Three days after Hong Chengchou officially surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
The first day of April, Wuchang Prefecture.
God, who lived in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, really did not spare his face at all. The land south of the Yangtze River is facing two consecutive years of uneven floods and droughts——
Either the upper reaches of the Yangtze River are flooded and silted up, while the lower reaches are dry, or the lower reaches of the Yangtze River intercept rainfall in advance during the flood season, causing droughts in the middle and upper reaches.
Even if Shen Shuren, a time traveler, appears now and builds water conservancy projects in several cities around Wuchang to increase the potential of irrigation and storage, it is impossible to completely solve the harm of natural disasters. At best, it will only be slightly alleviated.
At this point in history, in addition to floods and droughts, plagues also occurred in several provinces in the south of the Yangtze River. Fortunately, such man-made disasters have not happened now——
According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen should have been a place where bandits were completely rampant. Last year, Zhang Xianzhong temporarily conquered Xiangyang and killed the king of Xiangyang. After that, he should rely on the gold and silver scattered among several palaces.
, buy people's hearts and expand the army, and then cross the river from Xiangyang, wreak havoc in the Suihuang area, completely merge with the Gezuo Fifth Battalion, and conquer one of them.
Zhang Xianzhong's massacres and looting would obviously result in a large number of corpses that could not be buried and disposed of. This was also an important reason why the great plague spread to the Jiangnan region in that year in history.
But all this has obviously been completely changed by the butterfly effect. The fifth battalion of Gezuo was completely destroyed by the Chenshu people. After Xiangyang was briefly lost, it was also blocked by the Chenshu people, causing certain losses to Zhang Xianzhong, forcing Zhang Xianzhong to still shrink in Sichuan.
No development is allowed in the Shennongjia Mountains on the border with Hubei.
Zhang Xianzhong didn't even come, so how could there be a great plague in Jiangnan?
With the plague gone and floods and droughts slightly alleviated, Wuchang Prefecture in late spring and even the surrounding prefectures looked a bit lively. They seemed out of place in the late Ming Dynasty, even compared to the land of Wuyue.
Not to mention more concessions.
The Jianghan Plain, which is full of lakes, swamps and wetlands, is now lush and green, and the crops are growing happily.
As early as when Shen Shuren returned to Nanjing during the New Year, he left behind Zhang Huangyan and others who were in charge of civil affairs, and diligently persuaded farmers to ensure that spring plowing was carried out in an orderly manner.
After Shen Shuren and his party returned in early March, they checked for leaks and filled up the gaps, and stepped up efforts to rectify agricultural production to meet the urgent needs of the people.
Shen Shuren knew very well that if Zhang Xianzhong had crossed the border, a large number of the people here would have been kidnapped as bandits. But this kind of thing can only be blamed on Zhang Xianzhong, not the people. The people just lacked food and clothing. Only by solving the problem of productivity can these hardships be eliminated.
Only when the poverty of Haha became a place where people could barely survive, could Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's sources of soldiers be cut off from the root.
Fortunately, the people under Shen Shuren are also very capable. Not only are they clean and efficient in terms of administrative efficiency, but they are also quite beneficial in terms of science, technology and scientific management.
For example, Fang Yizhi, the newly elected magistrate of Wuchang appointed by Shen Shuren, is a combination of civil servant and scientist. Historically, he was able to write "Physics", which shows that he is very good at summarizing the laws of nature, far from being comparable to a corrupt scholar.
In this world, Fang Yizhi has obviously gone further in engineering and technical practice than in another time and space. A few years ago, Shen Shuren took him to tinker with the flying shuttle loom and made several small inventions. These operations
It seems that Fang Yizhi's skill tree was distorted, causing him to continue to spend his free time dealing with these civil affairs gadgets after he took office in Wuchang.
The dignified prefect actually made some slightly optimized farm tools within a few months and promoted them. And Shen Shuren invited Song Yingxing and his family to sit in Daye County to mine iron ore, make steel, and research machinery.
