Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

Zhu Youjian worked tirelessly to pass on the knowledge in his mind:

“This sweet potato is a treasure!

The leaves and tender tips are both edible and can be used as both a vegetable and a meal.

You can also boil water to make sauerkraut or dry vegetables for eating in winter.

Old leaves and vines can be used to raise livestock.

This is a good baby!

Whether we can have full stomachs in the future and whether every household can raise chickens and pigs depends on it!

Folks, if you want to live a good life with ten chickens in every household and a pig in the pen, you must take good care of this good baby! "

Zhu Youjian's face was full of sincerity, and even regardless of his status as an emperor, he bent slightly and bowed to the people.

You are the most miserable generation, you can afford this!

Zhu Youjian shouted in his heart.

"Hurrah la la!"

Seeing the emperor saluting them, the common people couldn't sit still and fell to their knees one after another, shouting about death penalty:

"Your Majesty, how can our mud-legged people be worthy of His Majesty's gift? Your Majesty is trying to disgrace us!"

"Yes! Your Majesty has been very kind to us to survive, and even gave us money and food. Your Majesty must never do this!"

……

"Get up, get up!"

Zhu Youjian stood up straight and shouted for everyone to get up. He roared loudly:

"You remember, you are not working for me, but working hard for the thousands of people who are struggling on the edge of death every day!

This is a big treasure, with a yield of up to [-] kilograms per mu!

As long as we take care of it, no one will starve to death again!

Do you think this bow is what I should do? "

Are sweet potatoes good?

The "A prosperous age of Qian Kang" that people are desperately advocating is only supported by sweet potatoes!

If this thing is planted on a barren slope and a handful of plant ash is thrown in, the yield per mu can reach [-] kilograms!

No need to use chemical fertilizers at all!

Of course, the premise is that after two years of planting, you need to change to other crops.

This is called a change of stubble.

If crops such as peas and soybeans are planted first and then sweet potatoes are planted, the yield per mu will be higher!

……

The people did not dare to refute Zhu Youjian's words, and they still had questions in their hearts:

Is this thing really that productive?

Will the emperor cut off their money and food because the autumn harvest yield is not high?

……

The people were thinking deeply, and some people couldn't help but whisper:

"The emperor will give us one hundred catties of fine grain every month.

Of course we are reluctant to eat it.

When the time comes, sell them and exchange them for coarse grains...

Even if the emperor only lets us work for four months, it will be enough for our family to eat for a year.

With this food, we can open up more wasteland in our free time, and we can save our lives next year..."

"Alas!" Someone echoed in a low voice:

"It doesn't matter whether the emperor's method works or not, if this job can support the family, it is a good thing!"

……

Zhu Youjian frowned slightly and thought to himself:

Founder only sent three carts of sweet potatoes.

Even in places like Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which are full of maritime merchants, not many of them are grown.

Because————There is no shortage of food in Jiangnan, and there is no demand for sweet potatoes at all!

This thing can only be grown on a large scale in places with a lot of people but little land and maritime trade - such as Fujian and Guangdong, two places with insufficient arable land that need this high-yielding crop the most!

At this time, Fujian was the largest province in growing sweet potatoes.

However, Fujian...

Fang Zhenghua’s hand can’t reach out!

When he got through the relationship and brought it back, the day lilies were already cold!

Although there are only a few thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes, there are only two or three thousand of them.

However, fortunately, sweet potatoes can be planted, and planting them one day earlier or one day later will not affect its results.

The planting period lasts for two to three months. Even if it is planted late, the yield will be greatly reduced, but the yield will be much higher than that of only [-] kilograms of wheat per acre of land!

……

After teaching the sweet potato planting techniques to each other, Zhu Youjian ignored the old sweet potato farmers with different ideas and turned around to go to another field.

The old farmers here are all assigned to the corn group.

Fang Zhenghua also bought more than 1000 kilograms of corn seeds according to his request.

this thing...

The yield per mu is about to drop.

To put it bluntly, corn is just a snack for a wealthy family at this time!

Don't look at the corn yield per mu in later generations, which is as much as a thousand kilograms, but - it is only with the sufficient supply of chemical fertilizers that such a high yield can be achieved.

He can't get chemical fertilizers, and he won't be able to even think about it for at least ten years!

In this day and age, not to mention chemical fertilizers - he can't even get bird droppings!

Before you get an outlet to the sea, do you want to go to the island to dig up guano and use it as fertilizer?

That’s such an extravagant wish...

Under such conditions, trying to plant corn on a large scale in a water-scarce area like Nanyang where flooding is impossible is nonsense!

Growing corn without fertilizer or water?

They can't even grow a corn cob!

In this era without fertilizers, corn must be planted in irrigated land with no shortage of water in order to have a harvest.

However - these fields are exclusive to wealthy families and have been snatched up long ago!

but……

Even so, Zhu Youjian still decided to plant corn on a large scale.

What he pictured was not corn kernels, but corn stalks.

Corn is also divided into early season corn and late season corn.

Early corn is to leave spring land, that is, no winter wheat is planted, and corn is sown in the field during the season when wheat is raising pulp.

Late corn refers to the rape stubble corn planted after the rape harvest, and the wheat stubble corn planted after the wheat harvest.

In other words, in this season when wheat is about to mature, Zhu Youjian can completely plan land and plant corn on a large area - as long as Founder can continue to obtain corn seeds!

……

Corn is a small thing that requires a lot of nutrients, so the spacing and row spacing must be more than one foot.

In this era without fertilizers, the distance should be more than one and a half feet, reaching about two feet.

As a result, one acre of land requires only two or three kilograms of corn seeds.

The more than 1000 kilograms of seeds he currently has on hand is enough to plant four to five hundred acres of early corn.

However, for Zhu Youjian's plan - this is not enough!

……

Planting corn is very simple. Zhu Youjian simply told the old farmer - after it rains and the field has moisture, just sow the corn at a fixed spacing.

Even—even deep plowing is not necessary.

When weeding, turn the soil several times and the weeds will be gone.

This is a lazy crop.

……

Two days later, Zheng Zhaoji came to Zhu Youjian's camp.

Zhu Youjian, who was worried about the shortage of corn seeds, was overjoyed and immediately gave him the title of Yulin Lang.

After some encouragement, Zhu Youjian sent soldiers, taking Zheng Zhaoji with him, to set off immediately to get seeds in Fujian.

With Zheng Zhaoji, the core member of the Zheng family, it would be much easier for Zhu Youjian to collect more seeds!

Zhu Youjian changed his plan and expanded the corn planting area several times.

He decided to plant one hundred thousand acres of corn.

It takes more than 20 kilograms to plant corn, which is about two thousand shi.