Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 923, Daming's Autumn Harvest: The Trouble of Too Much Farming in Liaodong

Chen Xin and Hu Benhui brought several officials in plain clothes to a wheat field that was being harvested.

This wheat field is very lively, there are dozens of people busy harvesting wheat in full swing.

"This little brother~"

Chen Xin shouted to people with a smile.

"Is sir calling me?"

Dong Er got up and looked at Chen Xin, Hu Benhui and others, and asked with some doubts.

He saw that although Chen Xin, Hu Benhui and others were wearing plain clothes, they could tell they were not ordinary people, so he also called Chen Xin Mr. Chen.

"Is the wheat harvest okay this year?"

Chen Xin nodded slightly, pulled off a wheat ear, looked at it carefully and asked.

"The harvest is very good. The land in Liaodong is all black soil, which is very fertile. This one mu of land can harvest almost two stones of wheat."

Dong Er nodded and replied.

"The output of two stones?"

When Chen Xin heard this, he nodded slightly. It was similar to the experiment he had done before, one mu of land could harvest two stones of wheat.

"This yield is pretty good. As far as I know, in the customs, it is very difficult to achieve the yield of two stones per mu of land."

Chen Xin thought for a while and said again.

"No, I'm from Shandong. I immigrated from Shandong. In Shandong, even the best fields can hardly reach the output of two stones, but in Liaodong, you can do whatever you want."

Dong Er nodded solemnly.

"How many fields has my little brother planted?"

Chen Xin nodded slightly, then got up and looked at the huge wheat field in front of him and asked.

"Not much, my family has planted less than [-] mu of wheat fields."

"The grain is not only enough to eat, but the grain harvested this year is enough to last for many years."

Dong Er pointed to the wheat fields in front of him and said.

"Four hundred acres of wheat fields aren't that much?"

"Can your family be busy?"

When Hu Benhui next to him heard this, he was startled and said that [-] mu of land is not much to say. When he was an official here in Henan, if he had [-] mu of land, he would be considered a landlord.

"Not much, not much. In Liaodong, who doesn't have a few hundred acres of land?"

"This year, the family has a baby, and my wife can't do anything. I can't do it alone, so I only planted [-] mu of land. Other households, casually, have more than me."

Dong Er smiled and shook his head, and then said: "Although it's only [-] mu of land, I really can't do it alone. No, I hired dozens of North Koreans to help me harvest wheat. It is more expensive, but fortunately, the wheat can be harvested in time."

"Hearing what you said, every household in this family has hundreds of acres of wheat fields. Wouldn't it be difficult to harvest them before winter?"

After Chen Xin listened, he thought about it carefully, and soon realized a question, and immediately asked.

"Isn't it? Everyone is in a hurry now."

"This family has hundreds of acres of land, and even if they are exhausted all day long, they will not be able to harvest it all."

"I also gritted my teeth and spent a lot of money to hire these North Koreans. If one person works for a day, I will give [-] catties of wheat and take care of three meals."

"But even so, these North Koreans are too busy, and some people want to hire them."

"Although the price is expensive, if the wheat is not harvested on time, it will rot in the ground."

Dong Er nodded repeatedly.

Speaking of this matter, Dong Er had to sigh.

At the beginning of this year, when the spring was planted, everyone was afraid of losing money. If you reclaimed [-] mu, I would reclaim [-] mu. Every family was desperately reclaiming the land.

Now it's all right, the fields have been reclaimed, and hundreds of acres of fields have been planted at once. When harvesting wheat, I was dumbfounded, and I was exhausted in the fields and couldn't finish harvesting.

"What a fine wheat. Wouldn't it be a pity if it rotted in the ground?"

Chen Xin looked at the ears of wheat in his hand, the wheat grains on them were full, the ears of wheat were very heavy, and the wheat was very good.

"That's right, but if you can't collect them all, there's nothing you can do if they rot in the ground."

Dong Er also nodded and said: "I heard that there are hundreds of thousands of Koreans who come to our Liaodong to harvest wheat and do part-time jobs. You can bring back several thousand catties of wheat in the last month."

"But it's up to them to earn. There's no way. We planted too much land. It's a pity that the wheat won't be harvested. It's a pity that it rots in the ground. Let them earn, and we can collect all the wheat."

Hearing Dong Er's words, Chen Xin, Hu Benhui and others looked at the dozens of busy people in the field again, and took a closer look. These people were indeed a little different from the people of Ming Dynasty, and the clothes they wore had a clear Korean style. .

"In that case, wouldn't there be a lot of wheat in Liaodong that will rot in the fields this year?"

