Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 89 Building a Reservoir

Zhang Ao brought Li Jing and others to the front of the first car, ordered them to untie the ropes, then took down a bag and opened it, saying, "The boss, this is the sweet potato."

Li Jing looked at it and nodded.

He has seen and eaten this thing before, and it is actually a sweet potato, that is, a sweet potato.

Then Zhang Ao ordered people to untie the ropes of the two carts, and took out the contents of the bags to show Li Jing.

Li Jing has also seen these two things before, one is corn and the other is potato, that is, potato.

When he saw the potatoes, Li Jing finally understood why Zhang Ao said they were all seeds.

Li Jing grew up in the countryside and saw farmers planting potatoes.

Potato seeds are actually potatoes themselves, nothing more than sprouted potatoes.When planting, first cut the sprouted potatoes into pieces, and then bury these sprouted potato pieces in the soil.

In addition, Li Jing also knew that potato sprouts were poisonous and could not be eaten.

Sweet potatoes are different from potatoes. Sweet potatoes need to be buried in the sand and sprinkled with water to keep them warm.After a few days like this, sweet potatoes will germinate, but the buds of sweet potatoes must grow to a certain extent before they can be moved to the ground for planting.

Seeing that many of the potatoes and sweet potatoes that Zhang Aola returned were rotten, Li Jingjing nodded. No wonder Zhang Aola came back with so many rotten ones, half of them would be good.

After Li Jing finished reading, he hurriedly ordered people to move the bags up the mountain, and Li Jing even carried a bag himself.

Spring plowing was a major event in ancient times, and Li Jing was also very aware of the catastrophic famine that lasted for several years in the last years of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Li Jing attached great importance to this spring plowing, and naturally he had to go to battle in person at this time.

When he got to the mountain, Zhang Ao ordered people to divide the corn and sweet potatoes first, and then ordered people to pour out all the potatoes, pick out the rotten potatoes, and then began to pick out the sprouted potatoes.

Zhang Ao made a move, Li Jing was not idle, he squatted on the ground and began to help, how fast was Li Jing's eyes and movements?After a while, a bunch of them were selected.

Seeing that Li Jing seemed to be more proficient than himself, Zhang Ao was very puzzled, how did the master know how to play with these things?

Li Jing did it himself, and naturally it was not easy for everyone to watch, so they hurried forward to help.

"Be careful, don't touch the new buds, otherwise they won't survive." Li Jing and Zhang Ao shouted hastily.

"Master, how do you know?" Zhang Ao asked.

Naturally, Li Jing would not tell Zhang Ao that he knew how to make this thing, but just said with a smile: "You have been working on it for a long time, but I still can't understand it?"

Zhang Ao smiled and gave Li Jing a thumbs up.

Under the command of Zhang Ao and Li Jing, everyone carefully sorted out all the sprouted potatoes.

Then Zhang Ao ordered people to bring out the sweet potatoes and began to pick the sweet potatoes.

There are many people and the hands are fast, and the sweet potatoes are also selected soon.

When the potatoes and sweet potatoes were selected, Li Jing made a rough estimate, and sighed, "It's a pity that there are too many rotten ones, and these may not be enough. However, after harvesting this year, next year will be easier."

Zhang Ao nodded and said, "Yes, our place is too far from the south, and there are too many rotten roads. But it must be enough for the coming year."

Li Jing ordered people to pack up the ungerminated potatoes, then smiled and said to Shen Zheng: "Have someone wash these and cook them for dinner at night. Let everyone taste it."

Shen Zheng smiled and nodded.

Immediately, Li Jing ordered people to move the selected potatoes and sweet potatoes to Tiger Ridge, and the corn to the valley of Wanbai Mountain.

When they arrived at Laohuling, everyone came to Chen Dahu's house. Li Jing ordered people to unload the potatoes and sweet potatoes, and then asked old man Chen to call over the people in charge of farming.

After a while, these people came one after another and crowded Chen Dahu's house to the brim.

Seeing all the staff arrived, Zhang Ao said to old man Chen, "Uncle, get me a knife, and I'll teach you how to do it."

After Zhang Ao finished speaking, Chen Dahu who was beside Li Jing hurriedly handed over his saber.

Li Jing glanced at Chen Dahu and said with a smile. "You have good eyesight, but what he wants is a kitchen knife, why would you give him such a knife?"

Upon hearing this, old man Chen hurriedly greeted Chen Dahu's daughter-in-law: "Tui'er, go and get the kitchen knife."

Chen Dahu's daughter-in-law hurried into the kitchen and took a kitchen knife and handed it to old man Chen, who took the kitchen knife and handed it to Zhang Ao.

Zhang Ao took the kitchen knife, picked up a potato and cut it and said, "Look, you should cut the knife from here. It will not damage its buds, but also keep a part of the tubers, and bury the tubers in the soil with the buds facing up." so that it can grow.”

Although everyone didn't understand what Zhang Ao said about the tuber, but the real thing was right in front of them, so they understood the meaning.

After Zhang Ao cut a few potatoes, he saw that everyone understood, so he asked them to try cutting them with knives.

This job is simple, and everyone is a veteran of farm work, so they learned it in a while.

Then Zhang Ao asked everyone to bring the cut potatoes to the field to demonstrate how to sow seeds.

After seeing Zhang Ao planting the seeds, Li Jing ordered people to distribute the potato sprouts and plant them together the next day.

After returning, Zhang Ao began to teach everyone how to pick up sweet potatoes, that is, sweet potatoes.

