Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 378 Work of the Ministry of Agriculture

The next morning, the court hall was full of discussions about the powers of the new and old departments, and personnel. Sun Xiangfu, who stayed up all night last night, was drowsy. The two of them made an appointment and came to Taipu Temple.

The plaque here has been removed, and I believe that the plaque of the Ministry of Agriculture will be hung up soon, and the government office that originally belonged to Taipu Siqing will also belong to Sun Xiangfu in the future, with Li Gongyan on the left and Wei Ting on the right, but the doctor Officials at and below the level had not yet come to report, so Sun Xiangfu had to look through the roster in his hand to get a general idea of ​​the situation. Almost all of them were urging Zheng Wang, Lu Li, five surnames and seven families.

"Two colleagues, let's make a work plan for the headquarters first."

Although Sun Xiangfu is the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, at present, he is also serving as the governor of Anbei. people do it.

"Sun Shangshu asks for instructions, and I will do my best to implement it."

For this unprecedented department, Li Gongyan and Wei Ting were blindsided. Moreover, they were scholars who did not understand farming, so they had no good suggestions to offer.

"First of all, it is the construction of the local yamen. Your Majesty will go to various provinces later, and trouble Li Shilang to run around to build the administrative yamen of each province. The chief officer will be appointed by the Langzhong, and the assistant officer will be Yuanwailang. In charge, I also have a method for selecting local officials, how to do it, you can take a look at it later.

In addition, the liquidation of the fields in Guanzhong will be handed over to Wei Shilang. You can borrow the tax account book from the household department first, and measure all the fields on the spot according to the records in the tax account book. All the lower fields will be returned to farmland, and if there is surplus in the upper fields, part of the middle fields will also be returned to farmland. "

After Sun Xiangfu finished speaking, he handed the procedures for selecting officials to the two of them, as well as the brochures that he had written for the election of officials, as well as the standards set by the officials of each yamen.

"I will follow your orders." After Li Gongyan and Wei Ting answered in unison, they took over the booklet and began to look through it.

After reading these things written by Sun Xiangfu, they have a basic understanding of the overall structure and management system of the Nongmen.

However, the two major tasks that Sun Xiangfu entrusted to them are enough for the two of them to be busy for several months, and it will be at least more than a year before the Ministry of Agriculture's stalls are rolled out across the country and take effect. things.

After talking about this, Sun Xiangfu thought about it for a while, and then said, "I still hold several positions concurrently. I am afraid that I will not spend too much time on duty in Chang'an. In the future, two people will be on duty in shifts. The two Langzhong and Yuanwailang should be responsible for some daily work, and the rest of the officials do not need to work in the government office. After that, I will draw a piece of more than 30 mu from the Shangtian that a few people have replaced. Tian, ​​as the breeding base of the Ministry of Agriculture, they work in the government office established in the village where the base is located."

The biggest role of agronomy is to continuously research and improve planting varieties. Since Datang now has the Ministry of Agriculture, it will be one of their tasks to provide seeds of some crops to the people of the country in the future and increase everyone's production. Don't look at it. Seeds of crops like watermelon and cantaloupe are easy to keep, but ordinary people don't know it!
This era is not like the later generations. Once the TV broadcast is broadcast, everyone will know it. Even if you record the method in detail in newspapers and distribute it to the common people, most of the common people cannot read. So, in the first few years, We can only rely on the government to keep good seeds for them, and even after raising the seedlings, tell them to plant them in the same way. The melons and cotton in Guanzhong last year were planted like this, and it will continue to be like this in the next few years.

Therefore, it is more important to establish a more professional breeding and seedling base. We can’t let Xingfu Village contribute money to help everyone like before. Moreover, Xingfu Village is always too small. There were several families such as Huangzhuang or Qin Qiong before. The fields help to supply, and can also deliver seedlings to most areas in Guanzhong. If it is for the whole country, it seems a bit unsatisfactory.

Therefore, Xingfu Village will at most be responsible for the breeding and seedling breeding in most of the Guanzhong area in the future, and the breeding base of the Ministry of Agriculture will cultivate more kinds of crop seedlings and distribute them to the whole country. The Yamen also needs to choose a place to build a nursery, and the seeds selected by the Ministry of Agriculture's research will be cultivated into seedlings and sent to the local area.

"It takes a lot of money to build such a large base, as well as government offices!"

Li Gongyan admires Sun Xiangfu's ability very much, and knows that he is going to do a big job. However, the 30 mu breeding and seedling base will cost a lot. Think about the bamboo bows, linen, and even silk in Xingfu Village. In the greenhouse, Li Gongyan's teeth were a little sore.

"Ask for it from the finance department, and it will be implemented soon. At least 50 yuan will start. If you don't have money, you can go for a loan. We have an output of 30 mu of land. Even if it is a loan of 50 yuan, we can pay it back almost a year. No court burden."

