My Chinese ancestors

Chapter 273 The prosperity of grain and the prosperity of gold and silver

Entering October, golden autumn.

There are many winding mountains in the north, and when you look around, you can see patches of golden color touching the bottom of your eyes. In the last sound of cicadas, a group of horses came out from the south gate of Yanjing, running on the official road, and meeting groups of business travelers traveling from the north to the south. Passed by.

"After taking a break from the war, I occasionally come out to see the countryside and see the farmers busy in the fields, which makes me feel refreshed."

After the horse team slowed down, Su Chen sat on the horse and looked at the farmland on both sides of the official road. The golden grains were being harvested in the hands of the people. Even the children rolled up their trousers, carefully holding the autumn harvest grains and putting them in the fields. The incoming donkey carts piled up, and then they stood beside the carts and watched a group of dozens of people riding horses passing by on the official road.

Wu Zixun teased a few words, causing the little man to make a face at him.

Haha!

Su Chen immediately laughed when he saw him deflated, and a group of guards behind him also laughed.

The identity of a prince has to be discussed, but in private, Su Chen doesn't have much airs about the guards around him. He laughs when he wants and speaks when he wants. This is completely different from many powerful people in the world.

After walking for more than ten miles, we turned the fork in front and could vaguely see the field surrounded by guardrails in front of us. There were many straw men inserted in the field, and cloth towels were tied on them. When the wind blew, the cloth towels fluttered, driving away the birds wandering nearby. .

When they passed by, patrolling soldiers came forward to check. When they saw Su Chen and Dian Wei behind Su Chen, they were about to kneel down and salute when Wu Zixun waved his hand to stop him.

"Your Majesty, please dress lightly and do not show any pomp. You can continue your patrol."

A total of seven patrol teams are deployed here, each with ten people. They mainly guard against thieves who mistakenly enter because they think this is the granary of a wealthy gentry.

Leading the horse along the path under the farm fence, you can see several farmers busy in the experimental field. It seems that they are the old farmer's son, daughter-in-law, and several grandchildren.

Seeing Su Chen and his group coming in, several people in Tianzhong were also surprised. A clever young man reacted and ran quickly to a house not far ahead with bare feet.

"Grandpa!"

There are more than a dozen rooms connected with white walls and green tiles. Two of them are open and have no doors or windows. There are many wooden frames with large baskets made of bamboo strips on top.

An old farmer with neat buns and coarse linen clothes, with narrow sleeves rolled up, was sifting.

Hearing his grandson's shout, the old man stood up and looked up. Following the direction pointed by his grandson, he saw that Su Chen and his party had entered the fenced courtyard.

"How many are?"

The old man could tell from his clothes that Su Chen had an extraordinary identity, but it was difficult for him to guess his identity, so he couldn't help but look at Su Chen nervously.

"Old people don't need to be nervous."

Su Chen did not reveal his identity, but just bowed his hand politely to the old man, "I heard from the Prime Minister that the old man discovered productive grains and cultivated several acres of land here. I have been thinking about coming over to have a look, and I didn't do it until today." Come over when you have free time.”

"This... this young master please."

Without knowing his identity, the old farmer could only judge his age from his face. He called Su Chen "Master" and invited him to come to the wooden frame in the shed and tell the big man in front of him the contents of the large basket.

"Sir, this is what I got from the fields in the mountains. I thought it was ordinary grain at first, but later during the autumn harvest, I found that the grains were full and there were more seeds than ordinary millet. I took a bunch and boiled it, and the seeds swelled. Then, I found it to be sweet, so I tried to graft it with millet, and unexpectedly one plant survived. From last year to now, I have accumulated a bunch of seeds."

Su Chen grabbed a handful of seeds in the dustpan, but did not remove the shells, which were a little prickly. Judging from the shape, they were similar to wheat, but plumper and oval-shaped. When she peeled off the shell, she could see that the rice grains inside were white and slightly Has a transparent texture.

"Can we plant it for two seasons?"

The old farmer nodded repeatedly: "You can plant it for two seasons."

“How much can one acre of land produce?”

"Back to the young master, this is much more productive than millet and millet. A rough calculation of one acre of land is about one stone, seven to two stones."

Su Chen frowned slightly. One stone was seven, and he calculated in his mind that it was about three hundred kilograms. In addition, the grains of this material were much larger than ordinary grains. In fact, it should be more than one stone and seven.

Seeing Su Chen frowning and saying nothing, the old farmer thought he was unhappy, and quickly explained: "Sir, don't worry, this thing must be selected first, I guarantee to cultivate better seeds and seedlings."

"Old man, I am not worried, but I am happy."

Su Chen patted the old man's hand and told him not to worry too much, and then a smile appeared on his face: "There are only so many grains such as millet and millet, and once this thing in the old man's hand matures, it will be planted in the hands of the people below. How many people don't need it?" Are you hungry again? This is an act of caring for thousands of families and a great good deed."

