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Text Chapter 345 Plantation

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    But at this moment, Xiao Yu frowned and asked: "Liu Lang, there are only two thousand people working on a hundred thousand acres of land. So after calculation, one person is responsible for fifty acres. How can it be managed?"  "

    Xiao Yu's words are on point. Normally, a strong laborer can only manage seven or eight acres of land at most. Even if you add livestock, it can only be more than ten acres. No more than that, you can't manage it. But the slaves in the plantation can't manage it.  It is obviously unreasonable for one person to manage fifty acres.

    Cui Yu, who was also riding on the horse, laughed after hearing this: "Old Duke, I don't know that this plantation is different from domestic land cultivation. Because the crops grown in the plantation are single, they usually work together, and in the  In terms of farming, the requirements are not as high as those in China. There is not much emphasis on the yield per mu. In addition, a large amount of animal power is used and new furniture is promoted, so plantations do not require too many manpower, and this is also the case in Taiwan.  One of the reasons for developing the garden."

    Cui Yu is right. Although Taiwan's plantations are mainly based on sugar cane, there are also some plantations based on other crops, such as rice, tea, etc. The types of these crops are single, easy to manage on a large scale, and can save a lot of money.  Manpower, and this is exactly the problem to deal with Taiwan's small population.

    After hearing this, Xiao Yu nodded thoughtfully and said: "So, this plantation should expand the rough planting method several times, and one person can manage more land. Although this will reduce the yield per mu, but as long as  With enough land, the total output is quite amazing.¡±

    "Old Duke is wise, the cultivation in this plantation is indeed very rough, and the slave family has been in a pity for a long time at the beginning. For example, one acre can produce one hundred catties, but now it can only produce eighty catties, which is twenty less per mu.  In terms of kilograms, 100,000 acres is hundreds of thousands of kilograms, which can make people sad to death." The speaker was a young woman in Hu clothing, and she was also the only female family member riding a horse.

    Hearing the humor the woman said, Concubine Yang and others in the car all covered their mouths and laughed.  This woman's status is very prominent.  She is Mrs. Cui who turned Cui Yu from a playboy into a good young man who knew his shame and was brave. She is also Cheng Huailiang's biological sister and Cheng Yaojin's biological daughter.

    Just now when Cui Yu and Wang Kuang greeted Li Min in front of the gate, Li Min saw Mrs. Cui at a glance, because compared with other women, Mrs. Cui not only dressed differently from other women, but also had different clothes on her body.  An indescribable heroic spirit.  At first glance, one could tell that she was the queen of Jiangmen. This was quite what the three Cheng Huailiang brothers had imagined. She was indeed Cheng Yaojin's daughter.

    After hearing what Mrs. Cui said, Empress Xiao also smiled and said: "Zi Xiao is a good housekeeper. It's really enviable for Cui of Qinghe to marry a daughter-in-law like you. Fortunately, you don't have any sisters, otherwise it would just be a marriage proposal."  If you do, I'm afraid the door of Duke Lu's mansion will collapse!" Zixiao is Mrs. Cui's name.

    Although Queen Xiao¡¯s words were somewhat joking, they were also true.  When Cui Yu married Mrs. Cui, she immediately changed her ways.  This makes many people very envious. After all, who doesn't have a prodigal son? If you can marry such a daughter-in-law, it will be a great virtue for your ancestors.  It's a pity that the Cheng family only has one daughter, and no other family has anywhere to go.

    Mrs. Cui has a straightforward personality. When she heard Queen Xiao's jokes, she smiled and said a few jokes.  On the contrary, he was very friendly with Concubine Yang and Wen Xin.

    While listening to the jokes of these female family members, Li Min chatted quietly with Cui Yu and Wang Kuang next to him. From time to time, he looked up at the sugar cane forests on both sides of the road.  It happens to be the harvesting season of sugar cane.  In some mature sugarcane forests in the distance, there are already many shirtless slaves wielding machetes to harvest.

    It was not until he got closer that Li Min discovered that these slaves were relatively free. They did not wear any shackles on their bodies, nor were they tied in a string with ropes. They just had slave marks on their faces. There was one Han among every dozens of slaves.  overseer.  What made Li Min even more surprised was that the Han supervisor was among dozens of slaves holding swords, but he only had a whip in his hand. When he saw someone being lazy, he would whip him up, as if he was not worried about the slaves resisting at all.

    The supervisor's bold behavior aroused Li Min's curiosity, and he immediately asked Wang Kuang about it. Wang Kuang smiled and said, "Your Highness doesn't know something. These slaves are natives of Nanyang. They are usually brave."  The youngest did not dare to resist the supervisor at all, and there was a rule in the plantation that if one person dared to resist, the entire team of slaves would be killed, so even if some slaves dared to resist, the supervisor would not need to take action.  The other slaves on the same team will kill him."

    Li Min was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that there was such a rule in the plantation. It was really poisonous enough. Even if a slave wanted to resist, he had to see if other slaves agreed?

