The world of film and television starts from the flow of money

At noon, the sun shines through the window lattices with carved beams and painted buildings, casting a bright glow.

"I have long heard of Mr. Xu's great name. After meeting him today, I find that his reputation is well-deserved. Mr. Xu's simple music score is really embarrassing for me. Come... please take a seat!"

Yi Huawei led Xu Xin to the main seat and warmly invited him and his disciples to sit down.

He had been in Xianyang for some time and had met many scholars from various schools. Although none of the scholars were rich or powerful, they were all well-dressed, wearing hats and carrying swords, and were neat and tidy.

But today, the peasant disciples that Xu Xin brought with him were particularly special. They all wore short coarse linen shirts, the fabric was plain and simple. They wore straw sandals that were common among Qi and Chu peasants, simple and practical.

It is said that everything the peasants have is bought with the food they grow themselves. These disciples are only in their thirties, but they look like they are in their forties or fifties. The traces of time have long been engraved on their faces, with calluses all over their hands and reddish complexions. When they smile, they show a mouthful of white teeth, which is particularly eye-catching.

Xu Xin, grandson of Xu Xing, is a current agricultural magnate. Although he is dressed simply, he has a calm demeanor and does not feel awkward like those disciples when chatting with Yi Huawei.

Yi Huawei was impressed by Xu Xin and his disciples. They were probably the earliest idealists.

The Agricultural School can be regarded as an outlier among the various schools of thought.

They were somewhat similar to the Mohists, living a very simple life and wearing ordinary coarse cloth. Although they strongly advocated farming and mulberry, they did not own an inch of land and lived a life of traveling around the countries. They were not like the Confucian scholars who pursued high positions and high salaries, but only hoped to get a hundred acres of land and a few acres of houses, settle down, and lead the local people to concentrate on studying farming techniques.

They traced back to Shennong and inherited Houji's career, focusing on sowing all kinds of grains and encouraging farming and mulberry, aiming to meet the people's food and clothing needs. When the grains are abundant, the people are prosperous; when the people are prosperous, the world is prosperous, which is the philosophy they always adhere to.

The origins of the Agricultural School can be traced back to the early official compilation and research of agricultural knowledge.

Before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, agricultural production experience was mainly passed down through "agricultural proverbs" passed down from generation to generation by the working people. With the development of society, the government began to send special "agricultural officials" to systematically collect and organize agricultural theories, which laid the foundation for the formation of the agricultural school.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the royal family declined, the education monopoly was broken, and academic thought began to flourish. All schools of thought attached importance to the status of agriculture in the feudal regime, and the theoretical research on agriculture attracted the attention of all social classes to agricultural production, which provided ideological soil for the birth of the Agricultural School.

The agricultural school gradually became a mature school by the time of Xu Xing. Xu Xing was the first representative of the agricultural school whose name was left, and he lived in the same era as Mencius. He led dozens of disciples from the State of Chu to Teng to give lectures, advocating that "the wise man and the people should work together to farm and eat", requiring people to attach importance to agricultural production, and that all people should participate in labor, and that fair prices should be maintained between agricultural products and handicrafts. His disciple Chen Xiang was originally a Confucian disciple, but was later convinced by Xu Xing's teachings and turned to study agricultural school doctrines, which gradually expanded the influence of the agricultural school.

After the formation of the Agricultural School, it actively participated in the Hundred Schools of Thought. Xu Xing's disciple Chen Xiang had a famous debate with Mencius. Although Chen Xiang was defeated in the end, it declared that the Agricultural School had officially joined the ranks of the Hundred Schools of Thought as a school.

Xu Xing's main idea is that wise men should farm and eat with the people, and rule with the people. He believes that rulers should also participate in agricultural production, so that they can better understand the suffering of the people and formulate policies that are in line with reality. This proposition breaks the traditional concept of hierarchy and emphasizes the equality of labor.

On the basis of affirming the division of labor and mutual assistance, it advocates equal labor for everyone and equal exchange of goods. In other words, "market and business are the same", this price theory reflects the dissatisfaction of poor farmers at that time with merchants' exploitation of high interest rates in the market, and hopes to establish a fair economic order.

Mencius pointed out that there is a division of labor in society between "those who work with their minds" and "those who work with their hands". "Those who work with their minds rule over others, and those who work with their hands are ruled by others. Those who are ruled by others eat others, and those who rule others eat from others. This is the common sense of the world."

This is a reasonable division of labor based on the natural laws of human social development. The ruler bears the heavy responsibility of governing the country and cannot take care of physical labor such as farming at the same time. If the wise are required to farm like the common people, it will disrupt the normal social order and make society unable to function effectively.

