Chapter 1888
Agricultural Development
Chapter 1888 Agricultural Development
Li Dou had already considered the embarrassment of Li Luo's lack of relevant knowledge. After introducing the current situation of local agricultural development, he took the initiative to invite Li Luo to visit local farms and plantations in the next itinerary. In this way, we can have a more intuitive understanding of Kaohsiung's agricultural development.
If it was before going abroad this time, Li Mo, who had lived in the palace for a long time, would definitely not have had much interest in farming, let alone a special trip to visit the farmland, but this trip has really broadened Li Mo's horizons. Little by little, he has also gradually realized that the strength of a country is not only reflected in its military force, it is also very important to allow the people to live and work in peace, have enough food and clothing.North Korea itself is an agricultural country, and there are not many common languages with Haihan in terms of military affairs, trade, and finance. However, this stop in Kaohsiung allowed Li Lu to finally find a rare common ground between the two countries, and the learning threshold in this area It seems that he is not as high as other fields, so he will naturally not refuse this timely invitation.
Like the former Haihan Colony, Kaohsiung also has a guest house with uniform service standards as an institution to receive Li Lu and his party.However, the guest house here has strong local characteristics. For example, most of the various wooden and rattan furniture in the room are locally produced, and the variety of fresh fruits provided is more abundant than the places Li Luo has been to before.Some of the decorations in the house even come from the local indigenous tribes, and the primitive atmosphere exuded by rough handwork is quite unique.
Li Lu also noticed that not all the service staff at the Kaohsiung Guest House are Haihan people, and many of them are local aborigines who can't speak Chinese well. However, these people are generally responsible for relatively simple cleaning and transportation. Such low-level work.Obviously, Haihan's local colonization work has been quite effective, and he has begun to tame the natives to work for him.
On the way to visit the farm the next day, Li Min took the initiative to mention this matter to Li Dou in the carriage, and Li Dou said with a smile: "Actually, there are quite a few local aborigines working for us. Only those who can be trusted can enter the guest house to work, and the income of these people is much higher than those of the same people who still live in the mountains and forests."
In the early days of Kaohsiung’s development, the few hard-line tribes who fought tit-for-tat with Haihan in the surrounding areas were either completely wiped out, or they had already escaped into the mountainous area to the east to avoid the Haihan colony, so the remaining ones The relatively moderate tribes had little resistance under Haihan's coercion and temptation, and gradually became Haihan's vassals.
The labor force that these low-civilized indigenous tribes can provide is also cheaper than that of Han immigrants. Employers only need to provide them with food, wine, sugar, oil, ironware, medicine and other materials as remuneration.Some small-scale tribes, because a large number of members entered Kaohsiung to work for the Haihan people, simply moved out of the mountains and moved to the settlements planned by Haihan in Kaohsiung to resettle.
The first destination that Li Dou took Li Luo and his party to visit was Haihan’s official collective farm. At present, more than [-] mu of grain crops are planted in its jurisdiction, and it is the most important grain-producing area in Kaohsiung.The farmers who work in this collective farm are almost all Hai Han immigrants or Han immigrants who have applied for naturalization, but there are not many indigenous people working here.
"Growing food is a technical job, and the farming technology of the local indigenous tribes is still at the level of slash-and-burn farming, so our collective farm only employs a small number of indigenous people as porters." After arriving at the farm, Li Dou explained the situation to Li Wei. employment structure.
Due to language and cultural barriers, it is difficult for the local aborigines to learn more complex technical tasks in a short period of time, and they do not want the aborigines to master advanced food planting technology, which will only greatly reduce the dependence of the aborigines on Haihan. In the short term, it may be appreciated by the other party, but in the long run, it will not benefit Haihan's control and transformation of the local population structure.Therefore, on the farms that produce food crops, the indigenous people are basically only responsible for some clumsy work that has nothing to do with technology.
