After Guan Yu was in Nanzhong for one year, he found more than just the physical objects of toxic long cotton, seeds, and some news about Linyi Rice.

On the way back to Chengdu, he told Li Su some other gains one after another.

Including the development of the anthracite mine at the junction of Jianning County and Zhuti County, the construction of all the roads transported to the Tushui shore was completed.

He also immigrated a small Kunming Heiyi tribe with one or two thousand families and seven or eight thousand people, and went to the coal mine location to cultivate farms and mines, and was self-sufficient.

During the immigration process, death and injury were inevitable because we had to burn wasteland and reclamation in tropical rainforests and build houses and roads. However, it was all Mengchang, Mengxin and other barbarian kings who were pressing on it, screening out the unofficial tribes with bad records before to take on the punitive task of clearing land.

In addition, the black barbarians were used to the climate of the Southern Barbarians, and at least they suffered much less losses than letting the Han people go there to clear the land and mine. A few hundred people died during the whole process, and the small coal mine was opened.

When Guan Yu came back this time, he had already asked the fleet of the Later Army to transport supplies to pull dozens of ships of anthracite with the ship, and is currently stockpiling it on the road waiting for transportation.

The reason why it was not transported directly to Nan'an or Chengdu was because Li Su had not planned the future iron smelting industry base in Shu before and did not think about where to place it.

A bustling place like Chengdu is not suitable for steelmaking throughout the city.

Li Su reported to Liu Bei in a controversial tone: "King, I think the peat and iron ore transported from Nanzhong should be transported to Zigong in Yan Road or Jiangyang. According to previous exploration, there are many resources for the "hot gas well" around Yan Road and Zigong.

In addition to the salt wells that can produce brine, there are also dry wells that only fire gas does not produce brine. The long-burning flame of gas wells is hotter than peat charcoal, and there is no need to worry about replenishing fuel, which should be beneficial to iron smelting.”

Liu Bei didn't understand production, and at first glance he misunderstood: "Can the fire-gas well smelter iron? Then what if you have to work hard to find smokeless peat in the south?"

Li Su quickly explained: "The fire only heats the iron and cannot be smelted, but it still requires peat or charcoal."

After all, Li Su was a person who had studied basic chemistry courses in his previous life, so he did not think that natural gas could be used to make steel directly. Because the role of coal and charcoal in steelmaking, in addition to heating, it is more used as a reducing agent to use carbon to react the iron oxide in iron ore.

The natural gas component is mainly methane. It is okay to not enter the furnace and only provide heating outside the furnace. The reducing agent must be made of anthracite or even coke.

Of course, from the Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song dynasties, there was no oxygen-blowing combustion and heating in the iron smelting process, or preheating the air blowing into the furnace of the bellows to increase the furnace temperature. Therefore, the high calorific value of natural gas and the higher natural gas flame temperature are also helpful.

Liu Bei was too lazy to deal with these specific principles. He just listened to Li Su's plan and agreed directly: "If you do this kind of small matter as you say, put it in Wudao or Jiangyang, save some boats and car transfers."

Since coal and other bulk materials are transported from Nanzhong, it is obviously the most cost-effective to place the production base in remote areas bordering Nanzhong and Chengdu Plain. In Nadao and Jiangyang, coal and iron ore are trained into pig iron ore and even steel, and then transport them to other areas, the transportation weight is reduced by at least 80%.

Moreover, the Han Dynasty implemented a salt and iron monopoly, and at that time, it could concentrate on the county to set up centralized management of salt and iron officials, which would also reduce management costs and reduce tax evasion and private private sale.

After the concentrated operation of salt and iron, the only risk is to require a selfless supervisor who is proficient in calculations and clear accounts, that is, the Salt and Iron Captain.

After all, the salt officials in all dynasties were too fat. Look at the salt officials in Yangzhou in the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties in later generations, they were all rich and rich.

Li Su couldn't remember who Zhuge Liang used to be the Yan and Iron Captain in history, so he could only slowly search for talents with the reputation of integrity.

...

After returning to Chengdu, everyone had a banquet in the Hanzhong King's Palace for several days, gathered fine wines and delicacies, and celebrated the Spring Festival.

Although there are many farming matters, they are not too anxious to start in the first month of the year.

The batch of cotton seeds sent back by Guan Yu was supposed to be sown in the end of the second and early March of the lunar calendar, and it is not busy now. Even if it is planted, it will not be used for spinning, weaving or filling in the first year. Instead, the varieties must be screened first and the seeds should be left to expand the scale.

However, Li Su brought a group of cotton seedlings back to the house and asked his wife to find the maid in the house to water and fertilize them first. He would also observe their characteristics in the future and use them for experiments.

India's long-length cotton is indeed better than the small number of ornamental cotton varieties currently circulating in the Han Dynasty, but its advantageous traits are also divided into many different angles. There are several subspecies. Some are better because the fiber fluff of a single cotton is very long, which is conducive to spinning. Others, although the fibers are not that long, the flower yield is larger and more cotton is produced.

The varieties with the longest fiber and the most flower yield actually have the value of cultivation. The former is used to spin and weave cotton cloth, and the latter is used as a filler to protect the cold. Anyway, the cotton stuffed into the cotton jacket does not need to be considered as the length of the fiber, as long as it is thick enough, it is enough.

Moreover, Li Su vaguely remembered that he taught "top advantages" in high school biology class in his previous life. This concept in biology textbooks happened to take cotton as an example. It is said that after cotton grows to a certain height, the top buds are removed, and the plants are suppressed to waste nutrients on growing height, and they can bloom more flowers and bear more fruits. (It is mainly because Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" mentioned that "picking" cotton will make the flowers bear more fruits, so the middle school biology textbooks are used)

As for the theory of "top advantage" and the operation of "cotton pinching", obviously no farmers in any country would know on the earth at the end of the second century. Until the Song Dynasty, Chinese farmers were careful to protect the top buds of cotton in the cotton, hoping that the cotton should grow as tall as possible before blooming.