Mencius believed that in real life, everyone's ability and energy were limited, and it was impossible to be good at governing a country and proficient in agricultural production. Moreover, different jobs require different skills and knowledge. Asking people who are good at governing to farm would not only waste their talents, but also fail to guarantee the efficiency and quality of agricultural production. Therefore, the theory of "cultivating and eating at the same time" of the Agricultural School was just an unrealistic fantasy.

The Agricultural School advocated that no matter how different the quality and craftsmanship of goods are, as long as the quantity or weight is the same, the price should be the same, that is, "the market is not two-fold". Mencius retorted: "The inequality of things is the nature of things; some are twice as much, some are ten times as much, and some are ten million times as much. If you compare and make them the same, you will cause chaos in the world."

What this means is that it is an objective fact that things vary greatly. Different items have very different values, some differ by one or five times, some differ by ten, a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand times. If we forcibly price them the same, it will disrupt the world's economic order.

According to the farmers' view, this will dampen the enthusiasm of producers. If the price of high-quality products is the same as that of low-quality products, then producers will have no motivation to improve the quality and craftsmanship of their products, which will lead to a decline in the production level of the entire society and hinder economic development.

All I can say is that children from farming families are too idealistic.

The starting point is good, but somewhat unrealistic.

Therefore, whether it was the king, officials, or merchants, they all kept their distance from the agricultural thought.

In those years, the princes formed alliances and were fickle, and the eastern land was in chaos. Song State destroyed Teng State in one fell swoop, but then Song State was also destroyed by Qi State. Qi State even suffered the disaster of the Five Kingdoms attacking Qi State, and was almost destroyed. There were wars everywhere, which was indeed not a good time for farmers to develop productivity.

The Nong family wandered around in poverty and declined for a long time. Until Xu Xing's grandson, a rare opportunity came: Lu Buwei, the prime minister of Qin, wanted to follow the example of the four great princes of the Warring States Period and invited the Nong family to join Qin!
The people of Qin were simple and honest, and their government was also extremely outstanding. From the lowest-level clerks to the prime minister, the core concept of the government's operation was actually: Do not delay the people's farming!

Everything that might affect agriculture, such as scholars and merchants, was suppressed and banned. In order to encourage production, the Qin State did everything it could. The farmers traveled around the world and searched for decades, hoping to find a government that valued agriculture.

The Qin government and Nongjia's philosophy coincided, so Nongjia stayed in Qin with all his heart. Xu Xin was also highly appreciated by Lü Buwei. Based on the experience summarized by Nongjia over the years, he contributed several articles to Lüshi Chunqiu, including Shangnong, Rendi, Biantu, Shenshi and Shierji.

"Please take a seat! You're welcome!"

At Yi Huawei's warm invitation, Xu Xin and others exchanged some pleasantries and then slowly sat around the table.

However, when their eyes fell on the novel foods on the table, doubts arose in their hearts.

As children of farmers, they have devoted themselves to farming for many years and have seen countless crops, but they have no idea what these foods are made of. They are not like the familiar grains, and have a unique appearance that is different from ordinary things.

Xu Xin frowned slightly, and the disciples beside him looked at each other, all of them confused. Yi Huawei looked at the surprised eyes of the crowd, smiled, and stretched out his hand and said: "Everyone, this is made of potatoes and sweet potatoes. These two are newly introduced crops. Why not try it and see how it tastes."

Xu Xin frowned and asked in confusion: "Potatoes? Sweet potatoes? Corn?" Yi Huawei made a gesture of invitation: "Yes, these are the crops I found from the Western Regions. Although they are rare, the yield is gratifying. Everyone, please eat as much as you want. If you are not satisfied, there are more."

Today's meal was made entirely of potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn.

A portion of mashed potatoes. After boiling the potatoes, peel them and mash them into a paste with a wooden pestle. Add a small amount of salt and chopped wild vegetables for seasoning. The taste is soft, with a light salty taste and the fragrance of wild vegetables. Of course, Yi Huawei was a little better off and added some sheep fat, which he poured on the mashed potatoes to increase the smoothness and fragrance of the mashed potatoes.

A baked potato is a potato baked directly on the charcoal fire. The potatoes are baked until the skin is slightly charred and the inside is cooked through. The baked potatoes exude a unique aroma. Zhang Lehui also adds a few dishes of simple sauces made of vinegar, salt, minced garlic, etc. to add flavor.

A potato and vegetable soup is made by cutting potatoes into small pieces and putting them into a pot with the collected wild vegetables to make soup. A small amount of salt is added to season the soup, which has a light taste. The starch from the potatoes makes the soup thicker, and the wild vegetables add a natural flavor to the soup.

There are also steamed sweet potatoes drizzled with honey, golden baked sweet potato cakes, and sweet potato porridge with red dates and longans.

Of course, roasted corn and corn stewed with pork ribs are indispensable.