As for the planting areas of cash crops, there is no scruples in this regard, because the sales and pricing power of cash crops are almost controlled by Haihan, and even if the aborigines learn these planting techniques, it will be difficult for them to develop related industries on their own.What's more, before most commercial crops appear on the market, they will be further processed in various workshops, which is a condition that indigenous tribes cannot meet.
Rice is still the largest food crop planted in Kaohsiung. Two crops of rice can be planted and harvested here every year, and the yield per mu is basically on the same level as that of rice fields on Hainan Island.In addition to meeting the needs of the local people, the rice in Kaohsiung Port also needs to take into account the food supply in Penghu, Miaoli, and Jilong Port in the north. Even Dayuan Port in the Netherlands occasionally purchases a small amount of food from Kaohsiung Port for emergency.
"My son, rice farming seems simple, but there are corresponding technical standards in our country from plowing, seedling raising, transplanting, to later weeding and pest control, irrigation and drainage, fertilization, harvesting, drying, and screening. Therefore, rice in our country The yield per mu will be much higher than other countries.”
Li Lu was walking on the ridge of the field, and in front of him was the rice planting area. Hearing Li Dou's explanation, he felt quite emotional.Of course, North Korea also has a large area of rice planting, but due to geographical and climatic conditions, only one season of rice can be planted each year, and it is impossible to plant rice for the second half of the year like Kaohsiung Port. At present, the second half of the year has been planted. Harvested once.
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 Lu was about to ask Li Dou about this, but the other party seemed to have expected his question, and said, "This method of planting two-crop rice is only suitable for places that are relatively south. The Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions of the Ming Dynasty are probably the north of the two-crop rice." The border is over. Your country is located in the north, so you don’t have such natural conditions.”
Li Yan could only sigh silently in his heart. It really wasn't that easy to make a fortune by farming in the dark way. What Haihan could do, his own country might not be able to achieve it.
Li Dou continued: "With stable grain output and sufficient official grain reserves, the people know that they will not fall into famine, and their hearts will naturally be at ease. Please look, my lord, the row of columnar buildings on the north side are used by the local people. It is a granary for storing rice."
The granary didn't seem big when viewed from a distance, but when he got closer, Li Lu realized that its volume was far beyond imagination, and at least one warehouse could hold more than [-] catties of rice.
Li Luo couldn't help but asked with some doubts: "I heard from Lord Li earlier that the current local population is only a few thousand people. Even if the population of other places on Taiwan Island is added, it may not be more than ten thousand people. The granary in Kaohsiung Port is so large. , should far exceed the demand for food consumption?"
Li Dou explained: "To tell you the truth, the food stored here is not only for the needs of the people of Taiwan Island, but also a considerable part of the food reserves for wartime. This year the coalition forces went north from Sanya to your country to help the war. Most of the military rations are transported by sea from Kaohsiung Port and Dinghai Port. Once a war breaks out along the southeast coast of Ming Dynasty, this will be one of the logistics bases of the Haihan Army.”
Li Luo nodded and said: "I see, but when I came down, I looked at the wharf of Kaohsiung Port, and it seemed that there were not many coastal defenses. Master Li is so confident in the local defense?"
Li Dou smiled and said: "Your Majesty is careful! Kaohsiung Port does not currently undertake many military functions, and its maritime defense mainly relies on the navy stationed at Magong Port in Penghu. However, the potential threats near Kaohsiung Port have actually been cleaned up relatively cleanly. Armed forces capable of attacking this place would not choose this place, because it is only an agricultural area, and even if it captures this place, it will not cause too much loss to our country. It is worthless as a target for military strikes, and instead has to bear a huge burden. Great action 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 Spaniards from Manila Bay.It is also unlikely that the opponent will send troops from the South China Sea [-] miles away, bypassing Luzon Island to attack this Haihan colony with limited military value.