Speaking of this, Su Chen felt a little excited, and he bowed to the old farmer.

"I can't do it, I can't do it!" The old farmer hurriedly stepped forward to hold Su Chen's hands. After all, his status was there. Even if the old man did these feats, he would not dare to let someone of high status bow to him at will.

"Young master, there is no need for the gift. I have understood it. The grain here will be here for two or three years. The seeds will be selected and matured. It will meet the expectations of the old man. I will not disappoint the people of Yan State."

"Does the old man have confidence?"

"Haha, the old man's family has been farmers for several generations. This is his ability to make a living." When talking about farming, the old man smiled brightly.

"I don't know the old man's name?"

"Wang Taiping."

When Su Chen heard the old man's name, he nodded and wrote it down. He talked a lot with the old man under the eaves. He imagined that if this kind of grain was planted in the North and even the Central Plains in the future, famine would probably be far away from this world.

"When the time comes, the old man will be able to give birth to Buddhas in every family."

"Don't dare, don't dare. The young master is too complimentary to the young man. This is inappropriate."

"If I say it's suitable, then it's suitable!" Su Chen affirmed heavily, with a tone that could not be refused, "No one can take this away, the old man can just cultivate the seeds."

After saying that, Su Chen also said goodbye to him and left the old farmer's family to the intersection in person. Watching the group of people go away, the old farmer's son and daughter-in-law couldn't help but ask who this group of people was. They seemed to have a lot of background.

"I don't know...he didn't say anything." Wang Taiping answered honestly.

The patrol team standing nearby heard their words and couldn't help but intervene. One of the soldiers said: "That is our King Xia of Dayan, and you don't even know him."

"what?"

Hearing this sound, the old farmer and his family turned pale with fright. However, thinking of the easygoingness of the Xia King, they gradually calmed down and walked to the middle of the road one after another, bowing to the horse team as they went away.

Da da da……

On the official road, Su Chen, who was far away from the farm, called Wu Zixun to come closer, "Go back and send a message to the Ministry of Personnel. Under the Da Nong Order, Wang Taiping will be given an official position."

"Yes!" Wu Zixun agreed on horseback.

"Let's go to the north of the city to see the workshops, come on!"

Su Chen raised his whip and spurred his horse into a gallop. The rest of the people followed suit. Only Dian Wei curled his lips, looked down at his big feet, and shouted, "Wait for me!" Carrying a pair of big feet on his back, The halberd ran wildly.

The weapons and armor workshops in the north of the city were planned by Zhuge Liang. After talking to Xun Yu about this in Ding'an City and visiting the workshops in the west of Ding'an City, he reorganized and planned it when he returned to Yanjing, dividing it like fertile farmland. Neat, each area has its own road.

At the moment, the large quantities of weapons forged here are all conventional weapons. The Mo Dao that Su Chen requested was only worth over 500 in the five months since he went south to the Central Plains. The Lian Nu is relatively simple. Each workshop divides labor to produce parts, and then assembles them uniformly. There is no need for continuous forging like Mo Dao.

Su Chen took several repeating crossbows and shot them at the wooden man several times, with similar effects.

"All these repeating crossbows are delivered to Baima Yicong. They use longbows for long-distance cavalry shooting. After running out of arrows, they approach the opponent and then use the repeating crossbows. This is a fully armed light cavalry."

"Your Majesty, this is to shoot people into sieves." Dian Wei picked up a repeating crossbow and tried it. He was very satisfied. "In the future, I will also match it with the shield warrior. Stand behind the big shield and shoot like this with the repeating crossbow." Fa, it will definitely be enjoyable!”

In fact, Su Chen didn't say, he also wanted to ask Zheng He and Zhang Yu if they were familiar with the firearms blueprints of the Ming Dynasty Shenji Camp.

"By the way, we need to make a large number of six-wheeled carriages, lengthen the carriages, and send them to private workshops. We must also breed more horses and donkeys. There are still a lot of horses and horses that were compensated by the Wei State before. Write to Xun Yu and ask him Send people to drive these livestock to Yanjing."

Wu Zixun followed behind him with a pen and kept writing down, and asked from time to time: "Why do you need so many horses to build so many cars?"

"If we take the official route, these carriages will be used to transport troops for quick support. Not only can they save the soldiers' physical strength, but they can also speed up a lot, which can have a great impact on the entire battlefield situation."

Su Chen said his own point of view. After all, this impression comes from later generations, and transporting troops is a crucial link.

As he spoke, he visited the workshops here accompanied by the master craftsman. When he came out, the sky was already dark and it was already late at night when he returned to Prince Xia's Mansion in Yanjing.

Thinking of Fang Xuejun, who was mourning his grandpa in Yunqi County, he couldn't help but pick up a pen and ink and write a letter home.

……

At this time, in the Central Plains far to the south, the war in the Three States was in full swing.

(End of this chapter)