Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 119 Everything is ready, only the money is short

After a lot of wolfing down, these beasts in clothes and clothes were finally full.Yang Menglong took them to visit the farm again. The tens of thousands of huge chicken flocks amazed the beasts. They were used to the small-scale farming economy with an old cow with a few acres of land. They suddenly encountered this kind of large-scale breeding. It's impossible.This farm is Yang Menglong's sweetheart. It is divided into four parts: chicken farm, duck farm, fish farm and cattle farm. There are tens of thousands of chickens and ducks in the chicken farm and duck farm. They will produce a lot of eggs and duck eggs, which is a rare delicacy for military households who can't even eat enough, and chicken manure and duck manure are the best fertilizers.The scale of the fish farm is not large now, only about [-] acres of fish ponds, but there are quite a lot of fish fry in it. Fang Yizhi and the others saw that the fish farmers were feeding in the pond with a boat, and every handful of fish food If you cast it, a large number of fish will surface to compete for it.Fish food is mainly fermented chicken and duck droppings and fly maggots. Fish grow very fast after eating them, especially fly maggots, which are high-nutrition food. Fish will not be finished until they grow into balls.

In the cattle farm, more than 60 cows are eating fresh grass leisurely.Yang Menglong had someone plant hundreds of acres of alfalfa on the dry land two months ago. These alfalfas are growing well, but they cannot be harvested yet. Now the cattle eat grass cut from the mountains, as well as grass cut from the field. Sweet potato leaves.The old military households were busy in the cattle farm, cleaning up the cow dung, throwing a weed with a special smell into the fire to make white smoke rise, and smoke away the annoying mosquitoes and gadflies.It seems that these old military households have managed the cattle farms well. The cattle are generally fattened, and they have just given birth to two calves. They wobble and try to stand up, but they always fail. They licked their bodies clean and mooed to encourage them to stand up quickly.Fang Yizhi asked Yang Menglong, "Where do you get so many cattle?"

Yang Menglong said: "Where do so many cattle come from? Nonsense, of course I bought them from cattle dealers! When I first came here, there were only six old cattle. My God, tens of thousands of acres of land, what can six old cattle do?" So I took out a sum of money and bought fifty strong cattle from a cattle dealer." At this point, he made a bitter face, "The price of cattle is too expensive, ten taels of silver a head, fifty heads will cost me 500 taels of silver is simply stealing money!"

Fang Yizhi could only smile wryly.The price of cattle has been rising continuously over the years, from five taels of silver a head in the Wanli period to eight taels of silver a head.Cattle are an indispensable support for farming. As a large agricultural country, there is never enough cattle in Daming, and there is no surplus, so the more you buy, the more expensive it is, because even the most powerful cattle dealer wants to get rid of it all at once. It is not an easy task to get dozens of strong cattle-who is willing to sell strong cattle unless it is a last resort?He pointed to the two calves that knelt on their forelegs and struggled to stand up, and said, "Everything is difficult at the beginning, but after passing this hurdle, it will be smooth. You see, the two calves have just been born. There are a few calves around here, and the herd will continue to give birth next year, and your herd will grow more and more, and in a few years, you will no longer have to worry about the lack of cattle." He added with a smile: "The most important thing is that you don't have to worry about lack of fertilizer."

This is the truth.There are only a few sources of fertilizer these days. The first is silt with a lot of humus, such as pond mud in ponds, the second is plant ash, and the third is poultry manure.The silt is free, but there must be a pond. If there is no pond, you have to wait for the flood to wash away the silt—that would be a disaster.Plant ash is also free of charge, just burn the wheat straw and straw. The problem is that wheat straw and straw are the firewood in the farmers’ homes. Cooking and water are all up to them. It is impossible to burn them all at once, and the fertility of the plant ash is also relatively poor. , it all depends on it.Livestock manure is the best farmyard manure. It has strong fertility and can be supplied stably. With such a good manure, the crops will naturally have a good harvest, but raising a large number of poultry and livestock requires a large amount of food, which leads to a strange circle : If you want to get a good harvest, you must have enough manure. If you want to have enough manure, you must raise a large number of poultry animals. If you want to have a large number of poultry animals, you must have a large amount of surplus grain. If you want to have a large amount of surplus grain, you must have a Good harvest... This is a circle that cannot be avoided. If any link goes wrong, it will form a vicious circle, but if one of the links can be untied, it can form a virtuous circle.It is very easy to see how the common people are doing. You don't have to read official articles, you can just take a look at the farmers' chicken coops and cattle pens and you will know everything.Now Yang Menglong has tens of thousands of chickens and ducks and dozens of cows, piles of manure outside the farm, and the irrigation problem has been solved. The foundation of a virtuous circle has been laid.

