Raising chickens and pigs and digging for wild vegetables, the county magistrate's promotion wa

Chapter 357 The Chain of Suspicion Regarding Soil Fertility

Watching Park Deok-hwan and Park Sung-sung leave, Yang Shaofeng chuckled, then turned back to the Penglai County government office and began writing a memorial to Emperor Zhu, "Respectfully requesting the dispatch of laborers."

After all, labor dispatch is not just about sending one or two people, but could very well involve tens of thousands or even more. Once these Koreans flood into the Ming Dynasty, the first problem they will face is food. It is impossible not to make preparations in advance.

Of course, for Yang Shaofeng, preparing food for the Koreans was much simpler than preparing food for the people of the Ming Dynasty.

When preparing food for the people of the Ming Dynasty, we also had to consider staple foods and vegetables. Even if there was only a little bit of chicken, duck, fish and meat, we had to find a way to provide them with some nutrition.

But it's not so complicated with Koreans. You can just mix dogwood mustard with dry food or rice. Fish caught from the river or sea can be boiled and made into a hearty dish. Leftover fish bones can be dried, ground into powder, and then mixed with some starch and fish meat to make fish balls. Add some seaweed and you have a pot of seafood soup.

Damn it, if you calculate it that way, the Korean laborers consume more meat than the people of the Ming Dynasty, and they're almost as much as those forced laborers who pretended to be Japanese pirates.

Yang Shaofeng finished writing the memorial while cursing and swearing. After sealing it, he immediately summoned Lame Wu and ordered, "Have someone send it to the Office of Transmission by fast horse. Also, have someone summon the magistrate of Qixia County."

If Penglai County was like begging with a mountain of gold in Yang Shaofeng's eyes, then Qixia County was truly like begging with a broken bowl in his hand.

After all, Penglai County is located by the sea. Even if its agriculture is underdeveloped, it has marine fishery resources to rely on. As long as the household registration restrictions and other messy shackles are removed, Penglai County will be able to develop quickly.

Qixia County, on the other hand, has too many mountains, with more than 2,500 peaks of all sizes. It is near the sea but not on the coast. If it wants to make a living from the land, the land is too barren. Moreover, it suffers from drought six times in ten years. When there is no drought, the mountainous terrain causes the water level to rise and fall rapidly during the rainy season, and flash floods often occur.

A combination of various messy factors has made it difficult for Qixia County to develop, even if restrictions such as household registration are removed.

……

The day after Park Deok-hwan and Park Sung-sung left, Lu Buping, the magistrate of Qixia County, rushed to the Penglai County government office.

Yang Shaofeng first gestured for Lu Buping to sit down, then went straight to the point and asked, "Has the land been allocated? Have the household registration books and land ownership books been registered?"

Lu Buping cupped his hands and replied, "Your Excellency, the land has been allocated to the people, with each household receiving fifteen mu. The household registers and land registers have also been properly recorded, but..."

Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement and asked, "But what?"

Lu Buping said carefully, "However, most of the land in Qixia County is relatively barren. Right now, we can still try to select the best land to distribute to the people. But as the population gradually increases, there will not be enough good land to go around, and the inferior land will become even more scarce..."

Nobody wants inferior land.

After all, it's all fifteen mu of land. Based on the standard that three to five mu of land can feed one person, the grain produced by fifteen mu of good land can feed a family of three, and in a good year, there will be a surplus. However, the grain produced by fifteen mu of inferior land may be difficult to feed two people, let alone how much grain is left over.

Land reallocation?

The redistribution of land is simply setting a time limit, combining good and bad land together, and then redistributing it. For example, if one acre of good land is allocated, it must be paired with a acre of bad land, so that the people have both good and bad land, thereby ensuring relative fairness.

However, there is one major variable in this land redistribution game: human nature.

For example, if Zhang San has fifteen acres of fertile land, he knows that the government will take away his land in two or three years and then draw lots again. He may draw his original land or land that has been cultivated by someone else.

So, will Zhang San still cherish the land's fertility in the next two or three years? Will he still work as hard as before to fertilize the land?

The answer is most likely no.

Because Zhang San doesn't know whose land he will seize, nor does he know whether the land was cultivated with care or fertile soil.

Therefore, Zhang San might desperately exploit the soil's fertility, and might even stop fertilizing the land for the last two or three years, leaving the manure for the redistributed land.

So here's the problem: Zhang San can suspect whether others cherish the land, and Li Si can do the same, creating a vicious cycle that forces Wang Ermazi to be suspicious even if he doesn't want to.

The end result is that this chain of suspicion is no longer simply a matter of human nature; it has become a way of survival that ordinary people have no choice but to adopt in order to ensure their own survival.

Even Liu, the big boss, has to call him an expert.

Of course, this problem is not entirely without a solution.

Yang Shaofeng smiled and said, "I've called you here today to resolve this issue."

Lu Buping was overjoyed and bowed to Yang Shaofeng, saying, "Please enlighten me, Your Excellency!"

Yang Shaofeng smiled and waved his hand, saying, "First, Qixia County will open a small iron smelting workshop in the future, which will be used to produce farm tools such as plows and hoes."

The old man once said, "Self-reliance leads to abundance."

It was unrealistic to expect the imperial court to allocate plows and hoes to Dengzhou. After all, the Ming Dynasty had more than a thousand prefectures and counties, and the people in each county needed plows. The imperial court could not ignore the other prefectures and counties and allocate all the means of production to Dengzhou.

The idea that people can work hard for several years and save enough money to buy a plow is utter nonsense. After all, Qixia County is a terrible place that suffers from drought six out of ten years and floods occasionally. People struggle to even fill their stomachs, so how can they save enough money to buy a plow?

Therefore, Yang Shaofeng's plan was to establish an iron smelting workshop, a small coal mine, and a small cement workshop in each of the ten counties under Dengzhou Prefecture, following the model of five small industries.

It doesn't matter if we can't produce fertilizer; at worst, we'll just reduce the number of small-scale fertilizer plants to four.

After the four small workshops are completed, money and grain will be allocated from the treasury to produce a batch of farm tools such as plows and hoes.

As the saying goes, "If you want to do something well, you must first have the right tools."

First, we should popularize farming tools such as plows and hoes. This will improve the efficiency of farming and save people time and effort.

Then they were sent to work in the workshop.

We'll arrange school district housing for them later.

Let them work 996.

Yang Shaofeng shook his head slightly, banishing these chaotic thoughts from his mind, and continued, "Secondly, I have already sent someone to Ningyang County to fetch an imperial physician to Dengzhou."

"After he arrives, I will ask him to go to Qixia County to see if there is any suitable place to grow medicinal herbs. If it is some wasteland or land that cannot be used to grow crops, we will fence it off in the name of the government and let the people grow medicinal herbs in their spare time."

This can be considered an experiment. After all, medicinal herbs require all sorts of different growing environments. Some prefer sunshine, some prefer shade, some prefer drought, and some prefer water. Qixia County's topography is complex enough, so growing medicinal herbs seems like a viable solution.

"Third, I will have people search for some fruit tree saplings, especially apples."