Chapter 147

Gao Qiqian felt that his luck was very good and met Cheng Shijie.

In just one year, Cheng Shijie first quelled the Kong Youde Rebellion, and then Kuang recovered Jinzhou Wei and Gaizhou Wei, and in February of the fifth year of Chongzhen, he effortlessly recovered Haizhou Wei and Fuzhou Wei in southern Liaoning.

Under his own blowing, Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied with Cheng Shijie, a brave and capable employee, and trusted him very much.

Of course, Cheng Shijie did not live up to his trust, and Cheng Shijie is also a person with great luck, the Guanning army spent tens of millions of taels of silver, and after more than a dozen developments, it is very difficult to achieve a battle that can behead thousands of people.

As a result, tens of thousands of people built slaves and horses, traveled thousands of miles, and ran to Haizhou to send people's heads.

If Cheng Shijie has the ability to fight, it is just that, but his ability to Tuntian is even greater. Now that the Ming Dynasty is full of wolf smoke, and the treasury is so empty that it can starve rats to death, Cheng Shijie has made such a high-yield crop in southern Liaoning.

Gao Qiqian also tasted the whole potato feast, and tasted more than 40 sweet potatoes of various flavors, which tasted excellent, in this case, he looked Cheng Shijie up and down.

Cheng Shijie was stared at by this eunuch, and he was a little nervous: "Father-in-law Gao, why do you want to look at Cheng like this?" ”

"General Cheng doesn't have the help of immortals?"

Gao Qiqian said in disbelief: "Otherwise, how could there be such a high-yield thing?" This kind of sweet potato, in the early years, there were also people who paid tribute to the palace, but not only did it grow bumpy, but the yield was not too high, and it could not be well preserved! ”

"How can there be any gods to help!"

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "It's just that you use the right way, sweet potatoes are not picky, as long as you use the right way, even if you are in a thin field, you can get a fairly high yield!" ”

"How did you know the right thing to do?"

"It's ......"

Cheng Shijie originally didn't want to take the credit for cultivating high-yield sweet potatoes, and even wanted to give this credit to Xu Guangqi, so as to make Xu Guangqi the god of agriculture of the Ming Dynasty.

But the problem is that it's too late, and I didn't have time to set it up in advance.

Thinking about it, Cheng Shijie pondered: "When the Phoenix Mountain defense of thousands of households fell, Cheng was begged by his family to die, and was ready to go to Shandong by boat, but during the voyage, the ship capsized, Cheng held a big wooden box, drifting with the waves, because his fate fell on an uninhabited island in the south!" ”

"An uninhabited island?"

"Yes, it is a small island, about the size of a few dozen acres of land, there is water on it, but there is very little land, and there is not much place to farm. Cheng ate sea fish for more than ten days in a row, only to find that there were some sweet potatoes in the box! ”

Cheng Shijie thought about it while transferring the content of Robinson Crusoe to himself, adding vinegar and transferring flowers and trees, Cheng Shijie stayed up late for three years, and in these three years, he had nothing else to do, so he cut the sweet potato into countless small pieces with a knife.

After a few days, I found that these small pieces had actually sprouted, and after planting, these sweet potatoes grew very well.

Cheng Shijie concluded: "After more than four years of exploration, Cheng discovered that this sweet potato cannot be planted in too hot season, and the climate in southern Liaoning is just neither hot nor cold. Second, we must strictly select seedlings for breeding, when breeding, contrary to ordinary wheat, rice, or sorghum, our traditional crops need large, full seeds, but sweet potatoes can only choose small! ”

"Why choose the small one?"

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Cheng doesn't know, because after the small sweet potato seedlings are raised, the seedlings grow well and the fruits are big, and the large sweet potatoes will be deformed and small, which will affect the yield." The third reason is that fertilizers have to keep up with ......"

Speaking of which, Cheng Shijie suddenly found that there were actually two people working hard behind Gao Qi and sneaking in, and after a closer look, he found that it was actually Chen Zilong and Fang Yizhi.

Seeing that it was Chen Zilong, Cheng Shijie asked, "What are you doing here?" ”

"We have always wanted to breed wheat, beans and rice that are cold-tolerant, drought-tolerant and pest-resistant, but we have never been able to find a good way!"

