Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 75: Resting under the Grass
In the cold winter of December, it snowed in Changsha, which was rare.

It's not a heavy snow, just a light snow.

But even so, the inexperienced southerners were very excited.

Ji He’s circle of friends is full of people posting pictures of snow scenes.

However, when he looked up at the sky and saw the snowflakes floating in the air as if there were no snowflakes at all, Ji He laughed disdainfully.

He was a man who had experienced the 08 Hunan blizzard at the age of eight. What was this little bit of snow?
In the sanatorium, Queen Ma went through the admission procedures, and the sanatorium spent a large sum of money to invite a team of neurosurgery experts from Shanghai.

After research, experts believed that the success rate of the removal surgery was very high, which made Zhu Yuanzhang feel relieved.

But even so, Zhu Yuanzhang still felt anxious. He walked back and forth in Queen Ma's ward every day with a look of worry on his face.

Seeing this, Ji He could only find a way to divert Zhu Yuanzhang's attention.

On December 6, in the hospital corridor, Zhu Yuanzhang had already signed. Since he needed to undergo a craniotomy, preliminary tests were now being done.

In fact, this kind of thing cannot be delayed. Many people go to the hospital and it only takes two or three days from diagnosis to testing and then to surgery.

But Zhu Yuanzhang was still hesitant and had not made up his mind. Some time ago, he took Empress Ma and Zhu Xiongying to play in Changsha for a long time. It was not until Empress Ma urged him to do so that he was admitted to the hospital on December 2.

He will be going into the operating room tomorrow, and Zhu Yuanzhang's anxiety becomes even more apparent.

"Well, okay, I see."

In the corridor, Ji He hung up the phone, came to Zhu Yuanzhang and whispered, "Grandpa, the experts said that the chances of success of the operation are very high, but you also need to keep your emotions stable and not worry too much. If you do this, she will feel uneasy."

Zhu Yuanzhang stood outside the corridor with his hands behind his back, his back slightly hunched, a stern face, and did not speak.

Seeing this, Ji He continued, "In fact, it's better for you not to stay here and worry about your grandmother. The doctors and nurses here will take good care of her. When she enters the operating room tomorrow, you just need to wait outside the operating room. It just so happens that the company's deputy general manager will come to Changsha this afternoon to meet with agricultural experts here. Why don't you go and take a look?"

"What are you looking at?"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was slightly moved.

"It is the test field of Gaoke Group, a listed agricultural company in Hunan. We will also invite their technical team to come over to help guide us when the time comes."

Ji He said: "This company is amazing. Our Hunan Academician Nong Shen is their honorary chairman. His long-cherished wish is to enjoy the shade under the rice plants. The yield per mu of their experimental fields is basically maintained at more than 800 kilograms per season, and there is even a record of 1300 kilograms."

"1300 kilograms per mu in a single season?"

Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes wide, his face full of disbelief.

Having been in modern times for so long, he also roughly knows the weight units such as grams, liang, jin, and kilograms.

During the Ming Dynasty, paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River were basically harvested twice a year, alternating between Champa rice and conventional rice. The annual yield per mu of high-quality fields was only more than 200 kilograms.

The data Zhu Yunfeng gave him was that the annual yield of modern conventional rice is about 600-800 kilograms per mu.

As a result, the company can reach 800 kilograms in a single season.

Wouldn’t that be 1600 kilograms that year?

This is too exaggerated.

"Yes, do you want to go and have a look?"

Ji He said, "After Tainai has recovered from the surgery in a few days and is in better health, we can go to another listed company engaged in animal husbandry to introduce excellent breeding pigs, cattle, sheep, etc. to Daming to improve Daming's animal husbandry."

"Well, let's go and have a look."

Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed attracted. Anyway, the operation would not be performed until tomorrow, so there was no need to be too anxious.

At that moment, Ji He entered the ward and told Queen Ma that Zhu Xiongying should stay in the ward obediently, that nurses would take care of his three meals a day, and that there were cartoons on TV, so there was no need to worry.

After all, they were staying in a top-notch private luxury ward, or rather, all the wards in this private hospital were of this type. Each ward had a dedicated nurse on duty, and there was no shortage of wards and nurse resources like in public hospitals.

I can only say that if you have money, you can enjoy the best services in modern times. Whether it is medical care, education or quality of life, there is still a big difference between you and ordinary people.

But in comparison, even ordinary people in our country can enjoy very good medical and educational security.

It's much better than a 15-minute talk therapy session that costs $5600.

After leaving the hospital, Zhu Yuanzhang got into the Maybach, and Ji He drove all the way towards Ningxiang, west of Changsha.

There, Gaoke Group has an experimental field base, and many high-yield rice varieties were born here.

They were located near Meixi Lake in Hexi, which was not far away, only about 30 kilometers away. Once they got on the highway, it only took them about 20 minutes to get there.

