Chapter 147
Gao Qiqian felt that he was very lucky to meet Cheng Shijie.
In just one year, Cheng Shijie first put down the rebellion of Kong Youde, and then restored the Jinzhou and Gaizhou guards. In February of the fifth year of Chongzhen, he effortlessly regained the Haizhou and Gaizhou guards in southern Liaoning. Fuzhou Wei.
Under his guidance, Emperor Chongzhen was very satisfied and trusted Cheng Shijie, a courageous and capable employee.
Of course, Cheng Shijie did not live up to his trust, and Cheng Shijie was also a man of great luck. Guan Ning's army spent tens of millions of taels of silver and went through dozens of developments. If he wanted to win a battle that could kill a thousand people, he would have to do it. very difficult.
As a result, they built tens of thousands of slaves and traveled thousands of miles to Haizhou to sacrifice their lives.
It would be fine if Cheng Shijie was capable in fighting, but he was even more capable in farming. Now that the Ming Dynasty was full of chaos and the treasury was so empty that rats could starve to death, Cheng Shijie happened to produce such high-yielding crops in southern Liaoning.
Gao Qiqian also tasted the whole potato feast, and tasted more than forty sweet potatoes of various flavors. The taste was excellent. In this case, he looked Cheng Shijie up and down.
Cheng Shijie was stared at by the eunuch, which made him a little nervous: "Eunuch Gao, why are you looking at Cheng like this?"
"Could it be that General Cheng has some help from gods?"
Gao Qiqian said in disbelief: "Otherwise, how could there be such a high-yielding thing? This kind of sweet potato was also brought to the palace as tribute in the early years. Not only did it grow ugly, but the yield was not very high, and it could not be grown well. save!"
"How can any gods help!"
Cheng Shijie smiled faintly and said: "It's just that you use the right method. For things like sweet potatoes, you don't have to pick the ground. As long as you use the right method, you can get quite high yields even in thin fields!"
"How do you know the right way to do it?"
"This is……"
Cheng Shijie originally did not want to take the credit for cultivating high-yielding sweet potatoes, and even wanted to give this credit to Xu Guangqi, thus making Xu Guangqi the god of agriculture in the Ming Dynasty.
But the problem is, it's too late now and there's no time to arrange it in advance.
After thinking about it, Cheng Shijie considered: "Back when Fenghuang Mountain was being defended by thousands of households, Cheng was begged out by his servants at the risk of death, and he was preparing to take a boat to Shandong. As a result, the boat capsized during the voyage, and Cheng was holding a large wooden box. Drifting with the waves, because my fate is drifting on an uninhabited island in the south!"
"Uninhabited island?"
"Yes, it is a small island with only a few dozen acres of land. There is water on it, but there is very little land, and there is not much room for farming. Cheng ate sea fish for more than ten days in a row. Only then did I realize there were some sweet potatoes in the box!”
While Cheng Shijie was thinking about it, he added to the content of Robinson Crusoe and transferred it to himself. Cheng Shijie stayed up late by himself for three years. During these three years, he had nothing else to do, so he just The sweet potatoes were cut into countless small pieces with a knife.
After a few days, I discovered that these small pieces had actually sprouted. After being planted, these sweet potatoes grew very well.
Cheng Shijie concluded: "After more than four years of exploration, Cheng discovered that sweet potatoes cannot be planted in too hot seasons, and the climate in southern Liaoning is neither cold nor hot. Secondly, strict selection and breeding of seedlings must be carried out. , just the opposite of ordinary wheat, rice, or sorghum. Our traditional crops all require large, plump seeds, but sweet potatoes can only choose small ones!"
"Why choose the small one?"
Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Cheng also doesn't know, because after the small sweet potatoes are raised, the seedlings will grow well and the fruits will be big. On the contrary, the larger sweet potatoes will be deformed and smaller, which will affect the yield. The third The reason is that fertilizers need to keep up..."
At this point, Cheng Shijie suddenly discovered that there were two people behind him who were writing furiously. After taking a closer look, he realized that it was Chen Zilong and Fang Yizhi.
Seeing that it was Chen Zilong, Cheng Shijie asked, "What are you doing?"
"We have always wanted to breed wheat, beans and rice that are cold-tolerant, drought-tolerant, disease-resistant and pest-resistant, but we have never been able to find a good way!"