Chen Zilong said: "Master Cheng Jingluo has opened up a new idea for Chen......

Gao Qiqian turned to look at the little eunuch beside him and said, "Have you written down what Lord Cheng said?" ”

"Back to Godfather, the child has been able to look forward to it since he was a child, what Cheng Shuai said, the child has written it down!"

"Just write it down, our family should also record this situation and compile it into a book and present it to the emperor. Now the northern provinces have been in drought for many years, natural disasters are frequent, grain harvest is lost, the emperor is in a hurry, if you can grow a large number of sweet potatoes according to this method, the emperor will definitely be happy! ”

It's a pity that the patent law has not yet been promulgated in these years, so officials in the Ming Dynasty don't have to worry about being sued for infringing Cheng Shijie's patent, and plagiarism is a matter of course.

Chen Zilong listened to Cheng Shijie's sweet potato selection and selection of small seeds, and his head suddenly brightened, they have always been in the cultivation of seeds, habitually choose the seeds with the largest particles and the best appearance, what if the reverse operation?

Since ancient times, there has been an idiom in China that does not look good, in fact, as early as in the Analects, Confucius said: "Take people by tolerance, and lose the son of the feather!" ”

People, there are many examples of not being disfigured, Zuo Si of Luoyang paper, as well as Zhong Kui in the early Tang Dynasty, Pang Gong, and Tantai Ming. All of them are dragons and phoenixes among people. The examples of Jinyu's external defeat are even more numerous.

Thinking of this, Chen Zilong ran into the distance like a mad demon, shouting as he ran: "Thank you Lord Cheng for reminding him!" ”

When Gao Qiqian saw this scene, he also smiled.

Cheng Shijie said: "Father-in-law Gao, let's not be in a hurry, there are several new crops here, which will mature one after another recently and start harvesting, father-in-law may wish to wait a few more days, Cheng should also go to Beijing to report on his work!" ”

Cheng Shijie's timing is very ingenious, after the autumn harvest, Jiannu will definitely go south to send troops, in the face of the harvest of more than 5 million acres of land in the Ning Navy, if Huang Taiji can sit still, it will be a strange thing. As long as Jiannu moves, Emperor Chongzhen will definitely not leave Cheng Shijie in the capital.

After two days and one night of harvesting, 120,000 acres of sweet potatoes have been harvested, and the average yield per mu is calculated with 120,000 acres of sweet potatoes, which still has a yield of 3,700 catties.

Sun Yuanhua sighed: "If you store it for a long time, it will be enough for a family of seven to eat for a year!" ”

Sun Yuanhua pinched his chin and groaned, thinking about whether to find an opportunity to ask Cheng Shijie for some potato seeds to bring back to the area under his rule for planting.

Sun Yuanhua didn't dare to expect such a high yield, half of it, no, even if it was a third, the people under his rule would be able to eat their stomachs!

He also wants to learn planting techniques from Cheng Shijie, this thing is not something that no one has ever planted, but he has never heard of any one that can have such a good yield, there must be many ways to do it, and he must learn it!

Looking at Fan Yongdou using 1,600 war horses to buy 6 million catties from Cheng Shijie, if the average price of war horses is 20 taels of silver per horse, the price of this sweet potato is equivalent to buying 187 catties and a half per 2 taels of silver.

Of course, Fan Yongdou actually bought about ten taels or even eight taels of silver for the war horse, so he actually made a lot of money, which is equivalent to buying more than two hundred and eighty catties for every two taels of silver.

This price is really not cheap, with a yield of 3,700 catties per mu, you can earn more than a dozen taels of silver per mu, which is really scary.

Gao Qiqian and the eunuchs looked happy, Cheng Shijie is a very generous person, he eats meat, he will never treat himself badly, this time he will definitely not come in vain.

Cheng Shijie naturally would not let Gao Qiqian eat white food, and many officials, including Sun Yuanhua, wanted to buy sweet potatoes and take them back to plant because they saw the high yield of sweet potatoes.

These officials, Cheng Shijie is too lazy to deal with them, eunuchs to civil officials, let's bite it.

"Father-in-law Gao, these officials are afraid that they just want to eat white food......"

