Please ask me to be the emperor

In later generations, the shortest growth cycle of ducks is thirty days; the growth cycle of broilers is one to two months; and pigs are generally ready for slaughter in 180 days.

With the support of breeding, feed and scientific breeding, the production cycle of pork is about four times that of chicken and six times that of duck meat.

The growth cycle of native chickens is about four to six months; the growth cycle of male ducks is about four months, and the growth cycle of female ducks is about three months; the growth cycle of native black pigs is about one year.

The growth cycle of pigs is still two to three times that of native chickens and four times that of female ducks.

Therefore, when pork cannot meet the demand in future generations, the government will take measures to provide cheap chickens and eggs in a timely manner to meet the dietary needs of the people.

After Zhang Shun comprehensively considered the advantages and disadvantages of chickens, ducks and pigs, and based on the current need to prevent locust plagues, he selected chickens and ducks as the breeding objects.

Especially in this era, there are no scientific breeding measures and corresponding feeds and vaccines. If large-scale centralized breeding is carried out, there is no way to solve the plague problem.

Therefore, in this kind of small farming society, it is a safer and more appropriate choice to encourage farmers to have free-range farming.

The so-called "A five-acre house with mulberry trees, a fifty-year-old can wear silk clothes; chickens, dolphins, dogs, and pigs are kept in their prime, and a seventy-year-old can eat meat." This is a true portrayal of the society of this era.

For example, Zhang Shenyan and Lu Weiqi served as officials for one term and taught others, and they basically "encouraged teaching and farming" on a household-by-household basis.

The content is probably as follows: each family should plant a few mulberry trees and raise silkworms; raise a few chickens and ducks to eat meat; and if they are wealthy, they can support the children in the family to study.

Zhang Shun put forward this idea, and it was indeed favored by civil servants such as Zhang Shenyan and Lu Weiqi.

Lu Weiqi directly expressed his position: "What the Lord said is true. It kills two birds with one stone. I will inform the county magistrates and prefecture magistrates everywhere to comfort the people in time!"

"Yeah!" Zhang Shun nodded, then thought of something again, and couldn't help but add, "If every household raises chickens and ducks, there will definitely not be enough chickens and ducks..."

Before Zhang Shun finished speaking, Zhang Shenyan unexpectedly said, "Master, you are too worried. For a family of five, we need to raise more than ten chickens and ducks, a few sheep, and a pig. How can there be a shortage?"

It turns out that taking a typical family of five in this era as an example, there is an old man at the top and a young man at the bottom. There are two young men and three young men in the family.

Therefore, men farmed and women weaved. In their spare time, the old and the weak could raise chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep, and plant some mulberry trees.

In addition to the rations produced by the cultivated land, the mulberry and hemp produced as a sideline can be used for clothing, and the poultry and livestock such as chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep can be used as the main source of protein, and the meat and eggs produced can be used as a sacrifice.

Therefore, because Zhang Shun did not understand the society of this era thoroughly enough, he made this joke.

Zhang Shun originally thought that the method he proposed was very good, but he didn't expect that it had already become commonplace.

He thought he was proposing groundbreaking measures, but Zhang Shenyan and Lu Weiqi thought he was just going to raise more chickens and ducks on the original basis.

Zhang Shun couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed when he heard this. He carefully recalled the farmers he met, most of them were like this.

If they were richer, the population would increase to seven or eight people, and the family would have dozens of acres of land and raise a cow or a donkey as draft animals.

But before Zhang Shun could decide what to do, Lu Zhaolin hesitated for a moment, saluted Zhang Shenyan and said, "I have something to say, I don't know whether I should say it or not!"

As soon as Zhang Shenyan heard this, he knew it was not a nice thing to say, but for the sake of the child's politeness, he smiled and said, "You should speak freely on official matters. How can you abandon official duties for personal reasons?"

"I'm sorry!" Lu Zhaolin bowed to Zhang Shenyan again, and then explained, "These days I have a lot of contact with the people. Because of the poor harvest, many people sold more livestock, sheep, chickens, ducks and other livestock to meet their food rations. purpose."

"Is the current situation so bad now?" Zhang Shenyan and Lu Weiqi couldn't help but be shocked when they heard this.

It’s no wonder these two people are like this. One of them has been away from work for many years, and the other has returned to his hometown from a prosperous place like Nanjing. How did he know that people are facing such hardships today?

Zhang Shun understood what was going on as soon as he heard this. This was what the textbook called "the bankruptcy of the self-sufficient small farmer economy"!

Regardless of how beautiful the pastoral songs described by Zhang Shenyan and Lu Weiqi are, in fact they still cannot escape from their fragile nature.

For example, in a family with father and son as the core of the labor force, if one of them is seriously ill or disabled, the family will be severely damaged.

Another example is that if a slightly wealthy family encounters a natural or man-made disaster, the harvest will be poor for one or two consecutive seasons. Then you will be burdened with heavy debts, and your family will be ruined if you are not careful.

It is obvious that the people under Zhang Shun's rule encountered the latter problem.

First, many areas were once occupied by other rebel armies, and many families were destroyed.

Secondly, there have been droughts and floods in the past two years, and many families have begun to make ends meet.

Even if these families manage to avoid bankruptcy, most are on the verge of bankruptcy.

Without human intervention, these people in the Central Plains would soon have nothing, sell their sons and daughters, and become new refugees.

If the imperial court is too late to provide relief, then this place will soon become the second Northern Shaanxi and become a hell on earth!

What "white bones are exposed in the wild" and what "people exchange their children for food" will become a cruel reality.

Of course, the actual history was even more bloody. Continuous droughts, locust plagues, coupled with wars and massacres, caused the loss of at least half of Henan's population.

The Central Plains, which has always been densely populated, still needs immigrants from Shandong and the northern and southern capitals to enrich their household registration.

How did Zhang Shun know this? He only knew that if the small-scale peasant economy under his rule went bankrupt, he would not be far from bankruptcy either.

In this era, whether it was taxes, labor, or military service, the family was the basic unit.

If the family is not enough to maintain, then the taxes, military service, and labor that maintain the country's foundation are all gone, and the country is also over.

what to do? Zhang Shun made a decision immediately: "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Lu, if you don't have a family, you won't have a country. This is the fundamental plan of the rebel army!"

"I also ask you two gentlemen to quickly send people to various places to verify. If the people are really in need, help must be provided in time!"

"I want to set up loans in various places to lend the people cattle, seeds, farm tools, chickens, ducks, grain and other items to help the people tide over the difficulties. This is one of them."

"I would like to set up a Food Office under the Department of Agriculture, with a full-time job of distributing food for the army and the people within their means."

"In good years, the grain is low, and the Food Bureau collects grain to avoid low grain prices and hurting farmers; in famine years, grain prices are suppressed to provide relief to the victims. If the grain and grass are not enough, they are purchased and adjusted in time to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, so as to eliminate the problem invisible, sir. What do you think?"

Zhang Shenyan and Lu Weiqi couldn't help being surprised when they heard this. After thinking for a moment, they responded: "King Shun is benevolent and righteous. It is a blessing for the people of the world to have King Shun rule the world!"

"It's just that the matter is serious and we need to investigate and discuss it and make regulations before we dare to report it to King Shun!"