Chapter 497: Planning Ahead

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While the Northern Di are brewing a vicious plan, Zhao Xu, Liu Fu, and a group of officials are inspecting the horse administration and Official Manors of Yanzhou.

"Your Highness, the warhorses in this horse farm are all said to be the strongest among the captured warhorses, and the mares are also robust with shiny coats. During this period, this farm alone has bred eight hundred foals," an official introduced to Zhao Xu.

He is Shen Shixing, the director of the Agricultural Department of the Government Office.

While Liu Fu and other officials listen to his lectures at the Administrative Academy, they are also using what they have learned from the academy to reform the Government Office.

For instance, this Agricultural Department is an institution that was established not long ago.

The duties of the officials in the Agricultural Department are numerous.

In addition to being responsible for the horse administration and the Official Manors, they are also responsible for going down to the countryside to teach the commoners the planting methods they learned at the academy, promoting increased yields per mu.

At the same time, they also have the duty of coordinating all farmland in Yanzhou and planning crop cultivation.

At present, the commoners of Yanzhou are generally still in a small-scale peasant economy of men tilling and women weaving, self-sufficient.

The farmland allocated to each household, besides growing some grain, must also grow mulberry, hemp, and the like.

After all, among clothing, food, housing, and transportation, clothing and food are the most important; wheat and rice fill the stomach, while mulberry and hemp provide silk and linen cloth.

However, Zhao Xu has not yet let the Agricultural Department touch the traditional production methods of the commoners.

The Agricultural Department mainly plans the Official Manors and the fields cultivated by the production battalions.

"Eight hundred? That is indeed not bad, but you must ensure their survival rate," Zhao Xu said.

Ancient times, after all, belong to a state of vast territory and sparse population.

Therefore, it is not very difficult to find a piece of land in Yanzhou that is unsuitable for farming but suitable for grazing.

"Your Highness, rest assured, this stable is sprinkled with quicklime every half month, and allicin is intermittently mixed into the fodder; the foals are growing very pleasingly," Shen Shixing said, pointing to a lively foal in the stable.

Zhao Xu stopped to watch and revealed a smile.

This quicklime for disinfection,

and methods like feeding allicin are all things the officials mastered from the Administrative Academy.

Besides these methods, the students of the Administrative Academy are currently studying some indigenous methods he provided to promote the agricultural development of Yanzhou.

After inspecting the horse farm,

Zhao Xu and the officials went to the Official Manor again.

Unlike the horse farm which has large stretches of pasture, the Official Manor directly under the Prince's Mansion appears more crowded.

When he arrived, the herdsmen in charge of the Official Manor were driving a large group of cattle and sheep into the pens.

Most of these cattle and sheep were seized from the Black Iron Royal Tent during this campaign, as well as those seized when Bai Shang and the others raided the Ningjin Dusi.

Today, these cattle and sheep have become the foundation of Yanzhou's animal husbandry.

He will teach the officials professional animal husbandry techniques to let Yanzhou's animal husbandry develop and grow strong.

"Your Highness, the Official Manor is currently undergoing renovations to realize the Ecological Circular Agriculture that Your Highness mentioned," Shen Shixing said.

Hearing this, the other officials did not feel surprised by this unfamiliar term.

Because the Yan Wang had explained it to them when giving lectures.

Zhao Xu nodded; this is the area he focused on during his inspection of the Official Manor.

Ancient agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, and fishery clearly all belong to extensive management.

If this does not change, large-scale agricultural production cannot be realized.

Seriously speaking, agriculture can provide many raw materials for industry; rice can be used to brew Wine, cotton can be used to weave cloth, and lard can be used to make Soap.

Therefore, if agriculture is not prosperous, it is impossible to want industry to be prosperous.

A clever housewife cannot cook without rice.

Therefore, the importance he attaches to agriculture is not a bit less than that to industry; they complement each other.

Thus, in order to let Yanzhou's agriculture move toward scale, he started with the Official Manor and introduced Ecological Circular Agriculture.