After Zhang Ao explained the secrets of planting sweet potatoes, old man Chen hurriedly asked people to build a cellar with adobe on the kang according to what Zhang Ao said, put sand in it, buried sweet potatoes in it, and then sprinkled it with water. Finally, the cellar was covered with a broken quilt.

Seeing everyone learning, Li Jing clapped his hands and smiled, "Everyone, work hard, and strive for a good harvest this year. Hehe, don't forget to pay me when you have a harvest."

"Hahaha!" Everyone laughed when they heard it.

"Don't worry, boss, don't say that you only need [-]%, even if you take it all away, we don't have any complaints." An old man laughed.

"That's right! That's right! What we eat, wear, live in, use, which one is not given by the head of the family? Don't ask for food, we will give you even if you want to die." One person said.

Li Jing smiled and waved his hands and said: "Passed! Passed! Now, you can be more difficult. I will try my best to help everyone, and you will have to rely on yourself in the future. Besides, this field was planted by you with all your hard work and sweat. If you can give it all to me, I can't even take your lives, I want to see how many more years you live, so that our Hongshanling can be lively."

"Hahaha!" Everyone burst into laughter again.

Amidst the laughter, Li Jing led Zhang Ao and others out of Chen Dahu's house.

The next day, at dawn, Li Jing brought Zhang Ao and others to Tiger Ridge again. At this time, old man Chen and others were already ready to stop.

Seeing Li Jing and others coming, he hurriedly called everyone together.

Zhang Ao demonstrated again, and then ordered everyone to start sowing seeds.

There are many people and great power. Hundreds of people worked together, and it didn't take long for the seeds to be planted in the ground.

Then he rushed to the valley of Wanbai Mountain to plant corn in the field.

After a few days, the sweet potatoes germinated. Li Jing and Zhang Ao brought people to the field again to plant the sweet potatoes.

Seeing that there is still a large area of ​​land that has not been sown, Li Jing pondered for a while and said, "Uncle Shen, Uncle Chen, the water source here is quite sufficient. Let me get some rice seeds. How about we plant the rest of the land with paddy fields?"

"Okay, but if you want to plant paddy fields, these lands have to be repaired, and channels must be built." Shen Zhengdao.

"Don't be afraid, I think there is still time. Let's build up the paddy fields first, and then build the canals." Li Jing said with a smile.

Looking at the small river in the distance, Li Jing thought about it, pointed to the mountain pass in the distance and said: "Look, it's too wasteful for the water in the river to flow away like this. I think building a circle of dams at the mountain pass above will save money. If the water is blocked, let's build a reservoir, and when water is needed, just open the gate."

Old man Chen looked in the direction of Li Jing's finger, thought for a moment, then stretched out his thumb and said in praise: "Nephew, good advice."

"Hehe, this method is really good, but how to build it needs to be studied carefully." Shen Zheng twirled his beard and smiled.

"It depends on you, Uncle Shen." Li Jing said hurriedly.

Shen Zheng waved his hands and smiled: "How do I know this? To build a reservoir, you need to find someone who understands water conservancy. This is within the territory of Henan, which is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Whenever the Yellow River floods, Henan has always suffered the most. It is not enough to find a few people who understand water conservancy. hard."

"Then I'll be in trouble, Uncle Shen." Li Jing said with a smile.

Shen Zheng nodded, and said seriously: "I'll arrange someone to do it right now."

Shen Zheng was well aware of the fact that people misunderstood the land for a while, and the land misunderstood people for a season. Without this season's grain harvest, it would cost a lot of money to buy grain.

Shen is a businessman, he knows which money should be spent and which money should not be spent.The money that should be spent cannot be saved, and the money that should not be spent will never be spent indiscriminately.

He secretly hoarded food to prepare for the future, and he would never take it out to feed a group of idlers in vain.

Shen Zheng didn't hesitate, and immediately sent someone to Zhengzhou to inform shopkeeper Wang that he must find some people who knew water conservancy to come.

Before the water conservancy personnel arrived, Shen Zheng and the old man Chen had a discussion. They did not need the guidance of the water conservancy personnel to repair the paddy fields and open the channels, so they should do this before the water conservancy personnel arrived.

Since the sowing was completed, most of the laborers at the foot of the mountain were idle.

How could Shen Zheng and old man Chen let these people idle?Organize these people now.

Old man Chen led this group of people to be responsible for repairing the paddy field channels.Shen Zheng led people to open mountains to quarry rocks, prepare sand and pile soil, and start work as soon as someone who knows water conservancy arrives.

The so-called strength is great when there are many people. It took more than [-] days to complete the repair of the paddy field canal, and then diverted water from the river into the canal, and soon filled the paddy field.

A few days later, shopkeeper Wang personally brought a few people to Hongshanling, and said that these people were old river workers who knew water conservancy.

Li Jing immediately took them to the scene to inspect, and briefly stated his thoughts.

Those river workers were indeed professionals, and they nodded after hearing this.

Several people discussed for a while, and after a while, they took out the charter, and seeing that a large amount of stone and sand had been prepared here, they immediately decided to start work immediately.

Under the personal command of an expert, the reservoir was built very quickly. A month later, the reservoir has taken shape.

Li Jing knew that there was going to be a severe drought in the world soon, so he asked everyone to close the gates to store water before the outer area was completed.

This year's spring rainfall has been low, and there are already signs of drought. Everyone knows that water storage is a big deal, and no one dares to take it lightly.

Everyone went all out, and it took another half a month to finally complete the final closing project.

(End of this chapter)