In the golden autumn of August, the sun is shining brightly.

Chen Sheng, who was dressed in linen clothes with tied sleeves and trouser legs, walked into the golden wheat field with a sickle, bent down to cut a handful of wheat and held it in his hand. He stood up, raised the sickle, and shouted: "Open the sickle!"

"Open the sickle!"

"It's time to open the sickle..."

The cheerful gongs and drums were beating loudly, and the 25,000 soldiers of the 5th Division of the Red Army scattered among the endless wheat fields cheered in unison as they walked into the wheat fields and harvested the wheat quickly.

And it's about the guy they use to harvest the wheat.

Astonishingly, it was the sword they used to kill the enemy on the battlefield.

No one is born a soldier.

Instead of killing people, they prefer to use it to harvest crops.

Even if it harvests crops, it does not take advantage of them...

Chen Sheng was concentrating on cutting the wheat, and Lu Shuyi was beside him, chattering to him about the arrangements for overwintering wheat and the progress of hybrid rice.

Chen County's output this year is thanks to compost, rainwater and intensive cultivation of labor. The three thousand hectares of grain fields have achieved a bumper harvest. Yesterday, Lu Shu and the others harvested one acre of wheat, and the yield was two stones per mu, which is comparable to a good year.

!

The yield per mu is two shi, and three thousand qing equals 300,000 mu, which is 600,000 shi and 36 million jin!

This number is not unpleasant at all!

Calculated based on the normal consumption of half a catty of grain per person per day, these 600,000 shi of grain can be used by Chen Sheng to feed the 500,000 to 600,000 people in Chen County for half a year!

He should have been overjoyed.

But now, he couldn't be happy no matter what.

Because there was more than one Chen County under his rule.

In addition, this year's drought has not improved, but is getting worse.

The year before last, the drought was only raging in Jizhou, last year it spread to Yanzhou, and this year it has extended to Yuzhou...

What is more tragic is that when he learned that more than half of the counties in Yuzhou were affected by the drought, the southern expedition army led by Chen Shouxue had already reached the vicinity of Anyi, the capital of Yuzhou...

It's like a corporate merger that results in a lot of bad assets.

When the weather was good in Yuzhou, he didn't get any glory at all.

There was a severe drought in Yuzhou, but he drove himself to the door and became the victim.

Today, the five counties of Yingchuan, Chenliu, Chenjun, Liangjun, and Jiyin, plus the entire territory of Yuzhou that is about to be acquired, the area under his jurisdiction has far exceeded the population of Yanzhou before the Taiping Dao Rebellion.

A conservative estimate of five million!

So, in his original plan, the 600,000 stone of new grain that allowed him to loosen a large section of the rope around his neck became a drop in the bucket before he even got it...

Chen Sheng was anxious, but there was still a slight smile on his face, as if he was also rejoicing over this year's bumper harvest of three thousand hectares of grain fields.

It wasn't until Lu Shu finished his report that he asked casually: "Lu Shu, do you have any further ideas?"

Lu Shu stopped the sickle and asked doubtfully: "What does the king mean by this?"

"This is not a royal palace, and I'm not wearing royal clothes. You might as well call me Master!"

Chen Sheng shook his head slightly, then chuckled and said: "Aren't you also the head of our Chen County Governor's Agriculture Department? Do you want to go one step further and sit in the position of the Chief Agriculture Officer of the Han Palace... Well, this is located here

In the palace of the Han Dynasty, I have the rank of Jiuqing, and I am in charge of all agricultural affairs."

Lu Shu was stunned and couldn't speak for a long time. His face was alternately happy and sad.

Chen Sheng did not urge him to express his position, and harvested the wheat in an orderly manner, bundled it and put it behind him.

After a while, Lu Shu came back to his senses, and with both gratitude and shame, he clenched his palms and bowed to Chen Sheng: "Master, something happened, and I should have done my duty. However, I don't want to be an official, so I can only do it reluctantly because I am afraid."

I have missed the master's important event...The disciple is useless, I have disappointed the master, and the disciple is ashamed!"

Chen Sheng straightened up, sighed softly, helped him up, and said warmly: "You are worthy of it. If you should be ashamed, I, as a master, am also ashamed. I knew you were obsessed with peasant learning and had no distractions, yet you still imposed this important responsibility on me."

You are with me, not with you."

Lu Shu felt even more ashamed after hearing this, and said quickly: "Master, you must not say that, it is the disciple who ordered Master..."

"Okay, master and disciple, you and I don't have to say these unreasonable words anymore."

Chen Sheng interrupted his introspection with a faint smile, and bent down to continue harvesting wheat: "However, even if you don't want to be an official, you still have to exert all your efforts!"

"Now the counties under my rule are not only Chenjun, but also include Yingchuan, Chenliu, Liangjun, Jiyin, and the entire territory of Yuzhou. Soon, Qiaojunhui will also be merged into the banner of our King of Han."

"You know better than me what the drought is going to be like in Yanzhou this year, but what I want to tell you is that a large area in northern Yuzhou has also been affected by the drought, and food production has been seriously reduced. If we don't provide relief to the victims, the consequences will be disastrous!"

"I have decided to order all counties to organize disaster victims and follow the example of Chen County, and focus on cultivating grain fields and planting wheat. One county is tentatively set at 5,000 hectares!"

