The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 182 Promotion
Early the next morning, Huang Han accompanied Xu Guangqi on the road to Kaiping Town. The scientist is also a man of action.

As soon as he arrived, Xu Guangqi couldn't wait to go to the field to inspect the sweet potatoes and potato seedlings planted yesterday.

Huang Han is really interested in these crops that can live countless lives, and he still accompanied them all the way, and participated in the labor in person, and he also knew how to tidy up the fields.

It only takes more than 120 days for the sweet potatoes and potatoes planted in summer to be harvested, and it is only in mid-May that it is fully in time for the farming season. Xu Guangqi finally showed a happy smile.

Huang Han didn't know much about agriculture, but he wasn't completely ignorant either. At least he knew that potatoes were more cold-resistant than sweet potatoes, and they were also more nutritious than sweet potatoes.

Therefore, he suggested that Xu Guangqi grow as many potato seedlings as possible, and he called on farmers to plant on a large scale to ensure that there is enough food to meet the severe winter this year.

Xu Guangqi didn't expect to be able to plant hundreds of thousands of acres of potatoes and sweet potatoes at all. Seeing Huang Han's confidence, he couldn't help laughing.

He said: "Huang Han, do you know that farmers are ignorant? How difficult is it to get them to accept a new crop? I have worked hard as a teacher for more than ten years, but I am still at a loss. The promotion of high-yield sweet potatoes and potatoes is obviously beneficial to the country and the people. It’s just tough.”

Huang Han said with a smile: "Master, that's because you are a scientist. You specialize in scientific research and experiments. That's what you call specialization in technology. Promotion is actually a kind of knowledge, and you may not be proficient in it."

Xu Guangqi didn't care about being pointed out by his disciples that he couldn't promote the law. Instead, he was interested in Huang Han's topic and asked, "So, don't you have a plan in mind?"

Huang Han was not modest either, and said grandly: "Of course, as long as you grasp people's hearts, understand what the farmers who are digging in the soil need, then weigh their worries, and then find a balance point within your ability, and it will be a matter of course."

Xu Guangqi was immediately attracted by Huang Han's argument, and asked, "Can you be more specific? I seem to have realized something as a teacher, but I feel that I still don't get the point."

Huang Han then instilled new ideas into the scientists, he said: "Farmers only consider food and clothing, what they need is food to support their families, what should they do if they fail to try new crops?
What should I do if the crops I planted cannot be sold?

These causes and consequences, as a promoter, must be comprehensive. To give the common people confidence, it is necessary to minimize the risk factor that the common people may bear. "

Xu Guangqi listened carefully, nodded and said, "Of course that's good, but I don't know how you plan to promote the cultivation of potatoes and sweet potatoes?"

"It's very simple. First of all, all the acres of the Huang family's fields that have not been planted with spring wheat will be replanted with sweet potatoes and potatoes in time. The total is estimated to be [-] to [-] acres.

The next step is to let the surrounding acres of abandoned fields come to plant. In order to give reassurance to the farmers who are willing to plant, my Huang family made a high-profile publicity to purchase all the output. "

Xu Guangqi asked suspiciously: "Sweet potatoes and potatoes are new crops and I don't know what they are worth? At what price are you going to buy them?
It is obvious that if the bid is low, the common people will not be profitable or even lose money, and they will probably never touch these two things in the future.

If the bid is too high, the selling price will lose the advantage of being cheap and high-quality compared with miscellaneous grains, and there will be a risk of not being able to sell. "

Huang Han came from a later generation, knowing that these two things are definitely price-competitive, he packed his tickets and said: "Sweet potatoes and potatoes are priced simply.

In the past, the yield of wheat per acre of land in the middle of the year was used as the base calculation.

This year, the purchase price of sweet potatoes and potatoes harvested per acre of land will be increased by [-]% based on the current price of wheat, allowing ordinary people to get more than [-]% of the profit. "

Xu Guangqi thought for a while and said, "Wonderful, wonderful beyond words. According to this calculation, five or six catties of sweet potatoes should be equivalent to one catty of wheat. This old man expresses his feelings. Don't mind. Don't stop, just keep talking."

Huang Han continued: "We will prepay the purchase price with a deposit of two taels of silver for every ten mu of land, and promise that if the ten mu of land they planted new crops fails to harvest, the two taels of silver will not be recovered, and will be used as compensation to the farmers.

This operation makes farmers invincible, and they naturally have enthusiasm for production without any worries.

When the sweet potatoes and potatoes they planted this season are sold for silver, as long as they can exceed the profit they get from growing wheat, even if it is only [-] to [-]%, it will basically not take much trouble to ask them to plant them next year. Growing wheat and rice is much easier. "

Xu Guangqi kept nodding his head, and after listening to Huang Han's whole plan, he laughed and said, "That's the case, haha, Wen Jun's words are better than ten years of reading! The old man has been educated."

Huang Han hurriedly said modestly: "Master, you old man can't talk like that, the disciple has no place to be ashamed?"

"Hey! You have such knowledge, I'm afraid the old man has nothing to teach you?"

"How come, you can teach a lot, such as planting rice in the capital, planting corn, and building water conservancy projects. You can also send some great craftsmen in the capital to teach your apprentices how to make cannons!"

Xu Guangqi said honestly: "It's no problem for you to learn these things, but the technique of casting cannons for your master is not essential. You have a senior brother Sun Yuanhua who has done a good job. You can ask him for advice in the future.

Teachers are really good at building ditches and reservoirs. As long as they have money, food and manpower, it is no problem to create an irrigation system for teachers that guarantees harvest in drought and flood. "

Huang Han thought that if he used local methods to produce cement as a building material, even if it could not meet the quality standards of later generations, the construction difficulty and service life of reservoirs and channels would be greatly increased.

Xu Guangqi should be a water conservancy expert who is proficient in small watershed management. It is no problem to have him lead students to participate in the construction of water conservancy facilities to benefit the people.

Huang Han drafted the new crop promotion method and promulgated it that afternoon, and asked the officials and servants brought by Xu Guangqi to guide the cultivation techniques on the spot. The farmers who came to learn were not only free, but also provided them with warm boiled water and two large cooking cakes to satisfy their hunger.

The news spread all of a sudden. On the third day, two to three thousand farmers came to attend the class. Everyone knew that if they missed the farming season, they could recover their losses by replanting sweet potatoes and potatoes. Everyone was in high spirits.

The farmers who came to the class learned that as long as they planted these two new crops carefully, they could basically guarantee a harvest this year. If there was no harvest, the Huang family's deposit of two taels of silver per ten mu of land would be used as compensation and the people would not be required to return it.

You don't have to worry about the new crops being plagued by diseases and insect pests, because during the field management period, there will be officials, servants of the Ministry of Rites, and "Red Banner Army" students coming to the field to solve technical problems for everyone.

(End of this chapter)