Those bundles of things that Hei Fu placed on the ridge of the field are called "Zhè". They were accidentally discovered in the fields a few days ago when Hei Fu went to "Pinghuli" on the bank of Yunmengze to handle a case.
.
At first he thought it was a small bamboo forest, but when he took a closer look, he discovered that the stems were like bamboo, each root was as thick as a wrist, had joints, the skin was greenish-yellow, and it was about ten feet high.
Tingzu Yuliang 1, a local, flattered the locals by saying that this thing is called Zhuzhe, which is very common in the wild, and fishermen often use it to quench their thirst.
As he said this, he immediately cut off one of the fish beams with his sword and handed it to Hei Fu. He saw that there was white stem flesh under the hard skin, and it smelled sweet. He put it into his mouth and tasted it, and Hei Fu was immediately happy.
"Isn't this just sugar cane!"
It turns out that the bank of Yunmengze in Chu State was one of the origins of sugar cane. This sugar cane was once loved by the nobles of Chu State. They once planted it in gardens and squeezed the juice as a summer drink. Song Yu, a native of Chu, mentioned it in his "
It was said in "The Soul Caller": "There are some turtles, turtles, and cannons..."
In his previous life, Heifu was a person who liked chewing sugar cane. He often ate it as fruit to quench his thirst in summer. He could chew two sugar canes per person! However, the sugar cane he ate mostly had black and purple skin, which was slightly different from the green and yellow "Zhu Zhe" in front of him.
different.
Hei Fu was greedy for a moment, so he took a Zhuzhe with the skin off in his hand. He ate it in the same way as Gu Kaizhi, eating it from beginning to end, so that he could gradually get better.
First taste the tip of the stem, there is only a faint sweetness, then taste the root of the stem, and find that it is not very sweet, but has some bitterness...
I thought it was just a problem with this one root, but when he cut several branches in the wild, they were all the same. The taste was as light as water, and some even had a bitter taste...
Heifu couldn't help but be disappointed. He thought he had found a good raw material for sugar extraction, but he didn't expect that the sugar content of these zhe was so low.
"If sugar cane is not sweet, what is it called sugar cane?" He complained secretly.
But thinking about Heifu, he felt relieved. He had indeed been spoiled. Most of the crops in later generations were actually the result of thousands of years of artificial breeding.
Not only livestock have been domesticated, but so have plants. Wheat, rice, etc. all started from wild tares and wild grasses, and were slowly domesticated into crops with higher cultivation value. The ancestors of millet can be seen everywhere on the fields.
Dogtail grass!
Under the conscious cultivation of farmers, they gradually survive and eliminate the fittest. The seeds become larger, easier to peel, have higher yields, shorten the growth period, and even taste spicier and better. This is the result of artificial breeding.
Cash crops are no exception. The sugar cane of later generations is also the descendant of sweet cane carefully selected for more than a thousand years. The sweetness has increased dozens of times. But these wild sugar cane in front of us are like children without parents and mothers.
, thick skin, astringent taste, thin stem, solid and hard, how to compare? Heifu remembered that when he was a child in his previous life and watched "Robinson Crusoe", he seemed to have encountered wild sugar cane in it, because it was wild and unartificial.
It is cultivated, so it is not very tasty. I didn’t understand it at the time. It seems that I have encountered a similar thing.
Heifu threw away the half-chewed zhe, but after thinking about it, he asked Yuliang to help him collect all the zhe that could be found near Pinghu, and hired an ox cart to help him transport it home.
In the last tomb robbery case, thanks to Hei Fu, Yuliang also received a reward of more than a thousand dollars, which improved his family's life a lot. Yuliang now obeys Hei Fu, even though the pavilion chief asked him to
Collecting worthless wild zhe sounded strange, but he didn't ask any questions and immediately did it...
In addition to Pinghuli, Heifu also asked everyone in the pavilion to select the sweetest ones from the wild zhes near each of their homes.
So when Hei Xiumu returned home a few days later, people in the setting sun stared at him dumbfounded. Hei Fu pulled a whole cart of Zhe back...
Only then did the scene of Heifu and Brother Zhong standing in the field arguing during spring plowing...
…
Zhong didn't understand that his younger brother had brought back a cart full of zhezi, and said: "These zhezi can be seen everywhere along the Yunmeng Lake. If you want to eat them, you can just pull one out. Why do you have to plant them in the ground..."
Zhong has been doing farm work for so many years, but he has never seen anyone planting zhezi in the fields. In his opinion, these good fields that have been cultivated with great difficulty must of course be planted with millet, rice, etc., which can save lives and pay for the rent.
If you already have enough food, you can at most add some beans and hemp. How can you waste it on wild zhe!
"Brother, I only plant ten acres, ten acres!"
Heifu couldn't explain it clearly for a while, so he finally convinced Zhong to allocate ten acres of land that was supposed to be fallow this year and let him grow sugar cane.
Heifu knows very well what wonderful uses sugar cane with high sugar content can play. It can be eaten and has become a fruit favored by children at home. Sugar can be squeezed. It may only be brown sugar at first, but in the future there may be white sugar and rock sugar. It can even be used for sugar cane.
