In July of 1617, the weather in Liaodong became hot.
Sang Carpenter sat on the edge of the field. An irrigation ditch flowed past him, and on the other side of the ditch was a wheat field. He didn't rest for two days, so he just sat on the edge of the wheat field and stared blankly. He could stare for a whole day without moving. His wife would bring him lunch at noon, and she would stare blankly for a long time.
The Sang family were all farmers, so they were very familiar with farm work and had a lot of feelings for the land. But now, they couldn't understand what was happening in the fields.
Last year, the Liaonan Four Guards fell into the hands of the Revolutionary Army. Because of the Kennu invasion, a large number of farmers in Liaodong and Liaoxi fled to the Liaonan Peninsula. Zhou Qingfeng and the other transmigrators didn't have the ability to manage and control hundreds of thousands of people, so they simply set up village autonomy and let them manage themselves. As for the fields, they were planted casually, and there were abandoned fields everywhere.
The Han farmers were the most hardworking. After receiving the most basic relief from the Revolutionary Army, they began to spontaneously start production to save themselves. They built houses, dug ditches, plowed the land, and sowed seeds. At the end of September and the beginning of October last year, the winter wheat was planted.
Because of the poor labor ability of individual farmers, they could only form a farm with hundreds of people to work collectively. The Revolutionary Army provided cattle, seeds, fertilizers, farming tools, and food. Basically, all the refugees owed a lot of money. But as long as they could survive, it was okay to owe. Moreover, the Revolutionary Army didn't calculate interest on the physical debt, and they could pay it back with food every other year.
This kind of good thing had never happened before.
In the past year, the Revolutionary Army's Ministry of Agriculture sent people to guide agricultural production from time to time, talking about fertilization, watering, pests, and diseases. The old farmers who had been farming for a lifetime might know some things, but they couldn't say it out loud.
The young agricultural technicians who were temporarily trained ran everywhere, and even Minister Li Shuwei came in person. With the combination of theoretical guidance and practical practice, this year's crops were really good. Now it was finally the harvest season.
The golden wheat field was filled with heavy ears of wheat. When Carpenter Sang saw such a good harvest, he was filled with excitement and surprise. He was now a carpenter, but he had been farming all his life. He had never seen such a good field before.
"How much grain does one mu of land need to be harvested?"
It was not only Sang Carpenter's question, but also the question of all the households in the four prefectures of southern Liaoning. Last year, the conditions were not good, and the water conservancy facilities did not cover a large area. Due to the small number of cattle, the fields could not be ploughed. The winter wheat planted last year was labour-intensive. But this year, there was a general increase in the yield per mu. Some fields had an increase of twenty to thirty percent, and some even had an increase of fifty to sixty percent.
Because many of the farmlands were barren, most of them were low-quality farmlands. The average yield per mu per mu in a single season was less than one stone. If the farmers didn't know how to take care of their crops, they wouldn't even be able to get half a stone per mu. Even under such circumstances, the farmland transformation project that had been going on since last year still played a great role.
The land in front of Sang Carpenter had a yield of about one stone per mu, which was about a hundred kilograms. Although this output was far from the four to five hundred kilograms in the future, it was already a bumper harvest in the current era.
Carpenter Sang was overjoyed, even bewitched. As he sat by the edge of the field, a few four-wheeled carriages passed by him. A man driving the carriage greeted him and shouted, "Old Master, you've come to see our fields again."
The road by the edge of the field was not good, so the carriage couldn't run fast.
When Sang Carpenter heard someone call him 'Old Master', he immediately laughed and scolded, "I'm not even fifty yet, I haven't lived enough good days, what old are you talking about?" After laughing, he said, "Your fields are planted well, we can have a full meal this year."
The man driving the carriage deliberately stopped and said happily, "Those people under the Grand Marshal said they want to 'scientific farming', but they are actually a group of teenage brats. They think they are great after learning some trivial things, and they make us do this and that every day, it's very annoying. I think it's because we used good fertilizer this year, so we can harvest more grain. "
The agricultural technicians of the 'Revolutionary Army' were all young people, and after learning some farming methods, they were arranged to guide the field planting. In the past year, these unfamiliar agricultural technicians made a lot of embarrassing things, which made the farmers who had been farming their whole lives laugh at them. However, the Ministry of Agriculture would not stop promoting 'scientific farming', it would only continue to deepen and strengthen it.
