Chapter 272 Hard Currency
Mihara.
The 1,000-mu newly renovated depression in the Qin Family Manor has completely changed its appearance.
Mulberry trees have been planted on the embankment, and new shoots and leaves have even emerged. The pond has been filled with water, and fish fry have been thrown in. From time to time, you can see the calm surface of the pond, and there are fish fry making ripples.
The 600 mu of paddy fields have all been leveled, first plowed and then raked, watered, and the fields are as level as a mirror, reflecting the colorful clouds in the sky.
In the seedling field in one corner, the rice seeds under the seedlings have grown lush, and after a while, the seedlings can be pulled out and transplanted to other fields.
Qin Lang, led by Old Wang Zhuangtou, carefully inspected his experimental field.
For the sake of this field, Qin Lang specially invited several rice planting veterans, all of whom were from the Hanzhong area south of the Qinling Mountains.
"The rice fields need to be sprinkled with plant ash, and before the rice is transplanted, manure should be applied again."
Lao Wang patted his chest and said, "We built a new manure field last year, not only did we accumulate a lot of cow dung, sheep manure and chicken manure, we also asked people to build a lot of toilets in Sanyuan County, and separated them by the official road. Build a thatched hut in the land, and send people to collect the manure regularly and return it to retting. This year, the land in our village is enough, and there is more.”
According to what Lao Wang said, the newly built manure field can not only support the fields on the farm itself, but also sell surplus to nearby landlords and farmers.
"Now we have pig farms, sheep farms, chicken and duck farms, and we can get a lot of manure every day. I have calculated that this manure alone can be sold for a lot of money in a year."
Pharaoh is a budget-conscious person. For the pigs and sheep raised in the pen, the dung for a year for a sheep can fertilize three acres of land, and the dung can be used for the straw and wheat grass in his own field.
If the pig farm is full of pigs, it can raise 3,000 heads, and the dung and grass can fertilize 9,000 acres of land, not to mention there are so many sheep dung, grass, chicken and duck dung.
"We have enough dung and grass, and the yield of one mu of land can be increased by at least half."
In the era when there was no fertilizer, in order to ensure the fertility of the soil, it was mainly to rely on manure, or plant ash from burning rice straw and wheat grass, or plant alfalfa, rapeseed, or plant a crop of soybeans.
Because of the lack of land, people even have to rotate crops, plant for one or two years and let it fall for one or two years, or plant for three to five years and then let it fall for two or three years, and then burn the weeds and continue planting, but this method is still too backward.
The key is still to rely on manure, but how can ordinary people have so much manure in their homes, so gradually the human manure in the city has become the object of competition for the rural people, and later, every city will have someone contracted the city's manure. Manure has become the king of manure in a city. They will build manure farms on the outskirts of the city, regularly go to the city to collect manure, and process the manure into dry manure through retting and drying, and then sell it to rural landlords and common people.
These dung kings earn a lot of money, and even control the dung industry in one place for generations. Sometimes, in order to compete for resources in the city, they even fight in groups, just like fighting for water sources in the dry season in the countryside.
Raising pigs and sheep in pens, especially large-scale farming, this circle of grass is indeed an accidental product.
Ordinary people's pigs are half herding and half penning, and even many common people can't afford to raise pigs, and the income from penning grass and manure is limited, but the Qin family's farm can raise thousands of head, which can not only provide more than enough for their own fields, but also I can sell the remainder.
The Qin family has now specially built a dung factory. Qin Lang thought the name of the dung factory was indecent, so he changed the name to the fertilizer factory.
Someone is responsible for retting and composting, converting the collected manure and circle grass into high-efficiency crop fertilizers through accumulation and fermentation.
It is easier for crops to absorb and transport.
Dung is a thing that people in the city despise, and they will look disgusted when they see it, but for rural farmers, it is a treasure. Even a two- or three-year-old doll knows that this is a good thing. When they see cow and sheep dung outside, they must immediately pick it up and send it home for composting.
On the grasslands, although the herdsmen do not need to grow crops, they will turn over the cow dung on the grassland to dry, and then pick up the dried cow dung home as fuel, cooking and heating water, all of which use cow dung.
The hay of the washer is mixed with livestock manure, and after being replaced, it is piled up and fermented, turning into rotten organic fertilizer.
Zhuang Ding walks in the field carrying a load of fertilizer in a basket, and then spreads the fertilizer evenly into the field. For them, they don’t think there is anything dirty about it, and the fermented fertilizer is actually nothing. stink.
Spread a handful of fertilizers, and the field will be able to harvest more grain.
"A batch of livestock will arrive in a few days. You are ready to receive them and take good care of them."
"What animal?" Pharaoh asked quickly.
"Mainly cattle and horses."
Dry land is suitable for horse plowing, while paddy fields are suitable for cattle plowing. Even in the south of the Yangtze River, buffaloes are commonly used for plowing fields. Buffaloes are more suitable for paddy fields than yellow cattle. They are large in size and have thick legs, so they are not afraid of sinking their hooves.
Qin Lang's livestock were brought from the border city of Youzhou.
In the past, Han merchants went deep into the grasslands to trade with the Hu people. They mainly traded cloth and silk for furs, and also exchanged some wooden bowls, pottery pots, etc. for livestock.
Now in the Qinjiakou market in Youzhou, a top-quality big bull only needs ten catties of sugar, and a medium-sized mare only needs fifteen catties of sugar.
