My life skills in Daming Liver - Chapter 684

c671 New farming and animal husbandry model

On the grassland, Yu Dayou looked at the weapons, ammunition and grain supplies delivered to Wuyuan City, and looked towards the direction of Bansheng in the distance.

Today’s Wuyuan City is no longer what it used to be.

The policy adopted by Yu Dayou was not a simple Han and Mongolian policy, but a unified household registration system for the people, and a management method that combined farming and grazing in the river area.

Because the Hetao area is a bend of the Yellow River, there is more silt washed away by the river, so the soil here is very fertile.

The Wuyuan area was originally quite a prosperous area, and it was a rare area on the grassland suitable for farming.

After occupying Wuyuan City, Hu Zongxian, who was building the canal in northern Jiangsu at the time, personally set up the irrigation project plan for the Wuyuan Irrigation Main Canal for Yu Dayou.

Wuyuan City is close to the Yellow River. The Yellow River in the Hetao area is in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The water in the Yellow River is relatively clear, but the Hetao area is also prone to flooding. The land reclaimed by the river is easily washed away by the rising river water.

This was the first problem that Yu Dayou encountered when building the city in Wuyuan. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Yellow River had a very violent flooding period. Historically, Wuyuan City was increasingly abandoned, and this was also the reason.

However, Hu Zongxian pointed out that the water conservancy conditions in Wuyuan are quite good. The current river flooding problem is still due to the backward water conservancy technology of the grassland and the inability to effectively utilize the Yellow River.

Hu Zongxian’s design for Wuyuan City was to build an irrigation branch canal parallel to the Yellow River, and then use some horizontal ditches to connect these branch canals.

This branch canal parallel to the Yellow River was named Wuyuan Irrigation Main Canal.

With the Wuyuan Irrigation Main Canal, the relatively turbulent Yellow River water is separated, so that it is not easy to flood when there is heavy rainfall.

The remaining irrigation projects will divert water from the Wuyuan Irrigation Main Canal to irrigate nearby farmland.

This design can be said to be quite exquisite. Hu Zongxian also sent his assistants into the grassland to help Yu Dayou complete the construction of the Wuyuan Irrigation Main Canal.

At that time, a large number of Han people on the grasslands defected to Wuyuan City, and Yu Dayou also had manpower in his hands, so he took advantage of this opportunity to start digging the Wuyuan Irrigation Canal.

After it was completed two years ago, with the expansion of water conservancy projects, more land was reclaimed into farmland, and last year we had a bumper harvest.

In addition to agriculture, Yu Dayou also treated the grassland nomads who defected to him equally.

For those who are willing to farm and continue grazing, grasslands will be designated for these herdsmen to graze.

After Su Ze heard about the situation in Wuyuan, he wrote to Yu Dayou, suggesting that he cultivate high-quality pasture on the tidal flats and some farmland, and hybridize beans in the land for grazing.

Su Ze also dispatched a complete set of bean processing technical experts to the entire Wuyuan City. These are all graduates of Tiangong Academy.

Wuyuan itself is very suitable for growing beans. These technical experts brought excellent bean varieties bred from southeastern breeding. These beans quickly took root in the grassland and were widely planted.

Then a workshop for pressing soybean oil was built.

Grease has always been a very necessary resource on the grassland.

Unlike the Central Plains, in the bitter cold grasslands, meat, eggs, and butter are necessities. If you cannot supplement enough fat, you will not be able to survive.

Therefore, cream and butter, the technology of extracting oil from dairy products, were also invented by nomads all over the world.

Soybeans can also be used to extract oil. This is a technology invented by the ancestors of the Central Plains long ago. However, with the improvement of agricultural technology in the southeast, the technology of extracting oil from plants has gradually begun to enter tens of millions of households. In many places in southern Zhili, Using soybean oil for cooking has become a normal household practice.

These soybeans were pressed into soybean oil, part of which was supplied to the people of Wuyuan, and part of which was sold to other tribes in the grassland in exchange for supplies to Wuyuan City.

What’s more important is the soybean meal after crushing the soybeans.

Soybean meal is the bean dregs after oil extraction. This is a very excellent concentrated feed.

In addition to soybean meal, corn improved by Governor Su Ze is also a very high-yielding feed.

Although Su Ze had tried his best to improve it, because the corn varieties brought back by Spanish businessmen from South America were too primitive, the corn grown tasted very bad. He vigorously promoted it in various southeastern regions, but there was still little enthusiasm for planting it.

The reason is naturally that most of the areas occupied by Su Ze, from Jiangnan to Huguang and then to Guangzhou and Fujian, are all rice-producing areas. How can eating habits change so easily? Not to mention that although the yield of corn in this era is higher, the taste is not the same. It’s really bad.

With today’s technology, it takes years to complete variety selection. Su Ze is lucky enough to be able to breed higher-yielding corn varieties now. Many times, the development of agricultural technology is like a card game. If you want to To draw the card you want, you need to draw more times and luck.

Su Ze was a little reluctant to have high-yield corn but could only promote it in a few areas. After Wuyuan City was established, Su Ze saw another way.

Since people don’t eat, then animals can’t be picky eaters!

Just after Yu Dayou established Wuyuan City, Su Ze brought corn seeds to Yu Dayou and told him to plant corn near Wuyuan City to survive the initial period of food shortage.

After the development of animal husbandry, Yu Dayou discovered that corn was indeed quite good.

Corn can be ground into feed and mixed with pasture soybean meal to easily feed livestock such as horses, cattle and sheep.

Corn stalks and corn cobs can be used as fire fuel after drying.

After Wuyuan City had satisfied its food supply, it began to use agriculture, the ancient talent of the Han people, to grow food for livestock.

As a result, a new farming and animal husbandry model appeared in Wuyuan City, which used farmland water conservancy facilities to grow corn, soybeans and pasture, produce feed and supply it to nearby nomadic tribes. Farm growers then exchanged milk and meat from herdsmen. , fur and other materials, and then go through the cycle of production and processing.

Herdsmen around Wuyuan need Wuyuan’s feed and livestock technology.

Wuyuan’s farms and workshops also need meat, fur and dairy products provided by surrounding herders.

This interdependent relationship has greatly weakened the conflicts between nomads and farmers, and the conflicts between Han and Hu in Wuyuan have been greatly reduced.

In recent years, the scale of Wuyuan City has expanded, and Yu Dayou has built other small cities along the Hetao. They are all new cities copied according to the Wuyuan model, and they have achieved good results.

After solving the problems of eating and equipment, training troops is the least of the problems.

Yu Dayou quickly trained a cavalry force with Wuyuan as the center.