On the southern foot of the Yinshan Mountains, the north bank of the Yellow River, the former land of Jiuyuan County, Han Dynasty, and the edge of a city expanded by a fortress, many farmers are working in the newly reclaimed fields, and the newly pumped Yellow River water flows in the canal that supplies water to the farmland.

On the edge of the Yellow River, several water wheels are standing, constantly lifting the river water to the shore canals and irrigating the surrounding farmland. Many vertical windmills are lined up next to the water wheel, and relying on the wind power that sometimes does not exist to lift the river water to the canals.

In the windmill array, several men were busy checking whether the windmills were installed in place and checking whether the pump was moving freely.

A wind pump relies on the wind force to drive the windmill to rotate, and then uses a simple transmission device to convert the rotational movement into the reciprocating movement of the pump rod in the pump, thereby pumping water.

The pumping efficiency of wind pumps is not high, but the operating cost is very low. They can operate as long as there is wind, and they will continue day and night. If there is enough quantity, the water lifting volume is still good. This is a water lifting tool for farmers who are renovating land.

The farmers who farmed were not locals, but were mostly common people. They were all hired farmers from trading companies or merchants. After the New Year, they set off here to seize the time to clear the land and sow seeds.

After the harvest is over, the hired farmers return to their hometown and bring them back to the next year to work for the new year.

Like geese, they went in autumn and came in spring, so they were called "geese people". The trading companies and merchants who hired them to farm in the border areas handed over the grain obtained from farming to the local garrison for "salt induced" and "sugar induced".

Then I went to the Bingzhou government for salt and sugar to resell it for profit.

This is the "Kaizhong and France", which is a policy implemented by the imperial court to solve the food problems of the border troops. Originally, the border defense of the official army was limited to the Shuozhou border, but now it extends to the Yellow River Hetao area on the southern foot of the Yinshan Mountains. The newly established fortresses need to use this method to ensure the supply of food to the garrison.

As long as merchants transport grain to designated locations, they can obtain "salt tracts" and "sugar tracts" from the local garrison.

Businessmen or trading companies with agile minds directly hire people to clear land and farm near border military bases, thus saving the hardship of long-distance transportation and time and effort.

In order to save costs, farmers hired by the trading company will not celebrate the New Year at the border military base. Water wheels and windmills will be demolished in advance and will be used again in the next year.

The farmland reclaimed by the "Geese people" belongs to the trading company or the owner. After that, this is an incredible wealth.

On the edge of the Yellow River, Xu Jingcheng looked at the operation of the vertical axis windmill for a while and felt that the pumping efficiency of this thing was too low. Of course, the comparison was a steam pump, but the vertical axis windmill did not need to burn coal, which saved a lot of money.

If it weren't for the lack of coal here, he really wanted to install a steam pump, and the area of ​​farmland that could be irrigated was larger, and even if he had to burn coal, it would be relatively cost-effective overall.

Xu Jingcheng was from Bingzhou. His family had been doing business for generations and began to popularize steam pumps in Bingzhou. He was quite familiar with them, but Bingzhou had a lot of coal, so the steam pumps were used casually. There were no coal mines in this Jiuyuan area, so the steam pumps could not be used.

Xu Jingcheng was originally doing business in Shuozhou. When his father learned that the government had carried out Sino-French, he asked him to bring the hired farmers to Jiuyuan to trade the output of the military farm for salt and sugar.

The hired farmer is a "geese man" and will go home after autumn, but Xu Jingcheng is not. He has to stay in Jiuyuan this winter to prepare for the development of the family industry.

Today, Jiuyuan City is no longer a simple military camp. The imperial court set up Fengzhou on the southern foot of Yinshan Mountain, with the newly built Suiyuan as the prefecture, and Jiuyuan County in the Jiuyuan area, with Jiuyuan City as the county seat.

Therefore, Jiuyuan City began to accept common people to settle down, and Xu Jingcheng and his family were one of them. It was just that the Jiuyuan area had been abandoned for a long time and there was no mature land to cultivate. Even the food of the garrison had to be transported by Bingzhou, and there was not much excess grain for ordinary people.

However, as more and more farmland is reclaimed outside the city, in a few years, after the local grain output in Jiuyuan increased, it can not only feed the garrison, but also feed more civilians. At that time, steamships will also drive here and transport a large amount of supplies.