Chen Zilong said: "Sir Cheng Jinglue has opened up a new idea for Chen..."
Gao Qiqian turned around and looked at the young eunuch beside him and said, "Have you written down everything Master Cheng said?"
"Replying to my godfather, the child has had the ability to look past his eyes since he was a child. He has memorized everything Cheng Shuai said!"
"Just write it down. Our family should also record this situation and compile it into a book and submit it to the emperor. Nowadays, several provinces in the north are experiencing severe droughts, frequent natural disasters and loss of food harvests. The emperor is very anxious. If we can follow the instructions If you grow a lot of sweet potatoes this way, the Emperor will definitely be very happy!"
Unfortunately, the patent law had not yet been promulgated these days, so officials in the Ming Dynasty did not have to worry about being sued for infringing Cheng Shijie's patent. Plagiarism was a matter of course.
Chen Zilong listened to what Cheng Shijie said about choosing small sweet potato seeds, and his mind suddenly became enlightened. When cultivating seeds, they had always chosen the seeds with the largest particles and the best appearance. What if they did the opposite?
Since ancient times, there has been an idiom in China that people should not be judged by their appearance. In fact, as early as in the Analects of Confucius, Confucius said: "To win a person by his appearance, he will lose his feathers!"
There are many examples of people who cannot be judged by their appearance, such as Zuo Si of Zhigui in Luoyang, Zhong Kui of the early Tang Dynasty, Pang Gun, and Tantai Mieming. There is no one who is not the best among people. There are countless examples of gold and jade being ruined on the outside.
Thinking of this, Chen Zilong ran towards the distance like a madman, shouting as he ran: "Thank you, Mr. Cheng, for reminding me!"
Gao Qiqian smiled when he saw this scene.
Cheng Shijie said: "Eunuch Gao, we are not in a hurry. There are several new crops here that will mature and start harvesting recently. Eunuch, you might as well wait a few more days. It's time for Cheng to go to Beijing to report on his work!"
Cheng Shijie's timing was very clever. After the autumn harvest, Jiannu would definitely send troops south. Facing Ning Haijun's harvest of more than five million acres of fields, it would be strange if Huang Taiji could sit still. As long as Jian Nu moves, Emperor Chongzhen will definitely not leave Cheng Shijie in the capital.
After two days and one night of harvesting, 120,000 acres of sweet potatoes have been harvested. Using the 120,000 acres of sweet potatoes to calculate the average yield per mu, we still have a yield of 3,700 kilograms.
Sun Yuanhua sighed: "If the storage time is longer, it will be enough to feed a family of seven for a year!"
Sun Yuanhua held his chin and groaned, thinking about whether to find an opportunity to ask Cheng Shijie for some potato seeds to bring back to the area under his control for planting.
Sun Yuanhua did not dare to expect such a high output. With half, no, even one-third, the people under his rule would be able to have enough to eat!
He also wanted to learn planting techniques from Cheng Shijie. It was not like no one had ever grown this before, but he had never heard of one that could produce such a good yield. There must be a lot of tricks here and he must learn them!
Watching Fan Yongdou use 1,600 war horses to buy 6 million kilograms from Cheng Shijie. If the average price of war horses is 20 taels of silver per horse, the price of this sweet potato is equivalent to 187 and a half kilograms for every tael of silver. .
Of course, Fan Yongdou actually spent only about ten taels or even eight taels of silver on the war horses, so he actually made a lot of money, which is equivalent to buying more than 280 kilograms for every two taels of silver.
This price is really not cheap. With an output of 3,700 kilograms per mu, you can earn more than ten taels of silver per mu. This is really scary.
Gao Qiqian and the other eunuchs looked delighted. Cheng Shijie was a very generous man. He would never treat himself badly when he ate meat. This time, he would never come in vain.
Cheng Shijie naturally would not let Gao Qiqian be a freeloader. Many officials, including Sun Yuanhua, saw the high yield of sweet potatoes and wanted to buy sweet potatoes and take them back to plant.
Cheng Shijie is too lazy to deal with these officials. Let the eunuchs bite the civil servants.
"Eunuch Gao, these officials are just trying to get free food..."
When Gao Qiqian heard this, he raised his brows slightly and raised his lips: "Let's see who dares!"
Cheng Shijie smiled bitterly and said: "The first level of officialdom will crush people to death!"
