Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 668
dusk.

The guests leave.

The wheat seedlings in the field outside the village are tender green.

Ah Fu handed a few silver dollars to Chen Twelve, "Uncle,"

"what does this mean?"

"Two pigs cost less than ten yuan. Buying piglets and paying the pig tax add up to three silver dollars. I will take back the remaining seven dollars."

Chen Twelve walked outside the village, patted Ah Fu with a smile, "Although you don't have the same surname as Chen now, but you still call me Uncle, why are you being polite to me? Uncle is also from a village household, so what?" I don’t know that it’s not easy to raise pigs. It seems that you only spent three yuan on the capital, but in reality you have to raise four or five pigs. You need an acre of land to grow sweet potatoes, corn, radishes, etc., and the piglets have to eat bran and rice skins when they are young. Raising pigs doesn’t make any money.”

To raise four or five pigs, at least one mu of sweet potato and radish is enough.

For Ah Fu, there are [-] mu of land, [-] mu of which are planted with mulberry and cotton, and the remaining [-] mu of land must be rotated to ensure fertility. Wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, radishes and other stubble crops cannot be planted with staple food, usually for two years. In the three seasons, the main miscellaneous grains alternate.

Without land, pigs cannot be raised. Even dry land and mountainous land must have at least one mu to raise four or five pigs. Two or three pigs can be slaughtered and two or three pigs can be kept in a year.

For farmers, almost all the land, or land under rotation, can be used to grow some sweet potatoes, radishes, corns, potatoes, sweet potato vines and bran.

Raising pigs can have a good conversion efficiency, and more importantly, raising pigs can get manure.

One pig can produce twenty cars of manure a year, and raising four or five pigs can produce a hundred cars of manure a year. The sweet potato vines, pigweed, miscellaneous grains, bran, etc. that the pigs eat are converted into manure and even wheat straw to fill the pigsty. , It can also be retting into pigsty dung grass. This pig dung grass is a treasure. For the common people who are farming, this is a magic weapon that can increase production a lot.

There are even some landlords who cooperate with farmers. He raises sows by himself, and gives birth to about ten or seven or eight cubs in one litter. After they are fed to twenty or thirty catties, they are sent to the farmers’ homes for raising. Collect the piglet’s capital, and in addition, the farmer will give him [-] truckloads of manure for one pig. If it exceeds the amount, add money, and if it is not enough, it will pay for the manure after selling the pigs.

For farmers, it is not cheap to buy piglets. Now they can raise them first, and then sell the pigs, which is undoubtedly cost-effective. It just needs to be manure for the landlord. It is hard to raise, and it is still somewhat profitable.As for the landlord, he not only sells the piglets, but also earns manure.

This is equivalent to a loan. The loan is piglets, and the interest charged is [-] trucks of manure. Usually, the interest is charged monthly, and the principal is recovered at the end of the year.

This deal is very cost-effective.

Ah Fu raises pigs and silkworms. Pig manure and silkworm excrement are used as fertilizer for the crops in the field, which can increase the production a lot in a year.

Rotary land, dry land, etc. can also be used, and the sweet potatoes produced can also be fed to pigs and sold for money.

It's just too hard.

"We are in a town with a large population. Pigs are easy to sell, and the price is higher, so we won't lose money."

Chen Twelve asked his nephew to take back the money. Ten silver dollars and two pigs produced more than 100 catties of meat each.

For today's meal, dozens of tables were invited, with an average of two silver dollars per table, and a total of more than a hundred dollars, including tobacco, wine and tea.

A table of two yuan is very rich. Anyway, it is estimated that everyone will remember the eight big bowls of the Chen family for a long time to come.Two silver dollars can buy one mu of ordinary land in Yongcheng now.

"Uncle, you are a fifth-rank general now, and your land quota has also increased, so you should buy more land." Ah Fu suggested.

For officials of the fifth grade, the land limit is five hectares of land.

Compared with ordinary people who are limited to ten acres of land per person, the quota of five hundred acres is very high. In the eyes of Ah Fu, he always feels that land is the foundation, with stable output, and a foundation that can be passed on to the family.

"Well, the imperial court will immediately clear up the land in Henan. All kinds of occupied land, illegal reporting of shortages, occupation of seeds, etc., especially the vassal land and military settlements, will be cleared. At that time, a lot of them will be sold at a lower price. I will Buy some."

Chen Twelve had [-] mu of land before, and he directly hired long-term workers to plant the land, and hired short-term workers when the farming was busy. He did not directly rent out tenants. Now he has money in his hand and plans to buy [-] mu of land.

In the past, there were many vassal kings and clans in Henan, and the vassals and relatives occupied a lot of land, and most of them were occupied by various kinds of occupations before. Now, if it is fully cleaned up, many fields will be cleared, such as Chen Twelve, a rich and powerful military officer This is an excellent real estate opportunity.

It is not this kind of large-scale land clearing, and it is difficult to buy many fields at once.

"After buying five hundred acres of land, I plan to build several farms, one to grow mulberry leaves and silkworms, one to grow cotton, and tobacco, and the rest to grow wheat, and then raise some pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese. All are welcome. Long-term workers will take care of it."

The income from growing grain is relatively low, and the income from growing cash crops must be high. For an officer like Chen Twelve, who has money and status in his hands, it is very cost-effective to set up a manor model. What I learned from my classmates is that there is an officer classmate whose family is in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. His family has been doing this for two or three years. Although the investment is large, the benefits are high.

Even rice cultivation can produce more grain with fewer people and more fields. If some economical cultivation and processing are developed, it will be more profitable.

