Chapter 1053 Food Industry

At this moment, Luo Chong frowned and pondered when he heard the question.

You should know that the question asked by Yun Zhi is not a new question. It was discussed together before the beginning of spring when they just knew about the tractor. At that time, Luo Chong also said that these agricultural machinery would not be promoted in the short term.

However, this is a different time.

Luo Chong's original intention of establishing this mechanized farm was actually to provide food for the prisoners of war and civilians in the north, so that the war in the north could be fought without worries, but now the situation is different.

The north, which originally needed a lot of food, no longer needs to send the food needed by the slaves to the north because the slaves were sent down.

Although the 30,000 slaves transferred from the north to the south still need the food of the Han tribe to feed them, the current situation is that many of them have the ability to support themselves.

The more than 10,000 slave boys are currently reclaiming wasteland and planting land. The food they produce themselves is enough for them to use. The female slaves are also working for the Han tribe in the garment factory. Although they do not directly produce food, they are not eating for free.

Not to mention the other young and strong male slaves, there is no way they can have free meals.

Although they still need food supply from the Han tribe after arriving in various places, in fact, because of their own labor output, they have relieved a lot of pressure on the Han tribe.

There is no need to send so much food from the north, just enough food for the people. Slaves from all over the country can be supplied from warehouses nearby, and there is no need to go out from the land of Liuyang County.

In other words, most of the output from this mechanized farm can be stored directly at this time, and there is no need to rush to transport it to various places.

The burden on the farm is suddenly lightened, which will inevitably lead to a surge in food and a decrease in demand in the future. In this way, if this kind of mechanized farm continues to be promoted in various places, it will only lead to a sharp increase in food reserves.

What are the benefits of more food? Of course, you don’t have to worry about going hungry.

But there are also disadvantages to having too much food. If you can’t eat it all, you can only save it. If you still can’t eat it all, it will rot. This is because the Han tribe currently has no food export market.

Of course, they can also sell grain to the grassland, but the consequence of doing so is that the herders on the grassland will no longer lack food, and the population will surge, and even become a scourge on the grassland in

the future. In this way, rather than letting the grain rot or use it to "support the enemy", it is better not to plant it, saving so much trouble.

Of course, the above are all relatively negative views. Luo Chong will naturally not do such a thing as letting the grain rot in his hands. Even if the grain surges, he has a way to digest these grains.

Since there are too many staple foods, then by adjusting the planting varieties, more grains used as side dishes can be planted. Even if it is staple food, it can be converted into other side dishes through industrial means.

For example, grow more corn and sorghum, use corn to feed pigs, and use straw to feed cattle and sheep, so as to increase the meat production of the Han tribe. With more meat, the physical fitness of the people can be strengthened. Needless to say, sorghum can be used to produce liquor or medical alcohol, which is also a very useful side dish. Moreover, if the Han tribe does not implement the alcohol restriction order, then liquor will become a side dish with a huge consumption.

When it comes to wine, we have to mention another crop, that is, highland barley, or barley. Barley is the best material for making beer, and the Han tribe does not have beer at present. If barley beer can be made, then in the foreseeable future, beer will definitely become a more popular drink than liquor.

This can be seen from the modern market. Once beer is industrialized, it means that the Han tribe needs to produce more barley to maintain supply. Similarly, those wheat straws are also high-quality feed for livestock, which can add a wave of meat to the Han tribe.

In addition to wine, there are other ways to eat staple food. For example, flour made from wheat can be pre-made into dried noodles for sale, or even made into fried instant noodles for industrial production, or made into biscuits, shaqima and other pastry snacks, to add some side dishes to the people of the Han tribe in addition to the daily meals.

Even rice can be made into snacks such as popcorn and flower rice balls, but the consumption is relatively small.

As the staple food that is currently the easiest to store and has the longest storage time in the Han tribe, rice is better to be the staple food.

Then if we add the above methods of consuming side dishes, and build more mechanized farms and large-scale breeding farms in various places, and then build some supporting side dish processing plants, the extra grain does not seem to be impossible to consume, but can also promote the development of the food industry of the Han tribe, which forms a complementary effect.