When Gao Qiqian heard this, his eyebrows raised slightly, and his mouth turned up: "Let's see who dares!" ”

Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly: "The official university crushes people to death!" ”

"General Cheng, in southern Liaoning, you are the biggest, and they are the governor of Denglai......!"

Gao Qiqian smiled and said: "Let's go back and talk to Master Wan, and divide the jurisdiction of Governor Denglai over Liaodong, don't you have the right to act cheaply?" ”

"Father-in-law Gao, you are the supervisor of the Ning Navy, if they want to take advantage of Liaonan, they must pass your pass first!"

Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Father-in-law, Cheng Mou will give you a thorough explanation, the good seeds that the shopkeeper Fan bought from here are one hundred and eighty-seven catties and a half pounds of silver, of course, the relationship between the shopkeeper Fan and Cheng, how can it be compared, the relationship between the father-in-law and Cheng?" How about I have sweet potatoes here, how about buying two hundred and forty catties for one tael of silver? ”

Gao Qiqian's subordinates have the ability, and they will immediately calculate the profits in it, and give Gao Qiqian a look again and again, indicating that he can do this thing.

"As for how much my father-in-law sells...... That's all my father-in-law's! ”

Gao Qiqian smiled slightly: "How much are you going to sell?" ”

"Twenty-four million catties, how about 100,000 taels of silver?"

"Too little!"

"Then 30 million catties?"

"Thirty-six million catties!"

Gao Qiqian silently calculated, this is a business of 150,000 taels of silver, without his capital, if he sells it, he will make a part.

Initially reached a cooperation agreement with Cheng Shijie, and the first step of the eunuchs under Gao Qiqian's command was not to contact the officials in southern Liaoning, but to write a lot of letters to the eunuchs who were responsible for managing the Huangzhuang. followed by Shandong officials in southern Liaoning, officials from various provinces in the north, and finally merchants.

Cheng Shijie still underestimated the shamelessness of Gao Qiqian, and also underestimated the financial resources of these officials.

In just half a month's effort, Gao Qiqian sold more than 55 million catties of sweet potatoes to the outside world, and the total amount of silver obtained was more than 383,000 taels of silver. ，

In just half a month, he made a net profit of more than 153,000 taels of silver.

Cheng Shijie didn't envy Gao Qiqian's ability to make money, because the merchants were actually Gao Qiqian's own resources, and Cheng Shijie couldn't catch up with those Huangzhuang stewards, if Cheng Shijie went to them, they probably wouldn't pay attention to him.

Of course, the little Huangzhuang steward can't afford to offend Gao Qiqian, even if Gao Qiqian sells them a bunch of, they will buy it.

It's not that it's not a business, it's a matter of sophistication.

Many businessmen and officials have purchased sweet potatoes, and of course, the amount purchased by these officials is very problematic.

For example, Le'an County Ling Gao Jidi, Boxing County Ling Han Shuncheng They only bought 100,000 catties of sweet potatoes from Cheng Shijie, and 100,000 catties of sweet potatoes sounds like a lot, but the problem is that due to the germination rate, even if Cheng Shijie's method is adopted, only 2,000 acres of land can be planted.

A county only procures 2,000 acres of seeds, which is too little.

Don't look at the number of 100,000 catties of sweet potatoes, but the problem is that you can't stand up and concentrate on the black, one tael of silver is one hundred and fifty catties, love to buy it or not. The price of sweet potatoes purchased by some merchants has reached one tael of silver and one hundred and twenty catties......

As the sweet potato harvest in Zhenhai City comes to an end, all towns and cities in Jinzhouwei, sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat, corn, tomatoes, peppers, sorghum, and soybeans have all entered the harvest action.

In order to harvest crops, many factories have also taken the opportunity to launch some new agricultural tools, such as a multi-functional animal-powered rocker wheat harvester, which is pulled by two horses, using the wheels in front of the harvester, driving the chain, and driving the combined knives behind, which can harvest wheat or soybeans with you.

Two people, two horses, or two cows, can harvest more than 20 acres of land in a day, which is much faster than manual cutting. Even a strong man with great energy can only harvest two or three acres of land a day at most, and only cut it off.

