Before time knew it, it was already the autumn harvest season.

The autumn grains in the north have matured, and the corn and sweet potatoes in northern Zhili have reached the point where they can be harvested. The scale of the imperial farm that can be kept stable in drought and flood has also expanded a lot.

The climate this year was pretty good, so in autumn, the autumn grains in the Northern Zhili Huangzhuang once again achieved a bumper harvest.

The corn crop was introduced to the Ming Dynasty earlier than sweet potatoes, and it was more popular in the north. Most of the land in the imperial villages were planted after summer harvest.

The summer corn was already ripe at this time, and the farmers happily broke the corn off and transported all the straw back together.

The yield of these corn is also considerable. Most of them reach more than 150 kilograms per mu, while a small part can reach 200 kilograms. The average yield per mu reaches 1 shi, and these autumn grains are also very important to farmers.

Zhang Shitou's family planted 25 acres of corn and harvested 22 stones. After hard harvesting, they sold all the corn to the grain store. The price per stone was 0.5 yuan. Zhang Shitou's family paid another 11 yuan. During the summer harvest, Zhang Shitou returned 20 yuan to the bank. At this time, he paid another 11 yuan and had 15 yuan in hand. It was enough for the family to celebrate the New Year.

The corn stalks transported home are cut and placed in the cellar for silage under the guidance of the technicians of the Huangzhuang. This is an important feed. The food for cattle, sheep, donkeys, and horses in the entire Huangzhuang are these corn stalks for winter. The animals in the Huangzhuang cannot finish eating so many corn stalks and can also be sold to breeding farms.

The autumn harvest is the busiest time. Zhang Shitou worked hard to harvest corn and devoted himself to the harvesting of sweet potatoes. The yield of sweet potatoes was a bit scary. The average yield per mu reached more than a thousand kilograms.

With a certain amount of manpower invested in management, it is obviously very normal to achieve a yield of over 100 kilograms per mu.

However, such output has been a big deal of the farmers in the imperial village and had to invite a group of workers to help with the digging. If it is later, storage will have problems.

A large number of sweet potatoes were dug out, and farmers put them in the cellar that had been prepared, which could barely be kept in the cellar for half a year.

There are obviously countless sweet potatoes that Zhang Shitou’s family can’t finish. Even if he eats them together every meal, he can’t finish these sweet potatoes.

These sweet potatoes can be used to produce some of the processed starch, and most of them are used for feeding pigs. Pigs cannot eat corn stalks, and mainly eat sweet potatoes, wheat bran, and water. The pig farms in the imperial village will cook these pig feed before feeding them, which is easier to digest. After the pigs eat the cooked food, they will grow more fat.

There are also farms for the sweet potatoes in the Royal Village to purchase, or some workshops that specialize in processing sweet potato starch, as well as workshops that process sweet potato vermicelli. You can also use sweet potatoes to make wine, but the wine brewed is not very delicious. But it is also a low-priced soju.

At this time, the economy of Beizhili was very prosperous. Not only did many factories appear, but a large number of workshops also appeared. The sweet potatoes in the hands of farmers were not worried about sales.

There are also many workshops that make sweet potato starch, sweet potato vermicelli, and dried sweet potatoes in two years.

Starch is also a practical and common commodity. In the south, fern roots are usually excavated and starch is made by pueraria roots. The quality is relatively good, but the yield is not large enough, and farmers are self-sufficient. Therefore, the starch made by these sweet potatoes is still very good, and all of them can be sold in other provinces.

Sweet potato vermicelli is also a good food, and it is stored for a long time and dry goods are not easy to break. As food, it naturally has a broad sales channel.

The most important thing is that a large number of fresh sweet potatoes are on the market. Almost all of the reclaimed sands in Northern Zhili are planted with sweet potatoes, so the number of commercially-produced sweet potatoes is still quite large. The yield per mu of sweet potatoes in these sands is even more scary, some even reach 2,000 kilograms, and generally more than 1,500 kilograms, each of which is extremely large.

In order to reduce the consumption of more flour and wheat to increase grain storage, Jimin Grain Store, which monopolized grain retail in Northern Zhili, directly increased the price of flour and rice, and recommended cheap sweet potatoes to urban people who came to buy grain.

Because the price of sweet potatoes is cheap enough, they are still popular among ordinary people. The price is lower than that of flour and rice, and the sales volume is also good. The launch of a large number of sweet potatoes and corn reduces the consumption of flour and wheat. After the autumn harvest, it is autumn sowing again. Winter wheat is planted in the land. It can be said that autumn is also the busiest time for farmers.

After some agricultural construction, the grain produced in Northern Zhili this year was enough to consume in Northern Zhili Province, and some grain began to be exported. These grains were mainly sold to the cotton-producing areas in the triangle areas of Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu for local cotton.

The cotton production is not very high these days, but the Ming Dynasty is still exporting cotton cloth, which is one of the important reasons for insufficient grain production.

