Chapter 147 Farming is so easy

When Lu Zhaoshi returned to the village with Wei Shutong and others, he saw that the appearance of Huanggou Village had changed drastically. If he had not been there before, he would have doubted that this was not Huanggou Village.

The village is full of bamboo pipes connected to household water supply systems. The clear stream water flows along the bamboo pipes to the vegetable ponds and water tanks in front of the farmers' courtyards, which is indeed very convenient.

Twenty or thirty more water tanks were added to the vermicelli factory yard, and the bamboo poles for drying were densely packed with vermicelli of various colors. The scene was spectacular.

The factory was steaming hot. People were kneading dough on the table, people were busy scooping vermicelli in front of the stove, and someone was pouring cold water into the cold water pot next to them, scooping out the cooled vermicelli and taking it out to dry.

The aroma of tea oil wafted from the oil mill next door, where several strong men were working.

Everything is so vibrant. It is almost early winter and everyone is sweating profusely.

Seeing the governor, the villagers were no longer as reserved and uneasy as last time. Instead, they nodded at Lu Zhaoshi and grinned, "Sir!"

"Well, you guys are busy, let me take a look!" Lu Zhaoshi waved his hand and said kindly.

In front of the special envoy, these are all real. The busier the villagers are, the more sense of accomplishment Lu Zhaoshi feels.

Wei Shutong and Li Boyan were shocked.

On the way to Wu County, I saw many villagers drying these things in their yards. There were not many, so it didn’t feel anything special.

But the entire village of Huanggou, together with the personnel sent by the county government and the state government, worked together to produce the product.

For the ancient times when family handicrafts were the main means of production, this scale was much larger than that of the powerful and wealthy families.

Workers in the homes of the rich and powerful were forced to work for wages or a bite to eat.

It's different here. It's a village cooperative. Every household is the owner and works for themselves. Everyone is very motivated.

Looking at the tea oil and honey that have just been harvested in the village chief's yard, everyone is moved! These will be wealth once shipped out!

"So much honey? How many new beehives have you bought?" Lu Zhaoshi was overjoyed. Artificial beekeeping is feasible and can be promoted throughout Wuzhou.

"Later on, we placed forty or fifty of them. When the carpenters are free, we will make more and place them in the nearby mountains and forests. The scale will become larger and larger." Su Ying introduced.

"Well, not bad!" Lu Zhaoshi nodded continuously. "This is more valuable than vermicelli noodles, requires less effort, and makes more money."

"Yes, if the whole Wuzhou develops in the future, maybe honey will no longer be valuable!" Su Ying said with a smile.

"Oh, no, no! We have a lot of honey here, and many merchants come here. The price of honey will be cheaper than it is now, but with a large volume, the profit can only be more, not less!

Vermicelli, honey and tea oil, just these three things can bring farmers a lot of income every year.

If the crops in the fields can increase by another 10% or 20%, Wuzhou will be a paradise on earth, perhaps even the second Jiangnan!"

When Lu Zhaoshi was calculating the accounts one by one, he was actually calculating them for Wei Shutong to hear.

"Didn't you say you had set up an experimental field? Take me to see it!" Wei Shutong looked at everything in front of him and suddenly had an impulse. It would be great if he also had such a farm!

It’s hard to say whether it’s because it can bring huge wealth, or because everyone here has a vigorous and upward vitality, but in any case, it makes people want to have it.

"Please follow me!" Lu Zhaoshi lifted his official robe casually and walked out.

Wei Shutong and Li Boyan followed. Fu Zhong was curious and followed with Fu Wang to the Su family's land.

"Wow, this winter wheat is growing so strong!" Lu Zhaoshi exclaimed exaggeratedly.

The Su family's wheat seedlings grew thicker and denser than all the other wheat seedlings nearby.

Fu Zhong didn't know much about farming. He had passed by it when he went to Su's house with Su Ying before. He just thought it was good-looking and didn't pay much attention to it. He thought it belonged to some landlord's family. It turned out to be from the Su family.

"Mr. Su, your experimental field is very successful! I can promote it in Wuzhou next year." Lu Zhaoshi stroked his short beard proudly.

"What do you have to say about this experimental field?" Wei Shutong was attracted at this moment. With such an obvious contrast, he wanted to know what was going on.

"Uh, third brother, you come and explain to the guests. It's you who observes and records every day!" Su Bucheng waved to Su Lao San in the crowd.

"Yes, brother!" Su Laosan squeezed in and saluted Lu Zhaoshi and others.

"In addition to meticulous cultivation, the most important thing about our land is using humus as base fertilizer..."

Su Laosan explained the process of selecting rotten soil, cultivating wasteland, soaking winter wheat seeds, watering and fertilizing in between.

"No wonder the winter wheat grows so well!" Wei Shutong couldn't help but praise after hearing this.

These crops are grown with such care. This is just a newly reclaimed piece of wasteland. Once the land is mature, won’t the yield be even higher?

"Yes, now the lime kiln has been built. We will burn a lot of lime, then screen the humus and add slaked lime to disinfect pests and diseases. After the spring, all the land in the village will be covered with humus.

The pond has been dug, and the paddy fields will be added. Next year, we'll plant two crops of rice, and the yield will double. "Su Laosan is looking forward to the arrival of next year so he can plant rice early."

"Double?" Wei Shutong said in surprise. This was even more surprising than Jiang Dongli.

He had been in Lingnan for some time and had heard about the two-season rice. The yield of the second season was obviously not as good as that of the first season. How could it double?

"Yes! With humus as base fertilizer and deep plowing with Jiangdong plow, it is feasible to grow two crops of rice on a large scale. One piece of land can be used as two pieces of land!" Su Laosan said confidently.

"The climate here is warm, and we have two harvests a year. In the second harvest, we also use sowing and transplanting. Although it's a bit more laborious, the yield is comparable to the first harvest."

Except for Wang Yannian, everyone else present was shocked.

"Aying, can you really do it?" Hu Erlang was very excited. He grew up here and had never seen anything like this before.

"It's possible. The climate here is warm and the rice growing time is short. We can speed up the harvest of one season, plow the paddy fields, fertilize them and then plant the second season. Doubling the yield will not be a problem." Su Ying nodded.

"How could this be? Is it really possible? Why hasn't anyone planted it this way before?" Hu Erlang always felt that something was wrong. The second-season rice he saw did not need to be planted.

"The second-season rice in the past was not actually called second-season rice, but regenerated rice, which was rice stubble grown again in the paddy fields. The yield was not high.

We plowed the paddy fields again, replanted the rice seedlings, and repeated the entire process from the first season. As long as there is enough fertilizer, it's normal for the yield to double," Su Ying explained.

"In this case, the soil's fertility will be greatly depleted, and won't it be easy for it to become hardened and barren?" Hu Erlang asked.

"If the soil fertility is greatly depleted, you can take a break and plant beans to nourish the land, and then plant rice after a year or two. Anyway, beans can be harvested twice a year here, and the two plots of land can be rotated regularly, so the soil fertility will not be wasted. As long as there is no natural disaster, you can have a lot of harvest every year." Su Ying replied.

Wei Shutong and his companions were confused after hearing what they heard. They felt that farming was so easy and there seemed to be a bumper harvest every year.

Fu Zhong even wanted to drop what he was doing and run back to farm for the Empress.