Thinking of the steamer, Xu Jingcheng couldn't help but look at the river. As long as it was not winter, the Yellow River section here could be shipped. The rumored steamer is said to be able to flow upstream from the Guanzhong area in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, overcome all the hardships, and transport supplies and personnel to Jiuyuan.

At that time, Jiuyuan will become prosperous, which is also the reason why Xu Jingcheng went to Jiuyuan to open up the land in advance.

Although this area on the southern foot of Yinshan Mountain is rich in water and grass, it was still a Turkish pasture two years ago. The imperial court stationed troops in this area to attract merchants to transport grain by driving China and France. In fact, merchants participating in the development of China took great risks, because the Turks would invade at any time.

At that time, even if the government army's fortresses and cities are guarded by artillery, they will not be able to protect the newly reclaimed farmland outside the city. Therefore, if there was no good news of steamships, the fool would have come to Jiuyuan and Suiyuan to farm.

As a family that has been doing business for generations, the Xu family has many sources of information, so they know the vigorous establishment and raising of stocks of the "Shipbuilding and Steamship Investment Administration".

The imperial court wanted to ship steamers, and the first to put the route of steamers was to the Yangtze River, which was the Fen River Basin in Hedong.

With the steamship, the imperial court relied on Fenshui shipping to import a large amount of materials into Bingzhou, which could support more troops to attack the grasslands. Bingzhou produced a large amount of coal, providing sufficient fuel for the operation of the steamship, greatly enhancing the transportation capacity of the steamship.

It is precisely for this reason that the court managed the Hetao area in advance and invested manpower and material resources to build Suiyuan and Jiuyuan City.

With the steamship, the imperial court operated Hetao and had a second channel to import personnel and materials.

The steamer set off from Guanzhong, passed Yumen and entered the section of the Qinjin Grand Canyon of the Yellow River, and went upstream in the canyon, and arrived at the Hukou River section. The people on the boat took the land to bypass the waterfall, and then continued to go north by the steamer on the waterway.

The steamer ship left the Qin-Jin Grand Canyon section (north end) and passed Junzijin. If you walk through Hei Water, you can reach the edge of Suiyuan City. If you continue to roam upstream along the Yellow River, you can reach the Jiuyuan area.

In this way, the court could send a large number of personnel and materials along the Yellow River to Jiuyuan or to Suiyuan with a lower transportation cost.

It can maintain sufficient garrisons in the Hetao area to resist the Turkic invasions.

Seeing the sudden change approaching, the Xu family quickly responded, organizing people to mine coal to do coal trading, while making arrangements in advance in Jiuyuan.

Jiuyuan is now just a small border town, but as long as the steamship is opened to navigation, it will immediately become a major area in the border city. Of course, the Xu family must prepare early for this new trade route.

Of course, the Yellow River waterway from Yumen to Jiuyuan is mainly located in the Qin and Jin Grand Canyon section. In the river section, except for the Hukou Waterfall, the water flows rapidly and is full of dangerous shoals in the upper reaches of the Qikou River section, which is not suitable for boating.

At the same time, the steamer ship had to burn coal. There seemed to be no coal-producing land along the coast, and if the steamer ship could not add coal, it would not be able to continue sailing.

Even if the Yellow River route is opened, the section of the Hetao Yellow River will be frozen every winter, lasting three to four months. At this time, the ship just cannot leave.

But Xu Jingcheng felt that this route would always be opened, because the court built a large-scale construction in the Hetao area on the southern foot of the Yinshan Mountains, which obviously wanted to make great efforts to operate. He had heard insider news that the court would have considered operating Hetao after a few years, but now it was advanced, it must be because of the steamship.

Not to mention that the emperor sent the prince to build Suiyuan City, this move is of great significance.

Therefore, Xu Jingcheng was not idle in Jiuyuan. He bought as much land as possible in the city and opened up as much land as possible outside the city.

In addition to their Xu family, more and more families reacted and hired a large number of farmers to farm in the Hetao area. The more and more forts under construction in various parts of Hetao, providing security for caravans and people who farm in the Hetao area.

Everyone is full of confidence in the court, and the source of confidence is the magical steamship.

The emergence of steamships has allowed everyone to see a bright future. The busy Fen River route will make the Merger and Shuo more prosperous. A large amount of coal traveled south along the Fen River, which not only can provide the huge demand for coal in Guanzhong, but it should also support the steamship route from Fenkou to Jiuyuan upstream.
Chapter completed!