Song Yingxing would also occasionally compete with Fang Futai.
Fang Yizhi is interested in scientific laws, while Song Yingxing is interested in engineering application technology. One of them is more theoretical and the other more practical. After discussing with each other, they met each other and soon became friends.
So much so that Fang Yizhi can spare one or two days every week to discuss practical techniques with Song Yingxing.
Although the cost of doing so was that Song Yingxing would be distracted and delay the progress of developing new steel-making technology and firearms manufacturing, Shen Shuren did not hinder them.
Shen Shuren knows very well that what scientific research and exploration need most is a relaxed ideological environment. Engineering problems cannot always be used to force R&D personnel to rush forward.
Those who rush to make progress can only "fill the domestic gap" and imitate copycat-style research and development, which is not suitable for exploring unknown areas.
Scientific research management for exploring unknown areas must be like Google, which allows employees to allocate 20% of their time and energy to work on fantastic ideas that interest them. Even if no benefits are produced in the end, they cannot be punished.
So at the beginning of the month, after learning that Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing often discussed "useless learning" together, Shen Shuren said very generously:
In the future, projects arranged for Song Yingxing will receive an additional 20% of scientific research funds, which can be used for research on other things. Similarly, two days are allowed to be used for personal work every ten days. But the premise is that the accounts must still be clear.
It is acceptable to spend money on useless research, but it is not acceptable to just embezzle it. If scientific researchers feel that the remuneration is poor, they can individually improve the remuneration. This is another issue, and it is the same thing.
This kind of treatment was absolutely unique in the late Ming Dynasty, and neither Chinese nor foreign capitalists could achieve it. Shen Shuren trusted his generosity so much that Song Yingxing felt the incomparable kindness of knowing him, and he became more motivated.
When Song Yingxing originally wrote "Tiangong Kaiwu", some agricultural technologies were involved. After all, Song Yingxing was the first scientist in the history of Han civilization to record that "cotton picking stars inhibits the top advantage".
Now Shen Shuren has given him a more relaxed environment. March and April happened to be the busy season for farmers. He and Fang Yizhi collided with each other, and Shen Shuren occasionally gave some wise words. It really worked. Something came out.
For example, according to Shen Shuren's original plan at the end of last year, corn could only be vigorously promoted in a few prefectures north of the Yangtze River. This year, the main promotion area is Liu Guoneng's Xinyang Prefecture.
In places such as Wuchang and Hanyang in the south of the Yangtze River, because the growth cycle of rice cannot perfectly connect with that of corn like winter wheat, the plain fields are still mainly planted with double-cropping rice this year. There are only some slopes and mountainous areas. Potatoes can be grown as a supplement, but corn is Jiangnan has little chance to appear.
But things are coming to an end this year. Because the weather is not right, the plan cannot change quickly. In the early spring of the 15th year of Chongzhen, the rain in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River was relatively heavy. It changed the situation during the severe drought in Zhejiang the year before. It seemed that the lack of rain in the previous year was going to be eliminated. Make it up.
There was a slight flood in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but the warm and moist airflow clouds were exhausted early in the lower reaches, and precipitation in Huguang and other places in the middle reaches decreased significantly.
Although it is not yet a total drought, it will at least result in some fields with poor irrigation conditions being unable to grow early rice.
Of course, farmers will not wait for the spring rains before sowing rice seeds. They must scatter them before it rains, so there is no way to waste part of this batch of seeds.
Fortunately, Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing were also well versed in agricultural science, so they suggested that they could find a way to temporarily replant peas with extremely short growth cycles in these fields with insufficient irrigation to barely supplement one season's rations.
If it is confirmed that this year will continue to be relatively dry, and some fields cannot be planted with rice, it will be too late to plant corn in the second season after the peas are harvested. The growing period of peas is very short, and it takes a little more than two months to mature, which is a full three months shorter than winter wheat.