This concept was already ubiquitous in the modern era.

It is simply the rational utilization of waste produced by animals and plants.

For example, the Pig-Biogas-Vegetable Model.

First, build a biogas digester and let the pig manure and urine from the pigsty flow in; this way, biogas fertilizer can be used to grow vegetables, and the biogas slurry within can even prevent pests when sprayed on vegetable leaves.

Besides the Pig-Biogas-Vegetable Model, there is also the Fish-Mulberry-Chicken Model, where chickens are raised in mulberry fields, and chicken manure and silkworm excrement are used to feed fish.

Of course, there are other models; the Official Manor is divided into different areas according to these different models to establish circular agriculture and expand output.

Walking around the Official Manor, Zhao Xu saw some newly built biogas digesters.

The principle of a biogas digester is very simple: dig a pit, build a tank with blue bricks and cement, and leave an exhaust hole to discharge the biogas.

In addition, there are chicken coops by the mulberry fields, cattle sheds by the ponds, and so on.

These are all new renovations of the Official Manor.

"In the future, the meat for the soldiers to eat will be left to you. If they have no meat to eat and come to trouble you, this Prince will not care," Zhao Xu said to Shen Shixing.

Shen Shixing knew the Yan Wang was joking, but what he said was serious business, so he replied: "This subordinate will certainly make the Official Manor increase production year after year."

"Mm, it is good that you have this determination," Zhao Xu laughed along with Liu Fu and the others.

After strolling for the whole morning, Zhao Xu returned to Yancheng.

Then he went straight to the Granary.

Ever since receiving the letters from Dong An and Mi Yan, he decided that before the powerful clans completely strangled him on issues like trade, grain, and mineral resources, he would take precautions and nip the hidden dangers in the bud.

He would strive to ensure that even if his fief were completely isolated, it could still support itself for two or three years.

In terms of grain, the agricultural production of the North Four Commanderies has basically recovered.

Among the four commanderies, Yan Commandery and Shanggu Commandery have recovered the best; after all, he accepted these two commanderies the earliest.

Besides self-sufficiency, the commoners of these two commanderies basically have surplus grain to sell this year for both seasons.

He had Liu Fu purchase them all at market price.

Besides that, when attacking Jinzhou, he demanded the Xie Family exchange grain for Artillery, taking a year's worth of rations for the population at that time.

Some time ago, Chang Wei went south and swept through the Southern Three Commanderies, seizing a large amount of grain and fodder from the Yuan Family and the Rich Clans.

Now, this grain and fodder is all stored in the Yan Commandery Granary.

Liu Fu has calculated that this grain is enough to sustain Yanzhou for one year if the food supply were cut off.

Now that Yanzhou is entirely under his command, winter will soon pass and spring will arrive; with farming restored in the seven commanderies, there is basically no problem with Yanzhou being self-sufficient in grain.

However, even so, he always checks the Granary from time to time.

This is the cornerstone of Yanzhou's stability, and one cannot be careless.

After inspecting the Granary, Zhao Xu and officials like Liu Fu went to the Government Office.

Although the Northern Di are eyeing them covetously, the development of Yanzhou cannot be delayed because of this; what needs to be done must still be done.

After the officials were all seated, he said: "Inspecting today, overall, the major infrastructure projects during this period have had some results, but it is still far from enough. Additionally, we must develop differently according to the advantages of each commandery; for example, commanderies with many water networks should raise more fish, places with fertile fields should grow more grain, and commanderies near the sea should catch fish and dry salt..."

As Zhao Xu spoke, Liu Fu and the others took notes, fearing they would miss a single word.

They had to admit that Yan Wang was far more brilliant than them.

Doing things according to Yan Wang's words was sometimes much more useful than what they had racked their brains to come up with.

An hour passed, and Zhao Xu finished speaking about agricultural matters within the major infrastructure projects.

He then wanted to ask Liu Fu about the farming of the Production Battalion when suddenly a "Boom—" sound came, giving everyone a start.