The peaceful days are like the flowing water of a small river, which inadvertently flows into the distance.

For more than half a year, the sugar shop has earned tens of thousands of net profits for the Xu family, plus the restaurants and liquor shops in Baisha Town, as well as the income in Xu Ping Grange, the Xu family is already a big man with a net worth of more than 100,000 yuan.

Since experiencing the last Chen Tea turmoil, Xu Zheng's heart has worn off a lot, and he no longer wants to make more money, but begins to pursue enjoyment. In May, the imperial court had a will, and this year the right to stop paying tribute, and in June, Xu Zheng bought a house of more than two acres in Yongfengfang in the outer city and settled down. Of course, the inner city is more prosperous and lively, but it is also an inch of land, and at the same price, it is good to be able to buy a small courtyard. The new home belongs to the west chamber of the new city, and the good or bad is also in Luocheng, and it is not far from the Bianhe business district, and Kaifeng Mansion is only separated by three or five miles of road, which is convenient and good for public security, and it is also a very good place. Zhang Sanniang said that this is the new house where Xu Ping and Lin Suniang got married two years later, and specially invited Lin Wensi's family to see it.

Shi Yannian had already arrived in Renzhi County, Jinxiang County, Jeju, and brought two letters to Xu Ping, telling him about his position, which seemed very good. When he arrived at Jingdong, in his words, he arrived at the gate of the saints, and he also met a lot of new friends, and invited Xu Ping to travel there when he was free. And Shi Jie, who met last time by the Jinming Pond, although the two didn't get acquainted in Tokyo, they had a lot of exchanges when they arrived at Jingdong, and they were very happy to see each other.

Xu Ping naturally didn't know that since Shi Yannian arrived in Jeju, a group of lower-class intellectuals quickly gathered in a few years and became the "Dongju Yi Party" that made Mr. Daoxue sad. I don't know that Shi Jie, the young man who didn't say a few words by the Jinming Pond, later became the founder of the "Taishan School" and opened the precursor of the origin of Taoism in the Two Song Dynasty. This era is the last glory of Confucianism in the north, since the "Mr. Culai Lun" Shi Jie, Guan Xue Luo Xue has risen one after another, Shi Jie's "Li", "Qi" and "Taoism" have become a major branch of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, and have a far-reaching impact on later generations, and the "Culai Academy" he founded has also become one of the four major academies of the Song Dynasty.

In the final analysis, Xu Ping is just a half-witted scholar in this era, and the utilitarian nature of reading is extremely clear, just to take the imperial examination, enter the Jinshi, and live more comfortably with a background. What Confucianism and Taoism, Xu Ping didn't have much interest. What has been eliminated in the future generations, why bother to delve into it.

This manor within a radius of more than ten miles outside Kaifeng City is where Xu Ping is attentive. Planting tens of thousands of acres of land and producing millions of catties of grain is Xu Ping's courage in this era.

By the end of July and the beginning of August, the 500 acres of rice by the dam had gradually matured, and the land was full of gold. This piece of rice has coaxed Zhongmu County, since the rice in the field began to tassel, there are people from all over the world to come to watch, everyone is waiting for the day of rice harvest, with their own calculations.

In terms of the government, not only Zhongmu County, but even Kaifeng Mansion and several surrounding counties have also sent people to see it, and they are all waiting for Xuping to promote this piece of rice in various counties if it is successful. At the feet of the Son of Heaven in Kaifeng Mansion, his political achievements are the easiest to be seen by the officials of the DPRK and the Central Committee, and if he does a good job, he will ascend to the sky in one step. Increasing the number of household registrations and collecting more money and grain are the two most important aspects of the evaluation of officials in this era.

