As the clan leader, Wang Shouzhe only needed to strategize and did not need to participate in every step of the plan. Therefore, during this period of time, he stayed in the main house, practicing cultivation every day or "bullying" some younger siblings.
With abundant resources, his cultivation progress was rapid, already reaching the peak of the sixth level. With just a few days of polishing, he could attempt to break through to the seventh level of Qi refining.
But today, he needed to make a move.
After Wang Gui made arrangements, he first summoned a child from the clan.
In just a moment, a woman in her thirties with a beautiful face led a boy of about ten years old to Wang Shouzhe's side hall.
"Chen Clan greets the clan leader." The woman bowed, while the boy seemed a little afraid and hid behind his mother.
"Auntie Chen, no need for formalities, just call me Shouzhe." Wang Shouzhe returned the greeting and invited her to sit down. "Please sit down quickly."
This Chen Clan was the wife of Sixth Uncle Wang Dinghai, and she came from the Chen Clan of Donggang.
The Wang Clan and the Chen Clan frequently intermarried in the sixth generation. Two members of the Ding generation married Donggang Chen Clan women, and two aunts of the Liu generation married into the Donggang Chen Clan.
After Wang Gui served tea and snacks, he retired to the side.
Wang Shouzhe chatted with Chen Clan and then turned his attention to the boy, smiling and saying, "Shouye, how are your studies recently?"
This boy was the youngest male member of the seventh generation of the Shou generation, named Wang Shouye, only ten years old and ranked seventh.
Why say "currently"? Of course, it was because the elders of the Ding generation of the sixth generation were still young and strong. For example, Third Uncle Wang Dingzu and Sixth Uncle Wang Dinghai might even have smaller children in the future.
This is not without precedent. Take Uncle Wang Dingchuan, who was fifty years old and only had the fifth son of the Shou generation, Wang Shouyong. He was truly old and strong.
Of course, this should also be attributed to Aunt Wang, who could still give birth in her forties and was particularly fertile.
But let's not talk about this idle chatter for now.
Wang Shouye was obviously a little shy and very respectful of Wang Shouzhe. When he heard the question, he immediately turned pale and held onto Chen Clan's clothes tightly. "Brother... Brother, it's... it's okay."
"Don't be mad, Shouzhe. This child has always been shy since he was young." Chen Clan explained a little embarrassedly, "But he has been working hard lately..."
As she spoke, she secretly glanced at Wang Shouzhe.
Wang Shouzhe understood. It seemed that the youngest member of the Shou generation had heard about the reputation of the Examining and Testing Demon King recently and was afraid that he would be tested by his fourth brother. Therefore, he started working hard early.
This was a good thing.
Wang Shouzhe drank tea and became more and more satisfied with the reputation of the Examining and Testing Demon King. This was like a sword of Damocles, hanging over the heads of his younger siblings and younger generations.
Alright, let's test him.
Wang Shouzhe began to examine Wang Shouye, from basic literature to basic arithmetic, to understanding of body techniques, combat skills, and so on.At first, Wang Shouye was scared out of his wits and answered stutteringly and hesitantly. But after a while, encouraged by Wang Shouzhe, he began to answer fluently. It was evident that his basic skills were quite solid and he had been working hard recently.
"Not bad, not bad," Wang Shouzhe praised with a smile. "Shouye is quite promising. This is your reward." Wang Shouzhe directly gave him a reward of ten Top Gold to commend the first child who passed his test.
"Thank you, Fourth Brother!" Wang Shouye's excited little face turned red, and his eyes and speech became more confident.
Recently, the pressure from the Demon King had made the younger generation and the younger ones feel insecure. Giving rewards to the outstanding ones at this time would inevitably cause some envy.
Wang Shouzhe believed that the carrot and stick policy would make the young children of the family more and more outstanding.
Wang Shouye's good performance made Chen's clan also very happy. Which mother does not want her son to become successful?
After the test was completed, Wang Shouzhe turned to the main topic and said, "Aunt Six, I will ask Shouye to accompany me to Xingsheng Farm later to meet Grandpa Six." In other words, you don't need to go.
Wang Shouzhe was not opposed to Chen's clan going together, but he felt that Shouye, as a male member of the family, seemed to be too dependent on his mother.
Look at Wang Luoqiu, who is only one year older than Shouye. She has already started to challenge the heavens, the earth, and the air, shouting every day that she wants to slaughter gods and destroy Buddhas, and shoulder the responsibility of the family's rise alone.
