Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 81 The Great Harvest

The season of harvesting wheat came, and the whole Gaoling entered the busiest time, and everyone began to harvest the summer under Du Chuke's command.

At this moment, not only Lu Cai led the students from the agricultural school to join the harvest, but even the corvee team also took action.

It can be said that no one will feel that the labor force is redundant these days, and I wish someone could help.

After all, being able to harvest the wheat as much as possible on a sunny day is much more convenient for subsequent storage and the like.

The first process after wheat harvesting is to dry the wheat. If it is harvested in rainy days, it will be very troublesome to store the wheat.

If there is too much water, maybe the wheat will become moldy. Although moldy wheat can be eaten by the people at the bottom, it is not as good as dry wheat that can be saved after drying. At least the court cannot collect taxes. Send and receive moldy wheat.

On the other hand, Li Tai went to Chang'an to find Dai Zhou, the temporary agent of Sinong Temple, and hoped that Dai Zhou could send someone over to be a witness.

For Li Tai, it is best to invite Li Shimin to come and see, but as the emperor, Li Shimin is so free, he will come whenever he says.

So it's better to let Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs Dai Zhou send someone to supervise.

One is to prove the success of his farming plan, and the other is to pay taxes directly to the Ministry of Civil Affairs where Dai Zhou works.

Dai Zhou thought for a while, and also wanted to see how Li Tai had insisted on planting wheat all this time, and how the wheat harvest was going.

So Yan Xuansui, Shaoqing of Sinong, was sent to be a witness.

Yan Xuansui himself had seen it when he dealt with the locust plague. Now in Sinong Temple, Dou Jing and Zhao Yuankai have not yet returned, but Yan Xuansui vaguely has the qualifications to become the second person.

Therefore, Dai Zhou's current arrangements did not underestimate Li Tai, on the contrary, he seemed to attach great importance to it.

Yan Xuansui was still the same as when they first met, maintaining a respectful and respectful attitude towards Li Tai, not daring to surpass him in the slightest.

But Yan Xuansui was meticulous in doing things. He didn't just take one mu of land to measure, but took people to take dozens of wheat fields as the weighing fields, and left two or three followers to supervise the autumn harvest, while Li Tai Naturally, the harvesting of the wheat fields begins here first.

Li Tai followed Yan Xuansui's wishes and did not cheat at all. After all, he also wanted to know what he could achieve by integrating the technology of this era as much as possible, after a year of experimentation and a year of cultivation, with the help of this good year.

"King Yue, you seem to like planting wheat very much!" Yan Xuansui didn't care much about the measurement, but chatted with Li Tai instead.

After all, neither Yan Xuansui nor Li Tai had the slightest intention of joining the labor force.

Of course, Li Tai is definitely not interested, because Li Tai created an agricultural school because he knew that doing farm work is definitely the hardest thing in this world, but it is also the foundation of everything, so let his students work hard for the teacher .

"Yeah!" Li Tai nodded when he heard Yan Xuansui's words, "I prefer to eat buns and rice!"

"This is quite rare. In the south, fish soup, rice and rice, most of us in the north mainly plant millet, and wheat is not very common!" Yan Xuansui said to Li Tai, "I didn't expect you, King Yue, to be interested in wheat, a miscellaneous grain. There are many praises, and now it is more important to plant."

Li Tai was a bit stunned when he heard this, because in Li Tai's opinion, isn't it a matter of course to grow wheat in the north?
To be honest, Li Tai didn't know the history of the struggle between wheat and millet (su) in the north.

Li Tai took it for granted, but in fact it was after hundreds of years of localization that wheat stood out from a pile of miscellaneous grains and became one of the five grains. Later, it even killed corn and became the leader in northern grains.

Even though rice in the south has become a representative of China's food, wheat still plays a pivotal role in China's staple food.

And there are two key transformations here. The first is the transformation from wheat to winter wheat.

This made the people need to work in three seasons except winter from spring plowing to autumn harvest, which turned into autumn planting and summer harvest.

For the government, the time saved by these common people has further increased the average social efficiency. The common people worked for half a year instead of one year.

As for the second point, it is the further improvement of water conservancy facilities and the emergence of auxiliary props such as water mills.

To be honest, compared with millet, things like wheat are quite watery.

Therefore, if you want to plant in the north, you basically need relatively complete water conservancy facilities.

