Become a feudal king from today

A billowing heat wave swept over the fields.

The clothes of the people facing the loess and their backs to the sky were soaked with sweat, but their enthusiasm for the harvest still could not be stopped.

Zhao Xu nodded in agreement with Liu Fu's words.

Although the people have to pay 10% of the tax, compared to the harvest, this is really a drop in the bucket.

Even if you exclude food and drink, there will still be some leftover at the end of the year.

Furthermore, many people participated in the previous construction of Wubao.

These people have made a lot of money. Now that the summer harvest is coming, they have returned to their hometown from Wu'an County to harvest wheat.

Money was also made, and there was no delay in harvesting food.

It can be said that among the people in the four counties now, they are the wealthier.

It's just that the construction of Wubao only required a small number of people, which failed to achieve his goal of making the people of the four counties generally wealthy while building infrastructure.

Thinking of his big infrastructure plan, he said to Liu Fu: "After this summer harvest, infrastructure construction will be put on the agenda."

Liu Fu nodded. The word infrastructure was no stranger to him.

King Yan had mentioned it many times in the Government Affairs School and explained it to them in detail.

He also knew exactly what its function was.

Even in the school, King Yan asked officials to list the infrastructure needed by the four counties.

"Yes, Your Highness." Liu Fu looked excited. This time he did not cry.

He knew that King Yan had made a lot of money selling artillery.

Moreover, the Chamber of Commerce's monthly income is now very stable, and the palace's income continues to grow.

This money is piled up in the warehouse, so it might as well be used for infrastructure construction.

It can not only lay the foundation for the industrial and commercial development of the four counties, but also make the people rich and stimulate the development of commerce and trade in the four counties.

Of course, this change in thinking did not come out of thin air, but was related to his frequent attendance at school.

Now he understands a lot of things. For example, did King Yan explain to the officials why he wanted to focus on business? What is industry? What are the economics of infrastructure?

The most important thing is that King Yan told them that the earth is round, not square.

This was criticized by many officials in the school at that time.

For this reason, just a few days ago, King Yan specially took officials to Jinghai County.

He also ordered a fishing boat to sail out to sea.

When the fishing boat returns, have them use binoculars to look at the boat's sails.

At this time, they discovered that they saw the sails first and then the hull.

Since then, no official has questioned King Yan.

And this is just a small topic that King Yan randomly inserted when he was talking about government affairs in the government affairs school.

King Yan would come up with such small topics from time to time, which shocked the officials, as King Yan said, doubting life.

"The people in the four northern counties are the most miserable. Your Highness is really a gift from God. From now on, the people will not only be able to eat well and wear warm clothes, but also have enough money to drink some wine." Liu Fu said with emotion.

"What does this mean? I want everyone to be able to afford silk and satin, so that the children of common people can afford to go to school and eat meat every once in a while." Zhao Xu looked at the people sweating profusely in the fields.

A contemporary book called "Memories of Wool" has this record: In the British countryside in the 18th century, people lived in brick cottages with red tile roofs, wore woolen clothes, wore leather shoes, and ate White bread.

In addition, the food category of a farmer's household expenses also includes flour, oatmeal, root vegetables, vegetables, broad beans, peas, fruits, milk, butter, cheese, meat, salt, beer, exotic products, vinegar, Spices etc.

The eighteenth century was from 1700 to 1800.

It can be seen what kind of living standard Western society has achieved through industry and global colonization at this time.

Thinking of this, he just felt that the hard-working people in his land in front of him should not work so hard that they couldn't even put on their pants.

It was necessary for him to bring them to a similar standard of living, or even higher.

"If this can be done, I will die without any regrets." Liu Fu had a look of longing on his face when he heard this.

But he was just looking forward to it, and didn't think that the four counties would really be like this in the future.

After all, people have not lived like this since ancient times.

Zhao Xu could tell that Liu Fu didn't believe him, and he didn't explain.

After all, Liu Fu had never seen the material wealth brought by industry after the promotion of steam engines.

He didn’t explain it either. It would be more shocking to prove everything with facts.

After walking around Pumice Village, most of the people were busy.

Either cutting wheat, or carrying wheat to the threshing floor in the village.

When Li Zhengfanzheng learned that Zhao Xu was coming, he came over wearing a broken straw hat.

Just as he was about to salute, Zhao Xu waved his hand to stop him.

"How is the septic tank construction in the village going?" Zhao Xu asked.

This was an order given by Zhao Xu to Liu Fu in the school after the soil fertilizer incident, asking every household in every village to dig a septic tank.

Soil fertilizers can only be used nearby, otherwise the cost is too high and not cost-effective.

Unless steam engines are built in the future and steam ships sail on rivers for transportation.

Only with this soil and fertilizer can we travel smoothly through the four counties.

But soil fertilizer is only one method, and another method of retting is the septic tank.

He asked the government officials to go to Fushi Village and the workshop area to provide cement and blue bricks, excavate the soil, use blue bricks to build a square pond in it, and plaster the surrounding surfaces with cement.

Due to the properties of cement, such a pool is strong and will not leak.

Normally, people are asked to throw human and animal dung, burned plant ashes, rotten vegetable leaves, and fallen leaves into it for fertilization.

In this way, before sowing every season, people can fertilize their land to ensure a harvest.

As for the methane generated by the septic tank, he has no idea as it cannot be used for the time being.

Now, Fushi Village is a pilot project. Next, the government will ask county officials to visit and promote it to other counties.

"Go back to your highness, it's half finished." Fan Zheng said.

This Dongxifu Yamen provided people and money, saying that it could provide fertilization, so naturally no one objected.

Every family is very cooperative.

Zhao Xu nodded and took Liu Fu and other officials to a commoner's home.

At this time, several masons were busy in the fenced courtyard of the common people's house.

The septic tank was built between the hut and the pig pen, with cement pipes connecting the two places.

Plant ash, leaves and other things can be thrown in through the upper lid.

In this way, a perfect retting system is formed.

Of course, if people don’t raise pigs at home, the same goes for other animals.

After a brief look, and then visiting some other houses, Zhao Xu left with satisfaction.

Septic tanks are not backward even in modern times.

In the 1980s and 1990s, it was still popularized in rural areas, and it had little technical content.

It is very suitable to promote it in the four counties.

This will not only make the countryside more hygienic but also reduce diseases caused by mess.

It can also provide fertilizers for farmland to each household, basically killing two birds with one stone.

Back at the government office, it was getting dark.

Zhao Xu discussed the irrigation problem with Liu Fu again.

Retting is to increase the yield per mu, and irrigation is to allow more land to be irrigated.

This will expand the amount of fertile farmland in the four counties.

After all, fields that cannot be irrigated also cannot have a good harvest.

This problem must be solved in infrastructure construction.

He wanted to divert water from the rivers in the four counties and build a network of canals.

In a few years, irrigation and fertilization will be shared, and he believes that the agriculture of the four counties will be as good as that of Jiangnan.