Although Wang Shouzhe could not understand the inevitable connection between the rise of the family and slaughtering gods and destroying Buddhas... In addition, the strong sense of adolescent girl in her "lonely girl" bearing the fate of the family... also made him unable to help but want to slap someone. Was she treating the people of a large family as teammates?
But it did not prevent Wang Shouzhe from appreciating Wang Luoqiu's energetic and enterprising spirit.
Therefore, Wang Shouzhe still wanted to make the seventh child leave his mother's arms early and quickly grow into a little man.
"Everything is up to Shouzhe." Aunt Six Chen, although a little distressed about the seventh child, still followed his words.
Later on, Wang Shouzhe took Wang Shouye and walked along the waterway in the backyard towards Xingsheng Farm. He now likes to walk along the waterway more and more, peaceful and natural, with a broad view, and in harmony with nature. He can have enough time to plan the overall situation of the family.
For example, on the waterway to Xingsheng Farm, both sides are low-lying swamps, which are full of reeds this season. Some farmers from nearby villages come over to harvest the reeds by stepping on the muddy ground.
Although reeds are not valuable, they have many uses. For example, after drying, they can be used to cover the roofs of some earthen houses, or woven into reed mats, which can make the coming summer cooler. At worst, they can be dried and used as firewood.
However, the effect of reed cotton is not great. It looks like cotton, but it does not have the function of keeping warm. If it were on Earth, reeds could also be used to make paper and so on.
Some information that had been deposited in his brain touched upon this scene, and it vaguely appeared.
Cotton has been planted in Daqian for a long time, and some aristocratic families rely on large-scale cotton planting as their industry. If Wang Shouzhe wanted to get involved, it would not be an easy thing, after all, those aristocratic families have first-class means of guarding their cotton.
But what about papermaking?In this world, of course, there is paper, books, and letters, which are used everywhere. The quality of paper ranges from high to low, and most of them are quite expensive. The reason is simple: the paper-making technique is monopolized by a few minority forces.
Wang Shouzhe searched through his memory and found that at least no family in Changning County possessed the technique of paper-making.
The paper used by everyone was brought from afar by the Qian Clan's trading company.
The principle of paper-making is very simple, much easier than making sodium glutamate or Jenny spinning machines. Even Wang Shouzhe had a rough idea of the steps involved in making paper.
This could be promising.
Wang Shouzhe secretly recorded this idea and incorporated it into his future plans. At the same time, he also had some thoughts about the vast swamps on both sides of the river.
When the Ancestor reclaimed the land for farming, they naturally chose the areas that were easier to develop. For example, areas with abundant water sources, flat terrain, fertile soil, and strong expandability, so as to reduce the cost of reclamation to a relatively low level.
As generations of ancestors occupied and expanded the advantageous areas, the remaining unclaimed lands all had various unfavorable factors.
For example, the swamps on both sides of the river have lower terrain. Once it rains, large-scale swamps will form. Even during the dry season, the ground is full of potholes and muddy ponds everywhere.
To turn these swamps into farmland, large-scale land filling is needed to raise the entire terrain. Even in the mechanized era, this is a huge project, let alone in a world with underdeveloped productivity.
But now, it is difficult to find large areas of land that are easy to reclaim in the relatively safe mature land of Ping'an Town. Either annex the land of self-sufficient farmers or squeeze the living space of rival families.
Therefore, Wang Shouzhe always thought about how to develop this area whenever he passed by these two large wastelands.
If the land reclamation strategy is implemented, where does the soil come from? How to transport it?
In addition, if the two large swamps are raised, the water storage capacity of the swamps will disappear once the rainy season arrives. With the total amount of water remaining unchanged, this part of the water will enter the river channels and Zhuwei Lake.
If the rainfall is even greater, it is very likely to cause the river channels and Zhuwei Lake to overflow, leading to floods.
The best solution is to carry out large-scale desilting of Zhuwei Lake and fill the swamps with silt. In this way, not only can the water storage capacity of Zhuwei Lake be increased during the rainy season, but the swamps can also be gradually turned into fertile land.
Moreover, the deepened Zhuwei Lake can also be used for large-scale artificial fish farming, which is truly a win-win situation, and the benefits are indescribable.
But the only problem!
This project is too big and requires more manpower, resources, and time than the Ancestor's reclamation of Fenggu Farm.