The wind blows from the South Sea

Chapter 93 Agricultural construction cannot be relaxed

one and a half months later

December 1859, 8

Under the guard of a group of elite soldiers, Feng Guohui led Zheng Xiucai, Feng Zhaoliang, Lin Zongyi, Hu Huashan, Hu Laohu and others on the spacious and bright Chemalide Street.

Today's Chemalide Street has been renamed July 7st Street to commemorate the day when the Nanyang Army was officially established.

The old Qiao family house, which used to be a large area, has now been transformed into the headquarters of Nanyang Company.

All branches of Nanyang Company are concentrated here. Opposite the Qiao family's old house is Nanyang Bank, which is very convenient for company transfers and bank transfers.

July 7st Street was the first street to be renovated. It is also a street where rich families gather and where the leaders of the Nanyang Army live. Compared with other streets, it has a more noble and solemn scene.

There are many wealthy families on this street. Officers and their families can be seen everywhere, as well as police patrolling back and forth, which makes this street particularly different.

After reorganization

The original dirt streets were paved with neat bluestone strips, green belts were separated, and high-standard public toilets were built, hidden behind lush green trees.

It was as if a country girl had put on a dress. After applying a little pink and red, she looked particularly different and became extra charming.

Walking on such a street, you will no longer get mud on your feet on rainy days, and there will be no dust flying on sunny days. It becomes much fresher and tidier.

"Lin Weng must know that during the rainy season, the city of Surabaya is often covered in ocean after heavy rains, and the high areas in the east of the city are better. Especially in the west of the city, every household has no place to stand, and they are all soaked in muddy water. It will take a few days to subside."

Urban public toilets will continue to be built, ensuring that there is one every two to three hundred meters away, with separate male and female toilet seats to facilitate people's daily needs.

"Oh... Lin is all ears."

In the future, there will be a large number of bridges, urban and rural roads and farmland water conservancy facilities that need to be built, and the successful experience of Surabaya City also needs to be replicated in other towns.

"Yes, this is a natural disaster and waterlogging, and it cannot be done by humans."

What follows is that in urban construction, attention must be paid to the construction of sewer ditches and must not be ignored.

Relevant police, education, health and other expenditures must be included in the municipal committee's annual public expenditures, and this money cannot be saved..."

Feng Guohui came out of his mansion and chatted and laughed with everyone, then came to the headquarters of Nanyang Company (note, the original Qiao Family Courtyard), walked in with everyone.

After listening to a few words, he said;

To get rid of the old bad habit of open defecation, each neighborhood will organize responsible old ladies to patrol the streets and impose fines on those who engage in open defecation and damage to city public property.

With a beautiful environment, citizens must be taught to cherish it.

"I'm afraid Lin Weng doesn't know something. The wonders of this city's sewer ditches can only be fully revealed after the rainy season comes in October."

"Lin Weng is wrong. The urban sewage ditch project led by the commander-in-chief took advantage of the situation and descended step by step from high places in the city. It can collect a large amount of rainfall into the ditch and drain it quickly. There will be no accumulation of water, no depression, no waterlogging, and no impact. Urban people make a normal living, this is the real merit."

It is right to set up schools in the city, vigorously develop education, educate the barbarians with the long-standing Chinese civilization, and admire the Chinese nation.

Feng Guohui walked in the middle with a smile on his face. He felt really happy when he heard the compliments from the left and right, but he was not carried away yet.

While talking, everyone arrived at the main hall of Nanyang Company. Feng Guohui went straight to sit at the head of the table. The others sat down on their left and right, and then the waiters served tea.

"If this is the case, it will really be a blessing to all people."

If you are caught once, you will be fined a dime; if you are caught again, the fine will be doubled.

The Gui Lao colonists in this area only focused on expropriation and did not think about construction. They owed a lot of debts in urban public construction, and roads and sewer ditches were only the most basic aspects.

"The commander-in-chief has a good idea. After this renovation, the streets of Surabaya City have become completely new. Old people like me and others who have lived here for decades cannot recognize it. It is even more elegant than Batavia, and it is even more tidy and clean. The old man has nothing but admiration to add, and he is amazed."

“Our East Java region is located in the tropics, with abundant sunshine and abundant rainfall, which is very suitable for the development of specialty agriculture.

After completing the second reorganization of the Nanyang Army, the infantry regiments under his command were dispersed to various parts of East Java and were continuing to clean up remote villages and bandit gangs.

Good news keeps coming. Twenty-nine gangs of bandits have been wiped out one after another, and more than 3170 bandits have been killed and captured. The overall public security environment has been reduced.

Today's Nanyang mule and horse caravans and plantation transport teams are basically free from the worry of bandits intruding on the roads of East Java day and night.

This is a huge difference compared to a year ago.

In addition, the roads leading to various towns have been widened, reinforced and repaired. It only takes three days to reach from north to south, which greatly saves manpower and material resources during transportation.

Steel plants and sugar mills were put into production one after another, and Feng Guohui was able to turn his energy to the field of agricultural production and make corresponding plans accordingly.

The focus of Nanyang Company has also shifted to the field of agricultural production.

