That’s all.
If it is impossible for the people to live a better life than they are now, then it is okay if they are able to maintain the good life they have now.
For ordinary people, the current life was a peaceful and prosperous era that was rare in hundreds of years. If the heir he selected could maintain this prosperous era, he would also be happy.
So if Li Aiqing wants to take action, just take action.
The more Li Aiqing received imperial edicts of praise, the more iron certificates he received from the elixir book.
Moreover, he hoped that Li Aiqing could build a good relationship with every prince through this matter. He must keep talents like Li Aiqing.
Sheng Hong and several princes were willing to let Li Qiao intervene in the second question. Li Qiao breathed a sigh of relief and immediately put forward the first suggestion.
If you want to be rich, build roads first.
It just so happened that there was mortar now, which was cheap and easy to use to build roads. Therefore, the first thing the princes had to do was to build roads.
Moreover, based on Sheng Hong's promise to the Seventh Prince to dig the river, he gave a second suggestion.
If you want to make people live a prosperous life, you can find a way to increase the local grain yield per acre until there is no better way.
The more grain is harvested from the fields, the more money the people can exchange for it.
Even if it can't be exchanged for money, just like the sweet potatoes and corn in Hexi Prefecture in the past, it is still a great thing for the people to have plenty of food at home.
If you want to produce more grain in the fields, you must have good seeds, enough fertilizer, and enough irrigation.
Improved seeds and fertilizers have been like this for thousands of years and cannot be improved in a short period of time.
But with enough irrigation, if the princes work hard, they can do it.
The two suggestions put forward by Li Qiao were approved by several princes.
That's right, if no practical method can be found, then this method can only be used to increase people's income.
Then dig wells, rivers and ditches first.
There is also the keel waterwheel. Since it is widely used in Pingcheng, they have also arranged their own wharf.
Chapter 200 Establishing a free school only enrolls children from poor family backgrounds
When it comes to ways to increase crop yield per acre, Li Qiao really has no other means besides ensuring adequate irrigation.
He knows nothing about breeding, and he doesn't even have common sense.
Fertilizers, forget about modern fertilizers. As far as he knew, in the 1970s, the country built more than a dozen fertilizer plants, which solved the problem of insufficient fertilizers and increased food production.
The chemical fertilizer is chemical and industrialized. He has low ability and cannot handle it.
In fact, fertilizers in this time and space are already very abundant, such as manure, green manure, plant ash fertilizer, etc., which are commonly used by farmers.
Moreover, farmers have long mastered the technology of retting, mixing human and animal excrement with weeds, straw and other things to seal and ferment. This technique is found in agricultural books such as "The Book of Pan Sheng" and "The Essentials of Qi Min". It is well documented.
Therefore, when it comes to fertilizer, Li Qiao really doesn't have a particularly good method. The methods he can think of are all usual methods.
If you are close to water, you need fertilizer from the water. The mud at the bottom of the river and the mud in the pond are all considered fertilizer.
Where there are mines, mineral fertilizers are used.
Without effective innovations in fertilizers, we can only work on irrigation.
If irrigation is ensured, the yield per mu of crops will naturally increase.
In short, before a suitable way to make the people rich is found in the area where the wharf belongs, increasing the yield of farmers' crops is the most feasible way to make the people rich.
Moreover, natural disasters will continue and the weather will be abnormal. In fact, making money and improving the economy are not the most important things. Having enough food to ensure that people can eat even if they suffer disasters is what Dasheng should do most. thing.
As long as there is food in hand, the people will not panic.
If the people don't panic, Dasheng's empire will be stable.
Therefore, in the next few years, Li Qiao has set his own focus on increasing grain income in various places in Dasheng.
Not just grain, but cotton.
The weather is very cold and people cannot live without cotton.
But due to climate reasons, basically only farmers in the north grow cotton. If the Yangtze River freezes in a few years, people in the south will definitely need cotton.
Therefore, starting from next year, large areas of cotton will be planted in the north.
Cotton is easy to store. After you pick it and remove the seeds, it can be stored for ten years without any problem.
In addition to increasing grain production, Li Qiao is also planning to do one more thing:
Make money from rich people.
He now donates 500 taels of silver and 500 catties of grain to the charity every month. This is just the beginning. When droughts and locust plagues come in the future and the crops fail, the amount of money he donates will definitely increase greatly.
This is just a shantang in Shengjing. As the capital of Shengjing, there are shantangs, so people in other places need shantangs even more.
At the very least, he had to open a charity in Yuanhe Province - Hexi Prefecture was very rich and couldn't afford it, so the second charity should be either in Weiqing County or the capital of Yuanhe Province.
The expenses for two charity houses are certainly not small, and he can afford them with his current financial resources. But the more money, the better. It is better to be prepared. Who knows how much money will be spent in the next ten years or so.
