As the season for harvesting wheat came, the whole Gaoling entered its busiest time, and everyone began to harvest summer under Du Chuke's command.
At this moment, not only Lu Cai led the students of the Agricultural College to join the harvest, but even the corvee team took action.
It can be said that no one will feel that the labor force is superfluous these days, and I wish someone could help.
After all, being able to harvest wheat as much as possible on sunny days is much more convenient for subsequent storage.
The first step after harvesting wheat is to dry the wheat. If harvested on rainy days, it will be very troublesome to preserve the wheat.
If there is too much water, the wheat may become moldy. Although moldy wheat can be eaten for the lower class, it is not better than dried wheat that can be saved after being dried. At least the court will collect taxes.
Send moldy wheat.
Li Tai went to Chang'an to find Dai Zhou, who was temporarily in charge of the Sinong Temple, hoping that Dai Zhou could send someone to testify.
For Li Tai, it is best to bring Li Shimin to come and see him, but as the emperor, Li Shimin was not so free and could come as soon as he said that.
So it would be better to let Dai Zhou, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, send someone to supervise it.
One is to prove that his farming plan is successful, and the other is to facilitate the payment of taxes directly to the Ministry of Civil Affairs where Dai Zhou is located.
Dai Zhou thought for a while and wanted to see how Li Tai had always insisted on growing wheat and how the wheat harvest was.
So he sent Yan Xuansui, the youngest son of the Siong, to give a testimony.
Yan Xuansui also saw him when dealing with the locust plague. Now in the Sinong Temple, Dou Jing and Zhao Yuankai have not returned, and Yan Xuansui is vaguely qualified to become the No. 2 person.
Therefore, Dai Zhou's current arrangements did not underestimate Li Tai, but instead attached great importance to them.
Yan Xuansui still maintained a respectful attitude towards Li Tai as he did when he first met, and did not dare to surpass him at all.
But Yan Xuansui was meticulous in doing things. He did not take only one acre of land to measure it, but instead took dozens of wheat fields to weigh the fields. He left two or three followers to supervise the autumn harvest. Li Tai
Naturally, we start harvesting wheat fields from here first.
Li Tai followed Yan Xuansui's intention and did not make any fraud. After all, he also wanted to know what he could achieve by integrating the technology of this era as much as possible, after a year of experiments and farming, and with the help of this good year, what achievements could be achieved.
"King of Yue, you seem to like growing wheat!" Yan Xuansui didn't care much about measurement, but instead talked to Li Tai.
After all, neither Yan Xuansui nor Li Tai nor the two guys had the intention to join the labor army at all.
Of course, Li Tai must be uninterested, because Li Tai founded an agricultural institution and knew that doing farm work was definitely the hardest thing in the world, but it was the basis of everything, so let his students work hard for their teachers.
.
"Yeah!" Li Tai nodded when he heard Yan Xuansui's words, "I prefer to eat buns and rice!"
"This is quite rare. Most of the fish soup rice in the south are mainly based on the cultivation of millet in the north, and wheat is not common!" Yan Xuansui said to Li Tai, "I didn't expect that King Yue, you are a mixed grain such as wheat, for example, you are aware of wheat.
It is highly praised, and now it is more important to plant.”
Li Tai was a little surprised when he heard this, because in Li Tai's opinion, isn't it natural to plant wheat in the north?
To be honest, Li Tai does not understand the history of the fight between wheat and millet (millet) in the north.
In Li Tai's opinion, it was a matter of course. In fact, it was only after wheat was localized for hundreds of years that it stood out among the piles of grains and became one of the grains. Later, it even killed corn and became the leader of northern grains.
Even though rice in the south has become the representative of Chinese grain, wheat still plays an important role in Chinese staple food.
There are two key and most critical transformations here. The first is the transformation from wheat to winter wheat.
This made the people originally need to work from spring plowing to autumn harvest, and all three seasons except winter have to work, which turned into autumn planting and summer harvest.
For the government, the time saved by these people further increased the average social efficiency. The people originally worked for a year, but they became half a year. After all, in winter, people usually stayed in, rather than letting them work.
As for the second point, it is the further improvement of water conservancy facilities and the emergence of auxiliary props such as water mills.
