Chapter 1888 Agricultural Development

Li Dou had already considered Li Bo's lack of relevant knowledge. After introducing the current situation of local agricultural development, he took the initiative to invite Li Bo to visit local farms and plantations during the next trip.

In this way, we can have a more intuitive understanding of Kaohsiung's agricultural development.

Before going abroad this time, Li Bo, who had lived in the palace for a long time, would definitely not have had much interest in farming, let alone making a special trip to visit farmland farming. However, this trip really broadened Li Bo's horizons.

As he grew older, he also gradually realized that the strength of a country is not just reflected in its military force. It is also very important to enable its people to live and work in peace and contentment, and have enough food and clothing. North Korea itself is an agricultural country. In terms of military, trade, and finance, it is also very important.

Hai and Han actually don't have many common languages, and this stop in Kaohsiung allowed Li Bo to finally find a rare common ground between the two countries. Moreover, the learning threshold in this area does not seem to be as high as in other fields. Naturally, he will not refuse this timely opportunity.

invitation.

Like the Haihan Colony we visited before, Kaohsiung also has a guest house with uniform service standards as an institution to receive Li Bo and his party. However, the guest house here has strong local characteristics, such as various large wooden and rattan furniture indoors.

Some of them are produced locally, and the variety of fresh fruits provided is more abundant than the places Li Shu has been to before. Some of the decorations in the house even come from local indigenous tribes, giving off the original atmosphere of rough handicrafts.

Quite unique.

Li Bo also noticed that not all the service staff at the Kaohsiung Guest House were Haihan people. Many of them were local indigenous people who did not speak Chinese well. However, these people were generally responsible for relatively simple cleaning and transportation.

Such low-level work. It is obvious that Haihan's colonial work in the local area has been quite effective, and he has begun to tame the indigenous people to work for him.

On the way to visit the farm the next day, Li Bo took the initiative to mention the matter to Li Dou on the carriage. Li Dou smiled and said: "Actually, there are quite a few local indigenous people working for us.

Only trustworthy people can work in the guest house, and the income of these people is much higher than that of their compatriots who still live in the mountains and forests."

In the early days of Kaohsiung's development, several hardline tribes that were in tit-for-tat confrontation with Haihan in the surrounding areas were either wiped out completely, or they had fled into the mountains to the east to stay away from the Haihan colony, so those who remained

The relatively mild tribes had little resistance under Haihan's coercion and inducement, and gradually became Haihan's vassals.

The labor force provided by these less civilized indigenous tribes is also cheaper than that of Han immigrants. Employers only need to provide them with food, wine, sugar, oil, iron, medicine and other materials as wages. There are some smaller tribes

, because a large number of members entered Kaohsiung to work for the Haihan people, they simply took the initiative to move out of the mountainous area and moved to the settlement planned by Haihan in Kaohsiung to settle down again.

The first destination that Li Dou took Li Bo and his party to visit was the officially operated collective farm of Haihan. At present, more than 5,000 acres of grain crops are planted in its jurisdiction, making it the main grain-producing area in Kaohsiung. And in this collective

The farmers working on the farm are almost all Han Chinese immigrants or Han immigrants who have applied for naturalization, but there are not many indigenous people working here.

"Growing food is a technical job. The farming technology of the local indigenous tribes is still at the level of slash-and-burn cultivation, so our collective farm only employs a small number of indigenous people as porters." After arriving at the farm, Li Dou explained the place to Li Bo.

employment structure.

Due to language and cultural barriers, it is difficult for the local indigenous people to learn more complex technical tasks in a short period of time, and they are selfish and do not want the indigenous people to master advanced food growing technology. This will only greatly reduce the dependence of the indigenous tribes on Haihan.

It may gain gratitude from the other party in the short term, but in the long run it will not be conducive to Haihan's control and transformation of the local population structure. Therefore, on farms that produce food crops, the indigenous people are basically only responsible for some menial tasks that have nothing to do with technology.

As for the planting areas of cash crops, there are no worries in this regard, because the sales and pricing power of cash crops are almost controlled by Haihan. Even if the indigenous people learn these planting techniques, it will be difficult for them to develop related industries on their own. What's more,

Before most cash crops appear on the market, they undergo further processing in various workshops, which is a condition that indigenous tribes cannot meet.