"Since you don't want to be the chief farmer, I don't want you to take care of the personnel, farm tools and other chores. However, the location of the grain fields in the counties, the distribution of varieties, and the types of grains must be handled by you personally!"

"It's already mid-August now. You must hurry up and instruct the farmers in each county to complete all the preliminary work before October. You must not miss this year's wheat sowing!"

As he said that, he glanced at Lu Shu and saw a serious look on his face. After thinking for a while, he added: "The knowledge you have as a farmer is the knowledge that will last forever. The research in the experimental field is important, but combined with the actual situation

It is also very important, otherwise even if you cultivate a crop that can produce tens of thousands of pounds of grain per acre, you will not be able to promote it and benefit all people, and it will be just a big dream."

"The work I have assigned you is not only an important task to save millions of victims from dire straits, but also a very valuable practical activity!"

"Different counties have different geology, hydrology, and climate. Some fields are suitable for growing wheat, some are suitable for growing millet, and some fields cannot grow either wheat or millet.

But you can grow sweet and delicious radishes, and study the effects of different geology, hydrology, and climate on various crops. This should be a major subject for your farming studies."

"Do you still remember the couplet of Jixia Academy?"

"Read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles, and unite knowledge and action!"

"The same is true for liberal arts and military sciences, and the same is true for your agricultural sciences!"

Lu Shu listened to him quietly, and the light in the depths of his old eyes became brighter and brighter, as if he saw a brand new door, which was suddenly opened in front of him.

After Chen Sheng finished speaking, he straightened his clothes, knelt down and kowtowed to Chen Sheng: "My disciple is stupid, thank you for your guidance!"

Chen Sheng helped him up, patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "You are already so old, don't kneel down all the time. Even if you have the title of master and disciple, I am afraid of losing my life!"

Lu Shu looked at him seriously: "If you can listen to the Master's teachings at the Master's knees, the disciple will have no regrets in this life!"

Chen Sheng smiled, bent down and continued to cut wheat: "In your opinion, is my plan unrealistic?"

After Lu Shu cut the wheat and thought for a moment, he replied firmly: "As long as Master can hold on, there shouldn't be much of a problem."

Chen Sheng nodded.

He has been thinking about this matter for more than a day or two. He has thought about various issues.

Now the upper limit of his luck value has exceeded 300,000. When Chen Shou takes the Yuzhou Mu Great Seal and returns to Chen County in triumph, his luck value can be conservatively estimated to double again and exceed 700,000!

700,000 luck points, restored by 10% every day, which is more than 2 million luck points in a month!

The full-level Xiaoyunyu Technique consumes two thousand luck points at a time and can irrigate sixty hectares of fields.

The four counties of Yanzhou plus the five counties of Yuzhou each have 5,000 hectares, which is 45,000 hectares.

In other words, if all 45,000 hectares are irrigated, 1.5 million luck points will be consumed in one month.

The remaining hundreds of thousands of luck points are enough for his other daily expenses.

Apart from the consumption of luck points for rain, the only remaining issues are distance and grain fields.

The distance is not a problem. Chen County is located in the center of all the counties under Chen Sheng's rule. Even if you go from Chen County to Yiyang County in the south of Yuzhou, the straight-line distance will not exceed a thousand miles!

With Da Mao acting as his legwork, he set off from Chen County early in the morning and could return to Chen County before evening. With enough time, he could even have a meal of flower wine in Yiyang!

The problem of grain fields is a bit tricky. After all, according to Chen Sheng's requirements, the grain fields must be concentrated and flat. It is best to be close to water sources and close to the counties and cities, so that he can supervise the counties when it rains.

Official business...

But as long as the conditions are relaxed a little, the solution is not too difficult. Probably because the landforms of Yanzhou and Yuzhou are mostly plains, as long as Chen Sheng doesn't mind the trouble and spreads out a little bit, he can easily make up five people in one county.

Thousands of hectares of grain fields.

As for other issues such as manpower and material resources, they are beyond Chen Sheng's consideration.

"Good brothers, take a rest, take a rest, drink some water and work..."

When the beating of gongs and drums stopped, a large number of Chen County people came to the edge of the wheat field carrying bamboo baskets, put their hands to their mouths like trumpets, and shouted happily to the red-coated soldiers in the wheat field.

Chen Sheng straightened up and glanced back, and saw that among these people, most of them were young girls with braided braids who had not yet left the court, and some with their hair tied up, but for being able to appear on such an occasion, one could tell that they must have lost their husbands.

The widow couldn’t help but secretly praise Li Zhong: A good job should be rewarded!

He casually grabbed two bundles of wheat and put them under his arm, waved his hand to the surrounding red-coated soldiers, and shouted: "Brothers, rest!"

When many red-coated soldiers saw him leading the way up the field, they quickly walked up the field with eager faces. As they walked, they started running one by one...

Chen Sheng laughed narrowly and said: "Look at your worthless character..."

Hearing his laughter, some of the red-coated soldiers couldn't help but slow down and blushed in embarrassment.

Chen Sheng held his chest high and raised his head, walking like a dragon or a tiger, neither hurried nor slow, to show his stability.

When the red-coated soldiers saw this, their faces showed admiration.
To be continued...