Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 197
In addition to the old camp fort, great development has also been achieved on both sides of the Guan River outside the old camp fort.After Huang Laifu overhauled the water conservancy canals, many lands on both sides of the Guan River have been well irrigated.

Although the development of Laoyingbao is a bit late, and now there are only tens of thousands of acres of wheat fields, and a small half of them are planted with soybeans, sugar beets, flax, etc. Satisfied the food and clothing needs of the soldiers of the old camp fort.

Huang Laifu believes that by next year, at least hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Laoyingbao and Pianguanbao can be sorted out and planted with wheat and other things.Next autumn, there will definitely be a bumper harvest here.

Although the weather is getting colder and colder now, when Huang Laifu inspected along the banks of the Guan River, he still saw a scene full of heat. Soldiers from various military households in the Old Camp Fort and Pianguan Fort, led by the village chiefs, , is busy nervously, installing large water trucks and large well irrigation trucks, and repairing canals. These things will come in handy after the spring of next year.

Due to the development of the two forts, not only are there more and more merchants in the two places, but also many nearby households are attracted to come to work, especially some poor Mongolians outside the pass. Money to support the family and increase the chances of survival for their own family members.

The Mongolian tribe led by the three ladies outside the old camp had made good friends with Daming. Besides, Huang Laifu's prestige also made the Mongolians outside the old camp dare not have any bad ideas. They could only use their hard work in exchange for Subsistence rations.

Huang Laifu was tolerant of these Mongolians. He told Gu Shibao, deputy director of the Wuzhaibao Grain Bureau, that these Mongolians who obeyed the rules and worked hard could enjoy the same treatment as Han people.

When Huang Laifu came to Laoyingbao, the generals of Pianguanbao and the military preparation officers also rushed to see Huang Laifu, and accompanied him to inspect the two forts.When Huang Laifu managed the Erbao field, the two of them made a lot of profits, and their interests were already linked to Huang Laifu's.

Especially this time when Huang Laifu went to Ningxia, he defeated the Mongol reinforcements in Shigou City, and gained a lot of news, which had already spread in Pianguan and other places.Seeing that Huang Laifu's promotion is just around the corner, maybe Huang Laifu will be promoted to the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Town in the future, and even their immediate boss. It is wise to build a good relationship with Huang Laifu at this time.

Along the Guan River, Huang Laifu inspected Laoyingbao and the vicinity of Pianguan. Huang Laifu was satisfied with the construction of the two forts.

In the land of the two forts, there is another thing that Huang Laifu is concerned about, which is the issue of tree planting in the territory of Laoyingbao and Pianguanbao.In the past, the trees in Liangbao were planted, but due to the low rainfall and drought in the territory, it was always difficult for the trees to survive.Without trees, in turn, water on the surface cannot be retained, forming a vicious circle.

At the beginning of the year, Huang Laifu found a way to plant trees in later generations by checking his laptop.That is to chop the sapling head and foot into a bare pole, leave the buds, paint the top to prevent water from evaporating, and then soak the roots in an empty tank to prevent water seepage from the roots.Then put water in the tank, and put the tank and the tree together in the tree pit for planting.

In later generations, Pianguan County used this method to change the bare appearance of the territory into green trees and rivers.Huang Laifu copied it over, but didn't know how effective it would be at the time.But at this moment, it seems that this method of planting trees has a significant effect.

Not to mention that most of the saplings I saw in front of me survived, the old Yingbao hereditary Qianhu Shize, who was in charge of this matter, was also very excited, and the wrinkles on his face were stretched out. He said to Huang Laifu: "Your Excellency is really clever. Usually, I wait for the seedlings to grow. Trees are always planted on one slope and die on the other. After using the tree planting method of adults, more than [-]% of the forest seedlings will survive. If this is the case, I am afraid that it will not take a few years for the old camp fort and the remote area to be full of trees. .With trees, there will be more water everywhere, and with water, farmland can be irrigated. This is all the work of adults.”

As soon as Shi Ze finished speaking, the surrounding old camp generals Liu Zhengwei, Liang Zhiping, Xie Qingkui, and Pianguan Fort general Jiang Ming'an all complimented him, and Huang Laifu accepted their compliments with a smile.

Just kidding, I come from a later age, it was an era of information explosion, and I brought a laptop, if I can't change everything around me, then I don't have to mess around.

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Finally, Huang Laifu also met with a group of merchants in the Laoyingbao official office who were running reclamation farms outside the Great Wall. At the beginning of the year, Huang Laifu had discussed with merchants from Wuzhaibao and other places to develop Qingshui River and Zhungeer Banner outside the Great Wall first. , and then gradually implemented its own colonization plan outside the Great Wall.

In the discussion plan between Huang Laifu and the merchants at the beginning of the year, Huang Laifu secretly provided military protection and sold weapons, while those merchants tried their best to manage the farmland, and everyone paid a certain percentage of the final income.