Rice is still the largest food crop grown in Kaohsiung. Two crops of rice can be grown and harvested here every year, and the yield per mu is basically on the same level as the rice fields on Hainan Island. In addition to meeting the needs of local people, the rice in Kaohsiung Port also needs

Taking into account the food supply of Penghu, Miaoli and the Jilong Port in the north, even the Dutch Damuan Port occasionally purchases small quantities of food from the nearby Kaohsiung Port for emergency emergencies.

"Your Majesty, rice cultivation may seem simple, but from plowing the land, raising seedlings, and transplanting rice to the later stages of weeding and insecticide, irrigation and drainage, fertilization, harvesting, drying, and screening, there are corresponding technical standards in our country. So our country's rice

The yield per mu will be much higher than that of other countries.”

Li Bo was walking on the field and saw a vast rice planting area in front of him. Listening to Li Dou's explanation, he felt quite emotional. Of course, North Korea also has a large area of ​​rice cultivation, but due to geographical and climatic conditions, it can only be planted once a year.

For rice, unlike Kaohsiung Port, the planting of the second rice crop in the second half of the year has now been completed, and another harvest will be available in two months.

If North Korea can also plant two crops of rice every year, it will definitely play a big role in improving its national strength. Li Mingzheng was planning to ask Li Dou about this, but the other party seemed to have anticipated his question and proactively said: "Two crops like this

The method of planting rice is only applicable to places farther south. The Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas of the Ming Dynasty are probably the northern boundary of the two-crop rice. Your country is located in the north and does not have such natural conditions."

Li Bo could only sigh silently in his heart, secretly thinking that it is not that easy to become prosperous through farming. What Haihan can do, his own country may not be able to achieve it.

Li Dou continued: "With stable grain output and sufficient official grain reserves, people will know that they will not fall into famine, and people's hearts will naturally be stable. Your Majesty, please see, the row of columnar buildings in the north are used locally.

A granary for storing rice."

The granary didn't seem big from a distance. After a while, when he got closer, Li Bo realized that its volume was far beyond imagination. At least one hundred thousand kilograms of rice could be loaded into one warehouse.

Li Bo couldn't help but asked with some confusion: "I heard Mr. Li say before that the current local population is only a few thousand people. Even if the population of other places on Taiwan Island is added, it is probably only about 10,000 people. The size of the granary in Kaohsiung Port is so large

, it should far exceed the demand for food consumption, right?”

Li Dou explained: "To be honest with you, the food stored here is not only for the needs of the people on the island of Taiwan, but also a considerable part of it is wartime reserve food. This year, the coalition forces went north from Sanya to your country to help in the war. In order to save action time and

In terms of maritime transport capacity, most military supplies are shipped from Kaohsiung Port and Dinghai Port. Once a war breaks out on the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty, this will be one of the logistics bases of the Haihan Army."

Li Bo nodded and said: "I see, but when I came down, I looked at the pier of Kaohsiung Port and there didn't seem to be many shore defenses. Mr. Li is so confident in the local defense?"

Li Dou smiled and said: "Your Majesty, you are careful! Kaohsiung Port currently does not have many military functions. Maritime defense mainly relies on the navy stationed at Magong Port in Penghu. However, the potential threats near Kaohsiung Port have actually been cleared up relatively cleanly. There are really

The armed forces capable of attacking this place will not choose this place, because this is just an agricultural area. Even if it is captured, it will not cause too much damage to our country. It has no value as a target of military strikes, but will have to bear a huge burden for it.

Big operational risk.”

After Shibazhi was completely wiped out, the closest hostile force to Kaohsiung Port was the Spanish in Manila. At the beginning of this year, the Haihan Army sent troops to Luzon Island and expelled the Spanish from Manila Bay. The other party is unlikely to

Then send troops from the South China Sea 2,500 miles away, bypassing Luzon Island to attack this Haihan colony with limited military value.

Of course, even if the Spaniards made such a ridiculous decision in a daze, they would easily fall into a situation where they had no choice but to come and go. Not to mention that the naval fleet stationed in Penghu could reach Kaohsiung within a day, even if the Fujian Navy took over

After calling the police, it would take less than two days to set off from Xiamen and reach Kaohsiung. Unless the intruders burned, killed, and looted the shore and then retreated immediately, they would not be able to escape from Kaohsiung as long as they were in love with the war.

