1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 118 Agricultural Issues
"Commander Yu, Commander-in-Chief, Master Pan, look!" Wang Zhenliang pointed to a large farmland in front of him, and said to Yu Fukun, Qi Tian and Pan Qifeng, "These fields are obviously insufficient. Except for the slightly prosperous corn and sorghum, the other Crops..." As he spoke, he shook his head.

Wang Zhenliang was one of the 300 people Qi Dajiang bought in Batavia last time. He was from Huaibei. His family used to have [-] to [-] acres of fertile land, so he was considered a well-off family.However, when refugees crossed the border in Huaibei, the land, houses and family members were all destroyed by the war.After the officers and soldiers arrived, it was even worse, and even the land was taken away by the big family in the county. If he hadn't seen the opportunity quickly, he would have been falsely accused of being a thief and arrested.

He fled to Hai'an in one breath, was alone, and simply followed others, and came to Nanyang, and was finally resold in Hanzhou.Fortunately, in this place, colonize and reclaim wasteland, there is food to eat, clothes to wear, no one oppresses.After several months of conditioning, I got used to it.

As an expert with farmland planting experience, Wang Zhenliang and several farmers with the same background were specially selected by Pan Qifeng to guide all farmers to cultivate.

Today, Yu Fukun and Qi Tian came to the field to check the growth of various crops, and Wang Zhenliang was called over to explain a thing or two to them.

"So, after the crops are harvested, part of the farmland should be left fallow, and all the roots and leaves of the crops should be plowed into the ground to nourish the soil."

After hearing this, Yu Fukun nodded again and again, "Indeed, these fields are not very fertile at first glance. If they can collect some grain, it is God's favor to eat!"

"What Commander Yu said is true!" Wang Zhenliang said with a smile: "However, the corn and sorghum can be harvested more. Therefore, I suggest that next year we might as well plant more corn and sorghum, and we can also harvest more grain. .”

"After these farmlands are fallow, can we grow wheat and rice?" Qi Tian asked.

"In a few years, maybe."

Oh, that is, the two main food crops, rice and wheat, cannot be grown in the past two years.

"However, little commander, you don't need to worry." Wang Zhenliang continued: "A few days ago, I followed Mrs. Pan to the Black Valley, and found that some fields might be suitable for rice planting. . . . Tens of thousands of acres of land may be developed. But the only thing to worry about is that the nearby river needs to be treated. The recent rains have caused the river to overflow, which has turned the bend of the river into a pond."

Qi Tian and Yu Fukun glanced at each other, and then smiled wryly. It would probably take thousands of people to renovate that river bend. Drainage, desilting, and repairing the river, for hundreds of them, it is a big project.

"Of course, the improvement of that river bend will not be completed in a year.... Four or five miles south of Black Mountain Fort, a guard told us that there is a large flat meadow that can be used for farmland transformation."

"Check it out, and it's true. Clearing the weeds and shrubs will be enough to open up tens of thousands of acres of land, and the land strength is obviously stronger than here."

Qi Tian couldn't help being moved when he heard that, according to common sense, many lands near the seaside are indeed lacking in fertility, which is caused by seawater erosion.But going deeper into the inland, the planting conditions in the field will obviously be better.

"Then tomorrow, let's go and have a look together. If possible, build a settlement there." Qi Tian suggested.

Everyone nodded, indicating that they could go and have a look.

"Aren't these corns?" When he walked to a farmland near the edge of the forest, Qi Tian pointed to a stalk-shaped crop. The more he looked at it, the more he thought it was sugar cane.

"Oh, that crop is indeed not corn, but some sugarcane planted by the original Luzon immigrants, who are said to be chewing and eating as sweet stalks....Not to mention, the fields near the forest seem to be suitable for the growth of this crop. "

"Does anyone know how to grow sugar cane and squeeze sugar?" Qi Tian asked.I remember that the sugarcane planting areas in Australia in later generations seemed to be mainly distributed in the eastern coastal areas. Could it be that the places near the sea in the north are also suitable for planting sugarcane?

"Someone should know it." Yu Fukun said uncertainly: "If no one knows it, then let's go to Batavia to find some craftsmen who can extract sugar."