Of course, even if the Spaniard made such an absurd decision in a daze, he could easily fall into a situation where he could come and go.Not to mention that the naval fleet stationed in Penghu can arrive at Kaohsiung within a day, even if the Fujian navy departs from Xiamen to Kaohsiung after receiving the alarm, it will take less than two days.Unless the intruder retreated immediately after burning, killing and looting on the shore, as long as he was a little bit fond of fighting, he would never even think about retreating from Kaohsiung.
At the risk of losing a fleet to attack Kaohsiung Port, the Spaniards, whose strength has been severely damaged, can't afford such a big game.Therefore, although the risks mentioned by Li Mo exist objectively, the actual threats they can cause are quite limited, and Li Dou never worries about the invasion of foreign enemies.
However, Li Luo lacked an 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 dubious in his heart.When he was in Zhoushan Dinghai Port before, he witnessed the Haihan East Sea Fleet stationed there, and the sense of security brought by the strong ships and guns was much more reliable than Li Dou's verbal explanation.Kaohsiung Port has neither large-scale coastal fortifications nor a complete fleet stationed there. It seems that they are not as concerned about defense as Dinghai Port.
In addition to the reason that Kaohsiung Port is relatively close to Magong Port and the station of the Fujian Navy, if there is any hidden reason, it is probably that Li Dou, the chief officer of Kaohsiung Port, was born as a civil servant, and he is not keen on military construction.Under the premise of having funds, the first thing to consider is to improve the local industrial organization and expand the production scale. As for the military project, it is probably not as important as digging a few canals in Li Dou's mind.
The construction of a granary in Kaohsiung to store a large amount of grain for wartime or other emergency needs also came from the arrangement of the Executive Committee, not Lidou's own plan.The construction and maintenance costs of these large granaries are not small. It is difficult to complete such a large project with local finances alone.
And Li Dou's own ruling philosophy is to gradually develop the local agriculture into a characteristic economy, and it is best to be unique among Haihan's overseas colonies.The current title of "National Agricultural Demonstration Zone" has proved that the prospect of this road is bright.It's just that the population growth rate in Kaohsiung Port has been slow recently, making it difficult to organize more labor to reclaim new arable land and expand the scale of agricultural production.Li Dou hopes that by hosting Li Min's visit to Kaohsiung, Li Min will realize the advanced nature of Haihan 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 got in touch with Li Min, he found that his goal was not so easy to achieve. It wasn't because Li Min had any aristocratic pretensions, or because he lacked interest in agriculture-related matters, but because the prince knew a lot about farming. Very little, it is difficult to let it be touched by Haihan's agricultural level.For example, when talking to him about the grain yield per mu, Li Wei had no idea what the normal yield per mu of land was, so it was naturally difficult to be shocked after hearing the local rice yield per mu reported by Lidou.
On the contrary, large buildings with strong visual impact such as granaries can make Li Luo feel the development of local agriculture.Li Dou felt that if Li Min had come two months earlier or two months later to catch up with the harvest of the rice fields, the scene of piled up grains might have a similar effect.
After wandering around the farmland for more than half an hour, Li Dou took Li Wei to visit the residential area of the collective farm.This shows the disparity in status and treatment. Haihan employees almost have a small courtyard for each household, and even two or three courtyards for those with a large family; Several families can live in one yard; as for the aboriginal employees who are provided with board and lodging, the collective dormitories they live in are 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 all hope to become Chinese nationals and enjoy national treatment." Li Dou took the initiative to explain the purpose of this arrangement to Li Min.
Li Luo understands this very well. It is not like the landlord's own relatives' helpers, long-term workers and temporary workers. There must be differences in treatment.However, he does not think that those local aborigines who are obviously different from the Han people in appearance and cannot even speak Chinese can become Haihan citizens. Otherwise, how can they abide by the laws of Haihan after naturalization?
Li Dou didn't expect that the question Li Wei was thinking about was so off-the-wall, so he took him around the residential area, and introduced to him in detail the relevant living facilities, such as canteens, bathhouses, public security, medical institutions, and so on.
