"What a mountain farm," Lyudmila interrupted the captive.
"Mount Mochizuki, Baron Hurd's cotton plantation."
The sand bandit replied in a low voice.
Lyudmila turned her head to look at Tonya: "Isn't it all dry sand on the side of Mochizuki Mountain, and cotton can be grown on that kind of barren land?"
Tonya smiled and nodded: "You have to grow good cotton in the sand." ” The tributaries of the Veres River pass through the Gobi Desert, and the basin is in an arc, like a crescent, and is called the Crescent River.
In ancient times, it was the largest cotton-growing area in the Far East, densely populated and economically developed, but later due to frequent attacks by bandits from the desert, most of the towns and villages in the Crescent Valley gradually fell into ruin, except for the town of Sweetwater near the river and the private plantation of Baron Hurd at the foot of Mount Mochizuki, most of the other places became unlawless places where sand bandits were rampant, and the local residents were afraid all day long, and it was difficult to cultivate with peace of mind.
During the reign of Archbishop Philip in the Far East, he tried to restore order in the Crescent River Valley, and repeatedly sent Krautz's knights to suppress bandits in the Gobi Territory, but this kind of occasional bandit action can only cure the symptoms but not the root cause, and the powerful bandits that really have hands and eyes to the sky, such as the "Four Great Kou" in southern Xinjiang, got the news as early as the beginning of the empire's army, and escaped into the desert far away, and then killed and plundered after the imperial army finished the bandit operation and withdrew from the border area.
After repeating this many times, Philip also realized that this method would not work, and if he wanted to ensure the peace of the frontier, he could only send a standing army to garrison the Crescent Valley for a long time.
Klautz's Knights had to guard the capital and not listen to him, so it was only natural for Philip to turn his mind to Rudolph's militia.
Had it not been for the great changes in the Far East, Philip had already planned it, and the Kolas legion would have sent his legions to garrison the Gobi Frontier after returning from the expedition in the north, expelling the sand bandits who had entered and plundered, and reviving the cotton-producing areas of the Crescent Valley.
Roland learned about Philip's southern strategy from Lloyd, the prime minister and former mayor of Fort Atonement.
In all fairness, Philip may have a personal virtue, but he should not be blamed for nonsense, and it should be admitted that this man is quite capable of governing the country and his political skills are also extraordinary, and if it had not been for Klautz who came out halfway to make trouble, the situation in the Far East would never be what it is now.
Philip's dedication to restoring order to southern Xinjiang and rebuilding the cotton base also reflects his unique vision, which Roland affirms and is happy to fulfill the unfulfilled wish of His Excellency the Archbishop.
However, Philip's purpose in managing southern Xinjiang was to open up a new source of revenue for the imperial provinces in the Far East, and it would not affect the interests of the local large estate owners, while Roland took a longer view and planned to implement land reform in southern Xinjiang and completely transform the local traditional farming mode.
Such a drastic implementation of land reform will inevitably require a major operation on the old production relations attached to the land, and it is reasonable to arouse strong resistance from the vested interest groups in southern Xinjiang headed by Baron Hurd.
Roland also told Tonya that when the agricultural reform in the Far Northeast is on the right track and grain production is guaranteed, the next step of agricultural industrial policy will focus on cash crops, and the main product is cotton.
Cotton and grain, related to everyone's "clothing" and "food", consumption potential is huge, and there is a broad export market, Roland plans to spend one to two years in southern Xinjiang to carry out land reform, the Crescent River valley area to reclaim cotton fields, the establishment of large state-owned cotton plantations, for the textile industry in the Far East to provide high-quality and cheap raw materials, in the first five-year plan to create a cotton production, spinning, weaving, dyeing, garment and many other links of the industrial chain, Make cotton textiles another strong export product after grain.
In addition to assisting Lyudmila in completing the census, Tonya also came to Primorsky Krai with an important mission to investigate the extent to which the local cotton industry has been damaged and what to do to restore the former thousands of miles of cotton fields like a sea of snow.
As a high-level forest ranger, Lyudmila still knows a lot about crops, but she is not a druid specializing in agronomy, she was born on the plateau, grew up in the city, and has never seen a cotton field, nor does she know what kind of water and heat conditions are needed to grow cotton.
Listening to Sha Rose briefly talk about the cotton planting industry in southern Xinjiang, Lyudmila realized that she had made a joke, and scratched her head embarrassedly: "I'm a complete layman about cotton or something, listen to you two druids talking, five out of ten sentences don't understand what it means, forget it, your sisters and sisters will continue to talk about cotton, and I'll help send out the questionnaire." ” Investigating cotton cultivation in the Crescent Valley was an important part of Tonya's mission, while Lyudmila's division of labor was the census and education.
Sweetwater has Sand Rose in charge, and most of the townspeople are influenced by her to have a favorable opinion of the Kolas government, which provides a good foundation for Lyudmila's team to carry out their work.
After dinner that day, the town hall rang the bell, and families gathered on the threshing floor with chairs and benches to attend the town meeting.
Standing on a makeshift pulpit in the middle of the square, Sand Rose picked up a tin horn with a constant "amplification" technique, told the townspeople about the frightening attack that had taken place this afternoon, and solemnly thanked the census team from Krasbourg for taking out the bandits in time to protect the town's granary.
Most of the local residents were still frightened by the scene of the sand bandits looting in the afternoon, and they were sincerely grateful to Lyudmila for their timely help.
Although I don't quite understand why the "census team" is so powerful, with a magic airship and a giant eagle to escort it, but think about it, everyone is from the capital, and they also participated in the revolutionary war to overthrow the rule of the empire Sha Rose introduced Lyudmila and Tonya, and then gave them the podium, where two cabinet officials from the capital explained the country's current policies and decrees, the importance of development planning for southern Xinjiang, and the census work Lyudmila and Tonya have been doing this kind of propaganda and spiritual mobilization work in the countryside since they were in charge of the land inspection work, and they have undergone full training in terms of eloquence and psychological quality over the past year, and they will no longer blush and be embarrassed when they speak in public, and they will adjust their speech style according to the audience's on-the-spot reactions, occasionally tell a joke full of local flavor to enliven the atmosphere, and use vivid examples to explain abstract policies and regulations, and there is not a minute or a second of coldness from beginning to end
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