However, Xu Ping, the magistrate of Zhongmu, has never seen it, and he is all busy with the chief bookkeeper Guo Zhi. Later, I learned that this magistrate was a rare official who entered the office with grace, and he retired after only serving this term, and he didn't care about everything, which caused many people to be dissatisfied. It is not uncommon for Enyin to enter the county to be the magistrate, but it is rare to do the magistrate of Kaifeng Prefecture. You must know that many of the prefects under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture have been sentenced in other states, and after this term, they will be the governors of Dazhou and enter the ranks of middle-level officials.

On August 20, Xujiazhuang officially opened the day of rice harvesting. The reason why it was chosen today is because on August 17, the emperor took his ministers to the imperial village to watch the rice harvesting, and delayed it for a few days to show respect.

Since early in the morning, the people in Zhuangzi have been noisy and noisy, and there are several times more people than the last demonstration of agricultural machinery presided over by Guo Shi. Everyone understands that the rice in Huangzhuang is grown without regard to work, while the rice in Xupingzhuang is an improved saline-alkali land, which has a completely different meaning.

The person in charge this time was of a higher standard, headed by Zhang Junping, the official secretary of the counties and towns in Kaifeng Prefecture, supplemented by Guo Zhi, the chief secretary of Zhongmu County, and the chief secretary of several other counties.

Xu Ping also made careful preparations, not to curry favor with the government, but to take this opportunity to ask for preferential policies. If you miss a little bit from the official, it will save him a lot of trouble.

Zhang Junping was a black and thin old man in his sixties with a serious expression, and after drinking tea in the Zhuangzi, he led everyone to the wheat field.

At this time, the tools used to harvest rice were already laid out in the wheat field, including ox-driven harvesters, human-driven threshers, human-driven hullers and rice mills for the evening to eat new rice, and donkey-driven cleaning equipment. In addition to the absence of mechanical power, it can be regarded as semi-mechanized.

Along with Xu Ping's introduction, there was also Sang Yi, who came from Ruzhou the day before yesterday. Zhang Junping was promoted because his father was killed in the battle with the Khitan, and he was promoted because he was good at catching thieves, and he became famous for being good at controlling water.

Looking at the same farm tools, Xu Ping introduced them one by one, what is the principle of each piece and what kind of effect can be achieved. No one can fully understand these things in this era, and Zhang Junping is not proficient in mechanical aspects, so he just nods politely. However, Guo Shi is considered a professional, and he runs diligently to Xu Ping's village, asking a few questions from time to time.

As for the other officials and the surrounding owners, they could only follow behind and listen obediently and watch, without even having a chance to interject.

Seeing the sun rising, Zhang Junping said: "It's not early, the dew in the field must have dried up, so the little farmer will arrange for people to start cutting rice." ”

Xu Ping agreed, called Xu Chang Gao Daquan and Sun Qilang to come, and asked them to arrange their own manpower to carry five harvesters into the field, and the other villagers were divided into several groups to pack and load the rice bales back to the wheat field.

When a group of people arrived at the ground, they divided into groups and surrounded the rice fields, and they tasted and commented.

Zhang Junping saw that the rice field was full of watering ditches and deep ditches for drainage, his eyes lit up, and he said to Xu Ping: "Your field is full of ditches, what do you say?" ”

Xu Ping replied respectfully: "The five hundred acres of land here were originally all over the ground, and only reeds and wild grass grew. The canal is to irrigate the rice fields, and the other is to wash the brine with clean water to cultivate. Those deep ditches are used to drain the brine deep underground, otherwise it will be in vain to wash it with clean water. ”

Zhang Junping nodded again and again: "The little owner is an expert!" Over the years, I have managed rivers and canals, and I know that brine is the most difficult to manage, and you can explain it in three or two sentences. ”

Xu Ping hurriedly said that he didn't dare.