In addition, the improvement of water conservancy facilities has led to the development of many production equipment such as water mills.

This further reduces the cost for the common people to process wheat into wheat flour. Of course, this is also the most critical point.

Because even in the Han Dynasty, people had already discovered that making wheat into powder not only tastes quite good, but also can make a variety of food varieties, but why wheat is still not popular.

The very important reason is that not everyone has something like a mill. Even if there is a water mill, if you want to turn all the wheat into flour, it will cost a lot of money.

So even if the status of wheat was improved during the Three Kingdoms period, it was still not as good as corn.

But after arriving in the Tang Dynasty, first of all, the water conservancy facilities in the Tang Dynasty were further improved.

Although the water conservancy facilities of the Tang Dynasty were covered by the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty, it can be seen from the promulgation of the first water conservancy law "Ministry of Water" in the Tang Dynasty that the water conservancy facilities of the Tang Dynasty would be more perfect, which made wheat stand out day.

In fact, the Anshi Rebellion accelerated the process of replacing corn with wheat to some extent.

Because of the Anshi Rebellion, the economic center moved southward, and because of the ancient prejudice, the south was always considered to be wilder than the north, but the reality is that the south is more suitable for farming than the north. As such, this brought a wave of wheat outbreaks and completely replaced millet.

So at this time in the early Tang Dynasty, the status of wheat was really inferior to that of millet.

As the so-called Jiangshan Sheji is not Jiangshan Shemai, it can be seen that Xiaomi has an unshakable top position in the north.

"Although agricultural colleges study planting, strictly speaking, they mainly study planting wheat among food crops!"

Li Tai replied to Yan Xuansui at this moment,
"Compared to millet, wheat has the disadvantages of not being able to tolerate drought and having poor taste.

But as long as the planting place is selected properly, the wheat is ground into flour to improve the taste, and its yield is higher than that of millet.

The most important thing is that it is planted in autumn and harvested in summer. It takes advantage of the winter when there is almost no work, so that people can spare time for planting before autumn planting.

I think it has the potential to replace the main food in the north. "

Yan Xuanxuan shook his head and said: "It does have potential, but it is not easy for it to become a staple food.

Not to mention that not every household has a mill that can grind wheat into flour, but it needs a lot of water to grow in the spring when everything recovers, which is a big problem for many areas without water. "

Li Tai glanced at Yan Xuansui with some surprise, although he briefly mentioned it, but Yan Xuansui was able to explain such specific shortcomings, obviously he is also a practical official, which has to be respected by Li Tai.

To be honest, the first dynasty of Zhenguan did not mean that there was no corruption, but the court of this dynasty did not lack those ministers who worked hard.

Whether it's Ma Zhou, who was promoted from the bottom, or Fang Xuanling, who came from a wealthy family, they are all very pragmatic.

And Yan Xuansui in front of him is obviously such a person. Although Li Tai didn't inquire about Yan Xuansui's background, but seeing his emphasis on the quality of measurement and his own extravagance, he thinks it has something to do with Yan Liben.

As a minister who can go to Lingyan Pavilion, if you think that Yan Liben is just a painter, you will underestimate this minister.

"Lack of water, you can plant it in areas with abundant water conservancy facilities. There are few mills, so find a way to popularize water mills!"

Li Taidao, "But its natural yield is large and versatile, and the cultivation time is relatively short, but it is not comparable to millet!"

When Yan Xuansui heard Li Tai's praise of Mai Mai, he didn't say anything more, because it was pointless to continue arguing.

Yan Xuanxuan sighed in his heart, although the king of Yue had extraordinary talents, he didn't know that the world was difficult.

No matter how good wheat is, if the cost of planting is higher than that of millet for the common people, it is almost impossible to promote this wheat.

And Li Tai was also silently thinking about Yan Xuansui's words.

To be honest, what Li Tai thought in the past was that agricultural colleges summed up the agricultural experience, then sent students to their respective regions to become agricultural officials, guided the local people to farm, and used scientific methods to steadily promote food growth.

But now it looks like, after all, I still think it is simple.

Survival is the first nature of human beings, and all the stupid and backward aspects of ancient times must be the most suitable production relations produced under natural evolution.

