Qin Official

As early as the Confucian scholars said that the past is not the present, we have discussed that the world has gradually changed, and the present is always better than the past. There is the Chao family who builds wood for a nest, the Suiren family who drills flints to make fire, and the Fuxi family who knots ropes to make nets. They used sharecropping to fish. In the era of the ancient sage kings, people did not know farming, let alone animal husbandry. Apart from standing upright to cook food, knowing how to use tools, and having a little sense of shame and knowing how to hide their shame, they were actually no different from animals...

After drinking too much last night, Ye Zijin thoughtfully prepared bland millet porridge for Heifu and the others today. The yellow corn was in the bowl, exuding a delicate fragrance. Heifu pointed to the top of the five grains and said to Zhang Cang:

In short, people at that time could only fish and hunt fish and beasts to satisfy their hunger, and they were hungry all year round. As time went by, after Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs, he began to collect wild fruits and vegetables to make up for the lack of meat. However, this was still unreliable and intermittent. So in the later period During the millet season, plants and trees are planted nearby so that they can be harvested stably every year. This is the beginning of farming!

Food is the most important thing for people. How to obtain a stable and reliable food source has become the driving force for the origin of agriculture. This process must have lasted for thousands of years and tens of thousands of years, but in order for Zhang Cang to understand, Heifu could only follow what the history books said and give all the credit to Hou Ji.

Houji learned how to grow millet, which was suitable for the land. He taught the people how to farm crops and cultivate crops. When the grains were ripe, the people cultivated them. Therefore, millet was also called Ji, and Houji was also revered as the God of Agriculture...

As we all know, all five vegetables come from wild vegetables. The celery we eat today is often still wild near Yunmeng Ze. But do you know where the corn we eat today originally came from?

Although Zhang Cang was knowledgeable, he had never worked in the fields himself. Not knowing why, Hei Fu clapped his hands and asked his servants to come up with a book. When he opened the pages, he found the same dry plant inside...

If it were spring and summer, I would personally take you to the fields to identify them, but now in the cold winter months, the grass has withered and you can't see it in the wild. But I went to the farm to inspect the farm a few months ago and had a few plants picked. Come back, look, this is the ancestor of millet!

Zhang Cang took a closer look at the plant specimen that had been clamped between the pages for a long time and became somewhat flat. It had long tassels and looked like a dog's tail...

Isn't this the common foxtail grass on the field ridges!?

Zhang Cang was shocked, and looked down at the millet porridge in the bowl with some disbelief: You mean, this millet is transformed from foxtail grass!?

As expected of a rich man, he has never experienced famine.

Heifu laughed at his reaction: You will know if you go to the people and ask around. If there is a famine year and the food is exhausted, sometimes people have to rely on the foxtail grass in the field to get by. The taste is really similar to corn.

Zhang Cang nodded ignorantly. He had no worries about food and clothing since he was a child, and he spent a lot of money, but he had also seen the Wei Kingdom in trouble. Wei's disaster relief system is based on what King Hui of Wei and Mencius said: If there is disaster in Hanoi, send the people to the east of the river and move the grain to the river.

Later, Hedong and Hanoi were lost. Even if the people of Daliang and Wei were about to starve to death, they could only survive on the spot. In that case, let alone the dog's tail grass, they would exchange seeds for food, and even grab the clay on the ground and put it in their mouths. Rise is also common...

At least after Qin destroyed Wei, there was no famine or cannibalism in Liang.

Zhang Cang sighed, then lowered his head and took a closer look. Although the ears of the foxtail grass were thin and small, they did look a bit like the ears of millet. The stems and leaves were almost identical.

He kind of believed it.

Hei Fu continued to destroy Zhang Cang's outlook on life: the ancestor of rice is water barnyardgrass, which looks very similar to rice. It also grows around rice fields. The ears are called barrels and are also a backup grain for famine relief.

The ancestors of millet may be ground millet or wild millet. Since wheat comes from the west, I won’t mention it, but degraded wheat will also turn into wild wheat. The ancestor of the beetroot is the wild soybean. The pods are very flat and the particles inside are as small as needles...

Anyway, the ancestors of grains are common field weeds. Farmers hate them when they are farming and must get rid of them quickly!

Zhang Cang was surprised: Now the ears of grain are big and full. How did it change?

