Song Dynasty Iron Armored Army

Chapter 65 Mulberry Seedlings and Peanuts

The development of Lijiazhuang was relatively early. The construction began in the heyday of the Northern Song Dynasty decades ago. The houses in the village are planned horizontally and vertically. There are two streets in the north, south, east, and west. The rest are small streets. The yard of the owner of Lizhuang is located on the central axis in the north. side.After leaving the yard, the group headed south. There are dozens of shops on both sides of the street, including snacks, tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters, and veterinarians. After all, it is a village with more than 3000 people, and even insiders have a lot of business.

What's more, the surrounding small villages all need to come to Lijiazhuang to buy daily necessities, which is actually responsible for the responsibility of a town.

The streets are neat and clean, with street trees planted on both sides, and the villagers coming and going in an orderly manner. There are many mulberry trees planted in front of and behind the houses, and some farmers even cultivate mulberry seedlings in their small gardens, which are as thick as a big finger.

Chai Lin asked: "Master Li, why do you grow so many mulberry trees in your village?"

Li Ying explained: "Although Lijiazhuang's business is the main source of income, there are only a few people participating in the caravan. Most of them are farming and raising silkworms at home. Naturally, the mulberry tree is used for raising silkworms. There are more than 100 households in the village. Silkworms need a lot of mulberry leaves every year, so even the village is full of mulberry trees. Even farmers who don’t raise silkworms grow mulberry, and the mulberry leaves are sold to silkworm farmers.”

A few days ago, Liu Tiedan served as the supervisor of the green feed of the pig farm, and proposed to plant mulberry to raise pigs, that is, to raise pigs with tender mulberry leaves. However, although there are mulberry trees near Chaijiazhuang, there are few large-scale ones, let alone large ones area of ​​mulberry seedlings.You must know that in the garden for picking mulberry leaves, more than 200 seedlings need to be planted per mu, so as to have a good harvest. If you plant [-] mu, you will have [-] seedlings.

Chai Lin asked: "Master Li, since there are so many kinds of mulberry and silkworms on your farm, is there any specially cultivated mulberry seedlings?"

"This is the right person to ask. My Lijiazhuang has a large area of ​​mulberry seedlings in a radius of hundreds of miles. Let's go to the south of the village." Li Ying led the way and led everyone to the south of the village.

After leaving the south gate of Lijiazhuang, after crossing the small river, you can see a large dense field, all of which are planted with mulberry seedlings.The large size has the thickness of an arm, and the small size has the thickness of a small finger.

The cultivation of mulberry seedlings is actually very simple, that is, cuttings. In spring, trim off a long branch, insert it in the well-made ground, keep it moist, and take root in ten days, but it will take two years to slow down.This is something Chai Lin can't wait for. In another ten years, the Jin soldiers will go south. What can we do to resist?There is not much time left for Chailin to develop.

Chai Lin pointed to the mulberry seedling garden and said, "Master Li, what's the price of the mulberry seedlings with thick fingers?"

Li Ying said with a smile: "If there is no money, I will give you some as much as the owner of Chai Zhuang."

"That won't work. What I want is not just a little bit. Business is business, and friendship is friendship, so that it will last forever." Chailin said.

Li Yingdao: "This thing is not worth much. The size of a little finger is less than a penny each, and it costs more than a penny to package and transport it to you. I don't know how many trees the owner of Chai Zhuang wants?"

Chai Lin said: "There must be a lot of demand, but the land has not yet been reclaimed. Mr. Li first digs the seedlings of a hundred mules for me, and counts as many as there are, so as to save Du Steward from making a wasteful trip."

Du Xing said: "The season is cold now, which is suitable for long-distance transportation of mulberry seedlings, but they need to be pruned and bundled and packed with sackcloth to prevent dehydration by the wind. This will greatly reduce the weight, and a thousand seedlings are only two hundred One catty is just enough to carry a mule, and a hundred mules are equivalent to [-] seedlings."

