Tang Yufeng nodded repeatedly when he heard this. As soon as Zhou Cheng finished speaking, he said: "A garrison team reclaimed 6,000 acres of land, which is equivalent to three acres of land per capita for soldiers. If there is a good year, three acres of land can harvest more than 400 kilograms of grain, which can definitely meet the needs of a soldier in one year."

"If this goal can be really achieved, the main force can be self-sufficiency and not add any pressure to the people in the defense zone. Corps Commander, what is your specific plan?"

The surrounding area thought and said: "Each garrison brigade defends one county, with three main battalions and a certain number of direct troops under it. Under normal circumstances, their main troops will be divided into units of company battalions and stationed in different locations in the defense zone."

"I ask each main company to use its spare time to reclaim three acres of land... No, the garrison needs to undertake a large number of combat tasks and also need a lot of time to train troops to ensure that the combat effectiveness of the troops does not regress. The per capita three acres of land is too much, so I only ask them to reclaim two hundred acres of private land per company."

"Each garrison has nine main companies, one guard company, one cavalry company, one artillery company, one baggage company, as well as a reconnaissance platoon, engineering platoon, communication squad, and command center. It is definitely no problem to reclaim 3,000 acres of land in scattered areas."

"But we must warn our troops that all land reclamation must be wasteland without owners, and we must not seize the people's own fertile land to make up for the number, otherwise military law will be carried out."

"The battalions and companies use their spare time to reclaim land in the company and take care of their private areas. Or take turns training and reclaim land in platoons to ensure that the food obtained from the autumn harvest of each company's private areas can meet the food needs of the entire company for the next six months."

"The recruit battalion has no combat missions, it only requires training and has more spare time, so each recruit in the recruit battalion has to reclaim at least two acres of wasteland in his spare time."

"The prisoners in our hands are divided into two parts, and we are willing to join the temporary reorganization of our National Rescue Army into a farm reclamation brigade. Each brigade has 1,000 people. We will reclaim wasteland in places with few people in the defense zone, and reclaim three acres of land per capita, and be self-sufficient. Then we will use our farming to train, take political and ideological classes, and supplement the recruit camp at any time!"

"The other part of the prisoners who were unwilling to join our National Salvation Army were all reorganized into labor camps. According to the size of the crimes they committed after becoming the Imperial Army, they were allowed to undergo labor reform for half a year to five years."

"The labor camps are also about farming. Their land reclamation volume is slightly larger. The per capita must reclaim five acres of land. Not only do they have to plant their own annual rations, but they also have to take out some of the grain and hand it over to the tutor headquarters."

"Prisoners who perform well in the reclamation of land or those with high grain production can appropriately reduce their labor reform time to mobilize the enthusiasm of the prisoners."

"Old Tang, you also have to arrange for people to give them an hour of ideological and political classes every night, and break up their bad thoughts to ensure that they can be a good person after leaving the labor camp in the future."

"The main force of the regiment also needs to reclaim land. The standards are the same as the garrison brigade. After the work is over in the past few days, we led the command staff and other civilians to take turns to reclaim land. Each of them reclaimed two acres of land and set an example for all the military and civilians in the defense zone."

"As for local cadres in the defense zone, Lao Tang, you can arrange it. According to the difficulty of their work, one to two acres of wasteland will be reclaimed and a portion of the food will be self-sufficient."

When Zhou Cheng introduced his plan, Tang Yufeng kept writing quickly.

After Zhou Cheng finished speaking, he did not stop and lay on the table to calculate the data he had just recorded. Five minutes later, he was very happy to report: "Captain, according to your plan just now, more than 25,000 people who eat public grain in the defense area can reclaim at least 40,000 mu of land. We will calculate that 40,000 mu of land can harvest at least 5 million kilograms of grain based on one mu of land. This is equivalent to the people in the defense area only need to bear another 5 million kilograms of public grain to meet the grain needs of the defense area."

"There are more than 500,000 people in the defense area, and under normal circumstances, 10 million kilograms of public grain can be collected."

"If there were no five million kilograms of grain harvested by everyone's self-sufficient harvest, the public grain collected from the defense zone would be nothing left except for everyone's meals. Our troops would not only eat, vegetables, pork ammunition, medicine, bedding, weapons... all require a lot of money to buy."

"So, relying solely on the 10 million kilograms of public grain, the troops will lose food for at most seven or eight months."

"Now with the more than 5 million kilograms of grain harvested by the troops themselves, we can easily survive until the autumn harvest of the next year."

Zhou Cheng was not satisfied with this result, and thought for a while and continued: "In addition to the main force, local troops, prisoners... according to my plan just now, we must also reclaim land on a large scale and be self-sufficient. Yangquanhe, who went to our defense zone just now, also need to reclaim land."

"Local governments should seize the time to organize villagers to reclaim all wasteland and slope land without owners in the defense zone into fertile fields, and plant grain after spring plowing begins to ensure that every commoner in the defense zone has more than three acres of fertile fields, more than two acres of sloping land or dry land, so as to increase the income of villagers and increase the overall grain output of our National Rescue Military Defense Zone."

Tang Yufeng immediately responded: "Don't worry, when I sent local cadres to Shouyang and Yangquan, I issued an order to reclaim land, ensuring that 200,000 acres of land were reclaimed in two counties before spring plowing."

Zhou Cheng shook his head. If he remembered correctly, Shouyang County was a veritable agricultural county in later generations.