In addition to animal power harvesters, there are also animal power and water threshers, this kind of threshing machine, using artificial dams, to raise the water pressure, using pipes to release water, water flow to push the water wheel, through the gear set to accelerate, can carry out wheat, soybeans, and even corn threshing.

"How's the wheat yield?"

"Between three stones and two buckets to three stones and five buckets!"

Sun Yuanhua was speechless about this.

The history of wheat cultivation in the north for thousands of years, in the Warring States Period, the highest yield per mu of wheat was two hundred and seventy catties, and the Qin and Han dynasties were the period of agricultural progress, two hundred and sixty or seventy catties. The Tang Dynasty was at 337 catties, and the Song Dynasty was lower, around 300 catties. The Ming Dynasty was the period of the highest grain yield in ancient China, with an average yield of about 346 catties per mu, but the Ming catties were heavier, about 410 catties.

But the problem is that even if it is 410 catties, it is far from reaching three stones.

However, the yield of wheat per mu in southern Liaoning is as high as three stones and two ends to three stones and five buckets, and the soybean yield is between 330 and 360 catties.

"How is this done?"

"We will do what we are told to do, and then ...... And then, that's it! ”

Chen Zilong was covered in mud, sat in the field, looked at an honest Tuntian military household and said, "Cheng Dashuai, what did you do?" ”

"Dig up the river mud!"

"Anything else?"

"Scatter grass ashes!"

"When the land is dry, water ......"

"To the point, it's different from your farming!"

"Is there one?"

Chen Zilong was about to go berserk: "I'm asking you ......"

"Really!"

"Bone meal in the ground!"

"What bone meal?"

"This, the grass people don't know very well, but ......"

"But what?"

"The grass people faintly heard some rumors, and the marshal said that he would leave the fertile land for the Jiannu who dared to come to southern Liaoning, but the grass people didn't know if this Jiannu could really fertilize the land, and the grass people did get two carts of bone meal, and they scattered it into the ground!"

Chen Zilong rubbed his head, not knowing if he wanted to write down this record.

"Cheng Dashuai built a slave in December last year, Chongzhen in February of the fifth year, the second war built a slave in Haizhou, beheaded 10,000 people, the head was sent to the capital, but the body was ...... Could it be that they were all scattered into the ground by Cheng Shuai? ”

"How is it possible that corpses can fertilize the ground?"

Chen Zilong smiled bitterly: "Isn't this absurd? ”

"Is this really possible?"

Song Yingxing thought for a while and said: "Song once heard those experienced servants say that as long as the corpse is buried in a certain place, the grass or crops in a certain place will be more lush than other places!" ”

"He's not really going to grind the bones of these 20,000 corpses into powder and scatter them on the ground, right?"

"Why don't you ask Cheng Shuai?"

Cheng Shijie was annoyed by Gu Shizhang every day, and in desperation, Cheng Shijie sent a big killer, and Zheng Qi was responsible for business negotiations, however, unlike Fan Wendou, Gu Shizhang got the right to sell 600,000 stone potatoes from Cheng Shijie with his indomitable spirit and the cheekiness he had experienced in the ups and downs of the business sea.

And the price is one stone of potatoes, that is, one hundred and twenty catties of five dollars of silver, this price is almost the wholesale price that Cheng Shijie gave Gao Qiqian, tasted the sweetness of selling sweet potatoes, Gao Qiqian saw the harvest of potatoes and corn, and also took the initiative to undertake the task of external sales.

Cheng Shijie did not hesitate, and handed over the task of external sales to Gao Qiqian, for this kind of ace sales, Cheng Shijie gave Gao Qiqian two four-wheeled carriage RVs as a reward for ace sales.

Gu Shizhang bought the right to sell 1.2 million stone potatoes at the price of five coins of silver per stone, and his arrogance in spending a lot of money allowed Cheng Shijie to see the strength of Hui merchants.

Hui merchants brought 300,000 stone rice from Jiangnan, as well as more than 1.3 million taels of silver, and deposited these helpless and silver winter melons in the Liaodong Bank, but solved the silver shortage in the bank during this period of silver.

Because potatoes and sweet potatoes need to be stored in cellars, the military and martyrs of the Ning Navy who own private land can only dig cellars in order to store and harvest potatoes and sweet potatoes.

