Chapter 305: Chapter 54 Expansion! The Great Development of Ping’an Town_1
Wang Shouzhe’s father-in-law, Liu Gaowang, sharply gestured at him.
Although you have good relations with the people from the Academic Palace, how can our Ping’an Town accommodate forty thousand people all at once?
Chen Dewei of the Chen Clan of Donggang, also looked at Wang Shouzhe with some apprehension. The total population of Ping’an Town was only forty thousand as of then, right?
Fang Youan stared intently at Wang Shouzhe, a hint of admiration in his eyes. “Junior Brother Shouzhe, I admire your determination to solve the problem. However, forty thousand is just too many. We should think of other ways.”
Fang Youan was appointed to a large-scale task this time. As the Inspector-General, the effects of this disaster relief mission would also impact his career progression. How could he not be moved by Wang Shouzhe’s accommodating endeavor?
“Senior Brother Yu An, we have to solve the problem since it exists,” Wang Shouzhe said seriously, “Over the past two years, the Wang family has also stored some grain. If we buy more from other places, we can barely feed forty thousand refugees for a year or two. During these one or two years, our Ping’an Town needs to dredge the river channels and reinforce the river banks, and we generally need more labor.”
“Fine. Since Junior Brother Shouzhe is determined,” Fang Youan said, “I will run some errands for you and try to exempt Ping’an Town from three years of taxes. You can collect taxes as usual for your own use.” The fact that he could promise this meant he had certainty in delivering – a quid pro quo.
“Thank you, Senior Brother Yu An.” Wang Shouzhe expressed his gratitude.
“Good courage, good strategy,” Lei’s Lei Qiuwei praised, “Since the younger Brother Shouzhe is so courageous, we, the Celestial Lei Family, should not fall behind, we will accept an additional five thousand people.”
The other clans also indicated that they were willing to accept more refugees.
Among them were the Gongsun Clan from Shanyang, the Liu Family from Shanyin, and the Chen Clan of Donggang. They had all caught the subtle hint in Wang Shouzhe’s eyes and decided, gritting their teeth, to accept an extra ten thousand people.
Under Wang Shouzhe’s leadership, the initially complicated refugee problem was easily resolved.
Fang Youan instantly felt elated, raising his Spiritual Wine, “In the face of disaster, we in Changning County are so united. On behalf of the refugees, I thank you for stepping forward to take responsibility.”
From thereon, naturally, everyone was greatly delighted.
After this welcoming feast,
The whole Changning entered disaster relief mode.
Similarly, under Wang Shouzhe’s decision, the Ping’an Wang Family made full efforts to embark on a significant project.
The clan members, family heads, and outstanding personnel from branches.
They all threw themselves into work.
Expanding temporary refugee camps, redirecting food supplies, organizing refugee intake, filling out their registration, along with arranging other necessary follow-ups.
Of course, when the refugees had settled a little, the Wang family would organize them to either build river banks and dredge river channels, depending on their aptitude.
On the grand map of planning for Ping’an Town by Wang Shouzhe, the future waterways were intricately interconnected and he had to dig or expand some new river channels.
His plan was to gradually transform the entire Ping’an Town into a granary with countless fields.
And as the head of the family, he only needed to oversee the big picture and coordinate arrangements.
Prosperous Farm is one of the main foundational farmland of the Wang family.
After continuous development, compared to the situation of less than four thousand acres ten years ago, the fertile land of Prosperous Farm has now reached seven thousand acres, nearly doubling its size.
By now, Prosperous Farm had entered the bottleneck phase of land reclamation and it was difficult to further expand rapidly.
The reason is simple, it is surrounded by hills and mountains. All the terrain suitable for irrigation has been fully exploited.
What remained were highlands with great elevation. It would be a stretch to turn these into farmland. The biggest problem is irrigation. If water resources have to be transported by manpower, the final cost would be too high for even the Wang family to bear.
A similar bottleneck in land reclamation was already widespread in the whole Ping’an Town.
After long-term land reclamation and Wang Shouzhe’s incentives,
The total amount of land owned by the Wang family in Ping’an Town,
has reached over sixty thousand acres, including thirteen large and small farms. The amount of land owned by other civilians has reached over one hundred thousand acres.
Adding up to a total of one hundred and seventy thousand acres of fertile land, which is ranked top three in the entire Changning area.
If they wanted to progress further, the only way was to make those terrains that are unsuitable for farming—suitable.
Ping’an Town is located amidst mountains, and most of its internal land is hilly. In an area no more than four thousand square kilometers, over seventy to eighty percent is hilly or mountainous land that is not suitable for farming.
Given the numerous hilly terrains in Ping’an Town, the best method Wang Shouzhe could think of is terraced farming.
In this world, agriculture has been around for a long time. Developing terraced fields in such hilly areas is not the unique innovation of Wang Shouzhe; there are many similar records in the Academic Palace.
However, terraced farming is neither mainstream nor niche in this world.
The reason is simple, the reclamation cost for each acre of terraced field is several times that of ordinary farmland. The cultivation is also challenging, on top of complexities with transportation and irrigation.
The resulted unit production cost far exceeds the purchasing price of grain.
Under such circumstances, which prominent family would want to develop terraced fields?
One day, Wang Shouzhe came to the Prosperous Farm.
The person now in charge of Prosperous Farm is a woman named Wang Juan, a female relative on the sidelines. She had been very intelligent since childhood, had received education in the clan school of the main Wang family residence, and had been developing in the Prosperous Farm ever since.