1155 200 Million Mu of Farmland (1/2)

Chapter 1155 – 200 Million Mu of Farmland

As the Chinese New Year approached, there was little in terms of big news in the wilderness. The focus of the entire world was on the beast wave. After Silver Hand and Azure Badge were revealed, the effects slowly festered.

In the entire wilderness, hidden currents moved.

It was under such a background that Great Xia Dynasty started a large purchase of grain.

Oceans' worth of gold was slowly transferred to the chambers of commerce who purchased large amounts of grain from Johor, Java, Piao, Peacock Dynasty, Persian Empire, and more.

Sometimes, the chambers of commerce directly bought it, while sometimes, it passed through a middle man.

As the price that the Great Xia merchants bought the grain at was a little higher than the market price, the merchants of various countries did not consider their country's grain issue and sold the grain that they had amassed.

Even Great Zhou empire had chambers of commerce joining this sale.

One must not look at 20 million being a lot, as when split the amount among hundreds of chambers of commerce and five to six countries, it was nothing big compared to voyage trading, which had millions of gold flowing daily.

Hence, Great Xia's actions, apart from creating waves amongst the grain traders, did not raise the alert of the entire market.

During this entire process, the Great Xia Imperial Court hid behind the scenes.

At the same time, the agriculture department designed a land reclamation plan to reclaim 200 million mu of farmland to fulfil the daily grain need.

What kind of concept was 200 million mu?

During the Han and Tang time, the entire country had around 500 to 600 million mu of farmland. During Ming and Qing, this amount reached 700 million.

After industrialization, the land size reached 1.8 billion mu, basically reaching a peak.

As a result, with the conditions of the wilderness, 200 million mu of land was not a problem for Great Xia. The problem was who would farm the land after it was reclaimed.

In ancient times, the farmland size was connected to population.

A farmer would care for 10 mu of farmland. Even with the help of the agriculture school of thought and world leading irrigation, Great Xia could only reach 15 to 16 mu per a farmer.

200 million mu of farmland needed at least 12 million farmers.

During this round of population increase, although there were many casual and work occupation players, not many would be willing to farm.

As a result, the Imperial Court especially pushed out the farming model.

The local offices would provide a certain amount of financial subsidy and technological help to encourage players to build farms on the reclaimed land, and they would enjoy tax benefits.

The specifics included tax-free agriculture in the 1st year and half in the 2nd.

The Four Seas Bank was also willing to loan money to players to support them in running their farms.

The series of policies had a huge attraction toward players, especially to causal players.

The update of the achievement values affected these group of people the most.

If they continued to slack and fool around in the game, when they reached Planet Hope, they would not even have the rights to receive basic help.

However, if they were to switch from their work occupation and start from 0, they would not be able to catch up.

Under such a situation, running a farm became a decent choice.

A farm was not just simply planting corn, beans, potatoes, sugarcane, and other produce, as one could also rear chickens, ducks, or even pigs and sheep.

The market even had a huge need for vegetables. With Shanhai City as an example, it used up a shocking amount of vegetables every day. The neighboring villages could not keep up, and a large part was transported through the ocean to the city.

If one ran the farm well, they would even be able to exceed and surpass the current players.

Hence, when the Imperial Court released the prefecture and county level agriculture model, it raised a lot of discussions and many people signed up for it.

The earlier the players registered, the better the land that they could get. They could also do the loans and rental matters earlier and accept professional training.

Even to say that they could start planning for their farm and build their houses.

This winter was destined to be a hot and exciting one.

...

1st month, 20th day, Xia Palace.

Within Wuji Hall, Ouyang Shuo was having a chat with Li Jing.

Along with the Snow-War Rose Mercenary Group moving to Shanhai City, the entire family met up really frequently. When Li Jing was free, she would barge into Wuji Hall to see her nephew and niece.

Ouyang Shuo was naturally glad to see that.

Ouyang Shuo obviously welcomed Li Jing warmly when she moved to Shanhai City, directly giving her a Marquis residence for her and Xie Siyun. It made her jump to one of the heavyweights amongst the relatives of the royal family.

Blood Romance and the others were really envious of such treatment, saying half-seriously and half-jokingly, ”That's great. Now, Blood Evil Mercenary Group's throne is unstable.”