang to inspect everywhere.

Some people died, but not completely......