Months are just enough to ensure that planting in early spring will still mature at the same time as winter wheat and corn will be connected.
After learning about this situation, Shen Shuren certainly did not hesitate to go to Hanyang, Wuchang, and Jiujiang in the south of the Yangtze River to persuade farmers to inspect and understand the agricultural situation. Then the government organized seed trade, loaned farmers peas to grow grain, and allowed farmers to replant peas.
As for Huangzhou, the hometown of Shen Shuren, although it is located in the north of the Yangtze River, similar situations exist in some areas, and peas are also promoted.
When Chen Shuren heard for the first time that coordinator Song Yingxing said that when early rice irrigation was insufficient, peas could be replanted to relieve emergencies, he couldn't help but ask Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi:
"Since we knew that the growing season of peas is so short and so flexible, why wasn't it popularized in previous years? Is the yield too low? Could it be lower than edamame/soybeans?
As long as it is higher than edamame, it should be promoted well in the future. After all, planting beans can fertilize the fields, and the harvest of other crops will be good in the future."
Song Yingxing answered this question at the time: "The yield of peas is much higher than that of soybeans. Of course, the difference after drying is not much different. In previous years, peas were not widely promoted, mainly because they were not easy to store.
Peas are more tender and moist than soybeans, and they contain some oil that is easily rancid. They cannot be stored for a long time simply by drying them in the sun. The court cannot collect peas for tax under any circumstances, but soybeans can be collected as a supplement to rice and wheat."
Chen Shuren originally just asked casually, but after receiving this answer, he was also moved: It seems that after the 19th century, canned green beans and freeze-dried pea products became popular very quickly in the West.
Even when he played "Red Dead Redemption" in his previous life, which is known for its realism, the American cowboys who went west to open up the wilderness had a lot of canned green beans in their supplies.
It seems that this problem can be completely solved by pre-cooking and sterilizing it and then putting it into cans.
Of course, it is the late Ming Dynasty, and the cost of using tin cans is too high, and the food itself is not even worth the money. But you can also find a way to package it in a porcelain jar with good airtightness.
Just like how Sichuan people made kimchi in later generations, they turned a bowl upside down at the mouth of the jar and filled the gaps with water to isolate the air circulation inside and outside, thus achieving the air-tight effect of the can.
For canned military rations that are to be moved, you can also pre-cook them and seal the mouth with melted paraffin. The paraffin will be sealed after cooling.
Wuchang is close to Jiangxi, and Jiangxi's pottery-making and porcelain-making industries are already very developed and have overcapacity. Hiring some craftsmen to build porcelain jars and canned peas, and popularizing them among the people, can also prevent people from starving to death in drought years when rice cannot be grown.
If there are many, I will rush to plant a season of peas when the time comes. Even if I cannot pay taxes, I will have food to eat and save my life.
And peas have one more advantage than edamame: when the bean sprouts are relatively tender, the shells of peas can barely be eaten, unlike edamame whose shells are full of itchy fluff and cannot be eaten with the shells.
(Note: The peas in the late Ming Dynasty are not the sweet beans today. The shells are still relatively hard, but smooth. When you are about to starve to death in famine years, you can eat them with the shells. At least they are more nutritious than eating grass.)
Historically, Western canning technology originated during the Napoleonic Wars. To put it bluntly, it is not difficult. It is nothing more than the two ideas of "pre-cooking sterilization" and "ensuring air tightness". The specific material of the can is not important, and it can be done without iron sheets.
airtight.
As a result, throughout the three months, Shen Shuren went to all the prefectures under his rule, prefecture by county, to supervise the local officials' work to persuade farmers. When he found that drought had prevented early rice from sprouting, he urgently requested that the corresponding land be replanted.
.
During this process, canning technology was also tinkered with and invented.
At the end of March, when Shen Shuren was on his way back to Wuchang, he passed by Huangzhou on the other side of the river for the last time. The people of Huangzhou couldn't help but kneel down at the dock of Huangqikou Town after seeing how diligent and caring Mr. Futai was.
