Ancient Imperial Examination Daily

Chapter 834 is the problem of seeds
Two days later, in the palace, Zhao Yu looked at Wu Zheng who came to report, wishing he could smash the jade paperweight in his hand.

The output of the upper, middle and lower fields has decreased by two and a half stones per mu. Why doesn't this make him frightened and angry?
He took a deep breath and asked, "Besides Du Jinning's Zhuangzi, isn't there other places where this kind of high-yield rice is grown? How is the situation there?"

"The situation is similar." Wu Zheng said, "I inspected those fields one by one a while ago, and they all had the same problem, the ears of rice were not full. The harvest of Du's Chuangzi the day before yesterday found that the situation was wrong, and I had someone harvest it again yesterday." In several other places, it turned out that the output was the same."

Zhao He's face became even uglier.

After calming down for a while, he asked, "What's the reason? Did you find out?"

Wu Zheng shook his head: "I have checked, but I can't find out. In the past six months, I have been going to Runzhou once every ten days and a half months, and found that their method of planting rice is the same as what I said before. And according to Chen According to my experience, even if this is a high-yield rice, the planting method should be the same as other rice, and there is nothing wrong with the practices of farmers. I really don’t understand why there is such a big difference in yield.”

After a pause, he looked up at Zhao He, and said cautiously: "I have discussed it with the officials of the Ministry of Industry, and I think the problem may lie in the seeds."

"Seeds?" Zhao Wei frowned, "How could something go wrong with the seeds?"

Wu Zheng: "For some plants, the seeds can degenerate. For example, if you find a tea tree with a particularly good taste on the mountain, use its seeds to cultivate tea seedlings, even if you plant them in the original place and in the original environment. The tea produced will still taste far from the mother plant. This should be degeneration."

After a pause, he had a sad look on his face: "Later, I learned from Mr. Du Jinning that if you cut off the tea branch and put it in the ground, it will survive if you take good care of it. The tea seedlings grown in this way taste just like the mother plant. It's the same."

"So I thought, Mr. Du must have some special way to keep the high-yielding characteristics of the rice he grows. Since he can research high-yielding rice seeds, it is not difficult to maintain the characteristics. It's just that we don't know how to do it. It’s just like planting tea trees, knowing it is easy; not knowing it is very difficult.”

Zhao He was silent for a long time.

After a long while, he said to Mr. Wu: "Go and call Qi Bokun."

When Qi Bokun arrived, he asked Wu Zheng to repeat what he had just said, and asked Qi Bokun, "Aiqing, do you think Du Jinning wrote some notes and put them in her house in Beijing or Runzhou?"

Qi Bokun's expression changed slightly.

He coughed twice: "Although I love Du Jinning like a nephew, it is still two families. I don't know what habits she has."

As he spoke, he coughed a few more times, and the cough was so hoarse that it seemed as if he was about to cough out his lungs.

Zhao Yu was about to go on, but now he had to stop, and asked with concern: "Did Aiqing suffer from the cold? Is the imperial doctor here to show Aiqing?"

When Qi Bokun was coughing, he took a few steps back, deliberately staying away from Zhao He.

At this time, he said weakly: "Okay, thank you, Your Majesty." After a pause, he said, "I'd better go back, so as not to make your Majesty feel sick."

Although Zhao He suspected that Qi Bokun was pretending to be sick, he had no choice but to say: "Aiqing has been exhausted, since she is not feeling well, let's rest at home for a few more days."

After Qi Bokun left with a slightly stooped body, he looked at Wu Zheng and heaved a long sigh: "Okay, you can go back. I will send someone to look for Du Jinning again. If you can't find her, you will be here next spring." Dujiazhuangzi will plant the last season to see if the production will continue to decrease. If the current production can be maintained, the food problem in the Song Dynasty can basically be alleviated."

"Yes." Wu Zheng saluted and retreated.

Back at the Ministry of Industry, Nie Ruilin, the left servant of the Ministry of Industry, asked with concern: "How is it?"

The left servant was also picked up by himself, so Wu Zheng didn't hide anything from him, and told the situation in the hall one by one.

Nie Ruilin frowned and said, "Why do you have to agree with Lord Qi to find Du Jinning's notes? If he doesn't agree, you can't search for them? This kind of thing is beneficial to the country and the people, how can you give up because of personal friendship? Your Majesty Qi is too accommodating." right?"

Wu Zheng was old and in poor health, so he wanted to recommend Nie Ruilin to take over his class after he retired.Hearing this now, he wondered if he had chosen the wrong person.

He said lightly: "This is not a matter of personal friendship. Du Jinning's contribution to the Song Dynasty is obvious to all, and everyone in the court knows about it. Now that he has been missing for half a year, the emperor asked someone to search his house. Isn't that chilling?" Do you think the emperor is heartless and ungrateful? Such a master, are you willing to dedicate all of yourself to follow? Lord Qi said that he was suffering from the cold, and he was also secretly admonishing the emperor not to do such chilling things. If the emperor insists on going his own way, Lord Qi may I'm about to go to Zhezi and retire due to illness."

It was only then that Nie Ruilin realized that he was far behind the two elders.

He stood up and saluted Wu Zheng sincerely: "Thank you for your guidance, sir."

……

Looking back, Zhao He naturally knew that his proposal was wrong, so he sent an imperial physician to treat Qi Bokun that day, and rewarded him with many valuable medicinal materials.

After a few days, when Qi Bokun "recovered" and returned to court, he purposely kept Qi Bokun behind him after he went down to court, and after greeting him, he sent away everyone except Eunuch Wu, and asked, "Ai Qing?" Do you know that Du Jinning is a woman?"

"What?" Qi Bokun raised his head abruptly, his face changed suddenly, and even his voice became a little higher.

His astonishment was not fake.He naturally knew that Du Jinning was a woman, but he didn't know that Zhao Yu also knew about it.

"How...how is this possible?" he asked.

Seeing Qi Bokun's expression, Zhao He was very satisfied.

If Qi Bokun knew that Du Jinning was a woman and kept it a secret from him, he would feel betrayed, and he would definitely not trust Qi Bokun and Qi Muyuan in the future.

But now it seems that this courtier is still very loyal and did not deceive himself with Du Jinning.

He nodded: "It's true. Lu Guo said it."

Only then did Qi Bokun suddenly understand.

Before Du Jinning disappeared, he had been to Prince Jing's Mansion, presumably it was at that time that Zhao Mingyue discovered his true identity.It just so happened that they also planned to use their tricks, so Du Jinning simply disappeared smoothly, and the disappearance was very complete.

Connecting the previous events, Qi Bokun's trace of complaints against Du Jinning also dissipated.

He originally thought that if Du Jinning disappeared by himself and was not murdered by others, then she had been missing for half a year without sending a word to Qi Muyuan, and she was too sorry for Qi Muyuan.Every time he saw his grandson's uncomfortable energy, Qi Bokun complained more to Du Jinning.

Now that the royal family knew that she was a woman, Qi Bokun naturally would not complain about Du Jinning.Especially after knowing that the production of high-yielding rice has been reduced by two and a half stones.

Du Jinning's decision is correct if a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall.It's not the time to come back yet, and she can't send any letters to the Qi family, so as not to arouse the suspicion of Zhao Wei's grandparents and grandchildren of the Qi family.

She is really good for them.

(End of this chapter)