When Zheng Fuguang drilled for oil in Lake Maracaibo, Xintianfu Agricultural Machinery Factory finally finished debugging the newly assembled tractor.
It was already late April, and the autumn harvest around Xintianfu had come to an end.
Most of the farmland outside the city has completed harvesting and has entered the stage of plowing and sowing wheat.
In order to find a place to display the new machine, Zhu Jingyuan asked the guards to ride out for a long lap.
Finally, in a corner of the moat square in the outer city of Xintianfu, a small cornfield that had not yet been harvested was found.
This field is farmed by "Xintianfu Outer City No. 202 Farm".
So Zhu Jingyuan decided to go to this farm to "help with work."
Zhu Jingyuan called two staff and eight guards, as well as Huangzhuang shopkeeper Zhao Youde who was responsible for managing this area.
They all put on camouflage uniforms suitable for work, and put their harvesters, plows, harrows, and planters on four-wheel tractors.
A group of people drove two 64-horsepower tractors and dragged the tools with the tractors to Farm 202 with the people.
Around a small intersection, there is a large courtyard in all four directions, with signs hanging at the entrances of the courtyard.
They are the four farms 201, 202, 203, and 204.
Zhu Jingyuan parked the tractor in front of the No. 202 Farm and entered the compound with Zhao Youde, the manager of Huangzhuang.
There is a straight road as you enter the courtyard. On the left is a large warehouse and on the right is a large stable with more than a dozen horses in it.
Further ahead are five small yards on each side, a total of ten small yards, which are the houses of the ten families in this farm.
It is said to be a small courtyard, but that is relative to the large courtyard of the entire farm.
The actual area of each yard is not too small, it seems to be at least one thousand square meters.
The main houses are all on two floors, with more than four horizontal bays on each floor and a relatively large depth.
All have at least two east and west rooms, and all have at least two rooms.
At the end of the ten yards, facing the entrance, there is another big house.
That's where various celebrations are held, as well as the farm's collective canteen.
When farming is busy, we eat in the canteen in the farm, and when farming is slack, each family cooks their own meals.
The cost of the canteen is counted as the operating cost of the farm and is deducted from the final harvest of food and profits.
You need to bear the cost of cooking at home, so farmers actually like to eat in canteens.
Zhu Jingyuan is coming to the farm to help with work, and all the farmers in the farm have received the news in advance.
It's just that Zhu Jingyuan didn't want to make too much noise, so he asked them not to go out to greet him and just stay in the farm yard.
After breakfast today, all men, women and children came out and waited at the entrance of the compound.
Zhu Jingyuan followed the shopkeeper in, and the dealers immediately raised their hands in confusion and saluted:
"I have met His Highness..."
"Hello everyone, you're welcome..."
Zhu Jingyuan returned the greeting casually and observed these people for a while.
There are ten households in total, and the total number of men, women, old and children in front of them is estimated to be nearly 80 people.
On average, there are four to five children in each family.
In fact, at least one-third of these ten households are relatively young and have not reached the age to stop having children.
Those couples who were over forty years old were surrounded by six or seven children.
Moreover, they all look good, the adults are relatively strong, and the children are relatively fresh.
At first glance, there is no lack of fuel. More than half of the people are slightly obese, and there are also many who have big shoulders and round waists.
It was the busy farming season, and the clothes he wore were obviously short clothes suitable for work, but at first glance, he couldn't find any patches.
It shows that these ordinary farmers are quite wealthy now in terms of food and clothing.
Their house is large enough for each child, and the stables are not just draft horses, but also horses suitable for riding.
Finally, to Zhu Jingyuan's surprise, a blond and blue-eyed Thai woman appeared in this large group of people.
Zhu Jingyuan immediately took a few more curious glances.
Zhao Youde, the shopkeeper of Huangzhuang who was following him, also saw it and immediately went to ask the director of the farm, Old Man Liu, who was in his fifties.
Old man Liu immediately called the woman and the man next to him over, and at the same time introduced Zhu Jingyuan:
"Your Highness, this descendant is the eldest son of the old Li family, named Li Qingsong.
"As a soldier in our Imperial Village team, according to the rules, you will not be separated from your family for the time being.
"Last year he went to work as an errand in a place called Dongyi Kingdom, and became the local flag general.
"This girl from the Western Yi Kingdom is called Erica. She is the translator from the Dongyi Kingdom and she must follow him.
“So he took the baby girl back to meet his parents and wife.
"A few days ago, we held a banquet on the farm, which delayed the farm work for two days, which delayed the corn harvest in our farm for two days."
"They will return to Dongyi Kingdom in a few days."
These two people were Li Qingsong and Erica who had returned from Dongyi Country.
Li Qingsong finally settled things at home and planned to go back in a few days.
Unexpectedly, during these few days at home, I happened to meet Zhu Jingyuan who came to "help".