The rookie agricultural technicians who were still unfamiliar with it last year were all much more mature this year. However, the farmers in the field still habitually laughed at them, thinking that those brats with 'hairless mouths' couldn't do big things — the power of the agricultural technicians had not been displayed, but the power of fertilizer was immediate.
Plant ash could be used as potassium fertilizer, and the manure humus in the saltpeter field could be used as nitrogen fertilizer. Phosphorus fertilizer mainly came from bone powder, which was a bit lacking. With the application of these basic fertilizers, the crops in the field had been growing very well. The people in the farm didn't admit other things, but they still recognized the benefits brought by a large amount of fertilizer.
As a result, the construction of the saltpeter field continued, producing potassium nitrate was only a sideline, and the main business was composting. Potassium nitrate, which was originally the most lacking in the production of gunpowder, was no longer lacking, but sulfur began to be lacking.
"Grand Marshal is good, Grand Marshal is really good," Sang Carpenter nodded to this, "Not only do we harvest a lot of grain, but we also save effort in farming. In the territory of our 'Revolutionary Army', the people's lives are better. "
This sentence had a meaning. Last year, when farming, the Ministry of Machinery had a small batch of trial production of a manual seeder for dry wheat fields. When the production capacity of several hydraulic wood processing plants increased this year, a large number of animal harvesters driven by two horses were promoted.
The emergence of these agricultural equipment was also contributed by Sang Carpenter. After all, from the blueprint to the actual product, to improving the reliability for large-scale production, the whole process was not easy. Although these manual and animal farming tools made of wood and iron were far less than the mechanized agricultural machinery of the later generations, it was much easier than bending down to the field to wield a sickle.
The labor efficiency increased by more than three times.
Agricultural harvesting was a race against time with God. When the weather was good, it must be completed as soon as possible. Otherwise, the harvest would be reduced. The simplest agricultural machinery could also greatly reduce the labor intensity, at least it made farming a lot easier.
In the wheat field in front of Sang Carpenter, there was someone operating the animal harvester. The harvesting speed looked refreshing. Plowing, sowing, and harvesting, these were the most difficult things in farming. Reducing the labor intensity of these few tasks, the enthusiasm of farmers in farming would be greatly improved.
The collective farms also gave full play to the advantages of organization, using discipline to force farmers to work. Farmers would be particularly diligent when they were hungry. But once they found that the food was abundant, they would be particularly lazy. With a wife and children by the side of a hot kang, there would be no motivation and pressure to continue working.
Behind Sang Carpenter, a large wheat field had been harvested. The driver pulled the freshly harvested wheat and sent it to the nearby farm workshop. The 'Revolutionary Army' was determined to use all kinds of machinery to reduce the labor intensity of agriculture, so they built a large number of hydraulic machinery before the busy farming harvest.
The hydraulic thresher, peeling machine, and flour grinder were all a set. There was also a drying kiln that used straw as fuel to solve the problem of drying grain. In the past, doing these jobs would be exhausting. Now, it was all done by building dams and storing water as power, and it was completed semi-mechanically. It saved time and effort, and it was especially fast.
Last year, during the slack season, the 'Revolutionary Army' spent money to invite farmers to build water conservancy. Some people were still unwilling to come because they felt too tired. This year, there was no need to mobilize people. Everyone knew that they had to find a way to build the reservoir. Even a small reservoir could solve the big problem.
"Sigh, using hydraulic work is really good. But the reservoir is still too small. " The driver was also a little worried. "We only have one hydraulic processing point nearby, and several farms are waiting in line. Yesterday, people from two villages fought for a place. We are short of water. This year, people from several villages are discussing to increase the current reservoir. "
"Building the reservoir needs the approval of the Ministry of Agriculture. Don't build it randomly. Otherwise, you will be criticized. " Sang Carpenter kindly reminded, "Don't be too anxious about some things. Life now is much better than in the past. Don't mess around, or it won't be worth it if you get criticized. If you break the rules of the Grand Marshal, you will be chased away. "
In southern Liaoning, the land belonged to the 'Revolutionary Army', and farmers only had the right to farm. Therefore, the 'Revolutionary Army' had great control over the farmers at the bottom. The driver nodded repeatedly. "That's right. I also heard that if the reservoir is not repaired well, it will be bad. If a dam burst, everyone would be done for. But I heard that there is a 'steam engine' now. When can we use it? "
The development of hydraulic machinery needed to be built along the river, and it was inconvenient for places far from the river. Therefore, when the steam engine appeared on a large scale, it quickly eliminated hydraulic machinery. However, the production capacity of the mechanical equipment of the 'Revolutionary Army' was extremely low, and maintenance was more like a disaster. It was unrealistic to rely on the steam engine on a large scale.
