79. Chapter 79
"none"
Summer passed by quickly, and autumn arrived in the blink of an eye.
Wheat matures the earliest, staggered with other crops, which can relieve the hard work of people who are busy harvesting.
The first year of wheat cultivation, the yield wasn't great. The plants grew lushly, but the ears were small, some with empty shells.
Disappointing as it was, overall it wasn't too bad. Compared to Qi You's first year of farming, when the harvest was barely enough to cover the seeds, the yield had at least doubled.
Thankfully, the Mongols and several other tribes, including the Ewenki, had never cultivated land before. They were already very satisfied with the harvest from their fields, and according to their custom, as soon as the wheat was stored in the warehouse, they would dance and sing to celebrate the harvest.
In addition to farming, they are also continuing to open up wasteland, build roads and dig canals. Even the boys who are grazing have lost a lot of weight now.
Qi You considered that they would have to harvest rice, potatoes, and sweet potatoes later, as well as some beans, sorghum, and millet. From spring to now, they have hardly had a single day of rest.
I usually only eat some mixed flour buns, which contain almost no oil or water. If I don’t replenish my energy, I will be exhausted.
The pigs have been raised for two years. This year, they have grown very fat with the help of sweet potato vines, weighing almost 200 kilograms.
Qi You planned to kill them for the New Year, half of which would be used as a snack for them, and the other half would be used to make use of the Oroqen people's expertise in making dried meat and sell it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in exchange for silver so that he could quickly open a school.
Qi You gritted his teeth and, taking advantage of the rainy day, reluctantly let them kill one. The tribes divided the meat and cooked it with radish and cabbage, making it as lively as Chinese New Year.
Fortunately, no one dared to drink this time, partly because of food shortages and the high cost of alcohol.
They bought as much as they could from the silver they had previously divided and the needles, thread, coarse cloth and other goods donated by the government's Welfare Bureau, as they were at such a rare bargain.
When Qi You saw their generosity, he was stunned, and then he couldn't help laughing.
It seems that no matter what era, no one can resist the temptation of cheapness.
It's better to buy more, I guess they also know that bargains are rare, and the court will eventually be unable to afford it, and there will be no such good things in the future.
Qi You suggested that they keep a portion of the new wheat they harvested and exchange the rest for black flour so that they could last until the rice and other grains were ripe and avoid going hungry.
As for the imperial court, Qi You didn't have much hope at all. He didn't know when the grain owed to him would be repaid.
The national treasury was always poor, the imperial court always lacked food. In addition, the navy had to be deployed on the Heilongjiang River, and military pay was indispensable.
Kangxi sent a letter, saying that he would not use armored soldiers in the navy this time. Firstly, they were not good at fighting at sea, and secondly, the cost of maintaining them was too high.
Qi You reclaimed wasteland and cultivated crops. Although the grain output was not satisfactory, Kangxi was very smart and saw the prospects.
Kangxi was reluctant to let this fertile ancestral land be occupied and cultivated by armored men at will without paying a single grain of grain.
However, since we need to send new troops, where should we send them from?
The Eight Banners soldiers basically did not know how to fight on water, and the battles with Zheng Jing were basically fought by soldiers left over from the former Ming Dynasty.
These soldiers were now elderly, most of them wounded, and about 70% had retired. The rest had become military officers and generals.
Most importantly, they were all Han Chinese. Kangxi believed that the Eight Banners were too powerful to be eliminated, but at the same time, he still trusted the bannermen to protect the country.
However, Kangxi could not reveal his true thoughts. After all, in addition to the Eight Banners Army, there was also the Green Camp.
The Green Camp was composed entirely of Han troops, and they adopted a hereditary military system, meaning that the entire family would serve as soldiers for generations, and if the father died, the son would take over.
Although the imperial court clearly favored the Bannermen's barracks in terms of military pay, for example, the expenditure of the Eight Bannermen's barracks was almost three times that of the Green Camp.
Kangxi was worried all the time that the Green Camp soldiers would become dissatisfied and take this opportunity to rebel.
Let's mobilize the Eight Banners soldiers. First, they don't know how to fight water fights, and second, they are more expensive to support than armored men.
Even if Kangxi reluctantly trusted the Green Camp soldiers, he still had to consider practical issues.
It was difficult for people from the south to adapt to the local climate when they came to the north, and they suffered a lot of losses before the war even started.
Finally, after much deliberation, Kangxi decided to transfer the Eight Banners troops from the north.
When Qi You saw Kangxi's arrangement, he immediately saw through his intention.
At its core, he was just leaving the Han people alone and worrying about his country and people.
Qi You couldn't control Kangxi, and he didn't have the time to do so. He stared at the rice and sweet potatoes in the fields all day, wishing he could stare them until flowers bloomed.
