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

Chapter 87 Industry
Of course Yang Menglong would not give them fresh meat, what he gave out was horse meat that had been around for several months.In the first battle of Dingxing, the three post-gold cattle records were almost wiped out, and more than half of the more than 2000 horses were killed or injured. Everyone was divided into a lot of horse meat, and each of them burped.There are so many dead horses that can't be eaten in a short time. Yang Menglong asked people to marinate the meat and smoke it dry, and made bacon to preserve and eat slowly.The taste of horse meat is not very good, and it is even more unpalatable after it is made into bacon. After eating it for two months, everyone feels sick. There is still some left, which happens to be distributed to military households as welfare. It's time to rot.

They were tired of eating, but the military households who were guarding Qianhusuo and rarely saw any meat all year round had never eaten such good food. Most of them just cut off a small piece and threw it into the pot for soup, leaving the rest Save it carefully.Eating fragrant and soft rice and drinking broth, everyone had happy smiles on their faces. Although Yang Menglong didn't say anything nice, he had left a good impression on everyone by giving out food and meat. They all think that the newly appointed Qianhu is good, and at least he will give everyone something.

Xiao Yufang also cut a small piece of meat and threw it into the pot, and cooked a pot of delicious porridge. The two little guys, An Ning and Xiao Jun, devoured it with great joy.After Yang Menglong drank two bowls, he hurriedly opened again. He had to quickly count the belongings left by Zhang Jiaqian.

Zhang Qianhu left him not much property, except for this house, the iron mine and those fields.That iron mine can bring him hundreds of taels of silver every year. It is his private property, and no one is going to grab it; those fertile farmlands have good yields, and when the weather is good, they can harvest two shi of grain per mu. , It’s just that the drought is severe now, and the fertility of the land is depleted, and the yield has been reduced to a little more than one stone per mu——in the 21st century, this yield would make people laugh.Although the output is small, the price of grain has been rising. Relying on these fields, Zhang Qianhu has several thousand taels of silver in his account every year, which is very rich.It's just that his good life was based on the exploitation of the military households. It's no wonder that the military households began to settle accounts with his family members as soon as he died.Of course, what excited Yang Menglong the most was that this guy actually bought the land in Macun Township, Mengzhai Town. You know, the Wuyang Salt Mine is there!This saved him a lot of trouble!

"From now on, I am also a landlord!" he thought excitedly.

The next day, Landlord Yang, who was fresh out of the cage, rode away from Qianhusuo with a group of people to see the property that Zhang Qianhu had left for him.

It's okay if you don't look at it, but when you look at it, your brows are all wrinkled.

Because there is no chemical fertilizer, the fertility cannot keep up. In the 21st century, the fertile fields in this era are not even the standard of lean fields. The wheat seedlings in the fields are sparse and the leaves are still wrinkled, making it difficult for insects to gnaw.It is quite convenient to irrigate these fertile fields, and they will not dry up. However, there is not enough fertilizer, no pesticides, and the quality of the seeds is also poor. Naturally, the growth of the wheat is not much better. It is estimated that these wheat seedlings will be cut off and brought back to feed cattle in the 21st century. Cows are not necessarily willing to eat either.The most terrible thing is that this kind of crops is not bad, those military households are even worse, they can't water them, the wheat seedlings in the wheat fields are green and yellow, and there are so many pests, this kind of wheat can be harvested eighty-nine times per mu. Fighting is pretty good!Yang Menglong looked at these crops with surprisingly poor growth, and couldn't help lamenting: "Is this still a crop? No matter how you look at it, it looks like weeds!"

Jiang Zheng said: "There were only two light snowfalls in Wuyang last winter, and the fertility of the land was greatly reduced. Naturally, the growth of the crops was not much better."

Qi Polu was puzzled: "Why don't you topdress?"

Chen Baihu said helplessly: "Where is there fertilizer? We can't eat enough for ourselves, so naturally we don't have surplus food to raise chickens, ducks and livestock. If we don't raise chickens, ducks and livestock, where can we find fertilizer? We can only pick up some on the road, or Burn the weeds to ashes and scatter them, this amount of fertilizer is simply not enough.”

Yang Menglong turned his head, just in time to see several children carrying dung baskets on their backs and holding dung forks following from a distance, and they seemed to want to pick up the dung pulled by the horses.He sighed: "It would be great if there were chemical fertilizers." He jumped off his horse, ran to a thin field owned by a military household, flicked his hands, and with a huff, a large number of pests were frightened, spread their wings and flew up. Many, he was dumbfounded.Qi Hu followed, grabbed a caterpillar casually, and said: "There are too many insects, and sooner or later the crops will be eaten up by them." On the board, "It's not a big deal. The most terrible thing is that locust plagues are prone to occur after a long drought. Together, the entire county's crops will be wiped out!"