Taking the risk of losing a fleet to attack Kaohsiung Port, the Spaniards, whose current strength has been severely damaged, cannot afford such a big game. Therefore, although the risk raised by Li Bo exists objectively, the actual threat it can pose is quite limited.

, Li Dou never worried about the invasion of foreign enemies.

However, Li Bo lacked understanding of the international situation and geographical environment, and he could not understand all of Li Dou's explanations, and he was still a little doubtful. When he was at Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, he witnessed with his own eyes the Haihan East Sea Fleet stationed there.

The sense of security brought by strong ships and powerful guns is much more reliable than Li Dou's verbal explanation. However, Kaohsiung Port has neither large-scale coastal defenses nor a fully-equipped fleet stationed there, so it seems that

Defense is not as focused as Dinghaiport.

In addition to the fact that Kaohsiung Port is relatively close to Magong Port and the Fujian Navy Station, if there is another hidden reason, it is probably that the chief officer of Kaohsiung Port, Li Dou, is a civilian and is not keen on military construction.

As long as there are funds, the first thing to consider is to improve the local industrial institutions and expand the scale of production. As for military engineering, I am afraid that in Li Dou's mind, it is not as important as digging a few canals.

The construction of granaries in Kaohsiung to store a large amount of grain to meet the needs of wartime or other emergency situations also came from the arrangements of the Executive Committee and was not Li Dou's own plan. The construction and maintenance costs of these large granaries are not small. If only

It is difficult to complete such a large project relying on local finance.

Li Dou's own governing philosophy is to gradually develop local agriculture into a characteristic economy, preferably unique among Haihan's overseas colonies. And the title of "National Agricultural Demonstration Zone" currently obtained,

It has been proved that the future of this road is bright. However, the population growth rate of Kaohsiung Port has been slow recently, making it difficult to organize more labor force to cultivate new cultivated land and expand the scale of agricultural production. Li Dou hopes that by receiving Li Bo's visit

The opportunity in Kaohsiung allowed Li Pu to realize Haihan's advancement in agricultural development, and then look for opportunities to export local agricultural products and agricultural development models to North Korea.

Of course, after Li Dou came into contact with Li Bo, he found that his goal was not so easy to achieve. This was not because Li Bo had any aristocratic airs or lacked interest in agricultural-related matters, but that the prince knew nothing about farming.

There were very few, and it was difficult for him to be touched by Haihan's agricultural level. For example, when talking to him about the grain yield per mu, Li Bo had no idea about the normal yield per mu of land, so it was naturally difficult to hear the harsh words.

Doubao was shocked after the local rice yield figures were published.

On the contrary, large buildings with strong visual impact like granaries can make Li Bo feel the development of local agriculture. Li Dou felt that if Li Bo came two months earlier or two months later, he would be able to catch up with the rice field harvest.

At that time, the scene of mountains of food might have a similar effect.

After wandering around the farmland for more than half an hour, Li Dou took Li Bo to visit the residential area of ​​the collective farm. The gap in status and treatment was reflected here. Almost every Haihan employee had a small courtyard.

Households with a large population may even live in two or three courtyards; Han employees who have not yet been naturalized live in a much more crowded place, with only a few families living in one courtyard; as for indigenous employees who have food and accommodation provided, they live in collective dormitories.

It's even more crowded, with at least six to eight people in each room.

"Such a differentiated arrangement is also to give employees the motivation to make progress. As long as they work hard, they will all hope to become Chinese nationals and enjoy national treatment." Li Dou took the initiative to explain the purpose of this arrangement to Li Bo.

Li Bo understands this very well. It is not like the landlord's own relatives helping the workers, permanent workers and temporary employees. There must be differences in treatment. However, he does not think that those locals who look obviously different from the Han people and cannot even speak Chinese

Aboriginal people can also become Hai-Han citizens. Otherwise, how can they abide by Hai-Han laws after naturalization?

Li Dou did not expect that the issue Li Bo was thinking about was so biased. He took him around the residential area and introduced him in detail to the relevant supporting facilities, such as canteens, bathhouses, public security, medical institutions, etc.
Chapter completed!