The most arrogant in history

Chapter 666: Field Production Meeting.

The village chief was still standing there, not daring to say a word.

Huang Jingzu said with a smile: "Village Chief, are you not giving me face? My father is sincere and wants to chat with you."

The village chief finally came to his senses and nodded hastily: "There is a clean ridge ahead. Your Majesty, follow me."

There is a piece of dry land in front, which has just been turned over.

Ye Kun sat down on the ridge of the field, and asked the village chief and fellow villagers to sit down, and asked: "Just now the village chief said that he was worried that we were roaming bandits. I want to ask, are there bandits in Hanzhong?"

The village chief stammered, "There are no bandits anymore. I'm just worried, so I'm asking..."

"It's good that there are no bandits. If there are bandits and robbers, it means that our court is incompetent and cannot protect the people."

Ye Kun nodded and asked, "How is the harvest this spring? What is the main crop here?"

"The harvest is about the same as last year. The wheat yield is 200 kilograms per mu, and the rapeseed yield is more than 100 kilograms. There are still some broad beans and peas that have not been harvested. These are the winter crops. The summer crops are mainly rice, sorghum, soybeans, mung beans, cowpeas... and, yes, there are also sweet potatoes, which are super delicious!"

It has only been two years since sweet potatoes were promoted nationwide.

Because it is sweet and soft, everyone loves to eat it.

"Sweet potatoes taste good, but in two years, you'll get tired of them."

Ye Kun nodded and smiled, then asked, "After handing in the levied grain, how much food is left for each person in the family? Is it enough?"

The village chief smiled and said, "There's more food than we can eat. Some families harvested 20,000 kilograms of wheat in the spring, but handed in 4,000 to 5,000 kilograms, leaving more than 10,000 kilograms. Their houses are too small to store the food. Everyone is saying that they should build a few more houses to store the food during the off-season."

Another villager said: "We haven't eaten all the rice from last year, and we still have dried sweet potatoes and grains... We can't sell them either, so we have to feed them to pigs. If we raise a lot of pigs, pork will be cheap, and every family will kill a pig during the New Year."

Ye Kun was very emotional and said to Cao Xiong and others:

"Cao Xiong, you and Wei Jinde are both my soldiers. I said back then that we would fight for the people, so that they would have enough food, fish and meat to eat! Now it seems that we have done it. We did not lie, and we keep our word!"

Cao Xiong, Wei Jinde, and Lu Yeliang all clasped their fists together:

"The Emperor has devoted himself to the people and created an age of prosperity that will last forever. Even the ancient Yao and Shun cannot compare to him!"

Ye Kun was also full of enthusiasm and said with a smile:

“Thousands of willows are swaying in the spring breeze, and all the Chinese people are like Shun and Yao! This prosperous era that has lasted for thousands of years was created by everyone together, and it is the credit of the Chinese people! Look at our village chief and these villagers, they are all Shun and Yao, all saints!”

The common people were not good at reasoning, they all grinned and clasped their fists and said:

"We are in a good time and have met a good emperor. Twenty years ago, we were hungry and cold, and we had to flee famine and war everywhere. Now, we all have fields, homes and businesses, and we live more comfortably than the landlords before."

Ye Kun nodded and asked about the details of the production.

The village chief said: "Your Majesty, village chiefs, militia captains, and primary school teachers like us often take villagers to the court's farm for training and learn new agricultural technologies. Now the villagers have learned how to compost and make nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium mixed fertilizers.

The county also sends agricultural technicians to come down frequently to teach us how to farm, weed and prevent pests.”

Another old farmer said: "Today's tools are of good quality. Scythes and shovels are very sharp and durable. Refined salt is cheap, and everyone has enough oil and salt, which makes them more motivated to work."

Ye Kun asked again: "Are there enough oxen for farming?"

"Enough. Every household has oxen for farming. Those with a large population have two or three oxen." The village chief nodded:

"For farming, as long as you successfully open up new land, it will become easier and easier in the future. It will be easy to replant the land that was cultivated last year this year."

"All bulls must be castrated, otherwise they may hurt people. Bulls that are too fierce must be killed to avoid future troubles." Ye Kun knew the details of the village and reminded:

"Bulls don't like red clothes, so be careful. Don't let women and children wear red clothes to lead and herd cattle."