If a functional department can help the imperial court to make profits, then no one will dislike this department. As long as the Ministry of Agriculture is in the hands of Sun Xiangfu, it is destined to make a lot of profits for the imperial court, because in the future it will be a place to sell high-yielding seeds. Sun Xiangfu has even thought about finding a ceramic factory to order a batch of pottery pots, packing the high-yield seeds from the 30 mu of experimental field into fixed packages, and selling them to the market, just like some flower species seeds in Chang'an East City. same as shop.

In later generations, the business of selling seeds is very common, but in this era, it is rare. As you can imagine.

"Then what did our Ministry of Agriculture play in the court?"

After all, Wei Ting was born in an aristocratic family, he is better at politics, and he is more concerned about the status of the Ministry of Agriculture in the court. It just so happens that Sun Xiangfu is a technical talent, and he doesn't want to be entangled in politics all the time. In the past, when he settled down, he would be able to plant a few experimental plots. In terms of politics, it's not bad to leave it to Wei Ting to handle all of them.

After thinking for a while, Sun Xiangfu said, "According to Your Majesty's plan, the Ministry of Agriculture should not only manage the cultivation of the people's fields across the country, but also manage the grain storage. Let's take a year or so to grasp the situation of the country's cultivated land. From now on, the people's What to plant in the field, our guidance is very important, and reasonable regulation and control arrangements can prevent the common people from planting together, resulting in excess production or insufficient demand."

Hearing that the Ministry of Agriculture is in charge of grain, Wei Ting immediately became happy. He is in charge of the world's granary, which is a heavy weight. Emergency food storage.

Last night, Sun Xiangfu mentioned to Li Shimin what is the country that is most likely to be defeated by the Tang Dynasty, and the answer is 'natural disasters'.

In order to protect the country from being knocked down by natural disasters, Sun Xiangfu suggested setting up Changping warehouses. This system first originated in the Warring States Period. The Han Dynasty called it the "Equilibrium Law". Waiting for things to stabilize prices. After the disaster in Guanzhong last year, Li Shimin ordered all states and counties to set up free warehouses, that is, the common people receive two liters of grain per mu of land and store them in the free warehouses.

However, Sun Xiangfu felt that it was a bit ridiculous to lend to the common people with grain from the common people. He suggested that Li Shimin combine the free warehouse system with the leveling method, purchase and reserve a certain amount of emergency guarantee grain when the market grain price is too low, and then After ensuring enough food, we will play the role of some affordable food prices.

It can be seen from the past market conditions that there is a big difference between the price of grain before the autumn harvest and the price of grain after the autumn harvest. This price difference is often a disadvantage for the common people. At that time, everyone had a lot of food, but they could only sell it at a low price.

After this constant level warehouse with control function is set up, ordinary people will not suffer such a loss. First of all, there will be a certain amount of food in the warehouse to ensure that everyone will have food even if they are affected by a disaster.

Its effect is that when people are short of food, they don’t need to go to the market to buy it at a high price, they only need to go to Changping warehouse to borrow money, and after the autumn harvest, they can pay back with new grain. Make a fuss about the food you want.

Just changing a method can solve the problem of grain consumption for the low-level people, and can also ensure that there is always a new grain reserve in the Changping warehouse. This suggestion was regarded by Li Shimin as a magic strategy, and it was adopted immediately. Since the suggestion was proposed by Sun Xiangfu Yes, then Sun Xiangfu will execute it.

Therefore, in addition to reporting the farming work of the county to the higher level, the officials of the farm gate in each county also have to manage the Changping warehouse here. Going under the banner of the Ministry of Agriculture guarantees that the Ministry of Agriculture also has a certain amount of manpower available in the county-level administrative departments.

The three of them chatted for a while in the yamen, and the officials who were transferred to the farm gate by Li Shimin arrived late.

There is no way, let Sun Xiangfu himself, when encountering this situation, he also wants to come later, because this immediate boss is someone who I have impeached and scolded before, but now, he wants to work under someone else instead, and the situation is embarrassing up.

Since the dispatched officials were all officials in Beijing, Li Shimin's will required that he must arrive today. Therefore, when the office was about to be released, there were several rows of officials in Sun Xiangfu's office, and there were officials of the Guanglangzhong level. Sixteen of them, 24 officials at the level of Yuanwailang, and more than 40 officials with high grades, and the others without grades are ignored.

Sending so many people shows that Li Shimin attaches great importance to the Ministry of Agriculture. It can also be seen that Li Shimin doesn't want these officials from the family line to hang out in the court. Let's plan a small punishment for the student's fence!

"My colleagues are very embarrassed to see this official's expression. This official understands. However, there is no need to impeach each other because of different political opinions in the court. This official will not take it seriously. Since you have been If you are assigned to the Ministry of Agriculture, you will be honored and disgraced with this official, and I hope that you will do your best in the future and not be found by this official to commit any crimes, otherwise, this official will settle the old and new accounts together."

Sun Xiangfu's opening remarks are very intimidating. It is not too young to be a fifth- and sixth-rank official in the hall. But appearance is very important!

(End of this chapter)