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Chapter 638 Primary Industry
Take wheat as an example. After it became the staple food in the north in the Tang Dynasty, the average yield per mu has always remained at around two shi, which is about 300 kilograms. There has been no major improvement for thousands of years.

Could it be that the ancients didn't delve into this technology? On the contrary, the ancients have worked hard to sum up their experience, but due to technological means, natural environment restrictions and cost factors, the output has basically reached the ceiling.

The so-called scientific and technological means of course refer to optimized hybridization technology. It seems that the ancients did not realize this, and no one thought about it specifically.

The natural environment is nothing more than soil conditions and water sources. Ancient people knew this very early and carried out large-scale artificial intervention.

The cost factor means that the nutrients in the land alone are not enough to provide sufficient growth needs for crops every year, and there is no suitable substitute other than human and animal manure, so they have to be left fallow.

Hong Tao knows nothing about optimal hybridization, and improved breeding cannot be achieved in a few years, so it is better to leave it to the gardeners in the palace to figure it out slowly. They have accumulated a lot of experience by cultivating corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, tobacco, cocoa trees, and rubber trees. As long as they go in the right direction, they will accumulate more experience sooner or later.

The ancients have been doing this to transform the soil and natural environment, and they have done a very good job. Drilling wells and building canals have not stopped in any generation. Since Hong Tao ascended the throne, he has also attached great importance to this aspect. Almost every year, special funds are allocated to the Ministry of Industry to dredge rivers and canals.

Several small reservoirs have also been built in the mountainous areas of Guangdong and Fujian. The gates are closed to store water when there is a lot of rain, and the gates are opened for irrigation when there is little rain. This can not only meet the water demand of some farmland, but also avoid flooding to a certain extent. Local officials were often praised by the people for this, and the emperor naturally benefited from them.

When the New Deal spread to Beizhili and Shandong, building ditches and reservoirs naturally became one of the main means for officials to gain political achievements. There have been more than ten application papers for the construction of reservoirs that have not been approved by the Supervisor of Ceremonies, mainly because Cement production is a little behind, so we have to slow down for a while.

In fact, what Hong Tao is best at and can achieve immediate results is not building water conservancy projects, but playing with chemical fertilizers. Human and animal excrement and plant ash alone are far from enough for agricultural production. If there is help from chemical fertilizers at this time, I dare not say that we will see a bumper harvest in the first year. We should also be able to increase the yield of rice and wheat at least within three to five years. One to two percent.

So at this moment, does the Ming Dynasty have the ability to produce chemical fertilizers on a large scale? Hong Tao can say responsibly, yes! Too complex compound fertilizers cannot be produced, but simple nitrogen fertilizers can still be used.

This is not a figment of imagination. He had done this in the Song Dynasty. More than one large-scale fertilizer factory was built, with an annual output of more than 100,000 tons of ammonium nitrate and calcium ammonium nitrate, which was just in time to be used.

"The technology is not enough to make fertilizer! Wang Chengen, please arrange that I will go to Yongding River Iron Works to inspect tomorrow." Later generations will have a more efficient and safer way to produce ammonium nitrate on a large scale, but under the premise of the industrial foundation of the Ming Dynasty, there is only one way. Ammonium sulfate is first produced by reacting sulfuric acid solution with coke oven gas.

By this time, Daming's coking industry had been developing for seven or eight years, and all technical links were becoming mature. As long as a set of sulfuric acid filter containers were added to the front of the water tank that collected coal tar, ammonium sulfate would be readily available.

Yongdinghe Coking Plant has started to produce ammonium sulfate on a small scale two years ago, and then successfully obtained ammonium nitrate through a metathesis reaction with nitric acid. The output is only very small, and it is specially provided to engineers of the Navy and Army to prepare ammonium fuel oil explosives.

However, ammonium nitrate is too easy to absorb moisture and has unstable performance. It is difficult to store and transport, and is not suitable for large-scale use as agricultural fertilizer. Only by continuing to react it with calcium carbonate to generate a new compound, calcium ammonium nitrate, can large-scale production and promotion begin.

In fact, this reaction is not difficult, and the equipment is not complicated. With the current level of craftsmen, it should be possible to complete it independently. But Hong Tao was not at ease, so he still had to hold on to the drawings and explain the principles first, and then conduct a small experiment.

