Spoiler History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 322 Technology is the primary productive force

[The Malthusian trap is essentially part of the law of historical cycles.

Simply put, it is the contradiction between infinite exponential growth and limited resource growth, that is, the contradiction between infinite and finite.

From a macro perspective, starting from the origin of biology, the exponential growth of algae and plants has rapidly consumed carbon dioxide resources in the air and changed the oxygen content of the atmosphere, thus triggering biological extinction and the Great Ice Age. Neither of them has escaped the Malthusian trap.

From a historical perspective, we know the internal driving forces of the evolution and migration of ancient humans, the collapse and rise of feudal dynasties, and the subsequent industrial revolution. In the final analysis, it is also the conflict between population growth and the means of production.

Even from a microscopic perspective, the intensity of the battle for survival of microorganisms is no worse than that of humans. Antibiotics can be regarded as the ultimate killer weapons evolved in the battle of microorganisms themselves.

The Malthusian trap is a shackles engraved on the genes of all living things, but the evolution of living things is also caused by this, and the same is true for feudal dynasties.

The establishment of the Tang Dynasty was essentially a temporary escape from this trap. The price was the massive disappearance of the population caused by years of war and Guangshen's generosity from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty.

A large amount of unowned land freed up by the massive disappearance of the population was naturally nationalized. In the early Tang Dynasty, the land equalization system and the rent-to-rent system were used as capital to promote the land equalization system, thus laying the foundation for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.

This was not the case in the Japanese state. Although the Dahua reform did indeed enhance the national power, the central government of the Japanese state gave political preferential treatment to the nobles and powerful powerful people in exchange for part of their land, thereby implementing the Bantian Law, which was modified from the Land Equalization Law.

Moreover, the Dahua reform also divided the land among the slaves of the powerful nobles. The powerful nobles already had a large number of slaves, so they naturally would not oppose the reform. These slaves had fields in name, but in essence they were the stewards of the fields.

Therefore, to this day, Japanese scholars still believe that Japan after the Dahua Reform did not enter the feudal era, but was a deformed continuation of a slave-laden society.

The two sides of the Tang-Japanese war were the feudal empire of Dacheng and the deformed slavery society.

In the end, the victory of the Tang Dynasty can be said to be natural, because there is really no reason why the Tang Dynasty could lose.

The only pity is that every time the feudal dynasties of China climbed out of the trap since then, the political system has evolved in three directions: focusing on agriculture and suppressing business, rectifying officialdom, and strengthening monarchy, and it has been infinitely involved in the small-scale peasant economy. .

The result is a missed opportunity to solve the Malthusian trap worldwide.

For example, isn’t the Champa rice in Indochina, which “takes only more than fifty days from planting to harvesting,” delicious?

For example, isn’t the corn in America amazing?

When Zhangyu UP was doing this issue, I was curious and checked it out.

The current record for wheat yield per mu is 1042 kilograms and for rice is 1149 kilograms per mu.

Corn is truly heavyweight, with a record yield of 2576 kilograms per mu, which is comparable to a myth to the ancients. 】

Kong Ming and others are no strangers to the theory of the kilogram in later generations.

After all, the horseshoe gold gift previously involved the conversion of weight units at this time and in later generations.

Therefore, the calculation is not complicated. Liu Bei made a rough calculation in his mind and expressed his deep agreement with what this junior said:
"Can rice yield 38 shi per mu?"

Liu Bei's eyes almost fell to the ground, because he clearly remembered that last year, the most fertile field in the Chengdu Plain, coupled with the method of retting, could produce only three stones and five stones per mu.

The difference is more than ten times, and this comparison is really too cruel.

In contrast, Liu Bei immediately threw all the traps and Japanese countries into the distance, and he couldn't worry about it at all. After all...

"Is this corn really made of jade beans? It can yield... 85 shi per acre?"

Zhang Fei also screamed, but You Zi couldn't believe the results he calculated by his own hands. After the calculation was confirmed again, the pen in Zhang Fei's hand fell to the ground, and the expression on his face could no longer be controlled.

Like his brother, he was familiar with farming, so he was most deeply affected by the terrifying yields of the fields.

In comparison, Kong Ming was much calmer, and Kong and Liu Ba Pangtong beside him sighed:

"The rice and corn in Champa are both effects and not causes."

"If there is a plan to go to sea, there is no sextant that was developed more than a thousand years ago, so going to sea depends on astronomy."

"To observe astronomy, you need to study arithmetic, and to study arithmetic is to develop science. This is what future generations have said before, science and technology are the primary productive forces."

Pang Tong nodded. After all, the younger generation can climb to the sky and know the vastness of the world, and can travel around Taixu to see the wonders of the universe. It is not surprising that he can achieve such results in farming, but it can only be said to be ordinary.

After agreeing, he and Kong Ming once again lamented the broad vision of future generations.

"Looking up into the sky and down into the underworld, one can know the origin of man in the past, and understand the rise and fall of past dynasties in the past. What he sees in the future is truly inhuman."

As a result, Kong Ming's desire for academic study became more urgent.

After carefully transcribing everything he saw and planning to think about it carefully in his spare time, Pang Tong noticed a catchy word:

"Law of great historical cycles?"

After listening to what later generations said, Pang Tong felt that he had a vague understanding, but it was not clear. He always seemed to be seeing flowers through a layer of fog.