After getting off the highway, we followed the navigation system and drove north along the provincial road for another six kilometers, and finally arrived at our destination - Gaoke Seed Research Institute.

Along the way, we first saw a city of steel and concrete, then on the highway, we saw rolling hills, fields, orchards, fish ponds, and lakes. After getting off the highway, both sides saw the typical Hunan rural landscape, with dense orchards on both sides and withered fields full of harvested rice stalks.

At the end of the flat road, the research institute stands tall among the trees. Although the surrounding area is wilderness, there are many high-rise technology parks with more than ten floors, and there are also shops and restaurants surrounding the parks.

The beautiful environment makes this place look less like a research institute and more like Sun Yat-sen University and HUST at the foot of Yuelu Mountain.

At this moment, outside the research institute, Ji He's Audi Q5 was parked there. There were five people in the car, including Zou Ting and four of their newly recruited employees.

When the company becomes bigger, it will definitely buy a car under the company's name.

But Zhu Yunfeng went to Daming, and Ji He was not sure about making a decision. In addition, Zou Ting thought that although the company had a lot of funds at present, there were actually many places to spend the money. Therefore, they would not buy a car for the time being and would use the chairman and general manager's cars to deal with it first.

Ji He drove the Maybach over, and Zou Ting and others got out of the car. Everyone saw that their general manager was actually the driver. After getting out of the car, he happily opened the door for an old man.

"This is the chairman's uncle, who is also the company's investor, Mr. Zhu. You can just call him Mr. Zhu."

Ji He originally wanted to say that Zhu Yuanzhang was Zhu Yunfeng's grandfather.

But Zhu Yuanzhang is only 51 years old this year, and Zhu Yunfeng's father is only 48 years old this year. It is not appropriate to call him grandfather, so it was changed to uncle.

Anyway, they don’t know the situation of Zhu Yunfeng’s family.

"Hello, Mr. Zhu."

Zou Ting and others hurriedly greeted him stiffly.

The old man must be from a wealthy family, as he can easily take out 40 or 50 million to help his younger generations start their own businesses.

"Ah."

Zhu Yuanzhang possessed the dignity and temperament of a superior. He just nodded slightly and had a strong aura just standing there.

To be honest, aura is an illusion, but temperament is real.

Luxurious yet restrained clothing and a calm and composed expression can be expressed without any pretense.

Therefore, even if he just nodded his chin and did not respond much, Zou Ting and others felt it was natural and even felt very honored.

"Is that General Manager Zou?"

At this moment, the door of the research institute slowly opened and several people walked out.

Zou Ting hurriedly went up to shake hands with the leader, and then introduced: "Director Zhou, this is our chairman's uncle, who is also the company's investor. Mr. Zhu, this is our company's President Ji."

"Mr. Zhu, President Ji, this is Director Zhou from the Gaoke Group Research Institute."

"Hello."

Ji Hyuk went up and shook his hand politely.

Director Zhou originally wanted to shake hands with Zhu Yuanzhang, but when Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him, he felt a little nervous. He felt that the other party didn't seem to want to shake hands with him, so he gave up the idea.

"Mr. Zhu, Mr. Ji, Mr. Zou, please come in."

Director Zhou greeted them warmly. This time, Yunfeng Group came here to provide agricultural technology services for the planting of 5,000 acres of land.

If the recommended matching seeds, pesticides and fertilizers are included, it would be a large order worth at least several million, or even tens of millions, which naturally makes them very enthusiastic.

After all, the agricultural industry is not very profitable.

Gaoke Group is already the top leader in this industry in Hunan Province and even in the whole country, but even so it only turned a profit in the past few years, and its net profit last year was only 200 million.

If such a large order can be maintained for a long time, the profit it can bring to the company in a year will be very large.

Therefore, in the past, such business was handled by the business managers below, but now it is directly handled by the second-in-command of the research institute, who wants to keep the big order.

"Our Gaoke Group is mainly engaged in the production, processing, packaging, cultivation, propagation, promotion and sales of high-tech crop seeds and seedlings, mainly rice, corn and vegetables."

Director Zhou introduced as he walked in: "In addition, we also develop, promote and sell new pesticides and fertilizers, and process and sell high-quality agricultural and sideline products; we also provide agricultural high-tech development and achievement transfer, and agricultural technology consulting, etc."

Everyone entered the first floor of the research institute. On both sides were company introductions and various selected seed introductions. The most eye-catching and important one was a sculpture placed in the center of the hall.

There is also an introduction board next to the sculpture, which lists the company's honorary chairman, the god of agriculture who benefits mankind.

"If your company needs agricultural technical services, we also have related supporting services. There are special technical teams who will help you solve technical problems. These teams are all his students."

Director Zhou looked at the sculpture with some nostalgia.

The God of Agriculture has left them for several years, but his deeds and contributions to the country will never be forgotten.

Zou Ting nodded slightly and said, "We are naturally aware of the strength of Gaoke Group. It is the greatest luck that someone can inherit Mr. Yuan's legacy. I wonder if your company currently has any experimental fields for planting? We want to see it with our own eyes."