(End of this chapter)
Li Dou had already considered the embarrassment of Li Luo's lack of relevant knowledge. After introducing the current situation of local agricultural development, he took the initiative to invite Li Luo to visit local farms and plantations in the next itinerary. In this way, we can have a more intuitive understanding of Kaohsiung's agricultural development.
If it was before going abroad this time, Li Mo, who had lived in the palace for a long time, would definitely not have had much interest in farming, let alone a special trip to visit the farmland, but this trip has really broadened Li Mo's horizons. Little by little, he has also gradually realized that the strength of a country is not only reflected in its military force, it is also very important to allow the people to live and work in peace, have enough food and clothing.North Korea itself is an agricultural country, and there are not many common languages with Haihan in terms of military affairs, trade, and finance. However, this stop in Kaohsiung allowed Li Lu to finally find a rare common ground between the two countries, and the learning threshold in this area It seems that he is not as high as other fields, so he will naturally not refuse this timely invitation.
Like the former Haihan Colony, Kaohsiung also has a guest house with uniform service standards as an institution to receive Li Lu and his party.However, the guest house here has strong local characteristics. For example, most of the various wooden and rattan furniture in the room are locally produced, and the variety of fresh fruits provided is more abundant than the places Li Luo has been to before.Some of the decorations in the house even come from the local indigenous tribes, and the primitive atmosphere exuded by rough handwork is quite unique.
Li Lu also noticed that not all the service staff at the Kaohsiung Guest House are Haihan people, and many of them are local aborigines who can't speak Chinese well. However, these people are generally responsible for relatively simple cleaning and transportation. Such low-level work.Obviously, Haihan's local colonization work has been quite effective, and he has begun to tame the natives to work for him.
On the way to visit the farm the next day, Li Min took the initiative to mention this matter to Li Dou in the carriage, and Li Dou said with a smile: "Actually, there are quite a few local aborigines working for us. Only those who can be trusted can enter the guest house to work, and the income of these people is much higher than those of the same people who still live in the mountains and forests."
In the early days of Kaohsiung’s development, the few hard-line tribes who fought tit-for-tat with Haihan in the surrounding areas were either completely wiped out, or they had already escaped into the mountainous area to the east to avoid the Haihan colony, so the remaining ones The relatively moderate tribes had little resistance under Haihan's coercion and temptation, and gradually became Haihan's vassals.
The labor force that these low-civilized indigenous tribes can provide is also cheaper than that of Han immigrants. Employers only need to provide them with food, wine, sugar, oil, ironware, medicine and other materials as remuneration.Some small-scale tribes, because a large number of members entered Kaohsiung to work for the Haihan people, simply moved out of the mountains and moved to the settlements planned by Haihan in Kaohsiung to resettle.
The first destination that Li Dou took Li Luo and his party to visit was Haihan’s official collective farm. At present, more than [-] mu of grain crops are planted in its jurisdiction, and it is the most important grain-producing area in Kaohsiung.The farmers who work in this collective farm are almost all Hai Han immigrants or Han immigrants who have applied for naturalization, but there are not many indigenous people working here.
"Growing food is a technical job, and the farming technology of the local indigenous tribes is still at the level of slash-and-burn farming, so our collective farm only employs a small number of indigenous people as porters." After arriving at the farm, Li Dou explained the situation to Li Wei. employment structure.
Due to language and cultural barriers, it is difficult for the local aborigines to learn more complex technical tasks in a short period of time, and they do not want the aborigines to master advanced food planting technology, which will only greatly reduce the dependence of the aborigines on Haihan. In the short term, it may be appreciated by the other party, but in the long run, it will not benefit Haihan's control and transformation of the local population structure.Therefore, on the farms that produce food crops, the indigenous people are basically only responsible for some clumsy work that has nothing to do with technology.