When he came to Zhu Jingyuan, he quickly raised his hands and saluted again.
Erica became even more nervous. She never expected to see Prince Dashi here!
And Erica is a naturally bold character. While saluting with great excitement, she instinctively yelled something nonsense:
"I've seen His Highness... Your Highness, you actually came to Yinzhou!"
Zhu Jingyuan was also a little surprised by the experiences of these two people.
Unexpectedly, the amount of corn left in Farm 202 was precisely because of the two of them.
Zhu Jingyuan was in a good mood, so he smiled and made a joke:
"I am now the Governor of Yinzhou in the Ming Dynasty. In theory, the Dongyi Kingdom where you are located is also under my control, so you two are actually my subordinates..."
After Erica reacted, she immediately bowed again and said:
"It is our honor to serve you..."
Zhu Jingyuan smiled and waved:
"I just happened to design a new agricultural machinery. I see that there is still some corn left on your farm. I plan to use your land to try out my machine. You two should go and have a look."
Zhu Jingyuan did not continue chatting with them and asked the villagers to go out to the fields with them.
The adults went to get the horses, hitch the carts, and prepare to go to the fields to work.
The children joined in the fun, and a group of people went out noisily.
The farmland behind each Zhuangzi's compound is the land that each farm is responsible for cultivating.
So if you want to go to the fields, you can get there right away, but it is not easy to finish the work.
The Xintianfu outer city area is a square with a side of 27 kilometers, and the interior is divided into nine squares with a side of 9 kilometers.
Each square is divided into nine small squares with a side length of three kilometers, and each small square is divided into nine farms with a side length of one kilometer.
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In order to increase the population of each residential area, every four farm villages are placed at a crossroad in four directions.
Each farm usually has about ten households, and is responsible for one kilometer in length and width and one square kilometer in area.
One square kilometer is 1,500 acres, and on average each family cultivates 150 acres of land.
However, in fact, the land is not subdivided into families. Everyone on the farm has to work together and eventually share the profits.
Because the land farmed on the farm nominally belonged to the emperor, all the families on the farm were just farmers—employees of the emperor.
But the emperor, the too-distant owner of the village, actually did not participate in the specific operations at all.
What these employees receive is not wages, but "dividends" from profits.
Thirty percent of the income from the Imperial Estate goes to the emperor, 40% goes to the employees, and 30% is used for infrastructure such as building roads and canals.
The emperor received 30% of the farm's income, which at first glance seemed to be a high proportion.
But this is not a few percent of the "income" like the ancient dynasties, but 30% of the final "profit".
What the emperor wants is not taxes, but also profit dividends. Of course, they must be calculated according to profits.
Since it is profit, it must be calculated after deducting costs.
Including raising horses, making farm tools, purchasing seeds, canteen expenses during busy farming times, two sets of work clothes for adults per year, etc.
If taxes were calculated based on the actual harvest ratio, as in previous dynasties, it might only be half a percent or even lower.
If there is a disaster year, if farming does not make any money, then there is no need to turn over a penny, and the emperor has to pay for rescue.
Coupled with the large-scale use of horses for plowing and the large-scale use of various auxiliary machinery, the scale of land that can be cultivated is very large.
The average family can cultivate one hundred and fifty acres of land, which is very close to the limit of what they can accomplish.
Xintianfu also has a large amount of wasteland that can be quickly developed into fertile fields or pastures, but there are not enough manpower to do it.
The current level of abundance of living materials for farmers in Xintianfu is very close to the limit of homesteaders in the agricultural era.
Before mechanization, they really couldn’t farm if they were given more land.
The two tractors brought by Zhu Jingyuan were parked at the edge of the field, and the workers and soldiers worked together to remove the machines from the tractors.
Mount the corn harvester on the tractor and align the corn output port with the tractor bucket behind it.
The adults and children on the farm were watching.
Children are more curious, while adults are more cautious.
It's not that they have never seen machines before, but most of the previous machines were not easy to use, otherwise horses would have been unnecessary.
The steam engine was too heavy, had low efficiency, and had to burn coal. It was difficult to replenish and feed materials, and it was difficult to control the power.
The gasoline engine is boring. Although it runs fast, it can't do heavy work.
The two tractors Zhu Jingyuan brought looked no bigger than the original gasoline engines.
As for the corn harvester, the whole thing is mounted on the top of the tractor, which looks quite heavy. ,
The key point is that they seem to be preparing to let the tractor drag the bucket down to the ground. The load on the truck is too heavy.
The farmers at the scene did not have much expectations and were worried that the machine would not work.
The machine here is finally ready and started again with blank ammunition.
The tractor equipped with a corn harvester immediately went to the ground.
The machine in front collects corn and breaks the straw directly, and the corn is output to the tractor towed behind the tractor.