"General Cheng, you are the biggest in southern Liaoning, and they are the governor...!"
Gao Qiqian said with a smile: "Let's go back and talk to Master Wan about dividing Governor Denglai's jurisdiction over Liaodong. Don't you have the right to do something expedient?"
"Eunuch Gao, you are the supervisor of the Ning Navy. If they want to get benefits from Liaonan, they must get through you first!"
Cheng Shijie thought for a while and said: "Father, Cheng will let you know. The price of the high-quality seeds that shopkeeper Fan bought from here is one tael of silver and one hundred and eighty-seven catties. Of course, the relationship between shopkeeper Fan and Cheng has nothing to do with it." Can it be compared to the relationship between father-in-law and Cheng? How about the sweet potatoes I have here, one tael of silver can buy two hundred and forty kilograms? "
Gao Qiqian's subordinates were capable and immediately calculated the profits, and winked at Gao Qiqian repeatedly, indicating that he could do this.
"As for how much my father-in-law sells...it all belongs to my father-in-law!"
Gao Qiqian smiled slightly: "How much are you prepared to sell?"
"Twenty-four million catties, how about one hundred thousand taels of silver?"
"Too little!"
"Then thirty million catties?"
"Thirty-six million pounds!"
Gao Qiqian silently calculated it. This was a business worth 150,000 taels of silver. Without his capital, if he sold it, he would earn part of it.
After initially reaching a cooperation agreement with Cheng Shijie, the eunuch under Gao Qiqian's first step was not to contact officials in southern Liaoning, but to write many letters to the eunuch in charge of managing the imperial village. Next were Shandong officials in southern Liaoning, officials from various prefectures in Northern Zhili, and finally merchants.
Cheng Shijie still underestimated Gao Qiqian's shamelessness and the financial resources of these officials.
In just half a month, Gao Qiqian sold more than 55 million kilograms of sweet potatoes, earning a total of more than 383,000 taels of silver. ,
In just half a month, I made a net profit of more than 153,000 taels of silver.
Cheng Shijie didn't envy Gao Qiqian's ability to make money, because the merchants were actually Gao Qiqian's own resources. Cheng Shijie couldn't get in touch with the managers of Huangzhuang. If Cheng Shijie went to find them, they would probably ignore him.
Of course, the stewards of the small Huangzhuang couldn't afford to offend Gao Qiqian. Even if Gao Qiqian sold them a pile of shit, they would still buy it.
This does not mean that we are not doing business, but that we are dealing with people in the world.
Many merchants and officials purchased sweet potatoes. Of course, the quantity purchased by these officials was very problematic.
For example, Le'an County Magistrate Gao Jidi and Boxing County Magistrate Han Shuncheng only purchased 100,000 catties of sweet potatoes from Cheng Shijie. One hundred thousand catties of sweet potatoes sounds like a lot, but the problem is that due to the germination rate problem, even if Cheng Shijie's method is adopted, it will only be enough. Two thousand acres of land can be cultivated.
One county only purchases 2,000 acres of seeds, which is too little.
Even though one hundred thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes is not a lot, the problem is that you can't stand it and concentrate on being black. One tael of silver and one hundred and fifty kilograms, whether you want to buy it or not. The price of sweet potatoes purchased by some merchants has reached one tael of silver and one hundred and twenty catties...
As the sweet potato harvest in Zhenhai City comes to an end, every town and city in Jinzhou Wei has entered into harvesting operations of sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat, corn, tomatoes, peppers, sorghum, and soybeans.
Cheng Shijie In order to harvest crops, many factories also took the opportunity to introduce some new agricultural tools, such as the multi-functional animal-powered swing-arm wheat harvester, which is pulled by two horses. The wheels in front of the harvester are used to drive the chain and drive the combined tool at the back. , you can harvest wheat or soybeans as you go.
Two people, two horses, or two cows can harvest more than twenty acres of land in one day. This efficiency is much faster than manual cutting. Even a strong and energetic man can only harvest two or three acres of land in a day, and that's all.
In addition to animal-powered harvesters, there are also animal-powered and hydraulic threshing machines. This kind of threshing machine uses artificial dams to increase water pressure and uses pipes to release water. The water flow drives the water wheel and is accelerated by the gear set. It can harvest wheat, soybeans, and even wheat. Threshing of corn.