As for the planting areas of cash crops, there is no scruples in this regard, because the sales and pricing power of cash crops are almost controlled by Haihan, and even if the aborigines learn these planting techniques, it will be difficult for them to develop related industries on their own.What's more, before most commercial crops appear on the market, they will be further processed in various workshops, which is a condition that indigenous tribes cannot meet.
Rice is still the largest food crop planted in Kaohsiung. Two crops of rice can be planted and harvested here every year, and the yield per mu is basically on the same level as that of rice fields on Hainan Island.In addition to meeting the needs of the local people, the rice in Kaohsiung Port also needs to take into account the food supply in Penghu, Miaoli, and Jilong Port in the north. Even Dayuan Port in the Netherlands occasionally purchases a small amount of food from Kaohsiung Port for emergency.
"My son, rice farming seems simple, but there are corresponding technical standards in our country from plowing, seedling raising, transplanting, to later weeding and pest control, irrigation and drainage, fertilization, harvesting, drying, and screening. Therefore, rice in our country The yield per mu will be much higher than other countries.”
Li Lu was walking on the ridge of the field, and in front of him was the rice planting area. Hearing Li Dou's explanation, he felt quite emotional.Of course, North Korea also has a large area of rice planting, but due to geographical and climatic conditions, only one season of rice can be planted each year, and it is impossible to plant rice for the second half of the year like Kaohsiung Port. At present, the second half of the year has been planted. Harvested once.
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 Lu was about to ask Li Dou about this, but the other party seemed to have expected his question, and said, "This method of planting two-crop rice is only suitable for places that are relatively south. The Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions of the Ming Dynasty are probably the north of the two-crop rice." The border is over. Your country is located in the north, so you don’t have such natural conditions.”
Li Yan could only sigh silently in his heart. It really wasn't that easy to make a fortune by farming in the dark way. What Haihan could do, his own country might not be able to achieve it.
Li Dou continued: "With stable grain output and sufficient official grain reserves, the people know that they will not fall into famine, and their hearts will naturally be at ease. Please look, my lord, the row of columnar buildings on the north side are used by the local people. It is a granary for storing rice."
The granary didn't seem big when viewed from a distance, but when he got closer, Li Lu realized that its volume was far beyond imagination, and at least one warehouse could hold more than [-] catties of rice.
Li Luo couldn't help but asked with some doubts: "I heard from Lord Li earlier that the current local population is only a few thousand people. Even if the population of other places on Taiwan Island is added, it may not be more than ten thousand people. The granary in Kaohsiung Port is so large. , should far exceed the demand for food consumption?"
Li Dou explained: "To tell you the truth, the food stored here is not only for the needs of the people of Taiwan Island, but also a considerable part of the food reserves for wartime. This year the coalition forces went north from Sanya to your country to help the war. Most of the military rations are transported by sea from Kaohsiung Port and Dinghai Port. Once a war breaks out along the southeast coast of Ming Dynasty, this will be one of the logistics bases of the Haihan Army.”
Li Luo nodded and said: "I see, but when I came down, I looked at the wharf of Kaohsiung Port, and it seemed that there were not many coastal defenses. Master Li is so confident in the local defense?"
Li Dou smiled and said: "Your Majesty is careful! Kaohsiung Port does not currently undertake many military functions, and its maritime defense mainly relies on the navy stationed at Magong Port in Penghu. However, the potential threats near Kaohsiung Port have actually been cleaned up relatively cleanly. Armed forces capable of attacking this place would not choose this place, because it is only an agricultural area, and even if it captures this place, it will not cause too much loss to our country. It is worthless as a target for military strikes, and instead has to bear a huge burden. Great action 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 Spaniards from Manila Bay.It is also unlikely that the opponent will send troops from the South China Sea [-] miles away, bypassing Luzon Island to attack this Haihan colony with limited military value.