In the busy schedule, New Year's Eve soon arrived.
Even though he is already a third-level official, Li Qiao's family still has the custom of making dumplings.
In the afternoon, except for those who need to take care of the shop, the rest of the family, including the two little boys, started making dumplings happily.
Today, the Li family's dumpling fillings are abundant. There are more than twenty kinds of stuffing. Those flying in the sky, swimming in the water, and running on the ground have all been caught and become dumpling fillings.
Moreover, the dumpling skin is no longer monotonous white. Li Qiao asked someone to add vegetable juice to it, making it colorful and colorful.
Li Xiaorui, Li Changfeng, and Li Yunfan stood by the chopping board and kneaded the colorful dough. Making dumplings was so boring. Yesterday they went to the maltose shop they owned and got a few small animals made of maltose, so they The three of them wanted to knead the colored dough into small animals.
After squeezing and squeezing, their clothes and faces were stained with flour. The three little guys looked at me and I looked at you. They all found the other's appearance interesting, so they started to grab flour and rub it on each other's bodies.
Li Liang suddenly felt distressed. This was a bit of a waste.
"I think back when Xiao Shu was Xiao Rui's age, she could cook any home-cooked meal, pasting pancakes, making buns, and steaming steamed buns. She was proficient in everything."
But Li Xiaorui, who is almost six years old, can't even make a dumpling. He just picks up the dough and just plays with it.
Li Xiaorui, who was named, raised his little head and looked at his grandfather in confusion: "Huh?"
Wang Guihua looked at his ignorant and cute little expression and immediately glanced at Li Liang: "Can this be the same? Xiao Shu's main job at that time was to plow food from the fields, and he just wanted to eat and drink every day."
"Xiao Rui doesn't have to dig food in the fields. What Xiao Rui will do from now on is reading and doing business. Now Xiao Rui has memorized "The Analects" by heart at a young age, and he is also very good at his main business. "
However, she also felt sorry for the flour, so she smiled at Li Xiaorui again: "Xiao Rui, how about you and your two uncles start making dumplings? How about you eat the dumplings you made tonight?"
Li Xiaorui blinked his big eyes when he heard this: "Okay!"
So his grandfather was criticizing him just now?
"Xiao Rui, what your grandpa means is that you shouldn't lead your two uncles to waste flour. This flour is hard-earned."
Zheng Qianqian looked at the confusion on her eldest son's face and couldn't help but explain it.
Actually, with our current family background, we don’t need to worry about this little bit of flour.
But waste is indeed bad.
Education is necessary.
Li Xiaorui understood now. He looked down at the flour on himself and his two uncles, on their faces and heads, and immediately admitted his mistake.
"Dad, grandpa, grandma, I won't waste flour anymore."
"Xiao Rui is so good."
Wang Guihua immediately smiled and praised.
Li Liang also laughed: "If you waste other things, I might not feel bad, but when you waste flour, this grandpa really can't control his mouth. I really want to say a few words."
Having cultivated crops for half his life, he knew how arduous the process from wheat seedlings to grinding into flour was.
"Come on, don't worry about the waste, you can't stop talking and have to say a few words." Wang Guihua said.
"Then what I said is correct."
Li Liang pointed at Li Qiao as he spoke: "Xiao Qiao, do you think so?"
Li Qiao, who was silently making dumplings, nodded seriously: "It is indeed not good to waste anything."
With Li Qiao's support, Li Liang straightened his back immediately, but the next second, Li Qiao said again: "Sister-in-law also loves Xiao Rui. The child is young, so teach him slowly and not in a hurry."
Wang Guihua heard this and immediately glared at Li Liang: "If you want to reason with Xiao Rui, just do it. Xiao Rui is so good, but it's not like he doesn't understand. Why do you have to drag Xiao Shu out?"
Her eldest grandson is actually awesome!
Li Liang: "...I just suddenly thought of Xiao Shu's childhood. How could I have imagined that we would have such a good life back then."
"Xiaoqiao, do you think so?"
Li Qiao, who was pulled out again, said with a smile: "Good times are indeed hard-won. Let's do this. From now on, we will take the three of them to Zhuangzi or the charity hall more often. They are young, so teach them slowly."
"Going to the charity hall?"
Tao Zhu on the side was a little surprised when he heard this.
"Let the three of them see what children of their age but from poor families do every day."
Li Qiao said.
"okay."
Tao Zhu thought for a while and agreed.
Li Liang: "..."
Wang Guihua: "..."
Zheng Qianqian: "..."
OK.
When it comes to educating children, Li Qiao is definitely better than them, so they won't say anything.
As for Li Xiaorui, he was very happy when he heard that he was going to the Shantang. The two little boys were also happy. Tao Zhu had stayed in the Shantang all day before. They wanted to go but Tao Zhu wouldn't let them go.