Therefore, if Li Su wants to plant more flowers in cotton, it must be tested to find the most suitable varieties for pinching and fattening. Because the best varieties that grow in the state of not pinching may not be the best varieties that still grow after picking the heart. Since good varieties have been introduced, good people will help the people to identify and check first, and then produce the best seeds to the people.

These are things that require long-term patience to see results and gains, and they are not urgent.

...

After putting all the cotton pot plants to the maids in the mansion, Li Su's job in the first month was to take a bath, drink and eat hot pot. When he got tired of the heat, he would drink some hot herbal tea to keep healthy. Life was so comfortable.

About three or four days after the Lantern Festival, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had already said that they had been farewell and had drunk a little. In addition, Liu Bei was recovering from his injuries some time ago and pretended to be sick, and his muscles and bones were a little bit greasy and needed to move. So they left Chengdu that day, rode horses to Pi County in plain clothes, and wandered to Li Su's fiefdom to fight the autumn wind.

By the way, let’s see if Li Su has any new governance achievements on his fief after returning to Chengdu.

The three brothers have become accustomed to it over the years. If they are tired of eating, drinking and having fun at home, they should find some freshness and go to Li Su. There are always new ways to play with bathing experts.

And counting on the days, Liu Bei and the others hadn't come to Li Su's fiefdom in Pi County for almost a year, and Guan Yu returned for the first time in the past two years.

Following the Minjiang River and other Dujiangyan irrigation canals, heading northwest. Guan Yu immediately sighed that the dense water trucks on the river bank seemed to slow down the flow speed of the Minjiang River:

"Boya's fiefdom is really governed. The workshops are so dense, so I'm afraid the people will benefit from the business. This is the first time I heard that the marquises are extravagant and skillful, which can benefit the people under their rulers from the skillful."

Liu Bei and Zhang Fei had obviously seen this feeling of Guan Yu for a long time: "Second brother/Second brother, you have been out for too long, and these are not rare. Almost a year ago, the area around the riverside of Pi County and Du'an was like this.

Even the rice mill workshop is still idle. People are reluctant to leave the ground wheat bran and rice bran. Some of the poorest people still struggle to grind rice at home, and they do not allow women to work in the workplace opened by Zhen Yao's house. Alas, Boya and Ziyu always lament that the people are ignorant and cannot count."

It was obviously the first time Guan Yu came into contact with this question. He was curious and asked: "What? Hearing this, it seems that if he went to the Zhen family's workplace to work, and spend the same amount of effort every time, he would earn more than milling rice?"

Liu Bei: "That's--it's still necessary to ask us? Second brother, don't you go back and ask your family who is? Last time I heard Jiang'er say that there are nearly 20,000 crossbow looms in Shu County. The biggest one is their Zhen family's workshop, which has 6,000 looms, and 10,000 or 20,000 female workers who are employed to weave brocades. The wages they produce are one money per hour.

The civilian woman grinds rice at her own home, and it would be good if she could crush three or five buckets a day. She would only get a bucket of rice bran and find a water truck to grind the rice mill to collect the wages of three liters of rice bran. Converted into copper coins, three liters of white rice is only worth nine coins, and three liters of rice bran is worth less than two coins.

The people can’t calculate it, so they would rather save these two liters of bran. If they had the same strength to work in the craftsmanship for five hours a day, it would be five dollars and they could buy a bucket of rice bran.”

Liu Guanzhang's concubine and wife are both sisters of the Zhen family, so on the contrary, their news should be as good as this issue. Guan Yu obviously hadn't asked about his concubine's family business after he came back.

After hearing this, Guan Yu couldn't help but whisper: "Women can earn one hour and one money, but the Zhen family's business is benevolent and righteous, and there is no vicious exploitation. Unfortunately, the people need time to be enlightened.

It is not only for the people to weave brocades, but also for the people to smel iron, plant new rice, plant white flowers, and all kinds of new things in the future. The people will resist ignorance and fear, even for their own good, it will not be easy to promote without years of hard work."

The three brothers were worried about the country and the people and sighed that they had already walked to a village in Pi County.

However, unlike the state of "the waterwheel workshop occasionally has a depression and overcapacity" seen outside the town, after entering the town, Liu Bei and others quickly noticed a new atmosphere that had never been before.

Liu Bei has come very little. Because Zhang Fei returned to Chengdu with Liu Bei and did not need to recover from his injuries after he came back, he came to Pi County two months ago in November.

So Zhang Fei's experience is the most obvious, because he found that in just two months, the business atmosphere of the people in Pi County seemed a little different.

Liu Bei pointed with a horse whip: "Is this the people rushing to society in the New Year? In previous years, there were markets and competitions, and there were not so many people, and most of them were bartered. In today's view, everyone traded these common people with money, and they didn't even bring the food to the market. They didn't see what Boya had done recently. Could it be the merit of Ziyu?"

Liu Bei was well aware of the sufferings of the people. He knew that even if the poor people in the rural areas would not eat easily in the market, but would carry dry food to the market.

In fact, let alone the end of the Han Dynasty, even after the Republic of China or even the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were still many poor families of the older generation who thought it was a luxury to go out to go to restaurants outside, and it was better to cook for yourself than to cook.

Therefore, when Liu Bei saw the first batch of teahouses and bathhouses built by Li Su in Pi County, the shock was unspeakable.
Chapter completed!