I Build an Aircraft Carrier in the Ming Dynasty

March of the eighteenth year of Yongxing.

Dahua Daily put forward a word, the best of times.

The newspaper summarized the development results of Dahua and called the current era the best era.

The current total population of Dahua's jurisdiction has exceeded 750 million, accounting for approximately 90% of the global population. The total global population is approximately 850 million, which is approximately 100 million more than in the original time and space.

It is also approximately equal to the level of 1750 in the original time and space.

It seems that the rate of population growth lags far behind the development of science and technology.

But this is actually normal. Technology can grow explosively, but the population cannot mature and is still following the laws of nature.

However, the age composition of the global population is very scary, with the majority being young people and children.

These are the birthing armies.

According to data experts' predictions, Dahua's population will experience explosive growth and will double within ten years.

If there is no control, it will double in 18 years and reach 3 billion in 25 years.

With the current level of agricultural development, it is still not possible to feed so many people.

You know, the current agriculture, that is, the plain areas of the Central Plains, have achieved large-scale mechanization, and there are enough chemical fertilizers.

Agricultural technology in other places is still developing.

The area of ​​cultivated land and grain production still need to be improved.

At the conference held at the end of the 17th year of Yongxing, Wu Changqing put forward the requirement to focus on developing agriculture in order to cope with the impending explosion of population growth.

The level of agriculture must be improved. As long as there is no food, no matter how well the industry develops, turmoil will inevitably occur.

Currently, Dahua's cultivated land area is only about 9 billion acres, while the global arable area is about 28 billion acres. This means that Dahua's development of cultivated land is still relatively low.

There are still nearly 20 billion acres of arable land waiting to be developed and recovered. The Eastern European plain is also an excellent granary.

In the 17th year of Yongxing's reign, Dahua's national grain output was approximately 250 million tons, which is approximately one-twelfth of the global grain output in 2020.

This data is actually quite good, because the current population is only one-ninth of that of later generations.

In other words, the current grain output of Dahua can fully feed everyone, and there is still a lot more for storage, processing of non-staple food or raising poultry and livestock.

"The best of times, yes, yes, the best of times."

Zhu Sanlang from Shangqiu, Henan Province looked at these words in the newspaper and nodded.

In his opinion, Dahua today is countless times better than before.

When he was a child, twenty years ago. His family has a total of eight acres of land. If all of it is planted with wheat, the annual output can reach about 1,500 kilograms.

But in fact, because some of the land is very barren, only sorghum and millet can be grown.

After paying various taxes, at most one thousand kilograms of rations can be left.

And a large part of this thousand kilograms of grain must be exchanged for copper coins to purchase daily necessities such as salt.

What can really fall into the stomach is less than 600 kilograms, and it is all sorghum and corn. White flour, a refined grain, can only be eaten during New Years and holidays.

At that time, the eight members of his family, on average, could not share more than 100 kilograms of grain per person per year. They were completely starved and needed to eat wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger.

This is without being affected by the war. When it is affected by the war, the situation is even worse.

Zhu Sanlang starved to death his two older brothers and one younger brother. He was relatively tough, but he managed to survive until the Chinese Army's Northern Expedition.

When he was about to starve to death, he ate Dahua's relief food and survived.

After that, his family was allocated another fifty acres of land, as well as tools such as hoes.

After becoming poor, his family lived a very frugal life, saving money every year, fearing that all the good things in front of him were just temporary illusions, and that the world would one day become the same again.

As this continued, his family's wealth quickly accumulated.

When Dahua allowed land sales, he used his savings to buy another fifty acres of land from his neighbor. His neighbor was even more ruthless and moved his family directly to the county seat. The whole family worked in a steel factory.

After buying fifty acres, Zhu Sanlang rented another hundred acres from other families in the village.

Those people went to Nanjing and Tianjin to work, leaving only the elderly and children at home and unable to farm much land.

With the help of machinery from the imperial court, his family could handle two hundred acres of land.

These two hundred acres of land can produce about 80,000 jins of wheat a year.

After paying the 10% tax, there are still 72,000 kilograms left, of which 70,000 kilograms are used to sell for money. The minimum price can be 350,000 yuan. Occasionally, grain merchants will buy it at a higher price than the government.

(Note: In order to make it easier for readers not to calculate purchasing power, there is an intuitive comparison. At this time, Wu Changqing adjusted the face value of the currency to be the same as that of later generations. In other words, the next 1 yuan is approximately equal to one yuan of later generations.)

Excluding the expenses of buying fertilizers, seeds, hiring machinery for harvesting, etc., Zhu Sanlang's family has a net income of nearly 200,000 this year.

However, there are ten people in his family.

Father, he, wife, three working adults, 7 children ranging from 1 to 17 years old.

This income is already considered very good, but the pressure of life is also quite high, after all, there are many children.

As these children grow up, he must also build a new house, otherwise he will not be able to live in them.

However, Zhu Sanlang is full of hope for the future.

Hope, because as long as his children grow up and start making money, his burden can be reduced a lot.

"Accelerate the construction of agricultural irrigation and water conservancy and improve agricultural planting technology..."

Zhu Sanlang struggled to read the newspaper. He had only attended night school for half a month and did not know all the characters.

"Second brother, come here and take a look. What are they saying in the newspapers?"

Zhu Sanlang called his second son over. His eldest son was studying at Zhengzhou University, majoring in applied mathematics, and would graduate next year.

The second son, Zhu Changyao, took the newspaper and explained after reading it: "The imperial court held another meeting. His Majesty said that he would continue to build water conservancy projects, start the middle line project of South-to-North Water Diversion, and transfer water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir to Beijing. At the same time, the imperial court will also have planned reclamation projects. Land, promote planting technology..."

There are many contents, but the core point is that Dahua should vigorously develop agriculture.

"Okay, okay, okay."

Zhu Sanlang shouted three times. He didn't know much. In his opinion, the policy of vigorously developing agriculture was a good policy.

"Second brother, why don't you learn to drive a harvester after you graduate from middle school. In the future, more and more land will be cultivated, and more and more people will need to drive harvesters. If you learn to drive a harvester, you will definitely make money."

Although Zhu Sanlang is uneducated, it does not mean that he will not plan his children's lives.

In front of children, elders will have an inexplicable confidence in their own life experience.

But in reality, this is really an illusion.