The total arable land in the county is more than one million mu. Even if the 100,000 mu of land that the people are about to reclaim, the amount of arable land in the county is still not more than 450,000 mu, less than half of the later generations.

Seeing Tang Yufeng's orders decisively: "It's not enough. After the reorganization of the Agricultural Reclamation Brigade and the Labor Reform Brigade are completed, they will be sent to Shouyang."

"Information shows that Shouyang can provide them with a lot of wasteland. As long as we are willing, it will be fine to reclaim 200,000 to 300,000 acres of land."

Tang Yufeng quickly recorded Zhou Cheng's new order in his notebook and continued to ask: "How to solve the farm tools needed for the troops and disaster victims to reclaim the land? There are also a large iron pot that more than 100,000 disaster victims cannot do without eating. We must also find a way?"

Zhou Cheng replied: "I have asked the Chief of Staff to organize all the blacksmiths from Dinghexiyang to reinforce Shouyang and Yangquan, and concentrate all manpower and material resources to build agricultural tools and iron pots to support the victims."

"As for the farm tools needed by the troops, we will not rob the victims of the disaster, and let the arsenal find a way to solve the problem."

"They can even make guns, and stamping some farm tools is definitely very easy."

"As long as you master the experience, you can make hundreds of agricultural tools in a day."

At two o'clock the next afternoon, Tan Ming appeared in front of Zhou Cheng with the results that had been discussed.

"Captain, we have figured out: the best solution is to grow potatoes. Now we can live by rushing to grow them by the end of May, with a growth cycle of about ninety days."

"And the yield of potatoes is very high, resistant to storage, and can be eaten as grain. There are a large number of plants in northwest Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, and we can also plant them here, but the villagers all plant them on a small scale and usually eat them as vegetables, so we have ready-made seeds in our defense zone."

"Just collect them and plant more than ten acres of land in each village, the potatoes they harvest are enough for them to last until the autumn harvest."

"And there is no need to spend too much effort in growing potatoes. Just put enough base fertilizer and plant it without any care, which will not affect the subsequent spring plowing at all."

Zhou Cheng did not respond. He read the report in his hand very carefully, and then made a quick decision: "Since you are so confident, then we should hurry up and rush to grow potatoes."

"I decided to set up an agricultural production department in the logistics department of the National Salvation Army. If you are the section chief, you will be the four people you brought from the war zone for the time being. I will immediately arrange for Deputy Commander Tang to send you twenty young people who have studied. The five of you are responsible for teaching them how to rush to grow potatoes to get a higher harvest, and then all enter the disaster area and guide the victims to rush to grow potatoes."

"After this task is completed, the next task of the Agricultural Production Department is to guide the villagers to carry out spring plowing according to local conditions."

"Before, the villagers all farmed according to the rules. They planted whatever their ancestors grew. There was almost no change. They had never heard of many crops with high grain yields."

"Your task is to guide the villagers to plant more suitable crops on their own land, to guide them on how to lay the bottom fertilizer, how to raise seedlings, and how to increase grain yield."

"If the average yield per mu in the defense zone increases by more than 10% due to your guidance, everyone in the production department will calculate the merits once, and you will be rewarded with one thousand yuan to make a fortune!"

Tan Ming became excited again, and he never expected that he would have the opportunity to return to his career.

This has always been his dream, and he had no hope in the war zone before.

Unexpectedly, my dream came true as soon as I arrived at the National Salvation Army, and I was promoted to the section chief.

At this time, he was 100% sure that his decision to join the National Salvation Army was right, and he also developed a sense of honor for his identity as the National Salvation Army.

Hurry up and promised Zhou Cheng: "Please rest assured that agriculture is our business, and everyone will definitely not let you down."

"What you just said is right. Although the villagers farm carefully, their methods are passed down by their ancestors. Many methods are already very backward. If they are willing to listen to us and use a lot of base fertilizer and some new farming methods, I am more than 100% sure to increase the average yield per mu in the defense zone."

Zhou Cheng was very satisfied with Tan Ming's answer: "Then don't worry, I will order the local government and the four garrison brigades to cooperate with you unconditionally."

Yougang Village is a village fifteen kilometers south of Yangquan City. There are more than 200 men, women, young and old in the village. Under the organization of the National Salvation Army, a five-man militia unit was temporarily formed. A soldier with only one arm was the captain. He led the militia team to cooperate with the village chief to distribute grain every day and organize the villagers to produce and save themselves.

They had received the order to reclaim the land. In order not to be hungry, all the people in the village who could take the hoe went into battle. At dawn, they rushed to the reclaiming site with the farm tools just issued by the National Salvation Army. Those who did not have the farm tools took a sharpened wooden stick... They all wanted to reclaim one or two acres of wasteland and have a variety of food before spring plowing.

This morning seemed a little different.

The militia team did not rush to the land reclamation site directly after reaching the entrance of the village.

A strange face suddenly climbed onto the huge rock in front of everyone, holding a potato the size of a fist in his hand, shouting in his greatest voice: "Friends, I am a staff member of the Agricultural Production Department of the National Salvation Army. Today I was ordered to come to Yougang Village to organize everyone to plant the potato in my hand."

"I have brought all the seeds. There are more than 200 people in our village. According to regulations, we need to plant 20 acres of potatoes. I hope the villagers can cooperate!"
Chapter completed!