After all, this was practically the result of a year's hard work, and it was only the first year, so Lin Yang was naturally very interested in these things. As time went by, as his territory expanded, and as his population increased, his interest would likely diminish.
"The yield per mu is indeed eleven shi, which is 1,100 jin. I was quite surprised when I first heard this news, but it is all true. I saw it with my own eyes, and it cannot be faked!" Guo Jia said earnestly.
"Oh, so what is the output in other places this year?" Lin Yang asked.
“The average yield north of the Yellow River is about 600 jin. North of the Yangtze River, it reaches 800 jin. South of the Yangtze River, it is about 1,000 jin. So, our yield of 11 shi per mu, or 1,100 jin, is not too exaggerated,” Guo Jia explained.
Upon hearing this, Lin Yang nodded and then shook his head. It seemed that an eleven-shi yield per mu really wasn't much. After all, he was losing money to gain publicity.
"Generally speaking, shouldn't the yield north of the Yellow River be 400 jin? North of the Yangtze River, it should be 600 jin? And south of the Yangtze River, shouldn't it be 800 jin? Why has it collectively increased by 200 jin this year?"
"With the specially made fertilizer and the selected superior seeds, eleven shi (a unit of dry measure) is nothing. As for the collective increase of two hundred jin (a unit of weight), the main credit goes to Yuan Benchu's 'Encyclopedia of Agriculture'," Guo Jia explained.
"The Encyclopedia of Agriculture? Yuan Benchu's book? Hmm, let me think. It does contain quite a lot of details, including planting, seed selection, seedling cultivation... and many precautions for watering, especially the production of organic fertilizer. So, it's not impossible." Lin Yang said casually.
Speaking of which, this book was the very thing that enabled Yuan Shao to be ennobled. Now, with the autumn harvest, Yuan Shao's fame should have spread far and wide throughout the land. Suddenly, countless Han people should be filled with gratitude towards him.
In an instant, the smugness and sense of accomplishment he felt vanished without a trace. Originally, Lin Yang thought he had already accomplished something remarkable by spending a year expanding his territory by thousands of square kilometers, feeding a million people, and achieving a bumper harvest. But what about compared to Yuan Shao?
"That's truly amazing! By now, Yuan Shao's name must be known throughout the world, right? This title of 'modern Shennong' is truly well-deserved. He solved the food problem in one fell swoop, covering clothing, food, shelter, and transportation. It's truly remarkable," Lin Yang exclaimed.
Although Lin Yang actually wanted to say that it was a good method, worthy of being the future leader of the allied forces of the feudal lords, with such prestige, who could compare to him? But he absolutely could not say that on the surface!
Not only should we not say that, we should also praise Yuan Shao and say that he did a great job! After all, in the eyes of ordinary people, food is still the most important thing.
Seeing this, although Lin Yang didn't say anything, and his expression didn't change much, and he only paused for a moment, who was Guo Jia? Even Cao Cao, a great and suspicious warlord, regarded him as a confidant. How could he not understand Lin Yang's true thoughts at this moment? Don't be ridiculous!
Guo Jia rolled his eyes and said with a smile, "That's right. Speaking of which, it was our lord who first gave him the title of Shennong of our time. Now that it has spread throughout the world, it also shows our lord's foresight."
Upon hearing this, Lin Yang shook his head and then said, "Alright, let's talk about something else. What is our total population? And what is the total amount of farmland?"
"Our total population is about 1,203,600, with an error margin of less than 100. The amount of cultivated land is 5,480,000 mu. The average yield per mu is 11 shi, or 1,100 jin. On average, each person has less than 5 mu of land, which is enough to keep them busy."
Five mu of land per commoner is actually quite a lot (five mu per person, not five mu per household). This is not because Lin Yang, the Duke of Wu, is heartless and unwilling to distribute more land to the common people, but because without modern machinery, a commoner cannot cultivate much land in the first place.
Without machinery, relying solely on oxen for plowing, a strong man could cultivate at most seven or eight mu (approximately 0.8-0.3 acres) of land. Moreover, among the million people of Wu, there were many elderly, weak, young children, and women. Therefore, cultivating an average of more than four mu (approximately 0.16 acres) per person was truly a considerable amount!
With modern machinery, an average person can cultivate hundreds of acres of land—a difference of at least tenfold! This intensified Lin Yang's desire for the Industrial Revolution. Only the Industrial Revolution could truly liberate ordinary people from the land.
(The author just can't understand why the protagonists who travel back to ancient times would suddenly give each of their subordinates hundreds of acres of land. How are they supposed to farm that? Are they trying to work them to death? They're definitely going to work them to death!)
"Well, how much did our little court gain?" Lin Yang asked.
This is a crucial issue. It directly relates to this year's agricultural income and next year's military training and maintenance.