Du Xing calculated for a while, and said: "This is by the way, the mule team's freight is relatively low. The seedlings plus the payment for goods total 13 Wen. Converted to 130 taels of silver."

130 taels, for rich people like Chaijiazhuang, it can only be said to be a small amount of money, but for ordinary farmers, based on the annual income of six taels of silver, it will take 20 years to earn it.

The price of agricultural products is low and the profit is thin. With so many seedlings, dozens of people, and a hundred mules transported to Cangzhou, the price is already very cost-effective.

Chai Meng took out silver to pay, but Li Ying refused to accept it, and only said that he would only accept the payment when the goods were delivered.

After all, Lijiazhuang is a professional mule team, and the packing is very professional, and the goods will be placed in the house at night, so there is no need to worry about frostbite seedlings.

Li Ying also introduced: "Master Chai, please take a look at the mountainous land to the east, where medicinal materials such as Atractylodes macrocephala and Angelica dahurica were cultivated a few years ago. I don't know if there is any cooperation with the owner of Chai Village."

Chai Lin said: "My business has just started, and it hasn't involved herbal medicine yet. However, there are tens of thousands of workers in Chaijiazhuang and other workshops. There is a big medical clinic in my village, and many herbs are used, but I'm not proficient in this matter. Butler Du brought some samples when he passed by, and showed them to the shopkeeper in my village, and I think he will order some of them."

Business is about exchanging what is needed. I buy yours and you buy mine. It is impossible to have everything.

There is a huge open space in front of it, five or six hundred mu, without winter wheat, and the land is empty.More than a dozen children were galloping on horses in the open space, and some Zhuang Ding was practicing martial arts there. It was so lively.

A few mules were eating hay on the hay pile, and Chai Lin was very happy when he picked it up. The round leaves of the hay were dry peanut stalks. Peanuts were rarely planted in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it is unknown whether they were introduced It is still locally produced, and China is vast and rich in products.

Chai Lin picked up a handful of peanut seedlings and said, "This is good fodder, what do you call it?"

Du Xing said: "I encountered this when I went to Yan'an Mansion the year before last. There was a large family in the local area who planted this horse. It bears fruit underground and grows leaves on it. Because it grows fruit after falling flowers, it is named Peanut Fruit. Fruit It is an excellent oil crop, and the seedlings are excellent fodder for mules and horses. However, due to lack of technology and low planting yield, most people are unwilling to plant them. The village only plants a few hundred acres every year and reserves them as good fodder for horses. "

The yield of peanuts is not low, but planting requires technology, and they don't understand Chai Lin, so they immediately bought another [-] catties of peanut beans to make seeds, so they can be planted in the spring of next year.If planted properly, the yield is high, and the benefits of peanuts are several times that of ordinary sorghum and millet.

At noon, Li Ying held a banquet in honor of Chai Lin, Hu Sanniang and others, and the sun was setting in the west when they returned to Hu's Village.

Hu Cheng had already returned, seeing Hu Sanniang and Chai Lin had just come back, he asked, "Sanniang, where did you take Chai Zhuang to play?"

Chai Lindao: "It was I who visited the owner of the Li family village and asked Sanniang to be a guide. The owner of the Li family won the agency right of Yanzhou government, and bought some mulberry saplings from the Li family mansion by the way."

Hu Cheng said: "It turns out that they are all my own people. If Brother Yun Cong believes it, I can help promote the investment promotion, and let these merchants come to Chaijiazhuang to discuss in detail."

"I have 100% trust in Brother Cheng, thank you for helping to promote it." Chai Lin was very happy. Hu Cheng has been in business for more than ten years and has relatively many ways, so he no longer has to worry about the sale of soap.

Soybean oil was used as a raw material for processing soap, and the price was still high. Chai Lin cooperated with Hu Cheng again to transport rapeseed oil from the south, shipped it to Dongping Prefecture, and then transferred to Cangzhou Prefecture by cart.

(End of this chapter)