Don't forget that the basis for the Nanyang Company's overnight wealth was the smuggling of spices, and while exchanging large sums of money, it could fully promote industrial development.

Dozens of factories have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, which is the result of agricultural feedback. First of all, the characteristic plantations will further expand the scale of spice production and planting, promote scientific planting experience, and strengthen exchanges in fertilization, soil loosening, cutting and pruning technology, and field management.

The 37 own plantations will be integrated, and manpower will be centralized to expand the reclamation of barren mountains and wild lands, striving to increase the original planting scale from 2 acres to more than 3 acres in 3.85 to 8 years.

Based on the current annual output of more than 5000 tons of spices, we strive to quadruple the production to more than tons, achieving double growth in per-acre yield and total output.

As for the hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land under his command, low-efficiency crop varieties such as kapok, sisal, and cocoa will be cleared away and replaced with concentrated planting of rice, cane sugar, oil palm, sugar beets, cassava, peanuts and other crops.

Rice and cassava are the main grains, sucrose is used for sugar extraction, and oil palm, sugar beet and peanut are used for oil extraction to make lubricants and edible oils.

The remaining residue is the best feed for raising cattle, horses, mules, pigs, chickens, ducks and other poultry, which is more conducive to increasing agricultural production and income.

As for many people who have proposed not to plant crops such as kapok, sisal, and cocoa, then common products such as hemp rope and sacks have no raw materials, and cocoa is also very popular.

The solution is simple, buy it from other parts of Java.

The entire agricultural area in East Java is not large, and the agricultural varieties planted are numerous and scattered. Under the condition of imperfect planting technology, the yield is quite low.

The local indigenous people have always been lazy and uninformative. They basically just plant randomly and just rely on nature to harvest.

There is no deep plowing, soil turning, fertilizing, seedling raising, weeding and insect control, field management, top dressing, etc. It is a very primitive planting method.

If it weren't for the good weather with three crops a year, and the fruits and melons everywhere in the forest, no matter what, they could have a full belly, no one knows how many people would have died of starvation.

Feng Guohui is now planning to resettle Chinese immigrant villages and towns in the area west of Yanwang City that has been cleared.

At the same time, the mature farmland farming techniques of the Chinese were introduced to carry out deep and careful cultivation of these fields to increase crop yields and implement large-scale agricultural production.

For example, whether this large field is 3000 acres or 5000 acres, it must be planted entirely with rice, entirely planted with cane sugar, or alternatively, sugar beets and rice must be planted in rotation.

Simplifying varieties is conducive to preventing diseases and pests, and is more conducive to field management and increasing average yield per mu.

Instead of being like before, indigenous tenant farmers could grow whatever they wanted.

This variety is planted in this area, and that variety is planted in that area. All kinds of varieties are planted in one big field, crowded and interacting with each other.

It's different now

The Nanyang Company issued a plan on what types of crops to plant, and each Chinese village or town was responsible for implementing it.

The rice grown in this village is all rice, and the sugar cane grown in that village is all sugar cane. The Nanyang Company is responsible for purchasing the portion retained by farmers other than paying taxes at a price.

In addition to the large fields allocated to these Chinese immigrants, each family has two or three vegetable plots in front and behind the house, where they can grow vegetables and fruits for their own consumption, raise chickens, ducks, and poultry, and raise livestock. Get two or three pigs.

In this way, the problem of eating food at home can be solved.

As long as you take good care of it, living a happy and happy life is not a problem.

Only when farmers live a comfortable life and have their stomachs full will they be willing to have more children and sincerely support the expansion and development of the Nanyang Army.

As the largest landowner in East Java, Feng Guohui's land rent to Chinese farmers and tenant farmers is 45%. Moreover, there are collective farmland construction and road construction activities in the village, so he must contribute his efforts free of charge and participate in the construction.

When encountering invasion by foreign enemies, farmers must actively join the militia to protect the village and family before drawing up a branch.

At first glance, 45% of the land rent seems quite a lot.

In fact, the tax burden on farmers is not heavy, because land rent only levies taxes on the large fields, not on the vegetable plots in front and behind each household, which is tax-free.

Moreover, in East Java, the crops are harvested three times a year, and a crop of vegetables can be grown in as little as 40 to 50 days, or as long as 60 to 70 days. In addition to providing food for the family, one can easily raise dozens more chickens and ducks.

Of course, if you raise pigs and still have to go to the wild to hunt pigweed, your family will have to work harder.

There were no excessive taxes or miscellaneous taxes in the Chinese towns under the rule of the Nanyang Army, and arbitrary charges were not allowed.

When farmers go to the city to set up stalls, they charge a uniform stall fee of 1 dime per day. You must pay tax when selling large livestock such as pigs, cattle, mules, and horses. You do not need to pay tax when selling home-produced chickens, ducks, and vegetables. You only need to pay the stall fee.

Such regulations not only simplify the procedures but also reduce the burden on farmers, and are widely supported.

In leisure time

We will build roads, ditches and bridges in front of each village as a unit, and build farmland water conservancy facilities, which will continue year after year.

I believe that within a few years, these villages will have a completely new look, and transportation and farmland water conservancy facilities will gradually be improved, laying the foundation for a beautiful new countryside.

(End of this chapter)