Chen Xin frowned. The bumper crop harvest was originally a good thing. When reporting on his duties this year, he can also focus on this aspect.

But if there is a large amount of grain that rots in the world because it was not harvested in time, the situation will be different. If the matter spreads to the capital, it will inevitably affect one's political achievements.

"There must be a lot of wheat that will rot in the field. Even if a person does not rest all day long, he will be exhausted in the field. At the end of the day, he will only harvest two acres of wheat. This family has hundreds of acres of land. How can we finish harvesting before winter comes?"

"This is why these North Koreans dare to ask for such high prices. Last year, it only cost [-] catties of wheat to hire them to harvest a day. This year, it will cost more than [-]."

Dong Er straight nodded and replied.

"That's such a pity, is there no way to quickly harvest the wheat?"

When he heard that a large amount of wheat was about to rot in the field, and there was no way to harvest it before winter, Chen Xin immediately became anxious. This was a major matter related to his political achievements.

"Yes, yes, I heard that the Jingcheng Machinery Factory has produced a machine for harvesting wheat. What is it called a steam harvester? This steam harvester is very powerful. It can be harvested in a day just by walking around in the field. If there are thousands or even tens of thousands of such machines in a [-]-acre wheat field, our wheat in Liaodong can be harvested almost before winter begins."

"But there are very few such machines, and I have only heard of them, but I have never seen them."

Dong Er thought about it and said.

"Steam harvester?"

"I know this, it has been reported in the newspapers."

When Chen Xin heard it, he quickly remembered the thing about the steam harvester reported in the Ming Morning Post.

"Yes, yes, I heard it was in the newspaper."

"That steam harvester is said to be very powerful. It threshed the wheat directly after harvesting the wheat, so there was no need to throw the wheat."

"I heard that a steam harvester costs nearly two hundred taels of silver. It's too expensive. We ordinary people can't afford it."

Dong Er repeatedly nodded and said.

"Thank you little brother, I'll take my leave first!"

Chen Xin smiled and said goodbye to Dong Er, then he also rode on his horse and said to Hu Benhui: "You immediately send someone to the Jingcheng Machinery Factory to buy steam harvesters from them, the more the better."

"Well, let's buy it in the name of our Liaodong chief envoy. If the money is not enough, we can discuss with them to see if we can rent it, and then ship it to our Liaodong as soon as possible."

"This family has hundreds of acres of wheat. If it is not harvested in time, it is unknown how much wheat will rot in the field."

"Yes!"

When Hu Benhui heard this, he quickly said yes, and then rode quickly to work.

As for Chen Xin, he was riding a horse to look for the steam harvester, to see how miraculous this steam harvester was, and it could harvest fifty acres of wheat a day.

Riding around to inquire about the steam harvester, Chen Xin soon came to a town.

"The wheat is harvested, the wheat is harvested!"

"Five shi of wheat for one tael of silver, if you want to sell it, you can take any more!"

As soon as he entered the town, Chen Xin heard a large number of businessmen shouting with tin horns. At the same time, he could also see a large number of farmers bringing carts of grain to the town in four-wheeled carts. sell.

There is too much grain, and the granary at home can't hold it, so many people will choose to sell part of the grain and exchange it for silver.

"One tael of silver for five shi of wheat?"

When Chen Xin heard this, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"The price of this food is too low!"

"These profiteers!"

Immediately, he couldn't hold back his anger. He got off his horse and came to a grain shop, shouting angrily, "You profiteers are too black-hearted. Five shi of grain is only sold for one tael of silver. How can there be such a low price?"

Hearing Chen Xin's roar, many farmers around him also shouted.

"Yes, yes, where is such a price? In the past, a stone of grain was sold for a tael of silver casually. During the ten-year famine in Hongzhi, a catty of grain sold for more than [-] yuan. "

"That's right, that's right, you profiteers have teamed up to deliberately lower the price of food and bully us farmers, right?"

"It must be like this. They must have seen our grain harvest in Liaodong, so they deliberately pressured the price of grain. Five shi of wheat is only sold for a tael of silver. I might as well feed it to pigs. Pork has already risen to More than ten Wen a catty."

The surrounding farmers couldn't help shouting. Everyone was hesitating whether to sell it or not. The price of this grain is really too low.

Many people have planted the land all their lives, but they have never encountered such a low price, and the food is worthless.

You must know that in the past, this grain was an extremely precious thing. In the era of famine, let alone a stone of grain, even a catty of grain can save many lives, and sometimes even a few catties of grain can be bought. To a big girl with yellow flowers.

Now it's all right, five stones of grain can only be sold for one tael of silver.

(End of this chapter)