Chongzhen spent an afternoon in Zhuangzi, in addition to spending more than an hour discussing agricultural issues with Wei Liangqing and others, mainly watching the work of wintering and storing sweet potatoes out of the cellar, and by the way, he also went to see the potatoes sown at the beginning of the month.

Potatoes prefer dry climates, but they prefer moist soils. Seedlings prefer strong sunlight when they are young, but they prefer lower temperatures during the growing season and are afraid of high temperatures.

Because of these restrictions, although potatoes (that is, potatoes in Zhu Youzhen's eyes) were introduced to the southeast coast as early as the Wanli period, because the southern climate is not suitable for large-scale potato cultivation, only some mountainous areas are suitable for these planting conditions, so they have not been promoted.

Shanglin Yuanjian also has a long history of potato cultivation, and Jiang Yikui's "Chang'an Hakka" volume 2 "Huangdu Miscellaneous Records" written by Jiang Yikui during the Wanli period recorded the cultivation of potatoes.

However, the potatoes grown by the superintendent of the forest are used as vegetables rather than staple food, so the scale of cultivation has always been small.

The agricultural officials of Shanglin Yuan Jian have gained a lot of experience after these years of planting, and they found that although potatoes are suitable for growing in alkaline land in the north, they are also not suitable for planting in salinized land.

After listening to the introduction of the agricultural officials, Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said: "Then the Academy of Agricultural Sciences will take some potatoes and go to Shanxi, southern Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia to find suitable places for planting.

After experimenting with suitable potato growing areas, a large-scale rollout will begin next year. At the same time, it is necessary to train technicians in various localities to grow potatoes, and next year they will be popularized in the southwestern provinces. ”

Wei Liangqing and several peasant officials immediately agreed to the emperor's order, and after inspecting Zhuangzi, Chongzhen did not return to the capital immediately with his entourage.

He looked up at the sky and felt that it was still very early, so he took the red wind to the small river west of Zhuangzi and ran on the grass beach by the river for a while.

The willows on the riverbank are already green, and in this environment, they run with a slight breeze and the fragrance of flowers, which not only makes Chifeng feel very satisfied, but even Chongzhen himself feels that he is in a much more cheerful mood.

When Chifeng's body was slightly sweaty, Zhu Youzhen grabbed Chifeng's reins and returned to Zhuangzi. After drinking a cup of tea in the village and resting for a while, Wu Huai came to urge Chongzhen to set off.

Before leaving Zhuangzi, Zhu Youzhen specially called Wei Liangqing and said to him alone: "You explain the affairs of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences in the past few days, and then prepare to go south, I have two things to explain to you."

One thing is to go to Fengyang to meet your uncle after going south, let him rectify the officers and soldiers guarding the tomb in Fengyang, and then let him investigate the clans involved in the case of the puppet king of Chu back then, but there are still those in Fengyang, and understand the inside story of the dispute between Chu Zong. ”

Wei Liangqing didn't know anything about the case of the pseudo-king of Chu that the emperor said, and he didn't realize how much turmoil Chongzhen said about the case, he just nodded and desperately remembered what Chongzhen ordered.

Zhu Youzhen then continued: "The second thing is that the Academy of Agricultural Sciences cannot be established in the north alone. Wheat in the north and rice in the south are staple foods. But the climatic conditions are different, so the yield is also different.

Only single-cropping rice can be grown in the north, but double-cropping rice can be planted in the south of the Yangtze River, and three-cropping rice can be planted in Guangdong and Hainan.

Since it is necessary to study hybrid rice, it is natural to cultivate it under different climatic conditions, so as to prevent the cultivated rice varieties from being unable to increase the yield if they change places.

Therefore, I hope that you will go south to the edge of Taihu Lake and Hainan Island, and open two more rice seed cultivation bases. The land and manpower needed can be cooperated by the local government. There are many old farmers with rich experience in rice planting in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and you can also recruit some..."

On March 15 of the first year of Chongzhen, in the Rite Tribute Institute in the southeast of the inner city of Jingshi, the last exam of the meeting examination finally began.

Also known as Chunqiu, the examination is held every three years, all of which are scheduled in March. The examination will be held in three sessions, one on three days.

The first session was held on the 9th day, the second session was held on the 12th, and the third session was held on the 15th. Three test projects, four books, five words and eight rhymes, five scriptures and questions,

The topic of today's policy is: Meng Wubo asks filial piety. Zi said: Parents are only worried about their illness. Song Yingxing took the test question in his hand and was touched for a while.

These days, he has been messing around at Yenching University, a well-guarded palace that has now become a temple of knowledge that anyone can enter and exit freely.

As long as they don't get into fights, destroy public property, or insult others inside the university, the guards guarding the school won't bother.

Whether it is a scholar from other places or some ordinary people in the local area, they can take a walk in the university, or even sneak into a certain classroom to listen to a Western missionary talk about the wonderful natural sciences.

Song Yingxing went from not being accustomed to this way of teaching to liking this kind of free academic atmosphere, but it took a very short time.