Sang Carpenter shook his head with a chuckle. "Let's talk about it in a few years. We can't count on it now."
The driver nodded again, and after chatting, he whipped the carriage and drove away. Sang Carpenter looked at the four-wheeled carriage in the distance and was also happy. The popularization of carriages was also a major event to improve production efficiency. Otherwise, transporting a large number of materials would tire people to death. In the past, agriculture relied entirely on manpower and a small amount of animal power, and the labor intensity was too high.
"This road also needs to be repaired." Sang Carpenter looked down at the bumpy field road. "No one cared about this in the past, but not now. Sigh … there is too much work to do. But when all this work is done, I really don't dare to think about it! "
After sitting by the field for a day, Sang Carpenter walked around the farm. He was now in the east of Fuzhou, near the future Zhuanghe City. The 'Revolutionary Army' planned to build a new factory here, and it seemed that they wanted to develop some mines in Dandong. He was transferred here to support the construction. They wanted to build a few hydraulic processing plants to solve the production and processing problems of building materials.
After staying for a day, Sang Carpenter was about to return to the construction site dormitory, but he saw the driver who had sent the wheat to the processing site come back. This person was happy when he left, but when he came back, he was a little worried. He took the initiative to ask, "What's wrong? Are you busy at the processing site? "
"There's nothing wrong at the processing site. The threshing and hulling are going smoothly. The drying and milling still need to wait, and the wheat needs to be soaked in water for half a day. I just sold the grain to the people sent by the Grand Marshal to collect the grain, "the driver said.
"Then why do you look unhappy?"
"The grain that our farm harvested these days was used to pay off last year's loan. The people who collected the grain are guarding the processing site. They calculated and said that we have paid off half of last year's accumulated debt, and the rest can be paid next year without interest.
Now the remaining wheat in the field belongs to us. Now there are more cows and horses, and the ditch has been dug. Next year, there will only be more grain harvested. Maybe one mu of land will have two stones of wheat. "
"Isn't that good?" Sang Carpenter turned his head to look at the wheat field that was still being harvested. It was five or six in the afternoon, and the wheat field looked especially golden under the setting sun. That was all grain!
"The hundreds of people in your farm can eat to their heart's content this year."
The driver said again, "Do we really not need to pay taxes this year? In the past, we paid 70 to 80 percent of the land rent to the government. This year, we only paid off the cows, seeds, and farming tools that we owed to the Grand Marshal with wheat. The Grand Marshal didn't even ask us for half of the interest. Now we only paid 40 percent of the grain, and the rest is all ours? I feel a little uneasy. "
If they paid less taxes, the farmers would be afraid.
However, Carpenter Sang could empathize with her feelings. In the past, it was very common for the farmers who worked the hardest in the field to not be able to eat the grain they grew. Some people couldn't eat the wheat they grew, and they had to exchange it for millet and other grains to eat. Eating steamed buns made of flour every day, the landlord couldn't live such a comfortable life.
Now, the 'Revolutionary Army' said that they wouldn't collect land rent for two years, and they really didn't. The Grand Marshal was afraid that someone would play with his power and arbitrarily collect taxes, ruining his reputation, so he had sent a large number of teams to patrol the village. The 'Revolutionary Army' had imposed a rule that no one was allowed to collect more taxes from the farmers. Whoever dared to collect taxes would be killed. This was an iron law!
This year, the grain production increased, it was easier to farm, and the taxes were also reduced. Every family could eat to their heart's content. The driver thought further in his heart, and he asked Sang Carpenter, "You said that the Grand Marshal didn't collect taxes, so how could he hold on?
There were cows, seeds, farm machinery, water power, and so on. How much money would it cost? If the Grand Marshal couldn't hold on, wouldn't we be finished?
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