Chapter 140: Business outside the border, the army passed by

In addition to Laoying Fort, great development has also been made on both sides of the Guanhe River outside Laoying Fort. After Huang Laifu overhauled the water conservancy canal, many of the land on both sides of the Guanhe River were well irrigated.

Although Laoyingbao was developed a little late, there are only tens of thousands of acres of wheat planting, and a small half of them are planted with soybeans, beets, flax and other substances. Even so, during this autumn harvest this year, the harvest of the fields near Laoyingbao has solved the food and clothing needs of the soldiers of Laoyingbao.

Huang Laifu believes that by next year, at least hundreds of thousands of acres of land can be sorted out in Laoying Fort and Panguan Fort, all planted with wheat and other things. Next autumn, this place will definitely be a harvest scenery.

Although the weather has become colder and colder now, Huang Laifu still saw a busy scene when inspecting the two banks of the Guanhe River. The soldiers of the Laoying Fort and Panguan Fort were busy and nervously, under the leadership of the town leaders, they were installing water trucks and large-sink well water trucks, and repairing the canals. These things will come in handy after the spring next year.

Due to the development of the two forts, not only are there more and more merchants from both places now, but many nearby households have also attracted to work. In particular, some poor Mongolians outside the pass have also come to participate in business together, earn some money to support their families, and add some opportunities to their families to live.

The Mongolian tribe led by the Sanniangzi outside the Laoying Fort had a good relationship with the Ming Dynasty. Besides, Huang Laifu's reputation also made the Mongolians outside the Laoying Fort dare to have any bad ideas. They could only use their hard work like the Han people to exchange for food for their lives.

Huang Laifu was still tolerant of these Mongolians. He ordered Gu Shibao, deputy director of the Wuzhaibao Grain Bureau, to allow these Mongolians who abide by the rules and work hard to enjoy the same treatment as the Han people.

When Huang Laifu came to Laoying Fort, the generals of the Panguan Fort and the military officers also hurried to visit Huang Laifu and accompanied him to inspect the two forts. When Huang Laifu himself managed the Er fort fields, the two made a lot of profits, and their interests were already connected with Huang Laifu.

Especially when Huang Laifu went to Ningxia this time, he defeated Mongolian reinforcements in Shigou City and obtained a lot of news. It had been rumored to be in Panguan and other places. Seeing that Huang Laifu was in front of him, perhaps Huang Laifu would be promoted to the general officer of Shanxi Town in the future, and they were their immediate superiors. It would be wise to have a good relationship with Huang Laifu at this time.

Following Guanhe, he inspected Laoying Fort and the vicinity of Panguan. Huang Laifu was still satisfied with the construction of the military farms of the two forts.

When we came to the two forts, there was another thing that Huang Laifu was concerned about, which was the problem of tree planting in Laoying Fort and Panguan Fort. In the past, the tree planting in the two forts was not precipitated and drought in the country, so trees were always difficult to survive. Without trees, they could not retain water on the surface, forming a vicious cycle.

At the beginning of the year, Huang Laifu found a method of planting trees in later generations by checking his laptop. That is, chop the saplings into a bare bar, leave buds, apply paint on the top to prevent moisture from evaporating, and then immerse the roots in an empty can to prevent water from seeping at the roots. Then place water in the can and put the can and trees in the tree pit to plant.

In later generations, Pianguan County used this method to change the bare appearance of the territory, turning into green trees and rivers all over the ground. Huang Laifu copied it, and he didn't know what the effect was. However, it seemed that this method of planting trees was still significant.

Not to mention that most of the seedlings seen in front of me survived, the old Yingbao who was in charge of this matter was also very excited, and his wrinkles on his face were stretched out. He said to Huang Laifu: "My lord is indeed very clever. In the past, when we plant trees, we would plant one slope and one slope. After using the adult tree planting method, the forest seedlings survived more than 80%. In this way, I was afraid that in a few years, the old Yingbao and the small gates would be able to be shaded. With trees, there would be more water everywhere. With water, farmland could be irrigated. This is all for adults."

As soon as Shi Ze finished speaking, the surrounding Laoying Fort generals Liu Zhengwei, Liang Zhiping, Xie Qingkui, and Panguan Fort Jiang Mingan and others all praised each other. Huang Laifu accepted their compliments with a smile.

Just kidding, I came from later generations, which was an era of information explosion, and I also brought a laptop. If I couldn't change everything around me, I didn't have to mess around.

Finally, Huang Laifu also met with a group of merchants operating a farm outside the Frontier Reclamation in the Laoyingbao Office. At the beginning of the year, Huang Laifu discussed with Wuzhaibao merchants and merchants from all over the country to develop the Qingshui River outside the Frontier and the Junggar Banner first, and then gradually implement his own colonization plan outside the Frontier.

During the discussion plan between Huang Laifu and the merchants at the beginning of the year, Huang Laifu secretly used force to protect him and sold weapons. The merchants insisted on farming and operating, and the final profits were calculated as much as possible.