For example, growing mulberry and silk weaving, growing cotton fabrics, and growing tobacco and flue-cured tobacco are very profitable.

However, these require more professional skills and high management requirements. For example, tobacco is grown in many places in the south of the Yangtze River. Everyone has never grown tobacco before. You have to start, which is more labor-intensive than growing grain.

But if the planting is good, even if the tobacco leaves are sold directly, the income will be good. If the tobacco leaves are dried into dry tobacco, or directly built into a barn to be roasted into flue-cured tobacco, the income will be even higher.

Traditional family farming is faced with the important problem of less land and less labor. Some families are monogamous and have a few children, and there are only two or three strong laborers. However, women have to raise silkworms and weave cloth to do housework, which is not much. Participate in the labor on the land when they have time, and even some people are short of cattle and horses, making it difficult to cultivate deeply.

In terms of watering and fertilizing, ordinary family farming is not as good as the landlord's farm.

Not to mention planting tobacco and mulberry.

Ah Fu now sometimes smokes some cigarettes, but all he smokes are dry tobacco. He buys some tobacco leaves, takes them home, cuts them into shreds, makes a pipe, plugs it tightly and lights it up. Very comfortable.

Chen Twelve now has a monthly salary of 50 yuan, not counting other things, plus the previous rewards, rewards, etc., he has a lot of money in his hand. He can buy hundreds of acres of land and build a village. Please There is not enough money for the first time, even to buy cows and pigs.

But now there is a policy, even if the imperial government sells the official land at a lower price, there are actually some preferential conditions for officials, soldiers, royal family members, scholars, etc. Lowest interest, basically no interest.

As Chen Twelve is an active military attache, the installment interest is not too high, which is very cost-effective.

"Uncle, now that you've returned to your homeland and become famous, take me to be a soldier." Agui said.

"You're still too young, I'll arrange for you to join the Red Gun Club later."

The Red Gun Society is still there, and now it exists everywhere, almost everywhere. The imperial court did not ban it, but sent people to regulate the organization. Its official name is the Loyalty Red Gun Society. It has become a local militia-like organization. The old model of holding altars and rallies in secret is no longer needed. Now it is a regular training camp in the open and aboveboard, and even undertakes tasks such as patrolling, catching thieves, and defending the city.

Now the imperial court has newly opened many lecture halls and non-commissioned officer schools, etc., and canceled the martial arts and guards in various places. The martial arts here in Yongcheng has now been changed into a small school run by the Red Spear Association. The masters of the gun club are the same as teaching classes, reading and writing, talking about loyalty, benevolence, filial piety, and Chinese history, and they will also teach arithmetic and so on.

It recruits children of the Red Spear Club, and the tuition fee is very low, mainly accepting children from six to 12 years old.

Chen Twelve hopes that Ah Gui will go to study, not because he hopes that he will be a scholar in the future, but that he will open his eyes after studying.

"In the future, you have to be educated in the army. You need to be able to read and write, so that you can be promoted. Otherwise, you will have no future if you only know how to fight with swords and guns. You can study for a few years and wait for you. Then go to the military academy. If you can pass the exam , I will be promising in the future, and when I come out, I can start from the head of the team or the deputy leader of the platoon."

Ah Fu asked Chen Twelve for help, and wanted him to take one of his brother-in-laws to serve in the army, who is now eighteen.

His wife was a hungry person who fled from Huainan before. Later, he asked Chen Twelve to borrow money to buy food and marry his wife. His wife's family also settled down here in Daqiu, but they were not locals, but they could not be allocated land. Tenants, tenants of other people's fields.

Compared with self-cultivating farmers paying two buckets and more rents, tenants have to pay [-]% of autumn grain rent, which is at least seven or eight buckets, not to mention that they are inferior to self-cultivating farmers in all aspects, so tenants have worked hard for a year, and it is difficult to have any savings. Compared with self-cultivating farmers , the income may be less than [-]% of them.

Seeing that Chen Twelve has prospered as a soldier, Ah Fu's wife wants her younger brother to serve as a soldier, which is better than renting land to others.

"It doesn't work now. This time, the Guide Regiment has been reorganized into the Imperial Battalion Henan Camp. Long Live God has transferred nine battalions of Imperial Battalion soldiers, plus the previous ones, and auxiliary soldiers. There are almost [-]. Our original regiment training brothers , This time we have to abolish and eliminate a group of people, and only about [-] people will be retained, and the remaining [-] people will be reorganized by soldiers from Kaifeng, Luoyang, Weihui and other town regiments."

Ah Fu was a little disappointed.

"You can't enter the camp for the time being, but I suggest that your brother-in-law can sign up to recruit postmen. Now Henan also needs to improve the posthouses and delivery shops, and recruit a large number of postmen. The postmen belong to the Ministry of War. The salary is not bad. January Two yuan of salary, and you can also rent ten acres of post and land. They are all good fields, the rent is not high, and there are no other burdens. If you do a good job, there will be some other subsidies and benefits.

Moreover, post soldiers belong to the Ministry of War. If the provincial battalion is short of soldiers, they will be selected from the post soldiers, regiment training, and towns to supplement them. "

Ah Fu originally wanted Chen Twelve to take his brother-in-law to become a family soldier, but now he has no choice but to give up. He himself does not want to be a soldier. He has ten acres of land, a young wife at home, and a newborn child. Although the days are hard, they are full of hope.

"Thank you Uncle Twelve, I'll explain it to him later."

"Well, tell him that being a postman is not bad, it's better than being a tenant. Today's postman is no better than before, and this opportunity is rare. If you miss it, you will never have the chance to be a postman next time."

(End of this chapter)