But the problem is that the cellars of each family were too small, and they did not have the time to dig by themselves, so they could only hire people to dig them, and some military families saw the huge profits from processing potatoes and sweet potatoes into flour, so they began to borrow money one after another to build a sweet potato and potato processing factory, which required at least 1,500 taels of silver for investment.

For this reason, the businessmen and military families who came to various banks to borrow money have become crowded. Especially Gu Shizhang, this guy built more than 40 water-powered mills in one go, and he calculated that the cost of processing a stone of potatoes or sweet potatoes into potato noodles was about a penny of silver.

Special vermicelli, not only delicious, but also inexpensive, easy to store, the market prospect is very good, sweet potatoes or potatoes of five dollars of silver, almost can produce 100 catties of vermicelli, or 30 catties of starch. For each stone of sweet potatoes or potatoes, in addition to labor and production costs, a net profit of three dollars of silver.

Gu Shizhang transferred all the manpower he could mobilize, and hired a lot of people, called potatoes, bookkeeping, and completely worked in two shifts, so he was still too busy......

The potatoes in the field are still being transported back in a truckload, and the military households in Tuntian are so tired that they want to cry!

However, at the end of August, the temperature in southern Liaoning dropped sharply, and the weather became gloomy.

Cheng Shijie was also very anxious, and for this reason, he asked the less important factories to temporarily suspend production and put all the workers into the autumn harvest operation.

With the establishment of the Liaodong Management Committee, the barracks factories of the Ning Navy, especially the arsenal, are now in a state of semi-shutdown, and in order to save costs, only the Gun and Artillery Bureau, the Armor and Crossbow Bureau, the Ordnance Bureau, the Gunpowder Bureau, and the Armaments Bureau are retained, and the five research and development institutions share an arsenal to be responsible for the production of equipment for the Ning Navy.

Now the arsenal adopts a performance appraisal system, but it cannot increase output and create profits like other factories, Zhou Yandong is quite happy to learn that Cheng Shijie is ready to stop the factory and transfer all workers to the autumn harvest action.

However, he was a little early in his joy.

"The arsenal must not stop!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "Even if the arsenal loses money, it must not stop!" ”

"However, the demand of our Ning Navy is limited, and we now have more than 19,000 horizontal knives, 42,000 spears, more than 24,000 armor, and more than 30,000 firearms.

Zhou Yandong smiled bitterly: "The weapons produced are useless, the more you produce, the more you lose!" ”

"Don't focus on this little thing, the arsenal is to train more qualified workers, and you don't have to worry about losing money at this stage."

Cheng Shijie is not afraid of losing money, as long as more skilled workers are trained now, the money lost now will be earned back ten times and a hundred times in the future.

Since Cheng Shijie has said this, Zhou Yandong has no reason to object, the arsenal is actually not losing money all the time, although the blades and armor produced by the arsenal cannot be sold, in fact, it is not that it cannot be sold, but it is unwilling to sell. As long as the technicians of the Yining Navy are willing to sell, they will not worry about finding a seller.

It's a pity that Cheng Shijie can't believe in the professional ethics of the generals of the Ming army, and the artillery or musket he sells on the front foot can appear in the hands of Jiannu with the back foot.

Therefore, he is reluctant to sell these equipment.

After all, there are many mines in southern Liaoning, such as iron ore, limestone mines and cement yards, which have a great demand for explosives, and now the arsenal of the navy in Nanning has sold explosives to various minerals, and these mines are naturally Cheng Shijie's, and as long as there are no problems in management, there will naturally be no outflow, and the sales volume is still good.

"When will the arsenal make a breech-loading rifled rifle, this commander will place an order for 100,000 guns to the arsenal!"

Cheng Shijie said with a smile: "When the breech-loading rifled rifle is manufactured, our arsenal will be on the right track!" ”

"Well, did my brother hear about it?"

"What?"

"Why are our crops in southern Liaoning harvested?"

"I don't know, Cheng Dashuai has the help of immortals!"

"It's not for the help of the gods, I heard that Cheng Shuai sprinkled Jiannu's bone meal into the ground, and our crops can be harvested!"

(End of chapter)