Siheyuan: I decide the fate of the world with my medical skills

Chapter 309 Fruit Forest Cultivation Area

"Not only that, after you pay the slaves to make up for your debt to the government, if there are any slaves left, the imperial court will buy them at the official price and guarantee that you will not lose even a pound!"

Li Shang was silent for a moment, staring at a group of South Vietnamese leaders whose faces turned from gloomy to bright, and then continued.

The news that the price of purchasing slaves was only half of that in the Central Plains seemed insignificant to him.

After a few days of observation and understanding, he learned that most of the South Vietnamese used captured slaves as food reserves, and once faced with a situation of hunger...

Brother Ying had also anticipated this. He sighed inwardly: In fact, this is quite similar to the situation in the mainland.

Then he pointed to the opened map scroll and said, "Please look, these are the newly designated relocation sites for Nandonghai County. There are ten in total. We still adhere to the principle of 'arranging them in order of priority'."

Following the explanation, the South Vietnamese leaders left one after another.

It was two who kept their promise: there was no question of how many people these leaders could capture. There were limits to their knowledge. Between the lush mountains, countless wandering lives were waiting to be discovered - "The boundless land is the land of the imperial capital."

All the areas from the sun to the moon were under the jurisdiction of Qin, so the barbarians could not be allowed to survive. Ziying closed the scroll in his hand, and the two walked out together.

"Young Master, I have been hesitating about how to ask..." Li Shang took a step back and asked softly: "Weren't you always in the plantation or Panyu, but you came here? This place is remote, and once there is danger, it will be too late!"

"You misunderstood. This is a real plantation. The cultivated land is only suitable for farming to meet the most basic needs of people."

Before he was asked, Yingzi explained: "I asked several sugar farmers. They told me that sugar cane has high demand, strong cold resistance, and an overall water demand trend of low water demand at both ends and high water demand in the middle."

"This sloping land, which is easy to drain and not prone to flooding, is the best place to grow sugar cane in the future."

"Based on this consideration, I have discussed and arranged with the county magistrate Ren Xiao, and organized manpower to transport sugar cane from various surrounding areas to this place. Now, the oil press workshop plan described by Your Majesty has also been realized!"

Li Shang felt inexplicably curious and amazed at this situation. He felt that the king's decision was indeed a wise decision that made use of people's talents. Although it was sentimental to a certain extent, it was orderly in actual operation.

However, he was still thinking about the big crocodile. These days, the girl from the barbarian tribe seemed to be more entangled with him, which made him feel that he needed some remedy...

Li Shang finally succumbed to curiosity and rode forward with Ziying towards the distant orchard.

"This will be the place that your majesty mentioned, which will make the Qin Dynasty last forever!"

Ziying spread his arms and embraced the vast rolling hills.

Li Shang's lips moved slightly, but he finally fell silent.

In his opinion, this is just a piece of high land near the river, with lush trees growing recently. Compared with the mountains around Panyu, there is nothing special about it.

Today, the sounds of felling trees on this hill have quietly disappeared. Instead, there are strong men wielding iron tools to remove tree roots. These hardworking men are all from Nanyue.

The chieftain who had attacked the Nanyue people together with Li Shang came to greet Ziying immediately after seeing him.

Because of his outstanding performance in commanding the army, he was specially awarded a title that was upgraded from his original status to "Zan Niao".

So at this moment, the chieftain was wearing a long robe, a belt around his waist, shorts on his lower body, and foot bindings. Although he had short hair, it did not meet the standard of the Qin system - shaving it into a flat cone-shaped sideburns.

The so-called hairpin is equivalent to the current rein accessories or an alias for horse riding tools. In earlier times, it was also called "Zou Ma".

In order to encourage the surrounding South Vietnamese people to return to normal working conditions and enhance social cohesion, the chief was specially authorized to lead a team to clear trees and set an example for the South Vietnamese people who surrendered to the Qin Dynasty.

The reason was that any task other than physical labor required each South Vietnamese person to be paid 15 copper coins per day.

Although the local Qin people appreciated this arrangement, they did not complain about it.

One reason is that everyone is scrambling for the season and there is not enough labor to sow rapeseed. What's more, the Qin court has guaranteed that once the rapeseed harvest is good, it will purchase all the rapeseed without limit based on the existing purchase price.

Secondly, the work of clearing tree roots is too tiring. They receive daily wages but are not provided with food. This makes them prefer to grow familiar crops at home to feed themselves and their families.

"Your Excellency, Lieutenant Li!" The chieftain greeted him with a smile on his face. Ziying rode on his horse and nodded his chin slightly, indicating his satisfaction with the work.

Once the tree stumps are cleared, it is time to prepare the land for planting sugarcane.

A thousand civilians from Qin have also arrived here. In order to allow them to settle down in Lingnan, each of them has been assigned two local women as wives and concubines...

Along with them came many inferior war horses, but due to their poor adaptability to the environment, about one-third of them were lost. The rest, after adapting to the humid and hot climate of Nanhai County, all looked refreshed.

Today, these people are pulling horses to carry sugarcane from all over the country. Behind this prosperous scene lies a passionate pursuit of improving quality of life and material wealth.