Fang Yizhi also visited a horse farm.There are less than forty horses in the horse farm, but each one is tall and strong, with a strong backbone and full of energy. They are all Liaodong war horses captured by Yang Menglong on the battlefield.These war horses lived well during this period. They had endless fodder every day in the stable, and there were dedicated staff to fumigate mosquitoes and clean horse manure for them. They could also eat a meal mixed with brown sugar and eggs every few days. The food is so good that even the hard-working soldiers in the barracks swallowed when they saw it.These war horses are Yang Menglong's treasures. It's all up to them to go for a ride, play handsome, pick up girls, and fight. Of course, they have to take good care of them.Fang Yizhi praised him for raising the horse well, but Yang Menglong just smiled and didn't speak.In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not lack experience in horse breeding. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Henan has been one of the important horse breeding bases. The people of Henan have to provide a large number of horses to the army every year. If the quality of the horses is not up to par, it will be necessary. fined.This horse policy ensured the supply of horses for the Ming army, allowing the Ming army to maintain a strong cavalry for more than 200 years. However, it also made the people of Henan suffer. In order to complete the task of raising horses, they had to spend all their money. , there are many people who have lost their money because of this.Nowadays, people's livelihood is declining, and even the common people can no longer survive, so the horse administration will naturally be unsustainable. However, a large number of horse breeders are still there. Yang Menglong just recruited some at will, and took care of these dozens of war horses. .He made up his mind that in winter, he must go out of the mouth and exchange some cattle, sheep and horses, especially war horses, with the Mongols for his living expenses!
There are only so many places that Yang Menglong can let these beasts see, such as the ordnance workshop and the steel factory under construction, they must not be allowed to go there.Fortunately, these civil servants were not interested in these things, but they were full of praise for the crops he planted and the livestock he raised, making Yang Menglong wonder if they had chicken in their heads...

After shopping for a day, the county magistrates said goodbye one after another and went back. Before leaving, the Biyang county magistrate and Tongbai county magistrate repeatedly asked Yang Menglong to go to them as soon as possible to rectify those hundreds of households... Any fool can see that this guy is the leader of production. The more military fields he cultivates, the more food he will produce. The more food he produces, the more taxes they will pay. Besides, the more military fields, the more manpower he will need. By absorbing those landless peasants, the factors of instability are eliminated, and the territory is naturally peaceful.If you pay a lot of taxes and the country is peaceful, won't your political achievements come out?Only fools can't live with their political achievements!Needless to say, Yang Menglong also made up his mind to expand his territory to Biyang County and Tongbai County as soon as possible, especially Tongbai County. Tongbai Mountain is a treasure mountain with gold, silver, phosphate, and manganese mines. Who doesn't want the site?Didn't say, these two counties must be taken down next year!

After the county magistrates left, Yang Menglong asked Xiao Yufang to make a pot of good tea and fried a plate of pine nuts, and sat down with Fang Yizhi face to face, and drank the tea comfortably with Erlang's legs crossed.Xiao Yufang and Liu Ziyan also sat down to drink, they liked eating pine nuts very much, picked up a pine nut and put it into their mouths, and then took a sip of tea.Fang Yizhi asked Liu Ziyan: "Are you still used to staying in the Thousand Households?"

Liu Ziyan smiled and said: "Father, this place is very interesting. It is more meaningful for my daughter to teach the children to read and write with Sister Xiao here than to stay in the deep boudoir to be a female celebrity. If the father agrees, the daughter is willing to stay in the teach here."

When Yang Menglong heard this, his eyes lit up. It was so eye-catching that these two beauties stayed in the Qianhu Institute to teach!He smiled from ear to ear, and said repeatedly: "Welcome, welcome, if Miss Liu is willing to stay, I will definitely give you wages!"

Fang Yizhi smiled and said: "Little General Yang has already said so, so you can stay."

Liu Ziyan smiled all over her face: "Thank you foster father!"

Xiao Yufang smiled: "With the help of sister Ziyan, I am much more relaxed."