The autumn harvest in the second year was raised. In the cotton production areas of Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu, a "cotton grabbing battle" between the Northern Zhili Textile Industry and Songjiangfu Textile Industry broke out, which caused the cotton price to rise by nearly 30% this year. This phenomenon greatly stimulated the scale of cotton planting.

Beizhili has a huge demand for textile raw materials, which is an inevitable result. Beizhili’s commercial cotton planting area is not large enough and needs to be purchased from other provinces. The establishment of tariff barriers and the growth of the population of Beizhili have greatly increased the income of workers and farmers, which has made the textile sales market very popular.

Royal Capital occupied most of the textile market in Beizhili by jointly operating a textile factory with private capital, but the rise in cotton prices also lowered the profit margin. This caused Royal Capital to create market demand for cotton production areas, and Zhu Youxiao was also thinking about how to obtain a production area that could provide a large amount of cheap cotton.

Zhu Youxiao focused on the Xinjiang region and Central Asia region in later generations. It was obviously an undeveloped cotton production area. However, it was occupied by nomadic peoples at this time and there was no large amount of cotton production at all.

It was so undead that after receiving the envoys of the Ming Dynasty, the Yarkand Khanate directly refused the Ming Dynasty's request to purchase war horses. The annual purchase of 30,000 war horses made the Yarkand Khanate deeply vigilant against the Ming Dynasty, and obviously realized that once the Ming Dynasty obtained a large number of war horses, it would probably pose a threat to them.

This understanding is very correct and the vision is very long-term.

Unfortunately, the Yarkand Khanate could not stop the Ming Dynasty from purchasing war horses. Therefore, the Yarkand Khanate was targeted by Zhu Youxiao first.

If the Mongols were willing to trade with the Ming Dynasty, the Hetao region would not be in a hurry to recover. It would be obviously a better choice to attack the Yarkand Khanate first.

Although there are plump grasslands in the Hetao area and can become a commercial grain base after they are reclaimed, in order to protect the environment, Zhu Youxiao will definitely not reclaim Hetao and plant grain. The grassland mainly provides the source of war horses for the Ming Dynasty. Since the Mongolians are willing to sell now, there is no urgent need for Hetao grasslands.

On the contrary, in the Western Regions occupied by the Yarkand Khanate, there are not only a large number of pastures, but also a large number of cotton fields. The climate there is very suitable for the growth of cotton, which not only provides a large amount of cotton, but also has excellent cotton quality.

On the other hand, the envoys who were envoys to Tibet smoothly negotiated the war horse trade. The Tibetan lamas did not care much about this official transaction, because they controlled the regime through religion and did not need to control the Mongolian tribes through trade like the Mongolian Lindan Khan. However, the Tibetan lamas were afraid that after the negotiations collapsed, the Ming Dynasty launched unequal trade with Tibet by cracking down on smuggling, and at that time they would have to pay a greater price to buy tea.

Moreover, if such official trade is fair, they can also get more silver and buy more luxury goods from the Ming Dynasty.

As for the number of war horses purchased, there is no limit in Tibet. The Ming Dynasty bought as much as it first. As long as the Ming Dynasty had silver, Tibet had so many war horses produced. The price was slightly higher, and the price of a horse was agreed to be 30 taels per horse.

"Since both Mongolia and Tibet are willing to sell war horses to us, then start forming cavalry immediately!" Zhu Youxiao decided to say, and Sun Chuanting asked: "How many war horses do we want to buy? The Mongolians are willing to sell 30,000 war horses to us. Tibet does not limit the number, and it is rare to have an opportunity."

"Then buy 60,000 war horses and form 30,000 cavalry, one person and two horses." Zhu Youxiao made the decision very readily. The configuration of one person and two horses is definitely a luxury configuration for cavalry like the Ming Dynasty, which means more powerful maneuverability. Such a cavalry unit can easily maneuver for 200 kilometers a day.

"That would require a purchase fee of 2 million yuan."

2 million yuan is a piece of cake for Zhu Youxiao, a "nova" who just got a fortune, and it is nothing at all.

One word - buy!

Moreover, if you spend these silver, you can still earn back by exporting goods to Mongolia and Tibet. Just exporting military equipment to Mongolians can earn back nearly half of the cost.

"Are we blocking them in the Yarkand Khanate?" Sun Chuanting asked again.

"It's not necessary to blockade, but since the Yarkand Khanate is ignorant, then raise the price of commodity exports. When we free up our hands, we will be the first to attack them and restore our Western Regions territory." Zhu Youxiao said calmly. Sun Chuanting immediately realized that the Yarkand Khanate was going to suffer.

Not to mention whether the Ming Dynasty could destroy the Yarkand Khanate, just because the current Ming Dynasty cracked down on border smuggling, the Yarkand Khanate must trade with the Ming Dynasty for official transactions. Next, the Ming Dynasty uses technical and essential commodities such as tea and iron to launch unequal trade against them, which is enough for the Yarkand Khanate to drink a pot of it. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!