The village chief scratched his head and said with a simple smile: "I heard that the emperor used to farm. It seems to be true. He knows so much about oxen."

As they were talking, two agricultural technicians came over.

He was sent by the county to inspect and is also responsible for guiding production.

Seeing Ye Kun and others sitting on the ridge chatting, the technician smiled and said, "Village Chief Zhao, are you holding another field production meeting?"

The village chief waved his hand and shouted, "Come here, brother, the emperor is here!"

The technician was startled and glared at him, "Village Chief Zhao, what nonsense are you talking about?"

"It's really the Emperor who is here!"

Lao Zhao jumped up, pulled the technician over, and introduced him to Ye Kun: "Your Majesty, these are the technicians from the County Agricultural Department, Lao Wang and Lao Zhang. They are in charge of our area and come to check every day."

Ye Kun nodded and said with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work, technician. I am Ye Kun."

The technician was stunned and quickly saluted.

Ye Kun returned the greeting and said with a smile: "You two came at the right time. Let's sit down together and have a field production meeting."

The two technicians sat down tremblingly.

Ye Kun asked: "Does the county's Agriculture Department have any specific work goals and tasks?"

Old Zhang nodded: "There is a task. The task set by the county is that this year's output should not be lower than that of previous years. In addition, due to the increase in population, 5,000 acres of land will be reclaimed this year."

"We can't even finish eating all the food. Is it necessary to open up wasteland?"

"The imperial court has ordered that if we have time and are not busy, we should organize collective reclamation. This is called being prepared for danger in times of peace."

"That's right." Ye Kun nodded and examined the two technicians' agricultural knowledge.

The technician is a professional. After graduating from junior high school, he interned at the Chaoting Farm for a year, learning agricultural knowledge and practical operations, and also acquiring new knowledge from time to time, so he is very competent.

Ye Kun suddenly asked: "Can we eat dogtail grass?"

Lao Wang was stunned: "You can't eat it."

Old Zhang was obviously more professional and said with a smile: "It can be eaten, because dogtail grass is the ancestor of millet. Our millet is domesticated from dogtail grass. The seeds of dogtail grass contain starch. After grinding them and cooking them into porridge, they have the aroma of millet.

I remember the teacher said during the training. If you encounter a famine, you can collect mature foxtail grass, burn it with fire, grind the seeds, filter it with gauze, and boil it into rice soup, which can save lives.

“See, this is called professionalism!”

Ye Kun nodded and smiled: "Most of our current food was originally wild crops. It took thousands or tens of thousands of years of domestication to become food crops."

The evolution of foxtail grass into millet was verified by agricultural scientists of later generations.

But the ancients may not have known this, because there were no records in ancient times and cultural knowledge was not popular enough.

Ye Kun knew this and that foxtail grass could save lives in times of famine. After personally verifying it, he asked the Ministry of Agriculture to include it in popular science textbooks.

If a famine occurs in the future, it would be better for the common people to know this knowledge than to eat Guanyin soil!

Lao Zhang asked, "Your Majesty, we have been experimenting with corn for several years, but why haven't we domesticated it yet? Why is the yield so low?"

Ye Kun also has a headache about corn.

The corn grown overseas, when mature, doesn't look like corn cobs, but rather like barbecue skewers with a few sparse corn kernels on them.

The best experimental field of the imperial court was used to the maximum in terms of water and fertilizer conditions, and the weeding and insect control was carried out to the extreme, but the corn yield per mu was only more than 100 kilograms.

It is normal for ordinary people to grow corn and yield dozens of kilograms per mu.

Ye Kun smiled and said, "Generally speaking, after several years of cultivation and seed selection, corn yields have increased a lot. But it will probably take another ten or eight years, or even hundreds of years, to completely tame it and make it a staple food. Let's take our time and there's no rush."

Even in a hundred years, Ye Kun could not guarantee that corn would become the staple food.

But it has already been introduced and is being grown all over the country, so just let nature take its course. One day, it will be successfully domesticated.

Technician Lao Zhang nodded and reflected a situation:

"Since last year, grain prices have plummeted, but silk prices have been rising. Many people say they have to switch from rice to mulberry, otherwise it's not cost-effective."