Zhang Junping asked again: "In Hebei, there are many families who divert river water to irrigate salt brine, which is called silt field, and the results are also remarkable. Have you heard of it? ”

When talking about the management of saline-alkali land in China, we must talk about the silt fields of the Yellow River, Haihe River and their tributaries, how could Xu Ping not know? Especially in ancient China, the largest scale and most significant effect of the control of salinity was the diversion of the Yellow River and the Bianhe River when Wang Anshi changed the law, so that the Kaifeng area was full of fertile land. This was an important test point in history class that year, and Xu Ping still remembers a little bit. But at this time, it was still a long time before Wang Anshi changed the law, and even Xu Ping didn't know that Wang Anshi was born in haunts, but he couldn't be sure of the effect of silting. It is necessary to know that the treatment of saline-alkali land must be combined with drainage, otherwise it can only benefit for a while. In fact, it was precisely thanks to Zhang Junping and his successors who vigorously controlled the waterlogging in the Kaifeng area and excavated drainage ditches that created conditions for Wang Anshi's silt field. Zhang Junping had just started this work for a year or two at this time, and the effect was not obvious, and the silt fields in Kaifeng were still not suitable. The working people are not stupid, Hebei silt fields have long had mature technology, if it is feasible, Kaifeng and its surroundings have already begun. Wang Anshi only accelerated the process of silting, and he could not create something out of nothing.

After thinking for a while, Xu Ping replied cautiously: "I have also heard of the silting technique, which is nothing more than two points, one is to wash off the surface of the saline with clean water, and then the new soil in the water covers the surface after the water recedes to form a fertile field. But if it goes underground, it will reappear in a few days. If you want to cure the root cause, you still have to dig a deep trench and drain the underground brine away in order to solve it once and for all. ”

Zhang Junping sighed: "That's right! Without deep ditch drainage, salt brine cannot be eradicated after all. But digging a ditch is easier said than done! ”

At this time, he was also on the errand of opening a ditch to control the river, from Kaifeng Mansion to the east and south, more than ten state capitals received orders from the imperial court to cooperate with him, to discharge the water of Kaifeng Mansion to the Huaihe River Valley. Although there is a lot of movement and a large number of people are employed, there are still many difficulties.

Seeing that Xu Chang had led people into the field, and the five big oxen pulling the harvester were ready, Xu Ping asked Zhang Junping: "Mention it, do you want to start now?" ”

Zhang Junping looked at the golden rice waves in the field, didn't say the beginning, but asked Xu Ping: "Can you estimate the yield in this field, how much new rice can be produced per mu?" ”

Xu Ping said: "This doesn't need to be estimated, I have already taken someone to calculate it two days ago, and the average yield per mu is about two stones and three buckets, which is higher than that of wheat planting." However, this is the first year of planting, and after another two years, it will be raised and grown. At that time, the yield per mu should be more than three to four stones, which would be considerable. ”

Zhang Junpingqi said: "Can the yield per mu be calculated? How do you calculate it? ”

He has never been a low-level pro-people official, and he is not familiar with the estimation of yield per mu. Of course, the method of estimating the yield per mu at this time is also very simple, and it cannot be compared with Xu Ping's previous life. Guo Shi understood a lot, and after listening to Xu Ping's lecture, he had already promoted a new method of estimating production in Zhongmu, which was used as the basis for assessing the grade of land and judging the harvest and disaster years. Because at this time, as long as the farmland is damaged, you can report and ask for free food, and false reports everywhere become a common practice, which is a practical technology.

Xu Ping told Zhang Junping about the method of estimating production in his previous life. As for the selection of plots, counting the number of seedlings and careful weighing, there is nothing difficult to understand, that is, after getting the data, error analysis is beyond the knowledge of this era, Zhang Junping half understands, just nodded.

After talking about this, Zhang Junping let go of his curiosity and said to Xu Ping: "Let's start." ”

Xu Ping gave an order, and the five big oxen in the field walked forward together, and the pieces of rice behind them fell to the side in unison, much faster than a person cutting with a sickle.

The knives of the harvester have been replaced by reciprocating cutters by Xu Ping, which is similar to the harvesters in the previous life, but the power is weak, and it can only harvest two rows at a time. But even so, the speed of work has increased a lot, and people can work continuously without effort, which is a leap forward in agricultural technology.