Kong Ming was silent, and while writing, he said slowly:

"In the second year of the Zhongyuan Dynasty, our Han people had 400 million households. In three years of Yongshou, our Han people had reached tens of millions of households. Exactly one hundred years before and after, the number of people in the world had more than doubled."

"However, the yield per acre of a field can only increase by half a stone in a hundred years."

On the white paper, Kong Ming only listed two numbers: the number of households and the yield per mu. At this time, he became more and more aware that this arithmetic was really useful.

After being reminded by later generations, Kong Ming seemed to see a crumbling building with just two sets of numbers.Liu Bei also understood after hearing this and stared at the two sets of numbers in a daze:

"It is difficult to increase the yield per mu, but if we open up all the cultivated land... it is not feasible!"

Immediately, Liu Bei denied this idea and turned bitter:

"The more powerful the powerful are annexing and the corrupt officials are causing chaos, the more people there will be, but the less people's land will be. If the people lose their land, how can we avoid chaos?"

Before the Battle of Chibi, if asked why the world was in chaos, Liu Bei could eloquently list a long list of names.

The emperor whose prestige is gradually losing, the treacherous and sycophantic ministers of the country, Zhang Jiao who raises a rebellion, Dong Zhuo who exercises arbitrary power, and the thief Cao who holds the emperor hostage.

But now that I have seen it a lot, and when I think about this issue again, these names are slowly crossed out from Liu Bei's heart.

Especially Zhang Jiao, what's wrong?If the Han won't let him live, should he die in peace?
Troubled times are never caused by one person.

Clapping his hands, Liu Bei took the lead in waking everyone up from the dull atmosphere:

"My husband should create peace in his lifetime!"

"Now that we know the principles of future generations and can deal with the chaos of a hundred years, we have no reason to surrender the world to Cao Cao!"

"The most urgent task is to capture Guanzhong from the north, urge Wu Yi from the south, quickly secure Nanzhong and then send personal guards to capture the rice seeds from Champa!"

Everyone is no stranger to Indochina, isn't it just south of Jiaozhou?
There is a fork in the body poison path leading here, and getting this kind of rice seed that matures once every fifty days is what we need to do right now.

……

In the Manna Hall, Li Shimin is also a pragmatist:
"I ordered the Annan Governor's Mansion to present rice seeds to Champa."

"If you don't offer it to Tang Dynasty, I will take it myself!"

Regarding the reaction of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, no one in the Ganlu Palace tried to dissuade him, including Wei Zheng.

Because this rice seed that only takes fifty days to be harvested from planting is really amazing.

In contrast, how long does it take from planting to harvesting the rice currently grown in Datang? More than 120 days.

Wei Zheng also understood that this is what is truly qualified to be called auspicious, so not only did he not advise His Majesty to be too hasty, he even wanted to advise His Majesty:
It might take some time to ask him to present himself, so it would be better to send a team of elites from the Tang Dynasty to get it in person.

However, considering that Lingnan Road was full of miasma and the road was difficult to navigate, I thought about it and gave up.

I just hope that the natives of Annan will be wiser, recall how the East Turks subjugated their country, and then honestly offer the rice seeds without causing too much trouble.

After dealing with the Champa rice, Li Shimin immediately asked:
“Where is America?”

This was the first time Li Shimin had heard of the name America, but according to later generations, this was probably a huge land with an unknown empire.

The place where Tang Dynasty is located is called Asia, and the place where Rome is called Europe, then where is America?Li Shimin was confused.

So everyone in the Manna Hall turned their eyes to the right, where two huge maps hung.

One is a detailed map, starting from Rome in the west to Japan in the east, from the Hanhai Sea in the north to the Strait of Malacca in the south, depicting a part of the earth that is unknown outside the map.

The other is an outline map of the Earth. The Earth was slowly rotating on the light screen, but it disappeared before it even completed a circle, and only part of it was visible.

Now we only know that there is a huge landmass in the south of Europe, there is also a piece of land across a large archipelago in the southeast of Datang, and there seems to be a quite large area all the way east along the Liaodong direction.

Therefore, Li Shimin asked directly:
"Is this America south of Europe or southeast of the Tang Dynasty?"

Du Ruhui thought for a while and said:
"Since future generations say that no one can escape this trap as long as they live, then the West may be able to escape with the help of corn."

"But it is also said that this corn can only be obtained by going to the sea, so this America is either in the southeast of our Tang Dynasty, or... on the back of this earth map?"

The guess was very reasonable, so Li Shimin's thoughts were forced to be temporarily extinguished.

So he asked casually: "How many kilograms will be equivalent to one stone in this future life?"

This is to compare the per-acre yield of later generations with that of the Tang Dynasty.

Everyone looked at each other, how to calculate this?

Then Fang Xuanling stood up and said that when future generations talked about the magic book of Jin, he casually said that 300 kilograms in Jin Dynasty was equal to more than [-] kilograms in later generations. Just follow the conversion.

Du Ruhui smiled secretly. It seemed that the younger generation's disparagement of that Jin Shu made this old friend very concerned.

Fang Xuanling didn't realize it and quickly calculated:

"The yield of wheat per mu is twenty shi, rice is 21 and a half shi, and the yield of corn is... 48 and a half shi?"

Li Shimin immediately changed his mind:
"Become a fleet and sail out to the Tang Dynasty!"

　The past three days gave me a false impression. Today’s work can only be said to have returned to the familiar torturous taste. LNG, you did a good job (derogatory).

　　
　
(End of this chapter)