Yang Menglong's heart moved, and he beckoned the busy military household to come over: "Get a shovel, right here, dig up, dig up a piece of soil and show me!"

The military household did not dare to be negligent, so they got a shovel and dug down at the place pointed by Yang Menglong, and a hole was dug with just a few shovels.Yang Menglong called to stop, took a piece of soil from the shovel and looked at it carefully, as if he had found something, he smashed it open, revealing a group of small white rice grains, so densely packed that it made one's scalp tingle.Qi Polu exclaimed, "What the hell is this?"

Yang Menglong picked up a little bit and pinched it lightly, saying in a heavy tone, "Eggs, eggs of locusts."

Chen Baihu gasped: "My God, there are so many!" He had to use the shovel to change another place and dig again, and within a few strokes he dug up another nest of insect eggs.That soldier stared blankly at the white eggs, his body trembling non-stop. With so many eggs, wouldn't they turn into overwhelming locusts after they hatched?These crops are considered finished, and it is not enough to stuff the locusts' teeth!He let out a scream: "God, you really want to drive our family to death!" Squatting on the ridge of the field, covering his face with his hands, wept bitterly.

No one went to comfort the poor military household, and everyone was extremely heavy.Drought, flood, and locust plague are the three major disasters in Henan. Among them, the locust plague is the most terrible, because no matter how severe the drought and flood disaster are, they will leave them with something. Everything green will be swept away, there is no way to salvage it!Therefore, the common people regard the locust plague as a punishment from heaven. Every time they encounter a locust plague, they can only burn incense and worship gods, praying for God to show mercy and stop letting locusts eat their crops. Jizhao.Although these actions are absurd, it is not difficult to see the horror of the locust plague. Even the emperor had to bow his head to the little locusts.There are so many insect eggs in this field, and the other fields must not be much better. This year's crops are considered to be over.

Yang Menglong clapped his hands and stood up, and said nonchalantly: "It's okay, I'll buy more chicken shells and put them in the field later, these locusts will eat every chicken and duck when they come out, free poultry feed, don't waste it." Holding his chin Hehe smiled, "Besides, locusts are excellent ingredients. The taste of locusts is better than that of shrimps. They have high nutritional value and no fishy smell. You will never forget the taste of fried locusts! They eat our crops, we Isn't it fair to just eat them!"

Everyone was stunned.

On some dry slopes, farmers have planted drought-tolerant crops such as beans, corn, and sweet potatoes.The Ming Dynasty was actually relatively open. It never rejected foreign technology and products on the grounds of "the vastness of the sky and the rich resources". Many European missionaries came to the Ming Dynasty. While bringing European religious beliefs and culture to China, they also It brought European technology and crops. Crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, and peppers were introduced into the Ming Dynasty during this period and gradually became popular, and they were cultivated everywhere.However, no good seeds have been bred yet, and the planting technology is still being explored, and the fertility can't keep up. The yield of these crops is pitiful, but they are better than drought-tolerant, and they don't take up good land. As long as conditions permit, everyone will plant some , a little gain is better than nothing.Yang Menglong is most interested in potatoes and sweet potatoes. The output of these things is insanely high. Especially potatoes, six tons per mu is not high. If it is the staple food, one mu of potatoes can feed several families. .Of course, that is the product of modern agricultural technology. It is impossible to achieve such an astonishing output in this era without chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and greenhouses.The dry land in this area grows sweet potatoes the most. Although Yang Menglong doesn't know much about farming, he can tell that they obviously didn't use the right method. But it is impossible to dig out many sweet potatoes in this hard ground.But the vines and leaves of sweet potatoes can be used as pig dishes to feed pigs, so write this down first.

The corn is even more pitiful, and it is almost eaten by pests until there is only a single stalk left.

Walking around in the military fields, Yang Menglong knew: These military fields are very seriously infested with insects and lack of fertility. This year's harvest is almost a foregone conclusion!He then went to Macun Township, Mengzhai Township, where there were thousands of acres of land, recorded in the name of Qianhu in Wuyang, which actually belonged to him.As a result, Macun Township did not bring him any good news. The drought there is severe, pests are flying everywhere, and many fields have been covered by weeds.Seeing the voles scurrying around, the colorful pests flying all over the sky, and the gnawed crops, he couldn't laugh anymore.

Farmers in ancient times were really tough.

"By the way, have you found the phosphate rock I asked you to find?" he asked Jiang Zheng.

Jiang Zheng said: "Returning to the adults, the villain has found many miners and asked them for advice, but none of them know what phosphate rock is!"

Yang Menglong frowned: "How can I produce phosphate fertilizer without phosphate rock? Without phosphate fertilizer, what can I feed these thousands of mouths? Come on, take me to the mine to have a look!"

(End of this chapter)