The current grain planting income is extremely high. With Huang Laifu's protection, the merchants of all five villages are rushing to recruit people and go to Qingshui River and Junggar Banner to operate. After nearly a year of operation, many people have opened up the situation. Not only have many places been detected, but many farmlands have been reclaimed one after another.

Among the approximately 630,000 mu of arable land in Qingshui River, along the Qingshui River, Hunhe River, Gulibanji River and other larger rivers, tens of thousands of acres of land have been reclaimed. In addition, there are 1.28 million mu of natural pastures here, many pastures have been opened as livestock farms, imitating Wuzhai Fort, vigorously raising pigs, sheep and other things. In particular, the Qu family and the Kang family account for most of the land they operate.

In Junggar Banner, there are 1.78 million mu of arable land here, and nearly 100,000 mu of land have been reclaimed, and wheat can be planted next year. Among the 8 million mu of forest-friendly grass-friendly areas here, many pastures have been opened as livestock farms to raise cattle and sheep and other things.

The arable land and pastures in these two places alone can bring a lot of benefits to Huang Laifu and the merchants, not to mention that there are 1.8 billion tons of coal, 600 million tons of refractory clay, and more than 2 billion tons of limestone in Qingshuihe. What’s even more terrifying is that the Yellow River water here is not to mention that the annual transit of 24.8 billion cubic meters, which is the mineral resources here, which is even more amazing. The coal reserves are 54.4 billion tons, limestone reserves are 5 billion tons, and the total bauxite reserves are 100 million tons.

Of course, these resources will belong to Huang Laifu in the future.

Qingshui River and Junggar Banner alone have very rich land and pasture conditions, which can support a large population. Compared with the richer Hetao area, the conditions of these two places are not at the forefront.

Some Huang Laifu couldn't understand why the nomadic peoples who occupied the land for thousands of years still couldn't support themselves and often entered the Central Plains to rob? Are they really nomadic peoples with their own natural bad habits?

The merchants have been operating the two places for nearly a year, and things are still going very smoothly. I wonder if Huang Laifu is shocking the grassland, but those merchants secretly released news that the major shareholder of these reclamation farms is Huang Laifu. Whether it is the Mongolian tribe of Sanniangzi's tribe or the Mongolian tribes of Hetao tribe, there is no sign of harassing these reclamation farms at present.

Things went smoothly, and the vast land outside the border was very wide and there were many fertile lands that could be operated. More and more merchants have joined this plan.

After listening to the merchants' reports, Huang Laifu was also very encouraged. He encouraged the merchants to be braver and take a step further. He said: "Everyone can do it, there is no problem with safety decisions. If there are no blind enemies who dare to harass them, the heavenly soldiers of our Wuzhai Fort and Laoying Fort will turn their tribe into dust. The men will be captured as serfs, and the women will be captured as military prostitutes."

The merchants were laughing, and the general spoke very interestingly.

Huang Laifu also laughed. To be honest, he felt very relaxed when he was with these merchants, perhaps because he was a businessman in his later generations.

The atmosphere was even more cheerful. The Qu family and Kang family were preparing to invest additionally to reclaim more farmland and pastures. Huang Laifu also promised them to provide them with more weapons and provide them with better safety guarantees.

However, the biggest problem at the moment is the manpower problem. Just operating the Qingshui River and Junggar Banner requires a large number of farming personnel. At present, the surplus manpower in Laoyingbao and Panguanbao have been wiped out. However, there is still a lack of a large number of garrisons.

When merchants talked about this, they all sighed. At present, there were countless refugees in the Ming Dynasty, with nearly ten million people from north to south, but there were still too few who were willing to go outside the border. Huang Laifu was also pondering. In order to attract more people from the Ming Dynasty to go outside the border and better develop the land of Hetao, it seems that the Ming version of the "Houseland Law" should be put on the agenda as soon as possible.

December 8, 1592.

After returning from Laoying Fort, accompanied by his third brother-in-law Tian Dafu, Huang Laifu visited the Shenchi Fort again, which was the Shenchi Fort Iron Factory and the Shenchi Fort Coal Mine. Last year, Huang Laifu had bloody suppression here for the mining operation.

Facts have proved that Huang Laifu's approach is correct. Not to mention that local households and miners now have stable jobs and live a life of well-being and well-dressed food and clothing, even the iron and coal mines are now booming and are developing steadily every month.

After calculation, in a year, iron plants and coal mines can provide Huang Laifu with at least 200,000 taels of silver every year. After all parties distribute dividends, it is definitely not a minority to fall into Huang Laifu's silver treasury.

This is just the minerals in Shenchi Castle. If Huang Laifu manages several forts and minerals outside the border are developed in the future, Huang Laifu will not know how much money will be waiting for him.

On December 9, Huang Laifu returned to Wuzhai Fort after a tour around the surrounding area.

On this day, tens of thousands of reinforcements including Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, led by Ye Mengxiong, Li Rusong and others arrived at Wuzhai Fort. They escorted the rebel generals such as Wei Chengen, Wei Chengpeng, and Wei Hongda and others to come to Wei Lanzhou. On the morning of the 9th, they entered Wuzhai Fort.
Chapter completed!