Why not say go to the coking plant, but say go to the ironmaking plant? This is the test for Wang Chengen. If he had selfish motives and secretly informed relevant personnel at the iron smelting plant, the secret would be exposed tomorrow. It wasn't that Hong Tao didn't believe him, but that he didn't believe anyone. He had to test it secretly when he had the chance to feel at ease.

Since the completion of the Yongding River Soda Plant, I haven’t been here for more than four years. Standing on the Marco Polo Bridge, it felt like I had returned to the past. To the north of the bridge is the busy Marco Polo Crossing, bustling with ships, cargo, carriages and horses.

Looking south, there are huge waterwheels lined up, with no grass growing on both sides, and high walls. White smoke, yellow smoke, gray smoke, and black smoke are mixed into a ball by the autumn wind, just like the arrival of the second senior brother. I shrugged my nose again, and various pungent smells hit my face, and I couldn't tell what it was.

"Long live the Lord, why do you think this place is worse than the Haihe River in Tianjin Prefecture?" The emperor hadn't been here for a few years, and Wang Chengen hadn't been for a few years either. Seeing the scenery in front of him, he couldn't understand it. There are many more factories on both sides of the Haihe River than here. The river water is also polluted, but it is not so miserable.

"A coking plant and an alkali plant, wherever they are, they will end up like this. Make a note for me and build a new plant in Luanzhou as soon as possible and move most of the production tasks there."

why? Hong Tao pointed to the chimneys emitting yellow smoke and the factory shrouded in gray smoke in the distance and said the answer. He also gave advice on how to deal with it, relocation!

"My slave has taken note...Long live my lord, why don't you move them all away and still keep them?"

Wang Chengen no longer needs to hang a small copper ink cartridge on his belt, but replaces it with a glittering pen. When using it, just pull it out, lick the tip of the pen with the tip of your tongue, and you can write when you pick it up. It is very suitable for his job where he needs to record important information anytime and anywhere.

Just as I was writing, I discovered a problem. The emperor said that most of the production tasks should be moved there, which means that the alkali plant and coke plant will still stay here and will not stop production.

"Nonsense, it's all gone. If I want to do something, I might as well go to Luanzhou! I will take people to the coking plant immediately and tell the master craftsmen to put their work aside first and gather in the conference room. Please stay away from other people, I have something to talk about."

Hong Tao once again recognized Wang Chengen's loyalty, but once again denied his mind. There is a high probability that he will only be able to stay by his side for the rest of his life. He will not be able to take charge of important departments alone, let alone dominate one side.

This may not be a bad thing. If you enter the official career, you may be prosperous and powerful, but you may also be ruined and imprisoned. It is safer not to go.

"There is such a good thing in tar?!"

After struggling for a day and night, calcium ammonium nitrate was finally produced. Zhang De, who was responsible for recording the production process, listened to the emperor's introduction and looked at the yellow powder in the white porcelain jar. He couldn't connect the black coal with high crop yields.

"Go back and rest for ten days, then go to Luanzhou to report to Mr. Li. There is also a coking plant there. You can use the waste gas produced in each coking oven for me according to the process here, specializing in the production of ammonium sulfate. Then find a secluded place A separate local plant is built to synthesize calcium ammonium sulfate, which is called a fertilizer plant.

I have only three requirements: first, safety, you must pay attention to safety; second, train more apprentices, I will need your manpower within two years to open fertilizer plants all over the country; third, further optimize the process flow.

The method I taught may not be the best. You have to use your brain while doing it to see if you can improve it. If after five years, your craftsmanship has not improved at all, I will be very disappointed. "

After having his first apprentice and writing more than ten pages of production procedures, Hong Tao planned to let go and let Zhang De be the tinder. However, before leaving, I have to emphasize one more cliché, the last one of which is extremely crucial.

Ancient craftsmen studied very seriously and were perfect in their qualities of being hardworking and not impatient. They were particularly lacking in overturning previous theories and innovating again.

Everything the master says is a golden rule and must be followed strictly. If the master happened to be the emperor, he would not dare to change a word. If I don't fix this problem of theirs, even if I am too busy in the future, my technology will not advance very quickly.

(End of this chapter)