At the end of Song Dynasty: I want to be the master of ZTE

Chapter 346 Harvest
"Mom, try this dish." Zhao Shi gave his wife the dish with chopsticks, as if she were offering a treasure.

To be honest, the emperor himself was diligent and thrifty, and only had two dishes for a meal. Most of the time, he took the opportunity of giving banquets to improve the food, which was only four dishes.

For the empress dowager, the emperor is really willing to part with it, especially when it comes to food, all the good ingredients are given to the empress dowager from all over the world.

It's the first time I've encountered such a serious matter.

Yang picked it up and looked at it, and found that it was shaped like a short branch and the color was as green as jade. It was quite pleasing to the eye and tasted good in the mouth.

"What is it at this time?" Yang asked curiously.

"Sweet potato vines!" Zhao Shi said with joy, "The first ten acres of sweet potatoes have grown into luxuriant vines. I ordered them to be planted with vines. However, because there were not enough acres, there were many vines, so I brought them to the palace as seasonal vegetables."

The tender vines of sweet potatoes can be used as vegetables, which is not available in all food crops. As long as the vines are not stripped bare, the yield can be increased.

If cooking vegetables is too troublesome, you can cut them and feed them to pigs, cattle and sheep, which is quite good feed.

"The output has yet to be verified, but I can guarantee that the world's hunger has been resolved." Zhao Shi said with joy.

Yang smiled and said: "No wonder you spent thousands of miles exploring."

"It's worth it!" Zhao Shi said: "It can be grown anywhere in the pass. It is cold-resistant and alkali-resistant. The yield is four to five times that of rice and wheat. Although it is not easy to store, it can be processed into powder..."

It's just that the emperor has to wait a few years to eat pork stewed vermicelli, but he can try peanut candy in three months, and it takes so long for corn and potatoes.

Only with chili peppers, the emperor has been craving for spicy hot pot for a long time, but neither dogwood nor peppercorns are interesting.

Just at the end of the year, the peppers finally came out.

It's probably a matter of variety. It's not particularly spicy, and in order to save seeds, I didn't offer much to the emperor, but it's happy enough to have a mildly spicy hot pot meal in the cold winter months.

Unconsciously, after the New Year, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, various agricultural officials came to report that various crops had entered the harvest period.

The emperor, empress dowager, ministers, and heroes who explored Dongzhou all came to see it.

Zhao Shi took the hoe himself and carefully pushed away the soil. After a moment, a touch of light red was revealed.

To avoid damaging the fruit, the emperor put down his hoe, pushed aside the soil with his hands, and pulled out a fist-sized sweet potato.

"Everyone, let's do it together!" Li Tingzhi greeted, and everyone got busy together.

"Xiang Wen, I bet you more than five dan for a drink, don't forget it," Zhao Jirui said.

Wen Tianxiang didn't take it seriously and said: "It's really more than five stones. If you don't get drunk, you won't come back from Chengtian Tower every day!"

Wang Yinglin said: "If it really exceeds five stones, everyone in the world should invite Duke Dongzhou to drink every day."

"It's all thanks to His Majesty's guidance. I just got an advantage from running errands." Wang Shize said modestly.

He was the only person present who knew the yield best, because on the long journey, the agricultural officer accompanying the ship planted it in the cabin. Although the cabin was not big, it was enough to calculate the yield.

The yield per mu is six hundred catties.

But looking at the sweet potatoes dug out and piled into piles by everyone, I knew from my feeling that it was more than [-] kilograms.

In a short time, all the acre of land was dug up, and all the sweet potatoes were gathered together, as big as a child's head and as small as a thumb, which is really beautiful.

"Weigh immediately to ensure accuracy!" the emperor ordered.

All the tools had been prepared long ago, and the weight was quickly weighed.

Three thousand 230 pounds!
"That's great, the country no longer has to worry about famine!" Li Tingzhi cheered, bowed down, and said: "I congratulate Your Majesty, the eternal kingdom is right in front of you!"

"I congratulate your Majesty, congratulate the world, and congratulate all the people!" Wen Tianxiang and others bowed in unison. "This is all the work of all the ministers, and the whole world should celebrate it!" Zhao Shi said.

The glass greenhouse has a suitable temperature, timely irrigation, sufficient fertilizers, and enough manpower to take care of it carefully. Therefore, it can produce more than [-] kilograms. If placed on the high-quality fields outside, it will be about half and half. If it is farmed in dry conditions, it may be It has to be halved, considering that the water content of sweet potatoes is [-]%, which is roughly equivalent to [-] catties of rice.

It's amazing.

Regardless of whether it is rice or wheat, three hundred kilograms is the optimal yield, and a few bushels per mu is normal in dry land.

In other words, with the popularity of sweet potatoes, the whole world is full of fields.

Originally, ten acres of land could barely feed a family, but now ten acres of land can feed a family.

The yield of corn is not satisfactory, only [-] kilograms. With greenhouse cultivation, this yield is really not high.

The potatoes were pretty good, weighing more than two thousand kilograms, but not as eye-catching as the sweet potatoes.

Even so, all the ministers were happy.

It's great that spring has begun, and spring plowing is about to begin. Various planting experiments can be carried out from south to north to summarize enough experience to prepare for subsequent large-scale promotion.

Just when the emperor was rejoicing at the success of the new crop, Chen Nan came to report: "The mortar has been tested successfully. Your Majesty, please come and inspect it in person!"

"Okay, 17 years of hard work has finally paid off!" Zhao Longyan said.

Start driving on the spot.

When we arrived at the weapons testing site, we saw mortars.

The overall structure is roughly the same, except that unlike the straight barrels of later generations, today's barrels have five circular hoops.

If the strength is not enough, just make up the quantity, it’s that simple.

Even so, it is quite an improvement.

You must know that the output of Yuanting's muskets is not high so far. This is because the barrel is too difficult to forge. In the final analysis, the smelting technology is not up to standard, and the only way to obtain good iron is to beat it repeatedly manually.

Soon, the gunner signaled readiness and the Emperor gave the order to fire.

It is roughly the same as in later generations. They all throw the cannonball into the barrel, cover their ears and shrink up. After a bang, the cannonball roars into the sky and turns around to land.

Boom~
The flames are fleeting, and the smoke and dust linger for a long time.

Boom boom~
Ten bursts were completed within twenty breaths.

One dumb bomb and nine explosions, almost all hitting the same place.

"The power is astonishing. When used on the front line, no matter the fortress or trench, it will be vulnerable to a single blow!" Lu Xiufu was amazed.

"It's just that there is still a problem with the fuze. There are duds. I'm afraid the Tartars will have to imitate them." Chen Nan was not satisfied.

Zhao Shidao: "It doesn't matter, this is not comparable to gunpowder, but a product of the system. When the Tartars successfully imitate it, the Central Plains will be determined!"

The successful mortar test represents the advancement of many technologies, including steel technology, lathes, fuzes, castings, etc.

The most important thing is that the emergence of mortars represents a new level in the development of military technology, and Yuanting needs great efforts and luck to cross this level.

Unlike gunpowder, you don't need a sample to study it. After all, everyone has accumulated thousands of years of experience, but nitrocellulose explosive cannot be made with a sample.

(End of this chapter)