"How's the wheat yield?"
"Between three stones and two buckets to three stones and five buckets!"
Sun Yuanhua was speechless about this.
Wheat has been cultivated in the north for thousands of years. During the Warring States Period, the highest wheat yield per mu in history was only a few hundred and a few kilograms. The Qin and Han Dynasties were a period of agricultural progress, with a level of two hundred and sixty-seven kilograms. In the Tang Dynasty, it was 337 jins, and in the Song Dynasty, it was even lower, around 300 jins. The Ming Dynasty was the period with the highest grain output in ancient China. The average yield per mu was about 346 kilograms, but the Ming Dynasty was heavier, about 410 kilograms.
But the problem is that even the output of 410 kilograms is far from reaching three stones.
However, the wheat yield in southern Liaoning is as high as three stones and two heads to three stones and five buckets per mu, and the soybean yield is between 330 and 360 kilograms.
"how did you do that?"
"We will do whatever our commander tells us to do, and then...then, that's it!"
Chen Zilong, covered in dirt, was sitting in the field, looking at a simple and honest soldier in the field and said: "Commander Cheng, what on earth did you do?"
"Dig the river mud!"
"Any more?"
"Spread grass ashes!"
"When the ground is dry, water it..."
“Let’s talk about the important point, it’s different from your farming!”
"Have it?"
Chen Zilong was about to go berserk: "I'm asking you..."
"Really!"
"Bone meal was sprinkled on the ground!"
"What bone meal?"
"Caomin doesn't know much about this, but..."
"But what?"
"The grassroots people have vaguely heard some rumors. The commander-in-chief said that the Jiannu slaves who dared to come to Liaonan will be fertilized. However, the grassroots people don't know if the Jiannu slaves can really fertilize the land. The grassroots people did get two carts of bone meal, so they spread it Into the fields!”
Chen Zilong rubbed his head, wondering whether he should write this record down.
"In December last year, Marshal Cheng fought against the Azige tribe in the first battle. In February of the fifth year of Chongzhen, he fought in Haizhou during the second battle. He beheaded tens of thousands of people. Their heads were sent to the capital, but the bodies...could it be said that they were all killed? Did Cheng Shuai fall into the ground?"
"How is this possible when corpses can fertilize the ground?"
Chen Zilong smiled bitterly and said, "Isn't this absurd?"
"Is this really possible?"
Song Yingxing thought for a while and said: "Song once heard those experienced workers say that as long as the body is buried in a certain place, the grass or crops in a certain place will be more lush than other places!"
"He really couldn't grind the bones of these twenty thousand corpses into powder and scatter them in the ground, right?"
"Why don't you ask Cheng Shuai?"
Cheng Shijie was annoyed to death by Gu Shizhang every day. In desperation, Cheng Shijie sent out a killer weapon and Zheng Qi was responsible for business negotiations. However, unlike Fan Wendou, Gu Shizhang used his indomitable spirit and shamelessness that he had experienced in the ups and downs of the business world. , obtained the right to sell 600,000 stone potatoes from Cheng Shijie.
And the price is five qian silver per stone of potatoes, which is one hundred and twenty kilograms. This price is almost the wholesale price Cheng Shijie gave Gao Qiqian. After tasting the sweetness of selling sweet potatoes, Gao Qiqian saw the harvest of potatoes and corn, and also Take the initiative to undertake external sales tasks.
Cheng Shijie did not hesitate and handed over the task of external sales to Gao Qiqian. For this kind of ace sales, Cheng Shijie gave Gao Qiqian two four-wheel carriages and RVs as a reward for the ace sales.
Gu Shizhang purchased the right to sell potatoes for 1.2 million stones at the price of five silver coins per stone. His boldness in spending a lot of money allowed Cheng Shijie to see the strength of Huizhou merchants.
Huizhou merchants transported 300,000 shi of rice and more than 1.3 million taels of silver from the south of the Yangtze River. They deposited these helplessly and silver winter melons in Liaodong Bank, which solved the bank's shortage of silver during this period.
Because potatoes and sweet potatoes need to be stored in cellars, the military families and martyrs of Ninghai Navy who own private land have no choice but to dig cellars in order to store the harvested potatoes and sweet potatoes.
