Smuggling Daming

"Why, what's the problem?" Seeing the embarrassed expressions on the faces of Lu Songnian and others, Zhou Zhong asked a little strangely. Even if the wasteland reclaimed in Taiwan is planted with other grains, the yield must be very low, which is not enough for the victims to eat. Yes, but if you plant sweet potatoes, you don't want to plant them. This kind of thing doesn't choose land, and the yield is high. Normally, the victims of the disaster should rush to plant it. Why do Lu Songnian and the others show such expressions?

"My lord, sweet potatoes have already been tried and grown in Huangzhuang in the capital, and the yield is indeed amazing. We all know this, but the victims who migrated here have never seen sweet potatoes at all, let alone planted them by themselves. Therefore, they have always been skeptical about the production of sweet potatoes. In addition, they have finally reclaimed some wasteland, and they all want to grow some food on the wasteland. After all, they are all frightened by hunger. I'm not willing to try new crops." Lu Songnian complained with a wry smile.

Hearing Lu Songnian's words, Zhou Zhong also frowned. When he offered sweet potatoes to Zhengde before, he was worried that the people would not accept it for a while, so he let Zhengde try planting in Huangzhuang. Now after a year of bumper harvest, The name of sweet potato has spread in the capital area. Many people begged their grandpa and grandma to get some sweet potato seedlings. However, the immigrants who migrated to Taiwan have never heard of sweet potatoes. It is understandable for them to resist planting sweet potatoes now. .

But I understand that this year's sweet potatoes still have to be planted. After all, the sweet potato seedlings have already been shipped over, and the immigrants are also in urgent need of food. If they don't grow sweet potatoes, I'm afraid he will need to transport food all over the world next year.This not only costs money, but also takes up a lot of manpower and material resources. Only by planting sweet potatoes this year can the immigrants be self-sufficient in the next year.

"Prefect Lu, if I remember correctly, now each immigrant can reclaim five acres of wasteland, right?" Zhou Zhong asked after thinking for a moment.

"Your memory is good. All the immigrants who migrated to Taiwan this time, regardless of their size, can reclaim five acres of land, and women can reclaim three acres. At that time, the government will issue a document, and these fields will belong to them in the future. I have owned my own land, and these fields have been exempted from tax for three years, which can be said to be very generous." Lu Songnian cupped his hands and said.

"Well, with so much land allocated, is there still much wasteland in Tainan County and other places?" Zhou Zhong then asked.

"Uh... this..." Hearing Zhou Zhong's question.Lu Songnian was stunned for a moment before reacting, "Although 30 people have moved to the Taiwan government, the land in the government is vast, and there are also a lot of fields suitable for farming. Even if it is distributed to the immigrants, there is still a lot of wasteland left."

"That's enough!" Zhou Zhong clapped his hands and smiled. "You pass on the governor's order. If you are willing to plant more than two acres of sweet potatoes this year, each household will get one more mu of wasteland, and those who plant more than four acres of sweet potatoes will get two acres. By analogy, the more sweet potatoes you plant , the more land a household gets!"

"My lord, don't do it!" As soon as Zhou Zhong finished speaking, Lu Songnian and the others objected immediately. "My lord, although there is a lot of wasteland in Taiwan, it cannot be allocated in vain. After all, more immigrants will need to move to Taiwan in the future. If too much land is allocated in the early stage, what will be allocated to the latecomers in the future? "

As local officials in Taiwan, Lu Songnian and the others naturally hope that the people under their rule will get better and better. After all, more people will create more wealth, and Taiwan will become more prosperous. This is a matter for them. Incomparable political achievements, future promotion and fortune can all rely on it.

Regarding Lu Songnian's thoughts, Zhou Zhong was also very clear, and immediately said with a straight face: "No matter how much land there is, no one will cultivate it. The most important thing now is to let the 30 people in Taiwan harvest enough rations next year, and then Let them live in Taiwan with peace of mind, only when these immigrants settle down, the imperial court will relocate more people with peace of mind, what's the point of paying a few acres of wasteland for this?"

Hearing Zhou Zhong's stern words, Lu Songnian and the others were quite frightened. Before, they felt that the young governor was not airy, so they couldn't help but feel a little contempt in their hearts, but it was only then that they realized that the governor Although the adult is casual on the surface, he is not sloppy in government affairs.

Thinking of this, Lu Songnian and the others also kept saying yes, and immediately asked people to write Zhou Zhong's words as a notice and send it to various counties in Taiwan. At the same time, the sweet potato seedlings brought by the imperial court were also sent there. There will definitely be a scramble to grow sweet potatoes.

After dinner, Zhou Zhong was accompanied by Lu Songnian and the others to the outside of Tainan County. In order to reward Lu Songnian and other officials, they went to Taiwan to open up wasteland, so the court also rewarded these officials with a considerable amount of land. The people brought by Lu Songnian planted sweet potatoes. When Zhou Zhong came here, the fields were lush green and the sweet potatoes were growing very gratifyingly. I believe this year's harvest will definitely not be small.