To be honest, wheat is quite delicious compared to millet.
Therefore, if you want to plant it in the north, you basically need relatively complete water conservancy facilities.
In addition, the improvement of water conservancy facilities has driven the development of many production equipment such as water mills.
This further reduces the cost of people to process wheat into wheat flour, and of course this is also the most critical point.
Because even in the Han Dynasty, people had discovered that wheat became powdered and not only tasted very good, but even the variety of food could be made into a variety of foods, but why is it still not popular?
The very important reason is that grinding is not something that everyone has. Even if there is one, it is not a water conservancy mill, and it will cost a considerable price to make all the wheat flour.
Therefore, even if the status of wheat was improved during the Three Kingdoms period, it was still not as good as corn.
However, after arriving in the Tang Dynasty, the water conservancy facilities of the Tang Dynasty were further improved.
Although the water conservancy facilities of the Tang Dynasty were covered by the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty, from the promulgation of the first water conservancy law of the Tang Dynasty, it can be seen that the water conservancy facilities of the Tang Dynasty would be more perfect, which allowed wheat to make a breakthrough
day.
In fact, the Anshi Rebellion somehow accelerated the process of wheat replacing corn.
Because of the Anshi Rebellion, the economic center moved south. Due to ancient prejudice, it was always believed that the south was wilder than the north, but the reality was that the south was more suitable for farming than the north. This also caused wheat to have an explosion period and completely replaced millet.
So at this time in the early Tang Dynasty, wheat was really not as good as Xiaomi.
As the saying goes, the country is not the country. This shows that Xiaomi has an unshakable top position in the north.
"Although the agricultural institutions study planting, strictly speaking, the main focus of wheat cultivation in grain crops is on the research and development of wheat!"
Li Tai answered to Yan Xuansui at this moment,
"Wheat has the disadvantage of being drought-tolerant and poor taste compared to millet.
But as long as you choose the right place to grow, grind the wheat into powder to improve the taste, and its yield is higher than that of millet.
The most important thing is that it planted in autumn and harvested in summer, and used the winter when it hardly worked, so that the people could free up time to plant before autumn planting.
I think it has the potential to replace the major foods in the north.”
Yan Xuansui shook his head and said, "It does have potential, but it is not easy to really become a staple food.
Not to mention that every household has a mill that can grind the wheat into powder, but it only requires a lot of water to grow in the spring when everything is revived, which is quite a problem for many waterless areas."
Li Tai looked at Yan Xuansui with some surprise. Although he mentioned it briefly, Yan Xuansui was able to say such specific shortcomings. Obviously, he is also an official who does practical things, which has to be respected by Li Tai.
To be honest, the Zhenguan dynasty did not mean that no one was corrupt, but the court of this dynasty was not short of ministers who worked down-to-earth.
Whether it is Ma Zhou, who was promoted from the bottom, or Fang Xuanling, who was originally from a wealthy family, they are all quite pragmatic.
Yan Xuansui was obviously like this. Although Li Tai did not ask about Yan Xuansui's background, seeing his emphasis on measurement quality and his nobleness, I think it is somewhat related to Yan Liben.
As a minister who can go to Lingyan Pavilion, if you think Yan Liben is just a painter, you would underestimate this minister too much.
"If there is no water source, you can plant it in areas with abundant water conservancy facilities. There are few mills, so find a way to popularize water mills!"
Li Tai said, "But its natural output is large and versatile, and its cultivation time is relatively short, but it is not comparable to Xiaomi!"
When Yan Xuansui heard Li Tai praise Xiaomai like this, he didn't say much, because it was meaningless to continue arguing.
Yan Xuansui sighed in his heart that although King Yue is extraordinary, he does not know that the world is difficult.
No matter how good the wheat is, if the cost of planting is higher than that of millet, it is almost impossible for the people to continue to promote it.
Li Tai was also silently thinking about Yan Xuansui's words.
To be honest, what Li Tai thought about before was that the agricultural institutions summarized agricultural experience, and sent students to their respective regions to become agricultural officials, guided local people to farm, and steadily promoted food growth through scientific methods.
But now it seems that I am still thinking simple.
Survival is the first nature of human beings. All the stupid and backward sides of ancient times now seem to be the most suitable production relationship that arises under natural evolution.