    Next, Cui Yu and Wang Kuang introduced some management methods for plantation slaves. For example, these slaves are not?Coming from the same place, they don't understand each other's language. For example, some slaves who perform well will be rewarded and given some relative privileges. In this way, an 'aristocratic' class will be established among the slaves, and the slaves at the bottom will not count.  There is hatred, and most of it will only be directed at those privileged slaves. When it doesn't work, some privileged slaves will be killed to calm the resentment of the slaves.

    Li Min was very impressed when he heard this. He didn't expect that people like Wang Kuang were really not simple. They could even think of such a method. This was simply the prototype of the colonial policies of later Western countries. If he expands too fast in the future,  , but you can use this method to rule the colonies.

    After walking around in the sugar cane forest for several times, Li Min and the others followed Wang Kuang and others to the juice pressing factory in the plantation. There were not many workers here, but it was built along the river. There was a tall tree standing by the river.  The waterwheel, with the help of water power, squeezes the juice out of the cut fresh sugar cane like oil, and then puts it into special large wooden barrels. It is transported to the city and is purchased by a special business. However, the business will also depend on the quality and quality of the sugar cane juice.  Different prices are set for sweetness, etc.

    "Brother Cui, why don't you just sell the sugar cane you harvested directly? Instead, you have to add an extra process of juice extraction. Isn't this causing trouble for yourself?" Li Min asked with some confusion.  Although the plantation was his idea, he had never been in charge of the specific operations inside, so he really didn't know much about the details.

    After hearing this, Cui Yu and his wife looked at each other, and then explained with a smile: "Your Highness does not know. If you buy sugar cane directly, you will save a lot of trouble, but the price will be very low. It is far less cost-effective than squeezing it into juice and selling it.  After squeezing the juice, not only can we increase the price, but we also have another thing to make money from.¡±

    Hearing Cui Yu¡¯s words, Concubine Yang couldn¡¯t help but asked curiously: ¡°This is strange, isn¡¯t there some sugarcane bagasse left after the juice is extracted? Can this thing also be sold for money?¡±

    Mrs. Cui immediately smiled and said: "The noble concubine's guess is right, it is this sugarcane bagasse"

    At this time, Li Min also woke up and rushed to say: "Yes, I remembered that this sugarcane bagasse is a good thing. It can not only be used to make paper, but it is also a good feed, which is perfect for feeding livestock.  "

    Being snatched away by Li Min, the straightforward Mrs. Cui couldn't help but roll her eyes at Li Min, and then said: "Your Highness is indeed knowledgeable. The annual output of sugarcane bagasse in our plantation is amazing. Most of it is sold to make paper, and the rest is  We have opened a breeding farm on the pasture in the south, and the cattle and sheep there mainly eat these sugarcane bagasses. The meat is very delicious, and the imperial concubine and the lady of the country will have to taste it later!"

    When Concubine Yang heard this, she also smiled and said: "There is an advantage to being overseas, that is, you can eat beef as you like. If this were in the Tang Dynasty, it would be an extremely rare thing."

    Concubine Yang's words made everyone nod and smile. In the Tang Dynasty, it was forbidden to slaughter cows, let alone eat beef. This was mainly because of Xuan Wei. Cows are the main livestock in the fields. In the eyes of farmers, a cow may be worth more than a human life.  Even more important, in order to show support for agriculture, the royal family strictly enforced the ban on beef, so even though Concubine Yang was a noble concubine, it was difficult for her to eat beef.

    After leaving the juice pressing factory, Wang Kuang took them to visit the ancillary industries of the plantation, such as the breeding farm just mentioned, a small winery, and even a huge lake for breeding.  Fish can be said to have thought of everything imaginable.

    One hundred thousand acres of land is not a small amount of money. Li Min and the others only walked around a small part of the way for a long time. In the end, everyone was hungry. Mrs. Cui immediately invited everyone back to the residence at the entrance of the manor, and the banquet that had been prepared for them was immediately  Put it on the table and let everyone talk while eating.  Li Min also tasted the cattle and sheep raised in the plantation, as well as the self-brewed sugarcane wine. The color of this wine is light yellow, a bit like the rice wine of later generations, but the taste is slightly sweet and more mellow, unlike white wine.  Then brewed, it is more suitable for women to drink. If it is distilled again, it will probably be more suitable for men to drink.

    Speaking of which, Wang Kuang and Cui Yu's place is really nice. There is a large mountain in the northeast of the plantation, and there are a lot of prey in it. The next day, Li Min and the others went up to the mountain to hunt, and they really gained a lot. Even Concubine Yang also  I shot a lot of prey with my own hands, and after the hunting, everyone sat together to eat barbecue. There was no distinction between the status of monarch and minister, and it really felt like being happy to miss Shu.

    Unfortunately, due to limited time, Li Min and the others could not stay in the plantation for too long. After all, Concubine Yang's status was special, and Xiao Yu still held important positions in the court. As for Li Min, he was even more busy and couldn't get away, so  After staying in the plantation for three days, Li Min and others had to say goodbye to Cui Yu and others.

    But just when Li Min and the others were preparing to go back in Tainan, Lu Qing suddenly sent an urgent military report, and along with this letter reporting military information, there was something included, and it was this item that immediately  Li Min was in a very happy moodIt was extremely gloomy.
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