If I want to promote productivity and production relations, and let the students of agricultural colleges take root, then I must further transform their living environment, instead of being like those college students who have high eyesight and low abilities to guide the people to farm.

Although the knowledge in books is very high, how to put this high knowledge into practice is the real problem.

"Is it really necessary to start the renovation plan of Zheng Baiqu?! To promote wheat, carry out a large-scale experimental transformation!"

Li Tai narrowed his eyes slightly, evaluating the feasibility of this plan in his heart.

While Li Tai was thinking about it, someone soon reported, "King Yue, Yan Shaoqing, the first mu of grain has already been weighed, and the follow-up grains will be weighed one after another. Please go over to supervise and inspect."

"Please, King Yue!" Yan Xuansui made a gesture of invitation, letting Li Tai go first.

"Let's go together!" Li Tai did not refuse, after all, in terms of rank, he was indeed much older than him, so naturally he did his part.

At this moment, Li Tai was relaxed, but Yan Xuansui watched the people of Sinong Temple with a serious expression.

Because buckets and stones are not units of weight, but units of volume, even if you don't need to get the final data, Yan Xuansui can tell that it is definitely a bumper harvest if you look directly at it with your eyes!

Yan Xuansui couldn't help taking a few steps forward, and said, "How many stones are there in this mu of wheat!"

"Three...three stones are more than half a bucket!" The official in charge of the measurement was also a little dazed looking at the scene in front of him.

It's unscientific to grow so much wheat, no, it's hell,

"After drying, cleaning, grinding, etc., it should only be about two stone five!"

Li Tai looked at the scene in front of him, and he was also a little surprised. When he reached Sanshi, he also felt that something was wrong.

After all, this was in the Tang Dynasty. Even though he had integrated the farming techniques of this era as much as possible, there was no plug-in like chemical fertilizer, only Jin Kela, which made the wheat output reach three stones, and Li Tai felt that it was a little bit more.

"Immediately measure the output of the next mu of land!" Yan Xuanxuan collected himself and calmed himself down.

"Obey!" The official in charge of the measurement guessed in his heart that he had never seen anything.

This year's weather is good, and it happens that an acre of land is more lushly planted. Could it be that these wheat fields are still three stones?

Soon, the official quickly measured the wheat output of the next acre, and soon his face became a little bit wrong!

"How much!" Yan Xuansui couldn't help but asked eagerly, "Is it still Sanshi?!"

"Two stones!" The official replied with a little nervousness, "Two stones and nine liters!"

"This is a big harvest!" Yan Xuansui's eyes were unbelievable at first, and the corners of his mouth could not help but crack into an excited smile, and he even couldn't help shouting loudly: "A bumper harvest, a bumper harvest! Hurry up, all the output is weighed." a bit!"

At this time, Yan Xuansui devoted all his attention to the wheat harvested and measured every mu, and almost forgot about Li Tai.

Li Tai didn't mind this.

Because this kind of official who really puts his whole body and mind into his work is what he admires the most.

After all, the rule of Zhenguan was not supported by Li Shimin alone, but by these silent and hard-working officials and the hard-working common people with their common backbone.

But with great expectations, the grain in this mu of wheat fields was quickly weighed out.

A total of three stones had been broken in the wheat field, and the output was not much. From the beginning to the end, there were only three acres, and the largest one yielded three stones and one bucket.

All the fields were weighed, and the one with the least output reached two stones and seven buckets.

For Yan Xuansui, such an output was already worth reporting to Dai Zhou for his own review.

For an average output of only one or two stones, the grain output of Li Tai Gaoling is simply too high.

Even, if Li Tai was not a prince, but an ordinary official, then with this harvest, he would definitely be dispatched to the Si Nong Temple or the Ministry of Civil Affairs, becoming a sixth-rank official, or even a fifth-rank official.

After all the data had been recorded in detail, Yan Xuansui respectfully saluted Li Tai:

"King Yue, you can continue harvesting the wheat fields, but please leave more than a dozen mu of wheat fields. I will try to convince Dai Shangshu to come and inspect it in person!"

"Thank you Yan Shaoqing for your suggestion!" Li Tai looked at Yan Xuansui in surprise, because he didn't approve of growing wheat himself.

But after seeing the wheat planting output, Li Tai would actually offer to help so much, which surprised Li Tai, and he naturally appreciated it even more.

(End of this chapter)