That's right, with a boat, it takes a month to go back and forth to Batavia.Qi Tian also has a plan, which is to leave the former Spanish officers and sailors on the "Pioneer" in Jianye City when the fleet returns next time, and let them train professional junior officers and sailors.

"Calculating the days, Master Cao and the others should have come back from Daming." Yu Fukun looked up at the sky, there were many dark clouds gathering in the sky, and it was unknown whether cumulonimbus clouds would form.

"I don't know how many people can be brought back." Qi Tian said.

"Not counting Zhou Yingping's lucky boat, it can hold nearly seven to eight hundred people." Yu Fukun calculated and gave a figure.

"In more than three months, nearly a thousand people were transported back. After one year, there are less than 4000 people!...The population increase is a bit slow."

"Unless we don't transport goods, we don't do trade to make money, and if we just recruit people, we can transport more than 4000 people in one year."

"Therefore, there must be boats, and there must be many boats." At this time, Qi Tian was a little envious of the Dutch.The East India Company shuttled hundreds of ships throughout the Far East, and to and from Europe.During this period, the ruler of the Far East Ocean.

Of course, except for the coast of Daming, there is another ruler—Zheng Zhilong.

Land reclamation naturally requires the construction of farmland hydraulic power.

With the small reservoir on the south side of Jianye City as the center, the three main irrigation canals as branches, and the small canals in the farmland as capillaries, nearly 6000 mu of farmland can basically realize irrigation agriculture.If you want to expand more farmland irrigation, you will have to carry out a large reservoir expansion and canal construction.

Because building materials are mainly used in the construction of houses, workshops, warehouses and other facilities.Therefore, all hydraulic facilities have not been hardened, and it is an extensive irrigation water model.

With the gradual increase of rain in December, the stream upstream of the reservoir has gradually turned into a small river with a width of more than ten meters.The muddy yellow river flows into the reservoir at an extremely fast speed with the branches and dead leaves curled up. In a short period of time, it overflows the hastily built embankments of the reservoir and floods the surrounding fields.

For this reason, Qi Tian had to summon more than 200 people temporarily to dig an emergency flood discharge channel for the reservoir, so that the rising water could flow to the sea.

It seems that this small reservoir has to be remodeled and upgraded in the dry season, at least two or three times larger.Nima, it's only December, and it can no longer regulate the water volume.The problem is, the wet season here won't end until April next year.

After checking the hydraulic facilities in the farmland, there are still many problems. The reservoir dam seepage is serious, the main canal is partially broken, and the distribution of small canals in the field is uneven.The reason is the lack of manpower.

But the few farmers in Jianye City are already very hardworking.In such a short period of time, they reclaimed thousands of acres of farmland and sowed various crop seeds on more than 6000 acres of land.During the slack season, various hydraulic facilities have to be continuously built and reinforced, and even a little free time has to be spared to renovate and decorate the brick houses (or wooden houses) and courtyards assigned to them.Everyone is dedicating all their sweat and energy to Jianye City and themselves.

On the second day, everyone went to a meadow three kilometers south of Fort Black Mountain, near the small town of Palmerston in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Sure enough, the terrain here is flat and the trees are sparse.At that time, diverting the river water near Heishanbao, or building a reservoir, is enough to develop tens of thousands of acres of farmland, and if all of them are planted with food, they can feed tens of thousands of people.

If all the surrounding forests are cut down, more farmland can be reclaimed.

"Uncle Kun, although more good fields can be expanded here. But we currently don't have the ability to set up settlements here. One is the lack of roads, and the other is the lack of water irrigation facilities."

"So, this place can only be used as an alternative place for future reclamation and pioneering. We can build the agricultural foundation of Jianye City and Heishanbao, and we can gradually achieve self-sufficiency in food." Qi Tian looked at this place." Fertile wild thousands of miles" scene, quite helplessly said.

"In the past few days, while it's not raining, we need to allocate some manpower to replenish the construction team and try to build more houses. Otherwise, there will be more immigrants coming back, and there is no place to live, which will hurt people's hearts!"

(End of this chapter)