After landing on the ground, the machine basically did not pause at all and continued to move forward very steadily.
This machine drove directly over and harvested the four rows of corn, while also processing the straw.
At the same time, the second tractor took off its tractor bucket and replaced it with a four-share mounted plow.
Following the corn harvesting machine, they plowed the land where the straw had been harvested.
A group of adults who were preparing to work looked at the two machines roaring forward, and they were all a little at a loss.
"My mother, these machines don't look big, and they move without getting stuck at all!"
"The harvester in front carries so many things, can it still move?"
"This is a four-share plow. Two horses can pull up to two plowshares. The plow is shallower than this, and it goes even slower..."
"The key is that logically speaking, these are machines. The machines can keep working until they break down. Marco needs to rest."
"You also have to carefully control the rhythm of the two horses so that the two horses share the force evenly, otherwise the horses may be injured."
"This car... just drives away. It's so worry-free..."
“This is finally a useful agricultural machine!”
Ming Dynasty people are not surprised by machines. What is surprising is that this machine is really easy to use.
The farmers and farm owners of the Ming Dynasty have a very strong demand for agricultural machinery, because there are really too many fields to plant.
So when I saw that the tractor brought by Zhu Jingyuan was working and easy to use, I quickly became enthusiastic.
The machines in front of Erica grabbed Li Qingsong's arm and said with a rather shocked expression:
"This harvesting machine can do several jobs in one trip. It's several times faster than horses and people."
Li Qingsong was also very surprised and said in a daze:
"The key is that one person can drive alone, and there is no need to carefully control the horse..."
Finally, Zhao Youde, the shopkeeper of Huangzhuang, looked at these people and said:
"The most important thing is that we no longer need to raise horses! How much manpower and food will be saved!"
Old Liu, the director of No. 202 Farm, said to the shopkeeper beside him:
"Shopkeeper, if our farm uses this kind of machine in the future, then we can plant twice as many fields!"
Zhao Youde calculated more carefully:
"I'm afraid it's more than doubled. I estimate that in the past, ten families could use one farm's land, but in the future, three families would probably be enough.
"However, His Highness does not seem to be prepared to let everyone plant more fields. His Highness has other arrangements..."
Zhu Jingyuan's demonstration can be regarded as a great success. The two tractors worked all morning without any malfunction.
It seems that in the past half month, the craftsmen have really carefully debugged it.
In the afternoon, Zhu Jingyuan tried to use the seeder. The two tractors worked all afternoon and there were no obvious failures.
In the evening of that day, Zhu Jingyuan took the farmers back to the farm and entered their canteen together.
Before the official dinner started, all the men, women and children in the farm looked at Zhu Jingyuan, waiting for him to say something.
Zhu Jingyuan thought for a while and organized his thoughts:
“Everyone has seen the performance of these machines today, and they are obviously very suitable as agricultural machinery.
“With these machines, the speed of various farm work will be increased by at least three to four times. The key is that we don’t have to raise horses in our spare time.
“In the future, maybe only two or three families will be able to do the work that once took ten families on a farm.
“So everyone should be wondering now whether it is possible to split a farm into two or even three.
“Let these extra people open more fields and farms, each with only three households.
“In this way, the farm income that used to be shared by ten families will be shared by only three families in the future.
“This is equivalent to tripling your income!”
A group of honest farmers nodded repeatedly. This was the question they cared about most.
Because farmers in Xintianfu receive proportional dividends from their harvest rather than rationed wages, they are very enthusiastic about doing more work.
Zhu Jingyuan looked at the farmers' reactions and continued to explain his thoughts quite seriously:
“Since the machine has just begun to be used, it has not yet undergone long-term testing and accurate accounting.
“So out of caution and insurance, we cannot rashly reduce the population of a farm to three households for the time being.
“You can first try to keep only five households, and let these five households share the income of the original ten households.
"The other five families did not open up a new farm, but followed me to the city to work as workers.
“Now Huangzhuang is building new factories on a large scale, and the most important one is the factory that produces these agricultural machines.
“Go to the city to work as a worker and produce more machines for other farms to use.
"Let other farms allocate half of their population to the city to work as workers."
A group of farmers began to think. Some had begun to nod and look forward to it, but others did not fully understand it.
Old Liu, the director of No. 202 Farm, had questions:
"Your Highness, half of the people from all the farms are sent to the city to produce agricultural machinery. There should be more than enough of them!"
Zhu Jingyuan laughed directly after hearing this question:
“Of course not, the production of agricultural machinery is the most important and the highest priority, but it is not everything.
“Once farm machinery can meet demand, others can go and produce other things.
“Including clothes, shoes and hats, electric fans, washing machines, bicycles, cars, yachts, etc.——
“All in all, if we meet the basic needs of safety, food, clothing, housing and transportation, we still have more power.
"Then do the things that make our lives better."