"some."

Director Zhou smiled and said, "Hunan's climate conditions do not support three-season rice, but we have a greenhouse, and rice planting has never stopped throughout the year. Please follow me."

As he said this, he led everyone through the research institute. After they went out from the back door of the institute, they saw a large experimental field.

At a glance, these experimental fields are probably hundreds of acres in size.

According to the information Zou Ting investigated, Gaoke Group has more than 1,500 acres in Ningxiang alone, and also has experimental bases all over the country, so its strength is still very strong.

"At present, our new varieties Liangyou 6264, Liangyou Xiangmei and Liangyou 4328 are all in the stage of maturing. You can come and have a look."

Director Zhou led them across the ridge of the field and came to a facility area.

There is a huge glass greenhouse here, stretching over nearly 100 acres. According to Director Zhou, not only rice is grown in the greenhouse, but also a large number of vegetables, corn, etc. are cultivated.

When I entered the glass greenhouse, I didn’t expect it to be double-layered, with a huge glass layer on the outside and another layer on the inside.

There are many instruments and equipment on the first floor.

"This is the Tianhe greenhouse, which is used for growing rice seedlings and accelerating germination. It can control the temperature intelligently."

"This is a greenhouse gas sampling device that affects the respiration of rice."

"This is a micro-spray device, used to apply water evenly."

"This is."

After entering the greenhouse glass shed, Director Zhou showed them various high-tech products one by one.

Not to mention Zhu Yuanzhang, even Ji He and Zou Ting were stunned when they heard it.

After all, they are not in this line of work, and their understanding of agriculture is limited to the farmers they see farming. They had no idea that today's agricultural technology has developed very powerfully.

Zhu Yuanzhang was even more surprised. He never expected that there was such equipment that even the temperature in the room could be controlled extremely precisely.

And what is this rice breathing? Can rice breathe like humans?

Zhu Yuanzhang was full of doubts.

But he was Zhu Yuanzhang after all, so he was not so startled and remained calm.

Until, under the leadership of Director Zhou, they arrived at the second-floor greenhouse.

When they opened the door, what they saw was an acre of golden rice fields. The rice stalks at the bottom were still green, but the rice ears at the top were already full of fruits.

Who would have thought that in the dead of winter, there are places where rice can grow besides Guangzhou and Hainan?

When the group entered, Ji He and others looked on in amazement.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang opened his eyes wide, walked slowly to the edge of the rice field, squatted down, and touched the golden rice ears with his right hand tremblingly.

'this'

Zhu Yuanzhang was very surprised.

He was not surprised that there was still rice in winter, but was shocked by the size and number of the rice ears.

Born as a cowherd, he has been an important labor force in the family since childhood.

When he was fifteen, a drought hit Haozhou, leaving his family's fields barren. He helped his parents manage the fields until his parents and brothers died one after another.

So I am naturally familiar with rice.

The grains of rice in the Ming Dynasty were very small, probably only half the size of the rice ears in front of us, and the number was far less.

The rice grains produced by a rice plant are probably less than one-third or even one-quarter of the rice grains produced by a rice plant here.

"Are these the latest varieties you have cultivated? How many kilograms can they produce per mu?"

Ji Hyuk asked.

"This year's autumn rice crop is 876 kilograms."

"Only 800 kilograms? I heard the experimental fields have more than 1000 kilograms."

"Mr. Ji is joking."

Director Zhou smiled and said: "There are very few experimental fields that can reach more than 1000 kilograms, and they are often special cases. Moreover, it is still very difficult to break through the yield by breeding alone, so the breeding direction in recent years has been developed in the direction of disease resistance and disaster resistance."

"I see."

"Yes, old man, you are also interested in farming?"

Director Zhou noticed that Zhu Yuanzhang was squatting on the ground, feeling around with rice ears, and his originally calm face seemed filled with excitement.

“I used to farm when I was a kid.”

Zhu Yuanzhang slowly calmed down, stood up and regained his composure, saying softly: "In the past, the rice ears were very small and not many. When I was a child, I always had no food to eat. Now seeing such rice ears makes me feel very emotional."

"Yes."

Director Zhou also said with deep emotion: "Old Yuan also said that if people didn't have enough food at that time, they would starve to death."

After that, he looked at the ears of rice in the rice field with hope, and said with a smile: "But now it will finally be different. Although conventional rice cannot reach the standards of hybrid rice, hybrid rice will get better and better in the future. The lifelong wish of our institute is to fulfill Mr. Yuan's last wish and research bigger, taller and more rice ears so that Chinese people will no longer go hungry."

Although our leader, Mr. Yuan, is gone.

But what remained were countless agricultural students, who followed one after another and continued to move towards his dream!

A dream of enjoying the coolness under the wheat.

One day.

We will get to that day.

(End of this chapter)