It's very simple. Even in the dogtail grass, there is one with a big head and good taste. The ancients, perhaps really Houji, selected it, planted it, and watered it frequently, so one seed gave birth to ten seeds, and ten seeds It gives birth to hundreds, and hundreds gives birth to thousands, and eventually it spreads throughout the world, and becomes grain, while its brothers and relatives are still weeds.”

Heifu smiled and said, It's just like how farmers select the best ones from small wild clogs and grow big tripe clogs. This is domestication! The ancients also said that a year's plan is better than planting trees and grains. In the past ten years, trees, citrus and other fruit trees have also been domesticated. Although Nanjun citrus is as sweet as honey, this is the result of selective breeding. Only those of us who have eaten wild citrus will know how sour they are...

Well, heredity and mutation, natural selection and artificial selection, these middle school biological knowledge are too complex and profound for the ancients. It is better not to tell Zhang Cang for the time being, just show him the seed selection method that every old farmer knows.

This is the history of human development of agriculture. While cultivating grains and other plants, people also domesticated many animals. This is how the six domestic animals, pigs, cows, sheep, horses, chickens, and dogs, came to be. It is a pity that the cats in the Central Plains these days They are still just local civet cats. They are still wild. They can only hunt mice honestly and will not act arrogantly. Cats from East and West Asia have not been introduced yet, so it is still too early to become a real cat owner.

In addition to domesticating animals and plants, people gradually learned to transform the natural environment to make it suitable for agricultural production. Dayu's flood control is the most typical example. Nowadays, water conservancy has become the most enthusiastic thing of the Qin Dynasty. Dujiangyan, Zhengguo Canal, and the Tuntian Irrigation Area at the eastern foot of Helan Mountain are countless...

Nowadays, even an illiterate peasant knows that he must dig ditches in the spring to let the water flow to moisten the fields and cultivate them intensively, so that he can have a bumper harvest. Instead of idleness and hoping that the fields will not be plowed, plowed or excreted, They rely on the foxtail grass and wild rice they grow to satisfy their hunger...

After saying all this, Heifu said: Now, do you understand how Xun Qing's theory of heaven can be applied in farming?

Zhang Cang nodded heavily: Understood! In these thousands of years, tens of thousands of years, from the legendary ancient saint king to today's old farmers, everything they have done has repeatedly verified what my master said. talk!

If you think about it in the sky, who can control it with animals?

Zhang Cang's eyes were piercing, and Xunzi's words came out loud and clear!

Instead of blindly admiring Heaven and yearning for Him, how can it be compared to treating Heaven as an animal and controlling it?

Instead of just letting things grow naturally and hoping for their increase, how can we use human intelligence to help them reproduce?

Instead of just hoping that the weather will adjust and waiting for a good harvest, how can we cooperate with the changes in the seasons and promote a good harvest?

Instead of blindly obeying Heaven and praising it, how can we master its laws and make use of them?

That's right!

Heifuchengjie exclaimed: This is the truth that I hope can be told to farmers in the newly established agricultural science taught by the imperial court! This simple truth that has existed for thousands of years has now been labeled as the will of ghosts, gods, and gods, and has lost its original meaning. Now, it must be re-recognized by the world and continue to be passed down in farming!

Understand nature, utilize nature, and transform nature! What God doesn't give you, people have to fight for it! This is the true meaning of farming, and it is also the mission that humans, as the spirit of all things, have!

…

Why do plants grow and grow bigger and bigger? Is it because of soil, air, water, or sunlight? You should ponder this question yourself...

When bidding farewell to Zhang Cang, Hei Fu did not forget to throw him a small question, which made the fat man continue to worry.

When he returned to the living room, he finally relaxed for a rare moment and began to tease his eldest son Polu. He was born in the 29th year of Qin Shihuang and is now three years old. Playing with the building blocks Heifu had someone make for him.

Under the guidance of Heifu, the wood pieces of different shapes were slowly piled up one by one, but the child was also weird. When he reached a certain height, he would push the blocks down violently, then clapped his hands and looked at his father giggling, as if Enjoy the joy this process brings him.

I'm afraid you're going to have to demolish a lot of houses in the future, you brat. Hei Fu shook his head helplessly, but he took the trouble to re-stack the blocks and play the game over and over again with his son. He was extremely patient with his children.

Ye Zijin, who had a big belly, sat tenderly aside and looked at the father and son. She was smiling, but when Heifu looked over, he found worry in his wife's eyes. She hesitated to speak, as if she had something to say...

…

ps: Chapter 2 is in the afternoon