At a time when you are shivering every time you get up in the morning and evening, the rice can finally be harvested.
The leaves, grass and rice all turn golden, and against the backdrop of blue sky and white clouds, it is as beautiful as a vivid painting.
Qi You had seen too many beautiful sights, and although he didn't dislike them, he really didn't have time to appreciate them.
Rice must be harvested when the weather is good, otherwise when it rains, the rice will not only fall over, but will also sprout and become difficult to dry.
Women went to the fields early in the morning, wielding sickles to harvest the rice, exhausted to the point of being unable to straighten their backs. Men were busy bundling the rice and pushing it on carts to the threshing ground, where they threshed and dried it. Children followed with baskets, competing with the birds for the fallen ears of rice.
Qi You sat on the edge of the field, his hands on his knees, lost in thought.
Lin Daniu squatted beside him, watching the busy work in the fields. After a while, he said, "Seventh Prince, don't worry too much. After a few years of planting, things should get better."
The rice harvest was not good, far inferior to that of wheat.
Qi You had read records before that the successful cultivation of rice in the bitterly cold Northeast was the result of years of scientific research and continuous improvement of seeds.
If the rice seeds were not from Hokkaido, we probably wouldn’t even be able to recover the seeds.
Even so, Qi You was still a little depressed. He pulled the grass roots in his hand and said sadly: "I still have to study!"
When Lin Daniu saw that Qi You didn't answer the question, he stood there in a daze, unable to wrap his mind around it for a while.
The good harvest of potatoes in later generations is due to the great efforts of generations of agricultural scientists who have devoted themselves to scientific research, breeding and improvement, making them high-yielding and disease- and pest-resistant.
Despite this, there is still a lack of high-yielding and pest-resistant varieties for spring planting. Long-term storage remains a major challenge, and agricultural scientists are still diligently researching it.
Qi You had never been so deeply impressed by scientists like Yuan Lao. It was thanks to them that hybrid rice and various other hybrid crop varieties were created. Combined with modern fertilizers and pesticides, agricultural harvests were abundant.
Reading and studying science, rather than devoting oneself to studying eight-legged essays, is the only way to change the current situation.
Qi You stood up, brushed off the grass debris on his body, and said, "Let's go back. We still have sweet potatoes and yams."
Lin Daniu immediately laughed and said, "Potatoes are really easy to grow, and so are sweet potatoes."
A few days ago, Qi You asked Lin Daniu to dig some potatoes and sweet potatoes to check the harvest. Lin Daniu was pleasantly surprised to find that under one vine, there was a long bunch of sweet potatoes and potatoes!
Lin Daniu had never eaten sweet potatoes or yams before, so Qi You cooked some and invited him to eat with him. Even though they were boiled in water, he found them incredibly delicious.
Especially sweet potatoes, they taste sweet and much better than tasteless potatoes.
Qi You told him that potatoes can be eaten as food, but sweet potatoes cannot. This is because sweet potatoes can only fill the stomach and have no benefits. Eating too much will cause heartburn and is bad for the stomach.
Lin Daniu, however, believed that when people were starving, they would even eat tree roots and grass. Having sweet potatoes was already a blessing.
Qi You didn't explain much, because sweet potatoes have no nutrition and can only be eaten to avoid starvation. However, potatoes are different, as they are rich in starch and can be used as a staple food.
But potatoes are not so easy to grow.
Qi You said as he walked, "We can't plant so many potatoes next year, and we need to change the land for planting. Well, let's try the newly reclaimed land on the hillside. And the sweet potato field needs to be fertilized next year."
Lin Daniu thought of the sweet potato field, where the soil was obviously different from the rest, and said, "After planting the sweet potatoes, the land has become lumpy and not fertile at all. Although these things grow well, they eat a lot of fat. But Seventh Prince, why do we need to plant potatoes in a different field next year?"
Qi You couldn't explain the problem of seed degradation and said, "Potatoes are similar to sweet potatoes. They need a lot of fertilizer. If I plant them again next year, the land won't be good enough. Also, I plan to plant less rice next year and switch to intensive farming to use it as a test field."
Lin Daniu was used to farming. Qi You had mentioned the experimental fields when they were in Shunyi before. He quickly understood what he meant and said, "Yes, we still have to grow something that can fill our stomachs. If the rice harvest is not good next year, this land will be a waste."
Qi You smiled and said yes. He planned to send some potatoes and sweet potatoes back to the capital and ask Kangxi to order trial planting in Yunnan and other places.
However, Qi You did not hold much hope for this.
Sure enough, the Langtan Army sent sweet potatoes and yams to the Qianqing Palace. The rice and wheat harvests were poor, and Kangxi was also very happy to have these two things.
