Chapter 467: An Account
The discovery of corn was undoubtedly a great thing for Zhou Xu.
The current staple food of their Great Zhou is potatoes. Corn can also be considered a staple food, but it is not quite the same as potatoes.
Potatoes mainly provide them with carbohydrates, while corn can provide rich dietary fiber.
As long as corn can be grown in large quantities and added to the diet of the people of Da Zhou, it can effectively improve the dietary nutrition in their daily diet.
Besides that, the most important thing is that this thing is easy to grow and has a high yield!
For Zhou Xu, who had just expanded his population by recruiting a large number of mountain tribes a few years ago, his arrival was just in time! He immediately gave the planting task to Zhao Geng, the Minister of Agriculture.
After finishing the instructions here, Zhou Xu turned and looked at the soldier who presented the corn.
"Thank you for your hard work on this journey. I will give you 100 coins as a reward. Shi Lei has made a great contribution by discovering the corn. I will give you 500 coins as a reward, plus a piece of silk."
"Thank you for the reward, my king!"
The successful weaving of silk really saved Zhou Xu a lot of trouble in rewarding people.
At this stage, the output of silk is still very small, and it will not be put on the market for sale at all. If you want to get it, you can only get it through Zhou Xu's reward.
This greatly increases the value of the reward.
At the same time, underwear made of silk is much more comfortable than linen and animal skins, which makes it practical, so that the things he gave as rewards are not completely useless.
After the court meeting, Zhou Xu, who was still unaware of the battle situation on the front line, continued to develop his own rear area. After harvesting the corn, he was in a very good mood and even hummed a little tune along the way.
Since the expeditionary force set out, Zhou Xu's mood has been so cheerful that it can be said that he has rarely been so cheerful.
Although the battlefield is in the opposite world, as of now, it has no impact on them at all, and they can continue to develop as usual.
But that is not the case.
Ever since the expeditionary force set out, the resources of the entire Great Zhou have been tilted towards the front line.
Various departments in the rear, such as the agricultural department and the ordnance department, are providing services to the expeditionary forces.
The imbalance of resources directly led to the fact that the actual development efficiency of their Great Zhou rear area was extremely slow and could not be improved at all.
Summer was almost over and autumn was approaching, but there had been basically no development within their Great Zhou. It was incomparable to the rapid development of last year.
There is no doubt that this is the disadvantage of war, and its impact on the efficiency of rear-end development is too great.
But at the same time, Zhou Xu knew clearly in his heart that facing the potential threat of the Lizardmen, he did not have much choice.
In this wave, the ratmen on the opposite side held back the large army of lizardmen, which was already a great thing for him.
Otherwise, based on the Lizardmen's military strength, he would have been forced to abandon several villages and take all the people to the mountains for refuge.
Once it comes to this, half of his Great Zhou’s foundation will be destroyed.
Moreover, the steep mountain and forest environment can only impose certain restrictions on large creatures like the Ankylosaurs, and has basically no effect on Lizardman Infantry or even Dragoon Cavalry.
In fact, the lizard people who have lived in the rainforest environment all year round can probably adapt to fighting in the mountain environment.
At that time, facing the threat of the Lizardmen, it is hard to say whether he can withstand the pressure and develop by hiding deep in the mountains.
Zhou Xu felt that there was a high probability that he would be in trouble.
Zhou Xu cheered up and put aside some unnecessary worries. He was in a good mood today and quickly immersed himself in the new day's work.
While Shi Lei was sending back the newly discovered crop, corn, he also asked Zhou Xu whether he wanted to continue exploring deeper into the mountains.
Obviously, there are still places to explore in those continuous mountains.
Now it seems that the main component of the world fragment they are in is the mountain area! The Gobi and grassland outside the mountains are actually just a corner of this world fragment.
This corner may only occupy one-third or even one-quarter of this fragment of the world. Who can say for sure?
After thinking about it for a while, Zhou Xu approved Shi Lei's request.
Zhou Xu believed that in this fragment of the world, their Great Zhou should be the strongest force, and no primitive tribe could be their opponent.
Therefore, this decision is not that risky for him.
Under this premise, annexing other primitive tribes is his current main means of increasing population.
At this moment, for the Da Zhou, which needs to continue recruiting soldiers and also needs more labor to maintain internal development, the incorporation work must not stop.
As for the method of increasing population through internal childbirth, it has been said before that the efficiency is too low and it simply cannot keep up with their development pace at this stage. They may even lose part of their labor force due to childbirth.
This also made Zhou Xu, who was in urgent need of labor, not advocate this.
Of course, he didn't stop it.
After all, for people of this era, the only thing they do every day besides working, eating, and sleeping is to have children.
It would be somewhat against nature if he banned childbearing in order to keep women in the labor force.
In this way, Zhou Xu has always maintained a laissez-faire attitude towards this matter.
Before, there were very few women in their organization, so this problem was not obvious.
But the situation is different now. Last winter, they obtained a large number of women by incorporating other tribes.
Counting the time, almost half a year has passed.
During this period, every village reported that someone was pregnant. The one with the biggest belly now is probably almost five months pregnant, right?
During this period, just as Zhou Xu predicted, the pregnant women experienced a decrease in labor force and loss of labor force, and suffered multiple miscarriages. The fetuses in their bellies were not saved, and some pregnant women even almost died due to miscarriage.
Even the latest report submitted contains a new case.
Zhou Xu was helpless about this. He had no choice. This was the way the times were.
Not to mention their primitive age, even if you go a few generations further, miscarriages among pregnant women and stillbirths among children are not uncommon things.
Why did people have so many children in the past? To put it bluntly, isn't it just gambling on the odds?
If you are pregnant with three babies, one will survive; if you have three children, one will grow up healthy; if you have three children, one will survive.
To put it nicely, it's called spreading branches and leaves, but to put it bluntly, isn't it just a settlement? With a sigh, Zhou Xu gave a reply to the report on the pregnant woman's miscarriage, asking the village chief to send some food to the pregnant woman and grant her a period of vacation so that she can take good care of herself.
Materials are consumed, but labor is reduced. Why don't you think he advocates this? (End of this chapter)
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