If you want to promote the relationship between productivity and production and to allow students from agricultural institutions to take root, you must further transform their living environment, rather than just like those college students with high expectations and low skills to guide the people to farm.
Although the knowledge in books is very high, how to implement these high-level knowledge is the real problem.
"Do you really need to start the renovation of Zhengbaiqu?! For wheat promotion, carry out a large-scale experimental transformation!"
Li Tai narrowed his eyes slightly, estimating the feasibility of this plan in his mind.
Just as Li Tai was thinking, someone came to report it soon, saying: "King of Yue, Yan Shaoqing, the first acre of grain has begun to be weighed, and subsequent grains will be weighed one after another. Please go over and supervise and inspect."
"Please, King Yue!" Yan Xuansui made a gesture of invitation and asked Li Tai to go first.
"Go together!" Li Tai did not refuse. After all, in terms of grade, he was indeed much older than him, so he naturally took it as his own.
At this moment, Li Tai felt relieved, but Yan Xuansui looked at the people of Sinong Temple with a serious expression to weigh.
Because the bucket and stone are not units of weight, but volume units, even if you don’t need to obtain the final data, you can see it with your eyes and Yan Xuansui can see that it is definitely a great harvest!
Yan Xuansui couldn't help but take a few steps forward and spoke, "How many stones does this acre of wheat have!"
"Three...three stones are still mostly worth the battle!" The official in charge of measurement was a little dazed when he looked at the scene in front of him.
It’s unscientific and not right, this is a hell of a damn thing,
"When the procedures for drying, cleaning, grinding, etc. should be only about two or five stones!"
Li Tai was also a little surprised when he saw the scene in front of him. After reaching Sanshi, he felt something was wrong.
After all, this was in the Tang Dynasty. Even though he integrated the farming technology of this era as much as possible, there was no external fertilizer such as fertilizers, only Jin Ke, which made the wheat yield reach three stones, and Li Tai felt that there was a little more.
"Check the output of the next acre of land right away!" Yan Xuansui calmed down and calmed himself down.
"Abide by the order!" The official in charge of the measurement guessed in his heart that he had never seen anything.
This year, the weather was good, and one acre of land was planted more lushly. Are these wheat fields still three stones?
Soon, the official quickly measured the wheat output of the next acre, and his face soon became a little wrong!
"How many!" Yan Xuansui couldn't help but ask urgently, "Is it still Sanshi?"
"Two stones!" The official replied with a little nervousness, "Two stones and nine liters!"
"This is a great harvest!" Yan Xuansui's eyes were unbelievable at first, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but cracked and showed an excited smile, and even couldn't help but shout: "Great, great harvest! Hurry up, all outputs are weighed
one time!"
At this time, Yan Xuansui devoted all his attention to the wheat that needed to be measured for harvesting every acre, and almost forgot Li Tai.
Li Tai didn't mind this.
Because this kind of official who truly devotes his whole body and mind to his work is what he appreciates the most.
After all, the Zhenguan rule was not supported by Li Shimin alone, but by these unknown practical officials and hard-working people, together with their common backbone.
With great expectations, the grain in this acre of wheat field was quickly weighed out.
The wheat fields that had broken three stones in total did not produce much, and only three acres appeared from beginning to end, and the most acre produced three stones and one dou.
All the fields were weighed, and the one with the least output reached two stones and seven dou.
Such output is worth reporting to Dai Zhou for personal review for Yan Xuansui.
For an average output of only one or two stones, Li Tai Gaoling's grain output is simply too high.
Even if Li Tai was not a prince but an ordinary official, he would definitely be dispatched to the Siong Temple or the Civil Affairs Department to become a sixth-rank official or even a fifth-rank official with this harvest.
After all the data were recorded in detail, Yan Xuansui respectfully saluted Li Tai:
"King of Yue, you can continue to harvest wheat fields, but please leave more than ten acres of wheat fields. I will find a way to persuade Shangshu Dai and let him come and accept it in person!"
"Thank you, Yan Shaoqing, for your advice!" Li Tai looked at Yan Xuansui with some surprise. He originally did not agree with growing wheat.
But after seeing the wheat planting yield, Li Tai was surprised and naturally appreciated it even more.