Yang Menglong nodded again and again: "That's that, it's too hard for one person to teach so many children, of course it's great to have someone to help." He said in his heart: "I don't think there are too many such beauties. !"

Fang Yizhi said: "That's the deal, Menglong, you can't treat my daughter badly!"

It seems that there is something in the words?

It's a pity that Yang Menglong is so big, he didn't pay attention at all, and slapped his chest to promise: "Don't worry, I won't treat her badly." He smiled and said to Liu Ziyan: "Come to my study later, let's talk about your salary, Then sign a contract, and you will become an official gentleman of Baicaotang!"

To his study?

Liu Ziyan wanted to kick him hard!
Fang Yizhi put down his teacup and said: "Menglong, you have done a good job. You have taken care of Juntian well and raised a large number of livestock and poultry. These are things that other guards cannot do. However, you can't do it because of this." And proud, you know, the imperial court allocated three counties to you, and you've only managed to manage one county now..."

Yang Menglong said solemnly: "Understood, the revolution has not yet succeeded, and I have to continue to work hard."

Fang Yizhi said: "It's good if you understand. I hope you go to Biyang and Tongbai as soon as possible. You know, Biyang has twice as much land suitable for farming as Wuyang. If you can Similarly, building water trucks in Biyang, digging canals and digging deep wells will definitely turn Biyang into a granary in Nanyang, which is a great merit!"

What the Ming Dynasty lacks most now is food, and what is even more lacking than food are experts in production. Whether they can do a good job in production has become the most important indicator for evaluating whether an official is qualified.Fang Yizhi asked himself that he didn't have the skills in this area, but he could push Yang Menglong who had the skills to do the production well for him.

Yang Menglong said he understood.No boss would be dissatisfied with the size of his territory, and besides, it was originally a territory assigned to him by the imperial court, so he couldn't justify it if he didn't care about it.

"There are also bandits in Tongbai Mountain. You have to find a way to suppress them. Now that the bandits are swarming up and gathering in the mountains and forests, if you don't pay attention, they will turn into a prairie fire. Only by extinguishing them before they have gained momentum can we save One side is safe." Fang Yizhi said, "Wheat is about to be harvested, and bandits are most active at this time, looting houses and even besieging county towns, doing all kinds of evil, if you don't wipe them out, you don't want to harvest crops with peace of mind!"

It seems that Mr. Fang has not wasted the past few months, and he has worked hard to investigate the situation in Nanyang, which is not aimless.Yang Menglong groaned secretly in his heart, God, his troops haven't finished changing their outfits yet, so it's okay to pull them out to fight at this time?Fang Yizhi seemed to see through his thoughts, and said: "It's really impossible. I'll ask Liu Dusi to send hundreds of people to help you. Those bandits are still young, and there are one or two thousand people, which is enough to wipe them all out."

Yang Menglong smiled wryly: "Don't, don't! You know what kind of piss the officers and soldiers of the guard are now, and they are definitely good at suppressing bandits and disturbing the people. The friendly army is in trouble like a mountain, looting the village and aggressing like a fire, let them Come here, don't even think about leaving one mouse, my land has finally improved!"

Fang Yizhi asked helplessly: "Then what do you say?"

Yang Menglong stretched out two fingers: "Two months, give me another two months. After two months, I will definitely lead the troops to Tongbai Mountain and teach these mountain kings how to behave!"

Fang Yizhi frowned and said, "Two months...if the bandits come down to make trouble within these two months..."

Yang Menglong said: "If they dare to go down the mountain, I'll take someone there to deal with them immediately!"

Fang Yizhi said: "Well, according to you, we must send troops in two months to wipe out the bandits on the mountain!"

Yang Menglong cupped his hands: "Thank you for your trust, sir!"

Fang Yizhi waved his hand, expressing his thanks.He tapped his fingers on the table and said in a deep voice, "After you take over all the military fields in Biyang and Tongbai counties, it must be very difficult for you to cultivate wasteland... Well, I will find a way for you when I go back. Send a batch of fine seeds, cattle and agricultural tools. Now these things are lacking everywhere, and I can give you not much, but it is also a heart. If you still need anything, you can tell me, and I will find a way to help you solve it. "

Yang Menglong's spirits are lifted, this boss is good, he is anxious about what the younger brother is anxious about, and the younger brother is in trouble, where can he find such a good boss!He blurted out: "I don't need anything now, the only thing I need is money!"

(End of this chapter)