"My lord, please take a look. This is the field allocated to Xiaguan, with a total of [-] acres. Now all of them have been planted with sweet potatoes, and because of lack of manpower, Xiaguan brought the people from his hometown here. In the end, Xiaguan, his wife and children They all worked together, and together with the servants at home, it was hard to plant the [-] mu." Lu Songnian pointed to the excellent land next to a big river in front of him and said, with a bit of embarrassment on his face. In order to harvest more food for Taiwan, the dignified magistrate also planted sweet potatoes in the field himself, which is really not easy.

Hearing Lu Songnian's words, Zhou Zhong looked at the field, and saw that the big river just passed through the middle of the field. It must be very convenient to irrigate in the future. It seems that Lu Songnian also used some personal power when allocating the field to himself, but Zhou Zhong Zhong didn't care about this, after all, there was no such thing as incorruptibility in Daming's official circles, as long as Lu Songnian could manage Taiwan affairs well, he would ignore his selfishness.

Zhou Zhong walked around the field of Lu Songnian's family, squatting down from time to time to see the growth of sweet potatoes, and found that the growth of sweet potatoes on the sandy land by the river bank was obviously better than that in other places, after all, the land by the river was relatively fertile. , and the upper middle sand has good air permeability, which is very suitable for the growth of sweet potatoes.

"Prefect Lu, you planted [-] mu of sweet potatoes all at once, and based on the minimum yield, you can produce two thousand catties per mu, so you have a yield of one million catties. Have you thought about how to deal with so many sweet potatoes? Zhou Zhong asked with a satisfied smile.

Lu Songnian was taken aback when he heard this, it was the first time he thought that he could harvest so many sweet potatoes, but he soon came to his senses, thought for a while and said: "My lord, I didn't expect that there would be hundreds of sweet potatoes. With an output of [-] catties, our family alone can't finish eating so many sweet potatoes, and fresh sweet potatoes are not easy to store. We will see if they can be sold to Quanzhou and other places. It can be stored in dried sweet potatoes.”

Hearing Lu Songnian's answer, Zhou Zhong laughed and said, "You are guarding treasures but not knowing treasures. I have good news for you. Not only can these sweet potatoes be eaten directly, but they can also be made into vermicelli. The vermicelli is delicious, but it is also very delicious, especially after the vermicelli is dried, it can be stored for a long time. When it is shipped back to Daming for sale, it will definitely be very expensive. In addition, sweet potatoes can also be used to make wine. Anyway, the output of sweet potatoes is so high. The expansion of the food must be endless, so it is most suitable for wine making."

Lu Songnian and the others knew that sweet potatoes were dedicated to His Majesty by Zhou Zhong. Now that the young governor told them about the other two functions of sweet potatoes, they were overjoyed at the moment. After all, these are two long-term sources of wealth. If Taiwan can take the lead If it develops into two industries, it will definitely have a huge role in promoting the development of Taiwan.

Thinking of this, Lu Songnian and others all saluted Zhou Zhong to thank him, and then Zhou Zhong asked someone to pick some young leaves from sweet potatoes, took them back and asked them to wash them and sprinkle them with flour, then steamed them in a pan, dipped them in garlic It is also a rare country game, and after the sweet potatoes are harvested, the sweet potato vines on the ground can also be used to feed livestock, so he also told Lu Songnian not to forget to develop Taiwan's breeding industry. There is a greater development prospect.

Zhou Zhong walked around the fields for a long time, and even when he met the people working in the countryside, he would go up and talk to him. At the beginning, those fellow villagers saw a nobleman in official uniform talking to him, and there were a group of officials behind him. Master, everyone was terrified. It wasn't until Zhou Zhong asked people to take off their official uniforms that no one dared to talk to him.

Speaking of the situation in Tainan County, the situation here is not bad, especially when officials like Lu Songnian take the lead in planting sweet potatoes, and one kind is several hundred acres, which makes those people who doubt the production of sweet potatoes can't help but have some confidence in sweet potatoes After all, they are not stupid. Even those well-informed officials and lords planted sweet potatoes. There must be benefits they don't know about. Therefore, most of these common people will choose one or two acres of sweet potatoes while planting other food. Sweet potatoes, this also made Zhou Zhong quite gratified.

Zhou Zhong stayed in Taiwan for half a month. During this period, he also took a boat to visit several other counties in Taiwan. In the end, all he saw was desolation. The county with the smallest population had only 1000 people, divided into two counties. This village lives on a vast plain, and the county magistrates work in thatched huts. Zhou Zhong can only give a few words of encouragement to them, so that they can open up wasteland with peace of mind. By next year, there will be new ones. Immigrants arrive.

After leaving Taiwan, Zhou Zhong took a boat back to Shuangyu Port, but on the way, he received a piece of news that surprised him. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)