And the price of the rock sugar was skyrocketing. One catty of rock sugar could be exchanged for two bullocks.
For this price, the Hu merchants from various tribes were still fighting over there. Merchants from various Turkic tribes asked for one hundred catties and another for two hundred catties. As a result, Tie Le, Shi Wei, Khitan, The merchants of Kumoxi and other tribes quit.
The daily supply of sugar in the market is very limited, and there are only a few suppliers who come and go. One is the sugar from the Changping Sugar Warehouse of the Transit Department of the Tang Dynasty, which is bought from Qin Lang at wholesale prices. It is shipped to the border market to make money, but the quantity is not much.
Then there is Emperor Neifang sugar, which is the extra sugar that the emperor got from the Qin family sugar farm, and some of it was also shipped to Youzhou for sale, and the quantity was even smaller.
The rest are of course the Changsun’s family, the Cheng’s family, and other big Qinlang white sugar dealers, who demarcate and distribute in various provinces in the Central Plains, but for the border market, there is no such restriction, so everyone took out some sugar and transported it to the border market. Sell.
The problem is that the supply of white sugar in the Qin family is limited, so everyone doesn't have much sugar.
The supply exceeds the demand, and the price naturally rises steadily.
In addition to the border market in Youzhou, the people in Tuyuhun and Tubo in the northwest also want sugar, and they are also asking for high prices.
The Goguryeo people who came from Liaodong came late and asked for 10,000 catties, but they were almost beat up by the Turkic chamber Wei Tiele Khitan and others.
It’s less than a hundred catties, and your family still wants 10,000 catties?
These Hu people don’t have any good things in their hands. What they sell is not the most livestock, but then fur, herbs, etc., and the Goguryeo and Mohe people in Liaodong still have some things like Haidongqing, Dongzhu, and ginseng.
Now in Youzhou, whoever has sugar is the uncle.
In such a good situation, the Qin family, the general sugar wholesaler who holds the core secrets, of course has a surplus in hand, so naturally they will not miss such a good opportunity.
So the Turkic people bought horses, the Khitan people bought cattle, the Tiele people bought camels, the Goguryeo people bought ginseng, the Mohe people bought leather, and the Silla people bought slaves. It was cheap.
Sugar is now the hardest currency, and everything is cheap to buy.
For things like salt, wine and tea, the Qin family doesn't have much strength, so they can't compare to other families, but for sugar, who dares to compare with the Qin family?
Everyone sells things like frosting sugar, red granulated sugar, and black **** candy. The Qin family sells rock sugar directly, and it is of premium quality, which is known as the tribute level of royal collection in the palace.
"How many cows and horses are there?"
"The first batch has about a hundred heads, but the cattle and horses bought by these barbarian people have not yet learned how to plow the land, and they have to teach the plow. At that time, the cattle will have their nostrils pierced. I will pull out ten horses and ten cows for the village. ,enough?"
Sanyuan Zhuangzi now has about 1,000 mu of land, most of which are paddy fields. Originally, there were about a dozen draft horses on the Zhuangzi, including old and thin. This time Qin Lang planned to weed out old and thin horses.
"It's not difficult to teach farming. It's no problem. If they are all young and strong cattle and horses, ten horses each are enough." Lao Wang was very excited. Plowing land still requires large animals. Only large animals can cultivate intensively and intensively, and only by intensive cultivation can the yield be higher .
Ordinary farming cattle will start to teach farming when they are a little over one year old, put on the bridle and let them start to plow some shallow soil or sandy river beach, and it will take about a few days to teach them. If the cow is a few years old, it will be difficult to teach farming, but it is not a problem for experienced farmers.
This is just as cavalrymen can tame fierce horses, and farmers can also tame fierce bulls.
"Shouldn't the rest of the cattle and horses be sent to the village?" Lao Wang asked.
Qin Lang smiled, "The first few batches of oxen and horses will be distributed to various villages in the family first, and the second batch of oxen and horses will be drawn to each village after the old and weak ones are replaced."
His plan is for each village to raise more cattle and horses. In addition to guaranteeing their own use, the rest can also be bred or sold for rent.
Many landlords will rent their cattle to the common people or tenants. The cattle rent is often very expensive. If the cattle of the landlord’s family are used, one mu of land will have to pay 10 to 20% of the cattle rent.
Therefore, Lao Wang is very much looking forward to the arrival of the second batch of cows and horses. The income from cattle rent is very high. What's more, if you raise more cows, you can still give birth to calves. The land has been plowed, and if it is the mother year, the cows of two or three years old can give birth again.
Actually, Qin Lang felt that those landlords were a little rich and unkind.
Raising cattle does cost a lot, but renting cattle to cultivate land, it is a bit excessive to charge 10 to 20% of the rent per mu.
Qin Lang plans to develop some new models. For example, during the farming season, the Qin family can rent out people, cows and farming tools, and directly help people plow all the land. Instead of directly asking for one-tenth or two-tenths of the harvest.
The Qin family can charge a little less.
In this way, the income from arable land can offset some of the cost of raising cattle, forming a virtuous circle and making cattle raising a healthy industry.
Old Wang with a face full of excitement has already started to discuss with several old men and deputy village chiefs around him where to build a cowshed and horse shed, what fodder to prepare, etc.
(end of this chapter)