To see him off, I also wanted to give him the Wanmin Umbrella.
Shen Shuren reluctantly took away the Wanmin Umbrella. A highly respected local villager who was already quite old, leaning on a cane, praised on behalf of the people:
"Mr. Futai, you don't know. In Huangzhou, the local official who has been most loved by the people for hundreds of years was originally Su Xueshi from the Northern Song Dynasty. According to legend, now we can grow two crops of rice a year.
The 'hundred-day ripe' introduced at that time,
The reason why hundred-day ripening was promoted in the first place was that when Su Xueshi was in Huangzhou, he encountered a drought. When the rain came, the rice seeds that had been planted early had rotted and could not germinate in time. They needed to be replanted, so Su Xueshi got it.
The 'Hundred Day Ripe' grows very fast. Later, when Su Xueshi learned about Hangzhou, he dealt with it in the same way when there was another drought.
The drought this year is worse than in previous years, and even the "hundred-day ripening" cannot be saved, but the adults thought of persuading me to plant peas in conjunction with corn, and also specially studied the "sealing can" method for the common people to store peas.
His merits are by no means inferior to those of Master Su.
Your Excellency will definitely be a literary star who will leave a name in history and be famous for generations to come. It is truly a blessing for me, the elders of Huangzhou, to have an upright official and pastor like you for three years!"
When Chen Shuren was being praised by others, he felt a little like he was in another world. When he came, it was already halfway through March, and the Qingming Festival and Cold Food Festival had already passed in the lunar calendar.
When he heard that people compared him with Su Dongpo, he couldn't help but think of Su Dongpo's poem "I came to Huangzhou, and it has been three cold days", which is called the third running script in the world.
He can be considered as having gone through three Hanshis in a row, but Hanshi just came to be an official the year before last, and this year Hanshi has already returned to Wuchang, just passing through Huangzhou. His official luck is much better than that of Su Dongpo.
He was an all-rounder in both literature and martial arts. It was okay for Su Dongpo to compare his literary aspects, but the other aspects would naturally need to be filled by other heroes.
…
Because Shen Shuren returned to serve as a logistics support officer in civil affairs, his patrol tracks were erratic. When he returned to Wuchang, he found that people who wanted to find him had already lined up in a long queue.
He had to ask his staff Gu Yanwu to line up the order and receive them one by one.
"Why are so many people here all of a sudden? Are they all on official business?" Shen Shuren had just sat down after returning home and washed his face. He couldn't help but ask Gu Yanwu, who was in charge of staying behind.
Gu Yanwu also shrugged helplessly: "Some of them are on official business, and some of them are just here to flatter you. They all say that Futai will be put to great use by His Majesty."
"Da Yong?" Chen Shuren was stunned and had a bad premonition.
Gu Yanwu said matter-of-factly: "What? During Futai's inspection in Huangzhou and other places, he didn't know that the book "On Thieves" that you proposed last year had just come true? Just a few days ago, Li Zicheng threatened to kill Wang Qiaonian, and even
Kill Luo Rucai, Ma Shouying, and annex his tribe.
Nowadays, there are rumors all over the world that you are definitely the Wenqu star who will come to earth again. Zhang Liang will be reincarnated and Zhuge will be resurrected. The enemy is expected to be thousands of miles away. It will take several months to calculate the enemy. It seems that Mr. Yang Ge will also send someone to discuss with you.
What about military affairs?"
Chen Shuren was immediately confused: "There is no way to do things half-heartedly. Old Yang Ge must have sent people here to ask for help for Li Zicheng. Alas, I wanted to kill Zhang Xianzhong first, so why did Li Zicheng get involved?"
——
PS: I just switched back to the map, it’s been a while. A month has passed in Shen Shuren’s timeline, and I need to re-level the timeline, so this chapter is a relatively smooth one.
Now that the timeline has been bridged, the plot will be normal starting tomorrow.
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