Thinking of this, what else can be said, just do it, no matter how much grain there is, Luo Chong can find a way to digest it.

"Well, it's not impossible to promote it in various places. Before, I was always worried that there would be too much grain to eat in the future, but when it really comes to the time when there is too much to eat, we can also think of other ways to digest it, such as making more wine.

"Not only sorghum wine, but also fruit wine and beer can be made at that time. At the same time, we can also collect taxes from these wineries. Well, and the tax on alcohol cannot be too low. No, it's not tax collection, but government-run, just like salt and iron, all alcohol must be government-run in the future.

"Our tribe is officially responsible for production and wholesale, and the specific retail can be left to the people, but the winery must all belong to the tribe. This aspect will be a very large part of the tribe's fiscal revenue in the future."

Luo Chong pondered for a while, and immediately planned the future industrial and agricultural layout for several county governors beside him. The Han tribe currently has two huge financial pillars,

salt and iron. If they can add another one, the country's wealth will undoubtedly be further improved. "Then what the leader means is that in the future, we will promote farms in various places. Plant more sorghum and wheat? Not rice and corn?" Yun Zhi listened to Luo Chong's words and asked uncertainly.

"Of course, corn must be planted. Even if people can't eat it all, it can be used to feed livestock and provide more meat for the people. As for rice, rice is not needed. We don't plant rice in our official farms. First, the current rice mechanization technology is not mature yet, and we can only plant some dryland crops. Second, because rice is the staple food, the staple food should be planted by the people, and we can just make some side dishes." Luo Chong thought about it and said again.

"Then what the leader means is that we don't have to just purchase one or two tractors from local government offices and rent them to the people as we said before? Instead, each place will host a government-run farm similar to this farm?" Lu Guangzhu also asked.

"That's right. We can build a large-scale comprehensive farm in each place, integrating planting and breeding. Breeding provides fertilizer for planting, and planting provides feed for breeding. This is called resource recycling.

"While each place is planning to build its own farm, it is also necessary to plan a food industrial zone to prepare for the production of non-staple food in the future, but this is not the focus at the moment."

Luo Chong thought about it, analyzed the overall situation in his mind, and said to the few people again.

"If you want to run such a farm, first send someone to find a place and plan the place well. Mechanized farming requires convenient irrigation conditions and a large area of ​​fertile plains. In addition, there must be a certain population base in your jurisdiction. If there are too few people, don't consider it.

"If you have made up your mind, submit your written application report first. I will send a specialist to verify and investigate. After the investigation is completed and the review is passed, you will be assigned drivers and the required agricultural machinery, as well as technical guidance."

After a pause, Luo Chong said again, "Don't think this is troublesome. The purpose of doing this is to prevent you from applying recklessly. You should know that some counties do not have such qualifications, such as Dongxin County, which is full of mining. The surrounding agricultural foundation is not good, and the development of water conservancy facilities has been relatively backward in recent years. It is not suitable for applying for such a large farm at present. However, Dongxin County will also start to transform in two years.

"Also, even if you submit the report now, I don't have extra agricultural machinery and drivers to give you. To tell you the truth, the orders for various vehicles in Xingang County in the first half of the year are already full, and they are all mainly for construction machinery. If they are completed smoothly, and the production expansion begins in the second half of the year, maybe there will be a chance to produce some agricultural machinery for you.

"In general, even if we can build agricultural machinery in the second half of the year, you won't be able to catch up with the farming season this year. Even if we send you the machinery in winter, you won't be able to grow anything. In this

case, if you still want to run a farm, you can make preparations in advance in terms of water conservancy construction and planning for land reclamation." It must be said that the application process that Luo Chong said is very cumbersome, but the following is also true. The Han tribe has been in a period of rapid development. Plans can never keep up with changes, or the actual advancement speed can't keep up with the emergence of new plans. Often, the goal of the first plan has not been completed, and the second plan has been proposed, so everyone can only continue to work hard to catch up with the progress of the plan.

