Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 84: Pulling out the seedlings
In the dead of night, Yan Yi pondered over and over again: in order to expand the territory in this era, in addition to having a strong army and a group of outstanding civil and military officials, what other conditions are needed?
There are many answers, such as military equipment, diplomatic means, public opinion propaganda, public support, etc., but the most important one is undoubtedly food reserves and supply.

"Before the troops move out, the food and fodder must go ahead", "Build high walls and store up abundant food", these sayings, which have been proven by countless practices, illustrate the importance of food.

From this example, we can see that the military farming system provided a solid material foundation for Cao Cao's military operations, not only stabilizing social order and strengthening economic strength, but also significantly improving the combat effectiveness of the army. In contrast, food supply became one of the key factors restricting Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition.

Success depends on food, failure also depends on food.

Yan Yi knew very well that as long as he could stay ahead of other forces in agricultural development and food reserve supply, he would have a significant advantage.

Therefore, when he owned his first piece of land, he immediately began to actively explore agricultural development.

The development of the curved plow was just a concrete manifestation of his ambition in this regard.

In addition, seedling technology, irrigation technology, cultivation of new rice varieties, development of new agricultural tools, new fertilizers, etc. are also being prepared and promoted in an intensive and orderly manner.

To effectively grasp all aspects of the situation, Yan Yi recently spent a lot of time studying various aspects of knowledge, and expanded on this knowledge with the help of memories from past lives. As a result, his study of scriptures and calligraphy has temporarily stagnated. His brush writing is still as ugly as ever, but the officials under his command feel increasingly pressured when facing his inquiries.

Shaojun seemed to have some knowledge in all aspects. Although he was not proficient in it, he was more than capable of supervising and testing them, especially those fantastic questions, which often made them sweat profusely and their brains go blank.

He Mao, the Minister of Agriculture, was in a daze. Facing Yan Yi's barrage of questions, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. "Young Master, the main fertilizer used for the fields here is manure, followed by ash fertilizer."

Common manure includes human manure, horse manure, cow manure, pig manure, sheep manure, chicken manure, duck manure, etc., while ash fertilizer is mainly rice husks and wood ash.

Yan Yi thought of the two farmers he met in Guangxin this morning. They had worried about the lack of fertilizer. He couldn't help but frown and glanced at He Mao: "No more?"

He Mao wiped the sweat from his cheeks. He wanted to answer yes, but he didn't dare. He looked frightened as if he was racking his brains to find other answers.

Yan Yi's gaze swept across the faces of several other officials from the Ministry of Agriculture. Wherever his gaze fell, everyone lowered their heads as if they had been electrocuted.

He also realized at this time that these officials of the Ministry of Agriculture whom he had hastily promoted only understood some things in the scriptures, and knew very little about things that were not written in the books.

For example, both Mencius and Xunzi recorded the use of manure and wood ash fertilizer, and Fan Shengzhi's book recorded the method of making organic fertilizer from manure. When I asked questions about this, the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture in front of me could answer fluently.

However, when asked questions that are not covered in these scriptures and agricultural books, they become speechless.

Yan Yi suppressed the resentment rising in his heart and raised his voice, "There's the Jiuqu River right next to us, don't you know how to use the river mud for fertilizer?"

River mud is rich in humus, which can improve soil structure and fertility, and is of course suitable for fertilizer.

Several officials from the Ministry of Agriculture looked at each other, their faces filled with shame. Yan Yi knew at a glance that they rarely went out, so he had not thought of going to the mud fertilizer. His inner dissatisfaction was even greater, but he could not find more suitable candidates to replace them at the moment.

After all, there are too few talented people under his command.

He said patiently, "In addition to mud fertilizer, bone fertilizer, green manure, and inorganic fertilizer can also be used for fertilization. You should walk around more often and choose the appropriate fertilizer based on the actual environment around the fields."

Several officials from the Ministry of Agriculture nodded in succession, but soon questions arose in their minds. They had heard of green manure, but what were bone fertilizer and inorganic fertilizer?
He Mao knew that Yan Yi hated those who pretended to know everything the most, so he hurriedly asked in a low voice. After asking, he couldn't help but blushing, thinking that the Minister of Agriculture had really embarrassed himself today.

Yan Yi then remembered that bone fertilizer was recorded in Qi Min Yao Shu, but Qi Min Yao Shu was written three hundred years later, and the concept of inorganic fertilizer did not appear until sixteen hundred years later.

He coughed lightly and tried to explain to the officials in simple and understandable terms.

After he finished speaking, everyone around him was stunned. They could understand using bones as fertilizer, but using lime and salt as fertilizer was completely beyond their understanding.

Yan Yi felt like he was playing the lute to a cow, knowing that he couldn't rely on the people around him. He needed to recruit a few top-notch agricultural talents so that he could leverage their wisdom and hands to transform his own limited knowledge into actual productivity.

With this in mind, he didn't want to elaborate further on these issues. He simply pointed at the seedlings between the ridges and gave instructions directly: "These seedlings are planted too densely. Pull some out immediately! No more than five seedlings per hole. The spacing between plants should be at least half a foot, and the spacing between rows should be at least a foot."

Pull out the seedlings that have already been planted?
Not only did the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture not understand, but the surrounding people were even more stunned. If the person in front of them who kept saying that he wanted to pull out the seedlings was not Yan Yi, they would probably have rushed up and fought to the death.

Due to the strict order, the people in the fields could only bite their tongues and pull out some of the seedlings. Some people even shed tears, as if they were not pulling out seedlings but their lives.

Yan Yi looked at the aggrieved and heartbroken expressions of the people around him, and thought to himself that one must win people over with virtue, not force. He then said loudly, "Just pull out the excess rice seedlings in half of the fields, and wait until the autumn harvest to compare the two. If the fields where the rice seedlings were pulled out produce less than the grain yield, I will compensate for the loss. If the grain yield is higher than the other fields, all the fields will be planted with rice seedlings in the same way next year!"

Finally, he couldn't help but explain, "Planting more seedlings isn't always better. Planting too densely will cause the seedlings to block sunlight, resulting in poor ventilation, which will affect their growth and development, and reduce grain yield and quality. Only reasonable spacing between plants and rows can ensure that the seedlings have enough space to grow, fully carry out photosynthesis, and improve yield and quality."

Of course, the people didn’t understand what photosynthesis was. They only knew that they wouldn’t suffer any losses.

As for what Yan Yi said, pulling out the seedlings would actually increase the yield per mu, no one believed it.

Those people whose seedlings were not pulled out breathed a sigh of relief.

I believe that by the time of autumn harvest, they will have a different expression.

This little rice seedling incident can be regarded as a collision between two eras. The former will undoubtedly be beaten to death on the beach by the latter.

(End of this chapter)