Chapter 257 Spring Ploughing (II)
The wild buffaloes that were domesticated last year, in addition to being used to pull carts and provide transportation, have a very important function, which is to be used to plow the land and improve the efficiency of field cultivation.
Leading the ox into the field and holding the plow behind, Zhou Xu demonstrated it briefly, and Zhao Geng's eyes lit up with uncontrollable surprise.
Obviously, he has seen the value of this thing! "This cow's strength and physical strength are far greater than those of us. One ox can probably do the work of five farmers in a day!"
Looking at the excited Zhao Geng, Zhou Xu smiled.
"Five farmers? You underestimate this ox and plow. It is worth more manpower!"
It hasn't been measured specifically yet, so Zhou Xu naturally can't give a precise number, but what he can be sure of is that the work efficiency of this ox and the plow is definitely not comparable to that of five farmers.
"More importantly, this ox and plow only need one farmer to operate it, which not only improves labor efficiency but also saves manpower and frees up manpower."
"Then how many cows do you plan to give us, Chief?"
Zhao Geng looked nervous when he asked this question. This was undoubtedly the key point.
You know, cattle are also very important resources here, and transportation between villages now relies on ox carts.
At this time when winter has just passed and all the villages are in a state of disrepair, and the Huangshan Village has also opened up new territory and needs to carry out large-scale construction, their internal transportation capacity is already tight. How many cows can be transferred to their farming group?
In response, Zhou Xu extended a hand.
"Five. I plan to first transfer five oxen and a plow for you to use."
Zhao Geng was immediately delighted when he got this answer.
This number can be said to be clearly beyond his expectations.
"Thank you, Chief!"
"The remaining four oxen will arrive soon. You can take them over then."
With the five oxen now deployed, the farming group naturally no longer needs to compete with other departments for hard laborers. This is much more useful than hard labor.
Of course, now that the oxen and tools have been given, Zhou Xu will definitely not fall behind in the work that needs to be done.
"Zhao Geng, after recruiting the people from the mountains, according to the latest statistics, our internal population has reached 379 people. But you know, the food that is only enough to feed this small population is not enough for me."
Having said this, Zhou Xu paused, then looked at Zhao Geng seriously.
"I need you to grow enough food for eight hundred people!"
Now, before he could even feel happy about the help of the five oxen, the next task that came right after made him see stars.
Then he subconsciously reminded Zhou Xu that growing so much food but not being able to preserve it properly would be a waste in the end. It was not only a waste of food, but also a waste of manpower, material resources, and time.
But when the words came to his lips, Zhao Geng, obviously realizing something, swallowed them back.
He remembered that he had a conversation with the chief long before winter.
They also talked about the food issue at that time.
Because he had to mobilize troops to recruit the population in early spring, the leader ordered him to reclaim the land with 500 people before winter.
Facts have proved that their leader's judgment at the time was indeed correct. As it stands now, they need fields of this size.
Under this premise, the new year has just begun. Who can guarantee that their leader will not recruit more people next?
The chief undoubtedly took this into consideration when he asked him to grow enough food for 800 people.
They can't wait until all the people are incorporated before they start to cultivate the land in a hurry, right? It will be too late then.
Things like this need to be done in advance.
At this moment, what Zhao Geng was most grateful for was that they did not slack off this winter.
As early as winter, they had slowly reclaimed the field that covered 500 people. Now they just needed to turn the soil over and start sowing.
Otherwise, when their leader gives him a new mission, won’t he explode on the spot?
But even so, the field reclamation work of the remaining 300 people still became their most important task at the moment.
It is completely different from the situation where there are already fields and they are just being loosened. To reclaim fields, one has to do it on wasteland, which makes the whole work more laborious and time-consuming.
The five oxen belonging to their leader are not so easy to capture.
"Zhao Geng, obey your orders!"
He had no choice but to obey the order.
Looking at the sad-looking Zhao Geng, Zhou Xu smiled and patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry, I won't just ignore you. You should cultivate the fields first, and then I'll give you something good in a while!"
Zhou Xu's words cheered Zhao Geng up a bit.
Although their leader often arranged tasks that were almost like forcing people to death, he had to admit that their leader was indeed a man of his words and often gave them surprises.
For example, the oxen and plows in front of us.
Without them, how could he grow enough food to feed 800 people? He would just find a crooked tree and hang himself! After leaving the farming area, Zhou Xu mainly stayed in the equipment department for the next few days, except for resting.
Although the drawings of the waterwheel had been in Zhuang Mengdie's hands for a long time and she had studied it for a long time, this was the first time she actually started to make it.
In order to help Zhuang Mengdie improve his efficiency and avoid detours, Zhou Xu felt that he still needed to keep an eye on him and let Zhuang Mengdie ask him directly if he encountered any problems.
When he had nothing to do, Zhou Xu would lean on a recliner to rest.
At this point in time, the mantra power he had consumed in order to test the effect of the new mantra's 'conferring' had not yet been recovered.
After being a little busy every day, my brain starts to get tired.
Here, it is worth mentioning that he took the time to use his "Skeleton Soldier Control" mantra yesterday, and it turned out that the mantra was still in his possession.
The effect of "granting" is indeed just to allow the other party to obtain a part of one's own abilities, not to directly obtain the mantra.
This is undoubtedly a good thing for him, because it means that as long as he wants, he can allow his subordinates to have a certain degree of truth power!
It was extremely difficult to perform this mantra. After using it on Shi Lei once, it almost drained the mantra power from his body.
Now Zhou Xu only hopes that this situation will improve when his mantra power becomes stronger in the future.
With this thought in mind, Zhou Xu had already begun to think about which mantra to give to whom.
Not to mention the ordinary members, the generals under his command must be arranged for them!
(End of this chapter)
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