Li Shang took a piece of emerald green sugar cane from the back of one of the horses and asked, "Sir, is this sugar cane not fully ripe? Is sugar cane usually black?"

Ziying smiled and shook his head, indicating that he was not very knowledgeable about this issue either.

An experienced farmer who had participated in sugarcane planting came forward to explain: "Captain Lieutenant did not fully understand that the different types of sugarcane planted in the Nanhai counties are roughly divided into two types: one is the variety cultivated by the Qin people in the Panyu area for food. Its characteristics are that the roots are crisp and juicy but not very sweet, but it has a slightly pleasant taste; the other is the common black sugarcane. This type of sugarcane has a hard texture and a rough surface. Although it is sweet, it is more difficult to bite. In the past, when paying tribute to the King of Chu or presenting it to Your Majesty, most people used this variety."

"Then why not make it sweeter?" After hearing this, Li Shang immediately threw the sugarcane in his hand back into the carriage.

An experienced farmer explained: "Even though they are not sweet, they still have the function of extracting sugar and can bring stable income and returns to the planters!"

"Have you collected all the sugarcanes in Nanhai County?"

Ziying turned his head and looked at the sugar mill located by the river in the distance, and asked the same question as before: "What Li Shang just said and what he answered now is about the sugarcane situation in the entire Nanhaiwai County."

Then, the experienced farmer replied, "Yes, when the princess took action, all the sugarcane in Nanhai County had been collected here, a total of more than 20,000 pounds."

Regarding the question of "whether it is necessary to set aside some seeds", he added that unlike ordinary crops, sugarcane only needs to be processed by burying its rhizomes in the soil. In the spring of the following year, new branches will sprout around the original rhizomes, and usually only one sowing is needed to harvest for several years!

"So that's how it is..." After listening to the explanation of the experienced Tian Shi, Li Shang suddenly came to his senses. He expressed his agreement with a surprised and convinced gesture.

Ziying was thinking about the twenty pounds of sugar cane: most of the twenty thousand tons of sugar cane would be squeezed into sugar, leaving more than twelve thousand tons as breeding resources. He was planning the subsequent sugar-making operations in his mind.

Then, following Yu Ziying, he asked with equal excitement: "Sir, are we going to squeeze all these sugar canes into sugar?"

Ziying walked towards the distance with determination: "Of course, in accordance with your majesty's orders, except for some healthy and unusually sweet sugarcanes, the rest will be squeezed into sugar!" He did not stop, but instead quickened his pace, showing his determination and confidence as a leader.

"But why not leave more seeds and expand the scale of planting, as we hope, adopting a geometric growth model?"

"The only one who doesn't understand the problem Your Majesty is facing is me, Li Shang!" Facing Ziying's sigh, "In the Nanhai County, millions of family resources have been invested, and thousands of workers have worked hard. What we need is harvest and profit!"

"While the courtiers may not have explicitly voiced their opposition, this does not mean that they have any reservations or approval about your Majesty's plan to grant power to those foreign nobles."

"In the face of all this, the critical moment to answer your majesty's concerns and solve practical problems is when the squeezed sugarcane sugar arrives at the capital of Guanzhong!"

Li Shang's words echoed those of his elder brother. He pondered, "This young man talked about basically the same thing as my brother. I didn't expect that Qin Ting was not as unfathomable as I expected." After standing in silence for a while, they slowly walked into the sugar-making workshop.

Gongshu Pan, a craftsman in the workshop, stepped forward quickly and said, "Greetings to the young master, greetings to the captain."

Ziying reached out and gently held the other's hand, then smiled and asked, "Are you healthy, brother?"

His title was directed at Gongshu Fei, the former lieutenant who had traveled with him to Lingnan and would soon become the eldest son of the Shaofu. The skills he inherited were comparable to those of Lu Ban. Unfortunately, he had suffered a stroke in recent months and is still unable to manage government affairs.

"Young Master, you must be worried about my brother. Fortunately, he has almost recovered." Gongshu Pan forced a smile, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, the villains in the troubled times were really shameful!

Next, Ziying asked: "So everything is fine, can you please prepare to make sugar first?"

His words represent the wishes of those who worked hard in the workshop - their lives were difficult, and the new house only solved their food and clothing needs. The addition of two new women undoubtedly aggravated the already tight financial situation of the family, forcing them to work harder to make up for the lack of food reserves.

As a result, the workshop was completed in a dozen days, a full half a month faster than scheduled - this was because of the previous promise that after becoming proficient in the sugar-squeezing technique, the daily income would be increased from the original fifteen coins to twenty coins; after mastering the complete memory and passing the assessment, one could obtain the title of engineer, be promoted from a civilian status to an official position, and become a member of the ranks of minor officials!

Ziying looked at the enthusiasm of the group of people and thought of the previous discussion, "Everyone in the world seeks profit and avoids danger." If the sugar-making project adopts forced labor like pounding rice, the efficiency may not be as high as it is now. But this is exactly Ziying's strategy. He knows that the squeezed sugarcane juice must be pressed and refined into sugar in time, otherwise it will spoil easily and cause losses.