After talking about the fish in the paddy field, the topic naturally turned to the rice in the field.
Now that we have entered the summer season, under the abundant sunshine, the three-season rice that has grown has begun to bloom in the past two days. The carp just came to the water to feed on the rice flowers that fell from above.
The fragrance of rice flowers tells of a good harvest, and the sound of frogs sounds!
I had memorized this poem when I was in school. Unfortunately, Xiao Han, who had lived in a dry land since childhood, seemed to have only seen people growing wheat. It was only after he arrived here that he learned about the appearance of rice flowers for the first time.
In the paddy fields, those tiny, tender white flowers hung clearly on the ears of rice. When the wind blew, some fell into the water, and were picked up by greedy fish in the blink of an eye.
Rice also needs flowering and pollination, which Xiao Han learned when he was in school. And Xiao Han still remembers that the principle of hybrid rice is to use different rice seeds to pollinate each other and then cultivate them to select those with high yield and disease resistance.
Variety.
The yield of native rice is really too low! Even if farmers work from dawn to dusk, at the end of the year, there will still be very little food left. It may even happen that they have been farming for a lifetime but have never had enough food!
After Xiao Han learned about this, he always wanted to increase grain production through hybridization.
However, the three-season rice here grows too fast. If it was planted at the same time, it would bloom first before other rice seeds could grow! So now he can only place his hope on the three-season rice growing in Xiaojiazhuangzi.
Rice, because the local rice there was planted earlier!
See if they can bloom at the same time and try to hybridize them. Whether any good seeds will emerge depends on God's will.
The green rice fields were pleasing to the eye. Xiao Han was still thinking about hybrid rice, while Lao Feng stretched his arms hard, pulled a rice plant that had finished blooming, and started counting the ears on it.
"What are you counting?" Xiao Han, who had come back to his senses, saw Lao Feng's actions and curiously squatted down and watched him count one grain at a time.
Old Feng smiled, and after counting the entire ears of rice, he said to Xiao Han: "Master Hou, look! This new seed is really good! Not only does it grow fast, but it is also big! This ear has enough
One hundred and seventy-four grains! And I saw a big ear of it yesterday, and when I counted it, it was more than two hundred grains! Old man, I have lived for half my life, and I have never heard of a plant that can grow so many. So I thought,
If each plant grows so much, wouldn't one acre of land be able to produce as much as four or five stones?"
(Ps In the Tang Dynasty, one acre of land was slightly smaller than now, and one stone was equivalent to 3.75 shi per mu in the Han Dynasty, and 334 jin per mu in today's market system. According to historical records, one stone for ordinary fields to produce food, and two shi for high-yield areas
.)
"The yield per mu is four to five kilograms?" Xiao Han calculated in his mind, that is, the yield per mu is about 1,500 kilograms!
This number was an astronomical figure to Lao Feng, but to later generations, it was just a very ordinary real estate. At least Xiao Han knew that in his time, it was common for a ton per acre to be produced, and there was nothing strange about it. Really
What surprised him was that Lao Feng was so familiar with these yield data.
Looking up at Old Feng, Xiao Han asked in confusion: "Oh? Old Feng, you, the county magistrate, are so proficient in farming?"
Old Feng loosened the ears of rice and gently stroked the leaves of the rice with his rough palms. He said with some emotion: "Master Hou is joking, I am also from a farmer's family. I have been working in the fields since I was a child. Now I still have several acres of thin fields at home. How can I not know these things?"
?But in this kind of land, with hard work all year round, whether we can have a good harvest depends on God’s face, how difficult it is!”
"Oh? Old Feng, as a county official, you still have to work in the fields?"
"Haha, during the spring plowing and autumn harvest seasons, even the emperor and the queen have to go to the fields to cultivate and harvest crops. How can I avoid the vulgarity?"
"What? The emperor and the queen also have to go to the ground? Is it possible that the emperor is carrying a golden hoe to hoe the ground, and the queen is eating scallion pancakes on the edge of the field?" Xiao Han suddenly laughed out loud, because he remembered a famous joke in later generations from Lao Feng's words.
.
"What golden hoes and scallion pancakes did the Marquis talk about?" Lao Feng didn't know why Xiao Han suddenly laughed and looked at him in surprise and asked.
"Golden hoe, scallion pancake is..." Xiao Han was about to explain, but suddenly felt that the joke was a bit silly, so he tried hard to stop his smile and said to Lao Feng: "Ahem, it's nothing, nothing, I'm just curious about how the emperor farmed.
Scenes?"
Xiao Han took it back mid-sentence, making Old Feng roll his eyes: "You don't know, Lord Marquis? Every year at that time, the nobles of Chang'an will go to work in the fields with the emperor. Have you never been there?"
"Is there such a rule?" Now, it was Xiao Han's turn to be stunned. He had come to Datang less than a year ago, so how did he know about this kind of thing? No one called him!
"Maybe I'm not good enough and they won't let me play..." Xiao Han scratched the back of his head and answered uncertainly.
"Um... maybe it's just unlucky timing!" That's bad. Although I don't know why the emperor didn't ask him to participate, it's always embarrassing to reveal shortcomings like this. Old Feng quickly made up a random reason to deal with it.
Being interrupted like this, the two of them had nothing to talk about for a while, so they could only get up and continue walking forward.
Along the narrow ridge, the two of them soon arrived at the ditch beside the rice field.
The water in the small ditch is still clear, and because it is warmed by the summer sun, every evening before the sun goes down, there are always people who have worked hard for a day taking a bath in it to wash away the fatigue of the day.
Xiao Han also likes to bathe here now, and there is a special place for him in the upper reaches of the water! If he doesn't swim twice a day, he won't be able to sleep at night.
There were clouds in the sky, but I was also a little hot and sweaty along the way. Now that I have come to the ditch, it is necessary to wash my face!
Stepping on a few stones on the side, Xiao Han cautiously approached the water. As soon as he picked up a handful of water, suddenly a dog's head floated over from the downstream...
"Wang..."
"Ah!!! Xiaoqi!"
A sudden barking of a dog accompanied by a scream scared Old Feng and he quickly looked up!
In the ditch, a big dog jumped over the dragon's gate, carrying countless water drops all over its body and heading straight towards Xiao Han! Poor Xiao Han covered his face with his arms indiscriminately, and subconsciously stretched out a foot, but he just hit the dog's head.
The big dog fell back into the water with its paws flying.
"Wangwangwang..." Xiao Qi fell into the water on his back. He didn't know how much water was poured into the dog's mouth. Anyway, Xiao Han could see that it was swimming and trying to vomit out...
"Get out!!! I just changed my clothes!" Xiao Han hurriedly fled back to the shore, then turned around and cursed at Xiao Qi!
This silly dog thought that it was when it was petite, and it would rush into his arms when it got mad! Who knows that Ren Qing couldn't bear its sudden attack?
Not to mention anything else, there was a half-sized wild boar that ran down from Qinling Mountains a few nights ago, and it jumped at it! As a result, it fell to the ground and didn't get up for a long time. Later, Ren Qing and the others heard the sound and came over, and then they did something.
A big meal...
Xiaoqi felt a little aggrieved after being kicked for no reason. He climbed ashore, his hair trembling, and water droplets rising up all over the sky printed a faint rainbow around him.
"Go back, stay away from me!" He scolded Xiao Qi and drove Xiao Qi away. Xiao Han angrily shook the water in his hand. Now he was no longer interested in washing his face. The dog didn't know how long it had been soaking in the water. Why?