Sweet potatoes are okay, they are not rare. People in the palace know that eating too much is bad for the body, so they only try a little.
When Kangxi heard that potatoes could be used as a staple food, he was overjoyed and cheered loudly. But when his excitement faded, he began to hesitate.
It’s nothing but tax considerations.
The court would certainly not be able to collect grain taxes from the trial crops at first. If someone took advantage of the situation and used all the land to plant sweet potatoes and yams, the court would not be able to collect taxes.
Qi You's proposal also took this into consideration and proposed a solution: the court should prescribe in advance how much rice could be planted initially.
Kangxi knew very well that once there was profit to be made, the imperial ban would be just a piece of paper.
Moreover, most of the land is in the hands of landlords and powerful people, and ordinary people do not have much land.
The people's rebellion was not a big deal, but once he thought about the landlords and the powerful joining forces, Kangxi became restless.
After much consideration, Kangxi finally rejected Qi You's suggestion and only tried large-scale planting in the imperial farm.
Qi You smiled bitterly when he received Kangxi's letter.
The court was too poor to afford the loss of a year's tax revenue. He had already considered how the people below would respond, and the court could make adjustments based on the actual situation. When large areas of land were cultivated in the second year, taxes would be collected according to the original land.
The population of the Bannermen was still a very small minority, and the Qing Dynasty was still dominated by the Han people. The status of the Han people was lower than that of the Bannermen. Ultimately, it was the conflict between the Manchus and the Han that made Kangxi lose confidence.
Qi You could only comfort himself that it was better to plant the crops in the imperial farm than for Kangxi to ignore it completely.
Having earned some money from the Imperial Household Department and having some free time after the autumn harvest, Qi You took advantage of this time to have people build a school.
That evening, Qi You was returning to the courtyard from outside. Sabusu, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, was waiting there. He was stunned for a moment, then asked with a smile, "Is the military camp busy?"
Sabsu was filled with joy and said with a smile, "Busy, of course I'm busy. There's only one important matter, and no matter how busy I am, I have to come here in person to tell you."
Qi You looked Sabusu up and down, and said in surprise, "You're here just in time. I was just looking for you."
After entering the house, Degao served tea. Sabsu took only one sip and then put down the tea bowl impatiently.
The words came to his lips, but Sabusu swallowed his words and asked, "What does Seventh Prince want to see me about?"
Qi You talked about the school. "This matter cannot be delayed. No matter how much money we have, we must first set up the school. The school in Shunyi is running smoothly, and I have gained some experience. Other teachers with skills can be found in Shunyi when the time comes. The north is colder and more difficult, so we can give them more salary. I'll ask you to find teachers who can read and write among the exiled prisoners."
Sabusu agreed immediately. "This is a small matter. There are many scholars who have been exiled. They can't do anything, so if you can teach them, even if you don't pay them a salary, as long as you provide them with food and shelter, they will be grateful. But Seventh Prince, I heard that the harvest this year is not good, and I haven't seen you go to Zhangjiakou to fetch grain. If they don't even have enough to eat, how can they have the leisure to study and learn to read?"
The reclaimed wasteland belonged to each family. If the rice and wheat harvests were poor, it should be their own responsibility and had nothing to do with Qi You.
But if Qi You left them alone, they would have no food to eat and would definitely not stay to continue clearing wasteland and farming. In Qi You's estimation, he would have to subsidize and support them for at least two to three years.
Fortunately, this year's sweet potato and taro harvests were good enough to fill part of the food gap. As for next year, Qi You adjusted his planting methods, adding wheat and sweet potatoes. The harvested grains would definitely be better than this year, and he would be able to cope with it by then.
If we don't set up schools to let them study and learn skills, the problem of integration among the tribes will be one thing. But if we just rely on farming, the grain output will be just that even if we catch up with the rice-rich Jiangnan.
Only by studying and relying on science and technology to change productivity can we truly solve the problem of food and clothing.
Qi You knew that this was a long process. If one year wasn't enough, then ten years would be enough. Even if the output was increased by only 10%, it would be a huge leap forward.
Qi You mentioned the sweet potatoes and yams. Sabusu was so happy that her eyebrows almost flew up. She said, "Although these two crops have their drawbacks, at least there is some hope. Seventh Prince, you must leave me some seeds when the time comes. I will have the farm plant them next year."
Qi You agreed immediately and asked casually, "You said earlier that there was something important. What was it?"
Sabusu put down the tea bowl and said impatiently, "Seventh Prince, I have a happy event and I need your permission."
Qi You asked in confusion: "What's the happy event? Are you going to take a concubine again? I have no right to interfere!"
Sabsu was embarrassed for a moment, then chuckled, "It's not me, it's really not me. I'm already so old, right... I only got one last year. I'm old and can't handle more."
