Ancient Imperial Examination Daily

Chapter 833 Who will take the blame?

Aoki turned his head and looked at Yao Shuqi in surprise.

Yao Shuqi nodded cryptically, then gave him another wink, telling him to restrain himself so that no one else could see him.

He once heard Du Jinning inadvertently mention that these hybrid rices have to be hybridized continuously in order to keep the seeds high-yield.So after the earing of this season's rice, he came to Zhuangzi twice, just to see if the ear of rice was full.

He knew that if there was no problem with the seeds and the high yield had been achieved all the time, the emperor and the court would forget his young master, and at most mention the young master's name in the history books.From then on, except for those closest to them, no one would think of Du Jinning again.

But if the reduction in production proves that what the young master once said is correct, what will happen? He gets excited just thinking about it.

If you have never owned it, you can’t talk about losing it; but if you once produced seven stones per mu, the emperor and the ministers in the court imagined the grand scene of a rice-filled warehouse, and the common people looked forward to a beautiful day when they were full and warm, but the result was Without Du Jinning, every season of rice was not as good as one season, and finally fell to two stones per mu, and life returned to the past.Even if they can grow double-cropping rice, the annual increase in production is not much after excluding the cost of fertilizers and manpower. I don't know how they will feel.

Thinking about that situation, Yao Shuqi was like eating ice cubes in June, and his whole body felt indescribably refreshed.

Told you to throw away after use!Tell you not to look for the young master!Do you know it's wrong now?
But all the things in the past have always been Yao Shuqi's expectation in his heart.His heart has been hanging.Worried that Wu Zheng and others found something wrong, and even blamed him for the reduction in production, thinking that he had done something wrong, so he kept suppressing his desire/desire and did not dare to visit the rice often.

Now, the stone in his heart finally fell to the ground.

Wu Zheng and the others had no time to pay attention to Yao Shuqi and Aoki.

Wu Zheng commanded the two peasants: "Bring up that load of rice and weigh it."

The man quickly complied.

The result is still the same.That load was probably not full, only 43 catties.

A sycophant official saw that Wu Zheng's face was livid and veins were popping out on his forehead, so he quickly comforted him and said, "Don't worry, my lord, the baskets used this time may be smaller than last time, you didn't see that several of them were new. , Is it still big or small? We’ll know when everything is weighed. Even if it’s worse, it’s about the same. After all, we don’t have as much experience as Lord Du, so the next season will be different.”

Wu Zheng tried his best to suppress the urge to scold others, he pursed his lips tightly and did not speak, but he was roaring in his heart: "Idiot, the ears of rice are so shriveled, no one is blind, can't you see it? You still need to talk nonsense here Eight ways?"

He waved his hand and signaled the officials on the other side to weigh together at the same time.

Because they had discovered early on that the ears of rice were not full and the grains were more shriveled, they asked one person to weigh a load first, hoping that a miracle would happen.Now the weight of a load is much lighter, and he expects that, as the official said just now, it is a matter of baskets.So simply take a two-pronged approach and weigh both sides together, so that the result will come out faster.

A load of rice was put on the scale, and people on both sides reported the number and kept accounts.In the end, the official who kept the account "cracked" pulled out the abacus for a while, added the two numbers, and recalculated again for fear of making mistakes, and finally reported a number with a trembling voice: "Four stones are 28 catties."

There was a dead silence in the paddy field.

Wu Zheng still clearly remembers that last season, the same piece of wet rice that had just been harvested in the same field last season was six stones and 39 catties per mu.

"My lord." An experienced official came over and whispered, "Could it be that the yield of late rice is lower than that of early rice?"

"Yes, yes, it is very possible." The official who flattered quickly agreed.

Wu Zheng was silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head: "In Guangxi Province, there is a saying that 'early rice is low and late rice is high'. Because early rice grows shorter, the yield is generally lower than that of late rice."

Since Guangxi Province has grown double-cropping rice for many years, it has rich experience.Now that he is going to vigorously promote double-cropping rice, Wu Zheng also specially asked people to go to Guangxi Province to collect information.So he is relatively clear about the situation of double cropping rice.

Once again the rice fields were silent.

Wu Zheng took a deep breath: "Let's go, visit Zhongtian."

Everyone got up quickly, and a group of people went to Zhongtian.

No need to pick and choose, just harvest the piece that Eunuch Jin pointed out last season.

An hour and a half later, listening to the reported data, everyone fell into silence again.

Five stones and twenty catties, compared to the seven stones and 73 catties in the previous season, it was two stones and fifty catties less.

As the person in charge of high-yield rice planting, Songzhuangtou naturally participated in the harvest ceremony.He was old and didn't go to the field, but stood by and watched like the officials.However, he knew that production would be reduced this year, and he was afraid of being blamed, so he never dared to speak out.

At this moment, he couldn't help it, and said in a low voice: "That field was originally improved from dry land in spring. It is relatively barren. After half a year of improvement, it is better than before."

The implication is that because the fertility of that field has increased, the yields of the two seasons are not as far apart as this field.

The official who was flattering couldn't help but stare at Song Zhuang: "Tell me, did you make a mistake when you were farming, which caused the rice production to decrease?"

The same is true of Shimoda, and so is Zhongtian. Those who have seen the fullness of Ueda's rice early on, naturally know that Ueda's acreage cannot be left to chance.

So, in the hands of Du Jinning, the production is high, but in their hands, the production is reduced. Who will bear the responsibility?This year's weather is good, and with the guarantee of the paddy field project built by Du Jinning, they can't blame God for it.Then it is the wisest choice to let a group of peasants in the village take charge.

Song Zhuang felt a "thud" in his heart, and the original worry became a reality.

He immediately knelt down and shouted his grievance loudly: "You are wronged, we did it according to the method Master Du taught, and we dare not make any mistakes. Master Wu is also clear about this matter."

As he spoke, he looked at Wu Zheng eagerly, hoping that Wu Zheng could give him an explanation.

When the rice fields were planted this season, it was the time when Du Jinning disappeared.In order to prevent these people from resenting the court because of Du Jinning and not farming well, Wu Zheng and several officials separately asked Song Zhuangtou, Qin Laohan, Wang Laohan and people who were better at farming in Zhuangzi for questioning. Ask them how the hybrid rice is grown, and if there is any special attention, and take notes of their remarks.

In the end, Wu Zheng matched the words of these people one by one, and found that what they said was almost the same, and they had indeed done so in the past six months, which proved that they were not playing tricks.

A group of honest peasants are not so courageous.

Wu Zheng is quite honest.He said: "I don't blame you, get up."

Song Zhuangtou was overjoyed and kowtowed again and again: "Thank you, sir, thank you, sir."

The men who followed Song Zhuang and knelt down also kowtowed vigorously.

Wu Zheng sighed deeply: "Let's go to Shangtian."

(End of this chapter)