"Of these 5.48 million mu of land, 1 million mu are public land belonging to our Wu Kingdom, and the remaining 4 million mu have already been distributed. The harvest from the 1 million mu of land belonging to the imperial court naturally belongs entirely to us. As for the private land of the common people, due to the circumstances of the first year, in order to encourage land reclamation, we did not collect taxes in the first year. Therefore, the total harvest is 11 million shi," Guo Jia explained.
Eleven million shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain. An ordinary civilian would only consume four or five shi of grain per year. A soldier, even a provincial soldier, would only need ten shi of grain per year. In other words, this amount of grain alone would be enough for Lin Yang to recruit over two million people!
"Great! With this grain, we can recruit at least two million more people next year. And if we catch more fish and hunt more often, even three million isn't impossible!" Lin Yang said with a hint of excitement.
"That's really impossible," Guo Jia said somewhat embarrassedly.
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Chapter Thirty-Seven: This Makes No Problem and the Roadshow
An average person consumes at most 400 or 500 jin (200-250 kg) of rice per year. That makes sense!
With one million mu of public land, and an average yield of eleven shi per mu, the total output would reach eleven million shi, which is not unreasonable.
When the army is frequently organized to hunt in the mountains in a large-scale, organized manner, and to collect a large number of animals, it can also frequently organize the army to fish at sea, and thus also be able to harvest a large number of fish.
With the addition of meat and fish, the annual consumption of rice will certainly decrease again. In this way, eleven million shi (a unit of dry measure) can still feed three million people without any problems.
So, where does the problem lie? Why would Guo Jia directly say it's impossible? Everything seems to make sense, right?
Seeing Lin Yang's puzzled expression, Guo Jia quickly said, "That's right. Immigration itself consumes a lot of food, and even without considering many miscellaneous details, assuming everything goes smoothly, we still can't recruit that many people."
"Previously, many bold and adventurous people had already gone to the territories of various lords. Now, the remaining people are mostly simple and docile. Well, generally speaking, they are quite conservative, so relying solely on newspaper propaganda is no longer very effective."
Indeed, those who dared to leave home and come directly to Lin Yang's place after reading information in the newspaper were either recklessly bold or already struggling financially. In short, they were destabilizing factors in society.
The vast majority of ordinary people are conservative, backward, and attached to their homeland. Who would want to move unless they absolutely have to survive? In such cases, relying solely on newspaper propaganda is somewhat ineffective.
"Of our 1.2 million people, 500,000 were originally registered, another 600,000 were from the local Jiangdong families who had to be sent out when the Xu family was wiped out last time. The remaining 100,000 came after reading the newspapers and hearing about our reputation."
"More importantly, of these 100,000 people, only 20,000 came from the Central Plains and Jingzhou. The remaining 80,000 were all local people from Jiangdong. They came on their own after hearing the rumors."
Hearing Guo Jia's explanation, Lin Yang's eyebrows furrowed instinctively. This doesn't make sense!
According to Guo Jia's statistics, only 100,000 people actually came to the Wu Kingdom over the past year. Moreover, only 20,000 of them came from the Central Plains.
If this growth continues, doesn't it mean that, barring any unforeseen births, the population will only increase by a maximum of one or two hundred thousand this year? What can such a small population accomplish?
"Why is it so slow? The entire Han Dynasty has hundreds of billions of people, and tens of millions of newspapers are published every day, yet only tens of thousands of people come here every year. Is it because our publicity efforts are insufficient?" Lin Yang asked doubtfully.
This doesn't make sense. Even if it's conservative, this isn't how you should be conservative. Even if only one out of a hundred people is a radical loafer, that's still a hundred million! Out of a hundred million, only one hundred thousand have come, and the remaining eighty thousand are locals from Jiangdong. This is incredibly disappointing!
"That's right. Ordinary people simply don't have the money to migrate. To give a simple example, from Luoyang to Wu, you first need to ride a horse to Lujiang County. That's at least ten thousand miles away. Then you need to take a boat to Wu County, and only then can you travel from Wu County to our Wu Kingdom."
"The expenses along the way will be at least several dozen taels of silver. Those with weak survival skills or average physical condition may even have to spend several hundred taels of silver. This amount of money will keep the vast majority of people away."
"Even if they were tempted, it wouldn't matter! They simply don't have the money for such a journey. Even if they did, such a long trip would involve facing a series of difficulties such as acclimatization problems, making it far too dangerous!"
In this era, to take a long trip, one must be in excellent physical condition, which means one must have some level of spiritual cultivation!
Otherwise, even with horses, traveling tens of thousands of miles wouldn't be so easy. Even in later generations, how many people would still be energetic after a long train journey of a week? Wouldn't they all be exhausted?