Qi You smiled faintly and said nothing, just looking at Sabsu quietly.
The person who disliked Sabusu taking a concubine the most was Shi Shilun. He once came to Qi You, spitting and scolding Sabusu for being disrespectful to his elders, and asked Qi You to keep an eye on him.
Qi You deeply agreed, but he couldn't speak up to respond, let alone do anything about it.
Mainly because his biological father, Kangxi, was far more powerful than Sabusu. Besides selecting the most beautiful and fresh ladies to enter the palace every three years, he also had countless charming and attractive Han Chinese girls for his private enjoyment.
Kangxi was not old, after all, he was already a grandfather. If we talk about disrespecting the elderly, he is second to none in the world.
Sabsu's five concubines were no big deal.
Sabusu said, "My eldest brother's youngest son, Changchun, is fifteen years old this year. He can read and write, and currently serves in the military camp, handling written examinations. Changchun is tall and handsome, and he's also honest and reliable. He's currently seeking a marriage partner. My eldest brother and his wife have taken a liking to the girl from the Zhang family, so they asked me to come and tell you. Seventh Prince, I know you value these girls more than your own eyes, but are they really going to stay married in the future?"
Qi You listened to Sabusula's ramblings, all about his nephew's marriage to Zhang Song. He couldn't help but laugh and said, "Of course I won't forbid them from getting married, but I can't agree to your request."
Sabusu suddenly became anxious and said, "Seventh Prince, I can vouch for Changchun's character. My eldest brother and his wife are kind and treat their daughters-in-law well, just like their own parents. If you don't believe me, you can go and ask if there are any cases of the eldest sister-in-law torturing her daughters-in-law."
Qi You was speechless and said patiently, "Look at you, why are you so anxious? You have to listen to me first. Zhang Song's marriage must be agreed by her. She can marry whoever she wants to marry. She has to agree to it herself. What's the point of asking me?"
Sabusu opened his mouth wide, in disbelief, "They are your bondservants... Even if you are magnanimous, it is the parents who should decide on their children's marriages. She is just a girl... Never mind, a capable girl is different from others. I will go ask her now..."
At this point, Sabsu's words froze, and he laughed dryly, "It's not appropriate for me to ask, and it's even more inappropriate to ask Changchun himself. How about... Seventh Prince, can you go and ask for me?"
Qi You was stunned on the spot for once.
Regarding love and marriage, he had never experienced anything like it in either of his past lives. This was another thing he wasn't good at, besides writing poetry.
"What is Changchun's opinion?" Qi You thought for a while and asked.
Sabusu said nonchalantly, "Changchun's opinion has no weight, so how can he have a say? Besides, the Zhang family's daughter is capable, much better than him. What is he dissatisfied with? If Changde hadn't already been married, I would have gone to ask for her in marriage for him."
In this era, marriages were basically blind and silent, arranged by parents and matchmakers. Bannermen were not so bad, as their girls did not have many taboos and could go out frequently.
The girls who failed the talent show went home to get engaged. Most of them were well-matched and knew each other well.
The north is too far away from the capital, so the selection can be used to deal with it without having to wait for the palace to select.
However, even if Qi You didn't understand, he thought Chang Chun's opinion was still very important.
If Changchun already had a girl he liked and his family got him engaged without consulting him, there would definitely be conflicts between the couple in the future.
"You have to talk to Chang Chun and ask for his opinion. As for Zhang Song..." Qi You felt embarrassed for the first time. When he said this, his head suddenly buzzed.
After a long pause, Qi You finally said, "Let me ask for you."
Sabusu smiled from ear to ear and said hurriedly, "Thank you, Seventh Prince. I'll be in trouble with you regarding the Zhang family. I'll go back right away and tell my eldest brother to ask Changchun what he thinks."
Qi You sent Sabusu away, his face turned pale, and he sat there in a daze, not moving for a long time.
In his previous life, Qi You struggled to study and live despite his sick body, and never had any other extra thoughts.
So he never realized that he would get married in this life.
Earlier, Qi You had mentioned Zhang Song, and he'd thought of how they were about the same age. Back in the palace, his brothers, like him at his age, had already been served by palace maids knowledgeable about human affairs, and they'd begun discussing marriages.
Kangxi was very concerned about his children's marriages. If he arranged a marriage for him in the capital, or chose a concubine for him, a princess who was knowledgeable about human affairs and a palace maid...
Qi You couldn't sit still any longer, so he got up and wrote a letter to Kangxi.
On the other hand, Kangxi's letter to Qi You was halfway there.
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Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided nutrient solution between 2022-11-18 22:55:01 and 2022-11-19 23:03:37~
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: 30 bottles of Huaixu Shier; 10 bottles of Nanyoupeng and Yipianye; 1 bottle of Ayezi;
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