But then again, the only two political systems that used planned economy in Luo Chong's previous life have achieved great success in this regard. It is because of many development plans that the country's development can advance by leaps and bounds. One five-year plan can complete the layout of the industrialization foundation. In that world, it seems that only the Soviet Union and the new China have done this.

This is the horror of the planned economy, especially the new China, which only took three and a half years to complete the first five-year plan ahead of schedule and exceeded the target. It is simply the top disciple among the Soviet Union's younger brothers.

Several county governors also understood Luo Chong's meaning. Simply put, those who want to run a farm should go back and prepare first. There are no resources to support you this year, but there will be resources next year. At that time, it depends on

who is the most fully prepared. Seeing the value of large-scale integrated farms and getting the answers they want, several county governors did not continue to delay here. They have seen the benefits of the farm. Anyone who has a little ambition and wants to make some political achievements will apply for it, so they have to go back and prepare immediately.

Luo Chong was not in a hurry. He continued to live on the farm with his family for a few days. He waited until all the corn in the field was harvested and the tractor team began to rotate and plant the corn in the next field before he was ready to go home.

But before going home, he issued another order.

Plant potatoes on a large scale on the open space on the farm.

The Han tribe had some potatoes before, but they were all planted in the greenhouse. Now, after a few months, the first batch of potatoes has been harvested, and the quantity has increased several times. A few thousand kilograms have been harvested, but it is still not enough to promote it in the whole tribe, so they can only continue official breeding and promote it when there are enough.

In addition to the first batch of several thousand kilograms, there is also the batch of potatoes that Luo Chong asked You Fu to buy from the Baiwu tribe and prepare to send to You Ye in the north. It weighs several tons. Although the letter said that You Fu was told to prepare it for his brother, Luo Chong was still very domineering and directly deducted half of it.

After all, the population of Heyuan County in the north is so small. In comparison, the promotion of Luo Chong's side is definitely more important. It is not surprising that he only deducted half of it.

With this total of tens of thousands of kilograms of potatoes as seeds, the farm has planted 25 acres of potato fields at once this time, using more than 200 kilograms of seeds per acre, with an average of 4,000 plants per acre. I believe that by the fall of this year, we can harvest a large batch again, and maybe we can plant another season. After all, it is only the end of April now.

Luo Chong did not expect the Han tribe to use potatoes as a staple food in the future, but planned to promote potatoes as vegetables. You know, potatoes are also delicious when cooked.

It is not required that each household plant a certain amount of potatoes in the future, even if each family only plants one acre of land. At least every household has seeds and planting experience, so when they encounter an unimaginable disaster, the people of the Han tribe can rely on planting potatoes to survive.

After arranging the farm, Luo Chong took Xiaodie, Zhan Ying and the children back home, but he was not idle. Instead, he and Zhan Ying developed various non-staple foods that they had thought of before, such as beer and instant noodles, as well as popcorn and other foods. If these things can be made, then the future food industrialization will have a real foundation.

Of course, beer and instant noodles are not simple things. In comparison, biscuits are easier. Just mix some batter and bake them. After building an oven in the yard, Zhan Ying quickly made this food that Luo Chong called biscuits, which was deeply loved by children.

Luo Chong also thought about the tools and materials needed to brew beer based on his memories, as well as the steps.

When talking about beer, we have to talk about the taste of beer.

The earliest beer was called ale. At that time, beer tasted sour and always tasted spoiled. In fact, it was the taste of fermentation. Later, the Germans added hops to the sour ale, and ale became the refreshing taste with a slight bitterness that modern people are familiar with.

The source of this slight bitterness is hops. At the same time, ale with hops can also extend the shelf life. It can be said that it has become an important ingredient that beer cannot do without.

However, this kind of hops is also a traditional Chinese medicine in China. It happens that the Han tribe also has it, and it is in the garden of Luo Chong's house. It is one of the many medicinal materials that Tang Yao brought from the Tang tribe.

(End of this chapter)