His two new acquaintances decided not to take part in the imperial examinations and instead chose to study at Yenching University. He was even invited to go to college with him.

Song Yingxing hesitated for a long time, but after all, he was still unwilling to give up the scientific examination, he decided to take the exam first, and then decide whether to go to Yenching University with his two friends.

He was 28 years old and failed to take the exam in Beijing three times, and now he is 41 years old. It can be said that he spent the most precious time of his life on the imperial examination.

Seeing today's strategy, he couldn't help but think of his elderly parents, he and his brother had spent half their lives in the imperial examination, but they still couldn't get out, which really made him a little discouraged.

It took him a long time to calm the sentimentality in his heart. Then he took the scratch paper and began to make a draft neatly in small letters.

In another examination room, Guan Shaoning, a native of Wujin, Jiangsu, with an ugly face, looked at the topic of the strategy and thought for a moment, and then began to work on the draft with confidence.

This exam will not end until tomorrow. Although there was enough time, the scholars in the examination room were still nervously bowing their heads and typing the draft.

When the candidates of the Gongyuan were busy for a day and the sun began to set in the west, Zhu Youzhen also returned to the city with his entourage.

Zhu Youzhen and Liu Jingting separated at the Xuanwu Gate, and then ran to the elephant room. He didn't go to see the elephants, but to meet Deng Yuhan and Wu Yangxing.

Zhu Youzhen refused to enter the medical school in the northwest corner of the elephant house, and he didn't want to have trouble with his stomach before dinner. According to what he received, the medical school now is more like a big morgue.

He found a courtyard in the elephant house and summoned Deng Yuhan and Wu Yangxing. Zhu Youzhen looked at the appearance of the two and was taken aback.

"I asked people to send cotton coats, masks, hats and other supplies, didn't they send them?"

Deng Yuhan adjusted the leather apron on his chest, and then said disapprerovingly: "I have already received everything sent by His Majesty." But those clothes made of cloth are too easy to get stained with blood.

The servants refused to wash our bloodstained clothes, but I still found it easier to wear the leather aprons and shoes. It was stained with blood, and it was washed with water and cleaned.

Your Majesty, I don't think you'd better let them send those pure white clothes, it's too easy to get dirty. Your Majesty might as well let them dye their clothes dark first, so that they will not be easy to get dirty, and they can wear them for a longer time. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the two medical scientists in front of him who looked more like butchers than doctors, and he was really a little speechless.

Wu Yangxing, who was on the side, was obviously used to this dress, and he didn't feel embarrassed after seeing the emperor, and said quite excitedly: "Your Majesty, our dissection these days has really been very effective.

We have found that the blood circulation of the human body is completely from the beating of the heart. Although we still don't know exactly what the heart's beating and blood circulation do, we can be sure that there is only one power source for blood circulation, which is the heart..."

Listening to an ancient man popularize human science to himself really made Chongzhen feel weird.

However, in order to encourage the two medical scientists to make progress in human anatomy and human science, Chongzhen had no choice but to keep smiling, pretending to be very interested, and listened to the two talk about their discoveries.

"What? You're going to give me a pair of human skeletons? Well, forget it. At present, it is not easy to make suitable human bone specimens, so it is better to leave it to the students of medical school. Zhu Youzhen categorically rejected the kindness of the two.

After listening to the discoveries of the two in human anatomy or bacteriology, Zhu Youzhen asked: "So do you think the two of you still need any support from the medical school?" ”

Deng Yuhan suddenly curled his fingers and said, "Your Majesty, we hope to be able to create a batch of sophisticated surgical tools. In addition, Mr. Wu and I have conducted countless dissections these days, and found that some old surgical tools are not suitable for the dissection of certain parts, so we designed some new surgical tools by ourselves.

We hope that Your Majesty will be able to arrange for a few skilled blacksmiths to craft these surgical instruments. Also, the soap provided by His Majesty is very good, and we hope to be able to supply about 300 pieces a month. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "These two problems are easy to solve, and I will order someone to handle them after I return to the palace."

So I would like to ask, can the scale of medical school be expanded now? How long will it take for me to equip the new army and the Beijing camp with military doctors? ”

The emperor's request immediately silenced the two. After a while, Wu Yangxing said cautiously: "Your Majesty, if you want to train a doctor who can independently diagnose and treat diseases, and can also perform surgery, I'm afraid it won't work for 3 or 5 years."

Just being familiar with the medicinal properties and pharmacology will require more than two years of hard work. And anatomy is slightly better, about the same in half a year. But there must be enough cadavers to study, and surgery is not the same as anatomy.

Anatomy is to understand the structure of various parts of the human body through corpses, but surgery is to treat living people, and it is impossible to complete a complete surgical medicine without repeated experiments.

At present, only 2 out of 10 of the 144 students in the medical school have a medical foundation, and even 3 percent are still semi-literate. At this level, it will be difficult to expand the medical school and provide enough qualified doctors for the military. ”