A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

Shen Moyan continued.

In 2001, Yuan Longping received the first State Top Science and Technology Award, with a prize of five million yuan.

The text states that he donated most of his prize money to establish a foundation to support young researchers, while he himself continued to live a simple life.

What does five million yuan mean?

At that time, it could buy several houses in Beijing.

But he donated it.

He wore that faded shirt his whole life—he wore it to give reports at the United Nations, he wore it to conduct experiments in the rice paddies, and he wore it to receive the Medal of the Republic.

The ceremony for awarding the Medal of the Republic appeared on the big screen.

Yuan Longping, wearing that faded shirt, stood among a group of meritorious role models, his back slightly bent.

Weiyang Palace.

"I don't want to become an official, I don't want to get rich, I just want everyone to have enough to eat."

Liu Che stared at the words and remained silent for a long time.

He has seen too many people who would stop at nothing to become officials.

A few words suddenly popped into his mind, those words from "Free and Easy Wandering" that he had previously disdained: "The sage has no name."

Shen Moyan pressed the remote control, and the last paragraph of the text appeared on the big screen.

"If I'm not at home, I'm in the experimental field; if I'm not in the experimental field, I'm on my way to the experimental field."

This statement was not made by Yuan Longping himself, but rather used by his colleagues and students to describe him.

For decades, day in and day out, rain or shine.

"Moreover, his journey didn't stop there. This press release was written in 2001, more than twenty years ago." Shen Moyan smiled and asked the students a question.

Do you think the yield per acre of hybrid rice has increased?

"Definitely!"

"An increase of 100 kilograms?"

Shen Moyan pressed the remote control, and a new number appeared on the big screen.

1026.7 kg.

"October 2014, Xupu, Hunan."

The fourth phase of research on super hybrid rice has achieved its goals, with the average yield per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.067 hectares) in the 100-mu demonstration plot exceeding 1000 kilograms.

Students, what does 1000 kilograms mean?

One mu of land yields 2000 jin of rice.

Enough to feed a family of four for five years.

A low gasp of surprise rippled through the classroom.

But Yuan Longping did not stop.

She continued pressing the remote control, and a second number appeared on the big screen: 1500 kilograms.

"In 2020, the yield of third-generation hybrid rice for both early and late seasons exceeded 1500 kilograms per mu (two crops a year combined)."

She paused for a moment, then pressed the remote control again: 1251.5 kg.

"In 2023, two years after his death, the highest single-season yield of super hybrid rice reached 1251 kilograms per mu (one harvest per year).

He's gone, but his team and his students are still moving forward.

"In fact, the fact that super hybrid rice can break the 1000 kilogram mark is not just a victory for breeding technology."

It also includes cultivation techniques, water and fertilizer management, and pest and disease control, which is an integration of this whole set of modern agricultural technologies.

Yuan Longping often said that even the best seeds cannot be fully utilized without good cultivation techniques.

He not only bred seeds, but also built a technological system that allows seeds to reach their maximum potential.

Therefore, this set of numbers, from 470 to 1000, and from 1000 to 1500, represents not only progress in rice cultivation, but also a leap forward in agricultural technology across China.

Just as the bell rang, Shen Moyan quickly finished speaking, "We'll continue next class. get out of class dismissed."

In front of Xianyang Palace, Ying Zheng stood motionless.

When the yield reached 470 kilograms, he did some calculations: with a population of 20 million in the Qin Dynasty, if the yield per mu increased to 470 kilograms, it could feed 180 million people.

The screen now says 1,000 kilograms.

One thousand kilograms is more than twice the amount of four hundred and seventy.

More than twice 180 million, how much is that?

He didn't calculate it.

It's not that we can't calculate it, it's that we don't need to calculate it anymore.

This figure goes beyond the scope of "increased grain production." It means that land is no longer a shackle on population, and that the imperial logic he had painstakingly built throughout his life, centered on agriculture and warfare, has been completely shaken.

He looked down at the bamboo slips in his hand, which were filled with agricultural techniques copied from the sky.

He suddenly felt that the bamboo slips were very light.

It's not that it's useless, it's just that it's not enough.

What the Qin Dynasty needed was not a few technologies, but a whole set of things called "science" that it had not yet had time to understand.

At the edge of Taiye Pond, Liu Bang's wine cup hovered in mid-air.

Xiao He didn't speak; he was busy calculating accounts.

If one mu (unit of land area) yields 1,000 kilograms of rice, how many mu of paddy fields are there in the world?

If everyone planted that thing called "super rice," how many people could it feed? Tens of millions? Two hundred million? The more he calculated, the slower his pen moved.

"Old Xiao," Liu Bang suddenly spoke.

"Um?"

"Tell me, what are we compared to those people in later generations?"

Xiao He put down his pen and did not answer.

"Our Chu-Han Contention lasted four years. What were we fighting for? We fought for tens of thousands of acres of land in Guanzhong and a little grain in Ao Cang."

He downed the wine in the goblet in one gulp. “In the eyes of future generations, an acre of land can yield a thousand kilograms. The little bit of stuff we fight tooth and nail for will probably be the harvest of an acre of land in their eyes.”

Xiao He finally spoke: "But they haven't forgotten."

"What?"

"Master Shen on the screen is talking about their story, from Yuan Longping to Zhao Guo, from hybrid rice to the alternating field method." Xiao He pointed to the yield change chart on the screen, "We are on that line too."

Liu Bang stared at the table for a long time, then picked up his wine cup and raised it towards the sky.

"Stop calculating," Liu Che interrupted Sang Hongyang's virtual grain calculation.

He pointed to the yield change chart on the sky, "Fifty years ago, when the yield was 160 kilograms per mu, what were people doing? They were starving to death."

They were still starving people even though their yield was 160 kilograms per mu, and then they nearly tripled it in 50 years.

How did they do that?

No one answered.

Because nobody knows the answer.

Then the female teacher on the sky gave the answer.

It's not about intensive farming, or building more irrigation ditches and applying more manure; it's about using better seeds and better technology to increase the yield of the same acre of land several times over.

She mentioned a word: technology.

Liu Che pondered those two words in his mind.

"科" refers to categories or grades.

Skill refers to craftsmanship and talent.

Taken together, they are categorized technologies.

The Qin Dynasty had an official in charge of agricultural experiments, but the scale was not large.

The Han dynasty continued to use this system, but it was never truly valued.

He always thought that increasing agricultural production meant reclaiming wasteland, building irrigation canals, and encouraging farming and sericulture. He never thought that the seeds themselves could be changed.