At present, the income from growing grain is extremely high. With Huang Laifu's protection, the merchants in Wuzhaibao are scrambling to recruit manpower and go to Qingshuihe and Zhungeer Banner to operate. After nearly a year of operation, many people have already The situation has been opened up. Not only have many places been detected, but also many farmlands have been reclaimed one after another.

Among the 63 mu of arable land in Qingshui River, along several larger rivers such as Qingshui River, Hun River, and Guli Banji River, tens of thousands of mu of land have been reclaimed. There are also 128 million mu of natural pastures, many of which have been developed into livestock farms, imitating Wuzhai Fort, and vigorously raising pigs and sheep.Especially the Qu family and the Kang family accounted for more than half of the operating land.

In Zhungeer Banner, there are 178 million mu of arable land, and now nearly 800 mu of land has been reclaimed, and wheat can be planted next year.Among the [-] million mu of land suitable for forest and grass, many grasslands have been opened up as livestock farms to raise cattle and sheep.

The arable land and grassland in these two places alone can bring a lot of benefits to Huang Laifu and the merchants, not to mention that there are 18 billion tons of coal, 6 million tons of refractory clay, and more than 20 billion tons of limestone in Qingshui River.What's even more frightening is the territory of Zhungeer Banner. Not to mention that the Yellow River flows through 248 billion cubic meters of water every year, the mineral resources here are even more astonishing. There are 544 billion tons of coal reserves, 50 billion tons of limestone reserves, and 1 billion tons of aluminum alum. The total soil reserves are [-] million tons.

These resources will of course belong to Huang Laifu in the future.

In Qingshui River and Zhungeer Banner alone, the conditions of various land and pastures are very rich, which can support a large population. Compared with the richer Hetao area, the conditions of these two places are not ranked high.

Some Huang Laifu couldn't understand why the nomads who had occupied the land for thousands of years still couldn't support themselves and often entered the Central Plains to rob?Is it true that nomads have their own natural inferiority?
The merchants have been operating the two places for nearly a year, and things have gone smoothly so far. I don’t know if it’s because of Huang Laifu’s shocking grasslands. After the shareholder is Huang Laifu, no matter whether it is the Mongolian tribes of the Sanniangzi tribe or the Mongolian tribes of the Hetao tribe, there is no sign of harassing these reclamation farms.

Things are going well, and the land outside the Great Wall is extremely vast, and there are many fertile lands that can be operated. More and more merchants have joined this plan.

After listening to the reports from the merchants, Huang Laifu was also very encouraged. He encouraged the merchants to be more courageous and take a longer step. If the captives dare to come and harass us, once our heavenly soldiers from Wuzhaibao and Laoyingbao arrive, their tribes will be turned into ashes, the men will be captured as serfs, and the women will be captured as military prostitutes."

All the merchants laughed out loud, and they said that what Mr. Zong Bing said was really interesting.

Huang Laifu also laughed. To be honest, he felt very relaxed with these merchants, perhaps because he was a merchant in his later life.

The atmosphere that followed was even more joyful. Both the Qu family and the Kang family were planning to invest more and cultivate more farmland and pastures.And Huang Laifu also promised them to provide them with more weapons and provide them with better security guarantees.

However, the biggest problem right now is the problem of manpower. To operate Qingshuihe and Zhungeer Banner alone, a large number of farmers are needed. Right now, the surplus manpower in Laoyingbao and Pianguanbao has been wiped out.But there is still a lack of a large number of Tun Ding.

Merchants all sighed when they talked about this matter. Right now there are countless refugees from the Ming Dynasty, and there are nearly ten million people in the north and south, but there are still too few people who are willing to go beyond the Great Wall. Huang Laifu is also thinking about it. In the land of Hetao, it seems that the Ming version of the "Homestead Law" will be put on the agenda as soon as possible.

March 1592, 12 AD.

After returning from Laoyingbao, accompanied by his third brother-in-law Tian Dafu, Huang Laifu inspected the land of Shenchibao again. There are Shenchibao Iron Works and Shenchibao Coal Mine. There was a bloody suppression here.

Facts have proved that Huang Laifu's approach is correct.Not to mention that the local households and miners now have stable jobs and live a well-fed life. Even the current iron factory and coal mine are thriving, and they are developing steadily every month.

After all, after one year, the iron factory and coal mine can provide Huang Laifu with an income of at least 20 taels of silver every year. After the dividends are shared by all parties, it is by no means a minority that will fall into Huang Laifu's coffers.

This is just the minerals in Shenchi Castle. In the future, if all the castles under Huang Laifu's management and the minerals outside the Great Wall are developed, Huang Laifu doesn't know how much money will be waiting for him.

On December 12, Huang Laifu returned to Wuzhai Fort after inspecting the surrounding area.

And on this day, tens of thousands of reinforcements from Xuanfu Town and Datong Town led by Ye Mengxiong, Li Rusong and others arrived at Wuzhai Fort. They came via Kelan Prefecture and entered Wuzhaibao on the morning of the 9th.

(End of this chapter)