Make wine!
Of course, this last item is illegal, but the Qin State banned alcohol because they were afraid of wasting food by making wine. What if wine with a higher alcohol content could be brewed without consuming food?
Although those things are exciting to think about, they are still far away. What Heifu has to do now is to complete the first artificial selection.
He has to plant the sugarcane that still tastes a little sweet into the ground. Maybe if he fertilizes and cares for it carefully, they can grow sweeter? After a few breedings, he may be able to get the real sugarcane he wants.
.
Maybe, maybe... Agriculture is such a pain in the ass. Unless you use the science and technology of later generations, you will always be lucky. But the high-quality food that future generations eat in their mouths will not always be lucky to farmers from generation to generation.
Was it planted?
This is the greatness of agriculture. Hard-working hands plant in spring and harvest in autumn, silently changing the world. Based on this, human civilization can advance step by step.
According to the scene of sugar cane planting in the village in later generations, Heifu asked Jing Jing to help him and cut the zhe into pieces of one foot. After soaking in water for half a day, he placed the sugar cane seedlings horizontally in the ground with the muddy water in the ditch.
Then bury half of it with soil... Repeat this process, like sowing seeds, scattering the ox cart's zhe on ten acres of land...
While they were busy here, Zhong was still driving the yellow-haired plow ox newly bought by Hei Fu, using the plow to plow the family's several pieces of land one by one.
Speaking of which, as Heifu became Shangzao and Citron became public official, they were both rewarded with new land. Since Citron and Ajie had moved to the county seat, the family's land was taken care of. As a result, the family's land increased.
Four times, reaching more than 400 acres.
Zhong is a good farmer in the family. He can grow grains well and drive cattle well. However, Heifu was afraid that his eldest brother would be tired, so he still paid for it and hired four mediocre cultivators in Benliluzuo to earn 30% of the harvest.
As a reward, they were given a portion of grain to help them work for a year.
It's a pity that there is no one named "Chen She" in it.
Originally, others suggested that their family buy several concubines, but Hei Fu couldn't accept it. His mother He Zhong was also a kind-hearted person and felt that her family really didn't need slaves.
"Fortunately, I bought some cattle. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to cultivate so much land by humans."
While Zhong was resting, he couldn't help but lament that his family used to have a cow, but later he died of illness.
Heifu carefully inquired about Zhonghe's neighbors and found out that there were very few oxen plows in Anlu County, and the people there had never even seen a plow. It was not until the Qin State ruled Anlu that it gradually became popular.
This is also the terrifying thing about the Qin State. It attaches great importance to farming, so the government will do its best to promote advanced technology. The power of the official is always much faster than the subtle spread.
But only Qin could do it, not the six countries. It is said that some officials in Zhao did not want to fight the Changping War with Qin. One of the reasons was that Qin used oxen to plow the fields and doubled the grain, but Zhao did not have such conditions...
Because only the Qin State could extend the government's tentacles to the rural level. However, in Zhao, Chu and other countries, the rural areas were still controlled by the feudal nobles, and were extremely closed and inaccessible.
The same is true for the pestles and mortars made by Heifu and the others. In just one month, the Anlu county warehouse has replaced all the pestles and mortars with treadmills. Not only the ministers and concubines were happy because their work became easier, but also the rice they produced was
A lot more.
"Perhaps in a few years, Tadi will spread throughout the north and reach Bashu, just like the Qin State promoted farming to Nanjun."
Thinking like this, Heifu felt in his heart that he seemed to have done something great. Not only did he improve productivity in the field of rice pounding, but he also indirectly liberated half of the people of Qin...
Chatting in the fields always goes by quickly, and the farm men soon have to get up and continue working.
Zhong said that Heifu had already planted the zhezi in the ground anyway, so he couldn't leave it alone and had to take good care of it. After saying that, he asked Heifu and Jing to shovel the excrement of their cattle in the past few days.
As early as more than a hundred years ago, using animal dung for fertilization has become something that every farmer knows. Mencius said: "In bad years, the fields will be short of dung."
A field with a lot of manure is a land for farmers and common people.”
However, Heifu only saw that he was using a wooden shovel to scoop up a little bit of the fresh cow dung, and was about to put it next to the newly buried sugar cane seedlings. He then looked back at his neighbor's field, and he saw the same fresh cow dung.
Cow, horse and human dung as fertilizer.
So Hei Fu called out and said to him: "Brother, are you fertilizing like this?"
"If the dung field is not like this, what else can it do?" Zhong looked at his younger brother with a strange face, wondering if he was used to being a pavilion chief these days and couldn't even do farm work.
"I heard a merchant from the north talk about a method of fertilizing the land in Guanzhong. I heard that it can increase the yield per mu a lot!"
Heifu smiled and said, "Brother, do you want to try it?"
"The method learned from Guanzhong? Tell me about it." Zhong immediately became interested. Guanzhong is a famous granary of the Qin State, and its productivity per mu is two or three times that of Nanjun.
"It's very simple."
Heifu pointed to the black fresh cow dung in the shovel and said: "Compost!"
