As soon as Zhou Dalang poured water for them, the sound of carriages and horses was heard again outside.
Before Zhou Dalang could open the door, Mr. Zhuang and the others had already opened the door and came in. Seeing Mr. Zhuang, Zhou Dalang was so happy that his heart instantly dropped. He left the emperor and Yin Li and stepped forward, "Mr. Zhuang, you are here."
Mr. Zhuang nodded with a smile, and Wei Zhi stepped forward to greet the emperor. He turned around and saw Zhou Dalang standing blankly, and said, "This is your Majesty, why don't you come and see me soon?"
Zhou Dalang's eyes widened and he was at a loss. He knelt directly on the ground, raised his hand and bowed, "Greetings to Your Majesty."
"Excuse me." The emperor asked someone to help Zhou Dalang up and said with a smile: "Speaking of which, our two families are still relatives. This is outside the palace. There are not so many rules. Come on, everyone, sit down and let's do it together.
Look at the rice produced from this new rice seed."
Zhou Dalang felt that the emperor was very amiable, similar to the people in his village, so he talked about relatives first. He glanced at Mr. Zhuang quietly, and when he saw Mr. Zhuang nodded slightly, he said: "Your Majesty, we have picked out the rice ears that have been reserved for seeds. Do you want to
Don’t look at that?”
The emperor's eyes brightened slightly, "Oh? Come and take a look."
It is normal to select seeds from the fields every year. In the past, the rice was selected with long ears and full grains, but it has changed since Zhou Lizhong took over. Man Bao did not know where to find some agricultural books and
Provide the information to Zhou Lizhong.
Every year, Zhou Lizhong selects very strange rice ears. Some grow particularly well, while others grow poorly. After being divided, they are tied up and hung on the porch to dry, and then slowly threshed.
Zhou Dalang is not very good at choosing their kind, so he always chooses the best, and this time it is naturally the same.
At this time, the ears of rice were hanging on the porch of the yard next door, where he and Wu Lang lived.
The emperor couldn't sit still, so he followed him over. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he could see the golden ears of rice hanging on the porch without raising his head. The long ears of rice hung down, and the grains almost shone in the sunlight.
With golden light.
The emperor's steps became lighter.
However, Zhou Dalang did not stop, but stepped forward quickly, hooking off the best bundle and showing it to the emperor, "Look, these are the seeds that will be saved for next year."
The emperor untied it, picked up an ear of rice, and asked, "How many grains does this plant have?"
Zhou Dalang touched his head in embarrassment and said: "We can't count them. In the past, these were counted by the children. This year, a few children haven't come here yet, so I'll leave them hanging for now."
The emperor came to his senses and asked, "Do you count every year?"
"Yes, Manbao said this is called test data. How many ears are there in one plant, how many grains are there in one ear, how many grains are there in total, and even how long the ears of rice and the length of the rice plant are must be measured and recorded," Zhou Dalang
Said: "My eldest son used to do these things, but now my eldest son is not in the capital, and we can't count them clearly, so..."
Zhou Dalang was afraid that the emperor would be unhappy, so he quickly said: "But two days ago, we were helping to count. There were 308 grains on one ear, and there were 11 ears on that plant at that time."
The emperor carried the rice plants and said to Wei Zhi and others: "Since they can't count them clearly, let's count them." He was very interested.
Wei Zhi glanced at the emperor and had no objection.
Zhou Dalang saw them sitting on the porch and started counting. He quickly moved a dozen small stools and said, "Come on, come on, sit down and count. I, I'll go to the kitchen to see how the water is boiling."
"I'm not busy," the emperor said with a smile as he parted the ears of rice in his hands, "Let's talk."
The emperor asked curiously, "What kind of rice seed did you use to cultivate this rice seed? How many years did it take to cultivate it?"
Zhou Dalang said: "It's the D-number seeds. The one I got now is the fourth year of planting. Last year it produced seven stones per mu, and the year before last it produced six stones and seven stones per mu. It hasn't been collected yet this year, but it has been harvested."
We calculated the two acres of rice fields and found that the total amount of raw rice is nineteen dan. After drying, the yield per mu will be higher than last year."
Mr. Zhuang told the emperor: "The new rice seeds are all cultivated in Pucun. It is definitely more suitable for the climate here, so the yield here is higher than that of Beihai County and Luojiang County."
Although the emperor was very excited about this output, he was not diverted from his attention. Instead, he asked keenly: "Where did the D-number seeds come from?"
Zhou Dalang glanced at Mr. Zhuang and replied honestly: "Man Bao brought it back."
The emperor raised his eyebrows.
As for where Zhou Man came from, the Zhou family never asked. Man Bao brought back too many things. They couldn't just ask every time they brought out something, right?
As soon as the emperor saw Zhou Dalang's expression, he knew that he would not know even if he asked him carefully, so he looked at Mr. Zhuang.
Mr. Zhuang lowered his eyes and carefully counted the rice ears in his hand, avoiding the emperor's gaze.
The emperor tapped his fingers on his knees, "Since there are D seeds, there must also be A, B and C seeds. I wonder what they are like?"
So after a while, the emperor stood between several fields. Zhou Dalang pointed to the sign at the head of the field and said: "The seeds A and B are no longer sown. Those seeds are not good. They were fine in the first year, but not in the second year."
Oh no, we have been planting for three years and have been trying to find a way, but we just can’t save it. This is seed number C, number C, one, three, four, two, one.”
The emperor stared at the ugly words on the sign for a while and asked: "Who wrote these words?"
Even his little grandson cannot write such ugly words.
Zhou Dalang said very embarrassedly: "What I wrote was written by Li Zhong before. He was not at home, so I wrote it."
The emperor nodded and praised: "Well written."
He asked: "What does this number mean?"
"It was compiled by my son. I just get the seeds according to the number. C is the seed number that I got back at the beginning, and the following numbers are also numbers. The number of seeds we got when we planted them will be on top.
Add a number."
Did everyone understand or not?
Seeing that everyone was confused, Zhou Dalang was a little anxious and didn't know how to explain.
Mr. Zhuang then explained with a smile: "Your Majesty, this field is Experimental Field No. 2. You see, the harvested field next to it is No. 1, and that is No. 3. The farming conditions of each experimental field will be different.
During this period, differentiated cultivation will be carried out, and the seeds left over from the final harvest will have a number added to the original number. That number represents the experimental field where they came from and the conditions under which they were cultivated."
"Zhou Lizhong will summarize them, select the best seeds to continue cultivating, and also summarize the optimal farming conditions."
This time the emperor understood, and pointed to the words on the sign and said: "So this is the No. C seed that has been cultivated for five years. In the second year, the seeds from the No. 1 experimental field were selected, and in the third year, the seeds from the No. 3 experimental field were used...
"
Zhou Dalang nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, that's what it means. Man Bao said that the numbers will prevent confusion. There are so many seeds every year. If they are not numbered, we will not be able to recognize them."