Xu Xin took the lead in scooping a spoonful of mashed potatoes and chewed them carefully. The mashed potatoes were soft and sticky, with a unique taste and flavor. After swallowing them, he nodded and said, "Good!"

The other disciples also picked up the food and tasted it.

“This food has a unique flavor and rich texture.”

"Yeah, I've never tasted food that tastes this good before. It really makes me curious."

Everyone couldn't help but look at Yi Huawei.

Xu Xin's heart moved, and he looked at Yi Huawei and said, "Lord Zhao said...the production volume is good?"

"Yes, this thing is called 'sweet potato'..."

Yi Huawei smiled, picked up the sweet potato cake in his hand and said: "Its seeds can germinate and grow quickly in a suitable environment. And the soil requirements are relatively low. Whether it is fertile land or relatively poor soil, it can take root and grow. Under normal planting conditions, the yield is extremely high. One acre of land can produce thousands of kilograms of sweet potatoes. It can not only be used as a staple food, but also used to make various foods, and it is also relatively convenient to store."

"what!?"

"impossible?!"

Xu Xin and others looked at each other in disbelief, and several disciples couldn't believe it. You know, during the Qin Dynasty, the grain output of one acre of land was approximately between 100 and 250 kilograms.

Specifically: Before Shang Yang's reform, the grain output of Qin was low, about only 100 catties per mu. After Shang Yang's reform, in order to encourage production, the Qin government increased grain output, and some land even reached 250 catties per mu.

During the reign of Cai Ze, the completion of the Dujiangyan Irrigation System led to a significant increase in grain production in Bashu (now Chengdu area). Some lands even achieved a record of 317 kilograms per mu, but this was the highest record. On average, a yield of kilograms per mu was considered good.

And now...Yi Huawei actually said that this crop called "sweet potato" can produce thousands of kilograms per mu? ?

As far as they knew, they had never heard of such a high-yield crop. One of the disciples couldn't help but ask, "Master Zhao, is the yield of sweet potatoes really so high? Is it an exaggeration?"

Seeing the questioning looks from Xu Xin and the others, Yi Huawei smiled, pointed at the roasted corn and continued, "This thing is called 'corn'. It likes warm climates, but it can also grow in cooler areas. The growth cycle of corn is relatively short, and it can usually be harvested in a few months. Its yield is also considerable. The yield of corn from one acre of land can reach thousands of kilograms."

After a pause, he picked up a bowl of potato and wild vegetable soup and said, "Potatoes grow in a wide range of environments. They are cold-resistant and drought-resistant, and can grow even in relatively harsh conditions. The yield of potatoes is not low, and one acre of land can produce thousands of kilograms. Not only can it be used as a staple food, but it can also be used to make various dishes..."

Xu Xin and the others listened to Yi Huawei's introduction, and the suspicion on their faces never completely disappeared. A disciple frowned and said slowly: "Master Zhao, this yield is really hard to believe. If there really is such a high-yield crop, then wouldn't the people of the world no longer have to worry about starvation?"

Yi Huawei smiled calmly and responded: "It is normal for you to have doubts. After all, you have never seen these crops before. However, what I said is true and there is no falsehood. Moreover, I have these three crops planted in my yard. After dinner, I can take you to the field to check the growth of these crops in person."

"Is it really so?" Everyone looked surprised.

Xu Xin tried hard to suppress his shock, and after pondering for a moment, he asked, "If these crops are really as Lord Zhao said, then they are indeed a blessing to the world. I just wonder if the method of growing these crops is complicated and difficult?"

Yi Huawei put down the sweet potato cake in his hand and patiently explained: "The planting methods of these crops are not complicated. Sweet potatoes can be propagated by cuttings. Just cut the sweet potato vines into small pieces and insert them into the soil, and they will take root and sprout. Corn and potatoes can be sown by seeds. As long as the soil is suitable and there is enough water, they will thrive."

Xu Xin nodded slightly, and then asked: "Can these crops grow in different regions?"

Yi Huawei answered seriously: "Sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes are all extremely adaptable. Sweet potatoes are drought-resistant and barren-resistant, and can take root and grow in all types of soil; although corn prefers warm climates, it can also be grown in cooler areas; potatoes are cold-resistant and drought-resistant, and can survive even in harsh environments. Therefore, these crops can be planted in different regions."

"Please take me to see it, Master Zhao!"

After listening to Yi Huawei's introduction, Xu Xin no longer had the heart to continue eating. He immediately stood up and bowed deeply to Yi Huawei. His eyes were full of eagerness and expectation, as if he saw the light of hope that could change the fate of the people of the world.

The disciples around him also showed eager expressions, they were eager to witness the growth of these magical crops with their own eyes.

(End of this chapter)