Of course, even if the Spaniard made such an absurd decision in a daze, he could easily fall into a situation where he could come and go.Not to mention that the naval fleet stationed in Penghu can arrive at Kaohsiung within a day, even if the Fujian navy departs from Xiamen to Kaohsiung after receiving the alarm, it will take less than two days.Unless the intruder retreated immediately after burning, killing and looting on the shore, as long as he was a little bit fond of fighting, he would never even think about retreating from Kaohsiung.
At the risk of losing a fleet to attack Kaohsiung Port, the Spaniards, whose strength has been severely damaged, can't afford such a big game.Therefore, although the risks mentioned by Li Mo exist objectively, the actual threats they can cause are quite limited, and Li Dou never worries about the invasion of foreign enemies.
However, Li Luo lacked an 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 dubious in his heart.When he was in Zhoushan Dinghai Port before, he witnessed the Haihan East Sea Fleet stationed there, and the sense of security brought by the strong ships and guns was much more reliable than Li Dou's verbal explanation.Kaohsiung Port has neither large-scale coastal fortifications nor a complete fleet stationed there. It seems that they are not as concerned about defense as Dinghai Port.
In addition to the reason that Kaohsiung Port is relatively close to Magong Port and the station of the Fujian Navy, if there is any hidden reason, it is probably that Li Dou, the chief officer of Kaohsiung Port, was born as a civil servant, and he is not keen on military construction.Under the premise of having funds, the first thing to consider is to improve the local industrial organization and expand the production scale. As for the military project, it is probably not as important as digging a few canals in Li Dou's mind.
The construction of a granary in Kaohsiung to store a large amount of grain for wartime or other emergency needs also came from the arrangement of the Executive Committee, not Lidou's own plan.The construction and maintenance costs of these large granaries are not small. It is difficult to complete such a large project with local finances alone.
And Li Dou's own ruling philosophy is to gradually develop the local agriculture into a characteristic economy, and it is best to be unique among Haihan's overseas colonies.The current title of "National Agricultural Demonstration Zone" has proved that the prospect of this road is bright.It's just that the population growth rate in Kaohsiung Port has been slow recently, making it difficult to organize more labor to reclaim new arable land and expand the scale of agricultural production.Li Dou hopes that by hosting Li Min's visit to Kaohsiung, Li Min will realize the advanced nature of Haihan 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 got in touch with Li Min, he found that his goal was not so easy to achieve. It wasn't because Li Min had any aristocratic pretensions, or because he lacked interest in agriculture-related matters, but because the prince knew a lot about farming. Very little, it is difficult to let it be touched by Haihan's agricultural level.For example, when talking to him about the grain yield per mu, Li Wei had no idea what the normal yield per mu of land was, so it was naturally difficult to be shocked after hearing the local rice yield per mu reported by Lidou.
On the contrary, large buildings with strong visual impact such as granaries can make Li Luo feel the development of local agriculture.Li Dou felt that if Li Min had come two months earlier or two months later to catch up with the harvest of the rice fields, the scene of piled up grains might have a similar effect.
After wandering around the farmland for more than half an hour, Li Dou took Li Wei to visit the residential area of the collective farm.This shows the disparity in status and treatment. Haihan employees almost have a small courtyard for each household, and even two or three courtyards for those with a large family; Several families can live in one yard; as for the aboriginal employees who are provided with board and lodging, the collective dormitories they live in are 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 all hope to become Chinese nationals and enjoy national treatment." Li Dou took the initiative to explain the purpose of this arrangement to Li Min.
Li Luo understands this very well. It is not like the landlord's own relatives' helpers, long-term workers and temporary workers. There must be differences in treatment.However, he does not think that those local aborigines who are obviously different from the Han people in appearance and cannot even speak Chinese can become Haihan citizens. Otherwise, how can they abide by the laws of Haihan after naturalization?
Li Dou didn't expect that the question Li Wei was thinking about was so off-the-wall, so he took him around the residential area, and introduced to him in detail the relevant living facilities, such as canteens, bathhouses, public security, medical institutions, and so on.
(End of this chapter)