But the problem is that the cellars of each household were originally too small, and we didn’t have the tight time to dig them ourselves, so we had to hire people to dig them. Moreover, some military families saw the huge profits from processing potatoes and sweet potatoes into powder, so they began to take out loans and build buildings. Sweet potato and potato processing factory, this factory requires at least 1,500 taels of silver investment.
For this reason, there has been a huge crowd of merchants and military families coming to various banks to borrow money. Especially Gu Shizhang, this guy built more than 40 water-powered mills in one go. He calculated that the cost of processing one stone of potatoes or sweet potatoes into potato noodles was about one penny.
Special vermicelli is not only delicious, but also inexpensive, easy to store, and has a very good market prospect. A sweet potato or potato costing five cents can produce almost one hundred kilograms of vermicelli or thirty kilograms of starch. For every stone of sweet potatoes or potatoes, after excluding labor and production costs, the net profit is three cents of silver.
Gu Shizhang mobilized all the people he could mobilize, and hired a lot of people to weigh potatoes and keep accounts. They worked in two shifts, but he was still too busy...
The potatoes from the fields are still being transported back by the carloads, and the military households in the fields are so tired that they want to cry!
However, at the end of August, the temperature in southern Liaoning dropped suddenly and the weather became gloomy. Experienced farmers analyzed that this kind of weather will definitely cool down on a large scale in the next ten days.
Cheng Shijie was also very anxious. For this reason, he asked less important factories to temporarily suspend production and put all workers into the autumn harvest operation.
With the establishment of the Liaodong Management Committee, Ning Haijun's military camps and factories, especially the arsenal, are now in a state of semi-stop operation. In order to save costs, only the Guns and Artillery Bureau, the Armored Crossbow Bureau, the Ordnance Bureau, the Gunpowder Bureau and the Armament Bureau have been retained. Five specialized R&D institutions share one arsenal and are specifically responsible for producing Ning Haijun's equipment.
Now the arsenal adopts a performance appraisal system, but it cannot increase production and create profits like other factories. Zhou Yandong was very happy when he learned that Cheng Shijie was planning to stop the factory and transfer all workers to the autumn harvest operation.
However, he was happy too early.
"The arsenal must not stop!"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Even if the arsenal loses money, it will never stop!"
"But our Ning Navy's demand is limited. We currently have in stock more than 19,000 horizontal knives, 42,000 long spears, more than 24,000 armors, and more than 30,000 fire tubes. As long as we can produce large-scale The rifling that Shuai mentioned can be mass-produced at any time, even as many as 200,000 grenades!"
Zhou Yandong smiled bitterly and said: "The weapons produced are useless. The more we produce, the more we will lose!"
"Don't focus on such trivial matters. The purpose of the arsenal is to train more qualified workers. There is no need to worry about losing money at this stage."
Cheng Shijie is not afraid of losing money. As long as he trains more skilled workers now, the money he loses now will be earned back tenfold or a hundredfold in the future.
Since Cheng Shijie mentioned this, Zhou Yandong has no reason to object. In fact, the arsenal is not always losing money. Although the weapons and armor produced by the arsenal cannot be sold, it is not that it cannot be sold, but that it is unwilling to sell. . As long as the technicians of Yining Navy Equipment are willing to sell, they will not have to worry about finding a seller.
It is a pity that Cheng Shijie did not believe in the professional ethics of the Ming army generals. The artillery or muskets he sold could appear in the hands of Jiannu.
Therefore, he is unwilling to sell these equipment.
Although the equipment cannot be sold, the gunpowder and explosives produced by the arsenal are still very popular. After all, there are many mines in southern Liaoning, such as iron ore, limestone mines and cement plants, which have a huge demand for explosives. Now the arsenal of the Liaonan Ning Navy Explosives have been sold to various mines. These mines naturally belong to Cheng Shijie. As long as there are no problems with management, there will naturally be no outflow and sales will be good.
"When will the arsenal make the breech-loading rifled rifle? I will place an order for 100,000 guns with the arsenal!"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Our arsenal will be on the right track when the breech-loading rifled rifle is manufactured!"
"Hey, brother, have you heard about it?"
"What?"
"Why do our crops in southern Liaoning have a good harvest?"
"I don't know. Marshal Cheng must have some help from the gods!"
"It's not the help of gods. I heard that Cheng Shuai spread Jian Nu's bone meal into the ground so that our crops can have a good harvest!"
(End of chapter)
